Navy SEAL’s Mental Health Routine | DJ Shipley & Dr. Andrew Huberman

00:00:00.000 | What's your framework on this thing that we call mental health?

00:00:04.940 | I'm not asking you to solve the mental health crisis in one swoop, but when you think about

00:00:08.780 | your own mental health, the people close to you, people you've worked with in the teams,

00:00:14.180 | how do you approach mental health as a concept and as an actionable thing?

00:00:20.480 | I've lived so many different stages of my life, high points and low points and everything

00:00:24.740 | in between.

00:00:26.180 | At my lowest point, I had no physical connection.

00:00:29.080 | I was either down hard with an injury, coming back from surgery, and then my mental health

00:00:34.060 | rapid decline right after that.

00:00:36.180 | For someone who never suffered from mental health issues, it's shocking and you feel like you're

00:00:40.840 | the only person going through it, especially when you come from a subculture of special operations.

00:00:45.200 | Nobody ever talks about it.

00:00:46.520 | So when you find yourself in that dark room alone, really contemplating some terrible things,

00:00:51.420 | it's hard to wrap your head around because you're the only person that's ever gone through it.

00:00:55.560 | I had some really good strength coaches and coming back from injuries and the better I

00:01:00.540 | got physically, my mental health naturally just started to pull out of it.

00:01:04.600 | But everything we did was for the group.

00:01:07.320 | My physical attributes, everything I'm training is for the betterment of the group.

00:01:11.160 | Now it's betterment of my family, of my tribe, of whatever I have.

00:01:15.420 | You know, I talk about this thing, stacking up micro winds.

00:01:17.760 | My morning routine is structured in a way to where I can do that same routine everywhere

00:01:24.060 | I go.

00:01:24.720 | Everywhere.

00:01:25.720 | At any point of day, I can lock that thing in.

00:01:28.100 | But it all starts with an evening routine.

00:01:30.940 | So when my phone goes off at 5 a.m. and I spring feet out of bed, I know exactly what I'm going

00:01:34.820 | to do for the next 12 minutes to put myself in position to not be stressed.

00:01:38.260 | So I've got to power down my home life and I've just got to think about what's coming next.

00:01:42.200 | So laying out the clothes night before, my bottle of water is filled, my pills are out,

00:01:47.080 | my toothbrush is out, everything is set.

00:01:48.980 | So as soon as I get up, by the time I get to making my morning cup of coffee, I've done

00:01:53.220 | 25 things inside of my control.

00:01:56.000 | Do you know off the top of your head what those things are right now that maybe you could

00:01:59.100 | just list them off?

00:01:59.680 | You said your alarm clock goes off 5 a.m.

00:02:01.700 | And that's regardless of when you went to sleep?

00:02:04.460 | Regardless of when I went to sleep, typically.

00:02:06.820 | I mean, if I'm out here, I'm on a different time zone and I can change it.

00:02:09.840 | But if you get to bed at midnight or you get to bed at 9 p.m. or you get to bed at 2 a.m.,

00:02:14.540 | alarm goes off at 5 a.m., you're up.

00:02:16.280 | My wife gave me this the other day.

00:02:17.580 | I came home on a red eye.

00:02:18.560 | I didn't walk through the door until 2.30 in the morning.

00:02:20.980 | And alarm clock goes off at 5 and she rolls over and she's like, what are you doing?

00:02:26.160 | I'm going to work.

00:02:26.840 | And she's like, you can take a day off.

00:02:28.320 | I'm like, no, I'm not taking a day off.

00:02:30.600 | This last five days is the first time in as long as I can, 20 years, that I've actually

00:02:36.480 | taken five days of not working out when I had the physical ability to do it.

00:02:39.620 | I've never taken five days off because I'm so afraid my mental health will drop.

00:02:43.360 | Something will happen if I leave that routine.

00:02:45.980 | So I wake up, unplug my phone, shut off the alarm.

00:02:48.360 | I walk in, toothpaste on toothbrush.

00:02:50.620 | I go to the bathroom while I'm brushing my teeth, spit it out, all the pills I got to

00:02:54.280 | take in the morning, you know, vitamin D, all the stuff I take.

00:02:57.220 | And then I get dressed.

00:02:58.940 | Left sock, right sock, right shoe.

00:03:01.320 | Everything I do, I do it in a very specific order.

00:03:04.000 | Even the way I put on my bracelets.

00:03:05.820 | If I put them on in the wrong order, I'll stop and I'll de-jock them all and I'll redawn

00:03:10.100 | them.

00:03:10.320 | Just because that's one simple thing.

00:03:12.260 | I'm not rushed, I'm not under duress, I'm in control of this entire timeline and that

00:03:15.940 | way when I get to the kitchen, I don't feel like I'm frantically wearing my keys, where's

00:03:19.660 | my wallet, where's my bag.

00:03:20.820 | Everything's in a system right now to where I can step in that car, I'm not stuck behind

00:03:25.800 | a school bus, my car has gas in it, my phone's at 100%, because we've all been there.

00:03:30.560 | Everybody's a normal person.

00:03:31.600 | I wake up, my wife wants to have a 15-minute conversation, that puts me behind that school

00:03:36.520 | bus that I'm typically not behind.

00:03:37.900 | Now I'm late for my first meeting, I've got to rush through my workout, I don't have time

00:03:41.140 | to take a shower, all that is going to cascade and it's going to put me to be the person

00:03:44.780 | I don't want to be when I have to walk into that first meeting.

00:03:47.080 | It's like I'm trying to optimize everything that's within my control so when I step through

00:03:51.400 | the threshold, this is a DJ that I'm purposely presenting to you right now under my control.

00:03:56.160 | And that really sets the entire framework for the whole day of being in a good headspace.

00:04:00.260 | I'm controlling the things that are controllable and the things that I can't control, I don't

00:04:04.300 | think about them anymore.

00:04:05.060 | I block them out.

00:04:05.980 | I love the regimen and your adherence to it.

00:04:11.100 | I'm curious about your mindset when the alarm goes off, meaning where is your head?

00:04:17.160 | I guess I know you're human and I understand enough about the brain to make an assumption,

00:04:23.900 | which is that you don't wake up every morning with the alarm going off at five thinking, great,

00:04:29.620 | I'm going to get up and just roll right into the day that there may be times when you consider,

00:04:34.680 | you know, going into fetal position, you know, it's warm under those covers, but also that your

00:04:40.940 | mind, like anyone else's probably start spinning, leaps to the past, leaps to the, you know,

00:04:46.040 | a little more stress than you'd like, a little, a little, a little more lethargy, this kind

00:04:50.740 | of thing, do you purposely stack up to-dos so that you stay out of all of that?

00:04:57.060 | And if some of that persists as you're brushing your teeth, what's, what's the way of dealing

00:05:02.900 | with that?

00:05:03.300 | I just keep pushing.

00:05:04.580 | I just keep myself in motion the entire time.

00:05:07.080 | And I talk about dials, not switches a lot with people and it sounds selfish, but I have

00:05:11.520 | to be selfish right now in order to be selfless later.

00:05:14.280 | So I tell guys, you know, as soon as that alarm clock goes off, I'm not thinking about

00:05:19.160 | my wife.

00:05:19.640 | I'm not thinking about my kids.

00:05:20.960 | I'm thinking about being as efficient as humanly possible.

00:05:23.080 | And I'm trying to hit that gym.

00:05:24.540 | So I unrack at zero seven, the best version of me.

00:05:27.780 | And I can't do it.

00:05:28.920 | If I'm thinking about a fight or an argument we have with the wife the night before the kids

00:05:33.520 | and this and that, I have to be selfish right now because it's the only block I'm going

00:05:37.500 | to have for me to optimize myself.

00:05:39.340 | Cause at 10 AM, I'm going to get pulled from 50 different directions.

00:05:42.820 | It's the exact same thing when I go home.

00:05:44.480 | So now between the hours of 10 AM and 6 PM, I'm only thinking about work.

00:05:48.740 | I don't think about my wife.

00:05:49.780 | Don't think about my kids.

00:05:50.660 | I only think about the team and everything we're trying to do at six.

00:05:53.600 | You can watch and I tell everybody, if you would put a hidden camera in my car, it'd break

00:05:57.700 | the internet.

00:05:58.080 | I do it every day.

00:05:59.420 | I slam that car in the park.

00:06:00.700 | I put my phone on do not disturb.

00:06:02.260 | I check social.

00:06:03.220 | I check all my texts.

00:06:04.240 | I'm good.

00:06:04.940 | There's no phone calls.

00:06:05.880 | And I've got a 12 minute drive from door to door.

00:06:07.680 | Those 12 minutes I put on Chris Stapleton, something that makes me feel good.

00:06:11.400 | That calms me down and I pre-rehearse everything that's going to happen.

00:06:14.720 | The moment I hit that garage door opener.

00:06:16.260 | Really?

00:06:17.640 | I do it every single day.

00:06:18.820 | I realize it's personal, but to the extent that you're willing, maybe share a couple of

00:06:22.120 | the, what you're rehearsing.

00:06:23.420 | I pull onto the driveway.

00:06:25.180 | I slam it back in park.

00:06:26.280 | I check my phone one more time.

00:06:27.660 | And I tell myself, you're only going to have three hours from six to nine to be the person

00:06:32.060 | they need you to be.

00:06:32.840 | You got to be a full-time dad right now.

00:06:35.240 | You can be a full-time husband.

00:06:36.500 | And I don't get it right every time.

00:06:37.600 | Some days I drag that stuff home with me, two-hand texting frantically, but I really try not to.

00:06:42.560 | And before I hit that garage door, I tell myself, like, they don't know what's going on.

00:06:47.520 | They don't know the stress you're out at work.

00:06:49.160 | She's had her own day.

00:06:50.520 | They've had their own day.

00:06:51.560 | I've got a daughter in seventh grade.

00:06:53.620 | I've got another one, second grade.

00:06:55.180 | Like, you know, we've got to work through this whole thing together.

00:06:57.740 | And it's like, what version of me do I want to present to them right now?

00:07:01.200 | I'm going to walk in, bags over my right shoulder.

00:07:03.300 | I'm going to clear the threshold and make an immediate 90-degree turn.

00:07:05.720 | And there's going to be that seven-year-old.

00:07:06.840 | And she's a huge ball of energy.

00:07:08.940 | She gets all shaking.

00:07:09.980 | She runs at me at full blast.

00:07:11.440 | And I pick her up, shake her, kiss her, like 100% love.

00:07:14.300 | Take an immediate right in the kitchen.

00:07:15.960 | There's my oldest, usually eating something before homework's about to start.

00:07:18.860 | Give her a kiss.

00:07:20.080 | Give her a hug.

00:07:20.620 | Ask her how her day was.

00:07:21.560 | Straight to the room to see my wife.

00:07:23.940 | Because she's got a, she gets like a 30-minute buffer before she has to go upstairs and lock

00:07:27.440 | in with seventh grade homework.

00:07:28.440 | Check her.

00:07:29.560 | What do you need?

00:07:30.220 | If you can fold the towels, if you can start dinner, done.

00:07:33.080 | Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

00:07:34.220 | So my last interaction in the morning was positive.

00:07:37.180 | I left on a positive note.

00:07:38.720 | The first interaction you're getting at the end of the day is in a positive note.

00:07:41.640 | And regardless of how I'm feeling, if I have to fake it, I'll fake it.

00:07:45.200 | I got three hours.

00:07:46.660 | And if you space out of the course of the five days, I don't have a lot of time to make positive

00:07:51.160 | memories.

00:07:51.540 | Just because of work and stress and everything else, I'm trying to maximize those three hours.

00:07:56.000 | And then when I do, it feels like you can do no wrong.

00:07:59.720 | But every night after we finish dinner, me and my wife do a 20-minute walk.

00:08:04.560 | 10 minutes for her.

00:08:05.420 | So as soon as we start it, tell me about your day.

00:08:07.280 | Everything she wants to vent through, everything we get to get caught up on, we get the halfway

00:08:11.280 | mark right around this park.

00:08:12.420 | And then it's my turn for 10 minutes.

00:08:14.340 | Average human can walk a mile in 20 minutes.

00:08:17.120 | Helps circadian rhythm.

00:08:18.820 | Helps digestion.

00:08:19.660 | I mean, mental clarity.

00:08:20.980 | I'm not on my phone.

00:08:21.820 | There's no stimulus.

00:08:22.640 | I mean, I'm watching the sunset.

00:08:24.900 | But now it's 20 minutes just for us to reconnect, and we do it every single day, unless it's

00:08:28.900 | a torrential downpour.

00:08:30.100 | We're doing it every single night.

00:08:31.560 | And our marriage has never been better.

00:08:33.180 | My physical health has never been better.

00:08:34.580 | And then my time with my kids, I can be accountable for every single minute in my day.

00:08:38.740 | Did I maximize that opportunity?

00:08:40.460 | No.

00:08:41.500 | Why?

00:08:42.060 | Because I drug that dude home with me from 2.30 in the afternoon.

00:08:45.920 | I drug him all the way home till 6.

00:08:47.440 | That's not who they need.

00:08:49.080 | They don't need a commando.

00:08:50.000 | They don't need a business owner.

00:08:51.240 | They don't need an entrepreneur.

00:08:52.060 | They need a dude that's going to have a tea party right now, or a guy that's going to talk

00:08:55.480 | about how difficult navigating seventh grade is.

00:08:57.680 | Like, she really needs a husband that's going to be fully present, because I haven't been

00:09:01.200 | for the majority of our marriage.

00:09:02.840 | I've been gone 300 days out of the year.

00:09:04.620 | She really just needs a buddy who's going to help parent.

00:09:07.700 | And if I'm not mentally there, I'm never going to get there.

00:09:10.740 | So I set conditions to where I can be the person I need to be, no matter what threshold

00:09:14.240 | I'm walking through.

00:09:14.880 | And it's been hugely beneficial for me.

00:09:17.040 | Thank you.

00:09:19.040 | Thank you.

00:09:21.040 | .

00:09:23.040 | you

Navy SEAL’s Mental Health Routine | DJ Shipley & Dr. Andrew Huberman

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