Happy Habit Podcast

Dr. David Spiegel is a world renowned psychiatrist. He is the Associate Chair of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Director of the Center on Stress and Health, and Medical Director of the Center for Integrative Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, where he has been a member of the academic faculty since 1975. Dr. Spiegel has more than 40 years of clinical and research experience studying psycho-oncology, stress and health, pain control, sleep, hypnosis, and conducting randomized clinical trials involving psychotherapy for cancer patients. He has published thirteen books and over 400 scientific journal articles.  He is Past President of the American College of Psychiatrists and the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis and is a Member of the National Academy of Medicine. He was invited to speak on hypnosis at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2018. In this episode we'll discover what exactly hyponsis is and importantly what it isnt, how it can help you, how it changes the brain and its uses in a therapeutic setting. We'll learn how it can tackle everything from stress to addictions like smoking.  https://med.stanford.edu/profiles/david-spiegel Link to Dr Spiegel's App available on itunes and android goog play store. https://www.reveri.com/

The subject of consciousness has perplexed humankind for generations. While other areas of science have benefitted from a rapid increase in understanding, neuroscience and especially consciousness research has lagged. In this episode I discuss why this is the case with neuroscientist Dr Patrick House who has authored the book, Nineteen ways of looking at consiousness. Patrick's book : https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250151179/nineteen-ways-of-looking-at-consciousness

Personal growth happens out of sight, its incremental, but it happens when we have faith in ourselves and commit to the process, when we love the process so much that the goals take care of themselves. In this episode I list 14 ways in which you can practise the habit of personal growth. 

Dr Jeff Rediger has studied many cases of spontaneous remission down through the years. Many of these cases have been described miracle cures, but as Dr Rediger says todays miracles simply haven't been explained by science, yet. Today's miracles are tomorrow's normal. In studying these cases and more particularly the actual patient as people, mentally and physically Dr Rediger is hoping to learn useful steps that can be replicated by others such that they too may achieve similar levels of healing. In this episode I examine the main themes of Cured, written by Dr Jeff Rediger.

Dr Carole Hooven of Harvard University has written a fascinating book  called T : The story of Testerone the hormone that dominates and divides us. In this episode she outlines the significance of testosterone in terms its biological impact, but also in terms of its behavioural influences and by extension outlines why women are so different from men in so many ways.  Dr Carole's book : https://www.amazon.com/Story-Testosterone-Hormone-Dominates-Divides/dp/1250236061 Dr Carole's website : http://www.carolehooven.com/

Habits, whether they are good or bad habits are made up of the same components, once we know what these components are we can use this knowledge to add desired habits to our behaviour and drop unwanted habits. Surprisingly one of the major parts of good habit formation is the need to celebrate that habit immediately after doing it. BJ Fogg is an expert is behavioural science and shows us in his book how we can adopt new desirable habits and alter our behaviour for the better.

Society is experiencing a tsunami of anxiety, in large part due to the constant negative stimulation we get from media, social media and always being connected to the internet. We are anxious because our fight flight nervous system is constantly being activated. In this episode I talk about several easy ways of activating our calming / parasympathetic nervous system and thus dialling down our anxiety while deactivating our fight flight / sympathetic nervous system.

Link to Cant hurt me : https://amzn.to/3Rbu5gm David Goggins is by his own admission, an uncommon man, a label he treasures. As a former decorated navy seal he has distinguished himself not just professionally but as a person who overcame an immensely tough childhood enroute to becoming a man who lived his suffering and pain as a badge of honour. His book Cant hurt me, catalogues his journey of self-discovery and how his relationship with himself, through accountability and hardship has helped forge the callosed mind he owns today. Goggins is a world famous motivational speaker, ultra endurance athlete and author.

Canadian author and motivational speaker wrote a great book with the quirky title Eat that Frog, where the 'frog' refers to that difficult thing you need to get done in on your journey to your goal and to success. This book includes many tips to help us 'eat that frog' , showing us ways we can power through the bad habit of procrastination that is hampering our ability to get things done.

Yoga has been used for thousands of years for a multitude of reasons. It has survived all that time as a result of its capacity to heal holistically. I spoke with Current Movement yoga instructor Sarah Robinson about her yoga journey, a journey that saw her use yoga to climb successfully out of the depths of depression as she grew to reacquaint herself with her body and her mind.  You'll find Sarah on instagram at : https://www.instagram.com/current.movement/