Skip to content

By playing, you agree to uListen's Terms and Privacy Policy and YouTube's Terms of Service.

Jay Shetty PodcastJay Shetty Podcast

DO THIS Everyday To Completely Heal Your BODY & MIND | Dr. Daniel Amen & Jay Shetty

Today, I sit down with our third time guest, the one and only Dr. Daniel Amen. Dr. Amen is a physician, double board-certified psychiatrist, twelve-time NY Times bestselling author, and founder and CEO of Amen Clinics, with 10 US locations. Dr. Amen is the author of many books including the mega-bestseller Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, as well as The End of Mental Illness, Memory Rescue, Healing ADD and Your Brain Is Always Listening. In March 2022, Tyndale will publish his new book, You, Happier: The 7 Neuroscience Secrets of Feeling Good Based on Your Brain Type. Dr. Amen emphasizes the importance of our brain health. He explains how taking care of our brain and mental health is a constant daily practice, comparing the things we do to boost our brain health to eating foods that will love our body back, foods that we love to eat and are beneficial to our health. We share our thoughts on why our generation is the unhappiest and uncontented, what we can do to boost our happiness hormones, and how happiness is always tied to our health. Get more science-based tips from Dr. Amen to achieve a healthier, happier, and more fulfilling life despite the challenges and difficulties we may be going through today. Checkout her latest album here: https://noahcyrus.lnk.to/thp What We Discuss: 00:00:00 Intro 00:04:53 A healthy mind starts with a healthy brain 00:08:12 Activities that damage our brains 00:11:55 Brain and mental health is a daily practice 00:17:31 Accurate thinking versus positive thinking 00:24:02 Love food that loves you back 00:28:20 Focus on the micro moments of happiness 00:32:04 Why are we the unhappiest generation? 00:34:42 Did you experience childhood trauma? 00:45:45 Targeted nutrients to boost happiness 00:49:50 What’s your brain type? 00:54:19 Seek happiness in the context of health 00:56:10 Dr. Amen on Final Five

Jay Shettyhost
Sep 26, 20221h 9mWatch on YouTube ↗

Summaries, chapters, transcripts, and FAQs on this page are made by uListen, not YouTube.

EVERY SPOKEN WORD

  1. 0:00 – 4:53

    Intro

    1. SP

      You want to drip dopamine, don't dump it. Because when you dump it with the fries and the alcohol, the porn, you don't have much left, and so then you have to go back and do it again, and all of a sudden- The bestselling author and host-

    2. JS

      The number one health and wellness podcast [laughs]

    3. SP

      On Purpose with Jay Shetty.

    4. JS

      Hey, everyone. Welcome back to On Purpose, the number one health podcast in the world, thanks to each and every single one of you that come back every week to listen, learn, and grow. Now, you know that I'm fascinated and committed to introducing you to people who can expand your mind, your brain, that can help you heal internally and externally, that can help you 360 degrees take care of your life. And today's guest is someone who is the first guest whoever has been on the podcast twice, and now the first guest who's ever been on the podcast three times, which shows us how much you all love him and how much I really appreciate all his insights and guidance as well. He's my go-to person. Whenever I hear about a new treatment or a new therapy or a new whatever it may be, I'm texting this person saying, "Hey, what do you think about this?" Like, "What do you think about this?" And I really appreciate how he lives an extremely holistic life from a, from a spiritual point of view, from a scientific point of view, and having someone that I can ask these questions to openly helps me, so I hope today helps you. I'm speaking about the one and only Dr. Daniel Amen. Dr. Amen's mission is to end mental illness by creating a revolution in brain health. Dr. Amen is a physician, adult and child psychiatrist, and founder of the Amen Clinics with 10 locations across the US. Amen Clinics has the world's largest database of brain scans for psychiatry, totaling more than 200,000 SPECT scans on patients from 155 countries. He's also the founder of BrainMD, a fast-growing science-based company, and Amen University, which has trained thousands of medical and mental health professionals on the methods he has developed. Dr. Amen is not new to books or TV. He's produced over 16 national public television shows about the brain, and his online videos on brain and mental health have been viewed over 300 million times. And Dr. Amen is a 12-time New York Times bestselling author. I've got a long way to catch up. Uh, and today we're talking about his latest book. It's called You, Happier: The 7 Neuroscience Secrets of Feeling Good Based on Your Brain Type. This is the book I want you to go and get. The link is in the caption right now. Dr. Daniel Amen, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for allowing me to have you in my pocket at all times, to be able to text you and ask you weird and wonderful questions. And most of all, thank you for being just, you know, such a, such a kind, warm-hearted person who, who always brings their best energy to serve others. So thank you for being here.

    5. SP

      Well, it makes me happy to be with you.

    6. JS

      [laughs]

    7. SP

      Um, you know, I think of happiness as a daily practice, and appreciating the people you love is just critical to it.

    8. JS

      Yeah. Yeah. And, and I really appreciate you. You, you said you were happy to be here when we were just filming a couple of seconds ago, and then you were telling me that I, I looked good. And I was, I was saying to you, "It's because I've been doing all the right things and following your advice." And I remember, I think it was our second interview, not our first one, our second interview, I was saying to you, like, "I have only one cheat day a week now," and you just looked at me and you were like, "Well, you know why they call it a cheat day, right?" And I didn't, and I was like, "What do you mean?" And you were like, "Yeah, because you're cheating your brain." Like, you know, and, and you gave this beautiful explanation, and I was thinking, you always have these things that you say that stick with me. And if anyone doesn't follow Dr. Daniel Amen on Instagram, make sure you go and follow him, because I love how you post the brain scans of befores and afters, of on a certain drug and without a certain drug, on weed, without weed. Like, I just think that the way you communicate brain health is, is fantastic and so great for, you know, my generation, the generation after me. I think we have so much to learn from you, so thank you for what you're doing and how you're doing it, too, and always makes me happy to see you and your wife as well. Uh, and this has probably been the longest I haven't seen you since you scanned my brain, so that-

    9. SP

      Which was so much fun.

    10. JS

      That was so much fun, and I was very relieved to know that my brain was doing all right, so-

    11. SP

      Well, and when you see it, you develop a relationship with it, and you want it to be better, and it's hard to hurt it once you see it.

    12. JS

      Yeah. That's so true, and it's, it's crazy to me that we don't get exposed to our brains. Like, you don't ever see your brain, which we use every day, that works for us every day, and you have no access to it apart from, see your body, you see, you know, different organs maybe

  2. 4:53 – 8:12

    A healthy mind starts with a healthy brain

    1. JS

      sometimes. But the brain's not talked about a lot. What is our brain? What does it do, and how do we develop a relationship with it? Because I feel that people are very confused with what is the brain, what is the mind, you know, w- what does it do, what does it not do? I think there's a lot of stuff out there. How would you describe it?

    2. SP

      Well, it's very clear to me after all the scans I've done that your brain, the physical functioning of your brain, the moment-by-moment physical functioning of your brain creates your mind. And if your brain's not right- Your mind's not right. And there are a lot of spiritual teachers that'll separate the mind from the brain, but you can't because just think of Alzheimer's disease, you know, very damaged brains, and they're very damaged minds that go... I mean, people that act in ways they'd never act if their brain was healthy, that they don't remember people that they're deeply in love with. And so if we want a healthy mind, it actually starts with a healthy brain. And, you know, I've had th- the blessing or the curse to scan over 1,000 convicted felons and over 100 murderers, and their brains are very damaged. So if your behavior is so bad you end up in a cage, and they're not thinking, "Oh, I have to understand, evaluate, rehabilitate that person's brain and then they'll act better," and that helps all of us. Dostoevsky once said, "You can tell about the soul of a society not by how it treats its outstanding citizens, but by how it treats its criminals." And it's... You know, when I first started scanning people, I didn't really have an opinion on the death penalty. I just really hadn't thought about it. I thought of free will as black or white, you have it or you don't. And then as my work became known, defense attorneys would send me people who did really bad things, and their brains were so damaged. And when I would go to court, and a lot of people hated me for that, you know, if you have a bad brain and you did something terrible, you don't get to go home. But should you kill them? I mean, it's a really important question. And I'm like, no, you know, it's not the sign of an evolved society to kill sick people. I mean, you have to protect society from them, but what I've seen is if we rehabilitate their brain, they can have a meaningful life. And people just aren't connecting. It's your brain. It's easy to call people bad. It's harder to go, "Why?" And, "Oh, can I fix it?"

    3. JS

      What are the things that damage our brains? Because I think what we find is we often think like, "Oh, that person was totally normal, and then one day they just changed." Or we say things like, "Oh yeah, if you just met them, like they were just quiet and calm. Like you would never have noticed anything, and

  3. 8:12 – 11:55

    Activities that damage our brains

    1. JS

      then they did this horrific thing." Like what are those habits, what are those patterns that start damaging our brain? Because I don't think we're aware. As you said, we never see our brain. We don't really talk about it. We don't really know much about it. What are the things we do since birth that damage our brains that could lead to something as extreme as that?

    2. SP

      Well, even before birth.

    3. JS

      Yes.

    4. SP

      So since marijuana's been legalized in many states, babies born with marijuana in their bodies has gone up 1700%. I mean, it's a ridiculous amount. So even before you're born, what happens in utero can damage the trajectory of your life. They have more behavior problems. They have more attention problems. They have less empathy for other people. And then, you know, as you go through life, the standard American diet is damaging brains. You know, you talked about how healthy your diet has been. I follow this guy on TikTok. For some reason my TikToks has gone crazy. And he, he looked at his blood sugar before and after Pop-Tarts, and Pop-Tarts was like the worst thing he looked at, almost worse than Coca-Cola.

    5. JS

      Wow.

    6. SP

      And but what are we feeding children? I mean, in public school free lunches, Pop-Tarts, which means we're damaging their blood sugar levels, we're damaging their weight, and we're damaging their brain. And I have a mnemonic called BRIGHT MINDS which helps me remember, you know, like B is for blood flow. Low blood flow, number-one brain imaging predictor of Alzheimer's disease. So Netflix, right? Not, in front of the TV too often, not exercising, that damages your brain. Probably the number one thing that causes brain trouble, your brain is soft, about the consistency of soft butter. Your skull is really hard and has sharp bony ridges. Mild traumatic brain injuries ruin people's lives. If you said, "Hey Daniel, single most important thing from 210,000 scans?" Mild traumatic brain injuries. Don't let your kids-

    7. JS

      Physical

    8. SP

      ... physical, right, from snowboarding-

    9. JS

      Sport

    10. SP

      ... falling off a horse, football, soccer, hockey.

    11. JS

      Physical ab- physical abuse too, I guess, domestic violence.

    12. SP

      Yeah. Physical abuse will do it, falls, car accidents. Um, you know, and people are texting and driving and texting and walking and... There's 3 million new concussions every year in the United States, which means over the last 30 years, there have been 90 million people that have had concussions. It's very common and a common cause of depression, homelessness, addiction, suicide, panic attacks, ADHD.

    13. JS

      Wow. Yeah. I mean, when, when you spell it out that clearly, I think... What I love about you is I think the two times I have done an interview with you and then when I was with you, I just go away going, "Oh, I need to sort, I need to do something for my brain. I need to figure it out," right? And it's, it's a good thing. Like I enjoyed that ... healthy sense of an awakening and a healthy sense of fear, because I think we are so scared of being scared in society today. Like, we don't want to listen to the truth because it's scary, it's inconvenient, it forces us to change something. If someone could

  4. 11:55 – 17:31

    Brain and mental health is a daily practice

    1. JS

      do something starting tomorrow, what is the thing that someone could do waking up tomorrow that could be better for their brain? W- what would you say that is?

    2. SP

      Well, y- y- you know, in You, Happier, I talk a lot about the tiny habits, the smallest things that'll make the biggest difference. And brain and mental health, it's a daily practice. Just like physical health, right? As I said, you look really great. Th- that's a daily practice, right? You just don't do that one day a week. You do it every day. If you want a really great brain and a really great mind, they're habits every day. And some of my favorite every day, is this good for my brain or bad for it? I, you know, I just... Like, when my daughter, she turned 19 yesterday.

    3. JS

      Oh-

    4. SP

      And-

    5. JS

      ... happy birthday to her

    6. SP

      ... and when she was little, we played Chloe's game, and Chloe's game was, is this good for your brain or bad for it? Frozen blueberries. Oh, two thumbs up. God's candy.

    7. JS

      [laughs]

    8. SP

      Or avocados. Oh, two thumbs up. God's butter. Hitting your head with a soccer ball. No, very stupid.

    9. JS

      [laughs]

    10. SP

      Thumbs down.

    11. JS

      [laughs]

    12. SP

      Right? And so just playing with her-

    13. JS

      Yeah

    14. SP

      ... with that question that takes three seconds, right? I mean, this doesn't take long. And people go, "What's good and what's bad?" Second graders know it. I went into her second grade class, put 20 things on the board, and I went, "Separate them for me," and they got 19 out of 20 right. So they got a 95%, and the only thing they got wrong was orange juice, which they put in the good category-

    15. JS

      Yeah, yeah

    16. SP

      ... which is, like, way too much sugar.

    17. JS

      Yes.

    18. SP

      And so whenever you unwrap sugar from its fiber source, right, turn fruit into juice, it turns toxic in your body, so you have to be really careful with that. So that's one. Two, whenever you wake up in the morning, today is going to be a great day. You have to nudge your brain, right? We have a conscious mind, we have an unconscious mind, we have a self-image, and your subconscious is paying attention to the words that the conscious mind is saying. And so if you're like, "Oh, I don't want to get out of bed. Today's gonna be a bad day," you're gonna have a bad day, 'cause you just programmed your subconscious mind to do that. Every day when my he... feet hit the floor, today is going to be a great day. And then my favorite of all of them is, um, when you go to bed at night, and bed is so important 'cause if you want to have a good day, it starts the night before, is what went well today? So when I go to bed, I say a prayer, and then I go, "What went well?" And i- I go on a treasure hunt 'cause I'm purposefully looking for what are the right things that happened, and I look for the micro moments. You know, like, what's the smallest thing? And for me, where I live, I see a lot of hummingbirds and butterflies, and I just, I just focus on them. And I've been doing this for years, and it's so helpful. And about two and a half years ago, my dad died, and it was an awful, awful day. And when I went to bed that night, I said a prayer and then went, "What went well today?" And then the voice in my head, you know, started criticizing me, like, "You're a bad kid," and, "You don't love your dad," and whatever. B- but because it's my habit, I went, "What went well today?" And I saw this interaction between my mother and the police officer, and it was so funny and so beautiful that it just made me smile. And then I thought of all the texts I got from my friends, uh, who found out about my dad, and that was peaceful. And then I just thought about holding his hand before they took him away, and I went to sleep. Because I'm mastering my mind and not being a victim of the situation. Didn't mean I didn't grieve. I still grieve. I still miss him. But it's these habits, like every day, to direct my mind to help me while taking care of my brain.

    19. JS

      Yeah, I love those practical tools because, in effect, what we're trying to do is change our thought pattern, right? We have a pattern, as you said, to wake up and say, "I'm tired." And we put it on snooze, and then we get up, and then we're having breakfast and we're like, "I'm still tired." And then we get to lunchtime and we're, like, looking at the clock and we're like, "I'm still tired." And then by the end of the night, "I'm still tired," but then we're up at midnight watching Netflix or whatever it may be saying, "I'm still tired." And then that becomes our reality, that we just continue to feed that fatigue and we're just more and more and more tired. Whereas when you nudge your brain in a different direction, as you said, and you said, "Today's gonna be a great day," you now start making great choices because you want it to be a great day. But what I love about what you've defined, and this is different and I appreciate it, is that you don't talk about positive thinking, you talk about accurate thinking as being a healthier way to live. And I really like that clarification because I think the positive thinking approach can also be quite toxic. Like you just said about your father, it's not that you didn't feel grief, it's not that you don't miss him. Like, of course, those are very real

  5. 17:31 – 24:02

    Accurate thinking versus positive thinking

    1. JS

      human emotions, but you know how to direct them. Can you clarify for our audience today what is the difference between accurate thinking and positive thinking?

    2. SP

      Well, positive thinking is I can have this third beer and it won't negatively impact me, or I can drive at 125 miles down the freeway in the rain and it won't hurt me. Positive thinking is I can stay up and be on my phone until 2:00 in the morning and it won't have a negative impact. They did this great study out of Stanford. Lewis Terman, 1921, evaluated 1,453 10-year-old children, and then they followed them for 90 years, looking at what goes with success, health, and longevity. And the don't worry, be happy people... Actually, in the beginning of the book, I talk about the lies of happiness, and this is one of the lies, don't worry, be happy. They died the earliest from accidents and preventable illnesses. I have an older brother, and I adore him, but he's like 150 pounds overweight. I always sort of wanted to be like him 'cause I'm intense, and I work hard, and I've always got projects. And he's like off at 3:00 playing golf and, you know, he just seemed to not have a care in the world. But my health is so much better than his 'cause I worry about it. And so you want to have the right dose of anxiety. People with low levels of anxiety go to jail because [laughs] they don't like think, "Oh, if I do this, this bad thing could happen." But obviously, too much makes you suffer. And I love the verse in the New Testament, John 8:32, "Know the truth, and the truth will set you free." And I want to live my life in truth, so I want to tell myself always, "So what's the truth?" So if I think, "Tana never listens to me," I'm like, "Well, is that true?" Right? It's another little habit-

    3. JS

      Mm-hmm

    4. SP

      ... right, to always carry around those three words. I don't have any tattoos, but if I did-

    5. JS

      [laughs]

    6. SP

      ... "Is it true" would be one of the tattoos 'cause I don't want to believe everything I think, and that's very important. Your mind creates trouble. You know, thoughts, they come from all sorts of places. They come from your ancestors. They're actually written into your genetic code. I don't know if you ever read, read the book It Didn't Start With You.

    7. JS

      Yes, of course. Yeah, it's a great book, yeah.

    8. SP

      Amazing. I love that book. And trauma and successes actually get written in our genetic code, and our thoughts come from the voices of our moms, our dads, our siblings, our friends, foes, the news you listen to, which by the way, is no longer the news anymore. Let's just be really clear. They bastardized that industry, and it's about tribalism and money, and it's not about news. I start every day with the Good News Network. It's just a cool app. I have no financial interest in it. I just love it. I'm always smiling, you know, sending, uh, articles to my kids. And the music you listen to. I actually did a study on rap, country, rock, and classical music, and heavy metal. We did a memory task with high school students, and heavy metal was the worst. Classical was the best. The second best was country, which shocked us. [laughs]

    9. JS

      [laughs] Where did, where did rap fall in the, uh-

    10. SP

      Right behind, um-

    11. JS

      Heavy me-

    12. SP

      ... heavy metal.

    13. JS

      Oh, wow. Wow. 'Cause that's like one of the biggest forms of music today is rap and hip-hop, so.

    14. SP

      And music so influences how we feel, and so you want to be careful with the inputs because you might not think they matter, but your subconscious mind's listening.

    15. JS

      Yeah, absolutely. Well, that's what I want to ask you. This is really interesting to me because... So I've been listening to jazz in the car now. Jazz is my new, jazz is my new, uh... I usually don't listen to anything. I usually just talk to myself when I drive. That's been like my habit for, for years, is I see driving as a moment of spending more time with myself, so I generally drive to nothing. But when me and my wife are in the car together, we both like music, and recently we've been listening to jazz music together. But what I find really interesting about what you just said is that there's a difference between what feels good and what is good for you. So someone may say, "I feel good when I eat junk food, when I listen to music that isn't good for my brain, and when I drink. But when I miss out on that meal, I don't feel good. When I choose classical music, I don't feel good. And when I choose to eat healthy and maybe don't drink as much, I don't feel good." And so what I'm fascinated by is our relationship with feeling a certain way versus being a certain way. So when I started to have to remove refined sugar from my diet, which my wife encouraged me to do, I didn't feel good about that. Like, that was painful. I didn't enjoy that feeling in my mind, w- right? Or when I started to go to the gym every day or hike, where I, I hike outside every day now. And when I'm working out, I don't feel good about it, but it's good for me. So I started to discover that the things that are actually good for me don't always feel good. So how do you approach the idea of feeling a certain way? Because I feel like everything that I do that's good for me, I didn't feel good about when I started doing it. Now I choose it because now there's-

    16. SP

      Because you're getting the benefit from it

    17. JS

      ... correct, the benefits. I'm also feeling the pattern shift. Now if I, uh... So I still get a craving for junk food. I still have that craving sometimes. And maybe once a month now I'll be like, "All right. I'm gonna have a burger." Like, I'm gonna eat, you know, like a burger and fries and whatever. And now I don't like the taste of it. Like, after I feel really regretful and I'm like, "I didn't even like that. I need to remember that," that now I've changed

  6. 24:02 – 28:20

    Love food that loves you back

    1. JS

      my tastes. So now it's changed. So tell, talk to me a bit about that. Like, why do we always wanna feel happy and feel good, but we don't often make the right decisions?

    2. SP

      Secret number four is love food that loves you back, and you're in a relationship. I want you to love what you eat, but I also want it to love you. And so if you're in love with alcohol, and alcohol is clearly toxic to your brain for so many reasons, brain and your body, then it's sort of like you're in an abusive relationship. And, you know, I just want people to think about what do you really want? Do you want that mountain of fries or that swimming pool of alcohol, or do you want energy? Do you want clarity? Do you want memory? Do you want vitality? Do you want creativity? And ultimately, what, what I want is I wanna feel good, and I wanna be good, and I wanna do good, and that comes from a brain and body that work right. So I don't wanna feel good now but not later, right? That's a four-year-old's mindset. I wanna feel good now and later. So the things I do day in and day out, I love. Now, it just, it takes a while sometimes to change your habits. The brain is lazy. It just wants to do what you've allowed it to do. So what you said is just so beautiful. It's like, "Well, I still get the cravings, and I'll give in, and then I'll go, 'Why did I do that?'"

    3. JS

      Yeah, yeah.

    4. SP

      Right?

    5. JS

      That's how I genuinely feel right now.

    6. SP

      'Cause then I, I just don't, I just don't feel awesome. So for that momentary pleasure, it's like, well, is it worth it? Does it fit? So another tattoo I'm going to get someday.

    7. JS

      [laughs]

    8. SP

      Does it fit? So I recommend, this is actually part of secret seven, live each day based on clearly defined values, purpose, and goals. And quite frankly, hedonism, it's not on my v- goal list. It's, it's not in my value list. And hedonism, so giving in to every craving I have, is the enemy of happiness because it ends up wearing out your dopamine or pleasure centers in your brain. And I always talk about you wanna drip dopamine, don't dump it. Because when you dump it with the fries and the alcohol, the porn, you don't have much left. And so then you have to go back and do it again, and all of a sudden chemicals are controlling you rather than you are controlling you.

    9. JS

      The dopamine gets so addictive, and as you said with the pleasure centers, now we're having to... The same amount of what we had doesn't even fulfill the amount of pleasure, so we have to have more to hit the same amount of pleasure as far as I understand. Is that correct? Like-

    10. SP

      It's absolutely true.

    11. JS

      Yeah.

    12. SP

      And fame, uh, wears out the pleasure centers in your brain.

    13. JS

      Wow.

    14. SP

      And I've been blessed. I mean, I'm friends with you, with-

    15. JS

      Oh no, you are blessed

    16. SP

      ... Justin-

    17. JS

      Yeah

    18. SP

      ... Miley, and, and, you know, we talk about this over and over again, how fame is just such a trap because, you know, once, you know, like I had a video go viral and it was like 40 million views, and I'm like, "Oh, it's so exciting." And so when the next one gets eight million views-

    19. JS

      [laughs]

    20. SP

      ... you're like, "Well, that sucked." [laughs]

    21. JS

      [laughs]

    22. SP

      And you realize just, you know, how stupid that is. You have to be very careful, and you wanna drip dopamine.

    23. JS

      How do you drip dopamine? Now, how does someone do that? Let's say someone who's not getting 40 million views or eight million views, but they're posting on social media, they're eating a burger, they're having that glass of,

  7. 28:20 – 32:04

    Focus on the micro moments of happiness

    1. JS

      you know, alcohol every night, whatever it may be like, how does someone learn to... I love that idea. I'm thinking how does someone practically drip dopamine? 'Cause that's really-

    2. SP

      It's the micro moments of happiness. So for me, I mean, it's like holding Tana's hand, and then, but noticing and feeling her skin and feeling the warmth, the softness. It's, it's like being present, being connected, or seeing the hummingbird, uh, watching the sunrise or the sunset, depending on where you live. It's being present, noticing what you like way more than what you don't like. Plus sunlight drips dopamine. Pumpkin seeds drip dopamine. Omega-3 fatty acids, I just gave you a present of our vegan omega-3 'cause I know you're vegan, and people have been wanting it for so long. But all the vegan omega-3s, they don't have EPA in them. So omega-3s, there's EPA and DHA. They're almost all DHA, but EPA is critical for mood, for focus, for circulation, and it's the first product on the market that I know of that is just loaded with the right balance of omega-3s. And so-

    3. JS

      And what is the difference between EPA and DHA?

    4. SP

      Um, they work on different systems in the body. Both of them are absolutely essential, and they're essential, which means you gotta get them from an outside source. Your body doesn't make them. And people who are vegan, it's really hard to get healthy EPA and DHA levels from flax seeds and avocados, for example.

    5. JS

      Yeah. No, that, I can't wait to start taking them. I'm really excited. What, what am I gonna notice? What's gonna be like? What's gonna-

    6. SP

      Well, your skin's already good, but your skin, your hair, your nails, that's the things people notice.

    7. JS

      Right.

    8. SP

      But their mood is better. Brand-new study out just today, omega-3 fatty acids help decrease the incidence of depression. Also helps with focus and helps with memory. It's just critical-

    9. JS

      Yeah

    10. SP

      ... 'cause they make up the fats in 25% of nerve cell membranes- In your brain. I mean, that's hugely important

    11. JS

      The reason why I find this so fascinating is I think so many of us are trying to solve a mental challenge when actually it's a physical brain tangible challenge, right? Like I, I'll meet a lot of people who are saying, "Jay, I don't feel focused. I feel cloudy. I feel no energy. I feel lethargic. What do I do to get motivated?" And it's like, well, no, no, no, the motivation's not the issue. It's like you're dealing with a lot of other stuff physically, tangibly that could be solved, and then with good values, good purpose, good goals, you can actually go in the right direction. But just having a good set of goals and targets and values is not gonna solve the fact that your body is crying out for attention. And I think I was definitely in that space for a long time in my life where I'd, I'd, like, had such a strong mind that I didn't realize how much I was weakening my brain, and that actually if I strengthened my brain, my mind was even stronger, my body was even better, and, you know, it was all interconnected. And so for anyone who's, who's listening to this, I want you to remember that if you've got an energy issue, a fatigue issue, a focus issue, like this is the podcast for you. Like, this is what I want you to listen to because chances are it's because you're missing out on some of this stuff. Like, there's, there's a part of your

  8. 32:04 – 34:42

    Why are we the unhappiest generation?

    1. JS

      diet or something that's not going into your body.

    2. SP

      Well, and if you think of it like hardware and software-

    3. JS

      Yes

    4. SP

      ... that setting goals, which is so important, and not believing every stupid thing you think, which we'll talk about, is so important, but those are software programs, and you gotta have the hardware that will run it. Plus, I hate the term mental illness.

    5. JS

      Yeah, I know.

    6. SP

      And you and I have talked about that-

    7. JS

      Yes

    8. SP

      ... before. It's, it's not mental, it's brain, and when you call someone mental, you shame them. When you call them a brain, you elevate them.

    9. JS

      Mm.

    10. SP

      So we need to change the discussion. Um, and mental illness is in, right? Everybody's talking about their mental illness and, but it's the wrong discussion. The discussion is about brain health, and yes, you have to program it, but what's happening in our society now, it's one of the reasons I wrote, wrote the book, we're the unhappiest we've been since the Great Depression, that depression tripled from February of 2020 to August of 2020. Unbelievable. Never seen anything like that. And children, suicide skyrocketed, depression, anxiety, drug abuse skyrocketed in children, and it's like the pharmaceutical industry is winning, that the incidence of antidepressants, anti-anxiety medications like Xanax went up 20% in teenagers. That is a nightmare because it's the wrong solution. And I'm not opposed to medicine. It's just never the first thing I think about. It's like, let's get your brain and your habits right, and then we'll see what you need. And more than half the people taking medicine really don't need it. Last year, 337 million prescriptions for antidepressants in the United States. That's insane.

    11. JS

      That, I mean, yeah, it's alarming. I think we've all experienced it in little, uh, micro doses of our family, our friends, the news, but then when you hear it as a collective, it's super painful. I mean, how does a society that's going through so much pain, how do we collectively heal? Because that's like, that, we're all, we're m- further behind because of the pandemic. It's like it was already tough. Now we're really dealing with it. If someone's dealing with a friend or family member or someone in their life who's going through that, it can feel overwhelming for anyone. Like, not everyone's a trained psychiatrist. Not everyone's trained as a therapist to be able to support

  9. 34:42 – 45:45

    Did you experience childhood trauma?

    1. JS

      that kind of individual. Where would you suggest someone starts if someone in their life is really spiraling or struggling?

    2. SP

      Well, I would start by following me on TikTok-

    3. JS

      Yeah

    4. SP

      ... or Instagram or You, Happier or The End of Mental Illness. There is, this is a completely new way to think.

    5. JS

      Yeah.

    6. SP

      And I dedicated my book, The End of Mental Illness, to my nieces, and right at the beginning of the pandemic, we adopted them because their mom and dad-

    7. JS

      Yeah. Mm-hmm

    8. SP

      ... couldn't stop using drugs. And I am so proud of them because of how well they're doing by just getting the right supervision, the right love, the right food, and the right habits. Now, they grew up in trauma. Do you know the ACE test, adverse childhood experiences?

    9. JS

      No, I don't.

    10. SP

      Oh, we should talk about it.

    11. JS

      Yeah, please.

    12. SP

      Um, it's a test and, and originally done by the CDC and Kaiser, and it's 10 questions on did you experience early childhood trauma? So things like physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, parents who divorced, parents who were addicted, incarcerated. You watched one of your parents being beaten in domestic violence. Okay, so 10 of these questions. So how do you score? Do you score zero, like you had no trauma? I score one. My wife is an eight 'cause she grew up in trauma, and she wrote about it in her book, The Relentless Courage of a Scared Child. The nieces we adopted, it's a nine. If you score four or more, you have an increased risk of seven of the top 10 leading causes of death. If you score six or more, you have a 1200% increased risk of killing yourself. You have a higher risk of depression, addiction, virtually every bad health thing. And our daughter is a one. So eight to one. That's the goal, right? How do you take your trauma, heal it, and not give it to the next generation? And when I met Tana, I just dearly loved her. I mean, she's beautiful, she's smart, she's awesome. But I, when I learned about the trauma, I gave her 10 sessions of EMDR. It's a specific psychological treatment for trauma. It stands for eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. She ended up going for a year 'cause there were a lot of stuff to work out, but changed the trajectory of her life. Um, she's like my best friend. We like never fight, we get along, we have the same goals, we don't live out of the past, we live out of the present and what we want for the future. And so many people live with trauma, and they're living being controlled by the traumatized eight-year-old in their lives when they don't have to be. And so part of being happy is dissipating the traumas from the past.

    13. JS

      Where can people do that test? That sounds fascinating. And where do you-

    14. SP

      So they can go online-

    15. JS

      Yeah

    16. SP

      ... and just search for adverse childhood experiences. NPR has a free, uh, version of it online. And you pretty much know once you take it.

    17. JS

      How long does it take to do? Just-

    18. SP

      Like three minutes.

    19. JS

      Oh, wow, it's very short.

    20. SP

      It's like super e- it's just 10 questions.

    21. JS

      Oh, wow, okay.

    22. SP

      And it's basically yes or no.

    23. JS

      Got it. Got it.

    24. SP

      Um, but you know, if you're a four or more, getting help... And EMDR is so cool. And, and I-

    25. JS

      I wanna hear more about it from your perspective. I'm so glad you raised it because I was like, I w- I've, I've had a few clients I'm coaching right now, and they've been working with someone else in the EMDR space. Obviously, that's not my expertise. But I w- yeah, I wanted to get your thoughts on it. Like explain, for anyone who doesn't know, what is EMDR, not the name, but like what is it as a practice? And then what is it useful-

    26. SP

      So what you do, it's, it's actually an eight-step practice, is you take a good history and you're looking for like what are the top 10 traumas you've had in your life?

    27. JS

      And you do this with a, a-

    28. SP

      You do it with a therapist.

    29. JS

      Yes.

    30. SP

      Uh, with somebody who's trained and certified in it. Then y- you begin to target, so what's the worst one? And what's the negative belief with that? And what's the positive belief that you would rather believe? And where do you feel it in your body? And so you hold that image and then imagine just being on a train. And we get your eyes to go back and forth. Or sometimes they'll do alternate tapping on your knees, or there's a thing called the butterfly hug to do alternately while you bring that up. And while you're on the train, you just sort of see where it goes, and it'll often go to the early traumas, heighten them. But then with the eye movements, it helps the brain integrate it from an adult perspective rather than living as a four-year-old's perspective. And it takes the distress from like an eight or a nine out of 10 to zero. And it's so cool. And it's one of the fastest therapies. 'Cause a lot of times people go to a therapist and they'll talk about the trauma, and they just feel worse.

  10. 45:45 – 49:50

    Targeted nutrients to boost happiness

    1. JS

      to talk about that no one else is talking about, you said the brain needs targeted nutrients every day to boost happiness. What are some of those targeted nutrients? Because you also gave me, along with the vegan omegas, you also gave me, what was it, theanine? Could you tell us a bit about why that's so awesome for calm, clarity, and focus?

    2. SP

      Well, especially if you tend to be anxious.

    3. JS

      Right.

    4. SP

      Theanine from green tea helps you focus and calm you at the same time. And yes, green tea does have a little bit of caffeine, but why green tea is better than coffee is the theanine helps calm down the effects of the caffeine. And, but theanine by itself is just magical for so many of my patients. And those gummies, they taste great, and they have no sugar.

    5. JS

      [laughs]

    6. SP

      Right? 'Cause sugar for me would be a brand violation, and we don't do brand violations.

    7. JS

      Yeah.

    8. SP

      Um-

    9. JS

      Where does theanine come from? What is it?

    10. SP

      From green tea.

    11. JS

      Okay. It co-

    12. SP

      Yeah

    13. JS

      ... oh, that's where it comes from, right? It's not just, uh, whatever.

    14. SP

      Yeah. It's one of the active ingredients in green tea. Green tea catechins are another, uh, great substance for your brain. My favorite of all of them, we talked about omega-3s, but my favorite is saffron. And I've been following the science of saffron for over 20 years because over 20 years ago, a study came out showing it was equally effective to Prozac, and I'm like, "Whoa." Um, and there's folklore in India-

    15. JS

      India, yeah. My mom is gonna love this moment-

    16. SP

      [laughs]

    17. JS

      ... of this podcast.

    18. SP

      That if you-

    19. JS

      She tells me to eat saffron all the time, yeah

    20. SP

      ... that if you're too happy, you must have had saffron. So now, there are 24 randomized controlled trials head-to-head against antidepressants showing that it's equally effective to boost your mood. But as opposed to antidepressants, which can decrease sexual function, saffron increases sexual function, increases pleasure, increases responsiveness, even in some studies, um, sperm motility. Saffron has been shown to enhance memory, and I'm like, "Memory, mood, and sex." [laughs] And at the beginning of the pandemic, right, when my dad was sick-

    21. JS

      Yeah

    22. SP

      ... I'm like, I make something called Happy Saffron with saffron, zinc, and curcumins. I've taken it every day since. And I just think it's just a nice thing to help keep people balanced. But then the supplements in large part depend on your brain type. So that's secret number two, is what makes some people happy makes other people miserable. And a one size fits all with happiness is just not reality. Some people need novelty, and they love surprises, where it's type two, there's five primary types, that's our spontaneous type. But type three, the persistent type, they hate surprises and love routine. And so know your type and the type of your spouse and children, and then ask yourself every day, "Am, I do something that makes me uniquely happy?"

    23. JS

      Mm-hmm. And this book's gonna help people figure out their type. You have the types in the book, so we have The balanced brain type, the spontaneous brain type, the persistent brain type, sensitive brain type, and the cautious brain type. And the book helps you diagnose and figure out which brain type you have. So you can do this with your friends, your family, your partner, your, your kids, and that's gonna help you understand what they need more of or what they're missing.

    24. SP

      In fact, my nieces, they had friends over and they were in the spa at home, and they were taking the ACE quizzes with their friends and knowing each other's brain type.

    25. JS

      I love that.

    26. SP

      It was such a great discussion.

  11. 49:50 – 54:19

    What’s your brain type?

    1. JS

      Yeah, I love that. How do people, as in, s- walk us through some of the process you created to help people figure out their brain type.

    2. SP

      Well, you know, based on my imaging work-

    3. JS

      Yeah

    4. SP

      ... I, like, I was looking initially for the one type of, you know, where's depression in the brain? And then I realized, oh, there's not one type of depression, there's seven. Where's ADD in the brain? Well, there's not one type of ADD, there's seven. That's why Ritalin's controversial. For some people, it's a miracle. For other people, it's a nightmare. And it depends on how-

    5. JS

      Wow

    6. SP

      ... your brain works. And then I w- realized I was seeing patterns of personality. Like, if your frontal lobes work too hard, you tend to be worried and rigid, and if things don't go your way, you're upset. And I have, of my five girls, two of them have this pattern, and I know no matter what I say to them, they're gonna dismiss it. It's gonna bounce off. It's like they wear Teflon. And so if we're, like, shopping, I love shopping with my girls, and I go, "Oh, do you like this?" The answer will be immediately no. So for them, I know their type, and I wait for them to show me stuff.

    7. JS

      Mm.

    8. SP

      And if I want them to do something, I'll actually ask them the opposite of what I want them to do because they're just... You know these people.

    9. JS

      Mm-hmm.

    10. SP

      They're just sort of naturally oppositional. And if I want them to go to the store with me, I'm gonna go, "I'm gonna go to the store. You probably don't want to go with me."

    11. JS

      Yeah.

    12. SP

      It's like, what do you mean I don't want to go with you?

    13. JS

      [laughs]

    14. SP

      We don't spend any time together. [laughs]

    15. JS

      [laughs] That approach of personalization and individualization is just so needed, especially in healthcare, because like you're saying, you can... And that's what me and my wife see that in us. Like, our diets are completely different for us to be at optimal level, and our workouts are completely different. Like, my wife is a high-intensity workout person. I'm a low-intensity workout person. I just don't enjoy high intensity. It, it doesn't work for me. I, I feel more inflamed. I feel, you know, more heated in my body. I don't need that. I'm pretty, you know, active heat as it is, and then my wife really enjoys it. It's really great for her body. She feels great from it. And so I just think it's so fascinating that we keep trying to take, like, whatever works for everyone must work for me, and we get this trend or this fad, and I think this diagnosis of your brain type, though, I think this is the best thing that you possibly could have done for us.

    16. SP

      The persistent people, they need carbs. They, if you put them on a ketogenic diet, they get depressed, and they get angry. I was on Rachael Ray's show, and she was the persistent brain type. And on national [laughs] TV, we're talking about this, and she said, "I went on a low-carb diet, and I was so mean. I wondered why my husband didn't leave me."

    17. JS

      Wow.

    18. SP

      Because the persistent brain type needs serotonin, and if you think about a higher protein, lower simple carbohydrate diet, it's a dopamine diet. It helps you focus. But if you give it to the persistent type, they focus more on the things that make them unhappy and make other people unhappy. So the wrong diet can cause divorce. And so you have to, like, target it to the person. But it's also why people get addicted to sugar-

    19. JS

      Mm

    20. SP

      ... because sugar is a simple carbohydrate, and sugar raises serotonin, and it makes you happy. Have you ever wondered when you go to a restaurant why they immediately give you bread and alcohol? Because both of them drop your frontal lobe. So the bread, simple carbohydrate, raises your blood sugar, and your pancreas sees it and produces insulin. Insulin drives tryptophan into your brain. Tryptophan makes serotonin, and you feel pretty happy, which is why people get addicted to pastries and bread and pizza and, uh, donuts. And then they give you alcohol 'cause it drops your frontal lobes. So if they give you free bread and offer you alcohol, they're gonna make more money 'cause you're gonna order things you said before you walked into the restaurant you weren't gonna order, including dessert.

    21. JS

      That is so true, and I love it when they give me bread. [laughs]

    22. SP

      [laughs]

    23. JS

      It's, like, my favorite when, when, it's not anymore, but that's, like, my favorite thing that I love it when I walk into a restaurant, I'm like, "Do you have a bread basket?" Like, you know, it's such a, it's such a habit, right? It's, it's all habits.

  12. 54:19 – 56:10

    Seek happiness in the context of health

    1. JS

      What... I find that happiness is such an interesting goal. That's what I meant by, like, we wanna feel happy, but the things that you have to do to feel happy are not necessarily the things you wanna do. If some- like-

    2. SP

      Initially

    3. JS

      ... initially, that's what I'm saying.

    4. SP

      Until-

    5. JS

      Initially. Until it switches

    6. SP

      ... until it switches. [lips smack] And oh, by the way, and I start the book with this, happiness is a moral obligation. 'Cause, you know, people are like, "Oh, you're writing a book on happiness. That's fluff. Can't you do something more serious?" [inhales] And I'm like, "But it's a moral obligation." Why? Because of how you affect other people. I guarantee you if you ask someone who was raised by an unhappy parent or married to an unhappy spouse or raising an unhappy child whether or not happiness is an ethical issue.

    7. JS

      Yeah.

    8. SP

      So this is important, uh, for us to seek happiness in the context of health.

    9. JS

      Unbelievable. Everyone, that is Dr. Daniel Amen speaking about You, Happier. This is the book. I genuinely Genuinely recommend this book. I think, you know, there's certain books that will just transform how you think about your brain. I know that working with Dr. Daniel Amen has been really powerful for my brain. So many of the habits I've developed, consciously or subconsciously, have happened through our conversations. I mean, when you told me about, uh, racket sports, that's what led me to start playing tennis, and then I started playing pickleball, and then I picked- I'm getting a ping pong table. And it was just, there were these really tiny things that we've exchanged in our conversations that have made huge differences in my life. And so today, when you told me I look great, I was like, "Yeah, thanks to you, Dr. Daniel Amen."

    10. SP

      [laughs]

    11. JS

      "This is because of you." Uh, but I want you to go and grab this book, The 7 Neuroscience Secrets of Feeling Good Based on Your Brain Type. The book's called You, Happier. Uh, Dr. Daniel Amen, you'll

  13. 56:10 – 1:09:45

    Dr. Amen on Final Five

    1. JS

      know, uh, this will be no surprise to you, we end every interview with a Fast Five, which is our Final Five, uh, every time that we do this. So you have to figure out new answers every time you come on. Uh, but these are your Fast Five. So the first question is, what is the best brain advice you've ever heard, received, or given?

    2. SP

      Every day, ask yourself this question: "Is this good for my brain or bad for it?" It's so simple. It's the mother tiny habit to have a great brain for the rest of your life.

    3. JS

      Okay. Second question. What is the worst brain habit advice you've ever received? So what is the worst brain advice, sorry, you've ever received?

    4. SP

      Everything in moderation, which is the gateway thought to hell. It's the gateway thought to cheating. As soon as you hear someone say, "Everything in moderation," they're gonna do something bad for their brain.

    5. JS

      Wow. Explain, let's, let's dive into that a little bit because I feel like that's such a common misconception that people have. The, "Oh, I need to have a balanced life and a balanced diet," right? So-

    6. SP

      Yeah, but balance for them-

    7. JS

      Yeah

    8. SP

      ... when they're saying moderation means sugar-

    9. JS

      Right

    10. SP

      ... or it means alcohol or it means marijuana or it means-

    11. JS

      All the things that doesn't treat you well

    12. SP

      ... fast food. It, it means comfort.

    13. JS

      Yeah.

    14. SP

      It's their excuse.

    15. JS

      Yeah.

    16. SP

      It's, it's one of the little lies people tell themselves that keep them fat, depressed, and feeble-minded.

    17. JS

      Yeah. Let's, let's do... I actually wanna take a little segue. Let's talk a bit about marijuana, 'cause I think that that's become so popular. I did it a bit as a kid. I, I messed around with it in my teens. I never really got into it. You did my brain scan. There's no, there's no signs of it because I was never too deep into it. Uh, and obviously, since I lived as a monk, I don't, I don't mess around with anything. So I haven't, you know, I haven't drank alcohol for 16 years or something like that, and, like, no marijuana for 16 years. Um, but what is marijuana doing? 'Cause I feel like so many people do feel like they need it or like it's benefiting their life, or it's become so normal now. Like, w- what are the cha- what are the issues?

    18. SP

      Well, they need it because it changes their brain to need it in order to feel normal.

    19. JS

      What is it doing-

    20. SP

      It's insidious that way

    21. JS

      ... in a way to make people feel like it's helpful? What-

    22. SP

      It's calming things down-

    23. JS

      Right

    24. SP

      ... in the brain. So I published a study on 1,000 marijuana users. Every area of their brain is lower in activity. And then I published the world's largest imaging study on 62,454 scans, looking at how the brain ages. And I looked at, well, what accelerated aging, and marijuana was the second worst thing to accelerate aging. The worst thing was having schizophrenia, but the second worst thing, it surprised me, quite frankly. It was worse than alcohol, worse than marijuana. It dulls, slows down nerve cell firing. So if you have a busy brain and you're anxious, you feel like it's helpful, but it's also been shown to damage some of the structure of neurons. And kids who smoke or use have an increased incidence of anxiety, depression, and suicide in their 20s. Kids who use have a 450% increased risk of developing psychosis. And people have been... I've been a psychiatrist 40 years. We've all seen cases like that. There are cases now, because marijuana is so much more potent than it was when I was growing up, that there's a word called "scromiting," which is screaming and vomiting at the same time, that if you're in an emergency room, people, like, go, "Oh, this person's poisoned with marijuana." Not to mention the 1,700% increase in babies being born with marijuana and the trouble that that causes. It's like people go to that before they learn diaphragmatic breathing, before they learn meditation, before they learn self-hypnosis, before they go for EMDR to deal with their traumas, and that's just not right. Like, let's do the non-toxic things first rather than... You know, and that's my problem with psychedelics. It's like, you know, maybe at some point, if you have severe PTSD that's not responding to anything, that could be helpful, but have you done the basics first?

    25. JS

      Yeah, and the challenge I find that most people say is that non-toxic things are slow. You have to learn something, right? It's not immediate. Like meditation, for example. Or actually, not meditation. Let's take, uh, what was the first thing you said? You said, um-

    26. SP

      Diaphragmatic breathing.

    27. JS

      Diaphragmatic breathing.

    28. SP

      So I can get you to break a panic attack in two minutes-

    29. JS

      Yeah

    30. SP

      ... if I just get you to breathe.

Episode duration: 1:09:46

In the uListen app, the transcript lights up word by word as you listen. Get uListen

Transcript of episode 90bxNpimtb8

Get more out of YouTube videos.

Read along on your phone, search it beside the video, or ask your favorite AI app what was said.