Change Your Brain Every Day - The One Thing To Do Everything To Change Your Life

Episode Date: January 9, 2018

One of the best tools you can use to make sure that your brain’s compass is pointed in the right direction is “The One Page Miracle.” In this episode of The Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast, Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen discuss why they created this One Page Miracle to help you gain MASTERY over your life, thus making it the best it can be.

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. Well, here we are coming up to a new year. I mean, just incredible how fast time goes. This year's just flown. In this podcast, we're going to talk about how you can use your brain to have your best life. I really like our metaphor mastery. I think it's really helpful to help put it into perspective.

From the Brain Warrior's Way. Yes. Mindset. Assessment. Sustenance. Training. Essence. Responsibility. Years long. Right. Nobody wants to hear that. They want to feel better fast. You can feel better fast. And the way you feel better fast is you get a plan that makes it last. And that is absolutely essential. Because you will feel better fast, but you can't just quit after two weeks.

And the secret that very few people know is that if you truly want to feel better fast and make it last, that the Brain Warriors Way concept is so important. This is truly about love of yourself. Right. That when you take care of your brain, that you know how to take care of it, that you're happier, your energy's better, you're more successful because you're taking care of the organ that runs everything. Yep. And we often talk about it's critical to have this four circle approach that there are biological factors, right? So avoid things that hurt your brain.

We've talked about that a lot. Do things that help your brain. There's psychological strategies. So that's where mindset really comes in. And one of my favorite psychological strategies is something we call the one-page miracle. And as we get to a new year, it's an absolutely essential strategy. So I love this because statistics show that by the end of January, more than 30% of people have given up on their resolution.

And by the end of February, it's 80%. So you gotta ask yourself why. Why is because most people come up with something just for the sake of coming up with something to have for a resolution. They're not really committed to it. They're not really committed to it. They're obviously not committed to it. And it's not something that has teeth.

So it's nothing that they have. They don't have leverage over themselves to stick with it. So, for example, I want to lose 10 pounds. Well, for what? For why? If it's not because it's connected to something really important, then you don't have leverage. If you don't know your why, you'll never do your what. We often say that in the Brain Warriors way.

So the M mindset, that's why we start there. It's critical. And that's what I love with the one-page miracle that we use is that you can put it all on one page, but you've got to connect it with that leverage, with that why. That's the whole point. And what do you want? And how are you going to get what you want? And the reason we created it the way we did is when people become unbalanced, they get burned out. And so in the one-page miracle, and you can download it on Brain Fit Life. It's actually one of the major exercises in our online community.

It's you write down on one piece of paper, what do you want in your relationships? So in your intimate relationship. I think it's one of the reasons we get along so well. It's, you know, we're both really clear that we want a kind, caring, loving, supportive, passionate relationship. Right. I often even see like, you know, cause we'll be out somewhere even, you know, just, just in, in seeing people hanging out with their families and their kids. Um, I'm, I'm often sort of amazed, you'll watch them,

and I'll see parents and kids arguing over something, and the something that they're arguing over is really trivial, it's not important. And I've made a commitment to myself a long time ago that it's like, what is my real goal? Is my goal to win an argument with my daughter, which good luck with that, because kids can argue forever, right? Or is my goal to be the best mother I can be and have the

best relationship with my daughter that I can? And to grow a healthy human being. Right. To a responsible, healthy human being. So with kids, it's what kind of relationship do you want to have with your kids? What kind of parent do you want to be? What kind of child do you want to raise with your family and with your friends? But the one-page miracle, it actually goes a little bit further. What do you want for your money?

Right. It's really important. It's a huge source of stress for so many people. What do you want for your work? And, you know, money and work are often connected, but separate. Right. And then what do you want for your physical, emotional, and spiritual health? Like, I really like that I'm in the same size jeans I was when I was in high school.

Right. And what I like about it is that if what you're doing isn't connected to that what you want, then you have to step back and go, okay, let me redirect, right? And let me refocus this on how I'm going to get what I want, which is a really good relationship. And a critical reason I developed it, it's never about should. There are no shoulds here. There's no guilt here. It's not that I should be nice to my wife.

It's my goal to have a kind, caring, loving, supportive relationship. That is 100% all of the time the goal. Right. Now, I don't always feel like that. Right. I'll get these crazy thoughts in my head and like saying something rude to you. But if I can kick my frontal lobes in to go, well, does this get you what you want? And it won't get me what I want.

Definitely not. I guarantee you that 100%. Or if my goal is to be at a certain weight and a certain level of physical strength and physical health, to sitting on the couch eating ice cream get me my goal now the four-year-old in me would like to do that but i'm not letting the four-year-old run the house right right that that's just a mistake right you want to run it you want your prefrontal cortex so the front third of your brain focus focus, forethought, judgment, impulse control.

Dudley Moore once said the best car safety device is a rear view mirror with a cop in it. I agree with that. Your prefrontal cortex is the cop in your head. I mean, you're the one that sets up the rules for your life. I mean, we set up the rules for our relationship. And it's like, is my behavior going to give me what I want? Right. I mean, we set up the rules for our relationship. And it's like, is my behavior going to give me what I want? Right. I like that. One of the things that I want to talk about also,

because we had that mastery. So I love the one page miracle. That's how you get what you want. But you also have to know, you have to do the assessment. Because if you have brain problems, if you've got trouble going on with your brain and you haven't assessed it. It's really hard to stay with things. Right. So we've got good software going in with the one page miracle. But if you have brain problems, if you've got trouble going on with your brain and you haven't assessed it. It's really hard to stay with things. Right. So we've got good software going in with the one-page miracle. But if you've got something troubled with your hardware, that's a problem. Right?

So we want to make sure that you get that taken care of. And then sustenance, you think food matters? Food matters. Everything you put on the end of your fork matters for your memory, your mood, for your moment-to-moment decisions you make. They matter because it affects your neurotransmitters. It affects your hormones. It affects the inflammation in your body. So it does matter how you function.

And then training. You're training your mind. You're training your brain with good habits or bad habits. And that's where the one-page miracle is so great. And in The Brain Warrior's Way, we talk about the elephant and the rider. So the elephant is your emotional brain. Your prefrontal cortex is the rider. And when the elephant just gets out of control, the rider cannot control it.

Right. control, the writer cannot control it, right? But through discipline training over time, the elephant will take you anywhere you want to go. And so we talk about training. I love E. E is essence. It's why are you on the planet? Why do you breathe? Why is the world a better place? And turning your pain into purpose. We just recently did a podcast on post-traumatic growth, right? That's turning pain into purpose, essentially. It's like using something painful to become better. And so I love that one. That's one of my favorite parts of it.

And R is responsibility. It's your responsibility. And I love, and you actually taught me this, responsibility is not about blame or guilt. It's about your ability to respond to whatever situation. So you can take 100% responsibility for a situation, even if it's that you got cancer or something terrible happened in your life and you weren't to blame. The reason I want to take 100% responsibility is because the person who takes responsibility

is the one person who can control the situation or has the ability to change it. And it's the most powerful person. And why is yours long? You need to start developing a plan that you can do for the rest of your life. That is rational. There's no gimmicks. So the first three letters in the word diet are die.

And that is why you do not stick to your resolution, because it is not rational, and it's a gimmick, right? So we want something that is a plan, that is something that is part of you, that you do because it works and makes you feel better. It makes your brain function better. It improves your memory, your mood, your relationships, your income. When your brain works better, your income is better. Everything in your life is better.

And so you make a commitment to your brain. You make a commitment to yourself that I'm going to find a lifestyle that works for me that I love that loves me back. I think that's the biggest concept I got last year is that whenever I do the right thing for myself, I praise myself and feel good about it. Right. Celebrate. I'm doing the right thing because I'm an adult who loves himself. And if you're doing the wrong thing and you're like, oh, you know, that's too hard or I don't want to deprive myself,

all of that noise in your head is setting you up for failure. That to do the right thing is the ultimate act of love. Dennis Prager had this great video I liked that happiness is a moral obligation. Oh, it was really good. That was really good. So if you Google it, you just really like it. But it's like, and anybody knows this who's been raised by an unhappy mother or an unhappy father,

that your mood is not just about you. Literally, it is about generations. It's like you leak. And when you're unhappy, you leak onto other people. And it's really yucky. That is so gross to think about it. Right? But unhappiness leaks.

It's annoying. So. Use your brain unhappiness leaks. It's annoying. So... Use your brain and have a great year. Thank you for listening to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. Go to iTunes and leave a review

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