Change Your Brain Every Day - How the Karate Master Sustains his Victories - Pt. 3 with Senior Master Bob White

Episode Date: June 14, 2018

In the third and final episode on overcoming hardships with hall of fame karate Master Bob White, Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen discuss the strategies involved in sustaining the rewards won in life��s victories, such as your support group, and coach-ability.

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. And stay tuned for a special code for a discount to Amen Clinics for a full evaluation, as well as any of our supplements at brainmdhealth.com. So we are back with Senior master Bob White, my karate master, who I am so humbled and honored to call my master. It's just been a 10-year journey, almost 10 years, and it's just been so much fun. So in this episode, we've been talking about... And we've been talking about his

book, Life in Session, that you can get on Amazon or also bwkenpo.com, which you can learn more about Bob and his studio and the work he has. But it's an amazing book. My quotes on the cover gave me. It's awesome. Did you just say that, really? I did, yes. Okay, so you sound like you're in fifth grade when you said that anyways um that's

why you married me so we talked about the struggles the book is just brutally honest in the first episode we really talked about um things that surprised me i just had no idea about some of the things um and then you talked about overcoming we discussed that in the second episode this one we're going to talk about how you sustain and the cancer, what you went through with the cancer and how you sustain your sobriety. And I really want to honor someone special that's, you know, in the studio and in your life and just an amazing human being and that's Mrs. White. So I'm going to guess that she's a part of that. Is it okay for me to say that? Yeah, she's definitely a major part of my life, and for that I'm truly blessed. She's scary. She's tiny, tiny. And so I kept thinking to myself when

I first met this woman, what could she possibly, like how could she possibly be very tough? And then she will just scare the socks off of you when you see her fight. Yeah, she's very deceptive. Yeah, it's crazy. So talk to us about how you sustain all of this. Well, we talked a little bit earlier about who you spend your time with and what an influence they have on you. And, you know, there's nobody I spend more time with than my wife. And her influence in my life has just been tremendous a very strong christian lady they say that time exposes or promotes and i've known her now for right at 20 years and she just keeps being promoted she really is the finest person that i've ever met yeah she's amazing just there's no um nothing pretentious about her she's just iassuming but never shirks from a duty whatever it is whether

it is as a mother or she is a nurse at hogue hospital um i'm a huge fan of nurses oh yeah i believe that i think we both married well that she is a um a fantastic person fifth degree black belt does a great woman's self-defense program really is does. She'll be doing it next week in Ireland to help some people over there. And just, you know, we all have heroes and she's one of mine. She is. She really is amazing.

And I agree with you. So step one of sustaining is your support group. Right. It's you become like the people you hang out with. You make a great... More and more, it's about people are contagious. Yeah hang out you make a great more it's about people are contagious yeah and you make an amazing point in your book um you talk about how you really honor her but you also say she would never have been with me with the man you used to be and so you

really respect this person you look up to her but you're clear she would have never bought into your old lifestyle. Well, I realize I have to earn the right to be your husband, you know, and I have to, that's one of the things we talked about on conduct and doing that inventory is think about what I could have done differently. And then when I am wrong, I'll promptly admit it and apologize. That way there's no real lingering issue where there's resentment and all those things that could destroy friendships or relationships. So I think a really important point to, as far as the people you surround yourself with, if you are looking for your community, is people that you can look up to, that you respect, but who keep you honest and who keep you real.

She didn't care about your fame as much as, like, if you were going to be with her, she needed to be, like, you needed to hold yourself to a high standard. Correct. And that's really important. So when you're talking about sustainability, having people in your community who keep you real and keep you honest. Well, I mentioned in the book that line,

Jack Nicholson line about she makes you want to be a better person. And I think as a result, you know, it's a cliche, and I'm trying to sound corny, but in reality, it does. And friendships do too. You know, John Wooden says, you want good friends, be a good friend. So you have to maintain a standard of conduct that's honorable and that you feel you look like yourself when you look in the mirror. Otherwise, you're not worthy of having good friends

or not worthy of having a great relationship. So there's a manner in which you conduct yourself is who you are. I agree with that. So what else would you say? You mentioned service. Do you want to talk a little bit about what you guys do for Royal Family Kids Camp and why that helps?

Really what we get to do. I mean, it's been such a great thing. As I mentioned earlier, we prayed for God's guidance when we first started getting involved. You know, we threw this small tournament at the studio with the idea of raising $400 or $500. And the first year we raised $12,000. Wow. And then it just kept going. Now, as we mentioned, we're over a million dollars.

And that's just been a blessing. It's been beyond our wildest dreams. But we get an opportunity. My wife's the nurse at the camp and has been for over 10 years. When you get up there, you get an opportunity to see what an impact it has on these children and it makes you want to do more so these are children often who couldn't go to camp uh that the pastor who founded it was actually my youth pastor yeah you mentioned that and Diane. And so that connection was really special to me. But they have a heart for service as well and started these camps where people, where children can go, you know, from lower income families, they can go and they can have fun and they can learn about Jesus and, you know, just be a wonderful, supportive environment. But someone has to help Royal Family Kids Camp pay for everything they do.

And that's been on your heart. It is. I know we've been able to donate a scan. Oh, you guys have done tremendous. You know, it's been fun to be to the events. And if you want to learn more, you can look it up online. You know, just search for Royal Family Kids. They can go to your site and get involved.

Or just rfk.org. Yeah. And you can get some information on them. But they're a great group. They started in Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, and now there's over 200 around the world. In fact, we opened our own camp. We financed it in Chile.

Oh, that's great. And now they've got 13 or 14 camps down there. Oh, that's amazing. So it is. It's just tremendous. For it is in the giving that you receive. If you're really feeling bummed, go help somebody. I mean, I just can't say that more and more.

People who are socially isolated, they have a higher risk of Alzheimer's disease. They have a higher risk of depression. Their immune systems aren't good. I remember, I know we just lost Barbara Bush this year, but she went through a period of depression when her husband was CIA director because he could never talk to her and so their close relationship, they became more separate and

she got depressed, she realized that if she volunteered that that would be like Prozac for her. It would be a natural antidepressant. That makes perfect sense. And so getting outside of yourself can just be so healing, so important. So what part has your karate, I mean, it's been your life. So what part has it played in helping you? Because for a while, it was part of the world that was a little bit destructive, but you

turned that around. What part has it played in helping you with the sustainability? Well, service. When I teach a class, I feel I'm in service to help people. Go in the extra mile, take in a personal interest in your students. And what happens is in any relationship, there's trust. And the trust has to be maintained and never betrayed. Once the trust is betrayed, it's hard to get it back.

So you have to be consistent and be as honorable as you can with the full realization that we're just humans. We're going to make mistakes. But when we make the mistake, apologize and move on. So I like this. You said in the book, you said Ed Parker, who founded, who's the founder of the system that we use, once said that generally speaking, there are two types of people who take up karate, bullies who want to become better bullies and people who are afraid of the bullies.

That was me. I didn't like being, feeling weak or threatened. I wasn't, you say, I was an exception in that I was neither a bully nor afraid of bullies. So you had a very different reason for going into it. And karate is, I think, an amazing, it's just amazing. It has so many metaphors for life. It does.

So it's, I suggest it to so many people. Of course, don't get hit in the head. I know you always say that. Well, there's actually a study from Brazil, a brain imaging study, that showed people who engaged in martial arts had more gray matter in their brain. So those are brain cells. They actually had more cells. Now, it's really important not to get hit in the head because your brain is soft and your skull is hard and brain trauma causes all sorts of ridiculously bad things. But the

complex motor movements, and they're complex to get your yellow belt, which I think is as far as I got. So the complex motor movements, the cardiovascular training that's involved in it, the relationships, all of those are really great, as long as you don't get hit in the head. Yeah, exactly. Now, I remember talking to you, and we were over at your house for dinner, and we were talking about how you really felt that the training in martial arts would really help children develop their IQ. So many ADD kids, you know,

they can't concentrate in school, they're undisciplined, they're disrespectful. When they go and take karate with a sane master. So the master's really important. The studio makes the difference. The culture. The studio was really important. That's what my thesis was about.

Is their behavior gets better. When my oldest son was in first grade, we were living in Hawaii, and he's very white. And in Hawaii, most people don't know, white people are the minority. Yes. And he was called a howly and harassed and beaten up and gutted. And so we put him in a Japanese karate studio. And after about six months, all of that went away.

And he never assaulted anybody or he didn't become aggressive. But he walked differently. He had a different level of confidence. It was so good for him for the rest of his life. I've seen it throughout the years so many different times. It is transformation. And one of the things you talk about as well that I love is you mention how daily you practice practice surrender and I think that is just a really important point that you make well that it's a daily practice for you and there's peace in that

it really helped me dealing with the cancer I just realized I'm going to do what the doctors tell me to do on a daily basis and do all I can do and I'll get through this day and then I'll go when tomorrow comes so you know we'll deal with that at this time well when you've got a strong personality you're used to being physically fit and you're used to being I know for me it's really hard I want things to move at my pace they don't always and it's it's frustrating it's hard so trying to surrender daily is it is a practice it is and then so much reframing we talked about barbara earlier one year ago right at this time is when i started the radiation and the chemo for my second cancer

and you know i was dreading this but barbara put it in perspective well now the healing starts yeah so instead of that reframing it kind of helped me me maybe embrace the process a little bit more. Yeah, having good people take care of you makes a big difference. It does. It does. For the last three weeks, I've been the nurse. It's been great. It's been great. And I'd much rather be a doctor than a nurse, but I love being Tana's nurse.

Yeah, I understand. Yeah. We love to help the people we love. Yeah. So people, mindset, doing what the doctor says to do. So having doctors you trust. Service. It's so important.

Being coachable. Yeah. And listen, you know, you listen. Hopefully people, my students listen to me because I'm a professional at what I do and it would be foolish to not listen to the doctors that are professionals. They have an insight that we don't have. So true. I love it.

And just the amount of service that you guys do together is amazing. It's beautiful to watch. Oh, thank you. So we're so glad you're with us. Again, life in session. It's such an honor to have you senior master bob white story uh written with tom bleeker um i have the quote on the front life in session is the gripping story of a martial arts master i mean really a historic master it is an

inspiring book about character, determination, transformation, and overcoming hardships. Amazon.com, you can get that, or on Bob's website at bwkenpo.com. Stay with us with The Brain Warrior's Way. Thank you. Thank you for listening. 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

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