Change Your Brain Every Day - Healthy Holiday Gifts: Thinking Outside the Gift Box

Episode Date: December 2, 2019

When holiday season rolls around, most of us are tasked with the time-honored tradition of picking out gifts for our loved ones. Yet much of the time, the gifts we choose don’t promote the health of the recipient. In fact, usually the opposite is true. In this episode of The Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast, Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen give you some tips to think outside the box when it comes to your holiday shopping so you can give the gift of health and wellness.

Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. I'm Dr. Daniel Amen. And I'm Tana Amen. In our podcast, we provide you with the tools you need to become a warrior for the health of your brain and body. The Brain Warriors Way podcast is brought to you by Amen Clinics, where we have been transforming lives for 30 years using tools like brain spec imaging to personalize treatment to your 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 nutraceuticals to support the health of your brain and body. To learn more, go to brainmd.com. Welcome and happy holidays to all of you. You know, I always, I said this in the executive huddle I have every morning this morning when we were talking about gift giving. And I said,

I know someone either hates me or really doesn't know me if they give me caramel popcorn. Yeah. Or they just, yeah, they're buying gifts at a convenience and they're not really paying attention. So it really has nothing to do with them caring so much. So if you send us gifts, don't send us gifts that send us to heaven early. That during the holidays, it's really meant as a time of celebration. Right. But it is often a time for many people of chronic stress, financial worry, and worrying about what other people think of you. And I have repeated the rule a lot on this program, the 18-40-60 rule that says when you're 18, you worry about what everybody's thinking of you. When you're 40, you worry about what everybody's thinking of you. When you're 40, you don't give a damn what anybody thinks about you. And when you're 60,

you realize no one has been thinking about you at all. So true. I love that rule. And even if you have sort of a national presence like we do, and people recognize us when we go to the store, go to Whole Foods, and they look in your basket to go, do you really live the message, or are you getting Whole Food donuts? We live the message most of the time. But even if you're well-known, people are still not thinking about you. They're thinking about them. But I want us to talk, after you read the review, about brain-healthy gift-giving and some of your favorite gifts. Right.

Okay. So I have a review here. Awesome information. I'm a chiropractor who, by by profession looks for natural alternatives for my patients. With that being said, I'm not against medicine, but what I am against is the indiscriminate use of them. It's exactly what we say. That's funny. Thank you both for using alternative ways to help patients get healthier and to live the best life possible.

From Dr. Jerry Krukenberg. Thank you. And if they leave a review. Yes. That will enter them into a raffle to win one of your cookbooks. We just sent out four of them today. I love that. Yeah.

And so go to brainwarriorswaypodcast.com, leave a question, a comment, a review, and we'll enter you into a raffle. We are doing our part to keep you healthy. We want you to be healthy. And speaking of gifts, the Brain Warriors Way cookbook is an awesome gift because what you're giving is the gift of brain health or the Brain Warriors Way book or the Omni Diet that you wrote or Feel Better Fast, Make It Last or any of my books. So what have been some of your

favorite gifts? To receive or to give? Both. So when I'm giving a gift, I try to think about the person. So it's really funny. In our family, no one really cares that much about gifts. Although now I have a teenager, so cash is always good. But really, no one cares that much about gifts. It's been an interesting thing because it's not easy to just go out and buy a gift for somebody. It actually makes it challenging. But for me, I don't really like gifts.

It's not that I don't like them. I don't care that much about them. So for me, it's time. What I want is time. So I like going on trips or weekend trips or vacations with family. That's really what I love. I love even sitting and watching movies or whatever. But that's what I like to doations with family. That's really what I love. I love even sitting and watching movies or whatever, but that's what I like to do with the family.

You, it's personal touch, it's time, it's attention. You're very much a people person as well, so you're not really into it. Trying to buy you a gift is next to impossible. No. It's next to it. And I actually tell people what I like. My kids go, what do you want?

What do you want? I want the same thing all the time, which is I want pictures of my children and my grandchildren. But you can only give them so many pictures before it starts to feel just weird. Okay. Because every year we give you pictures. I don't want pictures of myself. I know. I want pictures with the babies.

But it's ridiculous. And with the grandbabies. I mean, we feel repetitive. Right. I want pictures with the babies and with the grandbabies. I mean, we feel repetitive. Right? So when you think of the person, you think they have everything. What they want is connection. Yeah. And so might be tickets to a basketball game.

Right. Or a play. I mean, it's very important. That's why I love the five love languages i love that book yeah so one of the things that i so here's a really good one if you don't have a lot of money okay so understanding that some people aren't gift people is a good thing to know um what i like to do is it for us it's actually a big deal because we have a big family i actually think of like putting the time in to get the house ready for the holidays. That's really an act of love.

It's really an act. It's an act of service and an act of love to your family. Cooking a big meal for the holidays. That's an act of service and an act of love. But making it to where our home is comfortable for everyone to come over. That doesn't require buying everyone a bunch of stuff. But it really is that thing. Like we want our family to feel welcome and, and come over.

And there are some people where cash is as much as it seems like it's not a good gift. It is a good gift. You know, I mean, even for teenagers, just a little bit of cash is it goes a long way, but really mostly for us, it's, it's, it's cooking the right foods. It's making the home comfortable. It's spending time with our family. Those are really the big things. And then sometimes we'll plan vacations and do things like that well and some of the things we have at brain md that i think are really great gifts are our three music albums so the brain warriors way music album it's wonderful or music for bright minds 45 weeks on Billboard's New Age chart. I like Bright Minds the best. I was their number six New Age artist of the year for last year.

Why are you looking at that? Because you're not a musician. It's just not fair. Life is just not fair sometimes. And then Feel Better Fast, make it 23 Weeks, which I love. We're beginning to think of a new one called Your Brain Is Listening. So music is a great gift. Books are a great gift.

So if you know a genre, like my dad really sort of lived through World War II. He was young, so he didn't have to go fight. But he likes books about World War II. He was young, so he didn't have to go fight, but he likes books about World War II. Right. I think books are great gifts. So books, clothes, depending on where you live. Healthy products are great gifts. Oh, that's a great gift. Because a lot of people don't want to start over and spend the money to start over. So it's getting them started on healthy products is a great thing. Yeah, you actually did that recently for a young person in our life. Yeah.

And he liked that. Yeah. And so you're investing in their health rather than investing in their illness. And so the music would make a great stocking stuffer. Another great stocking stuffer another great stocking stuffer now it's back in stock is brain and love bars it's our brain healthy chocolate bars and that's how i make um nutty buttercups and brain healthy protein so i was just reading an article this morning on pea protein is actually one of the most complete plant proteins of all the proteins and

that's in the brain i think we use pea and chia is what we use there so protein powder would make a great gift and the reason i like it is when the person you give it to you know that's going to last them a month or maybe longer. And they're thinking about you that whole time. So if they're sort of irritated with you, now they're less irritated with you. Especially if they have a New Year's resolution to get healthy, it gets them started. Brain Boost on the go would make a great stocking stuffer. There's so many different brain healthy gifts that people could think about. Now, as I think about my all-time favorite gift in my whole life, it's you. Because you're like my dream girl. So just waking up with you every

morning is a gift for me. Sometimes when you're irritated with me, the gift sort of is a little prickly. But no question, if I have to like a, what is the number one gift in my life? Clearly it's you, right? So it's what can you do to enhance your relationships? From a physical thing, one of my patients actually went to a fair and had a sculptor make a spec camera oh how funny with a penguin oh i know that's such a cute gift in the spec camera and you still have that with a penguin in a white coat standing next, reading the scan.

I know. So they actually thought about what's important to me. And you had another patient who's pretty well known write you a song about the brain. It was so great. I did. That was really, because it took time. It took thoughtfulness. Now I had a patient at OCD get me like 40 penguin things. I had this huge book, a huge box, and there were penguin ties and pens and statues. Oh, so funny. Snow globes and musical things.

Oh, so funny. So great. You have to love all the different things we see. It's so great. I needed to raise her medication. It makes life interesting. But it was fun. So what can you give that really requires a little bit of thought

that serves their health rather than hurts their health. Right, and maybe it's something that requires a little bit of your time but not your money if you don't have a lot of money. Can you make them, you know, can you take something healthy to eat to family function? Can you do something that just, you know, that's just thoughtful? A poem. Yeah.

So somebody that you help a lot um she wrote you a poem yeah my daughter does that i mean what is my daughter gonna buy me she doesn't there's nothing i first of all i don't really care that much about gifts but she tends to write me things and it's really special for me yeah because she's a good songwriter so what's the one thing you've learned from this podcast? Share it. Give us the gift of sharing it on your social media sites, hashtag Brain Warriors Way podcast, or write us a question, comment, or review and post it on brainwarriorswaypodcast.com. Stay with us. If you're enjoying the Brain Warriors Way podcast,

please don't forget to subscribe so you'll always know when there's a new episode. And while you're at it, feel free to give us a review or five-star rating as that helps others find the podcast. If you're considering coming to Amen Clinics or trying some of the brain healthy supplements from BrainMD, you can use the code PODCAST10 to get a 10% discount on a full evaluation at amenclinics.com or a 10% discount on all supplements at brainmdhealth.com. For more information, give us a call at 855-978-1363.