Ed Harrold and Dr. Tanmeet Sethi explore healing, human experience, and the place of breath in a wider integrative medicine conversation.
Ed Harrold with Dr. Tanmeet Sethi. Originally published on YouTube March 27, 2025. Watch the original conversation on YouTube.
Ed Harrold and Dr. Tanmeet Sethi explore healing, human experience, and the place of breath in a wider integrative medicine conversation.
00:12.9 Welcome back, everyone. I'm really excited to share a national treasure with you here today who's changing the paradigm in American medicine and American spirituality. Uh, I became aware of Dr. Sethi's work, uh, through Substack, and it immediately resonate with my life's journey. And to see this come to fruition really brings a lot of love to my heart. So before we begin and take in this, this wisdom, this timeless knowledge that's available to all of us, if we could just take a moment to t- hit the brakes in our mind, close our eyes, and take a few breaths with our highest self. So if you could plant your feet firmly down onto this beautiful planet that's hosting our experience.
00:57.3 Begin to engage the muscles of your pelvic floor and allow your spine to lengthen north and south. Drop any tension you might be holding in your shoulders, in your emotional backpack about your past, because everything is going to work out. Allow your heart to expand on your inhale as you relax your eyes and jaw, and transcend any uncomfortable event from our past that's impeding our ability to see ourselves fully. Notice the quality of your inhale as you begin to slow it down, and what happens in your brain. And as the amygdala tones down and self-awareness arises, begin to notice the information that's stored in your spine, in your abdomen, and allow it to communicate
02:04.6 with you. Now shifting your awareness to the quality of your exhale. First, the physical exhale, engaging the muscles of the belly, your rectus abdominis, your obliques, your transverse abdominis. And if you wish, ride the exhale slightly longer than you normally do. And see if you can become interested in that today. Slow-motion inhale, adding depth to the exhale. And let's take a moment to see if we can go beyond words. Well, how are we gonna do that? When your inhale is complete, pause for a couple seconds. And when your exhale is complete, pause for a couple seconds. And notice in the absence of words, you're still there fully.
03:40.8 There's another layer of intuition, intelligence. So whenever you need to, slow your breath, straighten your spine, plant your feet down, and then add pausing. Hit the pause button and love your life. And when you feel ready to leave the meditation, just let your eyes open, re-engage your environment, and take in this information. It is so valuable to all of us as we transition from the old model to a more updated model of ourselves. Hi, Doctor. Hi, Ed. It's so great to be with you. I appreciate you and your work so much. Uh, if we could just get, like, a little backdrop about your journey. If, if you don't mind just kinda grounding us in who you are and what you're doing.
04:47.5 Hmm. Well, I'm an integrative, uh, physician, have been so for the last 26 years. I have been doing, uh, complex primary care with marginalized communities, integrative medicine, teaching residents, and doing global trauma work around the world, uh, with the Center for Mind Body Medicine a- as the bulk of my work. Um, I'm also now a researcher at the University of Washington, author. Uh, published my first book in 2023 called Joy Is My Justice, and, um, am a TEDx speaker, and love to connect with patients and groups around what it means to really take steps to have more vibrant health, and how to have some power back in
05:36.3 your body. And, and this is available to all of us, correct? All of us, yes. So if, if we choose to feel more vibrancy, if we choose to raise our self-awareness, we cannot be denied. Right. Yeah, and I think I learned this, uh, through my patients who have been my greatest teachers, but also through my own life. Uh, you know, when I was nine months pregnant with my third child, I learned something that really shattered every dream I ever had, which was that my second child had a fatal degenerative neuromuscular condition. And it was in that moment that I really realized, uh, or well, I thought...
06:20.8 I hadn't realized yet, but I thought I could never be happy again. How could a mother with a child who's dying and suffering in front of her, um, be happy? He has a, essentially an, a, a child version of ALS. And, um, you know, I really just thought it was over for me, and I thought, "Well, I'm gonna have to just push through this, I guess, but I'm not going to be, you know, a really connected and vibrant person." And, you know, what I really found in my own journey and with my very deep spiritual work with patients and groups is that, you know, I was right and I was wrong.
06:59.8 I was right that I couldn't be that happy again. You know, happiness is- Mm-hmm ... a cognitive construct. Mm-hmm. It's an evaluation of how life is going, and often my life is not, uh, very happy. But what I was wrong about was that joy is actually different than happiness, and it's accessible to me- Yeah ... any time. And my work has really, uh, become full circle centered around this idea that, you know, joy is not only accessible and available to all of us, it is actually critical that we access it so that we can claim our full humanity back from either the suffering or the oppression
07:40.6 that had taken it away to begin with. And so, you know, that really crystallized a lot of my work. That, that is so well said. And thank you for sharing that, because that's a lot. You know, when we think about happiness, we're thinking about, you know, we have to do something, you know? And when we think about joy, it's just like we're just being us. Like, we don't have to do anything to feel joy. It's already on board. Yeah. And you know, I think what people really don't understand is that joy is accessible without denying the pain. And actually, the more- Yeah ... we acknowledge and accept our pain, the more joy we are, have the capacity for.
08:24.6 So you know, joy runs in the same deep well as our pain. It's that capacity for meaning and love and connection. And actually, it's the exact opposite of contrived or toxic positivity. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. We're not denying that our lives are hard. You know, we're not denying that the world is hard. We're not denying that we're scared or- Mm-hmm ... that we're anxious or sad. What we're saying is we feel all of that. We see and hold that pain, and, and a big and, I also have the capacity as a human for the full continuum of my experience. And so I can hold beauty and wonder and awe- Mm ...
09:08.6 in the same day, even sometimes the same moment. You know- Yeah ... I have, uh, such awe and gratitude for my son, but he's also the source of much of my pain, right? Mm-hmm. And so, you know, when people ask me, I often am asked by patients and people I teach now, the world has, feels like it's just gets harder and harder, to be quite honest, for anyone. No matter what your beliefs are, it's just been very difficult for everyone. Mm-hmm. And people will say, you know, "There is no way. How can I find joy?" Or, "How is it possible?" And you know, what I would say is it's not asking how is it possible, it's asking how can I meet what is already
09:50.9 there- Yeah, yeah ... and that this world or my life tried to erase. Wow. Thank you. Thank you. Mm. You know, I, I look at your work and I see the great seva, the, the g- the great service as a physician, as a trained professional, the love that you bring to, to all levels of society. That is just such an amazing offering of your time and energy. And- Thank you ... you know, some of the greatest self-satisfaction I've ever been involved with in my life is working with the lowest levels of our social, economic, uh, race or, you know, whatever you'd see in our society, the, the less fortunate.
10:49.2 And I was most fortunate to meet these people and feel their spirit and soul. And I, I could just go on forever about that. But I just think, like, service is, like, the greatest thing that we can do for ourselves, let alone others. Yeah. I mean, I, I love that you used the word seva, which comes from my tradition, actually. And, um, you know, it's a word that means a lot to me. Mm-hmm. And, uh, you know, when I teach residents, I actually teach them, uh, a workshop every year on healing the healer, and when I ask them, "You know, why are you here? Why do you wanna do this work?" Because I work with physicians who are dedicated to marginalized communities, to health equity, to justice.
11:37.9 And you know, they often start with to their external way of wanting to help others. And what I really work with them to see is that they're here to heal themselves, and that, you know, there's some wound within them that brought them here to serve others. And if we can see that, if we can feel that on a regular basis, then this idea of burnout is much more elusive- Mm-hmm ... because what we realize is that all of our work, quote-unquote, all the hard work, is actually service in- Mm-hmm ... of being human with- Mm-hmm ... other humans, right? It doesn't mean, by the way, that insurance companies don't drag me down or- Right ...
12:23.9 paperwork doesn't irritate me or, you know, the healthcare system doesn't exhaust me. I don't mean that. But what I mean is that I can reground over and over in my deeper why. And I think that, you know, that's a, that's, even if you're not in a healing professional or a service, uh, role for others, I challenge anyone listening to think about their deeper why for anything they're doing. Yeah. Because it'll bring you back to why you wanna do it, and it will keep you going when inevitably stress and exhaustion will want- Mm-hmm ... you to stop. You know, I've never met anyone who's, who's gone deeper, you know, inside themselves and was disappointed.
13:07.3 Right. It's like, "Oh, I went deeper and it was b- whoa, it was bad in there." You know? It was, it's just so funny. You know, I, I, maybe you can comment on this. I, I, I've done a lot of work with physicians a- and nurses and it, it's a very, very stressful environment. It's the sense of you have power, you don't have power. What can I say? What can I say? What can I do? What can't I do? You know, one thing I notice in the stress programs that I lead for p- medical professionals is they can give love, but it's difficult for them to receive love.
13:45.3 Mm, mm-hmm. C- can you com- is that just an illusion of mine or is that something that you might see in, in your practice? Yeah. I mean, I think it's true not only of medical professionals, to be honest, but of any high achieving more, um, you know, what people might call type A or high achieving- Right ... people. I think that it stems from, um, the lack or decreased capacity for self-compassion, self-love. Right. And so, um, you know, I, I haven't seen in my work around the world with mind body medicine, I haven't seen someone be able to receive love from others very well when they're not able to receive it from themselves.
14:26.8 Yes. And so, um- Well said ... I think that's really at the core of it. You know, there is this sort of implied or not implied, just sort of implicit sense that, you know, we can't be, in my profession, I can only speak for my profession- Right ... but I see it often in others, that we can't be weak. We can't be soft. Right. We have to hold ourselves to this high ideal, and we have to keep going because everyone's depending on us. I mean, you know, I, I personally don't think there's, that that idea of- Yeah ... weak or soft are wrong, I think.
15:00.8 But I also think that that fosters a culture in which self-compassion feels frivolous, not, not able, you know? So I, I think- Yeah ... that our culture breeds it more. Yeah. Yeah. It, it's interesting, you know, because, you know, we have these amazing hard skills and logic that we've been able to cultivate, you know, in our life. And then in, in the past 10 or 15 years, uh, you know, I've become aware of, you know, uh, soft skills or how we feel about things and how we're interacting with our environment, with the felt sense of what we're doing. Seems to be coming more as a supportive to-
15:37.5 to evolve our heart skills. Mm. I agree. I think, you know, we're, uh, I just yesterday a yoga teacher said this, so I've... It's so apropos. But she said, you know, "What if instead of trying so hard today you try easier?" Right. And, um, you know, I think that speaks to your really astute insight that this idea of softness had been considered weak or not good, and I think that what we're realizing is that we are too hardened to the world around us. Yeah, yeah. So one of the things I've noticed, uh, through the years when we're working with, uh, chronic disease is that it, it can, not all the time, but most of the time it, it can be traced
16:25.3 back to a respiratory disorder first. Mm. That our breathing has become disturbed, we're not circulating and alkaline the body like we used to, and then we begin to have this buildup of acidity and inflammation, and we're not transporting... Uh, well, first of all, our exhale muscles become very weak because our mind is constantly racing, and we need that inhale to keep the plane up so there isn't turbulence. Uh, can you comment on, uh, in your own professional, uh, and personal awareness, you know, how does our breath play a role in longevity and the health of ourselves and vitality in the mind and body? I mean, Ed, we could talk about this for hours.
17:07.0 I think that, um, breath is everything, right? It literally is the first thing we do when we come out, and the last thing we do before- Yeah ... we leave. Um- The bookends. Yeah. And in between how we breathe impacts how we live. You know? So not only is it the way we circulate life-giving oxygen- Mm-hmm ... it is also, you know, if you look at Eastern healing systems of which- Mm-hmm ... Ayurveda medic- Ayurvedic medicine is something that I integrate into my practice, that's East Indian medicine. Wow. But, you know, in Ayurveda we call that prana. Mm-hmm. We call that the breath, the... That literally means life force.
17:45.4 Mm-hmm. And I think that, you know, often, you know, we don't give it the importance that it deserves. Mm-hmm. So I think you're right. There's respiratory dise- It's complex, right? Right. It's respiratory reasons can cause dysfunction in breath, then stress can impact that. The more dysfunctionally we breathe, the more we get stressed, the more, you know, it goes on and on. Right. But I think that, you know, um, we, we have so much science now beyond what we know about asthma or emphysema or- Mm-hmm ... chronic obstructive lung disease. We have so much science now to show that the way we breathe, whether we vo- Mm-hmm ...
18:23.8 whether we breathe nasally or through our mouth, whether we breathe deeply or shallowly. Mm-hmm. You know, this impacts our inflammatory environment. Mm-hmm. It impacts the way that our organs are literally given life, right? Mm-hmm. It impacts our microbiome. And so, you know, I think that there's nothing more important, right? Right. So that, the, the breath would naturally lead me to, for lack of a better term, our gut health. You know, how we digest, eliminate, and simulate. What, you know, what are we putting in our body? What is the vibrancy of our microbiome? Uh, can you comment on that and, and h- how much, uh, gut health i, is in, uh, your wheelhouse?
19:12.6 Hmm. A lot. Uh, we do a lot of gut health. Um, you know, if you... I, I really think e- uh, there's a, there's so much science now in conventional medicine around gut health thankfully. Mm-hmm. Although not every physician understands it. But, um, if you really look at Eastern healing systems, I think they have the best way of explaining it, which is- Mm-hmm ... that sense of adding prana. One of the best things you can do for longevity is to add prana every day through your breath, through the food you eat, through- Mm-hmm ... the way that you, um, you know, cultivate and support your digestion, et cetera.
19:52.0 There is, um, you know, a direct correlation with your digestion to how fast and slow you're breathing. Are you in a vagal state- Mm-hmm ... or are you in a sympathetic state? You know, what is your nervous system doing? And, and what we know is that the nervous system in our gut, the enteric nervous system, has more connections to our brain than- Mm-hmm ... from our brain to our spinal cord. So we are really, you know, when you look at that, I don't know how you can't think that the weight of your breath is not more important, right? I, I think also that what's really underestimated is the power of the breath to induce different mind states, right?
20:34.3 Yeah. And so, um, the way it can bring us from simple things like the way you led us through beautifully exhaling a little longer, and then noticing the space. Mm-hmm. You know, that can ul- that, as simple as that can bring a sense of pause and clarity to our day, right? It also spiritually gives us a sense that, oh, there's a space between those breaths. Mm-hmm. There's a moment in which I have a chance to- Yeah ... choose something differently. You know? And then moving on to, I mean, I'm sure you work with this often with people and see it often, but in my experience, you know, different kinds of breathwork can induce,
21:12.3 you know, really the equivalent of a hallucinogenic psychedelic state. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Um, and that's just, you know, if you think about it, that's just mind-blowing. Yeah. Right? That, um, you know, I've done that myself, and I just did it recently again last month, and, you know, I'm always mind-blown by how fast I can get into a vision state- Mm-hmm ... or see visions and get messages from just breathing differently and rapidly. You know? So, um, the breath is everything. Yeah. Thank you for that. You know, not all nerves are created equal. Hmm. Uh, two of the nerves that, that I'm most concerned with with patients and clients is, number one, the phrenic nerve, which is the motor nerve of the diaphragm, and
22:04.5 how it intervens with the enteric nervous system, which you just so beautifully, uh, brought up, and how that works with the vagus nerve, and how that intervens with all of our gastrointestinal organs except for our adrenal glands, and how that interacts with our, with our neurochemistry. So, so we have energy. Okay, we're creating energy, but it's relaxed energy. And then we have this amazing exhale, and we have this amazing vagus nerve which is coming down the pike so fast with so much information to keep us healthy, and working these two nerves has a tremendous impact on all of our energy systems and our mindset. Yeah.
22:50.7 I love that l- I love that explanation. I wanna come to one of your workshops. But y- you know, I, I look at thoughts and how thoughts are either allowed to pass through or stopped based on how we feel about any particular subject or object or- Mm-hmm ... or person, place, or thing. And when, when we are in a, a, a tough moment, you know, we have a tendency to stop breathing. Uh-huh. And then as soon as we stop breathing, the brain's like, "Oh, my God," you know, "What is going on? Where's the air raid?" You know, and the amygdala fires- off and, you know, the HPA axis goes and digestion stops, and we're, like, taking punches, and it's just like the cap's off the toothpaste.
23:33.5 Wow. It's like, just put it back on, my man. You're gonna be all right, you know? So getting involved with if you're stressed and things are moving too fast, slowing things down inside. And if things are going too fast a- uh, inside, you can use fast diaphragmatic breathing to kickstart the gastric flame again to get our curiosity and, you know, creativity going. Mm-hmm. Does that make sense? Makes all the sense. You know, I think, um, what people... Really, I think why it's so hard, and I personally will say this for me too, when you ex- when you describe that state in which we just, you know, stop breathing and
24:28.0 everything all of a sudden piles on, I, I mean, I don't know a human who doesn't experience that. Right. But when that happens, um, you know, I think what people don't understand is that there's a way that our mind and our body are working in concert in that moment- Mm ... to say, "You're not safe. Let's figure this out. Let's-" Right ... "let's get you safe." And what we don't understand is that we can actually do that for ourselves by slowing down, like you said. We can give, through the vagus nerve, a, a message, a signal to our brain of, "You're safe right now. You're okay." Right.
25:07.6 You may not, even if you are not safe in the greater sense, even if there is some bigger threat or fear that you- Mm-hmm ... have on your mind, right now, in this moment, can you just see that you're okay? Yeah. And that really is what you're describing as, you know, if we can do that, then we can really interrupt that, you know, cascade. Right. And then the way that you measured, um, I mean described breath as catalyzing creativity and i- you know, that is so true. You know, I... You'll appreciate this. I used to use on-call nights, um, you know, I was a resident, and then I also delivered- Mm ...
25:50.9 babies for 24 years. And, um, you know, when you're exhausted at 3:00 in the morning and, um, you're- Right ... not sure how to wake up, I would use, uh, chaotic nasal breathing, actually. Mm-hmm. You know? And really, um, use my accessory, uh, diaphragmatic muscles there. Yeah. And, um, you know, it would wake me up- Wow ... and get me, uh, back in the game, as so to speak. And so, um, you know, you really, when you understand the breath, you can understand how to support yourself either way. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, it's wonderful when we begin to awaken that we do play a large role- Mm-hmm ...
26:31.7 in our energy and how we're showing up in the moment. So let's start with, with parents who have kids. Like, and, and kids in the formative years, you know, the ego really hasn't developed yet. What are some things that you would recommend for parents to really support that child physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually in, in, in developing in, in the healthiest ways as possible? Hmm. Well, this is also, we could do hours on this. Yeah. But I would say if I, if I , um, you know, tried to think of a couple of important things, what I would say is one, is to really stop trying to fix them.
27:09.2 Mm-hmm. You know? Acknowledge emotions and acknowledge and listen, and try to be more present than a fixer. Mm-hmm. So, you know, I think what we do a lot is say, even subtly, "You'll be okay. Everything's okay." Mm-hmm. Or, um, "Don't be scared." Mm-hmm. You know? And that's, we have good intentions behind that. But what if we just said, "I hear you"? Right. And what if we just said, "I'm here, and then what would be helpful for you right now?" Mm-hmm. You know, even a four, five, six, seven-year-old understands that. Right. Um, so, you know, this sense that, uh, you know, and I, I, I will tell you, I mean, with my son that I spoke about earlier- Yes ...
27:58.5 um, who's still alive and not doing well. He- he's in a very l- um, you know, hard stage of this disease. But, uh, even with him, you know, sure, I can't fix him, right? I have to just learn to be present. But even for my other two children who are right now healthy and able-bodied and, um, you know, more typical in terms of being, um, children, adolescents, young adults, um, I can't fix them either, Ed. You know? Right. They've, they've had very, um, you know, significant mental health challenges. They've had other challenges. And all I can do is be there- Mm-hmm ... and support them.
28:41.5 And so I think this idea of not being a fixer is really important. I also think it's, um, important, what I wish I had gotten when I was little was some support of my internal resources, my own capacity. Right. So it would've been really different for me. Now, I had a great childhood, but I'm just saying it would've been really different for me in learning to meet challenges as an adult if I had understood as a child that, you know, um, not only am I not broken and I don't need to be fixed, but also what could I do right now? Mm-hmm. You know? Could I use my own breath?
29:18.1 Could I jump up and down? Could I go for a walk? Right. Could I use movement? You know, what could I do? And then I would understand more that my internal resources are powerful. And so, you know, those are two things I would think about. That is so well said. Y- one of the things I always tried to do with my daughters was let them make the choice. Mm-hmm. I mean, don't go out and play in traffic, you know? Don't go crush my ancient- Right, right ... you know? But at the end of the day, like, you know, what would you prefer to do right now?
29:50.4 What, you know, what would, what do you want for lunch? And, uh, began to shape their mind in a way that what they were choosing was gonna have some sort of a consequence or a result. And I'm here if something goes cra- uh, you know, sideways. But at the end of the day, start to choose for yourself. You're intelligent on your own. In fact, you're probably more aware than I am, 'cause I'm kind of in this, you know, kind of adult role, and you're in kind of the child role. Mm-hmm. So empowering to choose from the internal world and see h- you know, what did I choose and how did it play out?
30:31.3 Hmm. I love that. They love that. And then I gave them a lot of yoga. Like, therapeutic yoga. Not power yoga or- Yeah, yeah ... you know, forcing. It was more or less go into things and feel you. Yeah. Good feeling, bad feeling, good thought, bad thought. Navigate. Yeah. And I don't know if your kids, how old they are, but, um, there are amazing picture books now for kids that- Really? ... we... Yeah. I mean, I c- I'm not gonna remember the names now if you asked me, but I have them upstairs on my kids' bookcase. We used to read them constantly. But, um, really sweet books about not only yoga, but also just, um, yoga and feeling and emotion-
31:14.9 And- Mm-hmm ... and really sweet, sweet books. So I feel like, uh, I had, you know, more tools to use with my kids than my parents did in that way. Yeah, you know, the feeling thing is, is coming around the bend big time and, you know, all of us are, you know, feeling a l- uh, uh, becoming a lot more aware of feeling. But- Yeah ... w- whatever that means to you, ladies and gentlemen, but I know you're feeling more than you have ever felt right now in your life. Right. And you can't stop it. So you must find a way to navigate the emotional self.
31:49.9 Mm-hmm. So as kids get a little older and, you know, they begin to set up guardrails and boundaries and they're in their teenage years, you know, they're kinda testing, uh, environments of, uh, strength, weakness, et cetera, and it, there tends to be, uh, friction sometimes in the family unit. Do you have any advice, you know, for parents and kids about how to take those, like, 8 to 10 formative years and, and not kill each other? Yeah. Yeah. Well, uh, yeah, I'm, I have a, a 21-year-old and a 17-year-old, so I'm, I'm living that right now. Um, I would say that there's a couple of things that I find really help me.
32:35.1 One is this advice I got very early on, which was to be a potted plant. Mm-hmm. And, um, what my friend was saying is that when you have teenagers, and I, my kids were much younger at the time, so I really thought she was kind of crazy to say that, but then it stuck with me, and it is true. Um, she said, "You know, when you have teenagers, it's important that you root yourself, ground yourself-" Mm-hmm ... know how to re-ground yourself often. Right. And you are like a potted plant in the room. You're there for support, you're there for presence, but you need to give them their own space.
33:12.7 Mm-hmm. And, um, that has really helped me. And- Beautiful ... not only that, I also, um, you know, I have really, when my daughter's testing her boundaries, you know, same like you, we give a lot of choices, but we have certain things we say no to, right? Mm-hmm. And she's not happy about that. And so, you know, I'm just very clear with her that, you know, my job is not to be your best friend. Mm-hmm. Um, you know, I'm not here to be your best friend. I'm here to be as supportive, present, and caring as I can be- Mm-hmm ... and to just make sure that things are as safe as possible.
33:51.8 Mm-hmm. And I also tell her I can't prevent everything. Right. But my job is to try to do what I can do. And so, uh, this one feels hard to me. We're gonna say no to this one. Right, right. Right? And, um, you know, those, those really help me. I think the not being a fixer is huge in these teenage and young adult years, you know? And then when my 21-year-old went to college, you know, that's my on- my oldest, first child in college, I said to him, we sat down and we had a talk and I said, "You know, I'm always gonna be your mother." Mm-hmm.
34:26.6 "And I, I love you and I'm here for you, but I'm not your parent anymore." Mm-hmm. "I'm now like a coach." Right. "And so, uh, if you need advice or you need questions to process through, I am here for you in a nanosecond." Mm-hmm. "But I'm not gonna unsolicitedly give you, you know, a way to do things. I am here. I love you. I will be here any time, but I'm not going to, you know, be there for everything now, and so you have to figure things out, too." And that has really helped us just re, you know, sort of navigate a new relationship. Mm-hmm.
35:06.0 And so, you know, um, there's things he's done that I don't agree with- Mm-hmm ... and also, you know, they're not, they're not, they're not dangerous things that are killing him or, you know- Mm-hmm ... he's, so, you know, I guess he'll figure it out. Yeah, it seems like it's challenging our ability to stay in love with the process, you know, of life. You know- Oh, yeah ... once we leave the teenage years and we get into our 20s, then our children begin to realize, hey, you know, mom and dad are not gods. Right. You know, they are just as challenged as we are, and, you know, they're doing the best they can.
35:42.2 And hopefully that's what, what comes to the family unit. You know, there's kinda like this equalization of- Right ... a hierarchy. Right. Where we're all in this together as a unit. We're a tribe. You remind me of, uh, there was something that we were saying no to my... We rarely have to say no to her- Yeah ... but we were saying no to this one thing, and my husband said to my daughter, he said, "Look, this is the first time I've navigated this." Mm-hmm. "You gotta give me s- some grace. Like, I, this doesn't feel right to me." Mm-hmm. "Maybe it'll change, maybe not, but right now this is what I'm deciding, and I'm trying to do my best." Yeah.
36:19.5 And, um, I thought that was really, you know, a great thing to say. Just kinda like, we're trying this out. We don't know what we're doing. Right. It, it's funny how life sometimes just calls us to just fall on our sword. Like, I don't have all this figured out either. You know? Right. This is ongoing. This is life. There's only so much predictability. Uh, you know, sometimes just getting out of bed on a difficult morning is the most courageous thing you can do, and get vertical. Exactly. And I honor you for that. You know, it's the little victories. It's not the big hills, it's the little hills that we all climb regularly, but we don't give ourselves credit for.
36:59.6 Right. Right. So as we see, as you see clients start to reach their 30s and 50s these days, uh, you're starting to see the diseases that you used to see from 50 to 70. Uh, can you comment a little on that and how we might be able to push back on that model a little bit biologically? Yeah. Uh, you know, there's definitely, um, a just more inflammatory lifestyle that we lead- Yeah ... that's not only stress, that's also, uh, the toxins in the air, the pollutants, pesticides in the food, more processed food, more food that is, uh, you know, frankly, I just can't even recognize what these foods are.
37:38.8 Right. Um, you know, and we just have a lot more, uh, modern day onslaught of attention stress, right? Mm-hmm. So there's, our phones are going off all the time, our... You know, when, even when I was in residency, I feel so old saying this, but just when I was in residency, there weren't any cell phones and so, you know, I had a pager, but I was in onslaught by this, you know, device in my hand all the time. Right. And so, uh, there's, there's a lot. We're indoors more, we're s- more sedentary, you know, all of these things. Um, so we see rates of increase of cancer, of heart disease, of, um, depression- Mm-hmm ...
38:17.4 anxiety, uh, so many epidemics of inflammation that we're facing. The way to push back really is to, it's so simple, Ed, but it's not easy. Mm-hmm. Right. Right. But it is so simple. I don't have any great, um, you know, surprising wisdom for you. It is simple. It is- No, that was wisdom ... Well, you know, it's simple in, in that, like, can you eat more foods that you recognize? Right. Can you cook more at home? Can... It's also cheaper, you know? Right. So less financial stress. Can you, you know, even if you can't buy organic vegetables, can you just eat more vegetables? You know, can you actually, um, learn how to breathe better and-
39:03.6 Deeper, right? Can you nasally breathe when you're sleeping, for instance- Mm-hmm. Right ... or in the day? Can you move your body more? I mean, we know, Ed, that people who walk- Mm-hmm ... 8,000 steps a day- Mm-hmm ... have almost, well, more than 50% chance of dying... less chance, sorry, of dying- Yeah ... from anything. Yeah. I mean, that's an astounding thing. It, it starts going up at 5,000 steps. We see a really big spike at 8,000. So we're saying, I'm saying even 5,000. How about just walking more than you did yesterday, you know? Um, so- Yeah ... you know, what are the ways that we can do more of what you did at the beginning of this talk of breathing and pausing, you know?
39:51.7 Um, I for one am feeling more and more like my nervous system needs more and more and more- Mm ... tending to. Yeah. So, uh, you know, the ways to push back are really, in my opinion, the ways of becoming more human, and, and bringing life into its more simpler form. Yeah. Yeah. It's not easy. I really mean that. I don't think that these things are so easy. There's lots of obstacles, both financial and socioeconomic and cultural, and many more. Um- Yeah ... your, your boss expects things from you. You know, all kinds of reasons that it's not easy, but it is simple. Yeah. It...
40:34.4 You know, one of the secret hacks is taking less breaths per minute. Oh. Getting the air into the lower lobes of the lungs, supporting a straight spine, being alert in your mind. And when, when you think about less breaths per minute, you're gonna have a lower heart rate. Yeah. And if you have a lower heart rate, chances are you can push heart disease way down the line. Yeah. If you're taking less breaths per minute and you have healthy blood pressure, chances are you're gonna oxygenate your cells and your organs, and you're not gonna get cancer. Yeah. So there's, like, all sorts... I mean- Yeah. And I mean, really, like, start...
41:14.5 But you don't even need to get fancy. Start by just exhaling longer than- Exactly ... you're getting used to. You have to want to exhale longer. Right. There isn't a client who I've worked with in all of my years who does not start with weak exhale muscles. Yeah. The- our expiratory muscles have become weak due to the overstimulation of the neural systems, and the higher heart rates, and the emotional exuberance. And just getting control... Here's the secret. If you get control of your breath, what you're really getting is control of your mind. Oh, I like that. So if you can control your physiology, you have a much greater command over the show you're watching between your ears, your psychology.
42:02.9 I like it. So let's go, let's go a little bigger. So everybody has a responsibility. You've been given this body. You have this uniform. You're here on Earth, and it's an inside job. Like, whatever's gonna happen outside, some of it's great, some of it's not great. So we have a... At the time of this recording, we have a, a new HHS secretary who is going to look into some of the, uh, procedures that, uh, have been ongoing unchecked for a while now. So this is an external thing. I think it's fantastic, but it... We still have a responsibility ourself to, to get ourself, you know, healthy.
42:49.0 So what do you think is some of the things that might come to the forefront over the next couple years that are really gonna help humanity in America get a little better grip on ourselves? Well, that's a big one, Ed. Yeah, I- I'm frankly a little worried about that. Mm-hmm. Uh, I'm, I'm worried about it. I'm worried that, um, this new person, in my opinion, doesn't really understand how to evaluate scientific research- Mm-hmm ... or the value of it, and, um, I'm worried about it. Mm-hmm. That being said, I think that when we get to what I would call a crisis point right now with health in America and with this
43:36.3 new person, um, in charge of that, what I would say is that when we get to crisis, often- Mm ... the collective comes together to think- Right ... of ways to meet the crisis that maybe we hadn't thought of before. And so my hope is that we build something even better. But- Mm ... but right now, I think, you know, um, yeah, I'm concerned. Yeah, I am concerned. But my hope always is that the community comes together to make sure that, uh, you know, science prevails, to make sure that people are given- Mm-hmm ... what they need access to. So, uh, hope always is true and there, and that's what I'm holding.
44:17.9 That's so well said, and so skill- You're such a good wordsmith. Mm. Uh, very efficient. So as we wrap up here today, first of all, thank you so much for your service, your wisdom, your spirit, everything that you bring to everyone in your life. Just must be s- To be in the room with you must be so magnetic. Oh, thank you. You know, it's just such- Ed ... such a heartfelt expression of the human. Is there anything that you could leave with our folks here today that is in the foreground of your mind that might be helpful? Hmm. I think, um, you know, given that we've talked about this a little bit, what kind of epidemic of stress we're living under right now- Mm-hmm ...
45:05.4 and how hard the world is, I would really leave everyone with this sense that, um, the more overwhelmed you feel, the more- Mm-hmm ... anxious you feel, the more that's a message that it's time to think about what's one small step you could do today- Mm-hmm ... to get some pause and slow down? Because what people feel when we're overwhelmed is we're not sure what to do about it, right? Mm-hmm. And the best way to clarity, the best way to clarity is to soothe that vagus nerve. Mm-hmm. Is to give it some breath, to give it some pause, to give it some sense of compassion, which also- Mm-hmm ...
45:48.2 signals safety. You know, whatever it is for you. If it's good music and dancing, if it's taking a walk, if it's putting soil in your hands in your garden. Mm-hmm. Find what it is and do it just once today. Yes. You know, just start there. The overwhelm happens because we're so muddled in our mind, right? Mm-hmm. And so we need to get clarity, and sometimes we think that's some big thing we need to do, and I would say start small. Yeah. Baby steps. Yeah. We all can do it. So in the show notes, you guys are all gonna see ways to get ahold of the doctor, and you can see her online wherever you may be in, in the world,
46:32.1 I believe. Yeah. And you can get healthy real fast. Yeah. Thank you so much for being with us today. I really appreciate your service to yourself and humanity. Aw. Thank you, Ed. It was really wonderful to be with you. I appreciate you. Yeah, I am concerned. But my hope always is that the community comes together to make sure that, uh, you know, science prevails, to make sure that people are given- Mm-hmm ... what they need access to. So, uh, hope always is true and there, and that's what I'm holding. That's so well said, and so skill- You're such a good wordsmith. Mm. Uh, very efficient.
44:23.9 So as we wrap up here today, first of all, thank you so much for your service, your wisdom, your spirit, everything that you bring to everyone in your life. Just must be s- To be in the room with you must be so magnetic. Oh, thank you. You know, it's just such- Ed ... such a heartfelt expression of the human. Is there anything that you could leave with our folks here today that is in the foreground of your mind that might be helpful? Hmm. I think, um, you know, given that we've talked about this a little bit, what kind of epidemic of stress we're living under right now- Mm-hmm ...
45:05.4 and how hard the world is, I would really leave everyone with this sense that, um, the more overwhelmed you feel, the more- Mm-hmm ... anxious you feel, the more that's a message that it's time to think about what's one small step you could do today- Mm-hmm ... to get some pause and slow down? Because what people feel when we're overwhelmed is we're not sure what to do about it, right? Mm-hmm. And the best way to clarity, the best way to clarity is to soothe that vagus nerve. Mm-hmm. Is to give it some breath, to give it some pause, to give it some sense of compassion, which also- Mm-hmm ...
45:48.2 signals safety. You know, whatever it is for you. If it's good music and dancing, if it's taking a walk, if it's putting soil in your hands in your garden. Mm-hmm. Find what it is and do it just once today. Yes. You know, just start there. The overwhelm happens because we're so muddled in our mind, right? Mm-hmm. And so we need to get clarity, and sometimes we think that's some big thing we need to do, and I would say start small. Yeah. Baby steps. Yeah. We all can do it. So in the show notes, you guys are all gonna see ways to get ahold of the doctor, and you can see her online wherever you may be in, in the world,
46:32.1 I believe. Yeah. And you can get healthy real fast. Yeah. Thank you so much for being with us today. I really appreciate your service to yourself and humanity. Aw. Thank you, Ed. It was really wonderful to be with you. I appreciate you.