Change Your Brain Every Day - Why Seeking Help & Being Authentic Is Crucial with Jay Shetty

Episode Date: May 5, 2021

Tana Amen shares personal stories and experiences that helped shape her life's purpose, with New York Times bestselling author Jay Shetty. 

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. I'm seeing a few of your comments. The Conscious Way Out says, I quit watching the news. Perfect. Perfect. It's so true. News is the biggest stress ever. Yeah, it's crazy how many people I speak to. And I asked them, so when you're working at home, what's going on in the background? Tell me what else is around you, people that I'm coaching. And they'll say, yeah, I have the news on in the background. I'm like, that's exactly why, the background. But that load is just crazy. So I'm reading more comments. So many people agreeing with all of you. Jenna says, absolutely, yes. This live footage is so affirming and confirming. Thank you so much. Who else?

I'm seeing, I want to read some more of your comments. So I'm seeing a lot of people agreeing. Where was this one? There's a really good one. I'm trying to find. Oh yeah, Michelle says, this is so good. Thank you to the person. Thank you to all of you who are on this,

who's sharing this with me. Tana, tell us, I want to hear from you how you had the courage to, you just shared earlier, like the tip of the iceberg of some of the trauma and the challenges that you've been through in life. And I look forward to really going deep with you. But how did you have the courage to face that scared child or to reconnect to that scared child? Because I feel like for so many people, it's so much easier to try and forget or push it away. And it's so much easier to try and hope that no one ever knows it happened and we kind of

ignore it or suppress it. How do you really confront that? It was actually an epiphany. It wasn't necessarily my choice, I suppose you would say. Again, I'm nudged to do a lot of things by my partner sitting next to me. But I was the queen of building the facade, the wall, making people think I had it all together. And inside, I wasn't. I was feeling pretty broken. But I finally started the journey of healing, but I didn't realize how judgmental I was. I didn't realize how much I still was disconnected from my past, even though I felt like I was. I didn't realize how much I still was disconnected from my past, even though I felt like I was personally starting to heal some of the brokenness. That was

still a big issue. I was disconnected, didn't want to get involved with people from my past. And I was very judgmental and didn't even realize it. And I started to do a program at the Salvation Army with some people with addiction, one of the largest inpatient addiction treatment centers that they have, it was 186 beds. I was asked to help transform their food. And so I thought, yeah, I can deal with the menu. And then she said, no, I want you to work with the people. And I'm like, no, I can't work with the people.

And I started wrestling with this. And Daniel's like, why can't you do this, honey? And I'm like, God just called the wrong person this time. I'm sorry, I can wrestling with this. And Daniel's like, why can't you do this, honey? And I'm like, God just called the wrong person this time. I'm sorry, I can't do this. And he looked at me and he said, God called the perfect person. And I was stunned and I started to cry. And I realized in that moment how judgmental I was. And I'm standing on stage and I don't like these people.

I just don't like them. But I had done a lot of work with Byron Katie and at that point, and really some work on myself about judge your neighbor. And it's really powerful. And all of a sudden it struck me that I was judging them, that I was literally looking down from the stage at these people and they were seeing exactly what I wanted them to see, this perfect facade.

They weren't seeing me, they weren't seeing the truth. And it just was a moment that that mask was stripped away. And I felt this epiphany that if I could help one person in that room, that would be one less scared child in the world. If I could, if one less little girl that felt like an afterthought, one less little boy that felt like he had to hide because it felt safer. And it just struck me that at one point in our lives, we were all the same. At one point, we were just all scared children. And I don't know why some turned right and some turned left. That's above my pay grade. All I know is that if I could help one person think differently, think differently at that proverbial fork in the road, it might change the next generation. And the stories of transformation were spectacular.

Of the people that she helped. It was the most powerful work I ever did. So another lesson is being authentic, telling your story, not having to be perfect, connects you way more than having a perfect facade. And pain shared is pain divided. And right now during this time when people are feeling isolated, this is so perfect. I mean, people are using social media in a positive way. I mean, we all know it's got negative effects, but it can be used as this tool

because pain shared is pain divided. And building that wall, keeping that facade up, that's just like a boil building up. I hate, I'm a nurse. Unfortunately I use these gross examples, but it's like this boil building up pressure. And once you lance it and let all that ugliness out, it has the opportunity to heal. And when you share your pain with someone else, suddenly you don't feel the shame. It's like, it's this burden is shared and we can handle it. Yeah. That's, that's beautiful. I love that approach. and thank you for sharing that. Thank you for talking about how, you know, actually that ability to serve and give and to

support others through their journey is such an important part. And Isabella's saying this is amazing, so helpful. It's helping me realize we're all human and we shouldn't ever be embarrassed for trying to seek guidance and help for one of the main organs our brain uh thank you for realizing that and connecting with that so much brie says this is such a great interview very instructive and positive and this is my favorite one danny says i love the way he looks at her so there we go. Everyone can see the love, guys. And I love seeing it too. You're such an inspiration as a couple as well. Every time I have interviewed Dr. Amen, whenever he's spoken about Eternity, I know we got to do our

podcast together, which was so much fun. And now everyone's getting to see how you both have such a wonderful reciprocal relationship of love. If you're interested in coming to Amen Clinics, use the code PODCAST10 to get a 10% discount on a full evaluation at amenclinics.com. For more information, give us a call at 855-978-1363.