Change Your Brain Every Day - Can Healing Your Brain Boost Your Creativity? - Pt. 2 with Michael Peterson and Colonel Jill Chambers

Episode Date: August 14, 2018

When country music star Michael Peterson decided to improve his brain health after suffering a traumatic brain injury, he was concerned about one very important possible side effect: Would fixing his brain ruin his creativity? In part 2 of a series on Brain Warriors' Michael Peterson and Jill Chambers, Michael shares the story of what happened to his creativity during brain recuperation with Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen.

Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. I'm Dr. Daniel Amen. And I'm Tana Amen. Here we teach you how to win the fight for your brain to defeat anxiety, depression, memory loss, ADHD, and addictions. The Brain Warriors Way podcast is brought to you by Amen Clinics, where we've transformed lives for three decades using brain spec imaging to better target treatment and natural ways to heal the brain. For more information, visit amenclinics.com.

The Brain Warriors Way podcast is also brought to you by BrainMD, where we produce the highest quality nutraceutical products to support the health of your brain and body. For more information, visit brainmdhealth.com. Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. So welcome back. In this segment, we're going to talk about how all of these brain changes have affected creativity for Michael with his music, also their relationship together. So for Michael and Jill, what happens when the brain changes? How do relationships become affected? You know, one of the obvious ways I think is I have more forethought now as part of my sort of

daily function. You know, I'm not as impulsive as I was probably so because because of that I'm probably more balanced to be around you know I think that that that's that's that's probably contributes to just a healthy relationship whoever you were so I just have that extra five to ten seconds where I'll pause before I do something. Wow. I thought maybe it would make me less fun, but it's not. It's actually, I think it's made us more healthy. Yeah. He's, he is so thoughtful. Here's a super great example.

We just got back from Cabo, love the vacation, but the waves out there were ridiculous and actually terribly dangerous. We actually had an opportunity to experience how dangerous they were unexpectedly just walking on the beach. It just swooped us down and put us out. But we were okay. But it was quite an experience. I mean, he goes down. He takes me with him.

He's holding my hand because he's not going to let go. We get swept out. We get swept back in. We must have looked like tumbleweeds. It was crazy. And I try and stand up, and he couldn't get up, and he pulled me back down. And finally a guy on shore came around and scooped me up. So about four or five days later,

you know, we laughed about the experience, sands everywhere, blah, blah. But about five days later, we're walking along the beach, the tide was out. So we were fine. And we were way up against the wall. And Michael said to me, on a scale from one to 10, what is your anxiety level? Actually, before that, I said, hey, I scale from one to ten what is your anxiety actually before before that I said hey I think I want to go out in those waves because they were massive waves like 10 and 15 foot waves and it looks so fun I thought man that looks so fun and then she's like squeezing my hand like you know and then and then I said on a scale of one to ten like how how uh resistant are you to me going out in the waves? And she

said 11. And let's say prior to my brain scan and trying to get into this place in my life, I probably wouldn't have asked. I would have let her head go and I would have said, I'm going out in the water. Right. Right. That's the difference. You know, I was able to pause and say, Hey, how does that feel to you? And she said, doesn't feel good. And I thought, you know, we didn't come here to be stressed. Let's just keep walking down the beach. That's what makes you a better husband. Yeah.

So I often, when I lecture, I go, how many of you are married? And, you know, half the audience will raise their hand. And I'll go, is it helpful for you to say everything you think in your marriage? And they laugh because of course it's not helpful, but just getting those couple of extra seconds to go, will this help me? Because knowing you, I know you guys have the same goal in your marriage that we have, which is to have a kind, caring, loving, supportive, passionate relationship, always my goal, but I don't always feel like that. And so-

You don't? Do I- What? Do I say things that help me or hurt me? And if you're married to someone whose brain works too hard- Like mine. They, once you say a hurtful thing they don't think about it once you only said it once they think about it like

7 000 times and you could be in trouble for like decades we're never going to let it go this this is so helpful let's go to work and i know michael has a new album out it's actually one of the reasons i wanted to do this podcast uh do you think because you sort of brought it up if my brain is better am i going to be as fun which could also mean am i going to be as creative? Because a lot of my artists that I've seen, they worry. It's like, oh, if I treat their ADD or I treat their traumatic brain injury, will I be as good of an artist? So what do you think with your new album that is more brain healthy? Well, I think, you know, first of all, you hit it right on the head.

As a creative person, especially I really made my living as a songwriter, who then also was an artist. But the songwriting thing of it, you think about this, as a songwriter, your job is to sit in a room, to come into a room, to sit there and look at a blank piece of paper and just create. So everything in my professional career for 25 years was all about being impulsive. So it's not only that I was sort of, my brain was wired to be pretty impulsive. My choice for my career and then the feedback that you got continually approved that behavior. Man, if you were super impulsive, you could be so creative.

So basically, I was being affirmed all the time for being super impulsive. I mean, that's like, that's my career, right? So then I meet Jill and it's like, she's like, Miss, you know, the queen of forethought, you know? And, and so, you know, this is, this has created a bit of a challenge for us. So, so as we described in ways we described a few moments ago, that, that has gotten better as I have that extra 15 seconds. But I look back now on many, many times when I was in the songwriting session and I would get to the point where I couldn't think straight and I would literally have to say to the guys it was sort of a joke like there's a couple guys I wrote with all the time and and it would sort of got to be a joke it'd be like okay we need a line okay Michael leave the room so you can go find the line I

would literally have to leave the room because if there was any talking or any other people making noise, I couldn't think. I would have to literally leave the room, and 15 minutes later, I'd come back and I'd go, I got the line. You know, whether I did or didn't isn't the point, but the point was that I couldn't think straight. Yeah. Right?

The moments that I needed most to. And I can say unequivocally that that has changed for me. I feel more focused. I feel instead of sort of being at a traffic light where you have your foot on the gas pedal all the way to the floor and your foot on the brake at the same time, like you're just revving,

even when you're supposed to be stopped. He's shaking now. You know, I don't feel that way anymore. And songwriting has become better. So I want to push back for one second on the, what I heard an aunt, an automatic negative thought because for the people listening, because this idea that if I get rid of my ADD I won't be as creative and here's why I want to push back on it we have a

budding songwriter at home she's 14 almost 15 and as much as she wants to be a musician and she's working on it she likes to sing I'm her true gift is songwriting even her coaches are always like no your true gift is writing it's just comes naturally to her she's the opposite of ADD. She's almost OCD. She's like, worry, worry, worry, anxious. She's the incredibly opposite of ADD. And her fear in us balancing her brain, so she's not so OCD, is that she's afraid she will lose her gift. So it's an ant. Do you see what I'm saying? She was like so worried about taking anything to balance that. Because every time I would say something like, you know, you'll be less anxious and you'll be

more settled. The reason I'm successful is because I'm so anxious. Like I just, do you see what I'm saying? It's a little bit of an ant. And once we finally settled her brain, she actually was able to like get into a groove better. So I want people to hear that who are listening. Because, you know, as a creative person, you're trying to essentially, your creations have an intended outcome, and that is to deliver an emotional experience for others. Right. Okay. So for me, I have often wondered, wow, if I get so happy, what am I going to have to pull from that's going to be – Yeah, that makes sense. Besides happiness.

So it's a natural thing to worry about that. And what I've discovered is I have – those memories of emotional experiences in my life are so deeply rooted that I don't have to relive them to write about them. Well, and there's a thing called empathy. Like you can empathize with other people and what they've gone through. I mean, I wasn't in 9-11, but I still can't watch it without crying and getting goosebumps. That's empathy. You know what I mean?

You can still pull from what other people experience. Although I have a question, and maybe this is naive, so Michael, you're going to have to help me. With country music, we often think of country music as going to people's pain in life, you know, losing your wife, your dog, your car, your house. Yeah, if you play it backwards, you get back your truck, your dog, and your wife.

But yours is actually pretty positive a lot of times. But if you think of From Here to Eternity or Drink, Swear, and Lie, it's so positive. It's so beautiful that great music doesn't have to always tap into pain. But, you know, part of what makes art work is tension. Yeah, no, it does. Conflict. There's tension and there's release.

So, you know, country music, by and large, tells stories. Yeah. So you have a story arc. So there's a song of mine called You Know You're in Trouble When the Bartender Cries. That's good. You know, about a guy who... It's actually funny.

But it's funny at the same time so there's this this release in all of this creativity and I and I think you know for any artists or any creatives who are out there watching and you're wondering if you don't feel it if you don't feel the pain so deeply anymore will you still be able to tap that creatively and I just want to say for me the answer has been yes and I think it's worth it's worth taking the chance because here's the truth if you find that it's not working for you your creative life has gone into the shambles you can always start drinking smoking and taking bad care

of yourself you can go backwards that's what i tell people i'm like if it doesn't work we can still be friends you can go back to doing what you're doing and that's right one of the things i want to point out i don't know if this is true for you but once we balance chloe's brain who's the opposite who was afraid of losing her gift, she was really anxious and OCD, she started sleeping better. And when she started sleeping better, she actually became more creative. And she was like, oh, I never thought of that. I'm like, even though we tried to tell you for two years, but you see what I'm saying? She started sleeping better.

And the sleep actually gave her more of a gift. Can you talk about your new album? I would love for people who are listening to know about it, download it, get it. Talk about, and what album number is this for you? This is my 18th album in my career, and the album commemorates the 20th anniversary of my biggest selling record on Warner Brothers in 1997. Super. We had three number one hits, five top 20 singles, sold a million albums.

It was a real phenomenal time in my life. So the new album we thought was fun to commemorate 20 years later, the anniversary of that. So there's four new recordings of my biggest hits. So Drink, Swear, Steal and Lie, From to Eternity, Two Days to Be True, and You Know When the Bar, Trouble When the Bartender Cries. But then there's also seven other iconic country classics because, you know, people love great songs. And sometimes when it's been 20 years, people may not remember me, but they love classic country music. So we decided to put out, you know, my favorite country songs on there. So great songs like Wichita Lineman, years people may not remember me but they love classic country music so we decided to put out

you know my favorite country songs on there so great songs like wichita lineman uh friends in low places songs that don't normally get covered by other artists uh i performed those songs 400 times in a show in branson over the last couple of years so i was very comfortable with them and and we felt as though you know this would be a wonderful album so the album looks like this oh awesome and the album called square and you can get it on uh itunes you can download it on amazon you can buy physical copies at 37records.com oh that's funny the number seven you can stream it on spotify you can stream it on Pandora. I mean, you basically can access this album just about any way. So fun news about the album. We've had three singles off the album in Europe. There's a really a robust country music community in Europe. And they have a real

music chart over there. It's called the Hot Disc Chart. And the first single went to number two for two weeks. The second single went to number one for six weeks. And the current single went to number two for two weeks. The second single went to number one for six weeks on their top 40. And the current single, which is Wichita Linemen, which just came out this last week, debuted. It's the highest debuting single of my career. Debuted number three in the top 40, its first week on the chart. So we're having some real success over there. And many people have said it's my best album that I've ever made.

They just love it. So one of the things I like about country music and certainly your songs, I like country music and I really loved, you know, I loved those songs from the 90s, still love them. It's timeless. It really is one of the, it's, one thing I like to talk about with my daughter is some of her music today. It's not that I don't, I don't mind some of her music today. What I don't like about some of daughter is some of her music today. It's not that I don't mind some of her music today.

What I don't like about some of it is it's just freaking boring and they're one-hit wonder songs that are going to disappear. But what I like about country music is it's timeless. So I really love those songs that you still play today and they're amazing. So we should talk about what music does to the brain. And learning how to play music actually activates a number of really important circuits in the brain, particularly the cerebellum, which is the processor part of the brain, along with your temporal lobe. So it can actually help with creativity and learning. we did a study on teenagers looking at the impact of music on memory and so we had them play a memory game while they listen to classical music rock heavy metal and country and they all did

better when they listened to classical music i mean mean, there's like no question about it. There's no way I would do better on classical music. The heavy metal, they all like became disorganized. One of the kids took the cards we were using, just threw them up in the air. I'm convinced if I listened to Def Leppard, I would do better. But country music was actually the second best that kids performed on. Yeah. I could see that.

It was actually really interesting. Yeah. So music matters. It can increase your joy. Now, music also is heavily connected with memory. Right. So if you got divorced from someone and your favorite song starts playing even 10 years later you might start breaking out crying because music touches the emotional part of your

brain so as it's the emotional part of the songwriter it's also and and i love what you said michael i wrote that down that that creativity is to deliver an emotional experience for others. I agree with that. It's funny, I was telling that to Chloe the other day. We were listening to an Alan Jackson song on the 4th of July, and it just made me cry because it reminded me of 9-11. And I'm like, you know, that is the beauty. That's why musicians get paid what they get paid, because none of us could put into words what we were thinking and feeling. None of us knew what we were. We just had all this emotion swirling and like, it was so hard to process. But a great musician puts into words what you're

thinking and feeling. A great musician can tap into those feelings, those thoughts, those, because you're not even sure sometimes. But you when someone else taps into that it just it can make you cry it can make you laugh it can make you feel joy and that is that's an amazing gift it's an amazing gift thank you for sharing that it's important information Daniel and you know one thing that I've really appreciated about you and Janet is that you don't just talk about these things you actually do something about it. And you created an album that has been a top seller on iTunes. Will you talk about that for me?

So, you know, as I've been researching this over the last, goodness, 20 some years, I realized music changes your brain. And it can change your brain in a really negative way uh if you're listening to hateful music or it can actually change your brain in a really positive way and so when we did brain fit our show we created a brain warriors way album and i think it spent two weeks on billboard's new age chart but when i did memory rescue we created music for bright minds with pieces for creativity and focus and relaxation and sleep um i just checked 27 weeks on billboards top 10 um it's just been crazy because it works too it's not just because people like the music

it's actually impacting people. Drink, swear and lie. You want to pick it up now. Thank you so much, Michael and Jill. We're just so grateful to have you on the program with us. Stay with us. And we're going to talk about Michael's work along how he integrated our work for high school students. Stay with us. Use the code podcast10 to get a 10% discount on a full evaluation at amenclinics.com or on our supplements at brainmdhealth.com. Thank you for listening to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. Go to iTunes and leave a review and you'll automatically be entered into a drawing to get a free signed copy of the Brain Warriors Way and the Brain Warriors Way cookbook we give away every month.