Change Your Brain Every Day - Is Your Behavior Set To Get You What You Want in 2019?

Episode Date: January 7, 2019

The new year is already upon us, and chances are, you’ve already done some thinking about what you want for yourself in 2019. But is your behavior going to get you what you want? In this episode of The Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast, Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen discuss how taking a deep dive into your own intention, purpose, and commitment is key to achieving personal success this year and beyond.

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. Welcome, everyone. Happy New Year to you. And we are just so excited that you're with us as we say goodbye to 2018. All sorts of wonderful things happen. And some challenging things. Some challenging things happen. And I'm sure that's true in your life. And you're looking forward to a new year and then next year, a new decade. So it starts with a healthy brain. Nobody talks about that. The reason this is called the Brain Warriors Way podcast is because there's just no question,

you're in a war for the health of your brain. When I heard that our nieces, middle school, they have Pizza Hut days and they have McDonald's days and In-N-Out days. I'm like, they have illness days and we just have to be more thoughtful. Yeah, you know, talking about brain warrior's way, a thought just occurred to me. So I just got my second degree black belt in Kempo, which is really fun. And we have already talked about that. But, you know, it took 10 years, right? It didn't happen overnight. But it wasn't the second degree black belt that I had in mind when I started. It wasn't the 10-year mark that I was thinking about, right? It wasn't the, how long is it going to take me to get to that point? I was just thinking about the journey. I was thinking about what I was learning

all along, what I was, you know, enjoying the process all along. But my point is, is it wasn't an overnight thing. This is something you're, you commit to. That's one of the reasons we named it that. It's, it's something that is, you can do for the rest of your life that we want you to do for the rest of your life that you, but you to do for the rest of your life. But you want to be focused on the journey, not on the destination as much. I mean, yeah, the destination is awesome. But you want to be focused on the daily. Well, the destination for all of us is death. Really?

I just want to put it off. In a New Year's podcast, you really just had to. No. Do you see what I live with? Do you see what I live with? Do you see what I live with? You have to like take it to where all going sooner or later. Okay. And if you're married to you,

you have to behave yourself. It's later because, because I adore you and I'm happy living with you and you make me happy. I don't want to be without you. But if I have the long-term goal in mind, and we've talked about this before, that living with the end in mind is so important because then you begin to live each day as if it matters.

Right. Does it have eternal value? So one of the things we do, and we're actually getting into a pretty good routine in the morning, we'll spend 20 minutes. I will make you your almond milk cappuccino. We have, yeah, this is our like morning routine is, you know, some people do it at night. We do it at night too, but we, but our thing is the morning.

We all sit together as a family and we talk about our day. Yeah. And it's like 20 minutes, but the last couple of weeks we've been talking about, so what were the really wonderful things and the challenges of 18? And what do we want for 19? And all you need to do is put it on your phone in the notes section so that you can always be revising it. And so you have a purpose. You have an intention. So it's not really a resolution.

Yeah, I don't like resolution. Because resolution, think about what we've done with resolutions. It's become such an overused word and people, every year they choose something that they, it's like a short-term goal that they do. For some people, the word resolution works okay. But for so many of us, it's become this thing where I'm going to lose 10 pounds. They have no idea why they want to lose 10 pounds. We want you to focus on the why. Okay, so why do you want to lose 10 pounds? What's the intention behind it?

If it's because you want to lose 10 pounds, so you just look cute for, you know, the... The wedding. The wedding or the whatever, you know, the spring, whatever, event coming up. It's not going to last. Like, we want you to really dig into the intention, dig into your why. You've got to be hooked into the why, into the intention in order for it to last. Now over the holidays, I had dinner with some of my family members and one who used to always look at me like I was crazy, you know, eating healthy and saying no to candy and cupcakes and donuts and all of those things.

And she was significantly overweight. It was clear to me she'd lost like 40 pounds. And I'm like, that's awesome. Why did you do that? She said, I don't want to get dementia. And I just, I was so good. She had a why. And so then it is easier to do the what,

you know, just losing 10 pounds. It's hard unless you know why. And then it's easy. Right. And for some of us, it's funny. People always say, Oh, you're so disciplined. You know, I'm, it's not that I'm disciplined, but I'm going to just share something with you. We all go through stages where it's more challenging. This last year was more challenging. For some reason, starting in April, after I had a hysterectomy, it just became a little more challenging. My energy wasn't the same. I didn't bounce back as fast. And then on top of that, stuff just started to stack like it does for a lot of you.

Now I never let go of, of everything I do. I still exercised, you know, I still followed at least, you know, 80 to 90% of my diet was, you know, what we always do, but I started to slip a little, right? I started to make excuses. I was just tired. I wasn't feeling right. We started eating out a lot, which even if you're eating at a quote unquote healthy place, you don't know what the ingredients are. So all of a sudden it just wasn't feeling quite like myself. My energy, my drive wasn't quite there. And I was doing the same things, but I had to push myself. My drive and motivation, my normal self wasn't me. And so something I just had to kind of keep pushing through stuff. I was like going through a slog.

And so I went and got my numbers checked. And lo and behold, they weren't as good as they normally are. So when people say, but that's, I know that about me. I was dealt a really bad genetic hand. But the good part about having that bad genetic hand, there is one upside to that. You always want to find an upside in everything, right? And every downside, you want to find an upside. That's why you want to watch Pollyanna. Okay.

Not 12 times. Not 12 times. Anyways, the upside and the downside. So for people who don't know what that meant, Pollyanna teaches people to play the glad game. Whatever situation you're in, what is there to be glad about? If you haven't watched it, rent it.

Okay. Pollyanna. But we don't need to watch it 12 times. If you live If you haven't watched it, rent it. Okay. But we don't need to watch it 12 times. If you live with him, you have to keep watching it. So anyways, the downside, the upside and the downside of having this bad genetic hand. The upside of the downside. Yeah, the upside of the downside of having this bad genetic hand, meaning that my numbers, like I'm insulin resistant. I have to be like super diligent, right? My cholesterol'm, like I'm insulin resistant. I always have, I have to be

like super diligent, right? My cholesterol tends to like creep up really fast. Like my numbers are not amazing unless I am like, I can't just be a brain warrior. I have to be a freaking food Nazi. So you're a brain warrior general. Yeah, I really am. So, um, cause you're that boss. I'm very extreme. Yeah. So, but I'm not extreme because I like it. I'm extreme because I have to be. And because I don't want to be sick for my family. Right. So when people think I'm so disciplined, that's the one upside. So I can only, I've got like that much wiggle room before stuff starts to go sideways. And so that's why when I got my numbers checked, you know, you have a lot

more wiggle room than others. Um, I have obesity in my family and I have the obesity gene, which is sort of irritating, but I'm not obese because I'm serious. Right. But the one really irritating thing is that you're well, I mean, it's so good for you and I'm glad because I get to keep you for a long time, but I'm like, if I do anything, my numbers shift to the negative. Your family, whatever it is, your stock, you are like bread, like the Energizer bunny. Your whole family is like, they just never get sick. They never quit. They just, they're like the healthiest people I've ever met in my life.

It's the craziest thing I've ever seen. All right. So how are we going to help people in the next two minutes set intentions? So if you go on BrainFit Life, and I'd love all of you to look at it, brainfitlife.com, there's an exercise. And I think it's like in all of my books, because I think everybody should do it all the time. It's called the one page miracle on one piece of paper on one computer form or

on the notes section of your phone, write down what do you want in your relationships, your work, your money, your physical, emotional, and spiritual health. And the reason I created it that way is because people get burned out when they become unbalanced. Right. And so relationships, work, money, health, physical, emotional, spiritual health.

What do you want? And that way, if you just get your eyes in front of that on a regular basis, I probably look at mine once a week, I'm always asking myself, does my behavior get me what I want? I love that, the one page miracle. The one thing I would do is add one sentence underneath the what I want is why do I want it? So that you're tied into the emotional part of that. Okay. So with relationships, I want a kind, caring, loving, supportive, passionate relationship with you. Why? Why? Because my life is so much better in so many ways when we do well. Right. And when we don't do well, which thankfully for us is rare it just makes me anxious and sad right and very and you know i know that you know being a psychiatrist

40 years ago i decided to be a psychiatrist isn't that crazy um i just see it's the one thing that gets people off you know that their mind is bad when their relationships are troubled. Yeah, it creates stress in everything. So working on your relationships is huge. And that's why it's on the top of the one-page miracle with your partner, with your kids, with your family, with your friends, your co-workers. What do you want? And then you ask yourself, does my behavior get me what I want? What do you want? And then you ask yourself, does my behavior get me what I want?

What do you want with work? Is your behavior getting you that as opposed to you're a victim of your job? What do you want with your money? Are you spending it in ways that are consistent with what you want? And health. I mean, really, the Brain Warriors Way is a health podcast. And what do you want and health you know i mean really the brain warrior's way is a health podcast and you know what do you want i want to live a long time with energy uh pain free um with a clear mind that takes work especially now that we know that aging does not do good things for your brain.

Right. And it doesn't like, it doesn't do good things for your face. Right? I mean, your skin falls off your face as you age, the same process happens in your brain, but it doesn't have to. So stay with us. We're going to talk more about intentions and how to start off this year as a passionate brain warrior. 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.