Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Appearances
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
She was more present with her children. And generally her life felt more in control. So I'm a huge fan of morning routines. And the key lesson there for me is that we've all got time for some kind of morning routine, even one minute. It will make a difference because there's the intention that you're saying, no, I'm not going to be a victim to the world and all the noise around me.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I'm going to take at least one minute today to intentionally start my day. Actually, one thing I've realized over the years, and a lot of it sort of underpins, these ideas underpin what I've been writing about for the past two and a half years in my new book, right? One of the most toxic things I believe that we can do for ourselves is say we're going to do something and not do it.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
We say, I'm going to meditate this year, but we don't do it. And I'll tell you why it's so toxic, because we feel as if we're failing. We, I think, have both spoken on our podcast in the past to Vanessa Van Edwards, the body language expert. And I remember, June, when I spoke to her, she said, Rangan,
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Whenever we're meeting another human being for the first time, we're asking ourselves two questions. Can I trust them? Can I rely on them? But Drew, we're also asking ourselves those same two questions every day. Can I trust myself? Can I rely on myself? When we say we're going to do something and we don't do it, We basically tell our subconscious minds, I can't trust myself.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
But the way I've helped my patients for many years craft a morning routine that works for them is by something that I call the 3M framework. It's what I use myself and it's what I've taught thousands of patients over the years. Okay, so there's 3Ms, mindfulness, movement, and mindset. I'm a huge fan of people being able to personalize
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I can't rely on myself. And so what I've often said to my patients for years is, make one small promise to yourself each day and keep it. And we can put a morning routine into that framework. I do a five minute strength workout every single morning and I've rarely missed a day in five years. Okay, I keep it really easy. Five minutes while my coffee's brewing.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I think I've spoken about that on your show before. Even if I get really, really busy and I can't do all three M's of my morning routine, I still do that middle M, the movement. And yes, I think it keeps me in decent shape and it helps me look after myself. but it does something much more powerful than that true.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And I think this is what everyone who's interested in improving their health, their happiness, their longevity really needs to understand.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
If you make one small promise to yourself each day and you do it, you show yourself with real world evidence that no matter how busy my life is, no matter what my partner needs me to do, what my children need me to do, no matter how many emails I have to answer, I still found five minutes in that day to do something for me And I think that's one of the most important things we can do.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Again, you're right. It's not about guilt. It's not about blame. No one's doing this to themselves. Us having this conversation is trying to raise awareness for people so they can go, oh, actually, you know what? That's kind of me. Now, that particular patient, it was quite a few years ago now.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I can't remember what she was doing exactly in contrast, but it would be typically things that I see, such as get up a bit late,
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
feel like you're rushing from the first minute of the day, doing a few emails and tasks in bed just to get ahead straight away, feel like you're rushing around trying to get the kids ready, shouting at them because they're not quite ready for school on time and you have to go to work, this kind of constant stress and rush.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Another way I guess I can frame this to people, which I think may land, is around the concept of what I call microstress doses or MSDs. I think this is one of the concepts that patients love the most because it really helps them see their life. And I think this might be a nice way of answering your question.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
The typical morning for many people these days goes something like this, a version of this. We're living these stressed out lives, right? So let's say someone's got a job. They don't like it. They're stressed out. They come back late. They stay up a bit late trying to de-stress and they start binge watching something on Netflix because it helps them numb out and it helps them switch off.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And they stay up a bit later than they want to. So let's say they go to bed at midnight. Okay. Here's how the morning often goes. Their alarm goes off at 6 a.m. to wake them up for work. Let me just explain what I call a micro stress dose, an MSD. A micro stress dose is a little dose of stress that in isolation we can handle just fine.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
their health behaviors, their routines based upon what works for them. Although I've been a doctor for 23 years and seen tens of thousands of patients through, I still can't tell every single one of your listeners what the perfect routine for them is because I don't know their life. I don't know the pressures on their life. I don't know how much time they've got.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
The problem isn't the micro stress dose, it's the fact that they accumulate one after the other. And so when we accumulate all these micro stress doses, we get closer to what I call our own personal stress threshold. And when we get to our personal stress threshold, that's when things go wrong. That's when we overreact to an email that our colleague sends us.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
That's when we have a row with our partner or snap at our children. That's when our neck goes into spasm or our backache starts. It's because we've crossed our own personal stress threshold. Okay, so let's go back to that scenario where someone stayed up late the night before. They're in a deep sleep, they're tired, and their alarm goes off on their phone, which is typically next to their bed.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Okay, The alarm goes off, that's micro stress dose number one, because it's jolted you out of your deep sleep. You look at the phone and go, I can do five more minutes. You press snooze, it goes off again. Six minutes later, the alarm goes off again, micro stress dose number two. Then you pick up the phone. Whilst you're still in bed, you go to your email inbox.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Oh man, there's three work emails I didn't do yesterday. I'm going to have to do that. Micro stress dose number three. Then you go to one of your favorite social media channels and you see that someone's been mean to you on your last post. Micro stress dose number four. Then you go to the news.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
and you see that there's war somewhere, or there's been an explosion somewhere, you get this blast of negativity about an event that's happening maybe 10,000 miles away, okay? Micro stress test number five. Then you realize, oh man, I'm late. I've been messing around on my phone for 20 minutes. I need to get in the shower.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
The point I'm trying to make, Drew, is often even before we've left our bed in the morning, we've accumulated 10 micro stress doses. I once tried to do an experiment with my patients a few years ago, and many of them, before they left their house in the morning, have accumulated 20 micro stress doses. What's the impact? If you've accumulated 20 micro stress doses,
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
It means you're very near your stress threshold. You don't have much resilience or much headroom left, which means it will take very few doses of stress in the day to tip you over. So what people often don't realize is when they're getting annoyed at 3pm by the email they received from their colleague, they think that email was the problem. That email wasn't the problem.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
The problem is that they've been accumulating MSDs all day, these micro stress doses, they're near their threshold, they're stressed out. So they're interpreting that email as a threat.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
What they don't realize is if they could reduce the amount of micro stress doses that they're exposed to, they will be so far away from their stress threshold that that same email coming in at 3pm no longer bothers you. That wasn't the problem. It was your accumulation of micro stress doses through the day that was the problem. Let's bring that back to morning routines now.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
What I'm trying to say, therefore, is that if you are intentional about the first 10 minutes, 20 minutes, like half an hour. Look, the truth is these days, I kind of have a 40, 45 minute morning routine. But I sometimes hesitate to say that true because I don't want to put people off. I didn't have a 45 minute morning routine 10 years ago. Back then it was a few minutes.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
But I can provide them a framework so they can find within that framework what's going to work for them. Okay, so the first M is mindfulness. That can be any form of mindfulness. It can be meditation. It could be breath work. It could be sipping your cup of coffee in silence, paying attention to the taste, any practice of mindfulness.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I have gradually increased over the years. Why? And this really goes to the heart of your question, which is why do we not do morning routines even though we might know they're good for us? is because we don't pay attention. I have paid attention. I have realised that when I do a little morning routine, I'm a better human being in every single way. I'm a better father. I'm a better husband.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I'm a better doctor. I'm kinder. I'm more patient. I'm more present. And on the days, I think I don't have time. I'm too busy today. I've got loads of emails to do. I always feel it later. I'm more reactive. I get frustrated at work earlier. I'm not as calm and as present. So over the years of doing it, not doing it again, I used to beat myself up, Drew.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
You know, I've got perfectionist tendencies. I certainly did have. I would have guilt. I would have shame. I don't have those things anymore, at least not to the same degree. So for me, when I used to fall off track, I would no longer beat myself up. I'd go, wow, that's interesting. Why have you fallen off track?
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
When you do your morning routine, you feel really good and every other part of your life is good. So why are you not doing it now? And then I'd go deeper and try and understand where did that come from? So yes, these days I do about 40, 45 minutes when I'm at home. I do 10 minutes of this kind of breath hold work meditation. I have a workout in my kitchen for maybe five or even 10 minutes.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And then I'll do things from my mindset. I'll write in my journal. I've got these three questions I ask myself every day in the morning. I answer those three questions. I read a few pages of an uplifting book. Yeah, that works for me. I appreciate it may not work for everyone, but that's the beauty of a morning routine. We can all find one that works for us in the concepts of our lives.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Okay, and if you're interested, I can explain what I do each morning because I use that 3M framework. The second M is movement. some form of movement. It could be strength training, it could be a walk around the block, it could be five minutes of yoga. It doesn't matter what it is, but a type of movement that works for you.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
The title of the book, I think, says it all, doesn't it? Make change that lasts. Inferred in that title, as you have just explained, is that we struggle to make long-lasting change. We can all do short-term change. There's two ways of looking at it, right? The superficial way is about habit formation, right? How do we create healthy habits?
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And there's been elements of that in the conversation so far. I mentioned this five-minute strength workout that I do each morning, and it follows two of the key principles of behavior change. One, make it easy. Why do you make it easy? Because motivation goes up and motivation goes down. If you make something difficult,
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
You will do it when your motivation's high, but you won't do it when your motivation's low. So you plan for that and go, if I make it easy, I'll do it both when my motivation's high and my motivation's low. That's the first rule. The second rule of habit formation, for me at least, is where do we put that new behavior into our lives? And every behavior we do needs a trigger.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
There's all kinds of triggers. There's your memory, which works. It's just very unreliable. There's Google Calendar notifications. There's Post-it notes on the fridge. These are all triggers to do a behavior. But the very best trigger, as evidenced by the research, is when we stick on that behavior onto an existing habit.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
So why have I rarely missed a day of a five-minute strength workout in over five years now? Because I follow those two rules. It only takes five minutes and I do it whilst my coffee brews. Okay, so my coffee making in the morning is a habit. I don't need a reminder. It's an automatic behavior that I do without any conscious thought. I know how I like my coffee. I time it to brew for five minutes.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And the third M and how I like to end off my own morning routine is with a practice that I call mindset. Something to get me in a positive frame of mind for the day ahead. As I talk about mindset, Drew,
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
In those five minutes, I don't go on email, Instagram, YouTube, whatever. I do a workout in my pajamas. I've made it easy and I stick on the new behavior onto an existing habit. So that's one reason why we struggle is because we don't follow these basic principles. But I still think that's a superficial answer.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And the reason I spent two and a half years, Drew, diving deep in writing what I consider to be my most impactful book to date It's because I was trying to solve this problem. I was looking around and going, we're living in a world where we've never had more access to more health information, right? We've got more health podcasts, more health books, more blogs.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
It's all out there and it's all free. Yet our physical health is getting worse. Our mental health is getting worse. I thought, what's going on here? More information. Despite the increased information, we're getting sicker. What's going on?
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And then I reflected back on my practice and I thought about the patients who truly were able to make changes that last versus the people who could make changes for a few weeks, maybe a few months, sometimes even a year. But often they would flip back. And we like to say that knowledge is knowledge. power. We need more knowledge.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
But as I make the case in the opening intro to this book, and I share, like I share, I think what's a very powerful story. An old colleague of mine, a GP, she was so knowledgeable about type 2 diabetes. She's a real expert. She'd always email me some of the latest studies. She'd put her commentary on the email. She knew everything.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And one day she was in clinic with a gentleman who was overweight, who had type 2 diabetes. And she was explaining to this patient all the negatives of too much sugar and too many ultra processed foods. And she was giving him all the science. And he just said at one point, why should I listen to you? You're fatter than I am. So she called me, she was upset, she wanted to talk.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And when we got together, she said, hey, the thing is Rangan, My patient was right. My patient was absolutely right. Here I am lecturing him about the problems with excess sugar intake. And in my drawer, I have all these packets of Cadbury's giant buttons. right?
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I think to myself that when I look around me, whether it's patients in the past, whether it's friends, whether it's wider society, people don't realise how much of how they feel is influenced by the content they're consuming. So many of our thoughts, our feelings, our behaviours are downstream from what we did first thing in the morning. Very simply, we can take two scenarios.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Yeah, but knowledge is not enough. You need knowledge. You're in the game of knowledge. You have a great podcast. You share knowledge each week. I try and share knowledge each week, but we think we need more external knowledge. I would argue that most people don't. Some people do. Some people don't know the basics of good health, right? That is true. They need knowledge for sure.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
But if you've already got the knowledge... but you're not doing the behavior, you've got to ask yourself why. And that's what I tackle, right? And so let's go into what are those things? I think we're not going upstream enough. I think a lot of us don't realize that our daily behaviors, let's talk about our food intake, how much we move, whether we prioritize sleep or not.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
These things, you can call them habits, but but I like to call them symptoms. Their symptoms are further upstream problems. And I think what a lot of us don't realize is the way we interact with the world, the way we deal with conflict, the beliefs we hold about the world absolutely influence and impact our behaviors. In fact, the more I think about human behavior, the more I believe that
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Our beliefs drive our behaviours. So if you don't go upstream to question your beliefs and alter those beliefs, because you can, you don't come out of the womb with those beliefs. You've absorbed those beliefs from your parents, from culture, from society. And so there's nine chapters in the book. I call them reliances, right? What I say in the book, and I really believe this, is that many of us
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
are overly reliant on things in our external world going a certain way in order to feel good. We need there to be no traffic. We need our boss to be nice to us. We need our kids to put their shoes away and got ready for school on time. We need the barista to smile at us and not ignore us when we get our coffee. If everything goes well, we're well.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
But when those things don't go the way we want, we don't feel good. And that not feeling good leads to these poor behaviors. So we're trying to change the behaviors without realizing our approach with the world is what is causing those behaviors in the first place. That's why people can listen to as many podcasts as they want, read as many books as they want.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
But unless they do the inner work of understanding where does my belief system come from, I think they're really going to struggle in the long term. So I mentioned some of these reliances in the external world, right? These little things that we want, no traffic, our boss to be nice to us. And I get why you might want those things to happen.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
But if you're reliant on the external world being a certain way in order for you to feel good, you're basically like a puppet. You can only feel good when things line up perfectly in your outside world, And they're never going to. They might do now and again, but they're not going to do consistently. So you're putting your inner wellbeing in forces and events that you cannot control.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
So I say in the book that what we're looking for is a state of what I call minimal reliance. At the moment, we're maximally reliant on certain things and certain beliefs. I'm not saying go to zero reliance, and I'll explain why later on, but we need minimal reliance. We need to be less reliant on certain things outside ourselves.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And so in the book, I go through nine reliances, big reliances that I think are holding people back. I'll give you an example. Chapter one, it's called Trust Yourself. And that is all about our over-reliance on experts. Okay, now look, I'm sitting before you, Drew, as someone who's a medical doctor and has been for 23 years. So I am considered a so-called expert.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I don't know if you face this with your audience, Drew. And I know you're a great host and you try and interrogate, not interrogate, you try and dive deep with your guests. What I would often find on my podcast, right, is one week you would talk to a guest, like a well-credentialed guest, let's say a medical doctor from Harvard.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
He or she may have a certain view on a certain diet that's best for human health, and they will present evidence to support that diet. And maybe two months later, you'll have a different expert on from a really well-reputable, esteemed institution who actually has a different opinion. but also has evidence to back up their opinion. And so there's two different diets being promoted.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
One scenario where you wake up late, you're in bed, you keep pressing snooze, you're looking at negativity on social media, on news, on email, whatever it might be. Is it any wonder if 20 minutes later, you're a bit reactive with your partner? You feel stressed, you feel as if you're burning out. You feel as if you're procrastinating. Is it any wonder?
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And what I'd often find is that my audience would contact me, let's say on Instagram, on a DM and say, hey, Dr. Chastity, I'm really confused. This expert said this diet is best. This other expert said this diet is best. I don't know which expert to trust. And I've spent a lot of time thinking about this too, and I think that's the wrong question. The question shouldn't be,
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
which expert should I trust? I think the more powerful, and dare I say, the more helpful question is, why do I no longer trust myself? I feel that we've outsourced our own inner expertise and knowledge to external experts. And I'm saying this as an expert myself, no expert out there knows exactly what the right approach for you is. They don't. I'm not saying ignore experts, to be really clear.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I'm a big fan of science and research. But what I'm saying is that not every approach works for every single person. I mean, let's look, let's make it really practical. I think you might have had these two people on your show as well. So I think maybe to bring this to life for people, let's talk about diet and mental health.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Okay, maybe 20 years ago in the mainstream medical profession, there was no recognition at all that diets can have an influence on mental health. Whereas clearly it can, and there's more and more research now supporting the idea that many practitioners have known for decades, but has not really gained like credibility in modern medicine until recently.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Professor Felice Jacker from New Zealand, I think, she published the first randomized controlled trial in 2017, It was a small trial with only 67 people, how diet can in some individuals put their depression into remission. I don't know if you remember this trial or not, Drew, but it was groundbreaking because we'd never seen it in a randomized controlled trial.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
These were people who already had a diagnosis of depression. They were already on some form of treatment and they were split up into two groups. One group were put on a modified Mediterranean diet with dietician support for 12 weeks. The other group, the control group, were put in a social support group and they followed them for 12 weeks.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And after 12 weeks, I haven't looked at the study for a few years, so I may be slightly off with the stats, but I'm pretty sure I'm remembering this correctly. 32% of the group who changed their diet had put their depression into remission compared to 8% in the control group. So the conclusion of that study was it was a statistically significant improvement. This is groundbreaking.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
It was called a modified Mediterranean diet, but it included whole grains, legumes, lean meats, fatty fish, lots of different colors and seeds and nuts. Okay, so a very diverse Mediterranean diet. So that's interesting. That's very powerful to show us the possibility here. And yes, we want to see bigger studies and larger studies, but it was still very, very promising.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Let's contrast that with Dr. Chris Palmer, brilliant psychiatrist from Harvard, who has also shown through his case studies, but also through his research, that a ketogenic diet can, for some patients, like let's say with bipolar disease, for example, put some of them into remission. Absolutely remarkable what Chris Palmer is showing and what he's written about in his book.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
So the natural conclusion then with much of the public or people who follow these health podcasts is, well, which one's right? Is it a modified Mediterranean diet or is it a ketogenic diet? Oh, he's talking rubbish because Felice showed this. Oh, Felice is talking rubbish because Chris Palmer has shown this. But we're making it black and white. Like maybe they're both right.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Why don't we contrast that to a morning, let's say you only have 10 minutes, where you're not consuming from the outside. You're spending a bit of time on yourself, tuning into your body's own signals, putting positive things in your brain. Is it any wonder? Would it really surprise people to think, yeah, you know what, if I start my day like that,
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
They're both right for different people, right? Some people are going to thrive on Chris's approach. Some people are going to thrive on Professor Felice Jacker's approach. And I think this is where my experience as a practicing clinician for so many years comes in true. Research is really useful, right?
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I like reading research, but the truth is it doesn't always help me with the patient in front of me. Because that patient is not on average. These research studies, they try and go, what on balance, on average, is the right approach? So I think there are some principles of a healthy diet, right? Adequate protein intake, whole food as much as possible.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Can we have, let's say, 12 hours in every 24 hours where we're not consuming food and giving our body a bit of a break? These are these core principles, which I think we should all be experimenting with and trying to follow. But once you've got those core principles in place, We need to experiment ourselves.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Like if you're getting confused with dietary advice, my humble suggestion to you would be, well, if there's two people who you like and you respect and you think that what they say makes sense, why don't you for four weeks try one of their approaches and pay attention to how you feel, what's your energy like, your vitality, your sleep, your performance in the gym, and then for another four weeks, try the other diet.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And again, pay attention to what's going on, how you're feeling. You will know what the best diet is for you once you start to pay attention.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Yeah, and Drew, it's such a great point because it's kind of like that discomfort of not knowing, but still experimenting and paying attention. That's where the gold is. That's what you're going to learn about yourself. Once you get that self-knowledge and you have started to pay attention, you become less dependent on all these external experts telling you what you need to do because you know.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
in a more of a calm state, a more of a positive state, well, I'm probably going to be more present with my partner, less reactive with my children, more productive when I get to work. So I think it's really quite profound how we start each day. As you said in your question, much of your audience already know that what you do first thing in the morning sets the tone for the rest of the day.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
You're like, no, no, I tried that. Maybe you didn't try it the right way. Maybe you can change it a little bit for sure. But that's where the gold is. The most progression I've made in my life has come from these moments of discomfort, from what I don't know, but I still pay attention and I do them. It reminds me actually of when I went into general practice.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I was initially doing my training to be a kidney specialist and I did all my exams. This is many years ago now. And when I moved into general practice or primary care, compared to being a specialist. You have to, certainly in the UK, you have to get good with not knowing, right?
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Because in the UK healthcare system, the way it was back then in the National Health Service, is that if you were in a hospital, you had access to all the tests, you'd get the scans done, you'd get the fancy bloods done, you could do the x-ray, whatever you need to do and get the result. Oh, right. And no, oh, it's not this, it's this. In primary care, you wouldn't have long with your patients.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
You don't have access to all the tests. So very quickly, I learned that the really good GPs were the ones who were okay with uncertainty. We couldn't get all the answers. So you had to be able to sit with that uncertainty. Whereas the specialists, I realized a lot of the time kind of struggle with that because they were used to having all the tests available.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And if let's say the scanner wasn't working or something, they were reliant using the term of reliance on having all those tests available. So when they're not, or something's not working or there's a delay, it was a struggle to kind of handle that. But what you say about discomfort, I think it's a really important point there, Drew.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And let's remember that I'm talking about this idea that we are overly reliant on certain things. And if we become minimally reliant on them, we're going to feel better, we're going to be healthier, we're going to be happier, and we're going to make changes that actually last. So I mentioned one of these reliances in chapter one, which is this over-reliance on experts.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I want people to become less reliant on experts. I'm not saying ignore experts, listen to them, but put it through your own filter and figure out what works best for you. Now let's jump to another reliance, the one in chapter four, our reliance on comfort. Now, humans are hardwired to want comfort. That's what has driven all of this evolution.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
We now live in temperature-controlled houses where we don't have to go anywhere on our phone. We can order in the most beautiful home-cooked meal. Well, not home-cooked, but a beautiful meal that comes delivered to your house. You don't have to do anything. This is very different to how we've evolved.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And you can make the case true, as I tried to do in that chapter, that all the diseases that are now afflicting us, and most of the symptoms, you can look at through the lens of discomfort. These are diseases of comfort. Take type 2 diabetes, for example. There's many examples I could choose, but let's take the example of type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes simply does not exist
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I think that morning routines are one of the most important things that we can do for our health and wellbeing to tackle stress, burnout, procrastination, but frankly, so many other things as well. But I think morning routines can become really confusing for people because they listen to different influencers, tell them about their morning routines.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
in traditional societies to anywhere near the same degree, and in many of them, not at all. And they don't exist in societies where daily life is a little bit uncomfortable, right? So if you have an uncomfortable existence in a traditional society, you can't sit at home and expect to be fed. You and your tribe, you have to go out. You have to go and get your food. You have to bring it back.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
You have to cook the food. There's effort involved. There's a little bit of discomfort there. Our desire for comfort as humans has been fantastic. It has led to all the great stuff that we have today. But I would say around 50 years ago or so, the balance shifted. Whereas this quest for comfort is now killing us, like literally killing us.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I'll give you an example that your audience will be able to resonate. We know that physical inactivity is one of the leading causes of premature death globally. We know that children today, I mean, this is where the alarm is apparent, Drew. I think this study was done on, I think it was 25 million children in different countries.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And on average, a child today runs a mile 90 seconds slower than 25 years ago. That's a lot. That is a lot. So we are getting weaker as a society. Our children are getting weaker. And this reliance on comfort, this over-reliance on comfort is something that we really need to tackle. So I'm not suggesting we go back to our hunter-gatherer lives. I'm not saying that at all. I like air conditioning.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I like heating in the British winter, right? I really do. But I think what we have to do is introduce intentional discomfort to our lives, ideally every day, in some sort of small way. And there's many ways in which you can do this, right? You can think about psychological discomfort, you can talk about physical discomfort. At the end of that chat, there's this practical table
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
of what I call discomfort rules. And I say, hey, listen, these may work for you, they may not, but try and find one that does work for you. Now, why I like the term rules, and I know some people don't like the term rules. I do because if you make a rule and you sort of embody it and internalize it, and you make this kind of internal rule, what you do is that you're changing your default behavior.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
So instead of having to constantly make decisions in the moment, You go, no, no, this is what I do. So I'll give you an example. I would guess about five or six years ago, I decided one day that I'm never going to take the stairs. Sorry. I'm always going to take the stairs and never take an escalator or an elevator unless absolutely necessary. That has such a profound impact in my life, Drew.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I can't tell you. It means that whenever I'm faced with an option, my default now has become I take the stairs. I flew to LA a few days ago. I remember coming off the plane, long flight, like I was traveling for like 14 hours and you come off and I think there's, You'll know this because you travel a lot, but there's these two escalators and this one long set of stairs. It is so normal for me now.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I didn't even consider the escalator. I go straight to the stairs. And I think I was the only person I saw after that flight take the stairs and not the escalators. Now, don't get me wrong. I understand that some people have got physical disabilities and they can't do that. I'm not talking about that. I'm not saying that that is the approach that works for everyone.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
But for me, that one rule has had a profound impact, yes, on my physical health, my strength, my endurance. But I think the benefits of intentionally embracing discomfort are not about the physicality. I think the benefits are psychological. You are basically telling yourself that in a world of endless comfort, I am choosing to do something uncomfortable even when I don't have to.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And that's where the gold is. You know, I'm here in LA and this is the wellness capital of the world. And this is where, you know, the whole cold plunge trends in terms of this modern trends probably blew up like many things here, right?
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And I know that people talk about some of the benefits of cold punch, the physical benefits in terms of dopamine and noradrenaline and brown fat and all these kind of things, right? And I've seen those studies and, you know, some are more convincing than others. But here's the reality.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I think if you are someone who enjoys that as a practice, and not everyone does, and I don't think it is for everyone. If you do, I think the benefits, the primary benefits are psychological and not physical. You're doing something that is hard when you don't need to. And I think that is such a powerful psychological message to your subconscious that it helps you make changes at last.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
When you're drowning in comfort and everything's easy. Drew, it's not who we are as human beings. Like life has never been this way. I don't want people to feel guilty though, because you've got to understand that we are hardwired for comfort, to crave comfort. We want that comfort. But modern society, and dare I say it, modern businesses have kind of turned us into kids, right? And children.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Now we're dependent on this modern technology. I'll give you another example, which I laugh about when I hear and I write about it. It's about a year ago, Drew. I was on the train from the Northwest of England to London. This beautiful, modern, high-speed train gets to London in an hour and 40 minutes with only two stops.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I was sitting with a friend and they were trying to use this new app where a drink from the cafe on the train gets delivered to their seat. And the app wasn't working. And they were getting so pissed off and frustrated. They're like, man, I can't believe this thing doesn't work. They were generating all of this internal stress. And I took a step back and we had a laugh.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I said, hey man, this is amazing, isn't it? You're traveling at 200 miles an hour to one of the great cities in the world. And because an app that didn't even exist three years ago is not working, you generate all this emotional stress because it's a bit uncomfortable for you to get up and walk for one minute to the cafe and get you this drink.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And I'm not, you know, we laughed about it because I think all of us have become a little bit dependent on these things working. I have patients who literally, they go for walks with their headphones on. And one patient came in one day, it's about three years ago. And I could tell that she was struggling to make changes. A lot of it came down to her mindset. She would get so annoyed, Drew.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
If on occasion her Bluetooth and her headphones didn't connect to her phone, like she'd get really annoyed. Man, I can't listen to that music or podcast. And I get it. It's not ideal, but we become so dependent on uber comfort that I think many of us struggle with discomforts.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
One way people can self-assess, right? It's an exercise in chapter five, which is called take less offense, a reliance on being right. And it's one of my favorite exercises. And I think anyone listening to this podcast, if they resonate with what you just said, Drew, in any shape or form, and they go, is that me? Do I have these kind of unrealistic expectations of the world?
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Do an experiment for seven days and catch yourself and see how often do you complain? It's one of the best things you can do because if you're complaining, it generally means you're not happy with the way things are, right? There's a reason why you're complaining. Now, I'm not saying that no one else is ever at fault and that, you know, you should never complain about anything.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
But if we think about and break down what actually to complain means, on one level, we can interpret it as we have an expectation of how things should be. Our expectation is not being met. Therefore, we complain.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And you know, Drew, as I've shared with you over the last few days, why I'm more passionate about this book than any other book that I've written is because I truly believe that everyone can live a happy, healthy life. I really do believe that. I believe we've overcomplicated this.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
We're looking for more external knowledge and we're not doing the most important thing, which is take responsibility for how we are interacting with the world, right? It's so important. As I've gone down this inner growth journey since basically since my dad died in 2013. So it's almost 12 years now, which is kind of remarkable to think it's only been 12 years since dad was here.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
But that journey has taught me so much. I'm now about as calm and about as present as I've ever been before. And when you can cultivate this inner calm by excavating your past, seeing what triggers you, seeing how much you complain, and then changing it, I don't think people realize how much their experience of day-to-day life changes. You just interact with the world differently.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I very rarely complain now. And there's an exercise in the book, which is basically every time you complain, do one of two things. Either turn that complaint into an action or turn that complaint into a moment of gratitude. It's a very, very powerful exercise and it will start to change your relationship with complaining. I also believe that people don't realize that behavior change
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
actually can be very simple. You can get to a point in life where change starts to feel effortless. I know people don't, many people don't believe that. They don't think it's possible. But the reason I wrote this book, Drew, is because I think people are going about change, as I did before, in the wrong way. They're trying to make changes in their life that are
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
In direct contrast to who they are as a person and how they see themselves, if you're constantly complaining, and we all know people who are constantly complaining, and I probably was one of those people as well. So I'm not judging anyone here. I'm trying to say to people that it is possible to change.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
You don't realize that when you have an unrealistic expectation of the world and you think everything should go the way that you want it to go, and if it's not going that way, you're going to complain. Oh my God, the traffic should be better. Oh my God, they shouldn't have sent me an email like that. Oh my God, how dare my boss ask me to do this or whatever it might be.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I'm not excusing people's behavior. I'm not saying that it's okay. I'm saying if you complain regularly, you make yourself a victim to the world. And here's the point for people that I really want to land with them. You generate emotional stress. Emotional stress is not neutral. You have to neutralize it in some way or another. But let's make it really practical, Drew.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Let's say you're someone who you drive to work each day into your office. And on the way to work, another driver cuts you up in the road. Ever happened to you, Drew? Yeah, for sure. Okay. Now, from what I know of you, you're a very calm and chilled out guy. Okay, but not everyone is. If you're a person who, when that happens... starts to generate all this noise.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Oh my God, driver, you're shouting at them through your screen. They shouldn't have a license. They need their eyes checked or whatever it might be. You're entitled to have that response, okay? Every human being is entitled to respond how they want, but there is a consequence of that response.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
The consequence of that is that you are generating all this tension and stress in your body, and you will neutralize that in some way. Now, there are healthy ways to neutralize it. A walk around the block, go and work off in the gym. Or more commonly, when we get to the office, It's an extra coffee. It's a chocolate bar from the machine.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
It's an extra glass of wine after work or whatever it might be. These behaviors are downstream. Had you never generated that emotional stress in the first place, you wouldn't need the sugar. You wouldn't need the alcohol because it's there to neutralize the emotional stress that you have generated by the way you chose to respond to that situation.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Now, a lot of people don't realize that they have a choice in how they respond. Just because someone cuts you up, it doesn't mean you have to get annoyed. Now, I used to get annoyed. But once you start many of the practices that I talk about, once you start having a bit of solitude each morning with the morning routine, you start to pay attention to yourself.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Once you realize that between that stimulus of the driver cutting you up and your response of reacting and shouting, There is a gap there. And the more you practice to go, oh, there is a gap there, I get to choose my response. I could either shout to them or I could go, hmm, I wonder why that guy's driving like that. I wonder what might be going on in their life.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Or maybe that's a father whose baby girl was up all night with earache and now they're rushing and they didn't see me. Maybe that's a mother who was late for her job last week two times and if she's late one more time, her boss has said she's getting fired and that's how she feeds her family. Maybe there's another reason that you have no idea about. And here's what I learned a few years ago, Drew.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
For my happiness and my wellbeing, The truth doesn't matter. What matters is the story I put on that situation. If I can put an empowering story on, I'm calm. I go on with my day. I'm present. I make good choices. If I choose to make myself a victim to life and say that, no, I'm entitled to be annoyed and angry and stressed out because that driver shouldn't have done that. Hey, I get it.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
It would be ideal if that driver didn't do that. But that's completely out of your control. And let's bring that to health and wellness. Why I think this is, I think, quite a fresh book in the health and wellness space is because I think so many of the books, and I've written these before in the past as well, are about more knowledge, right? You know, this is what sugar does.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
This is what ultra processed food does. This is how much you should be moving. This is how much protein you should be having. Hey, great. I'm all for that. but it's not equating to widespread societal change. People are still sick. Now, there are systemic reasons for that. The food environment is toxic. It's hard for people to make the right choices.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Yes, I accept all of those things, but at the same time, that's another powerful reason that I simply do not think people in this space are talking about enough. It's what is the root cause of those behaviours? If you don't go to the root, you're never going to change the behavior in the long term.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Yeah. I mean...
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
let's start with big picture here and i think this really relates to many of the themes that we've covered already drew that if you're gonna make these changes long term you have to pay attention you have to start listening to your body your body we mentioned diet before right instead of getting confused by all the conflicting advice that's out there what are the commonalities what are the core principles
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And then you experiment for a few weeks with each of these diets and pay attention. You know, how are you feeling, right? How is your digestion? How are your bowels? How is your sleep? Whatever it might be. And then it kind of doesn't matter what the expert says because you've figured out what works for you. Interoception is really about this awareness of your inner sensations, what's going on.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
As you say, your breathing rate, your heart rate. All kinds of things. And you will know there are many examples of yogis over the years who can actually pay attention to things like their gut and actually get them moving faster and moving slower. Things that most of us, I can't do that. I haven't spent years cultivating that inner awareness.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
But the point here is, really for me, is that interoception, this ability to read your body's own signals, is a critical skill to develop. And it's a skill we can all develop. That's in that section I write about, this thing I read about that this American researcher ended up going to study an indigenous tribe. I can't remember which country now.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And the tribe was shocked when this guy from America said that, oh, we in America think with our heads. What do you think with your head? We think with our abdomens. And we in Western culture talk about five senses. In many indigenous tribes, they talk about 12 senses and not one of them are the same as our five senses.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
There's things like balance, awareness, all kinds of other things, like different people see the world in different ways. I feel... Because of this modern technological world where we're constantly consuming from the outside, we've lost touch with basic stuff that we always known before. What are our bodies saying to us? When do we feel good? When do we not feel good? When have we got tension?
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
When do we not have tension? In my view, Drew, and this kind of relates to morning routines, but let's take it beyond morning routines. I believe, based upon my own lived experience, and 23 years of seeing tens of thousands of patients.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Whilst every single person is unique and needs their own approach, I honestly believe that the most important practice that any one of us can do each day is a practice of solitude. Solitude is just time for yourself, time to hear what your body's saying. It can be meditation. It can be breath work. It can be a cup of coffee in silence. It can be sitting there and going through your body.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
You know, where do I feel tension? Like a body scan that many modalities like yoga have been talking about for years. Some practice where you start to pay attention. Now, here's the thing, Drew. For some people, this is going to sound quite scary. but it's only scary because they spent their whole lives not paying attention.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
If you spent your whole life not listening to your body and listening to external signals and experts and trying to get information from outside yourself, yeah, it's going to take a bit of time, but it's just a skill. And like any skill, the more you practice it, the better you get. I realised, Drew, a few years ago that when my stress load is rising, my upper right back gets tight.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
But here's the thing, for years that would have been happening and I was so busy, I was so in my head, I was so out there, I never would have realised that. Once I started practicing through my morning routine, because my first M is mindfulness, I started to notice, oh man, it's feeling a bit tight today.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
That was a signal for me to pay attention and go, I wonder why, ah, I've taken on too much at work. I don't have a break at lunch today. I've been going to bed a bit late. It is an early warning sign for me to take aversive action. Ah, I need to make some changes now. Your initial question to me was about stress burner and procrastination. If people paid attention to themselves each day,
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
and started to notice in their body when things were going off. For some people, it'll be constipation, right? Because they're so tight, they've got so much going on, they can't go to the toilet. Sure, that can have other reasons, diet, intolerances, all kinds of things. But sometimes, some people notice that first. Oh, there's something off today.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And through that process of daily self-awareness, and even five minutes will do, you'll start to make little tweaks to your life regularly. Little tweaks. And that stops the stress building up. That stops the burnout building up. That stops the procrastination happening because you're starting to become aware in the moment. You can start to take aversive action regularly.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I mean, first of all, Drew, thank you for sharing that. I think that's a very common universal experience. I think there's many lessons that I can apply to that. But the one that comes to mind from this new book is chapter two, which is called Give Up Your Heroes, A Reliance on Perfection. Many of us have perfectionist tendencies. I have had perfectionist tendencies for much of my life.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I would say I've only managed to break free from that in the last few years. And it's really debilitating. And perfectionism we know has been going up in modern society since the 1980s. There's a tendency to say it's because of social media.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Social media has definitely contributed with these kind of false beliefs and expectations that we have of ourselves based upon this perfectionist presentation that we see online, okay? But growing rates of perfectionism are associated with quite severe mental health issues, including suicide.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
If we have a belief that we are perfect and can be perfect, that is paralyzing because then when we make a mistake, as we all do, it leads to this stuckness, this guilt, this shame, because the underlying belief is, I had the potential to be perfect. But by me not doing this means that I'm not perfect. Again, it's that expectation that we have of ourselves, these internal beliefs.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And then when we don't meet that expectation, we're disappointed. We feel bad about ourselves. We feel guilty. We feel shame. So dealing with perfectionism, I think is really, really important. And I think we can all do that. in a variety of different ways. What do you think about the word regret?
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Yeah, I love that answer. And I would say I have quite a similar relationship. I'm going to relate this back to perfectionism and the question you asked me in just a moment. But if you could allow me just to sort of have a slight digression on regrets, because I think it can be quite telling for people, as it was for me. So what do I like about the word regrets?
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Why do I talk about the regrets of the dying so much on my podcast? Because I do. Have you heard of Bronnie Ware? Yeah, love her work. So Bronnie wrote the book, The Five Regrets of the Dying. She was a palliative care nurse for I think seven or eight years. And she would see that on people's deathbeds, they would commonly say the same things.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Sometimes they hear people say they have a one hour morning routine and then they feel, how does that apply to me? I'm a busy person. I've got lots of things to do. I don't have one hour in the morning. And I think everyone can create a morning routine that works for them. And here's the truth, Drew, that a lot of people don't realize. We've all got a morning routine.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And she put it all together in a blog, that led to a book. And I find and I think about those regrets often because the regrets that people have on their deathbeds have directly helped me start to make changes in my present so that I hope I'm not someone who on their deathbed has the same regrets. She says that on their deathbed, they would all say things like, I wish I'd worked less.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I wish I spent more time with my friends and family. I wish I'd allowed myself to be happy. I wish I'd lived my life and not the life that other people expected of me. They're really, really powerful. In people's final hours, that's what they're thinking about, right? So those regrets have hugely, positively influenced my life. And I've made changes on the back of those.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
But what I realized over the last few years, and I wrote a section on this in Make Change At Last, is that I've come to believe that regret is a form of perfectionism. If you are consumed with regret, oh man, I did that in my 20s. I shouldn't have done that. I regret it, right? I respect everyone has their right to have their own relationship with regrets.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I personally have zero regrets in my life, but you can have zero regrets in two different ways. You can have zero regrets and be like, hey, I'm just going to live my life. It doesn't matter who I bother or offend or whatever. No regrets, man. I'm just living my life. I don't mean that. I think regret is tinged with disappointment. To me, the word is tinged with, I could have done better, right?
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I used to be consumed with regret. Oh man, I shouldn't have done that. I could have behaved differently. But as I've unwound my relationship with perfectionism over the last few years, through journaling, through meditation, through awareness and paying attention to when I get triggered and trying to understand where that comes from, I realized that I have nothing to regret in my life.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Things happen and there are a consequence of those things happening. I can learn from those things and I can choose different choices in the future. But I choose to believe, Drew, that everyone, myself included, I'm always doing the best I can based upon what I know and the pressures and stresses in my life. That has not taken me off the hook.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I can look back on my life now and like you, there are things that I have done or been involved with, which if I was faced with those situations today, I would act very differently. I can learn from past experiences, but I don't regret them. And I think that you can relate this to perfectionism. If you could have done better, you would have.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
But the fact that you didn't means that you didn't, you couldn't have done better. You did what you did. The question is, can you learn from that? I believe you can learn from past experiences and use the learnings to change your decision-making in the present and in the future. But I no longer have any regrets in life. But when I was a raging perfectionist, I was consumed with regrets.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Any thoughts on that? I love that framing. I think that massively speaks to procrastination. One of the reasons people procrastinate is because of fear. Because of what happens if this isn't good enough? Like what will people say about this?
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I've seen this in hundreds of patients over the years, like literally hundreds. I can remember cases of people coming in. There was this one guy, I think I wrote about him in the book, Brian, who he was like, I think in his 50s. And we'd addressed that he had to make some lifestyle changes because of his heart.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
he'd go away and he'd keep coming back in and he'd say, hey doc, I still haven't got my exercise regime going yet. I can't decide. Look, I think running's good. I think yoga's good. I think strength training's good. I just can't decide which one to do. This is what you see in health and wellness. Like even beyond the practice, I get DMs from people saying, like I follow this person, they do yoga.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
This other one does Pilates. This one does martial arts. They all sound good. I don't know which one to do. So I end up doing nothing. And the truth is, in a lot of these things, it doesn't matter which one you do. All of them are going to have benefits. Pick one, do it regularly, and you're going to start to experience those benefits.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
So the advice I give those patients is quite similar to the advice I gave right at the start of this podcast, Drew. Make one small promise to yourself each day and keep it. Why I'm so passionate about sharing that five-minute strength workout that I do for five minutes every morning while my coffee brews It's because that takes you out of procrastination. That is you taking action.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And by taking small actions every day, you build momentum. It's that consistency. You change the way you view yourself. You're no longer that person who can never stick to a plan. who keeps saying they're going to do something and can't do it. You become someone who like, hey man, yeah, I said I was going to do it and I did it. You got to take action.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I think Tony Robbins is on something there with that. It is that fear of failure. It's what if it isn't the perfect thing? What if I don't get it quite right? I get asked through a lot by authors because I've written so many books. A lot of them come to me for advice. And there's many things I say to them.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
But one of the key things I tell every new author, and again, even two weeks ago, I was in my local coffee shop in the north of England. I dropped the kids at the bus stop for school. I was doing some work and there was someone next to me who was writing her book. And she was like, man, I'm really struggling. My deadline's coming up.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And because she asked me for advice, it wasn't unsolicited advice. I said, one thing I've learned in writing books is that the perfect book doesn't exist. It's simply not possible. If I had endless time to keep tweaking up my books, I'd still be writing my first book now and still trying to tweak it and make changes.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I said to her, when you have your deadline, when that book goes to print, all it can ever be is the best that you were capable of at that moment in time. When it's at the printers getting printed, it doesn't mean that your brain stops. It doesn't mean that you stop thinking about the ideas. Now, if you had an extra week, you'd make more changes.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
If you had an extra two months, you'd make more changes. But at some point, you've got to say, no, that's as good as I can do at the moment. That's good enough. And I would even argue for me that writing books has actually helped me deal with perfectionism because I've had to go, no, this is the best I can do at this moment.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Yeah.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
They feel bad every day. This is so common. It relates to perfectionism, that this belief that we can do everything, that we can be perfect when we can't. You can almost argue this is one of the toxic side effects of this kind of self-help health and wellness world. Unwittingly, like I'm not saying anyone's intentionally doing this. Like I... believe that it's all good natured.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I genuinely believe that people are trying to help each other and trying to share information that's worked for them or that their research has shown. And they want to say, hey, listen, I think this is going to really help you. The problem is if we're saying that society has a problem with perfectionism and the data all supports that it does.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
So that's the foundation of how society looks at themselves. And then we're constantly hearing different bits of health and wellness information. You can do this, you can do that, you can do this. To do all of it, you would need a full-time job. That would be all you could do full-time, right?
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
You wouldn't be able to work and pay for any of it because you'd be doing your yoga routine and your morning routine and you'd be strength training and you'd be like, whatever it might be, getting your nature and all these things, they feel too much. And the problem is, is depending on the relationship we have with perfectionism, we can constantly feel like a failure.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
We can feel that we're not doing enough. Even if we are doing enough and we're getting changes in our life, we focus on what we're not doing. Boy, that lands with me because that was me for many years. I'm doing all these things, but yeah, but I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that. You can't do it all.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
In terms of a practical piece of advice for people, I've got two pieces of practical advice for your audience. One is big picture. All the way back in my first book at the end of 2017,
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
which was called the Four Pillar Plan and in the US was called How to Make Diseases Disappear, much punchier US title, I set out this framework that I still believe in, which is these four key pillars of health, food, movement, sleep, and relaxation. And really for this conversation in terms of what you've just asked me, Drew, and what we're talking about, I would love...
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
all of your listeners to ask themselves one question. Which one of those four pillars do I need the most work in? I think we all intuitively know. I think we all know which one do we need the most help with. And I would say, put your attention there. Think about one thing you can change in that pillar. Because the problem I've found for many years with patients, Drew, is this.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
People have a favorite pillar and they like to make more and more changes in their favorite pillar. So I'll give you an example. Let's say you're really into nutrition and you like cooking. You'll listen to health podcasts and your diet might be, let's call it 85% good. That's really good compared to the population. You're spending all your time and energy trying to take it from 85 to 90%.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
But you're neglecting the fact that you're only sleeping five hours a night. You're worried about that little pastry you have on a Sunday morning out in a cafe with your friends. If you cut that out when your diet's already really, really good, that's gonna somehow change the quality of your life without realizing that you're only as good as your weakest pillar.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
A really piece of practical advice for people to try and simplify health and wellbeing for them is look at those four pillars. What is your weak spot? Instead of trying to get your strong pillar even better, I would say just raise up your weak pillar a little bit. Let's say you're struggling with sleep and you're only sleeping five hours a night and you hear,
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
A sleep expert would say, we should be sleeping eight hours a night, for example. Don't let that put you off. Even if you take your sleep from five hours a night to five hours and 20 minutes a night, you are going to physiologically be different the following morning. You're going to get changes, even like positive changes, even from an extra 20 minutes.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
So one way of answering that query, Drew, is to simplify things down to this four pillar framework and say, choose your weakest pillar and make one small change there. But the other way I'd like to help your audience is to offer them a question that they could ask themselves every single day. It's one of the three questions I ask myself every single morning.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And it's a question that I write about in chapter seven of this book, which is a reliance on busyness. This idea, this cultural idea, particularly here in America, that busyness equals success. That's the idea that we absorb. And there's many ways you can tackle our over-reliance on busyness. Because the truth is that many people don't want to hear, Drew, is that often, not always, but often...
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Busyness is a sign of laziness. I understand that many people have stressful lives. They've got a lot of conflicts in their lives. Maybe you're a single parent. You're struggling to pay the bills. I get it. You're probably going to be really busy trying to do that. And I have compassion and sympathy for people anyone in that predicament. But there's many people who are not in that scenario.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
There's many people who use busyness as an excuse. Business is basically because they haven't done the inner work of identifying what is truly important in their lives. So I ask myself every morning, this comes under the third M mindset. So I'm often sitting with my coffee. Now I've done my meditation, I've done my workouts, and now I'm on the final part of my morning routine.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And I asked myself, what is the most important thing I have to do today? It is such a powerful question, Drew, because it forces you to decide. It forces you to make a decision. And, you know, when you first are answering this question, sometimes you think, there's many important things I have to do. Well, how can he ask me to just write one thing down? There's important things at work.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
There's important things at home. But I don't know if you know this or not, but when the word priority came into the English language in the 1500s, it came in as a singular word. You could only have one priority. It didn't exist. You couldn't have multiple priorities.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
This is a modern kind of evolution of the word where we think everything's important, but not everything in our life is equally important. And why I love that question is because We're living in a time, Drew, where many people feel stressed out, burnt out, overloaded. They think that I'll focus on the important things when my to-do list is done, but our to-do lists are never done.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
There's always things piling up on that to-do list. You could today, Drew, completely clear your email inbox. In theory, it's possible. And then you could shut your laptop, put the kettle on, make yourself a cup of tea, have a little break. In that time, you might have received 20 emails. There's nothing you can do about that. That may happen. That's out of your control.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Anyone who has access to your email address can send you an email at any time of the day from any part of the world. That's out of your control. So you could come back and go, oh, I can't now spend time with my wife or go for my run or go to the gym. I've got more emails to do. And we're looking at this the wrong way. I'm saying that, yes, there are many things in your life that you have to do
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
But if in the morning you identify the most important thing and then you do it, and my challenge to your audience, Drew, is for seven days, ask yourself that question. What is the most important thing you have to do that day? Make sure you do it. In seven days, your life will feel completely different because you will have not procrastinated.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
You will have taken action on what you have defined the most important thing is. Now, I ask myself that every day, Drew. Some days when I'm at home, obviously, I'm here in America at the moment. I'm doing interviews to try and promote the ideas in this new book. But when I'm at home, like let's take a typical like week, you know, I'm married. I've got a 14 year old boy and an 11 year old girl.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
On some days, it will be a work deadline that I have that will go down. By writing that work deadline down, it doesn't mean that my wife's not important or my kids. are not important. It just means on that day, I need to make sure my focus is on getting that work task done.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
The next day, it might be the most important thing I have to do today is go for a 20 minute walk at lunchtime because I'm not moving my body enough at the moment. Doesn't mean my work's not important or spending time with my family not important. But on that day, It's a focus to go, yeah, you're letting that part of your life go. Make sure you go for a walk at lunchtime today.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Often on a Wednesday when I'm typically working at home, what do I put down? At 4 p.m. when your kids walk through the door, make sure your laptop is down, that your phone is away so that you are fully present to listen to what your kids have to tell you. It's a simple question, Drew, but it is life-changing. In this world of competing priorities, It forces you to make a decision.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And I'm so passionate about this, Drew. If everyone commits to this and they ask themselves that question each day and they act on it, if in seven days you're not feeling better about your life, you know what? Ignore me. Think that guy's talking nonsense. I'm going to ignore everything he says. It doesn't work. I'm okay with that because I want people to develop their own self-knowledge.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I can't say I know what's best for everyone. I don't. But in my experience, I have not met anyone yet who asks themselves that question each day and acts on it and doesn't feel better about themselves and their life.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
It's a big question, Drew. And it's a question that frankly transcends health. Why are we here? Like, why are we here on earth? What is the point of our existence? These are big, deep spiritual questions.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
There are so many reasons, but I think this is arguably the most important issue in health and this health and wellness world in which we both operate. People think that more knowledge is the answer. But as you just pointed out, Drew, and as I write in the first chapter of my new book, Knowledge is not enough. Right, let me explain what I mean by that.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And I think they're important questions because if we're stuck in our life and we're stressing over the small things and we're currently stressed and we're stuck and we don't know why we're making changes, let's think about Those deathbed regrets, I think they're a beautiful way of teaching us what's important in life.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
What is more powerful than hearing what people at the end of their lives say about their life experience? For me, those deathbed regrets have changed how I live my life in very tangible, significant ways. They really have. Because at the end of our life, when we know that's it, these are people with cancer that Bronnie Ware wrote about, right? These people who knew they were going to die.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
This was it. These were their final hours on earth. That's when the stark reality of their existence comes into focus. I wish I'd worked less. I wish I'd spent more time with my friends and family. I wish I'd allowed myself to be happy. The one that gets me every time, Drew, I wish I'd lived... my life and not the life that other people expected of me.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Chapter two in this book is all about the reliance on being liked by others. Sorry, chapter three, the reliance that other people are gonna like us. And I'm very openly share about my people-pleasing tendencies. Previously, I've changed a lot of them. In the time that you've known me, I imagine you've even seen those changes from like 10 years ago and how I would interact.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And I was a real people-pleaser back then, excessive people-pleaser. And I feel it's not that I don't care about people today. Yeah, I do care about people, but I don't need to excessively people-please anymore because my inner wellbeing and how I view myself is not as dependent anymore on what other people think of me. It used to be.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
But what can we learn from those regrets and what we're talking about here at the end of this conversation? The quality of our life, Drew, comes down to the quality of our relationships. And the reason I feel that these concepts are so important is because many of us are struggling with our relationships because we're struggling with our health and we're struggling with our inner world.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
So those struggles not only play out in our behaviors like sugar and alcohol, they play out in how we interact with our loved ones, our partner, our children, our siblings. We take out that inner stress on the people closest to us. You mentioned before about a friend of yours who tells you that when they're talking to their mother, they feel reactive. They're not the person who they wanna be.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And there's this great quote by some spiritual master, I can't remember who it is now. What is it? It's like, if you think you're enlightened, go and spend a weekend with your family. Yeah, Ram Dass. Ram Dass, right? It's hardest with the people that we've known the longest. But why should it be that the people closest to us get the worst of us?
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Because I bet you there's people listening to this right now, Drew, who go, yeah, that is me. My husband gets the worst of me sometimes. My children get the worst of me sometimes. And maybe I've been in that position before, right?
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
So the reason this matters Drew is because until you stop looking outside for answers and start turning it around and going inwards, you'll always be a victim to the world and external circumstances. All of us, True, want to be calm and kind and compassionate. We do. There's research on this.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I'm imagining that most people who listen to your podcast, Drew, already know that excess sugar intake is going to have a negative impact on their health in some way. Most people who are consuming too much alcohol and listen to your show have probably heard previous guests talk about the impact of alcohol on our metabolic health, on our sleep, on our liver, whatever it might be.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
There was a paper in 2021 by some psychologists, and they showed that despite all of us actually being different and individual, when we behave in a way that's kind and patient and compassionate, we all feel better. We all feel as if we're actually living in alignment with who we are as humans. Everything in life, Drew, comes either from the energy of love or the energy of fear.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Like all our behaviors are either driven from love or from fear. I can really believe that. Why this matters is once you start in a very kind and compassionate way, Start looking inwards. Start examining your beliefs.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Start asking yourself, well, why is it that when I know sugar's not good for me, I keep ending up on the sofa with half a tub of Ben and Jerry's, and then I beat myself up the next day? You can either pretend that's not happening and try and get more external knowledge, or you go, you know what? I deserve better than this. My children deserve better than this.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I'm now going to take ownership of my life and find out why, despite the knowledge, I keep engaging in that behaviour. I think this matters because it's our relationships, ultimately, that determine the quality of our life. If we think, Drew, that the answers to our lives and why we can't make changes lie out there... What happens is that we do stay stuck.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
We're not able to move forward and move on. We can't do those things. But once you realize that the answers that you're looking for, the things that are truly gonna help you make sustainable, transformative change in your lives are inside and you start looking, you start developing that insight, you start developing that self-awareness. Once you realize that and you start taking action there,
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
The way you interact with life starts to change. You feel light. You feel free. You feel calm. Your partner is going to start getting the best of you. Your children are going to see a calm, non-reactive parent. You're going to have a really healthy relationship with yourself. And all of these things together, yes, they make you happy. They make you content.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
but they also make you healthier because they help you make changes that actually last.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Yeah.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
But the question then becomes, well, why are people not doing it, right? They've got the knowledge, but they're not doing it. And I believe it's because they haven't taken the time to understand the root cause of what's coming on. Okay, so all too often, we try and change our behaviors without understanding the role that they play in our life. So I'll give you an example.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
No, Drew, I think you summarized it really, really well. we need to look at the big picture. We need to step outside and go, why does this matter? Why are we living the lives that we're living? How could my life be different? How can I live in a way where I don't have those regrets on my deathbeds? What is going to make this year different from every other year previously?
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
People wake up, Drew, on New Year's Day and they think that willpower is enough. They think that, right, this is the year. This is the year where I make changes, where somehow it's going to end up differently from the last 10 New Year's Days when I said the same thing. Why? How is it going to be any different if you take the same approach?
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I've spent two and a half years writing this book, Drew, because I believe... in everyone's ability to change. I have seen people come into my practice over the years in really dark and dire situations. And I have seen people make the most transformative change. Yes, sometimes it's hard. Sometimes it takes longer than others. But I believe in people's ability to change.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I've done it myself and I've seen it with people. And really my sort of final thought is, If your life isn't where you want it to be right now, if you want it to change, you've got to ask yourself why. And hopefully there's going to be something in the conversation we've had today, Drew, that lands with someone that just gives them a spark, just a glimmer to go,
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Yeah, I think that was relevant for me. I think there's something in that. Pause, rewind. Sure, if you want to get the book, great. If you don't, go back to that part of the conversation. Listen to it again and go, there's something there. Instead of looking to me as the expert or you, Drew, as the host and another expert, Look inwards to yourself because that's what all the answers are.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Thanks for having me, Drew.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Let's take sugar and alcohol because I think they're two common things that people are often trying to change their relationship with. So it's not uncommon in January, people will go 30 days with no sugar, 30 days with no alcohol, And you know what? They can do it. But often, by the middle of February, they're back to their previous intake. Why is that? They can do 30 days without.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
The question is, are we intentional about that routine? We all do certain things every day. If you get up each morning and the first thing you do is look at your phone and read negative news headlines and do your work emails whilst you're still in bed, That's a routine. That's a behavior you're repeating that you maybe did the day before and the day before that.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
That's not a problem. I think we can all make short-term change. But most of us aren't looking for short-term change. We're looking for long-term change. And to try and put it really simply for your audience, if stress is driving your alcohol intake, sure, you can quit in January, but you'll always go back to where you were unless one of two things happens.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Either you have to reduce the amount of stress in your life, so you'll naturally need less alcohol, or the stress stays the same and you find an alternative behaviour to manage the stress that's not alcohol. But we don't go upstream and look at these factors enough. Even within medicine, you know my profession, We think that giving people more information is what we need.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
But we're drowning, Drew, in health information these days, right? With podcasts, with books, with blogs, with media. There's so much health information out there. Frankly, it gets confusing for people. They know what they should be doing. but they're not able to do it. So that's one way of answering your question as to what's going on there.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I think another element to that though is you said, well, why are people not doing morning routines when they know that they may get benefits? And there's a couple of ways to think about that, Drew. One reason is, It's because they think it takes too long and they say, I'm too busy. You, Dr. Chastity, talking about morning routines, you don't understand my life.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
You don't understand the pressures on me that I've got three kids and that my husband leaves early for work and it's all on me. And they're right, I don't understand their lives. But I've seen many patients in that position over the course of my career. And there's one patient in particular I remember who was a single mum. I think she had two kids, maybe three kids, but I think it was two.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And she was really struggling with her skin, like really, really bad skin flares, eczema. was the cause, right? And her life fell out of control. She was always stressed. She felt close to burnout. And she would be interested in health, but she wasn't able to take action. And I spoke to her about a morning routine, and she almost laughed at me.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
She said, Dr. Chastity, I don't sign for a morning routine, okay? You don't get my life. I'm busy. And I said, okay, let's go through that. I said, do you have 10 minutes? She goes, no. I said, do you have five minutes? Well, yeah, I've probably got five minutes. I said, okay, would you be open to me helping you create a morning routine that only takes you five minutes? She said, okay, sure.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
So I used that 3M framework to help her create a morning routine that worked for her. Not for me, that worked for her. The first M is mindfulness. What does she do? One minute of breathing. So I have a breath that I call the 3-4-5 breath that's very calming and relaxing. As I think you've covered previously on your show, Drew,
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Any time that our out breath is longer than our in breath, we have to switch off the stress part of our nervous system and promote the relaxation part of our nervous system, okay? So the three, four, five breath is really simple. Breathe in for three, hold for four, breathe out for five. One of those breaths takes 12 seconds. Five of them take one minute, okay?
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
So for one minute, she would do three, four, five breathing. Then for two minutes, she would do the second M, which is movement. So with her, I discovered what she liked and she used to do yoga and she quite liked her yoga practice, but she hadn't done it in years. I said, do you have a few favorite moves? She goes, yeah, there's two or three things I really like doing.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And that's going to have a downstream consequence later on in the day. In fact, your initial question said stress, burnout, and procrastination. I hear those things and I want to go upstream and go, those are downstream symptoms of other things that we're going to talk about today.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I said, okay, why don't we put that together in a little two minute sequence for you? And then the final M, mindset, For her, we chose to do affirmations, these short positive statements to kind of imprint positivity into your mind. And I can't quite remember now what it was, but I think it was for her. For two minutes, she would literally say, I'm happy, I'm calm, I'm stress-free.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I'm happy, I'm calm, I'm stress-free. Now, here's what happened. This is a lady whose life felt out of control. She was really struggling with the pressure in her life and her skin. She started doing that five-minute morning routine and things significantly started to change very quickly. She started to feel more in control of her life.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Within a week or two, she started to go for a 30 minute walk at lunchtime, right? There was what I call the ripple effect. I've written about that in many of my books. This idea that one small change done consistently starts to build momentum. You change the way that you view yourself. You start to make other positive changes later on throughout the day, throughout the week, whatever it might be.
Dhru Purohit Show
How to Make 2025 Your Best Year by Breaking Free of Habits that Hold You Back with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And I think two to three weeks later, she came back to see me and her skin was over 50% better. I hadn't reversed her condition, but stress was driving and exacerbating her skin conditions. By helping her create a five-minute morning routine that worked for her, it led to so many other positive effects. Yes, her skin, but she also told me that she had more energy.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
What's the problem with reliances? The problem with reliances is that we are overly reliant on too many things in the outside world which we cannot control. And those reliances, Chris, are tying us down. So as a medical doctor, one of my main interests is how do you help people make changes that actually last? Not changes for...
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Well, it kind of plays in to what we're talking about actually in some ways. So perfectionism is on the rise. We know that from the 1980s. A lot of us think it's from social media. Social media has definitely made it worse, but we actually know it was happening before that. This idea that actually we can be perfect, right?
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And I think it's because of all these cultural myths that we have around us, the billboard image, what we might see on social media. We think actually that attaining what we think these people have is possible. But perfectionism is toxic. It is literally one of the most toxic things that you can suffer from. And I have had it for most of my life.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Until very recently, I would say, I had quite serious perfectionist tendencies, which I think affected me in so many different ways. We know that perfectionism is associated with all kinds of mental health problems, including suicide. So this is a serious, serious issue. But perfectionism makes you feel less than.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Often we are comparing the worst version of ourselves with the best version of somebody else. And when we feel less than, we compensate with our behaviours. This is why this matters to me, Chris. So everything in Make Change At Last is this idea that Every single person is capable of making meaningful change in their life. I know that to be true. I have seen it time and time again.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
I have seen patients in the darkest places with suicidal thoughts, and I've helped them turn their life around. So I know that it's possible for every single person. But in order to do that... We have to understand ourselves. We have to understand that our behaviours follow our beliefs. So if you have perfectionistic beliefs that it is possible to be perfect...
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
You will find that when you fall short, as you inevitably will, because none of us are perfect, we don't feel good. And that's what drives us to the pornography, to the gambling, to the sugar, to the alcohol. Those things are a consequence. They're not the cause of the issue. They're a symptom of the problem. So I think perfectionism is massive.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And, you know, it's something I've heard you talk about before when I write about at length is in chapter two, which is the chapter title is called Give Up Your Heroes. Yeah. I used to really put my heroes on a pedestal, Chris. I don't know if you did as a kid or not. I certainly did.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
I don't know if one could admit this these days or not, but I started that chapter saying that when I was 14, I can remember a group in the northwest of England. On my wall, I had a life-size flag of John Bon Jovi. Okay, yeah. Okay. I don't know what that means from your facial expression. I just wonder where you went so wrong.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Okay, well, we could talk about musical taste maybe off the mic out there.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
But why that's interesting and why I chose to open that chapter with that story is because I can see now very clearly how that kind of hero worship has been problematic for me, right? So I thought as a 14-year-old boy, wow, God, if I could be Jon Bon Jovi, my life would be perfect, right?
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Touring the world, screaming fans, writing killer album after killer album, if you like that sort of thing at the time, right? Whatever your choice might be. But somewhere along the line, I believe that it was possible. And many of us believe that perfectionism is possible. I think it's got so much worse now with social media where we see these avatars online. They're not real.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Taylor Swift, our impression of Taylor Swift is not real. Yes, she is real. She exists. But actually what we're shown about her is carefully curated by a marketing machine. I'm not having a go at them for doing that. It is a business, right? I'm not criticizing Taylor Swift. If you love Taylor Swift and you like going to her concerts, that is great.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Yeah, it's not as hard as actually... It's not as hard as we might think, right? Because let's take something super common and something that people are trying to reset their relationship with all the time. Let's say alcohol, for example, right? So...
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
But many of us are growing up with the belief that that is possible. And it's not possible, right? I've learned as an adult over the last years, Chris, I'm 47 now. And I think, wow. If I was Jon Bon Jovi, what would it have been genuinely like being on the road for 300 days a year? What was it like for your wife? What was it like for your children growing up?
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
What was it like sleeping on a tour bus with sweaty crew night after night? Like genuinely, because I think I said to you just before we got on the mics, Chris... I'm in such a great place these days. Like, honestly, I've never felt this good. Like I feel really, I feel grounded. I feel calm.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
I feel that I've managed to come to a point where I get what's truly important for me, not for anyone else, but for me. What's changed? What's changed is I've cut a lot of these reliances that were tying me down that I talk about in this book. Bit by bit, I've gone through the process of cutting them. This reliance on perfection, realizing, no, perfect is a myth, Rangan. You cannot...
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Achieve perfect. It's not possible, right? So get really clear on what your priorities are this week. Everything in life has a consequence, right? This is something I truly get these days, Chris, in a way that I never got before. We make choices in life and those choices have consequences. Too often, we only think about the upside of our choices and not the downsides.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And so I think last time I came on your show a few years ago, I mentioned this little happiness exercise that I've used with patients for years. I use myself, which is this very simple, write your own happy ending exercise where you imagine yourself on your deathbed and you imagine looking back on your life, what are the three things I will want to have done in my life?
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And for me, the last time I did that, it was I want to have spent quality time with my friends and family. I want to have had time to... I will want to have had time to actually pursue my passions. And thirdly, I will want to have done something that has improved the lives of other people. I genuinely think if I was on my deathbed now, those are the three things I will want.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
What I see a lot of in medicine is us trying to give public health advice to people saying, look, too much alcohol, frankly, a little bit of alcohol is probably not helping you that much. And the way we'll try and facilitate change is by giving people more knowledge and more information, right? You know, too much alcohol will damage your liver. It's not good for your weight.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Now, I can't say that for sure because I'm not there, but I'm imagining. And then the second part of the exercise is you come back to the present. where you then pick three happiness habits, right? So what are three things I would need to do each week, my happiness habits that will guarantee or pretty much guarantee I get the happy ending that I just defined that I want.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
So for me, and I don't think it's changed in the last year and a half or so, it's literally, and I have it on my fridge at home because I want to be visually triggered by it every day so I don't get caught up in what I might be able to achieve or what I might be able to do.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
I put down on my list, can I have five meals each week with my wife and kids where I'm fully present and not thinking about work? Okay, it's an arbitrary number that works for me. It may not work for someone else, but it works for me, right? Secondly, if I had time to play my guitar, write a song or go for a long run each week, then I know... I found time to pursue my passions.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And thirdly, if I release an episode of my podcast each week, which I've been doing for seven years now, I will be doing something each week to improve the lives of others. It's such a simple exercise, Chris.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
But I tell you, in a world where we have infinite things competing for our attention, and we often think that we'll only do the important things when everything in our life is done, and everything in our life is never done these days, it forces me And a really beautiful way to focus on these are my top priorities.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Yeah, this is one of my favorite sections in the book. This is one of the latest additions before I submitted it, is this idea that regret is a form of perfectionism, right? And I wanted to talk about this with you today because I've just seen your blog from Australia on YouTube, right?
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And you're on stage, and I don't know if this is still your view or not, but my recollection of what I saw was that you said on stage, or certainly the bit in the vlog, was about this idea that we choose our regrets. So can I present my perspective, which I see a little bit differently than that. I think it is possible to live a life of no regrets. I really do.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
I don't think we necessarily have to choose our regrets. The definition of regret is when we look back on something with sadness or disappointment, this idea that we could have done something differently. I used to look back on many of my past experiences with guilt and shame. And I think that's what regret can do.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
It's not good for your sleep architecture, whatever it might be. And that can be helpful up to a point. But I submit that most people who are trying to cut back on alcohol or cut it out completely, and you can substitute alcohol for sugar or online pornography or gambling or whatever you want, basically, it's a behaviour.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Because the reason I say that regret is a form of perfectionism is because at its core is this idea that I could have made perfect decisions. It was possible. And I'm a failure because I didn't. The problem with that kind of thinking is that it keeps us trapped into the past and it leads to guilt and shame.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And in terms of making changes that last, it won't allow you to do that because you keep beating yourself up in your mind over the things that you wish you'd done differently. Now, you can live a life of no regrets in two different ways, right? You can live it. And I'm not suggesting people do this in a way where it's like, yeah, screw everyone else. It's my life.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
I'm going to be myself and do what I do. And I'm going to put it with the consequences. When I say you can live a life of no regrets, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about it a slightly different way, which is I can look back on my past and I can learn from past experiences. I can choose to believe, which I do. It's a choice.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
You don't have to believe this, but I would argue that your life is much happier and calmer if you choose to believe this. I choose to believe that I was always doing the best that I could based on the information I had at the time. If I choose to adopt that belief and then there's no room for regret. I was making the best decision I could. And now with hindsight, I go, yeah, you know what?
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
If I'm faced with that situation again, I can act differently and I will act differently because now I know better, I will do better. But I couldn't have done better back then. And in terms of your question before, Chris, why is it that at this stage of my life, I feel so good? One of the reasons, there's many, one of the reasons is because I no longer have any regrets.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Every single one of my past experiences has led to me being the person that I am today. Without any of those experiences... I wouldn't have been the same person, right? I'm informed by all of those things. So I very much do look at my past, but I use it as a way of learning about myself. I think the other way, well, I'll come to the other way in a minute.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
You said in that video that you think you have to choose your regrets. I'm presenting a slightly different perspective, I think. What's your take on that?
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
What a lot of people who are trying to do that, they already know the damage that that is causing for them. Not everyone, but a lot of them do. What they're not understanding is why do they keep going to that behaviour? So instead of every January, for example, buying the new book on the alcohol detox or the sugar detox...
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Yeah, no, I like that. I really like that. I think this is a really interesting topic. The other way of looking at it, Chris, is at 47 now, am I going to really regret things I did in my 20s in the sense that I was a different person then? I'm a different person today than I was 12 months ago. So am I going to now judge my 20-year-old self through the lens of hopefully,
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
A wiser man who's become a father, who has much more experience in the world. It seems a little unfair to judge the younger version of me through my current lens.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Exactly. So it's a choice. I love the thought that the way we believe, the beliefs we hold about the world, Chris... It is a choice, right? We can choose them. Something I've been really playing around with recently in my head is this idea that life is a set of experiences and it's the story we put onto those experiences that ultimately determines the quality of our life.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And what I didn't realise until a few years ago is that I get to choose that story. That narrative, that comes down to me. And that was taught to me on a very, very deep level by an Auschwitz survivor, Edith Eger, who I think I've spoken to you about before. This incredible lady who, when I spoke to her at 93 years old and then again at 97... She was announced when she was 16.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And she said so many things to me, Chris, which I've shared before, so I won't go through it all again. But in essence... She was able to reframe her whole experience in Auschwitz through the power of her mind. So when she was dancing for the senior prison guards as a 16-year-old young lady, after her parents were murdered, she said to me, I wasn't dancing in Auschwitz, Dr. Chastity.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
In my mind, I was in Budapest Opera House, dancing with a beautiful dress on in front of a full orchestra. She said, whilst I was in Auschwitz, Dr. Chastity, I started to see the prison guards as the prisoners. I was free in my mind. They weren't living their life. And the final words, of course, she said, which probably is one of the main reasons why I feel so content.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And Edith and her teachings are in this book, like they were in my last one. She said, I have lived in Auschwitz and I can tell you the greatest prison you will ever live inside is the prison you create inside your own mind. And I tell you, Chris, there are some conversations, as you know, as a podcast host, where you're not the same person afterwards.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Anyone, Chris, can stop a behaviour for three or four weeks and they think that they're getting somewhere. But they're often not getting somewhere because that behaviour was there for a reason. So very simply, if you're drinking alcohol to manage the stress in your life, which many people do, then you can white knuckle it for four weeks and quit.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
That was one of those for me where pre that conversation and post that conversation, I wasn't the same person. The penny dropped for me in that moment. I was like, oh my God, I get it. We're all putting ourselves in mental prison every day by the way we interact with the world. People don't realize that, let's make it really, really granular.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Let's take it away from Auschwitz to something maybe a bit more relatable for someone. People don't realize that you're driving to work in your car and someone cuts you up on the road. You have a choice in how you respond. You may not think you have a choice, but you do. If you decide to go, as I used to do, so I'm not judging, but everything has a consequence.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
If you decide to react like, stupid driver, they need to get their eyes checked, they shouldn't be on the roads, they're a menace, whatever it might be, and you start screaming at them when they can't even hear you, A, you're not changing the situation, but B, what you have done, and this really relates to the theme of making change that lasts, you have generated emotional stress inside your body.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And again, this again for me is one of the missing pieces in the health conversation online. Emotional stress is not neutral. You have to neutralize it in some way or another. Now, there are a variety of ways in which you can do that. So you could neutralize that emotional stress with a workout in the gym or a walk around the block. Or when you get to work,
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
you will neutralize it by going to the vending machine and pulling out a chocolate bar, having another coffee with sugar in, having an extra glass of wine or a beer at lunch, whatever it might be. Those behaviors are there to neutralize the emotional stress that you generated by the way you interacted with that moment. You can also, and it's not that difficult, it just takes a bit of practice,
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
You can also choose in that moment to not interrupt like that and go, wow, I can just let that go. Like I said before about regrets, I choose to believe, it's a choice, that I've always done the best that I could with the information that was available to me and where I was in my life at that time. I also choose to believe that about other people. So therefore, I've trained myself now.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
It took me a few months and years. Now I do it in the moment. It's default. But I had to consciously do it initially. Where it's like, oh, what's going on with that other person? What might be going on with that other person? Oh, well, maybe it's a dad's. whose daughter was sick last night and they were up all night and now they're rushing to work.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Maybe it's a mother who's been late for work three times in the past two weeks and she's worried she's going to lose her job if she's late again. The truth of the situation, Chris, for your well-being and your ability to make changes, it doesn't actually matter. It's the way you frame the situation because in that moment then, you're not generating the emotional stress, you're
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
you're feeling internally calm, and therefore you have less of a need to engage in these unhelpful behaviours that were only there to neutralise the stress that you generated by the way you responded.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Yeah, that's a good point. So When I spoke before about interception and the importance of trusting ourselves, one thing I didn't say, which I write about in that chapter right at the end, is I say, listen,
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
I believe that although most of us are different and we've got unique lives and we need slightly different approaches, I believe that the most important daily practice that any one of us can do in the 21st century is a daily practice of solitude. I want to say solitude, I'm simply talking about time with yourself.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
but usually you'll end up back to where you were unless one of two things has happened. Either the stress in your life has to come down, so you have less of a need therefore for the alcohol, or you need to find an alternative behavior to alcohol to manage the stress.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
If you get up and the first thing you do is start consuming from the outside, whether it's news, whether it's social media, even if it's good quality information, you've lost an opportunity to listen to yourself. Our body is always sending us signals. And in this world of content and information, I think many of us are never getting that time to listen to ourselves.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
So the only way you get to know if you're telling yourself a nice story and kidding yourself is by sitting with yourself every day, only for five or 10 minutes if that's all you've got. But that could be It could be meditation. It could be breath work. It could be some yoga moves. It could literally be having a cup of coffee and not also scrolling Instagram and email at the same time.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
It could be going to the toilet without taking your smartphone with you. Something that many people find revolutionary. Seriously, but it is. The truth is, Chris, it really is for people because these little micro moments where you allowed your own thoughts to come up are being eroded out of life. So I'm not putting all the blame on smartphones, right? Ultimately, it's just a tool.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
It's our relationship with the tool that determines the impact they have on us. But if you practice sitting with yourself, it doesn't have to be in the morning. I happen to think the morning is the best time for most people. You will start to know when your heart rate's going up. You will start to know when you're telling yourself fibs.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
I mean, one thing I do every morning, Chris, well, there's a couple of things I do. One of the things I do is a breath hold work meditation practice that I learned from, do you know the MoveNAT founder, Ewan LaCour?
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Natural movement guy. He's been promoting natural movement for years. About two years ago, I did his new breathwork course online. It was twice a week for four weeks. It was probably one of the most life-changing practices I've done for me personally. I remember because I was on a book tour as it happened at the time. I'd just arrived in Stockholm. I got to my hotel room.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
I was running a bit late for the course. I got there and it was online. And the first thing he asked us, and there was maybe about 12 of us on this Zoom together, he said, all right, I want to take a full breath in as much as you can and then time how long you can hold it for. And I did about 60 seconds, something like that. Okay, that was your benchmark.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
When I put it like that, it sounds really, really simple and obvious, but I genuinely believe that when we think about behavior change, too much of it is about more and more external knowledge, right? But I think what we all need is more internal knowledge. And your first question to me was about reliances, right?
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Just to be really clear, this is nothing like Wim Hof and the hyperventilation before. And there's nothing like that. It's purely take a breath and hold. There's nothing to prepare your body for. Within four weeks, Chris, I went from one minute to four minutes and 20 seconds.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And it's not like the Wim Hof where you hyperventilate to blow off carbon dioxide first, which allows you to hold your breath for longer. In fact, Erwin would say that's akin to doing cold immersion with a wet suit on. That's his words, not mine. But it was really powerful, Chris. I'll tell you why it was so powerful. because I learned that it was all to do with your mind.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
My CO2, carbon dioxide tolerance, did not change that much in four weeks to go from one minute to four minutes and 20 seconds. My physiology did not change that quickly. What that course taught me is that when you think you need to breathe, so you're lying there in silence and your body is screaming for you to breathe, if you can quieten your mind,
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
If you can quieten the thoughts, which you can do, you can go for another minute. All of those thoughts, all of those things that are going around your mind, any tension you have in your body, it's bleeding energy.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Yeah. So again, I wasn't doing this near water. He wasn't proposing anyone was doing it near water. But why I shared that is because... This is a practice that I do each morning, right? It's not about the breath hold. It's about knowing when your body is literally screaming for you to take a breath, which is probably one of the most primal things your body can say to you.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
In that moment, I've learned I still got control over my mind and I can go longer, which basically means most things in life become quite trivial in comparison.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And I said about a lot of these everyday reliances that people have, which are tying them down. In this new book, what I've done is go through some bigger picture reliances, right? So chapter one, I think it's one of the most important chapters I've ever written. It's called Trust Yourself. And I talk about this over-reliance on experts. Right.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
I don't believe in non-negotiables anymore.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Well, we've spoken about perfectionism, right? So let me try and draw a connection between this and perfectionism. As a perfectionist in recovery... I don't believe that this idea of non-negotiables is helpful to me. Because again, a non-negotiable implies that I will not negotiate on this. I will always do this. For me, there's hints of perfectionism there, right?
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Because everything in life is negotiable, Chris. Everything. Nothing is a non-negotiable. So I could tell you, for example, that... I'm a calm, peaceful person, which I am, and I will never be violent. That's a non-negotiable for me, always going to be peaceful. Well, hold on a minute. What if I was out with my two children and someone was trying to attack them and threaten us?
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
my non-negotiable suddenly becomes negotiable. I could quite easily believe in that moment I could become violent. If it was to protect my two children, who I love with all my heart, yeah, I probably would. That may seem quite extreme, but I love going to extremes, Chris, because I think it's in the extremes where you learn the veracity and the truth about a concept.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
two or three weeks in January or maybe January, February, March, but actually long-term transformational changes. And I realized that one of the reasons why people cannot or they struggle to make those long-term changes is because they're too reliant on too many things. I'll give you an example, right? So many people feel that they can only feel good and live the life that they want if
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Edith Egan in Auschwitz at the extreme. She was living in hell and even in hell, she could reframe her experience using her mind. I used that in my life to go, hey, Rangan, you're struggling to reframe what that driver did or that email that someone sent you. You know what, Rangan? Edith could reframe stuff in Auschwitz. You can probably reframe this in your life, right?
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
I use it as inspiration for me, not to beat me up, to inspire me, right? And so why non-negotiables for me can be a problematic concept. I think I've also got to be clear, Chris, different concepts land for different people in a different way depending on where they are in life, right?
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
So let's say you're struggling with your health and you're feeling lost, you're feeling lonely, you don't know how you're gonna get any motivation to move forward in your life. A non-negotiable might actually be really good for you where you go, no, actually every day I'm gonna wake up, I'm gonna do that five minute workout and I'm gonna go and have a cold shower for 30 seconds.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And by not missing for three months, you literally change your identity and how you view yourself. But I've been through that process. I'm in a different stage of my life now where a non-negotiable to me ends up beating myself up in my head. I'll give you an example of how that played out for me. I actually find behaviour change... quite easy these days.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And I believe that one of the central ideas in this book is that effortless change is possible when you get to the root, but we're not getting to the root, right? So I can imagine four years ago on New Year's Day, I would wake up and be like, right, that's it, Chatterjee, you are nailing meditation this year, right? You've seen the studies, you've
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
lowers stress, lowers anxiety, can increase the matter in your brain, the brain function. Right, that is it. This year it's happening. And I would nail it. 20 minutes a day, first week, second week. I would miss a day. Let's say the third week of January. Oh my God, Chris, I would beat myself up in my head. oh, you just couldn't do it, could you, this year? Stupid, right?
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
So if I could just elaborate, I think it's a really interesting point. You and me, Chris, we both host podcasts. Right. And we talk to a lot of experts. Right. And they give their advice. Now, I don't know if you found this, Chris, but what I would find and I do find on my podcast is one week I could talk to, let's say, a medical doctor from Harvard Medical School. Right.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
You know it's important, you couldn't do it. That was my pattern, right? And so that was a non-negotiable for me, which meant that when I missed it, because I said it was a non-negotiable in my head, I felt less than. I felt bad. I felt guilt. I felt shame. It plays into perfectionism, which means I stop doing it. I'm like, oh God, I'll try again next year. This all or nothing type approach.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Whereas now I have a much kinder relationship with myself. I don't have that negative inner voice anymore unless I'm really, really stressed and sleep deprived, which again, it's a signal for me to go, oh wow, I need to stop looking after myself. Whereas now, I do meditate most mornings, but if I miss, I'm like, oh, okay, I missed today. I'm actually a better human being when I do meditate.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
I'm more focused. I'm more present with the people around me. Actually, tomorrow, I'm going to start meditating again. it's a much healthier relationship with that behavior. For me, it's a balance between discipline and compassion. And Chris, another idea that I've been thinking a lot about, because I think a lot about behavior change, 80 to 90% of what doctors today see
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
It's in some way related to our collective modern lifestyles. I'm not putting blame on people, Chris, when I say that. I'm just saying the way we live, the food environment, our sedentary jobs, the chronic stress, the rates of burnout, sleep deprivation, the environmental toxins, whatever it might be, it's causing us to be sick.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And one thing I've realized, Chris, I really think this holds true in every situation. It's not the behavior. It's the energy behind the behavior. And I actually genuinely believe that every single behavior either comes from the energy of fear or the energy of love. Now that may sound really spiritual and I am becoming more spiritual as I get older.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
But I think too, you know, although you're an American now, although you live in America now, you're still a Brit by birth, right?
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Right? So this idea of love and that we can love ourselves is quite an alien concept, I think, in the UK. We don't like to say that. But I can, on this mic in front of you today, say, although I still struggle to say it, right? I was going to initially say, look, I really quite like myself. But dare I say, I love myself, not in a narcissistic way. Like I'm clear on what my values are.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
My three core values are integrity, curiosity, and compassion. Those are the three values I believe represent who I am and who I would like to be. So I regularly assess in the evenings, maybe on a Sunday, how much of this week, Rangan, were you in alignment with your values? When did you behave? When did you not behave, for example?
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And when you get to that point, you find that everything within you is quite aligned. So behaviour change becomes quite easy because when I used to struggle with behaviour change, it was because the behaviours were coming from an energy of fear. So what does that mean? Guilt, shame, I'm not good enough. What do most people do in January or whenever they're trying to make change?
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
They're trying to overcome the person who they think that they are. A lot of the time in January, they're beating themselves up, Chris. They're like, I'm not good enough. My stomach's not flat enough. I'm not enough. Let me beat myself up with my behaviours to overcome that. That works for a few weeks. It might work for a few months, but in my clinical experience, it never works in the long term.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
So people say, you know, you must get your advice from experts. But here's the problem in the modern world. One week, let's say I talk to Chris Palmer from Harvard Medical School, which I have done. Chris is great, and he will show evidence that a ketogenic diet can be incredibly helpful for some people with bipolar and other mental health problems.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
At some point, that energy has to change where you actually quite like yourself. You're doing it not because you're trying to avoid something, but because you're trying to get towards something. Actually, I want to have a stronger body. I want to have a clearer mind. I feel that it's the way I can become a better human. I can be a better father when I look after myself.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And again, going back to your earlier question, Chris, what is it about me now at 47 where I feel this sense of calm? I think for me, becoming a father has been a huge part of that. My son is 14, so I've been a dad now for almost 15 years. And again, I want to acknowledge that. Not everyone needs to have a child to see this.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
A lot of people are choosing not to have children for a variety of reasons. Hey, I'm okay with all of that. For me personally, it's been transformative. You know, suddenly having kids, you just can't be as me-focused anymore. You'd realize there's more to you than just you and your experience. There's other people who depend on you.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
So going back to perfectionism, let me sort of connect the kids and me as a dad to my perfectionist tendencies. We look at these people, these heroes, we put them on pedestals. You'll have people, Chris, in your audience who are putting you on pedestals, who are putting you on a pedestal. They're like, oh my God, Chris is an amazing podcast host. They're too smart to put me on a pedestal.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
But I reckon some will be, mate, right? And the reason why I think this is problematic, and I suspect you would agree with this, is because they're seeing one aspect of your life. They're seeing you on the mic. They're seeing your vlog when you're crushing it in Australia, right?
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Unless you're showing this, and maybe I haven't seen this on your platforms, they're not seeing the mornings when you wake up absolutely shattered. When you think, I've got 12 podcasts to do in five days in London, why did I sign up for so many? What is the consequence on you, your well-being, your relationships from doing that? Now, I'm not here criticising or judging, I'm just simply saying...
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
If people want to be you, they can't have one aspect of you. They need the whole aspect. You can't just be 1% Chris Williamson. You have to be 100% Chris Williamson.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
He'll give you patient case studies, and he'll give you published research to support what he's saying. Two months later, I could talk to someone else. Let's say Professor Felice Jacker from Australia, right? And we can talk about her trial that showed a Mediterranean diet is really good for reversing depression, right? And she'll present case studies and published research.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Let me just respond to what you just said and I will come to that. I promise. you can't just take that one aspect, like I mentioned about Jon Bon Jovi, like you just mentioned, right? You can't be Tiger Woods and just take the 15 majors without the painkiller addiction, without the public humiliation, right? You can't.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
You can't take the 28 Olympic gold medals that Michael Phelps has without the depression and the suicide attempts. You can't take Johnny Wilkinson's World Cup medal without the 10 years of pain that followed that, right? So many of these heroes have paid a huge cost
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
to get where they are huge cost and we often just look at the upside and not the downside and that's where that write your own happy ending exercise i think can be so useful it sounds simple oh just a little what a little three question exercise yeah just a little three question exercise these things can help us reframe our lives in quite a huge way now you mentioned busyness right and chapter eight is all about business and this idea that business is success and
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And the reliance, because everything in this book is about a reliance we have, right? So I believe busyness comes from our reliance on feeling important. So both you and I have spoken to Will Storr before on our podcast, author of many great books, but The Status Game. It's a really good book that Will wrote.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And in that book, he makes the case that status is a universal driver in all humans, right? But status is not the amount of YouTube followers you've got, the amounts of Instagram followers you've got, your celebrity status. Will makes the case that status actually is that feeling that we are of value to other people, right? And I think it is what drives us all.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Now, I think many of us now in the 21st century are living these disconnected lives. We've moved away from our communities, our tribes, the people that know us, the people that knew us. And we might have moved away for work opportunity, right? Which is fantastic. But there's a consequence. Sometimes we just don't feel a value. And the old hunter-gatherer tribes, you would know your value.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
You were the forager. You were the hunter. There was something that you were providing to the people around you. This is probably one of the main reasons why people who follow religious practices, not are religious, but people who follow religious practices are happier and healthier than those who don't. Because a lot of those religious practices, depending on which religion you're talking about,
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
are about doing things for others, showing you to be of value to others. But I think we have a value deficiency in the modern world where we don't know that we're of value to others. So some of the way we get that is by overworking and pushing ourselves really, really hard because then you can say, yeah, I am important. You know, I have this reliance on feeling important.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And now I think that reliance, that over-reliance, I should say, is pushing many people beyond what they can cope with. And it's making them sick. This is why this matters so much to me, Chris. I have seen time and time again over the years in clinical practice, people who thought they could keep pushing. Nothing will happen to them. They can keep pushing. They're the superheroes, right?
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
until they get hit with the autoimmune illness. And they wish, man, I didn't need to do this. I wish I'd stopped earlier. Why do autoimmune illnesses come for people that push themselves too much? Okay, well, there's many theories on autoimmune illness. The theory that makes the most sense to me is from Dr. Aselio Fasano from Harvard.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And basically, he says there are three criteria that someone needs to get an autoimmune illness. Okay. genetic susceptibility, increased intestinal permeability, and an environmental stressor. I'll explain what that means. If you don't have the genes for an autoimmune illness, you're not going to get it. But that's not enough. You need it, but it's not sufficient in and of itself.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
So what I would find often in my Instagram DMs is that my audience would say, hey, Dr. Chancergy, I'm a little bit confused. Chris Palmer said this. Felice Jaka said that. They both sound really, really convincing. I don't know which expert to trust. Chris, I believe in 2024 and 2025, that's the wrong question to be asking. It's not which expert should I trust.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
You also need something that's called increased intestinal permeability. Colloquially, it's called leaky guts. Basically, when our guts are all a bit leaky, but when it actually becomes problematic. In essence, it's a simplified way of saying that. But even with those two things, according to his theory, you won't get it. You need a third thing, an environmental stressor.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
So for someone with celiac disease, for example, which is an allergy to gluten... That would be consuming gluten. That would be the environmental stressor. but a very common one for many people is stress, right? I would see in my practice for many years, Chris, autoimmune illness.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
I used to really enjoy seeing, when I say enjoy, as a doctor, I was fascinated by the development of autoimmune illness and what you could do with your lifestyle to alleviate things, right? So I would see a lot of it in my practice. I would say in over 95% of cases, right? In the six months preceding the diagnosis, there was heavy, heavy stress in that person's life.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Work stress, bereavement, losing your house, losing your job, something which might have been the final trigger. And there's loads of case studies in the book where I share people... who already had enough and they pushed past it for more. I genuinely believe that the biggest disease in society these days, Chris, is the disease of more.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
More money, more followers, more downloads, more, more, more is going to make us happy. And the phrase that I think about a lot is from the Tao Te Ching. It's one of my favorite quotes that I reflect on a lot of the time. I was on the train down from the Northwest this morning. I'm thinking about it. True wealth is knowing what is enough.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
I think that's the million dollar question for so many of us, Chris. What is enough? At what point do you have enough? Why I feel so happy and content these days is because I have got very clear that I have enough. I really do, right? So I've got a wife who loves me. I've just passed 17 years of marriage last week and we're as happy as we've ever been.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
I've got two kids who I love and who love me and want to spend time with me, right? And I've got a job that I love and that provides me and my family a great quality of life. I'm winning, right? And this may interest you, Chris. Two years ago, my son at the time was 12.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And I can't remember, it was a weekend, I was maybe uploading something to YouTube or looking at something related to my podcast, right? And I don't know how we got onto this topic, but I remember saying to him, Something like, I said, oh, son, you know what? I've heard from people that if I go to two episodes a week, you 4X the show, right? Or something, maybe it's three years ago.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And you've released two episodes a week. Three episodes a week. You know what I'm talking about, right? So he said, well, daddy, why don't you do that? You know, your show will be even bigger and more successful than it already is. And I said, hey, son, listen, if I go from one episode to two episodes a week,
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
You know, there's weekends where we play football in the garden or we go for a walk or we sit and play cards or we go on bike rides together. I probably won't be around to do those things because I'll be in the studio recording intros, recording outros, whatever it might be, right?
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
So I've had to get real clarity because as you remember from last time we spoke, Chris, you may remember, I used to be very competitive, right? But that came from a feeling of lack because as a kid, as I explained to you last time, I took on the belief that I was only loved when I was top of the class and I got full marks. That was nobody's fault. I'm not blaming anyone.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
My parents were immigrants to the UK. Their way of having their kids not face the problems that they had was by pushing you to be a straight A student and become a doctor because then you won't have any problems in life. I took on the belief as a young boy that I'm only loved when I'm top dog, right? But then you go into the world where you're now competing with 8 billion people.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
It's why do I no longer trust myself? I think we have become overly reliant on external experts. I'm not saying ignore external experts, but somewhere over the last few years, we've outsourced our inner expertise to these external experts.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
That's a very toxic belief system, right? And I'm no longer competitive because being competitive, Chris, was not who I was. It was who I became in response to my upbringing. And now that I understand that and I've done the work, and there's loads of practices in this book that will help people with that, I'm not competitive anymore. It never was who I was.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
So I can, for example, look at my life and go, hey, Ranga, you know what? I'm doing great, right? If you had told me 10 years ago, that Ranga, you're going to have five Sunday Times bestsellers. You're going to be happily married. You're going to have two kids that love you. You're going to have a top 10 podcast in the UK, the most listened to health podcast in Europe, right?
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
If you're going to have those things, I wouldn't have believed you, Chris. But I have all those things and it's very easy. I could look at you. I could look at other people who, you know, and I'm not saying this in a bad way. I'm saying it genuinely in an honest way and go, oh, yeah, it'd be good to do that or go to two a week or go to three a week. And I'm like, oh, wait a minute.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
It's the unmeasurables in life is where the gold is. It's the unmeasurables, Chris. I've really, really got that in my head. The most important things in life, I don't believe can be measured by society's metrics. So I can't give you a number. I can't give you an official measurement of how happy my wife and I are.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
I can't give you a number like I can with my Instagram followers or podcast downloads. that tells you what joy I get from my children. And the reason why I keep coming back to the Tao Te Ching quotes, true wealth is knowing what is enough, is the reason we keep pushing is that so many people, and I've had patients who already had enough and they keep thinking that more is what they need.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Hey, we're all individuals. We've all got to find this truth on our own, on our own path. But I have pushed really hard in the past I don't want to do it anymore. I feel like I'm winning. I've got a job that I love. I've got a family that I love. I'm in great health. Do you know what I mean, Chris?
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
So what I would say to people, and I've got 23 years of clinical experience behind me, so this is real life experience with patients, not just published research. Different things work for different people. So I would say to people, listen, why don't you try what Chris Palmer is suggesting? For example, for four weeks, And in those four weeks, I want you to pay attention.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
How do you find balance, Chris? Because from where I'm sitting here... And you know that I think you're a wonderful podcast. It's not that you need that validation from me, right? But I do. I think the way you conduct your shows is full of integrity. And I really like the presence that you bring to these conversations. But from the outside, I'm like...
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
actively prioritizing trying to make life more enjoyable i'm trying to have as much fun as i can as consistently as i can at the moment uh trying to find ways to swim downstream instead of upstream the the dangerous chris not not for you i would say not because you're not asking me for advice and i don't give unsolicited advice i certainly try not to these days um the danger what i see and i've seen in patients is that we think this is just for a short period of time
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
right so back in my 20s uh a friend of my friends was a banker in london he goes i'm just gonna crush it in my 20s right i'm gonna go and hit it hard do what i need to do make enough money where i can then chill out in my 30s and 40s and 50s well he's still there now at 47 you know overworking he's got loads of money but his relationship with his wife is on the rocks
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Pay attention to your energy, your sleep, your relationships, your focus, your concentration, your guts, your bloating, your bowels. Pay attention, right? And then for the next four weeks, try what the other expert's saying and pay attention to those same things. At the end of that eight-week trial, you will actually start to know that Which of these diets feels right for me?
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
His kids don't want to spend time with him. It's a cliche.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Well, I think it's for a couple of reasons. I think this over-reliance on feeling importance. If you get that value only from your work... and you've neglected the other things in your life, whether consciously or unconsciously, that will keep pulling you, right? Because we all want to feel that we're a value to people. I think sometimes we don't take stock of our life. You know, I think...
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
There's a strategy in your 20s that may work, but that may not work in your 30s. And you have to constantly re-evaluate and go, is the strategy that I was using still working for me? That's what I do regularly. That write your own happy ending exercise, the three deathbed questions, the three current present day questions, that's a regular reflection activity.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Another question I ask myself every morning, I do three questions each morning with my morning coffee. What is one thing I deeply appreciate about my life? Very simple question of gratitude, which has a lot of science to back it up. Okay, so it takes me a minute to answer that. But the question I really like is the second one. What is the most important thing I have to do today?
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And that question, it helps you cut through all the noise of your to-do list and it makes you choose what is the most important thing I have to do today. And it's such a deceptively powerful question because like I said before, Chris, so often we only do the important things in life. when everything else is done, but everything else is never done.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
So that question makes you choose one priority, right? I don't know if you know this, I think Greg McKeown told me this for the first time, that when the word priority came into the English language in the 1500s, it was only singular.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Didn't exist, but now we've got, oh, I've got 20 priorities today. Well, that's probably why you're overly stressed and busy.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
you know a standard week for me like the week before i went to america i went recently um i remember the week before then on the monday because my flight i think was on the thursday on the monday i put down because this book is coming out i had an article to to submit to penguin so that morning it was the most important thing i have to do is complete that article and send it to penguin and
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
It doesn't mean my relationship with my wife and my children wasn't important that day or my other work commitments, but I decided in the morning, that's a win today. If I get that done, today's a win. Tuesday was, you know what, I'm going to be away for two weeks. My wife was just away at the weekend.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
When the kids are in bed tonight, the most important thing I do is spend some quality time with my wife. On the Wednesday, I remember very clearly what I put down because I'm going away, not only because I'm going away, but what I felt like putting down there was I'm working from home today.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
When my children come in at 4.30 from school today, the most important thing I have to do today is make sure my laptop is closed and my phone is in another room so that I'm fully present to what they have to tell me. Now Chris, these things may sound really simple. I can guarantee to anyone who's listening or watching right now,
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
If all you do is answer that question each day for the next seven days, I guarantee your experience of life will change for the better in the next seven days. Do it for 30 days, your life will feel different because that'll be you specifying 30 important things and doing those 30 important things.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And the sense of achievement and inner wellbeing and self-esteem that you build from doing stuff like that It's so powerful because we have a negativity bias. So our brain is always drawn to what we didn't do. I didn't get that email done. I didn't prepare properly for that podcast guest who's coming tomorrow. Whatever it might be, this goes, no, no, this is the most important thing.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And I'm going to make sure I get this done today. Again, I love simple things that don't cost any money because I've worked, Chris, for years. In all kinds of practices, I've worked in affluent areas, but I've also worked in very socially deprived areas. And hand on heart, I believe that every single person should have access to quality information that helps them.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And so where possible, because I live in this online health and wellness space and people will say, oh, this health and wellness world, it's for the middle classes. It's for people who can afford all the fancy stuff. I was just in LA and Austin and LA must be like, and of course it was because of the people I was hanging out with and the podcast I was going on.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
But if you live in LA or certainly where I was, It feels like sauna and cold plunge and red light is the norm. But it's not the norm for most people around the world. Nothing wrong with those things at all. They can be absolutely very beneficial. But I'm always thinking... Great, for people who can, no problem.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
But how do you give health information to people who don't have the means, who maybe can't afford those things or don't have a coal plunge in their back garden, right? I also really, really want to help them. And one of the proudest things that I have for this book, Chris, is that every single thing I've recommended... is free of charge.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
So it means everyone can basically apply it no matter who they are or where they live. Can you talk to me about this relationship between taking offence and our health? Man, probably my favourite chapter after chapter one is chapter five, which is called Take Less Offence. I'll tell you the opening story in there because I think it really illustrates this concept well.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
I think actually in some ways it makes what I'm saying even more powerful because I am a so-called expert. So I'm a medical doctor. I've done my specialist exams. I've done my general practice exams. I've got an immunology degree. I'm a professor at Chester Medical School. Expertise. I've got the expertise, but I still would have to say, Chris, to you or any of your audience,
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
I remember when the news of the George Floyd death went around the world. I was in the UK. It was in the middle of a psychologically taxing lockdown. Whatever people's views are on lockdowns, no matter what your view is, these were challenging times for people, right? And everyone's feeling quite stressed because of the state of the world and everything's shut and everything's closed down.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And I'm very clear that I have a public profile to help people with their health, their happiness, and their well-being. So I don't comment on certain things in general. People want you to comment on everything, but I'm very clear on what my public profile is about. I try and talk about things I have expertise and experience in, and I try not to talk about things that I don't, right?
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Revolutionary. Revolutionary. But that did really affect me for a variety of reasons. And I spent two or three days thinking about it. I accept I'm not an American. So I didn't grow up with this history of the race issues that have been there in America, right? I'm putting that all out on the table. But I am from an immigrant family.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And there's been elements of discrimination that my family have faced in the past. So I put out a post on Instagram. carefully thought out post where I explained some of my thoughts, but then I explained the impact that racism can have. And I shared an example when my wife, so my wife is born and brought up in the UK like me, but of an Indian background like me.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
I shared an experience that she had as a kid where she was living in North Manchester and And basically one afternoon at the weekends, the BNP, the British National Party, threw a brick through their window. So she's a young girl watching telly and a brick comes through the window. That is a traumatic experience, right? And I shared that. And what's really interesting is that
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Most people were very supportive of the post and were happy that I had added my voice to what seemed like a very important cultural conversation at the time. But there was quite a few, Chris, who took offense to what I had written. And they were saying, you know, shame on me. This is not an Asian issue, Dr. Chachi. This is a black issue. You have no right to comment or explain this at this time.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And initially... I was like, have I done something wrong here? You know what it's like now with the PC state of the world? Have I done something wrong? And then I thought about it and I thought, this is ridiculous. I haven't signed up to any code of conduct anywhere that determines how I should or should not respond to the killing of a man by a police officer 3,000 miles away.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
I'm fully entitled to respond how I see fit in a way that is compassionate, that is kind, that is full of integrity. I'm fully entitled to. But a few people, quite a few people took offense to what I had written. I thought this is really interesting. Really, really interesting. People are taking offense. And I think this problem is just out of control now, Chris.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
People are walking around taking offense to everything that they see online. And it's a problem, right? It's a real problem. And I'm going to explain the relationship to our health and our behaviors. When you take offense to something, usually... You are generating that emotional stress inside you. I can't believe they posted that. They were so out of order for posting that.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
I simply cannot know exactly what is the right approach for you. I can give you frameworks and guidelines, but ultimately you have to determine what is the right approach for you. And yes, we can help. I'm not saying ignore experts, Chris. I'm saying I think the balance has shifted too far now.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
You're working yourself up, right? So you're no longer calm inside. You've elevated your sympathetic nervous system. You've elevated the levels of stress and emotional stress in your body. And you will need to neutralize that emotional stress in some way. You will have to. It doesn't just dissipate, right? And you can do it in helpful ways. You can do it in unhelpful ways. So for many people...
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
The way that they do it, as I've already mentioned, is alcohol, sugar, pornography, gambling, three hours doom scrolling. This is why this sort of stuff matters to me. I want to help people change their behaviours.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Yes, we can talk to them about sugar and alcohol, but what I think makes this book, I think, quite unique is this more philosophical approach to health and behaviours than we typically get. If you're someone... who is regularly taking offense, you are generating unnecessary emotional stress in yourself. I did this for years, Chris. So I'm not judging. I know what that feels like.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
But when you don't, because there's a certain amount of arrogance that is needed to take offense. And I'll tell you what I mean by that. If you're taking offense to certain things, On some level, you're saying that person should think the same as me. Right? They have no right to think differently to me.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And in a world of 8 billion people, how can it possibly be, Chris, that everyone is going to agree with you? They are not. At a point which I think a lot of people don't realise... is that nothing is inherently offensive. It cannot be. Why not? If the thing was inherently offensive, it means every single person interacting with the thing would take offense.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
But if they don't, it means it's not the thing that is offensive. It's something within you that's being lit by that thing. Once you get that, you get life. Because you understand that instead of blaming other people for our internal responses, you own it. You go, actually, no, no, this is something. Why does that comment bother me so much? What is it inside of me that is being lit by that?
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
You can apply the same thing to criticism, Chris, right? It's hard for me to get out podcast host mode because I really want to ask you questions, even though it's your show, right? So I do want to, I'd love to know your relationship with criticism that whenever you face it on YouTube or on Instagram or wherever, because you can't have a successful show like this and not get criticism.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
It's simply not possible. What I've learned over the years, people used to say to me when I first started in the public eye and like 10 years ago, oh, you need to just grow a thick skin. I don't necessarily agree with that. I don't think it's about a thick skin. I think criticism can be really, really powerful if you use it in the right way. Now, criticism can be a tool for learning.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
You can go, wow, yeah, they've got a point there. If you're not getting triggered and you get caught up in the emotions and you can step back and go, is there any truth to this person's criticism? Like I've had that before. I put out a post on Instagram and maybe there's been a criticism. And sometimes I'm like, Actually, you know what? They've got a point.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And what's happened is when we basically think that the expert has the answer and I'm following their advice and I'm not feeling better, we never think they're the failure.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Next time I bring up that topic, I could maybe take a little bit more care and caveat that a bit better than I did, right? So you can learn something. Or... you can go, actually, no, I'm okay with what I did. This says more about them and their state of mind. I would say the big thing, Chris, that I've learned is that criticism only bothers us to the extent we believe it about ourselves.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Got it. So I think that's a great point. So I'm not saying, when I say take less offense, when I say that criticism only bothers you to the extent with which you believe it about yourself, which I do believe to be true generally, I'm not saying that that makes what the other person said or did okay, right? Someone can say something horrible, right? I don't need to take offense to it.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
We think we're the failure and we're struggling and actually we're not good enough. And it makes us feel inferior. And in that chapter, there's a case study of, you know, a real life case study of a patient who came to see me once. She was very, very interested in health. She would listen to health podcasts and read all the health books and,
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
So let's use the example you just mentioned. Someone has gone on your wall, let's say, and said something that is completely untrue about you that can damage your reputation. I would submit that by you not taking offense, by learning to keep your emotional cool, you're gonna be much better able to handle that situation and deal with it. That's the key. It's a difference.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
when everything around them goes right, okay, there's no traffic, the emails are okay, the coffee is given to you by your barista just the way you like it, okay, your boss treats you nicely, there's no traffic on the way home from work. If those conditions are met, we can feel calm and satisfied and we can get on with our life and make the choices that we want to make. But...
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
It doesn't mean you don't wanna get that comment removed, perhaps. It doesn't mean, let's take it away from a high profile influencer like you that people may or may not be able to relate to. Let's say you got an email from your boss at 4pm that has really pissed you off. How dare my boss write to me like that and undervalue the work that I've done.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Now, first of all, the first thing you have to understand is that you will see the world through the state of your nervous system. So had you got that email at 9am, you may not have interpreted in the same way as at 4pm. It's the same email, but you are different. Your nervous system is different. You may be tired, maybe didn't take a lunch break.
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
So you may start to interpret threat there where there was no threats, right? But let's assume it wasn't a nice email. If you train yourself to not get offended by that and just take a breath and go, okay, that's interesting. I wonder why my boss sent that. I wonder what's going on for them. That's really unusual. I'm so valued normally by this company. What on earth is going on?
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
If you start to interact with the situation like that, rather than thinking, I have every right to be pissed off and annoyed and have another Coke now and phone my friends to moan about it. I've been there. I've done all that. I'm simply saying, look, people can act in the way that they want. I'm just another human being trying to share my experience of the world, right?
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#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
If people want to act like that, they can. I'm just saying in my experience, there's a consequence of doing that. You are not going to see the situation clearly for what it is. You're going to be less able to change it. Whereas if at 4 p.m. you can have that conversation, this is really unusual. What's going on? Are they sick? Are they under pressure from their boss?
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
You're better able to send a calm email back that evening or the following morning and say, hey, listen, can we have a meeting? At the meeting, you can say, hey, listen, you know, that email felt really rushed. You know, when I read it, I actually felt as though I was a bit undervalued at the company. I'm not sure that was your intention or not.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
You can have a much more productive relationship with that situation if you don't walk around getting triggered by everything. Does that make sense, Chris? Because that's the point I'm trying to make. There's a subtle difference there. I'm not saying we're saying that that behavior is okay.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
I'm saying if you want to change that behavior, you're going to be much better at changing that behavior if you can stay internally calm. And all you have to do is practice, I believe that.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And she had heard a gut health expert say that you should aim to have 30 different plant foods in a week because that will help you have a healthy gut microbiome. Right. So she's trying to follow that in her life. And she feels awful every time she tries to follow it. Okay. And then she tries to go slowly and introduced really, really gradually. Okay. She's getting bloated.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Yeah, I'm really glad you picked that out of the book because it's one of my favorite. I'm not saying they're all my favorite. This is such a personal book. It's literally my template of how I got to this place and why I feel so passionate about these ideas. And one of the chapters is literally about this. It's called Expect Adversity. And the reliance is a reliance on things never going wrong.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And I think many of us subconsciously hold that. We're surprised when one day there's traffic. Well, if you drive enough, there's going to be traffic, right? We're surprised if you're a parent, and I know you're not yet, but many parents or some parents will sometimes on the way to picking up their kids will nip into the supermarket to get food for dinner on the way. Well, you know what?
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Sometimes there is going to be an elderly lady having a natter with the checkout assistant. That is going to happen. But if you in that moment get really frustrated and annoyed, you are rebelling against the natural order of life. Now, there are things you can do about this. And I want to share an exercise that I do that's been really helpful. But another way to look at this is,
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
I don't know if this is an extreme example. It's an example I use in the book, but I think it's quite powerful. Current statistics say that a UK doctor will be sued on average four times over the course of a 40-year career, right? It doesn't matter how good you are. If you see enough patients, you are going to get sued. If you drive enough times, you're going to be involved in a crash, right?
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
It's going to happen. It's not a matter of if, it's when. So a really close friend of mine a few years ago, this is quite an extreme situation, but I think it illustrates the point. There was a missed case of a cancer diagnosis that had nothing to do with my friends, but she got dragged into this complaint. And of course, the family have every right to make a complaint, right?
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Because it's a very emotive issue, it has serious consequences. She got dragged in. And for two years, her life was hell. She was drinking to excess most nights. She was getting smashed at the weekends. She was really, really struggling. Now, it's always going to be hard to deal with a complaint like that.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
But if you look at it another way, it was going to happen at one point and you can train yourself to expect adversity. That is quite a hard situation to do it in, I acknowledge. But if you look at the stats, it is going to happen. Look at it through the lens of business, right? Have you heard of the term shrinkage? Yeah.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
So my understanding of the term shrinkage from business is that it's kind of when businesses account for the stuff that's going to happen that they don't want, but they know is going to happen. So, for example, a supermarket knows that with their best intentions, people are going to shoplift and some food is going to go off.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
She's getting constipated. She can't sleep properly. She comes in to see me and says, Dr. Chastity, I'm trying my best here. I know that I need to have these 30 different plant foods for a healthy gut microbiome, but I just don't feel good. And what I said to her, Chris, was, listen, I'm not criticizing the advice that you read online at all.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
that's factored into their business model and i think from from memory that uk businesses last year factored in shrinkage to the level of 11 billion pounds right it's a big thing shrinkage but you know the uk supermarkets and the us ones are not surprised when it happens they know it's going to happen so they factor it in you are going to have adverse events in your life so you've got to factor in you've got to be not be surprised when it happens
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Now, there's an exercise you can do that I write about, which I talk about complaining. Ask yourself, and it's a really great thing for people to do, ask yourself, how many times in a day do you complain? Because a complaint is, in essence, you getting surprised by the natural order of life. Things are going to happen that you don't want. So you can do two things.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And this is one thing I did for many years, Chris. You turn the complaint into an action if you can do something about it. And if you can't, you turn it into a moment of gratitude, right? So turning it into an action is, means you stop acting like a victim and turning it into a moment of gratitude, stops you thinking like a victim. You go, okay, this is going to happen.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
This is how I'm going to handle it. And I'll tell you something that happened to me about six months ago, Chris, right? So I still live in the town where I grew up in the Northwest of England. And for much of my adult life, I've had elderly parent caring responsibilities. So my mum now isn't so well. She has care every day and I live five minutes away.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Now, mum for many years has had an emergency alarm around her neck if she was to fall. A few years ago, no, actually this was last year. Was it last year or the year before? It was in the last six to 18 months, right? This happened. I was asleep at night in my house and the phone rang, picked it up. And it was the emergency lady saying, hey, look, your mum's pulled her trigger.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
She's on the floor. She can't get up. Can you go around and help her? So I'm half asleep. I'm in my pajamas. I go into my car, drive around to mum's who's only five minutes away. I go into the house. Can't remember what time it is, but it's maybe 10, 10.30 PM, something like that. And I help mum. I check she's okay. I get her back into bed. I get her settled.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
When I'm happy that things are settled and that she's safe at home, I think, okay, all right, mum, I'll come and check on you in the morning. I go into mum's drive. I get in my car and I reverse out straight into the car that was parked in the street opposite mum's drive, just straight into it.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
The older version of Rangan who hadn't been practicing these concepts, the older version of Rangan who didn't expect adversity would have done this. And I submit, Chris, that many people listening, dare I say it, most people listening, unless they're your enlightened audience who know not to do these things, would have gone something like this. Oh my God, typical.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
I've got all this stuff to deal with. Work's crazy at the moment. I've had to go and sort this out with mum. And now I've got to phone up the insurance and get all this... stuff sorted, right? That is a very common response, but that response has a consequence, Chris. The consequence of that is that you feel pissed off, you feel annoyed, you're likely to consume more rubbish the next day.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
I'm simply saying that no one piece of health advice holds true for every single person. Would you like me... to help you figure out what is the right approach for you. And it only took us about six weeks. And for her, at that point in her life, Chris, she went onto a more low carb type of diet with five to 10 different plant foods a week. And she's rocking, she's thriving.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
You really are. I've seen this with patients over and over again because that's a consequence. It's a downstream behaviour based upon your emotional state. What I did in the moment, and I was really proud of myself, I thought, wow, Rangan, maybe this stuff is working with you. Because I did it in the moment.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
I was like, oh, well, Rangan, if you're going to keep coming around half asleep to pick mum up off the floor, it was bound to happen at some point. No one's hurt, you're not hurt, and I've got insurance. That one way that I reacted with the same incident has multiple knock-on effects, right? I'm not trying to compensate anymore with my behaviours.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
I'm not putting the guilt and the self-pity, oh poor me, I've got all this to do. Every decision you make, every thought you have, it has a consequence. And these ideas that I'm trying to put forward in this book, I really believe, Chris, will be life-changing for people because they don't realise, so many people, you can train this stuff out of yourself.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
You don't have to keep reacting like this for the rest of your life. And going back to Edith Eger for a moment, the reason why Edith had such a profound impact on me, Chris, I've already mentioned some of the reasons, but A practice that I would do for years, I don't do anymore because I don't need to, but I did need to.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
In the evening, it was when my kids were in bed, I'd sit down in my kitchen and I'd go, okay, Ranga, where did you get emotionally triggered today? And instead of putting the blame on the other person who I could say has triggered me, I could own it and go, no, no, no. Someone else might have done something, but you chose to get triggered. When I say chose, it was you.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
It was something within you that was lit up by that. What was it? Oh, it's because it reminded me of something that my parents said when I was a kid. Oh, this kind of hit on a little insecurity I have about myself or whatever it might be. I would argue that that is the most important and powerful exercise I've ever done. Because what happens is you become a black belt in yourself, Chris.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Instead of blaming the world around you, these dependencies, reliances, instead of being reliant on everyone around you being a certain way and acting a certain way so that I can feel good, I thought, no. I don't want to be a puppet on a string where people around me and things that I've got no control of can blow me around. No, I'm going to own it, right?
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Now, people will bring up trauma here, right, Chris? We will say, yeah, what about people who've been heavily traumatized? Don't they need therapy? Sometimes it's a trauma response. Yes, I agree. Trauma therapy can be really, really helpful. But... The reality is a lot of people cannot access trauma for a variety of reasons, availability, cost, access.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
These are very common reasons why people cannot access therapy. And again, I want to empower people instead of going, oh, well, there's nothing I can do because I can't get it. I'm like, wait a minute. Yes, you've been traumatized. Yes, that was a horrible experience. But these practices are still going to help you. They're still going to help you.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Well, the new book's called Make Change That Lasts, available in all the usual places. There's a paperback, ebook, and I'm erasing the audiobook. If people can put up with this voice anymore, they can hear the whole thing on an audiobook. But I also direct them to my podcast, Feel Better Live More. It's been going for seven years now.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And like you, Chris, I try and have meaningful, authentic conversations. So people like it apple spotify youtube all the usual places okay thank you man
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
She's got energy, her sleep's good. She's got a flat stomach. She's not bloated. That was the right approach for her. And why I'm so passionate about this idea, Chris, is that we're now living in this era where we're drowning in information.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And for all the good intentions about putting this information out there that you have and that I have and many people have, one of the things that we've neglected along the way, I think, is that an individual, I think on a core level, knows when they're on the right approach for them. That's what I've seen in 23 years of seeing patients, Chris. I've seen that actually somewhere along the line,
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
the people who can make changes that truly last in the long term, at some point they've tuned into themselves and gone, actually, you know what, dog, I know you said that, but actually I feel better when I'm eating in this way.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
Well, more health information than ever before and worsening health outcomes, right? When I was sitting down for the last two and a half years writing this book, Chris, I was thinking on one level, it doesn't make sense. More health podcasts, more health books, more health blogs, more online articles about health, yet at the same time, worse physical health outcomes, worse mental health outcomes.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
If those conditions are not met, then actually we start to struggle. We don't feel good in who we are. And what I've realised, Chris, over 23 years now seeing patients, is that usually the behaviours that we are trying to avoid or cut down on are there for a very good reason. And they're usually there to help us neutralize the internal discomfort that we feel.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
I thought, what is this? More knowledge. Everyone says knowledge is power. We need more knowledge. And the case I make in this book that I'm very passionate about that I don't believe has been made enough is that it's not just external knowledge we need. We need more internal knowledge. What is that? Internal knowledge is... Insight, it's self-awareness, it's tuning into yourself.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
I'm sure you may have covered this before on your show. Interception, the ability to sense your own body's signals. We know full well, there's so many research papers now on interception, it's almost like our sixth sense. There's a study that was done with autistic individuals who had anxiety. And if they were trained to be able to sense their heartbeats and feel their heartbeats,
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
they could actually get remission from their anxiety more than people who couldn't. People who've had substance abuse with drugs and alcohol, if they have mindfulness training, which allows them to feel their internal sensations and their signals, it reduces the rate of relapse, reduces the rate of depression, improves how they feel about themselves.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
I sometimes wonder, Chris, why I have this approach to health that I do, because it's not similar to most doctors. I think the way I look at health, and I think there's a few things that have influenced the way I see the world. One is my upbringing. I I'm the child of Indian immigrants to the UK. So my dad came in 1962 to the UK in search of a better life.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And I grew up with this clash of cultures right at home, this Indian upbringing where we very much see food as medicine, where if I have a cold or a sore throat, mum is putting extra turmeric in my food or making me hot ginger and honey and turmeric and saying, you have to drink that before you go to school. And then at school, I was getting this more Western mindset.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And I think that clash really comes when you get to medical school, where it is very much about what does the research trial show? I'm not against science at all. I think science is wonderful.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
But what I've realised over the past few years is actually what a lot of these traditional healing modalities like traditional Indian medicine, Ayurvedic medicine and traditional Chinese medicine had, which we don't so much have in Western medicine, is a real appreciation of the individual. The individual, every individual is different. They all need a slightly different approach.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
But the model we get taught, Chris, is what does the randomized controlled trial say? Okay, so very simplistically, let's give 100 people this treatment and 100 people don't get the treatment. On average, does it work or not? And if enough people benefit, we say, yes, on average, this is a statistically significant finding. This treatment works.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
But the problem is if you go under the hood there, you will find that even in the group where it wasn't statistically significant, some people still got better. So it doesn't account for the individual. And I think this is why I'm so passionate about this idea, because science is great to help inform us. But you may not be the person who was in that randomised controlled trial.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And going back to what you said, Chris, it's about outcomes. What are we looking for? One thing we do get taught very well at in Western medical schools is we're not treating patients. biomarkers. We're not treating blood levels. We're treating a human being, a patient. So going back to that patient I mentioned, as you said, what does she want? She wants energy. She wants vitality.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
She wants good sleep. Whether she's having five plant foods a week or 30 plant foods a week is actually irrelevant. in terms of the goals that she wants.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
So the reason I think that most people cannot or struggle to make changes that last is It's because they're not understanding the role that those behaviours play in their life. They're too focused on the behaviour, but I think we need to be focused on the energy behind the behaviour.
Modern Wisdom
#887 - Dr Rangan Chatterjee - The Key Strategies Of Behaviour Change
And as a practicing doctor for so many years, Chris, I can tell you the only thing that has ever mattered to me It's helping the person in front of me get better. And often I've helped people get better not by using what the RCT said. Because for me, medicine is an art and science, right? Talk to me about the problems with perfectionism.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
You haven't seen your friends or your partner. And it's a bit of a treat to yourself in the evening. That's very common. You know, people aren't hungry, but they just, it's a little treat to themselves. Okay, how else could you nourish yourself? Oh, well, maybe I could run myself a bath. I'd have a 10, 15 minute bath to myself. Maybe I'm feeling lonely.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
I could phone a friend or a parent, whatever it might be. Every single behavior we engage with serves a role in our life. You'll only change a behavior in the long term if you understand the role it's playing. So that is, it's a very simple exercise. I've described it through the lens of sugar. But the truth is you can apply that to anything.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
You can apply that to alcohol, three hours doom scrolling on Instagram, online pornography, online shopping, whatever you want. It's a simple exercise, which are my favorite kinds of exercises that can be very, very powerful once you start engaging with it.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Yeah. You said two key words there for me. And these are the two missing words, I think, in behavior change. Internal struggle. This is really what I'm trying to get across to people. Every single behavior is downstream, usually, from something inside you. And we're living in a world where we want to consume more and more information, get more and more knowledge, which is helpful up to a point.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Now, I'll come back to that point because I think it's a really important one. I just want to address what you said about it feeling difficult. Out of those three Fs, The most important F is the first one. Why? Because it suddenly just breaks you out of your repetitive cycle. I feel stressed, I want some ice cream, I go to the freezer, and before I know it, I've had half the tub.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
We just don't know which 50%.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
That is very, very common. You think that's who you are. It's not who you are, it's who you've become. And you can un-become it if you start to do that first F. It is simply the knowledge that I can take a pause. There is a gap between the stimulus and the response. When you are repeating your behaviors day to day, when they become habits, whether good habits or unhealthy habits, there's no gap.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
There's a feeling, there's a stimulus, and there's a response. Usually an unhealthy response in this current climate, right? For many people. So that first F creates a gap. Now people will often say, yes, Dr. Chachi, but now that I'm aware, so what? What can I do? I'm like, wait a minute. 90% of change, in my experience, is that first F. It's understanding, oh... This is why I'm going to it.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Sure, it may take you a few weeks. It may take a few months to really work on that relationship and start to tweak it because how long did it take you to develop this relationship? Maybe you've been using sugar to manage stress for 20 years. You're not going to change that in one week in January just because you wake up thinking, I want to make this year the best year of my life.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
You're not going to. It is a process of change. But what people miss, Jay, for me, is that that process where you learn what this behavior is doing for you you struggle, you sometimes can't make the change that you want, other times you can, that process is where the gold is. That's when you're learning about yourself. That's when you get the mastery about yourself.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Oh, I always, when I have a row with my partner, I don't feel good. So yeah, I want sugar. Or when I'm alone or I'm traveling for work and I'm away from my wife and my kids, that's when I just want to spend three hours on Instagram because I'm looking for connection. That's where the gold lies. And for me, Jay, the most important chapter in this book is chapter one, which is called Trust Yourself.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
And I don't think we're talking about this enough in the health and wellness space because People are getting confused, right? You must get this on your show like I do on my podcast, right? This idea that despite our best efforts at trying to navigate the complexity, what I often find, Jay, is people will say to me, not often, but it happens enough that I know that this is an issue.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Dr. Chachi, you know, two months ago, you had this credentialed expert from Harvard, and they said this diet is really good, like a ketogenic diet is really good for mental health. And they sound really trustworthy. they've got all the credentials and they've quoted four or five research studies to back up what they think. And I thought, okay, amazing.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
And then last week, you spoke to another doctor, also well-credentialed, who said, no, a vegan diet or a whole food plant-based diet is best for mental health, and presented five studies to support what they have to say. People would contact me and say, Dr. Chastity, I'm really confused, right? Both of those experts, they sound great. They've all got research to back up what they're saying.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
I don't know which expert to trust. And Jay, what I've realized is that's the wrong question. The more helpful question, the more powerful question is not which expert should I trust? It's why do I no longer trust myself? That is the magic to behavior change. You have to start tuning into the signals your body is giving you.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
So using that example, I would say to someone, hey, I'll tell you what, why do you have to choose which one's right? Maybe they're both right, for certain people, but they're not right for anyone, right? And so I would say, okay, try this expert's diet for four weeks, and whilst you're trying it, Pay attention. Pay attention to what's going on. What's your energy like? What's your vitality?
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
How are your relationships? How's your sleep? How's your focus? How's your concentration? Pay attention. I go, okay, I tried that for four weeks. Now, let me try this other person's diet for four weeks. And again, pay attention. I promise, if you start paying attention, you'll very quickly find out what is the right diet for you at that moment in your life.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
And I feel that we're not talking about this enough. We've got to a point, Jay, where we've outsourced our own inner expertise to external experts. I'm not saying ignore external experts, right? You have some great experts on your show each week. I have some great experts on my podcast each week. But you should listen to their advice and
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
and put it through your own filter, and then you figure out what works for you. And honestly, if you would say, what is the key thing you've learned in 23 years of seeing patients? I've seen tens of thousands of patients. I've learned many things, but I would say no one approach works for everyone. It just doesn't.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
And when we try and make it work for everyone, it's a problem because people feel like failures, right? People feel, oh, I'm following the expert's advice. I'm doing what they said to do. It's not working. There must be something wrong with me. They start to feel guilty. They start to feel like they're a loser. They start to have shame. Those things never lead to long-term behavior change.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
And you know, the other thing, Jay, I've learned, and I love your view on this because I think it probably resonates with the way you see the world. I think we focus too much on the behavior of For me, it's the energy behind the behavior. That's the most important thing. You need to go, what's behind the behavior?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
And I've realized that in life, all behaviors either come from the energy of love or the energy of fear. If it's coming from the energy of fear, so guilt, shame, I'm not good enough, Those changes will not last in the long term. I've been doing this a long time. I have seen it. It lasts for January. It lasts for a few months.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
It doesn't lead to long-term transformation because your behaviors are in conflict with the way that you see yourself. If it's coming from an energy of love, that I like who I am, I want to improve my life, that I'm going to be compassionate to myself,
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
those changes, it can be the same behaviors, working out, eating well, going to bed on time, getting eight hours sleep, whatever it might be, it can be the same behavior. But if the energy behind it is from the energy of love, that's when the changes start to become long-term. And I really get, I don't get frustrated.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Nothing frustrates me anymore, really, if I'm completely honest, because I've been doing the inner work for many years. I just, I can stay quite detached from things and just see them for what they are. But as a doctor, I guess I believe we made behavior change so difficult, Jay. I don't even say it's hard anymore. And I'll tell you why I don't say that.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
I used to say, you know, I know it can feel hard. I know it's hard as a way of trying to empathize with people. But if we say, if we constantly say, oh, it's difficult, oh, it's going to be hard, we're prejudging the experience of people. Sure, it may feel challenging, but it doesn't always have to. And I've experienced that myself. So five years ago, Jay,
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
I would have a very hard, very harsh inner voice. So on January the 1st, I would be very much, I'm going to meditate this year, like 20 minutes a day. And I do it for 14 days and I feel like I'm rocking. Yeah, I've got meditation down this year, then I miss a day. the self-talk would start. Man, you couldn't do it. You couldn't do it wrong, could you? You know, you're a loser, whatever.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
I used to have a really harsh, negative voice not that long ago, but I have completely changed it through all the things that I share in this book, right? I've completely changed it. Back then, behavior change felt difficult because it was in conflict with how I saw myself, right? Now that I like myself, dare I say, talking to a fellow Brit that I love myself, right?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Can you imagine in the UK saying that? You know, I do though. Not in a narcissistic way, but I like who I am. I think I'm a nice guy. I'm kind, I'm compassionate. I help people. I'm no longer competitive, as I've talked to you about in a previous episode on your show. I just want to raise people up. When you feel like that, and everyone can feel like that if they know which levers to turn,
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
behavior change becomes so much easier because you're not trying to fight yourself. Does that all make sense?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Yeah, and then you go to more unhelpful behaviors. And in some ways I've realized you would have been better off never doing those 14 days in the first place because you feel like a failure. And, you know, it's interesting. Someone once asked me about what are your non-negotiables, Rangan? And I realized, Jay, I no longer have any because a non-negotiable to me feels like a harsh rule.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
So let's use that through the lens of this meditation practice where I tried for 14 days. I miss one day. I beat myself up. Now, yeah, I meditate most mornings, but not every morning. And if I miss, I'm like, okay, yeah, sure. I didn't do it today. I'm a better person. I'm a bit calmer when I do meditate. Yeah, I must make sure I do that tomorrow. It's a very different relationship.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
The energy behind the behavior is completely different. So I was like you, Jay, I don't want to make it practical for people. So I have these three questions I ask myself every morning, but one of those questions I think really applies here. So you teach your audience, Jay, on a consistent basis about living an intentional life, a purposeful life, right?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
And I think a lot of people don't realize how powerful the mornings are. We all have a morning routine, whether we think we do or not. The question is, are we intentional about it? Have we thought about the consequences of how we start each day? Because some of you say, oh, they're not for me. You know, it's a bit cliche, this idea of a morning routine, whatever it might be.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
And I'm like, no, no, you've got a routine. You just made our thoughts about it. So what I've learned today over the years is that so many of our thoughts, our feelings, our behaviors are downstream from the content we consume.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
So if you wake up and the first thing you do is go onto your phone and go on the news and see the negativity that the news is telling us from all over the world, you go onto your work emails and see the backlog that you didn't complete or whatever it might be, you go into social media and get caught up in an argument or whatever it might be,
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Does it really surprise you that half an hour later, you may be a little reactive with your kids or your partner, or you may feel a little negative about the state of the world? When you look at it like that, I think it's quite obvious. If that's what you're inputting into your brain, think about it as software. That's what you're inputting in.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Of course, the output straight after that, for many people, is going to be negative as well. If you have a more intentional start to your day with a bit more positivity, I'm not talking about toxic positivity or fake positivity, just intentionally going, whether it's gratitude. I mean, one of the questions I ask is a gratitude question. What is one thing I deeply appreciate about my life?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
It helps shift your mindset and where you're going to place your attention. But where I finish my morning routine is with this, what I consider to be a very powerful question. What quality would I like to showcase to the world today? It's a simple question, but it's very, very powerful because it forces you. Yeah, let me rephrase that. I don't even like using the word force anymore.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Jay, I love coming on your show. You're such a wonderful host and I'm looking forward to our conversation.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
It feels a bit of an aggressive word, right? It feels like it's coming from the energy of fear rather than the energy of love. I have the opportunity each morning with that question to to set the intention of how I wish to show up. So often it will be, I wish to showcase the quality of patience today or compassion. And you write it down. I write it down in my journal and I think about it.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
What would it look like today to show the quality of patience or compassion? If I get caught up in a traffic, I'm not going to stop berating people. I'm just going to smile and be kind. If I get an email I maybe don't like, I'm going to just take a breath and actually not respond in the moment.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
If my wife says this to me or whatever about the dishes or whatever, I'm just going to go, hey, it's cool. Maybe she's having a bad day and I'm just going to smile and be compassionate. It sounds too simple to work. this is transformative. It really works. Now, just by setting the intention, it doesn't mean that you're going to be perfect.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
So I have a couple of questions I ask myself in the evening, which helps balance this. What went well today? And what can I do differently tomorrow? So what went well today could be, again, it's a form of gratitude. It could be that... you know what, I had a really busy day. I didn't take a lunch break.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
I got home late, but I still found 20 minutes to make my family a home-cooked meal instead of ordering takeout or whatever it might be, okay? You're just going, because we have a negativity bias, instead of focusing on all the things that you didn't get done and the stress in your day and how you behaved or whatever, you're putting your attention on what you did do, which I think is very powerful.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
But then the second part of that question, Jay, It's really interesting. What can I do differently tomorrow? So it could be that you say, you know what, this morning I said I was going to show the world the quality of compassion, but at lunchtime or at 4pm I was really tired. I didn't like the email that my colleague sent me and I quickly sent an annoyed email back. Okay, no worries.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Again, we're looking for love, not fear. So you can say, ah, what I can do differently tomorrow is I can try harder. Tomorrow, if that same situation arrives, I'm going to respond differently. And I tell you, sure, doing this for one day may not do much. You do that for seven days, or dare I say even 30 days, the way you experience the world will be completely different.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
You will have made this small, like one degree shift each day that in the moment doesn't feel like anything. 30 days later, you will be like a different person. I've been doing this subject for maybe five years now. And like I was sharing with you before the mics were rolling, I've never felt this good. Like I have this deep sense of, Peace these days and inner calm. And I've worked at it.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Some of the things I've shared already. Many things I haven't shared that I put in this book. This is available to everyone, Jay. Like I absolutely believe that I have seen throughout my career, people in the darkest of places, suicidal patients who through these kinds of practices have managed to completely turn their lives around. It is possible to everyone.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
But I think we're going about change a lot of the time in the wrong places. We talk about creating healthy habits. It's important. And I've written a book about that in the past. And I know the rules of healthy habit formation, make it easy, stick on the new behavior onto an existing habit. Those things are very, very helpful. but they still don't get to the roots.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
And my attempt with this book is to help people go, no, no, no, there are things that you don't know that are driving you in your life. A lot of people don't realize, Jay, that their behaviors are driven by their beliefs. Mm-hmm. So if you believe that somebody out there knows what is best for you more than you, that is going to dictate your behaviors.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Your belief is that someone else knows better. So you're going to be, every few months, looking for a new expert to follow. Every January, you're going to buy a new health book to say, oh, you need to go on a 30-day sugar detox. You need to cut out alcohol. You need to cut out ultra-processed foods. These things are all well and good.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
But I submit to you, Jay, that many people, dare I say it, most people who are listening to shows like yours or mine, kind of already know that excess sugar is not helping them or excess alcohol is not helping them. I don't think they need more external knowledge of, oh, alcohol will do this to your liver or sugar will do this to your teeth. People know that. They need more internal knowledge.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
They need insight, intuition. And in my view, the way you develop that is with some intentional time each day. These questions, meditation, journaling. If you're constantly in your life, you never step out of it to reflect on it. It's not about the behavior. It's about the energy behind the behavior.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Yeah, thanks. It's the book that my heart wanted to write. I would say more than anything I've ever done before. This has come out to me. It had to come out of me. And I'm in that funny position, Jay, where I feel that I've already had the success through writing the book. Yes, I hope it lands with people. But even if it doesn't, like I've won by writing it.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Always. And this is why I'm so passionate, Jay, about this idea. You know, I've been in this health and wellness space publicly for 10 years now. And
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
For all the benefits of this increase in information, and of course there are many, like people are better educated now than ever before about health and wellness and what we can do, but we have to confront a very uncomfortable truth, which is despite all of this increasing information, people are getting physically and mentally more sick. So I was trying to solve this problem.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
I was trying to go, I don't want to just write another book with more information on what you should do. I want to help people understand why they are doing it. And again, talking to root causes and maybe feeding back to what you've just said, this, I think, is the most undertaught aspect. This is the most underappreciated aspect of health for me. Let me make it really practical for people.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Many of us are trying to change our behaviors. And I know I've used sugar and alcohol a few times just because I think they're quite common and quite relatable for people. People don't understand that the way they interact with other people directly affects that behavior. So for example, you're driving to work in the morning and there's a bit of traffic and someone cuts in front of you. Okay?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
We've all seen it. Maybe we've experienced it where we start to create all this mental noise. Oh my God, stupid driver. They shouldn't have done that. They need their eyes checked. Whatever it might be. And we think that we're entitled to do that. And we are, right? I'm not here to change anyone, right? You've got to change yourself. You're entitled to react like that.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Just know that there's a consequence. One of the themes that underpins every chapter in this book is that emotional stress is not neutral. So we think about physical stress, but we don't think about emotional stress. So a driver cuts in front of you. There are many ways to react to that situation.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
If you take a disempowering narrative and create all of this anger and stress and noise in your head, you've generated emotional stress. you will need to neutralize that emotional stress in some way or another. Now, you could do it in a healthy way by going for a walk or going to the gym. Usually what people do when they get to the office is they need an extra coffee.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
They need to go to the vending machine and get some sugar. They need an extra drink after work. And then they think, oh, I'm drinking too much in the evening or I'm eating too much sugar. I need to change that. But they don't realize... that actually the way they dealt with that driver on the road that day, because it's not just that, that's the pattern they use for everything in their life.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
I say this with an open heart, we almost make ourselves a victim to life. We think that the way we feel is down to the way other people treat us. And I understand that we like other people to treat us well, but you can cultivate the skill of not having your inner state as dependent on the world around you. So you can develop the skill, and I share how to in this book, with practice.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
And it's been a really authentic process. And frankly, it's about something I'm super passionate about, which is helping people make change that lasts. I think the title says it all. We can all make change. But often it's only for a few weeks or a few months. How many people can make change that truly lasts? How many people can truly transform their lives for good?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
You can basically go, wow, what other story could I create here? Oh, maybe that mother has had a sick child up all night with earache and they're just rushing. Maybe she's on her last warning with her boss and actually if she's late one more time, she's gonna lose her job and that's how she feeds her family, right? The truth doesn't matter for your inner wellbeing. It really doesn't.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
And you can choose to start looking at the world this way and what you will find, yes, it might feel challenging at first, So you have to consciously think about it. Maybe not in the moment, maybe in the evening. And I'll share a practice that can help people with that. But over time, it becomes your default. Whereas now, you know, I've been in LA traffic this week.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
I've heard you guys talk about it all the time. Oh, I've experienced it. I'm running late for some interviews. I'm just, I'm totally chilled. I can't do anything about this. Nothing I can do. You can train that response. And I think last time I came on your podcast, Jay, I think I shared the story of Edith Eger, the 93-year-old lady who was in Auschwitz when she was 16.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
And I shared the powerful narrative she would use in her mind to reframe her existence there. And I won't tell that story again, but I'll remind people of the final thing that Edith Eger told me when she came on my podcast. She said to me, Dr. Chastity, I have lived in Auschwitz and I can tell you the greatest prison you will ever live inside It's the prison you create inside your own mind.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
And the penny dropped for me, Jay, in that conversation. Literally, I thought, that's it. That's what we're all doing. We're interacting with the world, with other people. We're creating these disempowering narratives. We're making ourselves a victim to the world around us without realizing that we have the power to shape the narrative on every single situation.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Most situations in life, you could even say all, but that gets a bit triggering for people, so I say most situations in life are neutral. It's the perspective we take on that situation that determines its impact. You want to change your behaviors.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
If you're someone who has been trying to make changes in January for the last 10 years, and you keep buying a new book, and you keep trying a new detox plan or whatever, and you're still ending up where you were the year before, you have to ask yourself the question, am I taking the right approach? Is there something I'm missing? Is it more external information I need or more internal information?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Even within those studies that are done, right? Yeah. We think the studies show this. When you look into most scientific studies, right? Let me try and make it super simple to understand for people. Let's say there was a study done where 100 people were put on one diet and 100 people put on another diet, which one is better? And then on balance, we'll say, oh, this one.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
It's not as many as we would like. And this book is my attempt to help people solve that problem.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
This one statistically was better. But it doesn't mean that 100% of the people were better on that one. There would have been some people who were better on the other one. But overall, we say that one worked. What we're saying is that that one works for the most people in that study. It doesn't mean it will for you. And this is where I think, the differences between researchers and clinicians.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
You know, I... I feel one thing I'm really good at, and again, I don't say this with any arrogance, I feel I'm really good at connecting with my patients and I've managed to help them make transformative change, many of them throughout their careers. And as you know, I even showcased what I do on BBC One back in 2015 and 2017, where families who were sick, were under GPs, were under specialists,
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
with type 2 diabetes, panic attacks, fibromyalgia, menopausal symptoms, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, I either helped everyone fully reverse their conditions or get them significantly better, like 80% better in just six weeks using nutrition, lifestyle, and mindset. That's not blaming people.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
It's showing people, educating them that, oh, the way you do things matters, how you live each day, the choices you make, the way you talk to each other, right? These things really play a role. And Jay, I often think, you know, I was thinking about this on the plane over to LA this time.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Rangan, why do you have such a, I don't know if I can call it unique perspective on health, but it's not the normal perspective, I would say, that most medical doctors have. Would you agree with that?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
And I think one of the reasons why, and there's many reasons, including my cultural upbringing, probably similar to yours, where we grow up with this more holistic approach, these ideas that food is medicine, all those kind of ideas. But I think my filming that BBC documentary series over two or three years... I think it gave me an insight that very few doctors ever get.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Even if you're a disenchanted doctor and you think 10 minutes is not enough, which it isn't, and you figure out a way to spend one hour with your patients. What I learned on filming that series when I would live alongside families for four to six weeks, sometimes I'd stay overnight in their house, okay? I got to see stuff that that people rarely get to see.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
I got to see, oh, wow, they've got these symptoms, but I'm noticing how the husband and wife are talking to each other in the evening. Oh, I wonder how that relationship is impacting their physical health. And I would do this with all kinds of families in all different areas of the UK. So it gave me a rather unique insight where this idea is that
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Literally 99% of what happens to your health, I know this sounds really obvious, it's outside the doctor's surgery. It's how you live your life. It's how you approach adversity. And so I think it's kind of given me this rather unique view. I think my 23 years of clinical practice has also taught me that there's no one right approach.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
So you, as you say, you can hear all the experts online you want telling you about the high protein that you need online. And you could keep trying it or you go, wait, well, you know what? I don't think that's the right approach for me at this point in my life. And that secondary bit is another key piece.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
It might be later, but right now for the state of your life and your health, it's not working for you. And we need to learn to trust ourselves more.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
There's a section on this actually in the book because I think it's a really... important thing to think about. So I currently have one on. I've been slow to adopt fitness trackers and I'll tell you why. A key theme in this book is about reliance and that we're overly reliant on things outside of ourself, on people treating us well, on all kinds of things, expert knowledge, whatever it might be.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
And we need to become what I say in the book is minimally reliant, not zero reliance, but less reliant. I think trackers, health trackers, fitness trackers can be good. And they can also be bad. It depends on who you are. So we've got all these new fitness trackers, but let's talk about another kind of tracker that's been around for a while. A blood pressure monitor, right?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
They've been around for 30, 40 years, something like that. That's a form of health tracker. Maybe it's not as high tech as some of these new ones, but it's a form of health tracking. What I would notice, Jay, in my practice for years is that many people would say, Dr. Chachi, should I buy one from the pharmacy and use it at home? And initially I would say, yeah, great idea.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Well, we were actually taught that. It was a professor at Edinburgh Medical School who said to us, I can remember being in the anatomy lecture theatre, and he said, guys, 50% of what you learn is going to turn out to be wrong. We just don't know which 50%. And I think that has huge relevance for all of us, actually, and I'll come to that shortly. But in terms of...
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Then you can check what your blood pressure's doing. And then what I noticed is that, oh, wow, maybe 50% of people, this is a rough guess, it's not a scientific study, half of my patients would use regular blood pressure checks at home to empower them, right? So they'd be like, oh, wow, okay, it's going a bit high now, what's going on?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
And they'd use it in a very helpful way to get to know themselves better and make positive changes. The other half would I think it was harmful for them. They would get stressed out, they would check it four times a day, they would get health anxiety, and that would paralyze them. So I thought, wow, it's not the tracker itself that's the issue, it's our relationship to the tracker.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
That's the theme throughout this conversation, it's our relationship to it. So if you're someone who can look at that tracker and whether it's an Apple Watch or a Whoop band or an Oreo or whatever, you know, whatever, you've got a Garmin, you know, if you're able to use it to help you get to know yourself better and it helps you make positive changes, I think they can be very, very helpful.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
In fact, I'm on a two-month experiment at the moment with this one that I've got on, and it's really helping me understand myself better. Oh, this is what my heart rate variability is like when I eat a bit later at night, or when I've been on a transatlantic flight, whatever it might. I'm learning about myself. I'm getting a deeper understanding of myself through this.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Now, I think it'd be very helpful. But some people have got a very unhealthy relationship with them. They're obsessed with them. If the battery's not working, they start to stress out, oh, I don't know how to exist. And the truth is, there are some scientific studies which show us that they can be problematic.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
So there was one study, which I write about in the book, where in essence, a simplified way of describing it is, they took these groups of people and put them in the lab. One group... were only allowed to sleep for five hours. The other group were allowed to sleep for eight hours, right? But there's no clocks anywhere.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
And then they told the group who slept for five hours that they slept for eight hours and the group that slept for eight hours that they'd only slept for five hours. And that impacted their energy levels through the day and it impacted their physiology, right? So that's a really powerful study.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
And there's many more like that, which all that does for me, again, let's not use that study to disempower us. That's interesting. What does it show? It shows that some people can have an unhealthy relationship with these devices. Some people can have a helpful one. And if I think about that through the lens of me and my wife, right? I love getting data. I can be very detached from it.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
It doesn't affect me. If I see a low readiness score in the morning, I can be detached from that and go, wow, I can still perform even with that. I will often not check for days or once a day, once every two days, I'll go on and check my data. I don't want to become dependent or reliant. That's the key. So I can't tell you, Jay, are these good or bads?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
It depends on who you are and what's your relationship to that device. And only you will be able to answer that question for yourself.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
One thing that I learned that I now believe not to be true, I'd almost flip it the other way in the sense that I was never taught how much our lifestyle can impact our health. I was taught that actually people come in to see you and they have a set of problems. We need to hear what those problems are, collect them, give them a label, and then give them a pharmaceutical treatment.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Yeah. It's funny that words are interesting, aren't they? I guess... The word non-negotiable for me these days, maybe because I used to have such a negative voice in my head, I kind of feel that everything's negotiable in life, right? So I don't know, let's take an example. Violence, right? I could say that I'm a calm person and I would never be violent, right?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
But hold on, there's always a situation in life that might challenge that. What if I was on a street with my two beautiful children and someone was trying to attack me or attack them? would I turn to violence to protect them? Yeah, I think I would. I wouldn't intentionally want to do that. So I could say that being kind and compassionate and non-violent is a non-negotiable.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Or I could be a bit more realistic and go, well, I think in 99.9% of situations in life, I'm going to be kind and compassionate, or I'm going to certainly have the intention to be, but I can foresee a situation whereby, yeah, maybe I would turn to violence. Do you know what I mean? I think it's that complexity and nuance. So for me, if I say it's a non-negotiable,
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Again, for someone else, they may like the term, but for me, it's not to program me with this harsh taskmaster. I must always do this. I can never fall from this. So for me, I personally don't use that term, but I totally welcome other people. Like if they want to use that term, I think you're completely fine. And I think it's all highly, highly individual. We have to find what works for us.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
I don't believe anymore that, that anything for me is non-negotiable. I think I set an intention about how I want to live, but always knowing that the situation could change. Now, Jay, I'm here in LA, right? Maybe two weeks after the election. And it's remarkable for me to see, certainly online, the division, right?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
And I remember maybe six or nine months ago when your current US Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, was in London. He came on my podcast. We had a wonderful conversation. And he said to me back then, One in six Americans are currently not talking to a family member because of their political views. And I suspect that's even higher now, from what I can tell.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Now, I'm not trying to wade into politics here. I'm trying to take a step back and go, to me, and I'm not American, right? So I acknowledge that, put that out there. To me, it seems like madness, right? There's a chapter in this book called Take Less Offense, which is an over-reliance on being right, on need to be right. And I explained in that chapter that nothing in life is inherently offensive.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
If it was, we'd all get offended to the same thing. If it was that thing that was offensive, all of us would find it offensive. If we don't all find something offensive, It means that thing isn't offensive. There's something inside of us that's been activated or being triggered. So that whole chapter is about helping people understand that you don't need to take offense to everything.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
You can choose not to. You can choose to go, wow, why has that person got a different view to me? Why does that person see the world so differently from me? You know, I think I might have shared this last time I was on your show, Jay, but one of the phrases that has been transformative for me is if I was that other person, I'd be behaving in exactly the same way as them.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
And what I mean by that is if I was that other person with their parents, with their childhood, with the bullying they experienced, with the friends they had at school, with the first boss who bullied them on the workplace, whatever it might be, if I had their life, I would probably see the world in the same way as them, and I'd probably act in the same way as them.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Now, this doesn't mean I'm saying this excuses poor behavior. No, I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is, instead of jumping to judgment of other people, which I think is a toxic behavior, I think it's a behavior that won't help you make change. I used to be judgmental. I'm not anymore. You can change this. We said before how our behaviors are driven by our beliefs.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Whereas the more I practice medicine, and I've been a doctor for 23 years now, I realize, wow, that only helps us for a small fraction of people. And if you flip it, it's like, no, our lifestyles, the way we eat, the way we move, the way we sleep, but also the way that we think and the way we approach adversity, those things all combine together to create our health. Mm-hmm.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
None of us came out of our mother's womb with these beliefs, right? We didn't. We developed them based upon what we experienced throughout our life. It's a much lighter way of interacting with the world when you go, wow, why do they think in the way that they do. Now, you don't have to choose that approach to life. But if you're someone who's walking around taking offense to everything, okay?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
And I say this, I promise you, I say this with compassion, Jay. If there's anyone listening who thinks that they're a person who's constantly berating the drivers on the freeway, taking offense to everything they see on social media, my invitation to that individual is, hey, that approach to life may not be serving you. You may have an over-reliance on being right.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
And in that chapter, I make the case that actually, Thinking that everyone in the world is going to see the world in the same way as us in a world of 8 billion people is actually quite an arrogant way to think. And I'm not judging when I say that I used to think like this, Jay, right? So why I share that is because I want people to know I know what that feels like, and I know you can change that.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
If you choose to not take offense and interact with compassion, why does that person think the way in which they do you will naturally make better choices because you're not generating that emotional stress. You go on Instagram or Twitter or X and find a comment really irritating or someone's viewpoint really offensive and start to get involved with them, of course you can do that.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
That might be why you struggle to reduce your alcohol intake or your sugar intake, because you're getting addicted to that noise, that emotional stress. And let's relate that back to what I said about Edith Eger before, this lady who survived Auschwitz and at 93 is full of compassion and forgiveness and even said that she's forgiven Hitler. Let that land for a minute.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
It doesn't mean that what Hitler did was right. She's not saying that. What she's saying is I'm no longer going to allow what he did to affect me and my life and how I interact. There's a big difference. There's a whole section on forgiveness in the book. People really misunderstand forgiveness. They think it means that I'm saying that that was right and it was okay. It's not that at all.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
one of the daily practices I did after my conversation with Edith, which is still probably one of the most powerful episodes I've ever had on my podcast, is every evening, because as I say, you often can't do it in the moment, every evening, once my kids were in bed, when they were a bit younger, I'd sit down and I'd ask myself, Rangan, where did you get emotionally triggered today?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
When did an email piss you off? When did you react to someone whilst you were driving? And instead of putting the blame on the other person, on something outside of myself, I asked myself a question. What is it within me that's been activated by that external action? Why did that email bother me? Oh, it reminds me of something my parents said to me when I was a kid.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Oh, it reminds me of a boss I had a few years ago. Oh, it's highlighted an insecurity, like criticism, right? We both exist in the public domain. We have to... you know, we get positive comments, we also get negative comments, right? That is just part and parcel of life. Not everyone is going to like how I put across my messages. That's okay. They don't have to.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Some people will say I'm the greatest podcast host on the planet. Some people say I'm the worst and I talk over my guests and whatever. Do you know what? They're both right for them, right? Do you know what I mean? It's really important. So what I've learned about criticism, because criticism generally doesn't bother me anymore because I've learned to be emotionally detached.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
And Jay, I think you'll resonate with this. One of the things I've realized over the past couple of years of really reflecting on the way we're trained in Western medicine, and this is not me saying I'm anti-Western medicine.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
I've come to the realization, Jay, that criticism only bothers us to the degree we believe it about ourselves. I don't know your relationship with criticism, but certainly for me, I realized, oh, the reason that bothers me is because it triggers an internal insecurity. Now I can get annoyed at the person delivering the criticism or, and maybe it's out of order, maybe they shouldn't,
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
but I'm not sure how much that helps you. You can't control whether someone is or is not going to criticize you. What I can control and what I can work on is my internal state. Oh, I'm insecure about that. Let me write down why. Let me think about that. Maybe if you have access to a therapist, sure, go and see one. Talk about it. That is the secret to long-term change day.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
It's not looking outside for the answers. It's going, what is going on inside of me? That exercise... Like if people take nothing else from this conversation, Jay, I would say that is one of the most powerful things you can do. It will take you maybe five minutes every evening.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
And you don't realize, people do not realize how quickly their lives will start to change when they take full responsibility for their reactions. You're no longer dependent on everyone around you acting a certain way to feel good. You become like a master in yourself, right? Like in martial arts, we want to be black belts. This is your way of becoming a black belt in yourself. And I love it.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
And going back to what I said before about the process of change, if you commit to doing this, you will learn so much about yourself. You will learn why certain things trigger you, why you go to sugar, why you go to alcohol, why you can't stop scrolling Instagram for four hours every evening. You will learn about yourself.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
I think Western medicine is exceptionally good at many things, but unfortunately, for most of the things we now see, the chronic lifestyle-driven illness, it's just not as helpful, right? And fundamentally, Western medicine teaches us that things go wrong in the body, right? We get taught to diagnose disease and treat disease. We don't get taught how to create health. How do you create vitality?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
And I promise you that is much more powerful than any expert ever telling you that. And I say that as a so-called expert myself.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Yeah, I really am because, Jay, not only have I experienced it myself, Because what I say at the end of the introduction is I say, effortless change actually is available to you. Once you work on this stuff, change doesn't become as hard as you think. I think the reason we think it's so hard is because we're going about it in the wrong way.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
And I think, I mean, certainly we spoke about this beforehand. I think what I've stumbled across is, through my career and through my own lived experience are, I think, some universal human truths. I think, for me at least, what's exciting about this book for people is that you're going to learn concepts that you're not used to learning about from a medical doctor.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
There's like elements of philosophy, spirituality, yes, physical health and habit formation, it's all there. And I think from the bottom of my heart that this is the most important book I've ever written. I think it's going to have the most impact on people. You're very kind enough to give a quote for the book. But I remember one of the first people outside my team to read it was Dr. Gabor Mate.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
And Gabor read every single word. And he sent me this wonderful email. And he goes, Rangan, this is just wonderful. This is your most insightful book yet. This is going to help so many people. And coming from someone I really respect that much.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
I was so touched. I was so touched. And so I think this is the only journey that's worth taking is understand your inner world. Stop relying on those external experts so much. I'm not saying ignore. I'm not saying ignore the science. I'm not saying ignore external experts. I think we've gone too far. It's all about what does the expert say now? I'm like, no, let's just bring it back.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
It's too head focused and not enough heart focused. So let's just wind it back. Let's use our head, but let's also use our hearts.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Jay, thanks for having me back on your show. I appreciate it. Yeah.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
If we want a healthy mind, it actually starts with a healthy brain. You know, I've had the blessing or the curse to scan over a thousand convicted felons and over a hundred murderers and their brains are very damaged.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
What are the factors in someone's life that allows them to live their best life? And with our culture, with our Indian backgrounds, Ayurvedic medicine for many years has been talking about this. Traditional Chinese medicine has been talking about this. So for me, it's not a battle of Eastern medicine versus Western medicine. It's what is the best of Western? What is the best of Eastern?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
How do we blend them together? And I'd like to think that I've done that throughout my career, and hopefully in this book, give people a real practical toolkit.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
I've never told a patient that they must give up smoking. Because I don't think that's my role. And I think this is where we go wrong in medicine. And frankly, in any relationship, because what is the relationship I have with my patients? It's a doctor-patient relationship. But this principle kind of works, parent-child, husband-wife, boyfriend-girlfriend, these are just human relationships.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Nobody wants to be told what to do by somebody else. At some point, if you're going to make transformative change, it's got to come from within. So one of the things that I've always rebelled against in my career as a doctor is this rather paternalistic approach that we get taught in medical school that doctor knows best.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Patient comes in, you tell me what the issue is, then I'll tell you what's wrong with you and what you need to do. Some people may be able to make that approach work. I couldn't. And I'll tell you why I couldn't. If a patient comes in and asks for my opinion, that's very important. One thing I've tried to change in my life over the past few years is never to give unsolicited advice, right?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
So if the patient's in in front of me and says, Dr. Chastity, listen, I'm not feeling good. What impact is smoking having on my health? I feel that my role as a fellow human being is is to explain to them what impact I think smoking is having on their health.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Now, if at the end of that conversation, if I'm confident that they've understood me and that they've retained the information and they say, hey, Dr. Chatterjee, I understand what you're saying, but I get so much enjoyment out of smoking that I'm prepared to put it with the consequences, I don't feel it's my job to change their minds. I feel it's a deep respect that I have for my patients.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
If they understand it and they want to do it, I'm okay with that. And I'll tell you, Jay, what I've learned over the years is that by taking that approach, I feel I've had really good compliance with my patients, like really good compliance. Like a lot of doctors will say,
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
I have this course called Prescribing Lifestyle Medicine that I created with the Royal College of GPs with a friend of mine, with a colleague. And we have trained thousands of healthcare professionals around the world in the principles that I talk about in this book and my previous books.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
And one of the things people would say to me, doctors would say, hey, Dr. Chastity, listen, I get all this, but patients don't listen to what we tell them. And even the way that they phrase that is really interesting to me. I don't tell my patients what to do. It's not my role. I want to connect with my patients. I want to then educate and empower them, but I always want to connect first.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
So going back to your initial question, why have I never told a patient that they must give up smoking? It's not my role to do that. And here's what happens. When you treat people like an equal, you don't look down at them. You don't think that you know better than them. What will often happen, they may say, I want to smoke, right? I understand, but I enjoy this.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
they'll come back two months later. They'll be like, hey, Dr. Chatterjee, you know, I said I wanted to keep smoking because I enjoy it so much. Actually, I've been thinking, can you help me start to change that? But often if you say you must give up smoking, it's going to give you cancer. It's going to increase your risk of heart attacks. I just don't think that works in the long term.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
You make short-term change, but as per the title of this book, you don't make change that lasts. And that principle, frankly, as I say, applies far beyond the doctor-patient relationship.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
There's many ways of tackling bad habits. But if you're asking me for the number one tip, it would be related to our environment, right? So we don't realize how much our environment influences our behavior. I feel that being here in LA. I've been here for a week now. The people I've been hanging out with... over the past week are really into health and wellness, right?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
So everyone around me who I'm interacting with wants to eat well, they want to go to bed early, they want to look after themselves. So even though I'm away from home, when I'm in this exciting city, I naturally respond, right? It's been really telling for me. And it really gave me an insight as to if you live in an environment
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
where your family, where your friends, where the things you have in your house are encouraging unhelpful behaviors, you're going to be struggling, right? You're going to be constantly fighting your environment. So what does that mean for an individual who's trying to say to me, I want to eat less sugar, for example, which is very common, right? Especially at New Year.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
I have said to my patients for years, if you don't want to eat it, don't bring it into your house. Don't exercise willpower in your house because you have to exercise it as soon as you walk out the front door. Now, that's been very, very helpful for so many of my patients, and it's kind of what I do in my own life.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Even though I really understand my internal triggers these days, which I think is really important, I just don't make life more difficult for myself than I need to so that I won't bring into my house the potato chips, the chocolates, the biscuits, whatever it might be, because I know I'm human just like everyone else.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
At some point, I'll come back stressed and tired, and I want to open the cupboard and see what's there. Nothing wrong with that. If people are doing that, I don't want them to feel guilt or shame. But I think they need to understand that if you have it there, it's going to be harder for you.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Now, related to that example, I have an exercise, Jay, that I'd love to share with your audience, if that's okay. Please, I love it. As a doctor, many people will say, Dr. Chastity, I know that excess sugar is not helping me, but I can't stop, right? I'm really good in the day, But at 9 p.m., do you recognize this, Jay? I used to. I've worked really hard at this. But yes, I empathize.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
It's really common, right? It's where people have been, you know, in adverse commas, good during the day. But at night, their kids are in bed or they're sitting on the sofa. There's a box set on. I really feel like I scream. So I have this exercise that I created for my patients that has been so helpful that I've used with myself called the three Fs. Okay, the three Fs are feel, feed and find.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Okay, so if someone's listening, Jay, and they have this issue, which I suspect will be quite a lot of people, I would say, okay, you're sitting on your sofa, you're craving the ice cream. Okay, just take a pause. Just for a second, take a pause and ask yourself the first F, feel. What am I feeling? Is it physical hunger or is it emotional hunger? okay, ah, well, you know what?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
I'm actually not physically hungry. I had a huge meal one hour ago. Oh, I feel a bit stressed. I feel a bit lonely. Whatever it might be, then go ahead and have it, okay? I just want you to start building in some self-awareness, which is the missing piece in behavior change for people, if you ask me, the big thing that we're missing.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
The next time you're on the sofa, and you can do this all in one go if you want, but you know, some people find it difficult. So the next time you're on the sofa, I would say, do the first F again, what am I feeling? Then go to the second F, which is feed. How does food feed that feeling? Ah, oh, I was feeling stressed. When I have ice cream, at least in the short term, I feel less stressed.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
All behaviours either come from the energy of love or the energy of fear. The more powerful question is not which expert should I trust? It's why do I no longer trust myself? UK-based physician.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Okay, cool. Now you're developing a bit of an understanding as to why I'm engaging with this behavior. Okay, great. If you want to eat it, go ahead and eat it with no guilt and no shame. Go and enjoy it. And then the next time, go through those Fs. What am I feeling? How does food feed the feeling, which is the second F? And then the third F is find.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: #1 Way to Break a Bad Habit & Why 50% of What Doctors Learn in Medical School Turns Out Wrong
Now that I know what the feeling is, now that I know how food feeds that feeling, can I find an alternative behavior to feed that feeling? So it could be, oh, I feel stressed. That's why I go to sugar. What else could I do instead of sugar? Oh, I really like yoga. Maybe I'll go on YouTube and do a 10-minute yoga sequence. Maybe you feel lonely. You've been on Zoom calls all day.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
You know, chapter one in this book is called Trust Yourself. And I feel that we've outsourced our inner expertise to external experts. And I say that as a so-called expert myself.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I was in an inner city practice. It was a very poor population, lots of immigrants, a lot of people working two jobs, a lot of single parents. They were the loveliest population I ever worked with. Genuinely, they were so friendly and warm, but their lives were tough. Now I used to think, yes, there's a strong link between your socioeconomic status and your overall health.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Yes, we need structural change. We need better, it needs to be easier and cheaper for more people to eat good quality food. We have to, you know, like Dan Buetner will talk in the Blue Zones, you have to actually make it easy for people to walk around and move around. Whereas I come to America and these cities, some of them, you can't walk.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
You know, it's very hard to walk. You need to take a car, right? So it's hard for people at the same time. Right. I believe in people, Mark. I believe that every single human being can and wants to make change. And I have seen people in the darkest of places in my practice over the years make transformative change. So I want society to change and maybe it is starting to change.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
At the same time, I want to help the individuals be able to go, yeah, whilst I'm waiting, these things I can do. And that's what Make Change At Last is about. It's about my 23 years of experience as a medical doctor, having seen tens of thousands of patients.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And one of the key things I wanted to crack mark, which I don't feel we talk enough about in this health and wellness space in which we both operate, A lot of the advice is about what you need to be doing. And that, of course, is useful. Many people need to know, well, kind of what should I be eating? How much should I be moving?
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And you've written some wonderful books over the years helping people with that. But I was thinking over the last couple of years, why is it... And I know there's structural components to this, but I was thinking, why is it that despite all the increased knowledge, all the health books, all the health podcasts, all the blogs online. Why are we getting sicker and sicker? Why are we getting sicker?
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
There's more knowledge, but we're getting sicker. I'm like, what's the gap here? Now, yes, there's external issues like the structure and the food environment and the farming system. I accept that. But it isn't just that for me. It's also because I feel... I mean, chapter one in this book is called Trust Yourself. And I feel that we've outsourced our inner expertise to external experts.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And I say that as a so-called expert myself. I always say the smartest doctor in the room is your own body. Exactly. And so this book, I think, is going to really empower people to know, look, I don't know if you get this or not, but I get this on my podcast. I've had it several times where one week I'll talk to a medical doctor with all the credentials.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Maybe they went to Harvard Medical School and they'll, let's say, come on and talk about a particular diet. Let's say a ketogenic diet for specific mental health problems. And they will quote four or five research studies to support their perspective. And will tell us about lots of patients that they've used that approach on and they've got better.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And then you might get two months later, a different expert, a nutrition expert or a medical doctor, well credentialed. talking about the Mediterranean diet or a whole food plant-based diet and quoting research to support their perspective and patients who improved when they followed their advice.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And then I would often get people contacting me online saying, hey, Dr. Chachi, I'm a little bit confused, like that expert, sounded great, they had research and patient studies, but this other expert also sounded great, and they're saying the opposite, and they have research and patient studies. I don't know which expert to trust.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And Mark, I believe, I'm not saying don't listen to experts, I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is instead of asking which expert should I trust, I think the more useful question is, Why do I no longer trust myself?
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
We want the black or white. Is dairy good? Is it bad? It's like, well, it depends for who and in what context. Is fasting good? Is it bad? Well- Your body will tell you. It kind of depends. You do it. If, for example, you've got type 2 diabetes and you're carrying a lot of excess weight on your body, fasting, if done in the right way, might be helpful for you, right?
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
If, on the other hand, you're an undernourished teenage girl with anorexia, it may not be, but we want to know, is fasting good or bad? It depends, right? And so with that example on my podcast that I shared, I would say, well, listen, if you resonate with both of those people's messages, right? Why don't you do this? For four weeks, try this expert's diet and pay attention.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Those are the two key words. Pay attention. How do you feel? What's your energy like? Your vitality? Your sleep? How much focus do you have? What is your gut like? How are your bowels? Pay attention. And then for the next four weeks, try the other one and at the same time, pay attention. Now,
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
i'm not saying that will work a hundred percent of the time yes we need advice from experts like yourself or me to help guide us but ultimately neither one of us know for sure which is the perfect diet for that individual we can provide frameworks like you have your pegan diet right it's a framework yeah basic foundational principles but it's highly flexible exactly personalized
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And I feel the problem, Mark, when it comes to making change that lasts is if you have outsourced your inner expertise to external experts, What ends up happening is that we start to feel like failures. Oh, I followed that person's diet. It didn't work for me. It can't be the diet. It must be me. There's something wrong with me. Like I'm a failure.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And then guilt, shame, all these things start coming in, which means that actually we don't make any changes or we actually feel worse about ourselves than when we started before. So this book is really my attempt to go, listen, I submit to you, Mark, and let's see what your perspective is on this. I imagine that people who follow you and people who listen to your podcast each week
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I reckon 95% of them already know that excess sugar is not helping them. They already know that. So if they've still got an issue with excess sugar, it's not more external knowledge they need. It's like, oh, why is it despite the knowledge, do I keep going to sugar? And so can I just share a really simple exercise that I've used for many years with patients?
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
It sounds really simple, but it's very, very powerful. I call it the three Fs. The first F is feel. The second F is feed. And the third F is find. Right, I'll go through it. So I imagine that a lot of your listeners, Mark, are trying to reset their relationship with sugar, right? So what people often say is, Dr. Chachi, I was fine in the day.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
But at 9 p.m., I was on the sofa, I was watching TV, and I really wanted ice cream, okay? Have you ever felt like that before, Mark?
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Right, it's really common. Now, they want to make changes.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
pistachio ice cream well it sounds delicious it's amazing yeah and i don't do it very often but i know exactly that moment where like yeah and i'm not saying you should or shouldn't have it it's up to you right but if you're trying to reduce your sugar intake yet you still find yourself with half a tub of ice cream every evening perhaps this exercise will help you so i would say to my patients okay next time you're on the sofa
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
and you have a craving for the ice cream, take a pause just for a few seconds and ask yourself the first F, feel. What am I feeling? Is it physical hunger or is it emotional hunger? Oh, because many people don't even know that. They haven't taken a pause. They feel, oh, I need sugar. The ice cream's in my mouth, right?
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
So it's just, let's create a gap between stimulus and response just for a moment. Then you go, ah, well, maybe I'm a bit stressed. Oh, I've just had a row with my partner and this is just a way of making me feel better. Okay, go ahead and have it. You're just now starting to build up that awareness. Next time it happens, do the first F and go to the second F, which is feed.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Okay, next time it happens, you take a pause. What am I feeling? Oh, I'm feeling really stressed. You know, I've been on Zoom calls all day and I didn't go out for a lunchtime walk. Okay, then the second F is feed. How does food feed that feeling? Oh. I scream helps me feel less stressed. You're starting to build up this awareness, this inner self-awareness.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Oh, that's why I'm going to the ice cream. And then the next time you go to the third F. So now that you know the feeling, now that you know how food feeds the feeling, The third F is find. Can I find an alternative behavior to feed the feeling? So it could be, I'm stressed. Instead of going to sugar, oh, I love yoga. Maybe I'll go on YouTube and do a 10 minute yoga sequence.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Or if you feel lonely, because many people go to sugars, they feel lonely. How can you nourish yourself in another way? Maybe you run yourself a bath for 15 minutes.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
or you phone one of your friends or your parents right so it's a simple exercise it's so true that you can apply to anything alcohol social media online pornography online shopping it's very very simple but very very powerful i love it and i i you know i've been doing this forever like you and i came up with very similar framework for my patients which is one not it's not what you're eating it's what's eating you exactly you have to figure that out and two always ask yourself what do i need
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Yeah, this stuff is game changing for people because I imagine, Mark, that there There's many people out there who know what they should be doing now for health, particularly people who listen to health shows like yours or mine, right? These are people who are really interested. Yes, for sure, the general public, we need to keep help educating them on what are the healthy choices to make.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
But that external knowledge is not enough. I opened my new book with a very powerful story of a GP colleague of mine, a medical colleague, an expert in type 2 diabetes. You know, she'd always send me the latest papers with her own informed commentary on them and emails. And then one day she actually sent me a text message saying, hey, Ranga, are you around this weekend? I really need to chat.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
So I arranged to meet her. And what happened is that she basically said that there was a patient that week in her clinic who with a diagnosis of type two diabetes. And she was trying to educate the patient and said, listen, look, excess sugar, too many ultra processed foods, it's gonna cause your body to be inflamed, it's gonna affect your gut microbiome.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And she was trying to educate this patient and the patient just stopped her and said, why should I listen to you? You're fatter than I am.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Yeah. The patient said it to the doctor.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Yeah. Well, you've known this for years, of course, Mark. And it's funny you mentioned that TV show.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Yeah. But what's really interesting, right, is because we can debate whether it was the right thing for that patient to say or not. But the point of me opening this new book with that story is to demonstrate a really important point. I met my friend for a coffee that weekend and she said, you know what, Rangan? The truth is the patient was right. The patient was absolutely right.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
What the patient doesn't know is that in my drawer, I have big bags of Cadbury's giant buttons. So the point is she had all the knowledge. Many of us have the knowledge. We have the external knowledge, but that's not inner awareness. That's not wisdom. And I think this is the missing piece
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
We're disconnected from ourselves. You know, you've talked about how we're disconnected from our food environment and we are, but we're also disconnected from ourselves. And again, in that chapter called Trust Yourself, I write, I really enjoyed reading this account
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
it's just gone 10 years since the first episode which is remarkable yeah and i was looking back at our first communication like wow that was 10 years ago yeah and what was incredible it's still one of the proudest things in my entire career that because i kind of feel that show was ahead of its time at least in the uk i think back in 2014 and 2015 it still wasn't commonly known
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
of this american scientist who went to see this aboriginal tribe and was explaining to this tribe how americans think with their heads and the tribe were really confused i said oh yeah yeah oh we think with our guts yeah and again feeling and even the word the word for mind in chinese is heart exactly shin shin it's your heart mind
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Exactly. But it's not about who's right or wrong. We need all of these things in balance. You want the head, but you also want the heart. You want your gut feeling. And I feel that society has changed a little bit too much where we're being bombarded with more and more information, which is good up to a point, but we need to become our own experts. And that's really...
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
why I'm so proud of this book. I think it's going to be incredibly helpful for people because I think it's going to give them a self-awareness that they may not already have.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And the way to not get manipulated by it on an individual level is to learn to trust yourself, right? Because if it's always about what are you hearing outside this external noise, you're going to get confused. You're gonna get confused by maybe what the food industry is saying. You're gonna get confused by experts who have different opinions. So if you, for example, for 10 days,
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
just eat whole foods, right? Let's say you're struggling with it and you know this full well mark and you've written books on this. If for 10 days you cut out all those ultra processed foods and you just eat whole foods in whichever form you want to that, you know, minimally processed, pretty close to how they're found in their natural form, you are gonna feel like a different person.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
that many of these chronic diseases could be reversed or significantly improved by paying attention to our nutrition, our lifestyle, our mindset, our thoughts, how we approach the world. And so, as you may remember, Mark, on that show, I helped a lady put her type 2 diabetes into remission in just 30 days.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
It is still one of the most impactful things that I could do with a patient. It's just for two weeks, you find it hard. Okay, let's find the right two weeks or 10 days. Let's clear out the cupboards. Let's make sure you've got a plan. You don't have many social engagements, whatever it is, do it for two weeks and then come back and tell me how you feel.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
if you as most people do feel more energy more vitality you're sleeping better your skin is better your relationships are often better this is what people don't realize it's not just about their weight it's the whole being yeah when you're healthy and luminous and light and free and Yeah, you're less reactive. All these things are different.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Then you're better equipped to go into the world and you can hear what your friends have to say or the media have to say, but you have this inner knowing that, yeah, I know what, because the truth is some of us, some of people listening now will go, look, I can't really influence the government. Now, you may argue that you can through your choices, right?
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Through where you spend your dollars and your pounds. Where you use your voice, call your congressman, call your senators. You care about these issues. You don't want to be poisoned anymore. But I would also argue, Mark, that we're better able to change the world when we are able to look after ourselves. I mean, think about it.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
But we're so used, and here's one of the big problems is that we've become habituated and used to sub-optimal health. So much of the population walking around, they don't know how good they could feel. They think how they feel when they've had, let's say, seven hours to eat with them. Oh, this is a good day. I still need four coffees to get myself through, but this is a good day.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
People, and I've seen it, and I didn't 10 years ago know how good I could feel until I cut all that stuff out and started to eat well and sleep well. You're like, oh, wow. You interact differently. The other thing, Mark, that is kind of a central theme in this new book that kind of goes through many of the chapters, and again, I think we're not talking about this enough, is... Emotional stress.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And what I mean by that, let me give a really practical example for people. Like we might be trying to change our behaviors, like our sugar intake, like our alcohol intake, for example. It's very, very common that people are trying to do that. but too often we're focusing on the behavior without understanding that every single behavior serves a role in our life.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And we're- What's the why behind it? What's the why behind that behavior, right? So if you, right, let me try and pick an example that many people can resonate with. They're driving to work. And they're a bit late, and someone cuts them up in front of them, right? We call them cutting you off. Cutting you off.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
We don't want anybody cutting anybody off. Exactly. So someone just pulls in front of you suddenly.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And many of us feel, as I used to, that, yeah, if someone does that, I'm entitled to get stressed, right? They're really annoying, right? They shouldn't do that. They shouldn't drive that way. And I'm not saying that they should, of course.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Yeah, but it's this knowledge for that individual who wants to make change that lasts. They're not connecting their sugar intake to that incident. And I want to try and connect it for them. If you take a more, and I say this with an open heart,
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
a more victim approach to life, that actually the way I am and the way I'm feeling is down to the world around me, you're actually gonna struggle in the long term because then you're like a puppet being blown around by the actions of other people.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
If you can train yourself to not be so reactive in those moments, which you can, and I outline loads of practical exercise in the book and how you can do this, you will find that your behaviors naturally start to change because If you get wound up at 8.30 in the morning whilst you're driving, you create emotional stress in your body.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
That emotional stress will have to be neutralized in some way or another. Now, you might do it in a helpful way, like going for a walk, or usually you get to work, you have a gossip, you have a moan, you'll need a chocolate bar, you'll need a can of sugary drinks or something because you've got this internal discomfort that you're trying to soothe. We don't realize that if you really go upstream,
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Well, it's interesting if I think back to when that first episode aired to 5 million people in the UK on BBC One, which is our main channel. Yes, a lot of people loved it. Most people loved it. There was a bit of pushback because we were taught that type two diabetes is a chronic irreversible condition. And people were saying, well, wait a minute, it's a chronic irreversible condition.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
If you can change the way you interact with that situation and it just takes practice, right? Well, it's our mind, right? It's your mind.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
But once you've seen it as a doctor, you can't unsee it. Once you felt it as a patient, you can't unfeel it. It all comes back to this central idea. You've got to start trusting yourself. You've got to know that, oh, when I do this, man, I feel like a different person. Now, here's the thing.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
What do you mean he's helped this family put it into remission? Whereas now, certainly in the UK, it's very well accepted that you can do this. In fact, there's a electronic code that doctors can now use and tag their patients saying, yes, type two diabetes in remission. And I think it really speaks to how quickly this whole landscape is changing.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
If someone has done your 10-day detox diet and they felt better and they wanted to continue, but somehow life got in the way and they kind of crept back to where they were before, I would say, don't be disillusioned, okay? This is part of the process of change. Nobody wakes up one morning on January the 1st and suddenly decides that everything is gonna be different and it is, right?
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Change involves ups, it involves downs. Each time you fall off is an opportunity to learn, why did I? Why, despite feeling so good, did I start making different choices again? Maybe it was too much stress. Maybe it was a relationship issue. Maybe it's how you feel about yourself. Maybe...
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
push that button and reset yeah one of the one of the ideas i'm super passionate about in this book that because the central idea underpinning all of the chapters is this idea of a reliance that we're overly reliant on things in our outside world in order to feel good. And I'm not saying get rid of those. I'm just saying we're looking for a state of minimal reliance, not zero.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
There's a whole chapter on community and why you don't want to pursue zero reliance, but you want to pursue a state that I call minimal reliance, which I think is a very fresh way of people to look at things. And so each of the nine chapters is on a different reliance. Now I've mentioned already a reliance on experts and over reliance on experts. And I'm saying you need to trust yourself, right?
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And in chapter one, I help people figure out how to do that. But I think chapter six is called embrace discomfort. And it's about a reliance on comfort. Now here's the thing. I don't want guilt or shame to come into people's lives because the problem is those energies never lead to long lasting change. They lead to two week or three week change, but it's never long term.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Because what I've learned Mark over the years is that every single behavior either comes from the energy of love or the energy of fear. And actually, I think this is why so many changes don't work is because behind those changes is this energy of fear, guilt, shame, jealousy, envy, I'm not good enough, I don't like myself. Those things will never lead to long-term changes.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
So in the book, I've got loads of practical tips for you to help them do that. But one of these reliances that I was talking about is comfort. We're overly reliant on comfort. Now, we don't want people to feel bad about that. Humans... We are hardwired for comfort. That's why we've had all this evolution.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
That's why we've now got these, you know, we've got heating, we've got air conditioning, we've got all these modern comforts. I'm not saying get rid of them. Something happened about 50 years ago where the balance shifted. Before that, our desire for comfort was improving our lives. Now our lives are so comfortable, it's making us sick.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
You've been at the forefront for many years, Mark, of trying to raise awareness globally, but something feels as though it's shifting, where after years of trying to promote this message on your channels, on your podcasts, on my channels, on my podcasts, on television, it feels like something is starting to shift in the public awareness that, wow.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
So you, I don't know if you've seen these studies or not, Mark, but there was a study published recently of 25 million children from many countries around the world. It's a meta-analysis. And it showed that children today, compared to 30 years ago, run a mile 90 seconds slower. Damn. That's a lot slower in just 30 years. 40% of kids are overweight.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
So our kids are getting weaker and adults are getting weaker as well. And some of that has to do with our relationship with comfort and discomfort. Many of us are living these super comfortable lives now. Just think about it, Mark. You could sit on your sofa in your house. You no longer have to go and get your food, bring it home, cook it.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
You could literally pick up your smartphone and sit on the sofa all day. And frankly, most of your needs, at least your short term needs, could be met. You could have food brought to you. Not only food brought to you that you have to cook, it could be cooked for you and brought to you, right?
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
It comes at a huge cost. And in the book, I call it the cost of comforts, right? Many of the diseases that you are trying to raise awareness of, and me, You can look at it through the lens of discomfort. Type 2 diabetes, for example, is a disease of comfort.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
You simply do not see it to anywhere near the same degree in societies where their lives are a little bit uncomfortable, like traditional societies. You don't see type 2 diabetes there, right?
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And not just type two diabetes, because I think sometimes people go, yeah, nutrition and lifestyle, it's related to obesity and type two diabetes, but it goes far beyond those more obvious conditions. Anxiety, depression, fibromyalgia, gut problems, low libido. Autoimmune diseases. Autoimmune diseases, all these things.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I'm about empowering individuals to go, okay, yes, we want the world around us to change, and you're obviously trying to do that with your interactions in Washington and with politics, but what can an individual do in the meantime whilst we're waiting for the world to change? And I think that we need to examine our relationship with discomfort
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
If we're constantly avoiding discomfort, it's going to really come at a cost on two different levels. One level is, I kind of reflected as I was writing this book, Mark, on so many of my patients over the years seem to have this low-grade anxiety that was built on a foundation of fragility. And I'll tell you what I mean by that.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Because our lives, many of our lives have become so physically comfortable. I'm not saying uncomfortable in other ways, but physically comfortable that Like we kind of know that if things get bad, we may not be able to handle it because we're not practicing handling discomfort. So we don't feel good.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And when adversity comes across us, as it always does, we struggle to handle it because we're not practicing at handling it. So one way that you can start to practice discomfort, there's this beautiful table in the book where I say, create a rule, create your own personal rules for discomfort, right? So what I like about a rule Is that you avoid constant decision-making, right?
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
So I made a rule about five, six years ago. I can't remember when. I just internalized this rule that I'm no longer going to outsource my movement to electronic devices where possible, right? So I'm always going to take the stairs unless there's a really good reason not to. I was thinking you couldn't listen to music while you work out.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Yeah.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
so so this rule for me right and i'm only sharing i'm not saying everyone has to do it i'm sharing it in case it's useful for someone i basically decided from that day my default becomes taking the stairs now i recognize i'm physically able not everyone is so i'm i'm able to do that i have two legs that are working okay so for me it's a great rule because it means when i go to the supermarket and the car park is on the second floor
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I don't think I've taken the stairs. Sorry, I don't think I've taken the elevator in about five years. I'll walk down the stairs, do my shopping, and I'll walk up the stairs with my bags. That's why you got those ripped bicep. Well, the thing is, I don't go to the gym much, Mark, right?
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I do a five-minute strength workout every morning that I've told you about on this show before, and I still do it every morning while my coffee brews because I apply the two most important principles of behavior change, which is, one, make it easy, two, stick it onto an existing habit. So I do that.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
But even when I arrived in America 10 days ago at LA airport, I remember 14 hour flight or by the time with my connecting plane and you get off and there were these two long escalators and one long flight of stairs. My default has become, and I did this just 10 days ago, I get off the plane, I walk up the stairs with my bags, and I was the only one I saw.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Now, I don't want people to feel bad, Mark, because I understand we're hardwired for comforts, but that is a rule, a discomfort rule, that has helped me immeasurably in my life. Now, look. I got to Austin last night, right? I got to my hotel late last night and I was on the 33rd floor. I did not go up 33 flights, okay?
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And again, the other thing I'm passionate about, like you, Mark, is this idea that whenever you mention to people
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
So I'm saying, I don't always, but if you don't have a rule like that, it means that 95% of the time you're taking the lift.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And I think it was really, it just struck me like, yeah, it's not usually- Yeah, why is a medical doctor like me writing a chapter on taking less offense?
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
lifestyle nutritional lifestyle they'll say oh yeah yeah it's it's really important for prevention yes it is but it's also treatment it's also the treatment and that i don't think we're fully getting even now it's quite amazing i've been saying this for i look back you know 15 years ago
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Yeah, which is, I believe, one of the unique things about this book, right? I believe I'm bringing in some really important inner world concepts
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
to the topic of health right so it kind of relates to what i said before about we're not relating how we interact with the driver who jumps in front of us to our behaviors i think this chapter take less offense and over reliance on being right again is the same kind of points right so Big picture, Mark, if we just zoom out for a second and I'll come back in to take less offense.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Big picture, I've realized over the years in my own life and having seen tens of thousands of patients that one of the key root cause decisions you make in life is whether you're going to be a victim to life or you're going to be the architect of your life.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Yeah. Now, let me be clear. I understand people have gone through traumatic events, right? I'm using victim in a very specific way here. I'm using the word victim to kind of illustrate this point that things are going to happen to you outside your control all the time. If you allow those things to overly bother you and change your internal state, it's going to impact your health.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
It's going to impact your health.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
relationships it's going to impact your behaviors so if you're someone who goes on social media for example and it's getting really annoyed at all the comments you see in all the posts and you're taking offense you're entitled to do that my job as a fellow human being is not to tell you to change things i'm just trying to show you that actually there's a consequence to that
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
You make yourself feel bad. You create this emotional stress that's going to drive you to certain behaviors like sugar, like alcohol, like pornography, whatever it is. Those are downstream consequences of the way you're interacting with the world. Now here's the point I want people to understand. Nothing is inherently offensive. If it was, we'd all take offense to the same things. That's right.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Right? So it's not the thing. Right. It's something within me that's been brought up by the thing.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Our behaviors follow our beliefs, right? And I think this comes from a reliance on being right. Many of us have these fragile identities now, and I used to, right? So I hold my hands up, Mark. I'm not criticizing or judging anyone. I'm trying to inspire people to say, listen, I used to be like that, and I've completely changed it. And when you change it, your behaviors become better.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
As a consequence, you can make changes that last. So next time you take offense to something, just again, take a pause, a bit like that 3F exercise, take a pause. And the first thing I want you to think about is, oh, I wonder why that person sees the world so differently from me.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
It's a very different way of interacting with the world because one of the phrases, Mark, that has completely changed my life over the last five years is this idea that if I was that other person, I'd be behaving in exactly the same way as them, i.e.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
if I was that person with their parents, with the bullying they had, with the caregivers they had, with their friends when they were growing up, whatever it might be, if I was them, I would see the world in the same way as them. Now, it doesn't mean that you have to agree with everyone. You can disagree with someone, but you don't have to take offense. And you know what?
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I'll tell you what I really learned this about.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
You can have understanding first and it changes your relationship with it. You don't have to agree. You know, Mark,
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
about eight months ago your current surgeon general vivek murty was in the uk and he came on my podcast for the second time and we had a really fun conversation together one of the things he said to me in that conversation back then was that one in six americans are no longer talking to a family member because of a difference in political views that's crazy and i suspect that's even higher now now
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
As a Brit, right, I firstly acknowledge that I'm not an American citizen, okay? But from the outside and having cultivated an inner calm in myself over the past years, I find this really interesting and I feel this is very avoidable. So if someone's listening and they...
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
are no longer talking to that auntie because they voted for a different way than you, I would encourage you to just take a pause and go, oh, I wonder why my auntie, who I really like, who used to bring me presents every year when I was a kid or whatever it might be, why does she see the world so differently to me?
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And this will change your health and your behaviors. That's why I'm so passionate about this book, Mark. I'm trying to, I guess in many ways, build on the foundation that you've created for many years and teaching people what they should be doing. And of course, I've written a few books on that as well, not as many as you. This, I've tried to go even further upstream for people and go, listen,
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
You've got all this knowledge, but the change is for some of you are not lasting. Why? These are the missing areas that we don't realize. Like there's a section there about criticism. You know, Mark, both you and I have large public profiles, right? So we have to- Everybody loves, nobody criticizes that. Yeah, but here's what I've learned, Mark, over the years.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And I'd love to know your perspective on this. When I first came into the public eye with my television series 10 years ago, Doctor in the House, for the 99% of people who loved it and thought it was amazing to see what was possible. Yeah. There was a 1% who gave some pretty vicious criticism. And for me, it was the first time I'd ever have to deal with that. And I honestly, I struggled back then.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
But I don't struggle today because what I've learned over the years, Mark, is it's not that I've grown a thick skin. It's not that at all. What it is, is I've learned that criticism only really bothers us to the extent with which we believe it about ourselves. That's right. Right? And this is about personal responsibility. It's me not thinking that the rest of the world is to blame for how I feel.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
It's me going, no, no, no, wait a minute. Sure, maybe someone's left a comment that they shouldn't have left. Right? For example, this could be someone in their work. Maybe someone's made a comment about your work assignment that they shouldn't have done. But you can spend your life blaming them or you can go, why is this bothering me so much? Oh, I kind of semi believe what they said about me.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And if you can learn to maybe in a journal every evening, this is what I did. I think last time I came on your show three years ago, Mark, I shared the story of Edith Eager, this 93 year old lady who, when she was 16 years old, she was in Auschwitz concentration camp. That conversation changed me, literally changed the trajectory of my life because... I mean, the Holocaust is not a hoax.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
It's the most important example. I mean, the key lesson for me, I won't share Edith's story again. If people want to hear that conversation, they can check it out on my podcast. It will change your life. I pretty much guarantee it as it did for me. But what she taught me, Mark, and it's literally changed who I am. It's changed my inner state, how calm I feel, how peaceful I feel.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
She managed to reframe her whole experience in Auschwitz through the power of her mind. It was the last thing her mother said to her before she got murdered. You know, she got there, her parents were murdered within two hours. And her mother said to her, Edith, listen, Never forget, nobody can ever take from you the contents that you put inside your own mind.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And basically the last words that Edith said to me in that conversation, Mark, a few years ago was, Roncan, I have lived in Auschwitz. And I can still tell you the greatest prison you will ever live inside is the prison you create inside your own mind. And the penny dropped for me, Mark. I thought, oh my God, we all go around the world creating these disempowering stories every day.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
That person shouldn't have criticized me. I'm gonna take offense to that. This driver was so stupid. You will not change your life in the long term with that approach. And for maybe five years after that conversation, certainly a few years, every evening, let me retake that, for about two years after that conversation, I did this practice that I write about in this book.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I would literally, once my children were in bed, in a journal, I'd go, when did I get emotionally triggered today? Okay. Instead of blaming the other person, I wanna ask myself, why did that bother me? Oh, it reminded me of what my parents said to me. Oh, it reminded me of what my boss used to say about me who I didn't like. Oh, it triggered an existing insecurity in me.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And I tell you bit by bit, if you do that exercise every night or several times a week, you are becoming a master in your internal world. You're no longer being a victim to the outside world. You're taking responsibility for your thoughts, your feelings, your triggers. When you do that, you cultivate inner calm, Mark.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And with that inner calm, I promise you, you will no longer need to soothe your stress with sugar or alcohol as much. This is the missing link. I'm convinced of it for so many people.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
What you said was fascinating that there's a chapter in Make Change Your Life, I think it's chapter three, which is all about the reliance on being liked. Eight billion people on the planet, they're not all going to like you. I know it sounds obvious when I say it like that. It is simply impossible. If you keep changing who you are in order to be liked and accepted by others,
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
i know what that's like i did that for many years i stopped about six or seven years ago and now i've cultivated through all these practices a place where actually i don't need to be liked anymore certainly not by the whole world sure i want my wife to like me and my children slide me and my close friends to like me but actually as long as i'm speaking truth and i'm aligned as long as yes as long as my inner values and my external actions are starting to match up
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Actually, I've realized that it's okay to not be liked then. It's much better to not be liked for being in integrity with yourself than being liked and being out of integrity, which is what many of us do. And interesting what you said about that experience when you were 18, Mark, if I could just connect that to the start of this conversation, this external V, this internal.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
It's really fascinating. that person was criticizing you and making horrible comments to you, right? That's the external, right? The structure around you. And then there's the internal, how you deal with that. Now, of course, the world would be better if people weren't judging and criticizing, right? The world would be better if the food environment around us was better.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
This other way that you talk about, Mark, it's fascinating for me. I was thinking about this on the plane over yesterday to Austin, that fundamentally, the way we're taught in Western medical school, and there's many great things that we learn, right? For sure. There's many great things that we learned. But fundamentally, we get taught to recognize patterns,
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
It's the same principle if we take the macro. But even if the external is not where you want it to be, and I think that's the key message here, you can still cultivate and work on your inner environment like you did with those questions so that you're not as susceptible to the pressures from the outside.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Yeah, just two things there, Mark. First of all, we've got so much science supporting the importance of what happens when we have a sense of control. So there's a great study where they showed that people who have a strong sense of control in their lives they're happier, they're healthier, they have better relationships, they earn more money, right?
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And again, that's why I think little things like routines and rituals, like a five-minute journaling practice or a 10-minute meditation practice each morning, what these things do, beyond their actual physical health benefits, they ground you, they give you a sense of control in a fundamentally uncontrollable world, right? It's the power of routine.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
But the second thing I wanted to say is that because I've worked over the course of my career in so many diverse areas, I'm very passionate about making health and happiness, for that matter, accessible to everyone.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
The point I'm trying to make is that every single practice in this book, right? And there's a ton of practical exercises, they're all free. No one has to spend any money on them. And that's really something that I'm passionate about because yes, I understand that certain things like in some areas, yes, it's hard to buy healthy food. I get it, you have to have a certain income.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I accept that, right? But what I try to do in this book is even if you're in a dire situation and you're struggling, I tried to put together a set of practices that were simple, that don't cost any money. So it's basically accessible to everyone.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
We get taught to listen to symptoms, try and put them together so we can make the diagnosis. Once we've got the diagnosis, we can breathe a sigh of relief. We know what it is now. Now we can move on to the treatment, usually with pharmaceutical medications. And what's really interesting is that the problem is, is that we're trained with that mindset.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
He's got a great podcast, which is called... Feel Better, Live More in all the usual places, Spotify, Apple, and on YouTube, of course.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Yeah. Well, thanks, Mark. I appreciate all your support and thanks for having me back on your show. I appreciate it.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
So we fundamentally as medical doctors believe that the human body is in some ways designed to go wrong. Things are gonna go wrong when they go wrong, we're gonna treat them, we're gonna diagnose them, and then we're gonna put people to fix their symptoms. But over the summer as well, when I took four weeks off with my family, we went around Kenya. It's really interesting.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
I was thinking about my backgrounds because, you know, my parents were Indian immigrants to the UK. And so I have, like many immigrant families, you're exposed to two different cultures. I'm exposed to my Indian culture at home and my Western culture at school. And I really thought about why, you know, the difference between that. And for example, as a child,
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
If I had a sore throat or a fever, my mom would put extra turmeric in our food or she'd make me fresh ginger and fresh honey and turmeric and make me drink some hot water with it. So I grew up, you know, in many- Food is medicine. Food is medicine. But then you go to medical school, you're like, oh, this content isn't there. So you forget about it.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And then I think it's not about pitting one against the other. It's saying they both have incredible value. Let's bring them together. Let's use the right approach at the right time. But the problem is, as you know, in Western medicine, we've gone too far to one extreme whereby everything's a problem. Everything needs to be treated with pharmaceuticals. And it's simply not true.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
dozens and hundreds of times likewise i mean it just it's it's like a no-brainer and that's why it's so or it can be so frustrating for medical professionals who know how to do that when we see what the guidelines say but even alzheimer's autoimmune diseases depression yeah you know heart failure things that parkinson's things that we thought were really untreatable yeah and what's fascinating is that
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
We can almost flip it instead of looking at the symptoms. And of course, looking at the symptoms is important. But, you know, for many years, I've been talking about these four pillars of health, food, movement, sleep and relaxation. Okay. And I've always said that these four pillars... Community? Yeah. Yeah. Friends. For sure. I agree.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
So I, you know, in those pillars, I put that under the sort of relaxation pillar, but yes, we can make it five. We could add in natural light to that and make it six. But what I love about those pillars is that if you have a patient with chronic disease and if you do nothing else, but initially focus on those four areas,
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
improve their food, and we can talk about what that means, improve their movement, get them sleeping better, and help them manage the stress in their lives better and give them a sense of community, people will be surprised by how many of these downstream symptoms kind of vanish as a byproduct. So you're not focusing on the symptoms.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
You're actually going, no, no, let me create health in this human being and let's see what's left. Then let's think about, oh, maybe we can medicate that or maybe we can do something here, but let's get the foundation right. And this is the message you've been saying for years.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Yeah, it's the external and the internal rights. So we know and we've known for many years in many countries around the world that your health outcomes are strongly associated with your socioeconomic status, right? Which is not a, you know, it's an uncomfortable truth for many nations to confront that actually the wealthier you are, the more affluence you have, the better able you are to be well.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And there's a variety of different factors that influence that. So I would see that this argument or this point would get polarized quite a lot. So I would often hear doctors online say, well, there's no point talking about how an individual patient can help improve their lives because this is a structural issue, right?
The Dr. Hyman Show
Reversing Chronic Disease: The Simple Steps That Actually Work | Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
And then I would think about this and go, yes, there's good data to support that there is a structural element, but nothing is black or white, right? And this is where we go wrong in a whole variety of different ways in modern society. We try and make everything black and white and it's not, right? I worked for seven and a half years in a part of the UK called Oldham.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
He came in to see me and he said, Dr. Chachi, look, I'm sort of, I'm struggling a bit. I find it hard to get out of bed sometimes in the morning. I find it hard to concentrate at work. You know, I just feel a bit indifferent to things. Is this what depression is? I started to chat to him. We did some tests. I was looking into all aspects of his lifestyle.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
But ultimately one thing was quite clear to me is that he never did anything that he loved. So I asked him, you know, how's your job? He said, yeah, it's fine. You know, I don't really enjoy it, but it pays the mortgage, pays the bills, feeds the family. I said, okay, how's your relationship with your wife? Yeah, so-so, you know, I don't really see her much, but it's, you know, it's fine, I guess.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
He was very, very indifferent. I said, the same about his kids. And I said, do you do, you know, have you got any hobbies? He said, Dr. Chachi, I don't have time. My work's busy. At the weekends, I've got to do all the chores. I've got to take the kids to their classes and their sports games. I don't have any time. I said, did you ever have any hobbies? And he said, yeah, sure.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
When I was a teenager, I used to love playing with train sets. I said, okay, fine. Do you have a train set at home? He said, well, yeah, I've got one in my attic, but I haven't played with it for years. And I said, what I'd love you to do when you get home this evening is get your train set out. Now, look, Mark, I appreciate this may not be the advice.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
I'm all for lifestyle prescriptions, right? And he- Play with train set three times a week for 15 minutes.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
What was fascinating is that- Refills unlimited.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
But it may not be the advice that he was expecting from his doctor, but he said, yeah, okay, sure, I'll do that. Then this was in a conventional medical practice. These were 10 minute consultations. This is in the National Health Service in the UK. We don't get the chance to follow up all our patients. We see maybe 40 to 50 patients a day. We simply can't follow them all up.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
I didn't know what was going on with him. Three months later, I'd finished my morning surgery and I was in the car park about to go and do my home visits. And I bumped into his wife and I said, hey, how's your husband getting on? She said, Dr. Chastity, I cannot believe the difference. I feel like I've got the guy I married back again. My husband comes home from work.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
He's pottering around on his train set. He's always on eBay looking for collector's items. And he's now subscribed to this, you know, this magazine. I thought, okay, that's incredible. I still hadn't seen him. Three months after that, he comes in for a well man check to my office and he comes in with his blood tests. I'm about to go through them with him. And I said, hey, how are you doing?
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
Dr. Chachi, I feel incredible. I've got energy. My mood is good and I feel motivated. I said, how's your marriage? Marriage is great. I'm getting on really, really well with my wife. How is your job? Love it. Really, really enjoy the job. So why is that so powerful, Mark, is this. Did he have a mental health problem? He had a train set deficiency.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
Or did he have a deficiency of passion in his life? And when he corrected that passion deficiency, everything else starts to come back online. So I want to expand the conversation about stress to go, yeah, sure. Breathing, nature, meditation, exercise, these things are fantastic. And of course I talk about them and I go into the science and the practical implications of people.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
But what about something about passion, doing things that you love? It's just as important.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
The World Health Organization, right now, if you go on their website, will say that stress is the health epidemic of the 21st century. That's an alarming statement. The health epidemic. Wow. Yeah. I mean, that's incredible. And then... I might fight a little bit with that. I think food per food problem is a big one. Right up there. It's right up there.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
Well, a lot of these things actually, as you know, Mark, work both ways. So yeah, the poor dietary choices can send stress signals up to your brain. Good food choices can send calm signals up to your brain. This is all to do with the gut-brain axis, which you've written about before, I've written about in this book. But also I would say it works both ways.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
So if you are chronically stressed, it's quite hard to make those good healthy food choices. And I, you know, let's take January in the UK and the US, every January people are trying to get healthy, right? I'm gonna reduce my sugar intake this year. I'm gonna cut out alcohol this year. But here's the problem I've seen is that people can use willpower for a week, for two weeks, maybe three weeks.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
But if the sugar or the alcohol was being used to help them soothe the stresses in their life, they're never gonna maintain it long term. So I actually, I agree food is a big problem, but I found with some patients, Addressing their stress levels means they feel less of the need to binge on sugar because they're not feeling as stressed.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
If you're happy, you're not going to eat that bag of Chips Ahoy cookies. Yeah, because a lot of our food choices are dictated by our emotions. And if we're feeling down, if we're feeling stressed, we feel we've got too much on, actually that sugary chocolate bar or that bag of chips actually helps us feel good in that moment. So short term benefit, but long term harm.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
But, you know, the other thing.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
Yeah, but this is a story that I think many of your listeners will be able to relate to that. In fact, I tell the story in my book about this chap who I saw. He was a, you know, busy business guy in his early 50s. And what's really interesting about him is that we started to measure something called heart rate variability on him. So heart rate variability. And what is that?
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
Yeah, but that's actually incorrect. What we're looking for is a high degree of variability. Complexity. Yeah, complexity. And it shows that we're constantly adapting and able to adapt to this changing environment around us.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
Yeah. So a low heart rate variability is actually indicative that we've got high stress levels in our body. And this chap actually on a... Wednesday evening, he would find that he was drinking a lot of alcohol. He wasn't sleeping well. He was having a lot of caffeine on Thursday, more alcohol on the Thursday. He was basically, he came in, he was really, really stressed.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
It was impacting his relationships, impacting his sleep, et cetera, et cetera. The very common story. But as we start to look at his life and actually use HRV, heart rate variability readings, we could see that everything changed for him on a Wednesday. So what happened? On a Wednesday lunchtime, he had a team meeting, right? he found that incredibly stressful.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
He had to present to his team, it was quite a high pressure meeting, and that stress would last throughout the day. So what would happen is on a Wednesday late afternoon when he would leave work, he had to compensate with that stress. How would he do that? Alcohol. Alcohol. So he'd open a bottle of wine. He'd have a glass. That glass, one glass would turn into two. Two would turn into three.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
And by the end of the evening, he'd had the whole bottle of wine. So what happens then? He doesn't sleep well on the Wednesday nights. So Thursday morning, he's feeling groggy. He needs... Lots of coffee, lots of sugar to get him through, coffee in the afternoon as well, which again impacts his ability to sleep on Thursday nights.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
He's not feeling good and that cycle continues where he's having a bottle of wine on Thursday, two bottles of wine on the Friday, and et cetera, et cetera. But what did we do? We identified his trigger point was a Wednesday lunchtime. So I could show him that on the data, he could see it very clearly.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
So we discussed about certain things he might be able to do on a Wednesday evening instead of alcohol. Now, there was a yoga class very near his office. So before he went home, he went to the yoga class. So what happens then? He goes to that yoga class, that helps him de-stress. When he gets home, he no longer feels the need to drink a bottle of wine.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
So he might have a glass, but it's one glass and it stops there. He sleeps well. Thursday, he feels fresh. He doesn't get as stressed at work. He doesn't have as much coffee. And before you know it, all we had to do was give him a yoga class on a Wednesday afternoon, and suddenly that changed his whole week.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
And people who are listening to this, I'd really ask them to reflect on their own life and think, actually, is there a trigger point in my week where things start to go downhill? Because if you can identify that and change your behavior, it is incredible what you can achieve.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
Yeah, that's the beautiful thing about this is that they're not as hard as we think. They're quite simple. Most of them, I think pretty much all of the recommendations in my book, I think are free. Like literally, you don't have to buy fancy equipment or fancy apps. Actually, a lot of this is accessible to all of us.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
But just to put in context the scale of this problem, Mark, I mentioned what the World Health Organization say. But there was a paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2013, I think it was an editorial piece, which suggested that between 70 and 90% of what a primary care physician like me season any given day is in some way related to stress. These are remarkable statistics.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
Yeah, I find that when patients understand what the stress response is, I find they're really engaged in trying to change it. So I say to them, look, your stress response is ultimately trying to keep you safe. It's when your body thinks you're in danger, it's trying to keep you safe. So let's go back two million years ago, and then you can understand what the stress response is, how it's evolved.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
So you are in your hunter-gatherer tribe and a wild predator is approaching, right? In an instant, your stress response gets activated and your physiology starts to change. So as you said, your blood sugar goes up, which is going to help deliver more glucose to the brain.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
Your blood becomes more prone to clotting so that if you get attacked by that lion and bitten, you're not going to bleed to death. you're gonna survive. Your amygdala, which is the emotional part of your brain, becomes more reactive, so you're hypervigilant to all those threats around you. That is an appropriate short-term response to a threat.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
The problem now, Mark, is that for many of us, our stress response has not been activated by wild predators. It's been activated by our daily lives.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
by social media, email inboxes. By CNN and Fox News. To-do lists, right? Elderly parents we're looking after. You know, two parents working in a family, one's trying to rush home from work to pick up the kids, et cetera, et cetera. And for many of us, those short-term responses that are so helpful become harmful. So if your stress is going up every day, right?
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
And blood sugar going up for a short period of time is not a problem, right? But if that's happening day in, day out to your email inbox, well, that's going to lead to fatigue, lethargy, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, you know, all from the stress response.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
Yeah, I totally agree. And actually, the first part of my book is actually on meaning and purpose. And it's relevant to this because not having that control over your life, not having a sense of meaning, not having something to get up for every day, that is arguably the most stressful thing in your life. Even if you're doing everything else right, if you don't have that.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
And, you know, a few years ago, I came across this Japanese concept of ikigai. which I know you're familiar with. I saw these four circles and it's where these four circles intersect in the middle is your Ikigai. When you are doing something in your life that you're good at, something that you love, something that the world needs and something that pays you money.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
Well, look, I'm very lucky. I now have in my life, my job, I absolutely love my job. That's for sure. But what's interesting for me is I saw that and I thought, yeah, I want some Ikigai in my life. That sounds brilliant. I started talking about this concept to my patients. And for many of them, they found it a little bit intimidating.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
They thought, well, how am I going to find one thing in my life to tick all those four boxes? And actually, when I was giving a talk in London recently on stress, this Japanese student put her hand up at the end and she asked me a question. She said, hey, Dr. Chastity, you know, I've grown up with this philosophy and I've got to say I find it really stressful. I find it too high a bar to live to.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
And what I did in the book is I created a new framework that I use in my patients. I call it the live framework. It's a much more achievable way, I think, for a lot of people to find their meaning and purpose.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
um the l is for love i is for intention v is for vision e is for engaged we probably can't go through all of that but you know i i sort of i i use it with my patients to help them start to find meaning and purpose and the first one i think is really important love yeah right so the research on this is super clear regularly doing things that you love makes you more resilient to stress right so you mentioned a lot of americans are struggling that they don't have control over their life and this is the interesting thing about stress mark
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
is that sometimes we can't, as physicians, change the stressors in our patients' lives. Right, no, no, you can't change what's happening out there.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
But we can make them more resilient to that. Yes. And regularly doing things that you love makes you more resilient to stress. At the same time, being chronically stressed makes it harder for us to experience pleasure in day-to-day things. So one of my recommendations to my patients is have a daily dose of pleasure, even if it's just for five minutes.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
Can you each day give pleasure the same priorities you might give to the amount of vegetables you have on your plate? Or whether you go to the gym, this could be going for a walk, it could be reading a book, listening to a podcast. It could even be coming home from work, putting on YouTube, watching your favorite comedian for five minutes and laughing. That is very important and very valuable.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Chronic Stress: Follow These Simple Steps to Take Back Control
Well, there's obviously the nature piece there as well, which is very impactful for stress. But let me talk about a patient I saw recently. I think you'll find this interesting. 54-year-old chap, I think he was, certainly mid-50s. He was the CFO of a local plastics company. And, you know, he was in a good job, earning good money, married with two kids.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
So why do we all have this poverty mindset? Why is it so? Well, it really, to me, comes down to I get, you know, because we're all beasts and and it's the food environment. But what about the mindset? How does that become such a poverty mindset for so many millions of people?
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
Because people stay stuck in this negative inner dialogue and loop of negative thinking, and it's habitual, and they're almost inside of it like a bubble. They can't see. It's like a fish swimming in water. It doesn't know it's in water.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
As a doctor, I've seen how chronic stress impacts nearly every system in the body, from sleep to mood, energy, and even inflammation. But what many people don't realize is that stress often depletes a critical mineral your body needs to feel calm and at ease, and that is magnesium. And not just one kind. Your body actually requires seven different forms of magnesium to function optimally.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
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Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
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The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
So I say- And how do I listen to my body?
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
How I listen to the signals it's saying and actually see what's working and what's not working. Some people say dairy is bad for you, but some people do fine on dairy. Other people say, you know, it's good for you. And, you know, it may not be good for you.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
i really wanted ice cream okay have you ever felt like that before me never okay right it's really common now they want to make changes they know my wife is terrible by the way she she buys she loves me and she thinks it's love and she buys me my achilles heel which is sicilian van luyn's pistachio ice cream well it sounds delicious it's amazing yeah and i don't do it very often but i know exactly that moment where like
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
Yeah, you're 171% more likely to be overweight than if your siblings are overweight. You're about 40% more likely to be overweight. That's so crazy, man. Yeah, because our friends influence our behavior. Peer pressure works for good or bad.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
Always ask yourself, what do I need? What am I feeling and what do I need? Am I hungry? Do I need food? Am I lonely? Do I need ice cream or do I need to call a friend? Am I tired? Do I need a nap? Or do I need sugar? And so there's a very simple set of non-judgmental questions you can ask about what am I actually feeling right now and what do I need?
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
And we often don't stop to make that distinction. That's what you're asking people to do is inviting them to go gee, I have this Hershey ice cream, but what's really going on with me right now? Am I depressed? Am I sad? Am I tired? I need energy. Have I been, you know, just eating too much carbs and I'm craving carbs? Like what's going on?
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
And I think it's a very powerful tool to sort of create self-awareness around the choices you're making. And then
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
yeah then figure out what you what you really need in that moment and and then go reach out for that if it's calling a friend if it's you know taking a nap if it's whatever it is it's going to sort of deal with what you need rather than the food which becomes our default then we've you know we've created a culture where that's what happens when your kids shut up here eat this candy if you're screaming eat this ice cream here you know have have some treat as a way of kind of mollifying kids and it becomes this
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
sense of our reliance on things that are really bad for us to make us feel better rather than understanding how to actually feel better.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
They're very disconnected from themselves.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
So it's really, it's interesting how language is.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
That's all right. I mean, I think you and I are on the same track. People need to be empowered with the knowledge and the tools to both know what to do, know how to do it, and with the information that allows them to be informed about their own biology. And I think most of medicine has been paternalistic and patronizing and has created a firewall between
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
you and your own biology and the doctor and the insurance companies and the healthcare system are standing in that firewall. And your work is breaking that down.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
And I co-founded a company called Function Health that empowers people to get their own lab data and learn about their own health in a deep way that they never were able to before without having to go through the system, then be empowered with that knowledge and say, I'm not crazy. I have these things going on. My doctor didn't check for my vitamin D level. I didn't check for my iron level.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
They didn't check for my inflammation levels, didn't check my metabolic health, didn't check my insulin. And these are what's making me feel bad. And they're not things that are abnormal in normal tests. So we had this moment where we're shifting sort of agency back to individuals and realizing that 80% of health does not happen in the doctor's office. I can't cure diabetes in my office, right?
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
It's cured in the kitchen, it's cured on the farm, like all the way from the field before. Not in the clinic. Exactly. And so this moment where we actually can, once they recognize that we live in a structural system that promotes disease, but two, we have agency and now can use tools and products and books, things like yours, make change that lasts. It's a fabulous book.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
Everybody definitely has got to get it. It's out, nine simple ways to break free from habits that hold you back. I mean, you know, I think, I think there's so much pain that people suffer and shame and we have such a culture of blame.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
And I think, I think, I think that's something I'd like you to dig in and address because right now what's happening is as, as the, the threat to the food industry is coming from, um, the current American administration, they're freaking out and they're coming out with their talking points and they're very clear. This is discriminatory to tell people not to eat ultra-processed food.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
It prevents them from getting access to affordable food that's safe, that's shelf-stable, that they can prepare easily, that's convenient, that it's really about taking away people's choice to not give them that. And it's all about personal agency and...
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
and and it's it's a bunch of propaganda to justify them continuing with what they're doing without actually the the public actually having the ability to understand that they're being manipulated by these messages and the truth is when you when you do the things that you write about in your book i want to go through more of them you start to you start to have the agency and the sense that you can be the ceo of your health and that you have to
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
really listen to your inner signals to guide you and not be kind of manipulated by the propaganda out there, both from the food industry and the medical system.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
You did. It's very good. But, you know, you talk about what's different about. And other behavior change models have been studied. And it's one of the banes of existence. If you go to your doctor and and he gives you a prescription, there's only a 50% chance that you'll fill it. And if you fill it, there's probably a 50% chance that you'll take it. And so doctors do all these great things.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
Unless you're a surgeon, you have the patient lying unconscious on the table, you can do whatever you want to them. To get patients to do what you think is right for their health or what you think will help them, whether it's take a pill. I mean, taking a pill is pretty easy, right? Forget eating better, exercising, meditating, getting eight hours of sleep.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
building your social network, relationships, all those things are so challenging. And it is why we're seeing this incredible global epidemic of chronic illness.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
You talk about the default mode network, which is this part of the brain where sort of the ego lives. And it's this sort of more rigid sense of little self that separates you from the world. And things like meditation, like you look at these monks who have been meditating for 40,000 hours in a cave. These default mode networks are shut down and they just are connected and one with everything.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
Geez, well, no wonder we have such a problem because all doctors say is eat less and exercise more and lose weight. Good luck with that.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
Well, because the mantra of the government and the food industry is calories in, calories out is the secret to weight loss. And it has nothing to do with nutritional quality. And so it doesn't matter whether you have a soda or broccoli, as long as they're the same calories, it's the same amount of energy.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
And if you can exert more exercise to expend that energy, as long as you're in calorie balance, you'll stay the same weight. If you're exercising more than the calories you're taking in, you'll lose weight. But scientifically, that's just not true because all calories are not the same. And some calories like... Sugar and starch actually cause you to spike insulin, which makes you store fat.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
So I've written about 16 books on this. But it's really extraordinary. And one of the things I read in your book that I really liked, and I use all the time, which is people internalize this message of it's your fault. It's your fault you don't exercise. It's your fault that you're overweight. Shame on you. But you said, I'm here to say it isn't your fault.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
And changing your behavior isn't as hard as you think. And I think that's really an essential message because people are stuck in this idea of self-loathing, self-hate, and discouragement because they're not having the willpower, the motivation, and they beat themselves up about it. How do you address that with people?
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
I think that's so important to say that because I see this all the time as a doctor. People beat themselves up. They trash talk. They have self-loathing. They get discouraged. And I just love this part of your book, 100 Ways to Celebrate and Feel Shine.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
And you have like 100 ways to celebrate yourself and to celebrate the little successes and the tiny habits and builds and builds on a positive feedback loop. And I think that's a really key part of behavior change is these positive feedback. So it's like, oh, by the time I could do 10 pushups and I wasn't in pain for a week in my chest muscles, I was like, oh, this is fun.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
And then I want to do more. And it's like, I felt good and I want to do more. So I think there's these little tiny strategies you have throughout the book that really help people to break free from some of these really... discouraging and debilitating beliefs about themselves that limit themselves in their lives, that limit themselves from actually doing the things they want to do.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
And it's so important. And you talked about this idea of behavior design. So it's not just random. You're actually thinking about the sort of, you know, if you want to do certain things, like if you want to, I don't know, build a house, you have to put the foundation in, you have to put the framing in, you have to put the, like there's a design feature of how to get things to work.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
That's why I recommend Magnesium Breakthrough by Bioptimizers. It's the most complete magnesium supplement I've found, combining all seven forms your body uses to regulate stress, improve sleep quality, and support a healthy nervous system. Personally, I noticed the difference within days, falling asleep faster, waking up more refreshed, and feeling more grounded throughout the day.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
And we've been going about it all wrong when it comes to behavior change, which is why we're not changing our behaviors at a scale that we need to, because many of the problems we're facing in our society are behavior change problems. And you're pointing this out so well. So one of the other strategies that aren't working that people do that aren't working.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
Yeah, because I think it's helpful if you understand. You've talked about this model. It seems pretty obvious. You have a motivation to do something. You have the ability to do it, and you have a trigger, a prompt. And that seems like a very simple model, and it is. It works. I've used it. But on the other hand, what is pushing against people that is limiting them?
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
I know. Make their lives out of helping people set goals.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
Why doesn't repetition cause habit change?
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
I, I had back surgery recently and I, I really, you know, don't like swimming long distances. I never really done it. I love swimming, but I just like go out for a little bit, but I had to like, you know, swim for half an hour. And, you know, at first it was like, uh, and oh, it's so far. And I have to swim back. And because I swim in the lake and it's like,
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
it was, it was, I was resistant to it, but I knew I had to do it because I couldn't do anything else. But, but over time, the more I did it, now I look forward to it and now I can do it.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
So it's the B, which is behavior, equals motivation, ability, and prompt, but there's also the emotion in there.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
I don't think psychedelics are generally designed to, in full doses, be a place for more creativity. It's more insight and connection and understanding, I think.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
And you talk about how this starts to change people's identity, the way they think about themselves and see themselves.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
If you love this podcast, please share it with someone else you think would also enjoy it. You can find me on all social media channels at Dr. Mark Hyman. Please reach out. I'd love to hear your comments and questions. Don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe to The Dr. Hyman Show wherever you get your podcasts.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
And don't forget to check out my YouTube channel at Dr. Mark Hyman for video versions of this podcast and more. Thank you so much again for tuning in. We'll see you next time on The Dr. Hyman Show. This podcast is separate from my clinical practice at the Ultra Wellness Center, my work at Cleveland Clinic and Function Health, where I am Chief Medical Officer.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
This podcast represents my opinions and my guests' opinions. Neither myself nor the podcast endorses the views or statements of my guests. This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical professional.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
This podcast is provided with the understanding that it does not constitute medical or other professional advice or services. Thank you so much for having me. Thanks so much again for listening.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
Well, they're using it for post-traumatic stress, and it's just people's hard-wired patterns that come from trauma, and it's having extraordinary results.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
It's pretty cool. So when you help people shift their mindset, other than taking psychedelics, What do you do to help them transform their thinking and shift out of it?
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
Because I just see people stuck in loops and they have a story that they tell and they have a narrative for their life and they live into that narrative in a way that often is dysfunctional and impedes their ability to be happy, to have happy relationships, to be successful in life.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
And for whatever reason, I sort of was also in that state when I was younger, but I worked really hard to learn how my mind operated and change the narrative to be one of I could do anything.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
Over 1,500 five-star reviews back it up, and it comes with a full 365-day guarantee. Head to bioptimizers.com slash hymen and use code HYMEN10 to save 10%. Now, before we jump into today's episode, I'd like to note that while I wish I could help everyone by my personal practice, there's simply not enough time for me to do this at scale.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
Well, it explains why you're doing what you're doing right now.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
So can you do the behaviors that then change your mind?
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
And that's why I've been busy building several passion projects to help you better understand, well, you. If you're looking for data about your biology, check out Function Health for real-time lab insights. And if you're in need of deepening your knowledge around your health journey, check out my membership community, the Hyman Hive.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
Yeah, it's true. When you when you change. your physical state, you change your mental state. So whether it's going for a run, whether it's taking a steam or whether it's jumping up and down or whether it's dancing, whatever you can do to change your physical state, it'll change your mental state. And I've learned how to do this.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
Cause you know, if I have a really tough day and I've got stress, like I had a really challenging, you know, few situations at work recently and I, you know, I, it was really upsetting me. So I just went to a hot yoga class and I came out completely transformed and I didn't change my thinking. I just changed my body, which then changed my thinking.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
And if you're looking for curated and trusted supplements and health products for your health journey, visit my website at drhyman.com for my website store for a summary of my favorite and thoroughly tested products. Teaching people. How do you get people to shift their mindset? Because it's a hard thing.
The Dr. Hyman Show
Why You Know What to Do, But Still Don’t Do It
Yeah. That's why they don't rent cars to kids who are under 25 years old.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
I say, listen, let's think about one ingredient foods, okay? So foods that don't have a barcode because they naturally are one ingredient. So an avocado doesn't have an ingredient list. It's one ingredient, right? A piece of fruit doesn't have an ingredient list, right? And so for a lot of my patients for years, Mel, I've been asking them to look at food labels, okay?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
And people are shocked at what happens when they look at food labels. That's the starting point, I think, for everyone is as much as you can, because... When you start eating more and more minimally processed food, your hunger signals will naturally start to take care of themselves.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
So if you're having lots of highly processed food and potato chips and the modern food environment, basically, people are hungry all the time.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Because it plays havoc with our hormones. It plays havoc with our blood sugar. So a lot of the things we're eating these days will spike our blood sugar very quickly, which also means it's going to come down very quickly. So let's say, for example, you start the day with a bowl of sugary cereal, which is really, really common.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Now, depending on which one you eat, but most of them pretty much fall into this category. You're eating it, and you feel full afterwards, and your blood sugar has started to go up pretty rapidly. Maybe after about two hours, it hits its peak. Then it starts to crash, okay? And then when it starts to crash... It's not just a hunger issue, it's a stress issue, okay?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
What I mean by that is, let's say you have your bowl of sugary cereal at seven o'clock in the morning. Yep. And you think, yeah, that's gonna last me till lunchtime. And then at 9.30 or 10 o'clock, whilst you're at the office, you're like, why am I so hungry? Like I've already eaten.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
But there's a desperation. It's not like just a bit of hunger that you can deal with. It's somehow I need to eat something. People go for an extra coffee, the vending machine, whatever it might be. It's often because their blood sugar has started to drop rapidly. Now, when your blood sugar drops rapidly, think about it through an evolutionary lens.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
That was a threat to survival a few hundred thousand years ago, right? If your blood sugar is dropping rapidly, you don't just feel hungry. It elevates stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. So it really is a stressor on the body. That makes sense. So if instead of that, for example, you had...
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
some eggs and some avocado, these kind of one-ingredient foods, you'll find that it's less likely to happen. Yes, sometimes your blood sugar will still go up, but it's a bit more gentle.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
I had a patient once, he was in his early 40s, and he came in to see me, and he had a bit of weight around his belly, he was struggling in the day with his mood, and he said, Doc, you know, I always feel like eating, and there was all kinds of things going on, but in essence, he was starting his day with sugary cereal, okay? Hmm.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
And I could track his day and his mood and his energy and his fatigue and his focus. And I thought, I'm pretty certain that the way he starts his day is impacting the rest of his day. And he doesn't realize this, okay? So we did an experiment. I said, okay, you've been starting your days for years with this sugary bowl of cereal. You've read the marketing, you think it's healthy.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Would you be interested in doing something that I call eat dinner for breakfast? And he said, what do you mean? I said, what do you have for dinner? He goes, well, you know, I like a good dinner. So he was pescatarian, Mel, and he would eat salmon and roasted vegetables in the evenings. I said, okay, could you make extra in the evening and then have the leftovers for breakfast?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
He goes, well, yeah, I could do that. I haven't done that before. I said, this is just an experiment. And this is... A big principle of my entire approach, Mel, I offer them to my patients as experiments, not as prescriptions. What I want to do is inspire that patient to go, hey, listen, you know what it feels like to start your day like this. Right.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
What does it feel like for you when you start your day with something else? So then for the next week, he literally did this. And, you know, it would be often in the morning, he'd have salmon and roasted vegetables like sweet potatoes and Brussels sprouts, whatever. One ingredient. One ingredient foods. The salmon protein, which is satiating, okay, can keep you full for longer.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
And he came in to see me a few weeks later. He goes, I feel like a completely different person, right? I'm better at work now. I have more concentration, more focus. I'm not actually hungry till 2 p.m., And this is the thing people don't realize about hunger. People think they're not eating enough. Sometimes you're eating the wrong thing, which is making you hungry.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
So literally that one change for him taught him how important it was to start his day with these one ingredient foods. And then what's so important about that, Mel, is that he is paying attention to how he feels. So then what happens later is that he wants to continue doing that, not because I asked him to, because something else has happened. He has felt the difference.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
And that's always been my approach. You can take alcohol, right? Or caffeine, the sort of things people are always struggling with. My job with a patient has never, ever been to tell them you must give up alcohol or you must give up smoking or whatever it might be. My job has always been to show that person what impact it's having.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
And so I think one of the reasons I've always had really good compliance with my patients is I don't talk down to them. I see them as equal partners and I say, hey, listen, I think this is what's going on. Why don't you experiment this way and see how that feels? Does that all make sense, Mel?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
One of the reasons that people struggle, Mel, to make changes that last is because too often they try and change the behavior without understanding the role that behavior plays in their life. So let's talk about that through the lens of sugar. But you could just as easily apply that around alcohol or three hours doom scrolling Instagram in the evening, whatever it might be.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
So let's take a typical scenario that I've seen thousands of times in my practice and maybe you've experienced before, Mel. I've not been to your house, so I don't know if you've experienced this, but a lot of people, when they're trying to reset their relationship with sugar, find that they can be really good in the day. Yes.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
But somehow at 9 p.m. on the sofa with Netflix on, they're like, I really feel like ice cream.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Yeah. It's so important, and there's a couple of things to say there. First of all, the brain is an associative organ, right? So we associate certain behaviors in certain locations, right? So if you've got a habit for 10 years of having ice cream on the sofa whilst watching TV... Yeah, you're right.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Had you gone to bed or moved to a different location in your house, if you have the room, you'll probably find that the behavior naturally starts to change because it often is associated with that particular location, right? I don't know if you've experienced that before, but many people have. But the 3F framework does something really powerful for people.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
It helps them understand, why do I keep on doing this? So let me go through those 3Fs, okay? The 3Fs are... feel, feed, and find.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Yeah, and then walk people through it. Okay, so for the person listening right now who thinks that this applies to them, I want them to imagine that they're on their sofa in the evening and they feel the urge for ice cream. Okay, I want you to take a pause just for a few seconds before you go and open the fridge and that spoon's in your mouth. Take a pause.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
The thing is, I've been there before myself. So I'm not doing this from a point of lecturing or judging, right? I've been there and I know that you can change your life. You can absolutely change your behaviors if you know why the behavior is there, okay? So you take a pause and before you eat it, you say, what am I feeling? That's the first step.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Is this physical hunger or is this emotional hunger? Oh, okay. yeah, you know what? I had a full meal one hour ago. I'm actually not hungry.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Well, you know the difference by practicing. You don't know the difference by suddenly doing it once and going, oh no, no, I really am hungry. No, it's all these things. We need to develop the skill by turning inwards. Okay. So we have to ask ourselves regularly, it's not as hard as you think. I've done this with thousands of patients, okay?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
The most important thing is when you create that pause, so you're literally creating a little gap between the stimulus, the desire for ice cream, and the response, okay? So you asked yourself, what am I feeling? And you might go, yeah, well, I shouldn't really be hungry because I had a huge meal. I'm a little stressed. I had a row with my partner. The children's bedtime took too long.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
I've been on Zoom calls all day and I feel a bit yucky. This is a better time for me. Okay, no problem. You now have done the most important thing, Mel, which is you're starting to develop this self-awareness of why you're going to that behavior. Then go and eat it. I don't have a problem with someone eating it as long as I've done the first F, okay?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Now, the next time you're on the sofa at 9 p.m., I want you to go to the second F. So you go through the first F again. What am I feeling? What am I feeling? Yeah. The second F is feed. How does food feed that feeling? Ah, okay. I feel stressed when I have ice cream. In the short term, at least, I feel less stressed. Oh, that's why I'm going to ice cream. I'm not actually hungry.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Okay, so you start to build up that awareness. Oh, I've been on Zoom calls all day. I feel a bit lonely. I've not had any connection with another human being today. I feel a bit less lonely when I have some ice cream, okay? And you start to build up that self-awareness. And if you want to go and have it, sure, go ahead and have it. The next time you come, you go through the first two Fs.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
So first F, feel. Second F, feed. Then you go to the third F, find. Now that I know the feeling, now that I know how sugar feeds the feeling, can I now find an alternative behavior to feed that same feeling? Okay, so what does that look like? Oh, I feel stressed. Sugar helps me feel less stressed. Well, what else could I do to make me feel less stressed? Oh, I love yoga. Okay, well, I like yoga.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Maybe I can put YouTube on and do a 10-minute yoga sequence from YouTube. Maybe you're feeling lonely because you've been on Zoom calls all day, or maybe your family are away, or you're in a hotel room, right? Okay, well, instead of going to sugar to feed the loneliness, maybe you could phone a friend.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Maybe you can phone one of your parents if you're lucky enough to have one of them still alive, right?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Yeah, what else can you do? Well, you could run yourself a bath and nourish yourself in a different way. So... This 3F framework can be applied to sugar, to alcohol, to social media, to online pornography, frankly, to anything, Mel, because it does something very powerful. It creates a gap between the stimulus and the response, and then you do the most important thing,
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
which is you start to understand yourself better. Mel, this is why we're so confused in the world at the moment with health information, right? We keep thinking that there's an expert out there who knows what's right for me. The person who's eating too much sugar in the evening, right? Let's say you're trying to stop ice cream in the evening on your sofa.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Mel, you don't need another book on sugar, right? Right?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
But most people who are trying to cut back on sugar alcohol, they don't need another book telling them, oh, sugar is going to affect your teeth. It's going to put on weight. You're going to have low energy. It's going to increase your risk of diabetes. No, I would say in the world today, we have so many health podcasts, so many health books, so many online articles.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
We've got more information than ever before. Yet despite that, our physical health is getting worse, our mental health is getting worse. So the case I make in this new book, Mel, is that we don't need more external knowledge necessarily. We need more internal knowledge, more self-awareness, more insights. That's how you change your life for good, right?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
You listen to experts like you, Mel, or me, but then you put it through your own filter and go, does this work for me? Is this the right approach for me? And that's what I found to be, The most useful thing throughout my entire career, Mel, the patients who've changed their life for good, somewhere along the line, it stopped being my plan and it became their plan. Oh, I love that.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
It's such a key point, Mel. People will often ask me, well, are each of those three Fs as important as the other? No, they're not. The most important F is the first F, feel. What am I feeling? I would say that's 80 to 90% of it. When you break the loop of this patterning of sofa, I want some ice cream, open the freezer, spoon in my mouth, right? We've all been there, Mel, right?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
With that first step.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
You know what, on another note, like... We don't have that stuff in the house because one of my principles that I've been sharing with patients for years is try not to use up your willpower in the house. You have to use up your willpower as soon as you step out the front door these days. So in the UK, if you want to buy a coffee, you have to walk past
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
the pastries, the pan of chocolats, the biscuits, whatever it might be, I have a rule that if I don't want to eat it, I don't bring it into the house. That makes it much easier, and I think that's a great rule for many people to think about. But that first F, Mel, where you just start to understand yourself, I've seen it with patients, it starts to change everything.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
You may not change it straight away, but I tell you, within a week, you're coming there, you're on the sofa, you're thinking, wait a minute, I don't need this. I know what's going on here. And you feel the sense of control. I read your new book recently, The Let Them Theory, and I love it. And in that book, you write a lot about control.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
This base human need that we want to feel in control, why the three Fs work so well, and why listening to lots of external advice and not... owning the advice for yourself becomes problematic because you feel out of control. Yes. Right.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
When you can't decide between a low carb diet, a plant-based diet, a keto diet, a paleo diet, when you try them and you feel it doesn't work for you, but it worked for your best friends.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
You never think, well, you rarely think that the diet was the failure. You think you're the failure
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Yeah. And that leads to guilt, shame, regrets. That leads and reinforces these feelings that I'm not good enough. Okay. I can't get the right plan for me. And sometimes I would argue that some people are better off having not started that diet than than having started it, failed, and then feeling even worse than before they'd even started.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
It's the biggest piece, right? It's not just doing it. It's doing it and then going, oh yeah, I'm noticing now that I'm feeling different. So let's say someone listens to your podcast, smell or mind, right? And one week they hear an expert talking about the benefits of a plant-based diet. Yep.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
And the next week, they hear another well-credentialed experts talk about the benefits of a ketogenic diet. And the problem is people get confused, right? Because they're like, I'm only going to listen to experts. Oh, but here's the problem with that. You can have well-credentialed experts from really good institutions saying two different things, right?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
So how do you navigate that conflict and that confusion? The way you navigate it is by starting to trust yourself, right? And so I say to people, when that's happened on my show before, I said, okay, both of them have got credentials, both of them have got research to back up what they're saying and case studies, they could both be right for different people.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
So why don't you try one diet for four weeks, and as you're trying it, pay attention. What's your energy like? What's your sleep like? What's your focus like? What's your guts like? What are your bowels like? What is your bloating like? Okay.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
and you pay attention, then for another four weeks, you try the other one's diet, and you pay attention to those same things, you will very quickly realize, actually, you know what? I think at this stage in my life, because that's the other thing, things can change throughout your life. At this stage in my life, I think this is probably the right approach for me.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
And it's life-changing with people because it gives them the power. Like you write in your book, Mel, it's about control, right?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
This gives you a sense of control.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
It's my pleasure, Mel. I'm a huge fan of what you do, the way you're impacting people all over the world. So I can't wait for this conversation.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
I would say a minimum of three weeks. Three weeks, okay. I would say three to four weeks, generally speaking, is the kind of time you want to be trying something for. It's enough time for your taste buds to start adapting to the new flavors. It's what people don't realize. If you're used to having a lot of sugary foods, For a few days, you know, you're going to really miss them.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
You're going to go through withdrawal. You have to go through that and come out the other side. A key point, Mel, I want to make is that I'm not saying ignore external experts, right? I'm not saying that. You didn't say that. I'm saying that something's happened in society now with all this information where we put all of our faith in external experts at the expense of ourself.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
And I'm saying we need to bring up our own inner expertise as well. Yes, listen to the external experts, but also know that, hey, you know what? My life is unique. I've got unique pressures, unique stresses. What works for someone else may not work for me. So again, I don't mean to confuse the issue.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
It's like fasting mouth. fasting becomes this really controversial topic, right? Should I fast? Should I not fast? Is fasting better for men? Is it not so good for women? People are getting confused, right? But even the fundamental premise, is fasting good or bad? It's the wrong question.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
the right question is for who and in which context, okay? The two most important questions we can ask ourselves whenever we're hearing advice, okay? For some people, fasting is a game changer. If you have been carrying excess weight for a while, if you have type 2 diabetes, if you've been ingesting excess calories for 10 plus years,
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
a form of fasting that suits you and your life may be game-changing. Yes. If, on the other hand, you're underweight, you have an eating disorder, which you are suffering from or recovering from, well, fasting might not be the best solution for you. But these days online, we want to say, is it good or bad? It's like, well, it's neither.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
It can be amazing, but it's an option that you may want to play around with.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
This is one of the most important things I do each day, and not only for my health. I would say it's also one of the most important things I do for my happiness and my relationships. Remember at the start, Mel, I said that health, happiness, and relationships are not as separate as people might think, okay? So what do I do?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
And I think it's a useful way of helping people understand the key principles of habit formation. So for over five years now, I've been doing several things each morning. But one thing that I rarely miss on is a five-minute strength workout. Okay, so what does this look like? Okay, I go to bed early and I wake up early. That's just what works for me, right? But I wake up around five o'clock.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Again, I'm not saying anyone else has to. It's what works for me. My wife doesn't want to get out of bed till seven or half seven, right? So we have found what works for us, okay? So I come downstairs. And I do happen to meditate, that's the first thing I tend to do, but that's not relevant for this part of our conversation. I go into my kitchen, and one thing I do is I love to make coffee, okay?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
So I weigh out my coffee, and I pour the water in into the French press, and I put a timer on for five minutes. In those five minutes, Mel, I don't go on email. I don't go on Instagram. I don't go on the news. What I do in those five minutes is I have a strength workout in my kitchen, in my pajamas. What do you do? Well, I do a variety of things. It started off being body weights.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
I do some press-ups, some calf raises, some squats. I just do a little circuit in my kitchen. And then I get the gorgeous reward of a hot cup of coffee just the way I like it.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Yeah, there's a video on YouTube that I've worked off my five-minute kitchen workouts. These days, I do a couple of other things. I have a kettlebell and a dumbbell in my kitchen, so sometimes I'll do some kettlebell swings, sometimes I'll do some bicep curls, whatever I feel like. But the point is, I do that five-minute strength workout every day.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
I even did it this morning in my hotel room here in Boston, Mel, okay? And I'll explain why it's so important. It's what I would call my keystone habit. It's a habit that when I do it, it makes it infinitely more likely I'm gonna do other healthy choices in my day, right? Every single day, Mel, we're all asking ourselves two questions. Can I trust myself? Can I rely on myself?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
What my five-minute kitchen workout does to me every single morning is it shows me that no matter how busy my work is, no matter what my wife needs from me, what my children need from me, what my elderly mother needs from me, I still found five minutes for myself. It shows me I can trust myself. I can rely on myself. Now, people might go, you know, strength workout every day.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Do you not vary it up? No, I don't vary it up, right? Especially when I started. No. Do we vary up toothbrushing? No. Right. I hope, Mel, every single person listening right now brushes their teeth for two minutes in the morning and two minutes in the evening.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
It's not as hard as we think it is, Mel. When we think about improving our lives, our health, our happiness, our relationships, those things aren't quite as separate as we often think. I think those three things are all absolutely interlinked.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
100%. And with toothbrushing, the key point I want to make is that we don't apply those principles when it comes to changing our health, right? We make it so difficult and complicated. That's a theme throughout this conversation, Mel. How do we keep it simple? If your audience, Mel, if the person listening to this...
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
episode right now, if you take nothing else from this conversation, but this idea that you're going to find one five minute action and you're going to do it at the same time every day, try it for the next seven days, I guarantee, like I literally guarantee, because I've seen this tens of thousands of times, not only will you feel better, You will change the way you experience life.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
You will change the way you view yourself because you build up this momentum. You build up self-esteem. You become someone who can do what they say they're going to do, right? I had a patient. Again, I'm going to bring this and make this really real because I imagine there'll be people listening. Mel, who think, I'm busy, like I'm a nurse, I'm a teacher, I don't have time. Right.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
And my entire career, yes, with my patients, but over the past 10 years with my public platform, whether it's with my books or my podcast, I'm always trying to think about simplification. How can you translate this idea for a busy person who doesn't feel as though they've got time, who feels that health is too confusing and they feel it's too complicated to
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
No, no, you do have time, right? I had a patient, 48-year-old guy, this is maybe 10 years ago, Mel, and he came in to see me with three common complaints, okay? He's a little bit overweight. Yep. Okay. And he was pointing to his tummy as he came in. He had a bit of low moods and he had low energy. Okay. Okay. There's many things that can cause these things.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
So I spent a bit of time talking to him, Mel, trying to understand his life and his lifestyle. And there was quite a few things there. And I said to him, hey, listen, there's a few things in your lifestyle that I've identified that I think could be responsible for all three of these things. Are you interested in me helping you change some of them?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
So I always have permission with my patients, right? I don't just give them advice and say, are you interested? He said, yeah, that'd be great. So I went through all kinds of options. he wasn't biting at any of them. He was like, nah, I don't think that's for me. I don't think that's for me. When I said strength training, His eyes lit up now. Okay, so I'm meeting him where he's at.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
He's like, yeah, dog, you know, I used to do that at school as a teenager. I haven't done it in years. I've got busy with adult life, basically. I said, I think strength training is going to really help you. I think it's going to help you with your weight, your energy, and your moods. He said, right, great. I want to do it. What shall I do? 45 minutes, three times a week in the gym.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
I said, yeah, that'll be fantastic. Great. And he goes, right, I'm going to do it. I said, okay, here's an appointment for four weeks time. You go and do that. Come back in four weeks and we'll figure out how you're doing. Okay. So he goes away and I'm feeling pleased. I think, okay, cool. He's going to go and do that. Four weeks later, Mel, he comes back into my office.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
And he walks in and his body language is a bit off. He's not making eye contact with me. I said, hey, how was the gym? Has it made a difference? He said, hey, doc, listen, I've not been yet. Okay, work's been really busy. The gym's quite expensive. It's not really on my way to or from work. I've not actually gone yet. Oh, so now he feels terrible. He feels terrible.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
And I remember that case so well now because it was one of the most instrumental moments in my career. I never thought in that moment, he's not done what I've asked him to do. I thought, Rangan, you've clearly not given him advice that he feels is relevant in the context of his life. So in that moment, I took my jacket off, okay?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
And I said, right, can I teach you some body weight exercises right here, right now? He said, sure. So I literally got down on the floor in my office and I was teaching him press-ups, squats, calf raises. I was modifying them for his ability level. And I said, what do you think? Can you do that? He goes, yeah, that's okay.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
I said, okay, what I want you to do is I want you to do this for five minutes, twice a week in your kitchen. And he looked at me, he said, what, 10 minutes a week? Is that it? Yeah. I said, yeah, can you do that? He goes, that's easy. I said, okay, great. You go and do that. I'll see you in four weeks. Okay, so he goes off. Four weeks later, he comes back. He's almost dancing into the room, okay?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
He comes to see me with a big smile on his face. I said, hey, how are you doing? He said, dog. You asked me to do five minutes twice a week. It was so easy. I enjoyed it so much that I now do 10 minutes every evening whilst my dinner's getting ready in the kitchen. So I do 10 minutes, right? That changed his life, Mel.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
How can I get through to that individual? That's what I've really enjoyed doing my entire career as a doctor, but I also enjoy doing it through media platforms like this one.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Because when I asked him or when he felt he had to do 45 minutes three times a week in the gym... He did zero. Right. When he felt he only had to do 10 minutes a week, he's now doing 10 minutes a day. That's 70 minutes of strength training. That then led to what I call the ripple effect. Over the next few weeks, he starts to go for a walk at lunchtime.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
He starts to cook a little bit better for himself. He starts to prioritize his bedtime. I saw him a few years ago, Mel. This is maybe five years after we started. He's now meditating each day. If I had brought up meditation to him 10 years ago, he would have left me out of the room, right? Small changes done consistently lead to big outcomes. I've seen it time and time again.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Honestly, if your audience take literally nothing else from this conversation, I want them to take this. Find a five-minute action, something you've thought about before, something you feel drawn to. I don't care what it is, journaling, meditation, yoga, pull-ups, star jumps, doesn't matter. If five minutes feels too much, make it one minute, right?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
But start somewhere and do it for at least seven days. And if you don't feel differently about your life, sure, ignore everything I have to say.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
I know they are going to feel different. Of course. But you have to do it. Inspiration without action does not lead to change. This is what I see these days, Mel. People listen to your show. They listen to my show. They see a positive Instagram post and a really inspirational meme and they heart it. They think they've done something. They haven't done anything, right?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
They move their thumb about half a millimeter on their phone. That's great. Don't get me wrong. But you need to take the inspiration and figure out, well, how am I going to take action in my life?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Yeah, you'll be shocked. And what people don't realize, because I've seen it with so many patients, is they underestimate simplicity. I go to the gym sometimes, right? I'll lift things at other times, but some weeks I don't, but I never miss my five minute morning action. It's a promise I made to myself. And why do I think that helps your health, your happiness, and your relationships?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Because when you make that commitment to yourself, when you make that promise and you keep it, Mel, you do something so powerful, right? It builds you up inside. You become a human being who knows your self-worth and you take that to your relationships. You take it to your work. You take it to every other aspect of your life.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
When people think about sleep, the first thing they go to is what are they doing before they go to bed. Now, whilst that is important, What we don't realize is that a good night's sleep starts first thing in the morning, how you start your morning off. Now, if you're able to get natural light first thing in the morning, it's fantastic for your overall wellbeing.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
It helps set your circadian rhythm. This is your biological clock. Every single cell in your body has a clock, okay? And one of the key drivers of that clock is is exposure to light, okay?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
So if you expose yourself to bright natural lights, ideally, but I appreciate also that, you know, depending on where you live in the world, certainly in the UK at the moment, you're not getting bright natural lights in the morning. So yes, you know, put all the lights on at home, get them as bright as you possibly can. That actually helps you sleep better in the evening.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
I think people are going to find that they have more energy, more focus, more motivation, better physical health, better mental health, happiness, inner calm.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
There's some studies which show us that if you meditate or practice mindfulness first thing in the morning, that can also help you sleep better at night, okay? So there's many ways that I want people to think about sleep, but what you do first thing in the morning can absolutely impact your sleep in the evening. Now, why should people care about sleep, okay? It's not just about energy.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Yes, energy is, of course, something that we all want, right? We want the energy to do the things that we wanna do in life. But here's what happens when you're sleep deprived. your mood goes down. You're less empathetic. You're less compassionate. You find it harder to resist temptation.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
If you sleep five and a half hours each night compared to seven and a half hours each night, one study showed, on average, you're eating 22% more the following day in terms of calories. Okay, so think about that. Five days of extreme sleep deprivation will lead to a whole extra one day's worth of calories going through your mouth, okay?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
So I've helped, Mel, some patients lose weight in a sustainable way, not by focusing on their diets, by focusing on their sleep. This goes back, Mel, to what I said right at the start. think about these four pillars and ask yourself, which one of these four pillars do I need the most work in, right? Too often we focus on our favorite pillar.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
If your diet is 85% good, moving it from 85% to 90%, whilst you're only sleeping five hours a night, ain't going to move the needle. If you can bring up your sleep from five hours to even five and a half hours, again, it's not about perfection. It's not about either eight hours or nothing.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
If you can actually get 20 minutes more, 30 minutes more, there will be a physiological difference in your body meld the following day. And so it's important for your physical health, your mental wellbeing. Life feels different when you've had a good night's sleep, okay? So in terms of what people can do, I mentioned first thing in the morning, okay? Get light exposure.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Yeah. So it doesn't always have to be the sun to be clear. You still get a lot of natural light on an overcast day or on a cloudy day. Okay. But yes, I appreciate we all have different work schedules. So if you can't do that, you know, put the lights on in your house. If you want, you can go on Amazon. You can buy like these bright lux lights. They're not that expensive.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
better relationships because actually the key principles the key ingredients to all of these things they're really not as complicated as people think really yeah they in my view because already the list Dr. Chatterjee I'm like oh my god that's a lot I don't even know if I can remember all this so like it's really not that complicated yeah well through this conversation hopefully people will learn it's yes I'm not saying change is easy yep
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
You can have those on in your house, right? Do what you can. If you can't do it first thing in the morning, Maybe at 10 a.m. when you have a little coffee break at work, can you take your coffee and go to the balcony or go out the front door and be outside and get some of that light into your eyes? Okay, there's many ways. And Let's be honest, Mel, some days you may not be able to. Correct.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
And that's okay. Yes. Right? Fine. There are other ways to improve your sleep. You know, we can talk about five or 10 different tips. You're probably not going to be able to do them all.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Yeah. The most important thing about an evening routine when it comes to sleep is the fact that you need a routine. Right. Right? You have kids, Mel, right? They're older than mine. I have kids, right? I'm guessing, and again, I don't know this. I've not met your children, right?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
But I'm guessing when your kids were younger, what you didn't do before bed was put all the lights up as loud as possible, get the music blaring, give them loads of sugar, and then try and get them to sleep.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
We as adults are no different, right? With children, what do we do? We dim the lights. We lower our tone. We might read them a story. We create the environment that is conducive to winding down. One of the most toxic things about the modern world is this separation between work life and home life has vanished.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
with emails, with social media, with whatever it is, we can still be working in our bedroom, in bed, and then somehow wonder why we can't afford a seat 10 minutes later when we've just had a stressful work email. I think the most important thing for many people, and certainly it has been for me, is one hour before bed, I make a mental switch in my head. I'm now on wind down time, okay?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
So for me, and again, I want to be clear, Mel, Everyone's got a unique life, right? So what works for me may not work for someone else. But what I do one hour before bed is I make sure my laptop's closed. I will not do a work email in the one hour before bed, barring an exceptional situation. Okay, let's be honest. Sometimes stuff is going on that you want to handle.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
But by and large, I won't do that. I have educated my family over the last few years. And it was hard at first, but everyone understands now that in the evening... Past, you know, one hour before bed, I don't want to talk about finances. I don't want to talk about household items.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
My mum, my brother who lived nearby, they now know if it's something to do with mum's care, unless it's urgent, I don't want to know about it in the one hour before bed.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
okay so by educating the world around me i have a wind down for that one hour what do i do i'll try to be off my screens i'm usually pretty good i'm not perfect you know for me if i bring my phone into my bedroom i'll look at it yeah so i live in a house so what my wife and i try and do is we make a commitment to each other that we're going to leave our phones in the kitchen to charge
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Yeah, just because I write about this stuff and talk about it on my podcast each week doesn't mean I'm any less human than anyone else. I can't resist looking at that phone.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
But it can be simple, right? If you understand the key ingredients to change and you start applying them into your daily life. And I'm a busy guy. Look, I'm a dad. I've got two children. I help care for my elderly mother who lives five minutes away from me. I have a busy job. I know what it's like to feel busy and feel as if you don't have time to do the things that you want to do.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Because it's subtly different. Relax is speaking to the issue of stress. So we know that 80 to 90% of what comes in to a doctor these days is in some way related to stress.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Yeah. And a few years ago, the World Health Organization had on their homepage that stress is the health epidemic of the 21st century.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
I do. And also, these four pillars, they all feed each other, right? Because a lack of sleep is a stressor on the body.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Eating lots of junk food that's causing inflammation in your body is a stressor on the body. Not moving at all is a stressor on the body. But what people will find is when you start looking at your life through this framework of these four pillars, you can start wherever you want. It will start to make a difference in the others. They all start to feed each other.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Now, when I'm talking about stress, And when I talk to my patients about stress, I help them understand what stress actually is.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Stress is basically your body's response when it wants to keep you safe. Okay? When it thinks you're in danger, in essence. So I always explain this to my patients now. I say, listen, what is the stress response? Imagine... It's 100,000 years ago, and you're in your hunter-gatherer community in your tribe doing your thing, okay?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
And then, whilst you're doing your thing, you notice a wild predator approaching the camp. In an instant, your stress response kicks into gear. Now, several things happen in your body when that happens. Okay, what happens? Your blood sugar starts to go up, so it can deliver more glucose to your brain.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Your blood pressure starts to go up, so more oxygen can go around your body and get to your brain, okay? Your blood becomes more prone to clotting. Why? Oh, if that lion or that predator was to cut you, instead of bleeding to death, your blood's going to clot, which is going to save your life, okay? Your amygdala, right? Your emotional brain goes on to high alert. Why?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
But there is always a way to make time. I've done it for years with my patients, and I hope to show your audience, Mel, on this program today that they can also do it.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Because you want it to be on high alert. You want to be vigilant. You want to hear every pinprick. These are all appropriate responses when you really are in physical danger. The problem today, Mel, is that so many of us are having our stress responses activated Not to wild predators. By email.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
But to the state of our daily lives, our email inboxes, our to-do lists, the three social media accounts we're trying to keep up to date with, the news headlines. In a very similar way, our stress response has been activated. So those four things I mentioned, helpful in the short term, problematic in the long term. So blood glucose going up to help you run away, brilliant.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
If that's happening day in, day out, that will cause weight gain, fatigue, and type 2 diabetes.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Yeah, stress is a massive, massive issue that we don't think about enough. And a lot of people don't realize this key, key point, Mel, that I have only realized in the last few years, which is this idea that we see the world through the state of our nervous system, right? So if you're chronically stressed,
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
And I would bet, Mel, that a lot of your audience, even if they're on a walk right now and listening to me and you talk, a lot of them would probably identify as being chronically stressed.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Yes. Think about the point of the stress response, okay? It's when we think there's danger. So what happens? Your focus comes inward. You're not compassionate. You're not looking to cooperate with people. You're looking for threat. You're looking for problems, right?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Okay, another way people can often understand this is this idea that if you've had a weekend off where you've properly rested, okay, and you've switched off and maybe you've gone for a walk in nature, okay, You can read an email on a Monday morning and interpret it a certain way.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
You could read that same email on a Friday afternoon when you've had a busy work week and you are interpreting it completely differently. It's the same email, but you are looking at it differently because of the state of your nervous system, right? And it's, you know, I thought about this the last few days, Mel. I don't know how this lands for you, but
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
I was thinking about me and, you know, I'm away from home at the moment. So when you're away, you can often think big picture. I think, what is it you're doing wrong again? You know, with your podcast, with your books. On the face of it, it seems like what I'm talking about is health. But I've realized that's not my end goal now, right? Why? Why does health matter? Why does happiness matter?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
I think what I'm trying to do actually at its core is create or contribute to a more compassionate world. If you're healthier, if you can lower your stress response, you're a kinder person. You have more empathy. Well, that's a world I want to be part of creating. I want my children to grow up in a world where there isn't all this division, where actually people are nice to each other.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
That's who we are as humans. I'm sure of it. Me too. That's what drives me, Mel. This stuff seems like it's about health. I don't think it is. Health is the mechanism to get to compassion for me. And connection. And connection. And peace. And peace when you're well slept.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
When you understand where stress lives in your life and you do a few simple things that we can talk about, like a breathing practice or a journaling practice, okay? Simple things that don't cost much money. That's what I'm always talking about in my books and my podcast. Most of the things I write about and talk about are free of charge. People say health and wellness, you need money for it.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Then I push back against that. Yes, I get it to buy healthy food in certain parts of the world. Yes, your income matters for sure. But there are lots and lots of things that we can do that do not cost any money at all that will absolutely change our state or lower our stress levels.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
I think the most important daily practice for anyone in 2025 is a daily practice of solitude. I believe that with all my heart, Mel.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Yeah, so solitude is different from loneliness, okay? Solitude is the intentional practice of spending a bit of time with yourself. Because what happens today, Mel, is that so many people, they're waking up, their smartphone is their alarm, they're picking up their phone, they're reacting to the world around them, they're consuming emails, toxic content online, social media, news.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
And what a lot of people don't realize is that their thoughts, their feelings, and their actions are often downstream from the content they're consuming. So what can that solitude be? Okay. It could be a walk for 10 minutes where you don't have anything in your ears, where you're just allowing your thoughts and feelings to come up. It could be journaling. It could be breath work.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
It could be anything you want. I'll give you some of my favorites. Okay.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Exactly. They all link in with each other. The pillars aren't as separate as we might think. They're a useful framework to look at our life and see where we're going to make change. But once you start in any one of them, you'll realize how they all feed each other, right? Breathwork, the most powerful way and the quickest way to change your internal state and therefore your stress levels,
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
is through a practice of breath work. Now, one of my favorite practices is what I call the three, four, five breath. I've been using it with my patients for years. Great. Why don't you walk us through it? I love it. You breathe in for three. Okay, let's do it. Okay, let's do it. Okay. Okay. So breathe in for three. Okay. Hold for four. One, two, three, four. Now breathe out for five.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
One, two, three, four,
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Yeah, I felt it. I felt it myself as well. That's just one breath, okay? The three, four, five breath. One breath takes 12 seconds. Five of them takes one minute. When your out-breath is longer than your in-breath... You help to switch off the stress part of your nervous system and activates the relaxation part of your nervous system.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Okay, so the 3-4-5 breath is just a very simple method I've created to help my patients. There are so many other amazing breathwork practices out there. I'm not saying you have to do this one. But the principle is that it will really help you calm, lower your stress, be more present. It shows you how interconnected the body is. So I would say something like the 3-4-5 breath is...
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
It's a really, really simple tool that you can use preemptively in the morning as part of a routine, a morning routine. Or when you're getting stressed out in the day, you have a meeting with your boss and let's say a disagreement with your husband.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
You can actually just take a time out, do three, four, five breathing for just 30 seconds a minute, and you'll be much better able to engage once you've done it.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Yeah. Dad came to the UK in 1962 from India and... Dad's not been here now for almost 11 years. And it's almost the classic immigrant story, okay? He came to the UK in search of a better life, a better life for his immediate family in the UK and his family back home in America. But this is what my dad's life was like. My dad was a doctor. He was a consultant at Manchester Ward Infirmary.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
But for 30 years, my dad only slept three nights a week. It is actually really hard for me to even imagine that now. As a father myself, thinking through to what my dad did and how he lived, I don't really understand how he was able to do it. But I think when you have a strong passion and a mission, it's amazing what you can achieve. So I've really evolved my view on my dad's life.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
I think these days people are struggling with fatigue. They don't have energy. They're struggling with motivation. They can't sleep. They're feeling chronically stressed. This is affecting their physical health, their weight, the way that they feel about themselves. It's also impacting their mental well-being, how they see themselves, how they see the world around them.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
But in essence, when my dad became 57, he suddenly became sick with the autoimmune condition lupus. his kidneys failed and he was chained to a dialysis machine for 15 years, three times a week at the local hospital until dad died in 2013. Now I moved back to where I grew up, which is where I live now, which is, you know, you've been there when you came onto my podcast Mel a few years ago.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
I live in the same town that I grew up in and I moved back to help my mum and my brother look after my dad. When my dad died in 2013, It was like a juggernaut explosion in my life. Like it is for many people, it's the first time I had to really confront death. I had to confront death as a doctor with patients for many years, but it's different. That's my job.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
When it was with my dad, who I used to care for and see three times a day, I had this big hole in my life. And really, it was only after my dad died that I started to ask myself the big existential questions, Mel, about, well, whose life am I really leading? Is it my life? Is it someone else's life? So I've been on a real... journey since my dad died.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
I've made changes in how I live my life based on what my dad did. So I'll explain one of the changes is, you know, I rarely saw my dad growing up because he was working, he was providing, right? And I used to say, Mel, I used to say that I think my dad made a mistake. I used to say that I think my dad mistook success for happiness, right?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
which is, I think, what many people do in the world these days. But I've actually evolved my view, Mel. I think it's unfair of me to make that judgment on my dad. If my dad was still alive today, the one question I would have for him, and I've thought about this a lot, I would say to dad, dad, was it worth it?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Because he might say to me, Mel, he might say, you know, we might say, oh, he was chronically stressed. He was sleep deprived. That's why he got lupus. He shouldn't have worked so hard. And through one angle, I actually believe that, Mel. But the other way I look at life now is my dad might say, hey, son, yeah, it was worth it.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
You know, I came to the UK to give you and your brother a great start in life. And I did that. Look at you now. Look how many people's lives you're impacting around the world. Look how many books you've written. Look how many people listen to your podcast each week. Yeah, I'd do that again. And it's a really different way of looking at life, Mel. Like I've learned over the years...
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
that you can reframe anything in life, that stress is not just external, it's internal as well. It's how we look at these neutral events, right? I can look at my dad's death in a very negative way, I go, I can't believe my dad's not here. Poor me. I lost my dad at a young age. And I used to do that, Mel, but it doesn't help me.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
I've experienced the grief, but now coming up to 11 years on, you know how I see my dad's death now? I see my dad's death as a gift. It's a gift that he gave me. The things I've learned through my dad's death, all the things I share in these books, particularly this new one. Yes, you write a lot about this. I would not have known this stuff had I not gone through the grief of losing my dad.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
So now, and you can call this spiritual if you want, and I'm okay with that. I know as medical doctors, maybe we're not meant to talk like that, but I would say these days, I do feel really spiritual. I actually feel that through dad's death, I have learned some of the most powerful lessons of my entire life. And so now I choose to look at it as a gift that my dad gave to me.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
But what a lot of people don't realize, Mel, is that the health landscape in the United States, in the UK, and frankly, most countries around the world has dramatically changed over the past 20 or 30 years. We used to see what I call acute problems. So 30, 40 years ago, the medical system was really well set up for the problems that people came in with.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
First of all, Mel, if there is someone who is listening right now who is in that role, I get it. I know how difficult it is. I know how stressful it can feel. I know how it can feel that there's no way out and you have no time for yourself. I was there. I was there for a long, long time.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
But those words that you just read out, Mel, it's really quite emotional listening to them because now I can reflect back and to put it in real context, In the months and years leading up to dad's death, this is what my life used to look like. I would wake up. I lived five minutes away from my mum and dad. I'd wake up at about five. I'd go round to mum and dad's. I'd help get dad up.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
I'd help get him shaved and ready. And that could take all kinds of... time, depending on what was going on and how well he was. I'd then come home, try and see my wife and my young baby boy. Then I'd drive to work as a primary care doctor and be busy in the day. I'd try sometimes on lunch, if one of the home visits was near my parents' house, I'd try and nip in and just check how dad was doing.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
I'd then go back to work. On the way back from work, after a long day seeing patients, again, I'd go. I'd often end up Coming back home, feeling really, really stressed. My wife had already put my son to bed. I was chronically stressed. If I think about it now, the impact on my marriage, on those early years as a father, You know, I don't believe in regrets, I really don't.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
So you'd come in and say, hey, doctor, I've got a cough. I've got a fever. I'm bringing up a lot of sputum. And the doctor would see you for 10 or 15 minutes, examine you, give you a diagnosis, give you a pill and say, take this three times a day for seven days. And hey, presto, seven days later, your problem's gone away.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
I believe regrets in many ways are a form of perfectionism, but I believe I can learn from the past and I can learn from those mistakes. Not even mistakes, I can learn from those experiences and go, if I was in the same situation again, And I have been in a similar situation over the last few years because my mum has become more and more unwell. I'm very different now looking after my mum.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
My mum's like 84, 85, right?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
It's not my identity that I'm the only person who is going to be here and responsible for everything, right? With my dad, I made it my identity. It was who I was. My dad being well was a reflection of who I was as a human being, right? I would do everything. If dad wasn't well, I'd done something wrong. I was going to go and fix it.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
That creates so much inner torture when you see yourself like that. And as... You know, you just read out. No one expected that. Like that was a story I created inside my own head. Was it real?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Yeah.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
It's not dissimilar in some ways. I mean, when I read the letter theory, one of the things I find really powerful about it is is the separation between me and the other person, but in a really beautiful way, not a separation that I don't care. In your book, Mel, you write about how it's okay for other people to feel their emotions and feel disappointed.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
And you can apply the same principle here, Mel, where if the cost, and this was the cost, if the cost of looking after my dad meant that it was gonna impact my ability to be a good father and a good husband, that's a cost I wasn't aware that I was paying. But now I know, now to be really clear, I have a great relationship with my kids. I'm happily married, it's just past 17 years recently, okay?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Things are great. But I've learned from that, and now with my mom, who I love just as much as my dad, I'm not falling into the same traps.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
This is so key, Mel. Exactly. And that's why I brought up your book, right? Because it's a key theme that I got from that book that I think totally applies here. I couldn't tolerate something, you know, me or someone not being there for my dad to meet his every needs, right? But it's ridiculous. It's utterly ridiculous, right?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Yeah, and it worked beautifully well for those kinds of problems. But today, Mel, 80 to 90% of what we as medical doctors see is in some way related to our collective modern lifestyles. Okay, now let me be really clear. I am not putting blame on anyone. The person who's listening right now, I am not putting blame on you, okay?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
I would argue that I cared just as much for my mother as I did for my father, but in a completely different way. I practice self-care. I will do these things for my own health. I will also, the truth be known, like... If, for whatever reason, I can't do something, I'm not gonna kill myself like I used to to get it done. I'm like, actually, you know what? On balance, it's okay.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
I can't meet every need for my mom anymore, okay? It's okay if sometimes she wants me around and I can't be there. That's okay, right? And it's okay to come round and see her disappointed, okay? That's okay. And the funny thing is, I would almost argue that I'm caring for my mum in a much better way. When I'm around that, I'm not tired. I've got the energy. I've given myself five minutes each day.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
And then there's another powerful story at the start of chapter one, where, you know, I took him at my dad's funeral, Mel. And I remember I had back pain for years, chronic back pain. And I saw this amazing musculoskeletal expert who helped it like 70, 80% for sure. But there was still this niggling tightness. And I can still remember, Mel, 2013, I'm at my dad's funeral. I'm in my best suit.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
You know, we've just had the ceremony. And I can still remember being at Manchester Crematorium, watching the body go into the flames. And the tightness of my right back just vanished. And I second guessed myself. I said, did that just happen? I know that happens, right? And what I've realized, because I've read for years about how the body stores emotions. Of course.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
But that's the first time I truly got it. I got it. I was like, oh my God. the weight, the pressure that I put on myself, that I'm the one who's responsible for my dad's wellbeing, even though it was dad who was sleep deprived for 30 years, chronically stressed, you know, didn't take his holidays, somehow it's my responsibility, that was giving me back ache.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
It's absolutely crazy, Mel, to realize that I needed to see my dad's flesh and blood being burnt for my body, for my subconscious to finally realize, oh, it's not on you anymore. That back pain was the weight of expectation I put on myself to look after him.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Yeah, there's two things. Okay. There's not one thing, there's two things. One of them is what we've already spoken about. And it's the cliche of putting on your oxygen mask first, okay? If you do a five-minute action for yourself each day, I promise you, you will be better able to look after whoever you have to look after in your life.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
When you think you don't have any time for yourself, that it's all on that person. And frankly, take this away from being a caregiver for a sick elderly parent. What about mothers? or an autistic child? Yeah, like my practice was full of, well, many people for years, right? But I saw a lot of mothers who literally never gave themselves any time.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Everything was for their partner, their parents, their children. Like they did nothing for themselves. They didn't feel that they could. And actually one of the biggest things I would teach a lot of my patients throughout the years was that I gave them, well, I didn't teach them this. I shared with them how important it was.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
I understand that life is tough, that people feel stressed, they don't have the energy. I do understand all those things. At the same time, we have to understand that these modern lives and the way in which we're leading them is resulting in us being sick. Okay.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
And a lot of them would come back to me and say, hey, dog, you know what you've done for me? You've given me permission to relax. You've given me permission to look after myself. Even if you've got the most tax and care job in the world, I promise you have five minutes for yourself each day, right? You have five minutes to nourish yourself. That will make you a better carer.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
It will make you kinder. It will make you healthier. And it will really do something quite special to how you view yourself. So that's the first thing I'd say. The second thing I'd say, and it goes back to why I believe a daily practice of solitude is the most important thing. Hmm.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
if you sit with yourself each day, whether it's a three, four, five breath, or you just frankly sit in silence with your cup of coffee and you're not scrolling email at the same time, you will start to feel things in your body, right?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
So Mel, what was going on for years with me that I never knew because I was too busy and I didn't have solitude was when my stress load is building up, I start to feel tightness in my right upper back. When I was so busy, I never paid attention. Now, because I have a daily practice of solitude, when I feel that tightness on my right back, it's like an early warning signal.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
When I feel that pressure coming up, Mel, I'm like, oh, what's going on in my life? Oh. There's a difficult conversation I need to have with my wife. I've taken on too much at work. Maybe I need to really switch off this weekend. Whatever it might be, it's an early warning signal to tell me that I need to take aversive action. At the moment, Mel, people are not doing this.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
In the UK, 88% of people are thought to have experienced some degree of burnout in the past two years. I mean, that is a really damning indictment of the state of modern society. And what I'm trying to say for the person listening right now is that one of the ways that you will improve every aspect of your life is with a daily practice of solitude.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Start listening to yourself, feel where the tightness is in your tummy, your back, your neck, right? And then start asking yourself, what is this telling me? And you will start to develop this inner trust in yourself. You will start to pick up problems before they start to arise.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
And so I was very much trained the model where you try and diagnose a patient when they come in and give them a treatment, which is usually a pharmaceutical treatment. Now that can have value. But what a lot of people still don't realize is that if you make changes in four key areas of your life, you can have a profound impact on so many different aspects of your health.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
I would say, Mel, with all of my heart, the thing that I've learned the most, that I'm most passionate about, is this idea that anyone can change their lives. It doesn't matter how dark you think your life is at the moment. It doesn't matter if you feel stuck, lost, unmotivated. I have seen patients who were suicidal transform their life, and it started with a five-minute action.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
No word of a lie. It started with a five-minute action because here's the reality. If you've got deep and dark depression and you're having suicidal thoughts, any change feels too hard. Because when you're suicidal and you feel like there's nothing there for you, and to be really clear, there are many factors that contribute here. Of course.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Okay, I'm not trying to at all trivialize this in any way at all.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
But a five-minute action done consistently does something so powerful to self-esteem, to the way you view yourself, to your motivation, to your belief that you can make change. So what do I believe more than anything? Anyone listening now to this show right now or watching it on YouTube, I don't care how bad you think your life is.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
I absolutely believe in you because I've seen people in the darkest places change their life time and time again. So I know it's possible for each and every individual.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
My parting words are, think about your life. Think about where you are at the moment. Is this the life you want? Is this the life that you dreamt of when you were 15? If it's not, I'm not here to say that you can achieve all of the dreams you had as a child. I'm not here to say that. But what I'm here to say is that you can improve things. It is not as difficult as you think.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
If you're not happy with the state of your life, if you're not happy with where you are, what you're doing, the energy you have at the moment, you've got to make a change. It's not as hard as you think, but if you don't change now, When will you?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
My pleasure, Mel. Thank you so much for having me on your show.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
And those four things are what I call the four pillars. Yep. Food. movement, sleep, and relaxation.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
I'm pumped, man. I've been looking forward to this for days.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Well, wait till I get going and then I'm going to start screaming into the mic. That's a joke. I won't be doing that.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Mel, I've been a medical doctor for over 23 years. I've seen tens of thousands of patients and I just cannot emphasize this enough. Ask yourself, which of these four pillars do I need the most work in? Food, movement, sleep, or relaxation?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Yeah. Now, Mel, there's a key point here. Okay. So when we talk about our lifestyle, we often talk about it through the lens of prevention. Okay, yeah, yeah, you know, it's important to pay attention to our lifestyle. We want to prevent getting sick in the future. Now, I agree with that.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
But what people forget or they miss or they don't understand is that lifestyle can be part of the treatment as well.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Yeah, you mentioned a few different conditions there. You even mentioned cancer, right? Yes. So let's be really clear on this. I'm not saying that it's only lifestyle. Right. You may be under an oncologist and be undergoing treatment, but even if you are, paying attention to your lifestyle is going to help you manage the process of undergoing that treatment.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
They're 100% medicine. The problem is we're not taught to look at medicine in that way, okay? But I've been using those four pillars as medicine for many, many years. And Mel, I had the great fortune to do this on a big scale back in 2015, okay? So back in 2015... I got my own BBC One primetime series called Doctor in the House.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
And I basically lived alongside families for four to six weeks who were sick. They were already sick. They already had a diagnosis. They were already under doctors and on medication. And in every single case, I either helped them reverse their condition or significantly improve it, using the lifestyle. So, and I'll tell you what happened. There was a lady with type 2 diabetes.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
I helped her put that into remission in just 30 days.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Using these four pillars, okay? I helped a lady with panic attacks, reduced them by 80% in just six weeks. I had a lady with menopausal symptoms- who didn't want to take hormones, and we vastly reduced them in just six weeks using these four pillars, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome. I did all of that on primetime television to show people that actually, it's not about blame.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
This is the key thing here. When you mention lifestyle, some people will get defensive, go, what are you saying? I did this to myself. No, no, I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is that... Your health is a combination of a number of factors. Yes, your genetics, for sure, that plays a role, but also the way you're living your life.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
And often you haven't been intentional about the way you're living your life, so you end up at some point with a set of symptoms. But it doesn't mean that the only solution for those symptoms is a pharmaceutical drug. It may be, it may be part of the solution, but a lot of the time you can actually reverse these problems if you change your lifestyle.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
And for me, the simplest way I managed to help my patients with that is through the lens of these four pillars.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
Yeah. So one of the things I've got to make really clear is that there's no one right diet for every single person.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
I will make it simple. At the same time, Mel, I think when we believe there is one true diet that all of us should be eating, I don't think it simplifies it for us. I think it complicates it. And the reason it complicates it, and one of the biggest problems in health and wellness today, is the confusion that exists.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
Change Your Body & Your Life in 1 Month: 4 Small Habits That Actually Work
So when I talk about simplification, if you overly simplify, you end up confusing people. So I want to simplify as far as I possibly can, but then I also want to give the listener a bit of responsibility. Got it. the most important principle when it comes to food is as much as you possibly can have minimally processed foods as close to its natural form as possible.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Can you do that and not also look at Instagram and not also check your emails and just start to pay attention? And very quickly, you will start to learn things about yourself. And then you become less dependent on all these external voices. Hey, listen, I'm a podcaster like you, Lewis. I love listening to podcasts. I love making podcasts.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
But at the same time, for me, it's very important to have time where I'm not listening and I'm listening to myself and not external experts. Does that all make sense?
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Yeah, so let me be a bit clearer. Okay, so contentment are what are the things that you can do in your life that give you that sense of peace and calm and contentment. That's what the contentment arm of the three sort of ingredient model is. I mentioned alignment. And then control, control is an interesting word. This is not about controlling the world.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
The world is fundamentally uncontrollable, and if we try and control the world, we're gonna really struggle. But this is about a sense of control. What are the things that you can do in your life that give you a sense of control?
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
We know from the scientific research, Lewis, that people who have a strong sense of control, they're healthier, they're happier, they have better relationships, they earn more money, A sense of control is really important.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And arguably, Lewis, I think it's never been more important because if we look around today, the news headlines, what's going on in social media, the toxicity, the division that exists or we think exists in society, I think regularly doing things that give us a sense of control is one of the most important things you can do. So that little morning ritual I do every day, That grounds me.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And it means even if the news headlines are toxic that day, or I have loads of emails or the, you know, things are going to go wrong in life, right? That's just the way it is. It grounds me and it centers me. So I'm better able to face the friction and the problems that may exist in life if I have that sense of control. So I think it's really important.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And I think that's one of the most powerful things that morning routines and rituals give people is a sense of control in a fundamentally uncontrollable world. 100%.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
The way I've learned to apply it is when I realized that People coming to a doctor's surgery for help are just people, right? All of us are looking for help in our lives. All of us are looking to transform our lives, to have more peace, to have more contentment. So going back to what I said earlier, right? I've always wondered why has this person ended up in my practice today? Yes. Right?
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Why they ended up today? Why did they not come in three weeks ago? Why did they not come in three months ago? Assuming that there were problems there, something had shifted so much in their life that they thought, okay, now I need help. Right?
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
But what I've learned over the years, and I think one of the reasons I've learned this is because I've had some quite unique experiences as a doctor, which I'll explain in just a minute. But I believe that actually, like this change that we're all looking for, when I was able to help my patients make changes, it wasn't just their health that got better. They also became happier.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
They became more contented. Their relationships got better. So I don't see as health as separate from life. Like it's part of life. I don't see health, happiness, and relationships as separate. I think they're all part of the same thing. And if you improve one of them, you improve all of them. And that's what's always driven me as a doctor.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
So yes, you've alluded to something that's really important that not all doctors look for root causes because we're not taught to.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
We really are. And we hear this on podcasts, but people, I still don't think, understand how we're trained. We are trained to hear what a patient has going on with them and all these symptoms and And we're trained to recognize patterns. Oh, that set of symptoms means depression. That set of symptoms means the autoimmune disease, lupus. That set of symptoms means migraine.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And basically we're taught to make the diagnosis. Once we can make the diagnosis, then we can start the treatment. And the treatment usually is a pharmaceutical drug. Oh, it's a migraine, let me give you a migraine drug. Oh, it's an autoimmune disease, let me give you an autoimmune drug. You know, whatever it might be.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I've always had a slight discontentment throughout my career in the early days that we were just suppressing symptoms. It never made sense to me. I thought, why am I just giving this person like a drug? A band-aid. A band-aid. And I'll tell you, one of the most powerful days for me is I was in general practice in the UK. I'd seen maybe 45 patients that day. It was a busy, busy day.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
You know, we would have 10 minutes appointments.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Yeah. And for whatever reason, at the end of the day, I sat back, I was exhausted. I looked at my clinic list and I said, Rangan, how many people have you really helped today? Like really helped? Yes. And I went through the list and hand on heart, Lewis, I thought I've already helped 20% of people, like really helped them.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
The other 80%, yeah, I was kind to, I was courteous, I did my job, but I don't feel I really helped them. I felt that I just put a bandaid on their symptom or I just referred them off for a test. I was doing my best within that system, but it didn't feel right to me. I thought, I can't practice like this for the next 40 years. There must be something more I can do.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Yeah. Like truly heal. What is the root cause? And then I had quite a An incredible experience in 2015 and 2017. I, you know, this is part of this journey. My dad dies in 2013. I'm on this journey of trying to find out who I am. I come to America to lots of conferences to learn things that I think were not taught at medical school. Like I want to learn more tools to help my patients.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I started applying them with my patients. Root cause stuff. Root cause stuff. Like root cause stuff. And I love it. I think this is why I went into medicine. Like this is properly helping people. And then I got the opportunity to make my own sort of primetime shows for BBC One television where I had a series for a few years called Doctor in the House.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And that series now has been seen in 70 countries around the world. I think some of the episodes are still on YouTube. But essentially... There were people who were sick. They were under doctors. They were on pills. And I went to live alongside them for four to six weeks. Wow. And it's still the proudest thing I've done in my career, Lewis.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I helped a lady put her type 2 diabetes into remission in just 30 days. That was back in 2014. I helped a lady with panic attacks reduce them by 70 to 80% in just six weeks.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
um i think 48 or you're a lady with severe menopausal symptoms who didn't want hormones so that was her choice i in six weeks helped to virtually eliminate all of her symptoms and the list goes on but all of it was done with nutrition lifestyle and mindset right i didn't use any drugs and i feel that show was groundbreaking what it showed
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And I've often wondered, Lewis, why do I have this view of the human body? Why do I write about relationships? And in this new book, I write about life. But your relationship to life is going to change your health because I don't see these things as separate. Because when I was filming that series, I got to see stuff with these families that you would never see in practice.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I was staying with them, like sometimes overnight in their house, which is pretty remarkable, right?
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Yeah, right? So I was there. And I would see things like, oh, how is a husband and a wife interacting with each other? Oh, there's some stress there. Like even if I had more time in my consultation room, they may never tell me that information. So I got to see how every single input in their life is impacting their symptoms. You can't separate health and the rest of your life.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
It's one and the same. And I think in medicine, we try and separate it, but you can't. And so I saw this stuff and I saw how they view the world, how they deal with conflict, what kind of foods they're eating, what time do they go to bed, how do they talk to each other? All these things are all important.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And so I got a real window into people's lives that I think has given me quite a unique view that most doctors don't get.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I can't give you a percentage, right? Because I haven't done a study where I can give you an accurate percentage. So what can I say? I can say that I believe it's a lot more common than people think, right? If you have relationship conflicts in your life, And many people do in some level.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I'm not saying you're ready for a divorce necessarily, but if there's conflict and I was going to say a close relationship, but frankly, any relationship, it does impact your health. It manifests in your body. A hundred percent. And there's an obvious way to make it and a less obvious way to make that case. Okay. The obvious way is listen.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
One of the reasons, as you've already pointed out, that I write about, one of the reasons we can't make change that lasts is because we haven't, we try and change the behavior without understanding the role the behavior plays in our life. Okay, I think it's such an obvious point, but we don't think about it. We go straight to the behavior. Okay, in January, we go straight to alcohol.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I want to reduce how much alcohol I'm having or how much sugar I'm having. But here's the problem, Lewis. How many people can do dry January? Quite a lot. How many people can quit sugar in January? Quite a lot. How many people do that and then they actually make long-term changes? The number's a lot less, right? Often by the end of February, most people are back to where they were in December.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And here's, let's make it really obvious. If you've got a lot of stress in your life, and alcohol is your way of dealing with the stress, right? Because it's an effective way of managing stress, at least in the short term. You can white knuckle it for a few weeks and stop drinking, but you're gonna return back to your previous behaviors unless one of two things happens.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Number one, either the stress in your life goes down. If the stress in your life goes down, great, you may need less alcohol. If the stress in your life doesn't go down, If you don't find an alternative behavior to manage that stress, like something else to relieve the stress, maybe the gym or something else, you're going to go back to the alcohol.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
So let's relate that to what you were asking about relationships. If you're having conflict in your relationships, it doesn't feel good. It's a huge source of stress that. That emotional stress, you will neutralize. You have to neutralize it in some way, right? And this is something I think people really don't get.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And it's one of the big themes in this book is that emotional stress is not neutral. You're having conflict with your partner. What do we often do? We don't feel good. We go to sugar. We go to alcohol. We spend three hours scrolling Instagram trying to find some kind of inspiration.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Those things are a downstream consequence of the emotional stress that's going on because of your relationship issues. And that's why if we can repair our relationships, learn how to communicate better, be open, be honest, not... give accusations, but share how we're feeling. And if we can successfully manage conflict, you will naturally find your behavior start to improve.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And I think this is the missing piece in behavior change. We don't think about the root cause of our behaviors. We just want to change the behavior, which is why it usually doesn't last in the long term. Wow.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Really? Yeah, yeah. Honestly, there's at least three or four cases in this book where I outline patients I've seen. Let me give you two examples. Okay, so a few years ago, And tell me if this is directly answering your question or not, Lewis. But a few years ago, I saw this lady. I'm going to guess 45 to 50 years old. I can't remember her exact age. And she had high blood pressure.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And she'd seen previous doctors and they were trying to treat it. She didn't like the medications. She was getting side effects. She started to see me. And I think that high blood pressure doesn't just happen. It's a response to other things, right? To events in life. Yeah. You know, it's hypertension. It's too much tension.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I think in most cases it's not. There can be a genetic predisposition. But you can override that. You can usually override it. And if we just think about it through the lens of the stress response, okay, let's just take a, I'll come back to your question, but let's just look at it from a slightly different angle.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
We know that stress is responsible for maybe 80 to 90% of what we see as doctors in some way. Come on, really? Yeah. In some way, because chronic stress affects every single organ system in the body. Can I explain why? Yes. Okay.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
80 to 90% of what a doctor sees in any given day is in some way related to stress. That is crazy. Yeah, that was in an editorial in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association back in 2013. That's where that was published, right? And what's remarkable about that is once you understand that and you understand the stress response, you can see it everywhere.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
So we have to understand what is the stress response? What is it there for? Well, the stress response is fundamentally there to keep us safe. So let's take a trip down like our evolutionary history. Let's imagine 200,000 years ago, we're hanging out in our hunter-gatherer tribe. We're getting on with our day. We're doing our stuff. Okay. We're in a nice state of relaxation.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
We're just getting along with our, we're just getting on with life. And then let's say in the corner of your eye, you see a wild predator starting to approach the camp. In an instant, your stress response kicks into gear because that's what it's there to do. Now, what happens when your stress response kicks into gear? All kinds of things happen.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Your blood sugar starts to go up so that we can deliver more glucose to your brain. Your blood pressure starts to go up so more oxygen can go around your body. Your amygdala, which is the emotional part of your brain where all these emotional reactions come from, that goes on high alert. So you're hypervigilant for all the threat around you. Okay, your blood becomes more prone to clotting. Why?
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Because if that predator was to cut you and attack you instead of bleeding to death, it's gonna clot and that's gonna save your life, right? These are appropriate responses. To stress. To stress when you're in danger. The problem we have in the modern world in which we live is that our stress response is no longer being activated by wild predators.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
It's been activated by the state of our daily lives, our email inboxes, the three social media channels we're trying to keep up to date with, the news headlines, the fact that we may have moved away from family for career opportunities, but then we're trying to bring up kids by ourself and look after elderly parents by ourself.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
These all are stresses on the body and so those short-term things which help you when you really are in danger, they become really problematic if they're day in day out. So if you're getting chronically stressed by the state of your life, which many people are, okay, we know chronic stress is through the roof these days, right? Your blood sugar going up for 30 minutes is not a problem.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
If it's going up every single day, it's going to cause you to be tired, weight gain around the middle, and ultimately type 2 diabetes. If your blood pressure goes up for half an hour to help you deliver more oxygen around your body, or it goes up in your spinning class, that's not a problem.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
But if that's happening day in, day out to the state of your life, that high blood pressure is what causes heart attacks and stress. Do you get what I'm saying? It works in the short term. It's problematic in the long term. What about what I said about the amygdala, right? The emotional part of our brain. If there's a lion that's approaching you, you want that to be on high alert, right?
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
You want to be hypervigilant. If you're walking back to your car on Friday night in downtown LA and you think someone's following you, you want to be on high alert and hypervigilant. But if that's happening to the state of your daily life, well, that's what we call anxiety, right? So the stress response can affect everything in your body. And so this lady who I saw,
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
who had high blood pressure, I helped to change a diet. I helped to change a lifestyle, but it wasn't budging. And I always believe that there is a root cause for everything. And my job is to help my patient find a root cause for them. And we were chatting. I was getting to know her over a few weeks and months. I really spend a lot of time on my pages.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I like to get to know them and find out about their lives. And then it became clear to me that there was an issue that she wasn't dealing with, right? She had got divorced a few years ago because her ex-husband had cheated on her. And she couldn't let it go. She was so wound up talking about it that She basically couldn't forgive him. She held onto this resentment, Lewis.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
She's like, no, well, it was his fault. My life is bad because of what happened. He did this to me. And over time, I built up trust with her. And I said, hey, listen, I understand that this must have been really, really difficult. But that was in the past. And you're allowing that past event now to affect your future and your present. I want to help you.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
try and let go of what happened because I believe that you holding onto this resentment might be contributing to your high blood pressure. And there's actually research on this. Professor Fred Luskin from Stanford. You should have him on your show. He's great. He's done all the research. It's the Stanford Forgiveness Project. His stuff is fantastic.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And he has shown that when people forgive, your blood pressure can go down. Wow. Your anxiety can go down. Your depression can go down. Forgiveness has been shown to improve the quality of your relationships, improve your self-esteem. So... I helped her. She didn't want to see a therapist. I went through various things with her and various exercises. And over a period of a few months,
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
She learned to let go, right, and forgive her ex-husband. And at hand on heart, Lewis, her blood pressure came down. Crazy. Right, so this is one of the biggest... So there's no drug you had to give her.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Yeah, and trying to help her understand that it doesn't mean what... her ex-husband did was okay. I'm not saying it was okay or it was good. I'm saying you're allowing that. And I say that with compassion. I get it's difficult. Like it can't be nice to have been cheated on by your husband. I get that.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
But what I helped to see, and it took me a bit of time, but I really try and talk to my patients with an open heart, and I think they trust me. And I helped to realize that it wasn't helping it anymore. It was a one-off event. And Lewis, I remember when you last came on my show, when your last book was out, we spoke about forgiveness. I actually write a little bit about that in my new book.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Because you said something to me that I've never forgotten. And I'm sure many of your listeners know your history and what happened to you as a little boy and the trauma you faced. And you said to me on my podcast, you said words to this effect, yes, I had to forgive the person who perpetrated the trauma on you. But you said, I also had to forgive myself.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
for allowing that pain to affect you for like 25 years. And that stopped me in my tracks. I was like, oh wow, Lewis didn't only have to forgive. Well, I shouldn't say had to, no one has to do anything, but you chose and I'm sure it was really difficult and I'm sure it is difficult from time to time, but you had to move on and then forgive yourself. And people don't realize
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
how important forgiveness is. Like, I really believe it, that people are walking around with resentment and they're holding grudges on people. And, you know, I've, I spoke about stress before, but we can think about stress in two different ways, Lewis. There's the external stress, right? From our workload. Oh, my boss needs me to do these 10 activities. I don't have time. I've got to rush around.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
There's traffic. I understand that there is external stress. But I would argue that most of our stress is internally generated by how we- Interpret things, yeah. How we interpret things. And once you understand that, that's when your life changes for the better. When you realize that most events in life are neutral, what determines their impact on us is the perspective we take on that event.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
that's when your life really starts to change. And that's when my life changed.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Yeah, a hundred percent. And I would, I want to say this, if anyone's listening right now or watching and they're pushing back, right? Because I've realized that on my Instagram, you know, I try and share this kind of helpful information with people like you do. And whenever I bring up forgiveness, it's amazing to see the response. Some people love it and other people push back.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've had her on mine as well.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Yeah. And I've heard Dr. Romani say that. And I think Dr. Romani is great. And she's helping so many people. And I have a huge amount of respect for people and their views and their opinions. I can only share what I've seen with patients and what I've experienced myself. And I think we misunderstand forgiveness. I think some people think that... Forgiveness means saying that that was okay.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
It doesn't mean that. It's saying that I'm no longer going to allow that to have a hold on me. It's totally different. And like there's so much I want to say on forgiveness though is because I feel that I feel so light and free these days because I've learned to forget.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
It's a stressor. It's a stressor. When we think about stress and the stress response, we are conditioned to think about external stressors. But holding onto resentment is an internal stressor, right? So you're still activating your stress response by feeling it could have been different. They shouldn't have done that. That person has wronged me, right?
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
When you change your relationship with that past event, which has happened, It's no longer happening, right? It happened in the past. But by keeping it active within you, it is causing you internal stress by you not being able to let go. I passionately believe that the happiest people are those who can move on and let go. Now, some people, Lewis, will say that some things are unforgivable.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And you may be better placed to answer this than me based upon your experience. But we both had a very powerful lady on our shows, Edith Eger.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Okay. I'm coming up to 500 episodes of my show. And people ask me, as they probably did to you, which is the most impactful episode, right? And I can't really answer that because it's like picking a favorite child. Like, I've had so many that have had a profound impact on me. But if I had to choose... The one episode that rises to the top is the first conversation I had with Edith Eger.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
She's amazing. Yeah, because here's the situation. Let's relate this to forgiveness, right? Why did that? I literally was not the same person after that conversation as I was before. I remember afterwards I felt I've changed. I have changed in those two hours. And why was that? So for people who don't know who Edith is, let me just briefly summarize. When I spoke to her, she was 93 years old.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
When she was 16 years old, growing up in Eastern Europe, her family gets a knock on the door. That's a day where she's excited about going on a date that evening with her boyfriend. What dress am I going to wear tonight? They get a knock on the door. They're put on a train and they go to Auschwitz concentration camp.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Within two hours of getting to Auschwitz concentration camp, both of her parents are murdered. And I remember one of the first things Edith said to me was, I never forgot the last thing my mum said to me, which is, Edith, nobody can ever take from you the contents that you put inside your mind. Powerful. Right? And so the same day that her parents are murdered, she's a 16-year-old girl.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
They know that she's a dancer. She got asked to dance for the senior prison guards. And she said to me, Rangan, listen, when I was dancing in Auschwitz, I wasn't in Auschwitz. In my mind, I was in Budapest Opera House. I had a beautiful blue dress on. There was a full house. There was an orchestra playing. And I thought, wow, this is incredible, right? She's reframing her experience in... Wow.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And we'll start with that. What I've noticed Lewis is that every single patient who I've ever seen throughout my entire career, they've come in for a reason. They've come in because they want to get well. I know that sounds obvious. But I don't think we think about that enough.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And then she said to me, Lewis, whilst I was in Auschwitz, I started to see the prisoners... Sorry, I started to see the prison guards as prisoners. They weren't free in their mind, right? I'm free in my mind. They're not living their life. And the final, she said so much to me, right?
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
But the thing that she finished off with, which I think about on most days, she said, Rangan, listen, I've lived in Auschwitz and I can tell you the greatest prison you will ever live inside is is the prison you create inside your own mind. Now, when she can say that, having lived through, that inspires me. If I'm ever struggling with something in my life, I go, hey, Rangan, you know what?
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Edith could reframe events in Auschwitz. I think you can reframe events here. And actually, I think I asked her, or I've heard her say this, is it possible to forgive Hitler? And I think she's forgiven Hitler. Because I think this is where the misunderstanding with forgiveness really triggers people. She's not saying what he did was right in any shape or form.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
She's simply saying, I'm no longer going to allow what he did to affect me. And it's a big difference. And I know it can feel hard. I have my own way of dealing with forgiveness, which I'll share. But can I just tell you one more case that I wrote about because I think it really speaks powerfully to this and I think you'll be interested, Lewis.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I can't remember which chapter I start with this story. But this is one of the saddest cases in my career for me personally. Again, it was a lady, I think late 40s or early 50s. who lived a really healthy lifestyle, okay? She was careful with her diet. She moved her body regularly. She went to sleep on time every night. She had the good lifestyle.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
She had no genetic history of cancer in her family, to my knowledge. But she got diagnosed with ovarian cancer like in her late 40s, which is really serious. And she died sometime afterwards, okay? I remember because I'd been seeing her for years. I can remember this so well. When she was, I think, 20 years old, she was in a new marriage.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
They had a young baby and her husband cheated on her and they ended up getting divorced. She could never move on from that, right? She couldn't talk about it. Her family and friends knew that you can't bring up his name and it'll affect her so much. Yeah, so this is like 25 years on. She's still holding on to what happened when she was 20. Now, listen, I have compassion for that.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I understand that must be awful. But what I tried to help her with for a few years, I tried to say, hey, listen, this is before the diagnosis. She was my patient for a while. I was like, listen, I don't think this is helping you. I understand that happens, but I don't think this is helping you. At some point, I think this will have an impact on your health.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Now, look, I can't say for sure that her holding onto that contributed to her cancer. I can't say that. I can't say that. I would be going one step too far. But what can I say? If you look at the scientific research,
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Like people, why would they take half a day off work to go and sit in a waiting room in a doctor's surgery about a symptom that sometimes might appear to be quite trivial? I've never thought, why is that person wasting my time? Many doctors do say, why are they coming in with this? I've always thought, why is this person on this particular day ended up in my practice?
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
There is ample research showing us that people who struggle to forgive and let go, people who hold on to resentment, have an increased risk of things like autoimmune disease and cancer, right? That is there in the research. There's multiple research papers showing this. Gabor Mate talks about this. He's detailed all the research in his book, The Myth of Normal.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Now, let me be really clear, Lewis, of what I'm saying. I'm not putting blame on anyone. Like, I don't blame people, Lewis. My goal is to come from my heart and to help people. The reason I share this information, even though I know people will be pushing back and saying, what are you saying, that she did it to herself? No, I'm not saying that.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
If we don't understand, Lewis, the role that our emotions play in our health, we're not motivated to do anything about it. It's easy to go, no, I'll just keep eating an organic whole food diet. I'll be going to the gym. I have seven hours of sleep a night and my life will be good. I'm like, hey, listen, I'm all for eating well, moving well, sleeping well. I'm all for that.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
That is very, very important. But don't neglect your inner emotional world. That can play a role. And so for that lady, to be really clear, I cannot say that her resentment and her inability to move on caused her cancer. I can't say that. But listen, cancer, like all chronic diseases, is multifactorial. There's never just one thing. There's genetics.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
There's your environmental exposures, there's pollution, there's your social status, there's food, there's movement, there's sleep, there's stress, but there's also your emotions. So I think we can say based upon the research and what clinicians like me have seen, you see certain patterns when you've been practicing for enough years.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And I have seen this pattern before in certain chronic conditions. And so I honestly, I share that because I want to help people. I'm simply saying, if you're holding on to resentment, at some point when you're ready, yeah, feel the resentment, feel the anger, feel the frustration, but don't stay there. If you need help, get help. If you can access a therapist to help you get, get a therapist.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
But if you can't, there is still plenty that you can do.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I think one of the things we see these days, because there's a growing awareness now of our emotions. You talk about it on your show all the time. There's many people talking about this in public. I think what's happened is that for some people, They go to, oh, I get it now. This is why I'm the way I am. This is because of my mom or my dad. This is how I was brought up.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And they stay there and then they start to blame their parents. And I think that's unhelpful. Maybe you have to go through that, but you can't stay there. At some point, you have to come out the other side and go, okay, I've now learned why I have these triggers and reactions. Now let me move to the next part where I process them and move on.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And I'll tell you a very simple technique that's helped me, Larissa, I don't know if it will help others, but it certainly has helped me is a few years ago, I chose to take on the belief. And again, I use those words carefully. I chose, I don't have to take on this belief, but I've chosen to take on this belief in life.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I believe that every single person is doing the best that they can based upon their experiences. And so let me just elaborate on that a little bit, because it can be quite triggering for people that. I choose to believe that if I was that other person, I'd be behaving in exactly the same way as them. Why? Because if I was that person,
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
What has been going on in their life and for how long? That means today they're here in front of me wanting help. And what I've realized over 23 years is that everyone can feel happier and healthier than they currently are. Like everyone wants to make change that lasts. Anybody can make change for a few weeks, for a few months, but what most people are really looking for
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
with their parents and the bullying they had as a child and the friends and the influences they had when they were growing up and the toxic boss they had when they were 17 or whatever it might be, if I had their life, I'd probably be thinking and acting in exactly the same way as them. It doesn't mean I'm saying that what they're doing is right. I'm not saying that.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
But once you adopt that approach to life, Like you can feel this inner calm, Lewis, because your initial way of interacting with life is with compassion. It's trying to understand why is this person behaving that way? Now, it doesn't mean it's easy and it doesn't mean that what they're doing is not abhorrent or wrong.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
But I choose to take that approach to life and it's really, really helped me because now my first instinct, if someone's attacking me online, if something's happening, if someone disagrees with me, my first instinct now, because I've trained it for years is, oh, I wonder why they think so differently to me.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And you just don't generate all this internal stress that affects people in the first place. And once you start interacting with life like that, I think forgiveness becomes a lot easier because then you're like, oh, if I was that person, I'd be doing the same as them. Oh, their dad cheated. They grew up seeing that. It doesn't make it right, but I think it makes it easier.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And again, do you know when I learned that the most, right? Have you heard of John McAvoy?
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
No, no. So John McAvoy, I had a wonderful conversation with him on my podcast about five years ago, Lewis. You would love talking to him, I promise you. He used to be one of Britain's most wanted criminals. Wow. Right. So he was locked up in Europe's highest security prison with two life sentences. Right. With all the terrorists, he was locked up there. And he got out. He got out. Wow.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And he's like, he's one of the loveliest people I know. Right. I would leave him alone with my children. Right. I think he's the most wonderful person. But I spoke to him for two hours and he went through his life story with me. And he told me about his upbringing, that his dad wasn't around and that the only male figures in his life were armed robbers.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And they came rounds, they had fancy clothes and they drove nice cars and they had a code of conduct. They treated women well, like they had their own code of conduct. And I remember there was so much in that conversation because he's now a free man, inspiring kids all around the world to get into physical activity. It's an incredible story.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
But I remember when he left my house after recording on the podcast, my mind was blown and I saw my wife in the kitchen. I said, babe, you know what? If I was John, if I had lived John's life, I think I'd be in jail right now. Like I genuinely thought if I had his childhood, I would be in prison. Or dead. Or dead. And it really helps me understand that, look, we all see the world differently.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
It's very easy to judge. And I get it. Some things are horrible and really traumatic. And you're going to probably need help to process that. But I'm saying there is a cost of not processing that. So let me go back to what you said about Dr. Rahmani, who I really admire and respect. Yeah, she's great. I don't have the experience that she has with narcissistic individuals. I don't.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
So she has every reason to believe what she believes. My belief, based on my 23 years of clinical experience of what I've seen with patients, what I've seen in the research, and what I've experienced myself, is that if you can learn the art of letting go of the past and moving on, maybe you don't like the term forgiveness. Yes.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
So I think that can be triggering for some people because they feel it's like, I'm forgiving that person for what they did. I don't mean that. We don't forgive it, but let it go and move on. Let go and move on is how I describe it in this book, right? Yeah. I think you do not realize the lightness in your being that exists on the other side.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I mean, Lewis, why don't you, I mean, if you don't mind, like, I'd love to know from you, like you have acknowledged publicly on many occasions, how you struggle with this for years, but you have moved through that. How has that been for you when you weren't able to forgive and now would you say that you can forgive now?
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
The changes that actually last, true transformation in their life. And I believe that that is available to all of us if we know what to look at. So you said, what is holding us back? Well, I believe there's many things in modern society that are holding us back. But chapter one in this book is called trust yourself. Okay.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Exactly.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
But you're validated in society for holding it. As you say, like if you hold on and you go, yeah, they shouldn't have posted that post. They're wrong. Your friends will often support you. Yeah, they shouldn't have done it. But what we don't, and I used to be that person, so I'm not judging. I just know what it's like to not live like that anymore, right?
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Chapter five in this book is called Take Less Offense. And I say many of us have an over-reliance on being right. And I make the case in that book, I talk about the George Floyd death, right? That's how I opened that chapter, you know, and I kind of explain how it affected me and then what I chose to share on social media and how I got attacked for it.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Because if you remember when the George Floyd death made headline news around the world, it was during COVID. We were in lockdowns. I was in the UK. We were in a lockdown. And this event happened. Horrible event, tragic event, just to be really clear. And it brought up all kinds of feelings for me. Now, I'm a Brit, right? I was born and brought up in the UK. I've got Indian immigrant parents.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I'm not American, right? I haven't lived in America and know the history of this country, right? So I understand that, right? I have to say this is, I'm just watching it from the outside. But nonetheless, whatever the narrative was at the time, brought up things for me, and I wanted to share my view on social media, right?
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Like you, I have a large platform, and I felt like I wanted to contribute to this public voice. I don't always comment on public things. In fact, it's quite rare for me, but I felt like I wanted to. I thought about some of the things that my family had experienced when they came to the UK, and I also thought about something my wife told me when she was a little girl living in the north of England.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
She can still remember one afternoon when a local nationalist party threw a brick through their window and told them to get out. And she was just watching TV, I think, and suddenly a brick smashes the window and comes in. That is traumatic. That is really scary. So two or three days after George Floyd's death, I shared a well thought out post on Instagram.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I explained my perspective and I also shared the impact that racism can have and some of the things that came up for me. And I shared that example of what happened to my wife. And there was a small section who started to take offense at what I said and were attacking me and saying, you shouldn't be commenting. This is not your place. This is a black issue. This is not an Asian issue.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And I believe one of the things that is holding us back is that we are overly reliant on experts. Now, let me be clear what I mean by that, Liz, because I'm a so-called expert, right? I have a medical degree. I've got my specialist qualifications, my primary care qualifications. I have an immunology degree.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And initially I was like, oh, have I done something wrong here? Like I was trying to put out a really careful, kind, considered post to try and contribute to this big public conversation. Initially, I thought I did something wrong. And then I meditated on it, Lewis. I thought about it and I thought, wait a minute.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I'm not signed up to any code of conduct that determines how I can or cannot react to the death of an individual 3000 miles away. I'm perfectly entitled to share my truth the way I see it. And I kind of feel that many of us these days are walking around taking offense to everything. And it comes at a cost, right? Because people need to understand
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
as I've learned to understand over the last few years, is that nothing is inherently offensive. Something happens, someone shares something. If something was inherently offensive, every single person would get offended. The fact that every single person is not getting offended means it's not that thing that is offensive. It's something within you that's being activated by that external
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
events and once you understand that because i think most of the world don't understand that they think an event happens i have every right to take offense to that now people have got every right to do whatever they want i'm not trying to change what people do people can decide what they do i'm trying to make the case in that chat so that there is an impact
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
If you are someone who feels that you're wronged in your life everywhere and everything's against you and everything's offensive, you've got to understand that that is coming at a cost to you. You are generating emotional stress in your body that is not neutral. Maybe the reason you can't make change that lasts in your life, right? It's because you're walking around getting offended at everyone.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And if you really think about it, We're living in a world of 8 billion people, Lewis. 8 billion people are not going to share the same view as you. And to think that they will is almost a little bit arrogant. The question is, why do you need people to share the same view as you? Like one thing that's been transformative in my marriage, Lewis, is when I let go of the need to be right.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I'm like, I don't need to be right. I don't need to win this argument with my wife for a while. She's got her view. I've got my view. It's cool.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Exactly. I would say one of the most important things you can do in life for your inner well-being, which will impact your physical well-being. And that's the thing that's interesting. That's why as a doctor, I write this book, because this inner world impacts our physical health. And I still don't think we realize it enough. But there is a cost.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
There's a cost to thinking the world is against you. And that, you know, you can choose to not take offense. You can choose to look at, let's take social media as a prime example. Someone posts something that you don't like and you don't agree with. You could take a pause there. And instead of criticizing or reacting straight away and going, that person has no right.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I'm a professor at Chester Medical School, like bestselling author, podcast, all these things. So I have all these things, but I will still say that I don't know what is right for every single individual, like I can't do. I know some principles. And I think what's happened today in this era of information overload, there's so much health information out there.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And you're entitled to do that, but it has a cost. You can train yourself to go,
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
oh why does that person have such a different worldview to me what has gone on in their life that has led to them having that what might i be able to understand here and i call it in that chapter adopting a learner mindset right in every situation in life what can i learn here yes not how can i be right and prove my point what can i learn here i've applied that in my own life like
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
As you know, the cost of having a public profile these days is you have a lot of opinions about your ability and whether you're a great podcast host or a rubbish podcast host, or do you know what I mean? We have opinions about us because of the way the world is these days. And I think learning how to deal with criticism again is one of the most important things we can do.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Like I used to really struggle with criticism. Like I'd want to push it away. Now I don't live this. Now I've learned to create that gap between stimulus and response. And anyone can learn to do that. You just need to practice. It's a skill that you can get better at. So if someone is criticizing me now, I go through, well, I do a couple of things. If I'm feeling triggered...
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I know myself well enough now to go, ah, Rangan, this is not the time, okay? You need to ground yourself, calm down before you start thinking about this. Because at the moment, you're stressed out and you're emotional. And that's very rare these days, but that would happen in the past. And when I'm calm, I go, wow, is there any truth here? And sometimes I'll be like, that's interesting.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Yeah, maybe I could have praised my post differently. Maybe I can learn something. And next time I post about this topic, I can improve. It's really freeing. Then you're learning. And if I think that there's no truth to that, then I'm like, oh, actually, it looks as though that guy's having a bad day and they're taking out their bad day on me.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And then I open my heart and I go, wow, that can't be a nice feeling for that person. They're taking out their inner pain on me. I'm okay with that. They don't know me. And I'm okay with that. Do you know what I mean? And it's why I'm so passionate, Lewis, about this is because I didn't used to be like this. I didn't.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And then when I didn't, I found making change that lasts difficult because it's in conflict with who I was. But when you can cultivate this inner calm, And everyone can. Your relationships will be better. Your contentment will be better. You'll feel happier. And I'm telling you, having been a doctor for 23 years, your health will be better as well.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Is that accurate? Let me phrase it slightly differently. 80 to 90% of what we see as doctors is in some way related to stress. It doesn't mean it's the only cause. Sure, sure, sure. But stress is playing a role.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
eliminate chronic stress so that it doesn't consume us and make us sick yeah so there's there's multiple ways that you can tackle stress right because there are external stresses and internal stresses so let's just break it down systematically for people so they can actually take action after this episode right and actually start to make changes so okay let's take an example that i've i've seen patients talk to me about for years okay and maybe you can relate to this
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I mean, you talk to health experts, I talk to health experts, there's books, there's blogs, there's podcasts, there's everything. And people are getting confused. I often get on my Instagram, people will say, hey, Dr. Chastity, a few months ago you spoke to this expert and they said this kind of diet was the best diet for health and they have all the credentials.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
They've been good, in inverted commas, with their behaviors all day. And they're eating well and they're resisting temptation for the sweets and whatever it might be. But at 8.30 p.m. on their sofa, they're watching TV and they feel like having ice cream. Can you relate to that? Sure. Yeah. It's very, very common. And people would say, Rangan, like... Like I don't get it.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Like I know sugar is bad for me or this amount of sugar that I'm eating too much is not helping me, but I can't stop eating ice cream in the evenings. So I created this little exercise called the three Fs, which I would use with patients that I write about to help people understand their relationship with stress and with sugar. Okay. So The first F is feel, right?
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
So, and Lewis, you can maybe try this in your own life, but next time you find yourself in the evening on the sofa craving ice cream, I want you to have a pause. Before you get the ice cream, just have a pause and go, what am I feeling here? Is this really physical hunger or is this emotional hunger? Right? It's a very simple question, but often we don't take that pause.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Okay, fine. So let's say it's physical hunger.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
But it might be. It might be. And you might want it. And there's nothing wrong with it now and again, right? So it's not. The body's craving sugar. Yeah, but the more you ask yourself these questions, the more you start to trust yourself, right? So the first step is feel. What am I feeling? I actually, I don't know, I had a really big dinner.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I'm not that hungry, but I just had a row with my partner or I've been on Zoom calls all day and I haven't seen anyone or been out for a walk. This is a treat to myself because all day I'll be doing things for other people. Okay, then go ahead and eat it, right? Go ahead and eat it. Next time it happens, do the first F and then go to the second F. So the first F is feel. What am I feeling?
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
The second F is how does food feed the feeling? The second F is feed. Okay, so you've identified, let's say you've identified that you're stressed. You've had a row with your partner, you're stressed, and you've identified that when I feel stressed, ice cream makes me feel better, because it does, at least in the short term. Temporarily, yeah.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Right, then you go, and so you're drawing that connection. Oh, wow, I'm having ice cream because I go to it when I'm feeling this stress. Okay, great. Now you have a degree of self-awareness that you may not have had before. And even simply having that awareness changes your relationship with that event. There's good research on this, but it really does.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Even being aware of what's driving your behavior changes your relationship with that trigger, right? And then the third F, which you can do the next time, is find. Okay, now that I know what I'm feeling, the first F, right? Now that I know how food feeds that feeling, the second F, now the third F is fine. Can I find an alternative behavior to feed that feeling?
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Okay, so, oh, I'm feeling stressed because I've been on Zoom calls all day and I haven't had any time to myself and iStream is going to make me feel better. Okay, what else could I do? Oh, well, I love yoga. I could do 10 minutes of yoga. Or I could go and run a bath. And I could soak in a bath with a candle on for 15 minutes.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
So you're still dealing with that feeling, but maybe in a more helpful way. And you can apply that 3F exercise to most things in life. Alcohol, too much time on social media, whatever it is. It's a very simple exercise. You know, my whole thing is I love to talk about the big ideas, but then I want to make it really practical for people so that they can actually apply that.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
So I think for many people, they're going to go, that's quite a useful exercise for me, right? So that's one way that we can think about stress. I could talk to you about all kinds of stress reduction practices like yoga, like journaling. I think breathwork is one of the best, right?
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And then last week you spoke to this expert and they said this diet is best for human health and they both had research to back it up. Dr. Chastity, tell me what to do. I'm confused. Which expert should I trust? But Lewis, I think that's the wrong question. I don't think we should be asking which expert should I trust?
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
We overuse the word hack, I think these days, but breathing and changing the way we breathe, I think really does qualify as a hack. So a lot of people don't realize that the way they breathe is is information for their body, okay? So I don't know if you saw this study, Lewis, or not, but it was from UCLA, actually, that 80% of office workers change the way that they breathe when looking at email.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
But they don't know they're doing it. So here's the thing, right? You're engaged in a task. Maybe there's loads of emails and you're on deadlines and you're rushing through them and you're focused. The way you breathe will often start to change. So what will happen? You'll breathe a little bit faster.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
You'll breathe more from your chest than your diaphragm, and your breathing will be a bit more shallow. Okay, so what does that do? That sends a signal to your brain that there's danger around me. It always comes back to the stress response, right? Your breathing signals are telling your brain there's danger and then that encourages you to stay breathing in that way.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
So, you're literally sending stress signals back to your body from your brain because your brain thinks you're in danger. So if you can then be aware of that and consciously change the way that you breathe, and there's all kinds of techniques. One of my favorites is what I call the three, four, five breath. When you breathe in for three, you hold for four and you breathe out for five.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Okay, very simple breath that I've been teaching my patients for years. And essentially anytime your out breath is longer than your in breath, You help to switch off the stress part of your nervous system and you activate the relaxation part of your nervous system, right? Very simple. One three-four fire breath will take you 12 seconds.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Five of them will take you a minute and you will literally change your state because if you slow your breathing down, you then send calm signals up to your brain and then they send calm signals back to your body. So I have a, you know, first thing I do each morning is a bit of meditation and breath work before I actually have my coffee. That's the first thing I do.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And I do it as preemptive, right? So I do it to ground me in the morning, but I also learn about the breath so that if I get stressed in the day, I can just take a step back and do like two or three minutes of three, four, five breathing. And it really helps me. So it's one of many techniques that can help manage stress.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Another one that people don't talk about enough that I've written about is touch. Consensual, affectionate touch is one of the best ways to lower your stress. Yeah. So we've got in our skin something called CT afferent nerve fibers. It's so interesting. Nerve fibers. Nerve fibers. And these nerve fibers are... optimally stimulated, check this out, at three to five centimeters per second, right?
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Okay, so that's a stroking rate of three to five centimeters per second. Now here's the thing, no one's measuring their stroking rate, but this is how humans naturally stroke, right? So a mother stroking her baby will stroke at that rate, We're doing that. Yeah. And there's some research from the University of Liverpool that I've interviewed this professor on my show, Professor Francis McGlone.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I think the real question, the more powerful question is why do I no longer trust myself? And I am an expert, but I give people principles and I feel that what we need to get back to is our intuition, is our inner world. I contend that most people, Lewis, know when they're on the right diet for them because they can feel it if they're paying attention. So I say, listen to experts.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
He has shown that when we stimulate those CT afro nerve fibers with this kind of light affectionate stroking, it sends a signal to the deepest, most primitive part of our brain and levels of the stress hormone cortisol go down. Wow. Right. So... Can you do this yourself too? You can do this yourself. But it's better with someone else. It's better with a partner.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
It can be done with a pet, right, as well.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
No, but you get benefits both ways. Even if you stroke someone else, you also get benefits. And what's really interesting, if you dive into that research... I was going to say, I was going to get my cat tonight and just... To stroke you, but yeah. But look, I'd never had pets. But people who do have pets... Oh, it is calming. It's calming.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Yeah. And what's really interesting is that the research on these nerve fibers show that not only do we have them here on our forearms, right, in our arms, where we can stroke, you know, someone else like our partner or our child or whoever it might be, we also have a high concentration on our upper back This is fascinating, Lewis, because why would there be a high concentration on our upper back?
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
It's not as if we're going to stroke ourselves on our upper back. And these scientists think it just shows us how dependent as humans we are on other people. They're there to receive love and affection from others. Wow. Which is really interesting when you think about it, like how we're made. Why would evolution put these nerve fibers there?
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Yeah. So we don't know any of these things for sure. We have to speculate, but it's really interesting. So you mentioned to me, you know, how can you manage stress? And there's a million different ways. Okay. I mentioned two things, breath work, which people have heard about. I think affectionate touch people haven't heard about so much.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
But that is still what I would call dealing with the external stressor. Still got to go inside. I think the best way is, this is what I've done, Lewis, right? I started this practice a few years ago. I would do it in the evening. If I ever get triggered, emotionally triggered, like something's happened and I'm feeling bothered, right? I couldn't do it in the moment back then.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I wasn't emotionally evolved enough, emotionally literate enough to do it in the moment. I can do it in the moment now. I couldn't back then, but it's a skill that you can get better at if you practice. And this skill is free. You don't have to buy anything. You can just make a commitment to yourself that you are sick of being triggered by everything.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And you want to understand what is going on inside you that is driving these things. It will change your life once you start addressing these internal triggers. I'm telling you with 100% certainty. Yes, you might need a therapist to help you. But even if you can't access a therapist because of availability or cost, you can still do so much that will help you, right?
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
So what I would do is in the evening, usually in a journal, I'd go, when was I triggered today? Ah, okay, that happened. That comment or the driver on the way to work. And then I'd go, why did that trigger you? What was it bringing up inside of you? And over time, you learn so much about yourself, Lewis. You learn, oh, that was to do with my upbringing.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Or that triggered me because, I don't know, like I have a belief that all drivers should stay in their lane and not come out and cut people up or whatever it might be. Like you start to learn about yourself or whatever. You know, I write about, this is like, I don't think I've shared this before.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I use an example in one of the chapters in the book about criticism and how in my family growing up, like an Indian family, people can be quite direct. So I remember when I went to university in Edinburgh, so I grew up in the northwest of England, I went to university.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I'm not saying don't listen to experts. I'm saying, listen to what they have to say. And instead of trying to decide which expert is right, I feel that the advice should be which expert's advice is right for me at this moment in time. And we're not doing that. And this is why I think people are getting confused because they've given up their own inner expertise to external experts.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And I'd probably been enjoying a bit too much of the good life, you know, away from home, drinking, partying, late night kebabs, partying, whatever it might be. And I came home either a weekend or for the holidays. And my mom once said to me, like, what are you doing? Like you're fat now. What have you been doing?
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Now I want to be really clear here because that can be a very triggering statement for people. In my family, the way I was brought up, my mum said that from a place of love. Like, I know that. I know that's not the case in every family. I know that. But in my family, there's this great book by this Belgian psychologist called Batch and Mosquito called Between Us. And she talks about...
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I-cultures and we-cultures, and very broadly speaking, you could say West and East. The more individualistic cultures, like let's say America or the UK, are more me-cultures and I-cultures, whereas Asian cultures are a bit more sort of we-orientated, right? So how I am is a reflection of the entire family. Which has pros and cons. Yeah. That's pros and cons of both.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Nothing's like all good or all bad. There's benefits and there's downsides. And the truth is I had put a bit of weight on. Right. So my mom saying that to me because I knew her and because she very rarely said that to me, I was like, oh, I need to take some action here.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Right. Now, here's the thing. I also know that in some families that can be an abusive thing, or a husband could say that to their wife in an abusive way. So I'm not saying that that holds true for everyone. But the point I'm trying to make is, and this actually did happen to me a few years ago, someone criticized my weight on social media. I've never shared that before.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Like someone quite prominent started to use a video of me and said, look at his nose, look at his... Shut up, really? Yeah, I'm not kidding you. Oh man. Now, but here's the thing, Lewis.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Yeah. He was trying to look. The thing is, he wasn't having a go at me. He was trying to illustrate a point. And he said, there's this prominent doctor in the UK. Look at his images three years ago. Oh, man. Yeah. Oh, man. Or you can go, wait a minute. Thank you for the feedback. I didn't get involved. I only knew about it because some of my followers said, hey, have you seen this?
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
An older version of me, which would have been a victim to the world, might have got really triggered. And initially I was like, oh, this is weird. And then I calmed down and I was like, does he have a point? Yeah, I could see what he's saying, actually. I could see what he's saying, right?
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And I know to some people, they will get caught up in an argument that that person has no right to say anything about another person's appearance. And I'm not disputing that that is, you know, it may well be a more polite thing to not do that. But I believe that you can get to a state where you don't take things personally. And so for me, I was looking at it going, does he have a point?
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I can kind of see what he's saying a little bit, you know? And the truth is I was really stressed at the time. You know, my dad, no, my mum was really sick. And so when you're stressed, you're not sleeping well, you're not eating as well. And whatever the reason is, right? But I was like, hey, yeah, maybe I can just pay a bit more attention.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
What I'm saying is that a more victim approach to life is... look, I appreciate this is a punchy example that not everyone's going to agree with me on. But it's very easy to get caught up in the narrative. That person has no right to talk about me in that way. And then get your friends around. Yeah, that guy's an idiot. He shouldn't be talking about you.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And of course, I don't think it's the best thing to be talking about other people's appearance and weight on one. I certainly wouldn't do it. I don't think it's how I want to interact with the world. But for me, I was like, Don't start telling you these disempowering stories. It doesn't matter. It's one person's opinion. Is there any truth there? Can I learn from something? Can I not?
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And they can all be right. Both experts can be right for different people.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I honestly believe Lewis that the reason most people can't make change that lasts, going back to the title of the book, is because we haven't addressed some of these internal drivers. I've written, my third book was on habit formation and I went through the rules of habit formation and I still stand by that.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
There are certain things that you can do that make it more likely those habits will stick, but I still believe that that's superficial. Because when you get to a point where you've created and cultivated an inner calm, you naturally make better choices.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Exactly. And this is where my many years of clinical practice comes in because I've seen tens of thousands of patients, Lewis. And the truth is I've seen some patients thrive on a whole food plant-based diet. But I've seen others who didn't do so well on that diet and they thrived on a low-carb diet. I've seen others thrive on a paleo diet.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
The main reason why I have stopped practicing, and I don't know how long it will be for, is because I want to live the life that I try and promote, right? I like to walk the walk. And so there's a chapter in Make Change That Lasts, I think it's chapter seven, which is about busyness and this idea that busyness is not success.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And I make the case that the reason why so many of us are overly busy in society is because we want to feel
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
valued we want to feel important where we used to get that value from our tribes but many of us now are living these quite disconnected lives and so we want to feel it's a human need to feel that we're of value so often we'll do that through our work at the expense of other things in our life so why have i maybe temporarily maybe for good i don't know yet why have i stopped practicing with a
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
One is I feel that over 23 years, I've seen tens of thousands of patients having shared what I've learned on TV shows, in my Now Six book, on my podcast. I have created a course with the Royal College of GPs called Prescribing Lifestyle Medicine. We've trained over 4,000 healthcare professionals around the world now and the principles that I talk about in my books.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And so we're having a huge impact on the way medical professionals Physicians are now practicing. We've had cardiologists, psychiatrists, pharmacists, nurses, physios from all over the world train on this course that I co-created and are using those tools to help people. And it goes, I can't do everything. I can't see patients, write books. Record an episode of my weekly podcast.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Attend to my relationship with my wife. Have a great relationship with my children. I also look after my elderly mum. My mum's not been well for a few years. I live five minutes away. I'm heavily involved with her care. And I don't want to be overly busy. And I've been thinking about it for two or three years, but you know why I didn't do it earlier, Lewis?
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Because it was a fear of what people might think. Are you a real doctor? Right. And then I thought that's that whole external validation piece. Like I don't have to do things that other people want me to do. I have to validate myself. That's correct. I'm totally a real doctor. I've got decades of experience. I'm now a professor at Chester Medical School of Health Communication Education.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I'm helping medical students there learn these principles. I feel I moved into this phase of my career now where I want to share and teach people what I have learned to help them practice. So many doctors, so many junior doctors say, can you teach me? Can you teach me? We don't learn this stuff, but you seem to have this unique insight into human health.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And so what I've learned is that there's no one perfect diet for every single individual. And I think when I say it, it sounds quite obvious. But I think many people, they're still waiting for an expert to tell them what's best for their life. And I think that's a problem.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And I wouldn't say I've got a unique insight, but I do see the human body a certain way. And I kind of feel I've had some pretty awesome results with patients over the years with some quite, what would be called untreatable conditions, because I really try and get to the root cause And so I want to teach now.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I want to share the knowledge that I've learned with people and I don't want to be burnt out. And so I decided, okay, what would my life feel like if I don't practice for a little while? And I miss it because my favorite thing was seeing patients. But like you, Lewis, you know, I speak to a large volume of people each week on my podcast, right? And I do my podcast my way, right?
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I spend a day, a day and a half preparing for each guest because I like doing that. I do a deep dive and then I go along with these guests. And I am inundated with DMs on a daily basis. People saying, oh, that episode or your third book helped me cure my depression. You've helped me with my anxiety. You've helped my mother put her time to diabetes into remission.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I've now got rid of my fibromyalgia pains, which I've had to take. Whatever it might be, I get this every single day. And I have such gratitude that I do a job that helps people. And I've realized that If 80 to 90% of what we see is driven by our collective modern lifestyles, I can have more impact teaching people about how to change their lifestyles through these mediums.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And here's the funny thing, Lewis. In the UK, there's probably a few thousand doctors at least that I know about who prescribe my podcast to their patient or their store. So they have a 10-minute consultation with a patient, And they might suggest a few things and say, hey, listen, if you're interested in this, why don't you listen to episode 420 of Dr. Chachi's podcast?
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Yeah, 100%.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
But I still, and that's powerful. And I know Ali's story. I'm still a doctor. I'm still a GMC registered doctor. I'm a professor at Chester Medical School. I'm just decided at this stage in my life. And there's other factors that influence this. And I share a lot of this in the book about, it's a very personal book.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I've opened up and shared things that a few years ago I would have been too nervous to share publicly, right? About how I make certain decisions, certain mistakes I may have made in my life. But I've been very influenced by thinking about The Regrets of the Dying. You know the book by Bronnie Ware, The Five Regrets of the Dying? Yeah, I've had her on, yeah. Yeah, me too, right? Yeah, she's great.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
She's great. And for people who don't know, Bronnie was a palliative care nurse for a few years. And she noticed that these guys, at the end of their life, they all said the same things. And they said things like, I wish I'd work less. I wish I spent more time with my friends and family. I wish I'd lived my life and not the life that other people expected of me.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I wish I'd allowed myself to be happy, right? These things are really powerful because I hear that and I go, I don't want to wait till my deathbeds. to learn those truths. I want to learn those truths now and apply them in my life so that I don't have those deathbed regrets. And do you mind if I share a little quick exercise that I think will really help people with this? Would that be okay? Sure.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
It's called Write Your Own Happy Ending. And it's an exercise that I write about because I always try and make these things really practical for people. And it's in two parts. The first part is, and you can try now, Lucy, if you want. We can maybe try it on you if you're game. Fast forward now to the end of your life. Imagine you're on your deathbeds, right? This is the last day.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And now on your deathbed, you're looking back on your life. What are three things you will want to have done with your life?
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Yeah, I love that. Beautiful answers, right? Okay, so that's the first part. And if people are struggling, you don't have to get this perfect. You can keep reiterating on this. But okay, so you write down on your deathbed, this is what I ideally want to have looked back and reflected on.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Okay, now you zoom back into the present and go, okay, what are three weekly happiness habits that I can implement in my life that guarantee I'm going to get the happy ending that I just wrote down I wanted. And so for me, for example, when I last did this exercise on my deathbed, I'm looking back, I'm thinking, okay, I will want to have spent quality time with my friends and family.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I will want to have spent, I will want to have had time to pursue my passions, like what's in my heart. And the third thing is I will want to have done things that contribute to the wellbeing of other people, right? That's my deathbed answer. That's the happy ending I want. So now I come back to the present. And I go, well, what are three weekly happiness habits?
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And I literally have them written down on my fridge, Lewis, okay? And I'll tell you what I have written down. I want five meals a week with my wife and kids where I'm fully present and not distracted by work. That's great. Right? It doesn't mean that's the right answer for anyone else. But for me, in the context of my life, That helps me know that I'm prioritizing my family, right?
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
So I write that down. The second thing I have on my happiness habit list is if I've had time to go for a long run or I've had time to play my guitar and write a song or sing, I know I've had time to pursue my passions.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And then the third thing is if I release a weekly episode of my podcast, which I'll be doing for seven years, then I know at the end of my life, I'll have contributed to the wellbeing of others. It's a very, very simple exercise, Lewis, but if you've never done it, it's extremely powerful because it brings into sharp focus what is truly important in life. Yes.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
It's a great question and it's making me think. I think it was before my dad died in 2013. I think my dad dying was such a big moment for me, like it would be for anyone, right? But I used to care for my dad. I'd moved back to the Northwest of England because my dad was sick with lupus. He had an autoimmune disease. He was on dialysis for 15 years.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And we're all living these busy lives where we've got lots of things competing for our attention. Too many people wait for all their to-do lists to be done before they focus on the important things in life. And I'm saying that will never happen.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
If you're waiting for your to-do list to be done before you do the important things in life, you're going to be one of those people on your deathbed with those regrets. So that exercise helps me go actually, my family are the most important thing to me. How can I make sure I had time for my family each week? How can I make sure I had time for my passion?
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And listen, it doesn't mean that every week's perfect, Lewis. One week, I might only do three meals, but I don't go down the guilt and shame route anymore. I go, ah, that's interesting. That's three. If that continues, you're going to start fracturing those relationships. So next week, I might be fed up to six or seven. And it's just a very simple way
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Yeah.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I promise you that the way you interact with your life will start to change. Your behaviors will naturally start to get better. If you think that this new year, somehow miraculously, your life is going to be different from every other new year because you want it more this year. No, it isn't.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
The reason in my view that most New Year's resolutions fail, Lewis, is because they come from an energy of lack rather than an energy of fullness. It's the energy behind the behavior that's most important. If you feel bad in your life,
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
and you're full of guilt and shame, and you're trying to overcome that with your willpower and your motivation, I'm telling you, because I've had it before and I've seen it in thousands of patients, those changes will not be long-lasting. That guilt and shame will drag you back.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
But once you do these exercises and the exercises that are in Make Change At Last, and they're all simple, free exercises, right? You don't have to buy stuff once you have the book. You don't have to buy stuff. I really feel strongly about that because I work, Lewis. in practices where there'd been some really deprived communities I've worked with.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Like I was once in a practice in Oldham in the North of Manchester for seven years. These guys had hard lives, a lot of immigrants, a lot of single parents, a lot of struggle. And I believe that each and every single one of us has the right to good quality health information. And honestly, like people say that wellness is for the wealthy and the affluent and the middle class. I don't buy it.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Like it really isn't. And I've always made it a priority throughout my career to try and make sure that the advice I'm giving works for everyone, including the people who are struggling the most in society. Like it really does make a difference. And I'm really proud that everything in this book is free.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
That's my website. And then the main social channel for me is Instagram at drchatterjee.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Yeah.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And I moved back from Edinburgh where I went to study and practice. I moved back to help my mom and my brother look after my dad. And when my dad died in 2013, It was the first time where I had to start asking myself questions about who am I? Like whose life am I leading? Is this my life or is this somebody else's life? And I think that prior to that moment of my dad dying,
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Greatness is when you're able to live your life with an open heart rather than a closed heart. Greatness is someone who aspires to live their life with an open heart rather than a closed heart. I really believe that everything in life either comes from love or it comes from fear. Everything, all of our behaviors, all our interactions.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And once you tune into that and realize that actually, oh, you're feeling angry, envious, jealousy, whatever it might be, the root cause of that is fear. Whereas if the root cause becomes joy, sorry, if the root cause becomes love, then there's empathy, there's kindness, there's compassion. These are things that we can all cultivate.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
So what I'm trying to do in my life to be a great human being, to be a great dad and a great husband and hopefully a great human, it really is very simple. I'm trying to come at life with an open heart rather than a close one. All right, good. Thanks for being here, man. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me, Lewis. I appreciate it, man.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I'm not sure how much I trust in myself. Really? Yeah. I think I was looking for what's the evidence saying? What's the external evidence saying? What are people saying? Like I was very much driven by external validation back then. I wanted people to like me. I changed who I was to be accepted by other people. So you say, when did you trust yourself the least? That's a great question.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
I've never been asked that before, right? It's making me think. I don't think I even knew what it meant to trust myself back then. When I started dating my now wife back in 2007, And I write about this in chapter three of the book, which is called Be Yourself. I write about when I first met Ved. We were dating. And we'd go out for dinner.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And, you know, she'd be like, you know, what are you going to order? What are you going to order? And I would often say, hey, babe, listen, you can't decide. Why don't you order two dishes that you want? And I'll have the one that you don't want. And on the face of it, I thought I was being kind and compassionate. You know, I really like this girl. Hey, you can't choose.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Don't worry about it because that's how I was raised, right? Don't make a fuss. You know, do what everyone, you know, do what you need to do to keep the peace around you. And a few days in, I didn't realize that Vid was getting frustrated. And I didn't get why she was getting frustrated. And she basically, she wanted a man who knew his own mind.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
She didn't want a man who was just trying to appease her. And it was quite a powerful lesson for me back then. I mean, I found it difficult because I didn't know what I was doing wrong. But since my dad died and I've gone on this inner journey to explore myself and why I feel certain ways and why certain things used to trigger me, I realized that... I was a people pleaser for much of my life.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And so when you asked me the question, Lewis, when did you trust yourself the least? It was back then because I didn't know what myself was. I didn't know what I wanted. Everything I did was about what the people around me wanted. But that is something that it is possible to change. I changed it.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
You've done massive changes in your life in terms of what happened in your childhood and where you are today. I'm not a people pleaser anymore. Like I do know how to listen to my body now. I do know how to trust myself. And I think there's a wider point there, isn't there, Lewis? Which is many people, they might hear me and you talk about trusting yourself. But they don't know what that means.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Because they've spent their whole lives trusting. changing who they are to be accepted by other people. And that's why I think sometimes we're looking for external advice to teach us what should I do? How should I live? How should I eat? And I'm not saying don't listen. I'm saying, listen, put it through your own filter.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And that's why I believe that for most of us, the most important practice for our health and happiness is a daily practice of solitude. I really believe that because without that solitude where you're not getting inputs from the outside and you're actually starting to listen to your body's own signals, you're going to struggle to know what your body's telling you.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
You're going to struggle to trust yourself. And it's, you've really made me think, man. You really made me think. Yeah. When was the last time that, when did I trust myself the least? Yeah, it was pre-2013 and I would say it was for most of my life.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
When I trust myself the most, I'm living... life in alignment with my values. So my last book was on happiness, Lewis. And in that book, I share how happiness is a skill. It's a skill that we can all get better at if we know what to work on. And in that book, I create a model for happiness. And I say the three key ingredients for happiness are contentment, control, and alignment.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And alignment is when your inner values and your external actions start to match up when the person who you really are inside and the person who you are being out there in the world are one in the same. I'm really aligned these days. Yeah. As I get the impression you are. Yeah. And I think it's much easier to trust yourself the more aligned you are.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
Now it's a vicious cycle because you kind of need to trust yourself to start living in alignment. And the more alignment you can live in, the more you start to trust yourself. So I think it works both ways. But for me, it's when I've got a regular routine in my life, when I'm going to bed the same time every night, when I'm sleeping well.
The School of Greatness
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
And for me, it comes down to whether I can, for the first half hour of my day, not go online, not go on my phone and have a little morning routine and ritual, which I do have and I have done for many years. And that ritual that I have every morning, it sets me up. It's my time before my wife gets up, before my kids get up.
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Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: How To Escape The Prison Of Your Mind & Reinvent Your Life In 2025
What I send to myself, I ground and I pay attention to how I'm feeling and what my body is saying. And if people did that every single day, even five minutes if they don't have time, five minutes a day where... You know, let's say you like coffee and you have a cup of coffee in the morning.
The School of Greatness
How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself
I think one of the things we see these days, because there's a growing awareness now of our emotions, you talk about it on your show all the time, there's many people talking about this in public. I think what's happened is that for some people, They go to, oh, I get it now. This is why I'm the way I am. This is because of my mom or my dad. This is how I was brought up.
The School of Greatness
How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself
And they stay there and then they start to blame their parents. And I think that's unhelpful. Maybe you have to go through that, but you can't stay there. At some point you have to come out the other side and go, okay, I've now learned why I have these triggers and reactions. Now let me move to the next part where I process them and move on.
The School of Greatness
How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself
And I'll tell you a very simple technique that's helped me, Larissa. I don't know if it will help others, but it certainly has helped me is a few years ago, I chose to take on the belief. And again, I use those words carefully. I chose, I don't have to take on this belief, but I've chosen to take on this belief in life.
The School of Greatness
How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself
I believe that every single person is doing the best that they can based upon their experiences. And so let me just elaborate on that a little bit, because it can be quite triggering for people that. I choose to believe that if I was that other person, I'd be behaving in exactly the same way as them. Why?
The School of Greatness
How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself
Because if I was that person with their parents and the bullying they had as a child and the friends and the influences they had when they were growing up and the toxic boss they had when they were 17 or whatever it might be, if I had their life, I'd probably be thinking and acting in exactly the same way as them. Now, it doesn't mean I'm saying that what they're doing is right.
The School of Greatness
How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself
I'm not saying that. But once you adopt that approach to life, like you can feel this inner calm, Lewis, because your initial way of interacting with life is with compassion. It's trying to understand why is this person behaving that way? Now, it doesn't mean it's easy and it doesn't mean that what they're doing is not abhorrent or wrong.
The School of Greatness
How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself
But I choose to take that approach to life and it's really, really helped me because now my first instinct, if someone's attacking me online, if something's happening, if someone disagrees with me, my first instinct now, because I've trained it for years is, oh, I wonder why they think so differently to me.
The School of Greatness
How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself
And you just don't generate all this internal stress that affects people in the first place. And once you start interacting with life like that, I think forgiveness becomes a lot easier because then you're like, oh, if I was that person, I'd be doing the same as them. Oh, their dad cheated. They grew up seeing that. It doesn't make it right, but I think it makes it easier.
The School of Greatness
How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself
And again, do you know when I learned that the most, right? Have you heard of John McAvoy?
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How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself
No, no. So John McAvoy, I had a wonderful conversation with him on my podcast about five years ago, Lewis. You would love talking to him, I promise you. He used to be one of Britain's most wanted criminals. Wow. Right. So he was locked up in Europe's highest security prison with two life sentences. Right. With all the terrorists, he was locked up there. And he got out. He got out. Wow.
The School of Greatness
How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself
And he's like, he's one of the loveliest people I know. Right. I would leave him alone with my children. Right. I think he's the most wonderful person. But I spoke to him for two hours and he went through his life story with me. And he told me about his upbringing, that his dad wasn't around. And that the only male figures in his life were armed robbers. And they came rounds.
The School of Greatness
How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself
They had fancy clothes and they drove nice cars. And they had a code of conduct. They treated women well. Like they had their own code of conduct. And I remember there was so much in that conversation because he's now a free man, inspiring kids all around the world to get into physical activity. It's an incredible story.
The School of Greatness
How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself
But I remember when he left my house after recording on the podcast, my mind was blown and I saw my wife in the kitchen. I said, babe, you know what? If I was John, if I had lived John's life, I think I'd be in jail right now. Like I genuinely thought if I had his childhood, I would be in prison. Or dead. Or dead. And it really helps me understand that, look, we all see the world differently.
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How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself
It's very easy to judge. And I get it. Some things are horrible and really traumatic. And you're going to probably need help to process that. But I'm saying there is a cost of not processing that. So let me go back to what you said about Dr. Rahmani, who I really admire and respect. Yeah, she's great. I don't have the experience that she has with narcissistic individuals. I don't.
The School of Greatness
How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself
She has every reason to believe what she believes. My belief, based on my 23 years of clinical experience and what I've seen with patients, what I've seen in the research, and what I've experienced myself... Is that if you can learn the art of letting go of the past and moving on, maybe you don't like the term forgiveness. Yes.
The School of Greatness
How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself
So I think that can be triggering for some people because they feel it's like, I'm forgiving that person for what they did. I don't mean that. Maybe don't forgive it, but let it go and move on. Let go and move on is how I describe it in this book, right? Yeah. I think you do not realize the lightness in your being that exists on the other side.
The School of Greatness
How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself
I mean, Lewis, why don't you, I mean, if you don't mind, like I'd love to know from you, like you have acknowledged publicly on many occasions how you struggle with this for years, but you have moved through that. How has that been for you when you weren't able to forgive and now, would you say that you can forgive now?
The School of Greatness
How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself
But you're validated in society for holding it. As you say, like if you hold on and you go, yeah, they shouldn't have posted that post. They're wrong. Your friends will often support you. Yeah, they shouldn't have done it. But what we don't, and I used to be that person, so I'm not judging. I just know what it's like to not live like that anymore.
The School of Greatness
How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself
Chapter five in this book is called Take Less Offense. And I say many of us have an over-reliance on being right. And I make the case in that book, I talk about the George Floyd death. That's how I opened that chapter. And I kind of explain how it affected me and then what I chose to share on social media and how I got attacked for it.
The School of Greatness
How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself
Because if you remember when the George Floyd death made headline news around the world, it was during COVID. We were in lockdowns. I was in the UK. We were in a lockdown. And this event happened. Horrible event, tragic event, just to be really clear. And it brought up all kinds of feelings for me. Now, I'm a Brit, right? I was born and brought up in the UK. I've got Indian immigrant parents.
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How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself
I'm not American, right? I haven't lived in America and know the history of this country, right? So I understand that, right? I have to say this is... I'm just watching it from the outside. But nonetheless, whatever the narrative was at the time... brought up things for me, and I wanted to share my view on social media, right?
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How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself
Like you, I have a large platform, and I felt like I wanted to contribute to this public voice. I don't always comment on public things. In fact, it's quite rare for me, but I felt like I wanted to. I thought about some of the things that my family had experienced when they came to the UK, and I also thought about something my wife told me when she was a little girl living in the north of England.
The School of Greatness
How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself
She can still remember one afternoon when a local nationalist party threw a brick through their window and told them to get out. And she was just watching TV, I think, and suddenly a brick smashes the window and comes in. That is traumatic. That is really scary. So two or three days after George Floyd's death, I shared a well thought out post on Instagram.
The School of Greatness
How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself
I explained my perspective and I also shared the impact that racism can have and some of the things that came up for me. And I shared that example of what happened to my wife. And There was a small section who started to take offense at what I said and were attacking me and saying, you shouldn't be commenting. This is not your place. This is a black issue. This is not an Asian issue.
The School of Greatness
How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself
And initially I was like, oh, have I done something wrong here? Like I was trying to put out a really careful, kind, considered post to try and contribute to this big public conversation. Initially, I thought I did something wrong. And then I meditated on it, Lewis. I thought about it and I thought,
The School of Greatness
How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself
wait a minute, I'm not signed up to any code of conduct that determines how I can or cannot react to the death of an individual 3000 miles away. I'm perfectly entitled to share my truth the way I see it. And I kind of feel that many of us these days are walking around taking offense to everything. And it comes at a cost, right? Because people need to understand Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The School of Greatness
How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself
Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The School of Greatness
How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. ,,, you then send calm signals up to your brain and then they send calm signals back to your body. So I have a, you know, first thing I do each morning is a bit of meditation and breath work before I actually have my coffee. That's the first thing I do. And I do it as preemptive, right?
The School of Greatness
How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself
So I do it to ground me in the morning, but I also learn about the breath so that if I get stressed in the day, I can just take a step back and do like two or three minutes of three, four, five breathing. And it really helps me. So, It's one of many techniques that can help manage stress. Another one that people don't talk about enough that I've written about is touch.
The School of Greatness
How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself
Like consensual, affectionate touch is one of the best ways to alleviate stress. So we've got in our skin something called CT afferent nerve fibers. It's so interesting. Nerve fibers. Nerve fibers. And these nerve fibers are...
The School of Greatness
How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself
optimally stimulated check this out at three to five centimeters per second right okay so that's a stroking rate of three to five centimeters per second now here's the thing no one's measuring their stroking rates but this is how humans naturally stroke right so a mother stroking her baby will stroke at that rate We're doing that. Yeah.
The School of Greatness
How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself
And there's some research from the University of Liverpool that I've interviewed this professor on my show, Professor Francis McGlone. He has shown that when we stimulate those CT afro nerve fibers with this kind of light affectionate stroking, it sends a signal to the deepest, most primitive part of our brain. and levels of the stress hormone cortisol go down. Wow. Right?
The School of Greatness
How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself
Can you do this yourself too? You can do this yourself. But it's better with someone else. It's better with a partner. It can be done with a pet. Right, as well. Like, so some people.
The School of Greatness
How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself
No, but you get, like, there's benefits both ways. Like, even if you stroke someone else, you also get benefits. And what's really interesting, if you dive into that research.
The School of Greatness
How To Awaken Your Brain To Heal Yourself
To stroke you, but. Yeah. But look, I'd never had pets. Ah, yeah. But people who do have pets. Oh, it is so, it's calming.