Test Your Brain | Live Kelly and Mark

Welcome back.

They say that your attitude in life affects everything— your relationships, your feelings, and even your health. Here with a lesson in the power of positivity is the author of the brand new book Limitless Daily, Jim Kwik. Hey, Jim.

Hi, Jim.

Hi, Jim.

Thanks for being here.

Thanks for having me.

Okay, congratulations on the book.

Oh.

Can you— you've got like a puzzle challenge for us today. But first, can you explain to us how thinking positively affects our brain?

Yeah, I find that, well, positivity is not just, you know, pretending your life is perfect and everything is easy. What it is is more directing your mind on the things that matter, the things that make you feel good, and the things that will move your life forward. And we have a remarkable ability, it's called attentional priming. Anyone ever buy like a car and you start seeing that model of car everywhere because it becomes important to us, right? We can always focus on the things— I remember years ago my sister would send me these postcards and emails of a very specific breed of dog, like a pug dog, those squishy faces.

Yeah.

I was wondering why she was doing that and I started seeing these pug dogs everywhere. I'd be at the grocery store and someone checking out would be holding a pug dog online, or I'd be running in my neighborhood and somebody would be walking 6 pug dogs. My question is, did those pug dogs just teleport into my neighborhood? No, they were always there, We weren't paying attention. And there's a way of priming your mind for the things that matter and light you up. Sometimes we're burnt out not because we're doing too much, but because we're doing too little of the things that matter.

Yeah, tell us how it affects our health.

So stress, we know, could compromise— an area of science called psychoneuroimmunology— could compromise your immune system or make you more susceptible to colds, to flus, to viruses. And it could affect your cardiovascular system also as well. It could affect your sleep. On the other side, when you're positive, your mind, your thinking broadens. Right? You're able to be more creative. You're able to solve problems. You're able to be more present with your loved ones. When we're creating those stress hormones, the cortisol, it's really good if you have to run away from danger, but it's not really good if you need to be at work or with the family and all that good stuff.

What if you have family or family members or friends where staying positive seems to be a challenge for them?

Yeah. You totally get rid of them. But no, no. You would, um— I would say we all experience this. You know, we could— I always say, you know, compassion doesn't mean you have to absorb what's going on, right? The energy around you. I think it's important for us to be a thermostat, not a thermometer. Like, a thermometer reacts to the people around them.

Right.

They feel what they're feeling. But a thermostat sets a standard, right? Sets a new temperature, and the environment reacts, the people around you react to you. But I think it's hard to create a positive— Life with a negative mind.

That's right. What are some of the tools we can use to build a more positive attitude?

3 of my favorite go-to is protect the first 5 minutes of your day. There's something called sleep inertia. When you're going from a sleep state to a waking state, your attention comes online, your awareness comes online. What it says is that science is saying that the mental inputs you put into that window when you first wake up has a disproportionate effect on the rest of your day, what you're going to focus on, how you're going to feel. And most people, you know, you grab your phone, which is normal, right? But then you're magnifying what? Comparison or conflict or— like, no one would invite 200 strangers into their bedroom first thing in the morning to talk about whatever they want to talk about. So positive uses—

Well, it depends on how the weekend went.

That's true. But positive ways is prayer, you know, gratitude first thing in the morning, connecting with a loved one, because then you'll see more blessings and love throughout the day. So that's number one. Number 2, The end of your day, I think it's a wonderful time to reflect on how your day went. Where did you win? You know, what were your small wins? What went well? What are you grateful for? Maybe even 3 things. And it helps you to relax, go into that parasympathetic, rest and digest, be able to sleep. I think what you appreciate in life appreciates, right?

Yeah.

What you're grateful for tends to get better. And then the third thing is challenge your brain, right? You want to be able to take on a new sport, learn a new language, do a little jig with your kids. As your body moves, your brain grooves. We did past segments on juggling.

Yes.

Right? But, uh, or do some brain puzzles. And I brought one for you today.

Let's do it.

Let's do it. Yeah, let's do it.

Yes.

All right. So what we have behind these gold curtains, uh, you're gonna have 1 minute. You're gonna see like a word search.

Okay.

And I'm gonna ask you to, uh, Mark, you go here. Kelly, you could go here.

Okay.

Is you have 60 seconds.

Should we go here now?

Yeah, you have 60 seconds and you wanna circle as many of the positive words as you can find.

Okay.

All right. So I'm gonna go 3, 2, 1. You pull down your golden curtain. Okay. And then sixty seconds on the clock, and you want to give some energy? Jump here. All right. Three, two, and one. As many of the positive words circle out. Wow. Kelly's brain's on fire.

Is it?

I think Mark's shirt is restricting his range of motion.

That's true.

Come on, Mark. How much more time? Go, go, go. Where are the words? Look for the words.

I know, I know, I know.

More energy. Home— home stretch. Wow. Oh my God. I don't know.

I sort of hit a wall. I hit a wall.

What do we have here?

6, 7.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

Yeah. Let's—

Mark has 7.

All right. When we come back, Jim will explain what the results say about each of us.

Stick around. We're back with brain coach Jim Kwik, and helpfully our producers jumped in after the contest was over to tell us all of the words we missed.

Yeah.

Jim, what do our results say about us and our personalities? I found the word eat at the very end here.

Yeah, oh God.

And I also found our first guest, gal.

Oh yeah, this—

Yeah. But that was after the time ran out.

Yeah, this is, uh— It could be a brain exercise or a brain test and/or even a personality test also as well. This is one of the things just to remind— I mean, it goes 6 and 6, is that right?

Yeah, 6 and 6.

Well, you're equally positive, so that's good.

I feel like we keep finding the same words: possibility, possibility, appreciate, abundance a lot.

Yeah, there are about— I count about 18 words there. So it's interesting what we look for, we find. The lesson here is when you wake up in the morning, what are you focusing on? Are you asking yourself, what could go wrong today? It shines a spotlight on all the different things. It's like AI, you put in that thing like, oh, what's wrong with me? Or why can't I lose this weight? Or whatever. It gives you all the evidence, but you're always prompting your mind also as well. Focus is like a lens. Everybody wants greater focus, but it's really your attention. Even when we talked about memory in the past, The art of memory is the art of attention. Whatever you look for, you're gonna find. Again, if I ask everybody here in the audience to look for the color blue, look around, what's blue, what's blue, what's blue, and ask you to close your eyes and tell me everything that you see that's red, right, you're gonna see a lot more blue. It doesn't mean— and then when you look around now, you see a lot more blue 'cause you're looking for it. And there's opportunity out there, there's things to be grateful for, but we have to be willing to look because it's hard to create, again, a positive life with that negative mind.

Just found the word unstoppable. Right.

Tell us about the new book.

So, when Limitless came out, people wanted to know, what's the daily practice to take this owner's manual, something very simple in 5 minutes? And I didn't think people needed another book that they just read in a few days, put on their shelf, and it's like shelf help, not self-help, right?

Yeah, yeah.

I feel like people really needed a daily practice. Because you don't make— you know, you don't just floss your teeth for 3 years and then— like, for 3 hours, and then you're good for the rest of your life, right? You don't go and work out just 8 hours a day for a weekend, and then you're fit for the year. It's the daily things that add up to big things. So Limitless Daily is a 5-minute exercise you could do during that sleep inertia attentional priming time to focus on the great things in your life.

That'd be one.

That's great.

Be sure to pick up a copy of Jim's new book, Limitless Daily, everywhere books are sold.