The Secret to Living a Longer, Healthier Life

KATHLEEN: Hello everyone and welcome to the Journey of an Awakening Spirit. This is Kathleen Flanagan, your host, and we're streaming on the Bold Brave TV network. The purpose of the show is to help you realize that you are not alone and that you are in control of your life.

KATHLEEN: It doesn't matter where you came from or what your circumstances are. We've all experienced pain, suffering, hurt, abandonment. Loneliness, and hopelessness. This show is here to help you turn those dark moments around and create a whole new you. Despite your success, have you felt lonely, angry, frustrated, or even suicidal?

KATHLEEN: Do you long to be supported, recognized, and respected for who you are and not just the awards and accolades on your walls? You don't want to be known, identified, and remembered in a way that feels fraudulent because you achieve things out of obligation and not passion.

KATHLEEN: Do you find yourself sitting quietly at lunch, listening to what lights you up, only to feel shame, fear, frustration, and resentment? Your inner turmoil and limiting beliefs surface, making you feel not good enough and afraid of doing something different. You've read the books, attended the seminars, and practiced new concepts and principles, and yet you still find yourself in the same rut.

KATHLEEN: The lies you tell yourself perpetuate a cycle of disappointment. You say you'll change, but your self-limiting beliefs keep running the show, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. As a certified coach, I empower you to become your authentic self. My Soul Journey program aligns you with your true self and guides you to find your soul vision, helping you discover your purpose in life.

KATHLEEN: I provide tools to step into your true magnificence and remember who you are. If you're interested in learning more, contact me at bravetv at kathleenmflanagan.com. Each week, I start the show with the sound of the tuning forks, bringing in love, happiness, and balance to set the tone for the show and bring out the best in both myself and my guests. So let's begin.

KATHLEEN: Dr. Ryan Williamson is a certified board neurologist, proud Navy veteran, and the owner and founder of Transcend Health. After commissioning as an officer in the U. S. Navy, he completed his medical training at the Florida State University College Of Medicine, neurology residency at Georgetown University Hospital, and ultimately separated from service as a lieutenant commander.

KATHLEEN: After this, Dr. Williamson ultimately dedicated his career to improving brain health and helping individuals expand their longevity. Driven by a passion to make a broader impact. Dr. Williamson founded Transcend Health, a platform that bridges neuroscience with entrepreneurship.

KATHLEEN: He empowers leaders and individuals to optimize their cognitive performance through evidence-based strategies that address brain fog, improve memory, and help them overcome cognitive overload. Dr. Williamson's expertise has gathered significant attention with his insights impacting communities across the globe.

KATHLEEN: He is currently engaged in high-level conversations with influential figures to integrate his knowledge into their communities, curricula, and beyond. Through Transcend Health, Dr. Williamson offers a membership program featuring exclusive educational calls, wellness programs, and a private community forum for members. Welcome, Dr. Ryan.

RYAN: Thank you, Kathleen. I'm very happy to be here.

KATHLEEN: Well, I'm so glad for you to be here too. I think this is going to be a pretty cool show. And I want to start with what is your journey? What was your journey of becoming an awakening spirit?

RYAN: There are a lot of places we could start with that.

RYAN: I really think that it started early. And when I really reflect back on it, I suffered a great deal of loss when I was younger. So in childhood, I mean, I lost a lot of family members I was close with. And that really seemed to turn some gears early that helped me awaken into the need to go help people. And this is, I think, a common path for many who feel chosen or called to go into medicine or health care.

RYAN: It's nursing, doctoring, any kind of provider. And as I went through that journey, I felt called to serve in the military. So there was another awakening there, I suppose, to want to go serve. And I knew that I was more of a healer than a... An infantry type, if you will, or a warrior type.

RYAN: Maybe that's probably a better way to say that. But I thought, how can I go contribute my skills to that amazing group of men and women? So I decided to join the military. So I went that route, had a great time, knew that it wasn't going to be a full career and got out and then figured out, okay, now that I'm kind of done with my training and all my military service, what now what?

RYAN: And then there was really a third awakening, I think, that happened really around the time I was getting out. And I discovered that my relationship with my wife wasn't what it could have been or should have been. And that led us into marriage counseling. And that was really the first time I'd ever seen a therapist on a regular basis.

RYAN: And I quickly discovered that I had all of this trauma that I had buried and not uncovered. And that led me into, for the first time, understanding what was holding me back, what were my limiting beliefs. And just really allowed me to remove a bunch of glass ceilings, I think, that has allowed me to step more fully into who I am. And now I'm happy to share that with the world.

KATHLEEN: Okay. Go a little deeper.

RYAN: Yeah.

KATHLEEN: You're on the surface. We don't do surface on this show. We go a little deeper.

RYAN: You certainly warned me.

RYAN: Which part would you like me to go deeper on?

KATHLEEN: Well, I think.

KATHLEEN: Everything sounds, okay, let's talk about what were some of the traumas, because those traumas led you to where you are. And then when you come out of the service and you're now realizing you're having marital problems and you're wanting to save your marriage and what led to that, because I'm sure all of that coincides where you are today.

RYAN: Absolutely. So the earliest form of traumas that I can remember are...

RYAN: Losing my grandmother, quite frankly. So sitting on my mother's lap at my grandmother's funeral, that's literally one of my first memories in life. And I mean, I actually write about this in the introduction of my book. It's going to be out in September, which I'm also excited about.

RYAN: It really was a series of loss. So she was first, and then within a period of another four years, her husband passed after a lengthy battle with Parkinson's. And then right after that, my maternal aunt was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She was a medical professor, kind of. Tremendous influence on me.

RYAN: And what started as really just some vague back pain ended up being stage four ovarian cancer that ultimately took her life within the year. And so, I literally sat at the same grave site three times all before my 11th birthday, which was, again, that was, at the time, that was normal. I didn't have any comparison to know that, oh, people shouldn't be dying.

RYAN: Parkinson's in many ways is preventable. Ovarian cancer when caught early enough is treatable. I didn't understand any of that and the impact that it would have on me to be fearful and anticipate loss and maybe lack of trust with people because I didn't know if they would be around or be there for me.

RYAN: Before that, my parents divorced when I was two, so I don't have a memory of mom and dad together, but never had a household with mom and dad together and knew that I had friends that did so didn't know how to make sense of that when I was little apparently that I buried that and suppressed it for the better part of 30 years before I understood how that was affecting me and how I viewed my parents and those relationships you want to keep going on childhood are we no.

KATHLEEN: That's yeah I mean 11 was a my traumatic year too so I understand the 11 year old process of one thing after another happening so I get that That's when my grandmother died too, when I was 11 and everything proceeded from there with my father and mother.

RYAN: I'm so sorry to hear that, Kathleen.

KATHLEEN: No, it's okay.

KATHLEEN: It's who I became today, you know?

RYAN: That's right. That's right. Yeah. What's interesting to me is that I've not met a single person who is a successful entrepreneur or somebody who's really done something big with their life, who has not had a history of some sort of trauma or loss earlier.

RYAN: That seems to be a universal feature, trait, exposure, experience, whatever you want to call it. That initially I think we view as negative and hurtful when it happens. But when people can work through that and they come out the other side, it provides such a different perspective for life and for how to approach life, in my opinion.

KATHLEEN: No, I agree with that because that obviously led you into wanting to serve and help, which somewhere along the line, you went into the medical profession because of it. Because, you know, Parkinson's and ovarian cancer aren't necessarily neurological diseases or issues, but yet there's a way that you bridged all of that.

KATHLEEN: So if you want to talk a little bit more about whatever that entailed, if there's anything in the service that related to that. But when you came out, what was the triggers that you and your wife were struggling with that you started to realize and go down that rabbit hole?

RYAN: Yes. And a quick side note, Parkinson's is very much a neurologic condition. It's a condition that affects the brain.

RYAN: What's interesting is we don't fully understand where it starts or what exactly causes it. We know the symptoms, we know the clinical syndrome, we know what people's brain cells look like under a microscope, and there's some consistent changes, but there's a lot of debate regarding what actually starts, how it begins.

RYAN: There's even a theory that it's in the gut, for example, which is very interesting because it's considered a brain disease. So my grandfather's exposure for what that's worth, I believe, was largely due to a printing press that he owned.

RYAN: Because there are a lot of heavy organic solvents and chemicals that he worked with that are notorious for causing Parkinson's, for what that's worth. And there are a handful of environmental risk factors that are very highly correlated with developing that particular condition. And...

RYAN: Not long after that, I mean, goodness, my uncle by marriage, so this would be my paternal aunt's husband, so not a blood relative, but a relative by marriage, was also diagnosed with early onset Parkinson's. This is something that kept showing up in my family for one reason or another. I mean, not genetic, I don't think, but so watched him undergo a very lengthy battle over the better part of 20 plus years.

RYAN: Really do the math on that. He passed away in 2020. November of 2020, if memory serves. It was not COVID related, he just was at the end stages of his disease. He had dementia as a result of his Parkinson's.

RYAN: But watching my aunt, who was a former cardiac nurse, navigate that and as I was even going through my medical training, trying to provide perspective to the both of them as best I could when I was asked, just crippling to watch somebody wither away from a neurodegenerative condition like this, when it's someone you love and care about in your family.

RYAN: And then that's a large part of my job is helping patients navigate these kinds of issues. And I'm sure we'll get there, but that's a big part of what's led me into my work at Transcend Health is that I'm just, I'm tired of watching people suffer from preventable disease. And there are so many things we can all do to ensure that we live healthier lives and longer lives.

RYAN: And I want your audience and everybody to know that it's largely within their control. I mean, 70 to 90% of your health outcomes are up to what you do. And a lot of people, I think, aren't fully aware of that and are just lost and don't know what to do. And again, we can come back to that point because I know you want to drill down on a few other things first, but that's an opportunity to share that at least.

KATHLEEN: No, that's really informative because I know so many people that have Parkinson's or had Parkinson's and died because of it, but I didn't realize it could have been from chemicals or anything that's in their environment. As they were working.

KATHLEEN: So that was a light bulb moment for me. And we are going to go and take a quick commercial break. And when we get back, we will dive a little bit deeper of you coming out of the military and then starting to talk more about what we can do and how our brain works with that as well.

KATHLEEN: Welcome back, everyone, to the Journey of an Awakening Spirit. This is Kathleen Flanagan, your host, and we're streaming on the Bold Brave TV network. And we have Dr. Ryan Williamson in the room with us today.

KATHLEEN: And we are going to talk a little bit more about how he went into the military, saw some things because we had an interesting conversation over the break that I would like him to share. And then we'll get into the thing about his wife.

RYAN: Yes. So for... For the majority of my active duty career, actually really my entire active duty career, I was stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, which is a big Marine Corps base on the East Coast, biggest base in the East Coast of the United States, about a third of the United States Marine Corps is stationed there.

RYAN: And we have a naval hospital. So I was a Navy doctor and the Marines are kind of part of the Navy. Marines don't like it when we say that, but they're technically part of the Navy. They're a very important part of the Navy.

RYAN: But when I was stationed there you know I started getting phone calls from family and friends saying hey is everything okay at Camp Lejeune and I said wait what do you mean and they said there are all these commercials on TV for drinking water and these cases of Parkinson's and different types of cancers and everything that are coming out and i said oh I just assumed those were like on our local eastern North Carolina news stations I just thought it was some you know some local thing apparently so it was countrywide or nationwide And the idea is that the VA had done studies where they had linked exposure to drinking water or organophosphates that had run into the drinking water on base during more or less the Vietnam era.

RYAN: I think they expanded it to nearly a 20-year period. This is all, somebody can fact check me on this because I don't know the exact dates from memory, but more or less a 20-year period. And they're clearly...

RYAN: High incidences of certain conditions the big one that I would see as a neurologist was was Parkinson's and I had a handful of retirees that ended up in the area that were clearly stationed there that had clearly developed this condition that didn't have any other known or notable risk factors or maybe a little younger than I would expect or had any typical case or presentation and it was a very very sad debilitating condition to diagnose in my patients that may well have been triggered by this unknown, unclean drinking water that Marines had at the time.

KATHLEEN: So I'm sure that added to the trauma that you were already dealing with with your family, even though it was an unconscious moment in your, because we go into the unconscious part of our mind, but I'm sure that just added and compounded because. If you came home from that and seeing what you see, because we know that in the military, you guys see things that we. Civilians don't see and don't know.

KATHLEEN: I'm sure that impacted your life to some degree, because if you came home and realized that you're having marital problems, did you realize that you were the root of that? Or did you think it was that you were just growing apart? I mean, what was it that got you to that place to say, honey, I love you so much. I'm willing to do therapy because that's not something men usually do. Correct.

RYAN: So To pivot back to the trauma in the military, I fortunately didn't have any substantial military-related trauma. Again, I was a doctor, not an infantryman.

RYAN: I technically deployed to New York in the middle of the COVID Pandemic, which was very scary. That was traumatic for sure. We had this invisible virus that was killing people ultimately by the millions.

RYAN: At that point by the thousands tens of thousands no vaccine no no cure we just showed up on a big white ship trying to help and New York harbor and i mean like half the people in front of me were dead or dying and it was a very terrifying moment to be to on the front lines of the pandemic and to be asked to go help not knowing if I mean I was like am i gonna get sick I'm gonna get this thing and die i mean nobody knew what we were dealing with at that fortunately now i think pretty low risk and we now understand more about the virus but at the time very scary but really the to explore more of the trauma of the life of a doctor and certainly any doctor that sees critical critically ill people in the hospital hands down one of the worst things that i'm forced to do is to counsel families and help provide them with prognosis or an understanding of what their family members facing especially if there's been a severe neurologic injury so these These are situations like where someone's had an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest where their heart has stopped, and they've had no blood flow to the brain for an extended period of time, and I have to help kind of figure out what the path forward is.

RYAN: And it's never a good one. It's never happy. So that's really difficult.

RYAN: And so that's been something I've largely compartmentalized for most of my career. But this would have been April. It's actually almost, I guess, three years ago. To the month. April of 22 was the first time that my wife and I, well, actually, I can't even say that because it was before that, that we looked into marriage therapy or counseling.

RYAN: April of 22 is when we found the right one. I should say that. So we've been with the same guy for three years. So there's that awakening. But we, I guess, grew together as a couple. I mean, we met when we were both relatively young and we definitely had aspects of our relationship that were healthy and good.

RYAN: But we got to a point where once I had orders to North Carolina for about, I don't know, the better part of six months or a year, just my wife was upset all the time. And as a doctor, I naturally, in my egotistical and ignorant male brain, decided I was going to diagnose her with whatever the problem was and say, you need help. It sounds so, I mean, it's embarrassing for me to even say this.

RYAN: That's how ignorant I was.

KATHLEEN: That went over like a lead balloon.

RYAN: I think we both just wanted help. So she was, I think she knew, she understood that it was probably me or that it was us and not just her. But again, just, I totally dissociated from this trauma that I didn't know I had at this point and genuinely was trying to help fix the problem.

RYAN: I mean, that was, I came at it with good intentions. I just didn't know what the route was. Again, it's funny that you can make it so far in life with a bunch of titles and degrees on a wall and still be so dumb.

KATHLEEN: Some of the best degrees that I have, I have my master's and PhD in life. That's how I look at it.

RYAN: That's yes. Yes. I'm still earning mine, I should say.

RYAN: But so we finally, I mean, we went through several therapists that were basically cheerleaders. I said, you guys are like poster couple for happiness. You're beautiful people. You're a successful doctor, blah, blah, blah. And we're like, well, it doesn't feel that way. So it just, it took a few to get the right one.

RYAN: And I would encourage any of your audience or listeners, you know, if you, if you are in the process of going through therapy of any kind, and you feel like it's not the right fit, or you're not making momentum or progress with somebody, go find another one. I mean, there, there's so many out there.

RYAN: It's just a matter of really getting to somebody who's actually going to help. And that, and for that matter, doctor or any other professional, I mean, really and truly find the right person. That's the right fit for you. So we finally got to the right person, April of 22. And it took this guy, he was like a hot knife through.

RYAN: Your butter man it took him no time at all to say problem's not your wife it's you and I said what are you talking about he gave me a homework assignment and he said I want you to write down any adverse event at all I mean you might not even think it's anything that's bothered or affected you but go through from the moment you have memories all the way through adulthood and write them down and I said okay this is gonna be a waste of time but entertained him and so I did it and once I could feel that barrier start to crack I mean it was like the levy broke right and then it all just showed up and it was I mean it started again with the depth of my relatives at a young age and understanding the dynamics between my parents and how that affected me and you know feeling like I was ignored and abandoned.

RYAN: And I mean, just so much that I never even knew was going on. And I wrote it all down and I turned it in and said, well, there it is. And so then we started to undergo the process of unpacking and reorganizing all that information in my brain. And over a period of probably six to eight months, that alone was transformational.

RYAN: And it took probably another year after that, so not quite two years to really get me to a point where I mean I really was transformed and not you know not coincidentally I should say this is a time where I decided to seek more mentorship in other areas of my life and join other masterminds and be around more high-level thinkers and doers like people like Amber at books in business who I met through another mastermind that we joined Lifestyle Investor so I mean it's just you can literally linearly plot my personal development with the level of success I've had in life.

RYAN: If there is one golden nugget I could give anybody in your audience, it's that.

RYAN: Your level of personal development, it absolutely tracks with your level of success in life, in my opinion. And I'm not saying that just for me. I've observed this in countless people. Back to our point about individuals that have undergone or suffered some sort of trauma tend to have this success on the back end once they realize and they get through it.

RYAN: And it takes time and it's hard and it's uncomfortable, but it's, it is absolutely worth going through. And I just, I wish, I wish more people fully understood the impact of mental health on, on how it can limit us. I wish we didn't have the, the stigma around quote unquote mental health that we've had for so long. I'm sure you could speak to that.

RYAN: And if I've probably lived through a large degree of that, I mean, even when I. I try to talk to my family or my parents about, whoa, there's all this resistance and they put up barriers and they don't know what they're dealing with. And I'm like, man, this is a it's a tough pill to crack for a lot of people because there's so much pain around it. They don't understand how important it is to navigate.

RYAN: I keep going, but I'm rambling a bit.

KATHLEEN: No, good. What I'd like to know is.

KATHLEEN: When you unpack this and you had the transformation, and I agree with you on the mentors and coaches and stuff like that, I found that when I was able to trust other people, I started watching major shifts happen in my life because I was coming out of my shell and not being so afraid that people were coming towards me and I allowed them in instead of holding them back.

KATHLEEN: So I understand what you said. With that. And it doesn't matter that you're here, you are, you're this neurologist out here, and you're saying the same thing I say, because my PhD is in life and you have an actual medical degree. And again, for the listeners out there, it doesn't matter what your background is. It doesn't matter what your schooling is. We all still feel that.

KATHLEEN: So as a result of your transformation and the things you're doing, how did that move into where you are? In what you want to do, because I want to start going down that road about how you've transformed and what you want to do, because you're saying that there's so much to learn about the brain that we don't know, or we're not informed of, let's put it that way.

KATHLEEN: There's a lot of mistruths because we discovered that at Books And Business, that we only use 5% of our brain. And you're saying, no, that's not true. And we're like, really? So yeah, there's a lot of myths out there. So I would love to know how that morphed into what you're doing now with mental health, with neurology, how it's impacted and incorporated into your private practice as well.

RYAN: Yes. So after I left the military and began working on myself, as I said, and seeking all this mentorship, I was doing travel work, but it was work outside the military because I'd left.

RYAN: Where I was, when it was active duty, I was working with mostly young, healthy people by definition. A Marine would suffer a traumatic brain injury, or they would have these debilitating migraines, or they'd have peripheral nerve problems, something like that.

RYAN: And I would get them back on the battlefield healthy ready to serve and that was I really truly enjoyed that's literally what got me with that every day I would see retirees as well hence the Parkinson's cases but that's really what my main focus was and was very motivating when I got out of the military I started back in civilian medicine and I was trapped different parts of the country but I was seeing mostly acutely sick people in the hospital so treating acute strokes treating people that come in with they've had a diagnosis of dementia or they've had some cognitive decline and would have to make that diagnosis.

RYAN: They would need a new level of care, health management, brain infections or inflammation, all kinds of things like this. And the pattern that I would see almost unequivocally are the end results of years of people living with chronic medical conditions that are largely preventable.

RYAN: And Kathleen, that is heartbreaking and immensely frustrating because I know again that the vast majority of where we end up in life has to do with what we do every day with our lifestyle and that's why I practice that I follow the literature and the data on that so I try to be as evidence-based in my own life as I can and it took me a long time to figure this out but finally I said what you know what am I what do I really want to do and am I really being effective and am I really moving the needle with my patients in the hospital because I can have somebody come in 10 times for different stroke syndromes and push blood thinners into their iv that try to break up plots in their brain or whatever.

RYAN: But at some point, I don't mean this to sound crass at all, but it's kind of a medical joke that you're rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. I mean, the ship is sinking, right? No matter what you do. So I don't mean to minimize that whatsoever.

RYAN: We're talking about a life here, but what I've come to realize and what the data show is that if we start earlier, meaning that we are intentional about our health choices earlier in life, we can largely prevent and avoid a lot of of this. And so I thought, how can I get that out to more people? And writing a book would probably be the way to do that.

RYAN: So that was the first time I reached out to Amber and Amber Vilhauer, for those that don't know, which is Kathleen and I met and told Amber, hey, I want to write this book. And she said, okay, great. And this was, so these dates are relevant too. I emailed Amber on June 7th of last year with this plan to do this.

RYAN: And Amber responded on June 11th and said, hey, that sounds great you know I just wrote this book she sent me a copy of her books and I'm happy to help and Kathleen on June 10th my best friend died unexpectedly oh my god total accident just out of nowhere and he was besides my wife he was the one person that I loved and trusted more than anybody and you her in Amber's email not knowing this she said I don't know if you believe in divine timing or not but I just wrote the book and would be happy to I'm sitting here going you got to be kidding me I mean to do all this work and to you know finally be coming into my own of understanding who I am and what I can become and what I do then that happens and I thought okay I mean this is what I meant to do I mean there's like I don't need any more signs I mean this is clearly where my career is meant to go.

RYAN: And I meant to go help more people, whether it's through the book or through a business of some sort. And that is what we've been working on for the past 10 months and what we've built at Transcend Health. And I'm happy to go through what that looks like, but that was... No, I, yeah.

KATHLEEN: I mean, was his death preventable?

RYAN: It was a total accident. So in that way, yes.

RYAN: I mean, without really going into it, he was training for free diving and...

RYAN: Is a technique that free divers often do they hyperventilate before they go under because you can hold your breath for longer and won't ever know this for sure but my hypothesis is that he probably did some version of that was under was relaxed and his body just ran out of oxygen and when that happens you just go unconscious of all ways to go i think it was a very peaceful and totally unknown to him that he was that he passed which is so reliant if there ever was one as opposed to any other number of horrific ways that people can face death so i do find a degree of comfort in that considering and preventable in the sense that okay yeah maybe if somebody had been there but i mean you know everybody's death's preventable when you give enough time and resources so.

KATHLEEN: It's okay well at least it was something different and he died doing something he loved let's put it that way that's I know You got to find a silver lining in something like that. And it was something that he chose to do. You have to know that he chose to do that.

KATHLEEN: And if this was something that helped push you over a little bit further to really. Go down the path that you're going to help people understand, because I always believe that we are in control of our health no matter what. And I feel like I'm a walk in testimony.

KATHLEEN: Very seldom have I had any kind of disease or serious health issues, knock on wood, because I keep my mind right. I watch what I eat. I take care of myself to the best of my ability. Can I do better? Always, always we can do better, but at least I'm not. Not doing nothing.

RYAN: Yes.

KATHLEEN: And that's what I want to go down a little bit more as far as what can people do to help themselves get back, even if they think they're so far away, because I know our body heals itself if we allow it and we stop whatever this is up here, because this is so much what goes on in our brain is what directs the body. And I believe that.

RYAN: Correct. And I don't want to minimize anybody who has felt like they've done the right thing and had an unexpected diagnosis show up either. I mean, these things do happen.

KATHLEEN: Yes, they do.

RYAN: I don't want to marginalize anybody in that regard. I don't mean to say that whatsoever, but only mean to encourage people to say that you are largely in control of most of your health outcomes. And I think to your point, Kathleen, it's progress over perfection.

RYAN: Lord knows I love sweet desserts. Corey and I just celebrated 11 years together yesterday, actually. So we had an anniversary dinner and I keep telling myself I'm not going to have dessert. And then I do it.

RYAN: It's much a work in progress as the next person.

KATHLEEN: Having an anniversary event you're supposed to celebrate, you know, it's OK. A little bit doesn't hurt.

RYAN: Well, yes. Case in point.

RYAN: But yeah, so what can people do? And this is essentially the whole second half of my book and central to what I teach people or try. And that's looking at an evidence-based approach for the lifestyle that we can all put in place. And I think with so much information out there, there's a lot of noise. And what I mean by noise is there's just a lot of experts, as you alluded to earlier, that's...

RYAN: Say things that may not be evidence-based or that don't have studies to back them. And that bothers me, quite frankly, because a lot of people latch onto products and hope and follow a direction and do things that may even be dangerous in some cases that just don't have any quality or credible science behind them.

RYAN: And I think it also surprises people when I talk about what actually works, because it's pretty darn simple. It's simple, but not easy. I mean, clearly. So it's not complex.

RYAN: It is not easy so my core four as I call them and I touched on this at B&B I think we're achieving quality sleep achieving a quality nutrition plan integrating movement into your day ideally some types of exercise and then managing your stress and there are subcategories and pillars from each one of those but that those are the basic four and I would say actually funny enough this came up on a podcast I did with somebody previously but when I was explaining the core four, we were talking about someone else's PTSD.

RYAN: And I said, you know, I really just, I know I need to be doing all of these things, but my PTSD kicks in, or I feel limited, or my depression kicks in, or what have you.

RYAN: And I said, I should probably add mental health as the foundation to the pillars, because it really is, as we've talked about, and this idea of awakening that you are sharing with people, I think is so powerful in that regard. Because without alignment, to use Amber's language, or without...

RYAN: You know a solid foundation your mental health and knowing where you are in life and overcoming promise we all we all have drama in some sort there's big T trauma little t trauma but getting through that and getting on the other side of it allows you to understand how to be more fully yourself more fully present and then you realize oh if I want to have my own podcast or go write a book or go create my own business or go do more good in the world whatever is important to you then these pillars become a vehicle through which you can optimize that and have more of it.

RYAN: And either you are moving closer to your goals, whatever those goals are, and you are taking purposeful, dedicated action to get yourself closer to those goals, or you're distancing yourself from them by doing something else.

RYAN: And we all have priorities in our life to live, but when you really understand the alignment and you have the vision of where you need to go or where you want to go, these become things you get to do, not have to do. And I think that's a big disconnect that a lot of people have is they don't fully understand oh gosh, this only serves me or allows me to be more of myself because we're all so.

RYAN: Busy and we're so stressed. We have our horse blinders on and I've got to do all these things now. I've got to go eat well and I've got to go get the kids, but I mean, I got to go exercise now. I mean, people just don't get that. And when in reality, you're just able to show up more fully as yourself when you get to do them, you have the vision in mind.

KATHLEEN: So I want to touch on mental health because I think we all have different interpretations of what mental health is. And I look at... that our youth is committing suicide.

KATHLEEN: Now, yes, there's mental health issues around that, but I also think there's a lot that they don't have the support that they need. They're missing something. There's a lack in their life because I thought I was crazy because my father was a little crazy.

KATHLEEN: He was neurotic and that neuroses came on to me and I worked through that neuroses. I didn't know this at 18 years old, what was going on. And there's a whole spiritual side to what that was. But I realized that there was something very sick because when I would look at other people, I would see that they seemed more normal and they had normal families. And I'm like, I didn't have any of that.

KATHLEEN: But I worked through it because I didn't trust anyone. So I trusted spirit. I was always connected to spirit in that way to get the guidance that I needed. But I also know that I was also very depressed and suicidal during that period of time. And it was by the will of God I did not take my life because I was on that downhill spiral of dying because I didn't want to live. And I think when I look at our youth today.

KATHLEEN: I think there's a lot of that because they're not getting what they need. And social media, I think, is a big distraction and it's a total illusion. So what I'd like to do is have you talk a little bit more about what you think people can do to help their mental health so they can start going back.

KATHLEEN: Because there are steps we can all take that won't be like, oh, God, I have to do this now. And oh, my God, I have to do this now. Let's just say, OK, what if we just start with. This and stay focused. Because I always say, just be present now. And sometimes people don't know what that means.

KATHLEEN: But coming from your perspective as a neurologist, I'm sure you have some other insights that might drive those people that are looking for something more scientific than spiritual. Even though this is a spiritual-based show, I still believe in science too, because I like the facts. I like that it's coming together. That's why I like you so much, because we're getting you to come on to the other side.

RYAN: Yes. Well, as scientifically grounded as I believe I am, I do. I've been more spiritual in the last several years of my life, largely with the passing of Tanner, my best friend. I've just seen things and experienced things that, or maybe even just been aware of things that I previously was not attuned to or looking for. And I mean, you could.

RYAN: Go any number of ways with that but in either case i've got a foot in both camps let's say that so but what so what can people do so I think a really important biological fact about our brain is that we generate around 70,000 thoughts a day which is a lot even when I think about that and break that down like that seems like a high number but it's that's what the data show that's a quite a few thoughts if we think about it no pun intended But 80% of those thoughts are negative, right?

RYAN: And a lot of people don't understand, A, that that's how we're wired. And then B, to take that a step further, why are we wired that way? And this has been termed what's called our negativity bias. And this is what we believe is an evolutionary byproduct of keeping us safe.

RYAN: So meaning if your ancestors were trying to find shelter for the night, and they're looking at campsite A or campsite B, and a campsite egg there was a silhouette that looked maybe like a lion or something like that that would go might be a lion i'm going over there and I'm staying away right only if the next morning the sun comes up and they realize I was around not so it was it was this was wired to keep us safe for me maybe this food doesn't smell quite right i'm not going to eat it I'm going to just have the berries instead or just I mean you could you know expand on that any number of ways so served us well to get us here because we're all the most successful product of our ancestors and evolution because we are in fact here right yeah I mean consider that for a minute if you want to be thankful for something that's you you're the most successful product of the history of of the world which is pretty incredible to think about the fact that we're all standing here able to zoom and talk and podcast but in in our modern society in our current culture our social evolution has has outpaced our biological evolution and so we have this odd dynamic where we we never feel good enough and we always have this negative tendency to limit ourselves or to assume or think the worst because we're wired that way and there's been actually very little time and and focus in the literature until relatively recently with the advent of fields like positive psychology that have actually looked into this and explored how do we go not just from being depressed or anxious or or whatever to normal but how do we go from normal to super normal or to to better than normal better than average and there are people that are making some headway on this so one one really really simple technique in addition to being aware of just how we're wired is to build in something like gratitude and there's a i mean if you can live in gratitude i'm not that's not a panacea by any means there are a lot of ways we can go with this Kathleen but this is just a simple one for everybody But living in a state of gratitude, being grateful for where you are and what you have is, I mean, it's life changing to say the least.

RYAN: And something simple that I love people can start with every day is to just write down three things you're thankful for and start your day with that. That's a very easy way to start. And if you're really a go getter, probably one of the more challenging exercises I've undergone, but also one of the most effective.

RYAN: Ryan Pearson, who I met in Lifestyle Investor, actually challenged me to this two years ago. And we were accountability partners in this, but he called it the gratitude challenge. You write down 25 things you were thankful for, and you do this for 10 days in a row. And that doesn't sound like very long, but you get through, day one maybe takes a minute.

RYAN: You go, okay, I can think of my top five. And then you go, shoot, I have 20 more. So you write down your next 20, 25 things. But day two, there are going to be 25 new things. And day two, you're like, there is no way that I can come up with. With 25 new things that I'm thankful for.

RYAN: But if you stick to it and you have your accountability partner, you'll get through it. And the funniest thing, Kathleen, is after, day like two to five is like really tough because you're just like wrecking your brain, like how do I do this? By day six, day seven, I mean, it just flows.

RYAN: I mean, you're just like the green leaves on the tree, the beautiful sunshine, the fact that I have two legs, I can walk, I can do pod. You just, your brain literally through the process called neuroplasticity, which is how our brain changes. When you give it enough directed focus and attention and effort, it literally rewires the way you think.

RYAN: And it rewires your neural circuits. And now get back to depression and how we're feeling and the negativity bias. You almost buy your podcast entirely. That's not scientifically correct. But you can overcome it easily. And you can reframe how you view the world.

RYAN: And by intentionally practicing gratitude every day, for example, that's one of the I mean, dozens and dozens of ways that you can. Start to just build the momentum to overcome, ah, man, I'm feeling stuck or I'm just feeling so down. We can pause and double click there. I can keep going on different stuff. That's a favorite.

KATHLEEN: That was how I came back from the dark side of me. When I came on the other side of my transformation and there was nothing left inside of me and I didn't even know how to move forward. I don't even know who I am. I don't even know what I think. All I know is that I saw myself and it was like I was reborn.

KATHLEEN: And it's like and somebody asked me, well, what are you grateful for? I'm back in Colorado. And then the next day it was the sun. It was blue skies. And and then within like three or four days, everything started to change so fast for me. So and and now when I see like a self-limiting belief come up, it's like I just flip it or, flick it off or whatever.

KATHLEEN: Don't give it any energy. But. When I was doing that, I was watching, I felt like my brain was flipping over is what it felt like. You know, like when you talk about how we're rewiring, I could feel that. So I really, I think that's so cool because I say that and people are like, yeah, whatever you think that's going to do it.

KATHLEEN: And then here you are saying the same exact thing. So there is a science behind that. And I'm going to do that challenge because I know that because I started that once and I, the Years and years ago, it was like, I don't know what else to do or how much I'm grateful for.

KATHLEEN: Now it's expanded. But I think I'm going to try that because I think that would be fun to really catapult and see where I go with that. But we're getting really close to the end. So I want to know, I want you to tell our listeners how they can get a hold of you and what some of your offerings might be as well.

RYAN: Absolutely. Yeah. So we talk about this and a whole lot more at Transcend Health, which is my business. So. Our website is transcendhealthgroup.com. And transcend is T-R-A-N-S-C-E-N-D, transcendhealthgroup.com.

RYAN: That's one way you can follow us also on social media. So if you look for me, Dr. Ryan Williamson on LinkedIn or Instagram, I think it's dr. ryanwilliamson or transcendhealthgroup as our LinkedIn handle. So any of those, just Google it and it'll come up.

RYAN: But so we have a handful of offerings for people. We've got the book coming out in September, as I mentioned, which I'm very excited about. Love to be able to share that with your community or anybody else. But really, if people want to get involved between now and September, they're really one of two or three routes to do that.

RYAN: For people that want more of a group environment to have more of that collaborative accountability partnership on an ongoing basis, we have our longevity and legacy membership. And we do bi-monthly, so every two weeks, Zoom calls like this where I get to share and educate on a given topic. And then we kind of do a Q&A afterwards. So maybe the topic of the day is that. How do you feel better? How do you practice gratitude?

RYAN: We talk about that, the science behind it, and we just have an open discussion like this. And in the meantime, our members get access to a community portal where they can interact with one another and share stories and wins. So that's level one. There's a more shorter, about a 10-week kind of crash course version of the basics that cover all the pillars and a little bit more that actually parallels the book.

RYAN: So those are all 10-ish Zoom calls with Q&A that people can get involved in. They also get access to the membership while they're in that. We call that our cohort. So that's, again, more personalized time with me, smaller groups for people that want to get kind of up and running a little bit quicker on what to do and all the techniques.

RYAN: And then for people that really want individualized attention, I was very resistant to this for a long time. I recently opened private coaching. So I do work one-on-one with people that really feel like they need the extra time and attention or they've just been looking for answers. And they've had all these fragmented workups, labs, imaging, that kind of thing. And they fight.

RYAN: Try to synthesize all that as best I can and come up with an assessment and what I call a strategic action plan for those people where I just say, hey, here's what I think is going on. Here's where you've been. Here are the directions I think we need to head with this. And then we work together in that fashion. So those are the big three if people are still waiting on the book.

KATHLEEN: Well, thank you so much for all of that, Dr. Ryan. I'm so glad that you came on the show. And for all of you out there, Dr. Ryan and I are talking about coming out. Him coming on the show quarterly. So that's something else that we're working through right now. So because I think what he has to offer is really important because I think science and spirituality are merging together and this is a beautiful way of doing it.

KATHLEEN: I mean, you just demonstrated that and you didn't even know that I did that. So that's even cooler. So I want to thank you so much for coming on and giving your time today because I know you're a very busy man. And for everyone else, thank you so much for joining us today.

KATHLEEN: And if you want, if you found any value, please like or subscribe to the show or give the link to a family member or a friend who might need a little bit more help. And if they're looking for more medical training, then Dr. Ryan is definitely the person you would want to get in touch with.

KATHLEEN: And my books are at Barnes And Noble. Yes.

KATHLEEN: Really, I'm so excited about that. That happened two weeks ago. And Amazon and Kathleen M. Flanagan, check out my website for the list of services that I have. And from my heart to yours, I hope you have a fabulous week.