So Ruth Allen is an amazing person. I have a chance to be on her podcast recently. She is an executive coach, a motivational speaker, trainer, podcaster, and, she's certified in clinics, brain health professional, high performance coach, and a lot of different things such as a reservist, British Army officer, industry leaders and, family leaders, not trainers, hired doctorates, really went back to energy and time by boosting the brain power.

So I want to talk about brain power today and performance, because I think high performance is something that people don't talk about enough. We tend to have symptoms, and we kind of ignore it, because that's sort of the society that we live in today.

But this focus on performance is absolutely essential and crucial to the brain. So we're going to jump right in with, Doctor Ruth Allen on this amazing segment.

So happy to have you on. So happy to have you on the summit. And, I, I can't wait for us to talk about this super important topic, which is brain performance.

So let's talk let's kind of jump right into it. Okay. So, I live in the United States and the US is, there's something called brain performance that really needs to be a criteria for sort of, high functioning individuals.

And so, you know, my, my company, Texas Center for Lifestyle Medicine Teachers, we went out it took a lot, to get there. And, and what I didn't realize is that my brain wasn't performing well.

Right. Because I didn't really have anything to compare it to. So there's a lot of, like, self-blame and rejection, like, why can I do this and x, y, and Z?

So what do you think are the elements or the pillars that are involved in brain health? And, how do we optimize in such a great question? Because, you know, as to start is, is we really don't think about, brain health in the context of performance and high performance.

It's not a topic of discussion. And it's really fundamental, isn't it, because our brains run everything. And when we don't take that into account, we don't even really take it into account.

From a mental health perspective, it's kind of never really mentioned that it's our brains that actually tend to be in in trouble, or our system of our bodies in trouble when it comes to performing optimally or performing okay in the first.

And so the way that we look at it, is to look at it through the lens of the five pillars of brain health. And we remember that the mnemonic facts, and I'm sorry, love mnemonics because it's really easy to remember, which is why it's so super simple to apply in everyday life.

So facts sense for feelings or actions or connections. And those are the connections to ourselves and to other people. Our thoughts and the thoughts that we're really listening to and our surroundings.

So that's feelings, actions, connections, thoughts and surroundings. And that makes up the mnemonic facts. And the reason it is so important is that's kind of like the fundamentals of our brain health.

And it starts with feelings because our feelings drive everything. Our emotions are like all our signal. And they signal us to either move towards something because it's going to give us pleasure, or to move away from something because it's going to cause us time.

But we never we rarely, rarely take the time to check in with our emotions, with how we're feeling. We might sort of think about how I want to feel, which is which is great in the context of performance, but actually we first of all need to check in with how we really are feeling and what is it with what emotions are driving or behave is or driving.

Our actions are driving how we connect with others and what lies behind those emotions in the context of the thought patterns that we're having. And also the context of the history that we have in our lives that have shaped our emotional, triggers, and the emotions that we typically exhibit.

So that's the first thing, you know. That seems simple, but I think, especially the, the facts, the feelings. Right. I think in our society, and especially in my culture, I'm a hybrid.

So I was born in China, spent childhood there, and I came to the US accumulating here. And so the, the, this hybrid sort of immigrant mentality that I have, you know, some from China to, to the US and, you know, my family who came from, a place, in a country where there was not necessarily the, the best surroundings, the s right, the surroundings.

Yeah. We're kind of taught to to stifle the f stifle the feelings. Right. And when we're taught to stifle the feelings that are sort of our primitive, like, sort of flight survival.

And I thought that a high performance individual doesn't have any feelings. When I first started to write, the how do you feel about that? What do you say to someone who really has the idea in their head?

Like, yeah. So I mean, we grow up in different cultures and different cultures have different expectations placed upon us. Right? And, you know, importantly, we do what's necessary for survival, and then we do what's necessary to thrive.

So completely understandable in certain cultures where you may have your feelings suppressed, it doesn't have to be a culture. It could be just a family dynamic. Whatever.

You know, whatever surroundings you are in, you will do what's right for you to to survive. So that's the first thing. So it's okay if someone's told you to suppress your feelings, because that's what you were expected to do at the time.

Is does it constitute high performance? Not really, because when we suppress our feelings, what we're not doing is leveraging the power of our emotions to propel us forward or to propel us away from things.

So emotions carry powers. It's like energy in motion, emotion. So when we when we focus on access, seeing those feelings from a performance perspective, we have that emotional drive to really get to that next level in life.

So I'll give you a classic in, in kayaking. Kayak instructor, if you ask somebody to sit in a kayak and, and stop themselves from falling in on natural response that we have encoded from a childhood is to put a hand up, because that's what we do if we if we're going to fall over, doesn't work when you're in a kayak because the water isn't solid and you fall in.

So we have a really strong emotional attachment to learn something different so we don't fall and get cold or ultimately drown. So it's very easy to teach people how to retrain their autonomic response from going automatic response, from going from putting your hand up to using a paddle to engage.

And the same applies with high performance when you're when you're emotionally driven to win the race. If you were really driven to win it, you would do whatever it takes to win it.

But if we don't have that emotional attachment, we don't leverage that power that we have inside ourselves to really perform at that next level. So emotions are so, so important.

And we and we often don't realize the power that they hold and the power that we use when we suppress our emotions, we suppress our own power ultimately, because we we are giving away our power and and actually even worse from a, you know, from research that's been done is we are pushing those emotions to be expressed somehow in our body and not necessarily in a constructive way.

And those emotions will come out often in chronic disease later on in life because, what happens is our mind isn't listening, so our bodies start shouting louder and it shouts to the point that we express it physically.

It often destructively. Yeah. And we can see this in, in people's faces, you know, and see the dark circles around the eyes. We call that histamine upregulation.

We can see it in the skin. You can see color, the entire body's color and their eyes, you know, there's a glaze over. So there's a physical manifestation to the feeling, suppression of the feelings.

And, and that's like, if we were talking like this three years ago, I don't think I would even be able to speak to you on this topic, because it's sort of a traumatic thing for me.

It's even discuss, but now this is all I talk about, especially with patients as well. So it's kind of it's kind of nice. And I'm sure there's a lot of people listening to this and the things that you're seeing, and they're starting to tear up a little bit, which is, something that's totally understandable.

And it's totally. And that's okay. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, I want to I want to bring up on that as well is that it's totally okay to cry. And when you suppress your emotions, when you're told to put a lid on, it is often the expression put a lid on it, which is exactly what you actually have to do is, you don't empty your pot of a nation.

It just keeps filling and filling and filling. And so what happens is eventually the lid is like a pressure pot. It blows off at some point because it becomes your pot becomes full.

So people, you know, reason, events that we've had when we've lost, Queen Elizabeth the Second here in the UK, people were welling up, because it triggered emotions that they didn't realize they had that were connected to either her or connected to her core values, her beliefs, her, the actions that she performed. Yeah.

Go back through the five pillars. The feelings that she induced on people, how she made them feel, the things that she did for us, the actions, the connections that she made for for the country, the thoughts that she incited us and the and the surroundings.

You know, the, the the, the way in which she engaged in the surroundings and the world and everything else. People didn't realize that that had this connection to her, across all of those five pillars.

And that's what makes us well up. And when we don't take the time to check in with our emotions that we've been told to suppress it for so long, it's really hard to control them because we've never had any emotional control. Oh, you know, gifted to us because we've been told not to have any emotion.

So there's no ability to control it. So. So the way I like to think of our emotions is like we are all in, sailing on an ocean of emotion and those that often get told to suppress it, of those that get told to go deep into the ship and ignore the waves so they're no longer until they're no longer sailing that shit.

But they need to come at the mercy of your emotions, so you get thrown around by them, and at some point you might get capsized, and then you have to come up for air and you're like, what?

What's going what's going on? So it's really important that we do take the time to come up on deck, to read the ocean, read the waves and learn how to sail and use the waves to our advantage.

Learn which ones we want to ride that will propel us forward, and learn which ones we want to navigate our way around. But be aware that they are there and that's so important.

You know, I was I was reading a book and they actually call this the Anne Frank effect. Is because, when you're hiding, to avoid death and then you cry or you peep or you say something that results in imminent death.

And that happens in a lot of generations who are coming from war torn countries. And that's sort of the natural effect of sort of protection mechanism, you know, and, you know, my, my family, came through sort of the Cultural Revolution in China where, there was a lot of things that were targeted against, multiple members of much older generations than myself.

And I see a lot of those effects kind of trickling down. But and, you know, it was really until a few years ago that I realized that that that didn't serve me.

In fact, it was actually creating a lot of harm. Personal life. Professional life, business building, etc., etc. made some really interesting decisions based on that physiology, you know?

And so that's how I connected with sort of, feelings and emotions and brain performance. Well, let's talk about like, you know, let's talk about each of the five pillars effects.

And the spent enough time on Earth for feelings, which is great. Yeah. No. Fine. Well, yeah. Let's go to the other ones, because, how does that manifest in humans and how does that relate to bring performance.

Right. Sure. So let's go with a is for action. So these are the actions that we do. Everything that we do including including the job that we have. The sport, the sleep, all of the normal, the actions that we have, the behaviors that we have, how we how we perform from a day to day perspective, the nutritional, the nutrition that we have.

And these actions are driven by, feelings. So our emotions drive our actions. And they're driven by our learning experience as well. Our behaviors are generally repetitive actions that have that become embedded as a sort of automated response, often driven by our emotions.

And when we take the time to check in with what is it I'm doing and what actions am I taking? And and then ask ourselves the question, are those actions something they are like helping or hurting my brain?

Then we have got that ability to step away from from us and just, you know, on autopilot, which is often what we are often most about. Most of the time we've got that ability to step away and engage our prefrontal cortex and go, okay, let's look at things logically.

Let's, let's look at what I'm doing that's helping me. Let's look at what I'm doing that's hurting me. And take back some control. And often when people think about actions, they just think about the things that they do in their day to day life.

They don't think about the behaviors that they have in the context of sleep hygiene, in the context of their nutrition, in the context of their drinking, and in the context of, automotives responses that we might have.

How did I react to that situation? And taking the time to understand those is really, really important, because then we can start to peel back the onion layers and work out, okay, this is the way I am behaving.

How do I want to behave and what do I need to do to change that? In the context of the five pillars that should, you know, continue on in a minute to to help serve me better and perform better, rather than deplete my performance.

And as a parent of three daughters, this is like ringing true because I can sort of the behavioral, aspects of my children reflecting on all the stuff that, that they were brought up with.

Right. So I assume children can kind of utilize this framework? Absolutely. And I tell you, sister children, I know my teacher even to my daughter, who's three, because you can say, okay, that emotion led to that action.

So it's easy to relate it, relate the pillars to each other, so that children can understand. How can they look at the facts? Behind the situation or behind, something that's happened, an event that's happened or how they've behaved.

And then and then to start to look at all of those pillars associated with that event and work out what they could do differently. So, for example, my daughter, sometimes she gets really low, blood sugar, and after swimming, she'll go into, well, let's call it a brain model.

So she should have a brain model and should start to, to lose it because she's super, she's super, super hungry. And so was letting you know we've got, you know, we talk about the emotion and then we talk about the action.

So next time we go swimming, let's make sure straight after swimming, you, before we do anything else, you have something to eat? Right. You know, so it is easy to bring it into the conversation with children and, you don't have to be a child.

And any age it is to to make that connection between the pillars. So that's, that's probably something I'm going to use. You know, I got I got A16 and eight year old.

So it's definitely a good time to close. So so the next is connections. Yeah. And and these this is like the most. So social connection is the number one, predictor of happiness.

We're not just talking about connection to others. We're also talking about connection to ourselves. Because connection with our self, we're the longest relationship we'll ever have is the one we have with ourself.

So it's really important that we take the time to connect with who we are. And who we want to be. So when we're talking about connection to ourselves or looking at our core values and our belief systems and our core values are like the moral compass that guides us in life, what's really important to us, and then also the connection to a higher power so that we don't put ourselves on a pedestal, but we realize that we, you know, we are part of a much larger ecosystem.

And we we rarely talk about this in the context of, of health, but we are all connected to something bigger than us. You know, we're not separate to the planet.

We depend on the planet, and the planet depends on the actions that we take to make sure that it it survives if that effectively and and that we ensure our survival.

So but so the first of all is connection to ourselves and you can consider spiritual power as part of that connection and then connection to others. So how we connect with ourselves, whether that's positive or negative, will influence how effectively we connect with other people.

So if we don't take the time to learn, okay, how is it that I'm showing up for myself and and do I value myself? Well, what am I what relationship do I have with myself?

We won't really, truly get the benefit of of connection with other people. And this can be really obvious in the context of the care setting where people don't take the time to care for themselves.

They put all of their attention into into caring for other people. And actually it comes back and bites them because they don't put the oxygen mask on first that they run out of, they run out of energy.

And, and that then results in and often, a breakdown of some sort. Maybe it's called burnout or when they get chronically ill or sick because I haven't taken the time to connect with themselves and listen, listening to the warning signals that are coming up.

So, so connection to ourselves and then connection to others is or falls under that, that pillar and that's a really, again, an easy topic of conversation to have with children is looking at how they can connect with others.

So we can connect to loads of different ways, not just talking with people we can that can connect physically, we can connect mentally, we can connect emotionally, and we can connect spiritually.

So, it's taking the time to look at what is it from your connection perspective? You want out of a relationship with someone else, and how can you strengthen that by looking at the other other pillars.

So that's connection. And it's really taking the time to stop, pause and reflect. Look at your relationship with yourself. Understand your values. Am I clear about my values and beliefs?

And also serving may? And am I using my network to help me grow? So I collect connecting with people that are like growth friends. I call them. So if you think you've got a garden, of friendships in your life, you want to be taking the time to connect with people that help your garden grow rather than connecting with the the weeds in the garden or all the all the books that the chew up.

The flowers are beautiful. Make sure that you're putting your attention into connecting with people that are going to serve you and help you perform better, rather than actually deplete you.

And, and, and so, so energy out of you, that stops you from performing as well. And so that's really, really important. And we can reflect historically on our connections as well, and how that may have shaped our behaviors, our actions, and how that may have shaped our emotions or absence of emotional expression based on the connections that we've had historically.

And that includes the connection historically we've had with our cells. So that's a really, really important one. And often, not looked into enough depth, particularly in the context of how we connect with ourselves and the relationship we have with ourselves.

You know, all of these are also really important. You know, from a business perspective for for building a great company culture, scaling execution from a family perspective.

Also teasing out things in the family before it becomes a problem. Right. And and not stifling the feelings, nurturing the connections. Right. And, and I've seen the, the other side of these things, pretty dramatically in chronic health issues, chronic neurodegenerative diseases.

So, and there's statistics that support it. Right. And so, and we can label people and different and diseases and disorders like PTSD or whatever it is.

Right. But all these, all these, can benefit from the foundation of, of, of the facts, the feelings and actions and connections. So all right, let's go to the next letter.

What's the next one? So the next one is thoughts. And we have thousands upon thousands. The jury's out. How many thoughts? We have some, literature mentions up to 90,000 thoughts die.

But ultimately we rarely check in with our thoughts. So our thoughts often drive, automatic responses that we have. They drive our emotions that we may not be checking in with, at any point in our day.

And those thoughts are fundamental to how we are operating. It's like our operating system. So you might consider this is your mindset, in the context of your brain's software.

And our emotions form part of our mindset as well. So it's really important that we take the time, to connect in with the thoughts that we're having and the thoughts that we are subconsciously listening to, but we don't realize are actually going on.

So this is about writing it down. The most important thing is to write it down, to get it out of your head and onto paper, because it, and also with your emotions as well, because then you can start getting curious, not furious with your thoughts, and unravel.

Where is that thought coming from? And it's also really important, you know, in the context of people that have often A. D. D., attention deficit disorder, struggle with extracting the thoughts out of their head and putting them onto paper so they struggle.

They just have this constant thought process running around and around and around in their mind. Also people who have, overactive anterior cingulate gyrus, it's my way.

All the highway thought patterns that keep going on the like on the hamster wheel of the same thoughts. And if somebody is not not saying what they're thinking, then it's, it's they're not going to listen.

And so it's taking the time to understand the types of thoughts that you're having. Where are those thoughts coming from? Have they got any order or structure to them?

And how are those thoughts actually facilitating or impinging on your performance? And, and, you know, we have so many people in this world, A. D. D., whether they've been diagnosed or not.

And often people with ADHD like to run towards danger because that's what stimulates their brain. But they can often find it really difficult to think strategically, because taking the time out to pause and stop and think is, it can be considered boring and it actually turns their brain off.

So it's really important to to really understand what thoughts am I having and how am I able to structure them and process them so that I can compartmentalize the ones that are serving me and use them to best effect?

And then I can start squashing, the automatic negative thoughts. So the ends that aren't serving me and I'll slowing me down. And and often the automatic negative thoughts or answers come from our past is our past experiences, us and the cultures that we've grown up in, the people that we've connected with, the what people have told us, and what thoughts we've listened to from other people and how that shaped our belief system.

So. So it's really important not only to, to understand what is going on, but also to, take back control of your thoughts. So to break that cycle and the best way to do that is to write them down or to say them out loud to someone else so that someone else can facilitate the challenge of those thoughts and ask the question, is that true?

And then you can start to take back control of them. So it's really, really important. And and often it's one of the biggest stumbling blocks in the context of performance is that people aren't taking the time to check in with their thoughts.

Running in the background is the background operating system, and they're not taking the time to weed out the the bugs that are in the, to clean up the program, to make it run more effectively.

Now, the most fascinating thing about, what you just said is that we have the technology to look at those things. Now, you know, you have the scans of the brain at the famous clinic.

We have quantitative EEG sometimes, you know, it's sort of a running joke in the office now, because I can look at, a particular series of, EEGs and quantitative EEGs on the brain.

And I have a pretty good prediction, for them to have the answer that, like you said, the autonomic non automatic negative thoughts. Yeah. And I do look at sort of that type of pattern.

And so when I kind of go into I kind of dive right into the thought process and the feelings and emotions. And we live in such a spectacular time for us to have the technology to look at that.

So it really validate it's, you know, from something that's traditionally a psychiatric diagnosis to said, no, this is this is the brain, this is what your brain is doing.

And here's what we can do about it. So it's such a powerful, powerful thing. Yeah. And you know, even people with Asperger's, you know, 8000 on the autism spectrum.

And obviously that can can show you that the extent of inflammation that occurs in their brain, which puts all of the, systems of the brain on high alert.

And so the more systems you have on high alert, the much harder it is to engage the logical thinking part of your brain. Because when you when you the way our brain has evolved is we've evolved, you know, our reptilian brain, which is the amygdala and the deep limbic system evolved first because it was essential to survival.

And then the human part of our brain, the logical thinking part for much, much later. And so if you if you've got an overactive deep limbic system, overactive basal ganglia is the deeper regions of your brain as hard as you try, it's it's really difficult to turn on the logical thinking part because your emotional brain is ultimately in control.

And the the only way you can start to turn it on is to take that time to pause, take 10s, and take the time to write everything down so that you're giving yourself that permission to check in with your operating system in your brain.

And then taking the time to weed out the unhelpful programs. What what a powerful thing we can. We have this brain, right? And not only are we looking at the the sort of subconscious patterns, the generational patterns, we can actually do something about it.

And that's that's the most amazing thing about the brain. Yeah, yeah. And you know, and just be clear, I have a really active, basal ganglia. So, you know, emotional part of my brain is overactive.

And, my, thinking, my automatic, never negative thoughts that I had were really overactive. So I could be also really easily distracted so often. Previously, before I went and had my brain scan, I would, I would be thinking about something else when I was talking to people because I was just to my brain was just running all the time, and I needed to learn how to calm it down and control it and and just slow it down a little bit so that I get that opportunity to better connect with people.

So, you know, we all have different types of brains. And I had my, my that Kiwi two, which I think is just totally fascinating to look at what's going on inside your mind, but it's really important that we use those tools available to us to image and better understand our brain, to know how we what areas are overactive and how we can really take back control and not only take back control, but optimize the brains that we have.

This isn't about turning off really brilliant skill sets, and perhaps people on the autism spectrum have. This is about enabling them to better function in societies that don't necessarily accommodate their different brain type.

So that's amazing. So let's jump into the last one, which just surroundings. So I'm always curious when I want to hear your take on it, because this is sort of a big one for me as well.

So what's the, the s the surroundings. Yeah. So the surroundings is a huge one. And I agree with you on this is, this is, this is goes everything to the room that you're in to the, toxins that are present in the atmosphere that you may be exposed to, whether that's ingested or touched or breathed in, and also the surroundings in the context of your culture, the surroundings, in the context of the people that you engage in with the surroundings, in the context of the the wider environment that you connect with.

Whether that's an urban or rural environment, and how you connect with nature as a whole, if indeed that's something that you like to do. And it also goes back to the surroundings that you grew up in and in the context of your past history and how that influenced you, including, the surroundings that you were exposed to in the context of growing in the womb as well?

So what did you did? Your mother has a very calm pregnancy experience. Was she were she emotionally stressed during that time? Did she experience stresses or trauma during the pregnancy?

Did you have trauma in the womb? Maybe loss of a a twin or traumatic birthing experience? All, all influence or all part of your surroundings? Influence your brain health from pre-birth all the way through your through your life.

So it's important that we take the time to check in with how is how of everything external to our human system, if affecting us in the context of our performance.

And, you know, for me personally, what got me into the brain power and performance was, a horrendous situation in the workplace. I suffered a miscarriage very, unexpectedly and then got immediately put on a performance review and told by the firm I was working for, had no emotional intelligence, which which just absolutely not me for six.

But it ultimately transpired that the surroundings that I was working in were just so toxic. It was such a toxic culture that it didn't matter what I did physically did for me personally, those surroundings were never going to serve me, and help me perform at my best.

So ultimately, I left the workplace, and went and did something else. But, I mean, our surroundings, can inform us in so many different ways. So we could be in the same type of surroundings, but our past experience will shape how we perceive them.

So if I, I'm just going to take something from my day to day. So as a ski instructor and I might take people, on, on the hill, which is what I did when I was, leaving the, the workplace I was in, I went and took people skiing separately, and the surroundings were really, really challenging.

It was whiteout conditions. People found it really hard. But for me, I was okay with it because I knew what was it within my control and what I could do about it.

But for people on my IT within my team that I was teaching, obviously it was a very different experience to them and that would have laid a very different foundation in their brain in the context of how they found it emotionally, how they found it physically, how they found it mentally because it can be mentally taxing, and how they found it in terms that the kind of spiritual experience and, and their connection to the core values and beliefs.

So all surroundings, you can put two people in exactly the same surroundings, but not have completely and utterly different experiences depending on their past life experiences, what they've learned, and so on.

Fascinating. Let's let me put it a little additional spin on that, because, you talked about sort of the in utero surroundings as well, lives. No begin.

And so we talked about this quite a bit, is there's a lot of trauma that's surrounding birth and pre-birth and pregnancy and even pre-pregnancy as well.

For example, we know that, those people who suffer a lot of chronic anxieties and traumas and domestic violence and abuse, they tend to have lower amniotic fluid production surrounding the baby, that there's less placental flow per minute to the baby, the eggs, and also the toxin exchange between what the placenta, which is supposed to be protecting, nurturing the baby.

Actually that decreases as well, with the, with thought and with, with anxiety and all these different things like that. And so it certainly makes sense for that to occur.

And also that also causes, you know, pre-term labor, preterm births for membranes and all sorts of different things that surround, the birthing process.

And so, so it's not surprising that the surrounding in utero really affects the way that our brains triggered, develops. We also know that the, the, the that the, the baby's cortisol levels are significantly elevated and spiked whenever there's, decreased amniotic fluid.

And so these are all studies that have been done, on, on, the vitality of, of, of the child. So that environment, really, really kind of sits in there.

And so, you know, I just want people to understand this is what we're talking about. It's not just a psychological thing. This is there's a huge physical manifestation that affects multiple, multiple generations.

Now, if this baby in this low amniotic fluid environment, maybe pre-term labor, pre-term birth becomes an adult, that automatism right of this high cortisol spikes, hyper stress spikes gets transferred from a behavioral aspect to the next generation and the next generation of developing the same actual physical manifestations surrounding birth.

And then you have like multi, multi, multi generational trauma, not just psychological trauma, but also like surrounding the birth itself. And so and so that's something that I think that every person should know.

And that is you know, this is people listening to this that want to conceive. Maybe they have fertility issues may have maybe they have. They've had the miscarriages as well.

Is that part of this whole healing process? Start with the facts, as you say. As part of this, part of this journey to become that wonderful person and then stop the inherited generational traumas that's causing physical manifestation in our children and many generations down.

So that's such a powerful thought process. Yeah, I completely agree. And, you know, going back to children and the birthing experience, you know, my daughter was born by C-section.

And so her birthing experience was very unnatural. It was very traumatic because it was over a 48 hour window with me being pumped full of, of chemicals to try and stop the birthing, birthing process.

And ultimately, when she was born, she she didn't have the natural, microbiome that she would have had if she was born through the birthing canal. And so actually, the surroundings, in terms of how she was born and the way which she was born influenced her, her house.

So she was really poorly, at the beginning of her, you know, of her life because she didn't have that microbiome, smell other that she would have been given as part of that experience.

And so it was really important for me, to take the time to strengthen her microbiome, which are fortunate they knew through advice from a nutritional expert.

And now she takes, probiotics to ensure she she rarely gets ill. I mean, obviously, we've had Covid, so it's kind of difficult to to do a correlation, but but she's rare.

She's rarely ill now by providing her with the right environment and the right nutrition to to to help, improve her performance level and also she was you know, environment was a hugely important role, in the context of how she, functioned initially as a baby because she had, 90 miles from birth to birthing experience, nightmares.

And it wasn't until I was able to haven, using Haven, while she was having a nightmare in her sleep, that I was able to get rid of the nightmares that she was having, and she was able to sleep through the night.

And so we really need to, you know, not ignore how traumatic coming into this world can be for the children. And not to be dismissive of of some of the traumas that are experienced, including how children are delivered, you know, through forceps and the volunteers and so on, how that delivery experience can influence it physically influence a brain function, particularly if it's true with forceps and so on.

Steps are really important for parents to take in, medical professionals to advise, parents need to take to help give that child the best start state in life, that will elevate that right brain function from from the get go.

Yeah. So true. And it's hard, right. Because, you know, I feel a lot of parents have sort of guilt that surrounding oh my child with C-section and etc.

etc.. We can get so much resilience if you do your C-section system a C-section, right? Yeah, I still do the resilience there as well. And the other thing, you know, there are some times that doctors like my wife, you know, we do and sometimes they aren't necessary things to save the child.

And so they take action. Right. And so it's either like, you know, it's either like, you know, have a child or not. Right. And those are the things that I want people to kind of release their guilt from the some of the stuff that's completely and medically necessary to save someone's life.

Right? Absolutely. And that includes of the mother as well. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so and so there's, so postpartum, especially in the postpartum follow ups, there's is a lot of guilt surrounding aspects around the birthing process, especially traumatic. Oh, what did I do wrong? Did I eat something wrong.

Did I not sleep enough. You know, did I, did I, did I, did I read too much that I watch TV too much and stuff like that. And the fostering thought those are also automatic negative thoughts.

It's not going to serve anyone. Because what we have to do is focus on the prize. We have to, like, look to the future, right? Yeah. The fact. Right. Literally.

And and proceed down a path of that healing process. So, so glad we get to mention this. On on the summit. But I think also, you know, part of it is accepting that it happens.

So the first, the first step to making changes is to accept where you're at and if and this cut this comes back to when we first started talking about emotions.

When we accept we have emotions and that we're in talks to express them, then we've got the power to do something about how we choose to express them.

But we need to take the time to accept, you know, this is what happened. It wasn't, you know, wasn't my idea. It wasn't optimal at the time. You know, I had a huge bus, now, you know, throw up and throw out the window and.

Yeah, but but ultimately, you know, at the end of the day, I, I've been fortunate enough. I've got, I've got a beautiful baby. And so it's, it's it's, you know, when I, you know, when I had a miscarriage as well.

So I understand, you know, how difficult it is when you don't have the opportunity to have, a beautiful baby, but it's it and it's understanding. How can I get meaning from that?

Which goes back to, connection with ourselves is to understand the purpose and the meaning that we can derive from that experience that will help us move forward in life.

Because every stumbling block in the road we can learn a lesson from, we can we can take, energy from it in a positive way and use it to, to help others help ourselves or, or to help others.

And it's finding a way to do that that's positive and constructive and not destructive. It's amazing. Well, this is, been the most fascinating discussion.

So it's something that I really want to work on with my family, my team members that work, my other companies I advise for and something to work within myself as well.

This is a perpetual, never ending journey, when it comes to brain health. And it's supposed to be. And it's supposed to be. So how do people find you?

How do they find your podcast, by the way? Because I was on it, a lot of really cool people, well, like, it was, Yeah. So they can go to my website. Reese.

Mary Ellen Ackerman, you to me all y a double l and.com. And then if you put forward slash show, you get access, you know, you get access to all the podcasting, episodes, and and you were wrong there, too.

So go and check those out. And if you want to find more about the academy, and what the academy does, including the live, event we're going to be hosting in the summer of 2023.

Then just go to Wellbeing Warrior academy.com, and you'll find information, about it all that amazing. Thank you so much for being on what a what a pleasantly surprisingly awesome topic that what what do you think we're going to end up talking about?

Childbirth and my wife. But, I think those are really important things to, to hit on. And I appreciate you for taking time out of your very busy schedule for coming on.

Thank you so much for having me. It's been a real pleasure. And I hope people take something away from this.

Ruth Mary Allan, PhD

Simple Brain FACTS That Create The Brain Healing Journey