PNTV: Brain Power by Michael Gelb & Kelly Howell (#217)

Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to Philosopher's Notes TV Today, another great book, Brain Power, Brain Power by Michael Gelb and Kelly Howell. Subtitle Improve youe Mind as yous Age. Michael Gelb is awesome. We, we've done a couple of other episodes on his work, Creativity on Demand, his most recent book, and how to Think Like Leonard Da Vinci, which is one of the books that's most impacted my life. I'll put links to those below. And then Kelly Howell, co author of this book, created Brain Sync Guided Meditation. She has a magical hypnotic voice. I've meditated to one of her guided meditations in particular literally hundreds of times called Retrieve youe Destiny. I'll put a link to that below. She's awesome and this book is great. So how do we improve our minds as we age is the theme of the book. Philosopher's Note. Bunch of big ideas. Five of them we're going to look at now. The first big idea is the power of positive refocusing. They actually call their chapter chapter number one counter clockwise, counterclockwise. Now if you recall, we talked about counterclockwise in the context of Ellen Langer's work on mindfulness. She worked with the individuals, the guys who she brought into an environment where they pretended that they were 20 years younger than they actually were or something like that, 20, 25 years younger than they actually were. They acted as if they were that young and their environment only had things from 1959 to, to remind them of who they were at that point. They talked as if they were living in 1959. And what she found is that in as little as a week, it was a week that they were in this little retreat, their biomarkers changed to make them look younger physically. They became younger essentially. So first idea of improving our minds as we age is to go counterclockwise. That's the name of that study. We need to positively refocus our minds in general and be more optimistic and specifically with our orientation to what's going to happen as we get older. Science is unequivocal that our attitude toward our perception toward our aging dictates how well we age and even our longevity. Something like a positive orientation to aging where you imagine you look forward to it, you're going to get wiser, you can celebrate life even more deeply versus you think you're going to get old and decrepit and everything's going to go downhill and fall apart. The difference in those attitudes leads to something like an eight year difference in expected lifespan. That's a greater predictive value than things like exercise and quitting smoking and crazy stuff like that. Your attitude matters is the point here. So we want to have a positive orientation toward our own aging process. And as they say, it's not a question of whether or not if you can improve your mind as you age. We know you can unequivocally. The question is, do you believe that? And then what are you going to do to make that happen? Really big idea. We want to positively refocus in that domain and then throughout our lives. Optimism is another huge predictor of well being. I think it was Martin Seligman who said that having an optimistic outlook on life is more powerful for you and your health and longevity than not smoking two packs of cigarettes. You get a more positive benefit from being optimistic than from not smoking a couple packs of cigarettes a day. That's how powerful our mindset is. It drives so much of our lives because it drives so much of our behaviors. If you have a negative orientation, you're not getting out of bed, you're not going to exercise, you're not going to do the things that would actually allow you to be healthy. So power positively refocus. Next big idea is part of the how that we can age gracefully and powerfully and actually improve our minds as we go. 50 to 75 trillion cells in our body. 50 to 75 trillion cells. Who counts these things? That's crazy. And then 100 billion neurons in those cells. So we have 50 to 75 trillion cells, of which we have 100 billion neurons. And then this two is an important thing. Each of those cells and those neurons completely reconstruct themselves basically twice a year, many more than twice a year. So we're recreating who we are day in and day out. Old cells are dying, new cells are being born. Now, that's exciting because if you in this context, they were sharing the importance of eating well. That's one of the many practices they share of how you can age well. If you eat well, nutrient dense food, your new cells in many ways can be healthier than your old cells. So in many ways you can get younger as you age. Now, of course, you're going to continue to age, et cetera, but your cells, if given the proper nutrients that are better than what you had in the past, can actually get healthier in some senses. Younger, that's exciting to imagine. They go into details about what to eat and all that good stuff. But think nutrient dense foods and think, what are you eating now that needs to go that's one of the best ways to improve your well being is to stop doing the things that you know are detrimental for you, period. And then start doing more of the things you know are good for you. So eat more nutrient dense food and properly catalyze this growth so you're having newer, healthier, younger cells coming to work for you. Third big idea. 80% H2O. Talking about our brain, brain power. Well, guess what? Your brain is 80% water. So a simple tip is to stay hydrated. If you want to have a highly effective brain, you need to be hydrated. You do that very simply by drinking adequate amounts of good water, food filtered water. Get rid of the chlorine from your tap, some nice filtered or spring water or whatever it is. You go for whatever cups you've decided is right for you. 8 to 10 if you're an athlete, more whatever, right? And water rich foods. So are vegetables and leafy greens and fruits. Water rich foods and water. Great way to nourish our brains. Think about that. It's a simple tip. But if you're feeling fatigued, check in. Are you a little dehydrated? Because your brain performance is going to go down dramatically if you don't have proper hydration. Simple, simple little tip hack that has huge effects. Fourth big idea, Rest. So yesterday we talked about Jim Lohr's ideas that we need to make waves. Make waves. We stress ourselves, which is a good thing. It stimulates growth. Then we need to recover adequate weight. Then we stress ourselves with good stuff and, and then we recover. You need to rest properly. Michael and Kelly are the ones who introduced me to Matthew Edlund who wrote the Power of Rest where he talked about active rest and passive rest. So we know about things like passive rest, things like sleep and naps. Huge. Make sure you're getting an adequate amount. Then there's active rest. Mental, emotional, social, spiritual. I'm sorry, mental, physical, social and spiritual. I'll put a link to that episode below as well. We can check out some more specific ideas. But bake in recovery, as we talked about yesterday, you need to actually map that out. How are you going to recover properly? And of course you need to make sure you're properly challenging yourself. You can be under trained or over trained. You want to find that optimal state, which is, as Jim Lohr says, a constant, never ending dance. It's not like you're going to figure it out once and for all. You're going to be dancing at your edge, maybe going a little bit too far, feeling a little burned out. Awesome. Bake in some more recovery. Maybe you're not pushing hard enough. Okay, great. Push a little harder. It's an evolution, but make sure you prioritize your rest. Get an adequate amount then. The fifth idea here for boosting our brain power in general and as we age in particular, is to move. We talk about this all the time. John Ratey, spark out of Harvard. A little bit of Ritalin, a little bit of Prozac. That's what we get when we exercise. We evolve to move. I'm doing an episode on his new book Go Wild Soon. Excited to share that. Talks about some more of these ideas. And then nature is another huge way to boost your brain power. They've done research where they bring people into a lab. They have them do two different things. One group walks through, I think it was downtown someplace in Michigan, right? Walked through the city landscape. The other group walked through a beautiful garden setting, right? So they were in nature. One group is in nature. One group was in the city. Then they tested them on creative performance. The group that went through nature outperformed the other group by something like 20%. Nature is huge. Calms our nervous system, focuses our mind, does positive things. We're only beginning to understand, but it's big. And researchers say that when you combine those two moving in nature, it's like exercise squared. So think about that. Exercise in nature equals exercise squared. It's a good thing. So there you go. Super quick look at brain power. Michael Gelb, Kelly Howell. Two great people move in nature. Spend time doing both. Get proper rest, make waves. Plan your recovery. Your brain is 80% water. Stay hydrated. Simple thing, but are you drinking enough? 50 to 75 trillion cells, 100 billion of which are neurons, are recreating themselves essentially more than twice a year. That's exciting. That's amazing opportunity for us to optimize. Dial it in a little bit more via our nutrition and other practices. And then positive refocusing. Counterclockwise, how? Have a positive orientation to aging. Our society does not support it. And all the models we have are just kind of old wacky stereotypes. Get excited about it. Have role models who are aging with grace, who you admire. Emulate them. Have a positive orientation to your own aging. You will boost your life expectancy and the vitality you have in the process significantly. That's exciting. There you go, brain power. Hope you enjoyed and I look forward to sharing more with you soon. Have another awesome day. See ya.