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BITESIZE | 3 Surprising Health Habits We All Need To Know To Get Well and Stay Well | Dr Gemma Newman #535
00:22:54
Today’s guest is incredibly passionate about treating body, mind and spirit as one. She’s knowledgeable and articulate, but what I like the most is her warm-heartedness and her kindness.
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- [00:00]
A
Today's Bite Size episode is sponsored by AG1, one of the most nutrient dense whole food supplements that I've come across and I myself have been drinking it regularly for over five years. It contains vitamins, minerals, probiotics, prebiotics, digestive enzymes and so much more and can help with energy, focus, gut health, digestion and support a healthy immune system. If you go to drinkag1.com livemore they are giving listeners a very special offer. A free one year supply of vitamin D and five free AG1 travel packs with your first order. See all details at drink ag1.com livemore welcome to Feel Better Live More Bite Size, your weekly dose of positivity and optimism to get you ready for the weekend. Today's clip is from episode 420 of the podcast with Dr. Gemma Newman, a medical doctor who's passionate about combining holistic methods with conventional medical practice. In our full conversation, Gemma introduced her GLOVES acronym which points to six key areas of life that we can address if we want to get well and stay well. In this clip we explore the first three, which include simple daily habits and ways of thinking and being that can help us all live happier, healthier lives. The first three Gratitude, Love and outsides. I think those are things that are not spoken about enough in relation to health. I don't think doctors speak or think about these things enough when it comes to health, and I'm delighted that you are, you know, highlighting the importance of these things.
- [02:00]
B
Yeah, thank you.
- [02:01]
A
Let's start with gratitude. What happens in the brain when we express gratitude?
- [02:06]
B
Well, the part of our brain that's responsible for excess rumination, that tends to light up when we are in a negative cycle of thinking. The parts of our brain that light up when we're in a more sort of grateful state of thinking are also the ones that light up when we do other things like physical movement and we get a good sleep and things like that. So it's about igniting that part of our brain that allows us to be more present in the moment as well. And again, that's very hard to do if your brain is racing away into the future or worrying about things that have happened in the past, or worrying about what's going to happen next. It's about allowing the brain to completely relax and allowing you to be completely present in the moment. And then that process then allows you to think more about, well, feeling gratitude.
- [02:58]
A
I think one of the ways many of us think about gratitude is to write down or to think about things that they're grateful for in their life. Right. You know, I'm grateful for the roof over my head. I'm grateful that I can afford to feed my family, whatever it might be. And you include that in your definition. But there's a bit more to it, isn't there? The way you describe it.
- [03:22]
B
So gratitude is a process whereby you recognize what you have learned from the experiences in your life and you recognize the moments of beauty that you can see and feel around you. At least that's how I would define it. And one of the things that strikes me when I see patients is that as I mentioned before, life is hugely challenging. And there's many things that we don't have to feel grateful for or can't even imagine ourselves feeling grateful for. Tragedy is around the corner for all of us. And that sounds really quite a negative thing to say, but it's also true. I think the gamble of actually living a life fully means that we will have to experience tragedy too. And for me, it's about understanding what it is that we can learn from those moments and how we can actually bring a bit more light and a bit more self compassion to the times when we really struggle. And that's a way of helping the emotions that we feel to have validation, but also helping them to actually bring further meaning to our lives rather than in a way, what we tend to do is externalize that emotion. So if something's gone wrong or if we feel let down by somebody, it's actually quite hard for us to process, well, what is it that we've learned about ourselves and what can we feel grateful for? That doesn't come naturally, but it's one of the key ways in which we can actually learn something from what we go through and give to others. And yeah, it's not something that's really talked about a lot, but I think it's actually really crucial to getting and staying well physically and emotionally. And sometimes, you know, when people hear about gratitude practices, they think, oh, well, that's, that's for the people who are rich or wealthy or don't have any problems in their life, or that's for the people that nothing's gone wrong for. But my perception is that it's for everybody. And when we can connect with ourselves with gratitude and self compassion, it means that we're far more likely to be able to connect with other people in that space as well. And from that space we can then elevate ourselves and other people. So it's really a way of recognizing our shared humanity.
- [05:58]
A
Yeah. In the session on gratitude you wrote about imagination and visualization. And right at the start of this conversation, when I asked you about one of the most common reasons, if not the most common reason, why people struggle to really make long lasting change in their lives, I think you mentioned that, that actually people cannot imagine themselves as a different person. They can't imagine what it would be, be like to be well or be that different person. Be that person who's calm and non reactive. So tell me what's so good about imagination, Visualization, mental rehearsal, what does that do? And does that tie into the answer that you gave me right at the start?
- [06:45]
B
Yes, it does. Because visualization is a powerful way of helping you to imagine the better future that you currently cannot see. And if you allow space for visualization, it doesn't have to be a sort of a mumbo jumbo or a woo woo thing. It's literally opening up your mind to possibility. And what we tend to do day to day, our day to day habits are the things that drive our thoughts and the things that then drive our actions, right? So if we can allow space for different habits or different thoughts or different actions, then the only way to really start to imagine that is through the power of visualization. And you don't have to do one thing first, you could do whatever resonates with you. So one person might find that actually if I just change this one daily habit, that's going to maybe help me open my mind a little bit more. Whereas other people find it useful just to go all out on a potential visualization of what they could imagine their future being or their future health circumstance being. And then that can allow them the ideas that come from changing their habits. So it doesn't have to be one way, but it does work. And there is some study evidence to suggest that it really can improve your, you know, your ability to imagine that better future and then, and then obviously go ahead and do it. There was one study I read about about muscle strength which was fascinating. They got three groups of people and one group were told to flex their muscles as though they were doing it in real time. So as though they were seeing themselves flex their muscles in real time. I think it was 15 minutes a five days a week. And another group were told that they had to see themselves from a distance, as though they were watching a movie, flexing their muscles for 15 minutes five times a week, I think it was. And then the final group had no visualization and it was only in the group that were visualizing themselves flexing their muscles in real time. That they actually saw an improvement in their muscle strength, even though none of the groups had actually moved a muscle.
- [08:51]
A
Yeah. There is quite a bit of research on this, the power of visualization. And what I often say to people who are skeptical is I say, well, okay, let's just think about some of the best athletes on the planet. Exactly right.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Most of them, or a lot of them, I should say, actively engage in visualization. And as you also talk about in your book, there's not that much difference between what's imagined and what's real in the brain, right?
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B
Well, the brain perceives it very similarly.
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A
Very similar. Ed Moses, one of the greatest hurdlers of all time in every race, is what he would do. He would be on the track, lying down next to one of the hurdles whilst his competitors are warming up. He's just lying there motionless, and he is literally imagining the starter gun going off, how he's gonna feel, what's gonna happen, the wind through his body. He imagines the precise 13 steps that he takes between every single hurdle. And he has said in many interviews that he only felt ready to race once he'd gone through that process.
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B
It's fascinating.
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A
It's very fascinating.
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B
The beauty of visualization is that it's free and available to everyone. And it doesn't have to be a sporting feat. It doesn't have to be something that changes the world. You could visualize yourself feeling just that little bit better than you do today and what that might look like for you and what that would involve in terms of your day to day routines, how they would play out slightly differently, and what decisions you might make that day based on feeling just ever so slightly better than you do now.
- [10:33]
A
Let's skip L for the moment and go to O, which is outside. We'll get back to L because it's great. Why did you give an entire one of your six letters over to outside and what do you mean by outside?
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B
We are part of nature and as humans, we're so good at separating ourselves from nature because we think we're above it, but we are it. So for me, it's integral to understanding how we can actually bring more health and vitality into our lives.
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A
There's many powerful case studies in the book, but there was the chap who essentially was close to burnout or was at burnout, but a little bit in nature helped to create My interpretation of reading that case study was that it created a bit of space in his life. It gave him a bit of perspective, which allowed him to then go and make changes.
- [11:27]
B
Yeah, absolutely. And I think for him it was. He was one of these people who was working from home and he was always at the computer and there was a lot of expectation that he would answer emails straight away and that he would be on for every meeting. And he didn't have time, he felt, to go outside, he didn't have time to go anywhere. He was just basically at home in the office, constantly working. And he got to the point where he literally fell to his knees and started sobbing because he was completely overwhelmed. And so his wife said to him, go and see the doctor, we've got to try and sort this out. And interestingly, there were just a few things that were required to help him feel less overwhelmed. Creating boundaries around his personal time was important, but also the power of nature, like you say, because a lot of people, you spend so much time on our screens, even just being able to look out into the distance for a little while actually shifts that visual focus and allows our parasympathetic nervous system to kick in a little bit more. Gives us more of a sense of calm, even changing. It's literally a way of seeing the wood for the trees. Being able to change your perspective from looking at something very close up with a monitor that's emitting a lot of blue light, to being able to look out into the distance as far as you can into the horizon. Just letting your eyes relax. It's actually a great way of allowing your parasympathetic nervous system a chance to kick in. And seeing scenes in nature also does that. There's some great studies actually on being able to relax your body and mind just by looking at images of nature. And there's also great studies on people recovering from hospital stays, you know, where they had a room with a view to the outside, where you might be able to see a hospital courtyard, for example. They reported faster recovery times, less need for analgesia postoperatively. It's amazing the impact it can have on our physical health and recovery just being around nature. And there are so many different examples of that. I alluded to some of the studies done on so called forest bathing. I think there was a group of gentlemen walking in the forest 90 minutes. Same 90 minutes in urban settings, but the forest settings. They were able to record lower blood pressure, lower pulse rate, you know, an ability to actually improve their physiology by walking in one place over another. We have some great evidence to suggest it really helps to reduce activity in the parts of the brain that's responsible for rumination. The subgenital prefrontal cortex.
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A
Very good.
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B
Is less activated when we go out in nature. And I think that's fascinating because it shows us that not only can we have potential reductions in blood pressure, reductions in heart rate, but we can actually see the changes and the shifts in our own brains when we go outside.
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A
For that person who is living in an urban setting.
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B
Yeah.
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A
What do you say to that person?
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B
Even if you can have a little pot of herbs in your kitchen, that might be quite a nice way of bringing nature in, and you can use those for cooking as well. Houseplants. Fantastic.
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A
When we converted this into the studio for the podcast and put the plants in that, I've taken real ownership of these plants. Like, I, you know, I tend to them, I'll check on them regularly. I'll take them out into the garden on a nice day to get some air. And it's. I don't know, it's really connected me to even this podcasting space. And I know that sounds really out there, but I don't know, it's really meant something to me to do that.
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B
Yes. It brings me great joy to see my houseplants flourishing.
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A
It's, you know, you mentioned purpose before, and purpose can be this really great thing that we can stress out about. You know, what is my life purpose?
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B
Yeah.
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A
Or it can be a real micro purpose. Like, you know what? That's a living plant, and it's my job to look after it. And that has value.
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B
100%. It has value. Oh, my goodness. Let me. Let me share something with you. There's a parable that an Italian psychiatrist came up with, and it's the parable of the three stone cutters. And they were building a cathedral in the 14th century, and the three stone cutters were asked about their jobs, and the first stone cutter replied bitterly that he would be cutting up big chunks of rock every single day for the rest of his life until he died. And that was his job. The second stonecutter, he said, I am thrilled to be a stone cutter because it means that every day I'm doing something that requires my skill and that allows me to earn money for my family and to create a beautiful home filled with love. The third stonecutter said, I am thrilled again to be a stonecutter, because for me, what this means is that I am building a temple to the divine. I am building something that's going to outlive me, and that will be a place of worship and praise, prayer for generations to come. This place is going to stand for a Thousand years. And I have been a part of that, which means that I will live on in this beautiful cathedral. And all three men doing exactly the same thing. And all three men had very different perspectives about what it was that that brought them.
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A
It's such a great story. It illustrates so much. I think the most powerful thing is that it's possible to reframe anything. Yeah, that's honestly, Gemma, hand on heart, the biggest change, the biggest realization I've had in my entire life, I would say, is that everything's a story. Everything. And we have the autonomy to create better stories once we realize that it is a story. Now, just to be clear, I am not denying that really awful things happen. I get that. But it is the story that we put on top of that event that ultimately determines its long term impact on us. Yes, it really does.
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B
And the interesting thing about the stories we tell ourselves is that when we feel awe and when we feel inspired by somebody else, more often than not, that feeling comes from where they have actually managed to inspire us through their suffering. Because that feeling of awe is something that we can get internally or externally. It can come from looking at an incredible sunset, or it could be when you're in a big stadium listening to music that you love pumping and everybody's dancing, that you could feel a sense of awe externally or you could feel it internally when you imagine or remember how it feels to look at your newborn baby's palm, or how it feels to have been there for someone that you love who is going through bereavement or miscarriage or whatever it is. That sense of awe towards somebody else almost invariably happens when they've actually been through something and when they've inspired you through that thing.
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A
Yeah.
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B
And that's so powerful.
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A
Can you think of an example in your own life when you experienced awe and that it then inspired you?
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B
I think there are so many different people who I felt inspired by. And the first is my mother, because she had me when she was very young. She was 19, just turned 19, and she was on her own. And it's very hard to be a single parent. It's very hard to raise someone with love when you don't have any resources. But she did. And I think back at what it must have been like for her as a teenager. Not knowing where to turn, not having any support, not having anyone to look after this little thing and have to every day show up with love. I get quite emotional thinking about it because she did that for me and she loved me. And I know how important it is even just to have one single caregiver in your life that showed you love how amazing that is for our brain development. You know babies, there's about between 700 and 1000 synaptic connections happening a second in that first year of life. And love is the biggest key to that synaptic development in babies. And I had that from her and I just, that that fills me with immense awe.
- [20:40]
A
Well, thank you for sharing that. Just hearing that. And then you think about what parents all over the world in all different kinds of challenging situations are doing for their kids. If people are struggling and they forget how much they've done, just any parent out there, just remember what you've done for your kids. Yes, that's pretty incredible.
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B
It is. It's incredible.
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A
Even if you think your life is horrible and you're struggling and there's bills to pay and there may well be, in terms of your gloves acronym, the G of gratitude, we can look at us as parents, most of us, and go, yeah, you know what, I'm doing an alright job with my kids. I'm still showing them love. Yeah, that's gratitude, right?
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B
Exactly. That is gratitude. That is it. And it's very powerful.
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A
Love is the second letter in gloves. There's a whole chapter, a beautiful chapter that you've written about love. What is love?
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B
For me it fundamentally is an awareness of our connectivity and an awareness of how we can all make a difference to the lives of other people. But we just don't necessarily always realize that. So in the love chapter, I talk about self love as a way of improving our health. That self compassion, but also about how in giving love to others we also elevate their health because we're all, I do believe we're all healers of ourselves and of each other. And I feel so emotional for some reason I feel like this is, I feel this is the real core of my mission in life, is because we're all healers, we just don't realize it. I chose a career in medicine because I wanted to help people. Yes. But we all heal each other through the stories we tell ourselves and each other and through compassion for ourselves and each other. And that's why love is so important, is because it is the root of, I believe, a lot of our healing.
- [22:50]
A
Hope you enjoyed that bite sized clip. Hope you have a wonderful weekend. And I'll be back next week with my long form conversational Wednesday and the latest episode of Bite Science next Friday.