120 Years Old Is Possible: What Five Cultures With the World’s Oldest People Have in Common (It’s Not Diet)

Introduction to the summit and guest bio 0:00

Ladies and welcome back to the Future of Menopause Medicine Summit. I am your host, Doctor Sharon Stills. This is our fifth year edit. We change the name and we change the content. So we've got all new content coming at you to give you the latest, the greatest, uncensored, unapologetic and unconventional. And I am super excited to have this conversation today with our special guest, who I've been trying to interview for the summit for many years now. So we finally got him. So hooray! So Jason Prall, who many of you watching probably already like I know him, he's a health educator.

He's a practitioner. He's a filmmaker. He's the creator, the host of the Human Longevity Project, which definitely has my interest. It's a nine part documentary series exploring the lifestyle, environmental and physiological factors behind long lived healthy populations and the true nature of chronic disease in our modern world. He draws on two decades of work with clients worldwide, and he focuses on integrative approaches to support energetic alignment and embodied well-being. He offers his courses, films and programs through the Awakened Health Academy and is the author of the critically acclaimed book Beyond Longevity A Proven Plan for Healing Faster, Feeling Better, and Thriving at Any Age.

So awesome. Welcome. I'm thrilled to have you here. I know we're going to have a fun conversation. Yeah, it's a pleasure to be here. Thank you. So I think you know where I'd where I'd just like to go first is your longevity series and what that entailed. Because when women get to menopause and not around here, we're here to change that conversation. But a lot of women, especially in our society in the States, and I know there's women watching from all over the globe. So welcome. But we're kind of taught like, oh, menopause is the beginning of the end.

You know, you're your big useless cow. Now we're just going to put you out to pasture and you don't matter and you're better. Your best days are behind you. And I know that's not true. And so I want to talk about longevity because I truly believe I experience myself and my patients and know that this can actually be one of the most vibrant chapters of your life

Longevity lessons from blue zones and elderhood 2:37

as you are aging, as wisdom is accumulating in your vessel. And so what did you learn along that whole journey? Well, I learned a lot. I would say, you know, as it pertains to aging and particularly with women in menopause, right? I mean, I have no personal experience with this, so I can't speak from that lens. Right? So so really for me, it's all about observation, right? Like, what can I understand from the women around me parents, grandparents, whoever goes through that process, my clients, and how can I understand it from their lens. Right.

Like that's really what I have to do and try to get some perspective from that, that point of view. And then when we did the Human Longevity Project, we traveled to Ikaria, Greece, Sardinia, little villages in Sardinia near Italy, the Guanacaste region of Costa Rica, as well as Okinawa. And I think the biggest difference that I noticed is that the women who had kind of gone through menopause, they seemed to embrace that part of their life, you know, as like they were the elders. Right. And so these weren't tribal societies, but nevertheless, they kind of stepped into this role and, and embraced it as, as an elder, you know, the men and women both were kind of seen that way.

And so there was a certain level of respect from the younger generations that, okay, these are our elders and they have gone through life and they're worth listening to, their worth respecting, and they're worth taking care of. And then that group, the elder population, kind of stepped into that role. And I think that's one of the things that I've noticed that in our culture, we kind of lost a little bit of that as we've gotten less sort of tribal, you know, and communal based and more individualized.

Then we kind of just forgot that, like, we actually it's not about 65 retire and just wait till you die or go off and play golf or, you know, move down to Florida or whatever. The sort of modern idea of that stage of our life is. But there can be a role that we can play and, and it's and it's valuable, like it's really, really valuable. And I think it's we're kind of missing that from both sides. Right. The sort of willingness to step into that and embrace it and really take sort of pride and honor in that.

And also the younger generations, not really respecting elders. So we're kind of missing it on both ends. But I'm seeing your resurgence. I mean, that's the cool thing is that it does seem to be that that we're having more people step into that kind of leadership, elder role. And so I think that that would be probably the biggest thing that I noticed in sort of the 65 and older crowd or 60 and older, it's like, are we really willing and able to embrace that as a very positive part of our life's journey?

Right. It's an arc, and it's not like we get to 65 and it's all it's all downhill and it sucks. Now there's a really valuable purpose. And I think as we do that, that contributes to health, that contributes to longevity, right? It's one of the things that we kind of lose in our modern world is that sort of sense of purpose that, you know, kids are gone. Maybe work is gone now what? Now what is my role? What do I do? Right? Like, what value do I serve? And I think that can be one of those things, is really finding whatever that is for you.

And it can look so many different ways. Right? So there's no one way to do this, but there is something really valuable for, you know, within somebody that has lived on this earth for 60 plus years because there's so much experience and there's so much change happening now. Right? We're seeing, of course, AI is the now the biggest one. But even in the in the realm of health, right. Somebody that's 65 years old right now, all the things that they've experienced, right. The food changes and everything like so much has changed.

So there's there's wisdom there and there's value to add. And so I think that would be my sort of invitation and encouragement for anybody in that stage of their life is really look and see where you can step into that role as an elder, as a leader in your community and your family or whomever might need that. I love that, and I think, you know, a lot of women in their 50s, their 60s, if they're blessed enough and still have their elders, their mothers, their aunties alive, that to really, you know, sometimes we just get drawn into the drama or the, you know, the responsibilities, but to like, take a step back and be like, wow, there's 80 years of wisdom in there.

And can you it can you video them, can you ask them questions. And so I think that's a beautiful invitation. Like if every woman listening made an effort to do it both ways. Right. And whether it's a relative, a blood relative or a stranger. But to connect with someone who's older and then to share with someone who's younger and just to bridge that gap because it is true, like it is such. I was at a conference last weekend and someone said, yeah, my my kids say that I went to school in the 1900s.

You know, we we all laugh, but it's like, oh yeah, I guess we did go to school. Yeah, yeah, that's where we're at. And I think about, you know, I graduated from medical school. It was 2001. I went through medical school without a computer, without the internet. And so now I think kids are coming out of the womb and they already know how to use ChatGPT. And so it really is a different world. And there's a lot of beauty in all of it. And so being where you are present, but remembering where we came from and the tribal community and how can you create tribe.

And I think, you know, when Covid happened, we created a lot of tribes online, which is beautiful. But what can you do in your own community and how can you, you know, get human connection, get that hug. So I would also be curious as to the other things, like what you saw in their purpose. And I can't think of is it a geek or I'm trying to think of the Japanese guy? Yeah, guy that was close. Yeah. Well, you know, you know, as far as ikigai. Yeah, ikigai is a little different. It's interesting because there's a common way it's perceived sort of online.

I think it came from somebody book, but it's sort of a westernized version. So I'm going to skip kind of getting into that whole mess. But really, I think the most important thing that I saw was that, you know, they lived a very different life and they still do. Right. So if we think about a 90 year old in Ikaria, Greece, or in Sardinia, in these little villages, that means it's 2026. So that means they were born in 1936, in a remote village

Creating meaning, gratitude, and purpose in daily life 9:20

in a very tiny island, or, you know, so it's they didn't have electricity, they didn't have cars for most of their life, 30, 40, 50 years. They lived without a refrigerator. Right? Like, we can't even comprehend that life, right? So they say that to put everything in context, right. So, sure, now they're 90 and there's electricity and some of this, but it's still not like what most of us picture in the West. And so their purpose was not like ours. And I think there's something to gain from that, which is that when we think about purpose, it's more it's grandiose.

You know, what is my sort of souls mission and what am I here to do? And am I going to build that company or build a huge fan, whatever it is, like there's a there's some kind of grand purpose and that can that can really stifle people, right? Because it's like, oh my God, you know, especially as we, as we sort of cross 50 in in the second half of our life, it's like, what am I going to do to find a purpose and how, you know. And so I think, I think we need to sort of reframe that a little bit. And that's what I noticed in those cultures, what they didn't have that type of a purpose, there wasn't to transform their village and create all this.

No, no, it wasn't that. It was it was more about creating meaning in the mundane. So and this is, you could say, sort of, you know, similar to kind of echoes of sort of Buddhist philosophy and some of these sort of ancient Asian, East eastern philosophies. But it's like really like throughout your day, where do you create meaning? You know, and this is a practice, this is something that we can all, I think embody in various ways. But when I go get a water from my filtered water that comes from that is livered from a spring near me to my door, I have an opportunity to really, in that moment, as I'm pouring it, go, wow.

I'm really grateful that I have access to clean water delivered to me at the Or even out of the faucet. Right? Like whatever the case is, because these people, some of them walked miles to to get water and bring it back. Right. And it's from a stream. So we've taken so much for granted, right? I mean, let's take the most practical example. I go on to Amazon. I get something delivered the next day. I mean, that's absolutely insane, right? Like totally insane. But we've normalized it. And so the gratitude for even something like that has just been gone.

So this sort of kind of hyper novel, super convenient world has left us in a place where we don't have a lot of meaning in the mundane. And so it really requires a little bit more conscious effort, I think, to acknowledge some of this stuff. But we can generate meaning in whatever we do, right? So it's really about what is it for you? You know, I was talking to a 94 year old from Loma Linda in California, which is a sort of quasi blue zone. But it's not not really. It's a little bit different. And I asked her, I said, look, you're 94 said, I'm sorry to be so blunt, but you're 94.

Your husband's past, your kids are out of the house. All your friends have died. What gets you up in the morning? Like, what is it? And she said, well, I have to learn this song for the violin class on on Thursday. And I was like, what a beautiful answer. So this was somebody who was able to create meaning in the mundane, as I like to call it. Right. So how can we create meaning and find meaning in all the beauties within our day? So to me, that becomes a more valuable practice than than sort of setting our sights on some grandiose purpose.

Because the reality is, is that your purpose is really to be able to connect with everyone, to provide support, nourishment, care, and to enjoy life. Right? So really, this is what we're missing out on. I think a lot of the time is the simple pleasures of life, right? Sitting down for a really good meal, like there's there's meaning in that. So so to me, I think that's the big thing. And if we can do that and it's really about how frequently or how often can I tap into that. Right. And it's sort of a gratitude practice meets meets like meets purpose.

Right. It's like it's like there's something really valuable and anything and everything we do. Now, look, when I'm at the DMV and I'm standing in line and it's chaos and all that stuff. Yeah, maybe a little hard, right? But. But where can we find in our life something that is meaningful to us? And this creates a lot of downstream effects, right? It changes our brain chemistry. Write it down. Regulates our nervous system into the parasympathetic right, which is where we digest. It's where we detoxify.

It's where all healing takes place. Right? So so to me, this ties into a lot of the work that I do with people that are chronically ill, which is that we have this nervous system that has been dysregulated due to the mold, due to the metals, due to the traumas, due to head injuries, due to any number of things, pharmaceuticals, anything that's going to put our body into stress, body, mind that our nervous system is going to then going to get conditioned to that, right. So imagine a person that's been basically stressed their whole life, not just mental emotional stress, but physiological stress, biological stresses.

The nervous system doesn't care. All it sees is stress. And so whenever stress comes and it's in, it's happening so regularly or significantly, then it's going to create these neural connections and this sort of mode of operation that says don't worry about detoxing this glyphosate or mold that I've been that's impacting me. Instead, we got to survive dedicate resource over here to this immediate threat because the nervous system sends the nervous system is sensing it constantly, this sort of threat that it's under attack, it's going to mount that response.

So we're not doing all the things that we want from a physiological, biological level, the nervous systems condition. And even when you remove the threat. This is the crazy thing about the nervous system, is that you remove the threat. You get the person out of mold, you clear the glyphosate, you clear the the mycotoxins, the metals. The trauma is gone. You process the trauma. The nervous system still conditioned. It's still wired. That's it's like a golf swing. It's like playing the piano. It's it's it's like driving to work that those neurons have literally fired together and wired together for so long that even when the threats removed, the nervous system still wired for hypervigilance, threat stress.

And so that becomes the process of how do we recondition that? And this is one of those ways, is just dropping into meaning, being grateful, constantly being in the state of joy, gratitude, relaxation because the reconditioning process, like a golf swing, like playing the piano, takes repetition. It takes relearning a new mode of operation. And by the way, this is not just mental. This is literally in the nervous system. This is tissue in the body, and it requires repetitive sort of engagement. So this sort of deep meaning, gratitude and really understanding that life has a purpose and you generate meaning in so many ways can help us recondition that nervous system.

Well, that's like a public service announcement. I like want to drop my mic, but I can't. But it's so true what you're saying and I hope, you know, I think we hear this a lot. We hear it in different versions, we scroll by it and then we just continue what I'm doing, what we're doing. Right. So it's like, this is like such a deep invitation because if we don't really what I find is, you know, women fly in from all over the globe to see me, and they want their hormones, and that's great. And they want their detox and that's great.

But if we're putting hormones into a dysregulated, non grateful body, we're not getting the best out of those hormones. And that's not truly what we're here as beings as humans to have this experience. And so what Jason is saying about finding gratitude, about finding purpose. Like I just hope you all take this to heart. And it's not one of those things where you listen and then you just skip away. And now you're a grateful, purposeful person, right? Like it is a practice and we have to do it over and over and over.

And when we catch ourselves maybe not being so grateful or mindful, it's not an opportunity to beat yourself up, right. It's an opportunity to just catch it, acknowledge it, and then go, how can I? How can I shift into this? So I don't want anyone thinking like, you're going to just be 24 over seven. You know, like you said, you know, we all go to the DMV and anyone, you know, what's the saying? Like, anyone can be calm and peaceful as a monk or monk s in the mountains, right? But come down and stand in the middle of Times Square and hold that same stability and reverence.

And so this is like, if you take nothing else from this whole entire summit, I think what you just talked about is, at least to me, as a human and as a physician, it's the foundation of everything. And it is also what leads to longevity. So, you know, we want to have quality with those, the quantities. So I am curious what you think because I think society, you know, we have this magic number of 65 where you retire and then like, you know, you just kind of fade away. And so many people, you know, they work towards that retirement and then what happens?

They get sick. They can't even enjoy it. So I'm curious like what do you think we're biologically design age wise. Like I have my theories, but I want to hear what you think first. Well, by all available evidence, I think 120 is about right. I haven't seen any reports of anybody living longer in the sort of modern world. I know we have sort of biblical stuff, and we've got things from from scriptures and these type of things. But at the end of the day, I haven't seen any evidence of that, you know, and there's a lot of talk about can we live to 200 and maybe beyond and aging as a disease that can be cured and death is is not necessary thing.

I think there's some dangers with this thinking. I'm a huge fan of people that have sort of, you know, audacious goals, that big, big thinking, like, I love that. And it comes with caveats when it comes to life, right? I want everybody to think about what it would be like if you could live to 150.

How presence and nervous system regulation support healing 19:48

That's not even that. You know far over what we think we can live. So if you were to live 150, the reality of that is, is that you're not going to stay the same function and form that you are now. You are going to degrade. This is just the reality, right? And sure, we can clean up the body. We can sort of quote unquote anti age, which just means allowing the body to heal really is all that is. That's possible. But the truth of the matter is we will decline. And and so there's that. And then the other part is what happens to everybody around you.

Kids get older, friends die, spouses, everybody that you know starts to die unless they're all living to 150. So at that point, there's some magical pill or shot or something that people are taking short of that. Then is it really that interesting and fun and valuable to live 20 years or 30 years beyond everybody that you know and love? And my my thinking is no, you know, and there's a lot of people that when they get to 94, 95, in fact, there was a scientist, I believe, in Australia, and I'm forgetting his name, but he got I think he was 94 and 98, something like that.

And he, he basically got to the point where, you know, his eyes weren't as sharp as they once were. His hearing wasn't as good as it once was. He wasn't able to move as well as he once was. Right. This is the picture of what it looks like to get old. And he got to that point and he said, you know what? Like I'm done. And he went to Europe and he had assisted suicide. Now I'm not condoning or even condemning that, but that shows you the mentality that when we lose all the things that we value, then what value does life have?

You know? So it takes a lot, I think, mentally and emotionally to be able to accept that decline and still be excited about life. So that leads me to sort of I think the more important point, which is that on some level, you'll never be as young as you are today. Right? And this is a more healthy mindset because that that, again, brings us back into that state of, hey, I can walk today. Yeah, I got some pain. You know, I can't run as like I was when I was 20, but I can walk and I can see and I can hear and I can play with my grandchild, or I can see pet my dog.

All of these things that were taking for granted. That's that's kind of what I'm pointing to, is that that's this is now an opportunity to be grateful for today. Right? So this idea that and I see it a lot in the anti-aging longevity world, people are trying to claim that they're going to live to whatever. And yet every every couple of years I see them, they look older. So, you know, sort of delusional. And I think it's more important to instead of focusing on 50 years from now or however long you think you're going to live instead, like right now.

Right now, how happy are you right now? How content are you right now? How compassionate are you right now? How present are you right now? That, to me is a more important focus. So there's so many times throughout the day that I am not present. My mind is elsewhere. I'm thinking about the past. I'm thinking about what's going on in the future. I'm scattered. Okay. That's an opportunity for me to go, here I am. Everything is good, right? And that kind of leads into another sort of point that that I've heard from a few different teachers, which is something to the effect of.

And it was said in different ways, but the idea is the same, which is that disease cannot exist in the present moment. Disease is always a source of the past, past, prior things that were hanging on to mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, etc. it's all locked up in our present and worrying about the future, right? And so if we have sort of a loose idea of that, that might be correct. Then then the remedy, the solution, the cure is to come into the present. And if you are truly present and this happens when time dilates, it extends or it shrinks, right?

And it's time flies. You're having so much fun. You're immersed in something. You're in the flow state. Artists and musicians and athletes, they're frequently in these places of flow state. That is the point where disease doesn't exist. And I have I know this for a fact, because I remember my athlete days in high school and college that there was, you know, I'd be banged up, right, a little bit of injury, not not terrible, but just banged up. Right. Definitely soreness, knee, elbow, shoulder, whatever it was and whatever play was happening.

And this is the point where I'm kind of like limping you know or what have you. And then we'd run a play. And during that play in the live action there was no pain. I was able to move without pain. So I wasn't sensing pain. My body wasn't moving as if it had pain. I was able to fully participate. And then when the play was over, man, you know, limping back again, this wasn't a performance. This was real. So when you get into that state of truly being present, your whole being as present as possible.

That's where disease can't exist. So to me, this is my message in the longevity anti-aging spaces. Don't worry about 50 years from now. Next we can get it by a bus. So, you know, thinking that you're going to live another 50 years is kind of pointless. And going back to the Human Longevity Project, I would ask these people that were 96, 97, something along in this sort of line of questioning, and they would say, oh, when God takes me, he takes me. You know, a lot of them had a religious bent. And so that was their perspective. And they said, I met God's mercy.

And to me that whether you're religious or not, that is the proper approach. In other words, there's no guarantee for any of this, right? It's it's a it's about accepting the reality that you're in right now and being grateful for whatever you have, because there's no indication that ten years from now you're going to, you know, have better eyesight or, you know, better hearing or be able to move better. You may, you know, especially if you've got some stuff going on that's absolutely possible and worthwhile pursuing.

But but it's not guaranteed. Right. And so I mean, I feel pretty good. But at the same time, what I trade my sort of current health status for the 20 year old version of me, totally, totally, you know, I was much more capable and youthful back then. So it is worth maintaining. And there's a I think it's really worth focusing on that. And how long can we maintain our function and our in our mind and all these things. But it is not guaranteed. So that's a that's a long winded answer to, to say 120.

That's my answer, which is I upped mine to 130 when I started inducing autophagy through, you know, I utilized the prolong. And so I was like, I'm getting an extra ten years, right? Because I was at 120 before this. But I kind of think, like, we can really be productive if we take care of ourselves to about 100, and then I'm going to have a really nice rocker and a hammock, and I'm just going to be chillin on the porch. And anyone who wants to come learn from me and get some wisdom, they can come because I think here's what's interesting too, because I met with a guy named Julio in Sardinia and he he was 105 or maybe 104 when we met him, 104 about to turn 105 and he was able to ride his bike.

He was whittling wood. He was playing chess with his 80 something year old son. Wow. So in many ways, he was quite capable. Yet he was hunched over, couldn't hear very well. He couldn't speak very well. He was slow moving. He got on his bike. He was very wobbly, but he was able to do it. And then I think about a year later he passed. And so generally what happens when we get into those older ages is the the decline is rapid. That's why it's so hard. You don't see a lot of people that are 110, 111, whatever.

And seemingly relatively healthy people in those in those age ranges just fall off a cliff, right? Because something in the system is starting to really go right, even if a lot of the function is there, whether it's the immune system or what have you. So again, this is where it gets a little dicey when we get into those older ages. And if anybody's been around, you know, their parents or grandparents at those ages, they'll they'll probably see it. Like if they don't go a slow way, like Alzheimer's, dementia, that type of thing.

Oftentimes it just it happens pretty suddenly, especially to the healthy people, the quote unquote healthy people that are in that age rank. It's like, and look, I mean, to be honest, for me, that's how I want to go. I want to just go in my sleep. I want to go rapidly. It's relatively healthy and then just drop dead. Like I'm good with that. Right. And that's kind of how it goes. If you if you sort of do it right. If you could say, yeah, I was laughing when you said you'd go back to your 20 year old body because I'm always like, heck no, I don't want to go.

I was like a hormonal hot mess back then. I'm very happy in my 58 year old body. I will stay so. And yeah, just back to like you were saying, you know, when God takes me and you know what I have found through 25 years of clinical medical practice

Realistic longevity, aging, and acceptance of decline 28:38

and working with a lot of chronically ill, and especially in the oncology field, that my patients who do the best always have, like a connection. And it doesn't matter what their religion is or if it's just to Mother Earth, but that when they have that higher power, that higher connection, they always have better medical outcomes. And that yeah, I think part of it is that you can you can rest into that. You can let go a little bit. There's not such a tight grip on that. I'm the only one, you know, dictating my future, but rather there's a relaxation.

There's a feeling of support. There's a feeling of connection. You can just you can kind of rest into. Right. I think I think that's a really important. And so whatever that is for you can absolutely serve a valuable function. And like we can explain it on a very physiological level. Again going back to the nervous system. Right. There's a sense of relaxation that there's not as much that we feel like we have to carry. Right. So that that gives the nervous system just that much more resource to be able to do what we want it to do, which is to perform a variety of functions depending on what we're doing.

Yeah. What are your favorite like if are there any like tidbits or tips, other tips other than the most important of being mindful and grateful. And I was thinking about when you were talking when I spent a couple of months in India and I came home and I was so grateful, like kissing my washing machine, my toilet, like so, you know, just sometimes we need to take ourselves out and maybe it's just going for a weekend camping trip where you don't have electricity or Wi-Fi. But I think that we, you know, I always find it interesting when we lose power.

Like, I still go to turn on the lights and then I'm like, oh, they don't work like, oh, we should. We really need to be. I don't want to should, but it would be really great to be just so grateful for all these things. Like you were saying, like these people who didn't have fridges. And how many times do you go to the fridge during the day and not like, say, a blessing that, oh my God, this is so amazing that I have this box that keeps my food cold and I can just grab anytime I want. Yeah, and it doesn't even need to be anything big, right?

It's like when you're grabbing that food, it's just an internal acknowledgment of feeling, this is great. You know, like I'm grateful for this, right? So it can be small. And, you know, I think the lights going out, you know, losing power is a great example. It also happens whenever there's a sort of snowstorm or enough snow, that what you notice is that everything slows down. Everything, right. There's nowhere to go. There's not as much to do. Especially when the power's out. Right. So what do you find? You find people connecting again.

Maybe playing a board game, maybe playing a card game, maybe sitting by the fire, maybe reading by the fire. Like everything just slows down. So that is probably one of the biggest tips. None of the tips that I'm going to give you are fun. They're not exciting. They're not sexy. They're really not. That's our favorite kind. Yeah, but but this is this is actually the medicine, right? It really is. You know, we're always looking for the next newest, you know, deep thing that we're going to employ.

But really it is the foundational basics that are the thing that will pull us out. And it's constantly what I'm giving to my students in my courses that I'm really drilling this in, like this stuff that you don't think is a big deal is the very thing that will pull you out. And so slowing down is important. This is a hard one, though, because, you know, we are products of our environment. So, you know, when we went to Costa Rica. This was our first trip to kind of film and meet these 100 year olds.

And look, there's not a list of 100 year olds, right? It's not like they're on a list and we can just go to their house, right? They all speak Spanish. My Spanish is terrible, but I can understand it a little bit. So we had to find somebody, right? That can sort of speak Spanish well enough to translate during a filmed interview. But we also define these people. So we had ten days and we had to go find 100 year olds or 90 year olds. And so, you know, fairly pressurized work environment. And yet when we were in Costa Rica, everything was so slow that the days felt longer.

Now you want to talk about longevity, extend the day. Right. Like that's that's one of the things. And so and we didn't do anything. In other words we were still pressurized. We were still like, okay, we got to do this. We got it. But the day felt bigger. It felt longer. So we could felt like we had we could do more in that in that time. And so that's what I noticed was that the environment slowed me down, slowed my nervous system down, slowed everything down. And then the interesting part was as soon as we landed back into the Houston airport, we're going through customs.

I instantly felt it my nervous system could pick up on and we were just standing in line. So even in that moment, standing in line, waiting for customs, I felt, oh my God, it's it's like madness in here, you know, this is chaos. Like, what are we doing? Right? So it's that indoor, constantly busy, frenetic environment that pings our nervous system and raises the sort of that vibration of like, oh, there's so much going on. So some of it is consciously choosing to slow down, trying to put yourself in in healthy, healing, relaxed environments.

And I think more importantly now is, is this idea of constantly being stimulated, right. We are constantly stimulated and we've normalized all this. So this is the hard part. You know, Sharon, you and I remember a time when and probably most people listening to this remember a time when there was no internet, right. And when you turned on the TV, there was 13 channels or whatever it was for you, and you had to go up to the TV and you had to switch it by hand, and whatever was on was on, and it probably wasn't that interesting.

So you might watch for 30 minutes or whatever the case. Right? So we remember a time when everything wasn't on demand that you weren't able to like, everything's accelerated now. So we're in a hyper novel hyper stimulatory environment and that is affecting us. And we've sort of normalized it. So the advice that I'm going to give again is not sexy, but do whatever you can do to simplify everything in your life. Go on your phone, remove as many apps as possible that you really don't need that are occupying your time, that are distracting you, that are pulling your attention in a million different ways.

Go into your fridge. Clean out your fridge. Of all the nonsense, your cupboards, all the cleaning supplies, simplify all that stuff. Go into your shower. If you've got 12 products in your shower, fine, I understand why, but you don't need it. You really don't. I know we think we need the latest cream and the latest this and the latest that. To do this, we have 15 products that really don't need to be there. And so I'm not shaming anybody. I've got some products and I've got some things. But be mindful and reduce where you can.

You'll be surprised that as you reduce and as you simplify everything in your life, how much more time, how much more space, how much more life that you can create just by getting rid of stuff right? Going to your closet? Clean out your closet. This is an exercise I have people do just because. If we're wanting new things in our life, one of the things that we have to do and some of this is sort of like an energetic quality. We have to clean out the old get rid of the old. And so if you're on a healing journey, this is a really good practice for you to get into with whatever it is.

Have a garage sale, donate it to the goodwill, whatever you can do to just get rid of stuff. This on an energetic sort of meta level is sort of you saying, I'm done with the old. I'm stepping into a new phase of my life, one that is more coherent, one that is more aligned. What is one that is more simple? One that is more dedicated to myself and my well-being and my healing? So it really is a simple, simple game. When you go to these other places where you have people living to 100, they don't have anything, they have very little and they're fine.

Not only are they find they're happier. So we have this paradox that we're in and we don't need all this stuff. We like it. It's fun, it's exciting, it's cool, it smells good, whatever.

Simplifying life to support health and resilience 36:38

But we really don't need it. And when it comes to products, we are we have so many chemicals in our environment. No matter how clean you think your stuff is, it probably isn't that necessary. So to me, it's really a game of simplifying as much as you can. Go to your calendar, remove all the BBS that you don't want to attend and that you don't want to do, and all this stuff. So it's a and again, part of this is this it's a process of discernment. What is what is benefiting you? What is not betting fitting you address that's been hanging in your closet for five years that you haven't worn, that probably doesn't fit that well.

That's out of style, whatever. But you have an emotional attachment. Is that really serving you? Probably not. Right? So it may not seem like that getting rid of that can improve your health and well-being, but I'm here to tell you it does, especially when you do that at scale. Clear the space out. This gets into feng shui from from Chinese medicine. It gets into Vastu in our Veda. It's the energetics of spaces. And so we can clean this stuff out, organize it, get rid of it, simplify, and it will radically change your environment for the better.

Oh, I didn't know. We were like simplification. So many. I could talk to you all day. I mean this is the medicine. Like a as you were talking I was thinking I should create like, you know, we have the food pyramid. Like we should create like the healing pyramid. And, you know, for all of you who are like, but yeah, what's the what's the dose of vitamin B? Or should I take it with my food or not like that, that come this is the foundation that. Yeah. That's not that. This is like so please, please, please like listen to this again and again.

Like this is the guide for setting the stage for, you know, not only physical healing, but emotional healing, spiritual healing, mental healing. And just like Jason was saying, like being present, being grateful, enjoying. You know, I always say, if you listen loud enough like silence is screaming, silence will speak to you. And being able to be in that and turning off the phone and you know, I'm by no means perfect. It's a practice because it gets harder and harder as our society is just like this giant snowball just barreling forward, you know, gaining more speed.

How much more can we throw at you? How much more can we do? And so, like, it has to be this really mindful paid attention to practice but. Well, and that's the paradox because the people that I spoke with in these countries, they didn't have to deal with that. Right. So we always talk about some of these things. And what do they do? What do they do? Well, what didn't they have to do? They didn't have to walk through my organic grocery store and still say no to 85% of the things in that grocery store.

They had the opportunity to eat organic food from their gardens and from their neighbors gardens, because that's all there was. So in some ways, their life was was easier. They didn't have to make these conscious choices that we have to make. But now we are in a world where we can either extract ourselves from the modern world and go live in a very different way, which most people don't want to do or can't do in some way. We can. We can live in this modern world and find some kind of happy balance and learn to work with it in a different way.

And again, I agree the this is the foundation. So hormones great. I love bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. Love it. Especially done correctly. Not when it's not done correctly. It's it's a mess. But when done correctly by somebody who can integrate with an integrative practitioner who can look at a variety of things, fantastic. But if you don't have your circadian rhythm dialed in, meaning you're not getting up with the sun and sort of going to bed with the sun and your nervous system dysregulated, well, it's still going to be beneficial, but you're going to always swim against the stream, right?

The currents always working against you. So we have to get these foundational things correct. And then the acupuncture, the hormone replacement, the the gut test, all the things that are coming down, coming later. Now they have a chance to work if done correctly. Otherwise you might do it. Follow the protocol and the protocol might be fantastic, but it still may not get you where you want to go, because there's a whole basket of other things that are left unaddressed. So we're skipping over some of these things that are so foundational that at one time we're not even considered, because that's just the way life was.

You woke up with the sun, you worked in the garden, you did something with the animals you went to, whatever the case was. Now we live in boxes and temperatures controlled, and we're eating and working at different times of the day or the night. And this is the thing that causes problems. Is this, this foundational living that we've really screwed up in the West. And now we have to sort of consciously take that back under control. We gotta like, plow out of the emfs and all the things. But look, with that, by the way, if you figure out how to get away from these emfs, like, I'm still looking, you know, like, I just put up all this, these sheets, these, like, panels that I brought in from Europe to block the emfs on my windows in my office, like, yeah, you got the whole thing.

It's a thing. So. Wow. Well, we got a wrap. Although I don't want to, but where can the ladies listening? Continue the conversation with you. Where can they learn more? Where do you hang out? You know, I don't hang out much online. I did social media stuff, but I don't really do anything with it. So the best place to me is at Awakened Health Academy. Com okay. Awakened health academy. Well, this has just been a pure delight, and I'm just smiling. I just I think this is the medicine. This is the conversation.

This is. I'm going to go make. We should make a health pyramid together. I want to make my health Barremian. So thank you so much, Jason, for taking time, for being here, for sharing your your true, true wisdom. And thank you everyone else for being here. I feel like this is a conversation. Go commune. Go. You don't need to wait for a snowstorm. Go find a few friends, grab some tea and like listen to this conversation and talk about it. Communicate about it. Implement it. You know, it doesn't have to be. Everything could be one thing.

And just see how much life and health that gives you. So thank you for being here. We'll be back with another talk and sending you a love, and we'll see you soon.