Brian Vaszily l The Aging Myth That's Secretly Shortening Your Life

Your perception, your belief about aging has a monumental impact on your physical health. In fact, those who had negative or embraced mentally negative stereotypes about aging had a 7.5-year reduction in lifespan versus those who had more positive impression of aging. And, and that about nails it. People look feel and live, look and feel less good than they ought to and live shorter lives than they ought to because of mindset in this regard.

What if the biggest threat to your health isn't aging itself, but what you believe about aging? Today I sit down with Brian Basile, founder of The Art of Anti-Aging, to explore how our beliefs shape our longevity, why most of what we've been taught about getting older is wrong, and how mindset, neuroplasticity, and everyday habits can help us stay vibrant, healthy, and thriving for decades longer than we think.

I'm really happy to be here today with Brian Basley. Welcome, Brian.

Thank you so much. I'm excited to be here.

So I'm gonna share your bio and then we'll jump right in. Sound good?

Ah, yeah, sounds like a good plan.

Okay. Brian Basile is a renowned leader, researcher, and advocate in healthy aging and longevity with over 20 years of experience. He's the founder of theartofantiaging.com, a leading health platform with over 500,000 members dedicated to empowering individuals with evidence-based natural solutions to avoid and overcome disease, live long, and thrive. Brian also hosts the Art of Anti-Aging's widely respected Healthy Aging Summits, which have positively impacted millions of lives. In addition to his work in healthy aging, Brian is the founder of Purity Woods, one of the today's fastest growing certified organic skincare and supplement companies. Throughout his career, he has collaborated closely with top MDs and researchers, distilling their insights into actionable steps that are both clear and compelling. Brian's influence extends beyond health. He is an internationally acclaimed author, speaker, and life and business coach. He's also the founder of Intense Experiences .com, a leading site for positive transformation, and oneworldonebook.com, a global book club uniting readers to discuss great literature and support charitable causes. Obviously you're quite a Renaissance figure with many diverse interests and activities. That's wonderful.

Yeah, well, I do have to note a couple of those last ones you put out there, those are past ventures that were great adventures. But Intense Experiences is retired, although people will find all that material still out there. Yeah, One World, One Book, that was an interesting adventure, but I don't believe people will find that one anymore. However, theartofantiaging.com and Purity Woods are alive and thriving. So, wonderful. Yeah. Yeah. Wow, you really went into my background there. That's awesome.

Alright. Well, thank you for clarifying that. So, as we get started with our conversation here about your work and about the art of anti-aging, I want I wonder if you could give us just a little bit of your origin story. I think it's always helpful for the audience to see how did you end up in this whole world of longevity and anti-aging.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I am currently 54 and you can probably slice my life down the middle almost. And the first half was really quite rough by anyone's definitions, Fleet. So, I grew up in inner-city Chicago in a pretty rough neighborhood. I friends to gangs. And, uh, you know, it was just kind of an environment where I always had to watch my back on the outside. But far, uh, more— well, traumatic, uh, it was the fact that my father was a good man until around my age of 9 years old. He then became severely alcoholic and severely abusive to me, to my sister, to my mother. Um, and I can get into the what and why of that. He had a fascinating life but a very hard life, and he did not deal effectively with some very serious traumas he faced. He lost his first wife. He— they got into an argument and he watched as she stepped out of the car angry and that truck hit her and killed her. He lost his son from his previous marriage to my mother when I was just 3. I didn't know my— that half-brother who was hit by a car while riding a bike and killed. He was a World War II vet, spy for the United States, who was in Germany during World War II, seeing all of that. And he interestingly fell in love with a woman who turned out to be a Russian spy, and they were going to get married. And then one day she was just disappeared and he never saw her again. So fascinating life, a lot of goodness in his life too, I'm sure. But he didn't deal effectively with these traumas and carried it over to us, to, you know, by hitting the bottle and then, you know, being rather abusive to us. So I dealt with that for years. And then to his credit, he finally did kick the bottle, Fleet. But then he spent the last 10 years of his life essentially dying inside of, more than outside of hospitals. So I witnessed the medical care system even as an older child and young man. I watched my mom almost end up on the bed next to him because she fought this medical care system extensively for years. They were essentially experimenting on my father with drugs and different approaches and making him suffer. And worst of all, you know, what people hear about medical mistakes is quite true and beyond. She fought and fought and caught so many mistakes. So I was there with her. My sister was there with her during this period a lot of times. He spent the last 6 years of his life in a hospital, 3 hospitals really, dying. And, you know, I just experienced, you know, a lot of education slash trauma during that period as well. So when I'm a young man at that point, I became a very young father myself and, you know, to my wife at that time. Time and my credit, we did push through and go to, you know, college full-time. I went to college full-time while I worked full-time and raised a baby, and so did she. And, and it was a really rough years. I was super poor. I lived in, uh, with my wife at the time and our baby in a studio apartment where I couldn't— I had to choose between keeping the lights on another month or food on the table sometimes. Couldn't afford a bed. We slept on my twin mattresses and box springs from my youth for a while there, and mice would come and wake me up in the middle of the night. Rough. So long story short on this is that I experienced a lot of depression and anxiety in my younger years. And there's one single factor that kept me alive, because I had suicidal thoughts, that kept me alive. And in fact, they are the reason I'm thriving today. And that is powerful women. Women have played a monumental role in my life, more so than they do in all of our lives, of course, starting with our own mothers, right? But in my life, I have them to thank for sitting here talking to you today. And that includes— I'm going to tear up, but I won't— I have a wonderful mother, an angel of a mother, still, you know, thank goodness, you know, here with us today. A grandmother who's still with us. She's 104 years old. A sister who is wonderful and so on. And certain teachers and others, they all happen to be women. So now fast forward just a bit. So I am done with college and have a baby, you know, at home and my wife. And so I need to get a job. My first job, real job, really, I guess I should say second real job was in communications for a company on the other side, a pharmaceutical corporation in the pharmaceutical industry. I will just say that. And I will just say this, that all of people's frustrations and and concerns/fears about the pharmaceutical industry are largely true and beyond. People don't know the half of it. I saw a lot in that role and I couldn't wait to get out, but I had to maintain in order to put food on the table, et cetera, for quite some time. So, do a little fast forwarding again and way back when, now we're talking 20 years plus ago, a doctor and I, I saw what he was trying to do and he and I started having some conversations. He's a very controversial figure. I'm always a bit uneasy about bringing this up because people love him or hate him. And who am I talking about? I'm talking about a gentleman by the name of Joe Mercola, who way back then, you know, had a very, you know, small following. But I knew the message he was trying to put out there was just essentially take control of your own health. And this is long before folks like, you know, most folks out there, you know, who are in this wonderful space today where we're trying to empower people with evidence-based solutions to look, feel, "Best Live Long, Avoid Disease." This is long before this was at the very start of the internet, I guess you can almost say, because it really was, at least the prevalence of the internet. And I was with Mercola, Joe and I, for 4.5 years before I parted ways with him and we grew that. And so, I was then exposed to, during the course of all that, a lot of wonderful health and wellness MDs and practitioners who were trying to break free of the conventional mold. And, you know, so for years I helped others behind the scenes. And then, as you alluded to, I became more of a personal development brand almost myself for a while. It was called Intense Experiences and did quite well with all of that, delved more so into the emotional and mental aspect of things and learned a lot there, had a big bestselling book out of that called The Nine Intense Experiences. It's still out there today. But I was at a crossroads, Fleet Maull. About, uh, 2018, '17, '18. I was at a good crossroads. I can make a little, you know, different choices where I'm going to take my life, but propelled to do one thing because I was watching Fleet as some very pervasive nonsense myths were impacting these women who had been so powerful in my own life. And these myths are the aging myths, and we can dive into that because, uh, they're one of the one of the biggest issues out there, period, if you were going to talk honestly about healthy aging and longevity. And so these very otherwise powerful women, I saw these pervasive myths were negatively impacting them in a very physical way in some ways. The idea that getting older, when you hit 40, it equals becoming undesirable, incapable, doomed to suffering and disease, and you're getting— you're over the hill, down you go. Now, all of those years, Fleet where I was working closely with so many different highly respectable, wonderful MDs who were integrative health, as they call it, and natural health approaches, trying to incorporate that, I discovered the exact opposite is the truth. 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, even beyond ought to be the best years of people's lives from a physical, emotional, mental standpoint. So there was this big rift. You know, and I was watching it impact even these powerful women in my own life, the belief that it's downhill and the fact based on an incredible amount of evidence that it ought to be the best years. And I'm like, I know exactly what I'm gonna do in honor of my mother, in honor of my sister, in honor of these powerful women. I'm going to start an organization, theartofantiaging.com is what it's now called. And I'm just going to put out all of these evidence-based facts in a very easy-to-comprehend and put-into-action way for people, you know, from all of my peers in the industry, from all of the researchers, etc. And that's the start of theartofantiaging.com. And as you kindly noted, it's now grown to over 500,000, you know, folks who can go there, sign up for our newsletter, get these insights. And I'm honored. I'm honored. And it's driven by, as you can hear, a passion and a mission. So I'm so humbled really to be able to reach a lot of people like that. Thanks for asking.

Yeah.

And I hope that was somewhat condensed.

Oh, well, you, you're, you did a great job with that. Your passion is palpable and, and, and incredibly moving. And I'm so glad we began there with your story. It is so powerful. And so you spoke about these myths that you became aware of that were impacting these amazing women in your own life. And, and, and this really ignited that passion of the work you're doing today. So, and these myths become these cultural, culturally reinforced myths become beliefs that we internalize and then show up in, in ways that are actually undermining our health and our longevity and so forth. So what are some of these key, if you had to name 2 or 3 of these myths or beliefs, what are some of the key beliefs you feel that, that many of us have internalized to our own detriment.

Absolutely. Well, first wanna note that various research has been done in this area. One of the most prominent researchers, her name is Becca Levy. And you know, she did research earlier in the 2000s showing that your perception, your belief about aging has a monumental impact on your physical health and In fact, those who had negative or embraced mentally negative stereotypes about aging had a 7.5-year reduction in lifespan versus those who had more positive impression of aging. And that about nails it. People look, feel, and live— look and feel less good than they ought to. And live shorter lives than they ought to because of mindset in this regard. And it is, uh, when people ask, and, and I know they're looking for dietary steps, often exercise steps, and those are super vital, but when people ask me what's the worst, the worst of the worst, or they want to hear the physical toxins, which is a monumentally big problem, but I will say that's easy. Its mindset about this because, um, it is so prevalent in our society. Um, look at any entity, Hollywood and other forms of media. You would think that if you came from a different planet and you came here and you just watched our media, you would think that the vast majority of the population is somewhere in their 20s and all the women are, of course, you know, by conventional standards, beautiful.. And you would think that women in their 40s, 50s, 60s must be a very small segment of society. If you just looked at the media, it's, you know, it's a big place that it starts, or one of the primary places that this myth is pushed. I will also tell you though, that because of this myth of aging, they, all these big institutions that we have to be very cautious of, Big Food, Big Pharma, big cosmetics and personal care products industries. These, they play and prey on this myth in a very massive way and take advantage, frankly, of people and make, you know, untold billions, if not trillions of dollars doing so. So it starts, and, and, and I always like to go very personal with people and just say Please, in a very mindful way, in a very unstressful way, please truly, ideally writing this out because we, maybe we don't all know, we ought to all know that by writing it out, doesn't matter if it, you know, sounds good on paper, that's not the point, it's just for you. But writing out what you really believe getting older means and examining that closely. Be honest with yourself. Do you believe that you are meant to, which biologically we are, uh, and, and chronologically we're seeing you should live normally past 97. You should, you should, even if you do many things, not all things even, but many things right, you should. So those are the years, maybe late '80s, '90s, where truly you might start slowing down. And then of course in the '90s you will start slowing down. It's almost inevitable, but you ought to live even past that. Okay.. But the question is that you ought to ask yourself, what do I believe, you know, being 40, 50, 60, 70, 80s means? What does that mean? Does that— do you believe that means vibrancy deeply and the best years of your life? Or do you embrace the myth? And there's no judgment here, but do you embrace the myth to some extent that it's time for you to start slowing down looking unattractive, feeling less energetic, getting sick is more common. Those are all not true, but it's very important to assess your beliefs on that because you cannot achieve honestly any other step if you have this massive internal emotional block in your way. You could do the best diet of all time, exercise your butt off, avoid every physical toxin out there, so on and so forth. If you have that belief, your belief is telling your brain, time to die, time to start dying now. Haha, Party Store says over the hill on all these napkins and balloons. And how much do you really embrace that? It's not true. I will swear by that to everybody. And again, at The Art of Anti-Aging, just like you here, we try to share with people facts that that is not true at all. You really don't need to slow down until again, perhaps, perhaps, and here I might be being a little too liberal, but perhaps your later 80s. Certainly I would say your 90s, but even then you ought to live about 107 years old if we do many things, not all things, just many things right.

Wow. Well, you know, I've been involved in mind-body work most of my adult life. I became a meditator in my late 20s or maybe mid-20s. And, you know, but I have to admit that, and today I'm really focused on optimizing my health and wellbeing and my mindset around aging. I'm 74, so it's become ever more important. But even up until, you know, recent years, I have to admit, I would, you know, I would sometimes hear myself saying things like, you know, youth is wasted on the young, getting old sucks, things like this. You know, you know, I had allowed those, those ideas about aging to influence me. One thing that did help me was over the past decade, you know, you hear something like 60s, the new 40s, 70s, the new 50s. And, you know, I started embracing that and that was kind of a helpful meme. And I started embracing that. Today, I'm really focused on optimizing my health and wellbeing. And I go through a whole routine, not only in terms of body-mind work in the morning, but also some affirmations around— interesting you said 107, mine is 108, healthy, wealthy, enlightened, thriving, and serving. And I'm doing that little mantra, right? To envision the possibility of living a long life and while being healthy and prospering and serving and having a meaningful life, right? So I'm really glad that I've embraced that. But You know what you're talking about, the power of these beliefs. This is what this summit is all about. And we know, we've known this for a long time psychologically, we know it neurobiologically that our beliefs, whether they're conscious or unconscious, really drive how we interpret life, how we, and how we show up in life and, and the results we create for ourself in life. So it's just critically important. So once one sort of awakens to the, the untruth of these myths, and that we can live a long, healthy life, you know, by doing a few of the right things and embracing a healthy lifestyle and natural solutions to deal with issues we may have to deal with. And then you kind of open up to that world. There's this plethora of information today. I mean, before you, back before the internet, there was very limited information and it was curated by Big Pharma and Big Food, et cetera, et cetera. So we got limited information. Today there's there's this plethora of information and it's all over the map and it can be very confusing. And, and some of it's accurate and some of it's maybe not so accurate and, and a lot of promises and, and so forth. So how, how do we filter this and find our way through? I know going to your artofantiaging.com website is one good place to start, but other than that, what, what kind of filters do we use to find our way through to maybe an accurate signal on the real truth around things that can help us enhance our wellbeing and age in a healthy way and both longevity and health span.

Yeah. Well, it's either your event or mine. That's it. No, nothing. I'm kidding. But your event is a great start. And the word trust comes to mind. I do hope as many people have embraced, I'm doing this for the right reasons. And so trust is important. However, A step before that, let me go two steps before that to answer that question. You brought up something regarding yourself, which I appreciate you opening the door on yourself like that. And it is one of the most fascinating and important aspects to understand about ourselves. We tend to believe, and we have for eons believed, that our brain controls us, right? And only in recent years, due to a lot of really cool research, fascinating research, has it come to really strong light that just as much, we have to be in control of our brain. It's the old brain is best friend, worst enemy thing, right? And the brain can really do some severe damage to you if you let it. The beautiful thing is that there are so many ways to, you know, and it's kind of weird talking about this when you think about it because, you know, using your brain to control your brain, obviously it's our executive function, but for the sake of conversation, to grab more control over your brain through many means that you teach and have taught really well. It's, you know, modern forms as well as traditional of meditation, even nature walking, are so important to center yourself, get away from this mass and true epidemic of chronic stress that, you know, messes with our brains, our health, our lives, and stops us Um, so that's a huge one, but it's important to get control of your brain. I used to think that things like, uh, affirmations are a bunch of fluff, and now there's a lot of evidence on affirmations, simple affirmations, because what's going on, you're telling your brain this is the way it is, and, and you're, and your brain's saying, oh, okay, you know. Um, so by simply getting a firm grasp of your own beliefs about what aging means. And it's a-okay. In fact, it's likely if you discover you have negative impressions of what getting older means, it's okay. And most people do. I still do. You noted you do, right? So this is not a one-time deal. You routinely, you know, try to visit that. And then just one of many ways is simply to write out the truth. Getting older to me means these are going to be the best years of my life. These are going to be the healthiest years of my life. If I have a health condition, I am going to improve. This once sounded like fluff to me until I dug in and realized, and a lot of research has been done on this, that these are telling your brain, I'm in control and this is how it's gonna be, and it's gonna be wonderful. My health is going to improve, you know, physically, emotionally, mentally. So that's a very important thing to note in context of the question you're asking me. Because there is a lot of health noise out there. And there, and as long as we are susceptible to our emotions, our thoughts owning us and controlling us and whipping us around, all of these institutions will be able to maintain this invisible, sometimes visible, excuse me, visible, but most often invisible control of us. The grocery store industry will be able to, you know, push our choices without us knowing it to certain things at certain levels on the shelf with the pretty music that we're not thinking about playing for a reason in the background and so forth. The drug industry will continue to do what it does and make so many people believe drugs are healthcare, et cetera. If we are susceptible to that, and we're susceptible to that when our emotions are not in our control, there's no bad emotion or good emotion. It's simply about, do you recognize and more so own them or are they owning you? So when we're susceptible, That is when all this noise and all the, you know, infinite now amount of health information can harm us. And it does. I've seen it. And it's also one of the biggest issues out there now. There is this overwhelm of health advice. I'm putting quotes around that from every quarter today. You know, blogs, podcasts, social media, especially TV, magazines, still so, so, so forth, right? And this is a problem. This is a big problem when you are susceptible, because whoever words something well or catches your eye with the right image or, you know, works on your emotions in a certain way will grab your attention and you'll be a passive consumer. And you will passively say, man, that sounds really good. You know, that supplement with ABC, including, by the way, a bunch of synthetic junk in it, sounds like it's going to be a huge difference in my life. And out, and you get sucked in and you get sucked in. And social media is designed to suck you in and never let you go and keep you clicking and scrolling and scrolling forever, including so much of it about health advice, quote, you know, quote unquote again. So again, when it starts with, just like everything starts with having that ownership of your emotions, be they, you know, stress or joy or any emotion at all, having that ownership, which is why your event is so wonderful because it's so much about that, right? And that ownership, therefore, you know, you're able to see and properly, let's put it that way, you're, you know, from the heart as well as your mind, you're able to see far more properly and make informed choices that are truly good for you long-term, not little dopamine hits immediate, you know, type of choices, but long-term choices. You're able to detect who can I trust, what organizations can I more so trust. Wait a minute, you know, which ones I better back off and check out, you know, what else has this organization put out? You're better able to make informed choices. Is this based on a variety of different experiences and evidence, or are they really just about trying to sell me something, you know, fly-by-night, short-term here, you know, that, that is the most vital aspect to cut through the noise is to have no noise inside of yourself that's clouding your view.

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Well, I'm really glad that you're expressing both doing that work to clarify what beliefs am I holding and seeing where obviously if they're negative beliefs, knowing that they're going to have this impact. So working to kind of deconstruct those and create positive beliefs, but also this sense of agency. Because we've all been trained, anyone who grew up in the post-World War II, our baby boomers and beyond, then the millennials and the Generation Z, everyone in this has been indoctrinated their whole lives to become passive consumers. We've all been trained to be passive consumers. And so the question could be, well, where can I get the right information? Just tell me, point me to where I can get the right information, which is still kind of a passive consumer approach. So I really do think we all have to embrace that agency.

Now I've developed a number of sources.

That I trust, that I know that are sources of various health information and products and so forth. And I know they have integrity. I know they're evidence-based. I know— and at the same time, they don't always agree. So I realize I still have to kind of do my own research. I have to, you know, work with my own body and, and my own mind and try this and try that so I can, I can come up with a sphere of sources that I you know, more or less trust because I trust they're doing good work, they have integrity. I still have to do my work to figure it out. There's no way around if we really want to, you know, have the kind of health and longevity that we're talking about, we have to embrace this quality of agency. So I'm really appreciating that you're emphasizing that. You know, your work has emphasized both natural solutions, natural products, and evidence-based. And, and I, I think that's just so important. And I, I wonder if you could talk about what you really mean by evidence-based products and how, how do we know, how do we distinguish the evidence-based strategy, solutions, and products that are out there versus things that are maybe sound good, have a lot of marketing behind them, but have not really been tested.

Yeah, my mind just shot in 5 different directions that I want to answer that question. It's a great question. And, and, um, you know, first let me note what you brought up again, uh, your, your previous answer that you have a lot of sources that you have worked yourself to find that you can trust. It's a wonderful thing to be able to find someone, I hope like me and certainly like you, for other people, because if you have enough trust, then you can check out what I have done, all this research on and what you have done this research on. And I will say this, 8 times out of 10, you know, um, you, you, everyone listening, you know, may agree. It's okay not to agree sometimes. It's okay if, uh, you recommend a product or something, Fleet, and, uh, you know, 9, 8, 9 times out of 10 people love it, but some people might not because we are different, of course. But, but that's no reason not to trust. We all know that. And, um, regarding knowledge and natural health and evidence-based. You know, the beautiful thing is that we have now, we collectively, you know, as this research community, have a pretty clear line in on all of the most essential steps that people need to take to look, feel their best, avoid disease, even overcome many diseases and live long. We have a pretty clear view. We're at the point now where, you know, there's a lot of fine points and there will be new discoveries forever, right? I mean, of course, and that's a wonderful thing. And there's a lot of fine point disagreements. I see a lot of arguments erupt over small points and I'm like, okay, well, that's fun for you, fine. But I hope you're taking the big step and encouraging others to take the big step behind that. Should you eat olive oil and how much? Is it bad or good? You know, things like that. It's just like, That's kind of missing the point. The point is, you know, you take the big essential steps and you'll be okay if you're— if it's not great to eat olive oil, but you should be, or you should be, but you're not. You'll be okay if you're taking, you know, the bigger picture steps. So about evidence. Well, again, I have been immersed. I'm a geek. I'm a geek. I actually enjoy white papers and all this dense research, and I have enjoyed it for decades now. And I can state state that I would never believe even most of the so-called research studies related to anything pharmaceutical, because you dig into that research and you will often, if not almost always, find out that it's funded directly or indirectly by the pharmaceutical company or companies that benefit from it. I, I'm very skeptical of research that touts a specific brand of, of, of food, uh, for the very same reasons. However, there are wonderful people in research institutions, and they're a vast minority, doing research on, things come to mind like herbs and spices and vegetables and fruits and exercise that have no gain, no connection. And I'm like, well, man, I am so happy these people still exist. They're not getting big funding. They're not in it for any money, unlike a lot of the researchers who are funded by, you know, pharma, for example. And so you have to be able to determine source of information when you're looking at things. And intent is a huge one. And, you know, with that, research is exactly what it, you know, what it states. You know, if there's one study showing something and then what type of study and the extent of, you know, that study. If there's one study, it suggests something pretty good. If there's 10, it's suggesting something really good. If there's hundreds or thousands, you better believe it. And then the ultimate wonderful litmus test. And what does antiquity say about it? Because here's a beautiful thing I've seen over the decades. So many concepts from antiquity, from ancient forms of medicine, all of a sudden become all the rage because science showed what? It's true. They were right for the most part about this stuff, whatever it may be. Turmeric, you know, certain fruits, amla or Indian gooseberry comes to mind. I mean, so many different things that different cultural medicine institutions embraced for eons. Then when you see studies start showing they were right, you could pretty much be sure, hey, they're on to something there. I brought up Indian gooseberry. Indian gooseberry, amla, is is highly embraced and has been for eons in the Ayurvedic medicine culture. This is just an example for folks. And it's not on the radar. I mean, many people listening here right now are gonna be like, what are you even talking about? What is an Indian gooseberry, amla? Well, it's a sour berry. It's hard to eat because it's so sour, so astringent, but it is simply sky high in antioxidants, including for example, vitamin C and others that have a massive, positive impact, excuse me, on inflammation. It's great consuming it internally. It's great consuming it on your skin where it boosts collagen levels and more in your skin and leads to much better looking skin and so forth. This is just one example I'm talking about is that when antiquity, when ancient times embrace something and then science digs in and says, yep, yep, yep, yep, you can be pretty darn sure the evidence can be trusted on that. That thing. And that's the kind of evidence I like to put out there most of all.

Absolutely. And I know you've spoken a lot about the toxins that can really lead to disease and impact our lives. And now you're both toxins that could be in the environment and the food, but also mental toxins. And And so I wonder if you could talk about a little bit about that so that we can kind of see what we're up against and then how we can embrace a lifestyle and choices that are going to maybe limit our exposure to toxins, but also then get some of the, the antitoxins and the nutrients that, that can override that exposure that we have.

Right. Great question again. So, well, certainly Not only incorrect beliefs about aging are a massive mental toxin, toxin. There's far— there's more, you know, there's a lot more. In fact, again, spreading that concept out wider, you know, so many people rightfully pay close attention to insights about healthy diet and healthy exercise choices, for example, and the big issues out there, the big problems regarding poor diet that are so pervasive and lack of exercise, sitting too much, those are not really problems. Those are byproducts of the big problem. And the big problem really is mental/emotional, if you will, toxins. And what I mean by that, it's not just this perception of aging. We are the biggest enemy to our health is not out there. It's within us. It's inside of us. Most of us, many of us, to some extent, all of us. And that is, um, starts with, I guess the one word I would say is fear. Um, if you don't feel very safe, including with yourself and loving with yourself, started safe and loving with yourself and therefore safe and loving with the rest of the world. Again, you've got a huge barrier and you can eat as right as possible, exercise, you are still bound to experience health issues that you should not experience. The biggest toxin of all, again, is, is, is kind of already inside most of us. You'll never completely eliminate, and that's okay. That's not the point. The point is to become aware of it and work toward reducing it. Um, And a word comes to mind, forgiveness. And people hear this and they nod and they're like, yeah. And then many of them ignore that concept after a short discussion and wanna go find what's the best thing I should eat? What's the pill I should take? But it's huge inside your heart. If you don't have forgiveness for yourself, for something or someone else, if you don't have that, you're gonna be hard pressed to really improve your health in any significant ways. These, these are internal or mental, emotional toxins. Toxins that are bigger than anything else out there in terms of stopping you from achieving healthy aging and longevity, extending the length and quality of your life. So I want to note that. Now, in a physical sense, I do want to state, um, really make— let me make this statement real quickly. Um, so chronic stress and physical toxicants, 20 years from now, 30 years from now, we'll look back on these times and those two issues will be recognized. They're not quite enough yet, will be recognized as the worst issues that we face, epi— true epidemics of, of our time. Chronic stress, anxiety, and all that contributes to it. And then physical toxicants that are in absolutely everything we are surrounding ourselves with these days from cosmetics, personal care products, of course foods, our water, municipal water supplies, which doesn't even test for most of them, the air, especially inside homes and so forth. These are going to be recognized as the worst problems that our current society has faced. And there's not enough awareness of either of those. So the chronic stresses, again, more so that mental emotional stress. And it starts with the basis of fear. You are afraid of something when you experience anxiety and chronic stress. And on the physical side, That is lack of awareness. And everyone says, well, they're everywhere. What am I going to do about it? Well, it's— you're never going to eliminate all of them. That's not the point. The point is there are certain areas where it's very important to reduce. And the beautiful thing on both of these fronts, the mental emotional toxins and the physical toxicants, is just reduction of them makes a tremendous difference to your health and longevity, not to mention your energy levels and your joy.

Way.

I'm glad you're, you're pointing to the internal work because I mean, there, there is so much we can do to reduce our exposure to toxins, physical toxins in our food, the environment, the water, the air, and so forth. And then, you know, healthy diet, uh, uh, exercise, you know, breathing, all the things we can do. But there's that internal work. Uh, I, you know, I share a bit of your experience growing up in an alcoholic family myself. And so many of us are sitting on completely unprocessed, undealt with grief, anger, even rage. And, uh, and we haven't even started to work to get to where we could forgive ourselves. And, and, and this can really impact our lives, even if we're doing a lot of the right things, if we haven't done that internal work. So I think it's— I really appreciate that you pointed to that, to doing the work to heal, uh, you know, to, to deal with and heal our past, whatever it is, to be able to forgive ourselves, to forgive our parents, to forgive our grandparents. Now, forgiving them And forgiveness often means getting permission to be angry to begin with, right? To acknowledge what really happened, to acknowledge the things that we should have received that we didn't, the things that we did receive that we shouldn't have, to acknowledge those, have our feelings about 'em, but then to find our way into forgiveness. We have to kind of clear up that internal environment and then we're gonna find it so much easier because often even though we know about all the good things we need to do, we don't find ourselves doing it. Or it's one step forward, two steps back, or at best two steps forward, one step back. And we find ourselves, even though we have good information, behaving in ways that, that are to our own detriment. And a lot of that I think is driven because we haven't done that internal work and we're still dealing with so much internal conditioning and fear and anxiety and unprocessed grief and anger and so forth. So I'm really glad that you point to that internal work. I think it's incredibly important. So I mean, this may sound like a big challenge to all of us, but again, it's like if we want to thrive in life, it's about accepting the agency that we need to do our internal work. And then we need to get internal intelligent about how we're engaging in life and what we're consuming and so forth.

Yeah, right. Well, heal your past and also heal your present. Not only is it past issues, including anger perhaps at yourself, certainly others, as you noted, it's also present issues often that come about, Fleet, because we don't have that well, control— that is a big word— but control over our emotions versus them controlling us. Now, here's one a little— people don't necessarily love me when I bring this one up, but nonetheless, I believe it's true. And, you know, again, based on a lot of research, what I've seen is confirmation bias. Today, not for anything that happened in the past, but there's so many people who are very angry at the other side. We know this from politics, you know, it's not just in politics, but there is a lot of side-taking today. I'm not going to speak for you, but I could tell you over the course of years and decades for myself, it's— I haven't seen it to this level in my lifetime that it is today. I think I heard during the United States Civil War it might have been, you know, uh, equatable to that perhaps. But, um, but there's a lot of side-taking and anger, and that side is wrong, and that side is wrong, and if they don't agree with me, they're bad people. And that's stressful. And guess what that is? That's fear. That's at its very basis. Again, that is the fear we're talking about. Confirmation bias means you gravitate toward whatever, um, confirms your current beliefs. That's what confirmation bias is. And, um, the most, uh, one of the most important, wonderful things we can be is humbleness, um, not believe that we know everything. And, and I try every single day, and I have little quotes to remind me to do so, putting my student cap on and saying, I could be wrong, could be wrong about everything. I could be wrong. And it's a hard thing. It's very humbling, and it's hard for my ego who wants to be right. But people are taken advantage of because of confirmation bias. Bias. And there are institutions— media, um, and I'll state these by name— Fox News on one side, CNN and MSNBC, for example, on the other so-called side, and so forth. People get the idea. These are for-profit institutions laughing all the way to the bank by yanking people around with confirmation bias. We're gonna make them angry, even angrier at the other side. That's what they do. I have been inside of media organizations. Like that. That is what they do consciously. It's very profitable for these institutions who are beholden to all their stockholders. That's what they're doing to you. So there's present anger and fear inside of us that, as we talked about earlier, is being manipulated further. And it's awareness of that kind of thing, not just trauma that happened in our past, but that is a form of trauma really when you think about it. Watching the media does— it never feels great later. You don't watch these shows, and then you walk outside and, man, that was refreshing and uplifting to watch the latest Fox News or CNN. No, it's not. And that's your body telling you something wrong with that. There's something wrong with that. Maybe I should reduce that. And if I am going to partake in that, uh, be very conscious of what they're really trying to do to me. That's a traumatic event as well.

Yeah, we could do a whole nother conversation, a whole nother summit on getting out of our confirmation bias bubbles, I think, which are really doing us a lot of arm. It's helpful to know that the world of marketing also understands the psychology of confirmation bias extremely well and obviously makes use of that to manipulate us. So coming back to the need for agency, and I really loved what you said about having that beginner's mind, that student mind that you're willing to step back, maybe I've got this whole thing wrong. You know, continually having the humility to look and take a deeper look and really, you know, have a a healthy scientific mind, of a kind of pure scientific mind. I want to know the truth. I'm going to keep looking. I'm going to keep taking an objective assessment of how I'm experiencing what I'm in. Having that kind of mindset, it's like we've all been trained to want to— can somebody else do that for me? Right? That's too hard of work. Well, then we're going to get what we get. And a lot of those sources, even some of the ones that that are, you know, marketing the natural stuff are gonna be using that psychology to manipulate us in ways that are not really in our best interest. So let's talk more about what we can do in line with this agency. You mentioned before that our brain can be our best friend or our worst enemy, right? Our brain is a highly conditioned, highly programmed supercomputer. But fortunately, we are conscious beings and we have our executive function and the top-down part of our brain, the conscious Brain, where we can be literally reprogramming our own brain. And, and so part of this is that we understand neuroplasticity, that the brain is continually growing and changing and can grow and thrive throughout our lifespan. And there's a lot of things we can do. Everything we do that helps the body be healthy will help the brain be healthy. But then with intentionality, we can also rewire the brain, rewire our beliefs to support all the things we're talking about here about health and wellbeing and longevity and healthspan. And so forth. So I wonder if you could talk about the role of neuroplasticity in healthy aging.

You're right, right. Again, great question. And this may seem initially to contradict everything I just said, but it doesn't. It complements it. It's a two-way street. You just alluded to that. What I mean is you do need to address, you know, these mental, emotional aspects. However, by addressing the physical aspects, even if you don't necessarily start by addressing the mental mental/emotional, you are building— it's like a workout to better be able to address the mental/emotional and get control. What I mean is, for example, exercise. So you talk about neuroplasticity, and from a physical perspective, there's probably nothing that research shows is more effective for neuroplasticity, for increasing the, you know, essentially your brain power, the neurons in your brain, which is wonderful news.

You know, 20 years ago, 30 years ago, we didn't even think you could do this.

Many didn't, at least. And now, again, science research has shown that's not true. You certainly can, to a physical level, basically increase your brain power and capacity, including, you know, ability to focus more. This is what I mean, by the way, when I say these ought to be the best years of your life, even physically, because we can do that. So exercise is shown. If you're incapable at this point of addressing a lot of deep-seated emotional challenges, layman's terms, go exercise, start exercising because it's working out, it's increasing your ability to properly think and, and, and equip you to better think through those things that are stopping you. So that's what I mean, it's a two-way street. The, the, the, uh, a lot of the work that you have really helped put on the map, and rightfully so. And then a lot of the more physical approaches, diet, exercise, certainly eliminating physical toxicants, they work the other way. And they, they're, it's, we're holistic, right? And so it's both of these is the solution. And you brought that up. So I'd say, you know, if I had to pick one thing, you know, to do to increase neuroplasticity, it would be exercise, but you don't have to pick one thing because there's many things. Physical exercise. There's, of course, mindfulness and meditation. That's the other one thing. So there's not one thing. I'm cheating already because there's a bunch of one things. Mindfulness, meditation, exercise, clearly diet in terms of as important what you avoid as, you know, as what you put in. I will say on the dietary front, I say I can go deep into any of these and I'm passionate, as you could tell, and I want to. But in very brief, you've heard this one before, and it's very true: reduce those processed foods, those refined grains, the sugars. Not only are they an enemy to your heart and every other organ in your body, they're a huge enemy to your brain and your ability to regenerate your brain. They're a huge enemy. I don't need to talk much more about that. I think that's been covered well, but if I do, I will. Um, and then on the flip side, uh, people say increase vegetables and fruit. And that's true. What you're really wanting to increase, one of the things is antioxidants. Human beings today in this country, and probably I could confidently say most of the world today, the Western world for sure, do not eat not only nearly enough fruits, veggies, herbs, spices, grains, seeds, but range. People forget range. Range is just as important as volume. And people get caught up caught Fleet in a rut of eating the same 7, 8, 9, 10 different fruits and veggies and herbs and spices over and over and over. That is not doing you any good. It's not doing you bad. Okay. I don't, but it's not doing you nearly as good as if you put 30 different or so fruits, veggies, herbs, spices into your diet routinely. Why? Because they contain a wide range of the antioxidants and these other compounds that since we're talking about brain, greatly impact neuroplasticity, not to mention a bunch of other health benefits in the body. So that's diet. And then of course, sleep. And I can go deep there too if you want, but I think we've heard that and it's vital. I can give tips on that front too. And then the most interesting one for neuroplasticity, interesting to me, fascinating to me, is exercising your brain. And what that means is people have heard do Sudoku, how do you pronounce that? Sudoku, Sudoku, and puzzles and stuff. Okay, that's level One, but really, really what's important is to have new experiences and engage in new learning activities that go well beyond that. Challenge your brain, especially if you can incorporate your brain and your body with more complicated new learning activities. Good old examples: learning a new language, going to a dance class is one Wonderful. Why? Because it's a mental activity and a physical activity where you have to do some complicated steps. Fantastic. Gardening can be really strong for this, especially if you're an aggressive, I call it, gardener, meaning someone who's digging a lot, stepping around all these plants, be they vegetables, fruits, whatever, or flowers. Gardening is great. Just engage in new hobbies. Hobbies, that the more they challenge your brain and your body, the merrier. We're seeing that not only is it fun, and fun is vital for healthy aging and longevity, but it's very key to neuroplasticity.

I wonder if we could— I love the just really global and holistic way you've covered that territory. And again, we could go into great depth in any of those areas, but there are that there are these things we can do and pay attention to that will increase neuroplasticity. And then if we have clear intentionality, we embrace that sense of agency and we're using positive affirmations and other things, then we can literally reprogram our brain in ways that are gonna support going in a direction we want. And we'll find ourselves less in that one step forward, two steps back, 'cause our brain will start cooperating with us, right? And so you pointed to a lot of things. And again, you're absolutely right. There is nothing that increases induces neuroplasticity more than exercise. I've often used the example with people, you know, often in your gyms, your workout studios, they have this long row of elliptical machines or recumbent bicycles or so forth. And then, they have all the television screens up there, right? So, get on there and get your heart pumping and then you're watching reality TV. Probably not a good idea or the news, probably not a good idea. Put on a nice nature movie or something, right?

Put on this event actually.

Put on this event. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. So I wonder if we could talk a little bit about the spiritual dimension of all this. You use the term sacred spaces and protecting the sacred space of your body and your mind and that sense of spirituality will mean different things to different people. But it is— we can really get into the neurobiology and we can get into the physicality of it and we can talk about mindset. And there is we all know, we sense there's some greater thing that we tap into that gives meaning and purpose to our life and gives kind of the wind at our back a little bit if we're tuned into something sort of deeper than just our limited self, so to speak. So I wonder if you could talk about the spiritual dimension of healthy aging and longevity and this idea of sacred spaces and protecting sacred spaces.

Absolutely. And it's It's clearly, clearly vital. And it does not matter, like you noted, what your beliefs, you know, may be about where we come from, if you're a member of any different sort of church. At the end of the day, it is a miracle, really, that we're here, right, at all. And I think many, if not most people can identify with moments in their life, which I encourage you to go back to if you you've lost them, where you get this sense of, oh wow, I am part of this something much bigger, things which I'm fascinated by, I'm honored, touched, humbled by, in awe of. Awe is a big word. And to have that big feeling, go out at night, go back and lay under the stars if you're able to see them to get that feeling. Just go out in nature somewhere, you know, anything. That's just one example that comes to mind that inspires this so-called awe and this feeling of connection to a greater thing. And then, you know, you can also through often, you know, mindfulness, simply focus on your body and your being, not just your body, but your being, and just realize it's amazing. It's amazing on every level that you are here and find ways back to that awe awe is so important, this sense, this sense of something greater and how amazing this is and how grateful you think about that. You know, we talk about miracles, miracles. It's a miracle that I'm sitting here talking to you. It's a miracle you woke up this morning and that I woke up this morning and that we were born and so on and so forth. And again, there's scientific basis to this. If this sounds fluffy to any listener, I'm a very science person, you know, but But there is much greater. The one thing I could tell you science has found most often than anything else is that we don't have the answers. It always opens the door to new questions, right? And so it will be because we're human and we don't have all those answers. And so when you get that recognition, you also recognize how sacred you are. And by you, again, I mean your physical body, but your entire being, your mental mental and emotional health. For the sake of this discussion, mental, emotional, physical health. And really, your ability to live long and thrive while living long boils down to what you allow into that sacred space and what you strive to keep out of that sacred space. And also to some extent, what you strive to get out that might already be inside of you that doesn't really belong there. We talked a lot about that. There are very physical toxicants that you want to eliminate. And there's, as we discussed a lot, some, certainly some mental, emotional toxic toxins that you want to get out of your body. So what are you allowing into your being? What are you striving to keep out? What do you need to work on to potentially get out? It's a very oversimplified, admittedly, but a healthy way to start by looking at your being because that is your sacred space. This is what you have dominion over is your being and it's a gift and it's a gift. And, you know, a re— constant work toward taking the time to reestablish with that fact is important, which again is done through different types of mindfulness. So I say to people, go out there and do nothing.. And it's some of the most important work you can do if you just go— again, my example, because it works for me— wander deep into nature, lay out under the stars, or even no stars, or one star at night, do nothing. It's some of the most important work you can do that'll help you reconnect to that awe and to how sacred you are.

Well, Brian, this has been incredibly illuminating, and there are so many different rabbit holes we could have gone down with you and I could have interviewed you for any one of the days of this summit. Today we're focused on, on longevity and healthy aging. And so I wanna ask in a moment where people can find out more about your work, but I also wanna come back to where you really started our conversation, that there really isn't any reason, any biological reason why most of us can't live well into our 90s or beyond. And not only that, that we cannot do that, no reason we can't do that in a healthy way where we're enjoying our life, and have quality of life into our 90s and beyond. And I think that's a powerful message. And that, you know, as we, you know, that old, I mentioned earlier that I've been guilty of saying that thing, you know, youth is wasted on the young. Well, that's based on the idea that we develop more and more wisdom as we grow older, we develop more and more discernment. So it'd be nice to have the health to go along with that. And what you're saying is we can have the health to go along with that and be vital and thrive into later years of life. So it's such a powerful message and such a positive affirmation of what life is all about. So thank you so much for that. So where can people find out more about your work?

Sure. Super summary, go to theartofantiaging.com. While you're there, sign up if you're so inclined for the newsletter. We're always giving away some really exceptional— we put a lot of work into these bonus reports and we change them up. So check out whatever free bonus we're giving when you do sign up for the newsletter, if you are so inclined. It's all free, of course. Check out our blog. We also— I'm proud of that because we pour a lot of work into exceptional articles, again, evidence-based on, you know, topics that really matter to people. That's theartofantiaging.com. And then, you know, we, we touched on, uh, you know, toxicants in so many products. This includes cosmetics and personal care to an extent that most people, uh, still would not believe. Leave. Um, so that's the real short story version of why I started Purity Woods, which is just entirely USDA-certified organic skincare, as well as a couple key, uh, types of supplements for healthy aging. Now, um, supplements are also typically loaded with junk that you don't want. So for that, if you're interested, go to puritywoods.com. And yeah, thank you. You, you did such a beautiful job, by the way, of summing up what I had started saying at the start. I could tell that you have, uh, poured extensive heart effort yourself into this. I love what you're doing here, Fleet, by the way. You're a gift. Speaking of gifts, you are a gift, my friend. So thank you for having me here.

Well, thank you so much, Brian. Thank you so much for the work that you do. And I really encourage our audience to go check out your work. So thank you.

Thank you for joining me on the Radical Responsibility Podcast. Remember, Remember, real change happens when we commit to our growth, face our challenges with compassion, and stay open to transformation. If you found this episode helpful, I encourage you to subscribe and help us spread the message of healing and personal empowerment. Until next time, stay grounded, stay present, and stay true to yourself. Take care.