Neuroscientists 7‑Day Habit Reset: Start Today, Feel Different By Next Week

1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee0:00

   A part of your morning routine, 30 minutes of exercise every single morning, Monday to Friday, but also at weekends. And I believe that that has been informed by your research.

2. WSWendy Suzuki0:12

   Absolutely.

3. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee0:12

   So why do you do that?

4. WSWendy Suzuki0:14

   I do that because I know from not just my research, but the research of all of my colleagues, that every single time you move your body, starting with just walking, but I like to do kind of cardio weights workout for 30 minutes. What that is doing i- it is releasing a whole bunch of neurochemicals in your brain, and all your listeners out there have heard of some of these neurochemicals, dopamine, serotonin, noradrenaline, but also growth factors are being released. And I like to say that it's like giving your brain a wonderful bubble bath of neurochemicals. And what do these neurochemicals do? Well, the dopamine and serotonin are making you feel good. They're bringing your energy up. And the other thing that we know that happens with, uh, movement, physical activity, is that the functions of your prefrontal cortex right behind your forehead, um, get sharper, they get better. And so, um, I do that first thing in the morning, and I do that to prepare my brain for work. And, uh, I wanna come into work, I wanna be happy, I wanna be, uh, motivated, I, and I wanna be able to focus well. And the reason why we do it every morning for 30 minutes, no matter what day it is, is, um, really about habit formation. I, I was all over the place. You know, I would go for, you know, seven days in a row and then, oh, I'd, I'd be too tired. I found really during the pandemic that 30 minutes first thing in the morning was something that I can do. I could keep doing it every single day. It didn't tire me out the next day, and I still felt motivated to come and my muscles weren't too sore. Uh, and it just helped with that, that, um, gradual habit formation. So I do it for my brain and m- for my brain, uh, productivity. Uh, and, uh, the, the 30 minutes every morning is really about building that habit that will stick with you and does not go away.

5. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee2:16

   You mentioned a lot of things there that I think we all want, happiness, motivation-

6. WSWendy Suzuki2:24

   Yeah

7. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee2:24

   ... focus, productivity, thinking better.

8. WSWendy Suzuki2:28

   Yes.

9. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee2:28

   You know, these are things that no matter who we are, we're all seeking them in our lives.

10. WSWendy Suzuki2:34

    Mm-hmm.

11. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee2:35

    Now, you've found that when you do this as part of your morning routine, you almost set your body and brain up for the day with those emotions and feelings that you want. I think that's really, really powerful.

12. WSWendy Suzuki2:48

    Yeah.

13. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee2:48

    Can you, can you rewind to when you didn't do this first thing in the morning?

14. WSWendy Suzuki2:54

    Yeah.

15. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee2:54

    You know, what-

16. WSWendy Suzuki2:54

    Mm-hmm

17. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee2:54

    ... how did your day go then compared to how does your day go now?

18. WSWendy Suzuki2:59

    Yeah.

19. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee2:59

    And do you also remember, was there a specific bit of research that when you did it or read it, you thought, "Wait a minute, I've gotta change something"?

20. WSWendy Suzuki3:08

    Yes. Uh, yes, to both. Okay. So here's how it goes when you don't, um, do that, that movement, don't put that movement in your day, and this was a lived experience. It was... I was going through a really, really stressful part of my career, which is trying to get tenure at an American university. They give you six years and they say, "Okay, you have six years to make your name, and if you don't do it, we're gonna fire you. And if you are gonna do it, then, then we will embrace you for the rest of your career and we can't fire you. So, you know, no big deal." Like [laughs] and so you have six years to do this. And so what did I do? My wonderful strategy was to only work. I'm just gonna work. I'm going to, uh, just go into the lab and I'm, I'm going to, you know, relinquish my s- my social life and I'm just going to work and I'm going to eat all the wonderful takeout in New York City 'cause that's so fast and efficient and it's delicious, um, with lots of calories. And so I'm gonna do that too. And so I, um, I got stuff done definitely, but I had no social life. I found myself, uh, um, with much more weight than, than I, I, uh, was used to because I wasn't moving at all. And mainly I was unhappy. I was, I was just unhappy. I was doing, I was working really hard, but very, very unhappy. And, uh, my wake-up call came when I gave myself a vacation, but, uh [laughs] because I had no friends, 'cause I had no social life, I'm by myself, I went on a river rafting trip to Peru. So I was trying to get as far away from New York City as I could. So I went by myself on one of these group, you know, river rafting trips. And it was so much fun, so beautiful walking around, um, Inca ruins, but I realized I was the weakest one on this whole trip. There were 65-year-old triathletes that were so strong, and there were 16-year-olds that came with their father that were also stronger than me. And so I came back saying, "Okay, I, I got a little bit of outdoors. I felt so good after this. I need to go to the gym and get a little bit more movement in my life." And it was really that. That was my, that was my realization when I started going to the gym, and I remember the very first class I took was a hip hop dance class. Oh my God, I'm really bad at hip hop dancing. And, but it was very, very, um... It, it, it really pushed my limits and I remember coming out of there going, "Oh my God, I hope nobody, you know, took any pictures or anything." But, but really got my aerobic, you know, uh, uh, activity up and I still felt good. Even though I felt like a terrible hip hop dancer, I still felt great.And, um, that is what made me go back to the literature. When I started feeling so much better after, after this, so much better than, than a month before when I was only working 100% of the time, that's when I went back and looked at all of the research showing that movement changes your mood. Movement, regular movement can be as effective as some of the most commonly used antidepressants. And while I wasn't depressed, I wasn't happy. I was not a happy person in my life, and I felt myself shifting out of that, first with this trip to Peru, but then with that regular bringing movement into my life. So it was kind of a, a self-realization kind of backed up by the neuroscience that I, I was able to go back and, and research because I happen to be a neuroscientist.

21. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee6:43

    Yeah. I mean, that's so interesting. Um, that hip hop dance class sounds like a lot of fun. Do you still do that at the moment?

22. WSWendy Suzuki6:51

    I do. I... Well, um, I, during the pandemic, I switched to, um, video workouts at home, so now I do it, do it at home. And I don't know, it's not as fun to do, uh, hip hop dance on video, so occasionally I'll go out and take a cla- class now. But yeah, I got much better at dance after, after that very first... Not, not so much hip hop. Um, that's still not my, my forte, but [laughs]

23. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee7:15

    Uh...

24. WSWendy Suzuki7:15

    You know, it's, it's about playing and, and for me it was about discovering. Turns out I, I love kickboxing, and when I say that, you know, people go, "Oh, you know, don't get Wendy mad." But it's about the rhythm and the power move that you're doing in kickboxing that really I love.

25. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee7:32

    Yeah. What's interesting for me is that you went on this vacation from your life-

26. WSWendy Suzuki7:38

    Yeah

27. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee7:38

    ... and that inspired you to get moving. You start moving and you feel these kind of emotions that you have never felt before, and that then encourages you, because you're a neuroscientist, to go and study.

28. WSWendy Suzuki7:53

    Yeah.

29. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee7:53

    But presumably, presumably before you'd experienced that, you were probably aware, I'm guessing, that movement's kind of good for the body, it's kind of good for the mind. But, you know, what, I guess where I'm getting to with this is that-

30. WSWendy Suzuki8:08

    Mm

Episode duration: 1:30:09