Fasting Space

Are you looking to improve some habits?

Have you read this book?

Atomic Habits, or have you just heard of it?

Or do you have no idea what it's about?

Either way, I'm going to dive in today

to a key part of this book.

Key suggestion that I just love.

And, we are going to step toward it.

I know I'm excited about it because I don't know about you,
but I am looking forward,

to just dialing in more and more.

Make the habits, make the process better.

You know, we are a process. That's what I say.

We are a process of becoming something new.

Hopefully,
even if it's just like the version of ourself of the future,

even if we say it looks
the same, we're still being new in every moment,

so we might as well just refresh ourselves,

refresh our thinking in everything we're doing.

So really, looking forward, to that.

What is a fasting space? Okay.

If we're here together, actually practicing fasting together,
I think that's cool.

And then fasting,
if you had something to eat, if you're just learning about it.

Okay. Fasting space.

A place to learn about this beautiful, process of openness.

That's what fasting is.

And learn about the mental processes
that can help us to do this practice.

I didn't call this channel easy fasting.

I call it simple fasting because it is the very most,

direct, and simple way to lose weight.

But there can be struggle with it,
just like there is struggle in so much of life

and so much of what has profound value in life.

Has this been your experience as some amount?

There's a barrier to it, some amount of struggle
required to attain something valuable.

My experience
and the experience of many people that I have, worked with

practicing fasting is that as you embrace

what can be the difficulty of it,

you come to see that that difficulty can fade.

And really that fading is a process of becoming stronger
and increasing strength in the body.

Fasting, definitely a type of strength.

I want everybody strong
and recognizing the strength and power in the body.

So this is fasting space. Come together and do it.

If you're not actually fasting,
just realize, hey, this is a mindset as much as anything else.

A mindset of contentment.

A mindset that is, in many ways countercultural.

You know, we're here in a consumption culture that teaches us

conditions, says you got to consume your way to health.

If you even stop for a moment, you are going to be in trouble.

But fasting, showing us a beautiful path that actually

we are strong and powerful
and then for quite a good deal of time.

Not forever, but for quite a great deal of time.

We'll be doing just fine.

Thank you very much for.

All right. We're going to move toward it 1% better every day.

How would you like to get 1% better today?

1% more dialed in?

That's a big theme of atomic habits.

Look at the subtheme of this book.

Tiny changes, remarkable results. How can that be?

How can you make a tiny change
and have something remarkable happening?

Okay, here's the analogy from this that I love.

You're taking off in L.A.

You're heading to New York,
but then a 1% shift, you end up in Washington DC.

Tiny change take you somewhere totally different.

And I love this analogy for so many reasons,

because a cross-country flight is a long journey, right?

A path of becoming someone new, you know, someone different.

That doesn't happen overnight.

Every sort of, lose weight, quick thing,
you know, all the marketing and the hype.

Okay, listen, we are on a journey.

You know what I mean? Health is a journey.

Health is our life.

Our life is a journey and a process.

So getting 1% better every day, if that's enough, that's

what I say would take the pressure off everything about what
I want to do.

I take the pressure off myself.

Right now,
I'm all amped up, so excited about the habit scorecard.

I do love it.

Gene's clear says

here as he's going to start teaching us about this practice.

Says one of our greatest challenges in changing

habits is maintaining awareness of what we're actually doing.

Do you find that?

So many times, like we set out in a direction,
we set out with a thought,

we have an intention,
and it's like we are just living in Distraction city, right?

And our whole life between whatever our responsibilities are,
our work and relationships

and just society and everything that is happening

can be very hard to stay dialed in on.

Something. Do you ever feel that way?

It's like we just get kind of dialed in on something
and we get broadsided by, something else.

It's like,
put the fires out and it's like, oh, why wasn't I doing this?

We gotta dial ourselves back in.

This is why any sort of process is not right.

There's, there's a winding road to a destination

because life is filled with unexpected, twists and turns.

This helps
explain why the consequences of bad habits can sneak up on us.

We're not really aware of them.

We need a point in car system. That was yesterday. Remember?

We say just like when we're doing things,
we need to start calling it out.

This is a process of building awareness.

I love that.

Put a point in our system, in our personal lives.

That's the origin of this habit.

Scorecard a simple exercise you can use

to become more aware of your behavior.

We want to be aware of what we're doing right.

Fasting. To me, I describe a practice of openness. Right.

We are opening up space in our life, space

in the diet, space in our consumption pattern.

And we are a mind body.

We start opening up that physical space in the body

that is opening up a corollary space in the mind.

The mental process.

And it helps us to see and feel the connection
between mind and body.

Lots of stuff can come into that space, hunger
being the most obvious, right?

And we talk a lot.

How do we flow through that space?

How do we deeply understand it?

And then so many things tied into that.

Let me show you.

He's so he's saying you might start with a list
of just the morning routine.

You know,
we don't here's we're breaking it down. Atomic habits.

You don't have to make a scorecard for our whole day.

We say let's win the morning first.

You know, you it's like,
let's get dialed in on the morning routine.

You could or you could say, let's score.

Let's make a scorecard for the afternoon.

Let's make a scorecard in the evening.

Like, where is it? Place where you struggle the most.

Are there spaces where you know where it's like,
oh, here is a food

situation, here is an emotional situation,
a relationship situation.

It keeps happening
when and what are all the things that are surrounding it?

Let's build a picture of the environment.

You know, if you go back through the channel,
you look at the talks

that we've been done doing about how our environment

shapes our thinking, shapes
our behavior, helps us flow through certain decisions.

Right.

Because so much of what we do in a habit

is because something worked for us and then we remember it.

And so it becomes automatic so we can flow through a situation
without having to make so many decisions.

Like, do you ever get decision fatigue where it's like,
I don't know if I can make one more thing.

So just to flow through a space is like the easy way to go.

And what we're trying to do in this whole process, to prime
and give ourselves the structure

so that everything that we want to be doing

becomes as easy as possible.

So he's got a list here.

Here's everything that's happening in his morning.

It's like he's getting up.

Turn off the alarm. Check the phone.

When you myself go take a shower, brush, floss, teeth,

the odorant to get dressed, make some tea.

And he's like, he's flowing through this list. Right.

So he's just getting like, here's everything that's happening.

Just does a level right.

You see, maybe you actually put it on an index card
like I can see you could have some cards,

could do a couple of them, you know, throughout the day
and say, hey, here's everything that is happening.

Things that are a one off, you know,
don't have to go on a card, but it can be a fluid list.

So like every day, you know, we got space.

We can fit 20 things on an index card.

Like what are the things that are happening?

And then we can build out this, list

and say, once we got this list
and I'll show you an example from the book

saying, look at each thing that is happening and ask yourself,

is this a good habit or a bad habit or a neutral habit?

If this thing is happening is a good put a plus

if it's something that you don't like, so put a minus.

And if it's neutral, okay, just put a little equal sign by it.

Now we're really kind of dialing in on it.

All right let me flip over I'll show you this.

Picture from the book.

This is how he, is showing it on a thing.

So you got this card.

You got the thing that you're, doing is flowing

through the morning, and, and then you're kind of scoring it.

And so now all of a sudden, if you've got a list,
everything that is happening.

So you were totally bringing awareness to it.

And maybe a bunch of things are neutral,
you know, got to wake up, got to turn off the alarm okay.

There's are things happening.

Can't can't really change it. You know.

Okay. But look check the phone.

That's a minus.

That's the next thing that happened, okay?

That's bringing stress into our day right away. Right.

So can we try to just give some space?

Let the body let
the mind wake up in a peaceful, centered place.

Like,
if that's your path for him, he's trying to minus that one

and know say, okay, we get some pluses and,

you know, check the weight, check in, make a tea.

Right. Say tea for him.

It's like we want to move toward that.

Positive okay.

Have you ever done something like this.

Just a total inventory of what is happening.

Like, wouldn't it be powerful to do all of a sudden,
you know, the something pop?

You know, this would be like a key, win

if you're like, oh, I start doing my habits scorecard.

And all of a sudden it's like, yeah, look at this.

You know, here is
something is routinely happening and it's getting a minus.

Now you can flow through it right

now, you can get to it
and you can use a strategy from yesterday.

You can call it out, you know, as you're, doing it,

you say, hey, I'm eating the thing.

This morning that I didn't want like, yet here I go.

And you don't have to judge it, but just this is a process

of bringing awareness to it is like the first level.

Here's how he describes
you know, how we can use this and get into it.

The marks that you give to a particular
habit will depend on your situation and goals.

There's someone trying to lose weight.

Oh yes, to eating a bagel with peanut butter
every morning might be a bad habit.

I would say it's not going to help you
practice fasting, right?

You know, so it's like,
do you want to open up some fasting space in the morning?

I'd go with the tea like he has on the scorecard. Right.

Grab a coffee. Gravity. That's what I say.

If you can flow through that space
instead of running the body off the bagel

and peanut butter, it's like, just run it off yourself.

Run it off the energy storage.

This is the process, the process of doing nothing.

This is what I say.

This is the simple and direct process.

You just went overnight.

You digested all the food from dinner.

You got everything kind of put away.

You're in the prime spot
where the body could start burning some energy.

Like, do you want to get into the reserve layer?

Don't don't put the bagel in. Right.

So I agree with that.

But listen, when he says someone else is trying to bulk up
add muscle, same behavior could be a good habit.

Even somebody, trying to, bulk up.

I would, I would try to avoid the bagel.

I tried to get as many processed foods out for anybody
in any health situation.

I would, I would tell that person instead of the bagel,
with peanut butter, you know, something more natural.

How about a banana with peanut butter?

You know, just less processed.

But it all depends on what you are working toward. Absolutely.

There's no one size fits all process for, everybody.

We got the same tools. I love.

What what was the talk
the other, month, clues to the weight loss puzzle.

Love that thinking. Right.

We've we've all got the same health tools,
but we utilize them in different ways.

So here's the scorecard.

Can this be like an unlock?

So, hey, like, what is the spot where I am stuck?

What is the habit that we need
to gently move toward and change?

Scoring habits can be more complex for another reason as well.

He says. Labels.

Good and bad habits are really inaccurate, he says.

There's really not no such thing as good or bad.

There are only effective habits and things that are not
effective, meaning effective at solving problems, he says.

Actually, when you look at it, all habits are serving you.

In some ways,
even what we call a bad habit isn't that interesting.

This is why we repeat them, because they do.

Doing something for us. You know? See the good.

Remember, even in darkness, even in difficulty,

even something we're struggling with, we try to see the good.

I say, what is the good that is happening?

We see. Isn't this the pattern that we try to do in life?

We run away. We try to hide from things. We.

We bury things down and bottle them up
when really the path that we are doing is

say we want to turn and look at things
and we want to fully understand and realize them.

This is actually the process of healing
and letting go of difficult

things are getting trapped in their cycles
that we're stuck in.

Don't run away from them, flow through them and overcome them.

For this exercise, you're saying the pluses and minuses.

Think of them by how they will benefit you in the long run.

Things that are benefiting you in the long run.

Give them a plus right?

Things that are not benefiting you in the long run.

Give them a minus. He says, look at this.

Smoking a cigaret might help you feel less stressed right now.

See, that's how it is serving you.

But not necessarily taking you to a better place in the long
term.

Right?

So I would give it a minus.

A double underline this next sentence. Okay.

This next sentence.

To me I feel like we can change our whole lives with this
next sentence as we're thinking about our behavior, right?

We have awareness.

We're scoring it out.

We're just saying here is what I am actually doing.

Here is the reality.

Remember everything that I'm trying to help us do
on this channel, on this program.

Right?

Just look at reality,
be completely honest and open like what is really happening,

what is really serving me, what is no longer serving me?

What can we let go of?

Remember,
our society is all about like you have to do things right.

You want to result, you have to do.

And then I'm telling you, look at the other side of it.

Have a big process of moving

forward is actually not doing of just saying no to things.

Look at the example that fasting is giving us.

It's nothing.

You can make incredible process in health
by just doing nothing.

And it's the process of saying no to all these other things

that is actually helping us to move forward.

Here's my favorite sentence maybe of the whole book so far.

Does this behavior help me become

the type of person I wish to be?

We can change our whole life with that sentence.

Do you feel that way?

I feel that way.

We've done some deep thinking.

I say on that, question and that session back in the fall.

The most important question in weight loss.

What do I really want?

And then this book challenged us.

That was the question I asked.

And this question, this book pushed us even deeper. Who am I?

You know, I the and so maybe we can go even deeper.

But those two questions very related.

You know, who am I?

Who is this person.

And then from that place, like, what do I want?

Everything flowing out of identity,
you know, so often this this book is so many golden ideas.

Remember we had that section, the target at that many times.

Like we have actions out here
and we try to come at things by changing actions

to force them inside to change, when really it's like

if we can start in the center, who am I and what do I want?

Then things can flow out.

We start answering this great question
in this with this scorecard and we're looking at it who am I?

What do I want?

How does this behavior
help me become the type of person I wish to be?

Then when we're looking at our scorecard and we're looking at

everything that is happening,
we're seeing what is in alignment.

You know, what is the actual way of being,
see what we're trying to do in life and health

is we're trying to find a way of being in the world.

Where we're living in alignment with who we are
and what we want when we're operating from that place.

This is how we start flowing through all of these experiences
without struggling against them now so much.

When we
when we try to change our habits by brute forcing them first

without really feeling in line, in alignment with it,
then we end up fighting it ourselves.

It ever felt that way.

It's like, you know, you don't really
want to be doing something, but then you also do.

And then it's like you have habits with it
and you're just like, you can struggle

and be stuck in that place where it's like,
we're just fighting ourselves.

So this is the space that we're trying to get into,
this really deep space

where we're looking at the reality of the situation.

What are the things that are actually happening in our life
and then diving deep with these things?

How does this behavior
help me become the type of person I want to be?

See, this is connecting all of these, thoughts to me

that we've been doing from everything from science,

and like the actual physiology of the body,

how inflammation is happening in the body and driving in,

to hormonal processes that are controlling how energy

pathways and fluid energy storage
and release is happening in the body.

So that's one side of things.

And then the whole other side of it

that, you know, we've been bringing in the creative aspect of
how do we shape

and mold and create this experience,
which is creating the way of being.

We want that way of being to be centered and at peace

so that we can flow through

everything like this, the things we've got to do, the tasks

and the things that we flow through it without struggling,

or that we handle and cope with and manage the struggle

that that is unavoidable in life, in the best, way
that we can.

Queen of Heaven is heading out to the pool shortly.

And the sauna trying to develop a habit.

Hey, that is awesome. That sounds great.

Friend of mine rented a portable wood fired

sauna over the weekend, and they threw a sauna party.

They had, everybody coming over and going through the sauna,
and it was snowing here in Madison.

And so it's just like a blizzard.

And then we were going in this super hot sauna, and,

it was, it was so much fun.

And, you know, their neighborhood,
so many of the people that were coming, it was just neighbors.

And so, like, the whole community, like coming
in, people just cycling in and out.

And it was such a wholesome, positive, like, community event.

I was thinking of, you know, I've talked to people,
you know, in Scandinavia and Norway,

other places that that have structures
like this, making it through the winter.

And I was thinking,
you know, how nice to have, like, such a positive community.

I think that is also a practice.

We did this session, if you haven't seen it a few weeks ago.

And P fans and microplastics,

you know, all these toxic chemicals getting into our body

and that a sauna, actually a way to help sweat out
some of this nasty stuff.

So, that.

Yeah, I'd put a plus.

We're doing our scorecard.

I put a plus on a pool and a plus on the sauna.

Very healthy.

Thanks for sharing that.

I felt I know I felt so much better after doing it.

Okay, we got the score card. Here's a little caveat.

Says for the score card.

The score card is not any type of,

tool to end up blaming yourself for anything.

Okay.

And of course, this is a big thing that I try to do
for everybody here.

One of my favorite, sessions
looking toward the light lifting ourselves up.

You know, this is the, absolutely sort of mindset we want.

We're not trying to give ourselves, like, a report card,

and we're not grading it like, oh, we don't get a d-minus
if we get too many negatives.

Right. It's like, this is a process of awareness.

And like, honestly, if if you got to a score card, you know,

with a bunch of minuses on it and you're just like,
you know, it's a good thing.

So you're just generating awareness
like here's like a field of things to look at.

We want everything always please, to be so positive.

Don't blame yourself for any faults.

Look what he says here.

If you're eating a chocolate bar every morning, no judgment.

Just acknowledge it.

Just almost as if you were watching someone else.

You might say, oh,
like how interesting that they would do that, you know?

So that's nice, right? That's positive.

If you're struggling with overeating,
simply notice that you're eating more than you want.

If you're wasting time online, notice

that you are spending your life
in a way that you do not want to do.

That one hit,
that one hit me yesterday because it's like it's so hard.

Especially, you know, if we're living this digital existence,
I'm trying to create a digital,

you know, online program for people is like,
the internet is right there.

And sometimes I've got reminders like all around,

like folks try to say dialed in, you know,

but then on my personal,
I tell you, my personal scorecard of like, things

that are happening,
I say I got a minus by that of things that are like an ad

I like, hit a news, I hit a rabbit hole,
and then all of a sudden, like, I lost the time,

I wanted to dial in and try to read and come up with,

you know, beautiful thinking to help shape our experience.

And then I was like, oh, then I'm,
you know, worried about some other thing and like, it

so easy for our thinking to,

to get taken from us, you know, by algorithms.

So I got a minus on that.

It's like I want to be dialed in on

better health for myself, for everybody.

So the first step is kind of summarizing here

toward changing a bad habit to be on the lookout for it.

That's the awareness.

Once we have an awareness,
we can use our trick from yesterday point and call.

Just point at the things that are happening.

If we got our scorecard, then we can start to see it.

And then, you know,
maybe it takes a few days and we're going through it

and we're adding the things that are happening,
and then we can be looking out.

Do you see how if you've got a card and you've actually

physically written it out, you might know what's coming?

Like if you're struggling with something like this?

I was like, every time I get through this,
I wasn't going to do it.

But then, like I already did it
because our emotions are primed.

If you got a card, you can see the stuff coming,
you can start calling it out.

You can physically see it, especially if you're by yourself.

You don't have to be weird. Or you can whisper it.

You can do a mini point in call.

You'd be like, I see this is coming.

Like we got our radar up. Like we're looking out.

This is so good.

Say out loud what you are thinking.

It's making it tangible.

If you're trying to cut back on some snacking habit,
but you notice yourself grabbing

another one, you say, I'm about to eat this, but like
but this is on the card, right?

Doesn't mean you don't have to do it.

Nothing forced, right and no judgment.

But we're just
this is just a practice of bringing awareness to it.

But what you might find is that you have

you have awareness to it, like you're building up
the strength.

You're like like I say, walking along a river, no judgment.

But like when the time is right, maybe a couple days going by.

We're calling it out here.

I'm. You can just say the emotions
you can write it in a journal.

You can speak it in. This is something I've identified.

It's on my card.

I've got the minus.

I'm struggling with it. Okay. That's the work.

See, this is.

This is what it's really like to change something,

to not run away from it, to not just flow through it
and bury it.

But like, we've got really powerful tools here to, like,

see it coming, experience

it more fully, you know, at least enjoy it more fully.

Don't mindlessly doing it right.

And now we're sitting in this space and
and you speak the emotions

that are connected to it,
and you start bringing in the intention and understand why.

And what is it doing me is how we can change.

And eventually you can start speaking things.

I don't know if this is my best choice.

I don't know if this is really helping me flow
in the direction of the how did this say it?

This beautiful sentence.

Does this choice help me become the type of person
I wish to be?

And if you really have brought the intention in
and you have decided that it doesn't, and we've

we are practicing it,
then you can start speaking what you wish to be.

That I wish that I was able to overcome this process

with strength and grace and thoughtfulness.

And you will just tell you you will do it

if you bring that much intention and awareness

and you keep showing up in a space,
you can't be stopped, right?

You cannot be stopped.

If that is your pure human intention to do it.

Hearing
you have it spoken aloud makes the consequences of them

that you have recognized more real.

It adds weight and importance to the action,

rather than letting yourself
mindlessly slip back into an old routine.

Right?

That's the bringing of awareness.

Such a powerful process.

You're getting yourself to acknowledge the need for action.

That can make all the difference.

Sets you up to actually do the thing.

You know, we talk about, okay, having awareness
to do something and then actually doing it right.

That's where the rubber meets the road.
This is the first step.

We're in the cycle.

This book has the cycle a cue
that is setting us up for a habit,

a craving that makes us want it because the mind learned it.

It did something good for us in the past.

We respond to a craving in a certain way to get a reward.

That's the cycle. Cue craving, response, reward.

These sort of practices yesterday,
calling things out, speaking things.

And then today, a score card
so we can actually physically see it.

We know what's coming
so that we can break cycles and patterns.

We see it coming. We call it out.

What an incredible process
this is up in that queue phase, right?

We're trying to cut off habits right at the source.

Right as they're coming in we say nope it it.

Break a cycle. Create a new cycle. Right.

You say we have negative cycles where we flow through this
like we feel stuck in them.

We're trying to get right at the root here,
right at the beginning of the habit cycle.

And we're intervening and we're saying,
no, we're creating a new cycle and we're shaping it.

Do you see what I'm saying?

That we're trying to create a space where we have done this.

We've done this type of thing with everything on the list

that is giving us a minus and replacing it with a plus

when we're flowing through the space
now we're doing this and it creates a positive cycle right?

Like you said,
we got a minus and a bagel with peanut butter in the morning,

and we got a plus on the black coffee, tea or water.

And then we made that change. Right.

And we can do something like that.

And we say we flow through that and then we practice that.

Then we start cycling in that and like many people,

you probably come to find over a week or three,

that's like the kind of the idea
how long it takes, like shape a habit

that then that process like any other habit, start
getting in a groove with that,

then that fades into the background, and then all of a sudden

now we are we have a bit of a different way of being.

And then we can,
you know, like we got our rolodex of cards, like lists.

Now we start working on the next barrier.

This is how you use this tool,

the little scorecard, the pointing in the calling.

You use that to gently just I say just pick one at a time.

You know, it's like we don't we got a card.

It's got all these things on it.

Just pick
the one thing that you want to flow toward and work on that

and start setting up a new groove

on that until you feel good on it.

And then we start practicing the next one.

Isn't it a nice way to approach something?

I say yes, I say it is.

Let me know your experience with it.

In the days, weeks, months to come,

let me know how you feel about it.

Do you use it? Do you find benefit? From it?

How do you, Use it in your life.

And what is the effect?

I love, to hear it.

Queen of Heaven says, you know, my thing
is, don't stress the stressing out about stuff

you say is, is that actually a line item on the scorecard?

You know, it's like the day is happening, we're getting up,
and then the stress is like,

hitting is like, maybe it gets its own line item
and it's getting a little minus there.

And so maybe that is really the space.

And I would say a
what a beautiful, thing to make the focus, you know,

because like we are saying that inflammation talk
this the emotional space of stress is the link

between the our emotional space

and experience and the physical experience in the body
that, is linking the stress

into the cascade of inflammation that is driving so much

pathology or difficulty in the body.

And, so.

We can't necessarily, unfortunately, in this reality,
just eliminate stress.

Right? The world is stress.

We have to interact with it.

We have to work and all these things.

And and everybody is like here.

So we're we're going to encounter the stress.

But the key is how do we handle it and cope with it

in a way that helps the body to maintain the center

as we do our best to navigate through it.

And, so everything that helps you actually do that

are the things that are actually the wellness practices
that that help you to practice fasting.

And fasting is one of these wellness practices
because fasting is

anti-inflammatory and inflammation is happening in the body.

We open up a fasting space to help to burn up

stress hormones, inflammatory cytokines,
get everything to shut down

fasting and flow us back around
because the practice is nothing.

Help to take a burden off of the space.

Less meals to cook, less things to do,
less dishes and shopping, less money spent.

Free up resources for other things,
maybe just for higher quality food at the other place,

and higher quality food then flowing back around itself

full of more nutrients that are anti-inflammatory and healthy.

So all of the wellness practices
flow together and support each other.

And so we want to take steps forward.

And, you know, each day, like trying to do our best across

all of these domains, the healthiest food,

the balance of a fasting space

that feels good to the body
like a curious and joyful exploration,

the gentle movement that is helping the body to be strong.

And then the mental health practices
that supporting all of this, especially breathing.

Breathing just like the biggest keys.

Like how do you get through a stressful situation?

Is it just breathe through it.

You can breathe through hunger.

You can breathe through stress, like you talked to, famous

athletes and performers
getting on stage in front of millions of people.

Like they just talk about, okay, what is the key thing, right?

There's centering on the breath. Right?

Because that is what helps the body
to flow through the stress.

A deep, calm, slow breathing

is sending a message to the body that, hey, you are safe.

Everything is okay.

No need to be afraid.

And you start sending that message to the body.

That's what physically helps the body turn down.

The adrenaline keeps the heart rate down.

Those things chronically high adrenaline.

Stimulating release of cortisol.

Remember, cortisol is good in the body.

Cortisol is stress hormone.

But it's normal.

It's supposed to come out in the night, help with
repairing our body, and then it's supposed to go away again

when we're in that fight or flight mode
all the time, we're always stressed.

Cortisol in low levels, getting released all the time.

That's sending a totally different message to the body.

Remember the point of hormones in the body?

They're communication signals in the body.

The body doesn't see things, you know, really inside, the
cells communicate with each other through signaling molecules.

A hormone is just a specific type of signaling molecule
that is telling

cells about what is happening in the body.

And like this is happening in the body.

Therefore you should do this.

And so when when chronic cortisol being released
all the time is telling the body

you are not safe, you are in danger.

You need to activate the immune system.

And the immune system's like an army.

It's got weapons, it's got guns, right?

It can blow stuff up.

And that's really good.

You got some nasty bacteria
coming in trying to take over your body.

You want to call in the troops and you want to drop the bombs,
and you want to kill those things and just sterilize it.

That's what inflammation is is for, right?

Is to sterilize the things. Okay.

But when we are getting that message
all the time, we're chronically stressed.

We never even take a big deep breath.

Body's never getting the message.

Okay, now we're on a hair trigger all the time in those cells.

Can you imagine, like troops that never.

They never get a day off?

Like, it's like they are always amped up, 100%
getting trigger happy, right?

Trigger happy immune system.

That is what sends us into things, like autoimmune disease

and where it's like they're just start shooting stuff out.

it's so simple.

This is why I contain simple fasting
because you know you know

simplicity is something
that is completely underrated in our society.

Our society glorifies things that are big

and flashy and complex and technological.

And, it pays almost no mind to things that are simple

and things that have existed for thousands of years is like,
there's, a feeling.

Do you feel this in society like,
I think we're beyond that now.

You know, we got GPUs and graphics cards
that you wouldn't even believe what they can do.

Okay, we don't need to talk about things
like breathing in and out, okay?

It's like, this is just it's so far beyond.

I think it feels primitive to people say we are advanced

now, but really this is where the deviation has come.

This is why people are so unwell, because we have abandoned

the very core things, the the core foundational things

of how you actually live in a healthy and peaceful way.

The body needs these messages coming to it

that things are actually okay, you know,
so that it can shut down the attack units,

activate the healing and resting and repairing,

processes that help to maintain the system.

That's just as best I can tell.

It's just the reality of how a human body flourishes.

Think we can handle an acute stress, right?

We can do difficult things. We overcome infections. We.

We fight off nasty animals trying to attack us.

We fight it, okay? We need the stress hormones. Because.

Because that message
then fight or flight is just priming everything,

getting the muscles, praying the mind,
the heart rate, the blood flow, the blood pressure.

Just amp everything up
because you gotta make an all out effort to live.

You know,
you think about, you know, the the difficult reality of,

the struggle of, human beings,
but that sort of state that isn't meant to last forever.

And like so many things in our society, just primed.

It's like we're in this never ending emergency.

And did you just see how that can,
be so damaging to the body?

Yeah. Listen, things going to happen, right?

We we said earlier, right.

Don't bottle stuff in.

Don't keep things trapped in mind.

There's a time and a place you got to let these things out.

You don't run from it. You don't hide from it.

A stress hormone, a stress situation is the
the body is meant to have something like that.

Like not to run away from things,
not to never confront anything.

Okay.

But yeah, you can handle it's not even bad for the body.

The body built to handle an acute stress.

Okay. You can have adrenaline come out.

You can get amped up about something.

But the whole point of that, the thing, the thing about it

is that is supposed to help us survive and thrive.

We we utilize that state, say, hey,
get through something, work through something,

and then come to a place of peace
and coming to a place of peace.

This is like really good. Like that's that's the goal of it.

Well, whether it's surviving the Jaguar attack
or it's dealing with a conflict, okay.

But then settle it and move on like our society when we just,
we don't want to confront anyone.

We never want to offend anyone.

If we don't want to have some difficult experience,
then we just keep it bottled up, right?

And then then we have the chronic stress, the trauma is there.

It's never fully experienced. It's never released.

This is what we're trying to do.

The process of actually deep doing the deep work
and identifying these things,

not being afraid to experience

something difficult is the process of healing,
of how you actually get that out.

How do you get an emotion out?

How do you get a trauma out of the body
other than this, to recognize it

fully experience it, don't run away from it and release.

Give it the space to dissipate.

It's like actually the process of hanging on to
it is what keeps it.

There is. It's not even real. How does it stay?

We make it real by not letting it just blow away

in the wind, you know, like we

not that that's an easy thing to do, but you gotta
you gotta let go of stuff like that.

Maybe we need a score card
like this action session for things like that.

I was like, what are the weights?

What are the experiences?

What are the emotions that we are harboring on here?

We got to get some minuses on those, you know, just to realize

and the same process that we talked through for dealing with,
you know, a physical habit,

whether we're eating the bagel or not in the morning,
you know, we can minus that.

But, you know, can we do even a deeper layer like,

what are the weights that are down here
that I'm holding on that are keeping me stuck?

Maybe those are even underneath, our other scorecards.

You know why we are, you know, are we eating something?

You know, this is a big space.

We eat as a distraction and an emotional comfort

so that we don't open up the space
where some of those thing feelings could actually emerge.

You know?

So that would be an even deeper layer for it.

So I think it's fair to say
we all have something like that, right?

We all have multiple things like that.

Pretty hard in this, world to, to not encounter difficulty.

And we don't we don't have a system, or at least I never did.

So I don't know about you
that just tells you, hey, you've it's important to do it.

Just like who has ever told you
that it's important that you breathe.

You know, it's like the while breathing.
Just something that happens.

Like we don't give it a second thought,
but how are you doing it?

And are you being intentional?

And we've gone through the backs breathing right.

And kind of doing the double on it,
where we really stretch out

the lungs to powerfully send the signals to the body.

No, everything is really okay.

Do you ever do it in here? Let's do it together.

Now we do the box breathing.

If you're not familiar, take a big deep breath in for four.

Try to hold it for four, out for four,
and then hold out for four.

There's four in. And now we're holding for four.

And then out for four.

123, four.

And then hold in that space.

You can go in a cycle with that.

You know, you can open up a minute of doing that
five minutes, ten minutes.

You know, that's kind of amount of time.

Or you could really get in a zone with it.

I just think I'm trying to think about
when I learned about box,

breathing might have been as late as, 2016

or so, you know, I've been practicing medicine.

I can hardly believe it for quite a few years.

Never knowing about box breathing, you know, and,

is it's one of the most helpful processes, I think.

You know, when I just think about my primary care practice,
you know, how many people

coming into a primary care office
who are struggling with anxiety?

I mean, I just think about my own self, like,
how many prescriptions did

I write for a medication?

An anti-anxiety medication, before I counseled

someone just about something is fundamental is
how is your breathing and can it help?

And certainly there's a place for a medication
and use any medication you need.

But like let's just say
can we do the the basics to, you know, like

even on the way to the pharmacy,
if you say the the medicine has to happen,

like can we just to help someone feel better on the way
to the pharmacy before they could even get the medicine?

Because many people would say it's like, oh,
like if I can just breathe

like you do feel better,
like you can feel the physiology in the body.

Something so simple has helped me so much.

I struggle with anxiety so much and.

Even one breath. Do you feel this?

Even, one deep thought for intentional breath can help
you feel a little bit better.

You know, even once.

I see when I do that, I take one big deep breath here.

It's just making me already kind of do this with my shoulders
kind of roll.

Rolling out was like, oh, I can you start to feel see,
this is bringing awareness.

Now I'm just realizing
I got some tension in the shoulder, tension in the neck.

I can feel it.

Tension in the arms all the way down to the hands.

It just makes you want to do something like that.

You just start to realize
and you see, we're building the connection.

Mind and body, you see are you start to see it.

You know, we think like all stress, it's all in the mind.

Like no stress is in the body too.

Can you see that where mind and body stress is in the mind,
but stress is also held in the body.

And if you can see that that stress is in mind

and body is like, okay, well body is muscles.

So I'm talking about bodies in the muscles.

But we're all the same, thing.

Can you see how stress can be in the immune system too?

Can you see how it can be in the pancreas?

And how can you see how it can be in every cell of our body

that the stress is actually in it,
just in the same way that it's in the shoulders.

Right. And so as we breathe right.

That you can actually let the stress out of the body
so profound.

Like, you know, to me, like the fasting is like breathing.

A physical breath giving space in our emotional space
just to let breathe in some positivity.

Breathe out the stress here.

Think of fasting like breathing in our diet, right?

It's like we don't just breathe in all the time without ever.

You know, breathing out. Right?

Like it'd be like, choking is ridiculous.

Okay, just think about it. In our diet, okay?

We open up a fasting space.

It's like food is coming in.

Is like breathing in fasting space open,
like breathing out again.

And now we're starting to get in a flow and a cycle.

We're not stuck in a constant consumption
that is building up energy in the body.

And energy is reactive and it is leading to problems.

Insulin resistance and hormonal dysregulation.

Now we're getting the flow.

Sometimes the food is coming in as a big deep breath
in, as if that feels good.

Nutrition coming into the body,
just like we're breathing in love and light.

Okay. And then the release, the exhale.

Now the energy is flowing back out
as like the food energy's been processed.

We're actually using it to power the body
that energy is flowing back out in the form of the work

we do, in the form of the heat that is dissipating.

And then we see in that moment
we're running that off the food that we eat.

We don't need it in this moment.

That's like fasting as the breath.

Now you start mixing those together right in.

That fasting space itself is anti-inflammatory.

We're burning through the access that in and of itself.

So that's a wellness. You start to feel it.

Now I can feel digestive system is shutting down.

Feeling better.

Now bring in some actual breathing into it to.

Then do you see how all this flows together?

This is just all of how it flows together.

Then it's helping you to do some beautiful movement.

Now we're doing the actual
breathing helps you to feel in the body, whereas the stress

helps your body just feel what what feels good,

you know, see you move the body.

And then now we're actually physically releasing
tension in the body.

Helping ourselves to feel more emotionally grounded in there.

Because now the body's feeling better.

Now that's flowing into the mind.

Now it is cycling back around.

A mind that is more at peace,
is less in need of anything external,

less in need of any consumption in order to find contentment.

Do you see that?

That's a place of profound strength.

Contentment is a very, very strong and powerful space.

I don't need anything else totally content here.

Not taking any thing into the body.

So just giving the body
the total space for health, wellness, and healing.

People don't appreciate there is healing potential in the body

that we have only begun to appreciate.

The fasting space I call healing space in the body

can be healing
space for emotions can be actual physical healing in the body.

As like level one,
we can just see, okay, if you think of obesity

as a weight problem, as a disease, like, well, here's
the most obvious place to see it.

That is, we open up a fasting space.

Whether you call that a disease or you call it a resource,
which is how I like to think of it that way.

So we can open up this space.

And this problem, however we define it, can dissolve, okay.

Just dissolving the problem

in this space, and we flow through it in as comfortable

and thoughtful and gentle away as possible. See?

So there's an example a medical condition that we label

a chronic disease and say we can help to dissolve that.

You see.

Do you think that's fair to say?

That is a healing of the body.

Same exact process.

We can go down the line, same exact thing happening with type

two diabetes, high type two diabetes happening in the body.

Because of insulin resistance, we open up a fasting space.

Why don't you want a pill?

Doesn't society want a pill
that is just anti insulin resistance is an

that will allow you to take the pill
and the insulin resistance is gone.

No such thing. Okay.

How about a root level process where health can spring forth?

I love that open up the space like like like

think of the incredible process of type
two diabetes in this country.

It's something like $500 billion being spent on medications.

When we open up space, look what can happen.

We start having different way of thinking.

We realize, oh, type two diabetes, what is it?

The cells are insulin resistance.

There's energy here
that the body does not know what to do with it.

What are we supposed to do with it?

We've been having this energy flowing for so long with

the intake has been coming in with no breath,
no fasting space.

Body wants fasting space
like we need to breathe out every once in a while.

All of a sudden we open up the fasting space.

What is the very first thing
the body does in the fasting space?

It starts burning our blood sugar.

It's right there.

It can flow right into the cells that need it
when when you are in the fasting space.

But it's like it. It's like the last meal we ate.

That is the blood sugar.

We can just use that energy
and sometimes have you experiences.

If you are able to monitor
your blood sugar, you're not eating.

You're burning through the blood sugar.

Sometimes you see the cell,
the blood sugar numbers going up even.

It's like, because there's so much energy in there,
it is overflowing.

The body is like, are you kidding? We can release this energy.

And you just start running on it.

The fasting space. Just start chewing it up.

So here's like a second disease.

We're saying,
does anybody in society say type two diabetes can be healed?

You have healing potential here.

Like like how wild how incredible

like and that the process to do it is just nothing.

Look in that space.

Open up the space.

The energy is already there.

This is just the physiology of the body.

It's there's no magic.

It's just the the way the body works.

Body needs energy.

Energy is there.

Instead of putting more energy in, we use it.

And then the insulin resistance naturally resolves.

I just say dissolves
like that's the perfect thing with sugar, right?

Sugar dissolve in water. Sugar dissolved in the blood.

How about the whole process dissolved in this open
fasting space.

So and we can do this with so many things
that we say our diseases.

This is why this is a healing space.

We can go through digestive disorders, autoimmune

diseases, types of autoimmune arthritis,
you know, chronic pains.

I seen so much healing, actual healing come from this process.

And I just, I tell you, to me,
it feels good at least to be here in our tiny little space.

And, sharing it like, to me, like,
shouldn't, shouldn't this be, like front page news?

Like, like, shouldn't we be, talking somewhere?

You know, and talk shows and TV shows and be like,

hey, dude, do you see how profoundly says
we're sitting here in this moment?

We have millions and millions and millions of people
struggling with disease upon disease, spending billions

upon billions of dollars that nobody really has, you know,

think of our society racking up astronomical deficits.

And this is like a third of our
economy is in not like health care now.

And I was like, here we have the practice.

Like just like we are saying
someone comes into our primary care office struggling

with anxiety, getting a prescription without being taught
how to breathe physiologically to help with it.

This is like a metaphor for our entire,
health system with chronic disease, you know?

So it just feels really good for me
personally, at least, to talk about it.

You know, it feels really good,
you know, to help people with it.

So I just I love doing it.

If you're here in Wisconsin, I'm meeting with people in person
now in my clinic.

Such a joy.

I got to tell you,
I love, meeting with people in person again.

Since I left the university, I've been all telemedicine,

which, has been good,
and it's helped me connect with people all over Wisconsin.

I'm loving seeing people in person again.

Check out simple fasting.com if you are in my area.

I'm starting group in person visits,

which, are super fun and also a way

to get in more connection in a more economical way,

you know, cause, I'm trying to balance,
you know, the business reality.

Gotta make money to cover the office.

Okay?

And, so the group setting, you know, to me,
I think this is going to be, really nice help,

you know, to see as many people as possible
for as little money as possible and still pay the bills.

That's the idea.

Thank you for sharing this time with me today.

Thanks for dialing in on a scorecard.

And some of the sudden, to me,
just feels like deep thinking on

how do we really get in health and healing,
legitimate healing in the body.

The thing that I know, okay, there's no magic code.

I do a whole talk,
I sing, I'm not encountered magic in medicine.

There are there are legitimate medicines, scientific miracles
that are, you know, magical in what they can do.

Okay.

But for chronic disease, for the actual process

of not needing medicines with constant side effects,

a fasting space is, Such a powerful healing, path.

And then the perfect intersection with our healthy
eating is what brings it into balance.

To me, it's always the same thing
fasting space, healthy eating, two sides of the same coin.

I say lean into that today.

Consider getting a, score card.

That was the big thought of the day,
bringing some awareness to the things that we are doing.

I did a score card yesterday while I was reading this.

Already identified big thing for me, so I'm working on it too.

We all work on our better health together

and we shall reconvene next week.

Have a beautiful weekend everybody. We'll talk to you soon.