The One Thing To Do Everything To Change Your Life
One of the best tools you can use to make sure that your brain’s compass is pointed in the right direction is “The One Page Miracle.” In this episode of The Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast, Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen discuss why they created this One Page Miracle to help you gain MASTERY over your life, thus making it the best it can be.
Dr. Daniel Amen: Welcome to the Brain Warrior's Way podcast. I'm Dr. Daniel Amen.
Tana Amen: And I'm Tana Amen. Here, we teach you how to win the fight for your brain, to defeat anxiety, depression, memory loss, ADHD and addictions.
Dr. Daniel Amen: The Brain Warrior's Way podcast is brought to you by Amen Clinics, where we've transformed lives for three decades using brain SPECT imaging to better target treatment and nature ways to heal the brain. For more information, visit amenclinics.com.
Tana Amen: The Brain Warrior's Way podcast is also brought to you by Brain MD, where we produce the highest quality nutraceutical products to support the health of your brain and body. For more information, visit brainmdhealth.com. Welcome to the Brain Warrior's Way podcast.
Dr. Daniel Amen: Well, here we are coming up to a new year. Just incredible how fast time goes.
Tana Amen: This year's just flown.
Dr. Daniel Amen: In this podcast, we're going to talk about how you can use your brain to have your best life.
Tana Amen: I really like our metaphor "MASTERY". I think it's really helpful to help put it into perspective.
Dr. Daniel Amen: From the Brain Warrior's Way.
Tana Amen: Yes.
Dr. Daniel Amen: Mindset.
Tana Amen: Assessment.
Dr. Daniel Amen: Sustenance.
Tana Amen: Training.
Dr. Daniel Amen: Essence.
Tana Amen: Responsibility.
Dr. Daniel Amen: Years long.
Tana Amen: Right.
Dr. Daniel Amen: Nobody wants to hear that. They want to feel better fast.
Tana Amen: You can feel better fast!
Dr. Daniel Amen: The way you feel better fast is you get a plan that makes it last, and that is absolutely essential.
Tana Amen: Because you will feel better fast, but you can't just quit after two weeks.
Dr. Daniel Amen: The secret that very few people know is that if you truly want to feel better fast and make it last that the Brain Warrior's Way concept is so important. This is truly about love of yourself.
Tana Amen: Right.
Dr. Daniel Amen: That when you take care of your brain that you know how to take care of it, that you're happier, your energy is better, you're more successful because you're taking care of the organ that runs everything.
Tana Amen: Yep.
Dr. Daniel Amen: We often talk about it's critical to have this four-circle approach, that they're biological factors, right? So avoid things that hurt your brain. We've talked about that a lot. Do things that help your brain. They're psychological strategies, so that's where mindset really comes in. One of my favorite psychological strategies is something we call the One-Page Miracle. As we get to a new year, it's an absolutely essential strategy.
Tana Amen: I love this because statistics show that by the end of January, more than 30% of people have given up on their resolution, and by the end of February, it's 80%. So you've got to ask yourself, "Why?" Why is because most people come up with something just for the sake of coming up with something to have for a resolution. They're not really committed to it. They're obviously not committed to it. And it's not something that has teeth, so it's nothing that they ... They don't have leverage over themselves to stick with it.
For example, "I want to lose 10 pounds." Well, for what? For why? If it's not because it's connected to something really important, then you don't have leverage. If you don't know your "why" you'll never do your "what". We often say that in the Brain Warrior's Way. So the M, Mindset, that's why we start there. It's critical. That's what I love with the One-Page Miracle that we use is that you can put it all on one page, but you've got to connect it with that leverage, with that "why". That's the whole point.
Dr. Daniel Amen: What do you want, and how are you going to get what you want? The reason we created it the way we did is when people become unbalanced, they get burned out. So in the One-Page Miracle ... And you can download it on Brain Fit Life, it's actually one of the major exercises in our online community. You write down on one piece of paper, what do you want in your relationship, so in your intimate relationship? I think it's one of the reasons we get along so well.
Tana Amen: Right.
Dr. Daniel Amen: Is we're both really clear that we want a kind, caring, loving, supportive, passionate relationship.
Tana Amen: Right. I often even see, because we'll be out somewhere even just in seeing people hanging out with their families and their kids, I'm often sort of amazed. You'll watch them, and I'll see parents and kids arguing over something and the something that they're arguing over is really trivial. It's non-important. I've made a commitment to myself a long time ago that it's like what is my real goal? Is my goal to win an argument with my daughter, which good luck with that because kids can argue forever, or is my goal to be the best mother I can be and have the best relationship with my daughter that I can?
Dr. Daniel Amen: And to grow a healthy human being.
Tana Amen: Right, to a responsible, healthy human being.
Dr. Daniel Amen: Right, so with kids, it's what kind of relationship do you want to have with your kids, what kind of parent do you want to be, what kind of child do you want to raise with your family and with your friends, but the One-Page Miracle, it actually goes a little bit further; what do you want for your money?
Tana Amen: Right.
Dr. Daniel Amen: That's really important. It's a huge source of stress for so many people. What do you want for your work? Money and work are often-
Tana Amen: Connected, but not.
Dr. Daniel Amen: Connected, but separate.
Tana Amen: Right.
Dr. Daniel Amen: Then, what do you want for your physical, emotional and spiritual health? I really like that I'm in the same size jeans I was when I was in high school.
Tana Amen: Right, and what I like about it is that if what you're doing isn't connected to that "what you want" then you have to step back and go, "Okay. Let me redirect, and let me refocus this on how I'm going to get what I want," which is a really good relationship.
Dr. Daniel Amen: And a critical reason I developed it, it's never about "should". There are no "shoulds" here. There's no guilt here. It's not that I should be nice to my wife. It's my goal to have a kind, caring, loving, supportive relationship. That is 100% all of the time the goal.
Tana Amen: Right.
Dr. Daniel Amen: Now, I don't always feel like that. I'll get these crazy thoughts in my head, like saying something rude to you, but if I can-
Tana Amen: It's never a good idea.
Dr. Daniel Amen: If I can kick my frontal lobes in to go, "Well, does this get you what you want," and it won't get me what I want-
Tana Amen: Definitely not.
Dr. Daniel Amen: I guarantee you that 100%, or if my goal is to be at a certain way and a certain level of physical strength and physical health, does sitting on the couch eating ice cream get me my goal? Now, the four year old in me would like to do that, but I'm not letting the four year old run the house. That is just a mistake. You want to run it, you want your pre-frontal cortex, so the front third of your brain, focus forth on judgment, impulse control ... Dudley Moore once said, "The best car safety device is a rear view mirror with a cop in it."
Tana Amen: I agree with that.
Dr. Daniel Amen: Your pre-frontal cortex is the cop in your head. You're the one that sets up the rules for your life. We set up the rules for our relationship, and it's like, "Is my behavior going to get me what I want?"
Tana Amen: Right, I like that. One of the things that I want to talk about also, because we had the MASTERY, so I love the One-Page Miracle, that's how you get what you want, but you also have to know, you have to do the assessment because if you have brain problems, if you've got trouble going on with your brain and you haven't assessed it-
Dr. Daniel Amen: It's really hard to stay [crosstalk 00:08:23]-
Tana Amen: This is a problem. Right. So we've got good software going in with the One-Page Miracle, but if you've got something troubled with your hardware, that's a problem. So we want to make sure that you get that taken care of. So that's-
Dr. Daniel Amen: Then sustenance, you think food matters?
Tana Amen: Food matters. Everything you put on the end of your fork matters for your memory, your mood, for your moment-to-moment decisions you make. They matter based on your ... Because it effects your neurotransmitters, it effects your hormones, it effects the inflammation in your body, so it does matter how you function.
Dr. Daniel Amen: Then training, you're training your mind, you're training your brain with good habits or bad habits-
Tana Amen: And that's why the One-Page Miracle is so great.
Dr. Daniel Amen: In the Brain Warrior's Way, we talk about the elephant and the writer. The elephant is your emotional brain, your pre-frontal cortex is the writer. When the elephant just gets out of control, the writer cannot control it, but through disciplined training over time, the elephant will take you anywhere you want to go. So we talk about training. I love E. E is Essence. It's, "Why are you on the planet? Why do you breathe? Why is the world a better place"-
Tana Amen: And turning your pain into purpose. We just recently did a podcast on post-traumatic growth. That's turning pain into purpose, essentially. It's like using something painful to become better, so I love that one. That's one of my favorite parts of it.
Dr. Daniel Amen: R is Responsibility. It's your responsibility, and I love ... You actually taught me this. Responsibility is not about-
Tana Amen: Blame.
Dr. Daniel Amen: -blame or guilt. It's about your ability to respond to whatever situation you're in.
Tana Amen: Right, so you can take 100% responsibility for a situation, even if it's that you got cancer or something terrible happened in your life and you weren't to blame, the reason I want to take 100% responsibility is because the person who takes responsibility is the one person who can control the situation, or has the ability to change it.
Dr. Daniel Amen: And is the most powerful person.
Tana Amen: Right.
Dr. Daniel Amen: Y is Years long. You need to start developing a plan that you can do for the rest of your life-
Tana Amen: That is rational. There is no gimmicks.
Dr. Daniel Amen: Right. So the first three letters in the word "diet" are die.
Tana Amen: And that is why you do not stick to your resolution, because it is not rational and it's a gimmick, right? So we want something that is a plan, that is something that is part of you that you do because it works and makes you feel better. It makes your brain function better. It improves your memory, your mood, your relationships, your income. When your brain works better, your income is better. Everything in your life is better.
Dr. Daniel Amen: So you make a commitment to your brain, you make a commitment to yourself that, "I'm going to find a lifestyle that works for me, that I love, that loves me back." I think that's the biggest concept I got last year is that whenever I do the right thing for myself, I praise myself and feel good about it.
Tana Amen: Right, [crosstalk 00:11:39]-
Dr. Daniel Amen: That I'm doing the right thing because I'm an adult who loves himself. If you're doing the wrong thing and you're like, "Oh, that's too hard," or "I don't want to deprive myself," all of that noise in your head is setting you up for failure, that to do the right thing is the ultimate act of love. Dennis Prager had this great video I liked that happiness is a moral obligation.
Tana Amen: Oh, that was really good. That was really good.
Dr. Daniel Amen: Yeah, so if you Google it and you just really like it-
Tana Amen: It was excellent.
Dr. Daniel Amen: Anybody knows this who's been raised by an unhappy mother or an unhappy father, that your mood is not just about you. Literally, it is about generations, okay?
Tana Amen: It's like you leak. When you're unhappy, you leak onto other people and it's really yucky, right?
Dr. Daniel Amen: That is so gross to think about it.
Tana Amen: Right, but unhappiness leaks. It's annoying.
Dr. Daniel Amen: Use your brain, and have a great year. Thank you for listening to the Brain Warrior's Way podcast. Go to iTunes and leave a review and you'll automatically be entered into a drawing to get a free signed copy of the Brain Warrior's Way and the Brain Warrior's Way Cookbook we give away every month.