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Board-certified Head and Neck Surgeon and Transcendental Meditation Instructor Dr. Benjamin Asher join Adam Zickerman and Mike Rogers to discuss the value of rest and recovery through mindfulness and meditation.
Now listened to in 100 countries, The InForm Fitness Podcast with Adam Zickerman is a presentation of InForm Fitness Studios, specializing in safe, efficient, High Intensity strength training.
Adam discusses the latest findings in the areas of exercise, nutrition and recovery with leading experts and scientists. We aim to debunk the popular misconceptions and urban myths that are so prevalent in the fields of health and fitness and to replace those sacred cows with scientific-based, up-to-the-minute information on a variety of subjects. The topics covered include exercise protocols and techniques, nutrition, sleep, recovery, the role of genetics in the response to exercise, and much more.
49 Meditation 101 with Benjamin F. Asher, MD
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
meditation, people, asher, mantra, meditation practice, doctor, tm, practice, inform, feel, transcendental meditation, blood pressure, energy, fitness, mdma, totally, body, meditate, creating, stress
SPEAKERS
Dr. Asher, Tim Edwards, Mike, Adam
Dr. Asher 00:06
There is a large body of research out there looking at all aspects of the way meditation affects the physiology, what it does to the brainwaves how brainwaves become more coherent, how blood pressure goes down, heart rate goes down, blood pressure goes down. And this is actually across all types of meditation for you to do. TM or mindfulness based practice. There are studies that look at meditation in attention deficit disorder, and showing that it improves that. And then there are all kinds of quality of life studies showing that people who meditate tend to be happier, live longer lives, and just feel more connected to themselves.
Tim Edwards 00:50
This is episode number 49 of the inform fitness podcast. What's up inform nation I'm Tim Edwards with the inbound podcasting network and a client of inform fitness. Can you believe we are knocking on the door of 50 total episodes for this podcast? Wow, thank you very much for your continued support of this show and our sponsors. Now, over the past year and a half or so, Adam Zckerman the founder of inform fitness and Mike Rogers, the general manager of the inform fitness location there in Manhattan, along with a wide array of guests have discussed in great length the importance of building muscle in a safe manner, so that you can live the kind of life you want to live. We also have talked in great length, about the value of adopting a nutritional plan that supports the building of that muscle and burning fat to Supercharge Your Metabolism. Well, today, we will be drilling down into component or pillar number three, to live a healthy and balanced life, rest and recovery. As you well know your body needs to recoup and heal following your 20 to 30 minute high intensity workout at inform fitness. Well your mind also deserves an opportunity to be rejuvenated through proper sleep and mindfulness. So today, we are welcoming Dr. Benjamin Asher, who is based out of New York City, and is a board certified head and neck surgeon and a transcendental meditation instructor, Dr. Asher will be providing us with an easy to understand conversation regarding mindfulness and meditation, he will break down the value of meditation, the various meditation methods and how to get started on a path of rest, recovery and mindfulness.
Adam 02:33
Okay, welcome to the program, we have a really good show today we have with us, Dr. Benjamin Asher, he's a holistic, ear nose and throat doctor. But he's also a client of inform fitness. And we've known Mike and I have known him for many years as a client. And we've had many, many discussions about very interesting things. He's a fascinating man, and a great doctor, he, obviously a Western trained doctor, a medical doctor in United States in New York, but he's also a holistic, he also looks at the problems in modern medicine. And he deals with them. And he approaches medicine from both Eastern philosophy and modern Western philosophy, to really find the right balance to help the patient because there's a lot of problems in modern medicine, as we know, it's really a business, it's run like a business, sometimes the business goals of a medical practice, are not exactly congruent with the goals of the patient. And Dr. Asher is well aware of that. And he's dealt with in his practice. He's also a meditation expert. And that's kind of why he's here with us today to talk about meditation. And it's nice to hear about meditation from a medically trained doctor, because it's, it's unusual. So a lot of medically trained doctors, they poopoo Eastern medicine. And, you know, that's not cool either. But on the other hand, there's all these gurus out there that don't know anything about medicine. And they're acting as doctors and pushing just the Eastern philosophy. And that's also can be dangerous. A lot of people, for example, I know have go through these holistic treatments when diagnosed with stage four metastatic cancer. And they think that getting IVs of vitamin C and B 12. And meditating is going to cure them of their metastatic cancer. And that's not necessarily the right thing, either. So without further ado, let's bring on Dr. Asher, welcome to the show, Dr. Asher.
Dr. Asher 04:21
Hi, Adam, thank you very much for having me. Hi, Mike, I appreciate you folks participating in this conversation, which I think it's a really important topic for people and it's a very fundamental basis for overall well being.
Adam 04:35
Alright, so let me ask a question first. How did you become interested in meditation and stress reduction? Being a medically Western trained doctor?
Dr. Asher 04:44
Well, I actually started meditating way before I went to medical school. And my interest in going to medical school actually was I thought at the time that I felt so strongly about meditation practice that I felt that if I could be a doctor, I could get more people into interested in having a meditation practice. So I started actually doing meditation when I was 16 years old. And once I started college, I started doing Transcendental Meditation and I became a teacher of Transcendental Meditation. And after that, I've been doing all types of meditation practices and have studied many forms. And so when I people talk to me about meditation, I don't just tell them to do one type. I try to figure out what kind of meditation works best for different types of people and what they seem to like,
Adam 05:34
well, that's interesting. Yeah, I do. I do know, there are lots of different types of meditation. And that's, it's interesting that you help somebody given that personality and whatever, whatever, whatever else makes them up, in your opinion, will decide what meditation is set them up with. But before we get into the different types of meditation, I was wondering, like, maybe you can you talked about stress and relieving stress, and why should we be so concerned about stress? In general
Dr. Asher 05:58
if you look at the list of illnesses that people are having in our society, at least the top 10 are somewhat stress related, and the elevated stress levels just cause they, it wreaks havoc on the on the body. Elevated cortisol levels, promote diabetes, they promote heart disease, hypertension, stroke, reducing immune function. So living and not dealing with stress has a significantly adverse impact on our health and well being. So that's just one aspect of it, not to mention, that if we're chronically living in a state of anxiety, and fear, or depression, we're not leading a very happy life.
Mike 06:48
Dr. Asher, what exactly does meditation do?
Dr. Asher 06:52
Well, there is a large body of research out there looking at all aspects of the way meditation affects the physiology, what it does to the brainwaves, how brainwaves become more coherent, how blood pressure goes down, heart rate goes down, and blood pressure goes down. And this is actually across all types of meditation, whether you do TM, or mindfulness based practice. There are studies that look at the meditation in attention deficit disorder, and showing that improves that there's that and then there are all kinds of quality of life studies showing that people who meditate tend to be happier, live longer lives, and just feel more connected to themselves. So it's across the board, if you're wanting to do one thing that's going to really give you the most bang for your buck for your health, it's actually something really worthwhile,
Adam 07:46
you know, I had you on the show, because this speaks to one of the pillars of our basic philosophy of my company, exercise, rest and nutrition. I mean, those are the three pillars that I like to point out for really a good, healthy, balanced life, and you can't have one without the other, you need all three. And when I talk about pillar number three rest in my book, it's not just about getting enough sleep, which of course is important, but it goes way beyond, you know, getting sleep, it's it's what we were just talking about dealing with stress. And when I use the word rest, it means a lot more again than sleep. They're all types of rest, your speak a little bit about the different types of rest that there are.
Dr. Asher 08:27
absolutely, so there are, there are different stages of sleep, there's REM sleep, and you know, different levels of sleep and how restful sleep becomes and then each of those states of sleep have a physiological signature. And the same thing, in a meditation practice, there is actually a physiological signature of that, which is that the minds awake, and the body is in a deep state of rest. So it's, it allows and affords the body a different type of opportunity of rest for it to relieve itself with different kinds of issues. Interestingly, a new development, which I just recently learned about is something called the glymphatic system, the glymphatic system is actually the lymphatic system of the brain. And it's how the brain detoxifies, and the brain actually detoxifies in sleep, the brain actually detoxifies through the nose and sinuses. But it's important that we get the reason why I'm bringing it up is that the rest that we get in sleep and in meditation actually helps clear our brains of toxins. So it's a very important thing to get. And you can't overemphasize that.
Mike 09:47
Dr. Asher, what are the types of meditation?
Dr. Asher 09:49
so there are many types of meditation but you can kind of break them down into a few broad categories. There are the mindfulness type meditations. Like headspace, the app headspace, Jon Kabat Zinn's Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, Zen meditation or Buddhist meditation called Vipassana. And basically those practices are often associated with being aware of the breath, and allowing the mind to just be and do what it's doing, without judging it, and just being present in the present moment. And it's very relaxing, it really trains us to be more present. And that ability to be more in the present moment takes us out of being in future think, which is what is a major cause of anxiety
Adam 10:49
future think
Dr. Asher 10:50
being totally being in the moment. And if you really, actually, you could actually look at people that do intense activities like rock climbing, and it's actually a type of mindfulness practice. Because if you're, you know, rock climbing, you really have to be totally present. Because you can't make can't afford to make mistakes. It's really just one thing after the other ones step by step by step,
Mike 11:14
I can imagine with performance of any kind, even if it's like public speaking, or something physical, I feel like you know, when you were talking about rest, and the benefits of getting proper rest, and sleep, and, you know, Adam was going into the pillar, but I was going into the idea of performance, because I've been practicing meditation, at times more consistent than others, you know, in my life, but the times when I feel that I'm doing it, when I am more consistent, I'm finding that I'm stress managing is better. My golf game is better. And and this does happen sometimes by sitting quietly in a chair. But it also sometimes happens while I'm quietly on my bicycle in the morning, you know, I'm saying when nothing else is going on
Dr. Asher 11:56
right. And even the practice of the intense workout in in in your center is actually can be, almost a meditative practice, because it's you in the moment and you're working in the moment of what you're doing. And
Adam 12:09
yeah, I actually have a line that I always asked my clients and see if they're, if they really get what we're doing. And I say, so what do you think the most important repetition of the set is? Usually say, the last one, or the first one, whatever? And I'll say, No, it's the one you're doing,
Dr. Asher 12:23
right? So it's totally being present in what you're doing. So the meditation practice is a setup for being more mindful in any of those moments.
Adam 12:31
And that's that one type of meditation practice then there are other types of meditation.
Dr. Asher 12:35
So other types of meditations, which which come from India, mostly are using a mantra, which is some sound, usually a Sanskrit word, which quiets the mind down. Transcendental Meditation is one of those, it is very effective. I mean, transcendental meditation, Vedic meditation, there's another various offshoots of that, or Herbert Benson did the, where you meditate on the word, one, using Word and then the Christian centering practice, which is also like a mantra where you actually center on a prayer, it's contemplation, but it doesn't have to be contemplation, it can just be not really worrying about the meaning, but just the sound value, which quiets the mind
Mike 13:19
I was just thinking about something I haven't I love yoga, I just haven't been able to find time to do it recently. But one of the things I absolutely loved if I break down all the elements, I think about the OM, you know, and what is going on with the word. om, I was wondering, how just Do you have any idea? Why did they choose that? Where's that come from? And why is that feel, I mean, you feel like the vibration of the word, and it's this calming effect. It happens when you say it. And I'm just wondering, I don't know if I'm digressing or going in a different direction. But I was just curious about that.
Adam 13:52
That's a mantra, right?
Dr. Asher 13:53
It is a mantra, and it has a definite value of vibration. So the way you look at the vibrational value of the mantras are as they have a way of in training the physiology. So you can train the brainwaves with the mantra, and that has an effect. So om has a specific effect, and has an effect on calming the body down in a certain kind of way.
Mike 14:15
Are you saying that other mon like mantras, some of these other words, they have like a vibrational value as well? Or is
Dr. Asher 14:22
they all have, they all have some vibrational value and they all have different vibrational values. So that creates some sort of other energetic so some mantras are more are settling in different ways and can create different influences. So you could have you could
Adam 14:41
is it like a diet where you need to have all the different nutrients and you have to try all these different vibrations or can you just pick a vibration and go with it?
Dr. Asher 14:49
I think you can. You know, I think it's complicated. You can do it, you can pick the mantra that you want. But then on the other hand, there are people that use different mantras. For different,
Mike 15:00
what would you say Dr. Asher? Like step step one would be like I think I think you said before, but you say like, before everything focusing on the breath, or, or listening to the breath or attention to the breath. Is that would you say that that's step one? If you're going to just sort of start today and go home and or is there some greater instruction that you need to sort of have when you say, I want to only try this out for five minutes today?
Dr. Asher 15:28
Well, I am, I actually think that's a great suggestion. And there is a breathing technique, which Dr. Richard Brown, who's a psychiatrist here in New York has been teaching for a long time. It's called coherent breathing. And basically, you breathe in for six seconds, you breathe out for six seconds in for six seconds out for six seconds. And he has a if you go on, I think he has a website, you can actually go on and get a little timer, there's a little bell that rings every six seconds, so you can actually time your breath. And Dr. Brown has taken this technique and gone into totally war torn countries where people have just been exposed to enormous amounts of trauma. And in a matter of a half an hour, taken these people who were in absolute total dire straits. And just teaching this coherent breathing technique has created an enormous amount of positivity in the environment made these people feel much better. So breathing is a very powerful tool. And this particular breathing technique works very well. And it's very simple to learn.
Adam 16:37
So when you have you said before, that when you have a patient coming into your practice, after you do your your intake, you make a decision on how to guide them in this,
Dr. Asher 16:48
I sort of looked to people and and see where what it what it feels like going on. So people that have had a lot of trauma in their lives. People that have PTSD, I have found that like the the mantra technique where you just focus on the mantra or think the mantra actually tends to create a bit of a depersonalization experience, which is uncomfortable for people that have had trauma in their lives. So I recommend for those people specifically, they should do a mindfulness based practice. I think that people who are really, they cannot settle down at all, there are some breathing practices, I particularly like there's one called a Nanda mandola, which you can either get on Spotify, there's a Spotify playlist, or you can do it on YouTube, which is a rapid breathing technique, which moves a lot of energy. It's very helpful for people, it reduces stress, and it sort of is energizing and makes you more awake and alert. So people that are having lots of issues with being overly fatigued, the biggest problem is, is that people don't want to sit down and meditate. I mean, that's really the reason why people don't do it is people don't want to they, they would much rather be distracted in their lives. So what comes up is people sit down to meditate and all the things that they think they need to do come up. And so then they're uncomfortable, or all the things they wish they've done in their lives come up or all those regrets or something that
Adam 18:18
you're saying the mantra takes you away from all those thoughts.
Dr. Asher 18:20
The mantra can do that. And so the TM technique allows gives people specific instructions about how to deal with those kinds of thoughts
Adam 18:28
TM, you mean, trans
Dr. Asher 18:29
Transcendental meditation right
Adam 18:31
How is it different from let's say, other mantra based, probably not
Dr. Asher 18:35
all that different. If you want to know the truth, to learn TM, you need to go take a transcendental meditation course from a trained TM teacher, get the mantra that the TM people prescribe for you. And then they give you a course and explain you how to use the mantra. And that's, basically they have a prescribed way of doing it. And they do the same for everybody. It's very systematic. There are other techniques where you learn mantras, and you can use them. They're used the same way. So the Transcendental Meditation mantra is one where you're not concentrating. So it's not a concentration technique. It's a way of thinking a mantra without concentrating on it. And other techniques of meditation do the same thing.
Mike 19:17
What about like just walking, if you don't have the ability, or that or the patience to sit still, for what however long? What's going on physiologically with an activity, a calming activity, like walking?
Dr. Asher 19:30
I totally think that's a perfectly great meditation. I mean Thich Nhat Hanh, who is one of the great Buddhist meditation teachers has a whole walking meditation practice that you can do. And there's no reason why walking can be a perfect meditation. And there are all kinds of movement meditations like Tai Chi and Qi Gong, where you're doing that and moving an enormous amount of energy and can be very relaxing and Tai Chi is one of the great things to do if you have a balanced disturbance, so people that have chronic disequilibrium doing tai chi, not only moves energy, but actually helps restore the vestibular system and help you with creating more physical balance. So I think that that's an important point you bring up Mike, which is that meditation doesn't have to be, you know, the sitting practice where you're, you know, sitting there with your eyes closed, you can do any number of things, where you're just creating more mindfulness, and having a calming effect,
Mike 20:31
I subscribe to using words like, like energy, like when you're talking about moving energy and stuff like that. I somehow believe it, I feel it. How do you explain it from a medical science point of view? When you're when you're, you know, using words like that? I mean, I, they communicate to me, but sometimes I feel like there's a barrier, like Adam, for example, like, I think Adam is a barrier with words like that sometimes, you know, Is that referring to something specific medically, or something that's going on physiologically in the body? Or is there something that is more spiritual that you're talking about? I guess that's what I'm,
Dr. Asher 21:07
well, that's a it's a, it's a fantastic question. There are multiple levels of that question. Because really what human bodies are or what living systems are, are energy systems. So you can look at it from any number of levels. So you can look at it just from the fact that what's going on in the body all the time, is there's, there are these chemical processes that are creating electrical impulses, that's our whole nervous system. It's all chemistry and electricity. So you can measure all that that's actually a measurable energetic, but then you do move into sort of, if you talk about the energy systems of traditional Chinese medicine in the meridians, well, that's not something that you can sit down. And like, it's not as measurable but it's very real. And you know, it's real, because you can do surgery on people with acupuncture, and they don't feel pain. So the the, the acupuncture, whatever it's doing is having an effect on the energy system. So there's that. And then there's this whole element of what people experience if you're doing an intense breathing practice with some sort of yogic breathing, and then you feel an enormous surge of energy in your body. Like, that's energy, that's some experience. Sexual Energy is an experience, these are all experiences people have, that are sort of in an in an energy form. So it isn't really, it isn't really esoteric, but it is esoteric, because when you when you peel away the layers, you can actually, if you're from a meditation perspective, you can actually go to the place where all you are experiencing is yourself as energy enough. And that's a real experience.
Mike 23:07
Yeah, it is. It's interesting, like just thinking about like the how people change when, say, they're in a bad mood, and they hear a funny joke like, and how, like, their body changed their face. Like they actually, you feel better when you're just laughing. I don't know if you're distracted, because you're laughing, or something actually changed or like when you're if you're not feeling well, and someone gives you a hug or something like that, and how what, how physiologically, what's going on when those little things change in your body? You know?
Dr. Asher 23:33
That's actually a really good question. Good point, if you can even take that on a more macro level, and look at it from the perspective of, of what's going on in a room. If you walk into a room, and two people have had a fight. And you didn't hear anything about the fight, but you walk into the room, and you feel the energy in the room. There's something there, it's palpable, right. Whereas if you walk into a room and the room is filled, you're you know, filled with loving energy, you can feel that there's something that is within the human radar experience of which is not necessarily measurable, although there are
Adam 24:12
is it really energy that you're feeling in a case like that, or is it really just people's body language that you're noticing without realizing it No, you actually, I'm certain that I could find you studies that actually look at that particular piece and show that people actually have an experience and are able to define what's going on. And there's a guy named Edward Tiller, who is a physicist who's done an enormous amount of measurements of energy in rooms, after people doing all kinds of meditation practices is found all these different things that you can, you can measure based on what's going on, and the energy and the people in the room. He was a physicist at Stanford University for a number of years. And he's done A lot of research in this area is very, I mean, it's like very complicated math equations. It's not easy to read. But he's, he's kind of been the Pioneer. I think in looking in that area. So doc, let me ask your question if somebody is not in New York City, and they can't come to see you. But if you are New York City, by the way, you have to go see him. But if you're not in New York City, how does someone decide how to choose a meditation practice?
Dr. Asher 25:31
If you want to do your own research, I'd look up different types of practices, look up mindfulness practice, look up Transcendental Meditation, look up Vedic meditation, look up Kriya Yoga in different kinds of things, and sort of see what there is, and then see what speaks to you. And if something seems to inspire you, I'd pick that
Adam 25:48
like, what are the some of the things that's just considered like the ease of fitting into their lifestyle? Or if they have any history of trauma, like you're talking about?
Dr. Asher 25:55
Exactly. So you want to pick something that you're going to be able to do? So I one of the things that I recommend a lot of people is Headspace. Because it's an app, you can download it.
Adam 26:07
That's what I use, actually, I was just start I just started using Headspace.
Dr. Asher 26:11
Right. So I mean, people seem to like it a lot. And it helps. It starts with a with a mindfulness practice, and it develops over time. So that's a that's a simple thing to do. There are, you know, many books out there is a book, an old book by Lawrence LeShan, and called how to meditate. And depending, you can go to, you know, meditation instruction, many hospitals have Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, instruction for patients, you know, and then in a lot of cities, there's transcendental meditation centers, you can go there,
Adam 26:46
you find, do you find meditation to be a time to substitute for certain drugs that are prescribed for to de stress or depression, or, I don't know, high blood pressure,
Dr. Asher 26:57
there's actually a solid body of research on Transcendental Meditation and hypertension. And then getting people off antihypertensive medications. You know, the mindfulness based stress reduction in in the field of psychiatry is very, very big and getting people off medications,
Adam 27:14
we got to be careful with that man, I'd hate to go to like a meditative trend, let's say go to a TM specialist, right. But he's not a doctor, in your sense of the word. And he tells you, yeah, we're gonna do this, you know, TM, and after about six weeks, you can start getting off your blood pressure.
Dr. Asher 27:28
But why nobody would do that, Adam, I mean, that's not. That's not how it works.
Adam 27:32
But I would want to do this with somebody like you who knows both, is my point,
Dr. Asher 27:37
well you don't need to go to a doctor to teach you to meditate, you can go to meditate, you can, if you're trying to lower your blood pressure, you go learn how to meditate, go back to your blood doctor and get your blood pressure checked. I mean, that's totally, you don't have to have the doctor
Adam 27:40
but if you're on blood pressure medication while you're doing yoga you don't know, which is causing the low blood pressure, the medication or the yoga, or the medication or the meditation, you know, like if you're on both?
Dr. Asher 27:58
Well, no, you would know
Adam 28:00
In other words, I'm just saying like, you know, you're doing this meditation for a while you have high blood pressure, you're taking some kind of blood pressure medication. But, now you're doing this meditation, and you're doing it for a while and you're feeling really good. Is there a way of weaning yourself off the medication to see if the blood pressure starts creeping up again? I mean, how does that work? How do you know somebody can come off the blood pressure medication,
Dr. Asher 28:20
I mean, that's up between the person and their doctor. So you basically would decide that you know what a person's blood pressure was, before they started their practice, then if they're meditating, and it turns out that their blood pressure is really abnormally low, then you might want to wean them off blood pressure medication, they may be just taking too much. I mean, it's a it's an individual thing. It's not something you can do as a cookbook, just sort of see how it works.
Mike 28:47
Did you find a lot of doctors though, would like say, like, someone listened to this podcast, they don't have a holistic doctor. They sampled doing meditation for a few weeks, and you know, then approached a doctor or whatever, let's say a couple months, feel like maybe there was an effect to the meditation. You approach your doctor and say, Hey, listen, I've been doing this, I listen to this holistic doctor made a lot of sense to me, I gave it a shot. I'd like to give it a give it a try. I think I want to try it weaning myself off blood pressure medication. What do you think? And what do you think most doctors are going? I mean?
Adam 29:25
It's good question.
Dr. Asher 29:26
I don't know. I mean, really, I think I think the answer to that question is totally and completely variable. Some doctors know, some doctors would say great, you know, I think it's all about what the how the doctor is looking at the patient and and what their belief system is so
Mike 29:44
right
Dr. Asher 29:44
what I what that tells me more is that what is the patient's relationship to their doctor, and if they pick the right doctor for themselves, right, you want to go to doctor who supports you and whatever it is, that you feel is important for your health.
Adam 29:59
That makes sense
Mike 30:00
Yeah
Adam 30:00
Doctor, I listened to a talk that you gave at a convention, forgive me for not remembering which convention it was. But you were talking about the modern medicine, modern paradigm, and how it's set up. And you talk about how it's built on fear and traumatic experiences, that illness is looked at as a punishment, that they're really focusing on the disease, it's you against your disease, it's you against your cancer, it's you're against your blood pressure. And you said, that's not really the way medicine should be looking at things, I found that to be really interesting discussion. Basically, what you're saying that we see ourselves, our bodies disconnected from the whole is something that you said
Dr. Asher 30:01
I did say that
Adam 30:28
And you also, I don't know if this is related. But you also said during this talk that this idea of people saying, you know, let it go, you know, the expression, let it go, which is why I think some people falsely think is what meditation is about letting go. And you disagreed with that. So I was wondering if you can speak to that a little bit before we before we end this.
Dr. Asher 31:00
So I think that one of the biggest problems that that people run into, and this does happen and in meditation practices is that you something comes up and something difficult comes up and people just keep on telling Well, you just have to let it go, you have to let it go. You have to let it go. And people can't let things go. Because it something keeps on coming up. Because there's some process that needs to happen for them, whatever it is, that keeps coming up to be resolved in some kind of way. There's some some either emotional resolution, some energetic resolution, some way we have to be open to some experience. So the idea that you should just let something go doesn't really work. So people are continually frustrated, because they feel like they're, they're doing something wrong, because they can't let certain feelings go. That's what I'm saying in that moment.
Adam 31:57
So what do you do when you're faced with something like that, instead of letting go, which is kind of like a jargon esque, meaningless kind of statement, actually.
Dr. Asher 32:06
Right? It's sort of a larger conversation. But when people are confronted with really difficult challenging kinds of things, I tell people to allow themselves to make space for the whatever is going on, to give expression to whatever the feelings are, or whatever is happening. You know, it's just allowing things to come up. Because it's all information. I sort of look at whatever is coming up in us through us as information, it's informing us about ourselves, what's going on inside ourselves. So being open minded, having a sense of inquiry, having a sense that, Oh, it's okay to feel to know what's going on, and allowing whatever it is to be present. Even if it's a really difficult experience, painful experience. This is a place where you actually have to sort of dive deep into your heart and open your heart up to yourself to allow yourself to have the experience because people don't want to look at the painful experiences. That's why in the world of post traumatic stress disorder, the biggest thing to be happening right now is are the is a clinical trial in MDMA, which is the street drug ecstasy, but there, it's gonna, it's in phase three clinical trials. And that is a medicine that allows the heart to open up called an pathogen. And people that have PTSD, they can't face whatever the problem, whatever the trauma is, they can't keep look, they can't look at it, because it's just so traumatic. And this medicine allows your heart to expand so that you can look at this with a loving space and two guided MDMA treatments is curative for PTSD in about 80% of people now, and I've watched videos of Iraq war veterans who are in totally in terrible shape, rageaholics, do these PTS that do the MDMA therapy and it's like, Oh, my God, unbelievable, what they're able to uncover and there are only certain trained therapists and it's only going to be used in these very, very specific trained therapy sessions.
Adam 34:11
Alright, thank you very much, Doc. It was really nice. We just scratched the surface. You know, I mean, there's so much to this, go to Dr. Asher's website. It's BenjaminAsher md.com. He has some articles there. He has a whole bunch of information on all kinds of things. Thanks, doc.
Tim Edwards 34:29
We are really grateful to Dr. Benjamin Asher for joining us here on the inform fitness podcast. Dr. Asher mentioned earlier in the episode that a great way to get started on your own mindfulness path is to download the app Headspace so we're going to include a link to Headspace in the show notes. Dr. Asher also recommended a book for those that are interested in learning how to meditate. The book is called how to meditate. The book is written by Dr. Lawrence LaShawn. Now if you'd like to download the audio book for free, simply click The link in the show notes to audible trial.com, forward slash inbound, sign up for a free 30 day membership trial and download the book, how to meditate or really any book you like. They have over 180,000 titles to choose from. If you decide to cancel your membership for any reason, you keep the book. It's that simple. And while you're in there, you can pick up audio books from other guests that we've had on the inform fitness podcast, and you'll enjoy discounts of up to 30% Just by being an audible member. Again, that's Audible trial.com forward slash inbound to receive your free audiobook from Audible. Well, we've given you a free audio book, how about a free power of 10 workout, then click on over to the inform fitness website that's informfitness.com Of course and the link will be in the show notes. Once you're at the webpage, you'll find a free slow motion high intensity workout waiting for you. Just click the Try it free button right there on the homepage. Fill out the form, pick your location and experience a free full body workout that you will complete in just about 20 to 30 minutes. Hey, thanks so much for listening and we invite you to join us for the Big Five Oh, next time. It's episode 50. Until then, for Adam Zickerman and Mike Rogers of inform fitness. I'm Tim Edwards with the inbound podcasting Network.
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