Change Your Brain Every Day - What Happens in Your Brain When You Pray or Meditate?

Episode Date: September 3, 2020

In this episode of The Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast, Dr. Daniel and Tana Amen wrap up week 5 of the End of Mental Illness Live Class and Challenge with a Q&A session. Topics explored in this episode include the effect of prayer and mediation on your brain waves, sleep patterns, and the incredible story a mom who went through a horrific tragedy and managed to pull herself from the depths of depression to come out the other side. To take The End of Mental Illness 6 Week Class and Challenge, visit https://endofmentalillness.com/brainhealthchallenge/

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. Hi, this is Dr. Daniel Amen. And I'm Tana Amen. We're so excited you're with us for this week's series. What we're doing is we're playing the live class from the end

of mental illness. We wanted you to join us on this journey because we had such a good time in our class. And the people who joined us had just saw such incredible transformation that we wanted to share the challenge with our tribe. So we wanted to share this with you. And we hope that you will join us in the challenge. Doc said I was low in vitamin D and need more sunshine. I told Doc, I've been looking for Mr. Sunshine all my life. That's funny. You're more likely to find Mr. Sunshine

if your vitamin D level is right and you're happier. Are cheap nutraceuticals better than nothing? Well, it depends on the quality of the nutraceuticals. But I don't know if you know, and I haven't talked probably enough about if you pre-order the end of mental illness, go to endofmentalillness.com. You get a 50% off coupon for BrainMD supplements for your first order. So order a lot, but use that coupon. So if you pre-order the book, which is, I don't know, $23 and you buy $100 of supplements, they'll actually take $50 off that order. So we really want you to pre-order the book. It'll help get the book some momentum, which we're really hoping to do. We have just lost a family member and are going through lots of stress.

Is there one thing in particular to help our brains at this time? Starting the whole program seems overwhelming. Yeah, I would do one thing or two. The one thing, work on your sleep. Sleep is so important because if you can calm down your nervous system and on BrainMD, we have a brand new sleep product. We haven't even formally launched it,

but you can find it on BrainMD called Put Me to Sleep. Yeah, I totally agree with you. And I think one thing is better. And for some people it's like, but I can't sleep or whatever. Like pick the one thing you can do if it's if it's meditating for five minutes, and then working your way up and then working into sleep or if but sleep has got to be the thing that you ultimately get to that's going to help reset everything else. Right. And that one habit. Is this good for my brain brain or bad for it? Just ask yourself, is this good for my brain or bad for it? And I have just this great, very sad story of Chris, who I was doing

a lecture and all of a sudden it was in Northern California. She comes up to me and she starts crying and, you know, this happens to me a lot. And so I just waited. And when she stopped crying and she said when she died part of me was glad because she was out of pain bone cancer is just loaded with pain and but i didn't know how bad it would hit me and i went to bed drank alcohol bad food, and ballooned up to over 200 pounds on her five-foot-two frame. And on the two-year anniversary of Sammy's death, she'd planned to kill herself. And then she saw me on public television, and it's my book, Change Your Brain, Change Your Body. And she said, well, I'm going to go get that book.

And if it's a bad book, I'll kill myself tomorrow, which is what she said to me. And I'm like horrified. You know, I'm just up in my office in my little chair writing. And I'm like, well, it really matters for some people. Don't make it a bad book. And she said, but it was so simple, so easy that I just stopped drinking. And I stopped eating bad food. And I started walking.

And then I started running. And it's 10 weeks later. But notice she did one thing at a time. She did one thing at a time one thing at a time and then uh when i saw her it was 10 weeks later she'd been down 24 pounds over the years she lost 35 pounds and she said i want you to tell the people you talk to never let grief be your excuse to hurt yourself and i gotta tell you that's powerful because i cannot imagine losing a child and and being able to like think that way like i'm just being honest i mean that's really hard and we teach this stuff but that's like the one thing that i think has got to be just so hard so challenging so painful so to the people that one thing at a time yeah sleep

would be the first thing i would think of yep i was wondering if you've seen any medical studies about prayer and reducing stress or having positive effects on the brain well come to think of it last year we did a study on prayer. We studied the brains with both quantitative EEG, looking at the electrical activity of the brain, and then with SPECT. And we looked at conversational prayer, I pray for you, versus speaking in tongues. That was fascinating. Prophecy, Discernment. And it was so interesting. Was it similar to meditation?

It was similar to meditation. The emotional part of the brain calmed down. Makes sense to me. And the thoughtful brain went up with conversational prayer. But speaking in tongues, which people know from the book of acts in the new testament um it's one of the gifts of the holy spirit it's where you're actually channeling the holy spirit now i know some people watching are like what is this and in evangelical or charismatic traditions, it's not uncommon.

And so this channeling, what happened is the front part of the brain dropped in activity, which is what happens when other researchers have studied channelers. So from a brain perspective, it's a similar function. It's channeling. Right. Okay. But the pleasure centers in a couple of our people went up, just like they got a hit of cocaine. Oh, interesting.

It was really interesting. So because for me, I know when I meditate, I pray and I meditate at the same time. For me, they're very much connected. So I was just wondering if the effect on the brain was similar. So what are other exercises you would recommend in place of walking like you're late for 45 minutes in inclement weather? What about an elliptical? I like the elliptical trainer because it doesn't hurt my knee. So the elliptical trainer works for me. I have a walking treadmill that I can answer email on.

I love. So it's not an intense treadmill. I don't like to run on the treadmill because of my joints um but my walking treadmill so i'm not sitting so if i'm writing or i'm doing email i can just get up and move for an hour i don't have to go to fast pace but it's really great um you can go to the mall and walk um yeah i mean there's so many things you can do so it's an interesting comment i knew the prayer would get some comments. 100% sugar pill.

If you believe it, it will work. Belief is so powerful. It's so true. The same with meditation. It's like it's got to be the thing you put your mind into. But a sugar pill doesn't mean there's nothing to it. No. It's that belief can literally transform your body.

With the faith of the mustard seed. Where you bring your attention determines how you feel. And when I was a young medical student, I saw a patient who had something called pseudosciences. Do you know what pseudosciences is? Can you tell me about this? It's about false pregnancy. It's when a woman believes she's pregnant, even though she's not pregnant. Her body actually begins to take on the shape of a pregnant woman. She loses her periods, her breasts get larger. She can even start lactating because belief is so powerful. Where you bring your attention

determines how you feel. The faith of the mustard seed. What are your thoughts regarding the saliva test to determine food sensitivities? You know, I think the food sensitivity test can be helpful. I think a more helpful way to do it a cheaper way to do it is do an elimination diet is eliminate anything that you might be sensitive to and then add them back one by one is eating healthy fats okay even if you're trying to lose weight yes almost especially if you're trying to lose weight because it helps decrease your it's it increases your satiety centers it helps with the helps but we're not talking cupcakes no no it has to be healthy fat so she said healthy fat so um but small amounts of healthy

fat and protein together throughout the day taken like medicine so like medicinal type doses you would never eat like large amounts all at once with medicine right so think of it like that it increases your satiety so you feel more satisfied, increases your energy and decreases your cravings. It balances blood sugar, balances the hormones of metabolism. So absolutely what you want to cut back on are simple carbs completely. You want to increase fiber, but not simple carbs. So low glycemic, high fiber. When it comes to sleep patterns, is there documented research regarding night shift

workers? In other words, is this harmful to people's health? Absolutely. I'm a night owl and often get eight hours of sleep, but I get them at weird times, 3.30 a.m. to 10.30 a.m. So it's the quantity, not necessarily the time of sleep. Shift work absolutely does hurt people. So knowing how to manage that, I think if you go back to, I think it's lesson three, where I talk about sleep in great detail. I actually talk about shift work there. But isn't there some research that says your circadian rhythm, it's not just about the amount of sleep, it's the circadian rhythm. So if you are a shift worker trying to stay on a more regular schedule,

because some shift workers will go back and forth. It's like, oh, I'm going to sleep at night, then I'm going to sleep into the day. That will mess up your circadian rhythm, which can then cause problems. And the bright light therapy lamp can actually help reset your circadian rhythm. Do CT MRI scans necessarily show brain damage after a serious fall? The answer is no, they don't. Often they don't. I know a child that fell down concrete stairs at age one,

doctor's monitor for a couple of years, said she was fine. But a few years later, she was diagnosed with ADHD and learning problems. Single most important thing I've learned from 160,000 scans, mild traumatic brain injury, like this one ruins people's lives. And nobody knows it because they do structural scans, not functional scans. So MRI and CT,

typically they're looking at the structure of the brain, which could be fine, but the function of the brain is not. Right. I've attempted to eliminate things from my diet. In the past, I've suffered from FOMO, fear of missing out. How can I control my cravings and feel I'm not depriving myself of something pleasurable. Well, that's the big lie is that Drew Carey said it best. Eating crappy food isn't a reward. It's a punishment. And so until you get your mindset right, that what you're craving is a weapon of mass destruction,

it's going to be hard. So I actually have a lot of tips on this, the cookbook, and the brain wears my cookbook. And my when Chloe was in seventh grade, she actually has the classic example of this. So she came home and she's like, I she would never talk to us about eating healthy, because she was so afraid that it was going to make her the weird kid at school, right? She was so afraid that she was like, gonna miss out just like you're talking about. She didn't want to show up somewhere be the weird kid. But she started to get really anxious. She started to notice that her

moods were not right, her skin was breaking out, she started to gain a little bit of weight. And she's like, I want to eat healthy, but I don't want to be the weird kid. And if I go to a pizza place with all my friends, what am I going to do? So we talked about it, we came up with strategies, the same strategies that are in the cookbook, same strategies that are on my website. And so she came up with a strategy. And I loved it. She went out with her friends a couple of times, she came home, she goes, this isn't hard. She goes, this is so much easier than I thought.

They don't even really notice. They order pizza and Coke. And I go get a salad and tea, and no one really pays attention. So she's like, I thought it was going to be such a big deal. But it's not. She's like, as long as I have a strategy ahead of time, it's not hard. She just thinks ahead of time, what am I going to go get? She does it. She follows through and then it's not hard. All right. We're almost out of time. And we are so grateful for all of you that are watching. You know, over the week, we have thousands, almost 7,000 people are staying with us. We're really grateful for you. So day one of your task this week is learn to kill the ants. Do the five questions with five thoughts. And we have a handout for you on that to start each day

with today is going to be a great day and end each day with what went well today. And these are things you should just do ongoing. Three, gratitude, appreciation journal, three gratitudes and three appreciations. Appreciation is gratitude squared where you feel grateful and then you share it. I am grateful for you. I appreciate you every day. Me too. We have a hypnosis audio download for you

that comes from Brain Fit Life. I think you'll like it. I actually developed this for Tana when she took her black belt test. There's a great comedy routine just to begin to train your brain to be happier. Um, it's called the tale of two brains by Mark Grunger. It's hysterical.

Is that the one with the male, female brain? Oh my God. It's so funny. So funny. Day six, write down five of your happiest experiences and relive them in your mind. We have an exercise for you. And day seven, use your memory to feel great anytime, anywhere. It's an exercise I developed in my book, Memory Rescue.

I think you will like it a lot. What we want from you is stories of change. Both Tana and I live for the stories you tell us of how this information has helped you. It's okay to tell us about struggles, but we want to hear about the process. We want to hear what you're doing. So yeah. Great.

Stay with us. We'll see you next time. Thanks so much. 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 from BrainMD, you can use the code podcast10 to get a 10% discount on a full evaluation at amenclinics.com or a 10% discount on all

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