Change Your Brain Every Day - Why A Healthy Brain is Crucial to Your Motivation Levels

Episode Date: December 10, 2018

The word “should’ seems to be inherently problematic. Why else is it that whenever we hear that we “shouldn’t” do something, the first thing we think about is doing it? As we continue our discussion on how to feel better fast, Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen illustrate the importance perspective plays when it comes to motivating ourselves to get what we want.

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. Welcome back. In this episode, we are continuing with Feel Better Fast and Make It Last, and we are talking about Brain XL. We just finished the X Factor. If you didn't watch it, you should. We ended in a fairly, let's see, colorful and slightly tense discussion. And it was actually very interesting, very fun. And I love that about us. We can actually tell each other what we really think.

And it's not, we don't always agree, but we love each other. But we can do it with love. Right. And now we're talking about love. Because we get the attachment part. Right. All right. So we're going to talk about love, but let's go back to the reviews because we love when you send them in. This is from Lanny Light. This is a great commentarian interview.

Thank you so much for sharing this. I've read a book by Tana, Dr. Amen, and you're one of my faves and you both are among my favorites. Thanks for what you do. Thank you. So why is love and feel better fast? Because one of the things I realized is if you're going to get healthy, you can never do it because you should do it. That when people think they should do things, they don't do them. Well, and you should all over yourself. So that ultimately love is the secret weapon. Doing the right thing is the ultimate act of love for yourself and for other people. Um, should has this rigid feel and love has this very warm, flexible feel.

And so if you think you shouldn't eat this or you shouldn't do that, you end up eating this and doing that. And just think about it from a biblical sense. God said you shouldn't go to the tree. The next scene in the book of Genesis, they're at the tree. And I'm like, and Eve is tempting Adam. All you got to do is think of a two-year-old. Your inner child is a two-year-old. Think about when you tell your two-year-old that they can't do something.

What are they going to do? They're going to go do it. You're going to be 50 soon. And if I tell you, you can't do something. Your best way to get me to do something is tell me I can't. That's absolutely correct. I'm getting my second degree whack belt in a couple of weeks because I was told I cannot practice karate. Just saying.

You're making your point. I have no words. The mindset of a two-year-old. So God said you shouldn't go to the tree. The next season, they're at the tree. And I'm like, well, if I was a consultant in the garden, what I would have said is, don't say that. Say, if you go to the tree, she's going to have to wear clothes.

You know, only you think seriously. No, it's always think of the consequences. What will happen? Then what? Of the behavior. I have this great carving in my office one of my patients gave to me. And it's then what? Right.

Is if I do this, then what happens? And do I want the consequences of that behavior? You know, this is interesting because this is a thing that I've actually gotten many disagreements with some of my friends who are parents and have kids the same age as Chloe. We don't agree on this because from the time that my daughter turned 12, and this is also a love and logic philosophy, and I agree with it a hundred percent. We love the program, love the parenting program, love and logic. Um, by the time your kids are 12, you should be coaching them and helping them learn to make their own decisions. And I've never believed in telling Chloe from the time she was about 12 and started middle school, what she can and cannot do because you tell a middle schooler what they can and cannot do much like a two-year-old they're going

to do it, right? They're going to go test it out. And so I just have never done that. I've always believed in telling her specifically, honey, I know you can. Okay. So I'm not going to tell you, you can't smoke pot. I'm not going to tell you, you can't make out or even have sex, I know you can. Okay, so I'm not going to tell you you can't smoke pot. I'm not going to tell you you can't make out or even have sex at an early age. I'm just going to tell you what will happen if you do, and then you have to make choices, and those choices are hard. Because if you make adult decisions when you are a child, you have to pay adult consequences, and there's not one thing I can do to protect you from them. I can't protect you from pregnancy. I can't protect you from STDs. And I made sure I showed her pictures, very, very graphic pictures.

So you get her into what she wants. Right. And then you ask yourself, does your behavior get you what you want? So it's not that you shouldn't do it because then people want to do it. Well, and I like one thing you say that you, what that you do is you say you are, one of the things you've always said is one of your favorite verses is know the truth and the truth will set you free. So I add to that being very truthful and you should be very truthful with yourself about what it means. And so we have a high school course called

Brain Thrive by 25. You go to brainthriveby25.com. It's great for middle schoolers, high schoolers, even young adults. And when we teach the class live invariably, a ninth grader, boy, always a boy, will raise his- Girls have too much anxiety. Will raise his hand and go,

so, you know, we're doing these things are bad for the brain, you want to avoid them, right? Because brain health is three things. You've got to care about it, avoid things that hurt it and do things that help it. So when we do the avoid things that hurt it, a boy will raise his hand and go, how can you have any fun? And so we play a game with them called who has more fun, the kid with the good brain or the kid with the bad brain, who gets the girl and gets to keep her because he doesn't act like a jerk, the kid with the good brain or the kid with the bad brain. That's why I have you because

other people have acted like jerks and you didn't keep them. And so, you know, that comes from a good brain. Who gets into the college they want to get in? The kid with the good brain or the kid with the bad brain? Who gets the best jobs, makes the most money, has the most meaning and purpose in their life? Is it the kid with the good brain or the kid with the bad brain? Well, and to speak a ninth grader's language takes the best vacations. You have to speak their language a little bit. Yeah, drives the coolest cars. And so you do the right things,

not because you should, but because you want the consequences of doing the right things. And how many people have said, you know, living the way you live on the Brain Warriors way, well, that's hard. And we're like, it's not hard. Not if you've been sick. But it's not hard. It's easy. And it gets you what you want. Right.

Which is health, which is energy, which is vitality. And ultimately, it's not just about loving you because we know your habits turn on or off certain genes that make illness more or less likely, yes, in you, but also in your babies and your grandkids. Well, and if you're paying attention, every time I start to veer off course just a little bit, like I said before, when I had surgery and I veer off course a little bit, I instantly feel the pain of not feeling well. I mentioned that depression is the worst thing I've ever been through. Well, for me, I will do anything to avoid going back to that dark place. And the second I start to feel that brain fog coming on, that fatigue, which happens when I veer off course, I'm like, ah, no. Okay. Nothing is worth that. Eating healthy is a small price to pay. So that actually is not hard. What's hard is feeling

awful and not having energy. So yeah, no, it's, you feel it pretty quickly. So I never want you in the should place. I should do this. I should do that, where I feel bad about eating healthy. I want you there because you love yourself. You love your wife. You love your children. You love your mission. You love your purpose. Stay with us. We're going to talk about four Greek words for love and how that might Use the code podcast10 to get a 10% discount on a full evaluation at amenclinics.com or on our supplements at brainmdhealth.com. Thank you for listening to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. Go to iTunes and leave a review and you'll automatically be entered into a drawing to get a free signed copy of the Brain Warriors Way

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