Change Your Brain Every Day - The 5 Things to Focus on While in a Quarantine Cocoon, with Jim Kwik

Episode Date: May 26, 2020

An interesting side effect of the coronavirus quarantine is that people are ‘cocooning’, preparing themselves to come out stronger, smarter, and better when this is all over. How can you maximize this process? In this episode of the podcast, Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen are again joined by Jim Kwik, who gives you the 5 main things to focus on while transforming into a brand new you.

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 back. We are still here with our friend, our very good friend, Jim Quick. And he's created programs for accelerated learning,

and they're just fantastic. But I really love your new book, Jim, Limitless. And what I love, because I'm actually putting out a book right now too, and they asked the same, or should we change the publication date or when we're going to release it? And I think your book is perfect for this time. So, I love that you've taken all of your strategies that you've used over the years to teach people about memory and learning, but you've actually turned it into a way to overcome these challenges and barriers and limits that people have during this crisis. So I'm just super excited about that. And I was just resonating with you as you were talking in the last episode. So I'm hoping we get time in another episode to talk about some of those things. Absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you both. So while we go through some of these things, Limitless's subtitle is Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, and Unlock Your

Exceptional Life. And it's not about being perfect. It's about progressing and advancing beyond what we believe is possible. And how can you become limitless in a limited world? Right. And that's really what the focus is of this book. Not only does it teach speed reading and memory enhancement and focus concentration skills, But really, we're talking about a framework for doing what you believe is not possible. And so right now, a lot of people feel very limited because of what's going on in the world. And the metaphor I'm using is that of a butterfly.

It feels like we're going through a metamorphosis right now where even people feel like they're cocooning. They are physically distancing themselves. They're a catapult inside of a cocoon. And so what I would love to do is give people five things that they could be doing while they're cocooning. So we could come out of this as stronger or wiser or be able to soar and make the best, at least of the time that we're doing this. And so here are the five things. Now in the book, Limitless, I have a quote from a French philosopher that says, life is the C between B and D. Life is C between B and D. And people are thinking,

I'm speaking in code or tongues, B stands for birth and D stands for death. C, life, stands for choice. And I really do believe our life is the sum total of all the choices we've made up to this point, big or small, right? Where are we going to live? Who are we going to spend time with? Who, you know, what are we going to eat? How, you know, how are we going to, you know, where are we going to feed our minds, the choices that we make every single day. And so I want to give people five choices that they can make right now that would be more fitting so that they're smarter and wiser in this process. Now, when I use the metaphor of a butterfly, it's interesting because as a caterpillar, when a caterpillar believes it's the end of the world, it turns into that butterfly, right? And while the beauty is in the butterfly, the growth happens in the cocoon.

And so here are five things, choices that people can make while they are in the cocoon. And so here are five things, choices that people can make while they are in this cocoon. And I'll make them five C's so they're very easy to remember. The first choice we can make while we're cocooning, because when we're cocooning, we're alone, right? We're alone with our thoughts. We're alone with our doubts. We're alone with our fears. We might even be feeling alone. And we know what loneliness does, you know, to the human psyche. And so here are five things to be able to make progress. Number one, I would say clarity. Clarity, meaning that sometimes when we're just going, you know, before this, we're just going

100 million miles an hour. And very rarely do we take a pause to just connect saying, are we going in the right direction? You know, where I am right now in this cycle, because that's what we're going through a change of cycles, right? And some people's stress is clinging on to the cycle that was rather than what is currently going on. And, and so in terms of clarity, how you get clarity is using questions. And I believe questions are the answer. So a simple question to give you clarity on your life is something like, what's most important to me right now? You know, what's most important to me in my life? What's most important to me in my career? What's most important to me in school? What's most important about my relationship? What's most important to me in my work and my impact? That gives you clarity of values. Because again, you could be very efficient at climbing

the wall of success on that ladder, you know, but if it's leaning, you get to the top and it's leaning on the wrong wall, you might want to get clarity sooner. Right. And so that that's the point. So ask yourself, what's most important to me in life? The second question, clarifying question I would invite everyone to ask is, are my actions aligned with those values? Are my actions truly aligned with those values? Otherwise, if they're not, a lot of people say that they're burnt out and they think it's because they're doing too much. And granted, many people are, but maybe it's not, you're burnt, you're not burnt out because you're doing too much. Maybe it's because you're doing too little of the things you value,

the things that make you come alive. So the second question is, are my actions aligned with those values? And if they're not, you know, then you wonder why you procrastinate or you wonder why you sabotage. You take one step forward and two steps back because you're not doing the things that give you purpose and fulfillment. So that's number one is clarity. The second thing we could choose to do while we are cocooning is care. And that's kind of obvious. And then your listeners know how to do this. They've probably forgotten more about self-care, you know, for your brain and the rest of your body than most people will ever learn. And I just want to just emphasize, it's not just

about physical hygiene. We know six feet separation. We know sanitize everything, wash your hands, but mental hygiene. And what I would encourage, just a reminder, and sometimes people know this, but it takes a coach just to say it again and again. It's just remember that, you know, what you're feeding your mind, right? We know that chronic stress shrinks your brain. We know chronic fear actually compromises your immune system, right? That area of psychoneuroimmunology, which makes us more susceptible to colds, to flus, to viruses. And so, and one of the reasons why we're so fearful is we're just glued to those screens all the time and what it's feeding us. And here's the thing that people

just really need to get. Just like Instagram or Facebook has an algorithm, meaning if you're going through Instagram and you just happen to engage with all the cat posts, you watch all the cat videos, you like, you comment and share all the cat posts, then Instagram is going to show you a whole lot more cats because it has an algorithm, right? It's going to start feeding you and you're going to feel like that's the whole world. Well, if you start looking at everything that's scary on the news and dark and threatening, which your brain gets hijacked, right? Your amygdala has to look at what's threatening and what bleeds leads, right? But if you start doing that and you engage in that material, then your mind has the same algorithm

like social media and it's going to start feeding you more of that and you're going to feel like that's all of your reality. And the challenge is we have limited bandwidth, conscious bandwidth. And if your focus is on that,

then your focus isn't on possibility. Your focus is not on gratitude. Your focus is not on opportunities that can present itself. And so I would say part of care is doing everything the two of you teach, having a good brain diet, prioritizing sleep, stress management. I love this idea. Me too. There's a term I like.

I've been on the radio in London every Thursday night answering questions from callers on LBC radio. And this caller said, we have a global amygdala hijacking. When you really understand that, I know you understand that, but the amygdala is part of the brain that responds to fear. And now it's been hijacked because initially you had to watch the news to find out what's going on. And it scares you to no end. And even though most people are safe and most people are doing what they're supposed to be doing to stay safe, it just seems like the whole world. Yeah, I had to stop watching the news.

I could not hear the death tolls anymore. I can't. So I'd go out inside my backyard and watch the hummingbirds instead. That makes me freak out. You're managing the global amygdala hijacking and not giving in to the algorithm that so much of the news wants us to have. They're part of the... I mean, it's a business. Media is a business and we are their products that they're selling to advertisers and everything.

So it's very specifically designed. I'm just saying, have mindfulness and people have choice and they could ask themselves questions. You have to be responsible for what you put in your brain and understand it and be, you know, as a nurse, we talk about being an advocate. You have to be your own advocate of what goes in your brain. Now we only have a couple of minutes understand it and be, you know, as a nurse, we talk about being an advocate. You have to be your own advocate. Yeah. Now we only have a couple of minutes left on this one. Yeah. We could, we could wrap up with this. It's just the last three very quickly besides the first C was clarity. Second is care. Third is contribution. One of the antidotes to fear is service.

And so my question for everyone listening is, how can you take your time, your talent, your treasure to make a difference? You know, for me, we're donating 100% of the proceeds of this book. On our Instagram, we're doing programs for students for free. But how can everyone contribute? And it can be as simple as calling a neighbor to see if they're, you know, they're vulnerable or making food for frontline workers. That's contribution. Four C, very quickly, is creativity. It was during the Great Plague that William Shakespeare wrote Macbeth, vulnerable or making food for frontline workers. That's contribution. Four C, very quickly, is creativity. It was during the Great Plague that William Shakespeare wrote Macbeth, wrote Anthony and Cleopatra. It was when they shut down London, the university, where Isaac Newton had to physically distance himself. And that's when the apple fell on his head at his

yard. And he came up with the theories of motion and the theory of gravity. So what can we create? Because the future belongs to the creatives. Maybe it's a blog, maybe it's a business, maybe it's, you know, it's writing, it's music. How can you be creative? And then finally, the fifth C I would recommend is capability. Meaning you have your to-learn list, I mean, excuse me, your to-do list,

but what's on your to-learn list? Whatever you always wanted to learn. And right now we have unfettered access to the world's information. YouTube, podcasts like this, you can learn salsa, you can learn Spanish, you can learn speed reading. And so, you know, especially, and I think if there's one skill to master right now, a capability is learning how to learn.

Because if there was a genie who could grant you any one wish, you would ask for limitless wishes. But if I was your learning genie, I could grant you any one learning wish, any one subject, one skill. What's the equivalent of asking for limitless wishes? Learning how to learn. Because if you can learn how to learn, you can grant all of your own wishes. You can apply that towards money, mind, you know, management, marketing, Mandarin, music, everything in your life gets easier. And that's what I teach in the book. So great. To learn more about Jim Quick, you can go to limitlessbook.com.

We're just so grateful to have you on. When we come back, we're going to dive into this more. 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

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