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Speaker 1: Good morning, good afternoon, Good evening. Emilyavonni. Here you are

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Speaker 1: listening to another installment of Hurdle Moment from Hurdle, a

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Speaker 1: wellness focused podcast to reconnect with everyone from your favorite

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Speaker 1: athletes to top experts in industry CEOs about their highest highs,

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Speaker 1: toughest moments, and everything in between. We all go through

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Speaker 1: hurdles in life, and my goal through these discussions is

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Speaker 1: to empower you to better navigate yours and move with

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Speaker 1: intention so that you can stride towards your own big

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Speaker 1: potential and of course have some fun along the way.

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Speaker 1: For today's episode, I am sitting down with doctor Greg Hammer.

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Speaker 1: He's a Stanford University professor and best selling author as

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Speaker 1: well as a mindfulness expert, and we are chatting about

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Speaker 1: his three minute strategy to manage stress and increase your resilience.

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Speaker 1: Trust me, I'm right there with you. The last few

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Speaker 1: years have been a time gesturing behind this microphone, and

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Speaker 1: with everything that's been going on in the world, burnout

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Speaker 1: feels more prevalent than ever and that's because it truly is.

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Speaker 1: According to a survey that was put together by Deloitte,

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Speaker 1: including one thousand different respondents, seventy seven percent say that

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Speaker 1: they had experienced the burnout at their current job, and

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Speaker 1: ninety one percent say that the unmanageable stress or frustration

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Speaker 1: impacts the quality of their work, not to mention that

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Speaker 1: that burnout also negatively impacts their personal relationships. Again, I

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Speaker 1: get it, I've been there. Heck, sometimes I wonder if

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Speaker 1: I'm there right now. And that is exactly why I

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Speaker 1: decided to have this conversation with doctor Hammer for the show,

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Speaker 1: because who doesn't want to have tools in their toolbox

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Speaker 1: to navigating the things feel as though they are beyond

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Speaker 1: our control. In today's episode, doctor Hammer shares with us

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Speaker 1: the four pillars of what he calls his GAIN method,

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Speaker 1: which stands for gratitude, acceptance, intention, and non judgmental. He

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Speaker 1: talks us through how in just three minutes a day,

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Speaker 1: you can decrease negative thoughts and even potentially rewire your brain.

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Speaker 1: Trust me, it's truly possible. We talk about the importance

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Speaker 1: of daily practice over time, plus what it means to

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Speaker 1: be truly intentional and how you can bring intentionality into

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Speaker 1: your every day. Really found a lot of helpful takeaways

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Speaker 1: in this episode, in this conversation, and I know that

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Speaker 1: you will too. I want to make a quick call

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Speaker 1: out a lot of you really loved last week's episode

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Speaker 1: on imposter syndrome. I'm going to make sure to link

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Speaker 1: that in the show notes to this episode. I want

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Speaker 1: to make content that serves you. I want to be

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Speaker 1: talking to experts and chatting about the things that you

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Speaker 1: are interested in. So if you have a specific question,

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Speaker 1: if there's something that you want to hear about on

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Speaker 1: the show, I am all ears the link to leave

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Speaker 1: me a voice message, say hello, ask a question, do

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Speaker 1: whatever you want. That link is there for you in

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Speaker 1: the show notes. Also, feel free to drop us a

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Speaker 1: line over email over at Hello at hurdle dot us.

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Speaker 1: Make sure you're following along with Hurdle over on social

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Speaker 1: It's at Hurdle Podcast. I am over at Emily Abodi

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Speaker 1: And with that, let's get to it. Let's get to hurdling. Today,

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Speaker 1: I am sitting down with doctor Greg Hammer. He is

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Speaker 1: a professor at Stanford University. He's also a physician and

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Speaker 1: best selling author. How are you doing today, doctor Hammer.

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Speaker 2: I'm doing very well. Nice to be with you.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for taking the time. This is

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Speaker 1: admittedly one of the first things I'm doing today, aside

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Speaker 1: from organizing for the week, and I feel like it's

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Speaker 1: very appropriate since we're here to talk about mindfulness and

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Speaker 1: kind of getting a rect together. Were you always interested

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Speaker 1: in this field of study.

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Speaker 2: No. I have always been interested in seeking the truth

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Speaker 2: the usual big questions, ever since I was a little boy,

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Speaker 2: and I got into astronomy as a school age and

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Speaker 2: middle school child and high school student, and I think

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Speaker 2: that sort of expanded my interest in the big picture,

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Speaker 2: let's say, so, I've always been very interested in that.

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Speaker 2: I would say that, you know, mindfulness itself and the

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Speaker 2: very simple message of mindfulness is something relatively recent to

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Speaker 2: most of us. I mean really, mindfulness practice came to

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Speaker 2: the United States in the late nineteen seventies with doctor

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Speaker 2: John cabots In, who's one of my heroes, But it

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Speaker 2: really didn't become a thing that we talk about in

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Speaker 2: a term that we use until I don't know, probably ten,

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Speaker 2: maybe fifteen years ago. But in the meantime, I have

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Speaker 2: been a longtime student of ad vida and they both

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Speaker 2: really come from a Buddhist philosophy, that is advida and mindfulness.

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Speaker 2: Doctor cabots And himself was a longtime student of Buddhism,

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Speaker 2: and so yeah, I would say lifetime pursuit, if you will,

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Speaker 2: ten or fifteen year realization that there's nothing to pursue.

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Speaker 1: Interesting expand on that a little bit, Well, the.

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Speaker 2: Truth is within us, and I believe that happiness is

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Speaker 2: our true nature, and so it's already there. And like others,

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Speaker 2: I had really been looking outside myself my whole life,

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Speaker 2: either looking through a telescope to find the truth or

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Speaker 2: simply looking for it in general. And I think one

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Speaker 2: of the tenets of at vida and mindfulness too is

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Speaker 2: really that there's nothing for which to look. It's already there.

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Speaker 2: We just have to allow ourselves to sink into the

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Speaker 2: present moment, and that's where truth and happiness lie. It's

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Speaker 2: just that normally we are so distracted with the past

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Speaker 2: and the future that it's difficult for us to be present.

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Speaker 2: And I think that's the way that our brains have

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Speaker 2: been wired over tens of thousands of years of evolution,

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Speaker 2: possibly since early Homo sapiens, but certainly for the last

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Speaker 2: fifty thousand years or so. We are wired to really

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Speaker 2: focus on the past, and I think mainly on the

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Speaker 2: future in terms of our forebears, but most of us

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Speaker 2: are wired to really overthink the past and the future

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Speaker 2: and not spend enough time in the present moment. We

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Speaker 2: all have occasions where we experience the present moment but

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Speaker 2: not enough of them. And the other way that I

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Speaker 2: think our brains have become wired is that we have

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Speaker 2: a negativity bias. We tend to remember the negative and

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Speaker 2: forget the positive. And one can kind of explain these

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Speaker 2: things on an evolutionary basis. Some of these qualities in

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Speaker 2: the ways that our brain neurons are connected may have

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Speaker 2: been adaptive at one point, but they are no longer adaptive,

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Speaker 2: at least to the extent to which we tend to

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Speaker 2: embrace them. So I would say, you know, it's been

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Speaker 2: about a ten to fifteen year history on my own

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Speaker 2: part of realizing what I consider to be the truth.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, this whole concept thinking about positivity versus activity, and

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Speaker 1: you saying that happiness could be we have an opportunity

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Speaker 1: for that to kind of be the default. Whereas we

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Speaker 1: know that I believe the number and please correct me

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Speaker 1: if you have others to throw out there, but the

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Speaker 1: National Science Foundation throughout that eighty percent of our thoughts

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Speaker 1: are negative. So for all of us navigating these persistent

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Speaker 1: negative thoughts, even if you desire to be in this

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Speaker 1: homeostasis state of happiness, it's quite difficult to get there.

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Speaker 2: Yes, So the idea is that our brains have this

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Speaker 2: amazing quality called neuroplasticity that means we can literally change

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Speaker 2: the way that we think. I don't know if you

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Speaker 2: read Michael Pollin's book How to Change Your Mind, but

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Speaker 2: he's really talking about psychedelics, so that's a separate topic.

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Speaker 2: But the idea is that our brains are malleable in

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Speaker 2: terms of the way we think. So, whether it's through

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Speaker 2: microdosing with psilocybin or simply having a daily intentional practice,

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Speaker 2: the good news is that we can change the way

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Speaker 2: we think. But I do believe that our brains have

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Speaker 2: become wired the way they are over a very long

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Speaker 2: period of time, and we're not going to change the

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Speaker 2: way we think substantially overnight. But if we have intention

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Speaker 2: or purposefulness to change the way we think, we can

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Speaker 2: do it. And it's exciting and it's simple, and it's

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Speaker 2: fun and it's rewarding.

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Speaker 1: Well, first and foremost, I've got to hear about what

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Speaker 1: your regular mindfulness practice looks like, and then we'll talk

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Speaker 1: about getting intentional. So start us there, sure.

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Speaker 2: Well, intention is part of it. So I've spent a

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Speaker 2: long time thinking of what are really the essentials, What

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Speaker 2: is the essence of being present? And I will say

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Speaker 2: that I love doctor Cabotsen's definition of mindfulness, which I

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Speaker 2: think could be the definition of happiness, which is awareness

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Speaker 2: of the present moment, on purpose, non judgmentally. So therein

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Speaker 2: are some of the concepts that I hold dear as

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Speaker 2: primary and essential. One of them is, of course, as

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Speaker 2: we've said, being present. So awareness of the present moment,

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Speaker 2: being able to really sink into the present moment on purpose,

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Speaker 2: and that on purpose intention is essential because if we

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Speaker 2: don't have purpose or intention, we kind of fall into

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Speaker 2: our old ways of thinking, our old habits of negativity

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Speaker 2: and distraction with the past and future. And non judgmentally

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Speaker 2: is so important. Also, so the four elements that I

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Speaker 2: have really come to understand as essential are express in

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Speaker 2: the acronym which is the title of my first book,

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Speaker 2: or at least the first word of the title in

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Speaker 2: capital letters, being gained is an acronym for these four pillars,

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Speaker 2: which are gratitude, acceptance, intention, and non judgment. So they

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Speaker 2: have those elements of on purpose, the eye and gain

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Speaker 2: being intention and the end and being en and game

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Speaker 2: being non judgment. So these I think are the four essentials.

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Speaker 2: And so my practice and the practice that I teach

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Speaker 2: and write about is simply based on gain principles. So

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Speaker 2: my daily practice is opening the blinds, hopefully there's some

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Speaker 2: light out there. Sometimes in the winter it's not quite

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Speaker 2: light yet, but doing the morning hygiene thing, and then

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Speaker 2: finding a comfortable place to sit. And I've kind of

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Speaker 2: made it start with a three minute practice because most

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Speaker 2: people think that meditation means you have to sit for

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Speaker 2: at least thirty minutes without moving or scratching an itche

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Speaker 2: possibly in an uncomfortable position, and mainly without having any

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Speaker 2: thoughts in your mind, which is virtually impossible for most people.

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Speaker 2: So I've actually morphed that into a three minute practice,

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Speaker 2: so you can sit wherever you want, just in a

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Speaker 2: comfortable chair is fine. If you have an itch, it's

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Speaker 2: okay to scratch it. And instead of trying to banish

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Speaker 2: all thoughts from the mind, I'm giving you these four

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Speaker 2: things to think about sequentially. It's really five because it

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Speaker 2: starts with the breath, So it starts with focusing on

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Speaker 2: the breath, slowing the breath down. This actually activates something

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Speaker 2: called our parasympathetic nervous system, which is the one that

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Speaker 2: opposes the fight or flight or freeze sympathetic nervous system.

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Speaker 2: So when we activate the parasympathetic nervous system, it slows

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Speaker 2: our heart rate, it lowers our blood pressure in a

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Speaker 2: healthy way, lowers the amount of adrenaline and cortisol in

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Speaker 2: our blood. We start to feel more positive just by

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Speaker 2: focusing on our breath. Then we actually do a contemplative

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Speaker 2: meditation for thirty or forty five seconds each of these

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Speaker 2: four gain principles. So I start with that for which

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Speaker 2: I'm grateful, and again my eyes are closed. I'm sitting

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Speaker 2: in a comfortable place. I have really focused on my

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Speaker 2: breath and slowing it down, which I kind of continue

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Speaker 2: to do throughout this three to five minute period. Focus

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Speaker 2: on that for which I'm grateful. You know, my next

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Speaker 2: meditation will be gratitude and meeting you at sharing a

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Speaker 2: lovely half an hour or so with you, a new friend.

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Speaker 2: I'm so grateful for all of the love in my life,

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Speaker 2: my family, my friends, my job. I feel very privileged

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Speaker 2: to do what I do, serving my neighbors, my community

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Speaker 2: so much for which would be grateful, my health, etc.

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Speaker 2: Then I transition to the A and gain, which is

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Speaker 2: acceptance because pain is a part of life as much

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Speaker 2: as joy is, and so we need to accept that

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Speaker 2: because if we try to push it away or not

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Speaker 2: think about it, we amplify our suffering. So there's a

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Speaker 2: formula in the book suffering equals pain time's resistance. We

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Speaker 2: love formulas in medicine. Suffering equals pain times resistance. So

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Speaker 2: the pain is there, Okay, I lost my son at

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Speaker 2: the age of twenty nine six years ago. That pain

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Speaker 2: is always going to be there. However, if I sit

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Speaker 2: and breathe, and I've gone over my gratitude and I

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Speaker 2: bring that pain closer and closer, I opened my chest.

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Speaker 2: I actually visualize opening my heart and bringing that feeling,

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Speaker 2: that experience into my heart and nurturing it, developing it

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Speaker 2: with my heart, and sitting with that for just fifteen

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Speaker 2: or twenty or thirty seconds, I find that I can

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Speaker 2: live with that, and it's not as bad as I

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Speaker 2: thought it would be when I was trying to resist

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Speaker 2: it in a whole variety of ways. And so we

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Speaker 2: you know, we bring an experience that's uncomfortable or painful

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Speaker 2: in and we have that experience, and then we move

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Speaker 2: to the eye and gain, which is intention. And this

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Speaker 2: is where our purposefulness is so important. So we need

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Speaker 2: to fe focus our intention on for one thing, the

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Speaker 2: present moment. So in this gain contemplative meditation, let's first

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Speaker 2: focus on our physical experience. We can actually focus on

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Speaker 2: the sensation of the chair against our body, maybe the

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Speaker 2: tingling sensation and the soles of our feet. I live

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Speaker 2: between the San Francisco and San Jose airport, both of

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Speaker 2: which are you know, twenty miles away or so, so

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Speaker 2: I focus on what I can hear with my eyes closed,

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Speaker 2: breathing slowly. Focused on my breath, I often will hear

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Speaker 2: an airplane going by in the distance, that lovely Doppler

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Speaker 2: effect where it's coming closer and the pitch is increasing

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Speaker 2: and then flying away. It could be, you know, focusing

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Speaker 2: on the slightly sweet smell of the air we're breathing.

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Speaker 2: So we focus on our present experience, and then we

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Speaker 2: pledge as we breathe slowly to be more positive, to

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Speaker 2: focus on the positive things in our life, and then

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Speaker 2: we transition to non judgment. And here a very simple

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Speaker 2: exercise is recognize first that judging is not necessary and

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Speaker 2: usually not positive and not helpful to us. Things don't

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Speaker 2: have to be good or bad. So here we may

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Speaker 2: focus on one of these beautiful NASA images of the

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Speaker 2: Earth apparently suspended in space, and think, the Earth is

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Speaker 2: a planet. It's beautiful, but it really is neither good

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Speaker 2: nor bad. It's just the planet that it is. It's

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Speaker 2: just that it is. And then it's only logical to

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Speaker 2: think that I, too, am a human being. I'm neither

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Speaker 2: good nor bad. I'm just the human being. I'm just

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Speaker 2: a person that I am. And then I moved to

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Speaker 2: the iam ness, the IAM and the breath and the

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Speaker 2: IAM and we sit with this and then we slowly

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Speaker 2: open our eyes and we're ready to go out in

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Speaker 2: the world. And all of that took three or four minutes.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I like this practice because it feels like an

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Speaker 1: entry point that you can approach with ease right in

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Speaker 1: that Oftentimes, as you said at the top of this,

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Speaker 1: we are made to feel like a meditation, a gratitude

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Speaker 1: practice needs to be this whole elaborate thing. And the

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Speaker 1: reality is with these four foundation points you can really

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Speaker 1: make it work for you. Now, when you started integrating

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Speaker 1: this way of practice into your regular routine. Did you

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Speaker 1: find it difficult at first in any way?

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Speaker 2: No, I actually found it refreshingly simple. So you know,

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Speaker 2: I've I love Deepak Chopra, for example, but I have

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Speaker 2: a hard time remembering, you know, the seven Fundamental ways

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Speaker 2: of living or the ten steps to this or that,

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Speaker 2: and life is too complicated. And I have trouble reading

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Speaker 2: about spiritual matters because it's often complex. I think people

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Speaker 2: make it more complicated than it is. My non duality

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Speaker 2: or advita teacher makes it very very simple, very direct,

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Speaker 2: and I love that. So I tried to come up

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Speaker 2: with something that was easy both. You know, I like acronyms.

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Speaker 2: We have tons of them in medicine. If you came

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Speaker 2: on rounds in the intensive care unit, you probably wouldn't

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Speaker 2: understand a word anybody was saying because of all the

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Speaker 2: acronyms that are used, among other things. So I tried

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Speaker 2: to make it very simple, and I found that when

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Speaker 2: I kind of distilled things down to these gain elements,

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Speaker 2: it's so refreshingly easy and simple. As you said, So, yeah,

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Speaker 2: I mean I found everything before that somewhat difficult and complicated,

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Speaker 2: but once I really sat with it and tried to

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Speaker 2: distill things down to an acronym and a practice that

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Speaker 2: would be so simple, not only for me, but for

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Speaker 2: everybody else. It was like ah, you know, it was

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Speaker 2: like an AH moment, even simpler than an AHA moment.

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Speaker 1: It was an AH moment, a breath of fresh air.

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Speaker 1: You know what I'm hearing you say is that this

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Speaker 1: really has worked for you, and that's truly beautiful. Now,

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Speaker 1: for individuals who are interesting in trying this but do

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Speaker 1: feel a little bit of that resistance, understandably, so trying

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Speaker 1: something new can have its challenges, what do you recommend

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Speaker 1: for them to feel a little bit more at ease?

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Speaker 2: I would say, first of all, recognize that we all

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Speaker 2: have this negativity bias. Recognize that we all have trouble

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Speaker 2: being present. So that first thought, actually that we're all

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Speaker 2: made the same way. Our brains are all wired the

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Speaker 2: same way, is so refreshing and such good news for people,

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Speaker 2: because we all think the secret is that we're we

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Speaker 2: have these awful attributes and we feel shame and low

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Speaker 2: self esteem. So first of all, realize that everybody is

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Speaker 2: this way. This is the way we're wired. The second

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Speaker 2: thing is that you know, again, our brains are the

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Speaker 2: way they are, having evolved over a long period of time.

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Speaker 2: We're not going to change things overnight, so have no expectations.

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Speaker 2: Don't just have low expectations. Set your expectations, take them,

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Speaker 2: remove them, set them aside, and then realize that you're

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Speaker 2: gonna take baby steps. Okay, this is a brief practice,

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Speaker 2: and our brains are are not going to change overnight,

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Speaker 2: so it's just baby steps. There's no such thing as failure.

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Speaker 2: I think those concepts will really help people just sort

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Speaker 2: of relax into the practice and not expect a huge

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Speaker 2: change on day one. But I do think that if

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Speaker 2: people set their intention and they do this very simple,

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Speaker 2: as little as three minute practice every morning, Let's say

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Speaker 2: I think it's a great way to start the day.

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Speaker 2: We started talking about Monday morning, so it's a great

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Speaker 2: way to start the day, a great way to start

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Speaker 2: the week. I do think that after days, weeks, a

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Speaker 2: month or two, everybody can look back and say, you know,

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Speaker 2: I'm happier than I used to be. I'm more positive,

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Speaker 2: I'm able to be present and actually notice what's happening

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Speaker 2: right now.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. I love that we keep mentioning this word intention

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Speaker 1: and also getting intentional with this practice. I think that

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Speaker 1: that is something that is easy to overlook, the positive

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Speaker 1: intentions that mean we may have for our life, for

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Speaker 1: our days. In this case, for this practice, for someone

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Speaker 1: who wants to get more intentional with their positivity, where

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Speaker 1: do you recommend that they start?

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Speaker 2: I really think that the gain practice is a great

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Speaker 2: way to start. It's simple, it's easy. You know, maybe

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Speaker 2: spend a minute on the intention at first, you know,

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Speaker 2: thirty or forty five seconds on gratitude acceptance, and then

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Speaker 2: spend a little more time on intention. Try to gradually

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Speaker 2: lengthen the period of time that you're noticing your present

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Speaker 2: physical experience, you know, the pressure of the chair against

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Speaker 2: your body, et cetera. Sit with that, Sit with those sensations,

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Speaker 2: those perceptions that are current, that are right now, for

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Speaker 2: a little bit longer, and then set your intention on

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Speaker 2: being more positive and sit there a little bit longer

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Speaker 2: as you link it to your breath. What happens with

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Speaker 2: these elements and this practice is that when you find

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Speaker 2: you're sinking into your old bad habits of being distracted

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Speaker 2: and negative, a light bulb will go off. Right, so

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Speaker 2: you've been doing your gain practice for a few weeks,

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Speaker 2: when you're being ungrateful or resisting or unintentional and just

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Speaker 2: kind of lapsing into negativity as you get out of

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Speaker 2: bed in the morning and you focus on a body

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Speaker 2: part that is uncomfortable or what have you instead of

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Speaker 2: all the body parts that are working miraculously. Well, you know,

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Speaker 2: you can just sort of gradually lengthen it and sit

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Speaker 2: with the intention part a little bit more. But when

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Speaker 2: you find that you're being unintentional, that light bulb moment

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Speaker 2: will steer you back to being intentional and link taking

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Speaker 2: these elements to your breath as we do, you know,

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Speaker 2: your breath is always accessible. You're always breathing, and even

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Speaker 2: though people may go a whole day without breathing deeply

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Speaker 2: and properly in a way, you know, if you focus

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Speaker 2: on your breath, then these things will just come back

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Speaker 2: to you. It's like a conditioned response. Focus on your

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Speaker 2: breath and you feel gratitude. Focus on your breath, you

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Speaker 2: feel acceptance, et cetera. It's quite miraculous.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And when you say breathing correctly, can you shed

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Speaker 1: a little bit of light on that?

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Speaker 2: Sure? I think that during our morning meditation, but also

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Speaker 2: throughout the day when we think of it, breathe intentionally,

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Speaker 2: so breathe into your belly and slow your breath down.

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Speaker 2: Just take a couple of slow breaths, so actually take

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Speaker 2: your inspiration. You're in breath to a slow count of three,

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Speaker 2: pause to account of three, and let the breath out

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Speaker 2: very slowly and effortlessly to account of four or five,

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Speaker 2: and get in this rhythm where you're slowing your breath

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Speaker 2: down to what may amount to, you know, account of

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Speaker 2: ten three in, pause for three, out for four, and

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Speaker 2: that slows your breathing rate down if you think of it,

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Speaker 2: If if each count is a second one two three,

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Speaker 2: one two three, one two three for a second each,

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Speaker 2: that's ten seconds, So that means your respiratory rate is six.

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Speaker 2: You've slowed your breathing rate down to six, and you're

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Speaker 2: taking slow, deep breaths into your belly. And this will

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Speaker 2: get rid of the carbon dioxide that's in excess, perhaps

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Speaker 2: in your bloodstream, increasing amount of oxygen in your blood.

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Speaker 2: Open those little air sacks in your lung that are

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Speaker 2: tend to collapse, those little LVLI would call this atalecticis

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Speaker 2: when they call apps. So that kind of breathing will

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Speaker 2: just be refreshing. It'll make you feel good, and it

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Speaker 2: will slow you down. It activates the parasympathetic nervous system again,

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Speaker 2: it will lower your adrenaline and cortisol. So that's what

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Speaker 2: I consider sort of proper breathing, if you will. And

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Speaker 2: that's the in breath is through the nose. I think

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Speaker 2: that's important. The outbreath can be through the nose or mouth.

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Speaker 2: So it's just focus breathing and it has a lot

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Speaker 2: of benefits.

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Speaker 1: And when you say through the nose is important, can

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Speaker 1: you elaborate on that?

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Speaker 2: You know, this is really just through what I've read

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Speaker 2: and what I've experienced that we do a lot of

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Speaker 2: breathing through our mouth. Yeah, and I think it mouth

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Speaker 2: breathing when we're awake and when we're asleep actually kind

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Speaker 2: of changes the morphology of our face in ways that

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Speaker 2: are not favorable. It Actually it has negative effects on

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Speaker 2: the openness or patency of our airway, which is a

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Speaker 2: complicated set of structures. It begins with the lips and

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Speaker 2: then outside of the nose, if you will, and then

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Speaker 2: goes deep all the way down into the lung. So,

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Speaker 2: you know, it just seems that breathing through the nose

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Speaker 2: at least taking the inbreath through the nose is beneficial

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Speaker 2: in a number of ways, and breathing through the mouth

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Speaker 2: can actually cause more congestion in the nasal passages and

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Speaker 2: so on and have some deleterious effects of its chronic

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Speaker 2: So I just focus on breathing in through the nose.

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Speaker 2: It seems to feel better to me.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, it feels better to me too. I love

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Speaker 1: what you said before about the choice to focus on

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Speaker 1: the positives in that I'll bring this applicable to what

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Speaker 1: I'm navigating right now. I've had planter fascia i itis

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Speaker 1: for what feels like forever, and every day I wake

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Speaker 1: up and I know it's there. But I choose to

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Speaker 1: be very intentional with my morning routine and lean into

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Speaker 1: my gratitude practice and do my breath work and get

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Speaker 1: to my journaling, and through that exercise, I am choosing

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Speaker 1: to focus on the thing that I can control and

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Speaker 1: the things that feel good and positive about my life,

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Speaker 1: instead of what otherwise would be a very nagging way

432
00:27:08,280 --> 00:27:11,399
Speaker 1: to start the day, which is the unsettling you know,

433
00:27:11,400 --> 00:27:13,959
Speaker 1: a little jolt of pain that I feel when I

434
00:27:14,000 --> 00:27:15,919
Speaker 1: limp out of my bed in the morning. Right, So

435
00:27:16,200 --> 00:27:19,320
Speaker 1: I can recognize that it's there. I can acknowledge that pain,

436
00:27:19,680 --> 00:27:22,159
Speaker 1: but it doesn't mean that that feeling needs to be

437
00:27:22,200 --> 00:27:24,400
Speaker 1: the first thing that I'm going to focus on as

438
00:27:24,400 --> 00:27:27,320
Speaker 1: I go throughout my day. And I do believe that

439
00:27:27,520 --> 00:27:31,520
Speaker 1: it is through that meditation and journaling practice, similar to

440
00:27:31,560 --> 00:27:34,680
Speaker 1: your gain practice, that has enabled me to get out

441
00:27:34,760 --> 00:27:39,760
Speaker 1: of that frustration point, which admittedly has been a hard

442
00:27:39,880 --> 00:27:42,600
Speaker 1: place to get to without a doubt.

443
00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:46,560
Speaker 2: Well, you know that, I think what you're describing is resistance, right,

444
00:27:46,680 --> 00:27:49,160
Speaker 2: So again it's the opposite of acceptance. So you get

445
00:27:49,160 --> 00:27:51,879
Speaker 2: out of bed and you focus on this pain and

446
00:27:51,920 --> 00:27:56,800
Speaker 2: these unpleasant sensations, and then you know you're thinking, why me,

447
00:27:57,400 --> 00:27:59,760
Speaker 2: et cetera, et cetera. This is a form of resistance,

448
00:27:59,800 --> 00:28:03,119
Speaker 2: is the opposite of acceptance, and so it's not healthy.

449
00:28:03,160 --> 00:28:06,240
Speaker 2: But also I have to say that really understanding the

450
00:28:06,320 --> 00:28:11,159
Speaker 2: way the human body works, the heart, the lungs, the brain,

451
00:28:11,600 --> 00:28:15,760
Speaker 2: the muscular skeletal system, has given me a very deep

452
00:28:15,800 --> 00:28:19,440
Speaker 2: appreciation that we can all share that it's just miraculous

453
00:28:19,480 --> 00:28:22,320
Speaker 2: the way our bodies work. You know, it's a miracle

454
00:28:22,440 --> 00:28:26,119
Speaker 2: that a human baby is born healthy after all of

455
00:28:26,160 --> 00:28:29,960
Speaker 2: the embryologic and fetal development that goes on and the

456
00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:33,720
Speaker 2: blood supply through the placenta and all of these things

457
00:28:33,720 --> 00:28:37,480
Speaker 2: coming together, these cells talking to each other and differentiating

458
00:28:37,520 --> 00:28:41,800
Speaker 2: into skin cells, brain cells. It's a miracle. So when

459
00:28:41,840 --> 00:28:43,520
Speaker 2: we get out of the bed in the morning, yeah,

460
00:28:43,560 --> 00:28:45,880
Speaker 2: you know, like I can tell you, especially as you

461
00:28:45,880 --> 00:28:48,080
Speaker 2: get older, you're probably going to have more aches and pains.

462
00:28:48,800 --> 00:28:53,440
Speaker 2: So the idea is you start to feel that unpleasant

463
00:28:53,480 --> 00:28:57,240
Speaker 2: sensation at the bottom of your feet from your plantar fasciitis,

464
00:28:57,960 --> 00:29:00,480
Speaker 2: and direct your thoughts to what a mirror it is

465
00:29:00,480 --> 00:29:04,280
Speaker 2: that I slept at all, That my body is working,

466
00:29:04,360 --> 00:29:08,480
Speaker 2: my heart's beating. I was asleep and I kept breathing

467
00:29:08,520 --> 00:29:11,920
Speaker 2: the whole time. You know, what a miracle, all of

468
00:29:11,960 --> 00:29:16,959
Speaker 2: that beautiful unity and synchronicity of the human body. And

469
00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:19,480
Speaker 2: when you direct your thoughts to that, it sort of well,

470
00:29:19,560 --> 00:29:22,160
Speaker 2: you know, so there's this one little thing. The idea

471
00:29:22,280 --> 00:29:26,760
Speaker 2: is to redirect your thoughts to the miracle of the

472
00:29:26,800 --> 00:29:29,480
Speaker 2: way the rest of your body is working instead of

473
00:29:29,520 --> 00:29:32,640
Speaker 2: focusing on the unpleasant sensation at the soles of your feet.

474
00:29:33,120 --> 00:29:36,800
Speaker 1: Definitely, and so you have this practice that you do

475
00:29:37,080 --> 00:29:39,560
Speaker 1: in the morning. Is there anything else that you do

476
00:29:39,840 --> 00:29:42,680
Speaker 1: throughout your day or perhaps to cap off your day

477
00:29:42,720 --> 00:29:43,840
Speaker 1: before hitting the bed.

478
00:29:44,680 --> 00:29:48,120
Speaker 2: Yes, well, I think all day whenever it occurs to me,

479
00:29:48,520 --> 00:29:53,560
Speaker 2: whenever I whenever the thought comes, I refocus on the

480
00:29:53,600 --> 00:29:59,160
Speaker 2: breath and bring these gain principles back into focus. And then,

481
00:29:59,640 --> 00:30:01,200
Speaker 2: you know, before I go to sleep, I kind of

482
00:30:01,240 --> 00:30:03,440
Speaker 2: take stock of my day and I realize, you know,

483
00:30:03,480 --> 00:30:06,360
Speaker 2: what a wonderful experience it has been. And I, you know,

484
00:30:06,600 --> 00:30:09,760
Speaker 2: the idea is when you return your focus to your

485
00:30:09,800 --> 00:30:13,720
Speaker 2: breath and you've you've linked your breath to these gain elements,

486
00:30:14,480 --> 00:30:16,560
Speaker 2: they all come back to you when you focus on

487
00:30:16,600 --> 00:30:19,680
Speaker 2: your breath. And so I certainly do that throughout the

488
00:30:19,800 --> 00:30:22,880
Speaker 2: day and before I go to sleep. I'm not a journaler.

489
00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:26,640
Speaker 2: I don't tend to write things down. I started a

490
00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:28,800
Speaker 2: practice where I tried to write down my dreams when

491
00:30:28,800 --> 00:30:32,000
Speaker 2: I woke up, but I found that, you know, I

492
00:30:32,120 --> 00:30:35,120
Speaker 2: just kind of set that aside. So I'm not a journaler.

493
00:30:35,200 --> 00:30:38,640
Speaker 2: I think if you are, it's terrific. It's a terrific

494
00:30:38,680 --> 00:30:43,560
Speaker 2: way to focus on all the positive elements of the

495
00:30:43,640 --> 00:30:45,479
Speaker 2: day that you've had if you do that in the evening.

496
00:30:45,760 --> 00:30:47,720
Speaker 2: But I just simply go back to my breath and

497
00:30:47,760 --> 00:30:49,960
Speaker 2: the gain elements, you know, I might be riding my

498
00:30:50,040 --> 00:30:52,640
Speaker 2: bicycle and I'm going down this narrow lane on my

499
00:30:52,680 --> 00:30:55,680
Speaker 2: way to the hospital, which I do every time I

500
00:30:55,760 --> 00:30:58,440
Speaker 2: ride my bike to the hospital, and you know, maybe

501
00:30:58,440 --> 00:31:01,680
Speaker 2: somebody is walking in the path. And as I get closer,

502
00:31:01,720 --> 00:31:03,320
Speaker 2: I see, well, they're in the middle. I'm gonna have

503
00:31:03,320 --> 00:31:05,520
Speaker 2: to go around them. It's kind of inconsiderate of them

504
00:31:05,560 --> 00:31:08,160
Speaker 2: not to walk on the side. And there's this beautiful

505
00:31:08,240 --> 00:31:11,120
Speaker 2: light filtering through the tree tops, and this person is

506
00:31:11,120 --> 00:31:14,880
Speaker 2: looking at their screen on their phone, and I've noticed

507
00:31:14,880 --> 00:31:16,720
Speaker 2: they have buds in their ears. I start to make

508
00:31:16,760 --> 00:31:20,000
Speaker 2: all these judgments, a light bulb goes off, Hey, I

509
00:31:20,080 --> 00:31:22,080
Speaker 2: just did my gain meditation. I let go of all

510
00:31:22,120 --> 00:31:25,560
Speaker 2: the judgment and I kind of laugh at myself drop

511
00:31:25,640 --> 00:31:27,760
Speaker 2: the judgment. And as I go by that person, I

512
00:31:27,760 --> 00:31:29,720
Speaker 2: look down and smile and they look up at me

513
00:31:29,760 --> 00:31:32,600
Speaker 2: and smile. I got a little hito dopamine instead of

514
00:31:32,640 --> 00:31:36,800
Speaker 2: having this negative judgment experience. And so these light bulb

515
00:31:36,840 --> 00:31:40,160
Speaker 2: moments happen throughout the day, and the more you kind

516
00:31:40,160 --> 00:31:43,240
Speaker 2: of settle into this practice, the more automatic that becomes.

517
00:31:43,920 --> 00:31:47,920
Speaker 1: I really enjoy how you tried something and recognized, Okay,

518
00:31:47,920 --> 00:31:51,120
Speaker 1: this doesn't feel right for me and without judgment. Again,

519
00:31:51,160 --> 00:31:53,600
Speaker 1: going to this non judgmental place, you let it go

520
00:31:53,960 --> 00:31:58,320
Speaker 1: right instead of forcing yourself to really linger in this routine,

521
00:31:58,400 --> 00:32:01,160
Speaker 1: maybe because you feel as though you should be doing

522
00:32:01,200 --> 00:32:03,280
Speaker 1: something like that, and that can be challenging as well.

523
00:32:03,360 --> 00:32:04,160
Speaker 1: Letting things go.

524
00:32:05,400 --> 00:32:07,320
Speaker 2: Yes, I mean, I think there's certain things we need

525
00:32:07,360 --> 00:32:10,680
Speaker 2: to persist at, right, we need to really even though

526
00:32:10,720 --> 00:32:13,320
Speaker 2: it doesn't feel right, maybe try to think about it

527
00:32:13,320 --> 00:32:15,040
Speaker 2: in a different way, but keep doing it, like I

528
00:32:15,080 --> 00:32:17,600
Speaker 2: think going out for a walk in nature, even just

529
00:32:17,680 --> 00:32:20,400
Speaker 2: walking around the block, especially during COVID when people were

530
00:32:20,400 --> 00:32:23,840
Speaker 2: so cooped up. You know, maybe at first it felt like, oh,

531
00:32:23,840 --> 00:32:26,720
Speaker 2: I'd rather be sitting in my chair my computer. But

532
00:32:26,920 --> 00:32:31,200
Speaker 2: we do have to have intention or purposefulness to form

533
00:32:31,440 --> 00:32:34,320
Speaker 2: new ways of being, new habits. So yes, you have

534
00:32:34,360 --> 00:32:37,040
Speaker 2: to be persistent in some ways, but I think you

535
00:32:37,080 --> 00:32:40,160
Speaker 2: also have to develop the intuition to know what's right

536
00:32:40,200 --> 00:32:44,800
Speaker 2: for you. And if writing things down is resonant and

537
00:32:44,840 --> 00:32:47,720
Speaker 2: you find it's easy to get into that habit, that's wonderful.

538
00:32:48,360 --> 00:32:50,480
Speaker 2: But if you've been trying it for a few weeks

539
00:32:50,520 --> 00:32:52,480
Speaker 2: and it's just not your thing and you find that

540
00:32:52,560 --> 00:32:56,160
Speaker 2: you get just as much meaning out of focusing your

541
00:32:56,200 --> 00:32:59,440
Speaker 2: thoughts without writing them down, then that's fine. So we

542
00:32:59,520 --> 00:33:02,880
Speaker 2: have to just n you know, we have to focus

543
00:33:02,920 --> 00:33:09,080
Speaker 2: on good sleep, hygiene, exercise, routines, the way we eat,

544
00:33:09,240 --> 00:33:12,640
Speaker 2: and sometimes we have to change those things, just like

545
00:33:12,680 --> 00:33:16,400
Speaker 2: the way we think in ways that are require persistence

546
00:33:16,440 --> 00:33:19,400
Speaker 2: and baby steps. But there's other things we can try

547
00:33:19,440 --> 00:33:22,800
Speaker 2: and we recognize they're not really necessary and we can

548
00:33:22,880 --> 00:33:27,000
Speaker 2: let them go. So we do have to discern, you know,

549
00:33:27,040 --> 00:33:28,360
Speaker 2: but that's the art of living.

550
00:33:28,160 --> 00:33:30,880
Speaker 1: Isn't it the art of living? It is? It is

551
00:33:30,920 --> 00:33:33,760
Speaker 1: now before I let you go today, Doctor Hammer. Is

552
00:33:33,760 --> 00:33:37,320
Speaker 1: there anything else to add about this three minute gain

553
00:33:37,520 --> 00:33:40,520
Speaker 1: meditation that I am sure many of the people listening

554
00:33:40,600 --> 00:33:43,920
Speaker 1: are about to give a shot, maybe today, maybe tomorrow.

555
00:33:45,640 --> 00:33:48,000
Speaker 2: I think we've I think we've covered it. I really do.

556
00:33:48,200 --> 00:33:50,920
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your time today, doctor Hammer.

557
00:33:50,920 --> 00:33:53,680
Speaker 1: For those that may want to follow along with you,

558
00:33:53,920 --> 00:33:55,719
Speaker 1: how do they do so? Where can they find you?

559
00:33:56,120 --> 00:33:59,600
Speaker 2: Greg Hammer MD dot com, g R E G h

560
00:33:59,640 --> 00:34:03,560
Speaker 2: A N M R MD dot com. That's the website.

561
00:34:03,680 --> 00:34:06,560
Speaker 2: There's also Facebook and Instagram, and I don't know how

562
00:34:06,600 --> 00:34:08,480
Speaker 2: to connect to those, but I'm sure people who are

563
00:34:08,880 --> 00:34:12,000
Speaker 2: social media sapp will figure it out. But greghammer md

564
00:34:12,160 --> 00:34:12,960
Speaker 2: dot com.

565
00:34:12,920 --> 00:34:15,799
Speaker 1: Is a good place to go perfect. I'm over at

566
00:34:15,800 --> 00:34:19,799
Speaker 1: Emily Body and at Hurdle Podcast. Another hurdle conquered. Catch

567
00:34:19,840 --> 00:34:20,560
Speaker 1: you guys next time