How to Gain Control with Small Wins | DJ Shipley & Dr. Andrew Huberman

00:00:00.000 | Recently, I heard you talking about physical posture in the gym, literally form, and how

00:00:09.100 | upright one is with their stance or squat, and how that translates to mental posture.

00:00:15.640 | And it was the first time I've ever heard anyone talk about translating the physical

00:00:20.980 | into the mental in this way.

00:00:22.560 | So if you don't mind, how do you think about mental posture and physical posture and how

00:00:28.500 | the two intersect?

00:00:30.320 | I think in that analogy, the metaphor I used, physical posture, if you think, if I stand

00:00:35.600 | feet shoulder-width apart and I put a barbell on me, you slide on 45s, I'm strong.

00:00:40.160 | Two more 45s, I'm strong.

00:00:42.000 | You could load up 800, 900 pounds, and I could sit there and hold it.

00:00:45.420 | Or if you put 315 pounds on it, I can drop, butt the floor, and I can squat it.

00:00:51.580 | If I hold it at 90 degrees and you add on a 45, it feels like a ton.

00:00:56.280 | You start adding on 10s, everything starts to quiver.

00:00:58.900 | However, I use the same thing as my mental health.

00:01:00.980 | If I wake up in the morning, I've set my morning routine, and I'm firing on all eight cylinders.

00:01:06.500 | You can stack on everything on top of me.

00:01:08.820 | Because I'm in an optimal state, I can take it just like I'm in a full posture.

00:01:12.200 | Just keep giving it to me.

00:01:13.500 | Keep giving it to me.

00:01:14.320 | If I wake up, my morning routine's not there.

00:01:16.600 | I start reading some hateful stuff in the morning.

00:01:18.840 | Don't have a good input with my wife first thing.

00:01:21.060 | I'm stuck behind the school bus late for my first meeting.

00:01:23.800 | Now you hand me a parking ticket.

00:01:25.300 | It feels like the world is collapsing on top of me, and I can't do anything for it.

00:01:28.880 | So throughout the entire day, that's the whole purpose of the micro win kind of formula.

00:01:32.840 | Stack up as many wins to put yourself in optimal headspace because reality isn't going to know.

00:01:38.480 | It's going to smack you either way.

00:01:39.800 | And if I keep myself blocking everything that's externally toxic to me, when something does get put on me that I have to wear, I'm in a good posture to put it on.

00:01:49.580 | That jacket might weigh 55 pounds, I put it on, and I'm still strong because I've been dropping off everything that I don't need to wear all day long.

00:01:56.820 | But, yeah, I mean, but you'll see it.

00:01:59.640 | I mean, I know you see it.

00:02:00.520 | You analyze people all day long.

00:02:01.980 | When people are in a negative headspace, their posture changes.

00:02:04.760 | Their head drops.

00:02:05.900 | Their shoulders roll forward.

00:02:07.000 | They're always looking at the ground.

00:02:08.180 | They're never up-processing information.

00:02:09.880 | It's because they're dragging whatever just happened all day long.

00:02:14.100 | Now you add in one more thing.

00:02:16.700 | Your mom's got cancer.

00:02:17.740 | Your wife's going to leave you.

00:02:20.320 | Your kids are still, everything just starts to weigh down on you.

00:02:24.280 | And it feels like something you'll never get past, insurmountable at some point.

00:02:29.040 | And that's all because you start to let it slowly but surely chip away at you.

00:02:33.100 | It's like control the things you can control.

00:02:35.440 | And the things you can't control, you either avoid them completely or you take them as, that's a reality you have to live through right now.

00:02:42.060 | I don't know why you have cancer, but you do, and you've got to get through it.

00:02:44.860 | Okay.

00:02:46.640 | Well, what positive things do I have?

00:02:48.860 | Great relationship with my wife.

00:02:50.720 | Great relationship with my kids.

00:02:51.940 | Great relationship with my friends.

00:02:53.140 | My social circle has shrunk.

00:02:54.640 | Everyone around me is better than me, and they want me to be better.

00:02:57.520 | Okay.

00:02:58.760 | Well, I can take on a whole lot if I don't have a tight circle.

00:03:01.760 | No relationship with my wife.

00:03:03.100 | Ostracized for my kids.

00:03:04.740 | Everything.

00:03:06.180 | Now you start to add on that external stress, it cripples me really, really fast.

00:03:10.500 | And I know I'm not the only one.

00:03:11.900 | So when I say it to everybody, whatever you have going on right now, whatever is absorbing all your bandwidth, it's us two.

00:03:19.080 | But you're choosing to wear that jacket all day.

00:03:21.540 | You're putting on another one and then another one.

00:03:24.060 | And you add the external pressure of having to provide for a family and be, you know, that emotionally stable figure for the household.

00:03:31.760 | It's hard to do all day long, and a lot of people lose sight of it, and I think that's why so many people close their chapter early.

00:03:38.220 | They offer suicide because they think, there's no way I can right this ship.

00:03:43.040 | Like, it's gone too far right now, and I don't want to have to sit here and rebuild it, and they close the chapter out.

00:03:48.780 | It's like, if we could have eliminated all those things and given yourself a breath of fresh air, would you have done the same thing?

00:03:56.760 | If I would have grabbed you right before the moment, like, this isn't permanent.

00:03:59.580 | You can fix this right now.

00:04:01.300 | You just have to change these aspects.

00:04:03.500 | They would.

00:04:04.320 | In the moment, though, and I've been there, you don't have the clarity.

00:04:07.780 | You don't have the vision.

00:04:09.800 | And a guy told me a long time ago, he goes, I think a lot of people want to hit the reset button on the Nintendo.

00:04:16.220 | Cha-ching!

00:04:17.440 | Restart.

00:04:19.180 | Restart the game.

00:04:20.240 | You're not restarting the game.

00:04:21.920 | It's over forever.

00:04:24.100 | And I hate seeing people do it.

00:04:25.860 | I think now, you know, after I've come out of the medicine, I've done a bunch of therapy and cut out a lot of toxicity out of my life, I've gotten that breath of fresh air.

00:04:33.120 | And I'm just, you know, I told Marcus and Amber Capone when I came out of the treatment, I'm going to jump on the nearest building.

00:04:39.200 | I'm going to shout it from the rooftops.

00:04:40.780 | Like, this will help.

00:04:41.840 | There is a way out of this funk.

00:04:43.740 | It's just one step further than you've currently gone.

00:04:46.440 | There's light at the end of that tunnel.

00:04:48.160 | Just one step further.

00:04:50.120 | One step further.

00:04:51.260 | And just continuously go, and it'll get better.

00:04:53.820 | Yeah, for me, posture is a huge thing.

00:04:55.920 | In combatives, it's a huge thing.

00:04:57.460 | In processing information, it's a huge thing.

00:04:59.600 | In dealing with stress, it's a huge thing.

00:05:01.900 | I can't let myself collapse.

00:05:03.620 | Because once you start adding another pound to me, it hits me to the floor really fast.

00:05:07.640 | So control the things you can control.

00:05:09.540 | And a lot of it is just your posture and your perspective.

00:05:11.900 | Great message.

00:05:13.580 | Would you agree that lying down in bed on one's phone on social media is a very dangerous posture?

00:05:20.680 | Because I would argue that.

00:05:22.280 | And I also tell guys, if you are going to lay in a fetal position and tweet out how bad your mental health is, stop.

00:05:28.340 | Go to a Starbucks.

00:05:30.220 | Go to Whole Foods.

00:05:31.480 | Walk around and see normal human interaction and tell a stranger you're suffering for mental health.

00:05:35.500 | They don't do it.

00:05:36.900 | You're just going to sit there in a fetal position feeling sorry for yourself, and you think it'll get better tomorrow.

00:05:41.300 | It won't.

00:05:42.100 | I've already lived that life.

00:05:43.020 | I've already painted the picture for you.

00:05:44.420 | I've played you the movie.

00:05:45.820 | You've watched it.

00:05:46.500 | It's not going to work.

00:05:47.580 | You're going to have to get out of that bed, and you're going to have to do something every single day that brings you out of that dark depression.

00:05:52.720 | And for me, it's physical movement.

00:05:54.780 | If you have the ability to move, move.

00:05:56.820 | Don't lay in that bed.

00:05:57.900 | Don't just sit there and scroll.

00:05:59.640 | You know, Vernon says it.

00:06:01.440 | Your diet's important.

00:06:02.760 | Not what you eat, but what you consume.

00:06:06.080 | Visually, audio, the music you listen to, we all know, there's some music you listen to that just changed you ever so slightly.

00:06:13.260 | Is that the person I need to be walking to this door?

00:06:15.540 | Do I need to Blair Megadeth right now?

00:06:18.120 | No.

00:06:19.180 | I need to play Ludovico.

00:06:20.280 | That's what I need.

00:06:21.280 | I need to walk into this room at 100% full capacity and just receive whatever energy is in the room right now.

00:06:27.860 | It's hard to do if I'm in the depths of despair right now.

00:06:31.220 | So, yeah, I try to put myself in a position where I have optimal posture all day.

00:06:35.800 | I try to put myself in a position where I have optimal posture all day.

How to Gain Control with Small Wins | DJ Shipley & Dr. Andrew Huberman

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