Mental Health Archives - Fusion Health and Wellness

6 Tips for the Best Sleep of Your Life

Sleep. You spend roughly a full third of your life asleep, and according to the Sleep Health Foundation, about a third of people have insomnia.

Even just mild sleep loss leads to impairments in cognitive performance, including attention, both working and longterm memory, as well as reasoning, and causes one to become more prone to error. (source)

Sleep deprivation increases cortisol, our main stress hormone that leads to fat gain, particularly around the midsection, and also causes muscle tissue to be broken down.

A lack of sleep impairs the functioning of leptin, a hormone that provides feelings of satiety and fullness, while improvements in sleep patterns leads to improvements in insulin sensitivity in adults.

Further, even just partial sleep deprivation increases body weight and the amount of food consumed – and this study was done with a group of rats that were bred to be obesity-resistant.

Long story short, a sleep deficit or even poor sleep quality impairs cognitive function, increases stress and leads to a bevy of metabolic issues. So…. Why aren’t more of us trying to maximize this time?

Article at a glance

Get on a set schedule and routine
Minimize blue light a few hours before bedtime
Use melatonin and a Bright Light to entrain your circadian rhythms
Avoid that evening night cap
Utilize yoga, meditation and breathing exercises to switch off “fight or flight” mode
Get by with a little help from your friends

Improving Sleep

Have a set sleep schedule and routine

“Good habits are worth being fanatical about.” – John Irving

Absolutely nothing has a bigger impact on how I feel the next day than the quality and quantity of sleep I get the night prior.

Having a healthy sleep schedule is one of the best ways to increase your energy levels, lose weight and generally feel amazing each day. As an experiment, try just one week of getting 8 or more hours of sleep each night and you will be amazed at how fantastic you feel. Once you realize how powerful a good night’s rest is, you will be much more inclined to improving your sleep patterns long term.

So what’s the main fix? Have a set sleep schedule and routine.

I know we all live hectic, crazy lives, but do your best to keep to a set schedule every night – no computers or tv after 8 or 9 to decrease blue light (we’ll get to this), gentle yoga and/or chamomile tea and a good book at 9 or 9:30, and in bed by 10 or 11.

Some people eat three meals a day, some two, and some (monks and the like) just one meal a day. Come meal time, whether it’s your one and only meal, or your third and final, your body will begin to get hungry – it’s conditioned to expect food at a certain time and at certain intervals. In the same manner, your body comes to expect sleep at a certain time and certain intervals. Having a set schedule and routine helps train your body to sleep when you want it to.

2. Minimize blue light a few hours before sleep

Did you know that staring at your phone, iPad, tv, laptop or computer screen has the ability to drastically impair your sleep quality, even if you are in bed at a reasonable hour?

Let’s talk a bit about human evolution and circadian rhythms – I’ll keep it short. For millions of years, humans had two phases of the day – the sun would rise, and there would be light, and then the sun would set, and there would be darkness.

And for millions of years prior to that, the animals and critters we evolved from experienced the same thing – light all day, and then darkness come sundown. Our bodies have evolved to have a certain amount of time in the daylight, and then a certain amount of time under the cool blanket of the nighttime during which we sleep. This is known as our circadian rhythm, and this diurnal pattern of light/dark controls our bodily processes in huge and profound ways.

Today, we have the option to have a fully lit environment, whether it’s day or night time, and many of us choose to stay up past sundown, bathing in all sorts of artificial light. As it turns out, this is not so great for our circadian rhythm.

Our circadian rhythm acts in large part via our body’s hormones – mainly cortisol to help us wake up in the morning and melatonin to help us fall asleep at night, but with many other bodily functions, chemicals and hormones coming into play.

Cortisol release according to circadian rhythm

Melatonin levels according to circadian rhythms

As you can see, cortisol is like our body’s natural caffeine, helping to wake us up, and melatonin is our body’s natural sleep aid, helping us to fall asleep.

The problem is that all forms of light, but especially blue light, the type emitted from tv screens, tablets, cell phones and computers, disrupts the body’s circadian rhythm and suppresses the release of melatonin.

The fix? Limit light use, especially blue light coming from tv’s, computers, tablets and smart phones, for two hours leading up to bed time. You can also download f.lux, a program that gradually tints your computer screen more and more orange as the sun begins to set, reducing the amount of blue light emitted. Or you can REALLY nerd out and impress your friends, family and coworkers with these blue-light blocking glasses…

3. Entrain your circadian rhythm

Your circadian rhythm is the collective term for the cycle of bodily processes that occur during a 24 hour period, but largely refers to our sleep/wake cycle. Having a healthy circadian rhythm is paramount to good health, low levels of fat, ample energy and proper mood.

There are a few tricks you can use to sync up your circadian rhythm to our natural sleep/wake cycle. The first is to take melatonin, anywhere from 1 to 3 mg, an hour before the time you’d like to be falling asleep. Do this for roughly a week, and then cease usage as melatonin is a hormone, and any time you take hormones, your body will decrease its own production of them. Melatonin is extremely safe and inexpensive, with 180 1 milligram tablets being just under 5 bucks.

Then, concurrently with melatonin usage, set an alarm for the time you’d like to wake up and immediately use a full-spectrum Bright Light, or simply get some sunlight when you wake up. To make a long story short, the retinohypothalamic tract is a highway of nerves connecting your eyes to the specific location in your brain responsible for your circadian rhythm, called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). Without proper stimulation of this region of the brain, coming from full spectrum light, your body does not get the full “time to wake up” messages it is supposed to.

The SCN receives input from specialized photosensitive ganglion cells in the retina via the retinohypothalamic tract… When the retina receives light, the vlSCN (ventrolateral SCN) relays this information throughout the SCN allowing entrainment, synchronization, of the person’s or animal’s daily rhythms to the 24-hour cycle in nature.

Full spectrum light from the sun or from a Bright Light stimulates this control center in your brain via the retinohypothalamic tract, but it requires full spectrum light – meaning that sunlight that is being filtered through any windows or sunglasses will not suffice, as these block certain wavelengths of UVB light.

With a Bright Light, simply turn it on within 3 feet of you, facing your body and face while you read the paper or check emails in the morning, for roughly 10 minutes. Keep it positioned on your right for half the time allotted, then switch it over to the left side. Likewise, simply sit outside in direct sunlight facing the sun (not staring into it) in the mornings.

The fix – Spend a week or two entraining your circadian rhythm by strategically using melatonin in the evenings and either a full-spectrum Bright Light or, preferably, full sun exposure. After a week or so, discontinue both and use only on an as-needed basis. A Bright Light also greatly helps with the condition of winter time blues, known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). It is advisable to also avoid over-use of sunglasses, as these impinge on the absorption of full spectrum light.

4. Avoid your evening indulgence in alcohol

Many people find that an evening drink or two helps them fall asleep faster, and while it may do just that, it actually hampers deep, restorative sleep as well.

It would be a safe bet to assume that the occasional one or two drinks before bed will do little harm, but that glass of scotch or nice Merlot every single night before sleep? I would say this is a no-no for those seeking to improve their sleep habits.

The Fix – Simply don’t have a night cap every single night before bed. If you do choose to imbibe, take 200 milligrams of L-theanine a half-hour before bed – it’s neuroprotective, helping protect your brain cells from the damaging effects of alcohol, helps the body break down alcohol more quickly, and helps promote deep sleep. L-theanine is an amino-acid like compound found in green tea, responsible for its focusing, calming effects.

5. Activate your parasympathetic nervous system via yoga, meditation and/or breathing exercises

Your autonomic nervous system, which is responsible for regulating your body’s unconscious actions, is split into two groups – the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, from here out referred to as the SNS and PSNS, respectively. Your sympathetic nervous system is generally responsible for all “fight or flight” activities, while the PSNS is responsible for “rest and digest” activities, or bodily process that happen while at rest and not in immediate danger. Needless to say, if your body is in fight or flight mode, chances are you won’t be falling asleep.

You may have heard about a little thing plaguing the people of today – stress. Chronic stress is debilitating and keeps people in constant fight or flight mode. This leads to an overactive SNS, with very little activation of our calming PSNS. Luckily for us, there are more than a few ways to bring our nervous systems back into balance.

A 2015 study on basic yoga postures concluded that “Yoga practising group showed significant improvement in various cognitive functions, such as performance enhancement, neural activity, attention, and executive function. It also resulted in increase in the heart rate variability, parasympathetic nervous system activity, and balanced autonomic nervous system reactivity.” Yoga postures not only provide a noticeable cognitive boost but allowed more parasympathetic activity, as well as more balance and adaptability between sympathetic and parasympathetic modes. Sounds good to me.

A 2012 study on yoga concluded that “According to the proposed theory, the decreased PNS (parasympathetic nervous system) and GABAergic activity that underlies stress-related disorders can be corrected by yoga practices resulting in amelioration of disease symptoms. This has far-reaching implications for the integration of yoga-based practices in the treatment of broad array of disorders exacerbated by stress.” Another win for yoga.

Perfectly balanced SNS and PSNS may lead to levitation — A perfectly balanced SNS and PSNS may lead to levitation

Meditation helps bring the body’s nervous system back into balance as well. The 2015 study The Influence of Buddhist Meditation Traditions on the Autonomic System and Attention stated “we review new evidence that shows that types of meditation that developed out of certain traditions such as Vajrayana and Hindu Tantric lead to heightened sympathetic activation and phasic alertness, while types of meditation from other traditions such as Theravada and Mahayana elicit heightened parasympathetic activity and tonic alertness.” The majority of meditation practices available today are mainly those that activate the parasympathetic nervous system, and not the Tantric type that tone the sympathetic nervous system.

Furthermore, a 2016 study of a certain type of pranayama, or yogic breathing exercise, concluded that their study “showed that Bhr.P (Bhramari pranayama) practice produces relaxed state and in this state parasympathetic activity overrides the sympathetic activity.”

The 2013 study Assessment of the effects of pranayama/alternate nostril breathing on the parasympathetic nervous system in young adults concluded that “This study showed that the parasympathetic tone was enhanced appreciably in the participants. The observations of this study suggest that the yogic exercise of A.N.B. (alternate nostril breathing) influences the parasympathetic nervous system significantly.”

The Fix – Pick up a basic yoga and meditation practice. If you aren’t well versed in either, find a class near you, or pick up one of many DVDs to follow along with at home. Once you get the hang of it, you can formulate your own routine. For those curious, here is how to do alternate nostril breathing, as well as Bhramari pranayama.

6. Get by with a little help from your friends

Along with melatonin and L-theanine, a few other herbs and supplements can help you get a better nights rest.

Magnesium is a vital mineral that is essential for over 300 biochemical reactions within the body, but unfortunately most Americans are deficient, due to a poor diet and rapidly declining levels of magnesium in our soil. Magnesium acts not only within the brain to calm you down, but also throughout the entire body by helping to keep cortisol in check (source).

Try to eat foods high in magnesium, such as pumpkin seeds, dark leafy greens, and my personal favorite, 80-90% dark chocolate. It also wouldn’t hurt to have a magnesium supplement on hand, especially for those of us who live hectic, stressful lives, work out regularly, or drink alcohol regularly, as these all rapidly deplete magnesium. Try magnesium citrate, or if your budget allows, magnesium threonate, which is more readily used by the brain.

I’m almost never without a quality magnesium supplement, both because it is so crucial to good health and because I like to work hard and play hard. I would recommend that anyone experiencing sleep problems or anxiety should start by eating more magnesium rich foods and/or supplementing with a quality magnesium supplement. It’s always best to look towards fixing your diet first rather than supplementing.

Use calming herbs such as chamomile and valerian root. Chamomile acts upon both GABA and benzodiazepine receptors in the brain, helping you to relax and calm down, and is a gentle herb with a long history of safe use. Valerian root acts not only on GABA receptors but also upon adenosine receptors – these are the same receptors that caffeine binds to in the brain, but instead of blocking those receptors as caffeine would, valerian root activates them, helping one to fall asleep.

Chamomile tea is readily available, inexpensive and delicious, and valerian root capsules are easy to find as well.

Bonus Tip!

Keep a dream journal – By keeping a dream journal, you provide yourself an opportunity to peer into your own subconscious mind – over time, you’ll piece together many recurring habits, wishes, fears and desires. Keeping a dream journal has truly been one of the most insightful and interesting practices I’ve kept up with.

A dream which is not interpreted is like a letter which is not read. ~ The Talmud

The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind. ~ Sigmund Freud

What is a Bio-hack? Plus 3 Simple Hacks You Can Use Today

What is a bio-hack? For one thing, it’s a buzzword and one with no real clear cut definition. But for our purposes, a bio-hack is any method, technique or substance that one can use and apply that improves efficiency and a given output.

The concept of bio-hacking is all about adjusting and tweaking your own biochemistry, biomechanics or your outlooks and beliefs, in order to greatly improve a given outcome, whether it be enhanced focus, greater fat burning, faster learning, less anxiety, or any combination of things.

Bio-hacking can range from the very simple to the outrageously complex; from everything from swallowing a pill to hooking electrodes up to your brain in order achieve certain mental states; even using a bright light to beat depression and entrain circadian rhythms.

Here are some of my personal favorite forms of bio-hacking that you can start using right now to improve your performance.

Hack Focus with Caffeine + L-Theanine

This is hands down the easiest and most bang-for-your-buck bio-hack you can use, and one that has great potential to enhance your focus. It’s also the easiest way to get into the field of nootropics, or cognitive-enhancing substances.

We’re all familiar with that glorious little molecule called caffeine – it’s the world’s most used drug, helping us suffer through otherwise intolerable morning meetings, and improves both cognitive and physical performance.

The common protocol for many people is that they will sit down to work on their given project and slam 3 shots of espresso before hand to give them the energy to do so. What so often happens, however, is that 3 hours later, they’ve done a hell of a lot of texting, cruising through Facebook, and calling their Aunt Trisha, but have accomplished very little actual work. They had the energy, they had their materials right in front of them, but.. What happened?

This is where L-Theanine comes in. It’s an amino acid that is only found in the leaves of Camellia Sinensis, the plant that we get green and black tea from. Green tea has high levels of L-theanine, and it is what’s responsible for that calming, focusing effect from a good quality cup.

L-Theanine on it’s own is able to enhance focus, reduce anxiety and alleviate stress, and also has anti-depressant effects. A 2009 study concluded that L-theanine facilitated “longer-lasting processes responsible for sustaining attention across the timeframe of a difficult task”.

The real magic comes when L-theanine is paired with caffeine, however. The combination has neuro-protective effects, improves cognitive performance and increases alertness, and enhances the ability to switch between tasks and ignore distraction. It also enhances the activity of Alpha brainwaves, which correlate to a relaxed state with enhanced creativity.

A 2008 study states “In addition to improving RVIP (Rapid Visual Information Processing) accuracy and ‘mental fatigue’ ratings, the combination also led to faster simple reaction time, faster numeric working memory reaction time and improved sentence verification accuracy.” Groovy.

Most dosages use a 2:1 L-theanine to caffeine ratio – so 200 mg L-theanine to every 100 mg caffeine. You can buy caffeine + L-theanine in an encapsulated form that already come in this ratio off of Amazon, or buy straight L-theanine to mix with your caffeine of choice – I simply put some right in my morning coffee.

Build more muscle, become smarter and live longer using Saunas

Who would have thought that sitting in a hot box a few times a week could have such wide and varied benefits?

Use of “hyperthermic conditioning” contributes a wide array of benefits to those willing to sit in a sauna for 20-30 minutes a few times a week.

A big shout out to Dr. Rhonda Patrick for bringing a lot of this information into the limelight.

Benefits include –

enhanced muscle growth;
a strong release of Human Growth Hormone, a muscle-building, fat-burning, anti-aging hormone (a 16-fold increase in one study!);
improvements in insulin-sensitivity and glucose utilization (prevents fat gain and helps ward off diabetes);
improves resistance to stress by releasing heat shock proteins (this also just sounds cool);
increases longevity;
increases brain levels of norepinephrine, a neurotransmitter that promotes alertness, focus and attention;
helps to increase levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a protein that promotes neurogenesis, enhances learning, and helps ameliorate depression.

Most gyms and health clubs have saunas that you can use, if that’s within your price range. And remember, more is not necessarily better. Make sure you are in good health before doing so, and drink plenty of mineral water before, during and after to rehydrate.

Hack motivation by optimizing Dopamine

Lovely, beautiful dopamine. Dopamine is the neurotransmitter most involved in feelings of pleasure, energy, drive and motivation. That buzz you get from a cup of coffee? Mainly from a combination of dopamine and norepinephrine. The feelings of pleasure involved in eating a nice meal when hungry, or engaging in sex? More dopamine. The sense of exhilaration and accomplishment when you finish a big project or hike a mountain? Dopamine, my friend.

The most over-used photo when it comes to neurons firing — The most over-used photo on the web when it comes to neurons firing

The unfortunate thing is, much of todays world is constructed to hack into your dopaminergic system, with the intent of being addictive. Facebook. Tv. Social media. Texting. Overly-palatable foods. Coffee, sugar, nicotine. All of these provide hits of dopamine.

And like moths to a flame, we are drawn repeatedly to things that give us any hit of dopamine we can get. Unfortunately, over time, the brain begins to rewire itself, a process called neuroplasticity – dopamine receptors desensitize, meaning we need more frequent and stronger hits of dopamine. Ultimately this leads to a brain that is dependent upon fast-paced and overly-stimulating experiences, leaving very little will power or drive to get the actual important things done.

Don’t believe me? Try going 3 days without any social media. Count how many times you unconsciously check your phone throughout the day. Eat a diet of plain foods with little to no salt or seasoning, and see how you suffer. Give up sugar, coffee, nicotine and/or alcohol for 2 weeks. Tell me if you aren’t just slightly irked after a few hours of any of the above.

So whats the fix? Reclaim your will power by reclaiming your brain.

First, cut back on any and all repetitive, highly-stimulating and meaningless input. This means overly-palatable junk foods, incessant web browsing, social media, constant texting, excessive coffee and alcohol, or games like Candy Crush or swiping through Tinder. Stop gossiping so much. Try to limit social media to ten minutes in the morning and ten minutes in the evening, and thats it. Give up social media for an entire day, then the next week, for two. These are very minor tweaks, but ones that if held to over time, provide huge benefits.

Second, actively train your focus, attention and motivation. There are many ways to do so –

Set goals each day, and just get them done. Do the worst ones first. Best of all, you’ll get a hit of dopamine each time you complete and cross that goal off your list. This will train your brain to seek its rewards by getting productive stuff done, not from seeing how many likes you got on that post about cats. Read up on decision fatigue – the more often you have to choose between two things, whether it’s what clothes you’re going to wear or how you’re going to spend your time, the more you drain your willpower.
Practice meditation – one study’s results suggest that “meditation produces long-term increases in the efficiency of the executive attentional network“. This means being able to direct your attention where you want it to go – towards being a boss and getting stuff done. Remember the concept of neuroplasticity – “neurons that fire together, wire together”. This will change the wiring of your brain for the better, and will make accomplishing goals second nature.
Embrace the Indian concept of Tapas – one of the branches in the traditional system of Raja (Royal) Yoga is that of the Niyamas, which are beneficial habits, behaviors and observances – one of which is the concept of Tapas. As I’ve posted before, Tapas is the friction and heat created by spiritual practices that burn away negative qualities of the mind. I’m all for spiritual enlightenment, but you can use the concept of Tapas to improve your motivation as well – long story short, learn to embrace and even welcome the uncomfortable into your life. Your muscles won’t grow unless you stress them. You won’t learn a new language without being completely confused at first. You’ll never get a date without overcoming those butterflies in your stomach. Eleanor Roosevelt was quoted as saying, “Do one thing every day that scares you.” I’d like to modify that to, “Do one thing every day that gets you out of your comfort zone,” and preferably towards something productive. Feel that uncomfortableness and just plow through it.

Finally, there are always a few supplements that can help out as well.

The first is an herb called gynostemma, and comes with a multitude of benefits – being a superb antioxidant, an immune booster, a strong adaptogen and a regenerator of dopaminergic neurons. I enjoy it in tea form, though it is available encapsulated as well.
Inositol is able to actually increase dopamine receptors within certain areas of the brain – the more receptors available, the more effective dopamine is, the more you’re able to get done and experience pleasure. I would go ahead and buy bulk powder, as it has a pleasantly sweet taste.
Lastly, supplementing with the precursor to dopamine itself will improve motivation – stick to DL-Phenylalanine, which is also a precursor to endorphins (natural feel-good molecules), and which should provide a nice boost in mood and motivation.

In Conclusion, bio-hacking is a relatively simple concept, one of hacking into your own biology in order to achieve a given result. There are plenty more options out there, suited to a huge variety of needs and goals. And as always, feel free to contact me to learn more ways to enhance cognition, de-stress, burn fat faster and beat depression and anxiety.

Increasing Shen – How to Enhance Learning, Beat Depression, and Chill Out

Within Traditional Chinese Medicine lies a fundamental and unique concept, that of the Three Treasures. The Three Treasures lay at the foundation of how TCM works – build up your Jing energy for a long life and strong resilience; improve your Qi so as to have plenty of day to day energy; and enhance and build up your Shen energy, that faculty of mind that leads to wisdom, peace and tranquility.

We already discussed one of them, Jing, in some detail, but what I want to focus on today is Shen, that faculty of your higher mind. Shen can be defined in many ways, but is commonly described as being the seat of the higher mind, your spirit, consciousness, and the domain of thought, memory and emotion. To have strong Shen is to be mentally quick, happy, joyful, and content, and to not be forgetful, lethargic, depressed, angry or anxious.

What I find really interesting about things like Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda, the equivalent Indian system of healthcare, is how they are able to understand all the effects a substance is having on the body, without ever being able to isolate certain compounds or measure acute changes within a person’s biochemistry.

Luckily for us today, we are able to accomplish this and measure all the minutia within a substance and the subsequent changes occurring in our body. This is where the rubber meets the road, so to speak.

Reishi Mushroom

Reishi is the star of the show when it comes to Shen substances, and in fact is the number 1 ranked herb out of 365 medicinal substances within TCM. First described over 2,400 years ago, it was said of Reishi that “if eaten customarily, it makes your body light and young, lengthens your life and turns you into one like the immortal who never dies.”

Of red Reishi, it was said that “it is good for the Qi (functional activities) of the heart including mental activities, it tonifies the Spleen, increases wisdom, improves memory so that you won’t forget, long-term consumption will lighten your body, you will never become old, it lengthens years, it has spiritual power, and it develops Shen so that you become a ‘spirit-being’ like the immortals.”

That’s some lofty descriptions of a mushroom, I’d say.

So I dug deeper. On PubMed alone, there are 1,195 studies on Ganoderma Lucidum, and that’s just one strain of reishi mushroom. And while it has proven benefits on everything from the liver, to the immune system to allergies, we’re here to focus on its possible Shen-enhancing effects.

Reishi mushroom has BDNF- and NGF-like effects within the brain. Both BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) and NGF (nerve-growth factor) promote the growth of new brain cells, enhance synaptic connections between existing neurons, and serve to protect neurons from damage. Both BDNF and NGF enhance learning and memory. Further, many studies show a link between low levels of BDNF and depression.

So from Reishi’s BDNF- and NGF-like effects alone, it’s able to help with depression, memory, and learning, as well as help prevent damage to the brain from stress, drugs or alcohol, and help ward off cognitive decline as we age. Not bad.

A simple hot-water extract of reishi exhibited anti-depressant effects in mice, as well as helped to prevent freezing up in the face of fear, and pretreatment of a hot water extract proved to be neuroprotective.

All in all, I’d say reishi mushroom fits the bill of a Shen-enhancing substance, and remember, this is all in addition to proven anti-cancer, anti-allergy, liver-protective and immune-enhancing benefits. I’ve used plenty of reishi products over the years – I suggest getting a liquid dual-extracted tincture, so that you get both the water- and the alcohol-soluble components, as they all have different functions in the body. You can also get a powdered extract that contains reishi mushroom spores – these spores have the same effects as the alcohol-soluble constituents, but are hundreds of times more potent.

When it comes to Reishi supplements, you really get what you pay for. Dragon Herbs carries some really interesting Reishi products, all of which are also concentrated to be even more potent –

they have a dual-extracted Purple Reishi, as the purple variety is said to have the most Shen energy;
a dual liquid extract of 22 different varieties of reishi, which I promise you can not find anywhere else;
a Wild Reishi dual-extracted tincture – this is cool because wild herbs are almost always more potent than those grown by humans, but are much more difficult to collect;
as well as an extremely potent bottle of Reishi Spore Oil – if anyone really likes my website, feel free to buy me some of this, as it is not cheap.

Count the Reishis — A Chinese painting honoring Reishi mushroom

Polygala

Polygala is another premier Shen-enhancing herb. It has sometimes traditionally been called the “Will Strengthener“, helping both spiritual practitioners and common folk alike increase their will power. What biological effects this herb would have to have upon the body to increase will power, alas, I do not know.

It’s also traditionally been said to be able to connect the sexual energy of the reproductive system with that of loving, altruistic energy of the heart. As such, polygala has been used as one of the premier Shen-enhancing herbs used throughout the ages. Does it hold up to Western scientific scrutiny?

One 2009 study concluded that treatment with polygala led to improved memory and learning, and even ameliorated some of the deleterious effects of the amnesia-producing drug scopolamine. The authors noted that “the expression of BDNF was also greatly enhanced in the hippocampus.”

A 2014 study found strong anti-depressant effects, noting that the main constituent studied, Yuanzhi-1, had a stronger affinity to dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine receptors in the brain than a commonly prescribed pharmaceutical anti-depressant. This means it improves depression through 3 distinct pathways more effectively than a drug approved by the FDA, without side effects.

Do you often have trouble finding motivation to get things done, even if they are activities that should excite you? Another 2014 study found that polygala administration not only had “rapid-onset anti-depressant” effects, but also that it helped reverse anhedonia, the scientific term for having a lack of motivation for, and lack of pleasure in, common every day activities.

Polygala is neuroprotective; enhances memory; attenuates beta-amyloid plaque build up (one of the main factors in Alzheimer’s disease) and promotes neurite growth; and also improves synaptic transmission, or the ability of cells within the brain to communicate effectively.

Polygala is a bit harder to find than reishi mushroom, but don’t despair – Dragon Herbs offers a very nice product I’ve used in the past called Will Power. Polygala is the main herb used, but the product also has a number of other Shen-enhancing herbs.

If you’re looking for straight polygala, you can buy 100 grams of a 5:1 extract here, which is the product I’m currently using. I gotta say, things have been looking bright since I started taking it.

In conclusion, it seems those ancient Chinese sages were on to something when it comes to “Shen” substances that improve emotions and enhance the intellect. There are plenty of other Shen herbs out there as well – pearl and dragon bone, which have Shen-grounding effects, albizzia flower, which is one of the most uplifting herbs I’ve ever used, spirit poria, and more – I’ll try to have more info up soon about some of these herbs.

For now, get your hands on some reishi and polygala, and let me know what you think in the comments below. And don’t forget to contact me if you’re interested in learning how to take a multi-targeted approach to beating depression and anxiety, or how to enhance learning, memory and mental acuity.

Cistanche – One of the Most Versatile Jing Herbs in all of TCM

Which would you rather have? More beautiful skin, more energy, better cognitive abilities or (drum roll please) a stronger libido?

If you answered all of the above, Cistanche is the herb for you.

I’ve been wanting to do a post on Cistanche for a while now. Cistanche is considered a Jing-enhancing substance within Traditional Chinese Medicine. To enhance Jing means to delay aging, improve fertility, enhance cognition, boost the immune system and optimize hormones – you can read more about Jing here. It’s considered a Yang Jing herb, which means it’s energizing and increases drive and motivation.

Studies are starting to back up the traditional claims of Cistanche being a Jing-enhancing herb. Cistanche is hepatoprotective, analgesic and anti-inflammatory, and possesses anti-fatigue effects.

This study found that Cistanche increased sperm count and sperm motility by up to 2.7-fold and 1.4-fold, respectively. “The serum level of progesterone and testosterone in rats was also increased by CTE administration (p < 0.05)… Our results suggest that the increase in sex hormone levels could be mediated by the induction of testicular steroidogenic enzymes.” This is great news for men whose hormone levels are dropping or for those who are looking to have children.

Cistanche may even promote the growth of hair and prevent baldness.

Then there’s the study Cistanches Herba enhances learning and memory by inducing nerve growth factor. It concludes that cistanche “also stimulated NGF secretion in the cortex and hippocampus of the mouse brain at 5 and 20mg/kg/day (3 days, p.o.). Furthermore, CHE increased neuronal cell differentiation, neurite length, and synapse formation in the mouse hippocampus. CHE significantly enhanced learning and memory.. These results suggest that CHE is useful for improving memory function via its action in upregulating NGF.” This translates to a boost in memory and enhanced learning, and I’m not sure I know anyone who wouldn’t want to be smarter and quicker on their feet.

In this study they concluded that “Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay results showed that serum containing Herba Cistanches or Herba Epimedii increased the expression of nerve growth factor, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, and glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor in injured MES23.5 cells… These findings indicate that Chinese medicines used to tonify the kidney can protect nerve cells by regulating the expression of apoptosis-related factors and neuro-trophic factors in MES23.5 cells.” Again, it’s like steroids for your brain.

What’s interesting is that in the above mentioned study, cistanche and epimedium, two Jing-boosting herbs, increased neurotrophic factors to a substantial degree, even more so than selegiline, a pharmaceutical marketed for cognitive decline. These two herbs are used traditionally for this exact purpose. You can buy quality epimedium here. Fair warning – it’s a very potent aphrodisiac.

This single herb not only delays fatigue and enhances fertility but also enhances memory, learning and improves cognitive function, giving it nootropic properties.

Finally, two companies joined forces with Peking University to study Cistanche, with many interesting results. They found that cistanche increases the body’s production of SOD (one of our most powerful endogenous antioxidants), inhibits hylauronidase and elastase thereby improving the plumpness and appearance of the skin, prevents photo-aging of the skin, increases amounts of neurotransmitters, improves learning and memory, is an aphrodisiac and more.

I can only agree with the above statements in terms of Cistanche’s subjective effects. It’s awesome that I only need one herb to improve mental performance, improve skin quality, increase energy and improve my mood. I don’t mind the uptick in libido either.

I’ve been using Jing Herbs’ Cistanche to good effect in my daily “Jing Drink”, though I’ll probably be trying Dragon Herb’s Desert Cistanche Drops soon.

A Day in the Life

For the sake of transparency and because I like to check out how others approach health, I thought I’d post a normal day in the life for me, focusing on food, supplements and health promoting activities.

Let me be very clear by saying that by no means should everyone be doing this much in their day to day lives in the name of health – and every so often I have days where I don’t do much. It’s also important to note that most health coaches or fitness enthusiasts don’t do quite this much – it just so happens I personally love to experiment and tinker around, and with this regimen I’ve found massive benefits from the supplements and procedures listed below. And while it may sound like a lot, it takes very little time out of my day.

Remember, this is on top of an already very nutritious diet. For the vast majority of us, simply eating right, getting plenty of physical movement, practicing stress reduction and using a supplement or two is plenty in order to improve your health.

A Day in the Life

Wake Up – Anywhere from 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. I like to wake up semi-early to get a head start on my day, but some days I’ll just let my body catch up on sleep and wake up naturally.

Upon waking –

Glass of room temp water, mainly because I’m thirsty and because it helps to get the digestive system going
Morning supplements – the standards of which are a half-capsule of highly-absorbable B-Vitamins, Boron and half a teaspoon of magnesium citrate
Morning caffeinated beverage, which is either a half-caff coffee with added L-theanine, or green tea with gynostemma. The caffeine has obvious mental benefits, while the L-theanine, either in supplement form or naturally found in green tea, helps improve focus and enhances the brain’s alpha waves, increasing creativity
Usually a nootropic, or cognitive enhancing substance – I’m currently using oxiracetam, a piracetam derivative that has a little more “kick”. This, combined with the caffeine and L-theanine, provides quite the boost in focus and mental energy

Total Time = 3 minutes

At this point I get to work on my business. In the winter I’ll use a Verilux “Bright Light” to help ward off the winter time blues, and also to help set my circadian rhythm – this is key for everything from energy levels to proper hormone release. The bright light is also quite energizing. I’ll use this light occasionally in the warmer months as well, especially when it’s too hot in the summer to sit outside in the sunlight.

After coffee or tea – A drink of adaptogens and Chinese herbs. These help improve hormone levels, delay aging, boost immune function, improve fertility, and prevent burnout and adrenal fatigue, as well as having a myriad of other benefits.

My current cocktail is centered around increasing Jing, and includes he shou wu, cistanche, ashwagandha, schizandra, shilajit, and cordyceps, as well as a formula called Restore the Jing. Most of these are mixed into one bag, so I just scoop some into warm water and mix.

Substances that increase Jing, a term from Traditional Chinese Medicine roughly translated as “Regenerative Essence”, have been found to improve hormone levels, delay aging, increase mental performance, enhance fertility, bolster the immune system and leave you feeling invincible. They’ve made a huge difference in my energy levels, confidence and ability to just get shit done.

Total Time = 2 minutes

~ 11 or 12 – Work out 5 or 6 days out of the week. Some days I work out fasted, with no food in the stomach, or some days I’ll have a small snack prior.

I make a home made pre-workout beverage that contains Betaine, BCAAs, Beta-Alanine, Creatine, and sometimes L-Glutamine. These all improve performance in the gym, enhancing muscle growth and improving energy levels. Betaine is also a superb liver detoxifier, beta-alanine increases the brain-growing, anti-depressive protein BDNF, and L-glutamine is great for digestive health
Some days I take adaptogenic herbs that specifically improve workouts. It may be rhodiola, cordyceps, a nice Asian ginseng extract, or some combination therein. These don’t have so much of muscle building effects as they do increasing drive and endurance within the gym
My workout may be lifting weights, going trail running, doing sprints in my neighborhood, etc.
Immediately after I workout I down a protein shake with either unsweetened almond milk or grass-fed dairy, whey protein powder, and sometimes some extra BCAAs and L-Glutamine, depending on workout intensity. This helps my muscles recover from the strain I just put on them

Within an hour of my workout – I have my first real meal of the day. It’s usually a big salad with plenty of greens, a protein source, some olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and some source of slow-digesting carbs, such as beans, squash, carrots, etc. Immediately post-workout is known as the “anabolic window”, so food consumed at this time is preferentially used to repair muscle tissue and won’t be stored as fat.

If it’s a “Re-feed Day”, this will be a high carb, high protein meal. Re-feed days help reset my body’s sensitivity to key fat-burning and hunger-controlling hormones, including insulin, leptin and ghrelin, as well as helping to build muscle.

~ 3 times a week – Hyperthermic Conditioning and Cold Thermogenesis – After workouts I’ll sometimes hit the sauna for a good 20 minutes. It’s more than just a way to relax, as saunas

Increase the release of fat-burning, muscle-building Growth Hormone
Resensitize the brain to endorphins
Improve insulin sensitivity
Release Heat Shock Proteins, which have immune-boosting and longevity-enhancing effects,
Help to release stored toxins through sweating
Increase BDNF, a protein that promotes growth of new neurons and protects existing ones, and an increase in which is thought to be responsible for enhanced learning. It’s also a potent anti-depressant

All of this combines to allow my body to easily repair muscle damage from my workout, boost my immune system, improve my mood and cognitive performance from the BDNF, detoxify and possibly enhance longevity, all from just sitting in a warm room for 20 minutes.

I follow this up with an icy cold shower, the combination of which leaves me feeling giddy as a schoolgirl for the rest of the day. Exposure to cold has been shown to

increase the number and output of Brown Adipose Tissue within the body, which is a type of fat that actually burns regular fat for energy when the body gets cold. Yeah that’s right, just get cold and watch the pounds melt off (more on this in a future post)
increase adiponectin, a fat-burning, muscle-building hormone
increase glutathione, our body’s “master antioxidant”
boost the immune system and may extend lifespan
increase norepinephrine levels 5-fold, leading to enhanced energy and mental clarity (and schoolgirl giddiness)

Again, I’m reaping massive benefits by just sitting in a hot box for 20 minutes and following that up with 5-10 minutes of a chilly shower.

~ 12 p.m. on days I don’t work out – First meal of the day, usually a low-carb salad with plenty of greens and a protein source. I also consume high quality fish oils with lunch and dinner.

Additional supplements consumed around lunch time – Vitamins D and K2, as well as Vitamin A extracted from cod liver oil, 4-5 times a week. These are fat-soluble vitamins that have a plethora of effects, ranging from being precursors to hormones (Vitamin D), improving androgen levels and androgen receptor sensitivity (Vitamin A), neuro-protection and neurogenesis (all three) and ensuring that calcium gets deposited in bones and not in soft tissue (all of them, especially K2). You can buy well over a year’s supply of Vitamin D/K2 here.

~ Notice that I don’t have breakfast? I loosely practice Intermittent Fasting (IF), where you allow certain periods of the day to be food-free. Considering I usually have dinner around 7, and don’t eat my first meal till around 12, I’m giving myself 17 hours of fasting each day.

This gives you most of the benefits of real fasting, without the discomfort that sometimes accompanies real fasting (which I also do once every month or two). IF helps to reset your sensitivity to insulin and other hunger-controlling, fat-burning hormones, as well as enhancing autophagy, the process by the which your cells “take out the garbage”, and is another potent inducer of the brain-growing, mood-enhancing protein BDNF.

That said, if I wake up feeling particularly hungry for some reason, I’m not afraid to listen to my body and eat breakfast. It’s important to be regimented and disciplined with your diet, but at the same time you need to give yourself breaks and be balanced.

~ Throughout the day – Multiple cups of green tea and gynostemma. You can either carry some tea bags with you in your car, or brew a big thermos with a few bags of each in the morning.

the combo is a powerful antioxidant one-two punch
the green tea contains EGCG, which helps the body burn fat through multiple pathways
green tea contains small amounts of caffeine as well as L-theanine, which work in concert to improve mental functioning
gynostemma improves insulin sensitivity
gynostemma is adaptogenic, helping the body cope with all the stressors of modern life, and also significantly increases Superoxide Dismutase, or SOD, another of our body’s powerful endogenous anti-oxidants

~ Most days – A serving of greens powders. I’m a big fan of Vitamineral Green as well as Green Vibrance, although sometimes I’ll switch it out and do just spirulina or chlorella. These greens are insanely nutrient dense, helping to fill in the gaps in my diet and bolster my nutrition, which is important considering most food today is nutritionally inferior to what it once was, and because I spend five days a week working out hard and pushing my body. The mixed greens also contain probiotics.

~ Hiking and Yoga – I hike about twice a week, more for personal enjoyment than anything else. But it’s a great way to catch up with friends and as I stated in my previous post on meditation, just being in the woods has been proven to lower stress levels. Yoga is possibly the most healing activity one can do, improving everything from stress levels, hormone levels, depression, fatigue, even boosting the immune system. I aim for 2-3 sessions of yoga a week, each session lasting only 20-30 minutes each.

~ Sometime in the afternoon/evening – a few more adaptogenic/Jing boosting herbs. Usually around this time of day it’s just the use of tinctures and possibly some ashwagandha to help keep cortisol low during my stressful job.

~ Meditation in the evening – Currently 20 minutes a day. The benefits are endless – Read about them in my first and second posts on meditation.

~ Dinner roughly 3 hours before bed – Dinner is almost always lower in carbs, not too big and consumed early, to keep insulin low by the time I go to bed. If you have too much insulin floating around the bloodstream when you put on your night cap, a whole cascade of fat-burning, muscle-building and tissue-repairing hormones won’t be released while you sleep.

Evening supplements 4-5 days a week – One capsule of kelp, mainly for the iodine, which improves thyroid function and detoxifies toxic halogens such as fluoride from the body. Zinc and selenium as well, as both are essential for proper androgen levels, and selenium also helps boost thyroid function, keeping my metabolism buzzing like a caffeinated humming bird. If it’s your first time taking kelp or an iodine supplement, I suggest taking it in the morning as it can provide quite the boost in energy levels.

~ A few hours before bed – Reduce the use of blue light coming from cell phones, computers and tvs. This wave length of light has been found to suppress melatonin release and shift circadian rhythms, pushing them back. You can download a free app called f.lux for your computer and smartphone that gradually tints your screen more and more red as the sun begins to set, blocking blue light.

~ Twice a week 30 minutes prior to bed – A few times a week I hit the hay early (9-10 pm) and use 1.5 – 3 mg of melatonin a half hour prior to bed. Melatonin is the main hormone your body produces to help you fall asleep; it also entrains your circadian rhythm, meaning that when melatonin is consistently produced (or consumed) at the same time, you will naturally and easily fall asleep at this hour.

According to the National Institute of General Medical Sciences,

Circadian rhythms can influence sleep-wake cycles, hormone release, body temperature and other important bodily functions. They have been linked to various sleep disorders, such as insomnia. Abnormal circadian rhythms have also been associated with obesity, diabetes, depression, bipolar disorder and seasonal affective disorder.

Further,

A Harvard study shed a little bit of light on the possible connection to diabetes and possibly obesity. The researchers put 10 people on a schedule that gradually shifted the timing of their circadian rhythms. Their blood sugar levels increased, throwing them into a prediabetic state, and levels of leptin, a hormone that leaves people feeling full after a meal, went down.

In other words, having a properly tuned circadian rhythm is pretty damn important. The use of occasional melatonin along with exposure to a bright light source in the morning, either to outdoor sunlight on a bright day or a Verilux lamp, helps to entrain a healthy circadian rhythm.

The majority of people shouldn’t use melatonin every night however – it is a hormone after all, and if you continuously consume exogenous hormones, your body will stop producing it’s own.

And that about does it. Remember, this is all in the name of experimentation and seeing how far I can take things. I want to see just how much energy and motivation I can have. I’ve tried hundreds of different supplements and protocols in the past, and this is the cream of that crop. I’m sure in the future I’ll be able to narrow this list down even more but in the mean time, this is giving me the best results.

I encourage you to try some of this out and see how it effects your day to day life, and feel free to contact me to get a highly effective, personalized plan.

The Mind and Why Meditation May be the Ultimate Hack, Pt. 2

In Part One of this post, we discussed the inherent problems involved in having this great little tool we call our mind – namely that it acts largely out of our control. You want to move on from a painful break up, but your mind won’t stop thinking about it. You want to sit down and study, but in a few minutes you find yourself lost in the endless scroll of Facebook. Someone says something and it offends you; instead of being able to move on, you’re left wondering if what they said was true for the rest of the week.

Meditation is a powerful way to bring your mind under your control. In the last post we discussed how there are two main types of meditation – “focused attention”, where you narrow your field of focus to one object or sensation, and “diffused attention”, where you remain passively aware of sensations as they arise.

Focused attention types of meditation have obvious benefits – by being able to strengthen the mind so that you remain aware of one thing to the exclusion of others, you’re able to redirect the mind from negative thoughts and emotions and towards positive ones.

But what about the benefits of diffused attention types of meditation?

Awareness and Phenomena

When it comes down to it, there are two things that make up the experience of your life – your awareness and everything else.

Your awareness is simply that part of you that is conscious, that is aware of what is going on. It has no emotions, has no will of it’s own, it is simply, passively aware. It’s sometimes called “The Knower”.

Everything else, everything that awareness can be aware of, falls into the category of “phenomena”. This is a key point – if you can be aware of it, you can create some “space” so to speak, and step back from it. You can step back from grief, from anger, from boredom, from pain or any other negative emotion or sensation, which greatly reduces it’s influence over you.

The more you are able to operate from that part of you that is pure awareness, the more you are able to find peace. Put another way, the more you practice meditation techniques, which train your awareness and allow you to see things as they really are, the less you’ll be at the mercy of negative emotions.

Watch just the first two minutes of this video for an explanation from none other than Jim Carrey.

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI1KKveHFGA

Very closely tied to your awareness is your ego – your will (that which decides what to do), your wants, your desires, your fears. These are so close to your awareness that they can be difficult to see clearly at first – where as something such as the sensation in your foot or even a thought crossing the mind can be easily “seen” by awareness, it’s a bit more difficult to “see” that part of your mind that identifies as “you”.

The next layer of the mind has all your memories, your visualizations, your thoughts, your emotions, your feelings, all these things that the mind registers and that is somewhat easy to see as distinct and separate from awareness.

Still further from awareness is the sensations of your body, the sensations coming from all 5 of your senses, and further still is the “exterior world”, which you only interact with through the 5 senses.

All of these come together to form the almost seamless experience of “you” and “your life”. But when it really comes down to it, there’s just awareness, and everything else.

When it comes to meditation, it’s good to be able to split these things up, and it offers a useful paradigm through which you can understand the mind and your experience in the world. Suddenly things aren’t so solid, things aren’t so stiff and inflexible. “You” aren’t angry, there’s just awareness of this certain set of sensations that’s called “anger”. “You” don’t want 3 bowls of ice cream, there’s just awareness of this set of sensations that we call “desire”.

The more you’re able to identify with pure awareness, the less power emotions, desires and fears have over you. This doesn’t mean you’ll become an emotionless robot, it just means that when negative emotions hit with full force, you’re able to take a step back, analyze them and tone the volume down quite a bit. You’re able to view a negative emotion as just one more temporary sensation. Once the emotion is defined, described, measured and observed, it loses almost all of its power over us.

Mindfulness Meditation

To be mindful of something is simply to be aware of it. When practicing mindfulness meditation, the mind remains actively aware of the phenomena in the present moment. You can choose to be aware of your entire field of sensations, including those coming from the 5 senses and those coming from within the body and mind, or you can limit your field of awareness, say to the sensations of walking or the sensations from eating food.

Yup, this can be your meditation practice

Basic Mindfulness Meditation – In it’s most basic form, mindfulness meditation involves simply bringing the mind into present moment awareness. Instead of allowing your mind to wander willy nilly, just gently bring it back to the sensations of the present moment. It can be summed up as “Be Here Now”. If the mind starts thinking about something that happened yesterday, you bring it back to the here and now. If you start wondering what you’ll do tomorrow, you bring the mind back to being aware of the present moment. The mind can switch between being aware of the sensations in the body and being aware of the external world, or even a combination of the two, as long as the mind isn’t daydreaming unchecked.

This has the dual effect of not only strengthening concentration as a “focused attention” type of meditation would, but also allows you to more clearly come to understand your mind and with it, your emotions, desires, fears, etc.

Play around with the following types of meditation and see which kinds you like best.

A nice mindfulness-based practice is called body-sweeping – you slowly sweep your attention from the bottoms of your feet to the top of your head, noticing all the sensations along the way. You may notice that your feet are sore from standing, that there’s tightness in your lower back, that you can actually feel some of what’s going on in the digestive system. You’ll notice your heart pumping, your lungs breathing and you may even feel your pulse in multiple parts of your body. Start from the feet, slowly work your way up to the top of the head, and then back down again, completing as many rounds as time allows.

Conversely, you can sit and just watch as thoughts pop up in your head. Simply remain passively aware of your thoughts and pay special attention to how they show up unannounced, stay briefly and then disappear. Watch as this process happens again and again and again, but don’t interfere with your thoughts. Don’t try to block them, suppress them or encourage them – simply remain aloof and aware. The thought “I wonder what’s for dinner tonight?” pops into your head. Simply watch this process begin, last briefly and end, without continuing to think about dinner.

Mindfulness of Emotions –

By being mindful of things as they are happening, we’re able to notice negative emotions brewing and nip them in the bud, as well as to be aware of our behavior and adjust accordingly.

Further, if we can take a step back and begin to catalogue our emotions, this can lead to some powerful insights. The best way to do this is to describe emotions in as much detail as possible when they arise.

By being mindful, you’re able to notice when any sort of emotion arises. When it does, take a second to really get to know it and map it out.
Let’s say you feel anger. What exactly does anger feel like? Where do you feel it in your body? Is there a sudden tightness in your chest? Are your hands clenching? Has your stomach tightened? Take a minute to notice where anger seems to reside in the body.
How does anger feel mentally? Is your mind suddenly reeling? Has your mind become a bit heavy, or has it become more active? Does the mind feel “hot”?
How has it changed the content of your thoughts, the words and pictures in your mind?
What does the actual emotion of anger feel like? You’ve felt it physically, you’ve noticed it mentally, now try to describe it emotionally. This might be hard to describe verbally, but it’s important to recognize the feeling of anger.
Finally, try to zoom in and dive deep into this emotion. Just become as aware of it in it’s entirety as you possibly can. Recognize it as a certain type of energy within the body and become as aware of it as possible.
Once you’ve looked at it from all these points of view, you’ll realize it doesn’t have as much power over you anymore, and the more you do this, the less power negative emotions will have. It’s suddenly just a well-defined, limited collection of sensations, and further, you’re able to see that it isn’t you, and that it doesn’t last. You’re the calm awareness at the center of the storm, which remains unchanged as different emotions come and go. Remember that.

BONUS TIP – Go do some Shinrin-Yoku, the Japanese word for “forest-bathing”, while practicing mindfulness of just sights, sounds and smells.

“Every study so far conducted has demonstrated reductions in stress, anger, anxiety, depression and sleeplessness amongst the subjects who have participated. In Japan there are now 44 accredited Shinrin Yoku forests.”

Simply go take a walk in a forested area, while being mindful of the sights, sounds and smells of the forest. When the mind wanders, bring it back to present moment awareness of the experience of being in the forest, out in nature.

There are plenty more types of meditations out there, the benefits of which I’ve just barely begun to dive into. Interested in how to use meditation to overcome specific problems in your life? Contact me.

The Mind and Why Meditation May be the Ultimate Hack

The mind is a fickle, ephemeral beast – one minute you sit down to plan out your day, and the next you’re wondering what the hell is wrong with Lady Gaga.

See? That was the first thing my mind thought of.

While we could go down an endlessly fascinating (to me at least) discussion about what the mind is, and whether the mind is “you” or just a part of “you”, we won’t. Rather, let’s look at practical ways to utilize the mind as the powerful tool that it is.

The Problem

Many people are under the false illusion that they are in control of their minds, and by extent, are in control of “themselves”. We are in control of ourselves, but only to an extent. Sure, you can plan in advance what you’re going to wear to a party on Friday night, but how in control are you of your reactions to your angry boss? How in control are you of your fears? When you lose a loved one, how in control of your emotions are you?

All one has to do is sit down to meditate for the first time to become painfully aware of our utter lack of control over our mind. You sit down and say to yourself, “I will focus my attention on the breath.” You do and succeed for the first four seconds, at which the point your mind starts thinking about that party on Friday night, which leads to the conversation you had with your best friend about the party, at which point you start wondering why your friend has seemed a little distant lately. 4 minutes later you realize you’re not focusing on the breath and try once more to focus on it, only to again get whisked away into pointless thought.

At this point, that old adage about a “monkey mind” starts to make a little more sense, only it’s more like a monkey drunk on Jägerbombs in a toy store.

Don't try to play cute, I'm on to you — Don’t try to play cute, I’m on to you mister

Try it! Right now, set a timer for five minutes and see how long you can sustain full attention on just your breath. See how many full in breaths and full out breaths you can last until your mind distracts you with anything but the breath.

And here in lies the problem – our mind, which is our direct interface with ourselves, our emotions, our thoughts and the exterior environment, is largely out of our control.

This leads to three main issues :

You can’t stay focused – you can’t give full attention and energy to tasks, problems, and activities that you find important, because your mind is always bringing up other issues, often pointless and painful issues. This leads to a decrease in performance and general lack of ability to get things done.
The mind ruminates on useless/painful subjects – If you were in complete control of your mind, you wouldn’t be stuck in a mire of painful emotions and thoughts about why you got dumped, or about your dog dying, or why you got fired. Feeling these painful emotions is a necessary part of life, sure, but endless ruminating on them day in and day out is pitiful.
The mind won’t do what you want it to – Be it focusing, ending painful ruminations, solving problems or just trying to stay positive, the mind almost seems to have a mind of its own.

The Fix

Luckily, we have an easy answer to the problems of our Jägerbomb-fueled monkey mind – meditation. Meditation is one of those topics that used to be considered New Agey, “woo-woo” or, at best, fit into the category of pseudo-science.

Not anymore. Meditation has been thoroughly proven to be beneficial, not just for the mind and mental issues, but for everything from boosting the immune system, lengthening life, lowering the perception of pain, boosting brain density and cortical matter, to lowering stress and promoting neuroprotection.

Further there are an enormous variety of meditational styles and techniques to choose from, so finding one to your liking shouldn’t be too hard.

Two Types of Meditation, and How They Improve Your Life

Generally speaking, there are two basic types of meditation. One where your mind focuses on one specific stimuli to the exclusion of all others, and one where your mind remains open and passive yet alert, being aware of sensations just as they are and as they occur. To avoid dogma and any religious connotations, we’ll call these two types “focused attention” and “diffused attention”, respectively.

Most all types of meditation fit loosely into these two categories, though there are also meditations that are more like “thought experiments”, where you pick one topic and analyze certain aspects of it. A good example of this third type would be meditation on death – you’d analyze how everything born eventually dies, how there’s no stopping death, and how you should use this knowledge to motivate yourself to get as much done in this short time you have as possible.

Focused Attention Meditation

This is a pretty straight-forward concept. You pick a sensation, object or mental image, and try to focus your attention on it to the exclusion of all others. It could be a candle flame, a cross, the sensation of the breath, energy points or chakras, a short prayer, a mantra, a deity or image of a holy person, or even an abstract concept.

This has a few main benefits as it relates to your mind.

First, because you’re focusing your attention on just one thing to the exclusion of all others, you’re training your mind to do what you want it to do, to ignore distraction. This has a multitude of benefits – less distraction in your life, more control over your mind, the ability to move your attention away from the unpleasant (whether its negative emotions, negative thought loops or painful physical sensations) and onto the task at hand.

This means that as you gain proficiency in focused attention types of meditation, you gain the ability to consciously choose to remove awareness from negative or distracting stimuli, and instead place it where you want it to be – this has massive implications for students, people in high-pressure jobs, athletes, those with depression or anxiety, those in pain, and the population in general.

Further, this type of meditation is extremely calming. In fact, in Buddhism this type of meditation is called shamatha, which directly translates as “calm abiding”.

The process of Shamatha within Buddhism - note the gradual taming of the monkey and the elephant — The process of Shamatha within Buddhism – note the gradual taming of the monkey and the elephant – at first the black monkey and elephant run away, unruly and untamed. At the end the purified elephant, once the source of much frustration, becomes the vehicle on a flaming rainbow highway to the heavens…

As this study states –

The results of Study 1 show that both focused (Shamatha) and distributed (Vipassana) attention meditations of the Theravada tradition produced enhanced parasympathetic activation indicative of a relaxation response.

The study Self-reported Mindfulness and Cortisol During a Shamatha Meditation Retreat (Jacobs, 2013) reports that

Larger increases in mindfulness were associated with decreases in p.m. cortisol

Remember, cortisol is our primary stress hormone, too much of which leads to irritability, feelings of stress and weight gain. Don’t forget that these benefits are in addition to those listed above – increased grey matter, improved immunity and a lengthening of life due to increased health at the genetic level.

How to perform a “focused attention” type of meditation

Pick any object that resonates with you, either internal or external – it could be an external image of a cross, the word “love” or “God”, any mantra from yoga, anything that has appeal to you. The more appealing, the better. A candle flame in a dim or dark room is a good choice as most people hold a natural fascination with flames. I’ll be using the sensation of the breath at the tip of the nose as an example, as we’re always breathing and thus can do this meditation anywhere.
Set a timer for 10 minutes (as time goes on, gradually increase to at least 20 minutes a day)
Sit in a comfortable position and gently instruct your mind to remain aware of the sensations of the breath at the tip of the nostrils, and tell the mind that it can go about it’s normal ruminations after the session is over.
Then shift your attention to the sensation and feeling of the breath flowing past the nostrils.
Because this is a relatively “light” sensation, it will help in the beginning to either count or pair a word with the in and out breath. Breathe in, noticing the sensation of the breath, breathe out, noticing how that feels slightly different, and mentally say “One”. Repeat up to Four, and then start the cycle over again. Conversely, you can say “In” while you’re breathing in, and “Out” as you breathe out. You can use the mantra “Buddho” (pronounced boo-doh), breathing in with a “Bud” and out with a “Dho”, or, if you’re Christian, you could use Yahweh, in with “Yah” and out with “Weh”.
Your mind WILL become distracted. This is absolutely normal and should not be a source of frustration. Try to notice when the mind slips from it’s object, then gently and non-judgementally return the awareness back to the object of meditation. This will happen again and again and again, and at this beginning stage of meditation the entire name of the game is noticing this happening and returning the awareness back to the object of meditation.
When the timer goes off, sit for a minute or so and relax your mind. Allow it to naturally do whatever it wants. After a minute, get up and reward yourself with a piece of dark chocolate or something similar, and then go about your business.

Cliff notes – 1. Sit. 2. Instruct the mind to gently remain with the object of meditation. 3. Focus on the object of meditation, gently returning the awareness to the object when the mind wanders. 4. Sit for a moment after meditation, relaxing the mind, and then reward yourself with a small treat.

If you get a headache, feel tense or feel frustrated during or after meditation, you’re trying too hard. If, when the timer goes off, you realize you just spent the whole session lost in thought, you’re not trying hard enough. The classic analogy for this sort of problem is how you would string a guitar or other stringed instrument – too tightly and the strings will break. Too loose, and the instrument will be out of tune. You’ve got to find the right balance between sustained effort and relaxed, calm awareness.

Think of returning the mind to the object of meditation as completing reps in a workout. As you continue to bring the mind back to the object, your mind will get “stronger”. As you increase the amount of time you’re able to stay with the object of meditation, it’s like you’re increasing the weight that you’re lifting. In this way, your mind gets stronger and stronger, until you’re able to focus on what needs to be focused on and riding white elephants on rainbows just like in the image above.

Stay tuned for the second part of this post, where I detail how to use “diffused attention” meditations and how they can help you overcome the main sources of frustration and pain in your life.

Quick and Dirty Tips

My latest blog post is taking a while, so here are four quick tips to read in the meantime. Enjoy!

1. Coconut oil for weight loss, improved cognition, and boosted immunity – While coconut oil has definitely started to verge on becoming a fad, there are quite a few reasons to add it to your diet.

In place of other fats, coconut oil may aid weight-loss – 60% of the fat found in coconut oil are medium chain triglycerides, or MCTs. These shorter fatty acids bypass normal digestion and are absorbed straight into the bloodstream through the liver, where the body preferentially burns them as energy instead of storing them away as body fat.

The MCTs in coconut oil are readily converted to ketones, small molecules that the body can use for energy, just like it would for sugar. This provides an immediate supply of energy not only for muscles, but for the brain as well. While normal folk may enjoy a nice boost of clear headed energy from coconut oil, it’s especially important for those with Alzheimer’s disease, during which brain cells can become resistant to burning glucose, leading researchers to believe that some forms of Alzheimer’s disease to be a type of diabetes. However, these glucose-resistant brain cells have no problem utilizing ketones as a fuel source.

Finally, coconut oil is nature’s richest source of lauric acid, comprising nearly 50% of it by weight. Inside the body, lauric acid is converted to monolaurin, a powerful little compound with antiviral, antimicrobial, antiprotozoal and anti fungal properties, with many infections being unable to develop a resistance to it. Coconut oil also contains capric and caprylic acids, two more anti-fungal compounds.

My suggestion? Spend 20 bucks on a few months supply of coconut oil and use it in place of other fat sources. Concentrated MCT oil is also available.

2. Avoid Carbs in the Morning – Cortisol, a catabolic, fat-storing hormone, is highest in the morning.

This is actually a good thing, as it acts as a natural caffeine, waking you up and preparing you for the day. But because cortisol increases fat storage, it’s best to make your breakfast low in carbs, instead having a healthy mix of protein, low-carb, high-fiber veggies/fruits, with a small to moderate amount of fat.

Think an omelet with onions, mushrooms and peppers, a smoothie with blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, chia seeds, protein powder and unsweetened almond milk, or even a breakfast salad.

3. Keep cortisol low to reduce stress, lower body fat and have more energy – Let’s get some things straight about cortisol – it is an absolutely essential hormone, responsible for proper energy levels, feelings of alertness, and even helps regulate blood sugar. The problem, as with all things health related, is the balance of cortisol. Too little and you’ll be plagued with fatigue; too much, and you’ll be constantly stressed, unable to put on muscle and unable to prevent fat gain, the dreaded skinny-fat.

Fortunately, as long as you haven’t dug yourself into adrenal fatigue, there are easy ways to lower cortisol to keep it right in that optimum range.

According to this study, yoga is an easy and effective intervention to reduce cortisol to a normal range –

The findings support that yoga may act at the level of the hypothalamus by its ‘anti-stress’ effects (reducing the cortisol), to bring about relief in depression.

Further, considering the fact yoga results in an almost 30% increase in GABA, our main calming neurotransmitter, you’re getting a one-two punch in reducing stress levels.

One of my most favorite herbs, ashwagandha, has a strong cortisol-lowering effect as well. According to a 2008 study, ashwagandha “significantly improved scores on a standardized measurement of stress intensity… Moreover, at the end of the study period subjects that received 500 mg of ashwagandha daily had cortisol levels nearly 30% lower than subjects who took a placebo, and their DHEA-s levels were significantly higher as well.”

DHEA is a mood-boosting, muscle-building, fat-reducing hormone that starts to decline each year starting in the early 30s, at roughly 2% a year. Any increase you can get in DHEA is a good thing.

You can also use phosphotidylserine, a phospholipid naturally present in milk and soybeans. This study states –

Pretreatment with both 50 and 75 mg BC-PS (phosphatidylserine) significantly blunted the ACTH and cortisol responses to physical stress.

You can buy 120 capsules at 100 mg each here.

4. Meditation lengthens life, improves cognitive processing speed, improves neuroplasticity, and delays the aging of the brain.

It’s incredible how certain single activities have such a multitude of benefits – exercise, yoga, looking before you cross the road. You can now officially add meditation to that list.

Meditation protects telomeres, which are the end caps on your DNA. Longer telomeres are positively associated with prolonged life, meaning anything that protects telomeres will likely lengthen your life. Meditation prevents the shortening of telomeres, thus likely lengthening your life.

Recent research at UCLA shows that meditation helps not only strengthen connections between existing neurons, but increases something called gyrification. This is the amount and thickness of folds in the pre-frontal cortex – more folds, more surface area, and an increase in memory and information processing speed.

As the study states, “there seems to be a positive correlation between cortical gyrification and intelligence (Luders et al., 2008)”, meaning an increase in gyrification (through meditation or other means) should increase intelligence as well.

A 2009 study concludes that,

meditation may reduce stress-induced cortisol secretion and this could have neuroprotective effects potentially via elevating levels of brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)… In one cross-sectional study, meditation practitioners were found to have a lower age-related decline in thickness of specific cortical regions.

This means two things. First, because of a decrease in cortisol and an increase in BDNF, meditation is neuroprotective, protecting the brain against damage and stress, while at the same time increasing neuroplasticity, the ability of the brain to form new connections between existing neurons.

Second, meditation prevents the age-related decline in grey matter, literally preventing the aging of the brain.

Not to mention meditation lowers stress, boosts the immune system, lowers blood pressure, reduces pain and leads to a general increase in happiness and quality of living. Stay tuned for future articles on meditation and yoga, I’ll be getting pretty in depth with these topics.

Interested in how to utilize these concepts to get the most out of life? Contact me for a free initial consultation.

Fine Tuning Your Biochemistry to Suit Your Needs

What do 90% of Americans do first thing when they wake up in the morning? They get out of bed, go downstairs and reach for some coffee or tea. Why? It gives them energy, motivation, focus and transforms them from grumpy, sleepy zombies into happy little worker bees, buzzing about. This is because of caffeine’s effect on their biochemistry.

Caffeine blocks adenosine in the brain, which is a neurotransmitter that causes sleepiness. Caffeine also causes dopamine to be released, which is responsible for the increase in attention, motivation and improved mood, as well as norepinephrine to be released, which makes you alert and energized. Norepinephrine is also why you’ll find yourself on the john half an hour after your first cup.

Photo fred The Oatmeal and DBG Technologies — Photo cred The Oatmeal and DBG Technologies

Caffeine is just one substance that you can use to alter your biochemistry in a favorable fashion. I’d love to help you learn how to do just that, but first you have to agree that you understand that this is just a website, that I’m not a doctor, and that anything you decide to do because of this article should be checked out with your primary care physician first, especially if you’re on prescription meds or have depression, anxiety or any other mental illness. There are no cures presented here, just ways to help you get the most out of life.

Let’s get on with it.

First, we need to understand a few terms and concepts. A neurotransmitter is a molecule used for communication between neurons in your brain and nervous system, and can be either excitatory, inhibitory, or both.

Excitatory neurotransmitters include

dopamine
epinephrine (adrenalin)
norepinephrine
acetylcholine
PEA
glutamate

Inhibitory neurotransmitters include

GABA
serotonin
melatonin
glycine

Your mood, outlook and energy levels are strongly correlated to the exact ratio and proportions of the neurotransmitters that are active in your brain at any given moment. This means that if you can tweak the levels of your neurotransmitters, you can positively steer your mood and outlook as you see fit.

Don’t overdo it, though. The body is always trying to maintain homeostasis, and increasing one neurotransmitter too much leads to its receptors becoming de-sensitized, and eventually even a loss in those receptors – this is how addiction and withdrawal forms.

Increasing dopamine – Results in increased drive and motivation, increased pleasure gotten out of most activities, and improves mood and confidence. You’ll remember this feeling as the first cup of coffee of the day, having sex, eating delicious food, or engaging in any rewarding activity

Beautiful, beautiful dopamine. My favorite neurotransmitter. This is responsible for the buzz or high coming from caffeine, cocaine, adderall and other ADHD meds, as well as the more subtle “high” to be achieved from completing rewarding tasks. Go hike a mountain, and when you reach the summit, drink deep from the springs of dopamine.

There are two methods you want to utilize to enhance dopamine, the first of which is making use of long term supplements and strategies to resensitize and increase dopamine receptors. This will have the net effect of causing you to be more motivated, energetic, confident and focused, as well as receiving more pleasure out of most actives, without having to take any substance. It will also enhance the effects of short-term dopaminergics, making them more effective.

You can simply have a few cups of gynostemma tea, an adaptogenic herb from China, to resensitize your dopamine neurons. Inositol works as well, but I find it easier to simply drink a few cups of tea. On top of this, cut back on activities that deplete dopamine – things like constantly texting, checking Facebook and other social media, drinking too much alcohol or coffee, or any other semi-addictive behavior.

Both intense physical exercise as well as fasting are perhaps the strongest methods to re-sensitize the brain to dopamine, and act as a “reboot” for the brain in general. If you aren’t getting regular exercise we need to sit down and have a serious talk, and I strongly advise fasting at least a full day once a month.

Remember, these are long term strategies, and while you may notice benefits within a week or two, it’s ideally something you’d continue to do throughout life.

You can also use occasional supplements to increase the body’s production of dopamine, in much the same way you can use coffee as a morning or mid-afternoon pick me up. L-Tyrosine has been my go-to dopaminergic substance, as it is easily converted into dopamine within the body.

You can also use DL-Phenylalanine, as some of the Phenylalanine will be converted into L-Tyrosine and thus dopamine, and some of it will be converted into PEA, a feel-good neurotransmitter that some have dubbed the “love chemical”. You can also get hefty doses of PEA and the endogenous cannabinoid anandamide (ananda = bliss in Sanskrit), from cacao, either in powder form or in a very dark chocolate bar. Both are very potent mood-boosting compounds.

Further, dopamine can be converted into epinephrine and norepinephrine, two more neurotransmitters that increase energy and alertness.

Have a serious coffee addiction? Try cutting the amount of coffee you consume in half, and use a bit of L-Tyrosine or Phenylalanine for a synergistic energy boost. Both work well any time you need a pick-me-up or need the extra focus and attention. Use anywhere from 100 to 1000 mg, at once or split evenly in 3 doses throughout the day. Take note that those on prescription MAOIs, those with hypertension or those with Phenylketonuria should not take tyrosine or phenylalanine.

GABA – An increase in GABA results in feeling relaxed and at ease. Prescription anti-anxiety meds act on GABA receptors in the brain. That relaxing feeling you get after drinking a nice glass of wine is due to alcohol releasing GABA within the brain.

GABA, which stands for gamma-aminobutyric acid, is the main inhibitory neurotransmitter within the brain. GABA produces a nice relaxed feeling, and is involved in decreasing stress and calming the brain enough to fall asleep.

Increasing GABA is especially useful for those who are stressed or suffer from anxiety. Instead of taking pharmaceutical drugs, why not just try to increase the body’s own production of GABA?

According to this study, performing one hour of yoga resulted in an average of 27% increase in GABA levels, which is huge.

One of the best ways to relieve anxiety is by using ashwagandha, one of my favorite Ayurvedic herbs. It’s been found to a be a potent GABA-mimetic, mimicking the effects of GABA without actually changing brain levels of the neurotransmitter. Perhaps even more beneficial is it’s rejuvenating effect on the brain –

Ashwagandha, its constituents and the metabolites of its constituents promote the growth of nerves after taking it for 7 days… It has anxiolytic effect [relieves anxiety] and improves energy levels and mitochondrial health.

Ashwagandha also has a unique ability to lower the stress hormone cortisol. A 2008 double blind, placebo controlled study showed that, “Over a 60-day period, doses ranging from 125 mg to 500 mg daily of a patented ashwagandha extract (Sensoril®) significantly improved scores on a standardized measurement of stress intensity, and also favorably modulated several biomarkers… Moreover, at the end of the study period subjects that received 500 mg of ashwagandha daily had cortisol levels nearly 30% lower than subjects who took a placebo, and their DHEA-s levels were significantly higher as well.”

I recommend this ashwagandha product, which contains 250 mg of the patented ashwagandha extract Sensoril used in the study above. It’s 10 bucks, you have no excuse.

Another excellent choice for reducing anxiety and inducing a sense of calm is L-Theanine, a rare amino-acid like compound found only in green tea.

The most cliched picture of green tea I could find. — The most cliche picture of green tea I could find

Straight from the LEF website, L-Theanine, “has traditionally been used to enhance relaxation and improve concentration and learning ability (Vuong 2011; Wakabayashi 2011; Nathan 2006).

L-theanine is chemically related to the neurotransmitter glutamate, and binds to glutamate receptors in the brain (Cho 2008). Unlike glutamate, however, which can cause a state called excitotoxicity that can destroy nerve cells, L-theanine protects brain cells against excitotoxicity, calming the nerve networks in the brain (Kakuda 2002; Nagasawa 2004; Di 2010).

L-theanine reduces evidence of anxiety and depression in several different animal models of stress (Yin 2011; Heese 2009). In one animal model, L-theanine led to decreases in nearly all frequencies of brainwave activity, indicating a state of calmness and relaxation (Dimpfel 2007).

In one study, healthy subjects took a soft drink containing green tea enriched with L-theanine while their brainwave power was measured (Dimpfel 2007). Power was initially reduced in all frequencies and areas during the first hour, indicating relaxation. Later changes indicated both an increase in mental performance and a higher degree of relaxation. In this case, L-theanine seemed to produce desirable increases in attention, accompanied by durable relaxation—that means subjects could concentrate better without being distracted by anxiety.

A third trial concluded that L-theanine plays a general role in sustaining attention during a long-term difficult task (Gomez-Ramirez 2009).”

L-Theanine has such wide-ranging and strong effects because it increases brain levels of GABA, Dopamine and Serotonin, as well as having affinities for a few other receptors involved in attention and cognition.

As I commented on in my post about A Few Effective Biohacks, combining L-Theanine with caffeine is a powerful brain boosting combo – all the benefits of increased attention, mood and energy from the caffeine, as well as the neuroprotective and zen-like focus from L-Theanine. Some people recommend a dosage of 2:1 L-theanine to caffeine ratio, but I get better effects from a 1:1 ratio. You can play around with the doses and see what works best for you.

You can supplement with straight L-Theanine, or you can consume matcha green tea, which has high levels of L-Theanine, more caffeine than regular green tea, as well substantially more EGCG, the potent anti-cancer, fat-burning antioxidant.

Serotonin – Serotonin is responsible for feelings of relaxation, as well helping to curb hunger, improve mood and help with sleeping patterns. You know that warm, happy, comfortable feeling you get after eating a large bowl of ice cream or anything sugary? That’s serotonin.

I’m personally not a big fan of trying to increase serotonin. While I like dopamine’s mood- and energy-boosting effects, and GABA is useful for focus or relaxing, serotonin makes me feel dopey and lazy. Everyone’s different however, and many people do benefit from a little boost in serotonin, so I don’t want to leave it out.

Serotonin is the neurotransmitter targeted by most anti-depressants, but considering up to 50% of people don’t respond to these anti-depressants, I wouldn’t be quick to claim serotonin is the “happiness” neurotransmitter. That said, if you’re on anti-depressants or taking any MAOIs, don’t try to supplement with any extra serotonin, and nobody should take huge doses of serotonin supplements (or any other supplements) as it can lead to serotonin syndrome.

The reason sugar leads to a serotonin buzz is because the insulin released from consuming sugar sweeps most other amino acids out of the blood stream, but leaves behind tryptophan. Tryptophan then makes its way to the brain unimpeded by other amino acids, where it is first converted in 5-HTP, and then into 5-HT, or serotonin.

While you can supplement with 5-HTP, I suggest you don’t as there is concern about it affecting the heart, and instead simply eat more carbs or supplement with tryptophan.

Acetylcholine – While being a very important neurotransmitter, acetylcholine doesn’t have much of a “feeling” or affect your mood. It is extremely important for memory and learning, however, and may be involved in creativity.

This is the neurotransmitter you want to focus on if you have a lot of studying to do, if you’re trying to learn something quick, or if you just have bad memory. Many people who use nootropics, or cognitive enhancers, have at least one supplement that tries to increase levels of acetylcholine within the brain.

To increase acetylcholine, you can simply consume more choline – the best food sources are liver (just eat it), eggs, grass-fed milk and cheese products, peanuts and cruciferous veggies. You can also supplement with choline – Alpha GPC is a highly bioavailable source of choline, or you can use Acetyl-l-carnitine (ALCAR), which can increase levels of acetylcholine by donating its acetyl group. ALCAR has a whole host of other benefits as well, including being a potent neural antioxidant, helping the mitochondria to burn fat for energy, and is a strong cognitive enhancer in its own right.

In conclusion, many people are unaware that you can tweak your biochemistry to get an edge in life, or just to help you unwind or handle stressful events calmly. This knowledge can make a huge difference in your life and your ability to get things done.

Tapas and Embracing the Uncomfortable – Keys to Success

There’s no doubt about it, I’ve lived a pretty comfortable life so far. That’s great for a little bit of personal enjoyment, but you know what it isn’t so great for? Moving up in life. Why strive for greatness, risk losing things and do a whole lot of work along the way (in short, get uncomfortable), when I can just comfortably stay where I’m at?

Turns out I needed to embrace the uncomfortable – I needed to roll my sleeves up and dive head first into discomfort. The truth is we’ll never really get anywhere unless we embrace the uncomfortable, unless we actively seek out discomfort.

The Stoics of ancient Greece, the Yogis of ancient (and modern) India and many others along the way welcomed discomfort into their lives, because they knew that if they weren’t experiencing some level of discomfort, they were likely stalling, not making progress in life, and wiring their brains to play it safe.

You aren’t making progress if you aren’t getting uncomfortable.

In fact the Yogis have a word for this very concept – Tapas. Tapas is one of the Niyamas, or Observances, needed in order to transcend the ego, which is the actual goal of Yoga. Tapas is the heat or fire needed to burn away the dross that covers and dulls the mind – examples of Tapas could include meditation, fasting, vows of silence, asceticism or even sexual abstinence. The physical postures, or asanas, are a form of Tapas as well.

When I first got into Yoga I was very drawn to Tapas, and in the course of about a month went from being lazy and hedonic to drastically cutting back on everyday pleasures. I went long periods without using social media, stopped aimlessly browsing the web, starting eating simple, plain food, fasted every Monday, and essentially cut out all “time wasters”. At the same time I read plenty of books on a variety of subjects (no fiction though) and did yoga and meditated daily. And by God if I didn’t notice the biggest increase in clarity of thought, calmness of emotion and a huge boost in productivity.

The reason I bring all this up is to help you realize that in order for you to reach your goals, whether it’s losing weight or making your first million dollars, you have to be willing to put in the time, work and effort and be uncomfortable.

Want to lose weight? You’re likely going to have to give up a few comfort foods, start eating new foods you’re not used to, start exercising with more intensity and regularity, etc. The good news is that not only will you start losing weight, but you’ll start adapting to these new discomforts – at which point you’ll have to adjust your regimen so as not to plateau.

I recommend getting uncomfortable every day – train yourself to embrace discomfort.

Maybe you fast on Mondays. Start your morning off with a cold shower. Pick up meditation and meditate 15-30 minutes each day. Do a hundred pushups every Tuesday. I highly recommend fasting from social media for one day once a week, or a few days in a row each month.

Do this toughness training along with the discomfort that comes with aspiring to achieve your goals. This way, when the going gets tough and you need to buckle down for the big storm, you’ll pass with flying colors because you’ve been preparing this whole time.

Train your brain to accept and welcome the uncomfortable, and recognize it as a sign of growth, progress and enhanced resiliency. Neurons that fire together wire together, so make sure your neurons are wired to embrace the uncomfortable.

Leave a comment below and tell me about how you’ve had to embrace the uncomfortable in the past to get where you are now.