In this episode, Micah sits down with Massage Therapist and Personal Trainer, John Peralta. In the show they cover concepts of flow, biohacking, prehab, and using play as a form of fitness. 

Show Notes

About John

• John met Micah at The Space, a venue in Colorado where a person can come and receive different health services like movement, music and more.
• They talked a lot about ‘prehab’ a concept that combines the ideas of preventative medicine and rehabilitation
• “If you’re looking to get out of pain, the best things to do are mobilize and stabilize” – John
• John uses slacklining to build strength, stability and balance
  • Not everyone begins on the slackline, there is a progression that can lead up to being able to practice on and use a slackline
  • Standing on one leg, walking in a straight line, hop on a straight line, and lunging are all ways to build stability for slacklining without actually doing in
• “It should feel fun, if it doesn’t feel like fun, you probably aren’t going to stick with it” – John

Flow

• Prehab is the prevention of future injury
• This all started from a desire to play as hard as he could without dying
• He was learning to seek play in his workout, and stumbled upon flow states
• If you are so engaged in an activity that you lose sense of self, time, etc, then that is play, that is flow
• “There is no distinction between play and flow, they are the same” – John
• Flow is what he was experiencing in his ‘play’, so he wanted to find a way to bring that into his workout

Play

• Bringing in the experimental process has been huge to adding more flow into his workouts
  • He believes that doing it that way, provides the most range of movement to apply to his ‘play’
• John encourages listeners to get creative, you don’t need any expensive tools to get active
• “The key word that makes play, productive, is adaptability” – John
• Movement is such a key component
• Play allows you to not take it so seriously, it gives you that sense of childlike wonder
• If you’re struggling because your skill doesn’t meet the challenge, then begin with play
• The moment you get out of your head, is the moment you drop into flow state

Movement as Medicine

• “We create a level of unworthiness when we experience trauma” – John
  • Movement is finding the connection between healing trauma and hacking flow
• Medicine can be anything that you put in your mouth
• Medicine can look like sustenance, supplements or substances

Final Thoughts

• This crazy life that we are living right now, is supposed to be fun
• “If you can find a way t

In this episode, Micah sits down with Dr. Marvin Berman, Founder and Director of the Quiet Mind Foundation. In the show they discuss body-mind therapy and breathing techniques. 

Show Notes

About Marvin

• PhD in Psychoeducational Processes from Temple University
• Marvin brings a multimodal and philosophical approach to human optimization, wellness and neuro-degenerative disease

Reasons for Therapy

• There are two reasons people want to get help from Marvin, they are unhappy and want to be happy, or they are happy and want to be happier.
• “Where does the line cross between feeling good and dealing with all of your issues?” – Marvin
• Marvin says that the brain can have a direct relationship with so many other parts of the body like the lungs, the gut, etc
• Isomorphic means you can observe a specific principle, operating at a certain level of extraction
• When someone has neurosis, they have an inability to express themselves in a certain way
• “Flow states can be operationally defined as states in which there is a higher level of capacity to more finely discriminate between similarities and differences.” – Marvin

Breath

• Marvin likes to teach people how to breathe normally first, instead of just jumping into learning the 400+ styles of pranayama and breathing
• He suggests learning the basic mechanics of functional breath
  • Checking out the Quiet Mind foundation is a good place to start
• There are low cost ways to do neurofeedback at home
• Bioenergetic therapy is the breathwork that Marvin approves and supports, which is achieving normal respiration

Links

Website

Quiet Mind Foundation

About Dr. Marvin Berman

Marvin Berman earned his Master’s and PhD

In this episode, Micah sits down with Uri Carlson, Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and Founder of Inner Wild Nutrition. Uri is a Breckenridge, CO local but helps clients all over the world. In the show, they talk about her focus on individual lifestyle factors and how she incorporates nutrition strategies that optimize performance, body composition, energy, and overall health, once and for all.

Show Notes

About Uri

• Uri lives in Breckenridge, CO
• She grew up on an organic farm in Vermont
• She came to Colorado and looked for schools to study nutrition
• She was becoming an athlete and looking into nutrition for herself
• She was her own test subject for learning, now able to provide her expertise to everyone

Individualized Nutrition

• There is no one question that applies to everyone, nutrition recommendations are individual
• She has everyone log their food intake for 5-7 days to see their starting point
  • She has her clients use the app, My Fitness Pal
• The goal is to incorporate healthy eating habits using TPAs (top priority actionables)
• “Recovery is super important but often overlooked” – Uri

Stress

• Stress is the most dangerous component
  • You can be doing everything right but if you’re stressed, it can set you back
• Besides the stresses that we deal with as humans, there are also foods that put stress on our bodies
  • There are non-food ingredients that we eat that aren’t real foods, like artificial, dyed, ingredients
  • When we ingest those ingredients, our bodies provide a stress response

Diet

• Instead of looking at macros in a percentage, Uri says the first thing to look at is protein, then vegetables (3 different kinds a meal), then healthy fat, and then what is the complex carbohydrate
• Fats are incredibly important because our brains are around 60% fat
  • Fat isn’t going to necessarily make you fat, its essential for optimal brain function
  • Oils, eggs, nuts and other healthy fats should be included in the diet
• Uri says she sees Keto work well for people, but it’s a significant lifestyle change
  • She says she sees people start with Keto, and then they transition into a more long term healthy eating plan that isn’t necessarily Keto
• Uri says that her ‘cleanse’ looks like eliminating her added sugar intake for a month
• She also says that the key is setting up the environment to make the right meals, buying the healthy foods so that you have them on hand to go to and choose and taking the bad foods out of the picture

Links

Website

Instagram

In this episode, Micah sits down with Noel Ford, CEO of Versus, a mobile, dry sensor EEG headset system. Noel is also a consultant at Tailored Intentions, which is an opportunity for her to expand how she helps people. In the show they talk about how the Versus mobile EEG system uses principles of neuroscience to help the user’s brain learn new skills. They cover many other topics on Neurofeedback, building awareness, healthy choices and more.

Show Notes

Versus

• She started as a research assistant and worked her way to leading the company as CEO
• Micah says “if you’re not testing you are guessing”
• Versus is built to be an out of the box assessment

Neurofeedback

• The concept of neurofeedback is measuring brain activity
• The Versus uses a process called operant conditioning, the concept of what you get rewarded for you will be more likely to continue
  • It simultaneously will notify the person through sound, of the state that their brain is in
• The Versus EEG headset down-regulates brain activity
• “The more that you practice, and the more instant feedback you have about how you’re doing in that practice, the sooner you’re going to see the effects of that practice” – Noel

The Headset

• Micah says he likes the Versus device based simply on where the sensors are placed
• The headset has 19 channel QEEGs, 19 placements on the scalp
  • They looked at the protocols that they recommend to clients based on what they were finding in sessions
  • They took that info and reduced the sensor sites down to 5 main sensors, making the device easy to use from home
• “The stories that you tell yourself throughout the day, really truly matter” – Noel
  Our thoughts impact our physiology
  A device like the Versus headset is a great way to build awareness

Food Choices

• Eat the things that are going to make your body feel good
  • Cheeses in general are inflammatory foods, so yes, they may make you feel inflamed

Links

Tailored Intentions Website

Versus Website

About Noel Ford

In Noel’s “day job” she gets to lead a company that is trying to bring

In this episode, Micah sits down with Pierre Bouchard. In the show they talk about how to embody self and self actualization. Pierre and Micah discuss different exercises on practicing awareness, how to self actualize, paying attention to feelings that arise in our moments of reaction, and where our reactions stem from.

Show Notes

Reactions

• “What we don’t know about ourselves ends up running our lives” – Pierre
• We have to look at the places in our lives that are causing a reaction in us
  • Most of our reactions are caused by an emotional and nervous system signature that are set up within us since we were 4 years old
  • There are so many ways of healing our own psyche and nervous systems
• There is acting out (reacting toward a partner) and acting in (saying hateful things about yourself to yourself)
• The tightness in your stomach that you might feel arise when something triggers you, can act as a road back to childhood trauma, or whatever is at the root of the problem

Awareness

• We are trained and conditioned to think of ourselves as a brain being carried around
• Pierre asks listeners to bring awareness away from your head and your eyes, and bringing your sight to your feet
  • Most of the time, our sense of awareness goes forward
  • Pierre says try the exercise of bringing awareness to the backside of you, back of your head, maybe your seat, behind you
• Whatever we focus on we get more of
• In these practices we are learning a stance of productivity
• The absence of sensation is a sensation
  • There are some people that don’t sense anything when other people may
  • Micah says to be gentle with yourself when ‘numbing the thaw’
• “Every moment you spend mindfully attending to a sensation, you are helping to neurally map it” – Pierre

Final Thoughts

• As we start to tune in more into what is unfolding in our lives, we find out so much about what is good for us

Links

Website

About Pierre Bouchard

In this episode, Micah sits down with Sam Peterson and Jeffrey Haughland, Co-Founders of Invictus Project. In the show they talk about the Invictus Project, a mission to empower veterans to live more fulfilled lives by treating the root causes of traumatic brain injuries, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.

Show Notes

About

• They both received traumatic blasts while serving terms as bomb technicians in Afghanistan
  • When they got back they were told to get used to their new normal
  • Their symptoms kept getting worse and they were only given more pills, which led them to become suicidal
• They started researching neurochemistry and neurobiology to find the root cause of their problems
• Their goal is to make these treatments the standard of care
• “The biggest problem in mental health is that nobody is examining the organ they treat prior to treating, they rely solely on patient reporting” – Jeffrey

Self-Testing

• They used their own treatments and therapy model on themselves first
• They did Ketamine infusion therapy right at the start
• They used TBI Therapy
• They mention Wavi Med, a company that made a device they used to scan the brain
• They then used hyperbaric oxygen therapy
• They also used a nasal, stem cell platelet rich plasma and insulin regimen
  • Jeff was tested before the stem cell treatment, and then tested again a month after
  • Voltage output in the brain was increased by 30%
  • Clarity, focus, emotional regulation were all improved
• What they are really trying to do is to bring quality of life to their patients

Invictus Mission

• They are looking to have a giant health and wellness facility with Invictus in the back
  • Healthy eating cafe, sensory deprivation float tanks, yoga facility
• The goal is to bring people in the door who have broken brains, fix their brains on a cellular level, get them back to a healthy baseline, and input them directly into programmatic lifestyle modifications and a community of people that are trying to create better versions of themselves

Support

• They are always accepting donations
• 7 states have already approved hyperbaric use for veterans
• They recommend that if anyone is feeling suicidal, to check out the Ketamine Wellness Center in Littleton, CO
  • Ketamine is the best method for treating suicidal ideation
• “We are truly a product out of our environment, and we can modify our environment. Our environment does not have to dictate how we feel” – J

In this episode, Micah sits down with Dr. Tiffany Thompson, a Therapist blending neuroscience technology with the art of psychotherapy. In the show they cover the brain wave frequencies and what they represent.

Show Notes

Self-Actualization

• Dr. Thompson says she expects to foresee the issue, but sometimes people’s issues are emotional in nature
• Psychodynamic EEG says that there is more than what meets the eye
• We are all familiar with the ego, the ‘me’
• There is the personal consciousness, and then there is a collective unconscious

Brain Waves

Delta

• When you see delta in the EEG, it’s commonly in individuals who deal with grief
• It’s also found in individuals who are clairvoyant, a signature of the ‘wounded healer’
• Delta is the slowest frequency
• As a baby, we are constantly producing delta
• As adults, we produce it in deep sleep
• Flow is also called ‘waking delta’ or ‘waking theta’

Theta

• We produce theta when the brain is in a state of magic or fantasy
• Theta fuels neuro-genesis, new synaptic connections, etc
• It’s a frequency that dominates our childhood

Alpha

• Alpha is the first frequency of consciousness, being present, being in the flow
• “Alpha is the lining of the realms of un-consciousness and realms of egoic, conscious state.” – Tiffany
• With enough of alpha, we are able to pull layers from our consciousness and put meaning to it

Beta

• Beta is the ego, in terms of identity
• In our lives in general, things are okay
  • “The what if’s’ are what drive a lot of psychological issues, and that’s an ego problem. It’s a glitch in the system, nature doesn’t throw away what works” – Tiffany
• Moving into gamma is a way of going beyond the ‘what if’ that plagues us

Gamma

• When the brain creates gamma, its production is the expression of an individuated experience
• The individuation process is one where your brain comes to realization
• It may look like a moment of processing and integrating trauma to where it doesn’t traumatize you anymore

Final Thoughts

• The wisdom lives within our DNA
• “The god that you seek is your own heart” – Tiffany

Links

www.neurofieldneurotherapy.com

About Dr. Tiffany Thompson

In this episode, Micah interviews Dr. Jeff Tarrant, Doctor of the Neuromeditation Institute. In the show they go into detail on four types of meditation, neurofeedback, practice and more.

Show Notes

Meditation

• Meditation is mental training
• It doesn’t have to be connected to a religious system
• It changes the way you perceive things in the world
• We can all benefit from meditation
  • It’s a practice toward shifting your consciousness, a ‘no mind’ state
• “If you engage in a practice that is not a good match for your brain, that can be a problem” – Jeff
• There is no meditation that is perfect for everybody
  • There are multiple different styles of meditation, some are more of a mantra practice, and some are more of a quiet mind style

4 Styles of Meditation

1. Focus – the one that most people understand most easily
2. Mindfulness – it’s paying attention in a gentle, soft way, paying attention to what’s happening in the current moment, but not attaching to it
3. Open Heart – loving, kindness and compassion practice, intentionally activating a positive emotional state
4. Quiet Mind – it’s the stereotypical meditation state, where you’re not doing or thinking about anything

• In the Focus style, the frontal lobes in the brain are very engaged
  • An increase of Gamma is usually associated with an increase in blood flow
• The default mode network gets a lot of attention in meditation
  • It’s primary job is self referencing
• With TM (Transcendental Meditation) you’re focusing on a mantra

Teaching with Neuro Meditation

• Jeff comments on teaching meditation to kids and making it more popular in the culture we live in, “We can still teach the skills, but we may need new tools”
• “It’s about teaching people to increase their sensitivity to their internal state” – Jeff
• The hardest part about meditation is sticking to the routine
• Jeff says he works hard on making sure people have a routine, and know the ‘why’
• Micah says meditation is simple, but not easy

Links

NeuroMeditation Institute

Email – dr.tarrant@hotmail.com

About Dr. Jeff Tarrant

Dr. Tarrant is the founder and Director of the NeuroMeditation Institute and author of the book, “Meditation Interventions to Rewire the Brain.” Dr. Tarrant received his Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Missouri in 1997. He is a licensed psychologist and board certified in neurofeedback. Dr. Tarrant has devoted much of his professional career to working with technology-based interventions such as quantitative EEG, neurofeedback, biofeedback, and audio visual entrainment (AVE). He has also trained extensively in a variety of spiritual and meditative practices, including Zen, Vipassana, Ta