Brain Retraining and Meditation for Optimal Health

Ashok Gupta is an internationally renowned speaker 3 filmmaker and health practitioner who has dedicated his life to supporting people through chronic illness and achieving their potential. Ashok suffered from ME or chronic fatigue syndrome around 25 years ago when he was studying at Cambridge University. Through neurological research that he conducted, he managed to get himself 100% better. He then set up a clinic to treat others and then published the well known neuroplasticity recovery program known as the Gupta program in 2007. He's published several medical papers and is continually researching these chronic conditions. Recently, a randomized controlled trial was published showing the Gupta Program was highly effective compared to a control. More information@gupta program.com Ashok is on a mission to research and support people with chronic illness through an integrated and holistic approach. In 2017, Ashok published a popular and award winning 4.6 star rated app called the Meaning of Life Experiment, a 30 day program of videos and meditations to discover more happiness, meaning and to uncover your life purpose. In 2020, he created and hosted the free 10 day Coronavirus Challenge which is helping thousands of others taking the pledge to reduce the spread of the virus through boosting the immune system, reducing anxiety and saving lives.

Welcome Ashak, thank you so, so much for being here with us today.

Yes, thank you so much for inviting me. So excited to have this conversation.

I first learned about your work when I was studying at the Institute of Functional Medicine and what blew me away, and I was. I mean I. Yeah, what blew me away. I talk about this all the time with folks with my clients is how your work is so incredibly profound and we're looking at the mind and we're looking at lifestyle and there are no pharmaceuticals. It's a holistic approach and I wonder.

If we can just.

We'll get into the nitty gritty of your brain retraining program and all that, but I'm wondering if we can just start with a broad overview and looking at what's going on right now. In the current state of health, we seem to be getting sicker and sicker despite all of the money and effort that's going into health care right now. And given your unique angle, I'm just really interested to hear your perspective on that.

Yes, absolutely. I am constantly fascinated by the overall health of a population and comparing different countries and seeing which countries do well. You know, there's the idea of blue zones where people live longer and are healthier even though there's an aging population. So what's going on? What can we learn? And my overall view of looking at all of this is let's ask the biggest question of all. Why are we here right now? That is a next hour answering that question from a philosophical perspective of why are we here? You know, the big philosophical question of the meaning of life. But if we look from a scientific perspective, we're here because we are survival machines. So our whole system, our brains, our bodies, our nervous system, our immune system, is designed to adapt to the environment and basically survive so we can pass on our genes to the next generation. So that is the purpose of the kind of underlying reason why we're here from a scientific perspective. And so this system has evolved from plants to single celled organisms to invertebrates, vertebrates, reptiles, mammals, human beings. And I find it really fascinating, you know, we share 40% of the same DNA as a banana, right? Which shows you that we've got all of this great information in our system to adapt and learn and survive. So we take that principle. One of the reasons that I believe we're getting sicker is because we live now in a world where we are bombarded by stresses that we didn't have before. So even though compared to our past, we live longer, we're also bombarded with the physical stress. So that means instance toxins. So we live in a more polluted environment in terms of literally traffic, pollution around us, but also the toxins that are around us as well, the household cleaning chemicals that are going into our bodies, all of these different things. That's one aspect. And it's like a bucket that's getting filled up. So we've got a bucket of stress we can handle and it's getting filled up. So there's physical stresses that we're experiencing. Then of course there's the emotional stress. So people live much busier lives now, not resting, then calming their nervous systems. Mentally, we're put up a lot of pressure, more of a competitive society that we live in. And spiritually, before we would have communities and spaces of worship and places that we could get together. And since there's been a decline of engagement with religion, there's been a spiritual vacuum. So that means that we now feel more lonely than we did in previous generations. So all of these types of stresses are building up, building up, building up. And illness is when the water or the stress flows over the edge of the bucket, when we can no longer manage that level of stress. And that's what I'm seeing chronically in society. I mean, I don't know if you find this, but most people are almost like living on the edge in Terms of what they can manage or what they can handle.

Yeah, that's the threshold lifestyle.

Exactly. Just kind of just getting through. Right. And some of that is societal stress, etc. But some of it is of our own making. The because we're not looking after our own health and well being. And so that's why I see society getting sicker and sicker. Because a lot of the illnesses we're now getting are what we call neuroimmune condition syndromes in the sense of they are illnesses that are our own immune system and our own nervous system over responding and overreacting. And I think that's probably 50 to 60% of the illnesses that someone goes to see a doctor for. So for instance, lots of skin conditions, eczema, etc. And then if we're looking at even depression and anxiety or overstimulations of this nervous system, we know depression, 50% of depression is actually over inflammation in the brain, in the body and the gut. Then you've got pain syndromes, right? Fibromyalgia, chronic pain, which takes up a lot of doctors time. And then you've got these immune conditions. So that's chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, that's long Covid. All of these different things, all these different illnesses are as a result of our own immune system overreacting. And that's why I think we're getting sicker and sicker. And when our immune system overreacts to this polluted environment we live in, that also means it makes it less effective against the cancer, less effective at self healing and self repair, which can then increase those types of illnesses. And so we need to wholesale look at our whole lifestyle, mentally, physically, emotionally and rehaul it and make sure that we're doing the best for our bodies. And that's why I think we're getting sicker and sicker as a society.

That analogy that you used of the water flowing over, that's really profound because people often are, like you said, we're kind of living on the edge, we're getting by. Maybe we're not our best selves in terms of our health, but we're there. But then something happens, whether it's a physical, a physical trauma, so to speak, or something psychological. And it feels like that's when everything just kind of unravels. The other thing that stood out to me from what you just said is all of those conditions, or most of those conditions that you mentioned are the ones that people are told there's nothing.

You can do, just Live with it, just manage it.

How do you think about that?

Yes, exactly. So on your latter question, one I forgot to leave out, I missed out was actually digestive issues. So digestive issues are now once again rampant. And I'm sure you see them in your clinical setting as well. And these are all kind of linked. And the doctors will say there's nothing we can do. They'll give you pills that try to manage symptoms, but they're not getting to the actual root cause of it. And what we believe is actually through these lifestyle changes, through these mental and emotional changes and putting some things in place, actually you can offset this modern lifestyle that we're living in. You know, remember from a genetic perspective, this human being, this body that we're in, is designed for a bygone era. It's actually designed for a hunter gatherer environment or you know, small fishing villages have environment. We're designed to be outdoors. We're designed for a different history. And so now that we live in this new modern world, we've got to do whatever it takes to allow our bodies to adapt to this new environment, even though it's not our genetic inheritance. And that's really what I believe, obviously what we'll talk about. These few things based on science that we can put in place to dramatically not only improve our longevity, because that's one thing, but actually improve health. Longevity. How long can we live without having health conditions? Because what's the point living longer if we're sick for most of it, or we can't really enjoy our, you know, our retirement.

Yeah.

Katie, just remind me the first part of your question there.

Just that aspect of things building, building, building and then one trigger and it all kind of unravels.

We call that the ise, the initial sensitizing event. So most people find in many illnesses and those can be the neuroimmune conditions we've talked about, or indeed things like cancer and heart disease. Generally in between the first six months to two years before a person gets ill, they would have gone through exactly what you've talked about. Initial sensitizing event. And that can be a divorce, be a relationship breakup, it can be bereavement, it can be a whole host of different world life stressors. And what we find is that the immune system and the nervous system get triggered as a result of that trauma or that event. And then what happens is it doesn't ratchet down and therefore the body starts experiencing a huge amount of over inflammation in the body. And we're not designed to inflame our bodies constantly. And when that happens, our overall general health breaks down and makes us more vulnerable to other diseases. And that's why I believe that these sensitizing events, as they're called, can trigger chronic illness.

So thinking about, you just listed many different aspects that are playing a role in health and wellness. And as our society's changing, right. Like you said, more toxins and more stressors, all of this is contributing to us getting sicker. Do you have any thoughts that you want to share on.

This?

Seems so obvious to us. And all of everyone sharing during the summit is, is reinforcing that same idea.

Right.

We need to focus on lifestyle. We need to focus on the living a life that supports our health. And yet when we go to our health care system, when we go to our doctor, when we're in need, we don't, we don't talk about this holistic health approach. What are your thoughts on that? Like, how did this breakdown kind of happen?

Well, I think it's important for us to understand the historical setting behind this. Like, why is medicine the way it is? Because if you look at Eastern medicine, so that can be Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, that comes obviously from India, It's a very different approach to health. And how did, in the west, how did our health system become this way? It's what we call medical reductionism. And reductionism is this idea that in order to solve a system or to understand a system, you need to reduce larger chunks of information to the smallest fundamental level. So most of modern medicine focuses at the biochemical level that are, we can detect this enzyme is high or low, or blood pressure needs to be changed, or this, this. So we're focusing on the downstream effects as what we call medical reductionism. And the problem with that is it doesn't look at the whole system or the whole being. And the analogy I give is imagine you're standing on a bridge and there are people drowning in the river below you. So you jump in, you save that person, and there's another person drowning. So you jump in again and you save that person. And then you set up a rescue center next to that bridge to save all the people drowning in this river. But nobody's asking the question, who's throwing these people into the river in the first place? Upstream, what's the root cause of this problem? So rather than just treating the symptoms, let's go to the actual underlying cause. And so there's a difference between medical reductionism and medical holism. And the background to this was actually in The Age of enlightenment in the 17th and 18th century in Europe, what happened was as people became more educated, people rebelled against religion. And so anything that was religious or spiritual or to do with the mind, consciousness, emotions, that was seen as the realm of religion. And anything to do with science, health, that was seen as the realm of pure science. And so they became this bifurcation in terms of knowledge. And that bias, that medical bias, has now continued into the modern day, where medicine is about what can be measured versus treating the idea of medical holism, treating the whole system rather than the individual components. And that is what's contributed to this modern medical model. And secondly, because in the modern world we looked at what we could measure in the physical body. That's how then medicine said, well, we can measure these physical things. Let's now tamper that and change that and then we can heal and cure people. And it's only the last 20 years, as we've done more brain scans, we realized actually there's a huge amount of information going on in the brain. And the brain may actually be the root cause of so many different conditions or in fact a contributing cause. And if we can shift and retrain the brain, then we can heal so many different conditions. So I believe medicine now is in for a huge change, that when you go to your doctor in 10, 20 years time, it won't be a medical model of they prescribe you drugs like a pharmaceutical drug. It will actually be a very different approach, which is a holistic approach because there'll be enough research to support that. Because at the moment there's a research bias which is towards pharmaceuticals. But actually even things like mindfulness now as they start getting tested, doctors realize actually that's something that can help the root cause of illness versus just treating the symptoms.

And I think that raises an interesting point because in that reductionist model, we're looking at everything physiological and we're taking it down into this sort of almost irreducible complexity to these such discrete parts that it's no wonder it doesn't work. But it hasn't even looked at what's going on in the central processing unit or in the mind, the non physical part of the body of the individual, the patient. And so going back up the, I don't know, the reverse order of reductionism, we're not just encompassing everything as connected and a part of the whole, but we're also adding in that second layer of, hey, the other half of an individual is their consciousness themselves, their mind, their brain. And what's happening in the, you know, in the wiring almost and.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly right, Penny. And analogy that people find useful is this idea of hardware and software. So medicine is brilliant at treating the hardware, but the software, the wiring of the system, we don't have medical tools to target that. And that's where brain retraining or meditation and all of these things support and help the physical body, the physical hardware, because they deal with the software bugs in the system that are causing the actual problems and causing them, the physical hardware to go wrong.

Yeah, our whole model is set up around this reductionistic approach of, you know, less than 10 minute appointments with your doctor, with your specialist, generally speaking. And like you said, this kind of reliance on pharmaceuticals and that in and of itself is, is, it's set up so that we can't take into consideration everything else because everything else is more to it. There's a compounding effect that we get when we look at, and I'm interested as we go along to talk more about your men's protocol. But that's harder to measure in the usual scientific method approach because we can only really measure one thing at a time by definition, when we use that scientific model.

But.

When we add in more aspects and look at the body as a whole, then we see that it all works together. And by isolating one piece, we can get some progress. Absolutely. But not nearly the same as when we add in all of them. Right. The sum is more than its parts.

Exactly right. The sum is more than the parts. And you know, this all can be looked at in terms of, when we look at those specific parts of the things that go wrong, what we're not taking into account is the interplay of all of these different things. And that's what happened with medicine when it came to genetic research. So there was this big promise that once we map out the human genome, we're going to figure out all the different illnesses, why they happen, and they're purely medical and they're purely coming from our genesis. They did that whole process and they realized actually the genes explain about 20%, maximum 30% of our overall predictor of our health, 70 to 80% is lifestyle, is actually how our genes interact with the environment. So there's this idea that our genes are like putting the bullets into the gun, but it is our environment that then pulls the trigger on that preloaded gun. And so therefore environmental factors are so much more important. And then there's neurological factors, not just the physical body, but the neurological factors. And then there's the emotions and how our personalities Interact with the environment as well. So this holistic model, I believe 10 to 20 years time, it will become the norm. And people like yourselves, people on the summit, they're all pioneers of bringing this forward, you know. And so this is an exciting time to be involved in this area because we're in a transition phase.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

It is exciting, isn't it? And at the same time, there's still a shocking amount of pushback, despite the fact that we are getting, like you said about mindfulness, we're gaining so much information from not just clinical insights of practitioners like yourself doing it, but now we're getting some of the research, a lot of the research now to support these different areas of a holistic approach to health. Can you speak to, you've mentioned the role of the brain in all of this for those of us who are like, okay, what does this mean? Can you break it down to its kind of simplest part and start at the kind of foundation of what is the role of the brain? Because we have this, this separation of mind and body for so long. And I heard someone that I studied under one time, I wish I knew who to give it credit to, but said, you know, the brain and the body are connected by this thing called the neck. But in practice, we treat them as separate. Right. We have our mental health practitioners, we have our physical health practitioners, and we're now starting to try to connect these two. And there's still a lot of like, wait, what?

How?

But it's like, how not. Can you explain to us what that connection is?

Yeah, it's the programming. It is the programming, the brain and the nervous system, of which the brain is the head of the nervous system, that is the information flow that tells the cells what to do. So the cells know what to do in principle from their genetic inheritance, but in specific situations, it is the brain that tells those cells or those, or those different organs what to do at a particular moment. Because it's the intelligence of the system. And it used to be believed, once again, the intelligence isn't the peripheral cells. You know, this is idea of the mitochondria functioning on their own or cell danger responses and all this. I don't buy into that. I believe that those responses are downstream from an upstream system that has the intelligence to tell the system what to do. Yeah. And therefore we have to treat the entire system as one organism. And something that helps people. Is that your car? So, you know, when your car used to go wrong 30, 40 years ago, used to be something wrong with the brakes and you fix that, and there' something wrong with the windscreen. You fix that. Now it's inevitably the electrical system, right? So something goes wrong with the electrical system. The electrics go out, lights flashing on the dashboard. So you go to the garage and so you call it garage in the U.S. i don't know, the, the repair the mechanic and they will reset the electrical system and then all the, all the flashing lights will go off on your dashboard. And that's a similar situation in our bodies that it is often illnesses, the nervous system malfunctioning, sending incorrect messages to the immune system and so many of the other systems, which keeps us in an imbalance because it's a protective response, those protective responses gone haywire. Because of this mental, mentally, physically, emotionally stressful environment that we live in, the body can't function in its normal state. And that's really where the brain comes in. So if we can program the brain correctly, it can then reset the systems and get us back to homeostasis. And an example of this that I think we can all relate to is, you know, we all have busy lives and we have to eat well and we make sure we exercise, hopefully, and all those good things that we can do for our lifestyle. Yeah, just to keep us in peak performance for work. But then let's say you go on holiday. And what I find really fascinating is, you know, I've had, we run a busy clinic, different businesses I run and I have to keep on top of all of that to keep my concentration and energy levels going. But you go on holiday and the first few days you just sleep because you're just catching up on all the sleep you haven't had. But then you can be on holiday, you're relaxed, you're not doing any work, you can sleep like four hours a night, five, six hours a night, eat rubbish food, you know, do whatever you want and actually you feel fine. You have, you know, you're feeling good because you've allowed your nervous system to reset itself and recenter. And once you do that and your system's operating as it's supposed to, your body can handle a lot more of the environment than it can normally. So the mind aspect, out of all the different aspects of calming the brain and operating at peak performance, is the most important. And the caution I would have is, I still notice, even in the complementary and alternative space, we can fall into the trap of the reductionist methodology, which is measuring, you know, the enzymes in the gut, the inflammation, the binders, et cetera, and saying, right, we need to fix all these little things. But in parallel, it's also important to look at the mind aspect, the overall health of somebody, their lifestyle, the sleep, the exercise. Because otherwise we fall into the same trap as medicine has fallen into. Yeah. And then we start prescribing lots of different things to try and shift different levels. Whereas actually the body can do it all on its own. It just needs the right signaling. And I'll just contradict myself there. It's not that you can do it on its own. It's certainly helpful to support the downstream aspects. We still want to pull the people out of the river who've fallen in, but let's also in parallel, go upstream and stop them falling into the river in the first place.

So how do we do that?

The $64 million question right there.

You know what's so interesting is a lot of this research already exists, but nobody can make money from it. So it doesn't become part of modern medical education. And this is something that I think all doctors should be handing out information on this research and what can be done. So we've developed a protocol called the MEND protocol. And what's really funny is sometimes I mention it and people think I'm saying the men protocol. They say, well, that's very sexist. Why is it the MEN protocol? Why do women have to do the men? And I say the men D protocol. The MEND protocol. And so the MEND protocol looks at these different pillars of health, the main pillars of health, based on, you know, our 20 years of research and what you can do to improve overall health outcomes, improve your longevity and how many years that you stay healthy. And the first aspect of MEND is M, which is for mind. And often, as I said in the reductionist philosophy, the mind either won't come into it or be the last thing that somebody looks into. But actually we can make that the first thing that people look into. And so the mind aspect is that the levels of stress, the levels of worry that we experience all directly impact on our nervous system, our immune system, our. And reduce our effectiveness of our immune system and make us more vulnerable to health issues. So one set of health issues is an under efficient immune system which can then go on to causing infections, can go on to causing then cancer and all the diseases associated with an ineffective immune system. Then you have an overactive immune system. So that's the neuroimmune condition. So that is where you have then got the pain syndromes, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, long Covid. The new the autoimmune conditions where the immune system is actually attacking itself. And we even have people using our program for Alzheimer's and ms, where the, you know, the brain neurons and the spinal cord are actually being attacked by the immune system once again, which is an overactive immune system. And so all of these different conditions, if we can get the mind to reset itself, those can be improved. And for instance, the biggest impact or a lot of research has been done on mindfulness and meditation. And we know that when we meditate, 30 to 50 inflammatory genes are calmed down and switched off, resetting the system. And so meditation, out of all the different interventions, meditation is the quickest and the simplest intervention to benefit all health outcomes. And so many of us talk about it, but actually we never find the time in our busy lifestyles to actually do it. And the study that should have made front page news. Now imagine if the pharmaceutical companies came up with a drug that had very little side effects, was free. They wouldn't come up with it because it's free. But let's say it was free and it reduced your use of health care by nearly 50% in terms of visiting a doctor or hospital. It would be the miracle drug of the 21st century. It would be prescribed to every single person on this planet. It will solve the healthcare crisis and the spending that we know in the US we spend 20% of the national.

Income on healthcare, which is usually sick care.

Sick care, exactly. It's a sickness industry rather than a healthcare industry. And yet in a Harvard study in 2015, one of the largest studies ever published, following 5,000 people who regularly meditated and did relaxation techniques, they found that after a year, compared to a control group and compared to the year before, the same patients, there was a 43% reduction in billable hours for seeing a doctor or a hospital. 43%. We could reduce the health care cost by 43% if we got everyone to regularly meditate. And that was just once a day, and I prescribed twice a day. So that just shows you the impact that this could have. So the number one thing that people can do is set up a regular program of meditation that can just be starting off with just 10 minutes a day. But the sweet spot is 20 minutes a day. A minimum of 20 minutes a day can have massive health benefits. Also some breathing associated with it as well. And we do a lot of work with an organization called the Art of Living foundation, and they have a breathing technique which is medically huge amount of research they have on it. So just some breathing and a minimum of 20 minutes of meditation. Not mindfulness, not mindful walking, but sitting down, closing eyes and meditating can have a great impact. So that's the first pillar of health, is making sure we meditate. And combined with that, looking at what other stress management techniques help us. So we all have our own thing, right? Whether it's sitting in a jacuzzi or having a massage or socializing with friends, all of these things can help impact and have a positive impact on the mind. And one of the most important things here is for us to find what works for us. A hobby. So from some of it's singing, some it's dancing. The arts are incredibly powerful. Laughter, how much are we laughing each day? You know, how much can we let go of our worries about the world and just be happy? And making that a deliberate intention. And a lot of that is related to our spiritual selves as well. That actually having a philosophy about life, that big age old question, why does God allow bad things to happen? Right. If we don't have a philosophy to understand that and or at least accept that, then we're constantly going to be thinking we're living in an unsafe world and we're battling against, you know, this, this, this universe. But understanding why things happen the way they are have our own philosophy for that is incredibly powerful. So M is for the mind having a happy go, lucky mind, a calmer mind with meditation and breathing. E is for exercise. And we think of exercise as going to the gym, but that can be any movement. Yeah, any physical exercise. And we know that just 40 to 45 minutes of walking a day, brisk walking can give you a lot of health benefits. For those people who don't want to hit the gym. Just walking, walking in nature, especially getting out into the sunlight, getting sunlight and physical sun on your body has incredible benefits for people as well. So that's E for exercise. N is for nighttime routine and sleep. So as a civilization, we are not sleeping enough now because we're on our devices, we're stimulating our nervous system. At night, we're watching lots of crazy dramas on Netflix and then going, right, let's go to sleep now. And having interrupted sleep because we're not calming ourselves before we go to sleep. By the way, the reason we use N for nighttime routine is because if we use S, then it would have messed up the MEND protocol and made it say messed. So we artificially calculated mend. So that's where the N comes in. So nighttime routine, the last two hours before sleep is incredibly important.

I actually I actually like that you say nighttime routine as opposed to sleep because that's the part we need to be focusing on is what happens before our head hits the pillow. So many people go to bed and they're like, oh, I can't sleep. And it's like, okay, but let's rewind an hour, two hours. What happened during that time? And actually by focusing on the nighttime routine, that's more, it's more empowering, like you can actually do something about your nighttime routine. When often feel like I can't do anything about my sleep. So.

Yeah, no, it's a good point.

I like men better than mess.

So it works. So it works. It's been validated now. So yeah, absolutely. In the evenings after we have our dinner, those last two to three hours are so important. So for most of us, we may be sitting in front of the television. So that is the modern campfire of civilization is sitting in front of a television. Whereas previous generations used to be, we used to sing and dance and be social around a campfire and all tribes and civilizations had that in common. Which is what we're actually designed to do is to smile, to laugh, to be joyful with people not on our own sitting and watching this screen in the corner of the room. And therefore what can we do to uplift ourselves in the evening, but also calm ourselves? And so relaxation techniques, going for a walk after dinner, you know, after dinner walk is very beneficial and then having that wind down. So we're not on active screens. So television can, can be okay because it's a passive screen watching, but something relaxing on the screen versus you know, heavy violence, drama or something like that and then some relaxations techniques before we go to sleep as well. So that's the N for nighttime routine and finally D for diet. And I'm sure a lot of your other speakers will be addressing the diet aspect, but yeah, looking at anti inflammatory diets, anti stress diets, what stimulates our nervous system, what calms our nervous system. And that's been well documented as well. And S, so it's the men's protocol. So S is for our social life. So studies have shown, and this is really fascinating, what are the top risk factors for all risk? Mortality, you know, cancer, heart disease, you know, premature death. And we think it's probably smoking, alcohol, obesity, etc. But the number one factor, completely foxed people. Do either of you know, do you happen to know what it, what it was in that study?

I'm putting a guess out there for loneliness.

It was absolutely loneliness the subjective experience of loneliness. And we can feel lonely in a marriage or a relationship or, you know, social environment. It's that feeling of it's me against the world, I'm on my own. And that actually from a spiritual perspective is this idea that I'm this lonely ego, feeling so insecure in this unsafe, unfriendly universe. And if we have that perspective, then that increases our all risk mortality, stimulates our nervous system, makes us into worriers and impacts our overall health. So the social aspect is how much do we reach our hand out first to be social, to make that effort, to make connections, to have hobbies that bring us around people, and to then also accept people. Because many of us go into that cynical space of, oh, well, I've been hurt, so I'm going to remove myself from social situations or people because people are difficult. But how much are we able to accept that and just be happy, go lucky once again in social environments and not withdraw from social environments? So socializing. And it's not just socializing, but feeling connection with people and having they find the sweet spot. Five or six good, close friends that you can open up to about anything.

Yeah.

And feeling that social support is incredibly powerful as well. So that's the men's protocol. And there's a huge amount of science behind all of these different things. And I think many of us focus a lot on the diet aspect and that's definitely a factor. But I find that the mind stuff, the exercise asleep, the mind stuff is incredibly powerful. If you get that sorted, a lot of the other things take care of themselves.

When you're thinking about incorporating all of this, do we have to do. We've talked about the compounding effects, right. Of doing all of the. Focusing on all the different aspects of lifestyle versus just one. But is there kind of a minimum threshold, like for someone who's just getting started, like, okay, this is a lot, like, I hear, I hear you, I'm with you. And like, where do I, where do I start? Am I going to have to do all of these things really solidly before I start seeing benefits?

Of course it has to be step by step because we don't want to turn this into like a New Year's resolution where you think, right, I'm going to do all of these different things, completely change everything, and then the 1st of February, like, this is too much, and then just give up. Yeah, that is, there's no point as overwhelming ourselves. So I think the first initial step, if you haven't done any of this before is just to find a very basic set of meditations that you can start with just 10 minutes a day. And if you don't even want to meditate, just some deep relaxation, we're just closing your eyes and breathing, whatever it may be. And we have an app called the Meaning of Life Experiment app, which is free. Currently, the Android is not online, but the iOS version is. And we can. And there's a website as well called ThemeaningOfLife TV where you can just experience free 10 and 20 minute meditations. They're all free. And that's a good starting point. We've designed those meditations for people with very busy minds. So that's the first starting point. Just 10 minutes a day, morning and evening, before breakfast, before dinner is the ideal time. So that's a good starting point. I think that's really simple and manageable for most people, just 10 minutes and then building that up. So having an intention that I'll start with that and then I'll build it up to 20 minutes a day. And the second thing that I think we can all put into our lifestyle is let's just walk for a minimum of 45 minutes a day. We can all do that. And you know, some people say, well, I've got a busy lifestyle and whatever, incorporate your family into that. So if you've got children, go out with your children for that walk every day and, or play with them in the, in, you know, in the park. Or if you've got pets, that's brilliant because you often have to take your pet for a walk. These days people are taking their cats for walks now. Have you seen this new thing, cat walking and all this kind of stuff, which is great, great. So animals, we'll talk more about that. But they're brilliant at creating those lifestyle aspects that can support you. And so just spend that 40, 45 minutes in nature, ideally. So not in a busy polluted street, but is there a local park, is there a beach, is there some countryside, some greenery that you can walk around, even your own garden? But just 40, 45 minutes brisk walking, getting slightly out of breath, and you'll start feeling so good for doing that, you'll start feeling uplifted by doing that. And then if you choose, you can build that up into actual more physical cardio exercise. But scientists have found that even that 40 minutes brisk walking can be enough to get 80, 90% of the health benefits of exercise. So this is something we can all do. And then with sleep, just increasing your sleep, letting go of the Addiction to our screens at night, just getting to bed an hour earlier than you normally do and getting a minimum of seven to seven and a half hours sleep. And once again, there's so many different bits of research on sleep. But the things that I truly believe, and I truly believe that minimum seven and a half to eight hours for most of the population is incredibly important. So let's get more deep sleep and that your sleep will be deeper when you meditate regularly. Because what meditation does is release all the cobwebs of the mind and all those worries that normally get released in sleep and make you have dreams and make you get up at 5 o' clock in the morning. That's because there's worries, unconscious worries, but if you're meditating, you're releasing them during the day.

That's a really interesting connection because for most people, when they lay down and try to sleep, it's the first quiet moment they've had to themselves. And to your point, that's when things kind of start coming up. Everything starts coming up right, versus if we can bake it in earlier in the day. And I think that actually scares people sometimes. Maybe I'm off base here, but. But I feel like for a lot of people when they lay down and it's quiet, the rush of thoughts and anxieties, it can be overwhelming. And I know a lot of people now sleep with podcasts on or, you know, TV on, and it's almost. I think the point is to distract themselves from that internal dialog and it can be overwhelming. And I know a lot of people now sleep with podcasts on or, you know, you know, TV on, and it's almost. I think the point is to distract themselves from that internal dialogue.

And.

Yeah, go ahead, put this up. The fundamental issue we have in society now, compared to 15 years ago, is we don't. We are running away from our emotions. We don't process our emotions anymore. So pre smartphones, what would happen is if you're waiting in a queue or you're waiting at the doctor's office, or you're on a train, you would have yourself and your thoughts to reflect on your thoughts and process emotions and situations and release them. Whereas now what we're doing as a society is I feel discomfort and emotion or boredom quick, I can reach for my device and I can fill that in so I don't have to face my difficult emotions, which is building up the emotional burden, that bucket and then creating more illness. And this is a fundamental issue. And since social media got onto smartphones, you know, the early, like 2010, 2011, that's when we start getting mass consumption of social media on phones. Since then, we've seen depression and anxiety absolutely skyrocket in the last 10 years as a result of this one fundamental fact. We are no longer processing our emotions. And as you say, we have. That also is combined with massive access to media. So 15 years ago, you wanted to listen to some music. You had to go to your shelf and go get a CD and then go put it in the machine and then play it. And is this process now? It's like you have access to millions of podcasts and audios, and you have Netflix and Amazon prime and so much entertainment. We can fill every single moment by trying to entertain our bodies and our minds. But actually, we need space and time to process. And that's where meditation is so important. Because what you're doing is you're cleaning the dirt of the mind that has accumulated, just like you have a shower every day. Why do we have a shower? Why bother? Because through the general day, we have accumulated dirt and toxins, and we need to cleanse the outer body. But equally, if not more important, we need to cleanse the inner mind. All the stuff you've worried about and all the difficult conversations you had yesterday, if you don't clean it out with a shower for the mind, you're holding onto that and projecting it on the next day and the next day and the next day. And therefore, this daily shower for the mind, the meditation saying, let's be still and let the thoughts come up. The number one reason people don't meditate is because they say to me, oh, I can't have a silent mind. I've tried meditation. I don't have a silent mind. I say, my gosh, if you close your eyes on your first meditation and you have no thoughts, check your pulse, because you might be dead, right? The whole point about meditation is the first moment that you sit down, of course all of that steam is going to come up. So imagine the mind is like a pressure cooker. The steam is built up, and when you first meditate, it's like pulling the valve at the top of the pressure cooker. The steam. I don't know if anyone uses steam cookers anymore, but it's pressure cooker and all the steam comes out. So when you first meditate in the first couple of weeks, it's going to feel like you're sitting there and having lots of thoughts. But the difference is you are observing them, not getting carried away with them. That's the only difference. So you're saying, okay, there's another thought. Okay, that's fine. Oh, there's another thought. And you're allowing this steam pressure to be relieved from the pressure cooker and then the water can be calm in time of the pressure cooker. And so meditation is not about having a silent mind. I wish people didn't teach it that way or whatever. But actually it is simply observing without judgment what is going on in the mind and letting it just be. And by doing that, you release the pressure. And over time, without expectation, maybe you'll not be. You will eventually start discovering that those little moments of stillness and peace and that will reverberate into your day till eventually, as a regular meditator, you can't live without it because you suddenly know, wow, this is what it feels like to feel just generally calm and happy throughout the day. I want to hold on to this. And then you don't meditate for a few days and you suddenly go back to your old patterns and you think, wow, now I know why I'm doing this. So with anyone starting meditation, I would say be patient into your day till eventually, as a regular meditator, you can't live without it because you suddenly know, wow, this is what it feels like to feel just generally calm and happy throughout the day. I want to hold on to this. And then you don't meditate for a few days and you suddenly go back to your old patterns and you think, wow, now I don't expect it to happen overnight. It is like going to a gym. You're not going to put the maximum weights on the gym machine straight off. You're going to build it up slowly and the benefits are profound and amazing. So just have that commitment and trust that you'll get there. Most people start do a few days meditation, I think that's not for me. And they let it go. And if they just continued, they would have incredible benefits.

Thank you for making that point. That it's, that that's where we start with meditation and that's what we should be expecting and that's what we're supposed to be doing. And this is why it is going to happen that way. We, why we're supposed to have everything bubbling up. And it's, it's interesting because there's a very big difference between mental, animal welfare and human, human, animal welfare, animal welfare, mental. Oh my gosh, let me get this right. Mental health in animals. There we go. And mental health in humans. Because what we find so often with our animals, when they're having psychological problems or emotional issues and things, it's a lack of stimulation. Because in the captive environment, whether that is a loving home or whether that's in a zoo or some kind of sanctuary or something like that, a degree of autonomy and freedom to do what you want to do and fill the day the way you want to do with the things that you would normally engage with is to some extent or another, removed, taken away, reduced or missing. And so unless we're very deliberate about replacing those things for animals, they sit there with emptiness rather than clutter. And on the other side over here, like you're describing, we have access to so much distraction, so much entertainment, so much information, so much connectivity that is sort of faux connectivity, but nonetheless, we never get that moment of emptiness to just take that. I'm going to just be with myself for a minute. I'm just going to get to know who I am, going to have a little conversation with me and be comfortable with me, rather than hiding away from whoever I am or whatever my thoughts are. So that was a really fascinating insight for me to hear it sort of laid out so clearly, because I'm thinking, yeah, on the animal side, it's like completely 180.

Yeah. And that's the thing. It's about our genetic inheritance. So, once again, animals, and certainly let's take the example of dogs, the way that dogs were tamed and became part of the human family was when we were living in tribes, living mainly outdoors, and therefore dogs had a huge, much more stimulating environment. So nowadays we take our dog for a walk specifically so they can get a bit of stimulation and go to the bathroom or whatever. But actually they would have been outdoors pretty much most of, not all of the time, even if they were part of a human tribe and they have that curiosity, they want to explore, it's part of their DNA. And so I can totally understand that. Then they need that stimulation. On the flip side, as human beings, we now have, as you say, overstimulation in our environment. And therefore we need calming down. And some actually a connection there that's very useful to understand. There's something very powerful about having pets. And we don't need to tell anyone on this summit, they know that, which is that pets have been shown to reduce blood pressure, to improve overall health, to improve heart health, even help children with social skills, etc. And reduce stress. Stress. And part of that is touch. So when we stroke animals, it is incredibly relaxing for our own system, and we even feel the touch of animals in our own bodies that becomes soothing and nurturing for us as well. So it's bearing that aspect of it in mind. And that's why so many animals are used as therapy animals and therapy dogs to support people who've got emotional conditions. Because actually the process of touch and the process of stroking is very beneficial emotionally.

And then you also have other dimensions as well. So the whole concept of the loving gaze, you're looking at your animal, your animals looking back at you. If you can hold that for a certain number of seconds, it triggers this whole oxytocin cascade, vasopressins. So some of these neurotransmitters and hormones are going to be released in the body, serotonin and things that are obviously going to have major impact on your mind, but you're also conveying that in them. It's actually a two way thing.

You've actually the process of touch and the process of stroking is very beneficial emotionally.

And then you also have other dimensions as well. So the whole concept of the loving gaze, you're looking at your animal, your animals looking back at you. If you can hold that for a certain number of seconds, it triggers this whole oxytocin cast, the conversational side of it. And okay, some pets are going to be more vocal than others and you might make up the conversation. It might be a bit silly, but nonetheless there's a, an engagement there. And then as you say, all of the health benefits, the physiological on blood pressure and just typically you're going to exercise more vasopressins. So some of these neurotransmitters and hormones are going to be released in the body. Serotonin and things that are obviously going to have major impact on your mind, but you're also conveying that in them. It's actually a two, two way thing. And then of course you've got exposed to their biome and so their germs and their microbes, which is the conversational side of it. And okay, some pets are going to be more vocal than others and you might make up the conversation that might be going to be strengthening to you. Kids who grow up with pets have far stronger immune systems than kids that grow up in a more sterile environment. The list just is endless when you start digging in. And of course the pets are benefiting as well. So I mean, you can't get better than that.

Absolutely. And you know, a bit silly, but.

Nonetheless there's a, an engagement there. And, and then as you say, all of the, the health benefits, the physiological on, you know, Blood pressure, and just typically, you're going to exercise more.

Ultimately, this comes down to a fundamental spiritual principle that I believe in.

And people, you're exposed to their biome and so their germs and their microbes, which is.

Many religions share this as well, this idea of unconditional love. But actually, as human beings, we have this idea that we seek unconditional love. But actually, if you go deeper, if we go to that principle, at our deepest nature, we are unconditional love.

It's going to be strengthening to you. Kids who grow up with pets have far stronger immune systems than kids that grow up.

And a pet gives us an opportunity.

Compared to human beings in a more sterile environment. The list just is endless when you start digging in. And of course, the pets are benefiting as well, so. So, I mean, you can't get better than that.

Absolutely. And, you know, ultimately this comes down to a fundamental spiritual principle that I believe in. And people do both express it and receive it, just like we do with children. So with children, we, you know, a child might scream and cry and kick the mother or whatever, but a mother will just be unconditionally loving because it was just a child. Same with a pet. You, you just, oh, it's just a pet being a pet, you know, they've spilled a glass of water, you're not going to be angry. So that many religions share this as well, this idea of unconditional love. But actually, as human beings, we have this idea that we seek unconditional love. But actually, if you go deeper, if we go to that principle, at our deepest nature, we are unconditional love. And a pet gives us an opportunity. Compared to human beings, that ability to receive and express unconditional love connects us with our soul. And sometimes we find that hard with human beings, but we find it easier with pets. And that is what I believe, one of the fundamental reasons of spiritual level, that pet scoop, both express it and receive it, just like we do with children. So with children, we, you know, a child might scream and cry and kick the mother or whatever, but a mother will just be unconditionally loving because that's just a child. Same with a pet. You just say, oh, it's just a pet being a pet, you know, they've spilled a glass of water, you're not going to be angry. Does that come into our lives? Is that opportunity, that beautiful exchange, and for us to just glimpse that infinity, glimpse that beauty that is deep within us that wants to be expressed, but we never have the opportunity to connect with It.

And then happiness ensues and loneliness disappears. Even if you don't have a person.

That ability to receive and express unconditional love connects us with our soul. And sometimes we find that hard with human beings, but we find it easier with pets. And that is what I believe. One of the fundamental reasons of spiritual level that pets come into our lives is that opportunity, that beautiful exchange, and for us to just glimpse with you.

Loneliness decreases quite significantly with your animal companions, with your furry friends.

Yeah, definitely.

I'm wondering if we can switch gears a little bit, because I just. I can't have you. We can't have you here without having you.

Talk me to about your brain retraining program.

We've been talking a lot about strategies.

That infinity glimpse, that beauty that is deep within us, that wants to be expressed, but we never have the opportunity to connect with it.

And then happiness ensues and loneliness disappears. Even if you don't have a person with you, loneliness decreases quite significantly with.

Your animal companions and frameworks for everyone, no matter kind of what you're dealing with, whether that is a health condition or not.

Right.

Preventative or more kind of on the flip side. But I'm wondering if you can speak to more chronic symptoms, your furry friends.

Yeah, definitely.

I'm wondering if we can switch gears a little bit, because I just. I can't have you. We can't have you here without having.

You talk about your brain retraining program.

We've been talking a lot about strategies and frameworks for everyone, no matter kind of what you're dealing with. Whether that. Because I feel like this is when I was growing up, I can distinctly remember people that I knew who had chronic health conditions. And it was a big deal.

Right.

There weren't that many people in my life. And now what is it? One is a health condition or not?

Right.

Preventative or more kind of on the flip side. But I'm one out of every two. I don't want to mess up the stat, but it's a very high statistic of how many people have chronic conditions. And I would also consider things like, you know, ibs and really any kind of. You can speak to more chronic symptoms, because I feel like this is kind of chronic symptoms as a chronic condition, even if we don't categorize them in the. When I was growing up, I can distinctly remember people that I knew kind of statistical model that we use, because at the end of the day, something is causing that.

Right.

People say, oh, it's just because I'm getting Older. It's just. I've just always been that way. It's just who had chronic health conditions. And it was a big deal, right? There weren't that many people. Not a big deal, but it is, right? Something is going on. And so I think that in my life and now, what is it? One out of every two. I don't want to mess up the stat, but it's a very high statistic of how many people have. Looking at a framework and an approach that addresses chronic health conditions and symptoms as a whole is really powerful. And this is where so much of your work lies. And maybe if you're comfortable, maybe we.

Could start by just chronic conditions.

And I would also consider kind of sharing your journey because I think it's really relatable things like, you know, ibs and really any kind of chronic symptoms as a chronic condition, even if we don't categorize them in the kind of statistical model that we use. Because at the end of the day, something is causing.

So I think there are two types of people that we support. So at a general health level, people who want to just increase longevity, increase their general health. That's most people in the population. But as you say, there's a lot of people in the population have a chronic illness. And the doctor has said, look, there's not much we can do. Here's some pills. They might help with the symptoms, but we don't know what's causing this.

Right. People say, oh, it's just because I'm getting older.

It's just.

I've just always been that way.

It's just.

It's not a big deal. But it is, right? Something is going on. And so I think that looking at a framework and an approach that addresses chronic health conditions and symptoms as a whole is really powerful. And this is where, you know, we.

Don'T have an organic reason why it's happening. And then they turn.

So much of your work lies. And maybe if you're comfortable, maybe we.

Could start by just to so many different alternative approaches and some help. And that's great.

What we're kind of sharing your journey because I think it's really relatable, we.

Believe is that a lot of this happens in the brain. And so this is where my journey started. So I think there are two types of people that we support. So at a general health level, people who want to just increase longevity, increase their general. So I was studying it as an undergrad at Cambridge. I was in my early 20s. I had my whole life in front of Me, and suddenly I got some kind of stomach bug, a virus or health. That's most people in the population. But as you say, there's a lot of people in the population have a chronic illness and it never went away. My stomach felt fine after a little while, but I got me in chronic fatigue syndrome, and it was very severe to the point at which I couldn't read anything on a, on a, in a book, couldn't make any sense of it. I would have to crawl to the bathroom and say, look, there's not much we can do. Here's some pills. They might help with the symptoms, but we don't know what's causing this or, you know, we don't have an organic reason why it's happening. And then they turn to so many different alternative approaches and some help. And that's great. What Wolf Room had no energy and, you know, at one point was almost suicidal. In terms of how awful this was, we believe is that a lot of this happens in the brain. And so this is where my journey started. And that started my lifelong journey to say, I want to understand these conditions, you know, because I'd met thousands of people, lots of people who had the condition. Doctors had told me, we don't know what causes it, we don't have a model for it. There's nothing we can do. You're on your own. So I was studying it as an undergrad at Cambridge. I was, you know, in my early 20s. I had my whole life in front of me and suddenly I got some kind of stomach bug, a virus, and it never went away. My stomach felt fine after a little while, but you might have it forever, right? And I wouldn't take that as an answer. I said, no, there's got to be a reason behind this. So I made a contract with the universe. I said, if I can get myself even 10 well, or 20% well, or 50% well, I'll spend the rest of my life trust, trying to understand these conditions and helping others. And so I researched brain neurology, physiology, got my. I got me in chronic fatigue syndrome, and it was very severe to the point at which I couldn't read anything on a, on a, in a book, couldn't make any sense of it. I would have to crawl to the bathroom. I had no energy, and, you know, at one point was almost suicidal in terms of how awful this was, 100% better. And then set up a clinic to then support others with this idea of brain. And that started my lifelong journey to say, I want to understand these conditions. In retraining being the core of it. And essentially this idea of neuroplasticity was this beautiful word that's you know, the hot news in, in, in medicine. So idea that the brain used to be fixed or they used to think the brain was fixed. In the first five or ten years of life our brain forms, you know, because I'd met thousands of people, thousands, but lots of people who had the condition. Doctors told me form our emotions and personality and our physiological responses. And then it's pretty much fixed me. We don't know what causes it, we don't have a model for it. There's nothing we can do. You're on your own, you might have it forever, right? And I wouldn't take that as an answer. I said no, there's got to be a reason behind this. So I made a contract with the universe. I said if I can get myself even tempest. But now we know the brain is constantly rewiring itself, constantly changing. So that means not only can our personality change, but also our physiology can change. So what we thought was pre programmed such as, let's you know, inflammatory percent well or 20% well or 50% well. I'll spend the rest of my life trying to understand these conditions and diseases like Alzheimer's or inflammatory bowel disease. We thought well that's just part of our genes, part of how helping others. And so I researched brain, neurology, physiology, got myself 100% better and then set up a clinic to then support others with this idea of brain retraining being the core of it. And essentially this idea of neuroplasticity which is our body reacts. No, actually we can rewire it, we can change it. Our genes are not our destiny and our wiring is not our destiny. And that is where brain retraining comes in. That.