Brain Shaman

In this episode, we dig into a study that compares breathwork protocols with mindfulness meditation - 'Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal' (published in Cell Reports Medicine in January 2023). Learn about 3 breathing exercises (box breathing, cyclic sighing, and cyclic hyperventilation) and a mindfulness meditation exercise. See how their pyschophysiological effects differ from one another and why the cyclic sigh was shown to be most powerful in reducing anxiety, reducing sympathetic arousal, and improving mood. RESOURCESCOMPANIES- Oura- Tianren Culture- Toudou- Whoop - YouKuPEOPLE- Andrew Huberman- Andrew Weil- Bita Nouriani- Booil Jo- Daniele Scuteri- David Spiegel- Eric Neri- Gary Holl- Jamie Zeitzer- Lara Weed- Manuela Kogon- Melis Yilmaz Balban- Victor Koo- Will Ahmed - Wim HofVOCABULARY - CO2 tolerance test- respiratory sinus arrhythmia 

In this episode, we talk with Niraj Naik, the founder of SOMA Breath. We discuss breathing practices and techniques for altering your cognition, mood, and health. Learn how to quiet down your thinking mind, find focus and calm, and enter mystical, psychedelic, and blissful flow states via the breath. Breath patterns, speed, duration, and intensity are all part of this. We can change our breath to change how we think, feel, perceive, and connect.  Music, visuals, symbols, light and dark, dance, touch, social connection, sex, exercise, and TRE can also be combined with these breathing experiences to enhance the psychophysiological effects further.  By using these other sensory and somatic techniques, combined with the breath, you can more deeply and enjoyably tap into the programming of your body and mind. We talk about all that. You will also learn about tantric sex breathing practices, psychedelics (e.g. the different varieties of magic mushrooms), and more. **Connect with Niraj Naik** website: somabreath.com Instagram: @Nirajnaikofficial RESOURCESORGANIZATIONS - HeartMath InsitutePEOPLE- David Berceli- Jan Kounen- Lao Tzu- Robert SapolskyPLACES- Ibiza, Spain- Gili Islands, Indonesia- Ko Pha-ngan, ThailandVOCAB- 5-MeO-DMT- Buteyko method- collective coherence- dark retreats- default mode network- DMT- fractals- Ganesha (psychedelic)- mandelas- Pranayama- psilocybin- Siddhi powers- sigilsConnect & Learn More: website: somabreath.comapp: somabreath.com/soma-appInstagram: @Nirajnaikofficial21-Day Awakening Journey: somabreath.com/the-awakening-breathwork-journeybook: Breathworks (coming soon!)Cambridge study: biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.19.580985v1FREE Masterclass: somabreath.com/soma-awakening-meditation-ewo

In this episode, our guest is Daniele Scuteri, a fitness enthusiast, language learner, black belt, and former amateur soccer player.  We talk about how to level up your mental and physical performance, happiness, and growth by embracing hard things. Challenges and difficulties can be opportunities for transformation along your journey through sports, work, love, learning, and life. We discuss various tools for improving your ability to embrace and push through challenges, including: breath work, cold exposure, discomfort, coaches, mindfulness, nutrition, exercise, social connection, goals, and mindset.  RESOURCESBOOKS - The Oxygen Advantage by Patrick McKeownORGANIZATIONS & EVENTS- CrossFit- Flow Research Collective- Hyrox- Spartan RacePEOPLE - Andrea Prondo- Andrew Huberman- Andrew Weil- Gianmarco Citelli- Lorenzo Pennati- Matthew Walker- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi - Nicolas Luna- Peter Attia- Stanislav Grof- Steven Kotler- Wim HofYOUTUBE CHANNELS - Breathe With Sandy**Connect with Daniele**LinkedIn: /daniele-scuteri-0a2bb5

In this episode, our guest is Al Wadleigh, a Feldenkrais practitioner and the co-host of the Feldenkrais for Life podcast. We talk about how to rewire our nervous system through Feldenkrais, increasing our learning, memory, health, and potential. Returning us to that childlike state of exploration, curiosity, aliveness, and possibility, Feldenkrais is like a playful portal into adult neuroplasticity and change. Waking us up from our habits and removing our rigid societal masks and algorithms, it can likewise unlock self-awareness, self-image, spontaneity, lightness, ease, authenticity, freedom, and growth.We delve into this via various interconnected angles, including: novelty, making mistakes/errors, correcting, contradictory movements, speed of movement, pausing, relaxation, zooming in and out, focus and unfocus, attention, the eyes, neck, lips, mouth, creativity, the imagination, the voice, the skeleton, effort, finding links and connections, technology (e.g. smartphones, the Internet), and other exercise and movement-based practices. The episode wraps up by putting all this into action through a short powerful Feldenkrais lesson using the eyes and imagination.  **CONNECT & LEARN MORE**podcast: feldenkraisforlife.com website: achievingexcellence.com audio lessons & more: achievingexcellence.com/all-productsRESOURCESBOOKS - The Brain that Changes Itself  by Norman Doidge - The Brain's Way of Healing by Norman DoidgeLESSONS - Alexander Yanai lessons - Al Wadleigh lessonsPEOPLE- Donna Ray- Moshé Feldenkrais- Norman DoidgeVOCABULARY - Functional Integration- homunuculus- Weber-Fechner LawListen to Feldenkrais for Life, Al Wadleigh and Donna Ray's podcast, on Spotify, Apple, or your favorite podcast app. Connect with Al on his website: achievingexcellence.com.

Dr. Ilene Naomi Rusk is a neuropsychologist and functional medicine brain health consultant who helps heal people with trauma and neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's. Her education, training, and experience are vast, dancing like a constellation of stars through the nervous system night. We captured glimpses of it today, focusing primarily on the important role that connection and engagement (with others, nature, yourself, your sensory experience, and the beyond) play on your nervous system health and well-being.  You can change, heal, and grow your brain in beneficial ways, what Dr. Rusk calls "positive neuroplasticity."  Today we discuss some of the portals into such plasticity, including: education, social connection, nature, positive thinking, mental reframing, memories, and the imagination. Through such, we can learn to overcome our trauma, get our nervous system and life unstuck, and more easily enter into a state of safety, calm, connectedness, playfulness, presence, love, wellness, and hope.  We also talk about: eye contact, humming, the voice, the face, cameras, photos, screens, functional medicine, and more.This was a very healing and educational conversation for me, and I hope it is for you too.Sadly, the event Dr. Rusk invited us to has now finished. But she always has lots of upcoming online events, which you can find on the events tab of her website.**CONNECT WITH DR. RUSK** website: ilenenaomirusk.com Instagram: @dr_ruskFacebook: /drilenenaomiRESOURCESPEOPLE- Dale Bredesen- Dan Siegel- Esther Perel- Helen Reddy- Stephen PorgesSONGS- I Am Woman by Helen ReddySTUDIES- Emotional valence modulates the topology of the parent-infant inter-brain network (NeuroImage, Feb 2020)Learn more, connect, and find out about upcoming events at:  ilenenaomirusk.com

This is a solo episode reflecting on the behavioral and sensory locks and keys to our inner world, that beautiful melty sacred space where imagination, possibilities, dreams, creativity, freedom, and the unconscious come alive, where we are no longer controlled by the external puppeteers and can instead awaken to the authenticity, simplicity, and greatness of our true natural being. Today, we discuss how to leverage those sweet gentle tools that bring us inward and avoid those that blast us outward into existential and psychophysiological oblivion. Learn to shift your attention toward the inside, rather than letting it get hijacked by external stimuli, and watch your health, mood, life, and autonomy re-emerge. Bask in your inner oasis, where all those invisible things you’ve always dreamed of and run from become visible, perty, and real. If this sounds like the kind of vibe and life you want, then listen in as together we traverse this wild inner dreamscape where rules do not exist, nature melts with mind, memories dance, and you are colorful like a child. The shamanic keychain provided today contains the following keys (and corresponding locks) into your boundless inner self:eyes closed (vs. open)darkness (vs. light)direct sensory experience (vs. screens and cameras)valuing those things on the inside (vs. those on the outside)imagination (vs. videos, pictures, and porn)silence (vs. noise)odorless (vs. fragrance)flavorless (vs. flavors)nose breathing (vs. mouth breathing)exhales *including humming, chanting, singing (vs. inhales)fasting (vs. eating)breaking rules (vs. obeying cultural and habitual rules, norms, & limits)solitude (vs. socializing)sleep & dreams (vs. waking life)creation (vs. consumption)meditation & hypnosis (vs. brainwashing and memes)difficulty, discomfort, challenge & pain (vs. easiness, comfort, & pleasure)nature (vs. city)death, loss, & change (vs. immortality, possessiveness, & permanence)minimalism (vs. materialism)stillness & slowing down (vs. busyness and going fast)curvy and spontaneous movement (vs. rigid and predictable ones)In addition, there are experiences that sweetly bridge the inner and outer worlds, which can also be embraced to your comfort. Some of these include: books, podcasts, psychedelics, conversations, interviewing, safe connection and embrace, eye gazing, instrumental music, and more.You can also stack these tools on top of one another, mix and mash them, to create your own little customized meditation-like retreat. We also discuss a brief history of sense-hacking technologies and how that evolution intertwines with the collapse of the inner world. Don’t let your beautiful mind go the way of the dinosaurs. Become like a bird and fly freely into the future.RESOURCES - Between Two Worlds (episode #60) - Darshan with Paramahamsa Vishwananda (the darshan event I went to in Osaka) - Duncan Trussell (podcaster / comedian)- Duncan Trussell Family Hour (podcast) - Merlion (overphotographed statue in Singapore)- scratch and sniffs (fragrance technology)- Say Cheese and Die! by R.L. Stine (Goosebumps book #4)

Roland Verment is a neuropsychologist, biohacker, and the owner of Neurobics, an at-home neurofeedback service. In this interview, we discuss how to understand and change the brain via neurofeedback and nootropics.We talk about brain waves (delta, theta, alpha, beta, and gamma) and how they correspond to various brain states, regions, neurochemicals, and disorders, including: OCD, ADHD, autism, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, PTSD, Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome, and visual neglect). Learn how to manipulate these brain waves in order to increase your creativity, organization, productivity, memory, happiness, focus, flexibility, calm, balance, and overall brain health. We also discuss: EEG, fMRI, sleep, resurrecting old childhood memories ("time traveling"), alcohol, meditation, medications, VR, emerging tech, and nootropics (including: caffeine, rhodiola, alpha GPC, Huperzine A, and  cerebrolisin). *CONNECT & LEARN MORE*Instagram: @neurobicsneurofeedback     or               @rolandsnapFacebook: @Neurobicswebsite: neurobics.careRESOURCESNEUROANATOMY- anterior cingulate cortex - frontal lobe- hypothalamus- occipital lobe- parietal lobe- temporal lobe- visual cortexCOMPANIES - AppliedVR- BrainBit- Cleverpoint- Divergence Neuro- GrayMatters Health - Headspace - Kernel- Muse- Tripp PEOPLE- Andrew Huberman - Cody Rall - Jay Gunkelman- Josh Sackman- Kirill Krasnogir - Tim Ferris SUPPLEMENTS & DRUGS - alpha-GPC - CDP-Choline-  Cerebrolysin -  Huperzia serrata (Huperzine A) -  lithium -  Methylphenidate (brand names: Ritalin and Concerta)-  rhodiola (active compound: salidroside) Learn more at: neurobics.care (or on Instagram @neurobicsneurofeedback)

Ken Middleton is the author of Bamboozled: How Alcohol Makes Fools of Us All and the editor of the publication AINYF (Alcohol is NOT Your Friend). In this episode, Ken shares helpful tools and strategies for quitting alcohol. These include: exercise, nutrition, education, sleep, hobbies, social connection, finding a supportive partner, and having a big goal.We also discuss:the neuroscience of alcoholaddiction and strategies for habit changeshort-term and long-term alternatives to alcoholalcohol's effects on sleep, memory, and cognitionhealth risks associated with alcohol (e.g. cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer's)the costs and benefits of alcohol consumption across various life stageshow alcohol can block personal growth and impede self-improvementthe deceptive portrayal of alcohol in movies, media, and advertisingmetaphors and analogies to help illustrate the effects and dangers of alcoholthe gifts and benefits of quitting alcohol**CONNECT & LEARN MORE**book website: thebamboozledbook.comDry-90 Challenge: dry90.comInstagram: @kenmmiddletonRESOURCESBOOKS- Alcohol Explained by William Porter- Alcohol Lied to Me by Craig Beck- Atomic Habits by James Clear- Bamboozled by Ken Middleton- This Naked Mind by Annie GraceCOMMUNITIES- Alcohol-Free Lifestyle- Tribe SoberMOVIES & TV- American Pie- House Party (starring Kid 'n Play)- Scandal- SuperBad- Sherlock Holmes PEOPLE- Annie Grace- Craig Beck- James Clear- James Swanwick- Janet Gourand- Robert Downey Jr.- William PorterVOCABULARY- acetaldehyde - anhedonia- dynorphin- nucleus accumbens Connect or learn more at: thebamboozledbook.com

In this episode, we discuss strategies for managing and reducing alcohol cravings, uncovering alternative pathways to satisfy the deeper needs that fuel them. Today, we delve into 11 needs, exploring alternative actions to address each:waternutritionsocial connectionsextouchmovementsleepfeeling of possibility, novelty, chaos, & adventurestimulation (light, sound, etc.)stress reduction and calmgoals/projectsListen in to discover your hidden needs and other healthier ways to satisfy them, ultimately diminishing the urge to drink and granting you greater freedom in how you choose to live. RESOURCES:COMMUNITIES:- Alcoholics Anonymous - Tribe SoberENTERTAINMENT- Six Flags Magic Mountain (amusement park)- Memento (movie) SCIENCE VOCAB:- basal ganglia- intercostal muscles- mesolimbic pathway- prefrontal cortex- striatum- substantia nigra- ventral tegmentum

In this episode, we're joined by Osinakachi Akuma Kalu, the founder of TAFFD's, dedicated to enhancing health and biological longevity for Africans through educational initiatives. He's also an author, futurist, musician, and speaker. Our discussion centers on traditional African health practices, mindsets, and tools, covering: social connection, community, movement, nutrition, farming, medicine, music, dance, language, metaphysics, morality & ethics, biodiversity, environmental factors, holistic living, and more. We also discuss how Westernization has negatively impacted the health and longevity of Africans, across these various dimensions. History, politics, education, and big business are a big part of this. Some ways in which Africa is degenerating include: social isolation, fracturing of family and community, poor nutrition (e.g. processed foods and added sugars), environmental toxins, loss of religion and culture, and increasing use of chemicals and pharmaceuticals.  Osinakachi aims to reconnect Africans to their ancestral roots, returning to a time marked by robust health, longevity, strong social bonds, community, safety, trust, empathy, vulnerability, natural exercise, biodiversity, nutritious food, and a mindset that values such.  We must redefine wealth, prioritizing health and social cohesion over money, comfort, and convenience. While traditional practices like farming and open dwellings may be disappearing, education and hard work can help revive some of the positive aspects of Africa's heritage. The principles, practices, and mindsets discussed in this episode can be applied to your individual life, relationship, family, or community, regardless of your location in the world.*Connect with Osinakachi*LinkedIn: /osinakachi-akuma-kalu Facebook: /authorOsinakachi website: taffds.orgRESOURCESMUSIC IN AFRICA- African Traditional Music (ATM)- Afrobeats- Amapiano- Bongo Flava- HighlifePEOPLE- Aristotle- Feta Kuti- Izu Marcel Onyeocha- Ludwig Wittgenstein - Martin Buber- Plato- R.L. StineVOCABULARY - assimilation- association- Berlin Conference- Igbo - Ohafia War Dance- Omenala- palm wine- Scramble for Africa- Ubuntu- Zulu