free meditation
stock imagery

In this week’s episode, I am joined by brain expert Jim Kwik, author of Limitless: Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, and Unlock Your Exceptional Life. Jim shares his deep understanding of brain function, from memory enhancement techniques to the lifestyle factors that promote cognitive well-being. Our high-vibe conversation will empower you with practical strategies that are easy to fold into your daily routine so you can unlock and optimize your most valuable asset – your brain

In this episode you’ll learn:

  • How to avoid ‘digital dementia’
  • The truth about multitasking
  • The secret to adding years to your life
  • How to build your day to be more ‘mindful’ with the three C’s
listen now

get more gabby

free manifesting meditation to attract your desires

By submitting your number, you agree to receive recurring automated promotional marketing text messages from Dear Gabby, Inc. and Gabby Plus, Inc. at the cell number you entered above. Consent is not a condition of any purchase. Reply HELP for help and STOP to cancel. Msg frequency varies. Msg and data rates may apply. You also agree to our Terms & Privacy Policy.

disclaimer

This podcast is intended to educate, inspire, and support you on your personal journey towards inner peace. I am not a psychologist or a medical doctor and do not offer any professional health or medical advice. If you are suffering from any psychological or medical conditions, please seek help from a qualified health professional.

dear gabby #200 Apr 01, 2024 physical wellbeing

boost your brain, learn faster and become more productive – big talk with jim kwik

The following podcast is a Dear Media production. Hi there, Gabby here. This podcast is intended to educate, inspire, and support you on your personal journey towards inner peace. I'm not a psychologist or a medical doctor and do not offer any professional health or medical advice. If you are suffering from a psychological or medical condition, please seek help from a qualified health professional.

Hey there, welcome to Dear Gabby. I'm your host, Gabby Bernstein, and if you landed here, it is absolutely no accident. It means that you're ready to. feel good and manifest a life beyond your wildest dreams. Let's get started. Welcome [00:01:00] back, my friends. Welcome back. It is episode 200 of Dear Gabby. Wow. Wow. I can't believe how much time has gone by.

This is such a beautiful movement we've created here, and I'm so happy that you're part of it. Thank you so, so much for being part of it. And today's also day one of my anxiety relief challenge that takes place inside the Gabby coaching app. This is a 14 day journey that will help you really calm your nervous system and feel deeply empowered that you have the tools and the access to support.

Anxiety is a huge topic that comes up on this show and I really, really, really want to support you in it. Give yourself the gift of this challenge. Go to DearGabby.com/anxiety challenge now. Plus you get a month inside the Gabby coaching app, which is so rocking. It allows you to really enjoy the challenge plus stay consistent.

And [00:02:00] all the details once again, are at DearGabby. com.

Today is very special, too, because today we're talking with someone who's sort of like a guru to me. It is my brain mentor, Jim Quick. And Jim has really dedicated his life to understanding how to enhance your brain, techniques for really increasing your cognitive well being. Thank you, Jim. And these days we have so many different toxins and we have menopause and we have hormonal issues and all the things that happen to us that really create brain fog or create that sensation of not being as sharp as we used to be.

And we got to address that, people. It is happening here on the show today. We had a super high vibe conversation. He's an incredibly deep understanding man. I love him so much and he is So, so well versed in brain health and tools and methods for how we can really get back to a place where we [00:03:00] are really living and unlocking our full potential of our brain.

If you have been feeling like you have brain fog, this is your episode. Enjoy this. Listen, these methods are going to blow your mind, and thank you for being a listener. 200 episodes, my friends. Wow. Wow, wow, wow. Wow. If you want more coaching from me, always head to DearGabby.com/app. You can always try my Gabby coaching app for free.

And just know I'm always here for you, whether it's here on the podcast, inside the Gabby coaching app, you choose your own adventure. I love you. Enjoy this journey. Let's get started with this show. Stick around till the end. Love you guys. If you've ever listened to a podcast in the personal growth space, you have heard Jim Quick because, man, you are out there.

You are a leader. You are really great, valuable messages for all folks because we all need you, especially me today. Okay. Let me tell you what [00:04:00] happened. So I did this kind of longevity checkup and this nurse came to my house and we did all these different tests and everything looked normal. My blood work was relatively great.

I did a cognitive test. I failed the s t out of that, man. One is that it was a little bit of performance anxiety. It was a little bit that I can't actually add in my head. And it was adding up numbers. Are you familiar with this one? It's like you take the first number, the second number, you add it, and then you have to take the last number you heard, and then the next number and add it.

And I I failed. I literally failed. I walked away and the woman was like, wow, we should work on this. And I'm very aware of my brain fog and I'm aware of some of my neurodivergent issues and where they come from, but I need help. Okay. So we're here today for a big talk on really maybe healing our brain.

But expanding our brain's capacity. And you've got [00:05:00] this extraordinary book, Limitless, which is back out with a hundred new pages. And this is what we're going to talk about today, which is upgrade your brain, learn anything faster and unlock your exceptional life. And this is a mission today with me here.

Save Gabby's brain. Let's do it. Save my brain. Let's do it. So number one, what's up with me? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's an honor to be here. Thank you everyone who's tuning in. Yeah, my name is Jim Quick. I have a company called Quick Learning and I help people learn quickly. I help people have their best brain possible so that they can learn, live, and lead their best life.

Best brain possible. Yeah. It's on a mission. Yeah. It's been 32 years. I had a traumatic brain injury when I was a child. So I've been informed what I do today. I was put in special education when I had my accident at five years old. So I had focus issues, memory issues. It took me three years longer, more than three years to learn how to read like all the other kids.

So it was very embarrassing. I would have these migraines every single day. I thought [00:06:00] it was normal as a kid. Oh God. Yeah. And everybody has their origin story. When I was seven, my grandmother, who was taking care of me, passed off Alzheimer's. So, you know, I'm really on a mission to build better brains. I remember when I was nine years old, I was slowing down in class and I was being teased and bullied pretty harshly because I didn't understand the lessons like everybody else.

And a teacher came to my defense. She pointed to me in front of the whole class and said, leave that kid alone. That's the boy with the broken brain. So that, you could say that label became my limit. I don't know if listeners could relate to it, but it was just a lot of self doubt, a lot of loss of confidence, self esteem issues.

My superpower was really shrinking. Uh, cause I never knew the answers, never wanted to be called on in class. I would always find the tall kid and Universe has a sense of humor because my two biggest challenges growing up were learning and public speaking. And that's all I do is public speak on learning, but I think our struggles could become strengths.

So yeah, Limitless [00:07:00] is basically an order's guide for your brain and show you how to get the most out of it and take care of it the best. I'm always wearing, if people are watching this on video, I'm wearing, always wearing a brain on my shirt and always pointing to my brain in photos on social media.

Because I want to remind people what you, what you see you take care of. That's right. You see your hair, your clothes, your car, and so you know if it's messy or it's deteriorating. But you don't see the thing that controls everything. Yeah. A lot of it, it's our brains. Yeah. I just love people to know their brain, love their brain, and most of all, use their brain.

I did some damage on my brain. I, I, I don't know if you know this about me, but I've been sober for 18 years off of cocaine. Congratulations. Thank you. Huge. Sobriety is great. My brain is definitely rebuilt. back better. But that damage is real. Even though it was maybe three years of hardcore use, that, that cocaine damage is real.

But then at the same, in the same breath, I haven't had a drink since I was 25. So that's quite beneficial. And then I've had childhood trauma, which I think really led to some neurodivergent [00:08:00] pathways for me and just really not retaining information, not feeling that I ever learned how to read properly.

And so I've had to retrain my brain, but As a result, I guess you have like nine, ten books. Well, look at us now, right? And I think this is such a good point to start with, which is that if you have a child or if you personally have experienced any form of brain injury or a diagnosis of something that, that has held you back or that look at the two of us, you know, you experienced a brain injury.

You were called the boy with the broken brain. I was held back in every single class, man. Like I was just couldn't really, I never wanted to read out loud to this day. I still get a little freaked out about reading out loud, even my own books at times. I'm like, don't want to read out loud. And the, The truth is that you can reprogram.

Yeah. Yeah, here I am. I taught myself how to write. I couldn't spell before I wrote my first book and now I'm on number 10 New York Times bestsellers. So, but the thing that also, [00:09:00] I want to highlight a few of the, the things I do now that I think are breaking my brain, or that are not supporting my brain.

And then there are probably things that my listeners might be doing that maybe you could help me readjust. So I'm just making sure that, I do this thing where I Dear Gabby people, but I ask my guests to Dear Gabby me. Okay. So you're coaching me today. Okay. So one thing is that as a result of having ADHD, which has been a gift for me, which has allowed me in many ways to just do many, many things at once, do things extremely fast at times.

And when I have focused on something I care about, I focus hardcore, but I can move fast. So I could have a flag up. I could have. My Google drive, I could be writing my book while responding to my publicist while thinking of a marketing idea, while texting back to you. I just can only imagine that all that multitasking while for many years I thought was a superpower might be really detrimental to my brain.

Is that correct? Yeah. We can unpack that. As a as a. Multitasking is very difficult. Women do it better than men do. You have a left brain and a right brain and you have this split between, called the [00:10:00] corpus callosum, and women have a thicker corpus callosum, which some people believe, researchers believe, that's what makes them even more intelligent.

Intuitive, because the communication between left and right, that logic and the creative, you know, I'd love to have you on my podcast to talk about intuition because I think that would be an extremely smart topic. I have so much to say about that. We'll do it. Yeah. Absolutely. So multitasking, the challenge with multitasking are threefold.

Number one, when research in multitaskers, we see that people actually lose time. Because when you're going from one task to another, it could take anywhere from five or ten minutes to regain your focus. Number two, when we multitask, we're more likely to make mistakes. And I speak to a lot of medical professionals, I mean of surgeons, who try to multitask during surgery and operations, they'll make more errors.

It's like driving and texting. Yeah. We're not going to do either one really well. Yeah. So we can't really do two cognitive activities at once. Yeah. And then the third thing, if [00:11:00] that's not a reason just to monotask, focus on one thing at a time, besides losing time and making mistakes, it uses up a lot of energy.

Yep. I don't know if you feel that. Oh, do. I'm like, by noon, I'm just tanked. I need my deep meditation for at least an hour. To rejuvenate. Totally. Yeah. And when you have too many tabs open, you use, so when you're focused on tasks like Slack or whatever, a certain part of your brain is lit up like a cognitive web.

But in order to switch from that, to have a conversation with somebody or write, you have to light up a different part of your brain kind of makes sense, but it takes energy. So it takes a lot of brain glucose. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. And so sometimes people have more too many tabs open and they need to refuel.

Okay, my friends, I would say you all know me very well by now, probably if you've been listening to this show, and it's not going to come as a surprise to you that I really put my health and my well being really in my highest priority. Life is too short not to strive for the best and compromising and cutting corners with your [00:12:00] health is just a big no no.

And that's where ZocDoc comes in. ZocDoc is an online resource where you can choose from literally thousands of top tier doctors, all with verified patient reviews from actual patients. So you can trust that you're getting the best and you can see what other people are saying. And ZocDoc will help you find and book doctors in your area that are experts in their fields.

And that makes you really comfortable because you know you're getting the exact person to focus on the exact issue. ZocDoc is a free app and website where you can search and compare highly rated in network doctors near you and instantly book appointments with them online. And there's no more waiting.

ZocDoc takes the stress and frustration out of booking an appointment. They have a huge list of top rated physicians and specialists to choose from. They take your insurance, they're located near you, they can treat specific conditions that you are searching for. And ZocDoc is going to help you. Get you connected to a doctor between 24 to 72 hours, [00:13:00] which is pretty much the most mind blowing part of it all.

Go to ZocDoc.com/Gabby and download the ZocDoc app for free. Then find and book a top rated doctor today. That's ZocDoc.wcom/Gabby. ZocDoc. com. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. My friends, you know, I love having BetterHelp as a sponsor. On this show, we talk about trauma. We talk about anxiety.

We talk about brain functioning. We talk about all of the issues that show up in our life. And here on the show, I'm giving you spiritual tools and self help techniques. And we need therapy. I have followed spiritual practices, self help techniques, sober recovery programs, and all of it has changed and saved my life.

And the one through line that has always been consistent is my therapy, my therapy, my therapy. I see my therapist once a week, every Thursday at [00:14:00] 2. 40 p. m. Eastern time. If you want to know where I am at 2. 40 p. m. Eastern time, it's with my therapist. I've worked with her for almost 12 years. Better help next time.

is your resource to get the best therapeutic solutions. Go online, fill out a survey, and BetterHelp will match you with a licensed therapist that can really, really guide you through your own recovery journey. It's just a little questionnaire. And BetterHelp will match you right away. It's convenient, it's flexible, it's affordable, it's entirely online, and you have the option of doing your sessions on the phone or video, whatever is good for you.

So find your social sweet spot with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/DearGabby today and get 10 percent off your first month. That's BetterHelp.com/DearGabby. Hello, my friends, there is no question that we are living in quite stressful times and it's [00:15:00] global, it's personal, it's all of us, including myself.

We're all experiencing our own personal levels of anxiety. And I personally went through a journey of really, uncovering all of the tools and the methods for finding serenity and peace inside. It was really a life mission, I believe. And the commitment that I've undergone to relieve anxiety has changed me forever.

It changed me on a cellular level. And so I put together this really, really, really beautiful 14 day journey where I want to take you through my best methods for releasing anxiety. And it's the 14 day anxiety relief challenge. The beauty of this challenge is that it's very simple practices, 10 minutes or less a day.

And they're practices that I want you to take with you, carry with you, have for the rest of your life. And these methods will give you instant relief from meditations, to EFT [00:16:00] tapping, to releasing anxiety through your breath, through mindful practices, sleeping meditations, walking meditations. It's all there.

It's all inside here. It's 14 days. So if you're struggling with anxiety, I welcome you to join me on the 14 Day Anxiety Relief Challenge. Go to DearGaby.com/anxiety challenge. Join me today. That's DearGaby. com/anxiety challenge. Let me support you on your journey to finding that genuine, long lasting serenity, peace, inner safety.

I promise that dear gabby.com/anxiety challenge.

So one solution is obviously close some tabs down. I have my chief of staff who I work with particularly in the mornings to, to 11 or 12 cause she's in the UK and she's, we worked together for decades. We have a lot of undoing to do because we've done so much multitasking together, but we actually never get things [00:17:00] done to the level that we want.

We get a lot done, but we have a lot of redoing. Because we're moving, moving, moving. I'm going to make Jessica listen to this whole episode. So I, would you recommend, let's say you have two hours, would you structure the most five most important things? What's a tip there? So one of the things that really hinders our productivity is just lack of focus.

And one of the challenges is how you start your day is. It indicates like how you're going to spend the rest of the day, you know, you're creating this kind of momentum. And unfortunately, a lot of people, what they do first thing in the morning is grab their device. And the challenge is, you know, this, when you wake up, you probably the most relaxed you're going to be when you first wake up.

Yeah. This relaxed state of awareness. You're very suggestible. And if the first thing you do is pick up your phone, the challenge is you wire your brain forward. Distraction. That's right. Because every ring, ping, ding, app notification, social media alerts, this dopamine flood of more and motivation and you're exercising distraction [00:18:00] muscles first thing and you wonder why you can't focus in a meeting, right?

Or with your family or when you need to be on the zoom and you need to be present. But the second thing you do is you not only wire your brain for distraction, you wire your brain for reaction. Which is almost as detrimental to your productivity and your peace of mind. Meaning, you could get, you could wake up and check your messages and one social media message, voicemail message, email, whatever could hijack your mood for hours.

Put you fighting fires. Our mutual friend Brendan Burchard has this saying that your inbox is nothing but a convenient organizational system for other people's agenda for your life. Alright, so it puts you in the reactive and on the defense as opposed to proactively. So to answer your question, instead of touching my phone, what I'll do is I'll do this thought experiment while I'll stay in bed.

And I'll just for two minutes imagine I'm coming back to bed that evening. So I fast forward to the end of the day and maybe someone asked me how my day was. And I said, today was amazing. Totally crushed it today. Yep. And then I [00:19:00] asked myself what had to happen in order for me to feel that way. Right.

Cause like in sports, I'm not a big sports person, but you know when you celebrate cause the scoreboard tells you. But we don't have that scoreboard for our day. Yeah. Right. So I think about three things personally and three things professionally. Yeah. And those six things really are my focus for, for that day.

Love that. You know, and I think it's not just about time management. It's about mind management. It's about priority management. Because the most important thing is to keep the most important things. the most important thing. Yeah. Right. And so in terms of, yes, if I had a couple hours, I would focus on one of those six things.

I also, because what we're really doing is something called task switching. We're not multitasking. We're actually switching tasks and then lose time, make mistakes, you know, use up a lot of energy. What I'll actually do And not everyone could do this perfectly, and I certainly don't, but I try to chunk my tasks throughout my day, [00:20:00] similar tasks together.

That's smart. Not everybody has the opportunity to do that, but to the best ability we can, we'll save time, we'll be more efficient, and we'll use less energy. So like in the morning, I am creative. I focus on three, three C's. In the morning time, I create. That's when I find I write the best. Me too. I have to write in the morning.

I just, anything that's creative. For work, you know, sketching out a podcast, scripting out, writing, you know, my next book. In the afternoon is when I consume. So in the, in, in the morning, I'm pulling information out of my, out of my brain, if you will. In the afternoon, I'm consuming. So I'll listen, I'll read, I'll research, I'll listen to, to podcasts, so I'm consuming information.

And in the evening, the last C is I clear. Like the last couple hours a day, I want to clear my mind. So I went from creating to consuming to then clearing, meaning I want to get in that parasympathetic rest and digest. That's right. Get out of that fight or flight and clear. So how do [00:21:00] I clear? I could, I meditate, right?

I could, I'll talk to a family member about my day. So it helps me to process, right? Journaling. I mean, what happened? I'll even plan my day the next morning. Um, and then I'll take all that information about my plans and put it out on paper and then I'll ruminate about it. So it's a way of clearing, right?

Or yoga nidra or some kind of form of just getting calm, but that's how I kind of plan my, my, I create, I consume and then I, I love that I actually can, for people that are in my app, you can do the yoga nidra meditation in the app. And then there's this thing that I also teach inside the Gabby, it's like a coaching app, right?

And so. Another thing I teach is this daily design method, which sounds a little similar to your visioning of your day, but it's asking yourself, who do I want to be today? How do I want to feel today? What do I want to give today? And what do I want to receive today? I love that so much. It's like your scoreboard.

Let me set it up. Most people have a to do list, but they don't have like To be list. To [00:22:00] be list. It's a to be list. Or a to feel list. So to feel and to be and to give and to receive list. Exactly. I love that so much. I love it. I love what you said too. Just visualize see you to the end and really set yourself up.

So I have a no phones in the morning rule. But for whatever reason this morning. I f ked it up. And I picked up my phone at 7 am when I woke up. And I just started going to Slack and dudududududududududu setting off my team were in here and he's like, Oh, that's what she was doing. Slack, Slack, Slack, going, going, going.

And I noticed my stomach go into knots. And like my digestion is very strong indicator of what my brain is doing. Right. Cause brain and the gut have such a strong connection. And so I just was like, I, I felt that feeling. And then I said, Oh, okay. Off the phone. Turn off that phone, get away, hide it. In fact, my son, my 5-year-old, I let him hide my phone.

Oh wow. Like I always to make sure that the ringer's on , but I will let him hide it because I think that especially like in the evening or in the morning when I'm specifically with him. Yeah. It's like a fun little game that we'll play. [00:23:00] He started doing it because of course he didn't want me on my phone.

Then I now I'm like, can you go hide my phone? Because if it's not there, I will be with him. Oh, that's a fun way of doing it. It's so fun. And it's like, he feels like he's empowered by it too. And, and then I have to find it later. But the other thing that I find is that these moments when that ringer goes off or that dinger, it's just such a, it's just so hypervigilant in those moments.

Very much. And it completely takes you out from brain and your nervous system. You're just like blasted in that moment. And so having boundaries around that is so big. Yeah. Yeah. Even they've had research where people have their phones at the. Yeah. At the, at the dining table. Yeah. And it creates anxiety.

Even if it's face down. Yeah. We have this impulse to, to, to, to grab it. We stack up our devices. There's just three of us, me and my boys, my husband and my son, we stack up our devices and Ollie will move them all into the dining room if we're in the kitchen or vice versa. Yeah. They're out of our space at dinner.

And it's like really cute, like he knows the routine, he knows the rule. And then we don't have to be a pain in the ass saying, you can't be on your device at dinner. You know no one wants their kid on their device at dinner, but it's easy, it [00:24:00] slips in, right? And so if we're doing it and we're all in on it together, it really is effective.

Yeah. One of the things for habit design, you know, we do a whole chapter on research on, on habits, how to create new habits, break habits, and then so on. But it's, is really controlling your environment where you want to make the things that are good for you super easy and the things that are not so good for you more difficult.

Cool. So even putting the phone in your bathroom. Yep. Right. Just makes it easier. So, you know, it's kind of like once you're at a restaurant and they, they offer to bring you bread first thing, right. And maybe, you know, you feel like bread is not the thing for you. It's easier to say no to control your environment and have them take away the bread up front as opposed to it sitting there and then you have to say no with your willpower 50 times throughout the meal.

It's a conscious choice.

The other day I'm in the makeup chair and I'm getting my makeup done with Alex, my makeup artist. You've heard her on the show before. She's like my makeup guru. [00:25:00] And I started talking about this product, Thrive Cosmetics. And before I could even finish my sentence, Alex was like, I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed with that brand and they're 100 percent vegan and cruelty free and I'm somebody that doesn't walk out of the house without some mascara on.

Even if I have no other makeup on, I'm going to be wearing my mascara. So I want to make sure that if it's something I'm using every single day, I want it to be healthy and that's why I love Thrive Cosmetics. Their liquid lash extensions mascara. Are you kidding me? It's literally like getting lash extensions and I'm, I'm very bombastic at times, but right here, right now, I am not.

overly emphasizing this other than the fact that it is something I absolutely can stand behind. I'm also obsessed with their sheer strength lip plumping peptide gloss. Come on now, fuller looking luscious lips, long lashes, fuller lips, lots of hydration. This is the whole thing people. So just check this out.

These products I love, the [00:26:00] brand I love, Thrive Cosmetics is luxury beauty that gives back. Right now you can get an exclusive 20 percent off your first order at thrivecosmetics.com/Dear Gabby. That's thrivecosmetics.com/Dear Gabby for 20 percent off your first order.

I am really proud to have Nurex as a sponsor on today's show. Nurex is the incredible digital healthcare platform that is championing women to be their best advocates when it comes to healthcare and especially reproductive healthcare. And there's no question that we need this kind of support right now.

Nurex's medical team is here to help you with a wide range of reproductive and sexual health needs with access to 24 7 care and support available. Their patients have the freedom to ask questions, get important, transparent, and honest answers when they need it most. Nurex is convenient, private, and they are [00:27:00] super compassionate.

And with Nurex, you have so many options. They offer more than 50 birth control options including the pill, patch, or ring. They provide expert care that allows you to skip the in person appointments and provides you with someone licensed in your state that will review your health care record and, if medically appropriate, prescribed treatment for you.

Unfortunately, as we know, it's not easy to access birth control. So Nurx is here to help you take back your autonomy with fast, affordable, expert care. I'm actually like really, really, I'm crying right now as I read this because this is your life. This is your body. You should have the right to really, really make sure that you are cared for, my friends.

Thanks to Nurx for sponsoring this podcast. Taking control of your reproductive health starts here. Go to Nurx.com/Dear Gabby to get started. That's N U R X dot com/Dear Gabby. Results may vary, not offered in every state, medications prescribed only if clinically appropriate [00:28:00] consultation required.

So let me tell you what I've been doing to my brain, okay? Yeah. So I'm taking, I'm, I, you're a studio Español con Duolingo. Tu hablas Español? I've been studying for six months and I studied 10 10 minutes a night. And I just practice, practice, practice. It's very good for my brain, my brain. See, and then the cool thing that I'm noticing is I'll start like thinking about things in Spanish.

And it's really awesome. Like the, you noticing your brain having that neuroplasticity and just like witnessing it. And then ever since I failed that cognitive test, it was like this big, I started with this brain game app. I don't even remember what it is. It's pretty good, but it's like these challenges, but they're quite simple because I'm at the earlier part of it, but it's like teaching you by a lot of what's in your book.

Do you have an app? Not yet. We have an online community, which is an app that [00:29:00] we do more where a lot of brain games is matching shapes or colors. We found that it doesn't carry over into our days as much. So what our app does is we teach people how to do things that they has focus tests, reading tests.
So we've met, everything's measurable. You can measure reading, reading comprehension. We teach people how to remember names, client information, product information. That's actually what this app is kind of doing. It's like teaching you how to like speed read, but also it's not speed reading specifically, it's just one exercise, but it's teaching you how to like read something and then repeat it back.

And they're like little challenges and they're rudimentary at the moment, but I can see how effective it is. Problem is that I do these at night. Yeah. And, because that's like the downtime I have. Mm hmm. That's a, my brain's tired then. Yeah. It's, it's tough. I mean, you have to make, everyone has to make a decision, you know, based on their own objectives and goals and lifestyle.

For me, I don't do anything cerebral right before night because I don't want to get into my executive, you know. brain [00:30:00] and start thinking or ruminating. Even I'll read at night, but I won't read, uh, nonfiction for that reason. I don't want to start analyzing and thinking as much as I'll read fiction though, because fiction is very soothing for me.

And it puts me in that more of that parasympathetic rest and digest. But reading is just like having a to do list. You mentioned it, like having a to be list or to feel list. Having a, a to learn list is so very important as we age is one of the best ways of staving off brain aging challenges is keeping our brain active because your mind is like a muscle, you know, it's use it or lose it.

But if you put your arm in a cast for a year in one grow stronger, it wouldn't even stay the same. It would, it would atrophy. And the challenge with our devices is we're We're using our devices almost as a kind of a surrogate to do our thinking for us or it maintains a lot of our memory, like it keeps your to dos, it keeps your calendar, it keeps phone numbers.

I mean, how many [00:31:00] phone numbers do you used to remember back growing up? Oh God, everybody. I only know my husband. Right. I only know my husband. Right. Today, it's, we know like one or two or three. And they call that digital dementia, a new term in healthcare where we're outsourcing our memory to our devices.

So we don't have to memorize it and I don't want to memorize 500 phone numbers, but it should be concerning we've lost the ability to remember one phone number or a PIN number or a passcode or something we just read, right? All these things, because we're not getting the mental workout for it. So I'm very pro technology, but the challenge is technology can be very convenient, but it also be costly.

It could be crippling. Yep. Like if you, if your offices or apartments on the fourth floor and you take the elevator each time, it's very convenient, but you don't get your steps in. That's right. Right? If you have to go to the bank and it's eight blocks away and you, you lift, take a lift or an Uber when you could have walked in and got some steps in.

That's good for your brain too, right? Walking is good for your brain. Walking is incredible for your brain. Why is that? So even when people listen to [00:32:00] our podcasts, yours or mine or our audio books, and they're actually doing something rhythmic. Like they're on a treadmill or an elliptical or they're going for a brisk walk.

They'll actually say show you actually understand it better and retain it better. The rule I say in Limitless is as your body moves, your brain grooves. Right? It's so important. The number one reason you have a brain is to control your movement. You know, I'm seeing this in our son. He just turned one years old, so he's just starting to walk and stand and, but even when he's crawling, those cross crawls are so important for brain development because it's not just a mind body connection, clearly, and you're an expert at that.

It, there's also a body mind connection that by using your body in certain ways that actually stimulates your brain, like ballroom dancing or a table tennis, you know, using where you're putting, yeah, you're putting mind into your, your muscle. And it makes a difference. Also, when you exercise, you create something called BDNF [00:33:00] brain derived neurotropic factors, which is like fertilizer for neuroplasticity.

Neuroplasticity is our brain's ability at any age or stage of life to make new connections. To learn new things, right? And so there was a study done, it was on the cover of Time Magazine, it was a longevity study with a group of women, community of nuns that were living 80, 90, and older. And the researchers wanted to find out what was the key to her long life.

And half of it was their faith, uh, and their, you know, the emotional gratitude that they had. But the other half they attributed to, they were lifelong learners. Every single day they were reading, researching, having deep conversations, uh, and because of it, it added years to her life. and life to their years.

They call this study, you appreciate this, aging with grace. Beautiful. Yeah. Beautiful. I just love that. So keeping your body active and keeping your mind active is, because the two drops we see in cognitive performance. It's usually at the stage of when people graduate school, because some kids feel like [00:34:00] their school's over, so their education's over, their learning is over.

And when people retire, often when people retire, they retire their mind, and unfortunately their body is not far behind after that. Yep. I am committed to learning and moving. Yeah. And learning and moving at the same time. You could do that. Certainly. You know, as I mentioned with you, if you do, if you're exercising and you're listening to something, you're going to, you're going to retain it more.

Yeah. Also when you exercise, you create these neurotransmitters, dopamine, serotonin, endorphins, uh, which help you, which are good for cognitive health, cognitive performance also. As you're moving, your, your heart rate is going up. So you're getting more blood flow to the brain and more oxygen. Your brain is only 2 percent of your body mass, but it requires 20 percent of the nutrients and the oxygen.

And it's kind of an energy hog and uses up a lot of energy. So you have to make sure you, you eat right and sleep, manage your stress and all those good things. What would you say, Jim, first of all, you need to have to come back on the show like 50 times. Yeah, yeah. Well, we'll do it. [00:35:00] Because I'm fascinated by you, but your presence is so relaxing and soothing, so I just want to You're definitely practicing what you preach, and I've every time I've been around you, I've been really, really into it.

You're lovely. Likewise. So, from the book Limitless, this is the expanded edition. It's a big, heavy book. I'm going to read it cover to cover, okay? And I promise you, I'm going to read this cover to cover. Yeah. This book will help you read all other books after it also, because you're going to learn how to read better and smoother.

Awesome! Focus and remember. Awesome. And I'm going to read it in the hardcover version, so I'm not looking at a screen. Thank you. What is like the number one technique that you think we have to put into place that's in this book? Okay, so the book is, every page we have something called a quick start. So I believe knowledge by itself is not power.

It has the potential to be power, because power when we utilize it, right? So every page we have something in exercise, people could do in 60 seconds or less to create momentum, to take that knowledge and really turn it into performance. The focus of the book is really on this limitless model. So my answer to [00:36:00] you would be, it's a framework of looking at the world where it empowers you because in life, you control the controllables, right?

And the, and if people ever feel limited, the opposite of the title of the book. So, Limitless is not about being perfect, it's about advancing and progressing beyond what you're demonstrating or what you believe is possible. So if anyone's not advancing, they feel like they're in a box. So even as people are listening to this, if you feel like you're stuck in a relationship, in some kind of health condition, a financial condition or whatever, that box by definition is three dimensional.

Right, the three forces that contain that box. The three forces that will liberate you out of that box are the same. And I illustrate that in the limitless models, which three intersecting circles that start with an M. And so imagine like Mickey Mouse, two ears and a face all intersecting. The faces are the methods and everybody always wants to know the method.

Right. And the methods here is full of how to learn languages faster, how to remember names, how to be able to read faster with better understanding, how to focus, get in flow [00:37:00] states, all that. Yep. But a lot of people you know, won't do the methods because common sense is not common practice. You have to address the two other.

dimensions or the ears, if you will. The first one is your mindset, right? The set of assumptions and attitudes you have about something because somebody's attitudes, assumptions about money is it's the root of all evil. They won't do the method, right? Because they'll still be stuck in the box because they have some kind of, you know, lie, a limited idea that they're entertaining.

L I E. Now, And even today, if someone came to me on the street on the way here, they said, I have a horrible memory and I was like, wow, if you fight for your limitations, you get to keep them. That's right. Because your brain is this incredible supercomputer and your self talk is the program that will run.

So if you tell yourself, I'm not good at remembering names, you won't remember the name of the next person you meet. Yep. That's how powerful your mind is. Yep. Because you program it that way. And absent that, the last thing to focus on, which is a whole section of the book, is motivation. Because you could have a limitless mindset, believe it's possible, believe you deserve it and have the methods.

On whatever finance [00:38:00] or healing, but you're not motivated to get out of that box and the key for motivation. Yeah. So the three things for limitless motivation for you to motivate yourself or motivate someone else to do something. Maybe, maybe you want your, your child to clean the room or someone to buy or invest in your company.

So it's P times E times S three, and this is a big takeaway from the book. P times E times S three P you need purpose. Like, let's say we talked about the benefits of working out, but if you're not working out and you're not motivated, feel the purpose because it has to be, it can't be cognitive in your head.

You have to feel it in your heart, head, heart, hands is always the sequence. You could visualize with your head, but if you're not acting with your hands, check in with the second H, which is your heart. So you have to feel the reasons and the benefits that will come from that thing. But then you need the E.

Someone could have feel the reasons and still not read every day, but they need energy. Right. That's why in the book, we give them the 10 keys for more brain energy, how to optimize your sleep, the best supplements [00:39:00] for, for your brain energy, the best brain foods. We show people how to memorize them. And then people who have limitless purpose and energy and still not do that thing because maybe the thing is too big.

So you need S3 small, simple steps. Yeah. So you're speaking about like, yeah, because maybe working out is too big, but. Putting on your running shoes is a small, simple step. You know, reading, you know, we know leaders are readers. Maybe reading a book a week is too much, but opening up the book is a small, simple step.

Totally, 15 minutes a day. Yeah, little by little, a little becomes a lot. Diez minutos anoche, amigo. Diez minutos anoche. Está bien. This is exceptional. I want everybody to go get the expanded edition. Limitless, the expanded edition. Just reading this book will actually serve your brain just by reading each page and practicing the methods.

And you're going to have to come back because I could go on for 400 hours, but we do 35 minutes on this show. So please come back and where can everybody find you? Yeah, I would challenge everyone to take a screenshot wherever they're consuming it and tag you and tag myself and just put in the post one thing you're going [00:40:00] to do for your brain.

Love it. Because then I can repost a few because you'll tag us so we'll see it and I'll gift out a few copies to your community as a thank you. That's brilliant. I love it. People get the book at limitlessbook. com. We also have, if people wanted more about the nutrition, we have a whole guide of the best supplements, human studies on the brain, brainnutrition.com and people can find more about it there.

I'll go there too. Bye. Yeah. Oh, Jim, you're so cool. Thank you, Gabby. You're the best.

If you made it to the end of this episode, that means you're truly committed to miracles. I'm really proud of you. If you wanna get more Gabby, tune in every Monday for a new episode, make sure to subscribe so you don't miss any of the guidance or special bonus episodes. Your experience of this show means a lot to me.

So I really want to welcome you to Leave an Honest Review. And you can follow me on social media at Gabby Bernstein. And if you want to get in on the action, sign up for a chance to be [00:41:00] Dear Gabby'd live at deargabby.com. See you next week.

Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.