What Our Kids Don’t Learn In School Is The Key To Their Success And Happiness with Goldie Hawn

Coming up on this episode of the Doctor's Pharmacy.

If we are giving anything to our children, we have to give them tools to manage stress because it is not going away. It's not. What we can do is we can learn about the power of breath. We can learn about how to quiet our heart rate. We can learn how to have better heart health by doing these things and knowing how to bring down this sort of all the cortisol and so forth.

Hey everyone, it's Dr. Mark. Most people don't realize that our exposure to light has a huge impact on our health. And that's because we're wired to respond to the changing position of the sun, which regulates our body's circadian rhythm and either helps us to feel energized and awake or lets us know it's time for bed. But our modern always on culture means we're now surrounded by conventional LEDs and fluorescent bulbs and digital devices with bright lit screens that emit junk light around the clock. My friend Dave Asprey actually coined that phrase junk light to describe the excess of blue light as well as green and violet light that disrupt our circadian rhythms. Junk light reduces our ability to produce melatonin, which is a key hormone for regulating our internal clock, sleeping well, and even aging well. It's important to realize we actually need to be exposed to certain amounts of blue light in the daytime, otherwise we may feel too sleepy or tired. It's the excess of all that blue.

Light along with other types that leads.

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Welcome to the Doctor's Pharmacy. I'm Dr. Mark Hyman, that's Farmacy Live, a place for conversations that matter. If you care about your kids, this conversation is going to matter because it's with Goldie Hawn, who you may know from the film and TV career that she's had, the wonderful career, and also she is focused on the health and wellbeing of our children. And now more and more of us are having mental issues, stress issues, focus issues, attention issues, and the world has become such an inattentive, chaotic, crazy place. And we need a system or tools to help us get back to ourselves. And that's really what Goldie has created, which we're going to talk about today. But you probably know her better as an actress. She's an Academy Award-winning actress for Cactus Flower. She's been nominated many times. She's a bestselling author, a wonderful book called a lotus grows in the mud about her life. And she has developed this incredible program, which you may or may not have heard about, but I've been aware of for a while, which is called Mind Up. And her Goldie Hawn Foundation developed that program. She was alarmed by increases in school violence and youth depression, suicide, and the failure of our education system to help children cope with increasingly stressful lives. And she wanted to apply the best scientific research to helping our kids do better and create an educational program that supports the social and emotional development of kids. She's worked with leading neuroscientists and educators, psychologists, researchers, and they've all created this incredible program called MindUP, which everybody should go check out, mindup.org, and we'll learn more about that and also mindupforlife.org, and it's an evidence-based curriculum that teaches kids from K to 12 the tools to help them understand their own emotions, reduce stress, anxiety, sharpen concentration, increase empathy, and improve academic performance.

Sounds like a great list of benefits.

It sounds like a lot of gifts in a little package. Okay, so welcome to the Doctor's Pharmacy Goldie. Thank you. I'm so happy to be here. Okay, so true confessions. When I was nine years old. Uh-oh. And this dates me. I loved watching Laughing. Oh, God.

And I had a nine-year-old.

Nine-year-old. That's exactly what I was like. And I had a nine-year-old I did. I so did. You were so funny and silly and cute and ridiculous. And I just wanna confess and get that out of the way.

Oh, that's so crazy. You know, it really-- I was like.

Wow, that was 50 years ago. I'm like, holy crap.

Where does that go? I still remember, like it was yesterday, so much of that stuff. And it was really a time when I think we really felt we could make a difference. I think it was a great time for empowerment.

Yeah, it was an incredible show. People who are probably listening, how many.

Don'T even know what that is.

Laugh-In was, you can see on some little, like Laugh-In was the original sort of comedy review show with all kinds of skits. Sort of like the Saturday Night Live of its time. Right, that's right. It changed television. And it was highly political.

Very political. And it was right in the end of the '60s, so things were kind of hot and heavy. Yeah, I mean Richard Nixon was on.

Yeah.

We had so many amazing people, right? and disparate different belief systems and whatever, and you know, and everybody was like, cool, right?

Yeah.

I mean, it was a great, great show of a time when we were in transition as a culture. And this is when, you know, we were having love-ins and free sex and everything was great, and you know, you didn't have to get married and every, and it was wonderful. But we also were dealing with assassinations. We were dealing with the Vietnam War. And somehow, We figured that out. We protested and we did all of these things. But today it's a little different world right now, isn't it?

Yeah.

We're now dealing with a lot of issues around mental health. Totally. And that's a difference. Whereas we felt free, we felt like at that time we were able to make change. We mattered. There was a sense of belonging and a group saying, We believe in something. But it wasn't horribly-- some things turn out poorly, but militant. Anyway, this is what we were talking about today. And I think this is why, as we started to grow and as I started to move on, I learned a lot about, believe it or not, meditation. But we'll get, I think we have some questions around it. So yeah, so this laughing period was sort of an interesting moment.

And it led to your acting career and Cactus Flower and the Academy Award and Private Benjamin, which many of us have seen, which you haven't seen, you should definitely watch it. It's a fabulous movie. And you were not just an actress, you were an executive. Director of the El. And producer. And you had this wonderful career. And then you were sharing with me the other day about how you wanted to make a documentary on Joy.

Right.

Which is a beautiful idea. And the timing kind of was a little messed up because you did it right at 9/11, right? In 2001.

I don't know. You know, I mean, Right. I was noticing that people at least I traveled the world a lot. I was in India, third world countries, all kinds of places that interest me actually very much. People were really happy there. I mean, really and truly didn't have much, but there was a much more joy, more family connection, India, Africa, so on and so forth. And I then I came home and I saw people in their cars and they weren't happy. And I started noticing that there was sort of a A lost extreme understanding of what this emotion is today. And I didn't wanna lose it. Joy, excuse me, happiness, all that. So I thought, let's make a documentary in search of joy around the world. Let's try and find where people are still celebrating, where life is worth living, where there's small little things that make people happy. And that is what makes us healthier. And it makes us not just happier, but it also has a mind-body connection.

So sort of the science of happiness.

Is what you were searching for. It really is the science of happiness, the causes of happiness, all those things were important. So 9/11 happened. And then it was not the time for me to go out and do, you know, in search of joy. I mean, people went, it was crazy. I mean, right now, what happened to my brain is that I said, okay, the world has changed forever. We need to do something. And actually, it wasn't we, it was me. You know, I've adopted children all over the world. Yes, that's my thing. And with with the love that I have of children and hoping they have a good childhood. The reality is, is that I just thought, what are, what am I going to do? What little thing can I do? And that's when I moved to Vancouver and literally started thinking about what I have learned over all these years, going through my own depression, which was really hard for me. It happened to me overnight. It was, I was just starting to sort of leave the nest. I was home. I then went to New York. I then came there suddenly, I picked out of the chorus line. And, you know, life was changing. Yeah. And I was thought I was going to go home and get married and open a dancing school, right? So that those plans didn't work out.

You were a go-go dancer at one point.

Exactly. Yeah, I did that to pay my rent, by the way, right? Sometimes the tables were three-legged. But it was unbelievable. But I mean, that when you, when that was happening to me, I then the only thing I could do, because I really couldn't go outside without being sick to my stomach, I was really anxiety ridden. I had, So there was a lot of things that I could relate to about being fearful and having a fear of going out, being sick to my stomach, sitting in my chair and feeling like cozy there, maybe not wanting to go out, but I was doing a show. Well, in between shows that I was doing there, I would go to sleep and lay down in my trailer. The reality is, is that people is not a bad thing. People will come and go, bad things can happen. You can have a lapse of mental stability. You can do this. So, what happened?

You wrote about this in Lotus in the Mud. It was your memoir, 2006. And you talked about how- I did. Went through the dark times, panic attacks, and depression. You really lost your smile.

I did. I really did. I had to fake it. Of course, I faked it. But it was terrible to walk around and fake how I was really feeling.

But the gift in that was that it gave you this discovery of something new that came your way.

Well, what happened is I actually became an advocate for myself. And I went to a doctor. I went to a psychologist. And I learned a lot about myself. I was there for eight years. I really did the University of Goldie. And I learned a lot of things, not just about me, but about understanding how people might view me. So when I wasn't so vulnerable, if somebody didn't like me or my performance, or you get a bad review, or I really gave that person the ability to make a decision.

You gave them power, a weaK.

Exactly. because the power for that is that that's them, not me. So we individuate from each other in a healthy way. And I learned a lot about that. And that's kind of the one in the heart of it. The other part was, is that I learned about psychology. I then started decided that I wanted to learn to meditate. Okay. And I did that because I felt that it was Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, it was TM. It was like the thing to do. And yet I was, I've always been a very spiritual Young lady. I mean, I always have been. I mean, one of the reality there is that I used to read the 29th song or 23rd song before I go to bed at night. So I was one of those kids, right? But in the meantime, that ultimately is what made me look at meditation and say, look, there must be something there. And that was when I realized that it was the first time that I actually could hear and feel my own heartbeat. And I'll never forget that experience. And it was very powerful. to be able to rest your mind and to go inside of this perfect body, this thing that was given to us that is absolutely perfect, that it does things and helps us in ways that we'll never know that we have to help that body. And that was the other part of my life, right? And then through all the other things, I then started understanding the brain because the brain was basically It's control central. It's where everything can happen. And if you have the will and the intention to make it happen. So that was my interest, right? What is happening? What's the connection between the brain and the body? How is us focusing in on certain parts of the body? Like, I could focus my hands and I would feel them tingle and get hot. Well, that was my brain doing that. That wasn't like my brain didn't decide to do that. My brain does what I ask it to do. Sometimes. Sometimes.

Not always.

So that was what happened during, and then 9/11. So I switched my happiness program into MindUp. Because everything that I learned about happiness was brain, was psychology, was all of these different aspects. That is when I decided to turn it into a school program for children. Because I started to sort of research Suicide that our young children from 10 years old to 15 was a second leading cause of death for children.

These are the things that- It's a staggering statistic.

It was heartbreaking. And this is when, and I wanted to make the world happier by doing In Search of Joy Around the World. Then it became a focus. I want our children to be happier. They're going to inherit our world, and they have to have tools that will help them reduce their stress. -So, that was sort of the beginning of Mind Up.

-So, really, this all came out of your own experience of being challenged with panic attacks, depression, and then having to discover who you were, explore your own mind, your own consciousness, your own spiritual path. The story we hear a lot from people who do really great things in the world, they've often had a crisis, and they come out of that crisis with renewed interest, enthusiasm, and ability to actually make real change in the world.

And belief.

Because you felt it firsthand. I did.

And you have to believe, you have to know that you can make a difference. It's not easy. But you can, through habituation and the brain likes habituation, as long as we habituate more positive things, it actually will adhere to that and it might eventually default to a more positive state of mind. And now it's kind of worse than.

Ever, isn't it, Goldie? Because our kids grew up in a different world than you and I grew up in. We were just like, I got my bike, you know, went out for the day. No, you didn't. My mom never knew where I was. Me too.

We just kind of played. I hear her combing right at the corner. She'd go, Goldie. And I know I'd have to go home, right?

They had dinner on the table. And now kids are just so pulled into digital devices and disconnected from each other and the world and nature and we see the rampant rates of ADD and ADHD and behavioral issues. I mean, you know, the average school nurse is dispensing medications to half the kids in the school that are psychiatric medications. I know. It's just unconscionable to me. And it's not our natural state of evolution. And these kids are often burdened with, you know, lifelong issues around mood issues and attention issues and behavioral issues. Intimacy issues. Intimacy and connection. And so it's like, you're saying we.

Need an antidote to that. So Mind Up, in a sense, is an antidote It's all of that. It actually is. I call it a potential solution. There's no promises, but I have seen more children respond to this. And I'm telling you, it's an emotional experience. How they learn to default understanding, having self-awareness. They know that now they said, and there were 83% in our research, because I researched this way before I went out with it. Because you know what was, oh yeah, Goldie Hawn made a program. Oh, la la, what is it, a comedy routine or what? No, I wanted researchers to do this, universities to do this. I didn't want this to be my program. I was just a producer and I produced a great program. Why? Because the research was stellar. It came out with 83% of the children reported they now had a way to make themselves happier. If we are giving anything to our children, we have to give them tools to manage stress because it is not going away.

No.

It's not. What we can do is we can learn about the power of breath. We can learn about how to quiet our heart rate. We can learn how to have better heart health by doing these things and knowing how to bring down this sort of all the cortisol and so forth. And by the way, one of the researches that we did was on cortisol, which had never been done on children before. And our children were more able to manage their cortisol levels throughout the day than the control group.

And that's the stress worm.

And that's the stress hormone or certainly one of them.

It's so incredible that we go to school and we learn about reading, writing, arithmetic, and we don't learn the basic fundamental skills that we need for a happy life. How to relate to other humans and have good relationships, how to train our brain. We were really talking about a brain training program. Right, it is.

It's brain-based all the way.

And we sort of ignore that. We don't learn about nutrition. We don't even learn how to manage our finances in school. or how to take care of our bodies. And yet, when you look at other disciplines, and you went to India after 9/11, and you were looking to make this movie a joy, and you may have been dabbling with Buddhist ideas and philosophy and spirituality. -And within those cultures in the East, they have been inner astronauts, right? -Inner astronauts. -They have been exploring inner space. -We are exploring outer space. -Right. -And they are discovering ways in which we can be in command of our minds and not let our minds run the show. And that's really what you've created is a program that empowers kids, which is so important to start young, with the tools and skills they need to be focused, optimistic, resilient, and be global citizens and be functional. I'm terrified about the future given the state of one, all the psychological stress kids are under, and two, the nutrition, which is my focus. You need to focus on feeding kids brains right and training their brains right.

100%. 100%. And also give them the agency over their body and the agency over their mind, that their brain that they know that they can make a difference. They're empowered. They're in the driver's seat. And there are no wrong answers, by the way, in MindUP. All it is, is an experiential program, interactive program. And we're training teachers and millions of children over the world have had this. by the way, I have not been, what do you call it, selling it per se? I wanted Mind Up to be the star. And actually Mind Up has now become the star because people go, oh, is Mind Up yours? And I'm going, it actually isn't mine, but maybe the best script I ever produced, right? So I don't want to own that because the teacher should own it and people should own it. And I always had that feeling, right? Now I can toot a horn. Now it's the millions of children have done this.

Millions of children around the world have been through Mind Up program. That's incredible. and you've tracked their outcomes, right?

Right. Exactly.

What have you found?

That we have found that our children now, we did one longitudinal study. That was it. Because we don't really pay for our own research. That's not a good thing to do. That there were 65% of the kids who had this in Vancouver were able to use it in college. They never forgot it. It was like riding a bike.

Yeah.

Now, do they remember the gratitude circle? why do we do a gratitude circle for children? Why do we do it? Because gratitude and that feeling changes how the brain fires. Dopamine is emitted in the brain. There's an uptick in serotonin. Gratitude is a beautiful thing to experience, to give someone. And that is the gift is in the giving. So we're not doing this because, oh, isn't it great to be grateful? No. What we're doing is to habituate the mind to understand the feeling of what it is to be grateful. So now I have a feeling about that, I will always remember it because the hippocampus, which they know, is we'll remember the memory center. Yeah.

What we're saying is you can literally understand the science of happiness and the biology of gratitude, the biology of happiness, the biology of focus, right?

Exactly.

It's not just an abstract idea. The science is really there behind it. We were talking the other night about some of our friends and colleagues who really studied the brain, like Richard Davidson and Daniel Goleman wrote about all the traits about people who were really experienced in meditation and training of the mind and their whole brain structure is different, their brain function is different, they're happier. Literally, there's like the happiness parts of the brain light up and all the ego parts of the brains go down. That's right. And all the problems we're seeing now in our society, all the divisiveness, all the hatred, whether you're a Republican or.

Democrat, whether you're vegan or paleo, it's like crazy. This opposition is all oppositional, right? And we use the word inclusive and it's becoming one of those words that everybody uses all the time or whatever. But when you really think about what it means, it means community. It means being together. And that I think is one of the areas that you can attest to being a doctor, the community, people gathering together, being in groups and so forth, your family and whatever creates greater health, physical health. because it creates better mental stability, better mental resilience and resilience and also partnerships. So, you know, rather than, and it isn't the political, but rather than, you know, moving apart from each other, we need to move toward each other because that is what ultimately will keep us healthy, happy, productive, kind, and, you know, the brain and the heart, do you know, this has this great connection. and it's an amazing connection because all the organs do connect to the brain. So it's like I said, you know, my hands are getting warm because I'm focusing all my energy on my hand. Oh my God, they're tingling. Oh my God, that, you know, blood's running to that because I'm thinking about it. Well, when you think about love, you think about that feeling, if you're with your dog, you know, and you see how much you love your dog and whatever, that is doing amazing things for your body and heart patients, as you know, you could tell that story, but they live longer with dogs. So love, we've got to start thinking about it's medicine. Love is medicine.

Hey, everyone, it's Dr. Mark. There's one thing most of my patients are reluctant to talk about, but it's really important when it comes to understanding your health. And I'm talking about poop. In fact, when I worked at Kenyan Ranch, I was known as Dr. See every poop because it tells us so much about what's going on inside the body. everybody boops. And proper digestive function is a huge part of optimal wellness, so we should not be afraid to talk about it. And my good friend, Mickey Aggarwal, actually loves this topic and saw a major opportunity to follow a way of life that so many other parts of the world are already on board with using a bidet. She found this company called TUSHY and sent me one of her bidet attachments to try out a few years ago and I have to say, I really love it. The TUSHY bidet is a sleek attachment that clips onto your existing toilet and connects to the water supply behind your toilet to spray with clean fresh water. The tissue gets rid of any lingering bacteria that could lead to nasty things like hemorrhoids, yeast infections, and bladder infections. I mean, think about it. You wouldn't just wipe a dirty powder pan with a dry paper towel and call it clean, so why should the body be any different? Tissue is also way better for the environment. Something a lot of people don't realize is that using the bathroom is heavily tied to our environmental impact. I know we're all looking for practical ways to make our lives more sustainable. Did you know that 15 million trees are chopped down every year to make toilet paper? whether the average person uses 57 sheets of toilet paper a day. That's a ton of toilet paper to spend money on and then flush away. Using a bidet eliminates so much of that waste and since you only need a couple of squares to pat dry, it's great. It might sound weird at first, but honestly, using a bidet is a whole new level of self-care and personal hygiene. And seriously, once you go Tushy, you will never go back to wiping with dry scratchy toilet paper. It's a life-changing experience. Save your butt, save your money, and save the planet with Tushy. It's easy to install and can be done yourself in just about 10 minutes without hiring a plumber. and it's a really affordable upgrade to your bathroom starting at only $99. Right now, Tushy is offering Doctors Pharmacy listeners 10% off, so it's a better time than ever to make the switch to a bidet. Just go to hello@tushy.com/heyman to get 10% off your order. That's hello@tushy.com/heyman for 10% off. Now, let's get back to this week's.

Episode of the Doctors Pharmacy. So, your program is highly experiential. It's not just academic, oh, you should this and that. You literally have really specific things you do experientially with these kids, like brain breaks and gratitude circles. Three a day, brain breaks a day. Talk us through some of the specifics of the program and how you get kids to buy into it, how you get them to experience these things. And what are the sort of tricks? Because you're kind of almost subversively introducing this in and you're not saying, you,'re going to become enlightened, you're going to meditate.

It's like, let's do this fun stuff together. Right, right. It isn't, I would not never say we're meditating because this, you know, there's meditation, which are long, you know, nice meditations. And then there are times when children just need to know they need a brain break. That brain break, you could break it down and say, okay, we're learning to quiet the brain, we're learning to breathe, we're learning tacts, things, you know, things that we can do in order to make it easier for me to learn or to take my test or to do these kinds of things, to relax them. But the first thing that we teach, and by the way, it's not the kids that have to love it. It's the teachers. So this was the beginning. So all of our educators will come in, or our school districts, or our principals. It comes from various different directions, right? And then we will train the school, or then you train now, we get to train a single teacher, which is very exciting, because some teachers want it and the schools are like, we don't know, you know. So anybody can take this that wants to take this training. Right? First thing you learn is the brain. Because that's what we are. We're a brain-based organization. We learn about the brain, which is probably the only thing we need to really understand fully, although breath and how all the intricacies of that and how it affects the brain. But brain is a great thing. First thing we do, and we learn about the amygdala, we learn about the prefrontal cortex, we learn about the hippocampus, we learn about corpus callosum, we learn about the left right brain. we learned about where we create from because creativity in the classroom is over. And Sir Ken Robinson, who is one of the great educators of all time, was on my board and a great friend.

Oh yeah, he had one of the top TED Talks on his education.

Oh yes, and he passed away this year. And we're just moving right into that world as well with Ken and taking his legacy and putting sections of our program in there. They can go to them if they want. Anybody who goes into the program which launches, May 24th, we'll be able to look at all, not just the training which you can take, right? Or to become a member. Once you become a member, you are now into the expert world. You can learn more about breathing. We give them breath, but now you want a deep dive, you can go into different experts sharing breath. If you want to do happiness for kids, which we do acts of kindness and to savoring happiness, right? Then you go into deep dive and you can learn Sean Anker, Anker is delivering all kinds of interesting talks on the importance of happiness for physically as well as emotionally. So it's a, if somebody said to me once years ago, because I've been doing this almost 20 years. Yeah. Surprise. And by the way, I'm still inspired by it. So it's pretty great.

So great.

Is one of our board members said, what do you want in five years? And this is when I was already doing Mind Up maybe for three years. And I said, I want, and this is before big internet stuff was happening, and I said, I want to build the University of Mind Up. That's what I want. I want everything connected to well-being be in one place, under one banner, in one, and that was bricks and mortar, you know, one building. Well, now buildings are actually online, right? We're building our building now. It's so much fun. But that's, you know, what we want is to find a place for wellness in a place where we can go for kids and for parents and for teachers and for sports. We're doing now our Mind Up Sports program. We're going to be doing caregiver program. We're going to be doing, you know, all of the people that are working as not just caregivers but in hospitals. So we have all these- It's not just kids now.

You're saying this is- It's developed. We miss the program in school. We need to be able to figure out how to get on the program after To Enhance Our Happiness.

Exactly. Because parents need to understand that. You know, it's like, okay, my kid is learning how to do this. The kids take it home and sometimes they would say to their mom or dad, why don't you take a breath? Because, you know, you're excited or you're angry or arguing when the parents are arguing, they will give them ways to.

Stop arguing, which is sort of like a time out.

It's a time out. You know, it's count to 10, it's whatever. Settle your brain because reactivity can ruin relationships.

But the Mind Up program helps kids self-regulate.

That's what it does.

So they don't end up in bad behavior and they can focus better and do better academically. So they can better relationships in school. So they can actually achieve what they'd like to achieve. Even be better at sports and function. I know.

I mean, it's crazy. And you know what? It's simple. It really is. Like, for instance, we have, after we do the brain break, we teach the, after we do brain, we do brain break. And we teach the brain break. and then after that, we do being mindful of our senses. Well, that's creating more self-awareness but it's also building focused attention.

Yes.

So we, everything we're doing is actually enhancing brain development. And as the brain is developing for these young children, we want to help develop it appropriately. And that's the way it's working.

Yeah.

So, you know, what are we going to do if we don't give our children these tools because the world is spiraling. Yeah. And they're gonna, they're gonna carry that. So it's a lot we're asking. It is.

I mean, you know, I really worry about the next generation of kids. We're seeing, you know, 40% of kids overweight. We see, you know, massive amounts of mental health issues in kids. We see suicide rates in kids. We see increasing rates of ADHD and behavioral issues and conflict. And, I mean, this is not the society we want to build. And it is the result of, of both So we're talking about our nutrition, which I talked a lot about.

It's so important. And that's what we're getting into as well, which I shared with you the other night, is that now we're into the nutrition part of what the parents need to understand. So we're going to have a whole section there for this because it does affect the brain.

Absolutely.

On the sugar. I mean, I know it's like, you know, we're preaching and whatever, but the truth is it's real. It's not made up. It's not because it just tastes good. It's not good for their brain. It's not good for their body. Can you have a little piece of candy? Of course. I mean, we're not crazy. You know, you don't want to be crazy. I'm fine. You know, my mom, you know, made fudge when I was like a good girl. I would get fudge. But I mean, that's a mindset. How do we shift a mindset? Because then we make our choices from a mindset. Right. Right? Yeah.

And that's really the piece that's missing in our current educational system. It's even missing in our culture. And you know, there's a lot of groups working on this. Like Tim Ryan is a congressman who wrote a book called the Mindful Nation about how we need to bring meditation into veterans and schools and social emotional learning. And it's unfortunately not prioritized. You know, it's really test scores are prioritized, academic performance is prioritized. But people aren't prioritizing the cultivation development of the minds and brains of our young people. That's right. And then we end up seeing what we're seeing now in our society, just chaos and divisiveness.

This is one of the things, it was like I had a dream once, you know, years ago now, it doesn't matter anymore, but Senate and Congress, I saw somebody argue with me, why teaching brain and behavior and giving tools in the classroom itself where we have our children, tell me, someone argue with me.

Why we shouldn't do this.

We shouldn't do this. I mean, it just, I just would love to be able to hear an argument.

Yeah, there isn't one.

There isn't one.

Yeah.

You know, and it takes, everything's integrated into the class. It takes, in fact, it saves time in the classroom because the children, every time they do a brain break, they calm down and they're ready to learn. And it's just, I mean, teachers have gone by some of these classrooms, right? And said to the other teacher that was there, because I've got a report on it, and said, what is going on with your class? They were not being inoculated and nobody was crying. And the other class was crying. They were all like crazy. And so she said, well, we're doing mind up.

And you also talk about mind up having this wonderful component which is giving and doing acts of kindness. And that really is part of the happiness quotient. What is the happiness quotient? Tell us about that.

When you make such a statement.

By the way, I love your giggle.

Because it reminds me of like being nine years old listening to laughing.

It's like the same. I know.

I'm like, wow, that is like a, it was one of those things that, you know, people used to say to me, they'd stop me in the street and say, oh, just giggle for us. I'm like, well, I have to have a reason to giggle.

I can't just do it.

I kept on cue, right? Which, by the way, I kind of did. Anyway, yeah, the idea of savoring happiness is one of the aspects of our program. so we do have a section called Saved Unhappiness. And in that we do things like, is the glass half full or the glass half empty? And the children really talk about what's good when it's raining. Okay, let's look at all these different things that make you unhappy, but let's find the good in that, right? Which is again, trying to create more default into a more optimistic view, right? So these are things that are actually the causes of happiness, right? And one of them is random acts of kindness. And we do that in the classroom. And that's like a thing. So you have to write a letter, or they go to an old age home, or they learn to sing a song, or they tell somebody that they love them. Or like I did this the other day, I went for a hike myself, not a hike, but a walk in the street. And in my neighborhood, and there was a very aged woman who was in a walker, and she was working her ass off. She was very elderly, and she was walking up the street, and I just had this burst of love for her. I didn't know her, but I went up to her, I put my arms around her and I said, you don't know me, but I'm so proud of you. You are going, girl. You are really going. And she's looked at me and her eyes lit up and it made her so happy. Oh, thank you. And it just made my whole day. And that kind of thing is like, I didn't do it for a reason for myself. But what I got from it was so powerful. And that's called, you know, those are called mirror neurons or the area where we know if you mark or start to get misty or cry or something, I'm going to feel that because that's empathy. So I am feeling empathy. Now we don't want to get too empathetic, but an empathy is caring, right? And you measure the level of how much you want to give of yourself to care. And I think that's healthy, right? We don't want to bombard ourselves with all these like negative sads sad, sad, sad, sad, sad. But it is important to feel joy, to connect with each other.

It's so interesting when you talk about this act of kindness and giving and just spontaneous altruism. There is a biology of altruism. And we know when you are doing something for others in an altruistic way, you are happier. And it actually lights up the part of your brain that is the pleasure center, which gets stimulated by sugar or cocaine or heroin. But it's a much safer, healthier way to activate that. me driving and it was before we had Easy Pass. And I would literally say, that's my friend back there. I just paid for his toll. Oh, that's so cool. It was just so fun. And you just get a little bump of joy. I know. And it was so fun. I think we don't realize how much we are social creatures, how much we depend on each other in this individualistic culture where it's every man for himself, everyone for himself. We don't really understand the value of deep social interactions that are about serving and giving and kindness. And that actually is such a great way to get happiness and joy. And it's beautiful as part of the Mind Up program.

Yeah, thank you. Well, it's essential. It really is essential to have those.

Kind of- so how do you think creating optimism and resilience in these kids helps us build a better world?

Well, because first of all, we learn to listen. So we have Mindful Listening as well. So if you if you give the child the ability to quiet down number one, I always felt that a peaceful heart could actually lead to a peaceful world and we are dealing with peaceful hearts that classroom is quiet They love it. They ask for it. They like being in that space of quietude three times a day and they ask for it also when they get tick tests so they do ask for the program the kids mind up. Yeah, so they also do it at home sometimes so they said, I think I need a mind upgrade They know.

When they're- Hey, Mommy, Daddy, you go take a brain break.

Yeah, you can. I think you need a brain break. Exactly. You know, how many parents have I said, But I need a brain break, right? But I think that what we're trying to do is create vision for children to actually be able to have the tools to learn how to rise above a problem. solve it critically, not angry, not ego. We all have ego, we get it, we all have a belief system, but to really look at the problem itself from 30,000 feet up and say, well, how would we solve this problem? So to create critical thinking, the ability to actually feel solid enough in yourself to be able to to not create disparate relationships and things that don't work and enemies that, you know, because ultimately that will create a more congenial world. And actually it's, it is what is it, contagious. So if you have contagion, like we do right now, we're dealing with contagion, it's the same thing with emotions. you get a gather of people that more and more people gather with a mindset that actually says, let me solve the problem. So one of the reasons why Mind Up actually can change the way with the trajectory really of the way a world could go is that not only are we creating more understanding of self-awareness and peace and forgiveness, which we all talk about as well, is that we don't have, you know, an axe to bear. So when we create, have our leaders and create better leadership, we have more balanced way of looking at a problem. How do we associate with people that don't look like us? How do we listen carefully at each other? Because it's how we learn. And if this becomes something that's concretized, which is a terrible word, but in the brain, where it's a default system where we go, Oh, well, I'd rather listen. Can I just listen for a minute? Because everybody wants to talk over somebody because everybody's got their point of view, right? Everybody gets a chance. But I love the fairness of listening. And if we can create that, then once we listen, then as a team, I think we can solve problems. Because the world is a team. I mean, we like to think that we're all this and that and the other.

So we need mind up for Congress, right?

We need mind up for Congress. That's what Tim said.

He has a mindfulness group in Congress, but there's like three people going. It's like terrible. It's terrible.

It's really. But this is one of the things I want to also share is that this is not a mindfulness program. Mindfulness is a very important thing. Is there a part of this that's very mindful? Absolutely. And what I wanted to do with this program in the very beginning was to do A program that was about being mindful. Being mindful, I can wrap my arms around you. I know what it is. My mom said, Be mindful of the step. Be mindful of your, you know, whatever.

Paying attention essentially. So Goldie, you worked on this for 20 years. You've created an incredible program for children in schools, and it really helped them level up their brain and connect to methods of being in the world. and relating to their brain and training their brain. It's really a training system for the brain. It has huge impact for their lives. But you've also realized that this is not just for kids, right? Tricks are not just for kids, right? And this is a powerful model for all of us to learn how to take care of our brains better and to train our brains to be happier and more connected and more fulfilled and more attentive and present in our lives, which is really where all the juicy stuff happens. So you created Mind Up for Life. which you're now rolling out, it's available online at MindUpForLife.org and I think it's really for schools, for families, for businesses, communities, sports, hospitals, healthcare providers, but we all had access to those tools. And I personally, I find that we've had a lot of podcasts on meditation. I find that without the time for myself, without Focus attention on training my mind and my brain.

Right.

And not being a victim of my mind. Exactly. There's a very bad narrative going on all the time.

And the brain does it anyway, right? The chit chat. Right. And we want to get it calm.

So how do you connect with your higher self? And that's really what you're offering is this wonderful program called Mind Up for Life. So tell us a little bit more about it and what you hope to achieve with it.

So Mind Up for Life is really about how to create a mindset, a mindset and a way of life, right? And a way of life with the opportunity to feel empowered to be your own advocate. How am I going to share what I know with someone else to make their life better? So because it's the way I think anyway, even when I wasn't doing Mind Up, is that we're all in service of each other. But we can't be in service of each other if we aren't educated in a way that actually will allow us to experience these emotions, not just talk about them, not just say, oh, that's a happy face, that's a sad face, or facial recognition, which we have, it's important, but it's experiencing this. So my dream for this has always been global because I believe that we in America need it, but I also travel the world and know Everyone needs this program. And what has happened in my own meditation and my own affirmations that I do, not saying, oh, I'm gonna do affirmations, blah, blah, blah, but because I see it in my mind. I saw it in my mind when I first brought this up, that this was not just a one for America, it was for the world. And I thought, wow, what a lofty, you know, dream, right?

Yeah.

But now, We're in Serbia, we're in Hong Kong, we're in Australia, we're in Africa, we are in Ireland, England, a ton. It just, you know, on and on, and Canada, of course. So the reality is it's growing, and this is my dream. My dream is that we're getting translated in different languages, Chinese and so forth, and we'll be able to have a kind of dialogue. together that will change the way that we reach each other's hearts and minds.

It's so beautiful. It's such a beautiful vision. And I think you've had many chapters in your life and you often say this might be the greatest chapter. And tell us a little bit personally how it's impacted you being able to create this into the world and see its impact on our kids.

Well, first of all, seeing the impact on the children is I can't bring more tears to my eyes than I could ever imagine. The research brought, I just thought, oh my God, this is amazing. But the reality is, is I look back and I think, wow, that was a brave idea.

Yeah.

I mean, that was something when somebody said, and people said, oh, you'll never teach that in school. You'll never do this, and you got to be careful with this, and you're going to be, and there were so many nos in my way, and I wish I saw my research. I said, Watch me. And then I went out and I did this. And I didn't have a lot of money in the bank for this, but I just kept on going. Nothing was going to stop me. And one of the areas is that it started going into the other part of the world by itself. I haven't marketed this. I didn't sell it. I didn't do your market. I didn't do your show. I didn't do nothing. And it became this. So when I look at this, I think, don't ever let someone tell you you can't do your dream.

That's beautiful. What is that quote by, I think, George Bernard Shaw? It's only unreasonable people that change the world, right?

Yes, exactly. And it was kind of a disturbance, you know? And then I'll close by saying, I'm not as young as I used to be. and it's another piece of advice, but when we get older and we've done our job, remember there's more passion and there are more things to do in the world that will keep you current and will keep you excited about life and knowing that, you know, you have a part in this world until you pass.

Goldie, thank you so much for your contribution to our children and now to a greater population. Everybody should check out mindup.org or mindup4life.org to learn more about the program, become a member, and bring it into your community, your schools. It's really a gift you've given the world, Goldie. Thank you so much for that. Thank you. Yeah, it just makes my heart really warm. And it's exciting for me to get to this podcast with you because I had such a crush on you when I was 19 years old. Anyway, I think I had a blush. But anyway, thank you so much for being on the podcast. For those of you listening and are moved by this, share with your friends and family. tell them about what Goldie's doing. Leave a comment about maybe some of the challenges you've had with your family or kids and how maybe some of these programs have helped. We have them. And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and we'll see you all next time.

On the Doctor's Pharmacy.

Hey, everybody, it's Dr. Hyman. Thanks for tuning into the Doctor's Pharmacy. I hope you're loving this podcast. It's one of my favorite things to do and introducing you all the experts that I know and I love and that I've learned so much from. and I want to tell you about something else I'm doing, which is called Mark's Picks. It's my weekly newsletter, and in it I share my favorite stuff, from foods to supplements to gadgets to tools to enhance your health. It's all the cool stuff that I use and that my team uses to optimize and enhance our health. And I'd love you to sign up for the weekly newsletter. I'll only send it to you once a week on Fridays. Nothing else, I promise. And all you have to do is go to DrHyman.com/picks to sign up. That's DrHyman.com/picks, P-I-C-K-S, and sign up for the newsletter and I'll share with you my favorite stuff that I use to enhance my health and get healthier and better and live younger longer.

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