Speaker 1: We weigh twenty more pounds than we did in the
Speaker 1: nineteen sixties, and we've only grown an inch taller on average.
Speaker 1: And this is going to be the first generation of
Speaker 1: Americans that won't live as long of a life as
Speaker 1: their parents. Welcome to the one you feed Throughout time,
Speaker 1: great thinkers have recognized the importance of the thoughts we have.
Speaker 1: Quotes like garbage in, garbage out, or you are what
Speaker 1: you think ring true. And yet for many of us,
Speaker 1: our thoughts don't strengthen or empower us. We tend toward negativity,
Speaker 1: self pity, jealousy, or fear. We see what we don't
Speaker 1: have instead of what we do. We think things that
Speaker 1: hold us back and dampen our spirit. But it's not
Speaker 1: just about thinking. Our actions matter. It takes conscious, consistent,
Speaker 1: and creative effort to make a life worth living. This
Speaker 1: podcast is about how other people keep them else moving
Speaker 1: in the right direction, how they feed their good wolf.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the show. Our guest today is Tim Ryan,
Speaker 1: the U S Representative for Ohio's thirteen congressional district, serving
Speaker 1: since two thousand three. Tim is the author of a
Speaker 1: Mindful Nation, How a simple practice can help us reduce
Speaker 1: stress improve performance and recapture the American spirit. Tim also
Speaker 1: has a new book called The Real Food Revolution, Healthy Eating,
Speaker 1: Green Groceries in the Return of the American Family Farm.
Speaker 1: Before we get to the interview, I did want to
Speaker 1: mention that the One You Feed podcast was recently included
Speaker 1: in iTunes Best Podcasts of two thousand and fourteen. Eric
Speaker 1: and I would like to thank our listeners for all
Speaker 1: the support in the dedication, So keep coming back you Hi.
Speaker 1: Congressman Ryan, Welcome to the show. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: I am really excited that we were able to get
Speaker 1: you on for of variety of reasons. One is, uh,
Speaker 1: you're in Ohio and like us, we're based in Columbus. Uh.
Speaker 1: Two is you're a congressman, which is great. And three
Speaker 1: you are really into mindfulness, which is a big part
Speaker 1: of what we talked about on the show a lot.
Speaker 1: So I'm really glad that we were able to find
Speaker 1: a time to meet up. Yeah. I'm excited too, And
Speaker 1: I'm glad you're pushing out the message in Ohio because
Speaker 1: I think it's a great place for us to you know,
Speaker 1: really transformed the state with some of these ideas and practices. Yep.
Speaker 1: So our podcast is called The One You Feed, and
Speaker 1: it's based on the parable of two Wolves, where there's
Speaker 1: a grandfather who's talking with his grandson and he says,
Speaker 1: in life, there are two wolves inside of us. One
Speaker 1: is a good wolf, which represents things like kindness and
Speaker 1: bravery and love, and the other is a bad wolf,
Speaker 1: which represents things like greed and hatred and fear. And
Speaker 1: the grandson stops for a second and he thinks about it,
Speaker 1: and he looks up at his grandfather and he says, well, grandfather,
Speaker 1: which and winds, and the grandfather says, the one you feed.
Speaker 1: So I'd like to start off by asking you how
Speaker 1: that parable uh applies to you and your work and
Speaker 1: in your life. Well, I think, uh, you know, attention
Speaker 1: and awareness practices like mindfulness help you to see what
Speaker 1: is going on inside of you and helps you to
Speaker 1: see um those emotions as they arise in you. In
Speaker 1: in help you cultivate awareness so that you can see
Speaker 1: what you're thinking about um. And so a lot of
Speaker 1: times you don't know which one you're feeding. You may
Speaker 1: have some delusionary idea that you're feeding one and you're
Speaker 1: actually feeding the other, uh, And without I think taking
Speaker 1: time in your day or in your life, to have
Speaker 1: some contemplation, have some present moment awareness, see and spend
Speaker 1: time with the TV off and the radio off and
Speaker 1: the UH and the technology put down so that you
Speaker 1: can actually see what's going on inside yourself, UM, so
Speaker 1: that you can properly feed the ones that you want.
Speaker 1: And I think the work that I do with trying
Speaker 1: to get these awareness and attention practices in the schools,
Speaker 1: in the healthcare to help with veterans who are coming
Speaker 1: back with post traumatic stress is really the first step
Speaker 1: to knowing who, which UH, which wolf you're going to feed.
Speaker 1: And so I think it's fundamental to living a good
Speaker 1: life and living with an intention of you know what
Speaker 1: you want to do and be and in your own life. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree that awareness is such a such a key thing.
Speaker 1: And one of the things that I think meditation has
Speaker 1: brought to me is the way I describe it as
Speaker 1: there's an old line I think it was Victor Frankel,
Speaker 1: about you know, between stimulus and response, there's a space.
Speaker 1: And I found that by practicing meditation and mindfulness that
Speaker 1: space is just a little bit longer, it's a little
Speaker 1: bit has a little bit more space in there. For
Speaker 1: me to sort of think about what's happening before I
Speaker 1: either react in a certain way or habitually start to
Speaker 1: sort of think about it in a certain way, right,
Speaker 1: and your anger will arise in that space. And then
Speaker 1: if you've got enough space in there, then you will
Speaker 1: realize that you don't have to hold onto it. You know,
Speaker 1: you don't have to uh, you know, take the bait
Speaker 1: and then run with the anger or run with the fear. Uh.
Speaker 1: Give it enough space and it'll pass in the uh.
Speaker 1: And that's what the awareness practice does for you. Yep.
Speaker 1: So you wrote a book called a Mindful Nation, How
Speaker 1: a simple practice can help us reduce stress, improve performance,
Speaker 1: and recapture the American spirit. What eventually or what originally
Speaker 1: brought you to mindfulness or meditation? Where was your initial
Speaker 1: introduction to that? Well, I trace it back really to
Speaker 1: growing up Catholic. Uh. You know, I went to Catholic
Speaker 1: school for you know, twelve or thirteen years. Um. I
Speaker 1: had a lot of people in my life that uh
Speaker 1: made it a point to take time to pray the rosary,
Speaker 1: to meditate, to say their prayers, and that kind of
Speaker 1: contemplative aspect of life was always valued, you know, growing up,
Speaker 1: and so I trace it back to that kind of
Speaker 1: culture that I grew up in with my grandparents praying
Speaker 1: the Rosary, my mom, my football coaches. I would see
Speaker 1: duck into the chapel at school, um to say their
Speaker 1: prayers and meditate and all that stuff. So um, and
Speaker 1: then on and off throughout my life, like most people
Speaker 1: did it for two days and thought, wow, this is great.
Speaker 1: I can focus more, I can concentrate better. I'm kinder.
Speaker 1: And then I don't do it for like a year,
Speaker 1: you know, And then you do it for three days,
Speaker 1: and then you don't do it for six months. And
Speaker 1: that went on for you know, really probably a decade
Speaker 1: or more. And then identified day retreat. Uh. That really
Speaker 1: kind of expanded my practice or developed a practice into
Speaker 1: a daily session that I do most most uh every day.
Speaker 1: And but it goes back to just these points throughout
Speaker 1: my life where adults were reinforcing that kind of approach. Excellent.
Speaker 1: And so what does you know, mindfulness is a pretty
Speaker 1: vague term. I think people interpret it differently. What does
Speaker 1: mindfulness mean to you? Um? Being aware is I think
Speaker 1: more most fundamental I do, like you know John cabot
Speaker 1: Zen's definition of paying attention on purpose to the present
Speaker 1: moment without judging it. Um. And I think that's a
Speaker 1: pretty concise definition of what mindfulness is to me. But
Speaker 1: I think that the short would be the shorter version
Speaker 1: would be being aware. You know, it's awareness mindfulness being
Speaker 1: aware of what's going on outside of you, being aware
Speaker 1: of what's what goes on inside of you, and um.
Speaker 1: The more you can cultivate that awareness, the you know,
Speaker 1: the more aware you are. But I think the better
Speaker 1: decisions you can be and I think the less stress
Speaker 1: you have, because you notice that things are impermanent, you know,
Speaker 1: and always in transition those emotions. You know, you sit
Speaker 1: down in a quiet room and it's just you and
Speaker 1: you know your emotions and your mind. You see that,
Speaker 1: you know, fear can come in for a you know,
Speaker 1: thirty seconds, a minute, two minutes, five minutes, whatever. Then
Speaker 1: it passes and something else comes up, and then something
Speaker 1: else comes up. It's depending on what you're thinking about
Speaker 1: or what's going on in your life. But you start
Speaker 1: to really become aware of all of that internal dialogue
Speaker 1: that's happening. So the short answer is a harness. I
Speaker 1: assume you have a daily meditation practice that you do
Speaker 1: sort of a formal period that you think then helps
Speaker 1: you to be more aware during the rest of the day.
Speaker 1: Is that how you approach it? Yeah, you know, I
Speaker 1: had one in the morning for the longest time, you know, years,
Speaker 1: and then I got married and had a couple of
Speaker 1: step kids, and then about six months ago, I have
Speaker 1: a newborn baby, and the baby did not get the
Speaker 1: memo on my meditation practice. UM, so it's been a
Speaker 1: little on and off in the last six months. But yeah,
Speaker 1: daily practice normally, UM quiet time either on a cushion
Speaker 1: or sitting in a in a chair. UM. The breath practice.
Speaker 1: You know, your mind goes past future, you come back
Speaker 1: to your breath. I try to do a lot of
Speaker 1: body work where I just tried to ground my mind
Speaker 1: into my body. Um to you know, keep it grounded.
Speaker 1: I mean, you've got a couple of really solid anchors
Speaker 1: for your for your mind, that's your breath, which is
Speaker 1: relatively important to your life, and then your body, which
Speaker 1: is always with you as well. So if you want
Speaker 1: to be in the present moment, you know, you can
Speaker 1: really start practicing being rounded in those things that are
Speaker 1: always in the present moment, not your body and your
Speaker 1: your breath, In your book, you talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about a moment in your life where you realized that
Speaker 1: you always had some story going on in your head
Speaker 1: that you never shared with anybody else and you weren't
Speaker 1: entirely conscious of. But it had so much to do
Speaker 1: with always doing things perfectly, and you know, all the
Speaker 1: time and energy you spent trying to uphold that story
Speaker 1: in your mind that you sort of missed your life. Well,
Speaker 1: I think that's it. I mean, once you have the
Speaker 1: awareness that you are daydreaming a lot and not present,
Speaker 1: uh you there's a little bit of regret there to think.
Speaker 1: You know, I was thirty five when I went on
Speaker 1: that retreat. I know still have plenty of moments of
Speaker 1: being distracted and whatnot. But uh yeah, you know, you
Speaker 1: realize you're missing your life. You know, you get in
Speaker 1: a car to drive the work, and you arrive at
Speaker 1: work and you realize, how the hell did I get
Speaker 1: here because you were daydreaming the entire time. Um Or
Speaker 1: you're with your kids and your minds at work, or
Speaker 1: you're with your grandparents who you know are near the
Speaker 1: end of their life and you are thinking about work
Speaker 1: or something else. You know you're not there with them,
Speaker 1: and and to me that's you know, those are the
Speaker 1: things you regret and then you forgive yourself because you
Speaker 1: didn't know any better. But um, you know, ultimately, yeah,
Speaker 1: I had that feeling of you know, why didn't somebody
Speaker 1: teach me this when I was when I was a kid.
Speaker 1: One of the things that you have started to do,
Speaker 1: I know, uh is try and bring some mindfulness to Congress,
Speaker 1: or at least certain members of Congress, which strikes me
Speaker 1: as an overwhelmingly large task and uh, quite a place
Speaker 1: to to remain mindful in. Do you have any stories
Speaker 1: or or anecdotes about how that's been going for you? Well,
Speaker 1: it's a slow but sure. You know, the more um
Speaker 1: kind of publicity and stuff that that I get, um,
Speaker 1: the more people are hearing about it. And uh, I
Speaker 1: have a lot of spouses of members who come and
Speaker 1: and asked, me, uh, you know, they want to meet
Speaker 1: me for lunch. And guy came up and said, Hey,
Speaker 1: my wife wants to meet you for lunch, and I said,
Speaker 1: are you gonna be there? You know, but was into
Speaker 1: meditation and yoga and wanted to meet me because she
Speaker 1: read about me in a couple of articles. So therefore
Speaker 1: the husband Uh, is you know, a little bit more interested. Now.
Speaker 1: I had a guy this morning is you know, three
Speaker 1: or four term congressmen, Um, you know, saw my book
Speaker 1: I was reading, um, you know, in the House Jim,
Speaker 1: and said, hey, you know, I'm you know, we've talked
Speaker 1: about this. I see that book you're reading. I really
Speaker 1: want a book that can help introduce this to me.
Speaker 1: So over time it's been working. We do a session
Speaker 1: once a week with members of Congress in the House Chapel,
Speaker 1: and then we do a session a week where we
Speaker 1: have teachers come in and teach um the staff here,
Speaker 1: so people who are doing meditations with veterans or in
Speaker 1: hospitals and schools and um, you know, in the Marines
Speaker 1: for example. UM, we have them come and lead a
Speaker 1: thirty minute um you know, basically guided meditation for the
Speaker 1: staff here once a week, just to help educate them
Speaker 1: on how kind of pervasive this is within society now
Speaker 1: in all these different areas. So we're trying to push
Speaker 1: it out that way too. UM. But it's you know,
Speaker 1: slow mature, and you know, we're just trying to create
Speaker 1: a little space and a little bit of awareness. Yeah,
Speaker 1: your book is interesting in a in a lot of ways,
Speaker 1: but one of them is that you really walk through
Speaker 1: the ways that mindfulness. I mean, the title was, you
Speaker 1: know it's a simple practice, um, the ways that mindfulness
Speaker 1: can help in schools, with our emergency responders, with our veterans,
Speaker 1: with our health system. UM. And so one of the
Speaker 1: things that you've done as a result of that is
Speaker 1: you've brought mindfulness education into some of the schools back
Speaker 1: in your home district in Youngstown. Can you may be
Speaker 1: given update on how that's going. Yeah, it's going great.
Speaker 1: I mean with the the teachers are really starting to
Speaker 1: see the difference, the change in the in the the students,
Speaker 1: the the incidents of misbehavior or down significantly. In fact,
Speaker 1: one school had no behavioral incidents going in there like
Speaker 1: October of the school of the school year this year. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, the parents are noticing a difference. I've had
Speaker 1: you know, Republican teachers come up to me and said,
Speaker 1: you know, uh, you're always gonna have my vote because
Speaker 1: you know I'm a Democrat. You're always gonna have my
Speaker 1: vote because because of what you've done to this school.
Speaker 1: And uh, you know it's a city school in Warren, Ohio,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, mid size city, you know, multicultural district,
Speaker 1: a lot of economic inequality, bad neighborhoods, you know, the
Speaker 1: whole nine yards. And we went right in there and uh,
Speaker 1: and they're starting to see see a real difference with
Speaker 1: what we're doing. And and so I'm super excited about it,
Speaker 1: and you know, trying to use this as an example
Speaker 1: of how we can um really you know, shift policy
Speaker 1: and let others in the state and local communities see
Speaker 1: you know how fundamental it is. I mean, if you
Speaker 1: if you're trying to teach a kid and they're not
Speaker 1: paying attention, what's the use, you know? And so we
Speaker 1: yell at kids to pay attention, and what these practices
Speaker 1: are are teaching the kid how to pay attention instead
Speaker 1: of just yelling at them to pay attention. And I
Speaker 1: don't know a parent in America that doesn't want their
Speaker 1: child to have a higher ability to mobilize their attention span,
Speaker 1: to have a higher level of focus, to have mental discipline,
Speaker 1: to have resiliency, uh a mental resiliency, and toughness and
Speaker 1: the kind of grittiness that leads to a success. I mean,
Speaker 1: these are the kind of things that ultimately are going
Speaker 1: to be the tools that the kid's gonna need when
Speaker 1: they go out into the real world. And so there's
Speaker 1: not a better, more fundamental skill set that we can
Speaker 1: give these kids. And that's why you're seeing this in
Speaker 1: corporate America. I mean, you're seeing in the Marine Corps,
Speaker 1: you're seeing it a Google, You're seeing it at Target,
Speaker 1: You're seeing it in other corporations. A lot of the
Speaker 1: Silicon Valley folks are now having embedding into their newer
Speaker 1: companies UM mindfulness type practices and meditation practices because it
Speaker 1: gives them the replenishment, the focus, the attention, uh cultivation,
Speaker 1: the awareness cultivation, the ability to really sit and listen
Speaker 1: and not be jit terry and agitated, but sit down
Speaker 1: and you know a certain amount of relaxation and solve
Speaker 1: these problems. It doesn't mean you're soft. It means you're
Speaker 1: you're tough. You know, it means you're discipline. You've got
Speaker 1: mental discipline. And that's why I say, in places like Ohio,
Speaker 1: I can't imagine, you know, a Republican couple in Delaware
Speaker 1: County in Ohio or a Democratic you know couple in
Speaker 1: you know, Northeast Ohio somewhere, UM, both want the same
Speaker 1: thing for their kids. And I don't know any parent
Speaker 1: that wouldn't want the school system to start teaching these
Speaker 1: kids some of these basic skills that are are really
Speaker 1: hurting or not, they're not hurting. These skills are not
Speaker 1: being developed because of the technology, because of the TV,
Speaker 1: because of the iPhone and the iPad, and the constant
Speaker 1: stimulus that they get from all of these things. Um,
Speaker 1: we've we've got to push back and we better come
Speaker 1: up with some strategies that are going to allow our
Speaker 1: kids to develop their attention span, cultivate that awareness, and
Speaker 1: be functioning adults. I mean a lot of times you
Speaker 1: look at kids, they don't even look in the eye,
Speaker 1: you know, they don't look at you because they're looking
Speaker 1: at their phone and they're they're losing the ability to
Speaker 1: have face to face conversations with people. And to me,
Speaker 1: that's that is not the direction that we want to
Speaker 1: go in as a country. And so these practices, to me,
Speaker 1: you know, if it's good enough for the Marine Corps,
Speaker 1: good enough for the Seattle Seahawks, good enough for the
Speaker 1: Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks,
Speaker 1: you know it's good enough for our kids. And every
Speaker 1: kid should have the opportunity to learn it. You said
Speaker 1: that part about not being soft. We had Dan Harris
Speaker 1: on the show, who wrote a book about mindfulness, the
Speaker 1: ABC News anchor, and he he talks very much about,
Speaker 1: you know, not not losing your edge, and I and
Speaker 1: you you use some terms in there around grittiness and toughness,
Speaker 1: and I'm curious what you think or how you think,
Speaker 1: because I think that the main thing that meditation has,
Speaker 1: you know, Dan says meditation as a bad pr problem, right,
Speaker 1: which is that it's thought of is this soft thing.
Speaker 1: And the terms that you're using are really not soft
Speaker 1: at all, nor shouldn't they be. I mean, I think
Speaker 1: we all respect people who have mental toughness, who can
Speaker 1: get knocked down and get back up, and who can
Speaker 1: do that. While someone who can keep their eye on
Speaker 1: the ball, have a goal and go after that goal
Speaker 1: with all your heart and all your mind and then
Speaker 1: you get knocked off track. Inevitably in life, you're gonna
Speaker 1: get knocked off track. Do you have the ability to
Speaker 1: stay focused and be resilient enough to stay on track
Speaker 1: and get back on track and then keep going. I mean,
Speaker 1: these are the qualities that we really admire in people.
Speaker 1: You know, the redemption, you know, the person who gets
Speaker 1: knocked down and gets back up and and stays in
Speaker 1: the game. These are things that we really appreciate. And
Speaker 1: in these practices, you know, it's hard to sit still.
Speaker 1: It's not easy. You know, it's it's easy to daydream,
Speaker 1: and I think that some day dreaming is appropriate at times,
Speaker 1: but you know, it's not easy to stay focused on
Speaker 1: your breath, stay in your body, your mind goes to
Speaker 1: the passion mind and come back and keep coming back
Speaker 1: and keep coming back. That builds a mental toughness, of
Speaker 1: a tenacity that is needed for you to go out
Speaker 1: into the world. That's not a soft skill, that's a
Speaker 1: that's an essential skill that you need. And which is
Speaker 1: why you know, the Marine Corps UH is interested in
Speaker 1: this stuff and why athletes are starting to really gravitate
Speaker 1: towards it. And it's not just being able to stay
Speaker 1: on track, but also having the awareness of, Okay, when
Speaker 1: do I need to adjust. You know, I'm not putting
Speaker 1: on a helmet and running into a brick wall with
Speaker 1: my head just because the walls in the way. You
Speaker 1: also have to have some awareness of, Okay, I know
Speaker 1: what the goal is. You know, I know, I want
Speaker 1: to go north, but there's a swamp in front of me.
Speaker 1: I need to figure out how to navigate that stuff.
Speaker 1: So you need to be adaptable, but yet keep your
Speaker 1: eye on the ball or your eye on the goal.
Speaker 1: And these are the kind of things and qualities and
Speaker 1: traits that you cultivate while you're doing this that are
Speaker 1: essential for um for success in life and success however
Speaker 1: you determine it, whatever you want your goals and dreams
Speaker 1: to be. And you know, I just feel like in
Speaker 1: a lot of ways, you know, I'm in the hopes
Speaker 1: and dreams of business, you know, I mean, like, how
Speaker 1: do I help young people? How do I help people
Speaker 1: who are sick get into a mindset to be successful,
Speaker 1: to do extraordinary things? And uh, I think this practice
Speaker 1: is really fundamental to doing that, to cultivating that grittiness
Speaker 1: that you need to succeed. Yeah, I think that's a fundamental.
Speaker 1: There's a fundamental misunderstanding about mindfulness or meditation, and it
Speaker 1: was one that plagued me for a long time. It's
Speaker 1: that I think I was too focused on what was
Speaker 1: happening while I was meditating, what what my experience was, Like, Oh,
Speaker 1: I should be really relaxed or I should be really
Speaker 1: happy or and realizing that it didn't really have anything
Speaker 1: to do with that. What it had to do with
Speaker 1: was how it improved the way my mind worked the
Speaker 1: other twenty three and a half hours of the day.
Speaker 1: And it didn't have to do with being blissed out
Speaker 1: in that moment because I rarely am. Um. It had
Speaker 1: to do with with what happened when I got back
Speaker 1: up and went into my day right right exactly. And
Speaker 1: that's it, you know, it's taking it off the cushion,
Speaker 1: it's taking it off the chair. It's you know, you
Speaker 1: go to practice during the week for the game. You know,
Speaker 1: you practice and practice and practice. I mean the sports
Speaker 1: analogies to this for me or are unbelievably connected. And
Speaker 1: you practice, and that's why they call it, you know,
Speaker 1: meditation practice. So that you know, that's not it. It's
Speaker 1: about when you get up and go into the world,
Speaker 1: you have a little bit more awareness, a little bit
Speaker 1: more focused, um, a little bit more kindness in your heart,
Speaker 1: a little more softness you know, off the edge, um,
Speaker 1: but still maintaining that kind of grittiness, you know, and
Speaker 1: it's all right there. There's a lot lot of scientific
Speaker 1: data out there on meditation. You cover a fair amount
Speaker 1: of it in your book. There's been you know, it
Speaker 1: continues to just come out. Do you have a favorite
Speaker 1: study or two maybe you could share with this about
Speaker 1: that gives some scientific basis to the benefits of meditation. Well,
Speaker 1: I like the one UH that I write about in
Speaker 1: UH for psoriasis patients, which was really interesting. They took
Speaker 1: a group of people who have psoriasis, and they separated
Speaker 1: them into two groups. And the one group they at.
Speaker 1: One of the treatments for shariasis is you go into
Speaker 1: a light box. So UH, they put all this both
Speaker 1: groups into a light box. But the one group they
Speaker 1: put into a light box and while they were in
Speaker 1: the light box they practiced mindfulness. They came back and
Speaker 1: the study said that they needed four times less the
Speaker 1: treatments than the original group that just went into the
Speaker 1: light box. So it was so significant they thought they
Speaker 1: screwed the study up. So they went back and they
Speaker 1: did it again. They've got the exact same results four
Speaker 1: times less UH and and treatments UH then than the
Speaker 1: other group. And I love that because it makes a
Speaker 1: couple of points. The first point is that UM, your
Speaker 1: body naturally wants to heal itself. Uh, you have a problem.
Speaker 1: It wants to heal itself if you remove heavy levels
Speaker 1: of stress. You know, diets very important as well, but
Speaker 1: if you remove levels of stress, your body will function
Speaker 1: properly and try to heal itself. So the stress is
Speaker 1: what prevents your body from really healing itself in the
Speaker 1: way that it that it needs to. Then I think
Speaker 1: that's really important. In the other pieces from the public
Speaker 1: policy side, um, which you know, people's eyes tend to
Speaker 1: glaze over, But we do have a national discussion about
Speaker 1: healthcare costs and and you know the the national debt
Speaker 1: which is driven by two healthcare programs in our country,
Speaker 1: Medicaid which serves the poor, and Medicare, which serves the elderly.
Speaker 1: These are the two main drivers of our national debt.
Speaker 1: So if I'm a policy maker and I look at
Speaker 1: that study, and I say, wow, this person practices mindfulness
Speaker 1: and go by in the light box and needs four
Speaker 1: times less treatments. How many how much is it? How
Speaker 1: many people have prisis, and and how much is each treatment?
Speaker 1: And so you take those numbers and you stay multiplying,
Speaker 1: and you say, okay, we're gonna need four times less.
Speaker 1: You start doing the math on this, and do the
Speaker 1: same thing for high blood pressure and ulcers and a
Speaker 1: d D and a d h D and all of
Speaker 1: these things that that I think could um be diminished
Speaker 1: by a mindfulness practice. You start saving real money. And
Speaker 1: I think it's important for conservatives and liberals to say, well,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, we want higher quality of life, we
Speaker 1: want to spend less on healthcare. Well, here's a practice
Speaker 1: that's very low cost, there's no side effects, and you
Speaker 1: know what's the harm if if you don't think it works? Nothing?
Speaker 1: But you know why, so why not give it a try?
Speaker 1: Sometimes in Washington we think, boy, you know, we've got
Speaker 1: this really complicated problem, and if we have a more
Speaker 1: complicated solution, maybe we can fix it. When the reality
Speaker 1: is we need to get back to the fundamentals and
Speaker 1: start simplifying and uh, you know there's nothing more simple
Speaker 1: than you know, trying to relax by by following your breath.
Speaker 1: What are some of the main objections that you come
Speaker 1: across from for lack of a better word, i'll just
Speaker 1: call it mainstream society to these ideas of mindfulness. I
Speaker 1: think there's a general um unawareness really of what it
Speaker 1: is and what it does, or even even knowing about it.
Speaker 1: You know, a lot of people don't even know what
Speaker 1: the hell it is, you know, I mean, it never
Speaker 1: it has never crossed their their mind. You know, they
Speaker 1: don't know a whole lot about it. And that's changing
Speaker 1: a lot more. Now you see Doctor Oz talking about
Speaker 1: Doctor about it. You can see some of these other
Speaker 1: TV shows are doing, um, you know, stories about it.
Speaker 1: Even one of the sports uh radio and TV shows
Speaker 1: when the when Phil Jackson went to the next they
Speaker 1: were talking about it, what he's doing with that organization. UM.
Speaker 1: A lot of it is people don't know about it
Speaker 1: or they have a misunderstanding of what it actually is. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then you have a small group that is convinced
Speaker 1: that it's you know, some religious uh you know, conspiracy
Speaker 1: coming from somebody, um. And then you have the group
Speaker 1: that knows about it and tries to promote it. So
Speaker 1: I think it needs to be more of an education campaign,
Speaker 1: and I think more people learn about it, see about it,
Speaker 1: here about it, um, the more open will be in
Speaker 1: the real criticism, I think comes from people who aren't
Speaker 1: aware and they say, well, this is this is some religion,
Speaker 1: this is Buddhism or something like that. In the reality
Speaker 1: is this is about awareness, and awareness is a human capability,
Speaker 1: a human quality to be aware as a human being,
Speaker 1: and so to cultivate that awareness. Doesn't matter what religion
Speaker 1: you are. I'm Catholic. I was Catholic before I started
Speaker 1: doing this. I'm Catholic after. I you know, I'm afterwards.
Speaker 1: I haven't changed at all. Um. And many people feel
Speaker 1: like it deepens their religious practice because they're more present
Speaker 1: there in the present moment experiencing what, um, you know,
Speaker 1: God's creation and all the rest. So um. The religion thing,
Speaker 1: I think is the most uh that you hear about most,
Speaker 1: But it's also the most kind of misunderstood. You know.
Speaker 1: I feel like those folks are, um, don't understand actually
Speaker 1: what it is. One of the things I'm always I'm
Speaker 1: always I'm skeptical, and I think people tend to be
Speaker 1: skeptical of things that sound too good to be true. Um.
Speaker 1: And and sometimes some of this this stuff sounds like that.
Speaker 1: And yet a line in your book that I thought
Speaker 1: was really good because it was very very practical and
Speaker 1: sort of laned meditation or mindfulness here, and I'm going
Speaker 1: to read it to you. It says mindfulness won't eliminate
Speaker 1: the responsibilities and pressures that causes to become so scattered,
Speaker 1: but it can help us deal with them in a
Speaker 1: more effective way. Yeah. You know, um, you've got a
Speaker 1: bad back. You know, you go to therapy and you uh,
Speaker 1: you do some exercises, you do some calisthenics or whatever.
Speaker 1: You know, you still got a bad back, but it's
Speaker 1: different now because you have strengthened some muscles around it,
Speaker 1: or you relate to it differently, you are better able
Speaker 1: to kind of deal with it. I think it's the
Speaker 1: same thing. You know, you still have moments where you're
Speaker 1: really scattered. You still have fears and anger and joy
Speaker 1: and everything you attributed to the two different wolves. You
Speaker 1: still have that. You don't make that go away. You know,
Speaker 1: people say sometimes I sit and meditate and I just
Speaker 1: that the stot the thoughts still keep coming, and it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean they're probably not going to stop for a while.
Speaker 1: You know, you just got to relate to them differently
Speaker 1: and recognize that you are not your thoughts, and you
Speaker 1: know you can let them pass. And so I think
Speaker 1: that is you know what I meant. You know, really,
Speaker 1: when I wrote that it's about having a different relationship,
Speaker 1: you know, with whatever it is that you're dealing with,
Speaker 1: and not getting caught up and really making matters worse.
Speaker 1: I mean, we see this a lot when you hurt yourself.
Speaker 1: You you know, you sometimes say, oh, I got a
Speaker 1: pain in my back. Oh my god, I've had this
Speaker 1: pain in my back for a couple of hours. Now,
Speaker 1: you know, my you know, my dad has cancer. Maybe
Speaker 1: it's cancer. You know. You like, you go from A
Speaker 1: to Z and you create an entire story as opposed
Speaker 1: to saying, well, I got something in my back. I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna see what it is and write it out,
Speaker 1: and of course you're gonna think the worst. Let that go.
Speaker 1: It's okay. You know. We build these stories up and
Speaker 1: then you stress out about it and it makes matters worse. Um,
Speaker 1: instead of having some clarity with what's really happening, which
Speaker 1: may which maybe nothing, you know, maybe you've got a
Speaker 1: kink in your back, you know exactly. So you wrote
Speaker 1: another book that maybe we could just spend a couple
Speaker 1: of minutes on before we wrap up here, called The
Speaker 1: Real Food Revolution, Healthy Eating, Green Groceries and the Return
Speaker 1: of the American Family Farm. Can you give us a
Speaker 1: little overview of the book and what what you're trying
Speaker 1: to impart there. Well, our country is sick. We have
Speaker 1: a sick country. We have in the next few years,
Speaker 1: half the country is going to have either diabetes or
Speaker 1: pre diabetes. UM. We have one in four teenagers that
Speaker 1: have either diabetes or pre diabetes. UM. We weighed twenty
Speaker 1: more pounds than we did in the nineteen sixties and
Speaker 1: we've only grown an inch towler on average. And this
Speaker 1: is going to be the first generation of Americans that
Speaker 1: won't live as healthy or as long of a lot
Speaker 1: as their parents first generation. UM. So we're a sick
Speaker 1: country right now. And if we want to be competitive economically,
Speaker 1: we need to be a healthy country. And the system
Speaker 1: that is currently in place makes um really highly processed,
Speaker 1: bad fake food with Dr Mark Hyman calls food like
Speaker 1: substances UM really cheap and affordable. So all the people
Speaker 1: who you know aren't making the money they were making
Speaker 1: and struggling to make ends meet to have access to this,
Speaker 1: you know, cheap food, and we subsidize that with taxpayer money.
Speaker 1: And this of course is making a sick Like I
Speaker 1: said earlier, with the Medicare program, the Medicaid program, and
Speaker 1: then we subsidize the healthcare, whether it's through the Affordable
Speaker 1: Care Act or these other programs, to pay for healthcare
Speaker 1: for people who are sick because they're eating cheap food.
Speaker 1: It's highly subsidized and made cheap by the subsidies that
Speaker 1: the farmers get to grow these kind of crops. It's insane, right.
Speaker 1: So a real food revolution is about how do we
Speaker 1: shift those subsidies into creating more access to fresh fruits
Speaker 1: and vegetables, real food and therefore driving down our healthcare costs.
Speaker 1: And how we can do that in urban areas, how
Speaker 1: we can do that and you know all kinds of
Speaker 1: farming land and places like Ohio um to really reform
Speaker 1: our our food system and our agricultural system. It is
Speaker 1: kind of stunning when you when you dig into the
Speaker 1: data and learn more about that stuff. I've typically just
Speaker 1: until really the last year, not not cared too much
Speaker 1: about diet, I mean enough to to stay relatively healthy,
Speaker 1: but not paid too much attention to what's really going on.
Speaker 1: And when you get into some of that stuff that
Speaker 1: the numbers of you know, the diabetes, the pre diabetes,
Speaker 1: the obesity at staggering and you look at to your
Speaker 1: point the subsidies and the type of food that's widely available,
Speaker 1: and it's another one of those that reminds me of
Speaker 1: what you're saying with mindfulness that there are some really easy,
Speaker 1: low cost solutions out there that UM is. Of course,
Speaker 1: sometimes why I think that they're not more UM widely
Speaker 1: pursued because there's no real way to make money on them.
Speaker 1: If you're you know, the government can save money, but
Speaker 1: there's no way to make money on them in as
Speaker 1: much in the private sphere, which I think sometimes stops
Speaker 1: them from getting the momentum they could otherwise. Yeah, well
Speaker 1: that's why, you know, I say we need a revolution,
Speaker 1: you know, we need an organic UM growing uh. You know,
Speaker 1: people power movement in the country by those very same
Speaker 1: soccer moms in Delaware County in Ohio or other suburban
Speaker 1: areas in America that are really concerned that their kids
Speaker 1: aren't going to be healthy. You know, what are these
Speaker 1: kids eating in school? And I know people say, you know,
Speaker 1: what's the cost of changing the system, or what's the
Speaker 1: cost of not saving the system or changing the system?
Speaker 1: The cost is your kid is not going to live
Speaker 1: as long as you did. For the first time in
Speaker 1: the history of our country. I mean, that is amazing.
Speaker 1: And and so you know, we're gonna we're gonna know
Speaker 1: that the you know, the cost of anything of or
Speaker 1: the cost of everything and the value of nothing. And
Speaker 1: then you know, if we value our kids health, if
Speaker 1: we want to be competitive, I mean, here's the thing.
Speaker 1: We only have three d million people in America. Our
Speaker 1: kids that graduate from our our high schools and our
Speaker 1: colleges and our community colleges are competing with China one
Speaker 1: point three or four billion people, or India at one
Speaker 1: point three or four billion people. We only have three million.
Speaker 1: You know, we better be ready to kick some butt.
Speaker 1: And we better be healthy and have a focus and concentration,
Speaker 1: mental discipline, physical discipline, create activity, awareness of what's going
Speaker 1: on and changes in the economy. We better be innovative.
Speaker 1: You can't do that if you're sick. You know, you
Speaker 1: can't do that with diabetes, with everybody having type two diabetes,
Speaker 1: you just can't do it. You can't do it with
Speaker 1: the sick workforce, you can't do it with the sick country.
Speaker 1: And and the reality of it is, we better fix this,
Speaker 1: and we better fix it fast, or we're going to
Speaker 1: continue to fall behind in our in our health care system.
Speaker 1: It's gonna collapse on its own weight, because there's no
Speaker 1: way if half the country has diabetes, we're gonna be able.
Speaker 1: We're gonna spend our entire federal budget on uh, taking
Speaker 1: care of people that are sick with you know, these
Speaker 1: things that come from eating highly processed food and and
Speaker 1: these food like substances that they just add sugar and
Speaker 1: fat and salt to them, where if you didn't ad it,
Speaker 1: it would be cardboard. UH can't have it, you know,
Speaker 1: And the levels of sugar and some of these um
Speaker 1: products are unbell eviable. We just we just set a
Speaker 1: letter to the f d A saying that they should change.
Speaker 1: If you look on the back of a product, it
Speaker 1: will say grams of sugar in there. Well, nobody knows
Speaker 1: what the hellogram of sugar is, you know, I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't think anybody else does. So we said convert
Speaker 1: that to teaspoons. So for every four grams is one teaspoon.
Speaker 1: Now you go and you try to even get yogurt
Speaker 1: and there'll be they grams of sugar in there, which
Speaker 1: is like five teaspoons of sugar. So would you give
Speaker 1: your kid five teaspoons of sugar, you know, and say
Speaker 1: this is healthy. So we've got to help the consumer
Speaker 1: to try to understand this. And I'm just saying, like
Speaker 1: we can't. We've got to do something. I'm not a prude.
Speaker 1: The first story in my book is that I'm addicted
Speaker 1: to chicken wings and ice cream. I mean, I love it,
Speaker 1: you know. I love to watch football and eat chicken
Speaker 1: wings and have a glass of beer and every now
Speaker 1: and again have some ice cream. I'm just saying, you
Speaker 1: can't do that everything all day, and you can't eat
Speaker 1: and drink gallons of pop and uh and expect to
Speaker 1: be healthy. And what's happening now is we're sick and
Speaker 1: we've got to change it. We've got to change it now.
Speaker 1: I agree. Well, I think that brings us to the
Speaker 1: end of our time. Tim, But thanks so much for
Speaker 1: being on the show. I am very proud to be
Speaker 1: in Ohio and have you as one of our congressmen. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. It's great to be with you.
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, I think there's a lot of
Speaker 1: people in Ohio and across the country that are interested
Speaker 1: in these issues, and I look forward to hopefully we
Speaker 1: can you know, build an army across the country that
Speaker 1: can help change the policies in Washington and our state
Speaker 1: capitals across the country to bring about some real change
Speaker 1: for the sake of our kids. Well, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: We'll talk again soon. Bye. Thank you. M. You can
Speaker 1: learn more about this podcast and Tim Ryan at one
Speaker 1: you feed dot net slash Tim Ryan