Original subtitles

[THEME MUSIC]

If you're watching this episode,

I'm assuming that you have seen at least some of "Missing

Links."

And one of the things that probably became very clear

in those episodes is that we live

in a world that's changing.

And it's changing in ways, that we've never seen before.

We're in uncharted territory in many respects.

We don't have a good guidebook to tell us

how to navigate through the waters of change

that we find ourselves in today.

So the program itself laid out the science,

and some of the applications in terms

of what that science means in our lives.

But what I want to talk to you about right now

is the specific examples of lifestyle,

and how we can change and adapt our lifestyle

to this time of extremes.

And I want to be very clear about the purpose.

Some people were talking about how do we survive the changes.

I don't know about you, but for me I

want to do more than survive, I want to thrive.

And that's precisely what these changes do.

They allow us to thrive in an environment that's shifting,

because we've embraced the fact of that shifting environment.

The topics some people talk about diet,

I prefer to think of it more as nutrition.

Diet brings to mind some kind of a regimen

that we do for a period of time to achieve a goal.

And when that goal is achieved, maybe we stay with it,

maybe we don't.

It works for some people, but for me I

prefer to think of it as a way of living,

and the nutrition that I give my body everyday.

So, I want to talk to you about nutrition, exercise,

supplements, and about the heart-brain connection

that we've talked about in "Missing Links."

When it comes to nutrition, what the scientists are now

telling us, and they think is new information,

parallels very closely the wisdom

of our most ancient and cherished spiritual traditions.

And that is simply this, the closer

that we can gather our nutrition from living foods,

plant-based diet, specifically the more nutrition,

and the better quality of nutrition

it creates for our bodies.

Now, for a lot of doctors I know,

they're saying it's like it's something new.

But I want to share something with you.

I mentioned in previous episodes that the Nag Hammadi library,

for example, the Gnostic Texts.

That library was edited in the fourth century

by the Catholic Church, and there were at least 43 books

we know that were either removed altogether, or condensed

and replaced.

Among those books, the Gospel of Thomas.

Thomas being the scribe that recorded

the words of the master teacher, Jesus,

as he spoke to his community.

So, this isn't about a religious man,

this is about a master teacher answering

for his community many of the same questions you're

asking me.

They were saying, Master, what is it

that we should eat to bring strength

and health to our bodies?

How do we bring healing to our own bodies?

What he said to his community was this.

He said, the things that give life to your food

will give life to your body, also.

And the things that destroy your food will destroy your body.

I don't know about you, that cannot be any clearer to me.

In the eloquent masterful words spoken over 2,000 years ago,

he's telling us what the best science of our time

has found for today.

That when we overcook our foods, when we hydrogenate them

with oils, when they're processed

through artificial ways of creating substances

that really aren't food.

If the food that we're eating doesn't

come from a garden in the earth where you can identify it,

it's probably not food.

And I think this is so true.

So, the closer we can get our food

to its natural source, the better quality of nutrition

that we're going to find.

Almost universally, scientists have agreed that a plant-based

diet is optimum--

doesn't mean that we shouldn't eat meat.

If you're going to eat meat, it has

to be really cleanly grown, fed, with the kinds of nutrients

we all know the terms free-range,

grass-fed all those kinds of things.

But here's the thing, and I know this for myself.

When I travel, it's hard to eat well every single day.

And I know people that beat themselves up when they

can't honor that commitment.

So, I'm going to share with you the promise I

made to myself a long time ago.

I'm living in the real world.

I'm walking in this world, doing the best

I can to be the best person I can to share with you what

I know to be true.

And the promise I made to my body

is every meal that I ingest in that moment,

I will give my body the absolute best that's

available in that moment.

And if it's not what I typically eat, that's OK.

Because that's the best I have in that moment.

The next moment, the next opportunity

I have for a meal, if I'm given a choice

between a beautiful meal of something

that I would typically choose and some tasty snack

that the airplane is offering me,

this is where the workshop of my life begins.

Because the promise I made to my body

was to choose the best that's available in that moment.

And I'm going to do that every single time.

So, this is the promise I made to myself.

I don't typically eat a lot of pasta,

for example, when I'm home.

On the road, it's possible you can

be a non-carnivore and starve in some

of the most beautiful hotels in the world that

have beautiful food, but it's not

the kind of food that is grown in our father's garden,

for example.

So, I'm going to invite you just to think about those things.

If you can give yourself the highest quality of nutrition

at every meal, that's key number one.

Number two, movement.

Our bodies are designed to move.

We typically think of exercise in the way

that we do, as a diet, that it's something you do in a moment,

and then you're done with it.

If you can think of exercise more

as a way of being throughout the day.

And every opportunity that you have, move parts of your body

if you were living in the jungle 10,000 years ago,

parts of your body that you would need to move and to use.

So, it can be simple things.

When you're walking through an airport,

you have a choice between taking a moving stairway

and moving under your own volition, take the walk.

You've been on a plane or you've been in the car,

it's good for you to do that.

But the whole definition of exercise is changing.

Exercise physiologists now are telling us

that what we used to think of as exercise 15 and 20 years ago,

high intensity aerobics, distance running, and things

like that here's the key.

They can be good for us, however,

what they mean to our bodies changes as we age.

So, at different points of our life, different ages

of our life, our body interprets different kinds

of exercise in different ways.

For example, high intensity aerobics,

distance running for man or a woman under 40 years old.

These, are examples of where we can optimize,

the way our bodies are functioning.

After 40, as the hormones begin to change,

our bodies interpret that kind of exercise

completely differently.

So, what does that mean?

It means after 40, we are looking

for the kind of exercise that is high intensity, short duration

intervals.

So, maybe 30 seconds of a very high intensity cycling,

running, push ups, anything.

30 seconds all out, as hard as you can.

Resting for 15 seconds, and then going into another interval

of another kind of movement.

And what the studies are showing is

if we can use multiple large muscle groups simultaneously,

that's where we have the greatest benefit to balance

the hormones for both men and women over 40,

as our hormones begin to change.

We're both talking about estrogen,

we're both talking about testosterone,

progesterone, DHEA levels-- the precursor

to every one of the hormones in our bodies.

We need to optimize these.

And our bodies will interpret exercise differently

after the age, right around 40, it's different for everyone,

but generally, right around 40 years of age.

So, that's why people I know, 50's and 60's, are

on the treadmill, they're doing the cycles.

They say, man, I do this every day,

and I seem to be gaining weight.

And I seem to be out of shape.

My muscle tone is gone, it's flab.

Our bodies, after the age of 40, interpret that kind of exercise

as the need to pack on the weight to prepare.

Because the body says, I don't know

how long I'm going to need to do this or when I need to rest.

So, it's a completely different signal to the body.

I'm inviting you now to check this stuff out for yourself.

Do your due diligence on what works for you,

but the idea of exercise is changing.

That's number two.

Number three, supplements.

A lot of controversy about supplements.

In an ideal world, 10,000 years ago,

the food that we get from the garden

that we grow in our backyard may have had all of the nutrients

that we need to sustain our bodies.

And the very sad truth is right now,

even the best homegrown gardens where

we cultivate our own mixture of soil, the tests

are showing that the food that comes from that

does not have the density of nutrients

that our bodies were accustomed to over 10,000 years ago.

That means it's a good idea to supplement.

There is no one size that fits all,

everyone needs different supplements.

And this is where where medical science

can help us pinpoint this.

You can't beat medical science for diagnostics.

So when you do your blood test, you

can find out the annual physical what is it that's optimized?

What are you low in?

And you can supplement accordingly

with high quality therapeutic dosages

of standardized supplements.

And you can do an internet search.

There are really, really good supplements that we can buy.

Not necessarily stuff off the shelf at the neighborhood

grocery store, because the quality of what

we find the tests have shown it varies,

it's not always what's on the label.

So, you have to be really aware of these things.

But a couple of key ones--

CoQ10 is an enzyme.

Every every cell in our body is using CoQ10, and especially

our hearts.

And our hearts are undergoing a lot

of stress emotional stress, because of the uncertainty

in the world right now.

Physical stress for many of us.

Emotional stress translates into physical stress.

CoQ10 is an absolute every day.

The vitamin C, for example.

What studies are now showing is that our bodies actually

need much higher doses of C than what we've been led to believe.

The FDA, you know, recommends at least 1,000 to 2,000 milligrams

a day.

Here's the key, vitamin C in the past has meant

rose hips, which are not tolerated well

by the human body.

They upset the stomach, digestion,

your body doesn't know what to do with those.

There's another form of vitamin C that's

called ascorbic-based vitamin C. What that means is it is giving

your body everything your body needs to create its own C.

And this opens the door to a really interesting

conversation.

Humans are one of the few mammals that do not

create their own vitamin C. Most mammals create

their own vitamin C. If you've ever been a pregnant woman,

your body kicked in the enzymes it needed to create vitamin C.

And you actually created your own vitamin

C while you were pregnant.

At the end of your pregnancy when you gave birth,

that system begins to shut down again.

And what it tells us is that we have the capability.

That there are genetic programs within us now

that seem to to not be activated in the way

that they may have been in the past.

That's why it's important to supplement with C.

A good B complex.

Vitamin K is one that is often left out

in the multi supplements.

And vitamin K, people think that's all

about blood clotting.

Well, there are different kinds of K there's K1, there's K2.

Here's the thing vitamin K is necessary in our bodies

to transport the magnesium and calcium into our bones

that people take as supplements.

Women, especially after menopause,

begin taking a lot of magnesium and calcium,

thinking they are strengthening their bones.

If the vitamin K is not present, it will never

find it into the bones.

It builds up as plaque in the arteries.

People that are taking these tremendous amounts of calcium,

magnesium, and they're finding hardening in the arteries

and high instance of stroke.

And they just attribute it to old age.

It's not old age, it's because they're taking supplements

that can't be utilized.

So, they're building up as plaque.

Another one, vitamin C. If your body is low on vitamin C,

your body will adjust to that by creating cholesterol

to strengthen the inside of the arteries,

in response to the lack of vitamin C.

So, the flip side of that is an increase in vitamin C

creates lower cholesterol and actually

is healthier for the arteries.

These are connections that aren't often

made in our society today.

The fourth aspect, heart-brain coherence.

I've talked about this in depth in one of the episodes

in "Missing Links."

The ability to harmonize our heart and our brain, two organs

into a single, potent neural network.

In addition to the spiritual implications of intuition,

deep intuition on demand, direct access to the subconscious,

super learning like Jason Bourne, where

you have total recall of everything,

because we're in the gamma state.

Those all come from harmonizing the heart and the brain.

But in addition to all of that, if you're not

into any of those things, harmonizing the heart

and the brain is good for us.

What it does is it kicks into high gear

our immune system, our anti-aging hormones.

And it kicks into high gear our body's ability

to create the DHEA that's the precursor

for every other hormone.

And what the laboratory studies have shown

is that three minutes of heart-brain coherence,

where we optimize this conversation

between the heart and the brain, increases our DHEA levels

over 100%.

100%, and these are the precursors

for all the other hormones that we need.

And that increase will last up to six hours

without doing anything else special, simply

from allowing this heart-brain coherence to come into place.

So at a very high level, these are four categories

of conscious lifestyle, conscious change that I

have found personally, that I've shared with friends when

they ask in their audiences.

What do we do to fortify ourselves

in a time of extremes?

In the presence of the greatest change

of 5,000 years of recorded human history technological change,

social change, economic change--

all coming down in a single generation.

How do we strengthen ourselves to embrace and thrive

in that kind of change?

The four things I've shared with you

are very high level categories that give us insights

into precisely things that allow us to thrive

in our time of extremes.

There is a medical model that has been in place.

It's a story that's part of the scientific story that

is in place.

It was built, late 1800s, early 1900s.

And even though the new research has

shown that part of that model is obsolete,

there is a fight to hang on to an obsolete story.

And sadly and honestly, a big part of that

is the economic incentive to hang on to an obsolete story.

If we continue to live according to some of these old beliefs,

it assures a constant market, and the need

for new medications, new drugs to offset

the side effects of unhealthy choices in lifestyle.

And these are all lifestyle choices.

This is the beauty of what we're talking about.

Everything that I've just shared,

all comes under the heading of choice lifestyle choice.

And more often than not, now, new studies

I've seen a number of studies were

published in the journal of American American Medical

Association and some of the scientific journals

are saying the diseases that are taking the most lives are

lifestyle-based diseases.

And I have personally been in cultures

in South America in the Andes, in Asia,

where the incidences of cancer--

breast cancer, prostate cancer, uterine cancer

Alzheimer's and dementia--

they simply do not exist in these people's lives,

even though they are living advanced ages.

So, to call these diseases a product of aging,

makes no sense at all.

It's not about the aging, it's about how

we live as we attain those advanced ages.

And the fact that there are societies and cultures that

don't reflect any of those kinds of diseases

tells us it's about the way we've been conditioned to think

and live our lives today.

A perfect example of this, I spend a tremendous amount

of time in the high Andes of southern Peru,

and I have since the 1980's.

The capital is Cusco.

And Cusco is over 400-year-old community,

surrounded by native villages.

Recently, fast food chains have come into Cusco,

giving burgers, french fries, and chicken.

Making it available in large batches,

hydrogenated oils, fried foods.

And now, for the first time ever,

the young people, the incidences of diabetes,

are on the increase with children,

because they have made this a constant diet.

We've seen this within a span of only 20 years.

You can see the change, and their ancestors never

had these kinds of--

they ate meat, but they ate clean meat

that came from the environment-- guinea pigs,

mostly, that come from the environment.

So it's all about lifestyle, the choices that we're making.

And I think we owe it to ourselves

to embrace these deep truths.

But it all comes down to the first thing

we said in this episode.

And that is simply the things that give life to our food,

give life to our bodies.

And that is so eloquent, so simple, so powerful.

And I think about it every single day,

every time I create a meal.

Is this the best I have to offer in this moment?

So in the "Missing Links" series,

there were a couple of places where

I talked a little bit about the discovery of telomeres-- number

one, the very special pieces of DNA

at the end of each chromosome that determine, in large part,

how long the chromosome lives.

And subsequently, how many times that cell can divide.

So, I talked about that a little bit.

Um, I want to tie that in to this conversation

that we're having about diet and exercise.

Because everything I just shared with you, plant-based diet,

foods that come from the earth, rather than

come from a machine that's produced them,

then there's supplements that we need

in in very specific proportions or ratios

the exercise in our lives that mimics the movements we would

go through if we were living, in a little closer to the earth,

if we were living, more active environments

outdoors, heart-brain coherence.

Every one of these things that I've mentioned

is now being shown to have a direct effect on our DNA,

in general.

And specifically, on the telomeres

at the end of the chromosomes.

So, let me talk to you just a little bit

about what that effect is.

The purpose of the telomeres is very similar--

if we think of shoelaces.

I'm wearing boots now, so I don't

have the shoelaces to show you.

But if you can imagine at the end of shoelaces,

typically, there's a little plastic cap that

keeps the ends from fraying.

As long as that cap is there, those laces

are easy to lace up on our shoes.

Telomeres serve a very similar function on the end of the DNA.

Every time the cell divides, the chromosomes divide.

And the way the division, without getting really

technical, the way the division happens,

the ends of the chromosomes will become brittle and break off,

and will not go through the complete division intact

and that's OK.

Nature has accounted for that by putting the chromosome,

or, the telomeres, on the end.

So when the incomplete breakage happens,

it doesn't happen in the juicy stuff

where all the information is, it happens

in the telomeres that are designed to be broken

and shredded.

So, that's the good news.

The flip side of the good news is every time the cell divides,

the telomere loses, a little bit of its length.

That's OK, because it divides again,

it loses a little bit more.

But that's OK, there's still some there.

Divides a little bit more, but you

can see where this is going.

Over time, it will lose so much.

The telomere will become so short at the end

of the chromosome that it cannot protect that division.

And when happens, we call it old age,

we call it senescence, we call it death.

So, this is the determining factor for how many times

a cell can divide is how long those telomeres are.

In 2009, Carol Greider and Elizabeth Blackburn,

two Nobel Prize winning scientists,

received the Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine

for the discovery of an enzyme.

And if you haven't seen the episode that talks about this,

you're going to love the name of the enzyme.

OK, so telomeres are what give the cells the longevity.

The name of the enzyme is called telomerase,

and that tells the whole story.

The sole purpose of the enzyme telomerase

is to heal, rejuvenate, and lengthen the telomeres.

The catch is something has to activate the telomerase.

The reason I'm saying this now is

because everything I said at the beginning of this episode

activates the telomerase-- nutrition, exercise,

supplements, and specifically, heart-brain harmony.

It's called heart-brain coherence

when we tune our heart and our brain

so that the signal moving up through the vagus nerve,

and down through the spinal cord.

So, that signal is optimized at .1 Hertz, a very low frequency.

When we can tune our heart and brain to .1 Hertz,

that is an optimum conversation.

And one of the effects is it triggers the telomerase

in our bodies that activates that telomerase

and can actually stop the aging process,

reverse the aging process, and make those telomeres longer,

no matter how old we are.

So, this is the beauty of how the science is tying everything

together.

And it helps us to understand, some

of the traditions that I've studied

were where monks and nuns have lived,

exceedingly long lives 120 years and more.

But they don't look like they've lived a 120 this is the key.

There's one way of thinking that says we come into this world

as a vessel, for example, a vessel of life.

And we have X amount of life that we begin to use up

from the moment we're born.

And you've probably heard this term

that we begin to die the moment we're born.

That's a way of thinking, and it's

embraced by a lot of people.

But the science is showing something very different.

It's more accurate to say that we begin

to heal the moment we're born.

That the vessel of life, it's not a finite vessel

that we begin to use up over time.

It is a vessel that's being constantly replenished.

And we replenish it through the choices

of lifestyle we make every day--

nutrition, movement, supplements,

heart-brain connection what we call our spiritual practices

all contribute to filling this vessel.

So, here's why I'm saying this.

When I am with an indigenous person,

and I talk about these in some of the books in the exercises

I was with a Tibetan nun, for example.

I had the entire conversation with her

as we hiked up the side of a mountain to a monastery.

And it was only after she went indoors

that my Tibetan guide asked me the question.

He said, Did you enjoy your conversation with the gaeshi?

He said, How old do you think she is?

I said, I would guess she's probably in her early, maybe,

mid 80's.

He said, the woman you just talked to is 120 years old.

The key is our thinking when someone is 120 years old,

we think about "Raiders of the Lost Ark" or the chalice

where you find a knight hovering over an ancient secret that

looks like he's frail and fragile.

But if an individual has learned to embrace these principles,

then the body keeps replenishing itself.

You don't look like you're using up that last droplet of life

from a finite vessel, you look like you're constantly

replenishing.

And the nun did.

Her skin color was good, her eyes were good,

her walk was great.

I mean, she was walking ahead of me

up the side of a 16,000 foot cliff.

And I asked her a question.

I said, what do you attribute your longevity to?

And she pointed like this to the--

she goes to the monastery.

She says, what do you think we do here?

She says, I live what's in these texts.

I live what's in these practices.

The practices are compassion.

Compassion is a factor of heart-brain coherence.

It is the end product.

First, we have the experience of sympathy for others

and other forms of life.

And from the sympathy we develop empathy

for others and other forms of life.

Sympathy, we can recognize the suffering.

Empathy, we can identify with the suffering.

Compassion is the ability to witness the suffering

without getting lost in the hurt.

And that experience is directly linked

to the heart-brain connection that triggers longevity

in the cells, that releases the telomerase.

So, why do we see so many people of advanced age

in these monasteries and nunneries?

Because they are living in their lives

the principles that science is now developing.

And in all fairness, they don't have

to deal with the challenges of life

because they are protected, buffered

in the bubble of that monastery.

You and I live in the real world.

The monastery, for us, is the world around us.

And we have to find the way to live

our truth in a world that's constantly changing

and challenging our truth.

And one of the ways that I found to do that

is by embodying every one of those principles

that I've shared to anchor the deepest

truth of who I am in the world.

So when I walk into the world and I'm challenged,

that's my rock.

I call it my rock.

And as long as I know what my rock is,

that's what I know absolutely to be true in my life.

As long as I can hang my emotional body

and my physicality on the rock of what

I know to be true in my life, I find the strength

to move into any unknown situation, any changing world,

any audience, any challenge.

And I know I'm going to be OK, because I know who I am.

And I'm learning more about who I am by sharing this

and by exploring these episodes.

When it comes to the accouterments of spirituality,

everyone learns differently.

And that's why it's good that there

are so many different tools to help people learn.

If a crystal, placed on a third eye or worn around the,

throat chakra-- tourmaline around the throat chakra.

Or, an elixir coming from a mushroom fermenting

in the back of the refrigerator first thing in the morning.

If that is useful to you and your spiritual path,

then I think it's good for you to follow that,

as long as it's useful.

Here's my caveat, these are tools

that can help us achieve a state of awareness

and a way of being.

The ultimate goal is for us to become those things

without the tools.

So if the tools help us to reach a state of being,

and then we can let the tool go, it has served us.

If the tool is something that we feel we have to have every day,

and the moment we feel stressed, when we say, Oh God,

where's my crystal?

Oh God, where's my you know, people hooked up

to the computer for biofeedback-- oh God,

I've got to have my biofeedback.

If we get to that point, then the tool has become a crutch.

And only you know when your tool crosses that line.

Is it still a tool for you that helps

you to become the most empowered being that you can possibly

become?

Or, have you given your power away to your tool

and allowed it to become a crutch in your life?

If you don't know the answer to that,

ask yourself, if I'm out in the world,

if I'm walking down the street and something crosses my path,

and that throws me into an emotional chaos,

can I deal with it without having my gadget?

And if the answer is yes, then it

tells you that your tools have served you.

And if the answer is no, that tells you, in that moment,

that your tool is a crutch not right, wrong, good, or bad,

you're just being honest--

it's a crutch for me right now.

How can I move from this place of a crutch

to an empowered state where it's nice to have?

And if I don't have it, I'm OK without it?

And this is the way I feel about everything, in our world,

including medicine.

I think medicine is an amazing tool

to help us restore a health and the feeling to our body.

And once we know what it feels like to be healthy,

once we know what it feels like to be well, when we can claim

that feeling in our bodies, there

is a facet that I didn't get to talk about of our existence.

I didn't get to talk about in the "Missing Link"

series mirror neurons in our brain.

Mirror neurons are a special kind of neuron.

When they witness something happening,

our brain can't tell whether or not

we're seeing it in someone else or experiencing it

within ourselves.

So when we listen to music that we like, for example,

it will light up very specific places in our brain.

The studies show that when someone is playing the music,

the same places light up in their brain

light up in our brain, even though we're not

playing the instrument.

So, simply by having the experience,

our same places in the brain light up,

whether we're witnessing or whether we're

having experience.

This is important when it comes to healing.

If we can claim the feeling of healing,

or if we can witness that healing in others,

if we can appreciate what the whole, complete, fully enabled,

fully capacitated human looks like and behaves

like and claim that for ourselves,

our brain will begin to release the chemistry in our body

that matches that.

Because our brain doesn't know that

we're witnessing it in someone else.

So, all of this is my way of saying to you,

whatever you do in your life to move you along in your growth

and in your spiritual progression,

I think it's a good thing to do--

be conscious and aware.

Ask yourself, is this my tool, or is it my crutch?

And your answer will tell you what your next step is.

So, we've covered a lot of ground in this episode.

And we began talking about factors of lifestyle

to empower us, to help us to thrive in the changing world.

If I had to mention a single word that encapsulates

everything that we have done today,

for me, that word would be choice.

Because it is all about choice.

There are people in the world and in our families around us

that will never make that choice that you and I are talking

about making, and that's a choice for them.

And I want to be very clear, it's

not right, wrong, good, or bad.

It is about what makes our hearts sing,

where we find our greatest joy in life.

So, I'm inviting you to honor the choices that you make

for yourself, and to be conscious and aware

that every moment of every day, you are making the choice.

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