Good Thoughts Podcast

Get Out of Your Head & Into the Mind

"In Your Head" means thinking from the primitive brain. That’s the non-human brain used for instinctive response and not for thinking. It’s self-centered thinking that causes stress. The primitive brain is negative, selfish, and always wants more. This is what I call thinking from the head.

The mind is the universe outside the body. The mind has unlimited knowledge and information about the past, present, and future.

The function of the mind is for creativity and innovation. Creativity to solve problems to help others and innovation to develop new products, services, and new companies to improve the world.

Living in the mind can be used in all situations. For example, healthy nutrition. The head demands junk food, and the mind makes healthy choices. The head wants no sleep. The mind knows eight hours of sleep are required. The head fears exercise. The mind knows one hour of exercise is needed every day. The head is always thinking about problems. The mind has solutions. The head does circular negative thinking and self-pity. The mind is positive and creative  to help others. The head has self-critical thoughts. The mind has courage and inspiration.    

Get out of your head and into the mind. The mind is the universe filled with unlimited information and knowledge. Slow the brainwaves and live in the mind quieting all negative thoughts from the primitive brain. Live in the mind with creativity to solve problems and help others, courage to be your authentic self, and inspiration to improve the world.

Dr. Gary Epler / Eplerian Life Philosophy

Who Are You? What Is Your Purpose?

Dr. Gary Epler – Know who you are by knowing where you’re thinking from moment by moment. Be your authentic self.

Be human. Quiet the primitive brain self-centered stress center. Think from your heart with kindness and think from the mind, which is outside the body, with creativity to help others.

If you are being your authentic self, then you automatically know your purpose, and it’s an inspiring people-centered purpose. Knowing your purpose gives you better health, resilience, and meaningful relationships. You have increased creativity, performance, and a happier, more enjoyable life. Finally, you will make decisions based on your purpose, and these decisions will have a positive impact on the world around you.

Being a non-authentic person means thinking from the primitive brain, which is negative and obsessed with self-centered thoughts. Non-authentic people are often unclear and confused about their purpose, or their purpose can be self-centered resulting in doing anything to get what they want. Their decisions are egocentric and what’s best for themselves, not what’s best for other people or the community.

Who are you? Be your authentic self. Stay true to yourself. What is your purpose? It’s from the mind with creativity to help others and from your heart with kindness. Be human.

Dr. Gary Epler / Eplerian Life Philosophy

Live in the mind for an extraordinary life filled with high energy, peak performance, and enduring joy. 

Living in the mind means thinking from the mind. Instead of thinking from the primitive brain with limited and negative thoughts all day, think from the mind with unlimited positive thoughts, creativity, and joy. Think from the mind and live in the mind.

How do you connect with the mind? Slow down the brainwaves. We can think from the mind because the human brain has a region called the prefrontal lobe cortex. It’s above the eyebrows and is the most advanced brain on the planet. When the brainwaves are slowed down, the prefrontal lobe can connect with the mind.

The mind is the universe filled with unlimited information and knowledge about the past, present, and future.

Live in the mind for an enjoyable life moment by moment.

Listen Up! Listening Strategies for Success

Know where you’re thinking from moment by moment. For effective and healthy listening, think for your heart with kindness and from the mind with creativity.

Talking and listening are equally bound together. What you say affects what the other person hears, and what you hear affects what the other person says. For example, speaking is related to pace, pitch, and volume, determining how the other person listens. Go too fast for some people, and they won’t hear what you’re talking about. Most commonly, there’s 80% talk and 20% listening. For healthy communication, talk and listen in balance equally with 50% talking and 50% listening.

Listening will create a new world of increased productivity, positive relationships, and success. Listen with your heart with kindness. Listen with the mind for attention and help others. Be your true, authentic self for healthy and productive communication.

Dr. Gary Epler / Eplerian Life Philosophy

Copyright© 2024 by Gary Epler, M.D. All rights reserved. This podcast is for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice.

Quiet the Negative Voice in Your Head

Know where you’re thinking from moment by moment. Thinking from the head with your negative thoughts causes stress. Quiet the negative voice and eliminate stress. 

There are ten ways to quiet the voice: Here’s the short list: (1) Awareness (2) Kindness  (3) Gratitude (4) Close friends (5) 12-minute walk (6) Neurobypass (7) Slow brainwaves (8) Music (9) Attention, and (10) Breathe.

Keep doing these techniques, and over time, the amount of stress will diminish and can eventually disappear. Engage life in the moment and thrive in your uniqueness.

Dr. Gary Epler / Eplerian Life Philosophy

Master Your Self-Control

Apply the principle of knowing where you’re thinking from. Avoid primitive brain thinking, and think from your heart and the mind, which is outside the brain.

Self-control is the ability to manage our emotional response and behavior to impulses, temptations, and difficult situations.

Successful self-control is learning to think from the heart with kindness to yourself and others, and thinking from the mind, which is outside the brain, with creativity to solve problems and help people.

Avoid primitive brain selfish thinking. Thinking from the primitive brain results in unhealthy and rude behavior. Think from the heart with kindness and the mind with creativity. This is human thinking. This is being your true authentic self. Thrive in your uniqueness.   

Dr. Gary Epler / Eplerian Life Philosophy

Eplerian Life Philosophy for Building a Global Civilization of Kindness

Think like a human from your heart with kindness and the mind to help others. Don’t think like a non-human from the primitive brain with anger and stress. Primitive brain thinking is about yourself. Human thinking is about everyone else.

What's the primitive brain? The brain starts as a pod of cells and develops into a primitive brain, which is needed during infancy for instinctive survival. The brain continues to develop for 25 years ending in the advanced human prefrontal lobe. The primitive brain remains active for instinctive lifesaving reactions, but after infancy, thinking from this primitive brain with self-centered thoughts causes stress. This is a built-in warning system to stop thinking from the primitive brain. Thinking from the primitive brain causes anger and stress.

Break the primitive brain thinking habit. Understand the negative consequences of primitive brain thinking. Recognize primitive brain thinking and stop.

Human thinking is from the heart with kindness, the gut for nutrition and risk management, the body for strength, and the mind for creativity to help others. Primitive thinking destroys close personal relationships. Think from the heart with kindness with no thoughts about yourself for long-lasting close relationships.

Here’s what I would like to have you do. Look around and observe primitive brain behavior, don’t say anything, but you stop doing this behavior, or feel good about yourself because you don’t do this behavior. If everyone stops primitive brain thinking, then we will be living an extraordinary life in a global civilization of kindness.

Dr. Gary Epler / Eplerian Life Philosophy

Copyright© 2023 by Gary Epler, M.D. All rights reserved. This podcast is for general informational and educational purposes only and it is not a substitute for professional medical advice.

Maximize Your Social Health

Social health is the capacity to create trust, develop meaningful connections, and make a positive contribution to society.

The seven indicators of social health include kindness from the heart, high level happiness, zero level stress, healthy nutrition lifestyle, eight hours of sleep every night, one hour of exercise every day, and daily meditation.

There are seven supplemental indicators. These include always being engaged in life, learning something new every day, gratitude and appreciation, positive social interaction, giving outside yourself, positive contribution to society, and always being your true authentic self.

How does it feel to have a 7 social health score? You feel like you can deal with anything that comes your way. You’re happy. You’re energized and full of life.

Here’s another one for 15 indicators: Maximize your social skills.

The social health score can be used for companies, communities, and countries. What’s your company’s score? What’s your country’s score?

Begin your quest for a 7 out of 7 social health score.

Dr. Gary Epler / Eplerian Life Philosophy

What are 7 healthy habits of people who rarely get sick?

(1) Healthy nutrition, (2) Sleep, (3) Exercise, (4) No stress and no other bad health habits, (5) Updated immunizations, (6) Cautious use of medications and surgery, and most importantly, (7) Always be your true authentic self.

I define a healthy nutrition lifestyle as “eating the right foods in the right amount at the right time and prepared in a healthy manner.” The right food are foods with no added sugar, no added salt, and no processed food.

Eight hours of sleep are needed every night because six of them are to recharge the brain energy adenosine and two hours of dream sleep are for restoring kind feelings from the heart and recharging the prefrontal lobe for optimal social judgment. Less than eight hours is a major cause of stress-related illnesses.

One hour of exercise is helpful every day because this gives you energy, keeps the body strong, and maximizes the immune system to keep you from getting sick.

Stress is the most important bad habit to eliminate because stress causes inflammation which is the cause of almost all diseases such as heart disease, stroke, and cancer. Eliminate anger and stress triggers by positive conditioning with three steps.

One of the most out-of-control worldwide bad health habit is stage 3 cell-phone dependency. This means having your cell phone in your hand at all times and face up. This is a bad health habit because it causes level 5 to level 10 stress causing illness and disease.

Be like people who rarely get sick by having healthy nutrition, 8 hours of sleep, 1 hour of exercise every day, eliminating stress, and be your true authentic self.

Dr. Gary Epler / Eplerian Life Philosophy

Making Decisions in 10 Seconds or Less

Know who you are moment by moment which means knowing where you’re thinking from. Think from the heart for making important personal decisions and think from the mind for business decisions.

You might have a decision about a new job, a new house, or a new relationship. Thinking from the head will keep you up all night thinking about the positives and negatives with no decision in the morning. Instead of thinking from the head with indecision, think from the heart with an instant decision. The function of the heart is to keep itself healthy and has millions of neurons to do this. Therefore, you will receive a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ whatever is best for your health.

What are the problems of not making a decision? Frustration and anger are the immediate problems because people need action. They want to do something. Without a decision all action is stopped. For example, although short-term disappointment, an immediate ‘no” answer is helpful because people can go forward either by doing something to get a yes or abandon the request and move on to something else. In some situations, not willing to make a major decision can have catastrophic consequences. Irreversible events can occur during the delay or a forced, panic decision will have to be made with disastrous results.

How do you make an instant decision? Make instant decisions by thinking from the heart with kindness and the mind creativity. How do you use the mind? Remember the mind is not the brain. The brain is limited and negative. The brain is filled with failures, mistakes, and rejections. The brain is selfish. The mind is unlimited filled with all information and knowledge to make decisions. The mind is creative for finding solutions. Courage comes from the mind. The mind is inspirational. You need to be in a slow brainwave state to use the mind, which you learn through traditional eyes-closed meditation or eyes-open meditation.

After you make the decision, You need to give three reasons for making the decision. This shows you understand the situation and gives the person or team sufficient help to go forward. If you have no interest or don’t want to make the decision, then say “no.” Give the basis for your decision so the person or organization can act by getting more information, going to someone else, or abandoning the request or the project.

Instant decisions are needed at home and at work. This eliminates frustration, confusion, and inaction. Make decisions using the heart with kindness and the mind with creativity to find solutions and help others. Make decisions by being your true authentic self with no self-centered thoughts about yourself from the stress center. 

Gary Epler / Eplerian Life Philosophy