Change Your Brain Every Day - What Tony Robbins Taught Us

Episode Date: August 11, 2017

In this episode of The Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast, the Dr. Amen and Tana shares their biggest takeaways from Tony Robbins “Unleash the Power Within” event. 

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. Hi, everyone. So we wanted to talk to you about an event that we recently went to and how much fun we had as a family. so why don't you talk to them

about what you learned first you mean what you dragged me to I drug him yes I did I saw a number of weeks ago we saw Tony Robbins in our clinic if you go to my facebook page dr. Daniel Amen you can actually see the interview that I did with Tony. He had mercury poisoning and came and got a scan. And it was very helpful for him. And I was so grateful he did a live chat with us. And he said some really powerful things like, how do you know unless you look? And don't wait.

Now's the time. If you are concerned about your brain, don't wait now's the time right if you're concerned about your brain don't wait and then he invited us to any of his events so i have to say i've been to pretty much all of them um so i've been following his work for a long time because before i knew about you and before i ever met you um going through a really hard time in my life, someone had given me a set of his tapes, Personal Power, many years ago when I was really depressed. And they helped because it was like, okay, if you do these things, change the way you think, change the way that you focus on where your focus goes, your energy flows. So focus on gratitude. Get up first thing in the morning, move your body, your energy flows. So focus on gratitude, get up first thing in the

morning, move your body, do deep breathing. It was like sort of practical, logical stuff. And it worked. It really helped me get out of a slump. So I've always been a fan. And so meeting him was, I am not starstruck. I actually could care. We see a lot of, you know, very interesting people in our clinics and I'm not really starstruck at all. But when I knew he was coming, I'm like, I have to meet him. Because his work made a difference. And I know it makes a difference for a lot of people. So when he came in, it was really fun.

But because I have been to the events, and I drug you to one small part of one event, and there was a lot of jumping and a lot of screaming a jumper or a screamer jumping and screaming are not his you know it's like seriously so very loud rock music lots of jumping well so we went to unleash the power within and new york and Newark at the Prudential Center. There's 14,000 people. And because we're one of his special guests, we are upfront. I still have hearing problems.

Secondary. It's sort of like going to Justin Bieber with all the girls screaming, but not for two hours. It was like four days. Of like 12 to 14 hour days so no breaks insane right but the level of information was really powerful and we want to share with you some of the important lessons that we learned and some actually extremely valuable to me. And I understood the jumping.

Right. And the loud music and the clapping. And I think you also began to appreciate why I liked it so much as well. And that was fun for me. It was a great family experience to do it as a family. So not going this time around because I was in pain. I mean, the first time I heard his work, I was in pain. This time I was in a very, very much a place of joy,

but sharing it with Chloe, you know, our 13 year old and you and us going as a family. Chloe just loved it. Right. It was amazing. So imagine a rock concert that goes on for days, sort of also like a church service. I mean, there's an altar call to be your best and highest self.

Group therapy. There are a lot of group exercises with a lot of cursing. So rock concert, church, group therapy, and cursing so rock concert church group therapy and cursing right uh but i think that cursing was actually very strategic it was to shock you out of your normal state of being so if you want to generate energy you have to move right One of the big things that he talked about, movement creates, motion creates emotion, and that creates energy. So that's lesson number one. You got to get off your butt and do it with music because music actually turns on or off depending what you're listening to but it turns on your brain and helps you learn well and yeah that's it the big

part of it is because he makes this point that you know the reason kids don't learn very well we tell them to go in be quiet sit down don't move and that's not how people learn best. People learn best when they're active. And so that's another big part of it. So that was really fun. I just, I loved it. I love seeing you guys be able to share in something that was, you know, worked really

well for me. Our 13-year-old Chloe took 20 pages of handwritten notes. In fact, she refused to use the notebook they gave her because she wanted to handwrite everything. So that was really fun to see her really getting so much out of it. And coming home, well, actually, back up for a minute. While we were there, he said several things. And having my daughter look at me and go, oh, my gosh, I understand you so much more now. I've been doing this work for many years,

not just his work, but work in general on myself for many, many years. So to have her look at me and go, I understand you so much better now. You make sense to me now. Because I get teased all the time by both of you, actually, for being sort of the way I am. She would get upset with me sometimes. Well, I married you, so obviously I'm a fan. Oh yeah, actually, you know, for being sort of the way I am. She would get upset with me sometimes.

Well, I married you, so obviously I'm a fan. Oh, yeah. No, I know. But like in a loving way, I get teased sometimes, you know, like we all do for being the way we are.

So, but certain things my daughter never understood. In fact, sometimes it frustrates her because- Do you have an example? Yes. So, I'm always the person to jump in. Like you always say,

I'd be the person to run into a fire instead of run out. That's kind of me. Yeah, no, I'm running away by it's hot. Right, but I'm not. She is the emergency room person. She's the neurosurgical ICU nurse person. Right. If we have a pit bull running toward us, she's going to get in front of the pit bull and start screaming at it.

Okay. Well, that might not have been a good example, but, but like we went river rafting and, you know, I'm looking around at the people that are getting on the boat and they admitted, no, everyone says I've not been on a raft before. And I'm like, well, neither have I, I'm going to be the first one to jump up and say, I'm going to do this because I just have a certain amount of faith in my ability more than I have in other people's. So, but after going to this event, Chloe actually was able to stop and appreciate that because what they really, like you said, the altar call is to be your highest self, to constantly be bringing out your strongest qualities. Now, if there's someone there

who knows more than I do, I'm, I'm taking a backseat. Right. But it's it's it really brings out that confidence. And that was really fun to see. And so that was one of the things for me. The other one was the pattern interrupts. Right. So we get home and Chloe had this issue with someone in the family. She was like, you know, being kind of like she was irritated with somebody in the family. Normally she would have given into her own teenage kind of, she was irritated with somebody in the family normally she would have given into her own teenage kind of you know ish temper tantrum right whatever or been irritable and might have she might have snapped she's not really a victim she'd snap instead she looked at me and she started laughing she goes i'm gonna create a pattern interrupt and it just cracked me up

because he's classic for creating explain explain that so what a pattern interrupt is anything you do that interrupts what someone is doing so let's say someone is in they're yelling at you they're angry and all of a sudden you do something to make them laugh so you make a funny face and you just like, you know, whatever you start doing. Now, karate, we use pattern interrupts. They're a little different, right? You're not going to punch someone in the face. That's a pattern interrupt, too.

But that's a different kind of pattern interrupt, right? See, as a psychiatrist for a long time, I've had a technique. I call it the bathroom technique, which is, you know, someone's going on and on and it's not going to stop they're really stuck on something and i have to say tell them you have to go to the bathroom right uh because just going away for four or five minutes um their brain can shift and they can go you know i don't remember why i was so upset right uh so that can really be a game changer so that was fun to see her come home and all of a sudden she's using pattern interrupts on people but we're talking about motivation and energy and we gave them one which is motion equals emotion which will give you more energy i mean, Tony Robbins literally went straight for 12 hours.

Right. I'd never seen anything like it. I'm the Energizer bunny and can lecture for a long time. I like this is like unbelievable. Well, and we had what was odd to me. I mean, I'm one of those people who needs to be in bed by nine. Like I just I'm by six. I'm mean, I'm one of those people who needs to be in bed by nine. Like I just, I'm by six. I'm like, I'm not a night person.

But Chloe and I both, and I've done this before. We were like blown away. We couldn't go to sleep after we left because we found at midnight, one o'clock in the morning, we had more energy than we did earlier in the day. Like your energy keeps building. And that's a little weird, right? For someone who's not a night person. But it goes with

motion and the hydration and the you know this the second thing i thought was just really critical was writing down your top three limiting beliefs what are those things that get in your way what are the really false beliefs uh that are are hurting you and one of mine i just turned 63 is i'm getting older and he he does this cool process about it but basically you take the thought and you flip it right to the opposite i love this and the opposite thought for me is i'm in the prime of my life uh now a lot of people wouldn't say that at 63 but i absolutely don't want to be 23 again and have to go to medical school and do a residency and start a business. And quite frankly, I don't want to be 43. I'm really happy with what I've accomplished. I want to accomplish a whole lot more.

But the idea was I am in the prime of my life. And no matter what your age is, if you can get that mindset, it will so help you with your energy. It was really powerful, yeah. And it's funny because even though we spend our days mentoring, we spend our days helping people, I realized that going to something like this, mentors need mentors and they need, it's like cleaning your house, right? You can't just clean it once.

You need to occasionally go back and reclean it right so it was really powerful to go because over time you start to I realized oh some of my old thinking was actually just starting to creep back in that I hadn't and it was insidious I didn't even realize it because mostly my life is awesome I know that it's awesome but all of a sudden when I did this exercise I realized there were one or two thoughts in there that were really potentially really toxic and I didn't even notice they were coming back in. Like for me, my turnaround, my thought was I focus on health so much, correct? On living a healthy lifestyle. I didn't even realize that the thought creeping back in was I had turned it into a fear-based thought. So I turned it into, I can't get sick because if I do, I'll leave Chloe without a mom. Now, yes, that keeps me motivated to do the right

thing, but notice how, see, you get what you focus on, even if what you're focusing on is what you don't want. Okay. So that was what was scary to me when I realized, I didn't even realize I was doing it. So that was really powerful. So I turned that around into, that's a limiting belief. So I turned that around into something really positive, right? I am vibrant. I am healthy. I focus on being healthy and vibrant and strong, and I'm a warrior. And oh, by the way, I've raised a really great, strong daughter who is also a warrior. Right. So, I mean, I was able to turn that around into something really powerful.

But if you don't, if you're not vigilant, you have to be careful because those thoughts can easily sort of get tweaked. They can. And thoughts matter a lot. Another thing that came up was the words you use so are you using empowering words like i am a force for good or are you using anxious words depressing words frustration words in your moment by moment thought process so i actually like like the affirmations that we would chant. I am a force for good. Now I am the voice.

Now I am the voice. Step up. So we hope you use these tools. And I'm a huge fan of Tony Robbins. I think you should check out his work if you've never been to any of his uh events uh start with unleash the power uh within uh i know your favorite event is no doubt but for a teenager i think upw unleashed power within is really great and quite honestly this is an age where i i'm watching and i'm watching my daughter's friends sort of

this is the age where they make the decision to go sideways or not and i think it's just one of the best gifts you know we could she came home just like astounded right she's got tony robbins on her vision board now so you know she doesn't even have justin bieber on her vision board now. So, you know, she doesn't even have Justin Bieber on her vision board. She's got Tony Robbins on her vision board. That's a big deal. So that's really cool because what that shows is that she's focused on how her thoughts affect her. Right? Right.

So move, eliminate your limiting beliefs and, you know, write them down and then challenge them, turn them around and then be very cautious of the words you allow in your mind and whatever you want, create a series of affirmations. I am the voice, step up. I am a force for good. That'll help you so much. Thank you for listening to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. We have a special gift for you.

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