Wisdom from Within
Welcome to The Wisdom from Within podcast, I am Jen Aks and this is where we access mindset and bodyset - connecting both so that we can create the genuine, authentic, impact in our own lives and the lives we serve.
We get there by having conversations with industry leaders, scientists, executives, parents, your neighbors. These are conversations that reveal the intelligence your body already holds—and my mission is to help you awaken, trust so you can let it lead you into your greatest success.
Wisdom from Within
Your Body Knows Before Your Brain | Ep 6
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About the Guest
Ryan Williamson is a board-certified neurologist, proud Navy veteran, and the owner and founder of Transcend Health. He empowers leaders and individuals to optimize their cognitive performance through evidence-based strategies that address brain fog, improve memory, and overcome cognitive overload. He is the author of The Incredible Brain — a bestselling guide to living a longer, healthier, more impactful life through neuroscience. Ryan also hosts a free Brain Foundation course through his private Facebook community. Find him at transcendhealthgroup.com.
Episode Summary
In this science-rich and surprisingly personal conversation, Jen Aks sits down with board-certified neurologist Ryan Williamson to explore what is actually happening in the brain when we access — or suppress — our inner wisdom. Ryan opens with a Cold Open confession: he spent years pursuing degree after degree, certification after certification, trying to fix a deep-rooted belief that he was never good enough — only to discover through a failing marriage and couples therapy that happiness comes from within. He then breaks down the neuroscience behind explicit and implicit memory, the limbic system, neuroplasticity, the basal ganglia, the cerebellum, and EMDR — and explains precisely why practices like meditation, breath work, resistance training, and the power of gesture are not woo-woo but scientifically essential. This is the episode where bodyset gets a brain scan.
What You’ll Learn
• The two main types of memory — explicit (conscious) and implicit (unconscious) — and why most of us only know how to access one of them
• Why Ryan spent years collecting degrees, certifications, and awards to fix a limiting belief that none of them could touch
• What happened in couples therapy that flipped his entire worldview: ‘Guess what, Ryan? You’re the problem.’
• How unprocessed stress and trauma physically raise your blood pressure and disrupt your sleep — even when you don’t feel stressed
• Why the modern world is not congruent with our biology — and what the 50% and 75% chronic stress statistics actually mean
• What the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex does in plain English — and why activating it is the antidote to constant reactivity
• Why the power of gesture connects unconscious emotional memories to conscious ones — validated by a neurologist in real time
• What EMDR is, how it works, and why it may share the same brain networks as gesture-based healing
• The bidirectional relationship between mindset and bodyset — and the neuroanatomy that proves it
• Why memories are stored in the cerebellum — and why that was not taught in medical school even a decade ago
• What myokines are, how resistance training sends chemical signals to the brain, and why movement is medicine for neuroplasticity
• What the BRAIN protocol acronym stands for — and how to access it for free
Key Concepts Introduced
• Explicit Memory (Conscious) — facts, education, learned knowledge stored in the cortex; what we commonly think of as ‘knowing’
• Implicit Memory (Unconscious) — emotional and motor memories stored in the limbic system, basal ganglia, and cerebellum; where the body’s wisdom lives
• The Limbic System — the emotional brain; home of deeper unconscious memories and fear centers that can hijack our responses
• Neuroplasticity — the brain’s ability to rewire and change its structure in response to what we practice, consume, and experience
• Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex — the higher-order brain region behind the forehead; activated by meditation, breath work, and exercise to maintain control under stress
• The Basal Ganglia & Cerebellum — deep brain structures storing movement-related memories; the neurological basis for why bodily practices create lasting change
• Myokines — sign
Had this uh this limiting belief that that I was never good enough, no matter what I did. And when I look back, I had a lot of evidence or a lot of experiences that conditioned that into me. And so here I am pursuing degree after degree. I've got, I didn't have room on my walls for all this stuff that I collected, not to brag, but because I I I did it all to externalize. I thought this was going to fix my problem. There's nothing in the outside world that will make you happy. Only you can make yourself happy. It it took that realization of releasing this past trauma and all that's fixed after going through this.
SPEAKER_00Welcome to the Wisdom from Within podcast. My name is Jen Axe, and I am your host. This is where mindset meets body set where we access both so that we can make the most genuine, authentic, empowered impact on those we love and those we serve. Let's get started. This is gonna be a great episode with Ryan Williamson. He's a neurologist, and he has inspired me and has been a teacher of my work, The Power of Gesture. He's really helped me connect the dots between why the hands have so much power in helping us shift how we feel and getting us back into alignment to restore the confidence that we need to go lead our life the way we're meant to. So, Ryan is gonna give us some insight. He's gonna share his story, his journey, his connection to the wisdom from within and why he believes it's so deeply important. So I am very, very excited and honored to share Ryan with you today. Okay, let's get started. Oh my gosh, Ryan Williamson! I am so freaking honored and I love this. I already love this conversation. Um, and we haven't even had it yet. Um I'm so happy to know you, and I'm just gonna do a quick intro about who you are. Ryan Williamson is a board certified neurologist and someone who I've come in connection with recently who has not only validated my work, but inspired me and taught me so much about my work. His background is incredible. He's a proud Navy veteran and the owner and founder of Transcend Health, driven by passion, absolutely true. Uh, to make a broader impact. He empowers leaders and individuals to optimize their cognitive performance through evidence-based strategies that address brain fog. I think we can all relate to that, improving memory and overcoming cognitive overload. There's so much more about you, and I really just want to allow you to speak and everyone to get to know who you are. Let me just start with you know, that kind of question. Like, what does that mean to you? Wisdom from within as a neurologist, you have so much, I'm sure, to to really connect with around that. So I'm curious what your thoughts are.
SPEAKER_01Uh first off, Jen, happy to be here. So thank you for having me. Um and thanks for the intro. Um there there's so many directions to go with this. And I I guess to me, I I think of wisdom or knowing or memory or whatever, whatever you want to put knowledge, I mean, whatever you want to tag this to as really having two main buckets or two main spheres. And I think most of us gravitate towards conscious wisdom, meaning the things that we know or the things that we remember. You know, we we remember our events about our childhood, we remember uh our education, we remember that two plus two equals four, or you know, that Europe is a continent, right? These are these are all what are called explicit memories or consciously stored memories. And I think most of us operate in this world of accessing, um, utilizing, and then um relaying information to others via conversation, text, books, what have you. And that fundamentally ignores the implicit memories, which are the unconscious or the subconscious memories that also exist in different parts of our brain. So the with the conscious memories live in the what we call the cortex. So the cortex is the big part up top, uh, the kind of the gray squishy matter, if anyone's ever seen a picture of the brain, and the the deeper structures. So they're what are called the subcortical nuclei, if we really want to get specific. Um, and then the limbic system, which is a term that your audience may have heard of, uh so our emotional brain, so to speak. Uh that that's where more of these implicit or unconscious memories are stored. And it took me a very long time to understand the importance and the relevance of these unconscious memories or this wisdom, which I think has a lot to do with what you talk about, Jen, with with your body speaking and the power of gesture and and and this this realm of movement-based healing and therapy. Um but you know, I I really w without getting into it, or we can get into it, depending on which way you want to go, um, I I suppressed a lot of unconscious memories and and I think stress and trauma built into my nervous system from from years of watching my own family members suffer from disease and losing family members, uh, watching terrible things happen to people in my career in healthcare. And rather than deal with that or process that in a healthy way, I sort of stuffed it down and out of the way and wrote about this in the anthology chapter. I don't know if you had a chance to read that, but uh, another great book. Uh anyone has a chance to check that out. Um, so anyway, I'm I'm going a few different directions here, but I guess the maybe the paradigm I want everyone to think of is conscious or sort of these high-level thinking memories and then these unconscious or implicit emotional memories that that we really need to learn to tap into to listen to our bodies. And I'll I'll pause there.
SPEAKER_00I I mean, I just love it so much, and I think that is such a nugget for us to really lean into that conscious and subconscious. The and if I'm hearing you correctly, the conscious really being connected to that, those memories of like the learning and that concrete evidence, right? That we lean on, and then the unconscious being really connected to that to the emotional experience. Am I hearing that?
SPEAKER_01That's a great summary. Yes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I'm curious about what you were saying related to you and your, you know, uh relationship to both and how you kind of you said stuff down. So can you talk about that if that's all right? Like what was that like for you stuffing that down? How did that feel in your body looking back now? Because you probably couldn't understand it so much then. And then how did you eventually come to the other side of that?
SPEAKER_01Oh, for sure. Yeah. No, I I unknowingly did this as a defense mechanism to keep myself moving forward. And what I didn't realize is that I had this uh this limiting belief that I was never good enough, no matter what I did. And when I look back, I had a lot of evidence or a lot of experiences that conditioned that into me. And so the way that I approached that, I mean, I always wanted to help people. There, there's no question that was a, I think, an altruistic motive. I just to try to get past that or or you know help others from suffering. That's why I chose a career in medicine. But even going through that path and that process, I mean, you've got to be a straight A or near straight A student, and you've got to pass your MCATs and you've got to get into medical school. And then when you're in med school, you've got to do well and you've got professors telling you how dumb and wrong you are all the time. And it's like it's a it's a pretty long, difficult path because that's the way many of these people were trained. And it was beaten into their heads that, you know, this is how we teach people and teach doctors. And if you don't get this right, people are going to die, which is true, but I think there's also a constructive way to share that information. And so here I am pursuing degree after degree after certification, after board certification, after residency, after teaching award, after professorship. I mean, I've got, I don't have room on my walls for all this stuff that I collected, not to brag, but because I I did it all to externalize. I thought this was going to fix my problem of like, oh, surely if I get the next thing, I'll I'll be fine, right? When looking back, how silly that sounds because happiness comes from within. That's wisdom from within. You can't there's nothing in the outside world that will make you happy. Only you can make yourself happy. And you've got to understand, know, and love yourself and give yourself permission to be who you are and meet yourself where you are and continue to learn and work on things. And so to answer your question, Jen, it took me a long time to even identify that. Um, it actually took a failing marriage. My my wife was very unhappy with where we were because I wasn't meeting her basic needs. And uh in my egotistical doctor brain, I thought, oh, well, she's upset. Clearly, something's wrong with her. Let's go fix her. So we agreed to go to couples therapy. It was probably four or five years ago now. And uh, after a couple of sessions, the therapist turned to me and said, Guess what, Ryan? You're the problem, which is which is a wonderful thing to hear when you, you know, when you think everything's fine. Um, and so through a again, a very uh, I think challenging, what was a difficult process at the time to actually go through and unpack these life stressors that I had. Uh, it was hard, it was emotional, it was challenging and worth every single step in every minute because that has allowed me to open myself up more fully to people, to step into my role as a physician and now as a thought leader and somebody who's a published author and creates more content for people just to help a bigger audience, because that that's my passion to help people live longer, healthier, more impactful lives. And it it took that realization of releasing this past trauma and reassociating uh the these unconscious memories or this wisdom that was there that was really stressing me and my nervous system. Um, and I had this constant anxiety and fear that something bad would happen and my sleep suffered as a result. Uh, believe it or not, my blood pressure as an otherwise young, healthy person was was higher than it should have been because of the constant stress I was under. Um, and all that's fixed after going through this.
SPEAKER_00Wow. Yeah. I mean, first of all, I'm just so uh grateful for your vulnerability, your ability to show up so raw and so honest is incredible and such an example for all of us. So I really appreciate your reflection on your own life and the journey that you've had as a result of it. So thank you for that. I don't know how to turn that off. I gotta learn, you know, I somehow my phone is now connected to my computer. I don't even understand that. Anyway, um, so I really appreciate that so much. And I'm really curious about how that has informed that experience, how that has informed you listening to your body now? Like, do you have practice? You know, do you have practices that you use or anything that you rely on? Is there a pause that's like inserted? You know, like what have you done now to like hold on to that integrity of that wisdom from within? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. So, Jen, one of the coolest things about the brain to me is that we optimize for whatever we train it for. And what I mean by that is that your brain is this giant supercomputer and all it's doing is uh absorbing, filtering, and processing the inputs that we give it. Therefore, if we continue to consume stressful content or put ourselves in stress-inducing situations, uh we continue to have arguments with loved ones and I don't know, watch fear-mongering news, etc., uh, all of which we are exposed to every day, by the way. And if you want some numbers on this, 50% of Americans report feeling chronic stress every single day, number one. Number two, 75% of Americans report feeling stress sometime in the past month. And these are just the people that are aware of it and have the courage to say something about it.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01My my personal experience is this is almost everybody based on the world that we live in.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01And and the modern world is not congruent with our biology, which we can come back to. But to answer your question, uh the the way we can get around this with these inputs and this processing, as I'm talking about, is we we change the inputs. And so how do we do that? Well, as an example, today I went to the gym, as I often do. I try to move every day. So movement is is wonderfully powerful in terms of helping us rewire our brain and keep our brains and our bodies young and healthy. But I sat in the sauna for about 20 minutes, which also has some positive benefits for the brain and the body. But I engaged in mindfulness and I did a series of of breathing techniques or breath work that are also known to help rewire the brain for the tour more towards retaining that control or that uh activates what's called our our dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. In English, that's a part of the brain up here that that is kind of literally like another language.
SPEAKER_00It it is so important to talk about because there are people out there that understand it. I'm glad you translated it. Okay, keep going.
SPEAKER_01So the the big squishy part up top, kind of right here behind the forehead, that's that's that thing. Um, but that this is where our again, the spectral conscious memory, so it's not the implicit stuff, but but it allows us to retain our higher order function and maintain control when we're feeling stress. Because if we do the opposite, if we don't engage in activity or exercise, if we don't practice mindfulness or breath work or yoga or just pick your meditation, I mean pick your practice, all of these are effective and evidence-based. If we don't do that and we keep consuming the stressful stuff, that activates the fear centers in the deeper unconscious emotional brain. And we stay in a constant state of fight or flight or stress, and most people don't realize why. And as a result, we react to things. So an email comes in that's unpleasant, boom, fear centers triggered. Immediately, blood pressure and heart rate go up. We get that stress response, difficult conversation with a loved one, boom, fear centers triggered, same thing happens. And Jen, I think most people live in that world where they're just constantly reacting and trying to catch up rather than being in control. And that's that's one of my principal challenges with the work I do at Transcend Health is getting people to identify that and realize that they can regain control because otherwise, it just feels like one more thing we've got to do. I mean, you know, if if we don't explore the wisdom from within or we don't explore the power of gesture, I mean, we don't really understand how important these things are for our for ourselves to actually engage in, then it's like, oh my gosh, I've got 90,000 other things to do. How in the world do I have time to add one more thing because I'm so stressed and I'm running around and right? I think most people are just stuck in that frame of mind because they're just reacting.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Oh my gosh, that is that's incredible. That's a lot. First of all, what I love about this conversation is that you're bringing so much science and experience to these practices. You mentioned the exercise and the yoga and the power of gesture, my practice and other things, meditation and how important that is. And that is part of my mission, and that is why I have you here with me today, is to really, really encourage and validate how important these practices are, because a lot of people look at them as like not so important or woo-woo or whatever they call it, but it's really, really substantial, right? There's so much behind it. And I'm curious, and I didn't even think we'd go into this so much, but you did experience the power of gesture and you mentioned it along with, which I thank you for, those other, you know, meditation, yoga, pilates, walking, running, whatever that is, and the power of gesture. I mean, I would love for you to share your experience with that, not to necessarily pump it all up, but really, it was a very beautiful experience and transformative. And I would love for you to share about that a little bit and tie in, you know, what we're saying and why, how that can really activate that paying attention to that wisdom and utilizing that.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. So, first off, I I think this this connects what your your technique, the power of gesture, connects the emotional or unconscious memories to the conscious memories. And as an example of this, uh, I still remember where I was sitting. We were we were in uh Mexico for my wife's birthday at a resort. And I mean, uh the reason I bring that up, this is in back in February. So how many months ago? Is it six months ago, whatever, time flies, maybe longer ago than that, eight months ago, am I doing my math right?
SPEAKER_00Something like that.
SPEAKER_01It was this like earlier this year, right? But my point is I remember where I was sitting, I remember the view in front of me, and I remember how I felt because memory time memory ties most strongly to our our our emotional centers or our limbic system. Uh, smell is another one that really uh gets kind of to the deeper brain structures as well. Um, so but my my point is you walked me through this exercise, and I can remember where I was sitting and how I was feeling because that that truly activates these deeper memory centers that are so important because our body codes them as something that we need to hang on to and remember. A good example of this would be um, you know, if you have ever experienced a traumatic event or something really scary, in a car accident or watch somebody, you know, undergo something horrible. Most people can remember that. God forbid they have you know PTSD from it, but that's a very vivid memory for people because the brain gets such a strong signal that this is an important thing that I need to remember, understand that that you can access it more easily. The same can be true for a positive memory that's very emotional. I mean, perhaps you know, your first kiss or you know, the first time you met your partner or your loved one, or something like this, right? So we we we all tend to remember that. Whereas, you know, if you asked any of us what we had for breakfast on September 16th last year, unless that had that that that coincided with another important event, there's no way, right? We do these mundane routine things that there's no way we could possibly recall that because they're just routine, they don't they don't connect to those deeper implicit memory centers.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01And the reason I'm walking you and everyone through this, Jen, is because you that that process activates those centers, and that's that's why I remember this session so vividly with you. And I remember you asking me to talk about sort of what I was feeling in a moment or something that bothered me. And I had this sort of almost like fetal posture where I was kind of like doing this and trying to protect myself uh from this past trauma that I had experienced, which is what I was envisioning. And then as I was releasing it, you know, kind of opening up and having my arms open and sort of looking up and and having this. I mean, I I'm getting emotional just doing it because it's activating that emotional center.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01Um, so it it's very powerful. Um that's a that's a touch of or a taste anyway of my words and what I what I remember.
SPEAKER_00Yes. So so this uh just recapping, right? This brought in sort of that memory. This was the release of that, and then you know what happens in that because it was about you really using that power from within you to make that transformation happen. Like you were in this memory and this moment, but you were able to tap in. I mean, I guess I guided you partly into that, you know. Now see yourself releasing and where will your gestures go, where will your hands go? I'm just so curious if you remember like how that transformation process. And yeah, go ahead.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, sure. Um, so right, I mean, the kind of the holding on to the past and sort of this this cringe or fearful uh situation that I was in, uh, versus yes, stepping into and allowing myself to uh transcend, maybe to use a familiar word. Yeah, uh into the more open posture. Um, and that that's a journey I'd already been through, I think, by the time you and I, oh no, not I think for for sure had been through by the time you and I met. Yeah so it was almost like I could envision myself walking that path as you were doing this. Um, but but for somebody who's not been there or who's not had the opportunity to undergo therapy or to explore their past, or maybe they're still suppressing repressing memories or dissociated from stressful or difficult events. Um, I I really think this could be another technique that can help people do that. And uh as a just another example of this, um, there's a a psychological or psychotherapy technique called EMDR that your audience may have heard of. And Jen, I think you and I have talked about this. But EMDR stands for eye movement, desensitization and reprocessing. Again, neuroscientists and psychiatrists and neurologists like to make big words, bigger words than are needed for simple ideas or concepts. But the idea is that when we go to sleep, that we we know this is when memories are stored, and in particular during REM sleep, this is part of that process. REM sleep stands for rapid eye movement sleep. This might sound creepy, but if you ever Or observe somebody, or maybe even just Google a video, it's probably the easier way to do this. When they're in REM sleep and they're dreaming, the eyes move and they move rather quickly, hence REM or rapid eye movement. Well, a a uh I can't remember if it was a psychologist or a psychiatrist that came up with this first, but it doesn't matter. Um, but somebody discovered this technique where if you walk a person who has suffered a traumatic event through this process of reliving or or recalling the memory and pausing them at set intervals and having them follow a finger back and forth with their eyes while they're awake, right? This eye movement portion of this, this allows an individual to reprocess memories so as not to relive a traumatic experience, which activates the fear centers and people are transported there, the flashbacks, they have avoidance behaviors, all these terrible uh circumstances that the PTSD conveys. And it it helped it fundamentally helps people move through or move past a trauma. And where I'm going with this is that that's a specific technique that happens to mimic this memory uh formation, but I really think there's something to this gesture and walking people through kind of the old or the the the stress or trauma posture into a newer, healthier behavior, a newer, healthier future of themselves or a vision of themselves.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01I think this is probably tapping into those same brain networks. Uh that that's my hypothesis anyway. Right.
SPEAKER_00So that's the I love that. And I'm I'm curious, you know, there is so much logical reasoning around all of this, right? And you're giving the audience and me so much beautiful information, which is so important. And in this, like the power of gestures, the body set, which is the other half to me, of mindset. And I'm just so curious from your perspective. I mean, you already spoke about it to a degree, but clearly mindset and using the mind for logical reasoning, cognitive rationale, all of that. And then your opinion around that body set piece, bringing both together. I'm just curious about framing it in that way, how you perceive that relationship.
SPEAKER_01Yes. So um again, there's a there's a bi-directional relationship between sort of the higher order cognitive functions or our mindset, and again, these kind of implicit or subconscious memories, i.e. our body set.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01And so that the kind of the deep nuclei, or as I mentioned, so the basal ganglia is another kind of name for these structures. Um, there are literal memories or in in movement related or motor memories that are stored in these structures where we know that uh, say, for example, some I see a patient that's had a stroke. Um, oftentimes the long-standing high blood pressure leads to strokes in these areas because they're little teeny blood vessels that that serve these areas. And so boom, little blood vessel can give up or a little clot can block off blood flow, and then that that area of the brain actually dies. And the entire motor cortex, which is where all the movement uh sections live, I think you and I talked about the homunculus not long ago, which is a really goofy-looking character that is sort of a cartoonish oversized figure, but it corresponds to which brain regions do more movement or are responsible for more movement of different body parts. Uh, homunculus, if anyone wants to look that up, it's a that's a fun one.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's a great image.
SPEAKER_01But that that strip and those neurons can all be completely healthy and intact, but these deeper memory structures, if you will, or at least structures that help filter some of this movement, if those are knocked out, people lose the ability to move. Uh for that matter, these are the same circuits that are involved in Parkinson's. When somebody has a loss of dopamine-producing cells in a in a different part of the brain called the the midbrain, so which is part where the brainstem is kind of connected to the brain, but but those neurons project to this same kind of movement memory area. And if anybody has a relative or knows someone with Parkinson's, they they have trouble moving, they get really stiff or their handshakes or they have tremors. Um these are the the reason I'm laying out this neuroanatomy is that uh the these memories live in these deep brain structures and and they're they're fundamentally connected to our conscious ability to move. And this is an area of ongoing research that I think we're really starting to just tap into. Um, another region in the back of the brain called the cerebellum, um, which is kind of Latin for little brain because it kind of looks like a little brain that sits on the back of our brain. Um, I was taught that this was just a coordination organ or organ, a part part of the brain. Um, and and in fact, it does help with coordination. And if we didn't have that, we can't we can't have smooth movements, but we now know that memories are stored in the cerebellum. And this is relatively new science, I mean, at least as of the last decade or so. And I I was not taught this in medical school or residency. Um, so uh my my point, Jen, is that what you're doing, I think, is activating all of these these ancient deep circuits, because these are the older uh parts of our brains that we share with uh more, I guess, primitive animals. Hate to even say that because I think we've grossly underestimated the the level of conscious perception of the average animal, which is a maybe I can come back and we can talk about that sometime.
SPEAKER_00But yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01Um but but I think animals are are much more intelligent than we give them credit for. Um but but we we share these structures with other animals, is my point. Whereas, you know, the the ability to build computers and have shows and podcasts and and you know fly planes, that that's all because of our cortex, the the newer part up top. Um, but but again, these these ancient uh memories that that encode this wisdom, right? Yeah, um wisdom from within, uh, you know, I think this this relationship is something that you're really starting to explore and tap into, which I find fascinating.
SPEAKER_00So beautiful. I love that. Thank you so much. You know, I'm really I'm listening to you and I'm like, wow, I mean, you are the epitome of like wisdom from within, like in the brain, right? The brain holds so much. And what I love, what I love for the audience, anyone that's listening, is to really connect to the agency and the power within us. There is so much that we can do and exercise in our mind, according to you, right? To with everything that you've given us today, to know that there's so many things that we can do even with our brain to activate, to get that wisdom to kind of drop into our bodies even more. I mean, there's such a significant relationship between the two, and to not just think our way through life, but to really merge the two, the body and the mind together to bring that wisdom outward. And I just I feel like you've, you know, explained so much. And and for me, I'm walking away with like, wow, there's a lot that I can do to exercise that. You know, we have a few minutes left. I'm curious in in like simple terms. I mean, you said the exercise. Is there anything about what the frame that I just gave with that bringing that together to be able to tap into that wisdom? Because sometimes the brain can feel so overwhelming because there are all these scientific terms and things, but really accessing that part of ourselves.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And and first option, I think the term you were looking for when describing my ability to say all these things is nerd. So so yes.
SPEAKER_00In the best way, I don't even know, really. That gets to my thing about labels. That's not a bad connotation. And I think you're just brilliant and accessible and just an awesome human, but you can call yourself a nerd if you want.
SPEAKER_01Thank you. I'll take nerd. Um so uh what what can we do? Um again, the hand handful of evidence-based practices. Um uh I think one or perhaps two of the most powerful uh are meditation and breath work. Yeah, and they're they're all different types of both. Um, but again, we know both allow our us to bring awareness to our our minds, to our bodies, and we can focus on just our breathing or you know, our muscles contracting or moving uh or just sitting still or an object. I mean, there's there's so many ways around this. Yeah. But but again, when when we do this, I mean, I want everyone to really take this point home. Uh you're not just feeling good in the moment, or you're not just, I don't know, breathing to breathe. I mean, this this has a we we now know this has a fundamental uh impact on the actual brain structure itself and the relationships of the neurons. So, for example, before all of you started listening to this recording, your brain existed in one state. And after listening to me and Jen talk, or after you go have your next conversation with you, somebody at work or wherever you are, your brain is dynamic and it will continue to change as those what are called synapses. So connections between neurons continue to change. And that process is called neuroplasticity, which I think I mentioned earlier. But when you engage in meditation, breath work, particular types of exercise, that engages neuroplasticity to help you tap into these brain networks to help stay more calm, to help stay more collected, to dissociate, not dissociate in a negative way, but to release some of that fear and not be prone to being in that fearful state in the future. Um and again, this has massive impacts, not just on how we feel, but on lowering stress hormones in the body, on lowering heart rate and blood pressure, which we know are correlated with a longer, healthier lifespan, um uh with lowering the risk of chronic disease, which can lead to problems like heart attacks, strokes, and dementia. Um, when we actually contract our muscles. So, in particular, resistance training, we know this releases a class of signaling molecule. They're called cytokines, but in particular myokines, myomeaning muscle. And we know these signaling molecules travel from the muscles through the bloodstream, cross the blood brain barrier, and enter the brain. And that helps with neuroplasticity and nerve growth factor and BDNF and all these different neurotransmitters that help maintain those connections and keep our brains younger. So again, the science is catching up to kind of this anecdotal or ancient evidence or wisdom, or maybe more Eastern philosophies that have been popular for so long. Uh, but we we now know why the or we're starting to understand why these things work.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Ugh, I love it so much. I before we go, I want to just give you a second to just talk about your book for just a minute or so. And then also I'm curious, in your book, um, do you bring in your life experiences, your personal experiences around all of what we talked about at the beginning of this conversation? Because I think that's so beautiful and so relatable.
SPEAKER_01Well, thank you for the opportunity, Jen. So, first off, uh very, very happy that this is out in the world. So, this is the Incredible Brain. Uh, this is my new book we uh launched last month and hit bestseller, which we're I'm very pleased to share. Um, and uh, Jen was actually there on launch day, which is very exciting. So we got to attend an event together, which is very special. And uh I I am even more so pleased to hear the feedback that people have already been able to positively change their lives by the information that's in the book. Um, I mean, this is you don't know till it's out there, but I mean, this these are conversations I've had with my patients my entire medical career. And now that I've been able to delve more into this literature and and really hone in on what I think works, what we know the evidence tells us works, to see more people implement it is uh that just that fires me up and just makes me so happy. Um so the the the basic outline of the book, I get people to focus on their purpose, their why, their meaning in life. Then I go in a little bit of detail on how the brain and the body work and then what can go wrong and why we why most of us end up there, why I see people end up there. And then the whole second half of the book is or a lot of these things we're talking about and others on on how we can uh live live a longer, healthier life and create more impact in the world. And uh as I mentioned at the start of the call, you know, my my desire to go into medicine was was shaped by trauma and loss. And that is that is very much in the book. Um so my my personal experience, my my personal mission, my my early life, some recent events in my life that were very difficult to get through, all informed why I'm doing this. Uh, I mean, I'm basically turning away from uh what I thought was going to be a 30 or 40 career in clinical medicine, either in a clinic or a hospital, to do this because of this experience. I mean, I've had such a profound impact on me and and how I how I want to help people. Um, and I just think it's it's going to create a bigger impact and and make a more meaningful difference for the people that read it and then for the people that they get to go serve to.
SPEAKER_00Incredible. Where can people find you?
SPEAKER_01Uh, so the the book is available on Amazon. Um so that's probably the easiest place to go find it, the Incredible Brain. You just pop that in and it should be the first one to show up. Um our our website is transcend healthgroup.com. So that that gets you uh to everything Transcend Health. Um and actually, Jen, for your audience, we we literally just launched this within the last week, but we now have a free Facebook group. I'll have to give you the link. Um, but I have what I call the brain foundation. So I've I've distilled all of this, all the pillars of evidence-based medicine that that get us all of these, you know, increased lifespan, health span, mindfulness, all this fun stuff. I've I've created what I call the brain protocol in brain is five letters, each one representing each one of these pillars. I've created a free course for everybody. This is like no strings attached. You just get into the Facebook group. We do have to let you in because I want to keep people out that don't belong or don't want to be there. Um so that's the only thing you got to do is just, I guess, send us a little note and we'll we'll click accept. Um, but yeah, that that's that's available for everyone now. So people can walk through this. They're short, bite-sized videos, five, seven minutes each. So have please, please share that with your audience and we'll get you the link, like I said.
SPEAKER_00Oh, please do. That sounds incredible. I love that. And do they drop or are they all there?
SPEAKER_01They're they're all there, and it's just like a course people can go through.
SPEAKER_00Um I love it. Fantastic. Oh my gosh, Ryan, thank you so much for being here. You are just a breath of knowledge and inspiration. And I'm just so glad to know you and thank you for this conversation.
SPEAKER_01Likewise, Janet, it's always a pleasure.
SPEAKER_00Yep. All right, see you next week for wisdom from within. If something in this conversation spoke to you, don't keep it to yourself. Send it to someone who might need that message too. You can also send me a comment because I would love to know what it is that landed for you. But most importantly, take a moment to pause and listen to what it is that resonated because that's where your real guidance system lives. The one you can trust, the one that you can rely on.