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How Thousands of Women Are LOSING WEIGHT NATURALLY with This Shocking Emotional Brain Training App!

• Ahna Fulmer

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What if the key to overcoming stress and unhealthy habits isn't just in your thoughts but in rewiring your brain? Renowned expert and bestselling author Dr. Laurel Mellin joins us to uncover the transformative power of Emotional Brain Training (EBT), a method that challenges the traditional focus on positive thinking and behavioral changes. Dr. Laurel shares fascinating insights into how emotions are deeply rooted in the brain's neurophysiology, not merely in the heart, and how this understanding can lead to lasting change in our health and well-being.

Throughout our conversation, we explore how EBT categorizes five distinct brain states influenced by stress levels and how these states drive behaviors like overeating. Dr. Laurel guides us through the science of stress circuits, particularly the role of the amygdala in activating harmful behaviors when we feel unsafe or unrewarded. By focusing on neuroplasticity, EBT offers a structured method to rewire these circuits, emphasizing the importance of compassion and group support in achieving personal transformation.

Join us as we delve into the holistic benefits of EBT, where the cultivation of joy becomes a spiritual and physiological practice. Dr. Laurel's 30-day challenge and her book "One, Two, Three, Joy" provide further resources for those eager to embark on this empowering journey. Discover how EBT is setting the stage for the future of medicine, blending science and emotional health to create profound, lasting change.

Get the book:  1-2-3 JOY!: Easy, Natural Weight Loss that is Scientific, Proven, Drug-Free & Fun https://amzn.to/40IOgGt

Join the  EBT support groups https://www.ebtconnect.net/groups

Get the Spiral Up app for free https://www.spiralup.org/

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Speaker 1:

The brain actually coughs up kind of gnarly emotions when we're in stress and if you don't unravel those emotions with a very simple process, very simple two to three minutes, then biochemically you're still in stress. You're telling yourself you shouldn't eat that, but your chemicals are making it impossible for you not to eat it.

Speaker 2:

Dr Laurel, it is so wonderful to have you here on the Rise Renew podcast and in our live early morning habit community for those ladies that are here live. We're going to chat about her book One, two, three, joy, and we're going to tap into the easy, natural way to lose stress and weight and sustain it without the need for drugs. It is scientific, proven and fun, dr Laurel, welcome.

Speaker 1:

What a pleasure. Thanks so much. I'm happy to be here.

Speaker 2:

It's so fun to have you here. I wish I could show you the number of notes that I took in this book when I got this, because we have a very similar, I think, underlying message, which is emotional health has the power to unlock better health in all areas of our life, and what you do so well in this book which, by the way, she's a best New York Times bestselling author. How many books have you written?

Speaker 1:

13, 14, something along that I was going to say 12. 13, 14, something along those lines I was going to say 12. I'm not far off.

Speaker 2:

Then I think there's about another 20 workbooks, I mean really I'm 75, so I've been doing this for some time. I have lots of time. Yeah, it's incredible, and that comes out. I mean, this is just one of her dozen plus books, but your knowledge on this area is very, very clear, and so it is an honor to have you here. I think one of the biggest misconceptions about emotion is how we have correlated it with the heart, and, yes, it's a nice picture for us, but what I think a lot of people miss is that emotion is, in fact, centered in our brain. It is stemming from our brain and it's a neurophysiological process that happens. So I think before we can even talk about emotional brain training, it's important for us to understand the different areas of the brain and how stress moves us from these different areas before we can understand how emotional brain training helps intervene in that. So I'd love to hear more about that.

Speaker 1:

Well, I think you really hit it, because whenever I hear the word emotional, I think, oh my God, it's psychological. Actually, that's psychology. The field of psychology came about long after the medical sciences. It's actually biological emotions are used in the brain to give us control over our entire physiology. Okay, you cannot think your way out of an eating binge, and that's why what's happening right now with people is it's very, very damaging to live in society not knowing about ebt, because what you hear is you have to think your way out of a binge. I mean, for me as a, as a person who had really strong desires to overeat and was trapped in that for about 20 years, it is miserable.

Speaker 1:

And when someone would just say, well, just do it, just go on this diet or just change your behavior, change your thoughts, the fact is, these drives that we have are biochemically driven by stress level in the brain. The way you control your stress is not by thinking. I mean, you know, if you're just having a little bit of stress, you can do it, you can think a positive thought, but once you get to moderate stress or high stress, which most of us are in chronically, there's no way that's going to happen, because the brain actually coughs up kind of gnarly emotions when we're in stress and if you don't unravel those emotions with a very simple process, very simple two to three minutes, then biochemically you're still in stress. You're telling yourself you shouldn't eat that, but your chemicals are making it impossible for you not to eat it. Eight different chemicals make you overeat if you're in stress. So one thing no judgment. Also, have a lot of patience for yourself because, oh my gosh, I just read what was in the newspaper about, you know, positive thinking and changing your behavior. I think there's something wrong with me. There's nothing wrong with you.

Speaker 1:

The current methods are not dealing with giving you the skills you need to turn off those stress areas in the brain I'll tell you about in a moment. I'm going to the American, the Obesity Association of America major, the biggest organization of obesity in the world, and I'm giving a full one hour talk to them in April and I'm just telling them exactly what I'm telling you right now. It's about stress and here's what you want to know. You want to know just what you said on it that there are five different stress levels in the brain. We call them brain states or numbers.

Speaker 1:

So you're not going to ask yourself how you feel. That's all psychological. What do you do with a feeling? Anyway, if you're in stress, you don't really know how you feel or what you need. So you just say am I at brain state one, where the thinking brain at the top of your head, basically the low stress area, the thinking brain, is in charge.

Speaker 1:

The chemicals are great, you feel rewarded and you feel safe. And those stress chemicals the eight of them that get dysregulated with stress are happy as can be and you can have one bite of an apple and enjoy it instead of having to eat the whole piece or more of pie because you don't have those chemicals running. And then it goes from the neocortex a little bit down about where your eyebrow is. Then it's halfway between your neocortex and your limbic brain. That's number two. That's when you feel good but you don't feel really rewarded. We need to feel rewarded, we need that joy, we need that pleasure. So one's okay.

Speaker 1:

When you get down to three, you are in the limbic brain. That means you are emotional, your emotions are all scattered, you feel kind of anxious. Those circuits are starting to activate so that those chemicals that are making you think about food right now are coming up. Go down to four, which is definitely stress. You are almost to the reptilian brain. You are almost out of control. Your thinking brain is coming offline and you just know that you absolutely need to eat for love or for connection or for comfort.

Speaker 1:

And then at five, when the reptilian brain is in offline and you just know that you absolutely need to eat for love or for connection or for comfort. And then at five, when the reptilian brain is in full bore, forget it. You're going to get whatever you want when you want it and you really have biologically not psychologically biologically lost control. Now, if you, if you just have regular human skills like being mindful or thinking positive thoughts, you're fine at brain state one or two. Once you cross that line into three, you're in the limbic brain and then the reptilian brain and truly, every time you've ever overeaten, just take a moment and give yourself grace, give yourself a sense of compassion for yourself, because it is really just a skill insufficiency. You haven't been told. The problem is stress. You need emotional tools to clear that stress and there's nothing wrong with you. It's biochemically driven.

Speaker 2:

And I think it's worth noting. We're honing in right now on overeating, but that response for everyone could be different. It could be and you could speak to this probably even better than me but it's almost like what sort of the place that our brain has gone to under stress. And are that neuroplasticity statement, the neurons that fire together, wire together. Is that right? Did I say that right? And so it's that idea that you know. For those of you listening, it might not be overeating, but it could be a different behavioral pattern that is damaging to you. But this concept that you're sharing is applying to anything. Like maybe you could just list a couple that might resonate with the women listening, like maybe this is actually their response.

Speaker 1:

Actually, let me give you the rationale as well as the common presentations. First of all, when I'm at three, four, five or any of us are, we're in something called stress overload. It's called medically, it's called allostasis, and a circuit that's a stress overload circuit in the brain, in the amygdala, where it stores all of our experiences, is activated and that circuit has, goes quickly, you know, just gets, just gets activated and all these chemicals come. It tells us what to do because it knows that we're neither safe nor rewarded and our DNA is set up to make us safe and rewarded. So what happens is we get this message I get my safety or my love or my comfort, and whatever we've done before to get to feel better, even though it doesn't help us any and it's not really a great idea, whatever we did before, the brain has over, remembered and made a circuit. So the tail end of the circuit is whatever we do.

Speaker 1:

So, even though the american psychological association is still engaged in telling people things that are not scientifically true, which is an addiction has a certain uh, depression has a certain diagnosis. Anxiety, um, addiction, all these things have different diagnoses. Truly, all of them are the same in that there's a circuit there that's driving us to repeat that behavior, taking us the thinking brain offline. We're out of control biologically. So whatever we happen to do in the past whether it's a behavior like overspending, overworking, procrastination, drinking drugs, whatever that is we're going to go for it as if our life depended on it, because that's the message in the unconscious mind. But also it can be a mood. A mood and most people have a mood circuit where they all of a sudden they're triggered and, let's say, they go into a panic or into anxiety or into depression or into hostility or just self-judgment or whatever.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so it can be a mood a relationship pattern, um, overgiving and merging with people, or distancing and putting up walls, so any of the or thought patterns. So whatever happens to be on the end of that circuit, whatever we happened to do in the past that got locked into our brain, we're going to continue to do it until we unlock that circuit and rewire it, and that's what we do with EBT.

Speaker 2:

And I think it's also worth noting that for some of us, for a lot of us, we're probably unwiring and then rewiring patterns that have existed since childhood. Probably for some of us, for a lot of us, we're probably unwiring and then rewiring patterns that have existed since childhood, probably for many of us, things that have been taught, things that have been programmed. So it's to your point again, it's an idea of grace, patience and work to rewire those neurons, those circuits that have been, you know, traditionally and repeatedly wired together. So that's hard, but teach us what you are doing to, in a proven way, help people rewire.

Speaker 1:

Well, we know for sure that if it's not fun, it's not EBT, and the reason for that is the brain will only do things that feel rewarding and meaningful and even fun, because you're getting to know who you really are. You're finding out why am I doing that anyway? And you'll find out with EBT and then change the circuit. So we know that emotional brain training started at the University of California, san Francisco. I was a young professor, didn't know quite what I was doing, and I happened to get into a position where I could explore the root causes of obesity. And because I was not a psychologist at the time, I was a nutritionist and I was kind of like necessary, they kind of needed somebody for the grant who was a nutritionist. I went back after that to become a health psychologist, but they didn't really, you know, give me too much trouble because they didn't expect much of me. So what I did is I spent years going to the root cause and what we found was that, essentially scientifically if you have anyone who's listening to this or watching this the process of rewiring a circuit is extremely simple. It is scientific. It doesn't matter whether you weigh 110 pounds more than you want to, or five pounds, or you're anorexic and you're underweight, or you're normal weight and you just every night struggle with feeling out of control of your food. It doesn't matter. The process you learn of rewiring is exactly the same. It is scientific. Even though we're very different in what we think about in our neocortex, in our emotional brain, in the primitive emotional spiritual stress brain, we're exactly the same. So what we've done is codify the resiliency pathways in the brain so you can actually use an app and you can rewire your circuits, except for one caveat these circuits are in the emotional brain. This is again the seat of the soul, the center of all tenderness, attachment, spirituality. Everything that's really important is there, and this is the brain. That requires love. It requires having a loving, wonderful, prideful, exciting time, and so we don't give this app out because it won't work unless you're in a small group with maybe five or six other people on the telephone, privately, with a certified EBT provider who guides your way, and everyone is rewiring circuits because everyone has them.

Speaker 1:

So you're in a support group and you come in and you start warming up. For maybe about a month you have the app and you're with other people. You're connecting with them through the app. You can spend five minutes and you can listen to each other and be a warm presence, no advice to each other, and all of a sudden you learn how to spiral up in the moment. So you start spiraling up out of stress, out of three, four and five, back to that state of emotional and spiritual connection where those chemicals are making us overeat or judge ourselves and gain weight. They're bye-bye at that point.

Speaker 1:

And what happens? You start by actually doing it before you eat and what happens is you notice that you're, you don't have the interest in food anymore. We're not trying to change behavior, because the problem is not behavior, it's a circuit. We're trying to change the circuit so we get lasting change. And then after about four weeks you say, okay, I'm going to use the same tools and I'm actually going to erase these circuits so I get lasting effects. So you're in your same group Now.

Speaker 1:

You're comfortable with the six other people. Everybody's helping each other and inspiring each other and learning from each other. And you go there once a week for a half an hour and then you check in with each other during the week. So you say I'm ready to do the 30 day challenge and you go in for the 30 day challenge and you change your life. You actually reset your brain. So you don't have that drive to overeat, you don't have that biological tendency to gain weight and you have a different relationship with your emotions. And typically in relationships you're not either distancing and you know getting not getting that oxytocin that we need in order to um to is an appetite suppressant, or merging and giving too much. So in in 30 days you change your life and you essentially get from whatever habit your brain's in. Maybe it's used to being at three, four or five, because there's a set point of three, four or five and it bumps up to about a two and all of a sudden you say, wow, this is a whole different world. I really like this.

Speaker 1:

At that point, if you just leave, what happens is the brain says, ha ha, that was good, you did it well for a month, but I'm gonna backlash because the brain is now comfortable being in chronic stress. Before it was comfortable, it'd be three, four or five, and so you just stay in your group and you do more work to clear out the clutter from the past and clear out some of the things that have happened that may have stressed you, you basically raise the set point of your brain. So your brain naturally comes to that loving state of connection. With less work, it's more automatic and that's how you get lasting weight loss and freedom from not only overeating and overweight but from all the substitute excesses.

Speaker 1:

So many people go and say, oh, oh, I'm going to really diet. And then what happens is they end up with with anorexia. They're so rigid around food they can't even enjoy it, or essentially they stop, you know, overeating and start overspending. Or start because essentially the spiritual elements of life, from a christian perspective, from a perspective of the soul-based and biologic, wants you to be at set point one, because in that state of connection what happens is you have more to give back to the world, and that's what we're here for right To give back, you know, to enjoy our talents and make the world a better place, and we can do that when we're healthier. And so, essentially, you raise your set point for lasting results and a life of joy and spirituality and purpose. That's easy.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, I hear. What I hear you saying is you're resetting your stress baseline. It's like we've almost entered a state where we live the new rested is stressed. We think we're rested, but we're actually living in a place of stress and elevated cortisol levels, and it's almost like we literally need to rewire our own thinking of what it even is to be rested. It's like we don't even actually know what it is and I'm speaking for myself, too to truly experience joy in a rested state, because we're living in like these emotional survival modes, and some in a much more significant way than others. Some are truly in survival mode they're not even sure where their next meal is going to come from but many of us are living in like an emotional state of survival.

Speaker 2:

So I'm wanting to reiterate again what you pointed out you have accountability set up in place for people who really want to take this to the next level with your group. That meets Changing your Life in 30 Days, with the accountability on the app. We're going to make sure that all of those resources are linked. But what I would love to hear you highlight is what is the actual scientific process? What are people doing to what you call spiraling up and moving out of these states. Talk to us about what practically feet on the ground, or in your brain, if you will, you're doing.

Speaker 1:

I can even demonstrate it if you want, because it is very simple. And it's so simple you think well, that's not a problem. Yeah, the brain doesn't want to do it and that's why we have to train the brain to do it. Unless you're having fun, you have other people to do it with, you get inspired, you're not going to give the intensity that's necessary. The reason we love the 30 30 day challenge, you know, in other words, 30 days to change your life, is when people are in those 30 days they can prepare for them as long as they want and then do it. What happens is they say these skills are magical because to change the brain takes that intensity. So they get a big bump up and from then on on, they stay with EBC for a long time.

Speaker 1:

But here's what you do. You essentially wake up in the morning and you're Christian, you probably pray in the morning. Right, you say a prayer in the morning and you start your day and really all through the Bible. It talks about joy, and joy is a spiritual state. It's also the best state for physiology when all of those eight chemicals that make us hungry, lethargic, depressed, anxious and pack on pounds are turned off. So you say to yourself I am creating joy in my life, in addition to whatever prayerful thing you want to say and that relationship with Jesus. So the idea is you then start going upon your day, but you do exactly what you just referred to, anna, is that we are in a culture now that the norm is incredibly unhealthy. It is to be stressed out, and so you get really a good consumer of life, and whenever you're not in that connected state, you reach for your app and you go through it. You don't have to think. You go through the app and I'm going to show you.

Speaker 1:

What you do is you essentially break down the circuit with emotions that is causing you problems and you replace it with a circuit that's making you healthy and happy, and we call that spiral up. So you switch from the damaging circuits to the healthy circuits in two to three minutes and then you stay in that glow. You can feel the glow in your body, and then the next time it happens, you do it again. And also you learn a lot of different tricks. There's a lot of really advanced skills and there's ways to get joy directly when you don't feel like feeling your emotions. There's a lot of variety. But let me tell you the basic skill and anyone that is watching or listening please appreciate that you need to get really picky, that if you're not in that state of connection joy, that you make sure that you set boundaries in your life so that you can be in that state of joy.

Speaker 1:

Because when you're in that state of brain, state, one in joy, that's when spiritually you're connected, that's when you are able to give back and also take care of your health. If you don't take care of your health, you're not going to be here to give back. So you get to be pretty picky about it. And this is how you do it. You first do everything that your mother told you not to do.

Speaker 1:

The first thing is you complain. You say in five sentences what is bothering you and you don't say a sophisticated complaint. You don't say well, the situation is, it's been really hard for me lately and so I think there's something wrong with me. I'm not sure I've been thinking this is too much in your head, because this is the brain of being a child. You know we're children of the universe and so you keep it really simple and you sound frustrated because in fact you don't want to feel bad. Right, you want to be back to that state of connection. So you say something like the situation is I'm overeating and uh, it's, it's gotten out of control. And I tell myself not to overeat and then I just I think I'm not going to be able to do it. I kind of want to do it, and then that by that night I'm overeating, that's it. No more talking, no more thinking. Just state it like it is.

Speaker 1:

And then you say you wait, because you're using the skills in your thinking brain, behind your forehead, to control the uncontrollable, which is the emotional brain. And you have to turn your attention to your body, because we experience our emotions in our body, not in our. They're activated by our brain. We experience them in our body. So you let go of control, you let Christ in you, let that moment of tolerating, irresolution and trusting occur and you go into your body and you wait until some words from your body appear in your mind and the next lead-in it's a series of lead-ins or prompts and then you just trust your body and say something. And so I'm going to say what I'm most stressed about, because we want to find what you're most stressed about. Right, because that's going to do the best good is to take that circuit and erase it or at least switch it off. So we say what I'm most stressed about is I'm out of control. Does that ring true? Yeah, because you're always saying does it ring true? Because when the words actually match what's in your emotional brain, you get this relaxation response. You say, oh yes, that rings true.

Speaker 1:

And then you do something else that your mother probably told you never to do you express something called the anger procedure. It takes about 15-20 seconds and a brief burst of safe, healthy anger stops the emotions for getting stuck. The reason we don't talk about our feelings or feel our feelings when we're stressed is because they're scattered, they're stuck or they're toxic. In other words, it's smart not to feel your feelings because you don't have that EBT process. You're going to feel worse and it's not going to go anywhere good. A brief expression of anger about being stressed actually changes the whole game and when you go into the feelings that follow, you have one expression of sadness instead of being depressed, one expression of fear instead of being you know, panicked or anxious, yeah, one guilt which is hey, what could I do differently?

Speaker 1:

And by that time the circuit reveals itself to you and you can change it. And by that time the circuit reveals itself to you and you can change it. The message you have to have, the message, the exact message in your brain that tells you to do what you're doing. And once you have that message, what happens is you say oh my gosh, that's why I do it. I never would think that, because it's not in your thinking brain, it's in your emotional brain. And then you just say the opposite in a very specific way and the circuit goes away. Boom, it's gone for the moment. And then you do it repeatedly over time, with a little more sophistication, and it is erased. When it's erased, you're not trying to change your behavior, you're not trying to change your food, because who would want to change that when the problem's not the food, it's the circuit. When you change the circuit, you look at the food Like someone.

Speaker 1:

I normally, if I don't use EBT, I could eat the entire pot of this dish she had prepared in one night. If I do use EBT, it takes me three nights and I'm completely set to eat that amount and I'm completely satisfied. And the reason is when you switch circuits you get dopamine, oxytocin and endorphins naturally. And if we're not getting them naturally, our brain wants to get them from some kind of external source like food. So we're chemically satisfied with zero calories, zero extra calories. We just eat what we need and that's the process.

Speaker 1:

And let me tell you the anger procedure okay, so it's very simple. It's I feel, let's say, I'm out of control. Anger procedure okay, so, it's very simple. It's I feel, let's say I'm out of control is topic right. I feel angry that I'm out of control. And remember, you can do this about anything. It can be about your spouse, it can be about your child or your work or your mood, anything that's bothering you. The same process Once you learn it, you will have it for life.

Speaker 1:

I feel angry that I can't stand at that. I hated that, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. I really really hate it. That's it. And when you say that boom, anger is the only emotion in the brain that's associated with power. The other negative emotions among the negative emotions, the other negative emotions are oh, I feel sad, I feel afraid, I feel guilty. You basically flatline, and so that's all technique that you learn and perfect in EBT. It moves, so that when you go to sadness and say I feel sad, it's not depression, I feel a little sad that I do that and I feel afraid. I feel afraid that it might hurt me. Not, I feel afraid that I'm a bad person that I'll never be over, because you've cleared the chemicals of stress and so you're really very mindfully aware and loving towards yourself.

Speaker 1:

And if you go to I feel guilty, it's not I'm ashamed that I overeat because the chemicals have been cleared, it's hey, everybody I do have some power here I feel guilty. Why don't I just, you know, eat healthy? And then you laugh even more and say, of course I'm not going to just eat healthy, because I have a circuit in my emotional brain that was put there through no fault of my own. You know, mine was when I was 11 and I reached for some cinnamon rolls when I'd been bullied at school. I formed that circuit. It was not my fault and of course I wouldn't because.

Speaker 1:

And then the big reveal Now this is the insight that we all want, because we all really want to know who we are right. We want to know what's going on inside of me and really understand why we're doing what we're doing right, because why we're doing what we're doing is really part of that connection to the spiritual. I'm connected to the deepest part of myself and that self-knowledge is how I evolve and to be a more loving, more more committed christian too. So the idea is, I say um, and then you don't do any work. This involves no work at all. You just follow the formula and I say of course I, hey, everybody, I do have some power here.

Speaker 1:

I feel guilty. Why don't I just do the sensible thing that anyone would do if they didn't have this circuit in their brain, and eat healthy. And then, out of complete self-love, you say of course I'm not going to just eat healthy, because my unreasonable expectation is and this is the message that's in the circuit. And then you pause Again. This is a spiritual program because you pause, you allow yourself to get out of over control, you just essentially open your heart. Your mind goes blank for maybe five seconds, 10 seconds. You connect with your body and magically the words from that circuit will appear in your conscious mind and it'll typically say I get my, and it's something like existence, love, safety, protection, power. You know whatever that is. It'll come to you and you'll say oh, yes, that's, my drive is from that. I'm trying to get that.

Speaker 2:

And then you say Is it pretty consistent, would you say, like when people find that message in a circuit, does this tend to be the underlying message in a lot of their poorly wired circuits? Does that question make sense? No, they're not. It's interesting, it may. Or poorly wired circuits. Does that question make sense?

Speaker 1:

No, they're not. It's interesting. It may or may not be, and that's why that's a fantastic question. This is the idea.

Speaker 1:

In the moment when I reached four, I came home from school. I was 11 years old, my mother was there, but I didn't know how to talk about my feelings, and the cinnamon rolls were on the cabinet. I ate three of them and I felt guilty because I had overeaten. But the truth was that the overeating wasn't the problem. I created a fight or flight circuit was going inside of me, plus I attached it to my food circuit and now I've got this big old food circuit. I wake up the next morning. I've got a fight or flight drive to overeat, and that's how my drive to overeat was born.

Speaker 1:

In that moment, I needed love, so I get my love from it. But if I'd been in a different situation, where I was needing comfort or I was needing power, safety, yeah, yeah, and this is what's important is that if you, as you learn to do this, you get better and better at EBT the long. It's like mindfulness or anything in that you have. You learn it over time. You don't learn it by reading a book. You start with a book, you go into a group and, essentially, you get better and better out of it and you really learn to listen to yourself. And so you have to find the exact words.

Speaker 1:

One woman that I just worked with who had bulimia since she was gosh about 13 um, she hers was I get my mothering from, and it wasn't from food, it was from feeling full in her stomach. So what, what god is asking us to do, is to get to know our emotional brain and be able to really love and see ourselves accurately. Because once you find the exact words that are in that circuit, you know it, because you say to yourself does that ring true? And if she says yes, it rings true, that means the words match the message in the emotional circuit. All you have to do is do this process of changing it with repeating it is.

Speaker 1:

I cannot get it that way and that's ridiculous. I can't all the way up to where you are going to get that safety or that love, and it's always from inside, from connecting to the spiritual. So the idea is, if you don't really know yourself and listen to yourself, you will not get the right words. And if you don't get the yourself and listen to yourself, you will not get the right words, and if you don't get the right words you'll get some improvement. But every time you get the right words from really loving and connecting with yourself and listening to yourself what happens is boom. That circuit can be gone in a nanosecond and you get immediately rewarded from having that kind of love and awareness of the deepest part of yourself.

Speaker 2:

And I can see. I can definitely see the physiology of the clarity because of the very real states of the brain where it's almost you get so over analytical, trying to figure out why I'm doing what I'm doing and losing yeah, you're. It's almost like you're trying to diagnose when you're still in fight or flight mode, rather than being able to hit like what you're talking about the emotional brain to get more clarity on why I'm actually doing the things that I'm doing and how it's relating to how we feel. Ultimately, yeah, um, what? If people are interested in learning more and certainly the link to this book will be in the show notes, it'll also be in the app ladies, uh, in the early morning habit app. But if people are interested in more accountability and diving through a 30day challenge to understand this better, where's the best place for them to go?

Speaker 1:

The best place to go is there's only one place to go. It's really EBT. It's like food stamps, except it's emotionalbraintrainingorg, and the reason for that is that it is a process that you have to learn. It's a very gentle process. You're always in complete control, so you go at your own pace and you get into a small group. So you have all that love and safety and really profound love in these small groups. They're by telephone, so no one knows who you are. You get to know the people, but it's your first name only.

Speaker 1:

But let me just go back to that rewiring experience I mentioned to you with the 30-day challenge. It's amazing because you have freedom. You actually find that you're releasing weight with joy instead of feeling like you are, you know, trapped in this body that you don't want to be in. You are actually feeling satisfied on less food. You are really wondering why food was ever such a big deal to you. You really realize it was just a circuit, but it's really about overall quality of life. So when you first come in, you don't rewire a circuit, you just learn how to spiral up and feel great in the moment. And then let's say, you go in and you do the challenge and you are very different, but you're going to continue to use the same tools for work, stress, for relationships, for setting boundaries with people so they treat you better. You know anything that bothers you you're going to be using, so it's the intensity of it. This is what neuroplasticity is about. Go through and do something really intense and say wow, but then go and do it softly for anything that bothers you or just to create more joy in your life. So it's an overall program for optimal health and you need to be in a group.

Speaker 1:

I will tell you I started this when I was 28. I'm 75 now. It is cutting edge neuroscience. It is unlike any other program, because no other program is taking those gnarly emotions and rapidly dismantling them and turning them into joy. We have codified that.

Speaker 1:

But the issue is, if you could do it without a group, I would be the happiest person on earth because meeting would be in everyone's hands. But we have data to show that, unless you get, that's why we make it very inexpensive. It's $99 a for for complete professional support every single day of the month, plus your own private group, plus the app, because we want everyone to have this if you're not in a group. I promise you you can't wing this because the emotional brain demands that you say. You know what I matter. I'm going to use cutting edge neuroscience to get closer to the deepest part of myself. We know that spirituality blossoms even more. Overall health blossoms as you release the extra weight or whatever that excess you're working on. But I would say I welcome anyone to go ahead and read the book. It's very extensive, but if you want results, we know that it's not about an app and it's not about the science. It's about actually signing up for a group. You just sign up for a group the accountability, start doing it.

Speaker 1:

Accountability and the love and the training, the providers. You know how if you go to therapy. I don't know if you've ever felt this way, but when I went to therapy I am a psychologist, but I'm a health psychologist. I'm about promoting optimal health. I chose not to be a clinical psychologist because I really think we're all perfect in our own way. I think we're made after God and I believe just a few circuits in our brain that were encoded through no fault of our own are blocking that and I want to unleash that ability to get back to that norm of joy and connection in each person. But essentially, when you go into that group and start slowly changing, what happens is your life just blossoms and people love it Once they've been in the group for six weeks. The first six weeks you say what's this app anyway? And your provider helps you and trains you. But also when you go to a therapist on some of these things, because this is not a psychological problem, it's just circuits. But if you're desperate, you say, well, I don't want to go on another diet, so I better go to a therapist and find out what's wrong with you. Nothing is wrong with you and the person who is the provider could be a nutritionist or could be a physician, or could be a therapist for that matter, but they're not practicing therapy. What they're practicing is EBT. And in order for us to certify anyone as a clinician in EBT, they have to do the work themselves. They have to go in because everyone has circuits. There's not these people that are something's wrong with them and their patients, and then there's these providers. Everyone has these circuits. The only difference is some people clear their circuits and some people go to their deathbed with their circuits and what we're saying is don't go another day with these circuits. It's not about you, it's just a wire.

Speaker 1:

Our system, our health care system, at some point probably not in my lifetime will be all about EBT. It has to be Because ultimately, the problem is physiologic and you can't change your physiology with thoughts. And if your thoughts aren't working well because we're stressed, and we're all so stressed right now, it's very hard to stay with behavior change consistently enough to make a difference without organizing your entire life around your behavior change. It should be effortless. When you clear the stress, you just naturally eat healthy, you sleep more, you know all is good. So I would say essentially if you want transformation, get into a group and start creating more joy with these skills.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I love it, ebtorg.

Speaker 1:

Exactly.

Speaker 2:

Yes, EBTorg I mean Dr Laurel and I are definitely on the same page in that emotional health is the future of medicine. It has to be, or we are going to continue to see a focus on chronic disease alone. So emotional health is the key to unlocking health across all areas of life. Ebt is cutting edge. This is very science-based, so it is deep, Like she said. If you enjoy that, you definitely want to get this book. One, Two, Three, Joy. If you want the easier button, then ebtorg to check out Dr Laurel's amazing work. It's an honor having you here. I love seeing somebody who has gone ahead doing the work, and learning from you has been a joy. Thank you for joining us.

Speaker 1:

My pleasure. Thank you for inviting me. Wonderful to be with you.

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Ahna Fulmer

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