Change Your Brain Every Day - Sheep, Sheepdogs and Warrior’s

Episode Date: November 23, 2016

In this powerful episode Daniel and Tana share one of the signature stories from their book The Brain Warrior’s Way.  It is a story about how to develop the right mindset to never be a victim again of the forces trying to make you sick.

Hi, I'm Donnie Osmond, and welcome to The Brain Warrior's Way, hosted by my friends Daniel and Tana Amon. Now, in this podcast, you're going to learn that the war for your health is one between your ears. That's right. If you're ready to be sharper and have better memory, mood, energy, and focus, well then stay with us. Here are Daniel and Tana Amon.

Welcome back. So this is going to be one of our favorite podcasts in the Brain Warriors way. Chapter one actually starts with, are you a wolf, a sheep, or a sheepdog? This is a super important concept, as you will see why so we want you to ask yourself right now are you a sheep or a sheepdog so we're assuming many of you are not wolves if you're listening to us you're probably not a wolf take advantage of the weak target the sick and but a lot of food companies are. And as brain warriors, we want you to be armed, prepared, and aware. Right. So we already said it's a war.

This is a war for your health. There are food companies that are making money off of you getting sick. They just don't care if you get sick. It's about them making money. It's about their bottom line. There are news companies that are benefiting from your stress. So you have to be very aware and protective of not only yourself, but your loved ones. So hence the question, are you a sheep or a sheepdog?

So let's talk about sheep for a minute. Sheep are flocking animals. They go with the herd. They follow. They just follow other sheep. They'll follow them right off a cliff. They're easily- Well, actually in 2005 in Turkey, a sheep jumped off a cliff. Right. Then 1,500 other sheep followed.

Which is very typical. And killed nearly 500 of them. The other sheep landed on the dead sheep. Right. And so they didn't die. But it reminded me of when i was a young child and i would come home and tell my dad well can i do this no well my friends are doing this and he's like well if your friends are going to go jump off a bridge are you going to go with them right your dad's a very powerful successful man who's made it the hard way and he thinks for himself so definitely not a sheep definitely so sheep are easily led and they're annoyed by sheepdog and if you understand why it's because there's nothing inherently wrong with sheep it's just that they go with the herd and they don't

really want to be bothered and sheepdogs on the other hand they have these like pointy teeth pointy noses they look a lot like wolves to the sheep i mean they have this gift of aggression and they protect their flocks. So they can fight with a wolf and they'd prefer not to, but they will. They won't hesitate. So they can annoy sheep because they remind sheep that danger is nearby. So how do you recognize sheep? They don't think for themselves. They go along because it's convenient. They don't read food labels because they trust blindly. Right.

They take holidays off being healthy. Oh, you mean they don't want to be party poopers? And they allow advertisers to manipulate them into believing junk food leads to happiness. Bet you can't eat just one. Open happiness. You deserve a break today. Right. They're great. Magically delicious. Didn't you say your best friends growing up? Oh yeah. My best friends growing up were the leprechaun, the tiger and the captain, no doubt. So I was hooked. No question. So, and the low quality food and chronic stress were probably involved in you getting cancer. No question. Between the stress and the really, really toxic food, I was sick all the time as a kid. I mean, like constantly sick. So I have no question. We just didn't know

back then. So know better, do better, right? So a lot of you thinking, right. And a lot of you thinking right now that, well, you're feeling guilty or whatever, just know better, do better. Well, and this is quite frankly, why this program is called the brain warriors way, because there are way too many people in our society who are sheep. Right. That, you know, they never go online and read food labels for the fast food places

that they like to go to. They trust blindly. And everywhere you go, someone is trying to shove bad food down your throat that will kill you early. I mean, literally everywhere you go. When I went to the Lakers basketball game, you know, it's like nine out of 10 choices are bad for you. Well, I mean, and as much as we travel everywhere we go, we have to really be vigilant about this. We have to be sheepdogs.

But if you're armed, prepared, and aware, you can thrive. Right. It's just not a good excuse. So let's talk about sheepdogs. Sheepdogs are serious. They're highly trained. They're purposeful. And they love their sheep even when the love is not returned. And they would give their life for their flock.

And again, like I said, they have the gift of aggression. So they're serious. They are serious about themselves. That's what we want you to be is serious because this is a serious topic. Your hell is serious, your brain, because it controls everything you do. The Brain Warriors Way, this podcast and our books,

are about training you to give you the best information. And part of being a warrior is you're purposeful. I mean, you know why you're in the war and you're there to win. Right. And, you know, I love this part. You love your sheep even when the love is not returned. Because you will experience that once you become a sheepdog. Well, and people will make fun of you.

Right. At work, at home. They'll say that you are too intense or you're too focused or you're a party pooper or, and you know, it's just part of being a sheepdog. And then when they need you, they'll follow. And you just have to be the change that you want to see. It's like sheep don't really like sheepdogs until there's a wolf nearby. And then they're like, they're behind, they're behind. And that's what we saw, for example, with my dad when he got sick. I'm the one he turned to and said.

Happens all the time. What do you want me to do? And the only reason that happened is because I was serious. Yes. About living the message of my life. So how do you recognize sheepdogs? So sheepdogs see unhealthy food as leading to illness and pain they see the truth unhealthy food leads to illness and pain they don't trust blindly they read food labels they

actually pay attention and they question things they're always on the lookout for wolves so they know that food manufacturers don't have their best interest at heart. They know that the media is trying to pour toxic messages into their minds and they're aware of it. And they hurt and protect their loved ones. So do you have examples when we go out and we travel? Everywhere we go. The airport is one of the most toxic places that I can think of. So not only the fumes in the air. Right. So when you go to the mall, I was just going to say, when you go to the mall- So not only the fumes in the air. Right, so when you go to the mall, I was just going to say, when you go to the mall, think about the smells.

So food manufacturers, they hire designers and they don't, these people aren't just, you know, I think a lot of us are aware now that food manufacturers and food designers

actually create foods that work on your pleasure centers based on taste. But what a lot of people don't know, it's not just taste, it's smell, it's crunchiness, meltiness not just taste, it's smell, it's crunchiness, meltiness. They know the perfect bliss point, like all of those things, aroma.

So for example, Cinnabon actually puts their ovens at the front of the store and they, every 30 minutes, bake a new batch. Okay. So, and they know exactly, you know, how, what they're doing with that. They know the exact amount of salt to add, the amount of sugar to add to make it touch that bliss point. They know to remove fiber because if it slides down your throat easily, the less you have to chew, the more addicted you become. I mean, this is a true science.

So same thing with when you turn the news on, or excuse me, when you turn the TV on, and you, not just the news, but then all of a sudden there's a commercial, those jingles you hear think of pavlov's dogs okay basically they're training you like pavlov's dogs we know those jingles we just sang what 30 40 years later we still know them oh i wish i was an oscar meyer wiener that is what i truly want to be yeah it's it's nuts But they're using neuroscientists and neuroscience tricks to hook you.

Carl's is amazing with that, with the beautiful half-naked women. Right. Eating these burgers. Right. And you know, they're eating things that they would, in fact, never eat. Well, in fact. And have a body like that. And in fact, it came out and it was actually published that these women had a bucket sitting next to them.

A spit bucket. A spit bucket. They would chew it for the, they would actually take a bite for the photograph and then spit it out. That's how much they were against eating those foods, but they're getting paid to do it. Right. But it's the unconscious association between if I eat these foods that Charlotte McKinney will want me.

Right. Okay. And that Charlotte McKinney can eat those foods and have a body like hers. Never going to happen. Never going to happen. We want brain warriors. Or who are sort of disgusted by that it's like they see what the you know it's almost like the wolf in sheep's clothing is oh it's fun oh why are you so serious it's because they're damaging but not only our health and the health of our children.

Like you said, you brought up an example, but we have the same example where we had someone in our family who we didn't really hear from for about five years because yeah, the party scene sort of got in the way and didn't want to deal with the whole brain warrior type of mentality and sort of went off of a cliff. But then, like you said,

when they need you, when the wolf is nearby, when everything's falling apart, all of a cliff. But then, like you said, when they need you, when the wolf is nearby, when everything's falling apart, all of a sudden they will turn around at some point and go, oh my gosh, can you help me? I get it now. And that's when you just have to stay steady and true to who you are. So we have a very favorite brain warrior sheepdog.

Her name is Lori Heiselman. She's a major in the Salvation Army. And she was the director of the Salvation Army's largest drug treatment program in Anaheim, California. And Lori loved the work I did. And so she would follow me around and come to a lot of lectures. And after a while, if you were listening to me, you realize you need to get serious about getting healthy. And so she took Tana's course here at Amen Clinics, lost about 60 pounds, which was amazing. She's only five feet tall. Five feet tall, but also lost her pain, rosacea, IBS.

Hot flashes. And then she got her husband healthy, and then her kids healthy, then her grandkids healthy. One of our favorite pictures of her is her with her five-year-old grandson drinking a green drink. And then she got convicted. She realized that the beneficiaries, the people at work, that she was involved with really feeding them terrible food. Well, what she said was we were inadvertently keeping them addicted and making them worse by giving them the food that we were giving them. And so against great pressure to maintain the status quo. They were not a healthy organization. A health program. She planted our health program into this drug treatment program and the results were just breathtaking i mean they

were so exciting about people who not only lost a lot of weight but were able to maintain their sobriety and i love tana's involvement in it because as we had said she had grown up with a fair amount of drama and drama mostly around substance abusers and what did you say when you first got involved well i actually i actually came home and told you i couldn't do it so i wanted to help laura but i didn't actually realize at the time how judgmental i was you know i just didn't realize how much anger i still had and hurt i still had from my past my you know my uncle being a heroin addict and my other uncle being murdered in a drug deal. And for some reason, getting involved with that,

it's just hit me square in the face. And I was listening to some of these people talk and tell their stories and I just suddenly couldn't do it. And I came home and told you, I said, God picked the wrong person this time. I can't do it. It's just too much. And I am having these awful feelings about them and I can't, how can I do it. It's just too much. And I am having these awful feelings about them. And I can't, how can I help them if I don't like them? And I felt terrible about myself. Like it was a yucky feeling to feel that much judgment and anger when your whole mission in life is to help people.

And you gave me that really annoying look that you're giving me now. So that psychiatrists and husbands sometimes do. He gave me this irritating smile and he said, no, God picked the perfect person. And I had a hard time with it at first. It was challenging. And I didn't realize how much that project was going to be healing for me. Yes, they got the benefit of the teaching, but I got the benefit of the healing. It was interesting.

Interesting how when you put yourself into a situation that's not comfortable for you, how much you can grow and how much you can heal. And you came to a pretty interesting conclusion at the end. I did. The epiphany for me was, their lives were not actually much different than mine growing up. They were put in similar situations for whatever reason. They ended up on a different path than I did. And I realized that for every one of them that I could help, that would be one less scared little girl or little boy.

Because their kids and their grandkids and their cousins would grow up differently. Wow. And then you sort of befriended Thomas. Yeah. Thomas was like, talking about putting you into the hornet's nest. Thomas was like, he was bad boy. He was like a serious bad boy, but he had a good heart somewhere deep down. He had a really good heart. So these guys, you know, at the Salvation Army, a lot of them are court ordered from jail to go to Salvation Army. How did he get there? Well, apparently the gang squad had busted in his door. And so they had taken him away. And he had six kids that he left behind.

So he went to the Salvation Army. And when he went in, he was very overweight. He said he was depressed, in his words, depressed, gloomy, foggy, overweight, all the negative things you can think of, didn't have any purpose, didn't see a reason to live. And he had failed his GED three times, had no idea how his lifestyle was affecting his brain. And one thing I do give to the Salvation Army, the structure they create and their focus on positivity and God, you know, really helped him,

but he didn't realize how much the program with food was going to change his life. And so between the exercise and the food that we implemented, and it was, we're talking a rock bottom budget. So very simple program that we put in for them. And within a matter of weeks, it all began to turn around for Thomas. He ended up losing 85 pounds. He said his energy and his focus skyrocketed. He passed his GED and he was so excited about life. And he said, my life was a mess and now it's a message. I went through trials.

And now I am triumphant. I was a victim. And now I am triumphant. I was a victim. And now I am victorious. It's amazing. Yeah. And now he's a sheepdog. That's what we want for you. Don't be a victim of our society.

Don't be a sheep and ultimately end up as a lamb chop. Stay with us. Thanks for listening to today's show, The Brain Warrior's Way. Why don't you head over to brainwarriorswaypodcast.com. That's brainwarriorswaypodcast.com, where Daniel and Tana have a gift for you just for subscribing to the show. And when you post your review on iTunes, you'll be entered into a drawing where you can win a VIP visit to one of the Amen Clinics.

I'm Donnie Osmond, and I invite you to step up your brain game by joining us in the next episode.