Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Change Your Brain And Your Life with Anne-Sophie Fluri - E41
32 Plays2 months ago
What if you could redesign your own brain? What if you had the power to rewire neural pathways, strengthen connections, and deliberately shape your thought patterns?
In this episode we explore how we can actually change our brain structure and function. By engaging in specific activities, adopting new habits, or deliberately practicing certain thought patterns, we essentially become architects of our own minds. Tune in to learn more about how to foster mental resilience, be more present and create long-lasting social connections, all in the name of a happier, healthier and thriving brain!
Anne-Sophie Fluri is a neuroscientist, mental performance expert and workshop facilitator. She is the founder of the REWIRE program, with a career focused on improving focus, resilience and performance. Anne-Sophie shares her expertise through workshops on mental resilience, blending scientific insights with practical applications to empower individuals in improving their mental well-being. From conducting pioneering studies on psychedelics to transition into mental health technology, she has been a key player in leading mental wellness apps, focusing on mindfulness, mental fitness, and sleep.
“Everything that I talk about very much goes away from these protocols and more into understanding yourself.” - Anne-Sophie Fluri
In this episode you will learn:
- How Anne-Sophie's journey into psychology and neuroscience began with a life-changing book that shifted her understanding of mood control and brain adaptation.
- The intersection of neuroscience and psychedelics, revealing groundbreaking studies of altered states of consciousness and their potential to change brain functions.
- Anne-Sophie's approach to integrating mindfulness into daily life, emphasizing presence and awareness in routine activities such as cooking and walking.
- The importance of routine in sleep and fitness, how Anne-Sophie incorporates consistent habits to support her wellbeing, and the impactful role of gratitude on mindset.
- The balance between rigorous discipline in health practices and the flexibility to adapt, showing how Anne-Sophie harmonizes structured goals with everyday challenges.
- The critical role of social connection and nature, inspiring ideas for nurturing relationships while incorporating pets and outdoor activities into a vibrant lifestyle.
Resources
- Connect with Anne-Sophie on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coochiebygucci
- Subscribe to REWIRE ME with Anne-Sophie, for neuroscience of mental health and wellness: https://rewireme.substack.com
- Shop all the products Anne-Sophie mentions in this episode: https://alively.com/products/anne-sophie-fluri
This podcast was produced by the team at Zapods Podcast Agency:
https://www.zapods.com
Find the products, practices, and routines discussed on the Alively website:
https://alively.com/
Recommended
Transcript
Personal Transformation through Literature
00:00:00
Speaker
I had very bad mood swings, I had bouts of depression, and i just thought, this is what my life is going to be. And everything that I'm doing now culminated from reading this book where I, for the first time, realized that I have the power to change my brain and I have the power to change the way that I feel or the way that I relate to my feelings.
Podcast Introduction and Guest Background
00:00:23
Speaker
This is the Home of Health Spam podcast, where we profile health and wellness role models, sharing their stories and the tools, practices, and routines they use to live a lively life.
00:00:37
Speaker
And Sophie, welcome. It is good morning from me, but it's a good afternoon to you. are you doing? Yeah, great. Thank you so much for having me here. It's such a nice day in in London, so I'm in a really great mood.
00:00:49
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. That's a, I know those are far and few between and the summers can be pretty special when it's not raining out Wimbledon or whatever it does. Yeah, yeah exactly. i know the first time we caught up, i was having kind of a difficult time placing your accent.
00:01:05
Speaker
You live in London. My ex-wife is from London. You don't sound like you're from London. ah Can you talk a little bit about your journey, how you ended up where you are now? Yeah. It's funny because if you ask my family, whenever I see them,
00:01:18
Speaker
they say that I sound so English. But if you ask anyone here or my partner, um they they think that I sound American. And I guess it's it's ah it's a bit of a European mix. I grew up in Switzerland. i was born in Switzerland and I moved to the south of France.
00:01:35
Speaker
to finish school when I was 14.
From Business to Neuroscience
00:01:37
Speaker
And when I was 17, I came to to London for a university and I've pretty much stayed here ever since. I've had a few years where I've been in Hong Kong or traveling, um working remote, but I'm, yeah, ah I've been in London for most of my life. So that's probably the the mix that you're hearing. Yeah. And and how many languages do you speak?
00:01:58
Speaker
So I speak English, German, and French, although my my French and German are and not Not as great as they once were. okay And I was learning um Mandarin as well yeah when I was in in Hong Kong.
00:02:14
Speaker
So they actually speak Cantonese. Cantonese, But I thought i thought i might as well learn Mandarin because more people speak it. My German and French, they're really, really suffering at the moment because all of my education has been in English. So all of my tech technical language is in English as well.
00:02:31
Speaker
Well, let's let's talk a little bit about that, the the education and the technical language. so ah I mean, you you have a pretty interesting story and you have an interesting career now in what you're doing for people. Can you talk about that education and how you're applying it?
00:02:46
Speaker
Yeah, thank you. um Because when I started out, I had no direction of ah where I was going. i studied psychology and neuroscience as an undergraduate. So the first few years were just psychology. And in the last year, I could kind of decide ah where I wanted to focus.
00:03:03
Speaker
And ah studied that because I just always read psychology books. um I actually applied for business because I thought, why do people go to university to study business? um and And after my first lecture, I was like, I can't do this. i am Sorry to anybody who's studied business, but I just, I couldn't focus. And I couldn't remember anything at all. And I just...
00:03:28
Speaker
you know, lost the will basically. But I encountered a group that were going to their psychology lecture and I just snuck in. And at the end of the lecture, I asked the lecturer if I could, if I could transfer over. I told him a bit about my life and the books that I was reading and, you know, my areas of interest.
00:03:46
Speaker
And he He just, yeah, he just took me on
Excitement in Neuroscience
00:03:50
Speaker
board. And it was, it was very lucky because it turned out that the university that I was at to study business, it wasn't necessarily, it wasn't known for its its business school, but it was definitely known for its psychology. So it was like a Trojan horse getting in there. and they yeah Yeah. Luckily uh, I, um, graduated with a, with a great degree from a great university for psychology and neuroscience. And, um,
00:04:16
Speaker
The one thing that bugged me about psychology was that people spent so much time and energy looking at these studies and investigating and doing the analyses. And and even in order to get something published, it could take you a year or more.
00:04:31
Speaker
if you don't get rejected from them. and And at the end of every study, after all of this time and all of this effort, and even for the reader, you know, you're you're getting to the end of it, the final bit, and it's always the same thing.
00:04:45
Speaker
They always say, well,
Psychedelic Research with Professor Nutt
00:04:47
Speaker
because of individual differences, you can't really generalize these findings. So what's the point? um And I remember my first study, ah my my first lecture in neuroscience, which was, it was called the biological foundations of psychology.
00:05:02
Speaker
And my heart just lit up because all of a sudden you could understand when this is happening in the brain or when this is happening with the person, this is what's happening in the brain and you can really map it onto specific biological function or activity.
00:05:21
Speaker
And I really, i love that part because it was the the missing piece of the puzzle for me. So I applied to get my master's with this incredible guy who gave a guest lecture. His name is professor David Nutt. And I'm not sure if you've heard of him, but perhaps the listeners will will be familiar with him because he is one of the the leading experts in the field of neuropsychopharmacology.
00:05:43
Speaker
And what that means is the neuroscientific study of drugs yeah um and and and pharmacology. So while I was working with him, we conducted to the first ever study of psychedelics in the brain. So it's the first time that you you had a a brain scan of somebody when they were on psychedelics.
00:06:05
Speaker
Were you using fMRI or what what was the... Okay. And and ah DTI, diffus and ah diffusion tensor imaging. So you could actually see the different neural connections. You could see the different parts of the brain that were connected. And what they found in the study was that taking psychedelics takes you back to a childlike state where you have...
00:06:27
Speaker
all of these remote areas of the brain that are connected and you lose that connectivity because as you get older, you just focus on the functions that you need in everyday life. And and you start to lose those connections between ah different parts of the brain that you're not using. yeah So it's that creativity. And, um,
00:06:46
Speaker
Yeah, that that was incredible. I'd always been really interested in the study of drugs and the study of altered states of consciousness in being able to change your brain. Because when I came into this field, it was very much the brain is static and your personality is static as well. You are just you know you have these big five personality traits and they don't change.
00:07:08
Speaker
And of course, That understanding has has changed massively in recent years. But at the time, the only way that we knew how to change your personality was through a traumatic event.
00:07:22
Speaker
So something big happens in your life, death or a near-death experience or... abuse or some sort of trauma. And that can be so powerful that it changes you in just that one situation.
00:07:39
Speaker
And that's unheard of really, because any change in the brain really takes time. The other way that you can change your brain is by you know doing something like taking a so psychedelic drug, which just opens you up to whole new state of consciousness and after which you're forever changed.
00:07:57
Speaker
So it was really exciting. um this This professor was also a bit of ah a bad boy. um so i used to read a lot about Timothy Leary, who worked at Harvard. He was a Harvard psychology professor. Yeah, and he he took his students out to, you know,
00:08:16
Speaker
this mansion on the outskirts and, um, and they took drugs and and documented what happened. And I was just thought, these people are really cool because they're really intelligent, but they're just, you know, they don't conform.
00:08:30
Speaker
And, um, this professor I was working with, he was, he was the same. He got sacked from the government, uh, because he was in charge of the drug legislations and he, he was sick and tired of,
00:08:43
Speaker
doing all this research research on the drugs and recommending legislation. So he recommended, for example, MDMA shouldn't be a class A drug. It should be class C. Of course, the government's never going to adopt that. Do we know why, though? like it It is funny because we just take it for granted that this is how it's going to be.
00:09:02
Speaker
And when when you say bad boy and questioning, like the whole point of science is to question orthodoxy. That's the only way, like, if Galileo wasn't questioning the Catholic Church, yeah when when we were we going to get to a heliocentric world?
00:09:17
Speaker
And so the whole point of investigation, of a hypothesis-driven search, is to question status quo. And so why do we just take it for granted? They're like, oh, well, these things we can't touch.
00:09:32
Speaker
Yeah, because I think especially when drugs come into play, there's so much red tape. you know and And even to to do this first study, it took maybe 20 years of campaigning or even more before before they were allowed to...
00:09:50
Speaker
you know, use it in a university setting. this is of course some of youyated Right, right. yeah Legally for a scientific task. Legally,
Influence of 'The Emotional Life of Your Brain'
00:09:59
Speaker
right. and And have it approved and have it documented and and all of those things. um He, so, so this professor, Professor David Nutt eventually,
00:10:09
Speaker
published a paper where he compared riding horses to taking MDMA. And he said he determined that riding horses is much more dangerous to the economy, to the person, to the individual, to the health care system, to the government than somebody who's taking MDMA. And after that, they just threw him out.
00:10:30
Speaker
yeah don't Don't confuse us with facts, right? Like we we have our opinions. Don't confuse us with facts. can Before we move too much on on, like you connected with him and kind of where that went, if we could rewind a second, you were reading some books ah that this is what you were telling this professor about that helps you get in.
00:10:49
Speaker
Do you remember any of those things you were reading at the time? I'm i'm just personally super curious. I was never an avid reader. I never read any novels and that actually only happened in, in, in the last five years for me, but I would always only read factual books or books based on psychology. Um, there was, there was one book that I remember because it really changed the trajectory of my life, I think, and I didn't realize it until later on, but it was called The Emotional Life of Your Brain by... His name is either David Richardson or Richard Davidson.
00:11:26
Speaker
um And it was just about how emotions play out in the brain and the body. And it was the first time that I ever understood that I could change the way that I feel. I always felt for my whole life, I had very bad mood swings. I had bouts of depression all throughout school, high school, and even as I was coming into university.
00:11:51
Speaker
And I just thought this is what my life is going to be. And everything that I'm doing now has kind of culminated from reading this book where where i for the first time, realized that I have the power to change my brain and I have the power to change the way that I feel or the way that I relate to my feelings.
00:12:12
Speaker
yeah And so my whole career, everything that I'm that i'm
Mindfulness and Technology
00:12:15
Speaker
doing now, as as we'll discuss, is is based on that. It's you have the power to change. You just need to make a decision. Yeah, I mean, this is very much the whole history of the space, like you said when you were coming in, from this fixed mindset. Hey, it's these big five, it's everything. and This is what we have to wait. No, that we have more, myelin we we actually can adapt. And maybe it's with a pharmaceutical, maybe it's with poliotropic breathing. like There are different things that we can do that we actually shape.
00:12:44
Speaker
We get to dictate the story that is our life and the story that we're going to tell ourselves about our lives. And that's why i'm so excited excited by the work you're doing um now. So can can you talk a little bit about where all this culminated, and in at least into what you're doing now?
00:13:01
Speaker
So I have been working in mental health technology. So I was um in leading positions at a mental health app, at a mindfulness app, a mental fitness app, a sleep app.
00:13:12
Speaker
And currently I'm working on a mindfulness game. It's just always been about looking at the research. How can you change your brain? How can you change your mindset? How can you do something for yourself? What is the science of wellness and self-care?
00:13:26
Speaker
um And what I'm doing right now is that I've stepped down a little bit from that corporate position. So I have a fractional role as a chief science officer. But in my spare time, the rest of the time, I i host workshops and talks about how to change your brain and the neuroscience of mental resilience.
00:13:43
Speaker
It's a really wonderful thing because it's it's an opportunity to connect with people. Whereas with the apps, you're really connected to the user in the beginning. But once the app scales, you lose all sight of who you're impacting or how your research is impacting people.
00:14:00
Speaker
It's numbers versus people. Yeah. Yeah. it's It's numbers, it's retention, it's it's ah monetization. And at that point I lose interest because I've, I've always had to have a very clear purpose and connection. Um, and so the work that I do now allows me to do that.
00:14:17
Speaker
Yeah, the the ability to bounce back and forth. that That going from scalability and scale of impact to the personalization to to really tie it to your story of, hey, here's the impact I'm having.
00:14:29
Speaker
Now, you know people ask me a lot on, ah well, how do I fix this on mindset or this kind of stress management? And my typical response is you don't, right? like You don't go to the gym for a year and be like, okay, yeah I'm good for physical fitness for the rest of my life.
00:14:44
Speaker
Or I eat healthy for a week or two. I'm like, okay, good. Yeah, it's cheeseburgers and bacon the the rest of the day. And it's similar in my mind for mental health in that you know our biology in a lot of ways work against us in terms of the hedonic treadmill, all these things that we have to deal with that our default is to chase things that are not going to really work.
00:15:04
Speaker
And so it is ongoing work and exercise like fitness, like nutrition, ah but you know, I'm an armchair ah theoretician on this. You're an actual doctor.
00:15:18
Speaker
Knowing what you know and doing what you do, what does your practice look like in terms of stress management and and managing your own mindset on a day-to-day or a week-to-week basis?
00:15:30
Speaker
So I really love this question because i think a lot of the time... people think that they need to, they look at the studies and if, you know, after three months of meditation, 10 minutes, every single day, these are the effects that you can expect.
00:15:43
Speaker
And then they think that they have to stick to that. And then on the days that they don't, they feel disappointed with themselves or, you know, they, they feel like it's too much to be able to, to maintain that kind of um schedule. And ah love talking to people about,
00:15:59
Speaker
what it's like for me because I don't have a fixed protocol. And my protocol is certainly not defined by a single study which showed you that you have to do XYZ for this amount of minutes, for this amount of time.
00:16:12
Speaker
um Everything that I talk about very much goes away from these protocols and more into understanding yourself. And Of course, in the beginning, you have to have more of an intense period of of doing these practices, mindfulness, breath work, whatever it is, journaling.
00:16:31
Speaker
Where I am today, i feel very resilient. I have so many other parts of my life in place. And i will only ever do an in-depth, maybe like a 40-minute meditation meditation.
00:16:48
Speaker
to pick me back up. If I feel like I'm going to be a little bit too stressed, or if I've got a little bit too much going on, I will take the time out to do that. But otherwise, otherwise I just practice small moments of mindfulness within my day.
00:17:03
Speaker
so if I go and walk the dog, I'm not listening to a podcast. I don't have my headphones in. I'm not distracting myself. I'm not on the phone to my mom. i I'm just present and I listen to the sounds around me and I pay attention to my dog or how I'm feeling, how I'm walking, which muscles are moving. The same way when I'm cooking dinner or or lunch, I'm not distracting myself by watching something at the same time.
00:17:31
Speaker
I'm very present with the the smells and tasting the food and being present in the moment. And so that's my practice. My practice is my life. it's It's just so ingrained with how I behave and the way that I do things.
00:17:48
Speaker
And only sometimes will I take out time to sit down in the lotus position in a quiet room. Yeah. yeah so So most of the time I would say just Moments of mindfulness, maybe once a week, a meditation, or I'll take time out to do a stretch class or a meditation class. But I'm also, you know, I'm i'm eating well every single day, most of my meals, and I'm exercising almost every single day.
00:18:15
Speaker
The parallels you just drew for me, it just hit me in a different way as well of back to fitness, right? Of going and working out in the gym for 60 minutes and then sitting in the office and being sedentary the other 23 hours.
00:18:28
Speaker
It's actually way worse than if you didn't go to the gym at all, but you stayed moving, right? Because our bodies were made to move. And the point of mindfulness or meditation practice or mindfulness practices aren't the 10 minutes or 20 minutes or 50 minutes or even two hours on the cushion. It's taking that into life.
00:18:46
Speaker
And so it sounds like you've had a journey that allowed you to start incorporating, like, you know, the Thich Nhat Hanh of when you're washing the dishes, wash the dishes, like be there. This is the only moment is the present and really living it.
00:19:01
Speaker
And I do think a lot of people miss that. They think the purpose is the meditation. No, the purpose is the rest of the day. Once you get off the cushion to take that mindfulness and that presence into it, how long did it take you to get to where you're you're doing that, right? Like, cause it's a thing i intuitively know.
00:19:23
Speaker
like, Oh, but there's this other podcast or this other audio book. And and then I just popped my headphones back in. There's always more. Yeah. Yeah. There are, millions of people who are creating content every single day, you will never catch up with all the content.
00:19:38
Speaker
And I think that's, that's something that, you know, even if I pull out my phone, i'm like, Oh, I'm just going to catch up with what it's impossible. so so let that part go Just take a few minutes.
00:19:50
Speaker
be happy with you know what you are consuming. just i'm I'm going to see what I see in these next 10 minutes that I'm on my phone and then I'll put it down and I don't have to i don't feel like I'm missing out on something because i'm I'm not trying to catch up with what everyone's doing and all the new content that's come out that day.
00:20:07
Speaker
But I would say it's i mean it's been it's been a few years now. I would say maybe seven years or so. that and And it started from yeah ah a religious practice of every single day, taking the time out to be able to even train my brain to focus.
00:20:28
Speaker
Cause that in the beginning is a difficult part. Those neural pathways aren't there yet. You're so used to being
Rediscovering Innate Mindfulness
00:20:33
Speaker
distracted. You're so used to being, having your attention being taken away from you that you do need to train your brain to focus on whatever it is you want it to focus on. So for me, that was ah the breath. So I would just focus on my breath, focus on my breathing for a few minutes every single day.
00:20:51
Speaker
until that initial frustration lifted a little bit. And um it's important here to note that if you're starting out with a meditation practice or a mindfulness practice, and you think that it's going to be relaxing,
00:21:07
Speaker
you might be yeah You might be surprised because in the beginning, as with any new skill, as if you if you're sitting down to learn the piano for the first time, you're not going to be able to play immediately. it it takes a lot of trial and error. And the point is to accept the mistakes, to accept that you get distracted and just recommit to the practice and bring yourself back to it. And that can be really frustrating. I'd be curious on your take.
00:21:35
Speaker
on this of the the difference I would have with piano or tennis or picking up something of you're having to build a skill. Whereas I have this new thought or understanding ah on kind of the mindfulness of it's not actually adding something.
00:21:53
Speaker
It's we have this already and it's actually learning to sift through all the filters and the noise that we've gotten used to to get to that inner wait, oh, I can notice the noticer. like that That has been sitting there the whole time. It's just deadened in us because of what we've been doing. Which which direction do you see that?
00:22:14
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, i would completely agree, but we are not at fault for that. There's you know big corporations and there's the algorithms and there are so many things that are competing for your attention because...
00:22:26
Speaker
You know, everybody is competing for that mental real estate. Everybody wants your eyes, your brain, your thoughts on their product, on their, you know, you're You're talking to a guy who literally wrote a book on mental real estate. So yeah. Yeah.
00:22:41
Speaker
Picked into choir on that for sure. It's definitely worse with social media, with with the things we have. But at the same time, I don't think it's an accident that 2,500 years ago, whatever, Laozi, Buddha, ah the Stoics, they were all coming the same thing. Because i don't know, it's it's amplified it in modern society, but moving from ah and agrarian or hunter-gatherer a ah city and more urban environment in general,
00:23:08
Speaker
it's already so extreme, right? Like the idea of being inside like, oh, we need to go get outside. Well, you know, only for less than 1% of human history, was there such thing as inside, right? We were just out and living and doing our thing.
00:23:21
Speaker
No, it did just, it makes me think of something that I was, I was planning to look at today. I have this saved for later. I saw um this video of a guy who is, I think he was ah a neurosurgeon or or a neuropsychiatrist or something at ah at a prestigious university.
00:23:37
Speaker
And, um, he got that degree, which takes years to do, which takes a lot of time and effort and is, is a very well regarded, career trajectory. And he just dropped everything and,
00:23:54
Speaker
you know went to go live in nature and goes on on treks and on trails because everything that he's saying that he's learned about what the brain needs and wants and and all of the ways in which he can help his patients and everything that he's prescribing is going outside and you know the the way that we have the life that we have for most of us ah in this day and age isn't really helping us. I mean, there are studies that show that if you live in a, in a, in a dense city area, then because of the noise noise pollution, you'll, we are more likely to be depressed literally just because of the noise. And then you have the actual pollution and then you have the stress of the job and the stress of the commute and everything piled on top of
Mindful Eating and Plant-Based Diet
00:24:40
Speaker
that.
00:24:40
Speaker
But just because you're living in a noisy place that can have such an effect on your mental health. what So you talked about, that this has been amazing. I could go for hours more on this with someone like you who knows so much.
00:24:53
Speaker
ah But you also mentioned it's not just your mindset and and your mindfulness practices. You think about it more holistically and like your nutrition, like I eat healthily.
00:25:04
Speaker
What does that mean to you? what What does that look like to you? I try and eat as as little processed food as possible and ultra processed, I'll say, because most of our foods are processed. So if, you know, cheese is a processed food, but...
00:25:16
Speaker
the process is, I mean, most of our foods are are processed because you're not picking up a table. Exactly. ah In some way. And so, and I, and I think that that distinction is important there because people, there is a lot of fear mongering in, you know, the the fitness world, in the nutrition world and in, in all of this, I just try to eat, um,
00:25:38
Speaker
enough carbs, proteins, fats. I definitely grew up with with a mother who demonized carbs and still does to me. um so So it was a lot of learning about what my body needs as fuel and being able to to eat accordingly and also being able to eat enough. So one of the my my main struggles is actually eating and enough. And that's why I'm quite strict with my, with my meal program and my regimen, because it helps me stick to it. I have my breakfast, my lunch and my dinner and some protein shakes, let's say in between, which yes, I know they're processed.
00:26:14
Speaker
but do Do you see that, that the, the needs or how you do it changes seasonally or cyclically? Yeah. And, and again, this is where I'm, the science might say one thing, but especially nutrition studies are very difficult to, to, to carry out because you have to make sure that everybody is really eating exactly what you're saying, or they're documenting things accurately. And we know that most people aren't, no one listen yeah there's all these confounding factors. so So don't stick, but you know, if a study says you have to eat this, this and this and this, and that increases your lifespan by however many years, you don't have to be that rigid about it. And this is where mindfulness again comes back in, is that I'm able to notice the foods that sit well with me, the foods that give me energy when I feel tired or even upping my calories on days and particularly during my cycle at at certain times when when I just energy.
00:27:09
Speaker
to eat more, ah because otherwise I'll, I'll be miserable. And you can sense it, right? Like it's not, you don't have to check the calendar as much as saying, you know, like, i think I need a little more today. yeah Yeah. Yeah. and And it's all about being able to be more mindful and listen to your body because your body is always sending you signals and it's our job to take time to understand our body and understand those signals and listen to
Maintaining Health on the Go
00:27:35
Speaker
our body. But again, a lot of, a lot of the things that we have in place,
00:27:40
Speaker
take that power away from us. It's eat this because you're going to do this and this and all the marketing directed at this is how you should live your life. And this is a protocol that's ideal for, you know, and and a protocol can't be ideal for a hundred percent of the population. You have to understand yourself.
00:27:55
Speaker
Well, I mean, there's the other extreme of it, right? So there's the over regimented, but then there's also the mindless eating yeah of, Hey, I'm not even hungry. I don't even notice I'm doing like a lot of people when they don't report what they're eating correctly, it's not because they're thinking about, they just didn't remember. Oh yeah. I got up and had four Oreos andn and I got up and had like a bag of chips because they just think to the meals. Yeah.
00:28:15
Speaker
and And so it's just because it's there, I'm bored. This is kind of how I fill the time. So you said you're thoughtful on we have breakfast, lunch, dinner, get some protein shakes in there. Can you can you take through a typical day? Like how how do you balance that carb, protein, fat that your body is going to need?
00:28:32
Speaker
Yeah. So I, I wake up, I always start with a, my breakfast is just a smoothie because it's, it's hard for me to get anything down. Um, but I do need to eat before I go to the gym and I usually go to the the gym first thing in the morning. So I'll have a a smoothie with some frozen berries, some protein powder, creatine, um, water and ice.
00:28:51
Speaker
Uh, So I have, I, my favorite protein is a, it's a vegan protein. It's called clean lean vegan protein. I think it's by new zest. Do you know that one? No, I just like the name clean yeah clean lean vegan protein. But it it kind of, you know, does what it says. And it's a mixture of different types of plant proteins, which work really well because you're better able to absorb protein if they come from lots of different sources.
00:29:14
Speaker
Um, and it's, it's very clean. So there's, there's no funky additives. Um, the flavors are are relatively simple. It's vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, and matcha. And then you're putting on the the berries anyway. So yeah, exactly. the creatine, do you have a brand of that or is it just like whatever's there?
00:29:32
Speaker
I, with the creatine, I just take what I can get because my, my partner and I were pretty much on the same meal plan. So we just run through all of these, these things, but, um, but I do limit my supplements. I'm not a huge supplement person. I only take vegan omegas, but for the rest of it, I've stopped taking green powders. Um, I've stopped taking, taking most things, um,
00:29:56
Speaker
I do have mushroom capsules, especially when I'm flying overseas. That's really helped me reishi mushroom for immunity. Yeah. For immunity, but also reishi mushroom helps me tremendously with my jet lag.
00:30:09
Speaker
Oh, okay. All right. Yeah. So I'll i'll take some reishi mushrooms like a few days before I fly, um while I'm away, if I'm away for the weekend and then on on the way home as well. And I i don't get jet lagged. Okay.
00:30:21
Speaker
That's amazing. Um, yeah. And, and then, For lunch, I'll have and pretty simple, some some quinoa, some beans or chickpeas. um i eat as much vegetable as I want. So if I'm if i'm ever not feeling full, I just, you know chuck a broccoli in the oven and and have that.
00:30:44
Speaker
And then i I pretty much have the same thing in the evenings as well. I always mix it up a little bit. have like different marinades or different salads or different ah grains, but i i'm ah I'm plant-based. So lots of lentils, pulses, beans.
00:30:58
Speaker
Yeah. what And whole food, right? So like I think, would I explain to my daughter too on plant-based of, look, Refined sugar is plant-based. I still think you'd be better off eating steak than that.
00:31:10
Speaker
But if you're eating plants, that's different than plant-based. And it sounds like you're you're eating plants. ah Yeah. Most of the time, just plants, like the the whole beans, or I'll mush them up and you know shape them into like balls or something. But it's like, I know exactly what's going into it.
00:31:27
Speaker
i will I do have an an exception. in In the UK, there's this brand called Squeaky Bean. And they make um fake meat products. But they're... I mean, they're my favorite ones because they they're made from beans.
00:31:39
Speaker
So they don't have a huge amount of additives... Weird chemicals that got made up and yeah I don't know if the human body can process this or not. Yeah. Um, it's, it's, it's really good. And it tastes, I mean, I don't miss meat at all or I have no desire to eat meat. So it's, it's, yeah.
00:31:57
Speaker
I'll have that every, every now and again, because it's just really easy and it tastes amazing. So on the supplement side, so we, we have protein, we have the reishi mushrooms, we have creatine. Do you do magnesium or anything? Cause even what I noticed is theoretically I'm getting tons of magnesium, but depending on soil quality, like is my magnesium absorption, what it should be?
00:32:20
Speaker
Are there any other things you say, hey I kind of need to top up on B12 or anything like that. Cause it, Yeah, so I do take magnesium sometimes, especially if I have a very intense week of workouts and I know that my muscles are going ache.
00:32:32
Speaker
I also have a magnesium body oil that that I use sometimes, or I'll put that on my legs if I... if If I know that I'm going to have twitchy legs after a long workout, if I'm sleeping, I have an issue with with iron. i can't i can I eat enough iron, but I don't store it well enough. So this is before the veganism even, and it runs in my family. So I get iron infusions.
00:32:54
Speaker
um I've tried iron supplements. Those shots are what... So yeah, so so basically it's like an IV drip, it it looks like. And it's this bag of... It looks like black liquid. It's very cool.
00:33:07
Speaker
But you have to be careful because it can stain your skin. um And they infuse it ah straight into your bloodstream. And after a few days, I just feel... incredible, but I, I had really low levels of, um, of iron to the point where if I hadn't gone to to do that, then I would have had to have a blood transfusion.
00:33:28
Speaker
Wow. Like properly anemic. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, so anemic to the point where i I, wouldn't be able to walk out the house. I would have to get a taxi everywhere because I was just so tired. I'd be sleeping all day.
00:33:40
Speaker
um and that was a, that was a few years ago, maybe, maybe seven or so years ago. and now I just top it up with iron infusions and, it's it really does the trick this may not do anything for you or not but a friend of mine recommended ka she thought that i started looking at neeming um sarsaparilla so i put it in my mushroom coffee in the morning so a sarsaparilla powder and it like drives up your iron so i don't know if it's an absorption issue if it'll work but i just get go to the natural food store get some sarsaparilla and i throw that in the mushroom coffee in the morning Oh, that's very cool. Yeah, no, I, in in the UK, they're very bad. ah A lot of people here have um low levels levels of iron, but they don't really do anything with the national national health insurance that we have here. They give you iron supplements, which don't do anything.
00:34:26
Speaker
And even if you look at the studies that have been conducted on these supplements, it doesn't show that they're effective. So um you just really have to push for it. I went privately for many years until, i think it took me 10 years to do to be able to get my iron and infusions on the health insurance that we have here. Yeah. That's ah another subject altogether. also That's a whole.
00:34:49
Speaker
So you you talked about if you're doing a hard workout day or a particular leg day and and twitchy legs, what does your fitness regime look like these days? So I trained for bikini level bodybuilding.
00:35:02
Speaker
So that's five days. Yeah. Yeah. it's it And it's it's funny because you wouldn't be able to tell. I feel like with this level of bodybuilding, you don't you can't really tell from a person because the frame is still quite small.
00:35:15
Speaker
And especially the body type that I have, you only see that there's muscle if I'm at the gym or if I'm post-workout. Yeah. and And other than that, I just, yeah, ah still look...
00:35:27
Speaker
a bit scrawny. Um, it's really cool but yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's amazing. And it, it really helps me stick to my workout regimen because, because I have these goals and it helps me again with my nutrition, because I know that I need to fuel my body in order to continue working out, um, in the way that I do, but it would be five sessions in the gym. And then depending on where I'm at, the cardio goes up and down. So at the moment I just do one day of cardio a week. And then, you know, when, when you get to,
00:35:59
Speaker
the stage where you're trying to cut, then that, that increases. And so the, the five days are all pure, ah weight training resistance. Yeah. Yeah. So it's, it's, it's, it's crazy. There's with, with this kind of bodybuilding, you really focus on creating the hourglass figure by focusing on your shoulders and your glutes,
00:36:21
Speaker
Yep. There's, there's very little core involved. And, um, on an upper body day, it it could be ah like five different belt exercises. so So it's very much creating that optical illusion by focusing on the shoulders, the delts, and then the glutes. So it's a lower day, upper day, lower day, upper day, lower day. And that's, that's it.
00:36:40
Speaker
Okay. Very lowers to uppers. Three. Yeah. So so two lowers, two uppers, and then the last one will either be a lower again or a mixture of. Oh, OK.
00:36:51
Speaker
So so it could be three uppers and three. OK. and And you're someone who loves travel. You travel quite a lot. You go and do these workshops and pretty amazing places, which is nice.
00:37:05
Speaker
To keep up that training regimen when you're gone, i mean, do you have any kind of fitness equipment, anything you travel with? Like, how do you how do you do that? I don't have any fitness equipment that I travel with other than a resistance band um because i just to to stretch and to at least do some sort of warmups. But i very much pay attention to where I'm staying, that I have access to a gym and that I have access to a kitchen so that I can either bring my own food, make my own food, at least for
00:37:36
Speaker
ah most of the time. So i'm I'm also not that strict that ah you I won't go out for dinners if I'm traveling. But if I'm traveling for work and I'm i'm not there to have fun or see anyone or you know I'm not there with friends or family, then it's it's still an opportunity for me to stick to my workout schedule, stick to my nutrition schedule.
00:37:55
Speaker
um So I just like to keep things really simple for for that. But... I'll always make sure that I'm i'm close to a gym. And so do you, it's always, even when you're at home in London, it's a gym, you're not doing stuff at home, you're getting out.
00:38:09
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Always gym. And, and I love to throw in some different kinds of workout classes here and there because it's just nice to switch things up or have a different, a change of scenery. Yeah. I think that's really important because You don't want your body getting used to the same thing too much.
00:38:26
Speaker
and And it should still be fun. So so it's nice to to be able to go to a nice studio, like and a new studio, or they have a new class and try different things out. Now, you talked to when you travel, the Rishi Mushroom helped with jet lag.
00:38:40
Speaker
And so you have kind of that to help you sleep on the move. But what about dayto day to day? mean, what's your
Importance of Sleep and Comfort
00:38:46
Speaker
sleep routine? How do you think about sleep hygiene and and how you I mean, I guess you take some magnesium as well. But what does that all look like for you?
00:38:54
Speaker
I'm very regular with when I'm going to sleep, when I'm waking up. to be able to tell my body in and let it regulate itself. So I don't wake up with an alarm. I'm, I'm always waking up at the same time. My body does that automatically. It's releasing the cortisol at the right time, the melatonin at the right time. Um, and I try not to veer from that also not on weekends.
00:39:14
Speaker
And I have, um, a nice bedtime routine that I do before getting into bed so that my body also understands that, okay, we're preparing for bed now. It's time to unwind. And that helps me fall asleep faster. I'm not doing anything out of the ordinary. Again, I'm just being very mindful about, let's say my, my skincare, um, the music that I'm listening to the ambience, dimming the lights, um, lowering my voice, even the the way that we talk to each other, just everything becomes very slow. And, um,
00:39:47
Speaker
And before we, before we fall asleep, my partner and I, we always say three things that we're grateful for. every single night without out loud to each other, out loud to each other. yeah And it's just ah a nice opportunity for, again, a bit of connection and a bit of gratitude, which lowers your heart rate again, trains your brain over time to always look out for other things to be grateful for.
00:40:08
Speaker
And then I'll just do, um, some breath focus or a mini meditation. And that's not anything that I'm putting on. It's just taking the time to focus on how I'm breathing and then I'll fall asleep doing that.
00:40:20
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think you touched on so many important things there. One that was kind of a wake-up call for me is that weekday weekend. You say, hey, no, consistently, it's even on the weekend, because otherwise we're just jet lagging ourselves over and over. And and here's what the long-term impacts of that are. and That's not good.
00:40:37
Speaker
ah But the the other piece, too, on... the routine and the consistency of that routine. ah equate it to you know Michael Phelps before he would go do a race or before you go practice, it would be the same thing.
00:40:52
Speaker
Tiger Woods, before he'd take a shot, it was the same routine each time. And it just gets your brain and your body in this mindset of success. So I'm setting myself up for success in sleeping, right? Like my body knows returning from A to B, I'm ready to go.
00:41:09
Speaker
and is that something you kind of overnight figured out or you just, you, you added pieces in and then kind of developed and you're like okay, yeah, for the past three years, it's been pretty consistent.
00:41:20
Speaker
What does that mean for you? Yeah. Your body likes predictability and it needs to be able to time things accordingly. So the more you veer away from that, the more your body's you know not going to really know how how to respond.
00:41:32
Speaker
I think it's definitely been something that's solidified over time. It might have just started with knowing the importance of going to sleep and waking up at the same time and doing that. And then when that gets easier and second nature, or you just add a few more things in.
00:41:48
Speaker
At the beginning, especially with the going to bed at the same time, it's difficult because... you never know if you're going to have more work to do, or if you're going to go out and see your friends, or maybe if you want to have a late dinner have some drinks, or you have a party to go to, ah life really gets in the way, but eventually,
00:42:06
Speaker
sleep became such a big priority for me that it's very difficult for somebody to make me delay my bedtime. It has to be something really special, really extraordinary because it's it's not worth it to me. I notice it so much if i'm if I'm not regimental with my sleep. And sometimes these workshops that I do, it's funny because i was in Croatia recently and i was giving a workshop on sleep.
00:42:34
Speaker
And over those three days, i had the worst sleep that I've ever had in, I don't know, five years because they were there um as part of their company and they were doing these workshops, but they were also partying. They were also celebrating. you know it was the The company spent, I think, £250,000 on on on their employees. So they were there to have a good time. I was there as a, as a practitioner, I wanted to sleep, but the music was blaring and, and I just thought it was really funny, but you can't get too caught up in those things, right? Sometimes it's going to happen.
00:43:09
Speaker
And, and I think that's important as well, is that life does get in the way and don't be hard on yourself. Just make it up, you know, tomorrow, try, try to do what you can.
00:43:22
Speaker
I mean, that seems to be a common thread on your practices with all of this, whether it's fitness or nutrition or the sleep or the mindset of, hey, look, have these principles and kind of go with it, but also don't overstress it and get in your own way in pursuing it.
00:43:36
Speaker
Yeah, that's what that's what's so important about the the more that you practice mindfulness, the more you see yourself as your own friend. You treat yourself with the same kindness and respect that you would treat a friend.
00:43:47
Speaker
The voice in your head becomes drastically different. you know if If a friend said, well, i didn't you know I did this or I made this mistake, you would give them so much grace. And yet the way that we speak to ourselves sometimes is so negative or so critical, so judgmental.
00:44:04
Speaker
And a big part of it is just noticing that, you okay, maybe you've done something and you could have you could have been better, but just giving yourself the same grace, treating yourself the way that you would treat a friend.
00:44:16
Speaker
This hits home so much. Just yesterday with my daughter, she had lost, we had gotten this new mouth thing, it cost thousands dollars and she lost it. And I'm like, man, we just got really hard.
00:44:27
Speaker
and And so she would start to get really upset. And i was like, look, don't don't get that upset. Like, i I did the same thing. Like, I got this homeo block and one of the pieces I lost very quickly and tried to normalize it.
00:44:38
Speaker
But I think she could see how hard I was on myself. as well. And so we took some time before dinner to sit down and like, look, I don't want you to pick up my hangups, right? Like these are things I stress about, but you don't have to pick up my hangup. These are things I layered on over time.
00:44:54
Speaker
Let's try to not layer them on you. well Let's like, I'm trying to erase them. Let's not start as I'm erasing them, build them up on you. Because it's seeing that of like the voice that I'm telling to myself in that situation And then seeing my daughter do it, like we would never want our loved ones, we would never talk to them like that or want them to talk to themselves like that.
00:45:13
Speaker
And like you said, yeah we have to give ourselves that same grace. So that's incredibly timely. I was having this conversation last night. So it really hits home. I was going to say, on the sleep, i mean are there any other, do you have any special sheets, night masks? Do you do the earplugs? like You talked about the music being loud. like I use these wax earplugs now that help me tremendously.
00:45:35
Speaker
So I definitely have um blackout curtains and I keep the room at a nice cool temperature. Again, this is something in the scientific literature, you'll see ideal sleep temperature in Celsius. It's around like 18 degrees Celsius or like 17, 18, 19. For women, it can be a little bit more than that.
00:45:56
Speaker
We have so many, so many flaws in the science when it comes to women. So for me, the room temperatures is relatively high, but for me it's cold. So it's, it's around 19 and a half degrees Celsius to 20 degrees. so Um, but I, I swear by these pajamas.
00:46:15
Speaker
i I got these pajamas from a Swiss brand. They're Swiss and Swedish. They're called Dags Majan. And they are just incredible. they, On the website, you'll see they say they're the most comfortable pajamas in the world. And of course, when somebody says something like that, I'm very, very critical. I'm like, okay, I've got to see this for myself. So I got in touch with be the founder of the company. At the time I was a chief science officer at a sleep app. So we were always looking for people to partner with.
00:46:44
Speaker
And um I got in touch with them. They sent me a pair. These pajamas, they cost around 200
Integrating Social Activities
00:46:51
Speaker
pounds. so on the on the expensive end of things and i definitely wouldn't have um wouldn't have bought them just because because i'm i don't really wear pajamas but i was just looking for products sleep products anything anything new anything innovative and also i trust the swiss i'm swiss myself so yeah if if they say they're the best pajamas in the world then there's something there and i tried them and
00:47:17
Speaker
They are my favorite pajamas in the entire world. They are my partner's least favorite thing that I own because once they're on, they don't come off. ah They are so... like, oh, I see where tonight's going. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's like, oh, I'll just... Well, yeah, I'll see you later.
00:47:37
Speaker
They're so comfortable and I sleep so well. They have different materials. One is to keep you um at a level temperature. So this is, you know, if you get too hot or too cold, it just regulates your temperature and it absorbs any, any sweat that you have in a way where the material is not wet. You just feel whi like it's just perfect.
00:47:57
Speaker
They also have ones for to to keep you warm, ones to keep you cool. And then they brought out these new ones. And by now I've bought all of them with with my own money because I'm just so convinced by these.
00:48:11
Speaker
i I bought the new ones, which are supposed to help with your um they're supposed to help after exercise. two um I don't actually know what they what say that they do. Like on recovery or something?
00:48:26
Speaker
So they're they're pajamas that help you with muscle recovery. um Yeah. I mean, I can see it, right? they They're infusing micro ions, yeah all sorts of stuff, copper in yeah threads. So I can definitely see it.
00:48:41
Speaker
Wow. Yeah. I got to check these out. I mean, I'm the pajama guy. I wear Lulu shorts and that's going to Yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah and and it But it just changes everything. it's It's been very carefully crafted. The way that the seams are, they're not on any points were of pressure where you're lying down.
00:48:59
Speaker
So everything has been considered. They they really... I mean, they i've I've slept like a baby ever since I had those and I recommend them to all my friends. My my mom has two pairs, her best friends have pairs.
00:49:12
Speaker
ah So those are really great. I also have a tempore mattress, which has helped me tremendously because I've always had back pains and and back problems. And there's just nothing like sleeping on an orthopedic mattress.
00:49:26
Speaker
If you're able to get your hands on something like that, it's incredibly useful. You touched on in a couple different venues. So, right, like part of the the gratitude practice at night with your partner is that social connection piece you talked about with the work you do, the balancing scaled tech and apps with in-person workshops on the purpose of being close to the human and the impact at an individual level.
00:49:53
Speaker
How do you think about, i mean, and maybe even with your fitness, right? Like, I don't know if you train with other people, if you have a group that you compete with, like if it's a social fitness area with the sleep and having kind of the structure and and the routine, but also, hey you know, there times in life that it's worth it to, we need to balance that social connection side. Like I i can't just sit in my room all the time or whatever it is.
00:50:19
Speaker
How do you think about incorporating that into your life? I think what you've said here has definitely made me think because I do have a very regimented schedule or conditions that I know that I stick to in all aspects of my life, but perhaps not so much the social part of it.
00:50:37
Speaker
That is something that just... happens when it happens. And it's also very dependent on my mood. Whereas everything else, I don't allow my mood to impact that.
00:50:48
Speaker
I will go to the gym and I will eat my meals regardless of how I feel. um And that social connection is is something that i I like to pick and choose. However,
00:50:59
Speaker
We have a very good group of friends who we go out for walks with. And I think a lot of the social connection that has been the most valuable to me has been around having friends with pets and okay and and taking care of our pets together or going for long walks or um organizing days out to different parks across London, but then also outside of London and organizing days where we get to spend time in nature with our pets, ah walking, walking,
00:51:27
Speaker
um And, and yeah, it's it's honestly, it's the, it's what I look forward to the most at the end of the day. Even today, we're, we're about to go to a park that we've never been to before. ah wonder if there are any pet dating apps. Like that seems like a pretty cool concept of you get to a certain age in life, right? When you're in school, you're just meeting other students. So you're around at work, but now we're going a lot of people from at work. So you're not necessarily connecting with people at work.
00:51:53
Speaker
And so I'm in the stage where so many of my friends, they have kids my daughter's age. I meet them at birthday parties whatever. i'm like, okay, cool. Let's be friends. And that's how we do it. But with pets, they're not going to school. Maybe you could have doggy daycare and like you use across each other, but they're not doing birthday parties necessarily. But if you had this dating app, like, like a Rover for the pups, like, Hey, want to go out. I got like 90 minutes and we'll do this walk with the dogs or play at this, this park.
00:52:18
Speaker
Uh, it seems like, uh, because I think there are dating apps that are directed at like dog people versus cat people, but I don't think there is anyone that makes use of let's go for a walk as a date with our, with our, with our pets. And I think that would,
00:52:34
Speaker
I mean, if I had had that years ago, then i definitely would have used that. Yeah. and And what I mean with like the dog dating app or the the the pet dating app isn't, isn't for the people, right? Cause it's for the dogs dating. Cause it's like, Hey, the people are just there to kind of hang out. So it's like for the pets, it's a quote date, but it's us just hanging out. Like I'm not looking for a relationship. I'm just looking for friendship.
00:52:56
Speaker
Yeah. Like my dog needs somebody
Essentials for Wellbeing
00:52:58
Speaker
to play with. Actually, that's very useful because when our friends with the dogs aren't here, then I feel like Luna, our our dog is, I'm always looking, i'm I'm looking out for her. I'm like, who can you speak to today? Yeah.
00:53:11
Speaker
Well, so if any listener is looking for a new app idea, like I think this, this one has legs, maybe four legs. So ah go take it and run with it. This has been so much fun. I, again, we have stuck on the first pillar, the mindset and and all that and for hours. and And I would absolutely love it.
00:53:29
Speaker
Is there anything else you want to share that maybe I missed that you think is really important to, this life you've crafted of vitality, of vibrancy, of the energy that you take to to the world every single day?
00:53:45
Speaker
and think there was there was something that we were talking about before, which i which I thought was people don't realize. um And you were saying how, you know, going and and doing exercise, going to the gym in the morning and then sitting on your computer the rest of the day actually not as good as if you're just moving your body all day. And it's the same with the mindfulness, having that practice and sitting down for 10 minutes, but then being completely mindless in your everyday life is also good.
00:54:16
Speaker
the the like the best way to to go about these things. And it's really about not taking time out of your day necessarily, but implementing them into your day. And I thought that was a really powerful point.
00:54:28
Speaker
ah There's also some studies that look at how the way that you relate to the exercise that you're doing changes the way that your body is metabolizing things or or expending energy. So there was a study with, um, i think they were nurses at a hospital they they They work long hours, right? you You know what the schedules are like, especially in recent years.
00:54:54
Speaker
they They do walk around a lot. They cover a lot of distance, walking from one ward to the next and checking up on people and going up the stairs and down the stairs.
00:55:05
Speaker
And I remember the study talking about them educating half of these nurses about looking at how they're moving and understanding that they are exercising yeah versus the others who still were in the mindset that they're not exercising because they're at work and how that changed so much about their bodies and their body composition and, and, and absolutely everything. So,
00:55:31
Speaker
It's really about noticing the things that you're doing, being mindful of them and also appreciating yourself for for doing them and and noticing that even if you're sitting or you're not taking the time to exercise, if you're walking your dog, that is exercise. Those are good things.
00:55:46
Speaker
Now we've covered a lot of ground, right? Like there's so many components that go into this. If you were having to pull back and say, Hey, look, I, these are my must-haves on each of the pillars. Like this is what I would need first and foremost to tick my box for each of the five pillars to have this vibrant life.
00:56:05
Speaker
What would those be like for fitness? What is the one thing you're like, I really would need this. think for fitness, a massage or a Theragun. I love my Theragun and I love it if i can' if i if I don't have the time to go out and get a massage. But it just, yeah, I wouldn't be able to live without that. Okay. How about nutrition?
00:56:26
Speaker
Is it the protein powder? Nutrition. Because of my diet and because of a lot of the food allergies that I have and um wanting to stick to certain goals, i it would it would have to be my my protein powder, the clean, lean, vegan protein.
00:56:41
Speaker
Clean, lean, vegan protein. It's so good. um Yeah. Pretty sure I know for sleep. The dags, majan, the pajamas. yeah they're They're incredible. If you can get your hands on them, absolutely do.
00:56:56
Speaker
Especially, and and I think for for my mom, what was interesting is she was going through menopause. And so it was the first time that she was experiencing hot flashes. And typically she would always be very cold when she slept. So at first we got her the one to keep her warm. And then when she was going through menopause, we We found a solution because there was just another pajama and then ah another material. so And how about mindset? And this may be less for yours because you've you've gotten to the stage where it's baked into your day. But for someone that's saying, hey, foundationally, I need to get started on this journey. like
00:57:27
Speaker
Whether it was journaling, it's one of the apps that you were the scientific or medical advisor for, you know whatever it is. Where would that be, that one starting point? I would say gratitude um because gratitude is so powerful and you don't have to sit and journal two pages or know exactly which journal prompts you should reflect on. It's it's as simple as saying three things that you're grateful for.
00:57:52
Speaker
noting them down or saying them out loud to somebody, especially sharing them with somebody can can can be a really beautiful thing. But if you look out for things to be grateful for, you will start to rewire your brain to look out for more things in your life to be grateful for. And this was so foundational for so many people that I worked with when we were developing these apps.
00:58:13
Speaker
who in the beginning, they said, well, you know, I, there's nothing for me to be grateful for. It was in the middle of the pandemic. I've lost a parent. I'm isolated. i don't have anything to be grateful for.
00:58:26
Speaker
and if you feel that way, there's always something and it can be, it can be tiny. It can be having a roof over your head. It can be that first sip of coffee in the morning, start small and If you are religious with this practice, you will you will find things to be grateful for.
00:58:47
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, it reframes it. And the one thing in my gratitude practice I've changed ah more recently too, is not being able to repeat every day has to be totally brand new things, which turns on that noticing and and that search and and really. yeah So I like that. And then how about social connection and purpose? So it sounds like this is one that maybe you haven't has always been as deliberate with.
00:59:11
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. But I would say going for walks with people getting outside the in nature, um even if it's alone at first or with your pet, reconnecting to yourself is is also, you know, you you also need to nurture that relationship with yourself, but going outside in nature, going for walks and having a pet, ah what happening having a pet is, has been, I mean, my, my dog is, I,
00:59:41
Speaker
I couldn't live without her. She's, she's just the best. She's also a very, she's also a source of mindfulness for me because when she wants to, to play, when she grabs my attention, I'm in the middle of something and she's, she's jumping up at me or she's looking at me or she's wagging her tail. It just reminds me to be in the moment because dogs are in the moment and and just to play and just to take some
Social Engagement and Podcast Conclusion
01:00:01
Speaker
time out. What's the worst that's going to happen? You know, take five minutes off of your computer. The dog's going happy. You're going to be happier. It's yeah.
01:00:09
Speaker
Nothing bad's going to happen. That is actually one point in, I will wrap this at some point, I promise. But ah when you were talking about your mood, like all the other four pillars, you're saying, hey, I don't let my mood dictate what I there.
01:00:22
Speaker
ah But with the social connection, i do. And, you know, I think we assume one direction. Oh, if I'm in bad mood, it's not time to socialize. But it's The social connection can actually and typically does actually change our mood, right? The the studies of people on trains or planes of, no, I would never want to talk to the stranger sitting next to me.
01:00:39
Speaker
But when you're forced to do it, 100% of people are like, oh, yeah, that was so much better. yeah We think our mood should dictate it, but it's actually other the other Go do that and your mood, it'll turn it But I think it's what's difficult about this is it it really also depends on the types of relationships that you've had, because for, for me, what I do notice is if I'm in a, in a bad mood and I'm, and I go to see somebody and they notice that, or they notice that there's something off, they could be reactive. I see.
01:01:10
Speaker
yeah Right. And they could, and that could just spiral. i'm not saying, you know, it's, it's a, it's an awful thing, but I guess the first part is surround yourself with people who are very self-aware as well, or who are on that similar journey.
01:01:22
Speaker
For example, with my partner, I can be in a bad mood and he comes into the room and i'm like, I really don't want to hang out. But yeah, he'll just say one thing and and it just lifts the mood for both of them. And it's just never an issue. There's never an argument. There's never you know anybody taking something personally.
01:01:37
Speaker
But also, he allows me to to feel what I'm feeling. He's like, okay, you've had a stressful day. You've had a long day. You just want to be a bit more subdued. And that's absolutely fine. And I think that's also important, having somebody who understands that Your mood fluctuates and that's not a bad thing. There's so much that can be learned from what we perceive as negative or low mood. It it could be an opportunity for your body to tell you something or an an insight. so And Sophie, I've really, really enjoyed this.
01:02:07
Speaker
ah Again, could could go on for hours. ah Is there anyone you think... that we should be speaking with on the show? Anyone you know or or work with you say, hey, they would be really good for this because warm intros always help the podcast, of course.
01:02:21
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. There are people that i follow. I don't know them in person, but I feel like they could be really incredible for the podcast, Dr. Andrea Love.
01:02:33
Speaker
If you've heard of her, she's an immunologist. She looks at a lot of the the science that's out there with wellness and debunks a lot of things. And she she campaigns a lot against and chemophobia and you know people who fear-mongering about certain things or or like wellness quacks where people are doing like coffee enemas and stuff like that.
01:02:55
Speaker
So she's very cool. What do you think about coffee enemas anyway? I don't know if I know anything about coffee enemas. It's not the the world I'm in. Yeah. You could very easily get there. There are people because the lines are quite blurred, but yeah, there are people doing coffee enemas. so Yeah. If you don't know what it is, please don't look into it. to Don't start going down that route. It'll ruin your mornings for you. I will i will not do that then.
01:03:20
Speaker
um But if i if I think of anybody else, I'll i'll definitely send something through. um okay I really appreciate Thank you so much for today. Thank you for your story and your journey and everything you've shared.
01:03:31
Speaker
Thank you so much for setting this up. Yeah. Have a good one. Thank you for joining us on today's episode of the Home of Healthspan podcast. And remember, you can always find the products, practices, and routines mentioned by today's guests, as well as many other healthspan role models on Alively.com.
01:03:48
Speaker
Enjoy a lively day.