All language subtitles for strngrbstrss

It's kind of sad that most
people don't ever truly get

to understand how
amazing their bodies are,

and what they're capable of.

I've trained with
somebody who's actually

held their breath for
22 minutes underwater.

I've also trained
with somebody who's climbed

Mount Everest in
just shorts and shoes.

I mean,
these are incredible things.

You can't achieve
those things without knowing

what you're truly made out of.

Ever since my childhood,
I've been really interested

in how humans have
managed to adapt

to different
kinds of stressors...

Cold, heat, starvation,
anything that is involved

in surviving in nature.

We've managed to
spread across the entire globe.

We can live in the desert,
we can live in the Arctic,

we can live in the rainforest.

So that's been, I think,
one of the biggest reasons

to our success
as a species, so far.

I started bio hacking
from a very early age

because I was born
with an inherited migraine.

It was that migraine,
that pain that I tried to hack

with different kind of
health interventions:

sleep, diet, medications.

Biohacking is
looking at the world

and even your body as
a complex set of systems,

understanding how
those systems work,

and then making small iterations

and changes to those to
influence them to be optimal

and perform at a higher level.

If you know that
you have poor sleep

and that is causing you
to feel stressed and anxious,

you are taking
interventions in order

to improve your sleep
so that you can feel better.

You'll take some set of data,

you will do an intervention,
and then you see

if you were able to
change the data for better.

Biohacking
for me started, basically,

by understanding that
I have to take my health

and well-being
into my own hands.

It's about learning to
understand yourself better.

It's a continuous
process that never ends,

discovering and testing
different things

on yourself and figuring out
how to live a better life.

My father died
at the age of 65.

That's when it clicked for me,
to maybe, somehow,

work on my life extension.

And that's why I actually
started thinking to myself,

"Maybe I would
like to live to 120."

You're not only seeking help
when you get sick,

but you actually
create your resilience

through different kind of
challenges that we are facing

as a humanity, but also
in your personal life.

So biohacking
can be many things.

All the available tools
that we can use from nature,

from science,
from technology, from all kinds

of possible ways
that we can enhance

our self-consciousness,
in essence.

Because the more conscious
we become about who we are--

Like the inner state and
all the biochemical processes,

it's the physiological
processes--

The more we can
affect the system

by affecting the environment.

Biohackers have existed
for thousands of years.

You can think of ancient yogis
and Buddhist meditators

or shamans who were
really interested

in the human condition
and what the boundaries are

and how you can push that with
diet and nutrition and movement.

Technically speaking,
everybody's a bio hacker.

Everyone's performing
biohacks on a daily basis,

whether they know it or not.

Drinking a coffee
in the morning?

That's kind of biohacking.
Caffeine to stimulate you,

to wake you up, and get you
in this more active state

and be alert and show focus.

But then also if
you go to the gym

and you have
a protein shake after

to help repair and
grow muscular tissue.

If you've ever taken fish oil

to improve your
fatty acid balance,

if you've ever gone out to
the sun to get some vitamin D

or if you're taking a sauna
for just relaxation,

then you've done
biohacking in a way

that you changed the
physiological state of your body

to achieve a particular goal.

Individually,
it is the way of living.

Collectively, it is the
preventive health care system.

In my doctor's office,

I saw a lot of
chronically stressed,

really burned-out patients.

They were running around
from doctor to doctor

without getting any help, and
they eventually

ended up to my appointment.

And what I found out,
that the chronic stress

was the underlying root cause
for multiple health problems.

I've been a serial
technology entrepreneur

for all my life,

and I thought I was
living at my peak

and putting everything
into what I do.

But in the end,
when I turned 30,

I got stress-related illness.

I got an ulcer.
I got some issues.

The stress begins
already from the school.

You have to have, like,
great numbers, better grades.

You have to perform,
and your hobbies

are not really
any more hobbies.

They're, almost,
become like a job.

And it's more
and more demanding.

Even younger and younger
people get stressed,

and the burnouts are actually
real, even for 20 years old.

The roots of the stress
are in the culture.

It's just go, go, go, go, go.

And many of us
get caught in that trap

where we're sort of want
to out-hustle or outperform.

We have to be
productive all the time.

Take care of
your family, workout,

run your business,
take care of your job.

It's about, like,
doing things too much

and too vigorously.

Short-term acute stress
can be good for psychology.

Because let's say
if you're working...

having that mild
stress can actually make

you more productive
and more focused on your work.

When there is too much
short-term stress,

it can actually
become long-term stress,

and it can become
chronic stress.

And that is when people don't
notice that they are stressed.

Chronic stress, that's a--
that's kind of like

a disease or a plague.

That is the number-one reason
for absenteeism from work,

for burnouts and even leading
to many chronic diseases.

So if you're not able to
calm down your body and mind,

you are also
more self-centered.

People who are more stressed,
they have more rumination.

So stress becomes
their way of life.

And when you are
in the mindset

that you don't even notice
of being of stress,

you are not any more mindfully
managing your stress.

People are stressed, and they
don't know how to down-regulate.

They don't know how
to shift down into this

kind of parasympathetic state.

The autonomous nervous system

can be divided into two parts:

the parasympathetic
nervous system

and sympathetic nervous system.

The parasympathetic
nervous system

is the so-called
"rest and digest."

Your heart rate lowers,
your ability to get oxygen in

lowers as well, and you're ready
to digest food and relax.

The sympathetic
nervous system activated state

can be also described
as the fight or flight.

Your heart rate goes up.

Your ability to take oxygen
increases, your ability to get

signals from the environment
through your eyes increases.

So you're basically
running your system

in an overclocked state.

It keeps us in this sort of,
like, awake, alive,

sort of like
survival mode in many ways,

and it's just so draining, and
your nervous system will just--

Eventually, it'll be just
such a wear and tear on you.

It actually reduces
your ability to digest food.

So people who are chronically
stressed out, they often have

gut issues, because they
are not spending enough time

in a parasympathetic
nervous system activated state.

Although your physiological
organism is not under

any considerable, real,
serious source of threat,

your nervous system is still
perceiving the situations

as potential
problems and threats.

The amygdala is one of
the oldest parts of our brain,

and it's called
the "fear center” for a reason,

because it controls all of
the physiological responses

to stress, fear
and, uh, dangers.

So for example,
if you see a-- a snake,

that'll activate the amygdala,
which will activate

your fight and flight
nervous system

and prepare you
for rapid action.

The amygdala is
essential for survival

because it helps us
to react to dangers

and physical threats
much faster,

and it helps to mobilize
all the resources,

gives you the alertness
and energy to escape this harm

and get back into safety.

In the modern world,

amygdala can many times
be mis-alarmed.

Social media, news,
different fears going on.

You know, politicians,
government, things like that.

If there is a phone alarm,

that can also
activate your amygdala

and make your more stressed,
or traffic noise.

So the more the amygdala
gets activated,

the more stress responses
you accumulate.

If it's too much,
too excessive times

the amygdala gets activated,

then also the stress
can become chronic.

What's important is actually
to train our nervous system

to be in and out
of this arousal state.

It's not to not
feel the stress,

it's how to unstress
when you feel stressed

for a longer period of time.

If you look at a dog,
if he hear a knock on the door,

the dog wakes up,
it's like,

It's-- it's in its aggressive,
you know, fight or flight,

it wants to know who's there.
And then a second later,

once it understands
it's no danger,

it'll be back
in the bed, asleep.

So other creatures
are much, much more adept

at switching states
much quicker than us.

Much-- they can switch
everything off, be back asleep,

be back resting
in that rest and digest.

Humans,
we're not so good at that.

Humans in the past faced
primarily stressors of survival.

Nowadays, our stress
is slightly different.

And it's associated
with sleep deprivation,

working too much, social media
and environmental pollution.

However, not all stress is bad.

In fact, we need some stressors
to stay optimally healthy.

For example,
exercise and working out

are fundamentally stressful
to the body.

We're breaking down
muscle tissue

and releasing stress hormones.

But after we recover from it,
we actually get stronger.

On the other hand,
a sedentary lifestyle makes us

more fragile and increases
the risk of many diseases.

So how can we leverage
stress to our advantage?

How can we collaborate
with stress to become

stronger and healthier
versions of ourselves?

Stress can be divided
into three different stages.

First, there is the stressor,

which can be
emotional stressor,

physical stressor,
or even mental stressor.

So it's very useful of
analyzing and becoming aware

of what is actually
causing me the stress.

Because many people
don't even know that.

They are in a high-stress
state all the time,

and they think, for example,
that they are working too much.

But in reality,
there is actually some sort

of background noise

in the workplace that is
causing their nervous system

to be hyper-alarmed
all the time.

It can even be a person.

It can be your working posture.

It can be the air quality
in the workplace.

It can be the travel
to the work.

There are so many
different stressors.

Next state is distress,

which we have
physiological response,

emotional response,
and then it can affect,

also, social functioning.

This is where people
normally become aware

that something's not in balance.

And in this stage,
the most important thing

is the stress management.

The final stage is the burnout,

which means that the stress
has become so prominent

that it causes, like,
very, very clear symptoms

which are, like, deteriorating
your immunity, your mood.

You become
anxious or depressed.

So this final stage of distress

is the hardest to manage.

Anyone who feels
stressed out or burnout

should stop and
assess the situation.

What are the sources of stress?
How are they affecting you?

And if you can
somehow transform them.

What is stressing you out?
What causes your mind and body

to be hyper-alarmed
and-- or bad mood?

Or just, like,
in a fight or flight state?

If you can remove that,
remove that.

If it's a loud noise
in your office,

maybe you can wear
an active noise-cancelling

headphones or earplugs.

If it's a bad air quality,

you can ventilate room more
or get some room plants.

If it's bad ergonomy,

you need to
improve the ergonomy.

If the stressor keeps
appearing in your life,

then the stress
will always be there.

You have sleep issues,
you cannot really rest.

Your fight or flight
nervous system

is all the time active.

And then comes the problems.

You have the heart palpitations,
anxiety, depression,

cardiovascular issues,
high blood pressure and so on.

And all these signs are,
kind of like, alarm for people.

"Hey, hey, hey, stop, stop.
Take-- take it easy."

If your body says,
"I'm stressed, take a break,"

then we should have
the courage to take that break.

Stress does have
a direct impact

on our physical health
and bodies.

However, a lot of the stressors

in our environment
aren't physical.

More often than not,
they're mental and imagined.

This kind of psychological
stress can be as harmful

as physical stress itself.

The brain cannot really
tell if you are imagining

something or if it is
happening in the real life.

It actually doesn't matter
in what situation you're in.

Whether you're in an ice bath,
whether you're in--

You're playing sports,
whether you're writing

a Facebook message and
somebody didn't like it

or somebody has a bad comment,

stress is manifested in the body
in exactly the same way.

Imagining a threat in your head

lights up the same
regions in the brain

as experiencing it
in real time does.

For example, I'm sure that
you've seen a horror movie.

It increases your heart rate,
makes you anxious,

releases stress hormones,
and it feels as if it's real.

But it's not.
At the same time,

your body perceives
as if it is real

and treats it as a threat.

And this all, actually,
boils down to cellular level.

Your cells are not responding
directly to the environment,

but they respond to
the different neurochemicals

and biomedical messengers

that you are releasing
into your bloodstream.

So if you get stressed
and you release things

like cortisol and adrenaline,

your cells will react
to that environment.

When you learn how to
control your mind

and your emotional responses

and your nervous system
reactiveness,

you naturally build
more resilience to stress.

Stress management
is a learn able skill.

There is a split second
in every moment

to decide how you react.

And if you practice
something like meditation

or breathing techniques
where you take a deep breath

before every action,
it enables you a few seconds

to change the way how you
respond to be less reactive.

The frustration can be the
actual thing that damages you,

not the thing that somebody
cut you in the traffic

or a cue, it's your
emotional response to it.

Emotion does not always
have to lead to behavior.

So let's say if something
is frustrating you

or making you angry,

feel that emotion,

and realize that
this is making me upset...

and just let it go.

So better stress management
is better response.

It's all about how
you respond to the emails

and the demands
of other people,

and especially the demands
that you set for yourself.

Every adaptation in the body
is the result of necessity.

If you don't use it,
you lose it.

For example,
let's take muscle.

If you were to be hospitalized

and you aren't able to
move your muscles or exercise,

then eventually those muscles
will begin to deteriorate.

Yeah, I think one of
the funniest ideas that

I picked from Arthur Haynes
and Daniel Vitalis,

these kind of almost
nature-based philosophers,

and they kind of coined this
term-- term, "homo fragilis,"

kind of the wise but
fragile human being.

And I remember
even in my schoolbooks,

they had this future human
that will be very thin.

We don't need muscle mass,
and we just need a lot of hair

in our face to filter
the bad quality air we have.

And kind of this
very dystopian picture

of-- of almost this
alien-like being

that we are short--
sort of becoming.

If you look at
the human being from, let's say,

like, Paleolithic era,
it had much more stronger

bone structure,
much more mas-- muscle mass,

more nutrient intake.

So physiologically,
we've been,

actually
domesticating ourselves.

And-- and that's kind of
the core idea that if we really

want to build the resilience
and stress buffers

and all of these, we are--
we need to really mimic many

of the aspects of our
lifestyles that have been,

you know, evolving
for a very long time.

Because our modern
environment is quite different

from our ancestral environment,

we don't really experience
the same stressors

as we did in the past.

Most people, they don't fast,
they don't experience

the cold and nor the heat.

That's why we may
lose some of our ability

to tolerate those
types of stressors.

The body's constantly trying

to find this state
of efficiency.

That's why it's so important
to keep those pathways open.

That's why we do these
kind of positive stressors

like expose our self
to the cold, like fasting,

like sauna, a physical workout,
and, you know,

lifting weights,
things like that.

If we don't keep
those pathways open,

the body doesn't
have a use for those,

and it diverts
the energy elsewhere.

The ability to adapt
is essential for survival,

because the environment
is always going to be

challenging us in some way

and exposing us
to various stressors.

If we think about decades back,
we had very different means

for survival or skills
that we needed.

We actually needed
to survive with hunting food

and learning
to build a shelter.

In today's society,

we don't have to worry
about survival that much.

We have food everywhere,
and we have shelter,

and we have all of this
kind of hedonistic pleasures

that we can go after.
It's more about the question

how to stay healthy and
happy during our lifespan.

Our modern environment
is quite different

from our ancestral environment.

But at the same time,
our bodies are still the same

bodies that we had in the past.

So we have this
evolutionarily jet lag,

so to say,
that we have this primal bodies,

but we live in a modern world.

And this can cause
some, uh, incoherence.

It's so convenient
to just drive through,

order the burger.

It's so easy to scoop
a few candies in a bag,

weigh it up and out you go.

There's fast food
all around us.

We might feel sad, or we might
want some comfort food.

We reach for the sugar,
we reach for candies.

And these might make us
feel good or feel happy

or feel alert
or alive or, like,

hyperactive for
a little bit of time,

but there's always the crash.
And then what are you gonna do?

You're gonna go back and
find the same thing again,

because you want to chase
the dragon of that high

or that emotional feeling.

The reason why
we like sugary things,

why we like chocolate,
why we like sex is that

it gives us a feeling of rewards
and releases this dopamine.

And that's actually why we have
SO many sick people today.

They find bad behavioral
patterns and they just keep--

They're-- They're trapped
in those vicious cycles.

The dopamine,
the chocolate, the smartphone,

those are not the issues.

The issue is our inability
to control our own behavior.

It's almost like
the set of skills that we need

in today's society
is reverse than of those

that we needed decades ago
when we actually

had to have the dopamine
to go after these things.

Now we have to use
more of these sort of

cognitive inhibition skills
that every time we see

a food cue or
social media announcement,

that we won't
be rushing to them

because this will
create a stress loop;

every time we get something,

we feel like
we need to respond to that.

What kind of cues
are actually leading

to the habits for
you to get the reward?

Becoming aware.
Let's say you see,

like, a friend,
and you immediately think,

"Okay, let's grab a beer,"
or something like that.

Or you go into a certain place
which has a certain smell,

like a smell of a cookie
or something like that.

And you immediately--
You don't even think,

"Let's take the cookie."
And when you learn to see

and be mindful about
these different cues,

you are actually being able to
change these, if you would like.

I like, actually,
biohacking in general

because it's not like ideology,

it's not like
a religion or philosophy.

It's like a toolbox.

And there's this
community of biohackers.

They just bring all
the tools in one, this box,

and you can take whatever
tool you want out of this box.

You know, you have this friend's
pizza party, beer party.

You don't, kind of, restrict
yourself because you know

you have tools available,
SO you go and eat this pizza.

You drink this beer, which
is of course, no good for you.

But because of the friends,
of socializing,

you still do that.

So what I do in these cases--

And there are family gatherings
and things like that--

I know that Mondays are
always the empty days for me.

And I know that
I can recover by doing this.

Also adding to the fasting,
Wim Hof breathing technique

that optimizes your immunity,

your healing processes
that already happen.

Combining those two things
is so powerful

so that you really
can allow yourself

to indulge into these unhealthy
foods from time to time.

I consider lifestyle
as a kind of a system,

and I like that system
90% of the time.

And 10% of the time,
I just go with the flow.

If I go out with friends
and they have beers,

and, you know,
I join them and I drink a beer.

And I drink,
you know, a glass of wine,

and maybe two glasses of wine.

If you apply
the rule of 80/20 or 90/10,

then you can enjoy
all the moments in life

and go back the next day,
applying your system again

so that you still stay
healthy and can enjoy life.

We have been taught that
we should eat multiple times

per day to keep the
"metabolism up," so to speak.

But what it actually does,
it is spiking the blood glucose

and also the insulin
multiple times per day.

You can think it like this:
The more often you spike

the blood glucose and insulin,

your body eventually
becomes resistant to it.

The same thing also happens
when you have multiple

stressors throughout the day.

You secrete cortisol
and then the receptors

actually receiving the hormones,
they become resistant.

They are like,
"Ah, enough of this,"

and then you need to
secrete even more and more.

This is kind of
a snowball effect

which eventually
can lead to diabetes

and also the chronic stress.

Before
someone develops diabetes,

they usually live
years with prediabetes.

Prediabetes is a serious
health condition where blood

sugar levels are higher
than normal but not high enough

yet to be diagnosed
as type two diabetes.

It's more common
than you would think.

For example,
more than one in three

Americans have prediabetes.

Different foods affect
blood sugar levels differently.

For example, simple sugars
and carbs will spike

your blood sugar levels
much more than protein and fat.

You can check each
food's glycemic index,

which tells you how the food
impacts blood sugar levels.

The higher the number,
the bigger the impact.

So generally,
it's a good idea to aim

for lower glycemic index foods.

Instead of always
taking the banana,

go with less sugary,
like green kiwi.

That's a better option.

Instead of eating
a huge amount of fruit,

go with berries.

Changing your eating habits
is also as crucial as

changing the actual food.

Let's say you have a-- like,
a hamburger and a Coke.

It takes you five minutes.
Thousand calories, boom.

You don't even
realize that you have

some so-called "food"
in your system.

When you're stressed out,
your body is more prone

to storing the calories
that you eat as body fat

because
the stressed-out response

is going to shut down digestion.

So the longer time you actually
spend with the food,

the better
the digestion also works.

Take at least 20 minutes
for the eating and do not use

laptop or watch TV
and stimulate yourself.

Concentrate on the eating.
Be mindful about the eating.

If you talk about
the nutrition and the diets

in the whole world,
there is only one thing that

is common in all
continents, every religion,

every population,
and it's fasting.

It's-- it's exactly this
part where you don't eat.

The first thing
that people think about

when they hear fasting
is starvation.

You know, truth of the matter
is that it's very hard

for humans to starve
if they just skip breakfast,

because we carry thousands
and thousands of calories

in our adipose tissue
all the time with us.

And in order to actually
reach the starvation state,

we would have to fast for days
and days, even, like, weeks.

Back in the old days, the
hunter-gatherers running around,

and, you know,
maybe they're successful.

Maybe they find the Kill,
they find the meat.

But then what happens in between
if they're unsuccessful?

So humans are actually able
to survive without food

for long periods of time.

Fasting has helped humans
to survive before we've had

access to
supermarkets and refrigerators.

In fact, during evolution,
individuals whose brains

and bodies functioned
well in a fasted state

were successful
in acquiring food,

enabling
the survival and reproduction.

If you're not used to any
forms of intermittent fasting,

then you will experience
higher levels of hunger

and discomfort
when you do skip a meal.

It's not necessarily
caused by the fasting

or the skipping of the meal.

It's just caused
by your body's inability

to tolerate this
type of a stressor.

So if you were to
practice intermittent fasting

on a regular basis,
then you will just build up

your body's ability to tolerate
this kind of a stress response.

And you will also become
just more robust and stronger

against various
nutrition-related stressors.

During the fasting time

you actually heal your body.

You actually increase your
potential. You get stronger.

You get mind focus.

There are lots of benefits
that you get just by fasting

for, let's say,
12 hours, 16 hours, 20 hours,

maybe even five to seven days.

Fasting is another example of
this hormetic stressors that,

in moderation and
in small amounts,

will elicit a positive
response in the body.

In addition to the health
benefits, intermittent fasting

is also very practical
in this modern society

where we're surrounded
by food all the time.

And is especially useful
if you're, like, traveling,

you don't have access
to good-quality food.

You can just skip a few meals
and say to yourself that you are

doing some fasting and getting
some health benefits from it.

There are many
different types of fasting,

but they all follow
the same principle,

which entails
restricting the eating window.

Probably the easiest
way to start fasting

is delaying breakfast
or having an early dinner.

One of the key
nutrients your body uses

to deal with
stress is magnesium.

Magnesium is important
for regulating the autonomic

nervous system
and relaxation as well.

But the problem is that
stress depletes magnesium

by activating
the sympathetic nervous system.

And on top of that, we don't
get that much magnesium

from our food either, because
of soil depletion, erosion,

and just food processing
and eating a poor diet.

The amount of micro nutrients
in the foods have been

downward trending
for the past 50 years

and actually even accelerating
in the past 15 years.

So most people are
needing extra magnesium.

They're not necessarily,
like, highly deficient,

but they are
functionally deficient,

which means that they
are not getting the optimum

amount for their bodies.

This is not something
that you can just scan yourself

and feel you lack it or not.

You have to do the lab test.

The first step is to go
with eating whole foods.

Not processed foods,

not foods with the long label
of different ingredients,

and go with foods that
are nutrient dense.

That is the best way to fix any
deficiencies in micro nutrients.

Liver is like
a natural multivitamin.

It contains most of the vitamins
and minerals your body needs.

Another good example
is the egg yolk.

What we did to our environment,

we pretty much did to our--
our intestines, in essence.

I think one of
the biggest problems

for our gut health has been,

of course,
all the processed food.

We often think about those
just as, like, "Well,

there's probably a bit too
much sugar or carbohydrates,"

but we don't think
them at the level of,

are you feeding
the bad bacteria in your gut?

Or are you, basically,

if I'd have a soil
and I'm a farmer.

I love that stuff, like,
hands-on thinking about

"How do I enrich this soil
so I can plant seeds there

that are strong and bigger"
and all that.

So if you think about
your gut as this soil

and you're basically
throwing just, like,

shitty pesticides
and all of that in there,

you're pretty much
getting very, very weak plants.

So that's kind of the metaphor
that we haven't thought about,

many kind of semi-unhealthy
foods at the level of,

how does this sweetener,
for example,

affect the gut bacteria?

Does it feed the good stuff
or does it feed the bad stuff?

And I remember one of
the classic studies

was this one professor
who fed his son

just McDonald's diet,
and it basically cut out 40%

of the bacterial
diversity from his gut.

And I think that's just
a good idea to keep in mind that

when we go a bit deeper
from the macro nutrients

and protein and carbs
and this and that

into the world of bacteria.

Then you need to start
to think about, like,

what else is in the food
that's affecting the soil?

If we feed
that soil with more life,

that life expresses itself
with more complexity.

And complexity means
more neural connections,

more new ideas
and this and that.

So I think it's fascinating
that we kind of

are going in the right
direction, at least.

We are not
simplifying it into specific

ingredients that
are anti-inflammatory,

for example, and
supporting high performance.

We are basically
looking at diversity

and how that supports
resilience and your health

and connectivity
to the environment around you.

There are many ways that
you can be more connected

with your local food supply.

For example,
going to the farmer's market

and buy produce
that grows in your region.

Or, go pick some mushrooms
and berries in the forest.

Growing your own herbs
and plants at home is also

a pretty good alternative.

Most people today are
living in city environments.

We basically lost something
that can be considered

in medical terms
as "homeostasis,"

that you are in a healthy
balance with different aspects

and different systems
in your environment.

In a modern environment,
people lose that balance.

They lose connection
to themselves.

They lose connection with
the very immediate environment.

They lose connection
to their true nature

as what it means to be,
for example, human.

And this is what
causes many of the imbalances

that lead to chronic disease.

Often when people go camping,

they are like astronauts
going to space.

They have all this gear,
you know?

They have backpacks
full of things.

They have camping gear.

They have all kinds
of survival gear

as if they have lost connection
to their true selves.

But they actually
are part of nature.

We are so disconnected,
we are so alienated

from our true nature
that we need all

this protective equipment
to keep nature away from us.

If you spend some time
in nature, step by step,

you start to learn
and see that you need

less and less and less
of equipment and things,

that the environment can
actually fulfill everything

you need in terms of food,
in terms of shelter,

in terms of survival.

But very few people nowadays
know how to do that.

People often forget
many of these principles.

But when they get
to a crisis like a pandemic

or a lockdown,
that is when they suddenly

want to be in nature,
that is suddenly when

they want to learn
to be self-sustainable.

That's when they suddenly
want to learn to hunt,

to gather their own wealth
from nature.

Your environment dictates
the default state of your mind.

The more time you spend
in a particular environment,

the more used to it
you're going to get.

For example, if you've never
been in a noisy city before,

then at first,
it's gonna be pretty stressful

and create some anxiety.

But after a while,
you're gonna get used to it

and you barely even
notice all the noise,

the bright lights, traffic,
and all the other distractions.

If you take a wild animal
from its natural habitat

and put it into a zoo, what
we want to do is, of course,

give kind of the
proper nutrition that

that species eats in its
wild environment and kind of

"hack the environment"
to suit its needs.

And now, when we've
done that as a human beings

and we've-- we now living
indoors for quite a while

and we still have this
innate gravitation towards

the environment that we
grew up in for literally

a few hundred
thousand years, at least.

So I think that's itself
very stressful.

Spending time in nature
is pretty relaxing.

I think a lot of people
can attest to that.

As humans, we've evolved to be
in nature most of the time.

And it does have, like, a
direct effect on our physiology

as well as our psychology.

And research has found that
this kind of "forest bathing,"

as it's called,
has many health benefits.

Like, it lowers stress
hormones, relaxes the mind,

lowers inflammation,
lowers, actually, the stress,

and other similar benefits.

Once you escape
the city environment

and you go to a forest,
for example,

you are actually exposed to

a wide variety
of different bacteria,

fungus and so on in the air.

And that supports your immunity,

it stimulates it in
a beneficial way.

Everything is very sterile

in the modern environment,
so to say.

So we're afraid of pathogens,
we're afraid of bacteria,

we're afraid of viruses.

But the truth is that
we need those things.

We need those bacteria because,
like, our own bodies

are made of trillions
and trillions

of different
non-human life forms.

And they help us
to digest our food,

they help us to produce energy,

they help us to keep
our immune system strong.

We have two immune systems.

One is the innate immune system,
the one that we're born with.

The second one is
the adaptive immune system,

which is the one we build up
throughout our lifetime

based upon what kind of
exposure we experience

and what kind of lifestyle
habits we have.

So imagine if we are living in
a very sterile environment.

We use a bunch of
chemicals, detergents,

disinfectants all the time,

then we may end up doing
ourselves a disservice

by weakening
our adaptive immune system.

Everyone knows that trees
and plants help us to breathe.

So they produce oxygen for us
but they also have some other

quite beneficial effects

in terms of secreting
these essential oils

and other particles into
the air that we can inhale.

And that in turn can again
strengthen our immune system

as well as improve
our respiration.

So we need to kind of

expose ourselves to
these kinds of ingredients

as our immune system
needs to adapt to them.

If we were to
completely avoid all

different viruses and pathogens
and bacteria and ingredients,

then our immune system would
kind of get weaker in a way,

because we don't get
the reference experience

and we don't get the exposure.

In a city environment,

you have to bring nature
into your apartment.

For example, you can use

air purifying plants
and filtration technologies.

You can use essential oils
and in the end,

using things like
red-light panels

and so on if you don't have
access to direct sunlight.

Most of the biohacking tools,
funnily enough,

are kind of band-aids
to try to mimic--

Mimic those very comforting
and kind of calming effects

that how we grew up,
like, evolutionarily.

Most of these
technologies are beneficial

for a modern man living
in concrete environments.

But once you escape
that concrete jungle,

you don't need
a lot of these technologies

because you can be already
in your natural habitat.

You have to understand
that your best work

happens when you are
healthy, alert,

and ready to do
what you need to do.

If you are tired,
if you are sleep-deprived,

if you are not a nice person
to be around with

because you are so stressed
and you are reactive,

you are not going to do
your best work.

The way how you find balance
between work and health

starts by understanding
that most growth

doesn't happen when
you stimulate something.

When you go to the gym,
your muscle doesn't grow

when you stimulate the muscle,

it grows when you are resting.

Similarly, when you learn
something, you read a book,

the stimulus,
what happens in that situation,

is not what leads to learning,

but it's actually
when you sleep.

In a similar way,
the most effective work

is a result of
adequate recovery.

I'm always saying to people,
"Work hard, rest harder."

So it's not only
about looking at

how you interact
with your tools,

like having a standing desk
or a saddle chair

or ergonomic keyboard

and the monitor at
the right height and level.

But you also look at
how you recover,

how you sleep cognitively.

People have built up different
protocols and tools

like the Pomodoro technique,
where you are working

and aiming to work 20 minutes
focused on one thing,

or one task at a time.

And what is key for
getting us many moments

of focused attention
in your work day

is actually the breaks that
you hold between those sessions.

The problem is that
there's only a certain amount

of information our brain can
hold before it gets tired.

The same applies to, like,
running and lifting weights.

You need to take a break
and you need to recover.

So if your brain is
constantly stimulated,

if you're constantly working,
you're constantly thinking,

you're focusing hard,
then it's not going to allow

all this information to set in,

and you're gonna get
tired eventually.

Sometimes the most
productive thing

you could do is to take a break.

Instead of just sitting in front
of your computer all day long,

you have a break where you
get a little bit of movement,

you change the environment,

you look at the completely
different thing.

Maybe you focus
on the horizon,

maybe you focus on
the short distance,

maybe you move
your body a little bit.

That often actually leads to
more creative ideas to come up.

Most people think of
high-performance culture

and work in terms of
putting as many hours in

of "effective" time
that they can.

But many studies in
the last few years have noticed

that actually people get more
done and they're more productive

if they do less
but more effectively.

I usually only work, like,
five to six hours per day.

Efficiency is doing things
in an efficient way

while effectiveness
is doing the right things.

It's not about the hours
that you put in

but the way how you do those
hours that matters.

Humans are performing
at their best

when they spend more time
in a flow state.

What happens,
your prefrontal cortex

that basically analyzes
what you do, shuts down

and you just lose yourself
and lose sense of time.

And you're just so focused
in the work that you do.

You're not distracted
by anything else.

You're not doing
any social media

when you're creating content
and writing

or creating a presentation,

you're blocking out things.

The key here is ultimate mastery

of mindfulness and meditation.

And meditation
actually increases

the capability of being focused

in the present moment and being

totally immersed
in what you're doing.

The hippocampus is the learning
center of the brain.

It's an area
that activates every time

you learn new information

or you memorize something.

Meditation increases the
activation in the hippocampus

and help you
to consolidate the memories

that you have learned.

I still remember
the day that I realized

that I've never lived
in the present moment.

And that was,
kind of like a shock.

Actually,
we have this now moment!

And I've been either
in the past or in the future

or thinking about the future
or rushing things

that I'm doing,
"Okay, next thing."

So learning to be in the now
and being mindful

about your own life
is-- is the key here.

And then you can extend that
into meditation practice.

And it's, you know,
it's not just for women.

I started thinking about
my nervous system

and my stress levels in every
single concept in my life

and how can I reduce that stress
accumulating to my body?

And one of the biggest thing
that really aid me

with migraines was meditation.

If you just imagine a threat...

You will alarm your nervous
system,

you will get that fight
or flight state.

Likewise, if you just imagine
a nice, calm beach

or the presence of your loved
ones or a positive moment,

your brain will react to
that as if it were happening.

We can see a correlation between

the years of meditation
and amygdala size.

In some studies, those who have
meditated for a long time

also have a smaller amygdala
which means that by default,

they are less reactive
to external fear signals.

Creating more space
between your thoughts

and your reactions

and you can
actually become aware

of different kind of
thoughts you have.

And they're not necessarily
your thoughts,

they are just thoughts

chattering you a little bit
then they go away.

And if you're not attaching
to these thoughts,

you become more free person.

Meditation alters the brain
structure and the function

and can help in managing
nervous system

and stress responses.

How quickly you can change
your emotional state,

how well you can be present
for your family,

for your co-workers
or just be present in the life.

So that needs a little bit of
effort and the quantification,

it's not that obvious as, like,

muscle growth
that you can actually see.

The whole modern idea
of exercise

with gym memberships
and so on is flawed.

If you think of modern man
and how we work nowadays,

we sit for long periods of time
in front of our computers.

We are basically physiologically
and biomechanically

in a form that is not natural

and doesn't
come naturally to us.

If you are inactive, long
periods of time during the day,

what happens is your
lymphatic flow doesn't move.

When you look at the human
body, the heart is a pump

that pumps nutrients and blood
all around the body, and oxygen.

Now, the lymphatic system
doesn't have a pump.

What it requires is
some kind of movement.

It requires you to use your body
and your skeletal system

and some gravity also by keeping
your feet on the ground.

That is key for
making sure that your body

is functioning optimally.

Those people who are
metabolically active

throughout the day
but don't incorporate

any specific movement
or exercise

or hobbies into their day
are actually healthier

and have lower all cause
mortality compared to those

who are stagnant and don't move

pretty much eight
to 10 hours per day

and after work, they do all
the exercise or in the evenings.

Sitting all day and
then going for hard exercise

isn't the best way
of going about it.

You should want to focus more
on doing this lower intensity

exercise and movement
throughout the day.

Like walking, it's one of my
favorite forms of moving myself.

And it doesn't put
that much stress on the body.

And you can recover
from it faster.

So it's very important to have

these regular movement breaks
throughout the day, spread out.

A term that has been used
about this type of exercise

is, "Grease the groove."
Instead of going to the gym

for one hour a few times a week,

you're actually incorporating

a few minutes of exercise
throughout the day.

Some people,
when they have online meetings,

they run on a treadmill,
for example.

Some people are doing stretches

while they are
on online meetings.

Walking in a forest,
in uneven territory,

is better than
just having walks.

So basically, making it
slightly more difficult to move,

to use your physical environment
like our original ancestors did,

that is probably
the best thing to think about

when you are thinking of
movement at the workplace--

"How can I move
in my working environment

and do things that maybe
our ancestors did

in an environment
that was not built

like modern concrete
office environments?"

Not 10,000 steps a day, but 500,
maybe 1,000 steps an hour.

Don't take elevators.
Take stairs and walk.

You don't have to go to the gym.

Just take your groceries
and bring them carrying home.

In a city environment,

if you get exposed
to environmental pollution,

tobacco smoke and so on,

you may want to consider
using nutritional supplements

and interventions
that speed up the removal

of some of this source
of pollution.

We get heavy metals
and different chemicals

and toxins accumulating
in our fat tissue.

Sweating is one of the primary

detoxification pathways
of the human body.

And you can speed up extraction
of potential pollutants

by sweating and using
traditional means like a sauna.

There's a couple
of different types of fat.

There's the stored fat,
which is white fat.

It's, like,
excess energy in the body.

And that's, kind of like,
what we walk around with.

Your body kind of conserves that
SO we can maybe use that later.

Brown fat is something
that's stimulated

at about 14 to 16 degrees.

So brown fat
breaks down white fat stores

and uses that as energy.

This is why
you can, kind of, like,

grow more and more accustomed
to the cold temperatures.

And you can actually
regulate your own temperature

a lot more efficiently.

What happens when you
go into the cold,

you can train your nervous
system to get more flexible.

The cold water
is always the same.

The only variable is you.

Your mood, your state

can be different
on a day-to-day basis

but the lake or the Baltic Sea,

the temperature
remains constant.

The cold is, kind of,
a more righteous kind of thing.

That's why it's like a mirror:

It shows you who you are
on that particular day

in that particular
moment in time.

When you go into the cold, your
body can get this-- this signal

that you are gonna die,
you really are gonna die.

But this controlled stress,

when you apply slower exhale
than the inhale,

you actually
train your nervous system

that even though
outside is cold,

you still are in
a calm position, calm mode.

Once you do that,
maybe it doesn't help.

Twice you do that,
it helps already better.

If you apply that regularly,
you get stronger.

I started
to do cold exposure because

of my Finnish colleagues.

They have these,
kind of like, little rituals,

Christmas parties
and things like that.

And every year
they would basically ask me

to come to the sauna,
which was okay.

Actually, once you get used
to taking your clothes off

with Finnish people,
it became okay.

But then everywhere
you have a sauna,

you basically have
a body of water.

I couldn't escape it. They were
always interested

to see the Australian guy
go into the cold water.

After about
three of these parties,

I decided that, okay,
I'm gonna show these guys

that I can do this.

I made every mistake
in the book, but,

I learned very quickly.

And then, when that next
Christmas party came,

I was ready to go.
And I kind of got in there

and these guys were,
like, literally filming me

with these Nokia cameras.
And they were, like,

amazed that
the Australian guy was like,

"He can do it now,
he can do it."

The joke became
a little less funny

when they realized that they had
to beat the Australian guy

in the cold and outdo his time.

I like to push my boundaries.

That'd be,
like, a dip in the ice water

or very hard sauna system,

something that's
feeling uncomfortable.

And then, when you overcome
the uncomfortability,

that makes you feel that
you're actually alive

and you're actually
accomplished something.

Yeah, cold exposure has
SO many unique benefits.

You can become
more resilient towards the cold

and different temperatures
in your body.

I started to realize that also,
I wasn't getting sick.

My immune system
was being boosted by this.

As it stands, I've not been
sick for about nine years

since I've been doing
this thing here in Finland.

There is research
to show that winter swimmers

have higher levels
of glutathione

and glutathione
is the body's main

master antioxidant
defense system.

So whenever you are
practicing some cold exposure

then your body up-regulates
its own defense systems

and boosts the immune system.

I know that if I eat candy
or something like this,

I eat the candy. I regret it,
like, 20 minutes later.

And then, I'm like,

"Okay, I don't want to do that
again for another month

until maybe I'll do it again."

With the cold exposure,
it's something that

kind of keeps drawing me back.

There's this just, like,
this amazing feeling

that you can, kind of,
feel it inside your body.

And it's sort of, like,
trying to escape, you know?

I had so much success with it
that I even decided to build

my own ice bath at home.

And each morning
I jump into my ice bath

and after that,
you feel amazing.

With cold exposure,
if you're going out for, like,

an ice bath or if
you're going to nature,

you only need to go
two minutes once a week.

That's all you need to do
to get this full effect.

Where the brown fat's
being produced,

you're actually getting
those happy hormones.

Your immune system is,
kind of, being rebalanced

and reset during this process.

So it's only two minutes.

It's very, very possible.
It's very easy.

Every single time
I go into the water,

I experience the same cold.

It's just that I'm okay with it.

It's important
to understand that

being cold is just a feeling,

it's just a signal that
your body sends to your brain

telling you
it's dangerous to be there.

But if you take it
just as a signal

that tries to
communicate you something,

the same with fasting.

If you get this starvation,

you know, this hunger,
it's just a feeling,

it's just the signal
that tries to tell you

to survive, you need to eat.

To survive, there's one point

you need to get out
of this cold water.

So just take it as a signal.

Maybe you just step aside
and ask yourself,

"How do I feel in this moment?"

Just to try to do this objective
assessment of your whole body.

And you will love it.

Everyone is,
more or less, very aware

how our thoughts
affect our bodies.

We can, you know, feel the
butterflies in our stomachs

when we're nervous
or something like that.

But, on the other hand, I think
that

often times if you eat,
for example, shitty food,

you might not realize
how much it affects

your mental state because,
of course, the vague nerve

and everything
communicates all the time.

Your body and your brain
are interconnected

and that's pretty much
what we are,

kind of,
trying to crack and hack

here in
the biohacking community.

There are a lot of
signals coming into our brain

in terms of thoughts
because of the financials,

because the relationships
with other people,

because of the job, because of
many, many different things

that is on your plate.

To do lists are very long.

So there is no time to stop
and think to yourself,

to scan your body,
to understand what's going on.

So that's easy to actually
confuse those two things,

like, for instance, gluten.

I know that gluten
is not good for me

because when I go to my mother's
and she makes a pancake

out of the normal wheat,
I eat two pancakes.

My stomach feels like
I had eaten 100 pieces.

And that's
the difference I know.

Usually, I would have
thought that it's just,

I ate too many of them,
you know, because I like them.

Now, I eat two
and I feel the same thing.

Well, maybe it's gluten

and maybe it's my leaky gut
or something like that.

But to be able
to understand those signals

that your body's
trying to tell you,

you need to stop,
you need to pay attention,

you need to step aside

and asking this question,
"How do I feel?"

It's one of the best ways
how to actually get back

to the connected with
your deeper self.

And what's interesting
with biohacking,

why do we use a lot of gadgets
and tools and things like that?

It's because
technology made us weak

and technology may
a little bit help us

make strong again
and understand ourselves better.

So we have
some incredible technology

that can help guide us,
that can give us information.

It can tell us what's happening
inside of our veins,

what the condition
of our blood is.

But at the end of the day,
that's just a guide

you have to listen to it.
You can use that as a way

to understand yourself
and understand your own systems.

If you're looking
to improve your health

through self-tracking,

probably the best way to start
would be measuring your sleep.

You will see how exercise,
food and lifestyle choices

affect your sleep.

Another great tool is
a continuous glucose monitor

which tells you how
metabolically flexible you are

and how your body reacts
to different kinds of foods.

So in a nutshell,
it doesn't really matter how...

hard you train or how well
you eat if you sleep like shit.

Stress and sleep
are closely linked.

Stress can adversely affect
sleep quality and duration.

While insufficient sleep
can increase stress levels.

Both stress and lack of sleep

can lead to lasting physical
and mental health problems.

Sleep is like
building block and the first,

most important bio hack

for controlling stress levels
and the nervous system.

During sleep, there are
actually many processes

going on in the body.

In the first hours of the night,
you get more deep sleep

and later in the night
you get more REM sleep.

During deep sleep,
the brain is detoxifying

from harmful substances.

If you don't get
that deep sleep,

there will be more toxins

circulating in
your nervous system,

which obviously keeps
the nervous system

in a higher stress state.

If you want to, let's say, gain
muscle mass and gain strength,

you need to have a certain
amount of deep sleep.

In deep sleep,
you actually grow.

During REM sleep,

the nervous system
is recovering.

And if you don't get that REM,

your nervous system is
SO much more reactive next day.

One night of bad sleep,
it's not a disaster

but when you have another
one and another one

and then it's actually chronic,
everything changes.

Your metabolism changes,
you become crave more glucose

and sugars and carbohydrates.
You make bad decisions.

It's harder to concentrate.

And the quality of the life
is much worse.

For all people,
lack of sleep increases

the amygdala
hyperactivity.

So if you don't sleep,

your nervous system
is even more alarmed.

And I know that from,
like, way too well.

Let's say I have had, like,
a full 24-hour shift in the E.R.

I was working all night
and I was really like, go nuts.

I was craving, like, this junk,
highly saturated food.

So the deprivation in sleep,
it messes up

with the normal
physiological mechanisms.

Meditative techniques can be
used to help with insomnia.

So to fall asleep faster,

learn how to relax,
progressively relax

all your muscles

so that you get
into deeper relaxation

and change the brain activation

so that you get into
these deeper brain waves.

What I did, I reduced
dramatically my workload.

I switched the job from
an easier one. No night shifts.

Began actually sleeping more,

began spending
more time in the bed,

having more relaxing time.

The problem with sleep is that

when you don't
wake up during the night,

it doesn't count as good sleep.

Actually, lots of people
think that they sleep well,

but they really don't.

That's where technology
has a role to play

because if you're not measuring,
you're not tracking,

you're not getting that data
and not seeing the real,

like, the real situation,
then you'll never actually know.

With technology,
we can make small adjustments

on a day-by-day basis

and improve the quality
of the sleep.

Things like sleep hygiene,
the temperature of the room.

What's the half life of coffee
and caffeine in your system?

You can adjust
these things real time

and you'll find the results--
You'll see the results

through the technology, through
the data, through measuring.

So I'm basically using

all kinds of
tracking technologies

to track how
my nervous system is doing,

how my sleep quality is doing.

And even in a city environment,

although I might feel rested
and my data looks okay,

when I go to nature, there is
a distinguishable difference

in the way how I feel
and how recovered I feel

after a good night's sleep.

And it also reflects
on the data.

I get lower heart rate, I get
higher heart rate variability.

I get more deep sleep

and also lower blood pressure
when I'm in nature.

And I don't need any technology

to feel that, I can feel it
with my body much more directly

than in a city environment

where I might need
technologies like this

to tell me how I feel.

There's a few components here.

One of them is
you are less exposed to EMF,

so there's less interference
with your brainwave patterns

on your physiological processes.

And the other thing that happens

is also
your body temperature drops

much more during night time

because it's
in sync with nature.

In city environments,
we are basically,

constantly in
tropical environments

around 24 or 25 degrees Celsius.

But in nature,
there is natural variation.

And when you go to sleep,

your body temperature
naturally also drops.

And environmental temperature,

when that drops alongside
with your body temperature,

that is what
we are actually adapted to.

That is what is good for us.

Now, you can also drop your
body temperature artificially

by using mattresses that are
moving away heat from your body.

And in my home,
I actually use a device

that is cooling
my body with a mattress

by circulating cold water in it.

Another thing that I would do

is to avoid eating
too late in the evening.

Because, when you eat something

that is
a highly metabolic activity,

your body converts
your nutrients into energy.

And it's a thermogenic process

that increases
your body temperature as well.

Melatonin is a hormone
that we often relate to sleep

and it has also other effects.

It's not just that
it promotes sleep

but it also improves recovery.

So your body actually
increases its recovery rate

when you have melatonin
circling in your system.

And what you don't want to do is
to delay melatonin release

in the evening by being exposed
to artificial source of light.

In the evening,
you should dim the lights,

you should go more towards
the red light,

which is like
the natural sunset light

and not have any bright lights,

especially not the blue light

because it's blocking
the melatonin production.

Blue light is not your enemy

but the amount of it

and what periods of time
of the day you get it.

So in the morning hours,
you actually do want to get

some blue light
because it helps you

to synchronize
your biological clock.

The circadian rhythm
is where all of our organs

and basically our body and
the systems inside of our bodies

are kind of in alignment
and in accordance

with the nature
and our surroundings.

The circadian rhythms control

almost every aspect
of our physiology,

starting with the metabolism,
digestion of food,

hormones and cognition even.

We actually have this clock.

Usually,
the alertness is highest

in the morning
and mid-morning.

You have your best reaction time
about two, three p.m.

Your strength and power
is at the highest,

about four to five p.m.
and so on.

So you have different
kind of systems active

at different points of time.

Probably the best example
of the circadian rhythms

is the diurnal rhythm of
cortisol, the stress hormone,

and melatonin,
the sleep hormone.

In the morning when we wake up,

cortisol is supposed
to give us energy

and energize ourselves
for the rest of the day.

Whereas,
in the evening, melatonin

is supposed to make us drowsy

and promote better recovery
for the night ahead.

The best way to synchronize

your biological clock

is to have really
bright lights in the morning.

And the best way, of course, is
the sunlight, the natural light.

And when you don't have that,
you going to have problems.

And in Finland,
in the winter time,

it's kind of hard
to get the natural light

because it's very dark,
usually in the morning.

So I might use something like
a blue light in the morning,

like daylight lamp
or glasses like this

to give my brain
the signal that now it's day.

And the earlier I do it,
the better.

If your body's
circadian rhythms are aligned

with the circadian rhythms
of the environment,

then it's easier
to stay healthy.

Your body experiences less
stress and less inflammation.

Now in the evening,

you don't want to be too exposed

to blue wavelengths of light

but you want
to actually block it.

And you want to get more of
the longer wavelengths of light

that are related to sunset.

If you are the kind of person

who stays up
much later than others,

then that's the result of just
your habits and lifestyle

and not necessarily
the result of your genetics

or physiological blueprint.

If you were to go to nature,
like for camping,

you would hit this reset button
for your circadian rhythms

because chances are
you'll just fall asleep

when the sun goes out

and you'll wake up
with the sunrise.

And when that rhythm of your day
and the life gets messed up,

everything gets messed up.

Misalignment with
the circadian rhythms

is going to promote disease.

Shift work is actually
considered a carcinogen.

It's essentially because
of this misalignment

from the circadian rhythms.

There is a lot
of research showing

that disrupted circadian rhythms
can cause many imbalances

and chronic diseases
in the body.

However,
we don't need to become cavemen

in order to stay healthy.

So here are a few easy tips

of how to keep
your circadian cycles aligned.

Go outside.
Expose yourself to daylight.

Consume food
when the sun is out.

Install blue light
reducing apps.

And sleep in complete darkness.

Imagine you are in a supermarket
and having a budget,

50 euros.

You walk around and you see
for all the goods,

there are no price tags.

But you get those goods in the
basket, and go to the cashiers.

And cashier says,

"Oh, sorry, you
have goods here for 100 euros,"

and that's a problem. And that's
the same with the health.

If you go with friends

eating pizza and drinking beer
and being up all night long,

you know it costs you something.

And it will cost you something.

Because we know the end result
is such that in Latvia,

the average lifespan is 75.

Healthspan is 55 years.

So imagine what happens
in these 20 years.

People live in misery, walking
from one doctor to another,

popping pills and living
a really, really bad life.

And it's only
because they didn't know

what the price tags were.

What amazes me each time
that I talk to other people

and I discover that
there is a disconnect

between what they do
with their body

and what they expect
from their body.

One way or the other, they...

they are not aware that
it's just the one body you get.

And you should do it all
your life with that one body.

And if you damage your body
during your lifetime,

then you'll know for sure
that you have problems

when you get older.

And when you take care
of that one body

that you get from the start

and you give it
the right maintenance,

and you know,
and the right inputs,

then you can expect
the right output.

And then, you can be healthy
for the rest of your time.

I don't need
to become 180 years old.

That's not necessary for me.

For me,
it's all about healthspan.

So I want to stay healthy
as long as possible

and then drop dead.

The reason why
people are burned out--

More than 70% of people feel

disengaged
or actively disengaged

from the work that they do.

So this is on one hand.

On the other hand,
is that people's own life goals,

the meaning of life are not
properly set for themselves.

I've never-- I've never seen
anybody have a burnout

when they're really
doing something

they're so passionate about.

Help big corporates
to make more money

doesn't give me
that purpose in life.

The moment that I decided
to change my career,

it changed my life completely.

Us people,
we're not stagnant like trees.

We have legs,
we can move around,

therefore we can also transform
our personality and character

SO we can become a new person.

We don't necessarily have
to stay the same person

we were in the past and we can
constantly keep evolving.

You can change your job.
You can change your lifestyle.

You can change your environment.

We can always change.

You know, it's not easy.
Some people will say,

"Okay, a mortgage
that I have to pay, you know?

I have all kind of loans
so I need the money."

I had the family, I had
a lot of expenses as well.

But I can tell you that
it's worth the risk.

The high achievers are very
often goal orientated people.

Few years ago, when I was
still running full marathons,

I set my goal to run under
three hours and 30 minutes.

So I prepared myself,
really went into ketogenic diet.

I worked on my running mechanics

and I actually did a lot
of stuff to achieve this goal.

I did. Well, what happened?

The race was on Sunday.

On Monday,
I was empty as an empty sack

because that was my goal.

I fulfilled it
but it didn't bring me

the fulfillment that I expected.
For the next...

week or so, I was, like,
really, really depressed

and I didn't know what to do.

Should I set my goal for three
hours or something like that?

And eventually, all my nice,
good practices evaporated

because I didn't have
this goal ahead of me.

Setting goals and achieving them

is great for getting
short term results.

But you should also look
beyond those goals.

For example,
instead of thinking about

how I'm going
to lose those three pounds,

you should think about
how can I stay healthy

and fit for the rest of my life?

We need to create
these life meanings.

Why we do what we do,

so that it brings us forward

so that you can feel that you
get better, that you improve,

that you grow as a person,
as an individual.

Only then,
you can avoid burnout.

The amount of things
we can control in this world

is minuscule compared to
the things we cannot.

That can be a great source
of anxiety and stress.

Not all people
that live in the city

have the chance to go
to the nature all the time.

It's nothing to stress about.

And we just need
to adapt flexibly

to the biohacks that
we can do in our environment

that makes us feel good.

We as human beings,
we have the natural tendency

to try to control everything.

We're trying
to control our lives,

our days.

If we feel anxious or stressed,

we immediately try
to get rid of it.

But knowing and appreciating
that life is ever changing

and there are always
some surprises

and there are always moments

that we don't
feel comfortable with,

is very important.

Because only in that way we're
able to adapt to these moments.

If we don't try
to push things away,

like uncomfortable
feelings away,

we're better able
to enjoy every moment.

I've tried to do

a lot of, like,
difficult things in my life

to kind of remind myself
that, you know,

these kinds of stressors
and environmental disasters--

They're not going to go away,
they're going to keep happening

and we can't really avoid them.

The only thing we can do is to
keep ourselves more resilient,

keep ourselves more adaptable

and to prepare
for those things in advance.

Even though
biohacking emphasizes

the holistic aspect of the life

and really thinking about
every single moment in your life

from morning till evening...

I think
it's really important not to

try to control everything

because this can also make you
really, highly stressed.

So it's more about the balance
of knowing what's good for you.

Biohacking is supposed
to bring you more happiness

and health and mindfulness
and ease of mind,

rather than
create you some rules

that you need to blindly follow.

Humans, as the species,

are so-so.

We are weak. We run slow.

We don't have claws,
no sharp teeth.

We sort of are, eh,
not so, so good

compared to other mammals,
for instance.

But the reason why are we
dominating species on Earth

is because of the collaboration,

because of being socially
engaged with each other.

One of the reasons humans
have survived for so long

is because of
our social cooperation.

Imagine being alone in nature

or doing some sort of
a crisis or war,

you wouldn't really survive
for too long if you are alone.

That's why we need to,
kind of, stick together.

To be able
to maintain this activity

that you are aiming for,
to feel better,

to do all those healthy stuff,

all those biohacks
and everything like that,

pay attention to doing that
together with other people.

Because, you are easiest
to fool yourself

and to lie to yourself.

That's why
you need somebody else

that you don't want to let down.

It's easier to stay healthy
with like-minded people.

Even the sleeping tracker,
the ring,

is like
an accountability partner.

Don't be obsessed with
the data like that.

Use it as a trainer, as a coach.

So mentors, coaches,
partners, friends,

family people, everybody--

Use them to commit to
this betterment of your life.

If a lady gets pregnant,

her husband doesn't demand,

"Can you do that in six months?"

Of course not. It takes,
on average, nine months.

So if you plant the seed,

basil seed, herb or something,

and you want
to grow it for your salad,

of course, you expect it to grow

three, four weeks or something

until you get some leaves
and eat it in your salad.

So in the nature, we are really
patient to wait for the things

that they take a long time.

Now, the same thing goes
also with your health.

Feel like this is just
too much to try to optimize,

you can start with small steps.

Like first, reduce using
technology in the evening.

That's one step.

And then, step by step
maybe reducing your sugar,

reducing the coffee consumption.

Step by step,
building up the good habits

and making the process
easier for you.

The goal is to gain
a real mastery of yourself.

Let's say when you wake up,
the first thing you do:

Grab a glass of water,
then go outside for fresh air.

That's also
a good morning routine.

Even the small things
are really effective.

And that is
the path to self-mastery.

Like, for instance, imagine two
spaceship going into the space.

And the angle with their
trajectories is just one degree.

It's like barely noticeable.

For a very long time, they are
going to fly in a parallel

but they are eventually land
in totally different galaxies.

So these things
affect long term.

Nothing is gonna change
from tomorrow on

because one degree angle
is a really small one.

You barely notice it.

But after some time,
in the long term,

you will notice it and
everything's gonna be better.

So you start your day
with the feeling

that you already did
some fairly good things

for your health. Okay?

I start each morning
with 60 seconds of cold shower.

But gradually you can
extend that period.

So just by taking small steps,

you can build it into your life

so that you get used to it.

If it's part of your ritual,

you just jump out of your bed.
You don't need willpower.

You just start to do
the right things.

And then, each time

you can add something else
that you think,

"Okay, that would be beneficial
at this specific moment."

You can take one bio hack
from here, like from the diet,

one bio hack from
the exercise aspect,

one bio hack from
the meditation aspect

and sort of really build
your own bio hack set

that works
specifically in your life.

How many people try to fast

because they want
to lose weight?

That's totally wrong approach

because you want
to optimize for feeling good.

And once you start
optimize for feeling good,

you start recognizing
just to be able to feel good,

you need to pay attention
to several things at once:

Eating better, sleeping better,
moving constantly,

training your nervous system,
being surrounded by nice people,

having got life goals,
financials--

Everything is underneath that.

And if one of
those things missing,

you probably won't feel good.

We know that in seven years,

we don't have any cell left

that were, like,
previously in seven years.

So you're actually, all the
time, creating yourself anew.

So why not start now?

You know, when is
the best time to plant a tree?

It's 20 years ago.

You know, when is the second
best time to plant a tree?

It's today.

No one is responsible
for your health.

And no one is interested in
your health as much as you are.

So in the end, you can consult
all kinds of experts,

doctors and specialists
and they will say one thing.

But in the end, it's you

who needs to take responsibility
of your own health.

And once you basically
understand that,

that's when
real change can happen.