Dr. Tara Swart | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von

Brain Health and Sleep

• Sleeping on your side, either left or right, is the best position for brain health, as it facilitates the removal of waste products through the lymphatic system. (4m13s)
• It takes 7-8 hours for the brain to complete its cleansing process during sleep. (1h7m29s)

Stress and Mental Health

• Around the time of the global financial crisis, there was a notable increase in stress-related health issues, including suicides and heart attacks, even among individuals without traditional risk factors. (5m34s)
• The COVID-19 pandemic caused increased stress, anxiety, and illness, potentially leading individuals to experience survival mode due to elevated cortisol levels. (6m4s)
• Stress can manifest in difficulty communicating with others and misinterpreting burnout as a need to work harder, highlighting the importance of recognizing stress through self-awareness, feedback from others, and journaling. (8m39s)
• People should identify what helps them reset their nervous systems and take control of their well-being instead of relying solely on external solutions. (12m6s)
• The pandemic resulted in reduced social circles, increased loneliness and disconnection, and heightened gender polarization, leading to unhealthy coping mechanisms such as excessive device use. (7m25s)
• Adaptive stress is a healthy response to short-term stressors, while chronic stress is detrimental to health, eroding immunity and causing inflammation. (41m0s)

Neuroplasticity and Personal Growth

• Neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to grow and change, remains highly active until around the age of 25 and requires more effort to maintain afterward. (23m4s)
• It is possible to change one's personality, career, community, and resilience throughout life by understanding and working with the concept of neuroplasticity. (25m36s)
• Neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to change and adapt, can be negative if someone repeatedly engages in toxic relationships. (1h22m31s)

Theo Von's Experiences and Trauma

• Theo Von's upbringing involved a challenging relationship with his mother, characterized by a lack of emotional connection and responsiveness, leading to a persistent state of fright or flight. (15m50s)
• Theo Von shares that he believes his childhood experiences, particularly the lack of attention from his mother, led to feelings of inadequacy and a constant need to try harder, even though he felt his efforts were never enough. (28m10s)
• Theo Von describes his struggles in romantic relationships, including nervousness, putting women on a pedestal, and a fear of intimacy, which he attributes to his past experiences and thought patterns. (31m0s)
• Theo Von's emotional architecture was not properly built due to a lack of eye contact and physical affection from his mother. (33m33s)
• Theo Von finds comfort in being enveloped in warmth, such as taking baths or sleeping with blankets tucked under his feet. (35m16s)

Childhood Development and Healing

• Tara Swart believes she can offer new insights to help Theo Von heal and move forward from his past experiences. (16m35s)
• Psychosocial stages of childhood development were first described by Sigmund Freud, who believed that negative experiences in early childhood, such as separation from parents or illness, would always have a negative impact on development. (16m45s)
• Erik Erikson later posited that these early experiences could result in either vices or virtues, meaning individuals could develop positive traits even from negative experiences. (17m13s)
• Carl Jung suggested that there is a period around the ages of 42 to 44 where individuals have the ability to choose their perspective and change their behavior. (20m2s)

Trauma and Physical Manifestations

• Trauma can manifest as physical symptoms in the body, a concept known as psychosomatic illness. (37m54s)
• Aches and pains, including pain in unexpected areas like the ribs, can be a sign of stored emotional trauma. (38m20s)

Healing and Ancient Wisdom

• Humans have access to generational healing and ancient wisdom, which can be accessed through activities like dancing, drumming, chanting, humming, singing, and painting. (39m20s)

Affirmations and Belief Systems

• People often need to understand the underlying belief driving their thoughts to create an affirmation that challenges that belief. (27m41s)

Intuition and Gut Instinct

• Intuition, also known as "gut instinct", is a result of experiences being stored deeply in the spinal cord and gut neurons through a process called Hebbian learning. (1h21m55s)

Visualization and Manifesting

• One exercise to challenge one's perspective involves imagining oneself seven years in the future and seeking advice from that future self. (1h25m1s)
• Manifesting involves setting goals, finding images that represent those goals, and visualizing them twice a day, especially before sleep, to imprint them on the subconscious. (1h30m10s)
• The human brain does not differentiate between real-life experiences and strong visualizations, making visualization a powerful tool for achieving goals. (1h30m36s)
• People have manifested things like homes, relationships, pregnancies, career changes, and travel. (1h32m35s)

Societal Changes and Gender Roles

• The speaker observes that the world feels like a difficult place for young men, who are facing uncertainty about their roles in society. (1h34m20s)
• Since the 1950s, women have achieved financial independence, access to contraception, and societal changes that have enhanced their survival and value, while men have not undergone comparable transformations. (1h37m56s)
• The speaker emphasizes the importance of men and women navigating societal changes together harmoniously, advocating for a balanced approach that avoids demonizing men. (1h38m30s)

Brain Health and Lifestyle

• The speaker suggests that small, consistent changes in areas such as sleep, diet, hydration, exercise, stress management, and exposure to nature can significantly improve brain function and overall well-being. (1h41m42s)
• Eating 30 different plant products per week, along with lean proteins like eggs, yogurt, tofu, and fish, is ideal for brain health. (1h9m16s)
• Tara Swart tries to eat foods that resemble brains, such as cauliflower and walnuts, believing they are beneficial for brain health. (1h10m59s)
• Swart had an encounter with a young woman who credited Swart's words about food's impact on the brain with helping her overcome a severe eating disorder. (1h12m43s)
• The human brain uses 20-30% of a person's daily food intake. (1h6m28s)
• Having a moderate amount of faith or some sort of spiritual belief is beneficial for the brain, but having none or too much, like fundamentalism, is not good for the brain. (1h3m32s)

The Vomeronasal Organ and Smell

• Humans possess a secondary nose, the vomeronasal organ, which is unconnected to the brain but linked to the heart, and is responsible for detecting smells from vapor-producing foods, like spicy foods. (1h15m15s)

The Nanose and Cancer Detection

• Andreas Meran created a robotic nose powered by AI called the Nanose that can identify cases of prostate cancer from urine samples with 70% accuracy. (1h16m59s)
• The Nanose can also be used for the early detection of lung cancer. (1h17m16s)
• The Nanose can distinguish between benign and pancreatic and ovarian cancer with up to 95% accuracy. (1h19m13s)

Tara Swart's Work and Expertise

• Dr. Tara Swart is a neuroscientist, author, and advisor who specializes in peak mental performance. (8s)
• Tara Swart's book is titled The Source. (1h45m21s)
• Tara Swart teaches at MIT. (1h46m45s)

Other Interesting Facts

• A reduction in pornography consumption has been linked to increased imagination. (51m19s)
• Prairie voles were studied to research the chemistry of couples. (53m49s)
• Intergenerational living arrangements, such as those common in Mexican families, have been observed to correlate with happiness. (53m37s)
• Some of the world's most solitary animals include the platypus, polar bear, snow leopard, sandpiper, Hawaiian monk seal, and the chu wala lizard. (1h0m2s)
• Morgan and Morgan is America's largest injury law firm with over 100 offices nationwide and more than 800 lawyers. (1h1m11s)
• A nasal spray of oxytocin increased the attractiveness rating of women shown to men in a lab experiment. (1h44m23s)
• The speaker believes that the shutdown of support groups during the pandemic likely resulted in a significant number of deaths. (1h33m9s)
• Valor Recovery offers coaching services and can be reached via their website, valorrecoverycoaching.com, or email, admin valorrecoverycoaching.com. (22m33s)