The Dr. Hyman Show - Finding Your Purpose Through Happiness, Intention and Surrender

Episode Date: May 17, 2019

Our internal dialogue is intimately connected to our physical body, and our mitochondria are always eavesdropping on our thoughts. In fact, our mindset can be one of our strongest guiding forces. The overwhelming stresses in today’s world can create enormous strain on our nervous system, leading to burnout and breakdown. Through working on our mindset, we can lessen our reactions to stress. But it takes practice and loyalty to our intentions to make our good mindset habitual. Your thoughts have real and measurable effects on your overall health and wellbeing. Feeling we have a purpose in life and sharing our unique gifts with the world allows us to tap into more joyful living. And a major part of pursuing a sense of purpose is identifying what makes you feel your best. I’ve explored this topic with a number of my guests on this podcast. This mini-episode of The Doctor’s Farmacy includes portions of my past conversations on this podcast with Bulletproof founder and CEO, Dave Asprey and Reverend Michael Beckwith, Founder and Spiritual Director of the Agape International Spiritual Center.

Coming up on this episode of The Doctor's Pharmacy. You said something that are very, you know, hopeful is we can actually change our mitochondria by changing our thoughts, that our thoughts actually are being eavesdropped on by our mitochondria. Hi, I'm Dr. Mark Hyman. And today my team and I are excited to share with you a special mini episode of The Doctor's Pharmacy. Creating balance in our lives is something that affects us down to a cellular level. And the overwhelming stresses in today's world can create enormous strain on our nervous system, leading to burnout and breakdown. This is something I've had the opportunity to discuss with my good friend and Bulletproof founder and CEO, Dave Asprey.

You can do big things and still be happy. In fact, my next book, one of the big themes in it is that you can only do big things if you work on happiness first. I see so many CEOs who, well, you know, I'm running my company. I just flew to Japan and back and I'm going to do an Ironman triathlon. And I'm like, let me guess. Your adrenals are shut. Yeah. You can't sleep. You have no sex drive.

Your joints hurt all the time. And like, how did you know it's like well here's what happens when you don't recover enough hormones crash adrenals crash testosterone goes down women oftentimes get monthly hormone problems it just goes over exercise your sex life goes to pot it really does and also if you're constantly stimulating instead of recovering it it just doesn't work so our job is to actually be masters of recovery, which means small amounts of targeted stimulation. Great news, that takes less time. And then recovery.

And recovery means you sleep. It also means that if you're in a toxic relationship that you fix it. It means that if you have a lot of emotional stress, old trauma, PTSD, substance abuse problems, problems eating disorders you deal with that stuff because if you have chronic stress from just being unhappy that's enough stress even without exercise yeah and if you have lots of travel stress you're jet lagged maybe you don't want to hit the the gym really hard maybe you just want to take it easy and get some extra sleep and get a massage and to recognize that the massage makes you just as good of a person as going to the gym and lifting heavy things it's recovery that matters.

That's good to know. I'm going to write that down. Whether your goal is to do big things or just do the things that make you happy, you will not have healthy functioning cells if you have a belief system that says everything's a threat. Because the mitochondria, they want to keep your petri dish alive no matter what. And if they believe that you believe there's a tiger present, even if the tiger is just the next email or the next Facebook post or the next time that you're getting in a fight with your boss or whatever it is, if that looks like a tiger to a dumb little bacteria, they're going to constantly change their metabolism to be ready to fight. And you'll be in that fight or flight mode. Our mindset can be one of our strongest guiding forces. We are reactive beings, oftentimes

making decisions out of duress. Through our mindset, we can lessen our reactions to stress. But it takes practice and loyalty to your intentions to make your good mindset habitual. I explored these ideas in my conversation with Reverend Michael Beckwith, founder and spiritual director of the Agape International Spiritual Center. If you didn't have an intention, it wouldn't have happened. It's not just going to happen by accident. Things don't just happen. They happen just.

And that intentionality that you're living with brought in something beyond what you could plan for. And so many people do not have intention. They have reaction. So let's unpack this concept of intention and surrender. Yes. Because they seem intention and surrender. Yes. Because they seem contradictory, right? Yes. How do you have an intention and manifest and have a desire to make something happen and also completely let go and surrender?

The intention is like a rudder that your life is going in a direction. I want my life to go in a direction of service, of love, of generosity, of prosperity, of health, of wellness. Now, surrender is not giving up, acquiescing to a circumstance. Surrender is allowing that which is within you already to emerge. So the acorn is surrendering to the oak tree. The apple seed is surrendering to an orchard of apples. It's not giving up. It's actually dying to its littleness so that that which is loaded and coated within it can come forward. So when you're living a surrendered life, you're always on the verge of the more of

you coming forward. And what appears... You surrender to what the outcome is. Yes. And you're surrendering the outcome to something that's bigger than your imagination. So there's no attachment. It's like being in the flow without an attachment to the outcome, but you're being in the flow. Yeah. So now the outcome forms itself based on your intention, based on your willingness. I almost died last year. I was in this state of complete collapse.

I had complicated illness of mold poisoning. I had intestinal infection from an antibiotic. I lost 30 pounds. I was in bed for five months and I had no physical self. I had no emotional self. I had no mental self. None of that was working. All I had was my spiritual core. And in the middle of it, I had this great sense of peace and I was even surrendered to dying. And I didn't know why this was happening. I didn't know if I was going to come out of it. I didn't know what would happen to me, but I just sort of surrendered into it. And, and as it sort of turned out, it allowed me to discover a whole new way of healing to kind of resurrect myself. And now

I'm stronger, better than ever. And I'm using what I learned to heal my patients. So I wouldn't have chosen that. But you got the gift from it. You got the great gift. Yeah. Many of us have questioned our reason for being here in this life and in doing that we're seeking our purpose. We're looking for our deepest understanding of our place in the universe and how to share our unique gifts with the world. I found this practice of being intentional extremely powerful in my own life. It's helped me overcome challenges and hard times with grace and positivity. I want to leave you today by sharing the top three tips that helped me find my own calling and led me to a fulfilled life. One, notice what makes you feel your best.

Two, prioritize the things that ignite you and make you feel alive. Three, be open to possibilities. You most likely have more than one purpose in this life, so it's important to realize how all of your different passions can coexist and mold into something truly special. It's never too late to tune into your sense of purpose and identify ways to strengthen its role in your everyday life. I hope you enjoyed this mini episode of The Doctor's Pharmacy, wishing you health and happiness. Thanks for tuning in.