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enhancing emotional intelligence - Dr. Neil Nedley
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in this podcast, we will hear enhancing emotional intelligence - Dr. Neil Nedley recorded february 25, 2023
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High School Revisit and Reflections
00:03:45
Speaker
That is all. Thank you for listening.
00:04:03
Speaker
Gaining demos and other interests. On Joseph Weekland's Harmonica Player Podcast. I'm going to play a presentation called... ...enhancing emotional intelligence with Dr. Neil Nedley. So enjoy the presentation.
00:04:47
Speaker
I guess that money I gave you afterwards worked. So yeah, it didn't last. That's why you're back, right? So you're collecting pictures of dead presidents. So how many of you ever went to a Delphian Academy? Anybody here? All right.
00:05:06
Speaker
Yeah, I thought I'd just share a thought here because actually tonight Dr. Nedley, who also went to, I think he graduated in 79. He also went there, but I took a walk on the grounds. They actually let me in some of the buildings, which was surprising. And, you know, it's kind of weird when you go into a place where you went to high school 40 years before the things you remember.
00:05:31
Speaker
And so I'll just share one concept here and then we'll let the doctor take over. I'm the nurse. He's a doctor, right? I'm just getting you ready But let's pray Father heaven bless us tonight as we spend a few moments here and Bless us you bless this last night bless us again tonight and this weekend Christ's name. Amen yeah, so You know, have you ever heard that text in Romans chapter 4?
00:05:59
Speaker
where it talks about how, you know, Abraham was 100 years old, and he's supposed to be the father of a child and Sarah. And he tells Sarah, and Sarah just starts laughing, right? And then the text says, he calls those things which are not as though they are.
00:06:26
Speaker
He calls those things which are what, not as though they are. I think that's the job of an academy teacher, I really think. I really think that's a great job description. Also for a pastor, it's the job description.
00:06:45
Speaker
So I'll tell you a little story. I was walking there and this guy was graciously giving us a little tour. And I remember when, come on in Neil, you can set things up. I remember there was a guy, he was our Bible teacher, his name was Mr. Penny.
00:07:04
Speaker
And I don't know if anyone remembers Mr. Penny, but I was always giving him my two cents worth, every class. And I said, you're Mr. Penny, I'll give you my two cents worth. I think he started to really hate me, all right? Because, I mean, I was not really in school for school. I was in school for getting myself away from my parents. And they paid big money to have them take me away.
00:07:31
Speaker
I was in there and I don't know. I was a total disruptor of class. If anyone remembers me from Academy, do you remember this? It was a total disruptor and some people didn't do well with that. I mean, I was in the choir room today. They still have the same music building and I was in there and I can remember having a radio in my pocket
00:07:59
Speaker
And you're not supposed to have radios back then. And I stood up. And the radio reception came in. And this terrible music came on. And Mr. Davis, you know, out. I was in trouble. And these things happened all the time. Mr. Penny's class, though, back to this text.
00:08:18
Speaker
I don't know. He let me go for about, I don't know, two weeks. And then one day he said to me, Don, I think he called me Donnie. Donnie, I'd like you to sit in my office. I've got some food for you in here and you just take a break.
00:08:37
Speaker
and just sit in here today for class. So I sit in there. And he has like M&Ms and stuff for me to eat. And I thought, wow, this is great. So next day I come in. He's got more junk food. And he has a VCR. And he has a couple of them. He goes, you know, what kind of movie do you want to watch? I'm watching a movie. And I said, this is great. Next day I come in, he has a bean bag.
00:09:05
Speaker
beanbag and and I said to him I said you know no no no that won't be necessary you just stay in here right and and then I said wait a minute wait a minute I'm just filling in dr. Natalie for you until you get up here I said wait a minute
00:09:30
Speaker
My parents pay good money for me to be in these classes. I remember I said that to him. And he goes, oh, no, Don. They don't pay near enough to have you in any of my classes. That's what he said. And I was like, what do you mean they don't pay enough? I said, I demand to go. He goes, look, you can't demand.
00:09:55
Speaker
So then I just begged him. I said, please, I remember this all when I saw this way. You can get into the classroom is if you teach the class. And this was a Bible class, and I was not interested in the Bible at that time. And he said, I said, well, I don't want to do that. He goes, well, you can't get in then. And I said, OK, I'll do it.
00:10:23
Speaker
So he gives me his class notes. He gives the things. He makes me study them. And I have to teach the class. Now. No, I don't fit in there. He's got it actually on his computer. So he says to me, he said to me,
00:10:46
Speaker
He said to me, look, Don, I don't know what's going to happen in your future, but all I know is that any time you're in a room and I'm in a room, everyone's going to listen to you and they're not going to listen to me. I know that.
00:11:02
Speaker
So I hope you use these talents for something for God at some point. Right now you're not, but I hope you do. And you're going to have to in this class if you're teaching the class. He let me teach the class four or five times. And then we kind of had a truce. Look, that's a good teacher. What did he do? He called those things which are not as though they are. And he ended up being a prophet. How many think that was a good teacher?
00:11:31
Speaker
And that's what God does with us. He calls those things which are not as though they are. And he tries to do that when we're in the years of transition. So this was just to get ready for Dr. Nedley. The nurse always prepares for the doctor.
00:11:51
Speaker
Thank you, Pastor Don. I don't want to take up any more time. It's great to be here and have these amazing people with us. We're so excited that Dr. Nedley can be here. I can't say enough of how much I appreciate these gentlemen, but I really think that health
00:12:09
Speaker
Mental well-being, physical well-being is so much a part of the gospel, and we've missed it, and I believe that these men are reviving our understanding and the benefits of healthy lifestyle. And so, I just want to ask you to be blessed and welcome Dr. Neil Nedley
Nature's Impact on Mental Health
00:12:29
Speaker
now. You can read his bio here, so let's just get right into the meeting, and I'll invite you to bow your heads with me for a short prayer.
00:12:39
Speaker
Kind Father in heaven, we're so grateful to you for this wonderful day, the warmer weather, and how the sun has been shining upon us, and now we ask for the sun of righteousness to shine in our hearts. Bless Dr. Nedley as he presents. Thank you, Lord. May he say what you want us to hear so that we can be blessed, edified, uplifted, and prepared for the kingdom of God, these things we pray and ask in the powerful name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Amen.
00:13:14
Speaker
Well, thank you. It's good to be with you here in Holly, Michigan. I actually had a chance to walk the Adelphian Academy campus and some memories started to come to mind. It's called, what is it called now? It's called
00:13:33
Speaker
Holley Academy now, instead of Adelphian Academy. I saw that sign there and saw it was still being used for education. But we were walking with the pastor and his wife and they were asking if Don and I were here at the same time.
00:13:55
Speaker
And the answer to that was no. In 1978, it would have been 77-78, Don McIntosh, I know we're gonna start aging ourself here, but he started his freshman year at Adelphian Academy. And I was not at Adelphian at that time. But there were so many
00:14:21
Speaker
things that happened that year that apparently his parents took him out of the academy for his 10th grade year. Were you homeschooled or what happened?
00:14:35
Speaker
Okay, so he went to a day academy. And the only year I was there at Adelphian was my senior year. And my senior year, I would continue to hear all of these stories about this Don McIntosh that I did not know.
00:14:54
Speaker
And then after I left, then he was sent back there for his junior year and senior year. He ended up graduating with my wife, Erica, who they were in the same class. And it wasn't really until many years later that I got to know Don.
00:15:15
Speaker
after he was put as a host of a health program, a national health program on 3ABN, and asked me to come and do a number of programs with him. And I got to know the legendary Don McIntosh.
00:15:32
Speaker
And he could have a comedy show just in regards to what happened to his freshman year over here just a few feet away. And it was pretty dramatic, some of the things that occurred. But today, I'm going to be talking about some of the updates
00:15:56
Speaker
in regards to why, and you'll get an idea of why mental health has become much more of a problem in today's society. When I was growing up, depression was not really heard of in younger generations.
00:16:15
Speaker
It was actually not even known as major depression. The term that was being used in the lay world was the midlife crisis because it did not tend to happen until midlife and then as you got older, the greater the chance of depression. And now we're seeing higher rates among all age groups but particularly this high amount in young people as well.
00:16:43
Speaker
And we're starting to find out some things about the health remedies in more detail. But there are benefits of fresh air. That was one of the advantages even this afternoon of going around and touring the campus. We even walked the railroad tracks there for a while and did some hiking out at the, what's the name of the river?
00:17:06
Speaker
Yeah, the Shaiwasa River and crossed that and there's a lot of benefits to that. Fresh air contains negative ions and it actually improves learning and concentration. We need this in order to improve in our, not only our IQ, but our EQ, our emotional intelligence. It's been shown to reduce anxiety and improve mood.
00:17:33
Speaker
We find these negative ions where there's moving water along this river today, or the moving ocean surf. There's a reason why people are happy when they're out at the beach, and part of it has to do with the fresh air. After a thunderstorm,
00:17:51
Speaker
And I know growing up in Michigan you still have, and I'm sure a lot of those. And one of the best times to get out is right after that thunderstorm because all that lightning has produced these negative ions and you can just breathe that fresh air into your lungs and there's something mood enhancing about it.
00:18:09
Speaker
And one of the advantages of being in the foothills of the Sierras, where I currently live in California, are the evergreen trees. They actually emit negative ions that you can breathe that fresh air and get some benefit.
00:18:26
Speaker
And then there have been a number of studies showing green spaces. It's not just the color green, but particularly live areas that we are out in green spaces. Growing up near green spaces has been associated with a 15 to 55% decreased risk of developing psychiatric illness in adulthood, depending on the specific illness. And the green space effect is dose dependent.
00:18:53
Speaker
In other words, the more we're outside in green spaces, the less mental health issues or the less chance of mental health issues we're going to have. And it's also an understand our emotions and not only of our own emotions, but the emotions of others and respond to those emotions in a healthy way. And that involves, of course, managing our emotions. People with low emotional intelligence are managed by their emotions.
00:19:21
Speaker
And people with high emotional intelligence still have powerful emotions, but they're managing those emotions, distinctly different. And this is something that has been found when we do emotional intelligence tests to be very much co-related with your future happiness and success and fulfillment. In fact, it's much more related to that than IQ is.
00:19:42
Speaker
You can have a lot of intelligence and a lot of ability to learn, retain, and apply knowledge, but if you're not emotionally intelligent, you will have a lot of emotional problems despite your high intelligence. Spending at least 120 minutes a week in nature is associated with better health and well-being. This is something that's not being done.
00:20:09
Speaker
You know, I don't know if you realized it, but there were two epidemics that were occurring during the last several years. The one that the news and media talked about was which epidemic? The COVID epidemic. But there was something that was having a more powerful impact, if you can believe this, a more powerful impact than COVID on our world.
00:20:34
Speaker
And it was the second epidemic that wasn't mentioned much. What was the second epidemic? The mental health epidemic. Depression and anxiety rates skyrocketed. Emotional intelligence rates went down considerably. And actually, they were somewhat related. Our response to COVID actually led to more mental illness.
00:20:56
Speaker
in many respects. And so this is the problem of being singularly focused instead of comprehensively focused. You can get so narrow that you end up causing a lot of unintended consequences. And so one of the things that happened, it even happened there in Northern California. Northern California is where probably, at least when there's not fires,
00:21:21
Speaker
We have the freshest air available. If you look on your purpleair.com site with all the particulate matter in Northern California where we live, it's zero. It's just the most fresh air that you can imagine.
00:21:40
Speaker
After COVID hit, as you went out to exercise on trails in nature, where there's no houses, nobody around, there would be a big block and a big sign, COVID not allowed on the trail.
00:21:56
Speaker
National parks were closed down. And it turned out that Weimar trails started to increase in popularity because I was in charge of Weimar and our team decided we're not going to close down any trails here.
00:22:13
Speaker
And so this was the place where people could come, and we're on alltrails.com, and so they would be blocked off at all these other trails, except coming on the Weimar Trails. And that was part of actually enhancing their mental health through the COVID pandemic. This is something that's very important, is to get outside and spend time in nature. In 120 minutes, it's not a lot of time.
00:22:39
Speaker
but you wanna guess how many people spend 120 minutes in nature in one week? It's 9%. We have become an indoor society far worse as a result of COVID. 91% of Americans' time is spent indoors now.
00:23:04
Speaker
and very few minutes are being spent outdoors. It's primarily going from house to car for a few seconds, and then from house to wherever, and then even where we're exercising.
00:23:21
Speaker
We're exercising indoors. We have all these gyms and everything. And yes, exercise. I'm glad we're getting fit. It's an important part of fit so much better to be outside. Adolescents who spend time in green spaces have reduced stress, better emotional well-being, less depression, and improved mental health. It's become so important that we've actually had a term for it now, this natural remedy.
00:23:49
Speaker
It's called nature-based interventions. This is a term that's used in the psychological literature. It's been shown to improve depression and anxiety, improve stress control, reduce negative rumination. So we're going to have a lot more negative thoughts. By the way, when we're on screens, do you think that helps us with more positive thoughts or negative thoughts? Social media has this big trap.
00:24:19
Speaker
It's called Be Connected. And studies show we get attracted to social media so we can connect. But very soon after using social media, we're doing something a lot more than connecting. We're comparing.
00:24:36
Speaker
and we're comparing ourselves among ourselves. The Bible tells us that's not wise. And particularly we're comparing ourselves with false representations of what someone wants you to think about them on their social media site. You know, talk about being in nature. One time I was at a place that was even more beautiful than what's on the screen there.
00:25:04
Speaker
This was New Zealand, and I was speaking in New Zealand on two different weekends, but during the week I had the opportunity to do some sightseeing. And New Zealand, for anyone that has not been there, it's good to have this be on your bucket list as far as nature-based interventions. It's one of the most beautiful places in all the world, and particularly the South Island. And I had seen these pictures of Milford Sound, and I thought, we need to get there.
00:25:32
Speaker
So we flew a little airplane into a little airport in the South Island, and within a few minutes we were on a boat in this fjord, 5,000-foot cliffs, beautiful waterfalls coming down into the ocean. I should have put a picture of that up there on the screen. And the dolphins are kind of interacting with us.
00:25:58
Speaker
You would think, we'll talk about maybe if we have a chance dopamine highs in the next session. My dopamine levels were going up there in the euphoric level, but before they got to the euphoric level, they started to plummet. There were two ladies in front of the boat who were arguing and very upset with each other.
00:26:20
Speaker
They'd obviously travel together. It's not just because one bumped into the other on the boat. But they were arguing and destroying everyone's dopamine high. The captain gets close to one of these waterfalls, and he slows down so we can start taking some pictures. And as we get close and the cameras start to come out, of course, no one's wanting to do the audio because these ladies are arguing.
00:26:50
Speaker
The ladies actually quit arguing. They put their arm around each other. They took this little rod with this camera on it, smiled really big, took this picture, and then resumed their argument. Now, before they resumed their argument, they posted it up to their Instagram account.
00:27:13
Speaker
Now at this point, everyone watching their social media site is jealous. Look at what those ladies are doing. They have a great smile on their face. They're having a great time. I'm slaving away here at work. What a beautiful place they're in. But if they could have seen what was happening seconds before that picture,
00:27:35
Speaker
And seconds afterward, they wouldn't have been a bit jealous. They would have been like, what's wrong with you guys? You're in this most beautiful location and you're doing what? That's what social media will do. And so this is why studies show that the more time on social media, the more antisocial you become, and also the less happy you become.
00:28:05
Speaker
But when you're out in nature, that helps reduce negative ruminations. It improves your focus.
00:28:13
Speaker
even when you're not in nature. It's gonna improve your sleep. And when you're outside, it induces more physical exercise. What I've noticed when you're outside, in fact, this even happened this afternoon. We're doing some editing of a book that we're coming out with soon. It'll be out next year. But we're kind of under the gun in regards to the time constraints on that. And we were outside pre-lunch
00:28:41
Speaker
at the pastor's porch there, trying to get some of these nature-based interventions. And Erica was trying to read off of her computer screen. I said, Erica, it's not going to work. She goes, well, let me turn it around this way. I said, it's not going to work that way either. And then she said, I guess if I want to see what's on this screen, I'm going to have to go indoors.
00:29:07
Speaker
You can't really do screens when you're outdoors in a sunlit environment. And since you can't do screens, you're much more likely when you're outdoors to want to physically exercise.
00:29:21
Speaker
In fact, she was getting a little perturbed with me because I said, let's go walking over there. Let's see what's over there. And she says, we've got to get this done. Don't do this to me. And we were able to walk later on, fortunately. I kind of told you about that. But being outside just makes you want to physically engage and get more exercise. And of course, it reduces the use of technology.
00:29:50
Speaker
Then there's certain types of exercise that are very positive, like gardening.
00:29:57
Speaker
Gardening has also been shown to be an intervention that reduces depression and anxiety. Now we have a residential program that we run at Weimar. Don might have told you about that if you were here last night. He's one of the counselors in that program. But we have a section on that program on their schedule called Farm Fun.
00:30:22
Speaker
We have a farm at Weimar and so we take them up there and they start working in the farm and the farmer will have certain things for them to do depending upon the time of the year and all that. At first, they're not too excited about this. It's like we paid a lot of money to come to this program and you're taking out here and now we're going to be working for you.
00:30:47
Speaker
in this farm, this doesn't seem right.
00:30:53
Speaker
In just one hour, it'll just be one hour of Farm Fund, they come back, they're smiling, they're talking, they're talking about what they were doing, their mind is now expanded beyond just themselves, and it's actually a very positive experience, but at first it's a little bit of umph to get them to buy into the program of Farm Fund, but it actually is a scientific, it's now been scientifically validated.
00:31:21
Speaker
and it can help reduce body mass index, increase life satisfaction, increase the quality of life, and also increase self-worth and self-esteem. Then something even newer, the mental effects of what type of bathing? Forest bathing.
00:31:42
Speaker
Researchers found that walking for two hours in a mixed natural forest environment improved tension and anxiety, depression and dejection, anger and hostility, fatigue, and confusion. And additionally, forest bathing changed negative moods to positive ones, and it also
00:32:07
Speaker
increased brain serotonin levels. Serotonin is the molecule that helps you to be calm when there's a stressful situation and not get into panic mode. It also helps your mood to be elevated. Why is the serotonin level going up with forest bathing? Well,
00:32:33
Speaker
There's some additional advantages. It lowers blood pressure in those with hypertension. It can improve autonomic function, so less what we call feeling faint or having those type of symptoms. It improves your immune system as well. Actually, monocytes will improve. Less respiratory allergies despite being outside. Improved mood and stress.
00:33:01
Speaker
And in addition, it's also been now shown to improve symptoms of ADHD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and not the least of which, it improves your sense of awe. You develop more gratitude and begin to think about more things than just yourself. So the advantages are beyond just the fresh air advantages with this.
00:33:30
Speaker
And it's beyond just we'll get into light. There are some definite light advantages in being out there. But one of the things about forest bathing that we're finding is the trees emit oils that are actually, as we breathe them in, are good for our brain. So you can kind of get an idea why COVID produced a mental health pandemic.
00:33:57
Speaker
when we were just indoors, not out there outdoors with forest bathing, having people not even go to school or get outside in their usual physical education or those sorts of things, and just being indoors on a Zoom PE class.
Boosting Mood through Natural Elements
00:34:17
Speaker
I don't know, did they even have PE class during COVID? Probably not.
00:34:22
Speaker
They probably dropped that all together. And you know, now there's essential oils with benefits for depression and anxiety. These are randomized controlled trials. There's an oil that comes from, that's a molecule called selexon. Selexon is a molecule that comes from, it actually is the active ingredient in lavender oil.
00:34:46
Speaker
And it's been shown to relieve anxiety. It can even improve test anxiety. And if you ingest it before a test, you'll do better on that test. You'll be less anxious and your mind can still work. Now try that with an anxiety drug. An anti-anxiety drug, for instance, Lorazepam, you take that before a test, you will feel less anxious, but you're going to fail that test.
00:35:13
Speaker
Why is that? Because your frontal lobe is not able to problem solve. And so your grades lower significantly. And by the way, try taking, you know, try utilizing the most common thing. I didn't realize that Michigan, I knew California had fallen for this, but I landed in Detroit today and the person on the bus was telling me about all these huge warehouses and indoor
00:35:42
Speaker
plant, indoor agricultural facilities up in northern Michigan to grow marijuana. That's right. Marijuana, yeah, it can make you feel a little more calm and maybe at peace with the world, but it is not going to increase your scores.
00:36:05
Speaker
It actually has been shown to decrease your ability to learn. It decreases your motivation. It worsens executive function. And it's just amazing. You can go into these stores and buy recreational marijuana, but in none of those stores do they have Selexon for sale. Selexon will relieve the anxiety, but it won't produce any adverse effects. Why is humanity interested in things that have benefits and risks?
00:36:35
Speaker
but not interested in things that only have benefits.
00:36:40
Speaker
You know, it kind of tells us our narrow thinking. And there's a lot more things that just have benefits. It's beyond selexon. We have bergamot. We have sandalwood. We have mint. Sweet almond. Sweet almond is actually, we use that as a massage oil when we're doing the massage. And not only does the massage help, but just the aroma itself has antidepressant properties that don't have side effects.
00:37:10
Speaker
for this. Then on the anxiety side of things, there's many things that have been shown. These are again oils from plants and trees that have been shown to be anxiety relieving.
00:37:24
Speaker
And so, Selexon, or the trade name is Lavella, increases serotonin release and extracellular brain serotonin levels, even smelling it helps, most effective and predictably, however, in controlled trials in taking it orally. And then, the benefits of deep breathing.
00:37:47
Speaker
relaxes the body, oxygenates the brain, gets it up there at 100% saturation or 99, helps prevent respiratory infections, induces sound sleep, improves mood, and diaphragmatic breathing, combats,
00:38:07
Speaker
A relisher, taking stretch breaks often, getting exercise whenever you will, and proper breathing can maintain healthy lungs. This was an interesting trial, controlled trial that was done for eight weeks. They had them, the ones that were randomized to the breathing trial, they were to take no more than one breath every 15 seconds.
00:38:31
Speaker
or no more than four breaths per minute for 15 minutes. The only way you cannot get short of breath breathing four times a minute is by breathing deeply.
00:38:42
Speaker
But it is very possible to do this when you're taught how. And they would just do this 15 minutes of deep breathing, three days of significant difference over the ones that were controlled not to do this, improve their approved attention and even their cortisol levels improve. So objective levels of improvement from the adrenal glands in regards to the handling of emotions.
00:39:08
Speaker
Then another nice new research area is the role of light in mental health. Bright light is an effective antidepressant. And it gives results equivalent to medications for non-seasonal depression. It works best for those who have depression who also don't have energy.
00:39:30
Speaker
or have a tendency to eat or sleep too much. And it also has been shown to be helpful for postpartum depression, which is common today. And it works also for bipolar depression pretty amazingly well. It gives results more quickly than medication, even for depressed people. The SSRIs will take more time than the light does, but it can be used with or without medicine. It doesn't have to be used alone.
00:39:57
Speaker
But you have to have bright enough light. 2,500 lux.
00:40:01
Speaker
for two hours in the morning will produce an antidepressant effect. Now, that might be one useful thing for your smartphone. You can download an app. It's a free app called Lux Meter. And you can just take it out and see how much lux, how bright the light is around you. Is it going to be antidepressant?
00:40:27
Speaker
you'll find out indoor light is not bright enough. Now if you're on a stage, as I've been on with lots of bright lights, it can actually work. I'm the only one getting the anti-depressant in the audience. I can't see the audience very well, it's so bright. But normally indoor light is not enough to do that and you need to be outdoors. Now if you're outdoors in the sun, a sunny day like today, there would have been probably
00:40:55
Speaker
15,000 lux out there if we would have measured it on a lux leader. If you do 5,000 lux, you only need it for an hour. 10,000 lux, just 30 minutes in the morning.
00:41:06
Speaker
produces this antidepressant effect. And so a lot of people aren't able to do this, they're not going outdoors, or in the winter time, they can't get it early enough in the day, and so that's why we recommend medical grade light boxes. And we've had many people come through our program that have been in psych institutions, they've seen psychiatrists, sometimes almost their whole life, psychologists, and no one has told them about light.
00:41:35
Speaker
And then they come to our program and this simple remedy can produce amazing difference. And the blue light, you don't even need it as bright, just 100 to 1000 lux is enough for the blue light to produce an anti-depressant effect when we use it in the morning.
00:41:50
Speaker
And not only does it improve brain chemistry, but it improves our hormones. Lutenizing hormone is enhanced. And this influences both men and women. Increases in LH and men drive up testosterone levels. One of the things we're seeing in society is this whole market for men to measure their testosterone levels and get on shots.
00:42:15
Speaker
And then they'll be convinced that their fatigue and their mental health issues are probably related to low testosterone. And no one has told them, you need to get outside in the morning and get bright light. And you'll be able to increase your testosterone levels significantly because of the luteinizing hormone effect.
00:42:35
Speaker
And so this is why the farmers of yesteryear, often they were up early, you know, milking those cows early and getting that first early morning sun as it was coming up. Those men didn't have issues with the issues that men are having today and they certainly didn't have the low testosterone.
00:42:56
Speaker
Studies have shown LH also helps with depression, it improves libido, may have a muscle building and strengthening effect as well. And when women with long and irregular menstrual cycles are exposed to bright light, their cycles regularize. We often have women come to our programs whose cycles are irregular, messed up, long, and the light therapy begins the process of having those normal healthy menstrual cycles.
00:43:25
Speaker
As mentioned, the average American spends over 90% of their time indoors, and we have now discovered something that is beyond the bright light effects of the luxe through the eyes and the effect of the vitamin D. One of the other advantages of sunlight is vitamin D. How do you know if your skin is able to make vitamin D from the sun?
00:43:53
Speaker
That's something I was looking at today when we were out there. I was wanting to know, is this direct enough sun to make vitamin D? The answer is very simple. You look at your shadow. If your shadow is shorter than you are, you are making vitamin D. If it's longer than you are,
00:44:16
Speaker
you're not able to make vitamin D. And so vitamin D, you need to have direct enough sun. And so if you don't get a direct enough sun, this is where supplementation can help. But when we started supplementing people with vitamin D that had low vitamin D levels and compared them with people that had high vitamin D levels from being out in the sun, the people that were out in the sun had significant health advantages over those that were taking vitamin D supplements.
00:44:46
Speaker
So we knew it wasn't just the vitamin D that was helping them. There were other things in the sun that was helping them. And what was helping them? It's called infrared light. Now infrared light, you can get when the shadow is longer than you are. You can get it in morning sun, you can get it in evening sun, and the nice thing about infrared light is it penetrates clothing.
00:45:12
Speaker
Vitamin D does not penetrate clothing. You want to have some skin exposed with that direct sun. But with infrared light, because infrared penetrates deeper, it can go through clothing. And near infrared portion of natural sunlight stimulates an excess of antioxidants in each of our healthy cells.
00:45:36
Speaker
The cumulative effect of this antioxidant reservoir enhances the body's ability to rapidly deal with changing conditions throughout the day. So at night, our brain makes melatonin. Melatonin is a potent antioxidant, 30 times more potent than vitamin E, which is the most potent antioxidant vitamin. But in the daytime,
00:46:01
Speaker
As a result of infrared light, our cells can make melatonin inside them to protect your mitochondria from burning out. Those are the energy producing cells in your body.
00:46:14
Speaker
And so, but at nighttime we can't produce that and so this is why our brain produces it at night so that we can circulate that melatonin. And the benefits of near infrared light, this is light that we can't even see. It's a half of the photons emitted by the sun when they come to Earth are infrared.
00:46:35
Speaker
And so they're not even in the spectrum that we can see, but they can be reflected off the trees. When we were out there exercising today, when we looked at all those green spaces, we're actually getting infrared off them. If you're in New York City and you're looking at those buildings, you're getting no infrared off those buildings. And so the city does not help with that. You need the green spaces to reflect that infrared. What are the benefits? It's been shown to boost metabolism, prevent mitochondria from burning out.
00:47:06
Speaker
increased energy, cognitive performance enhancement, it's been shown to also be helpful for post-traumatic brain injury, reduces PTSD symptoms, post-traumatic stress disorder, reduces inflammation within the body, we are seeing that across the board when we look at it. And it can also be a potent pain reliever for those with chronic pain. A lot of people are afraid of the sun, however, because they're fearful of sunburns.
00:47:35
Speaker
And by the way, if your shadow's longer than you are, you don't need to worry about sunburns. If the shadow is shorter,
00:47:43
Speaker
You need to get enough of that vitamin D and then you can put on your sunscreen. You know, last year, just to show kind of the common kind of ignorance of humanity and how people will fall for some of these things, I was actually going up to ski on New Year's Day in Lake Tahoe. That's not too far away from where Weimar University is at.
00:48:10
Speaker
In fact, Weimar University was well-represented last weekend. In fact, not last weekend, just five days ago, on Sunday. We're a small university. We accept no government funds, and we have no subsidizing organization.
00:48:28
Speaker
But we run in the black, despite being a small university. But as a result, people that get great ACT scores and high GPAs, they have to pay full tuition at Weimar. We don't have any scholarship program. And our faculty and staff said, you know, we need to try to develop a scholarship program for the really bright kids that are getting free rides at Harvard and Yale.
00:48:54
Speaker
and, you know, have them be attracted to a place like Weimar. So Weimar bought onto this, including the students and the staff. We had one of the directors of our master's program. He's 65 years old. He ran 72 miles around Lake Tahoe on Saturday night and Sunday morning. Started 9 p.m.
00:49:23
Speaker
For every mile, he was raising money for scholarships. And this man is so fit at 65. I wasn't there because I had to work a Sunday morning doing physician work in the clinic. But I heard reports of when he started the race. And when he finished the race, they said he looked just as good as when he finished the race.
00:49:48
Speaker
He never stopped during the 72-mile run. Just incredible. He ran with our SA president, who's a very fit individual former SA president, and that former SA president
00:50:03
Speaker
did not beat the 65-year-old. He came in behind him and had issues after those 72 miles. But we also had many other students run. There was a marathon there, a half marathon, all of those things. And when these people were all questioning the finish line, so-and-so from Weimar University. So Weimar University was being mentioned at
00:50:29
Speaker
What are all these, Weimar University, you guys are just so fit in all of this sort of stuff. Well, we're raising money for the...
00:50:37
Speaker
scholarship program. By the way, if you want to help support our students who did that and give them more encouragement, you could get online and you can still donate towards their run to help people. But back to Tahoe. In January 1, I was going skiing at Lake Tahoe and we went up this gondola and it was one of these bright sunny days.
00:50:59
Speaker
And we're getting out, and the sun is shining off of the snow. And the gondola operator says, you guys, it's a bright day today. Get your sunscreen. If you don't have sunscreen, you need to go into that store and get your sunscreen. You're going to burn. It's going to be bad. All of those things. And he's sitting there, and everyone's kind of panicking, oh, wow, I forgot my sunscreen. And yeah, I need to go do that. And at noon, because we're in northern California,
00:51:27
Speaker
At noon on January 1, your shadow never gets shorter than you are.
00:51:34
Speaker
What does that mean? There's no possibility that you can have a sunburn. You're not getting enough ultraviolet light to get a sunburn. And so all these people are putting this block on that's also blocking infrared and other types of things. And sunlight has some great beneficial properties. So allow yourself to get a little bit of a tan before you put the sunscreen on. We want you to avoid the sunburn. But a lot of people are, as soon as they get out in the sun, they're putting sunscreen on. And that's a big disadvantage.
00:52:04
Speaker
for their mental and physical health.
Circadian Rhythms and Mental Health
00:52:08
Speaker
Circadian rhythm is very important are sleep-wake cycles. And one of the issues in those that have anxiety and depression is they might not be able to even go to sleep, but if they go to sleep, they tend to wake up too early and not be able to go back to sleep.
00:52:26
Speaker
And you can also have a circadian rhythm head if you're wanting to sleep more than nine hours a day. Sleeping less than six hours a day is also a problem, or if you're constantly changing your shifts every couple of weeks. Or if you don't have regular hours for sleeping and eating, we do far better with that.
00:52:47
Speaker
70 to 90 percent of individuals with anxiety experience sleep disturbances. And one of the solutions to this is actually light. And so when we get the light, first thing in the morning it sets our body clock and within seven days we can take someone who's not a good sleeper and make them a good sleeper because now they're ready to go to bed and get that melatonin at night.
00:53:16
Speaker
How to improve sleep? It's back to this bright light. It re-synchronizes your biological clock, getting that bright light at the same time every morning, enhances alertness, assists in sleep induction at bedtime, improves delta wave sleep, which is your deep sleep, and this also increases brain serotonin levels in the daytime and melatonin peaks at night, and it's well tolerated.
00:53:43
Speaker
So, and then of course we can't neglect physical exercise. This is a non-pharmacological treatment for sleep disturbances as well, but it can also help with our mental health. And studies show
00:53:58
Speaker
The best, we keep getting better as we get up to 60 minutes. If you get above 60, it's even better yet, but we do recommend 60 minutes of fitness exercises per day. If you can, most days of the week. And if you exercise early in the morning before breakfast, there's another advantage. Exercising to exhaustion pre-breakfast is actually very good for your brain when you get a good balance of breakfast after that. And then decreasing screen time is also important.
00:54:28
Speaker
because screen time, particularly in the evening, is associated with those blue light that reduces slow-wave sleep, called delta-wave sleep, and it also reduces REM sleep, which is the part that really enhances your executive function and frontal lobe. So we don't recommend anybody use screens an hour before going to bed. Just have that on your schedule, not to use screens an hour before going to bed.
00:54:55
Speaker
and it can help out in a lot of different ways. So, and then additional tips for improving insomnia, have a quiet environment, use white noise. Being still, many people toss and turn, actually studies show it's better to find a comfortable position and hold that position for 20 minutes before you move. Chances are you'll be asleep after that.
00:55:18
Speaker
Having your eyes closed in a dark room also helps people have their screens on, their TV on, those sorts of things. That's not best for good, efficient sleep. And at first you might need to use a basic alarm clock so you get your bright light on time every day. And then those regular hours for sleeping, eating, and exercise.
00:55:41
Speaker
Beware of using sleep medicines. The benzos are highly addictive, and there's other addictive ones that are not benzos, but not quite as addictive. And even Benadryl's been shown to improve, to decrease your cognitive ability over time. And so it's much better to try to use non-pharmacological approaches, if at all possible.
00:56:04
Speaker
And one of the approaches is behavioral therapy. It's called cognitive behavioral therapy, type of therapy we utilize a lot in improving emotional intelligence, depression and anxiety. It actually works better than the most common sleep medication bringing lasting relief to people with chronic insomnia.
00:56:23
Speaker
And so studies are showing behavioral therapy should constitute the first line of therapy for chronic insomnia. It can take some time for these to work, but those benefits are maintained far higher than those of the medicine. And if you are going to use something, use something that's a supplement that isn't going to have that hook to it, where you develop a tolerance, and these are all things that can be helpful for sleep up on the screen. And then music.
00:56:53
Speaker
can also be helpful, the lullaby calming music. But then there's other types of music that can be energetic and particularly the ones with beautiful melodies, harmonies, and it's called classical music therapy. That's been shown to be very helpful for both emotional intelligence
00:57:16
Speaker
and also depression. It can improve fatigue, improve depression, and even improve cortisol levels. So these are the characteristics that we want to see in music that's healthy, melodious music, simple yet attractive, beautiful, what we call non-dissonant harmonies. Jazz, of course, has a lot of that dissonance that comes in there and even contemporary classical can have a lot of dissonance. And when it centers in on the dissonance, it actually can be
00:57:42
Speaker
mood depressing, that's where jazz gets the name blue note. Blue note is dissonant between two notes and the blue note's been shown to induce the blues. That's why it's called that.
00:57:58
Speaker
The more consonant harmonies are healthy, straight rhythms or march rhythms are healthy, but the rhythms need to be less prominent than the melody and harmony. And if it tells a story in awe where you can imagine an awe-inspiring story that goes along with it, it's also helpful as well.
00:58:17
Speaker
So those are some of the newer things in regards to enhancing emotional intelligence. And I'd like to just open it up to see if there's any questions about what we presented or other aspects before we get ready to go into the next presentation. Any questions from anybody? Yes.
00:58:41
Speaker
Yeah, so are you talking about the electromagnetic? Yeah, so yes, the EMF fields, EMF fields, particularly if they're
00:58:54
Speaker
if they're stronger, can have some adverse effects on cognition in the brain. And this is one of the reasons why living under huge power lines and things like that, some negative effects, the stronger the EMF that we are exposed to and the longer duration of it could have some mild negative effects. Okay, great.
00:59:25
Speaker
Yes, any other questions?
00:59:30
Speaker
All right, and I was reminded we have a break with refreshments now.
Session Conclusion and Social Interaction
00:59:35
Speaker
And so I'm sure these will be emotionally enhancing refreshments and also some socially enhancing refreshments as well. And so let's go ahead and take a break and the pastor will point you to the right direction here. And then we'll look forward to seeing you. About 15 minutes and we'll come back.
01:00:05
Speaker
This completes another episode of... Until next time, thanks for listening. Bye for now.