While the coronavirus has us living isolated lives inside our homes, many of us are longing for nature. Yet, as Julianne Hough illustrates, there are ways we can bring nature to us by drawing it out from the inside. In this episode of The Brain Warriors Way Podcast, Julianne and the Amens describe the ways we can use this method to create each day, so you can live life on your own terms.
Dr Daniel Amen:
Welcome to the Brain Warrior's Way podcast. I'm Dr. Daniel Amen.
Tana Amen:
And I'm Tana Amen. In our podcast, we provide you with the tools you need to become a warrior for the health of your brain and body.
Dr Daniel Amen:
The Brain Warrior's Way podcast is brought to you by Amen Clinics where we have been transforming lives for 30 years. Using tools like brain SPECT imaging to personalize treatment to your brain. For more information, visit amenclinics.com.
Tana Amen:
The Brain Warrior's Way podcast is also brought to you by BrainMD where we produce the highest quality nutraceuticals to support the health of your brain and body. To learn more, go to brainmd.com.
Dr Daniel Amen:
Welcome back. We're here with Julianne Hough having such a great time talking about dance and the brain and during this time of pandemic, I love that you talked about sober dance parties. That's the way to take care of your brain and your relationships. Alcohol ruins so many relationships that we see. But when people are home, what can they do?
Julianne Hough:
Oh my goodness, they can do so many things. There's all the time in the world now. So, one of my favorite things to do is when I wake up in the morning, I have to train myself not to look at my phone. And I do it for an hour. I don't look at my phone. I put music on and I literally create the kind of day that I want to have-
Tana Amen:
I love that.
Julianne Hough:
... by what music I'm listening to. So whether I want to have a more calm and peaceful day, I might put on some meditation music and start my day that way. Or if I'm feeling fiery and feisty today, or if that's the kind of energy that I want to put out into the world today, I'm going to put on some salsa music and I start my day with how I want to show up that day.
Tana Amen:
I love that.
Julianne Hough:
With music and how I move my body. And so while I'm making my hot water and lemon in the morning, I'm listening to music and I'm dancing around the kitchen, I'm interacting and I'm having full human connection, whether that's to myself or to the people that are in my house without my electronics or my technology or anything like that.
Tana Amen:
Oh, I really like that.
Julianne Hough:
So that is my number one thing. I then do a dump, I write and I just dump out all the thoughts in my head and a lot of those thoughts are negative thoughts and I never read them back. I just write it out and I write for three pages where I feel like I'm not... It's just caused a stream of thought, I'm just letting it go. And I start dumping out all this information that maybe I've been holding inside that I can clear my mind. Then after that I either do some sort of workout and that could be weight training or yoga or it could also be Kinrgy, and Kinrgy, what I love about it, is it activates the imaginations because we bring in the elements, the natural elements. So we don't have to go outside of ourselves to feel nature because nature is within us.
Julianne Hough:
If we just activate our imagination and bring the earth and the fire and the water and allow ourselves to feel what it feels like to be connected to nature. So I'll do that. And then anytime, anytime I'm feeling like, Ooh, I feel a little anxiety, or now that we're working from home right now and I'm sitting way more than I usually do on my phone or on my computer doing work, I'll literally put an alarm on to get up and do a two minute dance. I'll just put some music on, I'll dance, or I'll do a little breathing exercise. Just something to shift my pattern just so that I continue to recreate throughout the day.
Tana Amen:
I love that and is Kinrgy something... Is it a program that people can do from their homes?
Julianne Hough:
Yes. Oh yeah, absolutely.
Tana Amen:
Well tell us how.
Julianne Hough:
Yeah. So actually every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I go live at 11:00 AM and do either Kinrgy philosophy where I talk about what it is or on Fridays, I'll do a 15 minute experience and we get people up and moving. And the thing that I love about it is you can go full out dancing or if you're in a wheelchair or if... One of my really good friends, Amy Pretty, she's paraplegic and so she can't do all of the moves and so she does it how she wants to do it because the moves are designed for you, for your body to move how it wants to be moved. Anybody can come and join in and just release some of that stress and anxiety, but also have fun doing it. And then how this insight-
Tana Amen:
Is this a website? I just want people to be able to get to it.
Julianne Hough:
Yeah, you can go to Instagram and it's @kinrgy. And then actually if people go to the website, kinrgy.com, we're going to be doing longer, 45 minute versions on Zoom starting April 13th.
Tana Amen:
Excellent. Okay. I just want our people to be able to join you.
Dr Daniel Amen:
What's the range? Is this more for women? It's both for women and men? Is it for kids and adults? Who shows up?
Julianne Hough:
It's for everyone. In fact, especially being at home right now, a lot of people have been doing it with their kids and because it's such a playful method where we're banging on the floor and we're banging our body and we're dancing and celebrating, the kids are having so much fun and they're able to get a lot of that energy where they're feeling crazy, out, and they're doing it together as a family.
Julianne Hough:
And anytime you say dance, I think there's been a stigma around it that it's for women. But when people do this method, Kinrgy, it's based in tribal Aboriginal movements that are ancient that tribes do to connect to each other. It's a communal experience. And so for women, they may be a little bit more open to doing something that's dance related, but when men do it because they're more vulnerable in a place, all of a sudden they have the best experience they've ever had because they never would've done it before. So the range of experiences even greater for men that do it because they didn't believe that they could have that kind of fun. So when they do, it's magical.
Dr Daniel Amen:
So let me weigh in just a little bit. So many people on Facebook live. Recently I did ADD, ADHD during a pandemic and so many parents had been blaming the poor teacher for why their child was struggling and now that they're doing homeschooling, they're having so much empathy for the teacher. But if you want to help your kids focus before they sit down to do their schoolwork, get them to do Kinrgy. It will help them so much because not only is it activating their cerebellum, which has connections to every other part of your brain, it's also increasing blood flow to their brain so that they can focus and your day is going to go so much better than if you let them watch TV, give them sugared cereal and then say sit down and focus.
Tana Amen:
Which is almost impossible [crosstalk 00:00:08:04].
Julianne Hough:
Which by the way, I don't want anybody to tell me that either. I don't want to get sugar, I don't want to sit on a TV, and then tell me to do something. I'd be a nervous wreck. I'd be all over the place. So especially our kids when they're so malleable right now, to be able to give them structure in something that's going to give them the best opportunity to focus. So I have a very hard time focusing. So my thing that I have to do, I have to move my body in order for me to focus. And so I used to have a very hard time in school because I would be sitting down and I would get so distracted and my mom didn't put me on any drugs or anything like that. But I realized later on in life, Oh my gosh, if I just was standing and I can rock side to side, I would feel so much more connected and I can actually focus.
Dr Daniel Amen:
Well, and if we this in schools, the incidents of ADD would go down. ADD is real and it exists and get it treated can make a big difference. But the first thing [crosstalk 00:09:06], first do no harm. And we always think at Amen Clinics, what are the natural things I can do to treat it before I go off to medication and get your diet right and then add the right forms of exercise.
Tana Amen:
Yeah. So I've been having a... Because we've got three kids here, my daughter and our two nieces who we for the most part, adopted, and they're living with us right now. And so I've been having them do yoga in the mornings, but after a while they start to... It's repetitive and they're starting to get a little tired of it, which I think it's great for them. But I think I'm going to have them try this because I think that the music part... So I'm one of those moms who, I'm not one of those moms who when I hear loud music coming from the other end of the house, I don't freak out because I get it.
Tana Amen:
Because I need to do karate or listen to rock music or whatever. So when I hear my daughter doing that, it reminded me of what you said. I hear my daughter playing all different kinds of music from all different generations and I know she's like you. She's trying to set up her day. So it's so funny when I hear the music coming out of that end of the house, it's very loud and I'm like, "Oh it's an energy thing for her." And my daughter loves to dance.
Dr Daniel Amen:
To kids, music is energy. And it can either be toxic for some people or it can be healing. We've actually produced three albums. Brain directed music and music for bright minds spent 45 weeks on Billboard's New Age chart, which we're so proud of. But because music changes your state and you can have music for sleep, for focus, for relaxation to boost your mood, and then if you add it to movement, it's just the perfect treatment. And as you said, you're actually... It's ancestral, it's natural to us. And for children, it helps their brain develop and now that they're on their gadgets. Their brain is developing in a different way, but in a way that is skyrocketing anxiety and depression. So this is a natural treatment. When we come back, we're going to have more of this discussion. Plus, I really want you to talk about what you see is the future of music and the future of dance and your hopes for our generation. Stay with us.
Tana Amen:
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Dr Daniel Amen:
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