Live Like a Girl with Dr. Mindy Pelz - Brain Optimization Secrets for Menopausal and Perimenopausal Women with Jim Kwik

Episode Date: November 6, 2023

Welcome to a mind-expanding episode with the brilliant Jim Kwik, renowned author of "Limitless" and an expert in unlocking the true potential of your brain. Jim has coached professional athletes, Silicon Valley's top CEOs, and even celebrities on how to unleash their cognitive powers and become limitless. So get ready to boost your brainpower and enjoy an insightful conversation that is bound to leave you feeling inspired and ready to embark on your own limitless journey. To view full show notes, more information on our guests, resources mentioned in the episode, discount codes, transcripts, and more, visit https://www.drmindypelz.com/ep206/. Resources Mentioned: Jim's book - https://a.co/d/5Zizmhl  Discover Your Kwik Brain C.O.D.E. - https://mybrainanimal.com  Jim Kwik is an internationally acclaimed authority in the realm of brain optimization, memory improvement and accelerated learning. With over 30 years of experience, Jim has dedicated his life to helping people tap into their brain's full potential. From overcoming learning challenges after a childhood brain injury, Jim embarked on a journey with the mission to leave no brain behind. Kwik, an advocate for brain health and global education, is also a philanthropist funding projects ranging from Alzheimer's research to the creation of schools worldwide. In collaboration with organizations like Pencils of Promise and The Unstoppable Foundation, he ensures that underserved children globally receive essential resources, from education to clean water. Check out our fasting membership at resetacademy.drmindypelz.com. Please note our medical disclaimer.

On this episode of the Resetter podcast, I bring you Jim Quick. So hopefully you know this guy. He has written a book called Limitless. He has trained professional athletes, high-powered CEOs of Silicon Valley, celebrities, all on how to maximize their brain power and literally become limitless. And he has so many good brain exercises that we can use. to improve the power of our mind. He has a new book that's come out.

It's limitless expanded. We will leave the link in the notes. You can order it on anywhere that you can buy books right now. And what you're going to hear in this episode is so awesome because I wanted to ask him how we can improve brain power specifically for women over 40. And men don't pop off because there's a lot here for. for you as well. But where Jim and I geeked out together on is the brain changes that happen to women after 40 and what we can do to navigate things like loss of memory, changes in our

focus, brain fog. And we put it all of his teachings through this lens of how do we help perimenopause and menopausal women and postmenopausal women with improving their brain's capacity. not only for memory, not only for love and happiness, but for learning new information. I loved this conversation with Jim, and there's so many great exercises that we can all apply right away. So Jim Quick, I hope you love this one as much as I loved talking to him and then applying many of the exercises he teaches. I applied the very next day, and they're spot on. So I'm so excited for you guys to hear this. Enjoy. Hey, Dr. Vindy here and welcome to season four of the Resetter podcast.

Please know that this podcast is all about empowering you to believe in yourself again. If you have a passion for learning, if you're looking to be in control of your health and take your power back, this is the podcast for you. Enjoy. Okay, so the first thing I have to say is welcome to my podcast. Oh, thank you so much for having me. I've been looking forward to this. You know what? I actually think of all the organs and body systems that I study. The brain is the most fascinating. And I'm sure people say this all the time, but I can't think of anything more intriguing to unpack than how our brains work. And you probably feel the same. Yeah, I feel like people are, you know, they're excited about going out in space, but I'm very curious about this inner space between our ears. You know, we hear about people, you know, technology and we're always upgrading our phones and our apps. our devices, but once in the last time we took time to upgrade this technology.

Yeah. And do you think, this is just a curious question. Of all that we know about the brain, how much do you think we actually know, like, if you were to give it a percentage? Like, if you put all the geniuses in one room. I mean, I think we're discovering more and more. I think we discovered more in the past 20 years than the previous 2,000 years combined. Okay.

So I feel like, you know, the more we know, sometimes. we realize the little we know. Yes. You know, but the brain is such a fascinating, like, black box. You know, the reason why I always wear a brain, if people are watching this on video, if they happen to be watching it on video, I'm wearing a shirt with a brain on it.

On social media, I'm always pointing to my brain. Yes. But the reason why is because what you see, you tend to take better care of because it's in your awareness. You see your clothing, you see your car, you see your hair, your skin, because, you know, you're conscious about it.

But we don't see the thing that, you know, that takes care of us, our own brain. So I just love, I really want people to know their brain, to love their brain, to trust their brain, and to use their brain. Do you think that healing the brain is difficult because you have to use the organ that you're trying to heal is the one that you have to use to heal it?

It's fascinating, right? The brain is the organ that named itself, right? You know, it came up. That's right. I'm thinking about it out loud. Yeah, the brain is, it's fascinating. You know, I had a traumatic, talk about healing. I had a traumatic, a TBI, traumatic brain injury when I was five years old.

And because of it, I had learning difficulties. I was put in special education. I had delayed, you know, processing issues, focus, memory. It took me three years long to learn how to read. You know, I remember defining moment when I was nine years old. I was being teased for slowing the class down because I just couldn't keep up. And a teacher came to my defense and she pointed to me in front of the whole class and said, leave that kid alone, that's the boy with the broken brain.

And that, well, intention, but it was just, I didn't realize that's when I internalized this idea. That label became my limit. And so, you know, and at the same time, when I was seven, I lost my grandmother to Alzheimer's, and she was my primary caregiver. You know, my parents immigrated here. They had many jobs, but she was taking care of me. And so just for people who haven't had a family member, you know, with brain aging challenges, It was just, especially when you were like five, six, seven years old. You know, she would call me by my father's name or forget, repeat something she just said, not even 30 seconds ago.

So it was very confusing for me. Yeah. You know, but it put me on a path. Right. Yeah. So it's. Do you think, this is, again, just a personal curiosity is when we look at people who we deem like intelligent in our society, we tend to look at them as the ones that can take the test

the best and they can get the fanciest degrees. But the more I live on this planet, the more I realize that some people that are the biggest geniuses in the world are ones that would actually fail at test, but they are so creative and can think outside the box that nobody would have ever thought to create whatever they had created. Do you think the brain learns in different ways for different people? I do. So this is my, a 30 second year of coaching people to have better brains. And this is my life's mission because I had the broken brain. I want to build better, brighter brains.

No brain left behind. And so in our coaching, we actually have for the past few years a way of personalizing people's training based on their specific brain type, which is fascinating. Just like there's personalized medicine based maybe around genetics or personalized nutrition based on someone's microbiome. I figured out that there are four brain types. And this is, I'm really excited about this, you know, because we put the research in the new book. I was going to say, this is the new book.

Yeah. I love this idea. So it's limitless expanded. The first one did, you know, mixed very well. I'm very proud of the work. It's kind of like an owner's manual for your brain. And it really focuses on accelerated learning and how to read faster, focus better, improve your memory, and so much more. But so I pulled to create this assessment.

And I can't wait for you and your team to do it also as well. We will. Yeah, it's only a four-minute quiz. And it's kind of like, you know, how some people take quizzes, like which game of throne character or Harry Potter school. This one is I pulled from personality types like Myers-Briggs. I was inspired by various sciences and psychologists, left brain, right-brain, lateralization, dominance theory, learning style. Some people like to learn visually, auditory, kinesthetic, multiple intelligence theories. out of Harvard from Howard Gardner.

And so all these different, it inspired this, and I realized there's a brain code for all of us. And it's C-O-D-E, which is the acronym. Perfect. And the C, and I made them fun animals, the C is the cheetah. So the cheetah are the fast actors. And as people listen to this,

we put the quiz free online. We used to sell it to companies, but you could have it free. It's just at mybrainanimal.com. There's nothing to buy, and you get a detailed report based on your learning style. So the first one is the fast-acting cheetah. And these are people who adapt very quickly. They're strong intuition, you know, also as well. They're very dynamic. The O are the owls,

and these are your logical individuals. They love data. They love facts and figures and formulas. You know, they love to, they make decisions differently than a cheetah in terms of how they live, how they eat, how they invest, you know, because it's based on their thinking style. The D are your dolphins and these are your creative visionaries. These are people who could see a vision, you know, of their business or their life, maybe where other people can't see it. They have great pattern recognition. They're wonderful problem solvers. They're very creative. And then finally, the E are your elephants. And these are your empaths. These are the people that hold, you know, communities together. They love collaboration. While a lot of people like

learning solo, they love to learn social, you know, also as well. And if you think about these different characters, if you will. It also, you see them in pop culture. Like, I don't know, like I mentioned Harry Potter. Like, Harry Potter would be a cheetah, right? Just going out there, very dynamic, you know, going on impulse and intuition. Hermione, you know, she would be the researcher. She's the owl, right? Reading all those books, very stute. Yeah. I think Hagrid, who held the friends together, was really the elephant, you know, Dumbledorf, the leaders, the visionary, you know, But you see that everywhere. You can take Star Trek.

You can take any, you know, in any pop culture that you relate to. And it's interesting because many, we had our team go through it. And like 100% of the people on our team that are in customer support and experience, there are elephants. Oh, my gosh. They're there to serve. They have high levels of empathy. And, you know, they help their community managers.

So that's, you know, our CFO is an owl. And you want that person. That was a good choice. Right. You don't want them necessarily to be super creative, but you want them to really. And so it's interesting. You know, our CEO, Alexis, for 17 years, she's our creative visionary. She's a dolphin, right?

So everybody has their place. So you're getting right people on the bus, but you're making sure everyone's sitting in the right seats also. Can you be, like when I just hear it, explain that way, I see a little bit of myself and all of that. Yeah. When you take the quiz, you'll get a primary and also a secondary. Okay. And it's interesting because it's like with people. People, it's like I realized after a few decades that it's not how smart we are.

It's how are we, how are we smart? Yeah. It's not how smart your significant other is or your team. It's how are they smart? And everyone has a prefer a way of, you know, exhibiting that genius. Just like if you use your right hand, it doesn't mean you don't use your left hand. Right. Right.

And people tend to stay in their animal type, but they certainly, through discipline and training, could get better in other areas that they're not as strong. It would be really interesting, I'm sure. I must have the visionary one in me. Was that the dolphin? Yeah, I resonated a bit with that. Because where I go now with what you're saying is I think, well, gosh, they should teach this in schools. Like, what if you went into an elementary school and you identified what brain animal or brain type you were?

And then you sat in classes accordingly. Because I can tell you as whatever brain type I am, I never did great with just give me a bunch of information. Let me regurgitate it back. I always had to ask why. Like, why would that be? And once I could solve the why, it's stuck in my brain because it made sense. But if you just needed me to shove a bunch of information in and regurgitate out, I was really bad at that. And you're not alone because most people, the human brain doesn't learn best through consumption.

It actually learns better through creation and co-creation. You know, it's, it's not like your teachers could push information inside somebody's mind, you know, But certainly people can pull that information and when it's relevant to them. Right. And then be able to create with it and pull it out also as well. But I always thought it was interesting in school, much like a lot of your expertise, it's not taught. It's absent in the curriculum. You know, for me, I realize that school teaches you what to learn math and history, science, Spanish,

but there are zero classes on how to learn those subjects. There's no class called focus. like going to somebody, a child or any age or stage saying focus or study, that's like going to somebody saying, play the ukulele, who's never taken a class on how to do that. It's just assume we know how to do these things right. So there's no focus or concentration or creativity or problem solving financial literacy, but even memory.

You know, I thought it was strange because it's not just wrote memorization because that's not what we teach at all. It's just very inefficient way of taking information. And I'm sure when you went going through school, like, you know, you had to repeat things over and over again, you know, until your mind just submits and says, okay, I realize this is important. But it's not a very efficient way of learning, right? You know, hasn't changed a lot. They say, you know, we live, especially in this area, you know, an age of, I see these autonomous electric cars, you know, the developing technology to go to Mars. But our vehicle choice when it comes to learning is often like a horse in carriage or, you know, horse and buggy.

And it hasn't improved as much as the world has evolved. Right. And so, you know, when I'm writing, I'm writing on this brain optimization, how to optimize your sleep and the best brain foods and all these mental hygiene things, but also real strategies on something called meta-learning, the science and art of learning how to learn. I think if there's one skill that anyone who's watching or listening can master

is our ability to learn rapidly and then translate that learning into action. Because if you can learn how to focus and understand and read and comprehend and remember everything and implement, you can apply that towards anything. Medicine, you know, money, marketing, management, martial arts, Mandarin, everything gets easier. Because you have a formula now. Yeah. So that like the book is, you know, almost all methodology on how to do these things, you know, because I just wanted to, they say that we're best suited to serve the person we once were, right? You know, and for me, yeah, I was that. kid that had a lot of doubt, a lot of fear, a lot of embarrassment, didn't have the skills.

I thought I was, you know, not smart enough. So, you know, I, you know, we create our programs, our podcast, our courses, you know, our books, you know, around supporting that person. Because right now it's tough. I was going to ask you, like, what do you think's happening with all the information that's coming in? Is that, like, are our brains overloaded? Yeah, I don't think our brains evolved to be, you know, bombarded. You know, we have unfethered access to the world's information. I mean, we have more access to information than Clinton did when he was in office. Right. It's just, and I just, you know, especially the context switching when we're scrolling and doom scrolling, like it's going from this to this, this, this, and you're

lighting up different parts of our brain. Obviously, there's this huge, you know, dopamine. And, you know, I don't think it is. I think sometimes it's important to disconnect, to reconnect. But there are the four areas I talked about in the book. I talk about the four horsemen of the mental apocalypse. And it's, you know, these challenges that technology didn't necessarily cause, but it has amplified tremendously. So the first one's digital deluge. So, you know, I'm talking to the person who's listening right now, how many people feel like there's too much information and too little time? Yeah. Like keeping up with everything, it's like taking a sip of water out of a fire hose. Yeah, it's totally me. Yeah. And there's health consequences. They call it information anxiety

or information fatigue syndrome, higher blood pressure, compression, a leisure time, more sleeplessness, right? because we're just drowning in information. So the amount of information is doubling at dizzying speeds, you know, but how we learn it and read it, understand, it hasn't changed at all. So that growing gap creates that stress and anxiety. The second one is digital distraction. So you have digital deluge, which is overload.

Digital distraction is how do you maintain your concentration in a world full of rings and pings and dings and app notification, social media alerts, right? And so we're driven to distraction, and we wonder why we can't focus when, you know, we need to be present for a family member, or in a job interview or with our team. And so... Can I ask you a question on that before we go on to the other ones?

Because I've thought about this a lot in how I organized my week. I have decided that, like today, I did a podcast earlier, you're here. I'm very focused on human interaction. It allows my brain to calm. But if I was... I'm also in the middle of writing my next book. And if I had to go do a podcast, write my book, come back, do another podcast. then, you know, answer some emails. I find that I get more distracted if the, what I have on my

calendar that day is a bunch of different types of brain requirements. Yeah. Yeah, that's a wonderful way of, and it's, it's great that you naturally came up, you know, organically with that for yourself because, you know, we do that also where we, where we bucket our days based on the activity. Because when you're going through and your task switching throughout the day, you know, if you're, if you're doing email, part of your brain is lit up, right, that cognitive web for that, what you need to perform for. And then in order to go from that to something else, right, to talk, to do a podcast, do anything, you have to light up a different part of your brain. So number one, when people are trying to multitask, right, really they lose three things. They lose time. The thing they think

they're gaining, they're losing because it could take five, 10, 15 minutes to regain your focus from going from one task to another. The second thing is, and I get to work with a lot of surgeons, surgeons have been shown to make more errors during surgery when they're trying to multitask. It's similar to somebody driving and texting, right? They're going to make it more likely they experience an accident. And if that wasn't a reason just to focus on one thing at a time, what you're alluding to is the third reason besides losing time and making mistakes is energy, because it takes an immense amount of brain glucose to be able to switch from this to this to this.

People wonder why nowadays they feel burnt out or they feel mentally fatigued. Right? Because they are going through and using a lot of brain. Because your brain is only, what, 2% of your body mass, but it requires 20% and it's an energy hog. Yes. Yes. And so a lot of people are just tired. And part of it is because they don't do what you're saying in terms of chunking their activities. Not everybody can do that. Right. Right. But to the degree, we understand the principle, there's a promise. Like even for me, even if I don't, like, I tend to film all mine in one day so I can stay in that mode. And I stay off my phone because it tends to distract me. So I at least I get the, through. And sometimes, like in a day, I'll break it up like morning, afternoon evening. Like, for example, one of the things I'll do, so I'm home and I don't have certain things, I will be, I will, the first part of the day I'll create. And my brain is just, I don't, I don't even want input. Yeah. You know, I don't know how you were with me with writing your books for me. I was most creative in the morning. Me too. You know, yeah. Is there a reason for that? Because sometimes I'll get up at

three and start writing. Yeah, and some people have also founded, you know, in an idiosyncratic way, because there's something calm where everyone else is sleeping and, you know, and you have its time. But for me, in the morning, I don't want input, so I don't go on my phone and everything. And I'm not saying it's easy, but this is, I don't, and I don't expect people to follow this directly, but just understand the principle. So for the morning, I create. And so that's, I'm in flow, right? I'm just, I'm creating. In the afternoon, I'm consuming. So that's when I'll do my research or I'll read or listen to podcasts, right? So I go from my brain creating, pulling out, to later on consuming, pulling in. And then the third part of my day is the

evening when I just want to clear. That's the third C. And that's where I'll like, you know, I'll talk with my family and my wife about my day. That's a way of clearing the day. Or I will plan out the next day so I don't have to ruminate over it at night, right? Or I'll do some yoga needra, right, or some journaling, you know, the whole idea is for me to clear my mind so I could get into that parasympathetic, you know, rest and digest. I love that. Yeah. So that's, you just answered something for me because I just, you know, with the expansion of everything in our business and all the projects we're working on, I found all of a sudden for the first time that I had like ADD and I, that's not my normal way. And I realized it's too many opposing tasks in one day that my

brain was getting pulled in all these different directions and you mix that with menopause which we'll talk about in a moment it was like I couldn't my focus became very very difficult and I just came up with this like two weeks ago I was like well it seems like I should have all of the similar activities on one day so I can just fully immerse in that and that the minute I said it it just felt calm to my brain yeah and there's a reason when you when you when you when you chunk all your tasks you know similar test together. Like even if I was to add a fourth C to it, it would be communication. And I'll usually do my communication when I go for a walk so I can get my steps in. Because I think, you know, walking is really good for my mind and my, just my peace of mind also as well. But, you know, as I'm walking,

I'll do my calls or my zooms, you know, on my phone and I'll chunk like two hours together and get my walk in and get my steps in, but then also communicate with all the people I need to. Yeah. I do that too. When I go for a walk, I talk to everybody that I need to talk to and then I come back and I'm like, okay, now I've communicated. It's a beautiful thing. Yeah, it's really smart to do it that way. Okay, but finish the four. So you had distraction was the second one.

Yeah, so you have digital deluge, digital distraction. So digital dayluse is why we teach accelerated learning, speed reading. The digital distractions is why we focus on, there's a whole chapter on focus and concentration, which we could go into. The third area is something called digital dementia. And this is a term in healthcare where it's the high reliance in today's current society on our devices and using them as excellent. internal memory storage.

So, like, just think about, you know, I'm in my 50s. I'm thinking about, like, how many phone numbers did we memorize when we were younger? Oh, yeah. Like, I remembered all of them, right? Because we had no choice. I still remember my childhood. Yeah, isn't that interesting, a long-term memory? Yeah.

And, but how many phone numbers do you recall today, like now? No. Yeah, most people. So on that one that's so fascinating is that I can tell you my husband's cell because it's been the same forever. I can tell you my daughter's cell because we weren't so heavily reliant on our phones when she got her phone. I can't tell you my son's cell number at all. I can't even begin to tell you the number because by the time he got a cell phone, I already had a phone that could just memorize it and send it. Well, that's what they're saying. Digital dementia is the

high reliance on, you know, the memory. So your brain is like, you know, it's an organ, obviously, but it acts more like a muscle. And it's use it or lose it. And not that I want to memorize 500 numbers, right? Five hundred phone numbers. But it should be concerning we've lost the ability to remember one number, you know, or a pin number or a passcode or a seed phrase or a conversation we just had or something we were supposed to do or something we're supposed to buy or someone's name with that we just heard.

Right. Right. And I believe there's no such thing as a good or bad memory. There's more a trained memory and an untrained memory, meaning that, you know, I don't want to, I don't want to be able to have to memorize all these things, but I want to keep the ability. But it's the equivalent of, you know, if your offices or your apartments on the fourth floor, yes, you could take an elevator or you could take the stairs, right? And the elevator is much more convenient, just like your phone is very convenient. But you don't want it to be crippling at the same time

where we're not getting the physical exercise or the mental exercise. If you have to go to the bank and it's 10 blocks away, we could top in the car or jump into a lift, you know, or we could walk it. Yeah. Right. And then, you know, and then we get our steps in. And it's another way. Even when I'm going to store, sometimes I'll park, you know, far away and I could get to, you know, get extra steps in. But it's not as convenient, but I also want a level of physical and mental fitness also as well. So that's the digital dementia. And that's why, you know, memory is such a big focus.

And I believe two of the most costly words in the air, like, I forgot. And I think about the consequence of us saying, like, I forgot to do it. I forgot to bring it. I forgot that meeting. I forgot what I just read. And I forgot that person's name. And on the other side, you know, When you can remember something, life gets so much easier.

When you can remember facts and finger, figures, foreign languages, give a talk without notes or a teleprompter. Remember client information and product information, names and faces. I feel like in today's expert economy, because nobody who's listening to this, it's not like it was hundreds of years ago where it was our brute strength, going out of fields and everything. Today is your brain strength.

Today you're not compensated in so much for your muscle power. Today it's your mind power. And the faster you can. can learn the faster you can earn. Because knowledge today is not only power, it's profit. You know, there's this gap of, yes, there's a gap between those who have and those who don't have, but there's also a gap between those who know stuff and those who don't know stuff. Right? And the people, I'm preaching in the choir for people listening because they're dedicated to learning and education. But yeah, I just feel like nowadays we have to really

realize that we're the pilot of our brains. We're not the passenger. So that's number three. And then the fourth one I made to fit the Ds, because I'm There's digital day, there's distraction, dementia. It's something called digital deduction. You know, I saw this study where children, this is the first time this generation, where they scored worse than the previous generation on rational ability, logic, and so on critical thinking. And they tested it to technology because technology is doing all the thinking for us. You think about algorithms.

Or you think about even just getting from here to there using GPS, right? That's a form of visual, spatial intelligence. Yeah. But, you know, how many times, and there was a study done, you know, with London taxi drivers that we talk, we do a lot of research and talk about it and they promote a lot of the research. But in London, they have these taxi drivers that just have an incredible, they have to memorize all the streets, right? And literally their brain reflects that, meaning, you know, you've heard the term, you know, neurons have fired together, they wire together. but they actually have part of their brains that's more dense.

And it's because that, you know, through learning and new learnings, it actually led to that. And same thing with, you know, but if you don't know how to get from here to there or you've done it a few times, but if you don't have your app open, your maps or something, people don't know what to do. And so we're not exercising, you know, our mind's the same. Yeah, it's crazy. So, again, convenience, and I'm all for technology. You know, technology is not necessarily good or bad. Like fire is a form of technology.

it can cook your food or it could burn down your home, right? It's just how it's applied. So, okay, I want to talk about neuroplasticity because this is another one that I've been thinking a lot, especially in terms of the menopausal brain. But I'm pretty sure I think about it in these terms because I have a menopausal brain. But as we were discussing,

the research that I've seen on what happens to women after 40 is that we are losing, one of the hormones we're losing is estradiol. So estradial stimulated dopamine, serotonin, acetycholine, oxytocin, BDNF, like a whole array of neurochemicals. So when we lose one hormone, we're not just losing that one hormone, we're losing all these other neurochemicals, which is contributing to depression, anxiety, memory loss, lack of focus. But the neuroplastic part is really interesting to me because estradiol stimulated this brain-derived

neurotropic factor that allowed our brains to be more neuroplastic and to be able to hold on to new information. So when it's gone, my theory is that we've got to put ourselves in environments more often than ever in our whole entire life to keep that neuroplasticity going. So if you were talking to a, well, I'm 54, so to a 54-year-old woman who is really struggling to hold on to information and can resonate with what I just said, what do we have based off a science to be able to improve this neuroplastic quality that our brain does so well with? Yeah, I mean, certainly with the BDNF, you know, it's like fertilizer for neuroplasticity, for neurogenesis, especially in the hippocampus where memory is happening.

So some research suggests about one third of our brain's performance is predetermined by genetics and biology. There's a physiological part. two-thirds is in our influence, you know, and so I could go through these 10 things that really can move the needle because everybody wants to know what's the magic pill, right? Yeah. But there is no magic pill. There is a process, though, right? And so when I speak at events, I'll do these demonstrations.

Well, I'll have 50 people stand up and pass around a microphone and introduce themselves and I'll memorize their names or they'll give me 100 random numbers or words. And, you know, I always tell people, I don't do this to impress you. I do this to express to you what's possible because the truth. Because the truth is, and we've been teaching this for 30 plus years, and we have students in every country in our online academy, you know, so we have a lot of data is we could grow older. But in some ways, we can grow wiser, right? And so regardless of our age, our background, career, educational, level, financial, situation, gender history, IQ,

we can make marked improvements. Right. Because we're grossly underestimating our own capabilities. Yes. So I'll give the 10, we can turn this a little master class. Okay, great. People could take notes. And so I'll share with you the 10 things that will help you have more.

more of a limitless brain. I don't think anyone's going to debate any of them, but remember, just awareness is a starting point for any kind of change. And what I would ask people to do is when I suggest this, just people could rate themselves on a piece of paper zero to 10. How much energy and attention and effort am I putting towards these? And we'll go through rapid fire. Great, love it.

So in no particular order, a good brain diet, right? What you eat matters, especially for your gray matter. There's a whole area of science. We talk about it in our podcasts and at multiple episodes on neuro-neurone. nutrition. While your brain is part of your body, it also requires, you know, different, sometimes different nutrients, you know, in percentages. And so some of my favorite brain foods, I don't know what yours would be. And I can show people a fun way out to memorize them. But avocados. I love avocados. Anything fat oriented, right? Yeah. And I just had this right

across the street. Some guacamole. So avocados, the monoent, citadel, and we don't have to go through all the details. But number two, I'm a big berry fan. You know, mulberries, blueberries, I like to call them brain berries, very high in antioxidants, very neuroprotective. Broccoli, you know, the sulfurophane, especially if you sprout them, but broccoli is considered brain food. Some people see olive oil as being supportive for brain health and Mediterranean diet. Eggs, you know, if their diet allows the coline in eggs, you know, which leads to acetylcholine,

You know, it's like a multi-vitamin. Right. Green leafy vegetables. Some people, now everybody again, when we're talking about diet is all bio-individual. Some people have, you know, they don't digest it as well, but kale and spinach, your fatty fishes, sardines, wild salmon. Yeah. Another food, turmeric. The curcumin, you know, anti-inflammatory effects.

And then just two. What do you think of walnuts? Everybody says if it looks like a braid, then it's got to feed the brain. Let's make that number nine. Walnuts, they're high in vitamin E. A lot of nuts could fall in that category. And then dark chocolate. Yeah.

You know, not milk chocolate, not high in sugar. Generally, and I'm oversimplified. And things that generally have an uplift, you know, in your mood, tend to be good for your mind. Here's a fun way of memorizing these 10 things for everyone. Here's like a little memory trick. The largest chapter of the book is memory, and I wrote it in Greece. you know, I was there for a month.

And it was, I realized that, that the, I wanted to know what an ancient, so we pull on in my work, the latest science and neuroscience, adult learning theory and so on, but also ancient wisdom, right? I was like, what did people do when they didn't have technology to memorize things? Like, they didn't have a printing press to pass on information. And I found out the ancient Greeks had a 2,500-year-old technique. It's purported by a Greek order. named Simonides. He gave a poetry reading. He left the building. Something tragic happened. The

building collapsed and no one survived. And because he was the only survivor, he had the responsibility helping family members identify their lost loved ones. And he was able to do it, though, because he remember where they were all sitting. And we realized that we remember things really well based on location. Even if you forget someone's name, you ask yourself, where do I know this person from? And so this technique, they call it the memory palace. So we're going to use the memory palace right now and I'll teach you how to memorize these 10 foods, right? And the reason why I do this also is to turn us into a masterclass is, remember, there's no such thing as a good or bad memory. There's a trained memory and untrained. This is a way of training or memory. Okay. So very, very simple.

You need places and you need places to store information and you need that information turn into a picture. Okay. So we tend to remember things better when we can see it in our mind's eye. Yeah. Just like with faces. We're much better with faces because you get to see the face and you forgot what you heard if you heard in the name. And you always go to someone say, you know, I remember your face, but I forgot your name. Yeah, yeah. You never go to the opposite. You never say someone, I remember your name, but I forgot your face.

That's so true. Yeah. I've never said that. Never. So we'll use 10 places. You can use your home if you want or your office. In this case, let's use our body. I encourage everyone to do this.

So we're going to take 10 places on our body from top to bottom, right? And we'll just say it out loud so we get the verbal memory and get the kinesthetic memory. So you touch that place. So one is top. So you could touch your top yet and say top. Top. All right. Two is nose.

Nose. We're just going down the body. I encourage everyone who's listening to do this also. Three is mouth. Mouth. Four ears. Ears. Five throat.

Great. So we're halfway there to 10, right? To 10 brain food. So top. Top. Nose. Nose. Mouth.

Ears. Throat. Okay. Six shoulders. Shoulders. Seven. Collars. Eight are your fingers.

Okay. Fingers. Nine is your belly. Valley and 10 is your bottom. Bottom. Great. So that's 10. So that's the first thing.

You create 10 places. Now we take the information and, well, yeah, just remember pie. P-I-E. The P is the place, 10 places. Pie is not a brain food, by the way. Just the word clear. The I is imagine. So we're imagining and then the E is entwine, which means we're going to entwining is when you're putting things together.

What are we going to put together? The P and the I, the place and the image. Okay. So the image is going to be the food. So what was the first location? It was the top, right? And I want to remember avocados. So in a fun way, you pretend you're eight years old again and use your imagination and use

some emotion and be playful about it. So imagine you're using guacamole as a scalp conditioner. Oh, my gosh. And you don't have to see it a lot. If you did it once, you would remember it, right? Second place is your what? Nose. And the second brain food were blueberries.

So I want to imagine you're sneezing and blueberries come out of your nose. What does that smell like? what does that feel like? Yeah. And again, if people think, like, listening, that's so childish, how fast, who are the fastest learners? Oh, yes. Children, right?

And they do it playfully. Exactly. And so we're playing also, right? Because some people say, oh, I stopped playing because I grew older. And I'm like, no, the opposite. You grow older because you stop playing. Oh, right? And so number three is what?

Mouth. And the third brain food we talked about was broccoli. So imagine a big, like, I don't know, broccoli sprouts or a big piece of broccoli in your teeth, that's so embarrassing, right? But just make it bigger, right? What does that taste like, feel like? Four is what? It was your ears and olive oil.

So just imagine maybe earrings with olives, made out of olives or clean your ears with olive oil, whatever it is. Okay, you just picture it once you get it. Okay. Number five is what? Was your throat? And then it was the brain food were eggs. Eggs.

So imagine, I don't, there's no Adam's apple, maybe there's a hard-boiled egg. Yeah, I was going to say, I can see it, hard-boiled eggs. sticking out your thyroid gland. Perfect. Yeah, exactly. That lands for me. So we're halfway there. And see, even if you could think about what was on top of my head, the food comes there, right?

Yes, avocado, yeah. And then your nose. So after five, you have six your shoulders. And those are your green leafy vegetables, so kale and spinach. Maybe shoulder pads made a kale and spinach, right? Very 80s. Seven is your collar, and that was the fatty fish. So imagine a collar made out of salmon sushi or sardines.

Like a bow tie. Yeah. I imagine it's a week old. Oh, no. See, that makes, yeah. Okay, you're getting more descriptive. I see what you're doing. It's the more vivid, the more of your nervous system you're going to recruit.

Have you ever gone to the store to buy one thing and you come back with two bags full of things? Yes. Except for that one thing that you went to the store originally for. This is a great way of having your list here. And I'm going to show you how you can use this for anything, like a speech or anything else. So seven was fish on your collar. Eight were your what? Fingers.

fingers. And it was turmeric was the brain food. So imagine that golden powder. It just gets messy and it's all over your finger in your fingernail beds everywhere. You just can't get rid of it. And even if you can't imagine it, imagine it. Right. All right.

Number nine is your belly button. And you want to remember walnuts. So imagine you're just outside and somebody's sitting on the bench there and they're eating walnuts out of their belly button. Yeah. Yeah. That's kind of like weird. But you would never forget that. No.

No. Even 10 years later, you'd be telling people about it. And then finally, the 10th place is your what? Bottom. Your bottom? Dark chocolate. And you don't have to, nobody has to share online or on YouTube or anything. But just imagine dark chocolate at bottom.

See, when you understand how your memory works, you can work your memory. Because now imagine you who are at home, you're listening. And Minnie and I, we contact you and just like, hey, we're going to have like a limitless brain party, you know, and just while you're out, can you just stop by the store and pick up these 10 things. And you're like, no, I can't because I'm driving. I can't remember. but then you did this simple exercise. It takes more time to explain it than it does to do it. And then you finally get to the store and you're walking down the aisles and you go to the first place.

What's the first food? Avocados. And then I'm pointing to my nose. Out of my nose are the blueberries, the brain berries. My mouth, I have stuck in my teeth. Broccoli. And then my ears, and I'm hoping everyone's doing this at home too, ears, olive oil.

And then my throat I have a hard-boiled egg. And that's halfway there. six on you have shoulder pads made out of kale and spinach kale and spinach very good and then your collar you have a necklace that's made out of yeah the fatty fishes yeah and then your fingers you have all over that that spice turmeric yeah turmeric all over your thing and then your belly button you're eating walnuts and then bottom you have chocolate holy yeah that was good I followed that and I have the metapausal brain I followed that all the way through that's my point because you know what you eat matters especially for your gray matter, right?

But it's the strategy, something simple. It takes more time to explain than it does to do. And you could probably do it backwards, too, even if I challenged you. You could go from your bottom where dark chocolate, right, your belly button, walnuts, your fingers, you have the tuberic, and then all the way back to your top again. So yeah, that's, and then, so, well, going back to the 10 keys for a limitless brain that could help anybody and be supportive, science base, zero to 10, just rate, people could rate themselves the past week, you know how much energy and effort and tension how well did they eat because everybody you know knows

what would be on the opposite side you know the zero you know highly processed foods high sugar and so on number two we'll go through the rest really fast two are killing ants is good for the brain oh yeah yeah and this is a term i got from daniel yeah dr daniel amen automatic negative thoughts you know this is going back to the power of beliefs you know if people believe that as you know they get older, that certain things happen. And certainly there's a reality to it, but all behavior is belief driven. You know, at this event that I just came from speaking, somebody pulled me aside saying, I'm so glad you're here.

I know you're this memory coach. I have a horrible memory. I'm really just getting too old. And I was like, wait, stop. If you fight for your limitations, you get to keep them. Right. If you fight for your limits. And so many people fight for what they can't do and then they get to keep those, you know,

those restrictions. So on scale zero to 10, you know, how popular. positive and encouraging have our thoughts been. And even if you find yourself saying, I don't have a great memory, which is totally fair, just add a little word like yet at the end. It just feels different. Or if you say something like, oh, I got to work out,

I got to pick up the kids. I'm listening to this podcast. They say, I've got to meditate. You know, if you change a little word like God to get, I get to meditate, and I get to pick up the kids. I get to work out and, you know, and reduce some stress, then just feels a little bit different. Right.

So zero to 10, how encouraging and positive of your thoughts are Because if people truly understood how powerful their mind is, they wouldn't say or think something. Yeah, that they didn't want to be true. And that's not to say you have one negative thought and ruins your life any more than eating that one donut does. But if you eat that donut dozens of times a day, every single day, it's going to have an effect. Same thing with what we're planting in our mind. Because your brain is this incredible supercomputer and your self-talk is a program that will run. So if you tell yourself, I'm not good at remembering names.

You won't remember the name of the next person to me because you program and not to. Zero to 10. Number three, exercise. Yes. That's what I found actually in a lot of my research for this book on BDNF was exercise. But it wasn't just exercise. It was intensity, consistency, and even breaking muscle down like through strength training. Yeah, strength training is so, because there's so many brain benefits to strength training, resistance training, right?

You have blood flow. You create dopamine, serotonin, endorphins. You have the neurotransmitter effect. You know, you also get the BDNF. which you mentioned, there could potentially be some anti-inflammatory benefits from it, you know, as well. And also in terms of how you metabolize glucose, right? You know, insulin could help with insulin sensitivity also because, you know, the muscles are absorbing and you utilizing it. So so many brain benefits. And also as your body moves, your brain grooves, you know, research is shown that also

if you're listening to this podcast when you're doing something like going for brisk walk or some elliptical, you actually understand it better and retain it better. also as well, which is fantastic. Yeah. You know, and I don't just mean exercise, yeah, you could do your strength training two or three times a week, but I also moving throughout the day. Yeah. I mean, that is just, we just didn't evolve to sit behind screens, you know,

and the water, you know, all the blood's pooling, you know, to other areas as opposed to our brain. Yeah. You know, and so I just recommend every 30 or 60 minutes, people take a brain break to move. Okay. Right. And to hydrate because just staying hydrated at 2% dip. and if you're dehydrated, it could affect your cognitive performance. And also to breathe.

So maybe every hour to getting off the screen, taking a five minute, getting some air, some vitamin D, moving your body. The primary reason we have a brain is to move our body, is to control our movement. You know, even with a new child, like just watching them, like, learning how to crawl. That's so important. You know, a lot of movement is important for children for brain development. So I want to hold on to that thought for a second. the primary reason we have a brain is for movement.

Does that mean that the brain's greatest desire and where it will shine its best is when we're in movement? Yeah, I find that, you know, when we do events, we do a lot of exercises. Like we'll do exercises like massaging your earlobe with your opposite hands and inhaling, it's squatting down and up. Something called super brain yoga. Right. In an area of research educational kinesiology, brain gym really make it a lot famous, these cross-crawls where you're, left hand, you know, your hand or your elbows touching your opposite knee, you're raising them going back and forth, as opposed to potentially increase communication between your left and right

hemispheres of your brain also as well. Yeah, it's been my experience. You never want to learn something in a static state because I feel like rigid physiology leads to rigid thinking also. Right. You know, when you're pliable and you're flexible with your body, you tend to also be that with your mind. Because the reason I want to highlight that is that I feel like we've got gotten all really sedentary, even more post-pandemic, like the pandemic just shut us all down, and a lot of us haven't found our routines. But if you look at the menopausal woman, she's losing testosterone, even men as they age or losing testosterone. So you're not only losing that major hormone that supports you when you're working out, but it's also

motivation and drive to want to work out. And so for me, I'll tell you something that really worked for me in my 40s, and this was where fasting helped me. is I discovered that I could use fasting and food to keep my weight where I wanted it to be. And so all of a sudden I had to relabel exercise. And exercise became what I did for my brain. And the minute I looked at it that way, I never struggled to work out again because it wasn't like, oh, I want to fit into my skinny jeans. It was like, wait, I want to be happy. I want to think clearly.

I want to hold on to information. I love that. I love that beyond. Yeah, I think a lot of people look at exercise as punishment. They ate this food so you have to punish themselves to be able to do this. But I love it that you're doing this to be physically fit and also more mentally fit also as well. It's literally like when I ask myself every morning what exercise I want to do, I think about what does my brain need to do? And sometimes it's like I need some endorphins so I better go for a run.

And sometimes I'm like, ooh, I got a long afternoon of like really intense activity. I better break some muscle down. Because my research showed that you will get a tabalite that goes up into the brain and stimulates BDNF when you break that muscle down. So I'm like, okay, let me break it down so that my brain is supercharged. I love that. And it was really, it was, and I'm a competitive athlete.

So like to make that shift from, this isn't something I'm doing for my body, but for my brain, it was really profound. So it's interesting to hear you acknowledge that that's part of why you, the brain, what the brain wants. Yeah, is movement.

Yeah. It really, I mean, just think about the opposite. If we're just, you know, if we're bedridden and we're not moving. Right.

You know, how our thinking is also. That's right. And our, and our mental acuity. Yeah. I feel like, movement is so very important. It's underrated.

Yeah, agreed. Just any opportunity to be able to move more. Yeah, you'll be more here mentally fit. So that's number four. Number three is movement. Number four are brain nutrients. Like if you're not, people aren't getting it from their diet, which I always prefer personally.

People can make their own decisions or go to a, you know, get lab work done and do a nutrient profile. But certain nutrients they might supplement with based on what they're not getting from their food. Like if they're not, if they can't, eat fish or the anine inflaxis or whatever, you know, omega-3s or your DHAs, you know, your vitamin Ds, you're not getting enough sunlight. You know, these are all critical, you know, magnesium, so critical for all the physiological,

you know, transactions going on in your brain. It's interesting. Cretein has been shown to be very, very supportive of cognitive. Very popular lately, too. Not just for exercise for a lot of people doing it, but also for cognitive energy. Interesting. So those zero to 10, you know, nutrients. And then the other ones are number five is a positive peer group.

And I really want to just, this is something, yeah, it's who we spend time with. We've heard this is who we become, right? Who you spend time with this, who become. We have these mirror neurons where we're imitating a lot of times unconsciously the people around us. You know, I always tell people, you know, here's an acronym, watch, W-A-T-C-H. We tend to imitate the words of the people, the language patterns of the people we spend time with. We start to adopt the same slang and language. The A in Watch are our actions.

We start modeling the behavior. So it's less of our biological networks and more with our social networks, meaning whether you smoke has less to do with your biology and more does your friend smoke, right? It's going to influence you, right? Because we're going to imitate those behaviors and then become more acceptable. So that's the A. The T in Watch are our thoughts. We tend to have the same thoughts and beliefs of the people around us.

The C in Watch is our character. We tend to model the integrity, you know, in this. standards of the people around us as well. And then finally the H are your habits, right? We tend to pick up the same routines and habits of the people around us, whether they're working or exercising or reading. We tend to adopt the same ones. And so positive peer group on a scale of 0 to 10, how we all need people to encourage us, to cheer lead for us, to be kind to us. And if we haven't found that person or persons, be that person for somebody else. And especially be that person for you. They say, you know, we're the average of the five people we spend time with, including health and money.

If you're around nine broke people, be careful because you're going to likely to be number 10. Right. Right. So zero to 10 is number five, it's number five, which is positive peer group. Number six, something people could do for their brain besides the first five, a clean environment. Ooh. You know, this is, we don't hear enough about this. So we've done just some more recent podcasts about it ourselves.

But your external world tends to be a reflection of your internal world. I mean, just imagine like when you make your bed or you clean off your desk or everything's in the right folder on your screen. It just gives you clarity of thought. Yeah, you're much calmer. Yeah. And also, clean environment, you know, could also be the air quality. Yes. You know, it could be the lighting, right?

It could be the water. All of these, you know, like, you know, or, you know, some, some, they could potentially be off-gassing on furniture or neurotoxins in the carpet. But just overall a clean environment, zero to 10. EMFs. Some people, you know, suggest could be, you know, are. harmful to our brain. That's number six. Number seven, sleep. This is a big one. That's a big one because it's so important, but not, especially for menopausal women, it's really difficult to get a good night sleep. Yeah, so sleep, and I don't know your favorite thing, but especially for your brain,

because how's your brain functioning on little sleep? Yeah. You know, how are you focusing? How are your ability to sell problems, your mental endurance, you know, your ability to be, you know, creative to remember things. Because when you're sleeping, it's where you consolidate short to long-term memories. They have long-term memory issues. Maybe a sleep test or at-home sleep test you could do also. It's also where, you know, when you're sleeping, your brain doesn't necessarily turn off at night. It's doing other things besides consolidate memories. A lot of, like, our dreams, did you know a lot of inventions and works of art and literature came from people in their sleep state, in their dream state? I believe that. Yeah. It's well, like Paul McCartney came up with the song yesterday in his dream.

You know, Mary Shelley created Frankenstein in her dream, right? And so what are we dreaming about? The chemist created the framework of the Piroch table in his dream. That's crazy. That presupposes we're getting that REM sleep, right? I was going to say, is that what part of sleep? Is it total sleep? Is it REM?

Deep, I always think, is the detox or REM as the information. Yeah. Yeah, for me, so it's not, you know, the quantity of sleep is the quality of the deep sleep, the slow-wave sleep, you know, the REM sleep. For me, it's just to simplify, REM is where your mind is recovering. You know, the deep is where more your body, your physiology is recovering. That makes sense. You know, and then the things we talked about, getting direct sunlight first thing in the morning

to reset your circadian rhythm, I can't do caffeine past noon because it just for some reason, I'm so sensitive to it. So, you know, if I, even if I did it, I need the energy, I just know I'm going to pay something at the other end of that. Also, just think about it. As hunter and gatherers, we would know. know it would be time to sleep and we would create melaton when there be a drop in two environmental factors a drop in light and a drop in temperature yeah you know um and so you know are we making it

cooler cool where it keeps you up where you're shivering right it's distracting but a cooler environment or even taking a sauna or a warm bath you know and then when you get out of the bath especially if it's a magnesium like a absent salt and you have transdermal again in the magnesium to help you relax when you get out of that sauna or that warm bath your core body temperature is going to drop and that's a signal to produce melatonin, help you relax and phase, you know, darker, obviously the better, which, you know, a lot of people are on their devices, you know, and people's, you feel your mind and thinking it's still daylight, you know, with the screens. And so, you know, those are all the things. So zero to ten, how good you sleep the past week, right? And then finally, eight, nine, and ten,

eight is brain protection. Just a reminder, you know, having had three brain injuries before the age to 12, protect your brain, wear a helmet, you know, avoid extreme sports. So zero to 10. And then number nine is new learning, you know, just always learning. You know, I always having that neuroplasticity because, yes, you know, we could grow older. I mean, after 25, you know, it's not as plastic as as it potentially once was. But, you know, we could always, everyone going to the gym is going to, you know, it's going to get, or being more active is going to get the benefit. Same thing with the mental gym. And there was a study done. It was on the cover of Time magazine where they found these nuns and these nuns were living pretty long lives, 80, 90 above. And they wanted to find out, you know,

what was the cause of that. And they said approximately half of it was their emotional faith and gratitude. But the other half, they were lifelong learners. They were reading all the time, having deep conversations and debates. And because of it, it added a year to their life and life to their years. They did this study. It was called Aging with Grace. You know, a beautiful name for study. So yeah, on scale zero to ten, how much you're learning. And for me, I like reading. I still think reading is one of the most important brain fitness. Yeah, I really think reading is to your mind, what exercise is to your body. Yeah. And so very important. The thing is people don't schedule it. No. Like they just, it's like you schedule, I don't know, parent teacher meetings and doctor appointments

and investor meetings, whatever works appointments, but we're not scheduling like our workouts as much. I think one of the most important productivity performance tools we have is our calendar. Yes. You know, and if you don't put it in there, the day escapes you, and then you wonder why you didn't meditate or you didn't do the things you're supposed to do. I also wonder if going from left to right, left to right, left to right, is also calming to the brain. So I like to read at the beginning and the end of the day.

Yeah, I do the same. I mean, I read usually around lunchtime and then at night. The difference is, though, I am super sensitive of my sleep, especially because I travel so much and I'm in my sleep high jamming jet lag and hotels and stuff like that. I read nonfiction during the day and fiction at night.

I just, for me, I can't, if I was to read a book on neuroscience or entrepreneurship at night, I would go in more into my executive functioning and when I want to just kind of relax. That's exactly what I decided to. Yeah, I think nonfiction is great to learn from information and fiction is great to learn through imagination.

Yeah. And actually reading fiction actually has been shown to improve your EQ, your emotional quotient, improve your deeper levels of empathy, has been shown to, because through narrative you could shift perceptual positions, right? Through storytelling and all of that, and your creativity, imagination, obviously.

And so, yeah, for those of you are just reading, you know, all the nonfiction, I would encourage you, put 10% towards some fiction reading. You know, by the way, I studied under Marianne Williamson during the pandemic. There was 20 of us that were in, author mentorship group. And she said, if you want to be a good nonfiction writer, read fiction.

And she kept saying it over and over again. She's like, if you want to be better at writing nonfiction, you got to immerse yourself in fiction. I think it's because of the storytelling and being able to convey a point in the way that that narrative approach happens in fiction. And you think about how people pass on information around campfires before they did have books and everything else, they do it through stories. because it uses all of the visual, auditory and kinesthetic feelings built in.

And a story method, you know, I can teach people on the memorize the entire periodic table using a story. You know, I do that with children all the time, in a fraction of the time it would take in just one time without rehearsals. But it's the same way as you remember the brain foods. If you still remember the brain foods, same thing. I can probably tell them to you now. Yeah. Yeah. Number 10 is the 10 keys for changing your brain performance and health is stress management.

We know that chronic stress has been shown potentially the shrink the human brain. You know, when you're in fight or flight also, you know, we're in our survival brain, and it's keeping us hostage from like our creative brain or executive functioning, you know. And so I would just say on a scale of zero to 10, so like chronic stress or strength of brain, chronic fear will actually suppress your immune system. Right. Right. Right.

All area science called psycho-neuroimmunology, making more susceptible to colds, the flus, to viruses. So we have to be very careful where we're watching because, you know, know, if it bleeds, it leads, a lot of people hooked on the news and they're addicted to it. But I sort of remind people, just like social media, there's an algorithm. Like with, if you're on Instagram and you're swiping through, whatever you engage with the most, they show you more of. So if you're just liking and sharing, commenting on cats, right, they're going to show you more cats. Same thing with your mind.

Your mind has a similar algorithm. So if you're just feeding it fear and everything that could, you know, threaten you and things that are scary, then whatever you engage with, you start seeing more. And your reticular activating system, your RAS, which controls a lot of your focus, will start looking for more of those. And you'll wonder why we're in that kind of fight or flight stage all the time. So on a scale of zero to 10, how well 10 being the best are you coping with stress? And what mechanisms do you have in place? For me, it's meditation.

I feel like it's important for me to disconnect, to reconnect. And I'll do that. You know, other people, they get bodywork done or they use some foam rolling or they do. something, right, or relax some other way. Yeah. That's amazing. Okay, so I, and I love that. I love all 10 of those. I think they're so applicable. Common sense, too. Yeah. They're common sense, but they're not always common practice. So the reason why I have people rate their past week, zero to 10 is because everybody wants to know the one thing, but you can do everything and not sleep well. Right. You know, and you're not going to get the benefit. You can do all this stuff and eat just processed

food all day. You're not going to get the results. You could do all this and be stressed out of your mind or be around energy vampires, not a positive peer group. So, you know, the whole, whole thing here is, you know, we could choose, you know, again, life is the letter C between B and D with the power of the C is choice, you know, between birth and death, that these difficult times, they could distract you. These difficult times can diminish you or these difficult times they could develop you. Yeah. You know, we decide with their choices. You know, and lifestyle, I feel like lifestyle is never given enough credit for health. Like we want, the way that our healthcare system is set up is more like if you have a problem, we got to bring up big,

gun in, whether it's a surgery or medication, and we lost sight of, wait, no, it's a really, it's just consistent habits done over time that's going to build you an amazing body and brain, and that's what I just heard in that. And I love the word consistent. Because I believe if you're persistent, you could achieve it. You go to gym all the time, you're persistent, you can achieve it. But if you're consistent, you get to keep it. Yeah.

You know, and consistency compounds. Yeah. Because little by little, a little becomes a whole lot. It becomes a lot. Yeah. Okay, last couple of questions I have to ask you. This one, I don't think I told you this one, but I want to know if your brain geeks out on this. Okay.

So as I've been navigating my menopausal brain, I've realized how important it is to try new things, many of the things you said. Like I'm putting myself in new environments. I'm trying new information. I'm exercising different. And what I tell myself is you just created more neuroplasticity in your brain by doing these activities, but I call. call them baby neurons. And I'm like, if I have a bunch of little baby neurons in my brain right now from the activities that I just did, I got to be really careful how I talk to these baby neurons.

Just like I wouldn't talk to a toddler and say bad things, I got to be really careful that I don't talk to these baby neurons in a bad way. Otherwise, they're going to turn out to be like the old neurons and I call them grumpy neurons. Okay. I like that. What do you think of that? I love that. It's an image.

even when people, you know, have a voice inside their head and they gave it a label, you know, give it a name. It allows you to address something. You know, I think, I love it. Like, every time you're explaining it, I could see, like, the baby neurons and the grumpy neurons. So I was at a menopause retreat. I was leading this menopause retreat in Abiza, and I was trying to explain how important neuroplasticity was to these menopausal women. And so I used the baby neurons and the grumpy, and I called them the grumpies. And, oh, my gosh, they took it. They started using it. We were like in a chat together about it.

I love that. But it's really helpful for me to realize if I want to change my brain, I can't let the grumpies tell the babies what to do. I've got to be really conscious about who I'm listening to, what I'm thinking. Otherwise, every time you're even out working out, if you're out working out, creating neuroplasticity, and then you go back to talking poorly to yourself or hanging around people who are thinking negatively, your babies now turn into grumpies. I love that. Yeah.

You can use it, Jim. That's a mic drop right there. It put a story in my mind and now I can't unsee it. When you explain it to me, I literally, if the camera picked up, I had goosebumps. I call them truth bumps. Truth bumps. But yeah, they're so good. I love it.

I love it. Well, anyways, I can talk brain all day. That was like, okay, and then I have to tell you one other thing. So then I was like, I should create a neuronal nursery for my babies. Oh, nice. What does that look like? I don't know. But I was like, and I think it's going back to play, like, what I did as a kid, like,

maybe listening to a podcast while playing hopscotch or jump rope. But like going back to that playful spirit where I've got all these fresh new baby neurons that want to hold on to this information. So let me play with them so that they can actually grow into more improved. Yeah, I love that. It's again, because it's very visual and that's so telling. I would remind everybody, like, as we're doing this, for neuroplasticity, neurogenesis, It needs two things, novelty and nutrition.

Just like your physical body, if you want to build your body, you give it novelty, you know, workout, and then you give it nutrition, right, to feed it as it gets turned in, and then maybe a nap, you know, for the rest. I have to keep the end. Yes. Literation. Novel nap and nutrition. I love that.

I love it. But same thing with when you're learning, when you're learning new things, you're entertaining new ideas, you have that novelty, you give it nutrition. Even it's been shown if you actually take a nap or you meditate after you learn something, you'll actually integrate it, you know, really well also as well. So that could be a nice quick tip for everybody. So good. So good.

Okay. My last question I ask everybody this season. This has been something I've been focused on is what's your superpower? What is like everybody has a superpower I believe they bring to the world? What do you think yours is? I believe my superpower is the same as yours and everybody's listening. That if knowledge is power, learning is our superpower. You know, like think about it.

Like every creature has a superpower. Yeah. You know, some could fly. Some could breathe underwater. Some could climb, some are super fast, right? But we're not any of those things. But because we have the ability to learn, we can learn to fly. We can go underwater, right?

We can be super fast because this is the ultimate superpower. So I think learning and our brains are the ultimate power. I love it. I love it. Well, thank you, Jim. Thank you. Thank you. I can challenge everybody to do something real quick?

Yeah, please, please do. I would love everyone out of the 10 things, actually, to take a screenshot of wherever you're consuming this right now and tag Mindy, tag myself and put one thing in the post that you're going to do for a better brain. Just one thing. We talked about like a couple dozen different things, right? Maybe it's just, hey, I'm going to have more, you know, walnuts and brain berries, right? Or maybe I'm going to read that 10 minutes a day. Or maybe I'm to do that little bit of weight lift, you know, strength training, you know, something, or prioritize your sleep. You know, maybe, yes, I have an alarm to wake up and I want to, I need an alarm to go to bed

because I think that having the consistency is important. And also, I challenge everyone to do that brain quiz. In four minutes, it's fun and easy. It's at mybrainanimal.com. And you'll get a detailed report based on your animal, and you're going to get some art that we created for you, post the animal, and then tag us both to show us what animal you are. Oh, I love it.

And I will repost some of my favorites, and I will gift a couple assigned copies of our new Limitless Expanded. And people could go to Limitless Book.com. and get that and all the brain training that we're gifting people as a thank you. We donate 100% of the author proceeds of charity. Wow. To Alzheimer's research for women because women are twice as likely to experience Alzheimer's than men. Yeah, most of the research is done on men.

Most of the treatments in memory of my grandmother. And also to build schools for girls and boys around the world. We've done it. We build full out, our team has donated to build schools in Ghana, Guatemala, Kenya. Wow. And we just want to build better, brighter brains. So I want to thank you so much. I can't wait to have a conversation with you on our podcast.

Yeah, no, I love this. And I assume, so the best place to go find the new book is... You can get wherever books are available. Limitlessbook.com. We just have a couple of free brain training. So you get the basics of speed reading, memory improvement, and focus. It's a course that we sell for hundreds of dollars, but you get it as a gift for just getting a copy of the book.

Great. Beautiful. I love this. Thank you, Jim. And thank you for taking the brain you were given as a child and turning it into this giant because we're all benefiting from it. So thank you. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much for joining me in today's episode. I love bringing thoughtful discussions about all things health to you. If you enjoyed it, we'd love to know about it. So please leave us a review, share it with your friends, and let me know what your biggest takeaway is.