THE ED MYLETT SHOW - Managing Your Mental Health w/ Dr. Caroline Leaf

Episode Date: June 27, 2023

Gain practical strategies for PERSONAL GROWTH and MENTAL RESILIENCE as we unlock the mysteries of the BRAIN and MENTAL HEALTH with this INSIDER look into the forefront of NEUROSCIENCE!Get ready for an extraordinary episode as we dive into the fascinating world of cognitive neuroscience and mental health with the incredible Dr. Caroline Leaf. She is not only a leading COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENTIST and brilliant MENTAL HEALTH EXPERT, but her work has helped me personally for many years.She also has a new book titled HOW TO HELP YOUR CHILD CLEAN UP THEIR MENTAL MESS: A GUIDE TO BUILDING RESILIENCE AND MANAGING MENTAL HEALTH, available for pre-order right now.Dr. Leaf's groundbreaking work has resulted in powerful insights and practical strategies that can transform your mental well-being.In today’s episode, we're just scratching the surface, but the depth of our conversation will leave you mind-blown (literally).We’re discussing:Discovering the neuro-cycle and unlocking its transformative powerUnveiling the intricate connection between mental health and the physical aspects of our brainUnderstanding the profound unity of mind, spirit, and soulIdentifying warning signals for mental health conditions and fostering resilienceExploring the brain's remarkable immune system and its role in protectionUnraveling the mysteries of trauma healing and the brain's capacity for changeTactical strategies to empower children and build their mental healthEmbracing the crucial role of quality sleep in promoting well-beingUnveiling the transformative 5 steps to rewiring your brainThe power of physical movement and the appropriate use of medicationPrepare to be captivated as we journey into the depths of neuroscience and gain insights that have the potential to transform your life. This episode is a testament to the profound impact of Dr. Leaf's work and her unwavering commitment to improving mental well-being. 

This is The Edm Myleth Show. Welcome back to the show, everybody. I'm so excited about today because the woman sitting across from me is the definition of brilliant. Oh, sweet. It's just true. And she is always the smartest person in the room and never feels the need to prove it to you.

And that's the real definition of humility and brilliance combined. She's a cognitive neuroscientist and a true mental health expert and her works made a huge impact in my life. The last time she was on the show, you guys went crazy because of how detailed her messaging is and her content is. And so Dr. Caroline Leif, thank you for being here today. Oh, Ed, thank you so much for that lovely introduction. I'm very, very, very flattered, very honored.

Thank you. And I love talking to you. It's always just, you're amazing interviewer. Thank you. Pull the base out of me. Well, I love listening to you. She also has a new book out that you can pre-order right now, depending on when you listen to it.

But you can border it at any time. But how to help your child clean up their mental mass, a guide to building resilience and managing mental health. Wow, is that a timely book? So let's start with some foundational stuff first. What's the neuropsycho? Just so we set the stage for everybody, kind of foundational part of your work right now. Absolutely. Well, it is based on 38 years of research and a still do research, finding ways to help

people to manage their mind to drive the neuroplasticity of their brain in the right direction so that they can then show up in life how they want to. That's probably the most simple explanation. So it's a system that helps you really get your mind where you want it, to get your brain and body in your life where you want it. Does it help change their thoughts? It changes your thoughts completely.

It basically helps you find the thoughts that are the things that are holding you back, intrusive thoughts that are actually your best friend, because it helps you find the intrusive thoughts that are making you feel whatever in your life, from the traumas to the day-to-day struggles, and it helps you deconstruct and reconstruct them, so that they don't influence your future in the wrong way. So you can decide how you want to use what you've gone through to help you in your future. Oh my goodness. This is going to go deep. Here we go you guys. I'm going to give you the stuff I always wanted to ask you that I didn't get to ask you before. Perfect. What is a thought? That's one of my

favorite questions. So I've got some props here to show us. So here I've got green tree and a little toxic looking tree. And these are basically great analogies for what a thought is. So a thought is a cluster of information. It's a cluster of memories. And two types of memories. One are the source memories, like the roots of a plant. OK. Which starts the plant growing.

And then the others are what you call interpretation memories, which we could sell the branches of the roots. So what happens is when it the experience begins, like for example people listening to this conversation, as you introduce me, that's like a seed in the ground. And then as I'm talking and we're conversing, that's information that's coming at them and going into the root memories, because it's the source of the conversation. While we're having this conversation and giving information to the listeners and they're growing the roots, that's a good, this is good information. So if you hold up the green,

the green tree, that is there are then interpreting what I'm saying, according to the own unique way of thinking and feeling and choosing how the mind works, because that's all, this is all mind stuff, not brain stuff, this is mind stuff. And then the mind is then you, you basically your mind interprets whatts what you have heard in the root system into how you understand it. So the branches are branch memories or interpretation memories of what you've heard. So I'm saying stuff about mental health and thoughts and whatever, that's

going into the root system, but each person listening, including yourself is interpreting this in their own way to understand their own understanding and having to own unique impact. And in this we'll show up, this information we'll show up in what they say and do and feel their life, how they show up in their life. So thoughts are real thing that occupies mental real estate. I've got a model of a brain here. So with our minds we are processing this information into the roots and whatever. But it's basically gravitational fields and electromagnetic light waves and auditory sound waves and to all this gravitational field, all these fancy physics things that then are

which and then there's the sort of psychological mixing of all that physical stuff, but then goes into the brain. So the mind uses the brain, it needs to substrate within which to plant the experience, plant the tree. So it takes this in three or we with our mind, put this into the brain, the brain then responds and this is wired into the brain and that activates the different parts of the brain. So that's why we say takes occupies mental real estate. When you look at the brain as somebody who's struggling with a mental health issue, which by the way, that's a pretty broad term. It is. It's really a broad term. But you look at the brain of

someone who really struggles with depression, let's say. Are there parts of their brain that function differently? Is it a blood flow issue? Is it a wiring over time of the neuroconnections in their brain where they've just wired this thought and it's got coated with this myelin or what do their brains actually physically look differently when you observe them? So these two parts to that answer, first of all, it's an excellent question. The first part to that answer is that your brain will change based on your experience. So it's not about us, it's about us in the world. You cannot divorce a human from the experience that they have and what it does in the brain.

Is it their experienced doctor, leaf, or their takeaway or belief or story? They tell themselves. So it's a combination of layers. So the experience happens or conversation could be the experience. That's the process by the mind, which is this field all around and through us. When you did your mind's not working. So that's an easy way to understand mind, because people say, what is mind? Mind is pretty much your awareness, your ability to process, experience, think, feel, choose. Can I ask this?

There's no specific location, definitive location to the mind, then, correct? The mind, from what we understand on a, from thousands of years of sort of looking at it, spiritually, and then also 150 years of modern science, especially in the last few years, mind can be seen as a biofield. And it's got a very, as a biofield in terms of gravitational fields, quantum physics, linking in with space time, linking in with all those complex concepts.

And then it needs a substrate, it needs something physical that it can actually connect with and then you show up as the combination of mind and brain, the physical substrate, then show up as how you function. So I mean, we're going to quite heavy science here, so I'm trying to make it as simple as possible, so stop me at any point. Okay, I want to stop you at point when I'm asking questions. You are a person of faith also.

One of the reasons I love you is it's rare to meet someone who's so scientific that's also very faith-based. You truly are. And I had someone on my show's name is John Gordon. He said to me, there is no mind. There's just the soul. So you called it an electrical field. So I don't know that there's that big of a distinction

between the two things. Would you do subscribe to that belief system that that that the soul has energy and so therefore the subconscious mind or the mind rather the mind is this energy field that you're describing. Absolutely. So these they look at it in different layers. Let's think of what mind is and let's break down mind. Mind is an ancient term for the we could use it for the spirit and soul. So I think of mind, spirit and soul as basically the same thing. Wow, okay, and then you can look at mind has different layers You've got your conscious mind that operating right now. We are awake

Driving us those are non-conscious in or in not unconscious unconscious when you're asleep. It's a brain State versus a versus a mind state. So Non-conscious is the most intelligent part of us. It's the non-conscious, because I was going to ask you about that. So the mind is three levels. Conscious, non-conscious, non-conscious, operates 24, 7, super intelligent, never stops. It's on our side.

It's the biggest part of our humanity. A lot of people will think of that as being your spiritual level. And then your conscious being your soul level. If you wanted to sort of hook things with these different ways of looking at it. Scientifically, I talk about the unconscious and the conscious and then in between the subconscious, which is a bridge. And the unconscious, which is used very incorrectly most of the time, is just basically as I said, when we sleep or not, are to under anaesthetic. So you've done something with the way that the brain's functioning will have been a person's

alive to put them in an unconscious state. But the real stuff of life, all the experiences that you've ever had and been exposed to, from a promise, whatever time, whatever we know, whether it's sort of late in the womb to where we at now, every single experience has been wired into the brain by your mind and as a physical tree.

So the mind has got these three levels and the conscious, subconscious and non-conscious are like, you can look at them from a psychological perspective in that we are humans and we're thinking, feeling, communicating, understanding all that, appreciating a rainbow, love, etc. All that's how our mind is experienced on a psychological level. But behind the scenes, it's all gravitational fields, electromagnetic light waves, quantum energy, space-time energy aromatic rings. I mean, I can go all the way down to, into un-stined space-time dimension and all that stuff. And so, we can really start explaining mind, and it's considered the hard question of science and I never understand

really why because it's the most obvious question of science because the fact that you and I can have this conversation and talk about these things is our mind in action. It's our mind's working and when it's a really good one like this there's an energy connection. There's an energy connection to it. I can tell you so I do a lot of brain studying I've always you know subconscious and unconscious mind the conscious mind I've never heard that non-conscious mind before. And so it's one of the things in your book that like really fascinated me. I want to get a little bit granular, because I ask you about those brains. Yes, and I mean, you know, onset questions. Yeah, the third part of the book, you say there's warning signals. So when you look at a

brain, is there an issue with someone that's got these mental health conditions and what are warning signals? Excellent question. So that kind of wraps up that question you asked me, can you see a depressed brain? Okay, so first of all, our current biomedical model will say, you depressed because your brain looks like that. That's back to front. You're not depressed because your brain made you depressed. Your brain can't make you do anything. Your brain can only respond to what your mind is doing. So the first step is mind.

Then brain, then body, then how you show up in life. So that's the order. We've kind of got it back to front. And the science actually shows the order that I'm... The big thing is saying mind, brain, body, how you show up is actually what science is actually saying is the correct thing. Saying brain produces mind has been disproved.

You can't do that because then it's a simple thought experiment. If I had to take your brain actually right now, which I promise I won't do it, and hold it up. It's very small, but I'm sure it's very big. I need to do it. You got a big brain. He has brain. There we go.

There's brainy little. If I was holding up a dead brain, a person's dead brain now, we could stare at it all day and do every kind of experiment under the sun. It will never produce mind. It will never produce a response to you and I. It will never produce thoughts. It's just basically already disintegrating.

So what is the difference between that and you and me? It's our life force. What do you want to call it? Mind. So mind is a very all-encompassing concept that makes us human. So when you look at it like that, we go through things and things like trauma and think of a scale of 1 to 10, with 1, 2, 3 being the day-to-day irritations like traffic and L.A. And then you've got your real big traumas of 8, 9 and 10,

which are your abuses and bullying and war and you know that accept excessive things that are bad that happen to people and then you've got them between. So if you look at that scale those are experiences that we have and we are wiring those experiences into our brain as these trees all day long. So the different levels. So if we have a traumatic experience, like let's say this persistent childhood trauma, each time that happens,

that experience has been wired in by the mind, 95% unconsciously, 5% consciously, into this root, this tree form. Now notice I'm holding up the toxic tree. So the experience, all the data, all the the memories all the bits and pieces of the experience each Abuse of event each word that's spoken each physical to whatever it is is wired in here This is the processing by the person into the interpretation how they see themselves how they coping the things They're saying about themselves how they see people how they see life all of that's in here

Now that gets wired into the brain as that's wiring into the brain. Each experience adding more memories, more interpretation, memories and so it builds. As it's in the brain, physically, the brain very fast, then also stores, it creates a mind brain connection, then creates a memory inside the body. So every cell of our body, and we have 37 to 100 trillion cells, also stores a version of this memory inside our body. So every cell of our body, and we have 37 to 100 trillion cells, also stores a version of this memory inside our DNA. So we've got that's why we have mind-brained

body, the mind is embodied. So our brain responds, our body responds to life's experiences. Okay, and I'll make a distinction between brain tumors and traumatic brain injuries and CTE and that kind of stuff in a moment. So essentially a child is having repeated, I'm just going to use that as an example. A repeated issue. A repeated issue. This is getting bigger and bigger. The immune system of the brain is designed to support and help us. And it receives a psychological event in the same way as it would see something like

COVID virus, both protein structures. So this thought tree that builds in the brain isn't some fictional, very fairy thing. That energy of the experience and the psychology of the experience all make protein tree-like structures. And the detail of the experience, each abuse is inside little proteins as vibrations and aromatic rings and all this fancy stuff which then cluster together to make branches. And these are the dendrites. This whole cluster we can actually talk about as being a dendrite, this whole tree thing. So in other words, the toxic abuse is as real as a COVID virus. Just for argument's sake, people don't think of it like that.

So it's all surreal and that goes to your first question. So there, for the brain, then recognizes this, the immune system of the brain says, this is an evade I need to do something. So it sends out immune factors as likely it would do with a pathogen like COVID virus and it creates inflammation. And the idea is that your body would read this and create a defense system and try and fight this. But, and if the COVID virus is inside, you can kind of do that in our salator biological

component because that's it. But this is connected to the source. So if the source hasn't been disconnected, if the abuse is still continuing, or if a person, let's say the abuse has stopped, but the person never dealt with this, this doesn't go away. So that then creates a hyperimmune response, and that increases the vulnerability of the brain and the body to disease. Okay, so the, I want to tell you about solutions in the medical system.

You talk about brain preparation and some other things we'll talk about in a second So there's the repeated if there's trauma repeated trauma. It's that wires it deeper. Yeah, is is the because you're saying every you said every experience is stored Yes, so it's a higher emotional charge to an experience store it differently or it's easier to recall charge to an experience, store it differently, or it's easier to recall than a normal, so we're having an experience where I just open that door right now. That's an experience you're saying that's stored somewhere. That would be different than if I opened that door and someone put a gun right to my face. Absolutely. Okay, so how's that different?

So it's going to look like if you look at this tree over here, this is one size. So the more traumatic the experience, the bigger the uglier the water stored at the proteins fold differently, all the chemical imbalances, wrong. The whole thing is chaotic, but it's real and alive. So obviously the bigger, you're quite right, the gun versus just door opening. It's bigger. What if it's a good experience, same thing, same storage? Exactly.

So it's exactly the same thing, and this is that we want to deconstruct those, but we want to build these. So we want to spend as much time, if you have a like a very recall or conversation once we go from here and I think of my great conversation with you. I'm going to work on that. For three or four minutes I'm going to think about their great conversation. Amazing you are. And that is now building my resilience because I know I grow something good. Got it. So the emotional charge causes you to do the repetition that you would have gotten in the repeated trauma trauma So it's the repetition of something that's giving it the Organized repetition. Yeah, so you and when you repeat when you do that repetition if you do it in that neuro cycle

You then create a very stabilized change. So here I'm gonna increase my resilience Got it and I can use that to fight these so more of these I have the more I can deal with these because we've all got Some of us have got more of the eight, nine, and ten and others unfortunately because of circumstances but we've all got these. We've all got things in life and we all will have, they'll be death and they'll be sickness and they'll be whatever. So, yeah, so talking about the brain, a person who's suffering extreme depression, take the example of their child is repeatedly abused and they've had adolescents or even childhood

at whatever level and they're showing signs of withdrawal, of depression, of anxiety. Those aren't illnesses, those are warning signals. Now remember you asked me a few moments ago, what are the warning signals? So what will happen is that our unconscious mind will find these, push them through the subconscious to make you aware of them. The way to fix them is consciously and deliberately and intentionally face these because the awareness of these will then weaken them, these toxic sorts, and finding the source, you can then, you can't change what's happened to you, but you can

change and put plant food on, but one of it, I tell the kids, you can put plant food on here and make this healthy root, this root healthy again so that this shrinksinks into just a little shrivel branch and you grow a nice healthy version over that. So that's the process of we can't change our story but we can change our face out into the future. So swinging back to your first question, completely about the depression, what does this look like in the brain? Well when we look in the brain, we will see an impact of this experience.

So when we've got the happy immune response and this weird looking thing with all these things going proteins folded in correctly and so on, that creates an exchange of the energy in the brain. And we see that in a disruption of alpha delta, beta, gamma, theta, all the different waves that you want to flow, the easiest way to understand this is to think of the waves on the beach. They flow, they build their crash on the beach, they go back and they have different sizes, but that's kind of how the normal wave, when we have a tsunami, things have gone wrong. So this is created a tsunami in the brain, and that looks different for every person. And a consistent and persistent tsunami of energy in the brain,

and consistent, persistent, happy immune response, consistent, chronic keeping of this thing over there, eventually disrupts all systems in the brain and the body. And we start to fix the chemist, the chemist, the blood flow, everything, and eventually atrophy of cells, et cetera. So we're not looking at this as the cause. We're looking at this as the impact of life's experiences.

And so, and it's different for every person. And as a person starts dealing with the stuff, we can then see healing come back. We can see the tsunami get under control, the high-permanent response, the learning of information and the body and all these things we see change. And that's what I've shown in my research. We just actually published a paper just about five coming out this year.

We just published one recently showing how with extreme trauma, with mind management, with the neuropsychil, which is managing your mind, which is finding these things through the signals and healing the root, reconstructing, deconstructing, you can improve your management of this issue, change our place down into a future in nine weeks cycle. You said that. So you use 63 days, you say. Yes.

So part of what I've done is to look at how long is it going to take me to do this? Right, to change it. And to create a behavior change that will actually last in my life. That I can still be sad and cry and need to press some anxious. But not to the point where it actually works for me,

where it's a normal reaction. Where I'm just grieving something in my past, but it's not affecting my life functioning. It's giving me a moment of honoring what I went through, having that good reaction of Right balance of sort of being anxious and depressed about this, but then not getting stuck there moving forward That is going to take you cycles of at least 63 to 66 days Okay, the more complex the trauma the more like the gun at your head and the single that's not gonna go away in one cycle

That's going to probably take two or three or four cycles. Okay, so let's talk about during those 63 days, let's do something practical. So now we can understand what it looks like, how it affects, how it gets wired, all that other stuff. So let's do strategic stuff now for a second. So you wrote this for how to help your child, but when I'm reading the work, I'm like, this is helps humans, right? That's what it's called.

But so what is something a strategy said, awareness of the thought helps it lose its power over you. I'm using my description of it, right? So I've always said that, now I know why. Yes. Okay, what is something a tactic or a strategy or a technique that somebody can use for their child or themselves

that can help this in these 63 days that you would be proposing they do. Okay, so what you do is you do the five steps of the neuropsycho, because what I did was strategically look over the years at how can you actually get, find the signals and do this whole deconstruction reconstruction thing. So you can't do in one shot. So what you want to do is do a neuropsychal, which is five steps. And I'll go through this in a moment, but you're going to do five steps in the sequence. The first part of the sequence is the first moralist three weeks, where you go through the

five steps in around 15 to 45 minutes, not less. And the second 42 days where you stabilise and you just do it in five minutes. So the five steps are basically gathering awareness. And notice I say gathering. So it's a very conscious and deliberate. It's not like a mindfulness awareness, which this is beyond that. So when we talk about mindfulness, meditation, breathing, decompression, all of those are very important to prepare the brain.

So what you would do before you dive into the neuropsychil and you'll see this in my box and in my app. I've got an app as well called the neuropsychil. There's a two to three minute brain preparation, which is could be anything from focusing on momentum worry to doing a seven three ten breathing exercise. So it's something to just get the neurophesiology under control. Then you all could be a meditation or prayer whatever. Then you move into the actual work and I'm about to slip off this chair. Okay, great.

Then you move into the work, it's so into this, into the work of gather awareness, step one. So gathering awareness is a very specific process. Everything's very layered. Your mind brain connection, psychonurobiology, mind brain body, I'm actually psychonurobiologist to study that connection is very ordered and sequenced and structured. And if you want something to change, you've got to follow the steps of the order. So the Neurosycles system, in that you can put CBT techniques, you can put prayer, you can put whatever works for you, but put them in the right step.

So when we gather awareness, we are gathering apples off a tree. We're not just randomly looking at things. You'd be organized, okay, what am I going to get the awareness of my emotions? I'm feeling depressed, I'm feeling anxious, I'm feeling frustrated, whatever, just label them. What am I related to that emotion? What am I doing? What am I behaving? What am I doing? What am I saying? How am I doing and saying them? So maybe it's depression and maybe it's withdrawal. Then the third thing is you're going to say, how do I feel in my body when I'm feeling depressed and withdrawing? maybe cardiovascular issues,

part-popitating. And then fourth category is, how am I looking at life in this moment? As I feel depressed, gut ache and with doing, I feel that life sucks. Very simple example, those are four signals. So you go, step one is together those four. Step two is to ask why.

You're going a little deeper, Why am I feeling these emotions? And you're not solving the whole problem. Don't try and solve it in one day. Just goes much as you can handle through the training. So that's why I say limit. So it's why am I having this? Maybe I'm having this depression. I seem to be having it because of I'm attacking a lot.

It's I'm not sure why, but it's happening five times a day or it's feeling all tapping once a week. Oh, if it is once five times a day, or it's feeling all-tapping once a week. Oh, if it is once a week, what am I having the same behaviour? Why am I doing that with doing it? How often am I with doing it? What other things am I doing? Why do I think I'm doing that? So you work through each of those signals

and try and get some more. Don't stay too long on those two steps and then you write. Now, you don't journal, you write, you dump, you literally dump what you've gathered awareness of and what you have reflected on. Because the first step was to gather awareness, the second step was to do this reflection thing. And then you dump it down on and literally a mind, I'm just right at all over the page, I've developed a system called the MetaCog. And the kids, it's the bubble cog. And it's basically writing in a way that looks like a tree. So it's starting from

the middle and it's working around in circles and branches and colors and arrows and it's basically riding in a way that looks like a tree. So it's starting from the middle and it's working around in circles and branches and colors and arrows and everything's connected. Everything's either on a line in a bubble. If you don't like doing that, just write any old way. But try to write dimensionly. Don't do it in lines. Try and just put it all over the page. Because it forces the two sides of the brain to work together. It creates a very strong connection between the conscious and the subconscious through the bridge of the subconscious.

And it starts diving deep. I mean, I can tell you now that in our work with patients that who had symptoms of schizophrenia, this is an extreme example, just to show you how all this works. We would have them just basically metacog out where all these steps I'm going through, and they would have one whole personality on the side and they'd be continuing the same conversation in another hall. So you'd see the shift and then we could show them, hey, look what's going on and from there we could pack and find routes and things like that. So it's phenomenal in getting insight. Now you spoke about introspection early on, introspection, insight. It means

diving into the depths of the non-conscious. That's the most intelligent part of us. So it's writing part of step two or that step three? Step three. So writing is step three. Sorry. Gather awareness. Step one. Reflect step two. Writing step three. You're bringing order out of chaos. You're getting those three steps are taking a deeper, deeper, deeper, getting increasing your introspection inside, pulling up things that are associated. Now that is things all over the page. A lot of it won't make sense. Things may shock you that come out. They won't really, but as you progress through the days, more and more will come up. For example, around day seven, people start saying, I never saw this connection. They thought inside into, oh, that's associated with that. I didn't

see that. This is one thing. So, this tremendous growth, If you don't force it, you just go through the cycle. I think I want to interrupt you, but I should think during that awareness and the writing and that you are uncovering some of the things that may trigger you as well. Totally. So step four, excellent question. Step four is what, looking at what you've gathered

awareness reflected on and written, you look, what are my triggers? What are the patterns? This has happened. What are the patterns? This has happened. What can I do? So step forward moving towards reconceptualization, reconstruction, healing, putting food on the plant food on the roots to heal them. It's leading to that acceptance. You're not going to know why someone raped a child, why someone did this. That's their story. But that's your story. So you need to find out, I'm not crazy. I don't

have a broken brain. I'm not genetically flawed. I don't have a broken brain. I'm not genetically thought I don't have a mental illness. I'm showing up like this because of what happened to me. I can't answer why I have to get to a certain level of acceptance, but at least I know why. It's not me. It's because of and that helps you heal and move forward. So it's very progressive. It's not walking in circles round and around and around. You know, this is where you can bring in things like these all-sacadonamic theory and acedic. There's a lot of different therapy techniques that people can bring in experiences from EMDR and into all these, because this is a system. Yeah, into these spaces. What's the fifth step? The fifth step is an action act of reach. So you're going to from the triggers and things like that, you want to move towards an antidote for today,

an action for today. So what can I do today to keep me in a safe space? I've done the work for today. I'm not going to fall back into working on this, and I've got to get going through the day. And also your brain and mind need a rest. They get tired. So it's an action, it's like a visualization, a statement, a combination, a little pre, an affirmation. So this is where you would fit an affirmation or a CBT type technique, like maybe a little visualization exercise or a... So it's something that you do and say, maybe something as simple as, I can do this, I don't know how, and then visualize a rainbow. I mean, it could be something as simple as that to an actual little technique or it could be a breathing technique. So it's an action that keeps you going through the day, which helps you focus

on the fact that you are moving towards healing. So you're moving energy from this thing because this process has brought this from the unconscious to the conscious and it's weakened these branches. In the unconscious, it's strong and driving. When the unconscious and conscious are working together, then this is weakened. The protein branch is the chemical, so I can start restructuring and reorganizing these things. I'm thinking when you're doing this because this applies to two different people. So everybody stay in here. Okay. So those are the five steps to sort of begin to rewire yourself or change your brain. The other part of me listening to this is if you're thinking, I really don't

have a lot of these issues of anxiety or worry depression. I also think that's the formula to create a change. Like if I had a goal and ambition, I'd become aware of what I wanted, right? I'd have all these reflections about it. I would then write about it. So, and I like the idea of it not being linear like a book, but actually all over the place. So there'd be like, that's almost like a dream personal vision border, dream board that you're doing. Then I'd think about what were the triggers I need to create to

generate this state could be snapping my fingers, it could be seeing something, it could be walking into my office, it could be getting into my car, it could be a particular person. So I'd use that trigger to then create that state. And then obviously the fifth would be what's an action that I can be used to uncover, you know, reverse trauma, create brain health, but can also be a creative process in order to change your life. So you are brilliant because that's exactly where I started my research. 38 years ago, with people with traumatic brain injuries and learning disabilities and people that just wanted to improve their life. They just wanted, and it's called brain building. So it's the neuropsychon that was the first iteration of this thing to develop brainbuilding. So it was helping kids learn. So getting data in as opposed to deconstructing, it was constructing. So it's taking from the knowledge in education, school to learn for an exam. Or what is the goal in your vision? So that's the brainbuilding aspect of the neuropsychon. This is huge

right here. I'm gonna tell you something because everyone always wants to create chains. They're like, all right, do I get a vision board out? Like, do I? So this is a five step process to actually do it and do it reinforcement. And by the way, in 63 days, you're a different human being. Totally different. I do a thing, you're from a visualization techniques. I should share this with you and then maybe you can speak to why it might work.

So everyone asks me, I don't visualize very well. Yes you do, you just need to get quiet and it's a muscle you build. You know, when you decide to start visualizing your life, it is difficult. But one thing I've done is I've created, I teach it to a lot of my athletes is I use what I call like a highlight real technique. So what I actually start with is I start, I've never said this on the show because it's part of my private work, but I want you to speak to it. I actually start by visualizing memories from my life

that are highlights. So it could be, for example, the birth of my son, the birth of my daughter, a home run I hit in baseball, an award I got, a sale that I closed that was important. These are things my brain are already familiar with to your point earlier. It's already been wired. I've already repeated the emotion. It's already in wired. I've already repeated the emotion.

It's already in there. And so I see those things, and those are easy for me to recall because they're familiar. And then I move to what I want. So my brain, I think, begins to think they're one big highlight reel. Is there any data to prove that that's true?

Meaning I'm already visualizing what I've already, something I want. I've seen an achievement. I've seen an achievement. And then I see the one that I want to achieve. And for me, my brain more easily sees the future when I start with things that I'm already familiar with in my past, because I think we do that in reverse. So if we've had a traumatic someone's hurt us in our life, we see this, we repeat it over and over, and then we then regenerate it in our real life with the next relationship.

And that's why people end up dating the same person over and over again. Exactly. Exactly. Right. Okay, so I'm jumping out of my chair with excitement because you've said exactly the correct thing. Okay. So what you've just described, you remember I said a moment ago, you have I said, spoke

about how I'll recall this conversation, which is a great conversation and that's what we're talking about here. So you are recalling these. You're recalling those and you're using those to unmask your natural resilience. Yes, exactly. So I actually call these insurance policies. Okay. So they literally, so when I work with a person to actually be able to build their brain, we're building an insurance policy.

So you should be spending time on doing exactly that. So as you do that, you activate a whole different way that your energy flows across the two sides of your brain. You go into the highest level of intelligence, your unmasked resilience, you increase your wisdom, you tune into the depths of your unconscious, where intelligence, pretty much your intelligence resides. Because your conscious is basically a workhorse

and it's guided by your unconscious. So what we've got to see is what is dominant in the unconscious. Now your unconscious is a gentle lady, gentle man. And it's basically always looking for the things that are blocking this growing and keeping you stuck in those. So it's on your side. But you have to tune in to what's coming up. So when you describe, when you want to do something difficult, you first think of something good. What you've done is you've listened to wisdom

from your unconscious, which is that process. You've then called those up, you've activated your resilience, you've put yourself in a highly intelligent, wise state. Now you're in a state that's more able to cope with that. So when I work with a patient, for example, I would never start with that. I would say, okay, let's talk about your favorite moments or you'll tell me a story about telling a great movie. Let's talk about a great book, anything, and then you would focus on that. When they were in that state, I knew that I had got their mind-brain connection, their cycle and your ability.

I feel like thinking about the things that have been positive in my life or experiences creates a neural chemistry to which I can create. That's exactly what you do. Right. Yes, you have. So. You've changed all the flow. These change, they increase gamma, which is a way that you want to flow.

Okay. And when your eyes are open, you want like this, what we call low gamma across the whole brain. Okay. And then there's certain other patterns. I don't want to go into the details. And that's got to go into, you have a certain beta pattern and so on. Those energy waves, when they are flowing in that state,

they activate the different parts of the brain to then be on higher alert to respond and do what they designed to do, which then impacts your neurochemistry, then your endocrine system, your coli, everything then comes together. And you are in this prime state. Your HPA axis is now on higher alert

and you're now in the ideal state for distribution find. This is so good. You guys, this is why I do the show right here. So let me just give you this again. Step one, gather awareness, step two, reflect, step three, right play, draw, step four, reach check, step five, active reach, which is basically what we've been describing here. What about physical movement and brain health? And that's not in here, but I want to ask you about that.

I find that my anxiety and depression and concern and worry or angst is often something physically I'm doing. I feel like I have a physical nature to it. And I have found that when I change my physiology, I tend to feel like I've changed. Maybe your physical body is your unconscious mind. I don't know, I'll let you answer this. But when my body begins to move in a certain way,

I have found that to be a pathway out of some of the negative emotions that I'm feeling. And I'm wondering, even with children, is part of the mental health issues we're seeing that they're less and less active physically, meaning a lot more video gaming, right? A lot more stuff on their phone, a lot more stuff on their Mac or their iPad. Whereas, when I was a kid, I'm sure mental health issues were very prevalent, but we were outside playing. We were playing football, we were running around, we were running, we hit, there was nothing to do inside,

right? So we were outdoors more, and I know that's not really part of what we're talking about here, but it is related. No, it's totally related. And part of you'll see in the inner books in my neuropsycho app where all these steps are the neuropsycho app, I literally walk you through the process. And in the children's book, the active reaches, I encourage that physical activity. I encourage you. And you'll see throughout the actual five steps you can bring in the physical activity in different ways. Okay.

So basically your body, your mind stores in three places. Mind, which is all around you, these gravitational fields and so on, brain, the trees, but in the body and the cells. So therefore you, that's how we have body memory, that's how when you have a cool and something that you get your body response as well. So that body response is really important. Like, for example, if you're trying to get your children to talk off to school and they don't want to talk and let them have a little rest, but go for walk, start doing something and the action activates and releases.

So it's not that the non-conscious is the body, it's that the non-conscious is operating the body, it's your driving system, it's mind driving, so your non-conscious is the thing that's always using every part of you. Your mind brain and body are on your side, that all, we have this intent, this, this psycho neurobiological link that is our superpower. That literally when we understand how to read it, we can move forward. So you explained, you said that if you feel angst, you can feel your body feeling it, angst, emotional warning signal, your body feeling it, physical warning signal, you're probably not totally focused initially on your behaviors and your perspective.

Then you move, as you move, you start unlocking and getting an idea of, and that's full under the behavioral signal as well. Then it starts unlocking the others and you start getting into that space where you can work on going through this process. And then you can fit movement in anyway. The reason I feel so big about physical stuff and brain mental health is like take your spouse for a second. You think about the moments of your life that you feel the most connected. Let's just be honest a lot. Some of it can be your sexual time with that. Why? What's happening? Something physical

is happening between the two of you. When I want to open up and like with my children or something like that, when I really want to get them to talk, you're so brilliant because I found you know putting them on the couch or sitting on their bed is okay, but if we take a walk, it we take a walk to your point, we're changing something there. You know, even laying on the couch with your spouse watching, that was when they're actually touching each other and laying on each other compared to when, you know, they're on one side of the couch and you're on the other. There's just, there's a deeper connection when something physicals involved. Exactly.

The other part of it, you write about in the book that I've never really looked at before, and you talk about this particularly with children. So the book is written, you know, Dr. Least books have been for everybody. This one's more specifically guided towards children, but really everything in there. Parents for children. Right. Parents help parents. Yeah, parents and children, right. But sleep parents. They should be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be

able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to Absolutely. Well, what I've tried to do in this book is to try and find the things that I know are hot-backing topics, to try and help parents have a, and to teach the neuropsycho in such a way that it's super simple, it's very practical, whatever. So I take areas like trauma, sleep, et cetera, and I'm glad you've mentioned the sleep because there's so much scaryness around sleep, too, because even you go to a doctor, one of the first things they'll say about you is you're child sleeping? Are you sleeping? They have to sleep, well, they're going to die. It's quite that extreme.

Yeah. It's very fear-mongering. And yes, there is a valid point to sleep sleep. It's very important. But how many hours of sleep a person should sleep in a day? We don't actually know. Really? And also, people have different patterns of sleep.

So the thing that your child must sleep eight hours a day is. Not necessarily true. Yes, exactly. But if your child isn't sleeping, and there is a persistent pattern of no of of bad sleep, there's something going on. That's definitely would be classified under your behavioural warning signals and it's worth investigating and that's why she puts sleep neuropsychals into the book on things there's different ones that you can do because preparing yourself for sleep starts when

you wake up in the morning. You know, it's like when you wake up in the morning, the first thing is as the chemistry starts to readjusting so that you can become conscious at that moment to train yourself to just harm what, what are my four signals? What am I feeling? Am I complaining? Am I feeling sad? Am I complaining?

We're quickly assessed, we're quick assessment of your four signals. So what are my emotions? What are my, what's my body doing? What are my behaviors in this moment? Like I'm lying in bed, but in my tents and what's my perspective, I don't want to do today. If you can catch that, it takes you, those four things can take you a 10 seconds and can really, really prepare you for an art sleep. It sets you into it, opens your mind that you can actually then face the day. So that's one thing, you can do, I've got a whole thing there that you can do sleep, neuropsychal for children as they wake up.

Then if you see there's a pattern of children not sleeping, it's to find a time during the day that's a good time. Either early evening when they've been to school, they've had dinner, they've played, that's sort of a good time to kind of work around. But you can find, don't do this when they exhaust it. And then you can do a whole neuropsychal to try and work through what the cause could be. When we don't sleep, the main reason we don't do this when they exhaust it and then you can do a whole neuropsychal to try and work through what the cause could be. When we don't sleep the main reason we don't sleep and a lot

of people will maybe not agree with me here but the main reason we don't sleep is because we have unresolved issues that help us give. It changes your energy and your brain and your brain, all the things the melatonin and all these things because there's so many cases and I actually give a case in the study in the book of a very you you know, quite a traumatic situation of child who was abused physically and sexually from three months of age, but just could not sleep through the night. And they did everything, all the sleep aid, all the sweat noise, everything you can possibly do. And not that those don't work, they are definitely going to facilitate and help. But the core issue was the child's abuse, and what the impact of that, although the child

was out of that unsafe environment, that you had to deal with what was going on and that child was very young. Once the parent just happened to come across my stuff and do the neuropsych on the child's will, like the parent doing it and so to doing it and within four days this child was sleeping. Now this was an H-roll, they didn't use this in books, this book was an arched. The child saw what the mom was doing, so it's changing the mom,

because the kids watch us and this was an H-roll and said, I wanna do what you're doing. And so she adapted it as best she could and this child started sleeping within four days. So the core issue there was a trauma that was unresolved and you said it to yourself, I know, I do. If I've got something that I haven't dealt with or something's worried me, or I have that phone call before bed,

that's it, my sleep's gone until I've dealt with it. Can I give you one with children that I think is unsaid? And I know you're such a person of faith. So I'm gonna give you what helps me sleep. And it leads to this unresolved stuff. And I just wanna say this to everybody, it's prayer. And let me say why. So prayer at night is a chance for me to take my burdens

and put them on my higher power, in my case, Jesus, but whatever your faith is. And I know you share my faith. And I wonder how many people are praying with their children at night, because this is an opportunity for your children to probably open up. I think it's an opportunity for them

to relieve themselves of their burdens. And I have found that when I have really deep beautiful prayer, even if it's brief, that I sleep better at night because there's a perspective that I get that I'm protected. And I really wonder that. The second thing is, I want to ask you about both these. So this is for adults, but it also affects our children. More and more, our children are on their screens late at night. I know it's just a brain issue, so not just necessarily trauma, but there's all this data about blue screen time

and how it's difficult to sleep. I don't know if it's accurate or not, but I know when you're doing homework, it's stressful. I think people let their children do their homework too late at night, and now that's a problem. Now it's a stressor. Now it's a trauma. Also, they're on their screen.

And a lot of these schools put so much homework on their children. It's just being real. Yeah, they're school systems of problem. So when your kids get home from school, wouldn't it be smarter to get them a to start doing their homework earlier? So they're off of their screens and away from stressful stuff before sleep? Also true for you as an adult. And just prayer.

I know it's not a major part of what's happening in here, but am I right that both of those things would probably make an impact on sleep and maybe then their mental health? Absolutely. You know, you, you, you should pray, if you look at prayer in terms of any religion, or any philosophy, or any belief, if people don't even believe in anything, it can be seen as a way of just trying to organise yourself and then believe that it's not just me, there's something more. There's this, and we know what's common to all mankind and that's love.

So to talk to a child about love, so you could do a love-ness in your cycle, you could call it a prayer in your cycle, whatever you want, but you can actually say, well, let's look at what are, what am I feeling right now? And why do we think we feel that? You go through the five steps and that's your prayer and you can go a little after reach, could maybe be in some quote, a little scripture, it could be a visualization of something, whatever,

a beautiful quote or something like that. So that is basically a form of prayer, because you're tuning into a unconscious, which is your spirit, which is your wisdom, which is your, and you're teaching a child to do that. So yes, it is a form of unloading your burdens into either you believe it, Jesus, God, love, and this, whatever. I love to talk about Godness and loveness because that's something that's relatable to anyone. So you kind of step into that space and there's so much physics behind

this too, and quantum physics and science behind how you're collapsing the consciousness. I mean, we could talk for another two hours about that. So yes, totally, I do believe that. And it'll set your brain waves to a point where your brain can start shifting into sleep mode, which will then have a neurochemical effect on the melatonin and those kinds of things and controlling adrenaline. And so it will have, it has, what I've shown with my work

is that when you use mine stuff and specifically the tool of the neuropsycho, which is my management. And as I said, you can put whatever you want in that you are changing your psychoneurobiology so you're changing cortisol levels you're changing home assistant levels you're changing all the things that can keep your wake you are getting them to the point where that you're dropping changing the giving brain balance for the brain waves that kind of stuff so it's

real I mean that that's very, very real. I think I've done an interview in like 45 or 50 minutes with more stuff. We've done thought trees. We've done the neuropsycho. We've done the non-conscious mind. We've done, you know, all of these different things that we've done the highlight real, which I kicked in here today. If I was asked you, I could ask you one more question. Did you want me to answer the second part of the other question? Yes, yes, yes. What was the second part of the other question? Second part of the other question was blue screen.

Oh, yes, okay. Yeah. Bullying social media, well, that stuff, it's immersed us in stimulation. So it's good, very good and bad. It's all we need to do is teach our kids to manage it. That's the key. It's not going away. So it's not a bad thing if we know how to manage it. So it's just finding It's not going away. So it's not a bad thing

if we know how to manage it. So it's just finding what works for you and your family. In terms of blue screens and all those things, there's a lot of science that supports and contradicts the concept of it's an ever-person's worked up. It doesn't matter what you do about blue screens, they're still going to stay awake. So sometimes people, if they're relaxed enough and they're watching they're full more whatever, they're full they go to sleep, it's not going to be an issue. It's very much up to the individual, it's how we are managing it. What you've got to experiment with your child and with yourself and see what works for you.

That's really important. So it's that by individual aspect, but just to bear in mind, if we don't manage the immersion that we live in, before, for example, very quick, kids would get bullied at school, that's not anything. Bullings being brown since the beginning of the time. The difference is it follows them home now. It's 24, it's very 24. It's an immersion versus an experience. An immersion experience versus an intimate and experience. And when

you have that distinction, that's what so we have to learn to manage the immersion. So I mean, I can go for hours about that alone, but they kind of love you to stay for hours. I would actually love it. You know, of course, that you have somewhere to go. I consider all that. I know I could stay all day chatting to you as well. Let me ask you one last question, because I think people want to know this. I have a very good friend. I've been thinking about the entire interview who has a child that's just really had chronic

struggles with mental health issues over and over to the point where they've done cutting and it's gotten really severe. And that child, probably in my opinion, should be more physically active. I know they have prayer in their life, that neuropsycho could be a game changer for them. So I can't wait for them to hear this. I really, really believe the neuropsycho could be a game changer.

And I think that maybe in 63, to a certain amount of days, if it's more traumatic, you said a little bit longer, that someone can create positive and or remove negative things in their life. Balance the two together. When is, I guess the last question I would have for today is because it's worth asking, when is it time for medication with somebody in their brain?

Is that something that, you must believe in some cases, if someone's, you know, skits a frantic, potentially, than any medication, or do you believe medication never? When does someone pick a step and the risks of doing so? Okay, so load of question. First of all, you're just to quickly refer to your friends child who's self-harmic. What is the age just very quickly? Teenager. Teenager. Okay, so what they need, what we all need is to feel empowered and not to feel that there's something wrong with us. And our current biomedical model will say that you've

got a broken brain. And so that creates a sense of hopelessness. We also need to help our children develop psychological immunity. So not just immune system, like our immune system helps, you know, we build our immune system, you build your muscles and resistance training, we've got to build our psychological immunity. And what we've taken from our children in a lot of our current models is that ability to say it's okay to be a mess. Let's work through this mess together. So a huge part of my work in the book that I've just released is about you,

the parent knowing how to manage your own, get your own, and then you're in love. They're in love with you, see, they catch you. And model exactly. And then allowing a child to space, no matter what they say to you, no judgment, no compassion, but saying, listen, I see how you're showing up.

I validate, I recognize. Let's work through this together. Here's the system that's scientific that we can work together. And key it is empowerment. You have to get a person empowered to change their relationship with themself. And when that happens, that's when the growth comes. The cutting, the self-harm, whether whatever it is, alcohol addiction, whatever it may be, is coming from yesterday's thomasms. You can go to all the abet you that child probably has that so much therapy that they can tell you why they're doing it to a certain extent.

But to get the change in a person's life, it starts with feeling, okay, I am empowered to do this. It's okay to be like this, it's not me. I'm responding to life circumstances. Here's a plan for me to be able to move forward and be empowered to actually realize that my brain and my body do what my mind, what I know my wise mind wants it to do. So that's a simple answer to that. Medications are very complex

answer, but I'm going to do the easiest, quickest version upfront. I'm not saying I'm telling anyone to stop their medication immediately because of the withdrawal. Let's make a quick distinction between drugs and medicine. Medicines are aimed to try and fix a problem like insulin for diabetes. We can test for diabetes, we can find that we know there's a biological cause and we've got a drug that's fairly specific to the problem. When it comes to a child cutting, which is a behaviour, depression, perspective of life sucks, battling, all the things that you describe with your friend's child, which is obviously this is very surface what I'm saying, but that cluster of things, that is not a brain disease that's going

to be fixed by a drug. That's not coming from something wrong in the brain and a chemical imbalance. It's coming from some cluster of toxic issues and things that that child doesn't know how to process. Self-cutting, for example, is so much pain inside yourself that it's too much inside, so it's easier to transfer the pain to the cutting so that that pain detracts from the internal pain. And that's an energy that's, no energy is lost at any transfer, so it's transfer energy. So we must transfer child's energy into being able to create safe spaces so that they can talk to us as parents, not just the therapist, but us as parents, caregivers, people that they trust, peers, peers are fantastic for

supporting, and that will help them sort of transfer their energy. So a drug is something that like alcohol, cocaine and psychotropics, they fall under the same category. They're not fixing anything. They're not restoring drugs. And a drug is a psychoactive substance, so it changes the state of the brain. Versus a medicine is trying to fix something. So antidepressants on fixing chemical imbalance. That's been disproved at some point. There are pillars of psychiatry that are used to say

that you've got a chemical imbalance, etc. They're not doing that. What they're doing is they are providing temporary relief. So if someone is in such a bad state, so for example someone's having very extreme delusions and hallucinations, which is not a disease of schizophrenia, it's schizophrenia sometimes. So instead of saying schizophrenia bipolar, etc. is a label or diagnosis which is very unscientific and inaccurate and does this actually does harm research has shown to the person. It doesn't recognize the enormity of what they're going through. It's rather let's say they describe it as behaviors because of something huge in their life

and let's look at this whole person. They don't need a disease label and a medication to validate what they're going through. It's valid enough for them to get the support they need. A label and a drug put it in a little box and make it small, telling them the story, letting them talk going through that process, gives it the size that it needs, if that makes sense. So the drug, the way I would recommend drugs, is to see them as drugs on medications

and if someone's in an extreme state, temporary. Like, if you have a headache, you take an arbiprofen to relieve the symptoms, but you don't go on arbiprofen chronically in other words every day. That's how we should look at these things. So if someone's in a really bad way. Madison, and by the way, she also said in every beginning that if you're on medication, she's not encouraging you to get off of it. If people do want to withdraw, I have interviewed top scientists in the world that I'll

drag with all experts and they can go and listen to my podcast and they can search to drug withdrawal and they'll have the top experts with all the resources to guide them to that process. What a remarkable conversation. It just flew by. I did. It did fly by. Brilliant. You're exactly how I introduced you.

You're very kind. I think the neuropsychal can change people's lives on undoing trauma, undoing negative thoughts, but also creating your life through the neuropsychal So guys, I'd pour myself into that you can get any of Dr. Leaf's books But right now you got how to help your child clean up their mental mess which boy do we need a Guide to building resilience and managing mental health which all of you and I need and we have brainie Which is a toy for the kids that we've created there's a brainie character throughout the book Edon We've made toys as well.

So it's really something about the parents and the child. Yep, the child can hold a second. You're awesome. You guys, get the book. Share the episode. Change people's lives. It's that simple. We're the number one growing show on the planet,

because you all share it every single week, because I get brilliant people to sit across for me, and we get the best from them in the hour we spend with them. Thank you. Thank you, you brilliant yourself. It was incredible into you. It was great questions. Thank you.

I just get to sit here and ask you stuff. It's easy. All right, everybody, I love you. God bless you. Max out your life. This is The End My Let's Show. you