On Purpose with Jay Shetty - Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: ON How To Reduce The Chemicals That Ruin Your Brain & Body

Episode Date: October 28, 2019

On this episode of On Purpose, I sat down with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee. Dr. Chatterjee is one of the most influential doctors in the UK and wants to change how medicine will be practiced for years to come. He shares that people without a strong sense of purpose have poor health outcomes, lower levels of income and happiness. Dr. Chatterjee simplifies health, what stops us from taking action, the best morning & night routine and the importance of setting the bar low at the start.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The world of chocolate has been turned upside down. A very unusual situation. You saw the stacks of cash in our office. Chocolate comes from the cacountry, and recently, Variety's cacao, thought to have been lost centuries ago, were re-discovered in the Amazon. There is no chocolate on Earth like this. Now some chocolate makers are racing deep into the jungle.

To find the next game-changing chocolate, and I'm coming along. Okay, that was a very large crack it up. Listen to the obsessions while chocolate. On the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Jay Shetty and on my podcast on purpose, I've had the honor to sit down with some of the most incredible hearts and minds on the planet. Oprah, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Hart, Louis Hamilton, and many, many more. On this podcast, you get to hear the raw real-life stories behind their journeys and the tools

they used, the books they read, and the people that made a difference in their lives so that they can make a difference in hours. Listen to on purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Join the journey soon. The therapy for Black Girls podcast is your space to explore mental health, personal development, and all of the small decisions we can make to become the best possible versions of ourselves. I'm your host, Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, a licensed psychologist in Atlanta, Georgia, and I can't wait for you to join the conversation every Wednesday.

Listen to the therapy for Black Girls podcast on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Take good care. The dad might be in the kitchen, eating. The mom might be on one end of the sofa watching television. The door to the teenage order was on the other end of the sofa on Facebook while she was eating and the

sun was somewhere else. I remember it's so so well. I know you guys are busy, you've got different routines, maybe just for one meal a day if you can, sit around a table together, put your phones off and see what happens. Hey everyone, welcome back to on purpose. I'm so grateful for our incredible community that we have here on the podcast. Thank you for coming back each and every single week to listen, to learn and to grow.

And I'm really excited for today's episode because there are going to be so many practical actionable tips that you're going to learn for your health and well-being. This is going to be one of those episodes that you definitely want your notebook out. So don't make the mistake. And if you are walking your dog or you're cooking or you're commuting right now and you can't write because you're standing or walking, please, please, please come back to this episode because there are going to be some awesome help tips from our incredible guest. His name is Dr. Rangan Shataji,

is one of the most influential doctors in the UK, and wants to change how medicine will be practiced for years to come. He hosts the biggest health podcast in Europe, feel better, live more. He's known for finding the root cause of people's health problems, and he highlighted his methods

in the television show, Doctor in the House. He's also an international bestseller and his mission is to help 100 million people feel fantastic by restoring them to optimal health. Rungan, it's great to have you on the show. Thanks for being here. Jay, thanks for having me. Yeah, we've been wanting to do this for a while. We're glad that we're both finally here right now.

And I just wanted to say that when I've been looking through your book, I've been looking through your work, we were just chatting outside for a few moments. You seem like a wonderful gentleman. Like I love your energy. I think the work that you're doing is really incredible and genuine and I think that the way you're presenting this message is so refreshing, fresh and simple.

And I really value that. Thank you so much for doing your work. Yeah, I appreciate that, Jay. I think, you know, look, I've been seeing patients have nearly 20 years. And for me, I've always, I've always taken seriously how do you really communicate with people? So they actually do what you would like them to do. I've never had that view that actually patients aren't doing what I've asked them to do. I've always thought, how can I communicate better to inspire them to make changes? And I think when you can really simplify things down,

people feel, hey, you know what, I can do that. Because I think so many people feel like health is too complicated, I think one of my big aims is to try and simplify it. Yeah, and I think you're doing a wonderful job of that. And I think you're so right. I've always looked at it as like, if you look at the teacher and the student

or the doctor and the patient, it's almost like, if a teacher or a doctor is at a 10 and the patient or the student really wants to learn and they're at a 10, then you've got this incredible relationship. And then often what you find though is that the presentation is like at a 5

and the patient's at a 3. And then you're both struggling to kind of make anything happen. So I'm totally with you, and I'm gonna be a very, what's the right word? I'm gonna be a very sincere patient today as I ask these questions on behalf of myself

and my audience. And I know for me, health was always something that was never emphasized in my family. I grew up quite overweight actually, and I was like that until 14 years old, and then I lost a lot of weight because I got into a lot of sports and just naturally started to lose weight. The interesting thing was that then I developed this almost like, you know, this feeling of just like health to me just meant not being overweight.

And I didn't realize there was so much more to it. Tell me about some of the reasons of the way we think health is so complex and some of the things that block us and hold us back with our health. Yeah, I think what really holds us back is, I think the fact that people online are arguing over what is the best way to do something. I think that is one of the reasons that leads to inactivity because people think, okay, I want to improve my diet, let's say for example, and then they read one blog, got to see a social media post from one doctor or one healthcare professional that they like, which is in complete contrast

to another one, who they also respect and admire says. Right, so I think this confusion leads to inactivity. I think that's one reason. I think the other thing is, the other thing for me is that I think we just, we overly focus on one area, okay? Like, everyone talks about their diet. Of course diet is important, but it's only one component. And I guess that what I did in my first book is I talked about four key pillars of health.

Yeah. The four areas that I think have the most impacts on the way we feel, but also that we've got a fair degree of control over. I think that control piece is important because there's so much out there that we can't control like, you know, air pollution, for example. So I really prefer to focus on the things that we can change. And so my approach is very much about,

look, have a look at your own life. Look at these four areas, which one of those pillars do you need the most work in? Most people intuitively know, but I'll tell you Jay, what a lot of people do. Let's say they change their diet, and they're feeling a lot better. Then they'll sort of, like their diet's like 80% good. They'll focus even more on another 5% improvement. Another, you know, I'm having a little bit of sugar on Saturday. I need to cut that out. And they're

forgetting the fact that they're really sleeping 5,000 nights or they're chronically stressed out. And so I prefer people to take a much more balanced approach, sure change a diet, but don't neglect the other areas. So for me, it's all about small changes in these four areas, which make a big, big change. And I've seen it time and time again. It is not about doing the most extreme diet, cutting everything out, never going out socially, because actually you can't eat anywhere. It's about putting things in perspective and not about doing the most extreme diet, cutting everything out, never going out socially because actually you can't eat anywhere. It's about putting things in perspective and small things done consistently make huge, huge differences.

And what's the starting point? Like if you're someone who's, I guess, more on the other end where you're kind of just like, your health's just been kind of something that's going on, you kind of eat wherever you want and you're pretty flexible, everything. What's the starting point? Like what's been your place of like this is a good place to start like this is a fairly easy level playing field for everyone to get going on. Yeah so it is highly dependent on the concepts. It's highly dependent on the individual. Again I would ask them to look at those four areas and think about which one they feel they need to

work in. Food, movement, sleep and relaxation. Great. I think that's a useful place to start. I do. And then you sort of focus on the one area. Let's say you think, actually, you know what? I'm not really moving my body much. Okay, fine.

Maybe you want to start there. And so I keep an example. Like I was in my clinic, seen patients a few years ago. Maybe seven, eight years ago now, and I saw this chat. I think it was maybe late 30s, early 40s, a little bit overweight, struggling with energy, struggling to concentrate, you know, just general stuff going on and he wanted some help. And at that time, I thought, you know, it will really help you. I think some sort of strength training is going to help you because it helps change your mood or give you energy. And he really liked that. And he said, okay,

Dr. Chastity, what do you want me to do then? I think that's a great idea. Would you like me to do 45 minutes, three times a week at the gym? And I said, hey, that would be amazing. Yeah, fantastic. He goes off feeling in spine and full of motivation. Four weeks later, he comes back, I see him, and I say, hey, look, how have you got on? And he said, ah, Doc, you know what? What's been busy? The gym's quite far away. It's quite expensive. I've not actually done anything. So Jay, I never thought in that moment, why has he not done what I've asked him to do? I just thought, wrong. And you've clearly not given him advice that he feels as relevant

and practical in the concepts of his own life. So in that moment, I literally, I took my jacket off and said, right, I'm going to teach you a five minute workout. But you can do in your house without joining a gym, without buying any equipment, and without even getting changed. It's what I call like the five minute kitchen workout. And I said, I would like to do that twice a week. Our 20s are seen as this golden decade.

Our time to be carefree, full in love, make mistakes, and decide what we want from our life. But what can psychology really teach us about this decade? I'm Gemma Spagg, the host of the psychology of your 20s. Each week we take a deep dive into a unique aspect of our 20s, from career anxiety, mental health, heartbreak, money, friendships and much more to explore the science and the psychology behind our experiences, incredible guests, fascinating topics, important science, and a bit of my own personal experience. Audrey, I honestly have no idea what's going on with my life.

Join me as we explore what our 20s are really all about, from the good, the bad, and the ugly, and listen along as we uncover how everything is psychology including our twenties. The psychology of your twenties hosted by me Gemma Speg. Now streaming on the iHot Radio app Apple podcasts or whatever you get your podcasts. A good way to learn about a place is to talk to the people that live there. There's just this sexy vibe and Montreal, this pulse, this energy. But what has been seen as a very snotty city, people call it Bose-Angulous. New Orleans is a town that never forgets its pay.

A great way to get to know a place is to get invited to a dinner party. Hi, I'm Brendan Francis Newdum, and not lost as my new travel podcast, where a friend and I go places, see the sights, and try to finagle our way into a dinner party. We're kind of trying to get invited to a dinner party. It doesn't always work out.

I would love that, but I have like a Cholala who is aggressive towards strangers. I love the dogs. We learn about the places we're visiting, yes, but we also learn about ourselves. I don't spend as much time thinking about how I'm going to die alone when I'm traveling, but I get to travel with someone I love. Oh, see, I love you too. And also, we get to eat as much time thinking about how I'm going to die alone when I'm traveling. But I get to travel with someone I love. Oh, see, I love you too. And also, we get to eat as much... It's very sincere.

I love you too. It makes a lot of therapy goes behind that. You're so white, I love it. Listen to Not Lost on the I-Hard Radio App or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Danny Shapiro, host of Family Secrets. It's hard to believe we're entering our eighth season. And yet, we're constantly discovering new secrets. The depths of them, the variety of them

continues to be astonishing. I can't wait to share 10 incredible stories with you, stories of tenacity, resilience, and the profoundly necessary excavation of long-held family secrets. When I realized this is not just happening to me, this is who and what I am. I needed her to help me. Something was gnawing at me that I couldn't put my finger on,

that I just felt somehow that there was a piece missing. Why not restart? Look at all the things that were going wrong. I hope you'll join me and my extraordinary guests for this new season of Family Secrets. Listen to season 8 of Family Secrets on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So he goes off and he comes back a few weeks later. But before he left, he said, just twice a week, just 10 minutes a week. I said, yeah, that's all I want you to do.

When I review him four weeks later, I said, how are you getting on? He said, Dr. Jassey, I love it. Right, I started off doing it five minutes twice a week. Now I do it 10 minutes every single day in my kitchen just before I had my evening dinner. And I think the reason I use that story is this, whatever change we're trying to make in our life, it doesn't have to be like this big, unattainable goal. We can break it right down to the simplest possible,

you know, the simple possible way of doing that, just do small things consistently. And I find those five minutes twice a week suddenly becomes 10 minutes, seven days a week. So now that guy who would never work out is doing 17 minutes of strength training a week. He's losing weight. He's got more energy. He feels better about himself. That then impacts his relationship with his wife, because he's feeling better about himself. Suddenly, he's no longer the person who can't make changes. His identity starts to shift. And I know Jay, you're a big fan of meditation.

I have made deals with my patients before to do one minute a day. Now, again, that may sound, or what's one minute are they gonna do? But I found when I asked people to do 20 minutes a day, they'd do it for two days, three days, four days, then suddenly it would get busy one day. They wouldn't be able to do 20 minutes a day. They'd do it for two days, three days, four days, then suddenly it would get busy one day. They wouldn't be able to do it. And then they suddenly become

identity wise, oh, I can't do that. Meditation is not for me. And there was one particular patient actually, actually, yeah, where does she live? I can't remember where she lived. But one particular patient who said, meditation is not for me. And I knew that actually her stress levels were the main driving fatter in her health, her weight, I think, was coming from her stress. And a lot of her hormonal symptoms were getting flared up. And she said, I can't do it, I've tried it. And I said, okay, do you think you can do,

you know, how much do you think you can do in a day? I said, do you think you could do 10 minutes? I'm not sure. Do you think you can do in a day? I said, do you think you could do 10 minutes? Not sure. Do you think you could do five minutes? Maybe. And then I said, okay, how about one minute? Do you think you could do one minute? Yeah, I could definitely do one minute.

I said, okay, so let's make a deal now. You're gonna do one minute meditation. Because it's the UK, she gets some of the morning and puts a cup of tea on, right? She goes downstairs and asks, I said, okay, what do you normally do when you put the kettle on? I'll just probably jump onto my phone

and scroll social media or something. I said, okay, fine. When you put the kettle on each morning, instead of going on your phone, why do you do your one minute meditation then? Why don't you stick it onto a habit that you're already doing so you don't have to find time in your day. Anyway, she does this.

And amazing, within two months, she's doing like 20 minutes a day because what happens the one minute each morning suddenly becomes a habit, she starts to feel good, one minute becomes two minutes, two minutes becomes five, five becomes 10. Not because I asked her to increase it,

but because she starts to feel good. So look, I have so many tips, but the point I've realized that when you keep the bar super low, people feel good about themselves, they do it. And then they start to raise the bar naturally themselves. Yes, yeah, no, I think that's great advice. And thank you for sharing those. I love those.

And I've always said to everyone, like I think all habit change are small things that are big priorities. And usually we do it the other way around. We try to do big things and they're all a small priority. So we're trying to do this big thing, like you're saying, go to the gym every day for an hour a day. You're trying to achieve this big thing,

but it's like thrown in underneath all your other priorities, where if you just try and do one small minute a day, but make it a big priority. Another thing that I'm fascinated by, that's really helped me when I'm sharing and teaching and doing it, is not the big goal, but the deep, immersive experience. Okay.

And here we are, I'd love to get a thought. Yes. So what I say to a lot of people is just, when I hear the, oh yeah, I'm doing 10 minutes of meditation a day, but it doesn't do anything for me. It doesn't work for me. For people who can, when I recommend is just like, if you can go away and do a day retreat for meditation

or if you can go to the gym with a personal trainer just for three days and you get a really deep experience of what it feels like to really work out, to really have an awesome experience, to really know how to use the machines and what to do and what to do with your mind. When you've had that really deep immersive experience, that leaves such a lasting impression on us

that we now go, oh, I wanna get back that, I want to do that. And sometimes what we're doing is, if you only have a do 10 minutes, it takes me 10 minutes to switch off my mind every day. Let alone meditate. So it's almost like, if you push yourself a little more in the beginning and get a bit of a taste or an experience,

it's even like with anything, if you wanted to learn how to surf surf and you did it one whole weekend. I guarantee you, even if you fell off a million times, you'd still have had one glimpse of how cool it would be to surf. Exactly. You'll do it again, but if you only surf for 10 minutes, you won't get to that point and then you'll feel like, oh, I can't surf. I think, Jay, that's such a great way of looking at it because, circling back to one of your initial questions, it's like, well, why aren't people doing this? Why do we struggle to make these changes?

And I think sometimes we just don't know, we're not doing enough to know how we're gonna feel. And we're a bit confused, we're like, oh, I need some better. Well, I don't really know how to do it. Am I doing it right? Am I meant to be shutting off my monkey mind and actually learning how to do it, like investing? Yeah, sure, it might take a bit of money, but also

really investing your time to spend like a day or two days learning how to do it. Then I think you can tap into like five minutes a day if you want to because you've got something to, you know, to run through it. Or, you know, someone wants to take up yoga, for example, but they're a bit confused. Sure, there's many great YouTube channels that people can go and learn. I totally get that. But there's also something super powerful about going to a local class. Yeah, 100%.

Like go to your class maybe a few times, connect with like-minded people, but then go, you know what? Actually, maybe I can do 10 minutes of this every day. Yeah. Maybe I can do this with my partner for 10 minutes every day. And I think it's really not as complicated as we think. And that's, I think that's my key message that I really try and get across to everyone,

whether they're the CEO of a company or whether they're a single mom on benefits working two jobs. I'm super passionate that all of us have, you know, have the right to good quality health information. I think the same things are affecting people in all walks of life. Sure, the stresses and the life of someone who's on benefits are working two jobs and a single month,

maybe very different stressors from the COF company. But nonetheless, some of those solutions are actually very, very similar. Some of those solutions are actually very, very similar. I am Mi'amla, and on my podcast, The R-Spot, we're having inspirational, educational, and sometimes difficult and challenging conversations about relationships. They may not have the capacity to give you what you need. And insisting means that you are abusing yourself now. You human. That means that you're crazy as hell. Just like the rest of us. When a relationship breaks down, I take copious notes and I want to share them with you.

Anybody with two eyes and a brain knows that too much Alfredo sauce is just no good for you. But if you're going to eat it, they're not going to stop you. Yup. So he's going to continue to give you the Alfredo sauce and put it even on your grits if you don't stop him. Listen to the art spot on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts. Not too long ago, in the heart of the Amazon Rainforest, this explorer stumbled upon something

that would change his life. I saw it and I saw, oh wow, this is a very unusual situation. It was cacao, the tree that gives us chocolate. But this cacao was unlike anything experts had seen, or tasted. I've never wanted us to have a gun bite, I mean you saw the stacks of cash in our office. Chocolate sort of forms this vortex, it sucks you in. It's like I can be the queen of wild chocolate. We're all lost, it was madness.

It was a game changer, people quit their jobs, they left their lives behind, so they could search for more of this stuff. I wanted to tell their stories, so I followed them deep into the jungle, and it wasn't always pretty. Basically, this like disgruntled guy and his family surrounded the building armed with machetes. And we've heard all sorts of things that, you know, somebody got shot over this. Sometimes I think, oh, all this for a damn bar of chocolate. Listen to obsessions, wild chocolate,

on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Dr. Romani, and I am back with season two of my podcast, Navigating Narcissism. Narcissists are everywhere, and their toxic behavior and words can cause serious harm to your mental health. In our first season, we heard from Eileen Charlotte, who was loved by the Tinder Swindler.

The worst part is that he can only be guilty for stealing the money from me, but he cannot be guilty for the mental part he did. And that's even way worse than the money he took. But I am here to help. As a licensed psychologist and survivor of narcissistic abuse myself, I know how to identify the narcissist in your life. Each week, you will hear stories from survivors

who have navigated through toxic relationships, gaslighting, love bombing, and the process of their healing from these relationships. Listen to navigating narcissism on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Now I love that point, and one of the things you pointed out there, which I think doesn't get talked about enough, is you talked about being with like-minded people. And how have you seen when you've worked with people, the difference between people who try and do things collectively, collaboratively and with that accountability versus people who are just doing things individually?

How have you seen that? Because I think that's a really important point you raised there. Yeah, look, I had a really phenomenal experience. So my first two TV shows were something called Doctor in the House. And these are people who were struggling with the health and often being under their primary care doctor, often being under a specialist, often were taking loads of pills, and they still weren't feeling good. And I would go into the houses for four to six weeks

and try and help them. And I'm super grateful that I managed to help all of them. Sometimes get rid of their conditions, but certainly significantly improve the way they felt. Would you live with them as well for a second? I would actually. Yeah, that's insane. Yeah, I would say, not the whole time,

I would say a few nights, which frankly is probably a bit awkward for me and the family to have this kind of wellness daughter in their house observing everything. But I tell you, you do learn stuff when you do that. You see stuff in a way that you just wouldn't otherwise have seen. You pick up on various things,

relationship dynamics, stresses that are going on, how people eat, not only what they eat, how are they eating? I tell you one thing from that that I really discovered and this is probably one of my top tips actually, is I went around all these different families around the UK, it's the same here in America,

people aren't eating together, right? I would go into families or couples and it would be dinner time. Like the dad might be in the kitchen, eating, the mum might be on one end of the sofa watching television. The door to the teenage daughter was on the other end of the sofa on Facebook while she was eating and the son was somewhere else. I remember it so, so well. And I would make a recommendation to all of these guys, say, guys, look, I know you guys are busy, you've got different routines,

maybe just for one meal a day if you can, sit around the table together, put your phones off, and see what happens. Now, what was really interesting, whether it was a family or whether it was a young couple, right, all of them reported back to me, hey, you know what, like I'm eating better, but? All of them reported about to me, hey, you know what? Like I'm eating better, but I feel closer

to the people around me. Like this couple, the guy said to me, you know what, I can't believe how much it's changed things because I'm talking to my wife now. I'm actually finding out about her day and where we're feeling closer, we're getting more intimate and all stem from just eating together. And this is something I'm so passionate about

that, as I know, you are, many times these days, we're with the people who mean the world to us. Right, we're with our friends, or with our partners, we're with our kids. We're physically with them, but mentally, we're not in the same room, we're sort of lost in our phones, and look, I'm not criticizing, I will do this sometimes, okay? So I'm not trying to say,

I'm wider than white hair. Now, I have this issue as well. It's a constant battle. But even when we're with these people that we love, we're not present. And I think that is a key thing for us. And it's not about getting rid of your phones, right? It's something about,

hey, but a priority, like maybe at meal times, maybe actually when you have, when you're out for dinner with your friends or when you're sitting at home with your family or your girlfriend or your boyfriend, maybe just put the phone away, it is such a simple thing. It makes a huge, huge difference. So that was sort of one element. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, no, no, that's a great answer. I'm really glad you brought that up. And it's interesting that you observed that when you were living with family, because that's something we don't see. You know, you don't think of that as being a block to health

and I know that for me and that's one of the reasons what we were talking about earlier. I have a commitment with my wife and that I would have dinner four to five nights a week with her. And so when we first moved to New York and moved to LA, I was getting invited to all these networking events and all these cool places to be.

And like, dinner's with this person, dinner's with that person. And it was always just like, I was like, if I can't take my wife with me, I don't want to do that because then you don't see that person, right? And there's one me laday that you're asking people to do. It's not that difficult to do one me laday. Jay, look, it's such a good point. With there's so much opportunity out there these days. Many of us, as I do, we look at our

Instagram, we're like, oh God, guys doing that cool thing or that. I should do that. I want to do that. You feel like you're missing out if you're not doing this stuff. But we've really got to focus internally and go, I would ask people, listen to this podcast, who are the people that are actually really important to you? Have you spent real quality time with them recently? If you haven't, it's okay. Just be aware of that and try and figure out what can I do. Can I give you another example that with the other straights it? So I saw this 637-yard-chap in my clinic and he was from the outside really, really successful, right, own business, driving a sports car,

he was working late into the evening on his business, email Saturday, Sundays, working all the time. And he gave me to see me and he said, Dr. Chastity, look, look, things are starting to change. Like I'm quite low in energy sometimes. I can't maintain my concentration a lot of the time. Sometimes I struggle to get out of bed and sometimes I'm feeling a little bit low. It's just what depression is. And I said, okay, look, let's try and figure out what's going on.

So look, we spent a lot of time talking. I did some tests, they were all normal. And it became super clear to me that he never saw any of his friends. Now, he was actually quite lucky. He lived in the place where he grew up. So he had friends who lived nearby, but he never saw any of his friends. Now, he was actually quite lucky. He lived in the place where he grew up. So he had friends who lived nearby, but he never saw them.

He said, yeah, I kind of, I see what they're up to on social media. So look, he would see pictures of where they were going. He would see pictures of what they were going on holiday. He'd see pictures of what they had for dinner last night, but he wasn't seeing them. And I said to him, look, I'll tell you what, are you open to this?

What I think would be really helpful for you. So then at six weeks, I want you to see at least one of your friends once a week. And when you see them, I'd love you to consider putting your phones away and just being really present for the interaction. He was pretty desperate because he was at a low stage. He said, yeah, okay, I'll give that a go. Six weeks later, he comes back in and I say, hey, look, how are you getting on?

He said, dog, I feel like a different person. My energy's up, my mood's better. I'm smashing it at work. I feel really good. I said, okay, great, what did you do? He said, well, the very first time I played five aside football with my friends who I'm not seeing it for years. I said, okay.

And then he goes, but after that, we didn't really have time. Every Sunday morning, we went to the local cafe, and we just caught up for an hour over a latte. That is all he did. So my question is, did this chap have a mental health problem? He certainly had symptoms that were consistent with that sort of diagnosis. Or was it really that he had a deficiency of friendship in his life? And when he corrected his friendship deficiency, everything comes back online.

He feels better, he's working better, he's more productive, you know, he's got more energy. And I think that's a very powerful story because we are told that we're living in this ultra-connected time, that we never been this more connected. And sure, in a digital sense I absolutely agree but when it comes to real deep human meaningful connection I'm not sure we've been this isolated and I think you know

I don't know you may have discussed this on the podcast before Studies have shown that actually the feeling of being lonely is as harmful for your health, the smoking for 15 cigarettes a day. And if people are wondering why that is, would you mind if I briefly explain that? Yeah, I'm listening. You've got to understand that your stress response is that to keep you safe. Right.

That's what it's there for. It evolved millions of years ago. So very simplistically, two million years ago, you're in your hunter-gatherer community, getting on with your business, doing whatever you're doing. If the world predator was to attack or to approach, your stress You're in your hunter-gatherer community, getting on with your business, doing whatever you're doing. If the world predator was to attack or to approach, your stress response would kick into gears

and many things would happen in your body, right? Your blood sugar was start to rise, so you can run faster. You're amygdala, that's the emotional part of your brain. That would go into high alert, so that you're hyper vigilant to all the threats around you. You know, that's an appropriate response when you are literally in danger. The problem today is, is that our stress response has been activated, not by wild predators,

but by our daily lives. So if your email inbox and your to-do list is stressing you out every day, your body might be pushing your blood sugar up every day, which is going to cause low energy, obesity, and ultimately leads to times you diabetes. If your stress that every day, your body might be pushing your blood sugar up every day, which is going to cause low energy, obesity, and ultimately lead to times you diabetes. If you're stressed out every day, your amygdala is going to be on high alerts, you're going to be hyper vigilant to all the threats around you. J, that's an appropriate response. There's a predator there. That's an appropriate response. If we're in downtown LA at night, walking down a street, and we think someone might be following us. You want to be on high alert. But if that's happening day and day out to your life,

that's what we call anxiety. Right? So once you understand the fundamentals of the stress response, you can understand why 90% of what a doctor like me sees in any given day is in some way related to stress. So if we go back to this loneliness piece, if you were lonely, why is it so toxic? Two million years ago, if you were not part of your tribe, or if you were outside your tribe, your

body is super smart. Your body is figured out that, Hey, I'm now vulnerable to attack. I better prepare in case I do get attacked. So your body becomes inflamed. Your immune system gets ramped up. All these things happen to protect you. The problem is, that's happening to many of us these days, from feeling lonely, from this lack of real human connection. It literally changes our biology. This is not kind of the soft stuff, right? This is the real hard biological stuff that we're not talking about.

And if I know you, make a huge effort on your content, that you put out to talk about this stuff, but it is so, so important. And I go back to this 37-year-old patient of mine, I could have diagnosed him. I could have medicated him. Yeah, right. I was just going to ask. And for me, that may be appropriate in some cases, right? But I'm always trying to get to the root cause of the problem. And he had a friendship deficiency. Yeah. That's amazing, by the way. I love that because I think it's so refreshing to hear you prescribing something lifestyle-based,

rather than something medical. Like you said, sometimes it is that, and that's fine. What I'm fascinated by, and I think you explained that incredibly well, and I've heard that many times before, but I think you did a great job of actually making it really clear for everyone listening, what does someone do when they start sensing that? Because that anxiety that you just said is so widespread right now, right? It's looking

at your notifications, it's feeling lonely, it's comparing on Instagram, like you're lost and you're feeling that anxiety. And it's almost like you just talk about it. It's like, I just jealous here. It's envy or I'm just dealing with comparison or whatever, but actually it's this anxiety and there are biological changes in the body. What does someone do on a daily basis when there it's like you're really true what you just described is we're dealing with our level anxiety as if a wild predator is attacking us every single day if not multiple times a day. So that sounds scary, because you're reacting to that level. What do we do to bring that down and to bring it into reality?

So I think there's two ways to look at that. One is when it's happening, what can you do? Yes. And then there's also, well, what can you do to reduce the likelihood of happening in the first place? I like the preparing part. Let's do both. Let's do both.

So the preparing part, okay. So I think a useful way that I like to describe this to people, because, yes, I've written a book on stress, Let's do both. Let's do both. Let's do both. Let's do both. Let's do both. Let's do both. Let's do both. Let's do both. Let's do both. Let's do both. Let's do both. Let's do both.

Let's do both. Let's do both. Let's do both. Let's do both. Let's do both. Let's do both. Let's do both. Let's do both.

Let's do both. Let's do both. Let's do both. Let's do both. Let's do both. Let's do both. Let's do both. Let's do both. Let's do both. Let's do both. Let's do both. Let's do both. Let's do both. Let's do both. So I have this concept of micro stress doses and macro stress doses. Macro stress doses, something really, really significant, a relationship breaker, a bereavement, maybe some trauma, something like that. That is a significant dose of stress that probably needs some form of therapy or something.

You have to deal with that and process that in other ways. I contrast that to micro stress doses or MSDs. Now, we are all getting hit by these MSDs every single day. And I define one of these MSDs or micro-stress doses as this. It is a small hit of stress that in isolation, we can manage. It's no problem. But when they start to accumulate one after the other, after the other, after the other, they start to get as close as to what I call our own personal stress threshold. When you get to your threshold, that's when the problems happen. That's when that

innocent email from your boss becomes a problem. That's when that sort of, you know, that's when you have a rile with your partner. That's when you scream at your kids. That's when actually you overreact to something or you're in the car and someone cuts you up and you start to lose it, right? Because you're at your threshold. Because stress is fundamentally normal. So I make the case that you wake up and many people will leave the house in the morning before they get out of the house, they have been hit by 15 micro stress doses. Like an example which I think people might resonate with. So a very typical example today is this, people are stressed out like at their work

or in their life and so they don't want to go to bed, right? They just like, they want to unwind. So they stay up late watching Netflix. Okay, there was no judgment here, okay? I'm just simply explaining. So you're up late saying, watching Netflix and you get to midnight and you think, I might have got work tomorrow, I better get to bed. Okay, so you go to bed, you put the alarm off the 6.30 on your phone. So at 6.30 in the morning, boom, the alarm's gone off. You're in a deep sleep, that is my Christ rest, those number one. You look at the alarm clock and you think, I've got a bit more time, okay, you put it on

snooze. Six minutes later, it comes on again, my Christ rest, those number two. Then you think, oh, I better have to get out, man. put it on snooze. Six minutes later, it comes on again, my Chris stress says number two. Then you think, oh, I better had to get out, man. So you quickly check your email and go, oh man, there's three working emails from yesterday. I didn't do them, MSD number three. Then you quickly go into social media, so just have a quick look.

Oh man, someone's had a go at me on my last post, MSD number four. Then you realize, oh my God, I've been in bed for half an hour, doing this stuff. I really need to get out of bed now and MSD number five. And you can easily see how before you leave the house, you have been hit by 15 MSDs and that means you are closer to your own stress threshold, which means it won't take much in the day to tip you over.

Now, how can you change that? Well, I've saw your video recently on Morning Reveals and your morning routine is phenomenal. I think morning routines are a critical way to make you more resilient. Even if I can't change the amount of stress in your life, this will buff for you and make you more resilient so you can deal with them. So I think morning routine is critical for people when they wake up. And if people think they don't have time, I can tell you, I've got busy patients. Sometimes even a five minute

morning routine will work. Of course, if you've got an hour, or I think you have a two hour one, J, which is, which looked incredible, but I want to make this accessible to someone thinks, you know, I've got, I've got mums who have to take kids to school who are rushing around. And I give them a framework on how to do a morning routine. So my framework is this, I say, look, a morning routine could be anything, different things to different people, but I think a useful way to look at it is to think about the three M's.

The first time is mindfulness, the second M is movement, and the third M is mindset. And it's just a simple framework. So for me, for example, at the moment, I will wake up. I used to use my phone to go on the calm meditation app. I'm actually not doing the meditation, I'm doing some deep breathing, sort of breathing form of meditation. So I actually don't need my phone at the moment. But if you need a meditation app, that's cool. I just say, you know, put your phone on airplane mode, so

you're not seeing everything that's coming in. But I'll do 10 minutes of deep breathing. Then I'll do like 5, 10 minutes of movement, let's say some hip stretches or something. And then I'll do mindset. And mindset can either be reading something positive. So I'll have four, I'll have a few books there that I'm enjoying reading and things that make me feel good. And I'll read a few pages or I'll do something called affirmations. Now look, I've got young kids. So I try and get up before my kids so that I can do my routine, but my daughter has a six cents of when like, daddy's up and often she'll creep down and often she'll be there when I'm doing my movements. I should just join me. And then if she's with me,

because I also want to do the mindset piece, we do affirmations together. So we'll sit together, hold hands. And for two minutes, we'll say, I'm happy. I'm calm, I'm stress free, I'm happy, I'm calm, I'm stress free. We'll say that for two minutes at the end of those two minutes. She's got a big smile on her face. I feel incredible. And what's more important is that feeling last and buff us me for the entire day. Those days when I think, oh, you don't have time to say you've got to get going. I start to react to things. I'm not as focused. I'm not as present. To really break it down for someone listening to this, who thinks, I get it, but I don't have time.

I've got one patient in particular who does five minutes, and she uses my three M's. The first piece, for one minute, she does deep breathing. She does a breath that I taught her called the three four five breath. When you breathe in for three, you hold for four, and you breathe out for five. She does that for 1 minutes. Then she does 2 minutes of movement. Coming back to what you said before, she had been to like 1 yoga class in her life. But she learned a couple of moves that she likes. So she does her favorite moves for 2 minutes. This is what we're talking about, the immersive experience to learn it. So 1 minute of deep breathing, 2 minutes of yoga, and then she does two minutes

of reading. She's got a list of books there, you know, pilot books, and she picks one up for two minutes she reads, she has told me this has transformed her life. She doesn't scream at kids as much. She's much more presence in the day. And for her, her ex-ma has got significantly better. This is why I'm so passionate about this stuff, right? Eximate is a skin condition, but fundamentally it is a slight dysfunction of one part of the immune system. When you're stressed, it impacts the immune system, right? So for her, doing this morning we'd see

and has significantly improved skin condition. Yeah. And this is, you know, this is why I'm so passionate about this. You know, this, this sounds like small things. You give it a big priority, as you say. And it really leads to a lot of improvements. Yeah. I love that. And that's so stressful, because you can do it in five minutes, you can do it in 10, you can give yourself 15, and you could grow it, but it could be as simple. And I love the three things together. I think I can ask you, Jay, actually, I'm super intrigued, because in your two-on-morning routine, I

do all three of those things. I was going to say, so what do you do? Your genes aren't just about you. It's something you share with people closest to you. Uncovering potential health issues early can help empower you with information so you and your family can move toward a healthier future. If you had an opportunity to prevent an accident, wouldn't you take another road? What I believe about learning applies to health. You have to be proactive. With ancestry health, you can discover how your DNA might influence certain health conditions and the steps you

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by an independent CLIA certified laboratory partner and with oversight from an independent clinician, network of board certified physicians and genetic counselors. Ancestry Health is not currently available in New York, New Jersey or Rhode Island. Yeah, so I wake up and my biggest practice is my meditation practice, which includes everything from breath work through the visualisation, through to mantra and affirmations. So my meditation... That's a whole lot.

Yeah, I do all three types of meditations, breathing, visualization and mantra affirmation. And so I do all three of those, and then I go to the gym. So I do about gym for about 45 minutes every day, every about four days a week. So for me, it's like, that's my morning routine, and mindset is a huge part of it, and I try and find, my mindset isn't necessarily in the morning because my days are so flexible, but I would get at least 30 minutes of reading in a day around something I love. And this isn't just, this isn't just something I started doing now. Like, and this is the point I keep reminding to everyone. And yes, I don't have kids. So I've always put that out there

and said, look, I don't have kids. I'm not going to sit here and say, it's going to be the same when I have kids. So I'm just putting it out there. But the other thing I've always put that out there and said, look, I don't have kids. I'm not gonna sit here and say, it's gonna be the same when I have kids. So I'm just putting it out there. But the other thing I've said is that when I've been working, when I've been working at a company, I didn't just do this when I became an entrepreneur, I've done this for years. And I've avoided watching two extra episodes in the evening

so that I can get that time back in the morning. And I think that's the difference that I sleep much earlier. So when I wake up early and get two hours at the start of the day, that's because I want to sleep at 9.30 p.m. I'm staying up. I mean, I really, I tell you what's changed for me when I had cases that it's shifting my bed time earlier

because I've realized for me, and this, actually this point super important for people, you've got to figure out what works for you. Yes. Right? For me, I'm a much better person. I'm a better father. I'm a much better dad. I'm a better husband. When I have time to myself in the morning, if I get up at the same time as everyone else and I'm sort

of reacting, it doesn't work so well for me. So I've shifted my bedtime earlier so that I can get up earlier before them. And, you know, if you do have kids, what I, you know, I've shared that my daughter sometimes comes down, you know what, I kind of also feel that, hey, I'm helping her to see Daddy prioritizes his self-care. Daddy is, I hope I'm showing her. Well, you're doing it with her, that's amazing.

That's amazing, I love her. This stuff is important, so it doesn't have to be, because ultimately I could get frustrated. And if I'm honest, I used to get frustrated. And this was around then. Yeah, I'd be like, oh man, I really wanted this time to myself. And that sort of tension is stressing me out,

which is counterproductive. And now I've learned, hey look, I'm doing a lot of personal growth anyway, but I've learned to kind of accept things and actually really accept what's going on. And being like, okay, my daughter said cool cool, so what's the message I can learn? Cool, get in my boat. And it's really fun.

And I hope this leads to her putting these practices in offer her own volition when she's older. I'll tell you it a few years, if she does it. No, I'm sure she will. And I love that. And let's talk about that sleep piece because I think for so many of us, when you've had a long day at work,

you had a stressful day at work, you come home, you put the kids to bed and you just think, I need to decompress. I'm going to put the TV on and it may be 10pm by then or whatever it is. And you get lost like you said till midnight or 1am whatever it is and then you wake up. What is there any decompression in watching a show or actually would, in my opinion, the sleep and the decompression through sleep is so much more powerful than the entertainment value you think you feel better by watching two episodes of your very show.

Yeah, I agree. Look, I think we're looking at symptoms here. The symptom of being so stressed all the time is that we need to find ways of relieving that stress, whether that sugar, whether it's alcohol, whether it's binge watching Netflix. We're trying to hide a numb, like something else that's going on in our life.

And that's okay if you're conscious of it, but sleep, I hate prioritizing those four pillars of health, because it's against what I stand for, but if you push me, I might argue that sleep might be the most important because when you sleep well, it's easier to do all those other things. It's easier not to be reactive. It's easier to eat well.

It's easier to be more, you know, all these things are easy when you sleep well. The biggest problem in society, we're going to sleep is simply this. We're not prioritizing it. We think it's optional. We do other things. And when we're done, when we've exhausted all other possibilities, oh, I better get some sleep in. But once you stop prioritizing sleep and making about the foundation of your day, and think, oh, well, I need to get up at this time,

therefore, what time do I need to go to sleep? You will find very quickly your life changes. Now, one thing I'd love to share is that I've been seeing patients for almost 20 years now. Now, one thing I'd love to share is that I've been seeing patients for almost 20 years now. And in almost every case, a sleep issue is usually a lifestyle issue. There are very, very few cases, relatively, that are what we call a primary sleep disorder, which needs a treatment. Most things we are doing, something in our lifestyle, that we do not realize is impact on our ability to sleep at nights. Caffeine's a big one.

We all know caffeine can be problematic for sleep. People don't realize it. If you go to Starbucks at midday and by a large latte, at 6 p.m., half of that Starbucks latte is going around your blood and your brain. At midnight, a quarter is going around your brain, right? So I say to people, enjoy your caffeine, if you want it, enjoy it before noon, if you can.

If someone thinks caffeine does not affect them and they're struggling with their sleep, I challenge them for seven days to just have it in the morning and just see what happens. If it doesn't make a difference, fine. But if it does, now you're empowered with information and you can choose what you want to do with that, my job is not to tell somebody what to do. I feel my job is to empower them.

So they start to experience it for themselves so they then can be in charge. They can be sovereign and decide, oh, I'm going to do this. So that's a big one. What you do before bed is super important, right? And you know, you've got to wind down for any of your listeners who do have kids, they will recognize that you need to give your kids a little routine. What do you do before bed with your kids? You don't give them a load of sugar to amp them up. You don't put on the TV really loud and actually

get them really emotionally charged. You don't put the lights really bright. You lower your tone. You soften the lights. You know, you might put some music and you might read them a story. We as adults think somehow we're different from kids, but we are not. Right? If you, I have a rule like one hour before bed, I try 90 minutes, but really it's normally one hour before bed. I make a mental switch in my head and I go off from my daytime to my nighttime. I am now in preparation for sleep. I'm switching off. My laptop goes off mostly.

I'm not perfect. Sometimes I do it right, and it always affects my sleep. Yeah. But I do, you know, I'll listen to music. I'll read in bed. Like my wife and I have a little rule that we try and sort of help motivate each other to do, which is to charge our friends in our kitchen.

If I bring my phone into my bedroom, I cannot resist looking at it. Of course not. I just can't resist. Yeah, no one can. I live in a house, so downstairs is where my phone charges. And then when I just switch off and read, I actually fall into a really deep slumber.

Now, I just want to share a little very quick story for people who think that technology does not affect their sleep quality. One of my buddies, actually who lives out here in California, and I actually met him a couple of days ago, but a couple of years ago, he said to me, wrong look, I get all this stuff about technology and blue light before bed. I feel sorry for those people who affect, I'm totally cool with him. I said, okay, cool.

Anyway, then he bought like an aura ring, like one of these fancy tracking rings. I'm not saying everyone has to buy that, you know, but he bought an aura ring. I think they are very good. And he phoned me up about a year ago. He's like, wrong, oh my God, I've just had a look. Every time I do work him, I'll go on a social media just before I go to bed,

the amount of deep sleep I get has almost vanished. Wow. Right? So he needed, ironically, he needed technology, tracking technology to tell him and that changed his behavior. So you may fall asleep, but it's not just the quantity of sleep. It's the quality of sleep. Try for a seven days.

Again, I challenge people to try. See if you can phone your phone, switch your phone off for one hour before beds and see what happens. I bet, I almost guarantee that you will feel different in the morning, you will feel calmer. And also, there's this phase just before sleep I'll be learning about from reading some neuroscience is that the phase in your brain,

I think it's called the hyperfage extensive consciousness. Don't quote me on that if that's incorrect. But I'm, that what you do just before bed is critical. Your brain process is there. When you sleep, so if you've gotten in a battle over Donald Trump online, right, or into a row with your friend on Facebook, just before you go to bed, guess what your brain's going to be thinking about tonight. I'm saying.

You've got to protect that. If you feel that you are the most important person in your life and I hope people who follow your work are starting to get to that point where they actually put themselves first, the best thing you can do is prioritize your sleep and that starts one hour before it. Take ownership of that time. You do that for a few days. You will feel the difference. You will feel bulletproof in the rest of your life.

This is great advice by the way. I think this is awesome. I'm so glad we're going deep on some of these things because and it's nice to hear you say a lot of the stuff that I so deeply believe is and explain it so incredibly well. One of the things I love about what you're saying is you bring in lifestyle, you took my loneliness and friendship, you also took a lot about purpose and it's for sure. feeling around lowering stress and the role that purpose plays. And often, purposes aren't really used in the health context, but you really bring it in. And I love that I mean, the podcast is called on purpose, but I feel so much that purpose is so closely linked to health. And tell us, yeah, tell us from your

perspective and you're finding. Yeah, you know, this is Jay, why I started a book with purpose as the first quarter of the book because I thought fundamentally a life which has no meaning in purpose is inherently a stressful life. Yes, you could do all the other things, but ultimately if you don't have that reason to get up and you don't have that direction in your life,

I think things can be very, very challenging. Now, the science backs that up, people with a, and I'm sure you probably gonna cover this in your book, I think things can be very, very challenging. Now, the science backs that up, you know, people with a, and I'm sure you probably going to cover this in your book, I wouldn't imagine, but people who don't have a strong sense of purpose have poor health outcomes. They have lower levels of income. They have lower levels of happiness. All these things come from something that we might often have thought is a little bit soft, right? This is the stuff. And this is why, is why, I love, I'm super proud of my first book. But my second book, I think, really tackles the issues and health that we're not talking about enough.

You know what I mean? And that's why the meaning and purpose is so important. Now, why is purpose so important? We sort of explain that. But I remember a few years ago on Facebook, I saw one of my friends post this idea of Ikigai. So I'm sure you're familiar with this Japanese idea of ickyguys and then these four circles and they said ickyguys wear these things in the middle and there's four circles where trying to find something you

do in your life that you love, that you're good at, that the world needs and that pays you money. I remember looking at that and it was just a couple years after my dad had died so I was going through a huge sort of, I cared for my dad for like 15 years with my mom and my brother. And dad dying was one of the biggest shifts for me. And that's really set me on this path to kind of personal growth and trying to figure out

who I am and what I'm doing. And I looked at that and I thought, I keep going, I want I keep going my life, I fancy a bit of I keep going. And I would talk about this concept with my patients. And a lot of my patients would say, yeah, I like that, but it's just too intimidating. I don't know where to start.

And when I was doing the UK book tour for the book in January, I was in London. I was taking a Q and A at the end, and this Japanese student put a hand up. And she said, Dr. Chasey, I just want to share that, I've grown up with this concept. Oh wow. And I have found it., um, I've actually found it really hard. I found it an impossible bar to live up to. And I found that so interesting because I love the

concept. But then I'm always thinking about, well, what if my patients or what if my friends are finding it too difficult? So I simplified it. I tried to create a new, well, I did create a new framework that I called the live framework in my book to help people ultimately get more meaning So I simplified it. I tried to create a new, well, I did create a new framework that I called the live framework in my book to help people ultimately get more meaning of purpose in their life. Now, I love a key guy, right? I'm just, I'm not criticizing it.

I'm just, if you're like, when I worked in olden, like for seven years, which is, you know, the practice I worked in was a lot of poor patients, a lot of them were on benefits. They didn't really have, the thought of actually finding one thing that ticked all those boxes was just like pie in the sky, right? So the live framework, I really enjoy.

We don't need to go through it all necessarily, but it's L-I-V-E, alpha love, I-F-E-intention, v for vision, and e for engagement. Now, if we just take the first one, because I think this is really practical take-home for people, the first one, because I think this is really practical take-home for people. The first one is love. The research shows us super clearly. Regularly doing things that you love makes you more resilient to stress.

But conversely, being stressed day in day out makes it harder for you to experience pleasure and day-to-day things. It kind of works both ways. So I always talk to my patients about passion. What are you doing in your life that you really love? Again, I mean, another patient example which I think brings it to life, 51-year-old chap. I don't know if that's, I don't know how old you're,

your listeners are, right? I don't know if that's a bit older or not. But I think there's a very powerful story here. 51-year-old chap comes into see me. He's the CFO of the local plastics company. You know, good job, good money. He's married, he's got kids, he lives in a pretty big house. He comes into see me again, worried about depression. He said, I struggle to get out of bed sometimes, I'm indifferent about things.

I just lost that get up and go. I feel quite down sometimes. I said, okay, fine, I try to tease out what's going on. I said, how's your relationship with your wife? Yeah, it's so surf. We don't see each other that much, okay, fine. I tried to tease out what's going on. I said, how's your relationship with your wife? Yeah, it's so surf. We don't see each other that much, it's fine. Very, very indifferent. I said, how's your job?

Job, you don't just pays the bills. I don't really enjoy it, but I need it. It pays the mortgage, house, pool, food on the table. I said, okay, have you got any hobbies? Dock at our time for hobbies. I'm a busy guy at our time. I said, what about the weekends? Weekends, I've got to do the housework,

got to do all the chores, take the kids around to their sports clubs. I said, okay, did you ever have any hobbies? Yeah, well, you know, I said, kid, as a teenager, I used to love playing with toy train sets. I said, okay, do you have a train set? Right? And he's like, yeah, I think so.

I've got one in the attic. But it's really dusty. I haven't seen it in years. I said, okay, what I'd love you to do tonight when you get home is get your train set out. Now look, I appreciate this may not be the advice he was expecting from his doctor, you know? I love it.

But this is the advice I gave him that I didn't see him for a little while, which is not uncommon. We have so many patients we can't follow them all up. Three months later, I was in my clinic car park about to do some home visits, and I bumped into his wife, and I said, hey, how's your husband doing?

She said, got to chastity it. I feel like I've got the guy I married back again. He comes home from work, he's pushing around on his train set. He's on eBay trying to buy collectors trains,. And he subscribed to this like monthly magazine now. He's just like a different person. I still hadn't seen him three months later. I see him. He'd done some blood tests. He came for a check with me. And before we went into that, I said, Hey, how are you getting on?

So Doc, I feel like a different person. I feel happy. I feel energized. I absolutely love it. Thank you so much I said, you know, how's your how's your relationship with your wife? It's like we've never been closer things are super super good. So what about your job? I really really enjoy my job now. So what does that tell you? You know you asked the question again Did this champ have a mental hard problem? Sure he had symptoms. I could have diagnosed him with something. Or what's what he really had?

A deficiency of passion in his life. When he corrects his passion deficiency, everything else comes back online. Yeah, he feels better with himself. Now he's enjoying his job. Now he's closer with his wife. Now he's got more energy. And it started with him playing with his train set.

So for people listening to that, I would love them. And actually to make it super easy, I challenge all of my patients, say, look, can you give yourself a daily dose of pleasure, even if it's just for five minutes, right? Five minutes, it could be a walk, it could be listened to a podcast, reading a book, it could be watching one of your videos, one of your feel good videos, like go onto your account and watch one of them

to make you feel good. It doesn't matter whatever you enjoy doing, give yourself, I want to give a daily dose of pleasure. I want people to give that the same priority as they might give the amount of vegetables they have on their plates. When we talk about health, we're not talking about pleasure, we're not talking about passion. It is so important. And again, another question I'd ask people is, think about in your own life, when did you last do something that you love, that you did for you, not so you could post about it on social media, right? And again, I'm not quick

sizing if you want to do that, but understand the things that you do because you want external validation and understand the things that you do because it makes you feel good. If you've not done it for a while, look at your schedule, make a phone call, put something in your diary so at least it's there. Yeah, I love what you've done there because I think you've just, and I talk about this a lot, is taking purpose of a pedestal. Yeah, because I think that when purpose is like this big, elusive, intangible thing, I was speaking at a corporate HR conference this week at Microsoft in Seattle, and I was talking about the need to give people

inside companies micro purposes. I was like, stop trying to get everyone to find this like one purpose that overarchs their life and give them something just get excited about even if it's three months. So what can you get excited about right now? Like you can get excited about a train set right now. Yeah.

You don't need to figure out like whether you're gonna build a train checker or anything for real. And I love that because I think it's so grounded in reality and so often it's stuff that we left in our youth. I mean, one of the reasons why I started making videos again is because I asked myself that question. I was like, what would my younger self be sad

that I stopped doing? And my answer to that was writing, and my answer to that was being creative, and my answer to that was, expressing myself through the written word and spoken word. And that's kind of why I went back to it. And that's where I get the most buzz. I get the most buzz from putting together words that can help people and being creative. But Jay, it's like a ripple effect. Yes. Why I start small is if someone starts to reconnect with their passion, you know what, that will lead you to connect with yourself. And more.

And you may make different decisions into this. You may not know what your meaning and purpose is now. Yes. Start with passion. And it will start to become clear. Yeah, I'm with you. I'm with you. Absolutely.

And it's as simple as that. It is. It's as simple as that. It is. It's as simple as that. It's just start with what you like doing right now, even if you don't love it. Start with what you just like doing and what you like getting involved with. And same with the people around you. I think we're not decisive enough with our lives and our time about like, so many people say to me, like, I spend 75% of my time with people I don't like.

And just like, shift that. You don't need to. You don't have to. There's no need to do that. So thank you for getting us started on that. I'm so glad we dove into purpose. I ain't not at all. Because I think it's such a powerful way. And what was, tell me about intention.

Intention? I want to know. What I mean by intention is, again, my, if someone is already out there living that purpose, this may not be relevant, right? I'm trying to bring it down to people who put it on a pedestal, I think I can't do that. I think for most people it's on a pedestal. For sure, exactly. And so intention is about doing something each day with complete mindful intent. Why doesn't it need to be a whole day? Of course,

I'd love it to be a whole day. I don't live my whole day with real mindful intent. I hope at one point I'm able to, what I can't. So I say choose one thing. Let's say you love, I don't know, coffee, right? Or tea, what, oh, yeah. I'm an L.A. now, so I feel less about talking about tea and I feel more like talking about coffee, which is what everyone does in the U.S.

But when you're drinking it, when you're making it, right? Make it with real and tenant purpose. Maybe for five minutes in the morning, focus on your coffee ritual. Like, I used to have a real coffee problem. That was a crunch for me. And what I used to do is I would, it would be a real ritualistic part of my day.

I'd get up, I'd put the kettle on, and I'd weigh out the beans on a scale. No, I didn't have social media, I didn't have music on it, it was all quiet. I'd watched the water pour on it and it starts to froth. I put it on the cavity, I put it on top, I just sit there for four minutes, just watching it, smelling it, taking in the aroma, and then mindfully drinking it. The Japanese have tea rituals, it takes like an hour to pour out cup of tea, it? It's a real, it's not about the tea. It's about the process around it and what that symbolizes.

I am just trying to ask somebody to find something. Maybe it's a cup of coffee. Maybe it's a cup of tea that they prepare and drink completely mindfully. Because I find when you do that, it bleeds into the other aspects of your life. It's not about that five minute session necessarily. It's what it does.

It's been like meditation, isn't it? Like meditation often you don't get all the benefit in the moment. You notice it later. Like you notice when I speak to like Watkins once on my podcast, he's a meditation teacher and he goes, the stink a lot of people make is they try and assess

that the result of the meditation immediately when they finish. Yes. I'm sure you may feel calm, but often it's in the other 23 and a half hours in your day 100% where you get the benefit. And so the intention piece is simply to choose something, right? And I think coffee and tea are quite good examples of people because I think that we all do.

And just do it mindfully with presence. That is a form meditation, and it's to try and take even meditation off its lofty pedestal and bring it right down. I guarantee you do that seven days in a row, only for a few minutes, you will notice yourself being more mindful and present at other times. Yeah, absolutely, no, I'm totally with you on that.

And I talk about that a lot in my work right now as well, of just like, you've just got to do what you're doing anyway, whether it's showering, brushing your teeth, coffee, cooking. Like you do any of those acts mindfully. You don't even need to find that. And what I loved about what you said is that, what we try and do is we go, I don't want to focus during this activity,

and I want to focus during this activity and I want to focus during this one. And I think that's a mistake because when you focus on something as simple as making a tear or your coffee, like you said, it bleeds into it and now you're focused on everything. Whereas if you go, oh, while I make coffee, I'm just going to do it quickly. But then when I get to that meeting, I'm going to be really focused. It doesn't work. We got it wrong.

We flipped it. Yeah, exactly. Pay attention to the small things and the big things will start to take care of themselves. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. And we try and do it the hard way around. I'm going to focus for an hour, but I can't focus for a minute. It's like, we're going to go to the gym and work out for an hour.

It's like, well, maybe just start five minutes a day. And so, you know, Jade, the overall issue, the point for me is, you know, with all these patients, these tens of thousands of people I have seen, 80% of what we're now seeing, 80% is in some way driven by collective modern lifestyles. It's that simple. And that's not being judgmental. I'm not putting blame on people. I get it.

Life can be very tough. It can be very stressful. It can be very busy. But if you focus on those small things and do pick one thing you heard about in this podcast, not all of them, pick one thing that resonated with you. If you heard something that didn't resonate with you, find, leave it.

Pick the one thing that did. Like I would say the five minutes in passion. I mean, you don't need a prescription to do something we love, right? Yeah, start that and see what happens in the rest of your life. Yeah, I love that. That's amazing, Rung and Rung.

And we end every episode with a final five, which is our final five rapid five quick five round. So it's like one word to one sentence answers. Try to keep my stuff up. Roll it down. Yeah, I say that and I'm like, yeah, I feel the stress, you feel the stress. Do you feel three, four, five?

I'm doing my three, four, five. Three, four, five. So these are your final five. Number, number one question. Are some people truly more creative at night? Yes. Oh, okay, tell me more, I'm intrigued. Like if some people are like,

I need to stay up at night to be more creative to, you know, be more workable. Oh, when you mean like that. Yeah. I would say no. Oh, okay. Because I think we kid ourselves that we're not else. So many of us do kid ourselves,

and we use lights to keep us up. And then we get that second wins, but you can easily change your rhythm. So I'm going to say no. OK, good. I'm glad. Thank you for that. I appreciate it.

Let's see this. I'm picking some good ones for you. That's the breathing. What's something you're trying to learn right now? I'm trying to learn how to use social media as a way, as a mirror to help me know when I've got an issue to process. So if I see something on social media that I get a rise from,

instead of getting annoyed, I'm now using it to look at, hey, why is that both of you? Oh, I love that. I love that. What a great answer. Amazing. That's a brilliant answer. Question number three, what was one of your habits that was the hardest that both of you? Oh, I love that. I love that. What a great answer. Amazing.

That's a brilliant answer. Question number three. What was one of your habits that was the hardest to break for you? Coffee. Okay. I was drinking way too much caffeine. There's nothing wrong with caffeine necessarily, but I was using it as a crutch. And one of the identified why I was using it, now I managed to pretty much cut it out.

Okay. Question number four. You're very good at this, by the way. Question number four. If you weren't a doctor, what would you be doing? Musician. Oh, really? What do you play? Guitar, piano, clarinet, trombone. Why? I didn't know.

I used to like, I used to play, I used to tour, I recorded a Sothe Weepy that I toured around the UK. Pre the internet. Yeah, yeah. Pre so it's not what you said. Confined it. But yeah, it's a big part of my life music. It's my passion.

Amazing. And question number five, if you could set a 21 day challenge for my audience, what would you ask them to do? The one thing you'd like them to do for 21 days? music. It's my passion. Amazing. And question number five, if you could set a 21 day challenge for my audience, what would you ask them to do? The one thing you'd like them to do for 21 days? In a row. For five minutes a day, do something that you absolutely love. That's it. Amazing. I love it. Rangan, you're incredible. Thank you so much. This was such a brilliant podcast. Great interview. Loved every piece of advice you said. Everyone who's listening, makes you come back to this one. And as Rungan said, all you need to is pick one.

Just pick one of these things, make it a big priority in your life, take a small step, and you can see his passion flying off the screen or in your ears. And I want you to recognize that he's made it sound so simple, but that's because it is. And I really value that today.

I feel like you've made it just sound so easy and effortless. And when I'm sitting here listening to you, I'm like, you're right, it actually is. And whenever we try and complicate it by being more theoretical or more intellectual or any of these things, actually we're making a lot harder on ourselves and for other people. So I think today you've really made it effortless and an easy rung. And thank you so much for doing that. Thanks, James. Pleasure to meet you. Keep on doing the great work that you're doing. Yeah. Thank you, man. So as I said at thank you so much for doing that. Thanks, Jay. It's pleasure to meet you. Keep on doing the great work that you're doing. Yeah, thank you, man.

So as I said at the beginning, Rungard's new book is out. It's called the Stress Solution, the four steps to reset your body, mind, relationships, and purpose. Go grab the book right now. If you enjoyed the conversation, this was just the tip of the iceberg of all the wonderful insights, challenges, and takeaways that are inside this book. It's truly going to change your life, go and grab a copy.

Hi, I'm Brendan Francis Nuneum, I'm a journalist, a wanderer, and a bit of a bond for Vaan, but mostly a human just trying to figure out what it's all about. And not lost is my new podcast about all those things. It's a travel show where each week I go with a friend to a new place and to really understand it, I try to get invited to a local's house for dinner, where kind of trying to get invited to a dinner party, it doesn't always work out. Ooh, I have to get back to you.

Listen to not lost on the iHeart radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. I am Miyaan Levan Zant, and I'll be your host for The R Spot. Each week listeners will call me live to discuss their relationship issues. Nothing will tear a relationship down faster than two people with no vision. There's y' are just floppin' around like fish out of water?

Mommy, daddy, your ex, I'll be talking about those things and so much more. Check out the R-Spot on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Yvonne Gloria and I'm Mike DeGolmes Rejoin. We're so excited to introduce you to our new podcast, Hungry For History. On every episode, we're exploring some of our favorite dishes, ingredients, beverages from our Mexican culture. We'll share personal memories and family stories, decode, culinary customs, and even provide a recipe or two for you to try at home.

Listen to Hungry For History on the I Heart Radio App, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.