Brain Shaman

This episodes discusses the different categories of tools that we can use to improve our health and brain. Specifically, it breaks the tools into 4 different levels or tiers, in descending order of importance:

(1) behavioral tools
(2) nutrition tools
(3) supplement tools
(4) pharmaceutical tools

This was borrowed from and inspired by Andrew Huberman.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

-Andrew Huberman YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@hubermanlab
-Huberman Lab podcast - https://open.spotify.com/show/79CkJF3UJTHFV8Dse3Oy0P

-Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_We_Sleep
-The Matt Walker Podcast - https://open.spotify.com/show/1aIVAabjRjnmiouX0zCzF3

-Sleep Smarter by Shawn Stevenson - https://sleepsmarterbook.com/
-The Model Health Show - https://open.spotify.com/show/6F3aCAq1L6k3eVqfaveMCp

This episode is an adventure through the never-ending challenge that we all face, the conflicting desires between: home vs. the outside, connection vs. independence, the inner world vs. the outer world, etc.

Everything in reality, the universe, and our lives is made of energy. The electromagnetic spectrum ranges from low (cold, dark, silent) frequencies on one end and high (hot, bright, loud) frequencies on the other. 

There are neurochemical, brain-wave, and hormone correlates to these high and low frequencies. They also naturally change over the course of the day, the year, and one's lifetime. 

Like yin and yang, everything in nature constantly cycles between these energies. The key to all health and success is living in accordance with those rhythms and experiencing the entire spectrum of life, along with the rest of nature. 

Modern humans, however, often get stuck somewhere along that cycle. Out of fear, comfort, social pressures, technology, etc., we enter plateaus or, even worse, downward spirals. 

Identify if you are stuck in one of the 4 places discussed in this episode. Also, zoom out and look back on how the flow of energy changed throughout the course of your own life, and how to perhaps regain some of those long-lost ways of being and feeling. 

Michael also does a bit of that in this episode, taking you from his home in California to across the sea in Korea and Japan, and some of the feelings and inner battles in between.

2022, the year that killed my mother and choked my brother into hell, has closed her tired eyes. Never have I felt so shaken yet alive. I am me again. The shattered glass of my loved ones’ souls has cut me open. It hurt. I thought I cried. That is, until tonight. The best New Year’s Eve of my life.

I was hungry. I was satisfied. Finally, the feeling that I have returned back home. Yet I am alone, in my 10 square-foot Osaka apartment. Bawling in the bathtub, the way I used to as a child. The ghosts exited through my blood-shot eyes and trembling body.

The pen is my teddy bear. I didn’t wanna take a bath. I just wanted my bear. But I wasn’t crying because I missed him. I needed him, to help me catch this flock of birds. When they gushed out of me, they flipped me inside out.

The strange world I found myself in was one I used to know. Where words have wings and you are never alone. I used to play here as a child, catching lizards and frogs. And then in college, writing papers on Heidegger and Kant.

Philosophy was my first love. Because it saw me, and I saw it. We spoke the same language and played the same games. Together, we were aliens on an upside-down planet. We didn’t need anyone else. They didn’t seem to want us anyway.

I finally had a teacher and friend. It felt like my first kiss. I was a real boy. She held my hand. Taught me how to ride a pen. The ink burst out like flames. It had the ferocity of a dragon.

“What the hell had I gotten myself into?” I mumbled under my breath.

“Shhh,” she said. “I am taking you home.”

We shot through the dark, and returned to the light. I saw Prancer and Dancer and Santa swimming in the sky. They waved to me and said I was a good boy. I smiled, because for the first time in my life, I believed it.

My snot-tear-covered lips were stuck on repeat, playing four tracks that I could not delete:

“Leave me alone.”
“I’m tired.”
“I don’t want to bother you.”
“I’m sorry.”

Distant echoes from a child, that looked like me. Trapped in a cave, screaming to be seen. Twisting haunted wind-up toys, about to burst. Then a dragon came in, seemed to make matters worse. He roared and shouted, shook everything loose. Ripped me open and brought me back home. Korea, Japan, alcohol, women - it was all just a dream.

Yes, I’m oversharing. Clawing myself out from beneath a world of undersharing. Going up for a breath. Soakin’ in the sun. Reconnecting to my soul and hopping back on my dragon.

“I missed you, good friend. I’m sorry I left.”

“Left?” he belched. “You’ve just been sitting there. And your pie is getting cold.”
“P..pp..pie, I remember pie. Oh, and it’s okay. I like cold pie. I don’t wanna bother you. And anyway, I’m used to it.”

“Cold pie, my tail. I’m not gonna have you freezing to death again.” The dragon whispered out a fire, just big enough for me. I cooked my onigiris on it. They were still in my pocket.

Maybe it wasn’t a dream. But this feels so real. When I write, is when I come to life. Whether hiding in books or blasting through my ink wand, words are the only things that have always been there for me.

When times are good, they leave me alone and let me play. I abandon them, but they do not complain. And when the cold winter strikes, and I’m shivering, scared, all alone, they come back to me, with the dragon, who breathes a big fiery hug into me.

Popping words through my head. Pretty birds leaving their cage, flying back to their nest. Me, snapping pictures as they fade away. I want to remember. I want to know who I am and what this world is. Writing is the camera with my favorite lens.

I lost it, forgot about it. Then my Mom died and my brother, the only human I’ve ever really loved, went homeless. He tumbled down a spider hole. 

....CONTINUED

Written and performed by: Michael Waite

This is an episode about trauma - what causes it and how to get over it.

Learn how to reconnect with the sun and its energy and light.

We can improve our physical and mental well-being by syncing up with natural patterns of light and darkness, and eating, moving, and sleeping accordingly. Some of the topics covered are:

• Sun science and where energy comes from
• Sun gods of various ancient cultures
• The birth of the sun, the solar system, and Earth
• 24-hour template on how to align with the sun
• Sunrise and morning sun exposure
• Sungazing
• Electromagnetic energy (visible light, infrared, UVA, UVB, gamma rays, etc.)
• Physics of light and sound waves
• Animal perception and energy-sensing technology
• Light exposure throughout the day
• Eating and exercising in alignment with the sun
• Ozone layer and blocking of UV rays
• Internal clock (suprachiasmatic nucleus)
• Circadian rhythms 
• Cortisol and light
• Melatonin and darkness
• Blue light
• Ultraviolet light
• Food and energy, in connection with the sun
• Vitamin D
• Serotonin and dopamine
• Sunset
• Sleep
• Artificial lighting
• Red and infrared light
• Addiction
• Ghrelin and leptin (hunger and satiety hormones)
• Consistency 
• Chronotypes
• Social jetlag 
• Seasonal changes and how to adapt

Learn 10 fun mental tricks to help you in times of temptation, each tool providing you with protection when you are confronted with your favorite addictive foods or substances. The ten hacks, which can be used individually or in combination with one another, fall into the following categories:

1. vision
2. concepts & beliefs
3. smell
4. taste
5. memory
6. time travel
7. emotion
8. business
9. beauty
10. identity

Are donuts better for you than protein bars? Deception and lies run rampant throughout reality, especially in the world of man-made things like food, medicine, and technology. Yet so also does honesty. Even unhealthy things like cupcakes and candy can have the boldness, confidence, and shamelessness to own who they are and not pretend they're good for you.

A new theory of nutrition and consumption is proposed in this episode:
The best things for you are not always necessarily the "healthiest" things, but the least deceptive ones. That's because our ideas about what is healthy are always changing. Heroin, cigarettes, fat-free, and sugar-free foods used to be considered healthy. What new health craze of today might be the next heroin?  

When products are honest, we often end up eating less of them, and our relationship with them is overall healthier. When they are dishonest, or in the grey zone, it's easy to trust them too much, leading to overconsumption and often sickness and death.

The best overall strategy is to consume things that come directly from nature. They tend to be the least able to disguise themselves, and therefore are the most honest and trustworthy. The risk of deception still does exist, though it is much lower. It is the new, corporation-designed, man-made items that you must be most skeptical toward.

Listen to discover a new perspective on what it means for something to be healthy.

This episode is more of a philosophical adventure about perception and mindset. In it you will learn how to change how you think about reality and your brain. That's the first step, before even all that nutrition and lifestyle stuff. If you don't believe you can change your brain, you never will. Let go of limiting beliefs about yourself from childhood and culture, and find out what your brain is really capable of doing. 

It argues that our perceptions of ourselves and reality are often caused by various forces: authority figures in our childhood, culture, language, politics, and our battling desire for both freedom and connection. 

The Western tendency to divide the world up into parts, fixed objects, is making us less healthy. But the Eastern tendency, like in Taoism and Buddhism, to  see the connections between things, viewing everything more fluidly and as always changing, allows us to perceive more of reality and better understand our brain. 

If you can learn to see how deeply intertwined your brain and body is with everything else in reality, and how it therefore too is also changing, then you can skyrocket your brain's health and power.

Learn about ten more foods that improve brain health: celery, dark leafy greens, algae, fermented foods, beets, turmeric, mushrooms, rosemary, bone broth, and cacao.

This episode talks about how to rethink your relationship with food. 
In it, we learn about ten foods that are good for your brain:

1. broccoli
2. onions (and garlic)
3. fish
4. walnuts
5. olive oil
6. coconut oil
7. avocado
8. blueberries
9. eggs
10. sweet potatoes