November 28, 2023 • 44 mins
In a special edition of The Dr. Greg Wells Podcast, we're excited to reshare an interview originally featured on The Inspire Podcast, hosted by my good friend, Bart Egnal. As the CEO of The Humphrey Group and a expert in leadership communication, Bart and I have a comprehensive discussion about my latest book, "Powerhouse".
This episode offers an in-depth exploration of the core themes of "Powerhouse". We dive into the science and strategies behind achieving peak performance, and how these principles can be applied not just in health and fitness, but in every facet of life. I share insights on how small, consistent changes can lead to significant improvements in overall wellbeing, aligning perfectly with Bart's focus on leadership and effective communication.
You will gain a deeper understanding of the intersection between physical health, mental resilience, and effective leadership. We discuss how the principles in "Powerhouse" are essential for anyone looking to lead with impact. Plus, Bart's expertise in communication brings a unique perspective on how these concepts can be conveyed and implemented within teams and organizations.
This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in personal development, leadership, and the art of communication. Whether you're a long-time follower of my work or new to the concepts I share, this conversation with Bart Egnal is sure to provide valuable insights and actionable advice to help you on your journey to becoming a powerhouse in all areas of your life.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
The constant and never ending interruptions via notifications
constantly popping us back into anxiety, stress, burnout mode.
We really need to give our brains the chance to calm down,
to deactivate. The notifications are literally
putting us into a fight or flight state almost constantly
(00:23):
and that blocks creativity. Welcome to the Inspire Podcast,
where we examine what it takes to intentionally inspire.
I'm your host, Bart Diagonal, President and CEO of The
Humphrey Group. And if you've ever asked
yourself how can you develop an authentic leadership presence,
or how can you tell stories thathave people hanging off every
(00:45):
word, well then this podcast is for you.
And it's not just for executives.
This is a podcast for anyone whowants to influence and inspire
others in their work. But also in their life.
So my guest on the Inspire podcast today is a repeat
offender, Dr. Doctor Greg Wells.Greg, from those of you who have
(01:10):
been listening to this pod, we're in season five since the
beginning. You'll know that Greg has been
on before once Greg twice. What is?
What appearance Is this two or three?
I think this is number 3, #3. Oh my goodness, for a long time
you must. Have good things to say, you
know, if I keep having you back on.
Yeah, yeah. Well, well, for those of you who
(01:31):
haven't heard of Greg, Greg is an incredibly accomplished
public speaker. He is by credential.
He's a has a, holds a PhD in Exercise Physiology.
He spent over 20 years working at the Hospital for Sick
Children here in Canada. Toronto, One of the most well
regarded institutions in paediatric medicine.
(01:53):
He spent I think a decade as a professor at the University of
Toronto before pursuing his practice full time, and he is a
sought after public speaker around the world on the topic of
high performance and how they fuel it.
So Greg, hopefully I did you justice and welcome back to the
Inspire podcast. Thanks lady, great to be here,
(02:15):
happy to chat to you and and super good to reconnect.
Yeah. And you know, I feel like you
you put me to shame. I wrote one book.
I swore I'd never write another and here you are, we're here
because you've just published your 5th book, powerhouse.
And the the subtitle is protect your energy, optimize your
health and Supercharge Your performance.
And so I when I know we were grabbing some drinks and we were
(02:37):
talking about the new book and Isaid, look, yeah, we got to have
a conversation about this because you know all the leaders
I work with and all the leaders the Humphrey Group work with.
And I think COVID was an exacerbating factor.
But I think the way business andyou know, not even just business
government, the demands on managers and leaders have never
been stronger. That's been a big theme in the
(02:57):
pod in my conversations. And people are burnt out,
they're tired, they don't have energy.
And and you know, the idea of supercharging, optimizing health
and supercharging performance, Ithink are.
You know, pipe dreams for many. And so I wanted to have you on
talk about the book, why you wrote it, and really leave our
listeners with some practical things they can do.
(03:17):
So let's start with what led youto write this book.
Why this topic? Yeah, it's.
I can't believe it's #5. It's crazy.
My, yeah, English teachers through grade school would lose
it if they'd know that I'd written five books.
But anyway, the whole idea was it sort of 2/3 of like nearing
the end of the pandemic we saw everyone was just completely
(03:37):
burned out, exhausted, and the numbers backed it up.
Apparently around 40 to 50% of the population reports feeling
burned out at the moment. So this has persisted even up
until this, this time, and when I was deconstructing that, this
exhaustion, this fatigue, this burnout, As a physiologist you
look inside and you try to figure out why is this
(03:57):
happening. And really it comes down to a
lack of energy, and energy is produced in our bodies by little
structures called mitochondria. Turns out, this is what I've
been researching in my lab for the last 20 years.
And these mitochondria breakdownthe foods that we eat to create
energy that we use for movementsand thinking and everything else
that the human body does. And it turns out that these
(04:20):
mitochondria are hypersensitive.If you're stressed, they
breakdown, but if you do positive things, you get more of
them and they become stronger. So this really became assimation
for me as to how we could help people get more energy and
overcome this challenge that so many people are faced with these
days. So the mitochondria literally
(04:41):
produce energy, is that it? They do.
So they'll breakdown foods that you eat, carbohydrates,
proteins, fats, down into a little molecule called acetyl
COA. Doesn't matter.
Drop. Which then enters the
mitochondria, and then we break that down to produce energy in
the form of what's known as ATP.You then break the ATP apart,
(05:01):
and that's how your muscles contract.
Or that's how your neurons fire.That's how we digest food.
It all happens at the cellular, cellular level, but it's powered
by this ATP, which is produced by mitochondria.
That's how we get our energy. So do some people.
Like if you take two people, right?
One person who's. Exhausted all the time and one
(05:22):
person who just seems to have limitless energy.
Does the person with limitless energy literally have like more
mitochondria or are their mitochondria better than the the
exhausted person? Like, what is the difference?
That's so funny. Like, we do all know that these
people that are like energized or bunnies, right?
They just have unlimited seemingly limitless energy.
Oh my gosh, that's funny. I look at my wife.
(05:42):
I think it's. Oh yes, for sure, Right?
She might have even more than us.
And there are two things about our mitochondria.
We have a certain number of themand they have a certain strength
if you will. And people have varying amounts
of mitochondria. And the mitochondria that we
have have different strengths and and ability to produce
(06:03):
energy. The cool thing is, is that when
we exercise, for example, go fora walk, lift some weights, do
some yoga, gardening, housework,doesn't matter what it is, any
type of muscle contraction will do that stimulates the body to
produce more mitochondria because we anticipate needing to
produce more energy if we are moving.
(06:23):
The other really cool thing is depending on the type of
movement that you do, your mitochondria will strengthen
themselves accordingly. So if you do things that are
what we typically repeat refer to as cardio, for example, walk,
run, jog, swan, bike, paddle, your mitochondria will build up
their ability to produce more energy more quickly, and that's
how we get more endurance. This is important not just for
(06:45):
athletes, but also important forbusiness leaders and anyone that
has a cognitively demanding job,Because not only does do
mitochondria power your muscles,they also power the neurons
inside your brain, which are thecells that create thinking,
problem solving, creativity, innovation.
You know all of those sorts of things as well.
So you can really get stronger physically and mentally all by
(07:07):
these little tiny structures. So when we look at the stresses
that business leaders have been under, everything from, you
know, COVID, the shift to hybridwork, the demands from
employees, you know, often ones that they can't meet.
You know, how does that impact the mitochondria in our, in our
(07:29):
bodies and consequently lead to burnout?
You know, we've been under so much and these are the demands
that we're faced with, that work, the stresses that we've
been faced with at home, the information that we consume via
the news cycle and the the negativity that exists and on
many, you know, social media platforms that that we engage
with. And all of that takes its toll.
(07:52):
That information enters into ourbodies via our senses, our eyes,
our ears. That gets processed in a little
structure inside the brain called the amygdala, which
decides if it's a threat or not.Just imagine, opening up the
newspaper reading a headline, Doesn't make you feel good.
That's your amygdala. Saying that's a threat.
That then activates your sympathetic nervous system,
which gets you ready to run or fight.
(08:14):
The problem is it's in the worldtoday we can't run, we can't
fight and keep our jobs and so we have to remain physically
still as all of these stress hormones and stress nervous
system become activated. And that's why we get exhausted
because we run out of energy, our blood vessels deteriorate,
our neurons wither and so it literally it's stress literally
(08:39):
damages the body. We know that 70% of the deaths
in the Western world are caused by stress related illnesses,
cancer, Arc C type diabetes, metabolic syndrome.
And we also have depression is late to stress and the resulting
Physiology as well. So everything that we can do to
help ourselves overcome this matters and it happens right
down to the cells. We know that stress causes
(09:01):
inflammation and oxidation. So, like, rusting on your car is
the same sort of process, but it's metal, not the inside of
your body. And so there's like this rust
that occurs inside of your cells, if you will, And that's
that damages our mitochondria, which impairs our ability to
create energy. So it's almost like the more
stress we are under, the longer that we're under stress, the
(09:22):
harder it becomes for us to produce energy in order to cope,
which causes this downward spiral of exhaustion, overwhelm
and burnout. And the good thing, though, is
that you can go in the opposite direction and create an upward
spiral of Wellness as well. And that's I know what you you
(09:42):
write in this book to. And lay out how to do and you've
talked, you talked about kind offour simple yet powerful
techniques. So what is your Just give us at
the high level this four step approach and then let's go into
each step. Sure the the high level approach
is breathe, get oxygen into the body, move, spark the
mitochondria. Energize great energy.
(10:04):
Let's fuel our mitochondria and then try it.
Let's apply that new energy to the things that we want to do in
our life at the highest possiblelevel.
It could be anything that could be playing with your kids,
making great food, or doing whatever it is that we do at
work that you know, in our in our jobs, in our profession.
So breathe, move, energize. Thrive is the framework.
OK, so let's, let's go into those and let's, let's imagine,
(10:25):
you know, when I think about thepeople who listen to this
podcast, let's, you know, just to give you a few archetypes of
people I know who listen, I haveone client I know is the vice
president of the bank. He says to me, you know, I've
never felt. More demands.
You know I've gone from pre COVID managing a team in person
of you know five people oversee other people to you know the
flatter organization have 12 direct reports, constant
(10:49):
meetings on Zoom. I can't exercise anymore even
though I'm and now I'm hybrid atthe end of the office and my
health has suffered. So there's an example of someone
or have another person who is a,you know, senior in the
bureaucracy of government. You know, just wakes up at 7,
logs on to get ahead of the e-mail.
Her husband will sometimes literally shove food under the
(11:09):
door for her to eat, right and is on on meetings until the
evening. And you know her.
That amygdala you know, is always high right.
Hijacked right. It's always there's always
stress and there's really no. Downtime emotionally.
So let's take these two as examples.
And then perhaps they're somewhat extreme, but they're
increasingly common examples of people I talk to and how they
(11:32):
could apply this first step of breathing for high performers.
There's so much coming at us allthe time, and that's because we
want to make a difference in theworld.
We want to do well at our jobs, right?
We want to perform at a high level.
And so we take the meetings we have things to do.
We have Tasks to delegate, we have projects to complete, we
have proposals, we have speeches, right?
There's so much that we need to do and so much that we can do,
(11:54):
which is awesome. It's huge opportunity.
The challenge with that though is it creates A relentless set
of never ending stressors which hit your mind and your body and
the magic in shifting out of a state where we gradually sort of
deteriorate and get sicker over an extended period of time.
(12:18):
We get exhausted, we get a burnout.
It's not going to happen in a day, but it will happen over a
day, a week, a month, a year. Similarly, we might not
experience depression immediately, but over the course
of weeks, months of chronic unrelenting stress which leads
to overwhelm and then burnout. We are then in a state where we
are. You know, we're seeing this in
terms of quiet quitting or lack of presenteeism and all of these
(12:42):
other challenges that we're thatwe're faced with.
And so when it comes to breath, what I love to get people to use
breath for is to create micro breaks throughout the course of
the day. And the magic is that the long,
slow exhale tells the stress region of the brain part of your
(13:04):
brain that controls stress that everything's OK, that it's all
right for you to relax and decrease your activity level.
So if we all just take a breath in, let's just breathe in for
four and do a nice eight second exhale.
Shake loose little shoulders, little smile.
Let's just try that one more time.
Nice deep breath in. Just a nice relaxing exhale.
(13:30):
Or relax your face, your shoulders, your arms, your
belly. If you're driving, don't fall
asleep. Everyone keep your eyes on the
road and maybe have a little giggle.
But basically what we just did there was send electrical
signals to the stress region of the brain saying it's OK, it's
(13:51):
time to relax. The opposite is true.
If you do short, fast, hard exhales, you actually increase
the activity in the stress region of the brain.
And you see that at the extreme,when tennis players hit a ball
and scream at the same time, right?
That activates the stress system, which makes you
stronger. More powerful increases that
fight or flight response. The opposite, the long, slow
(14:14):
exhales, is what enables us to calm down and you'll see world
class performers doing this right before they're about to
perform. They'll take those relaxing
breaths, watch an Olympian on the start line.
What are they doing? Deep breaths.
Watch a world class public speaker right as they step up to
the podium and lay out their notes.
(14:36):
They usually take a deep breath before they look up and start to
address the crowd. World class business leaders in
moments of pressure, stress and tension will pause, allow
silence to exist, take a breath,you see them considering the
issue, and then will respond. And this breath not only calms
(15:02):
your brain down, but also gives you a little bit of space and
time. And that shifts us out of
reaction mode into a response mode which enables you to be a
leader under high, high pressurecircumstances.
Reactions rarely go well re responses usually do.
(15:23):
So this isn't something that youknow you have to go into a 30
minute meditation. This isn't something where you
have to go to a yoga class. What I'm hearing is that you can
insert this breathing, if you'rea high performer, into key
moments in your day, either in anticipation.
Of some high pressure opportunity Or if you're facing
stress and you want to kind of reset, is that right?
(15:45):
Absolutely. So it's like something that you
can do right before you're aboutto do.
Engage in something that you know is going to be stressful.
A phone call, a meeting. Just imagine you're about to
walk into a room to do a presentation, right?
Stop deep breath, reset, walk inand you're in the best place
that you can possibly be. There's another style of
breathing that you can use if you're under a situation where
(16:09):
there is a long period of stress, let's call it a long
meeting or a difficult negotiations or something of
that nature, and that's called box breeding.
I learned this from work in special forces, and this is what
first responders use. This is what soldiers use when
they're in operations. And it involves breathing in for
(16:30):
four seconds, holding for four seconds, out for four seconds,
and holding for four seconds. We can try it together just so
people get a sense of what this feels like.
We'll go so IN234, hold 234, out234 and hold 234.
(16:58):
Yeah, that hold the hold's very long.
It feels very long and it's the it's the holds where you need to
relax. That's where we train ourselves.
That's where we learn to be comfortable with being
uncomfortable. So a lot of people are doing Wim
Hof method, you know, cold water, immersion these days.
It's all the rage and that's thebreathing practice that you do
(17:21):
when you're in the water to staycalm in the cold.
This is a practice that we can use to stay calm under stress.
No one will notice it, especially if you breathe
through your stomach and not your chest.
I've done this so many times in meetings and sessions that are
challenging and it enables you to stay calm, cool and
(17:43):
collected, grounded and centeredunder very difficult
circumstances. It's used by the people who do
some of the most difficult work in the world, literally to stay
calm, cool and collected under pressure.
OK, so let's. So that's the breathing and I
like how simple it is. Tough to master, but not time.
You know, dependent let let's gothe second piece move.
(18:04):
Because here's when where I'm thinking and look movement for
me is is a big part of my life being on the bike, moving
around. But I know again back to some of
my clients to say look in a Bart, I'd love to exercise more.
I'm just in sitting in my chair.I'm on zoom.
I'm at the office travelling. Can't do it.
So what's your second step in this path?
(18:26):
The second step is to move. And I know that this is very
difficult for people because it does take some time.
And the reason why we need to prioritize this is that not only
does it improve our health and Wellness, we know that.
We know that exercise reduces your risk of cancer, heart
disease, type diabetes, metabolic syndrome, as well as
mental health challenges like depression and anxiety.
(18:48):
We know all of those things, butquite often, even though we know
that that's the case, we're so invested in our work and our
profession that we will sacrifice our long term health
in order to get short term. Well, unfortunately in 20 years
when you're sick, you'll give all of your money away to get
your health back, right? But that's what I'm trying to
prevent ultimately with this. But what Mike, real message is
(19:08):
around movement is that when we incorporate this into our day
and actually elevates you cognitively, we know that if you
want to be in data brain wave mode, hustle, focus, execute,
get stuff done, deep focus mode that doing a little bit of
exercise as little as 3 minutes will increase blood flow to the
brain will increase oxygen delivery to the brain will
(19:30):
increase sugar, delivery to the brain will increase BDNF brain
derived Vera choke factor which stimulates the growth need
neurons inside the brain. It literally sparks the brain
into an ability to focus and getthings done.
So if you know that you have a block of work to do, don't be
afraid to go for a quick five minute walk just around the
office. So even that will will make a
difference. Absolutely.
(19:52):
We know that 3 to 5 minutes is more than enough to bring the
brain to life if you do things like walking.
The beautiful thing about walking is it drops you out of
beta brain wave mode, hustle, focus, execute, stress zone down
into an alpha state and maybe even into a Theta state.
This is where we can do strategic thinking.
(20:13):
And creativity, which leads to innovation and problem solving.
You can't physiologically solve problems, come up with new
solutions to old problems. When we are stressed, typically
it requires a certain degree of relaxation, mentally and
physically. And we can achieve that by going
for any type of exercise that isrhythmic and repetitive in
(20:37):
nature. Walk, run, jog, cycle, paddle.
I truly believe that This is whywe've seen so many people in
business shift away from golf and get into cycling.
Because the conversations that you have when you're out on a
bike, the new ideas that pop into your brain when you're on
the bike, when you're out there for a while, I mean, it's just
(20:59):
like a flood of creativity that occurs.
So I would love for everyone listening to think once a week,
can you go for a walk without your device and just let your
mind wander and see what pops upas a new idea?
Similarly, if you need to solve a problem, there's a challenge
that needs to be overcome. If there's a solution that you
need to develop, you're not probably going to be able to
(21:20):
come up with that sitting staring at your e-mail inbox.
You're probably going to be ableto come up with that with that
too. For that, if you go for a walk
and leave your phone at your desk.
So the keys here when I'm hearing one.
Yes, it does take more time thanthe breath were, but.
It doesn't have to be a 2 hour ride, you know if you just if
(21:41):
you all you have is 5 minutes, get up, walk around 2.
Rhythmic is the way to go. You want something that kind of
allows you to be in the present but not twofold.
And three, get rid of the devices so that you can let the
creativity flow. The constant non and never
ending interruptions via notifications constantly popping
(22:02):
us back into anxiety, stress, burnout mode.
We really need to give our brains the chance to calm down,
to deactivate. The notifications are literally
putting us into a fight or flight state almost constantly
and that blocks creativity. You've got this app, Vivio,
(22:24):
which allows you to monitor yourhealth.
It's tied to the Apple Watch. You know, I bought an Apple
Watch and frankly, I don't use it because it's just more
notifications. Has nothing to do with your app.
It's just in general, so. Do the do well-intentioned
devices like this actually work against this goal of allowing us
to move and reset? I had a huge smile on my face.
(22:49):
I talk a lot about digital distraction.
I talk so much about how important focus is about
defending our attention in orderfor us to be able to do our best
work in a completely undistracted environment.
And at the same time, I have a tech company that's building an
app for Apple Watch that tracks your health and Wellness You.
(23:10):
Hypocrite. Individualized notifications.
You're you're supposed to get healthier.
Yeah, I know. I'm a complete hypocrite.
It's not me. Crazy.
How do you reconcile those things and how should people
listening reconcile the easiest way, I think for us to reconcile
the whole issue around technology, which is that the
technology that we have is absolutely incredible.
The Internet has given us the, you know, the entire history of
(23:30):
all human knowledge in our pockets at all time.
Every song ever created is in your pocket at all time.
We can video call our kids no matter where we are in the
world. We can track our fitness to
levels that we've never imaginedpossible for him to cost
millions of dollars in laboratory equipment to do what
is in your watch these days. So I mean, technology is
(23:51):
absolutely fantastic. The problem is, is that when we
use it compulsively, it becomes very damaging to our mental
health. I believe that when we use it
intentionally, it can be tool. It can be a tool that can
elevate us. So for example, on my watch, I
have turned off all the notifications on every single
(24:15):
app except my wife. Judith can message me, my
daughter Ingrid can message me, but no one else any.
I allow notifications through from my own app, but those only
come through Wednesday at 9:00 AM.
So I know when that's coming, coming in.
But it's very, very important for us as people who are
interested in high performance, in health, in well-being, in
(24:35):
truly reaching our absolute potential that we train
ourselves to use technology intentionally, not compulsively.
If you're Facetiming your kids, it's fabulous.
If you're doing a a video call with your team to make sure
everybody is on point for project, absolutely magic.
If you are doomscrolling throughsocial at 10:00 at night while
(24:57):
you're trying to fall asleep, that isn't going to serve you
very well. So we have to make sure that we
are using this tech the right way and avoiding becoming
addicted to it. And these devices and apps are
designed to capture and hold your attention.
And so it is extraordinarily difficult but extremely
(25:19):
important for us to do that. So all the more reason to
breathe and move. It's a chance to breathe and
move, but actually to move without your device, right?
Like, can you go for a bike rideand leave your phone at home?
I know there's a safety issue, but like, there's that's a
question, like if I go for a walk with the dog, can I leave
my phone at home? That's why I got into
photography, so I can take my camera with you, but not my
(25:39):
phone. So that's the game.
It's trying to separate those things out and give yourself a
break. Like, how do you feel without
your device for an hour if there's, you know, a little bit
of crawly hands and right where it is?
Twitching. It's a chance to to.
If you're twitching a little bit, maybe it's a chance to
disconnect a touch from now fromtime to time.
So let's look at your third step.
Energize. I I mean, the first one
(26:00):
breathes. Makes sense.
Move makes sense. What?
What does it mean? Energize.
What I discovered around and energy and helping our
mitochondria function better is that there's this powerful
principle in health, Wellness and even Physiology called
ormesis, which simply means a little is good.
A lot is not. A little bit of stress is
(26:21):
absolutely fantastic for us. It leads to growth.
Chronic, unrelenting stress leads to illness.
So a little bit of stress is good.
We want some challenge in our life.
A lot of stress is problematic because it becomes overwhelming
and leads to burnout. So a little bit of stress is
good, a lot's not. Another example would be salt.
No salt, you die. Appropriate amount of salt
(26:43):
enhances your health. Too much salt you die, right?
Exercise is the same. No exercise you get sick.
The right amount of exercise improves your health.
Too much exercise, you get sick,hot, heat, cold.
Even sleep is exactly the same. So the body works according to
this principle of a little bit of stress is good, a lot is not.
And the way that we can leveragethis in our life is by adding in
(27:09):
micro stressors that improve ourhealth and well-being.
For example, once a week jump inthe sauna, absolutely fantastic.
That's a heat stressor that produces heat shock proteins
that improve your cardiovascularsystem.
Maybe once a week take a cold shower.
Just let the water hit your forehead or between your
shoulder blades and that cold water calms down your
(27:32):
parasympathetic nervous system which helps you to decrease your
overall stress levels. Fruits and vegetables are,
believe it or not, little micro stress or that then lead to.
Yeah. And that's one of the things
that sparks the body to get healthier when we have lots of
fruits and vegetables is that the little tiny polyphenols and
(27:54):
flavonoids that are in fruits and veggies that make fruits and
veggies green, purple, yellow, red, orange and even white.
Those little molecules improve our health and well-being and
scrape out all of the oxidation and inflammatory molecules that
are circulating around our bodies when when we are
(28:14):
stressed. So another great reason for us
to add in and sprinkle in a little bit of exercise.
Don't want you to necessarily worry about getting to the gym.
I just want you to get a little bit more steps.
So a little bit of stress is good.
A lot is not build in those breaks and this is where I
literally every single principlearound health and Wellness that
we hear about always usually falls into this principle of
(28:36):
Ormesis. Where a little bit as good a lot
as not. Which also helps us to cut out
so much of the noise and nonsense that exists on the
Internet around health and Wellness practices where
everyone takes things to the absolute extremes.
And the reality is the extremes very rarely, if ever, work.
Yeah, so. What you're saying here on
Energize is you almost have to like do whether it's something
(28:58):
small like eating fruit or something more tangible like the
sauna or the cold plunge or doing an an activity, you have
to challenge your body. Is that right?
And that turns on. The energy is the, am I, am I
kind of capturing this right, 100%, Yeah, you're exactly
correct. Like we want a little bit of
challenge in our lives. It's that challenge that leads
(29:19):
to growth. If there's no challenge, we're
just bored, right? If there's nothing to spark your
interest, then your cognition will decline.
If there's nothing to spark yourmuscles, you will gradually get
out of shape. A little bit of challenge
interspersed with rest is what enables us to get on this growth
trajectory, and it's actually how we create sustainable high
(29:40):
performance. If you think about the Infinity
symbol, we have interrelated cycles of performance.
So we increase our performance. We expend our energy, We do what
we love to do. We then drop down into a rest
phase, which might be something like a great meal or sleep.
We're connecting with loved ones.
We then go back up the next day and we do our performances
(30:01):
again. We then get back down into a
cycle of recovery, regeneration that might be music, that might
be solitude, that might be meditation.
And then we creep back up again back into a performance zone and
we consider the twin cycles of performance and rest in an
Infinity loop. That is visually how I try to
explain it to people that healthy high performance is
(30:24):
sustainable, but it depends uponalternating performance and rest
consistently. So what kind of stimuli?
I mean someone listening like the two people I gave you the
example of earlier, what would you advise?
What would be some options? Like let's say they say, look, I
don't have a sauna. What what would be the menu of
(30:44):
options that you would encouragethem to consider to energize?
I think that one of the easiest things that almost everyone can
do is two or three times a week,take a hot shower.
Take a hot bath. Allow it to, you know, stay in
it for 3 to 5 minutes. A little bit longer if you can
stand it, but any sort of heat stress A few times a week.
Fabulous. The 30s And by I'm just going to
(31:06):
throw options out here. You don't have to do them all.
People can just pick and choose whichever 1 resonates for them.
The 32nd cold shower at the end of your shower in the morning.
Spectacular spikes. Adrenaline.
Just a touch to sharpen your mind but also decreases your
risk of upper respiratory tract infections by around 30%.
So it's like radically improves your immune system.
(31:29):
Another micro powerful thing youcan do is leverage the power of
music. We can listen to energizing
music on the way to work calmingmusic on the way home.
We know that music interacts with the brain in a powerful way
and can even be used as an antidepressant.
Music elevates our mood and provides us with energy.
(31:52):
We can use food both as fuel to power our performances
physically and mentally getting your energy from really healthy
foods. But then we can also use food as
healing. That's the eating the rainbow of
veggies and fruits heal, repair,and regenerate our bodies after
periods of stress. And of course, the ultimate
(32:13):
recovery and regeneration modality after periods of
stress, mentally or physically. A hard day at work or a hard
workout is of course, sleep, which is the foundation of two
previous books I wrote. We're always looking for people
to get that, you know, 7 to 8 hours of sleep, about an hour or
two of deep sleep. So 25% or so of deep sleep is
magic. And if we can do those two
(32:35):
things, enough sleep and qualitysleep to reflect in the total
amount that we sleep and the hour of deep sleep that
hopefully we're getting, that's what enables that that deep rest
and recovery to occur as well. It's wild to think I about
music. I mean, I've read that in I
think it's the Olympics the thatmusic is banned as a performance
(32:55):
enhancement. Is that true?
Because it is no like if you look at it is so powerful.
If you look at most Olympic athletes, they are listening to
music right before they compete.Might not be allowed to play it
during, yeah. I think it was during that you
couldn't have it. So like Usain Bolt for example,
there's photos of him behind thestart line of the 100 meter
dash. He's always wearing headphones,
(33:17):
Michael Phelps always wearing headphones.
He can't wear them while you race, but they're the most, I
actually think in the in the current environment where around
25% of the population is struggling with depression or
anxiety, the performance benefits of music are fantastic.
But I'm actually much more interested in the positive
benefits of music for our mood. So many people are struggling
(33:39):
with their mental health at the moment and we know that music
enhances mood. We know that music can be used
to help people with depression, right?
To feel a little bit better. We know that music can be used
to help people with anxiety, to calm down and deactivate their
psychology. So when we build playlists for
(34:02):
our life and craft music lists that energize us in the morning
to get us ready to rock at work,or help us to calm down at the
end of the day. Or psych us up during our
workouts or put everyone into a great mood during dinner.
These are all tools that are tangible things that we can do,
(34:24):
that have a demonstrable physiological effect, that help
us to perform better physically and mentally, but also to
improve our health and well-being at the same time.
OK, let's turn to your last point.
Thrive. And when I heard this, I
thought, just thrive. Darn it.
Just thrive already. Just come on.
(34:44):
Thriving. Yeah, OK.
So what does it mean? Does it remind you of that, that
movie's team, America, where they say just act, damn it, just
act. Yeah.
OK what does it mean when you tell someone to thrive.
I so don't want this to be toxicpositivity.
But I like completely realize that it's like I know things are
terrible for you but just try it.
You can like it's not what I come on and like 445% of the
(35:06):
population struggling with Burnett right now.
And they're like, I hate Craig Wells used to work and it's but
I want this to be really, reallyeasy for people.
And really when we break it all down and we get into this zone
where we are maybe a little bit healthier, we've got a little
bit more energy and we want to start getting away from coping,
which is all we've been doing for the last three years.
(35:26):
Valid. It's been a rough three years,
but then we want to start to shift back into thriving.
We want to get out of survival and get in, like get away from
surviving and back into thriving.
It's the way that I've heard it raised or away from languishing
and back into flourishing over and over and over again.
Study after study after study. I break this down, look for
(35:48):
different pathways. It usually comes down to the
idea that we really benefit froma sense of community, which is
one of the things that was takenaway during COVID valid.
I'm a medical researcher. I believe that we needed to wear
masks and stay separated for a while.
That served its purpose, but it took its toll and we lost a
(36:08):
sense of community. And now we have to craft that
again. We have to pull together our
dream teams, the people in our lives who elevate us personally,
the people in our lives who elevate us professionally, like
you and I do, you know, sort of fit both of that mold.
We ride our bikes and we chat, we play at the cottage.
But then also, you know, we work, we do projects, we talk
(36:30):
about our our businesses. But we want to try to surround
ourselves with three to five people who elevate us
personally. And maybe you can find another
three to five people who elevateyou professionally.
The cool thing is, is although we want those people in our
lives, they may not all need to be live in three dimensions in
(36:53):
the space. I actually count in listening to
an audiobook in this learning from an amazing podcast.
So I have that two or three podcasts I listen to, I know you
listen to. Every episode of mine, it's OK,
you know exactly. You can listen to them twice.
I don't mind. It's it's incredible how much I
know about leadership communication as an exercise
(37:15):
physiologist. But point being is that we want
to try to craft this dream team for ourselves, personally and
professionally. Three to five people, I think is
entirely doable if you want to learn from people with great
books, great podcasts. Just imagine the year of
consuming fabulous information from some of the greatest minds
in human history, the young firms, in the form of
(37:37):
audiobooks, or the greatest minds and current humanity in
the form of podcasts from, you know, some of the interviews
that you can get with some epic human beings.
Imagine the year of that versus doom scrolling through social
and how different you would feellistening to something that
elevates you versus, you know, random nonsense that we are
(38:00):
seeing through our our social media screens.
And it's interesting that socialmedia started as social
networks, right, You connecting to your friends.
But it is very much morphed intoa stream of content.
And I broadcast on social. I try to make it as positive as
I can. I know that it, you know, helps
my business. So it's I struggle with this,
but really what I want people todo is to be very careful about
(38:21):
building that community. We know that having strong sense
of communities actually extends lifespan.
It is a more powerful predictor of your risk of mortality than
whether or not you quit smoking,whether or not you drink,
whether or not you do rehab after a cardiac event, after a
(38:44):
heart attack, even whether or not you do physical activity.
It is that powerful for us, and I'm currently watching and
series on Netflix about the BlueZones with Dan Buettner from
National Geographic and over andover and over again as he
travels the world and finds the seven to nine communities where
people typically live to be 100 years old at higher rates than
(39:06):
anywhere else in the world. When these centenarians are
interviewed and they're asked what is most important to you
and your long life, almost everysingle one of them is saying, I
have a close group of family andfriends who surround me.
And so I want us to cultivate that as well.
Great people who elevate us at work.
Great people who elevate us at home.
(39:27):
And that's it. Yeah.
I think you're you're bang on. You know, even though we, you
know, can't always be with people in person, we can have
great connections. I mean, I think about in my own
life, my personal life. You have a couple friend groups
that have just been going for years.
Now they're starting COVID, my guys who like the NFL with me.
Friends who are into cycling andthen I've got my work crew, you
(39:49):
know, people who aren't in my company, but who we share and
talk about the challenges. I mean, you're part of it,
right? Challenges we go through and
having that that group to turn to really does help you thrive.
So yeah, I like it. It's not.
It's not that you. Can kind of just be positive to
thrive. What you're really advising is
(40:10):
get that core group who you don't work with to help build
you up. Yeah, and maybe they, you know,
they might be a group at work. We want we need people who
around us professionally who areawesome, but even more
importantly, those people in ourpersonal lives because really
that's where we're going to. I mean those are the people that
we're going to be with in 30-40 fifty years, right?
You want to be surrounded by your friends for your entire
(40:31):
life and of course you know people move in and out of our
our lives and that's fine. But we want to make sure that
that's a strong foundation because, I mean, when things get
tough, those are the people thatyou're going to call and things
will get right. There's good phases of life and
there's difficulties in of life.So we want to make sure that we
have those people who put you ina good mood, who support you and
love you unconditionally, and then who you can rely on for a a
(40:54):
laugh every once in a while or, you know, a trip up to their
cottage if they're so kind to invite you.
Well said, Well said, Poke. Poking it in there.
That's right. And with that, we have to wrap
the Inspire podcast. That's right.
No, absolutely. I think it's it's bang on.
Friends are friends are the fuelfor life.
So just to sum up, you know, as your research has found, it's
(41:16):
never like rates of burnout, rates of stress off the charts.
And it sounds like the magic formula.
Build this mitochondria. Breathe, move, energize, thrive.
Where can people get the book? Where can they get your content?
Because, as you pointed out, youproduce a lot of great content.
It will be amazing to meet everybody through my website at
Doctor Greg wells.com. All my social media are at
(41:40):
Doctor Greg Wells. There's a podcast there, all the
books are there, the blog is there.
So I would be thrilled to connect with people.
And if anyone wants to pick up the book powerhouse, I would be
super grateful to have that in the world a little bit more.
So thanks for the opportunity tochat to your audience.
It's always a pleasure. Greg, I think you got a great
message here that people need tohear.
And whether you're working 80 hours a week and you just start
(42:02):
breathing, doing some box breathing, or you've got the
time to now build a new friend group, some really powerful
things. So thanks so much.
Thanks for writing the book and for coming on the POD.
Thanks, buddy. Hope you enjoyed my conversation
today with Doctor Greg Wells. I always love talking to Greg.
(42:26):
You know, his research and insights into Health and Human
performance are just so valuablefor us in the leadership space,
you know, And so whatever kind of leadership you're practicing,
look it, it's there's never beenmore demands on our energy.
And I think he's got some very tangible ways to build and
develop that energy. So pick up his new book,
(42:46):
Powerhouse Next Time on the Pod.I'm pleased to welcome Paul
Butcher. Paul was a client for almost a
decade. He was a award-winning Investor
Relations executive at CN Rail and I had the great privilege of
being hired by him to work closely with the CN Investor
(43:06):
Relations team to help them craft and tell their story.
And Paul after retiring after a distinguished career and I got
to talking about how the work wedid together from a
communications standpoint reallywas unique in his experience in
the Investor Relations space. And so we said, look, you know,
why don't we do something together to bring this approach
(43:28):
to more audiences. And so he's joined the Humphrey
Group to lead our Investor Relations practice.
And I'm very excited to welcome him to the pod to talk about how
investor Relations communicationcan help companies unlock
shareholder value. So join me next time and get
some insights into what the leading companies can do to use
(43:49):
communication in their investor process.
Thanks for listening if you've enjoyed it.
We've now crossed 100,000 listens.
Really happy to hear that that'sresonating, Give us a rating,
give us a review, helps others find the pod and as always, be
inspirational. Thanks.
The constant and never ending interruptions via notifications
constantly popping us back into anxiety, stress, burnout mode.
We really need to give our brains the chance to calm down,
to deactivate. The notifications are literally
putting us into a fight or flight state almost constantly
(00:23):
and that blocks creativity. Welcome to the Inspire Podcast,
where we examine what it takes to intentionally inspire.
I'm your host, Bart Diagonal, President and CEO of The
Humphrey Group. And if you've ever asked
yourself how can you develop an authentic leadership presence,
or how can you tell stories thathave people hanging off every
(00:45):
word, well then this podcast is for you.
And it's not just for executives.
This is a podcast for anyone whowants to influence and inspire
others in their work. But also in their life.
So my guest on the Inspire podcast today is a repeat
offender, Dr. Doctor Greg Wells.Greg, from those of you who have
(01:10):
been listening to this pod, we're in season five since the
beginning. You'll know that Greg has been
on before once Greg twice. What is?
What appearance Is this two or three?
I think this is number 3, #3. Oh my goodness, for a long time
you must. Have good things to say, you
know, if I keep having you back on.
Yeah, yeah. Well, well, for those of you who
(01:31):
haven't heard of Greg, Greg is an incredibly accomplished
public speaker. He is by credential.
He's a has a, holds a PhD in Exercise Physiology.
He spent over 20 years working at the Hospital for Sick
Children here in Canada. Toronto, One of the most well
regarded institutions in paediatric medicine.
(01:53):
He spent I think a decade as a professor at the University of
Toronto before pursuing his practice full time, and he is a
sought after public speaker around the world on the topic of
high performance and how they fuel it.
So Greg, hopefully I did you justice and welcome back to the
Inspire podcast. Thanks lady, great to be here,
(02:15):
happy to chat to you and and super good to reconnect.
Yeah. And you know, I feel like you
you put me to shame. I wrote one book.
I swore I'd never write another and here you are, we're here
because you've just published your 5th book, powerhouse.
And the the subtitle is protect your energy, optimize your
health and Supercharge Your performance.
And so I when I know we were grabbing some drinks and we were
(02:37):
talking about the new book and Isaid, look, yeah, we got to have
a conversation about this because you know all the leaders
I work with and all the leaders the Humphrey Group work with.
And I think COVID was an exacerbating factor.
But I think the way business andyou know, not even just business
government, the demands on managers and leaders have never
been stronger. That's been a big theme in the
(02:57):
pod in my conversations. And people are burnt out,
they're tired, they don't have energy.
And and you know, the idea of supercharging, optimizing health
and supercharging performance, Ithink are.
You know, pipe dreams for many. And so I wanted to have you on
talk about the book, why you wrote it, and really leave our
listeners with some practical things they can do.
(03:17):
So let's start with what led youto write this book.
Why this topic? Yeah, it's.
I can't believe it's #5. It's crazy.
My, yeah, English teachers through grade school would lose
it if they'd know that I'd written five books.
But anyway, the whole idea was it sort of 2/3 of like nearing
the end of the pandemic we saw everyone was just completely
(03:37):
burned out, exhausted, and the numbers backed it up.
Apparently around 40 to 50% of the population reports feeling
burned out at the moment. So this has persisted even up
until this, this time, and when I was deconstructing that, this
exhaustion, this fatigue, this burnout, As a physiologist you
look inside and you try to figure out why is this
(03:57):
happening. And really it comes down to a
lack of energy, and energy is produced in our bodies by little
structures called mitochondria. Turns out, this is what I've
been researching in my lab for the last 20 years.
And these mitochondria breakdownthe foods that we eat to create
energy that we use for movementsand thinking and everything else
that the human body does. And it turns out that these
(04:20):
mitochondria are hypersensitive.If you're stressed, they
breakdown, but if you do positive things, you get more of
them and they become stronger. So this really became assimation
for me as to how we could help people get more energy and
overcome this challenge that so many people are faced with these
days. So the mitochondria literally
(04:41):
produce energy, is that it? They do.
So they'll breakdown foods that you eat, carbohydrates,
proteins, fats, down into a little molecule called acetyl
COA. Doesn't matter.
Drop. Which then enters the
mitochondria, and then we break that down to produce energy in
the form of what's known as ATP.You then break the ATP apart,
(05:01):
and that's how your muscles contract.
Or that's how your neurons fire.That's how we digest food.
It all happens at the cellular, cellular level, but it's powered
by this ATP, which is produced by mitochondria.
That's how we get our energy. So do some people.
Like if you take two people, right?
One person who's. Exhausted all the time and one
(05:22):
person who just seems to have limitless energy.
Does the person with limitless energy literally have like more
mitochondria or are their mitochondria better than the the
exhausted person? Like, what is the difference?
That's so funny. Like, we do all know that these
people that are like energized or bunnies, right?
They just have unlimited seemingly limitless energy.
Oh my gosh, that's funny. I look at my wife.
(05:42):
I think it's. Oh yes, for sure, Right?
She might have even more than us.
And there are two things about our mitochondria.
We have a certain number of themand they have a certain strength
if you will. And people have varying amounts
of mitochondria. And the mitochondria that we
have have different strengths and and ability to produce
(06:03):
energy. The cool thing is, is that when
we exercise, for example, go fora walk, lift some weights, do
some yoga, gardening, housework,doesn't matter what it is, any
type of muscle contraction will do that stimulates the body to
produce more mitochondria because we anticipate needing to
produce more energy if we are moving.
(06:23):
The other really cool thing is depending on the type of
movement that you do, your mitochondria will strengthen
themselves accordingly. So if you do things that are
what we typically repeat refer to as cardio, for example, walk,
run, jog, swan, bike, paddle, your mitochondria will build up
their ability to produce more energy more quickly, and that's
how we get more endurance. This is important not just for
(06:45):
athletes, but also important forbusiness leaders and anyone that
has a cognitively demanding job,Because not only does do
mitochondria power your muscles,they also power the neurons
inside your brain, which are thecells that create thinking,
problem solving, creativity, innovation.
You know all of those sorts of things as well.
So you can really get stronger physically and mentally all by
(07:07):
these little tiny structures. So when we look at the stresses
that business leaders have been under, everything from, you
know, COVID, the shift to hybridwork, the demands from
employees, you know, often ones that they can't meet.
You know, how does that impact the mitochondria in our, in our
(07:29):
bodies and consequently lead to burnout?
You know, we've been under so much and these are the demands
that we're faced with, that work, the stresses that we've
been faced with at home, the information that we consume via
the news cycle and the the negativity that exists and on
many, you know, social media platforms that that we engage
with. And all of that takes its toll.
(07:52):
That information enters into ourbodies via our senses, our eyes,
our ears. That gets processed in a little
structure inside the brain called the amygdala, which
decides if it's a threat or not.Just imagine, opening up the
newspaper reading a headline, Doesn't make you feel good.
That's your amygdala. Saying that's a threat.
That then activates your sympathetic nervous system,
which gets you ready to run or fight.
(08:14):
The problem is it's in the worldtoday we can't run, we can't
fight and keep our jobs and so we have to remain physically
still as all of these stress hormones and stress nervous
system become activated. And that's why we get exhausted
because we run out of energy, our blood vessels deteriorate,
our neurons wither and so it literally it's stress literally
(08:39):
damages the body. We know that 70% of the deaths
in the Western world are caused by stress related illnesses,
cancer, Arc C type diabetes, metabolic syndrome.
And we also have depression is late to stress and the resulting
Physiology as well. So everything that we can do to
help ourselves overcome this matters and it happens right
down to the cells. We know that stress causes
(09:01):
inflammation and oxidation. So, like, rusting on your car is
the same sort of process, but it's metal, not the inside of
your body. And so there's like this rust
that occurs inside of your cells, if you will, And that's
that damages our mitochondria, which impairs our ability to
create energy. So it's almost like the more
stress we are under, the longer that we're under stress, the
(09:22):
harder it becomes for us to produce energy in order to cope,
which causes this downward spiral of exhaustion, overwhelm
and burnout. And the good thing, though, is
that you can go in the opposite direction and create an upward
spiral of Wellness as well. And that's I know what you you
(09:42):
write in this book to. And lay out how to do and you've
talked, you talked about kind offour simple yet powerful
techniques. So what is your Just give us at
the high level this four step approach and then let's go into
each step. Sure the the high level approach
is breathe, get oxygen into the body, move, spark the
mitochondria. Energize great energy.
(10:04):
Let's fuel our mitochondria and then try it.
Let's apply that new energy to the things that we want to do in
our life at the highest possiblelevel.
It could be anything that could be playing with your kids,
making great food, or doing whatever it is that we do at
work that you know, in our in our jobs, in our profession.
So breathe, move, energize. Thrive is the framework.
OK, so let's, let's go into those and let's, let's imagine,
(10:25):
you know, when I think about thepeople who listen to this
podcast, let's, you know, just to give you a few archetypes of
people I know who listen, I haveone client I know is the vice
president of the bank. He says to me, you know, I've
never felt. More demands.
You know I've gone from pre COVID managing a team in person
of you know five people oversee other people to you know the
flatter organization have 12 direct reports, constant
(10:49):
meetings on Zoom. I can't exercise anymore even
though I'm and now I'm hybrid atthe end of the office and my
health has suffered. So there's an example of someone
or have another person who is a,you know, senior in the
bureaucracy of government. You know, just wakes up at 7,
logs on to get ahead of the e-mail.
Her husband will sometimes literally shove food under the
(11:09):
door for her to eat, right and is on on meetings until the
evening. And you know her.
That amygdala you know, is always high right.
Hijacked right. It's always there's always
stress and there's really no. Downtime emotionally.
So let's take these two as examples.
And then perhaps they're somewhat extreme, but they're
increasingly common examples of people I talk to and how they
(11:32):
could apply this first step of breathing for high performers.
There's so much coming at us allthe time, and that's because we
want to make a difference in theworld.
We want to do well at our jobs, right?
We want to perform at a high level.
And so we take the meetings we have things to do.
We have Tasks to delegate, we have projects to complete, we
have proposals, we have speeches, right?
There's so much that we need to do and so much that we can do,
(11:54):
which is awesome. It's huge opportunity.
The challenge with that though is it creates A relentless set
of never ending stressors which hit your mind and your body and
the magic in shifting out of a state where we gradually sort of
deteriorate and get sicker over an extended period of time.
(12:18):
We get exhausted, we get a burnout.
It's not going to happen in a day, but it will happen over a
day, a week, a month, a year. Similarly, we might not
experience depression immediately, but over the course
of weeks, months of chronic unrelenting stress which leads
to overwhelm and then burnout. We are then in a state where we
are. You know, we're seeing this in
terms of quiet quitting or lack of presenteeism and all of these
(12:42):
other challenges that we're thatwe're faced with.
And so when it comes to breath, what I love to get people to use
breath for is to create micro breaks throughout the course of
the day. And the magic is that the long,
slow exhale tells the stress region of the brain part of your
(13:04):
brain that controls stress that everything's OK, that it's all
right for you to relax and decrease your activity level.
So if we all just take a breath in, let's just breathe in for
four and do a nice eight second exhale.
Shake loose little shoulders, little smile.
Let's just try that one more time.
Nice deep breath in. Just a nice relaxing exhale.
(13:30):
Or relax your face, your shoulders, your arms, your
belly. If you're driving, don't fall
asleep. Everyone keep your eyes on the
road and maybe have a little giggle.
But basically what we just did there was send electrical
signals to the stress region of the brain saying it's OK, it's
(13:51):
time to relax. The opposite is true.
If you do short, fast, hard exhales, you actually increase
the activity in the stress region of the brain.
And you see that at the extreme,when tennis players hit a ball
and scream at the same time, right?
That activates the stress system, which makes you
stronger. More powerful increases that
fight or flight response. The opposite, the long, slow
(14:14):
exhales, is what enables us to calm down and you'll see world
class performers doing this right before they're about to
perform. They'll take those relaxing
breaths, watch an Olympian on the start line.
What are they doing? Deep breaths.
Watch a world class public speaker right as they step up to
the podium and lay out their notes.
(14:36):
They usually take a deep breath before they look up and start to
address the crowd. World class business leaders in
moments of pressure, stress and tension will pause, allow
silence to exist, take a breath,you see them considering the
issue, and then will respond. And this breath not only calms
(15:02):
your brain down, but also gives you a little bit of space and
time. And that shifts us out of
reaction mode into a response mode which enables you to be a
leader under high, high pressurecircumstances.
Reactions rarely go well re responses usually do.
(15:23):
So this isn't something that youknow you have to go into a 30
minute meditation. This isn't something where you
have to go to a yoga class. What I'm hearing is that you can
insert this breathing, if you'rea high performer, into key
moments in your day, either in anticipation.
Of some high pressure opportunity Or if you're facing
stress and you want to kind of reset, is that right?
(15:45):
Absolutely. So it's like something that you
can do right before you're aboutto do.
Engage in something that you know is going to be stressful.
A phone call, a meeting. Just imagine you're about to
walk into a room to do a presentation, right?
Stop deep breath, reset, walk inand you're in the best place
that you can possibly be. There's another style of
breathing that you can use if you're under a situation where
(16:09):
there is a long period of stress, let's call it a long
meeting or a difficult negotiations or something of
that nature, and that's called box breeding.
I learned this from work in special forces, and this is what
first responders use. This is what soldiers use when
they're in operations. And it involves breathing in for
(16:30):
four seconds, holding for four seconds, out for four seconds,
and holding for four seconds. We can try it together just so
people get a sense of what this feels like.
We'll go so IN234, hold 234, out234 and hold 234.
(16:58):
Yeah, that hold the hold's very long.
It feels very long and it's the it's the holds where you need to
relax. That's where we train ourselves.
That's where we learn to be comfortable with being
uncomfortable. So a lot of people are doing Wim
Hof method, you know, cold water, immersion these days.
It's all the rage and that's thebreathing practice that you do
(17:21):
when you're in the water to staycalm in the cold.
This is a practice that we can use to stay calm under stress.
No one will notice it, especially if you breathe
through your stomach and not your chest.
I've done this so many times in meetings and sessions that are
challenging and it enables you to stay calm, cool and
(17:43):
collected, grounded and centeredunder very difficult
circumstances. It's used by the people who do
some of the most difficult work in the world, literally to stay
calm, cool and collected under pressure.
OK, so let's. So that's the breathing and I
like how simple it is. Tough to master, but not time.
You know, dependent let let's gothe second piece move.
(18:04):
Because here's when where I'm thinking and look movement for
me is is a big part of my life being on the bike, moving
around. But I know again back to some of
my clients to say look in a Bart, I'd love to exercise more.
I'm just in sitting in my chair.I'm on zoom.
I'm at the office travelling. Can't do it.
So what's your second step in this path?
(18:26):
The second step is to move. And I know that this is very
difficult for people because it does take some time.
And the reason why we need to prioritize this is that not only
does it improve our health and Wellness, we know that.
We know that exercise reduces your risk of cancer, heart
disease, type diabetes, metabolic syndrome, as well as
mental health challenges like depression and anxiety.
(18:48):
We know all of those things, butquite often, even though we know
that that's the case, we're so invested in our work and our
profession that we will sacrifice our long term health
in order to get short term. Well, unfortunately in 20 years
when you're sick, you'll give all of your money away to get
your health back, right? But that's what I'm trying to
prevent ultimately with this. But what Mike, real message is
(19:08):
around movement is that when we incorporate this into our day
and actually elevates you cognitively, we know that if you
want to be in data brain wave mode, hustle, focus, execute,
get stuff done, deep focus mode that doing a little bit of
exercise as little as 3 minutes will increase blood flow to the
brain will increase oxygen delivery to the brain will
(19:30):
increase sugar, delivery to the brain will increase BDNF brain
derived Vera choke factor which stimulates the growth need
neurons inside the brain. It literally sparks the brain
into an ability to focus and getthings done.
So if you know that you have a block of work to do, don't be
afraid to go for a quick five minute walk just around the
office. So even that will will make a
difference. Absolutely.
(19:52):
We know that 3 to 5 minutes is more than enough to bring the
brain to life if you do things like walking.
The beautiful thing about walking is it drops you out of
beta brain wave mode, hustle, focus, execute, stress zone down
into an alpha state and maybe even into a Theta state.
This is where we can do strategic thinking.
(20:13):
And creativity, which leads to innovation and problem solving.
You can't physiologically solve problems, come up with new
solutions to old problems. When we are stressed, typically
it requires a certain degree of relaxation, mentally and
physically. And we can achieve that by going
for any type of exercise that isrhythmic and repetitive in
(20:37):
nature. Walk, run, jog, cycle, paddle.
I truly believe that This is whywe've seen so many people in
business shift away from golf and get into cycling.
Because the conversations that you have when you're out on a
bike, the new ideas that pop into your brain when you're on
the bike, when you're out there for a while, I mean, it's just
(20:59):
like a flood of creativity that occurs.
So I would love for everyone listening to think once a week,
can you go for a walk without your device and just let your
mind wander and see what pops upas a new idea?
Similarly, if you need to solve a problem, there's a challenge
that needs to be overcome. If there's a solution that you
need to develop, you're not probably going to be able to
(21:20):
come up with that sitting staring at your e-mail inbox.
You're probably going to be ableto come up with that with that
too. For that, if you go for a walk
and leave your phone at your desk.
So the keys here when I'm hearing one.
Yes, it does take more time thanthe breath were, but.
It doesn't have to be a 2 hour ride, you know if you just if
(21:41):
you all you have is 5 minutes, get up, walk around 2.
Rhythmic is the way to go. You want something that kind of
allows you to be in the present but not twofold.
And three, get rid of the devices so that you can let the
creativity flow. The constant non and never
ending interruptions via notifications constantly popping
(22:02):
us back into anxiety, stress, burnout mode.
We really need to give our brains the chance to calm down,
to deactivate. The notifications are literally
putting us into a fight or flight state almost constantly
and that blocks creativity. You've got this app, Vivio,
(22:24):
which allows you to monitor yourhealth.
It's tied to the Apple Watch. You know, I bought an Apple
Watch and frankly, I don't use it because it's just more
notifications. Has nothing to do with your app.
It's just in general, so. Do the do well-intentioned
devices like this actually work against this goal of allowing us
to move and reset? I had a huge smile on my face.
(22:49):
I talk a lot about digital distraction.
I talk so much about how important focus is about
defending our attention in orderfor us to be able to do our best
work in a completely undistracted environment.
And at the same time, I have a tech company that's building an
app for Apple Watch that tracks your health and Wellness You.
(23:10):
Hypocrite. Individualized notifications.
You're you're supposed to get healthier.
Yeah, I know. I'm a complete hypocrite.
It's not me. Crazy.
How do you reconcile those things and how should people
listening reconcile the easiest way, I think for us to reconcile
the whole issue around technology, which is that the
technology that we have is absolutely incredible.
The Internet has given us the, you know, the entire history of
(23:30):
all human knowledge in our pockets at all time.
Every song ever created is in your pocket at all time.
We can video call our kids no matter where we are in the
world. We can track our fitness to
levels that we've never imaginedpossible for him to cost
millions of dollars in laboratory equipment to do what
is in your watch these days. So I mean, technology is
(23:51):
absolutely fantastic. The problem is, is that when we
use it compulsively, it becomes very damaging to our mental
health. I believe that when we use it
intentionally, it can be tool. It can be a tool that can
elevate us. So for example, on my watch, I
have turned off all the notifications on every single
(24:15):
app except my wife. Judith can message me, my
daughter Ingrid can message me, but no one else any.
I allow notifications through from my own app, but those only
come through Wednesday at 9:00 AM.
So I know when that's coming, coming in.
But it's very, very important for us as people who are
interested in high performance, in health, in well-being, in
(24:35):
truly reaching our absolute potential that we train
ourselves to use technology intentionally, not compulsively.
If you're Facetiming your kids, it's fabulous.
If you're doing a a video call with your team to make sure
everybody is on point for project, absolutely magic.
If you are doomscrolling throughsocial at 10:00 at night while
(24:57):
you're trying to fall asleep, that isn't going to serve you
very well. So we have to make sure that we
are using this tech the right way and avoiding becoming
addicted to it. And these devices and apps are
designed to capture and hold your attention.
And so it is extraordinarily difficult but extremely
(25:19):
important for us to do that. So all the more reason to
breathe and move. It's a chance to breathe and
move, but actually to move without your device, right?
Like, can you go for a bike rideand leave your phone at home?
I know there's a safety issue, but like, there's that's a
question, like if I go for a walk with the dog, can I leave
my phone at home? That's why I got into
photography, so I can take my camera with you, but not my
(25:39):
phone. So that's the game.
It's trying to separate those things out and give yourself a
break. Like, how do you feel without
your device for an hour if there's, you know, a little bit
of crawly hands and right where it is?
Twitching. It's a chance to to.
If you're twitching a little bit, maybe it's a chance to
disconnect a touch from now fromtime to time.
So let's look at your third step.
Energize. I I mean, the first one
(26:00):
breathes. Makes sense.
Move makes sense. What?
What does it mean? Energize.
What I discovered around and energy and helping our
mitochondria function better is that there's this powerful
principle in health, Wellness and even Physiology called
ormesis, which simply means a little is good.
A lot is not. A little bit of stress is
(26:21):
absolutely fantastic for us. It leads to growth.
Chronic, unrelenting stress leads to illness.
So a little bit of stress is good.
We want some challenge in our life.
A lot of stress is problematic because it becomes overwhelming
and leads to burnout. So a little bit of stress is
good, a lot's not. Another example would be salt.
No salt, you die. Appropriate amount of salt
(26:43):
enhances your health. Too much salt you die, right?
Exercise is the same. No exercise you get sick.
The right amount of exercise improves your health.
Too much exercise, you get sick,hot, heat, cold.
Even sleep is exactly the same. So the body works according to
this principle of a little bit of stress is good, a lot is not.
And the way that we can leveragethis in our life is by adding in
(27:09):
micro stressors that improve ourhealth and well-being.
For example, once a week jump inthe sauna, absolutely fantastic.
That's a heat stressor that produces heat shock proteins
that improve your cardiovascularsystem.
Maybe once a week take a cold shower.
Just let the water hit your forehead or between your
shoulder blades and that cold water calms down your
(27:32):
parasympathetic nervous system which helps you to decrease your
overall stress levels. Fruits and vegetables are,
believe it or not, little micro stress or that then lead to.
Yeah. And that's one of the things
that sparks the body to get healthier when we have lots of
fruits and vegetables is that the little tiny polyphenols and
(27:54):
flavonoids that are in fruits and veggies that make fruits and
veggies green, purple, yellow, red, orange and even white.
Those little molecules improve our health and well-being and
scrape out all of the oxidation and inflammatory molecules that
are circulating around our bodies when when we are
(28:14):
stressed. So another great reason for us
to add in and sprinkle in a little bit of exercise.
Don't want you to necessarily worry about getting to the gym.
I just want you to get a little bit more steps.
So a little bit of stress is good.
A lot is not build in those breaks and this is where I
literally every single principlearound health and Wellness that
we hear about always usually falls into this principle of
(28:36):
Ormesis. Where a little bit as good a lot
as not. Which also helps us to cut out
so much of the noise and nonsense that exists on the
Internet around health and Wellness practices where
everyone takes things to the absolute extremes.
And the reality is the extremes very rarely, if ever, work.
Yeah, so. What you're saying here on
Energize is you almost have to like do whether it's something
(28:58):
small like eating fruit or something more tangible like the
sauna or the cold plunge or doing an an activity, you have
to challenge your body. Is that right?
And that turns on. The energy is the, am I, am I
kind of capturing this right, 100%, Yeah, you're exactly
correct. Like we want a little bit of
challenge in our lives. It's that challenge that leads
(29:19):
to growth. If there's no challenge, we're
just bored, right? If there's nothing to spark your
interest, then your cognition will decline.
If there's nothing to spark yourmuscles, you will gradually get
out of shape. A little bit of challenge
interspersed with rest is what enables us to get on this growth
trajectory, and it's actually how we create sustainable high
(29:40):
performance. If you think about the Infinity
symbol, we have interrelated cycles of performance.
So we increase our performance. We expend our energy, We do what
we love to do. We then drop down into a rest
phase, which might be something like a great meal or sleep.
We're connecting with loved ones.
We then go back up the next day and we do our performances
(30:01):
again. We then get back down into a
cycle of recovery, regeneration that might be music, that might
be solitude, that might be meditation.
And then we creep back up again back into a performance zone and
we consider the twin cycles of performance and rest in an
Infinity loop. That is visually how I try to
explain it to people that healthy high performance is
(30:24):
sustainable, but it depends uponalternating performance and rest
consistently. So what kind of stimuli?
I mean someone listening like the two people I gave you the
example of earlier, what would you advise?
What would be some options? Like let's say they say, look, I
don't have a sauna. What what would be the menu of
(30:44):
options that you would encouragethem to consider to energize?
I think that one of the easiest things that almost everyone can
do is two or three times a week,take a hot shower.
Take a hot bath. Allow it to, you know, stay in
it for 3 to 5 minutes. A little bit longer if you can
stand it, but any sort of heat stress A few times a week.
Fabulous. The 30s And by I'm just going to
(31:06):
throw options out here. You don't have to do them all.
People can just pick and choose whichever 1 resonates for them.
The 32nd cold shower at the end of your shower in the morning.
Spectacular spikes. Adrenaline.
Just a touch to sharpen your mind but also decreases your
risk of upper respiratory tract infections by around 30%.
So it's like radically improves your immune system.
(31:29):
Another micro powerful thing youcan do is leverage the power of
music. We can listen to energizing
music on the way to work calmingmusic on the way home.
We know that music interacts with the brain in a powerful way
and can even be used as an antidepressant.
Music elevates our mood and provides us with energy.
(31:52):
We can use food both as fuel to power our performances
physically and mentally getting your energy from really healthy
foods. But then we can also use food as
healing. That's the eating the rainbow of
veggies and fruits heal, repair,and regenerate our bodies after
periods of stress. And of course, the ultimate
(32:13):
recovery and regeneration modality after periods of
stress, mentally or physically. A hard day at work or a hard
workout is of course, sleep, which is the foundation of two
previous books I wrote. We're always looking for people
to get that, you know, 7 to 8 hours of sleep, about an hour or
two of deep sleep. So 25% or so of deep sleep is
magic. And if we can do those two
(32:35):
things, enough sleep and qualitysleep to reflect in the total
amount that we sleep and the hour of deep sleep that
hopefully we're getting, that's what enables that that deep rest
and recovery to occur as well. It's wild to think I about
music. I mean, I've read that in I
think it's the Olympics the thatmusic is banned as a performance
(32:55):
enhancement. Is that true?
Because it is no like if you look at it is so powerful.
If you look at most Olympic athletes, they are listening to
music right before they compete.Might not be allowed to play it
during, yeah. I think it was during that you
couldn't have it. So like Usain Bolt for example,
there's photos of him behind thestart line of the 100 meter
dash. He's always wearing headphones,
(33:17):
Michael Phelps always wearing headphones.
He can't wear them while you race, but they're the most, I
actually think in the in the current environment where around
25% of the population is struggling with depression or
anxiety, the performance benefits of music are fantastic.
But I'm actually much more interested in the positive
benefits of music for our mood. So many people are struggling
(33:39):
with their mental health at the moment and we know that music
enhances mood. We know that music can be used
to help people with depression, right?
To feel a little bit better. We know that music can be used
to help people with anxiety, to calm down and deactivate their
psychology. So when we build playlists for
(34:02):
our life and craft music lists that energize us in the morning
to get us ready to rock at work,or help us to calm down at the
end of the day. Or psych us up during our
workouts or put everyone into a great mood during dinner.
These are all tools that are tangible things that we can do,
(34:24):
that have a demonstrable physiological effect, that help
us to perform better physically and mentally, but also to
improve our health and well-being at the same time.
OK, let's turn to your last point.
Thrive. And when I heard this, I
thought, just thrive. Darn it.
Just thrive already. Just come on.
(34:44):
Thriving. Yeah, OK.
So what does it mean? Does it remind you of that, that
movie's team, America, where they say just act, damn it, just
act. Yeah.
OK what does it mean when you tell someone to thrive.
I so don't want this to be toxicpositivity.
But I like completely realize that it's like I know things are
terrible for you but just try it.
You can like it's not what I come on and like 445% of the
(35:06):
population struggling with Burnett right now.
And they're like, I hate Craig Wells used to work and it's but
I want this to be really, reallyeasy for people.
And really when we break it all down and we get into this zone
where we are maybe a little bit healthier, we've got a little
bit more energy and we want to start getting away from coping,
which is all we've been doing for the last three years.
(35:26):
Valid. It's been a rough three years,
but then we want to start to shift back into thriving.
We want to get out of survival and get in, like get away from
surviving and back into thriving.
It's the way that I've heard it raised or away from languishing
and back into flourishing over and over and over again.
Study after study after study. I break this down, look for
(35:48):
different pathways. It usually comes down to the
idea that we really benefit froma sense of community, which is
one of the things that was takenaway during COVID valid.
I'm a medical researcher. I believe that we needed to wear
masks and stay separated for a while.
That served its purpose, but it took its toll and we lost a
(36:08):
sense of community. And now we have to craft that
again. We have to pull together our
dream teams, the people in our lives who elevate us personally,
the people in our lives who elevate us professionally, like
you and I do, you know, sort of fit both of that mold.
We ride our bikes and we chat, we play at the cottage.
But then also, you know, we work, we do projects, we talk
(36:30):
about our our businesses. But we want to try to surround
ourselves with three to five people who elevate us
personally. And maybe you can find another
three to five people who elevateyou professionally.
The cool thing is, is although we want those people in our
lives, they may not all need to be live in three dimensions in
(36:53):
the space. I actually count in listening to
an audiobook in this learning from an amazing podcast.
So I have that two or three podcasts I listen to, I know you
listen to. Every episode of mine, it's OK,
you know exactly. You can listen to them twice.
I don't mind. It's it's incredible how much I
know about leadership communication as an exercise
(37:15):
physiologist. But point being is that we want
to try to craft this dream team for ourselves, personally and
professionally. Three to five people, I think is
entirely doable if you want to learn from people with great
books, great podcasts. Just imagine the year of
consuming fabulous information from some of the greatest minds
in human history, the young firms, in the form of
(37:37):
audiobooks, or the greatest minds and current humanity in
the form of podcasts from, you know, some of the interviews
that you can get with some epic human beings.
Imagine the year of that versus doom scrolling through social
and how different you would feellistening to something that
elevates you versus, you know, random nonsense that we are
(38:00):
seeing through our our social media screens.
And it's interesting that socialmedia started as social
networks, right, You connecting to your friends.
But it is very much morphed intoa stream of content.
And I broadcast on social. I try to make it as positive as
I can. I know that it, you know, helps
my business. So it's I struggle with this,
but really what I want people todo is to be very careful about
(38:21):
building that community. We know that having strong sense
of communities actually extends lifespan.
It is a more powerful predictor of your risk of mortality than
whether or not you quit smoking,whether or not you drink,
whether or not you do rehab after a cardiac event, after a
(38:44):
heart attack, even whether or not you do physical activity.
It is that powerful for us, and I'm currently watching and
series on Netflix about the BlueZones with Dan Buettner from
National Geographic and over andover and over again as he
travels the world and finds the seven to nine communities where
people typically live to be 100 years old at higher rates than
(39:06):
anywhere else in the world. When these centenarians are
interviewed and they're asked what is most important to you
and your long life, almost everysingle one of them is saying, I
have a close group of family andfriends who surround me.
And so I want us to cultivate that as well.
Great people who elevate us at work.
Great people who elevate us at home.
(39:27):
And that's it. Yeah.
I think you're you're bang on. You know, even though we, you
know, can't always be with people in person, we can have
great connections. I mean, I think about in my own
life, my personal life. You have a couple friend groups
that have just been going for years.
Now they're starting COVID, my guys who like the NFL with me.
Friends who are into cycling andthen I've got my work crew, you
(39:49):
know, people who aren't in my company, but who we share and
talk about the challenges. I mean, you're part of it,
right? Challenges we go through and
having that that group to turn to really does help you thrive.
So yeah, I like it. It's not.
It's not that you. Can kind of just be positive to
thrive. What you're really advising is
(40:10):
get that core group who you don't work with to help build
you up. Yeah, and maybe they, you know,
they might be a group at work. We want we need people who
around us professionally who areawesome, but even more
importantly, those people in ourpersonal lives because really
that's where we're going to. I mean those are the people that
we're going to be with in 30-40 fifty years, right?
You want to be surrounded by your friends for your entire
(40:31):
life and of course you know people move in and out of our
our lives and that's fine. But we want to make sure that
that's a strong foundation because, I mean, when things get
tough, those are the people thatyou're going to call and things
will get right. There's good phases of life and
there's difficulties in of life.So we want to make sure that we
have those people who put you ina good mood, who support you and
love you unconditionally, and then who you can rely on for a a
(40:54):
laugh every once in a while or, you know, a trip up to their
cottage if they're so kind to invite you.
Well said, Well said, Poke. Poking it in there.
That's right. And with that, we have to wrap
the Inspire podcast. That's right.
No, absolutely. I think it's it's bang on.
Friends are friends are the fuelfor life.
So just to sum up, you know, as your research has found, it's
(41:16):
never like rates of burnout, rates of stress off the charts.
And it sounds like the magic formula.
Build this mitochondria. Breathe, move, energize, thrive.
Where can people get the book? Where can they get your content?
Because, as you pointed out, youproduce a lot of great content.
It will be amazing to meet everybody through my website at
Doctor Greg wells.com. All my social media are at
(41:40):
Doctor Greg Wells. There's a podcast there, all the
books are there, the blog is there.
So I would be thrilled to connect with people.
And if anyone wants to pick up the book powerhouse, I would be
super grateful to have that in the world a little bit more.
So thanks for the opportunity tochat to your audience.
It's always a pleasure. Greg, I think you got a great
message here that people need tohear.
And whether you're working 80 hours a week and you just start
(42:02):
breathing, doing some box breathing, or you've got the
time to now build a new friend group, some really powerful
things. So thanks so much.
Thanks for writing the book and for coming on the POD.
Thanks, buddy. Hope you enjoyed my conversation
today with Doctor Greg Wells. I always love talking to Greg.
(42:26):
You know, his research and insights into Health and Human
performance are just so valuablefor us in the leadership space,
you know, And so whatever kind of leadership you're practicing,
look it, it's there's never beenmore demands on our energy.
And I think he's got some very tangible ways to build and
develop that energy. So pick up his new book,
(42:46):
Powerhouse Next Time on the Pod.I'm pleased to welcome Paul
Butcher. Paul was a client for almost a
decade. He was a award-winning Investor
Relations executive at CN Rail and I had the great privilege of
being hired by him to work closely with the CN Investor
(43:06):
Relations team to help them craft and tell their story.
And Paul after retiring after a distinguished career and I got
to talking about how the work wedid together from a
communications standpoint reallywas unique in his experience in
the Investor Relations space. And so we said, look, you know,
why don't we do something together to bring this approach
(43:28):
to more audiences. And so he's joined the Humphrey
Group to lead our Investor Relations practice.
And I'm very excited to welcome him to the pod to talk about how
investor Relations communicationcan help companies unlock
shareholder value. So join me next time and get
some insights into what the leading companies can do to use
(43:49):
communication in their investor process.
Thanks for listening if you've enjoyed it.
We've now crossed 100,000 listens.
Really happy to hear that that'sresonating, Give us a rating,
give us a review, helps others find the pod and as always, be
inspirational. Thanks.
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