I am super excited to welcome Jeremy Abramson as my guest for today! Jeremy is a health coach, wellness entrepreneur, and corporate culture creator. After working one-on-one with elite athletes and CEOs for several years, he started pursuing a more ambitious path to impact a wider audience: Corporate America. He’s making a massive impact through his live events and online presence, where he empowers people to take ownership of their lives through movement, gratitude, and joy.
Jeremy is known as the High Energy Coach because he helps top-level executives and entrepreneurs unleash their fullest potential. He is known worldwide for his expertise, mindful movement, mindset, nutrition, and neuroscience. He has built a community of over 600,000 on TikTok and continues to expand his impact globally. He is the host of the Thrive University Podcast with the mission to inspire and empower you with the knowledge and wisdom to transform your thoughts, habits, relationships, intention, vitality, and enthusiasm so that you can stop settling for mediocrity and live your dream life. Join us today and learn how to overcome your self-limiting beliefs and take ownership of your life.
IN THIS EPISODE YOU WILL LEARN
Jeremy talks about things that determine the quality of your life.
Travel is a way to magnify our consciousness and awareness and become better versions of who we are.
Jeremy talks about his journey of discovery as he transitioned to become a mindset guru.
Jeremy helps people embody what they want to communicate to others.
The work you do for yourself will reflect in the work you do for others.
Jeremy talks about what it was like to spend time learning from Joe Dispenza.
Money and what it means to be wealthy.
Some of the changes that Jeremy has seen in how people keep physically active since Covid.
Moving your body increases your intuition and helps you grow and stay sharper.
Jeremy talks about psychedelics and the benefits of micro-dosing.
Jeremy discusses the foods and supplements that are most beneficial and best support his physical and mental health.
“Travel is such a beautiful way to expand our minds, and our awareness of the world and the way that people go about eating, dancing, talking, communicating, and thinking.”
- Jeremy Abramson
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Connect with Jeremy Abramson
Transcript:
Cynthia Thurlow: Jeremy Abramson is known as the high-energy coach who helps top-level executives and entrepreneurs unleash their fullest potential. He is recognized around the world for his expertise in mindful movement, mindset, nutrition, and neuroscience. He has also built a community of over 600,000 on TikTok and continues to amplify his impact around the world. He's also the host of the Thrive University podcast, whose mission is to inspire and empower you with the knowledge and wisdom to transform your thoughts, habits, relationships, intention, vitality, and enthusiasm so that you can live your dream life and just stop settling for mediocrity.
Welcome, Jeremy.
Jeremy Abramson: Yeah, Cynthia, so glad to be here. I think I accidentally gave you an outdated bio, because my podcast has since been rebranded. It's the Thrive University podcast.
Cynthia Thurlow: And I just read that and I was watching Thrive-- or listening to Thrive. What we'll do is, just send me an updated bio for my podcast editing team, we will just take that part out and we're going to start recording now.
Jeremy Abramson: Okay, perfect. Yeah, that's my bad. I swear I think I sent an updated one, but who knows?
Cynthia Thurlow: It's okay. That happens to me too.
Jeremy Abramson: Yeah, I'll make sure that gets switched around.
Cynthia Thurlow: Sounds good. You're recently traveling, let's talk a little bit about that. Where did you head off to?
Jeremy Abramson: Yes, I was in Belgium for a week, it was super beautiful. It was definitely challenging, first of all, to get over there with the current climate of the world, so had to go through, some obstacles, some hurdles, with the US Embassy in Belgium, and all of these different things, but my girlfriend lives over there and wanted to pay her a visit. I think it's always nice to get out of our ordinary climate, especially right now we've been in a very still environment in most cases. With working from home, with travel being limited, in your case, you have your family there, so options might even be more limited. I think it's always nice to get a little reset, and to get new surroundings. I think travel is such a beautiful way to really expand our minds and expand our awareness of the world and the way that people go about eating, dancing, talking, communicating, thinking, and it was just really refreshing to spend a week out there.
For those people who have never heard or been to Belgium, I highly, highly recommend visiting Ghent, which is this beautiful, quaint city. It's just tremendous. It's got canals everywhere. The architecture is incredible. I had a great week there and I'm feeling good to be back home here in California.
Cynthia Thurlow: Well, travel is one of my favorite things. Obviously, there's been no travel in my life really since March of last year, when I was last on TV. But we've been trying to plan a family vacation to Germany, because my youngest has quite a knack for languages and is learning German. We had all these wonderful plans put into motion, and womp, womp, womp. I'm not sure that's going to happen in June, so I'm kind of bummed, but I am planning something special for my husband in September, and thus far, things appear to be falling into place. I'm hopeful we can actually leave the United States, get on a plane and travel back to one of my favorite continents. So, I'm kind of holding space for that right now, but that's going to manifest, that is going to happen. [laughs]
Jeremy Abramson: Are you able to reveal where that place is, or is that confidential?
Cynthia Thurlow: Yeah. I think, Africa is really a very special place for my husband and I. We've been several times, we've gone to several different countries. I just felt like the past year in particular, for so many of us, has been incredibly challenging. But I kept saying-- normally I would say, “Yeah, let's take a vacation, for your birthday, my birthday, our anniversary.: But I was like, “Heck, this year, let's go big.” I just decided that we've done a traditional safari, we've been to the desert in Africa, which have all been, amazing and incredible. We decided that we would really like to go see the gorillas. We're going to do Rwanda.
Jeremy Abramson: Wow.
Cynthia Thurlow: Then after that, go to Zanzibar. We're going to sit on a beach. We're going to be interacting with primates, which is just incredible. For anyone who hasn't had the opportunity to travel there or doesn't have a desire to, for me, I feel very connected to the earth, when I'm in Africa. I feel very connected to nature. To me, it's a really, really special place. I think we're going to make this happen. So, I'm super excited. I've got my mom on board to watch my kids. My business will sit tight for a week and a half, and then we'll come home and I'll feel like my cup is full. Just like you mentioned, travel is such an important part, irrespective of where you travel to. I just think getting out of your norm, getting out of your element, being forced to try different things, new things, new smells, tastes, interact with different types of people, allows us to really have a profound appreciation for where we are in time and space, but also allow us to grow.
I feel like the past year, not being able to travel has probably been one of the most frustrating things because that's in my blood. I love to travel. I love planning trips. I like doing things with my family and doing things for business-wise. And I'm sure the same for you, is probably really nice to visit a country you've never been to before and get outside your home. I'm curious, what was the travel process like? Did you feel like people were-- did they look fearful or did they just look like the road warriors? Like the stereotypical people who still traveling a lot, getting on planes, during travel, what was your experience like?
Jeremy Abramson: Yeah, I've definitely been one of those people who has traveled a lot during this time regardless. I drove cross country when I moved back from Miami to California. So, I was able to see different perspectives and approaches to everything going on through our lens of America. Then, I've been to Miami a couple times since, and just been traveling. I'm doing my best really to not let the external circumstances affect the way that I approach life in regard to the process, and that whole situation. Yeah, one of the flights, my flight from Belgium to DC when I was coming back was absolutely packed.
Cynthia Thurlow: Interesting.
Jeremy Abramson: Yeah, it was really packed. And then, the flight from DC to San Francisco-- Oh, I actually had a layover, maybe I could have seen you in that one hour, that I was there.
Cynthia Thurlow: [laughs]
Jeremy Abramson: You really do gain an understanding for people's perspectives of how they're approaching things, with the masks and with hand sanitizer, and with social distancing, and all of these things. I'm not here to say who's right and who's wrong, because that's your life and your values, and whatever you want to believe. I'm not here to preach anything about that. But it was overall just a great experience. I love traveling, because you're forced to disconnect, like, unless you purchase Wi-Fi, which I never do. But you're able to really get into deep work sessions, and be on airplane mode, literally read, take notes, reflect, ask yourself those meaningful questions. As you mentioned, what's working? What's not working?
Because I always say, Cynthia, that the quality of your life is determined by the quality of questions you ask yourself. I think too often, we're just navigating on this hamster wheel of life, and we don't actually stop and pause and assess. “Yo, where am I right now? And where do I want to go? Am I actually enjoying this human experience?” Always looking, like you mentioned, for travel to just be something that can magnify our consciousness and our awareness and make us better versions of ourselves.
Cynthia Thurlow: I think that's so beautifully stated, because the gift of the past year, the gift of the past 11 months, I think, on many levels has encouraged people who are leaning into what they can learn through the experience, are they happy where they are in time and space? We literally decluttered our entire house, put it on the market within three weeks, and sold it in one day. On so many levels, I feel like there were so many things that we thought were important, which we found really weren't important, I think 2020 really brought it to a head. It seems like there's a lot of people. A lot of people moving, I had a friend who was so-- and she loves to listen this podcast, so she'll know exactly who I'm talking about. She and her family were so impressed by what my husband and I did, they did the same, although they moved a whole lot farther away.
I think a lot of people are reprioritizing or really looking thoughtfully at where they are with their loved ones, with their friendships, with their occupation. I think the beauty is that you and I existed in this kind of virtual space pre-COVID. Therefore, that gives us an advantage in terms of like, we weren't trying to take a brick-and-mortar business and try to transition to a virtual practice, seemingly overnight. I feel I've been doing this for about five years now. I was ahead of the curve. I laugh about the Zoom thing. I was telling my kids, I said, “You have to understand, when I first started using Zoom, it was really unusual.” People are, like, “You're doing group programs online?” I was like, “Oh, yeah, people like it. They don’t want to get in their car, they don't have to sit in a stuffy room with a bunch of people. Now they can do it.” They can be sitting in their pajamas, and we're none the wiser. We have no idea. On so many levels, I think that's really the gift, and that's how I choose to look at it, and I would imagine you do as well. It's not the glass half empty. It's like the glass is half full. How can we like move forward and the experiences we've had over the last year, how can we make it better? How can we make our lives better? How can we reposition ourselves?
I mean, I laugh, I'm married to an engineer. And the engineer who likes to see concrete evidence always. I’ve got him meditating, he's getting up early and during the Miracle Morning. He's doing Solid Core with me. I never would have guessed even five years ago that he would have ever been open minded enough. That's how powerful this past year has been on so many levels, just within my own family. So, I love that, you are of a like mindset.
For anyone who's listening that's not as familiarized with Jeremy, you may follow him on TikTok or Instagram. He is this incredibly fit guy. He's always very animated, and very physical in his videos, but always sharing really great concrete examples of how you can improve your life. A lot of what you talk about is the mindset piece.
Let's talk a little bit where you started from, because I know we met through Lewis Howes several years ago, that's how we were connected. But you had been doing a lot of personal training with some elite athletes, and people that were C level and above within big companies, but how did you make this transition, because obviously, you started from a place of enjoying physical activity and recognizing how important it was to be physically active. And now, I think of you as kind of this movement guru or this mindset guru. How did that transition actually occur?
Jeremy Abramson: Yeah, I appreciate that, Cynthia. Definitely became passionate about fitness, I would say, my senior year in high school. I was always, always the skinniest kid, like you could see my ribs in pictures. Not unhealthy skinny, but just super-fast metabolism, and also was active. I was always a skinny kid, I didn't get made fun of so much, but senior year was the first time where I actually walked into a gym. It was my brother and I, YMCA, lifted weights, started to see results. I was like, “Wow, this is so cool.” Just by being consistent and showing up, you can get the results you desire. I went on to college at University of Oregon, I studied business in sports marketing, and continue to be consistent working out, weight room, stuff like that. Nothing too advanced, nothing too special or unique. But I never really saw fitness as a career, I never saw health as a career.
Fast forward to maybe 2016, this was a year two after I had spent a year working with a high-performance training company out in Miami, where we were working with a lot of NFL players, Major League Baseball players. I was learning more about the human body, how it worked, and I was really interested in how we can optimize our movement, our performance. In 2016 November, I went to Onnit Academy in Austin, Texas. I remember that weekend was so transformational for me because, yes, I learned great information on the human body and movement and different ways to really mobilize and strengthen and bulletproof our body, but also the people I met there expanded my mind. They introduced me to biohacking and different things and concepts in regard to nutrition. I was first introduced to podcast then. I remember first listening to Ben Greenfield’s podcast, and I was like, “This is so crazy. This is so cool. This dude is literally just sharing his passion, sharing his knowledge into a microphone, and people are listening? What? What a crazy idea.”
Fast forward, obviously, you and I are both hosting successful health and wellness podcasts, so it's cool how things happen full circle. But in those last four years, Cynthia, I was really on this journey of self-discovery. The more knowledge I attained, the more hungry I became for more. Some of the stops along the way that were really memorable for me were doing a weekend with Joe Dispenza. In Colombia, I did a workshop with him. I did a weekend with Wim Hof. He came to Miami, which was incredible. I was in Peru by myself. I did a three-day ayahuasca plant medicine experience out there. Since, I've done one more, that was a full weeklong journey, which was last October.
So, have really just kind of chased these different opportunities. I don't even want to say chased, I've pursued them, attracted them. As you know, attending some of these conferences and workshops, like you connect with like-minded people, and then you get introduced to new things. That's been what the last four years have been like.
Then after working with some of these high performers, whether it was athletes, or in this case, later on it was executives, entrepreneurs out in Miami, I realized that so many of them had all of the things. They had the Maserati, they had the two or three houses, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, the penthouse in Miami, but they were lacking true fulfillment. I think a big reason for that is because they were constantly chasing success, or what they appeared success would look like. I think this is the thing that a lot of men do, is they get money, and what's the first thing they bought? It's like a car. Why do they buy the car? To impress the girl. And then, they get the girl, and then it ends up being a toxic relationship because they're not really equipped to be operating at that level because they haven't taken the time to tap into themselves and understand what their true purpose is, what their vision for the world is because they've been on this hamster wheel and they've been operating from this very limited paradigm.
What I do now is really help create more alignment in those individuals’ life, and helping them gain clarity with their health, with their relationships, because once you address those things, and you understand how to optimize those areas of your life, your business is going to blow up. All of these areas of your life are going to be impacted in a powerful way. In the work I've done with some of these really powerful leaders is, yeah, they were making a big impact in their business, in their organization, but how are you showing up as a father, as a husband? Because as you know, having two sons, I'm sure they don't listen to a lot of the things you say. And if they do, awesome, but there's a point in a kid's life where they don't really listen, they're a little more resistant. How are you going to embody what you want to communicate to them? If you're telling your children like, “Hey, try to avoid eating this. Try to avoid eating toxic inflammatory oils, and processed sugars, and all of this stuff. Move your body.” But if you're not doing those things yourself, then it's meaningless.
What I really empower these people to do is embody what it means to be a heart-led leader. I think all of the experiences that I've had in the past 10 years, but especially the last five years, have really helped me with that, and with the tools to share with others. Because of course, if I don't do them myself and embody them myself, who am I to have other people try implementing them? As you know, with intermittent fasting or any other health protocol, it's like you're your own guinea pig. You are the sample size of one and then you can start to expand things out. Hopefully that answered your question.
Cynthia Thurlow: No, there are so many things to unpack. First, I didn't know that you started off at University of Oregon, which I find fascinating. I think what I really hear from you is that when we ourselves as individuals, if we're in a position where we're working with other people, the more we invest in ourselves in terms of ensuring that we're in the right mindset and we're working on our own kind of intellectualism, or our own cerebral functioning, that lends itself to the work that we do with our clients. In fact, this morning, I was talking to someone who actually lives on the West Coast who is a wonderful client. We were negotiating back and forth about what working together moving forward would look like. I was making a point of telling her about some training that I did at the end of 2020. She said, “I don't know when you have time to do that.” I said, “I constantly have to be leveling up what I'm doing, so that I can offer more to my clients.” Whether that's reading or podcast interviews, like now, I'm probably at a position that you're in with your own podcast. Now, I just go after people that I want to interview because I want to learn more about their thought process, their methodology. How can I take the very best content that they have and be able to deliver it, share it with my listeners so they can actually take action after listening to a podcast? The more we invest in ourselves, the more we can give back to those that we work with.
One thing that I heard that I think a lot of people, hopefully with COVID, have started to realize is that the superficial things in our lives really mean nothing. For anyone who thinks, because you live in a house that is worth so many dollars, or you're driving a very expensive car, or you have a very expensive clothing, or whatever it is that you're doing, whatever your toy is, that that's not intrinsically what makes you happy. If that's what you believe makes you happy, you will be chasing materialistic stuff for the rest of your existence. For so many people, I can't tell you how many friends over the past year, have downsized or they moved, move to less expensive areas because they don't like the toxic influence on their families. I certainly moved from one neighborhood into a rental in my area. The change in the people that we interact with is so substantial, I’m like why didn't we do this earlier? It's so much more like low key and people are friendlier. I'm like we're three miles away from where we live. It's unbelievable.
Tying it back to the point you're making, is the more we can uplevel our own mindset, our own thinking, it has this profound trickle-down effect throughout our lives. I want to ask you, I know we've talked about Wim Hof, who's incredible. I had the incredible opportunity to connect with him last year. But Joe Dispenza, I just suddenly found Joe Dispenza. And wow, his stuff-- I think you sometimes stumble upon certain influencers when you're ready to accept the message. Wow, he's just incredible. What was that like to actually have the opportunity to spend time learning and being taught by him?
Jeremy Abramson: Yeah, for sure. I'll answer that. Before I do, I do want to touch on what you mentioned about the material things and stuff like that. I think that most people don't actually have an understanding of what makes them happy. For me, I think everyone needs to get clear with what wealthy means to them. For me, wealthy, I've never really been someone that's super into flashy cars and the bling, the watch, the chain, that's never really excited me that much. However, I love to travel, I love eating delicious food. I love surprising my family and friends with gifts. For me, wealthy means being able to do all those things, and be able to do them on my own terms whenever, wherever I want. That changes things, because once you understand what you want to do with that money, what that wealth is going to open up for you, then your inspiration, your motivation to generate more income will manifest.
What I say, Cynthia, is so many people talk about multiple streams of income. You have your group coaching, your one-on-one coaching, your podcast, your book deal, all these different things that are in the mix. I always focus on multiple streams of impact. You mentioned TikTok, for me, that's just one channel where I'm able to create impact. Does that usually lead into income as well? Yeah. If you know how to nurture it and handle it properly, for sure. But I'm always focused on what areas of impact can I create. Then, once it becomes sustained, and I see like, “Wow, people are really benefiting from this.” It's growing substantially, then I'm like, “Okay, it might be time to monetize in a very intentional way.” That's what I would say about money.
In regard to Joe Dispenza, it was awesome. Super unexpected, honestly. I wasn't too familiar with him actually at the time. These two people from Colombia came to one of my workout classes in Miami. They're like, “Hey, man, I feel like you love Joe Dispenza, the way that you talk and the different things that you said to us, what are your thoughts on him?” I'm like, “I've heard of him. He seemed great. I don't know too much about him.” They're like, “Well, check this out. We're actually going to a weekend workshop in Bogota, Colombia, next month, if you want to come.” I was like, “Okay, sure. Let's go.” I literally booked my ticket and flight and everything with them right then and there.
That week was honestly one of the most gratifying and challenging weeks in my life because one of the people I ended up going on that trip with, he's now one of my best friends. He's from Colombia, and his family owned the biggest gym gym chain in Colombia. So, I was teaching classes every morning, in addition to the Joe Ddispenza workshop. There's 2500 people there, 3000. I thought it was going to be something small, intimate. He's really penetrated the South American market, which is amazing. Just to see the way that he operates, I'm fascinated by facilitators and teachers, the way that they can captivate audiences and keep them engaged. You have people like Tony Robbins, who I've always related to who's more fiery and energized. Then, you have Joe Dispenza, who's a little more low key, he's very grounded, but he still has everyone's attention.
I think it was really cool to see people have breakthroughs in lifetime, through some of the meditations and other exercises. I'm actually in August going to do the weeklong retreat with him in-- Uh, where is it? Cartagena, Colombia in August.
Cynthia Thurlow: Oh, wow.
Jeremy Abramson: Yeah, I'm super excited for that. Then what else? Yeah, so just to tie a knot on that, that week was crazy, because I got so sick. I'm convinced it must have been COVID or something. This was a month before everything got shut down, so early February 2020. I was teaching classes at 7 AM, 8 AM, bringing all of this energy and I felt more sick than I've ever felt, honestly. I was really relying, we can talk about this later if you want, on medicinal mushrooms micro-dosing, and that was really keeping my immune system in check, but I just remember having so much phlegm, sore throat, all of this stuff, and also trying to stay focused and show up in a powerful way. That week for me is so fond in my memories because I was really pushed to my limit mentally and physically, and I was still able to show up in a powerful way. So, I'll always remember that week.
Cynthia Thurlow: I can imagine. I think it really goes back to the-- well, I always say mindset is everything. When we show up in our lives when no one would have begrudged us saying, “Okay, you weren't feeling well, you don't have to do these classes,” but you wanted to show up, and that has definitely happened to me in my personal life in two years ago. Most people know that I had this healthcare hiccup, was very, very sick. Part of what kept me going in the hospital was the recognition I had two boys who needed their mom and my husband, I'm sure, probably needed me too. Then also, it was like I made this commitment to do this talk and I want to make that happen, as crazy as the organizers thought I was after the fact, they allowed me to do the talk, and that talk changed my life. When we talk about showing up, even though we don't feel good or maybe we're not 100%, you never know what blessings will come out of that.
Jeremy Abramson: Was that healthcare hiccup right before that second TEDx talk?
Cynthia Thurlow: I got out of the hospital 27 days prior to that TED talk.
Jeremy Abramson: Oh, my gosh. We'll definitely talk about that when you're on my-- [crosstalk]
Cynthia Thurlow: [laughs] Yes.
Jeremy Abramson: I can't wait.
Cynthia Thurlow: Yeah, the mindset is everything. Inevitably, I think that our mind can override what our body's telling us. If we say, “Okay, I just need to do X, Y, and Z, and then I will allow myself to fully feel whatever it is I'm experiencing, but I don't have time to be sick.” That was kind of my mentality. Now, let's pivot a little bit because one of the things that I've always appreciated and valued about you and your content is this focus on being physically active. I know that a lot of the content you write is encouraging people to not be sedentary and to not be sitting on our butts all day long. I oftentimes will say that sitting is the new smoking. Sometimes, I get a little bit of heat, I don't know why. People just don't want to hear that. Prime example is, when I do my podcast, I actually do them seated, but most often I try to be as physically active throughout the day as I can be.
What are some of the changes that you're seeing that are occurring, given COVID? I think people are getting much more comfortable doing bodyweight exercise, people are buying a lot of things for their home gyms. I think there's a tremendous desire for people to remain physically active, and maybe they're getting more creative given, depending on where you live in the United States or abroad, your gyms may not be open.
Jeremy Abramson: Yeah, for sure. I mean, you just said it, like bodyweight exercises. I'm a huge proponent and fan of that before this whole thing happened because, first of all, when you master your bodyweight, you strengthen your joints and you're mobilizing joints, you're stabilizing other ones. For instance, if you're just in a high point position, like the top of the pushup, that's requiring your shoulders to stabilize. It's requiring your core to be integrated with your glutes, and all of these things to be connected. So, it allows you to strengthen that mind-body connection that we talk about. It allows you to just explore and be curious about this vessel that you have that is your body. Too often, again, we're looking externally. We're looking to that machine to give us a six-pack, we're looking for the one exercise that's going to make us burn fat. It's like, “No, that doesn't exist.”
I think if people-- I would say, maybe got exposed, like, “Oh, shit, the gyms are closed, what do I do?” Whether the gym should have been closed in the first place is a whole different discussion, because I think that's an essential business. I guess the government thinks that liquor stores are more essential, and those should stay open. But again, Cynthia, that's a whole topic for another day, maybe.
Cynthia Thurlow: [laughs]
Jeremy Abramson: I think a lot of people lack the intuition. Intuition comes in so many ways. It was the intuition you knew when you were dating your husband that he was going to be your husband. It was like, “Hey, this is when I want you--” I think it was April 1st, 2016 for you, the day that you decided, like, “Yo, I'm going out on my own and becoming an entrepreneur. Yeah, it's scary, but I'm going to do it.” So, there's this powerful thing we have called intuition. I think by moving our bodies, just our bodies, nothing else, we're able to understand, like, “Hey, what feels good? Where am I feeling some pain?” And then, you're able to understand, like, “Hey, what do I need to do more of? What do I need to stay away from?” We tend to only do things that we're good at, to feed our ego, but it's really getting out of your comfort zone and doing those things that you suck at, that not only is going to force you to grow, but it's also actually going to tap into neuroplasticity, so you're going to create more neural connections in your brain.
Anyone who's listening right now, who wants to stay sharper, stay younger, try new things. We see it as kids, like your son learning a new language, whether it's German, Spanish, whatever it is, playing a new sport, playing a new instrument. But when we get older, we tend to say like, “I'm too old for that,” or “No, it's too much work.” When it comes to just moving our body, it's the same thing. It's like do things that are challenging that are fun. Try a yoga class, try calisthenics, go for a walk, go for a run, connect with nature. As Jim Kwik says-- Jim Kwik is one of my biggest inspiration--
Cynthia Thurlow: I love Jim Kwik.
Jeremy Abramson: Yeah, when it comes to brain health, and he says, “As your body moves, your brain grooves,” and I think that's so true. Even just five minutes of movement, whether it's going for a walk, taking a phone call, or Zoom call outside, yeah, it opens up so much possibility. You know what I want to do actually, Cynthia, is I'm going to include-- I'll send this over to you right after we're done. I'm going to send over this Stand Up 2 Sitting PDF I made-
Cynthia Thurlow: Oh, perfect.
Jeremy Abramson: -that I do with these corporate companies that I do these workshops for, hence the name, Stand Up 2 Sitting. There's simply just alternative positions and structures one can do while they're working from home. That'll help keep their joints mobile and keep that blood flowing.
Cynthia Thurlow: Thank you. No, I know that will be invaluable, but I think for so many of us, I know that I was someone that was going to the gym and I mix it up, we've got some home gym equipment, but I started to see the writing on the wall last March, so I started buying kettlebells and plates. I bought TRX bands because I was like, “Heck, I'm not going to not work out. That's not going to happen.” I have teenage boys, and a husband who is very physically active as well. I bought all sorts of things to keep us moving. Of course, my kids thought it was funny that my kettlebells were only 25 pounds and not 30 or 40. I'm like, “Listen, I weigh 115 pounds, [laughs] let's be real. I'm not picking up a 50-pound kettlebell every day, that may not be realistic.”
The point I'm trying to make is on so many levels, it invites us to find creative ways to become more physically active. One of the things that we started to do, and you probably have seen this meme, there are people whose dogs are standing on top of cabinets in their kitchen, because they don't want to be walked, they're being so walked. Pet purchases have just gone up exponentially as people are home. I have two dogs, the doodles and we call them the Doods, and so they were getting walked three to five miles every day. It was really because the only thing we could do was to walk. We really were required to only leave our homes for a couple of very meaningful things. For that period of time for March through May, we did a lot of walking and a lot of home workouts. I think that there's been this tremendous shift. I think people are realizing that there's a role for gyms and I'll be the first person to say that. If I want to lift heavy weights, that's what I'll go do. I think people have gotten much more creative with their time, and that connection with nature is undeniable. I can't tell you how many people connect with me because they don't sleep well. I'm like, “Listen, one of the best things you can do, which is super easy and cost $0, is get outside and get light exposure first thing in the morning, even 5 or 10 minutes.” This time of the year, we're pretty covered up in Washington DC, but the value of not wearing sunglasses, getting sunlight to shine on your retina, which kind of reminds your body it's time to get up and get moving, we know that there's a lot of physiologic benefits, but it also helps us support sleep synthesis at night as well.
I love that you kind of touched on neuroplasticity, which is one of my favorite terms. Our thoughts become our actions. Anything that we're doing to stimulate our brains, like I tell my kids all the time, I always have four or five books going, which is embarrassing/humorous. I'm always wanting to learn because I don't want to be static, whether it's with my body or with my brain, or psychologically, I want to always be learning. So, having that desire to be a lifelong learner, I always say we are designed to evolve, shift, and change throughout our lifetimes. If I hadn't done that, I wouldn't be where I am today.
You mentioned, April 1st, and April 1st will be five years since I left clinical medicine. That was a hard/not hard decision to make. But it's so clear to me now, retrospectively, maybe it didn't make sense all at the time when it started, this journey, it's forced me to evolve into a completely different person and I feel the world has kind of opened up on so many levels. Whereas if I had stayed in clinical medicine, and I respect and revere my peers who are still frontlining it and are hands-on. For me, that was not part of my journey. My journey was meant to end there and then pivot off to, I would say, the road less traveled to do something that there were no guarantees that I would be successful. Although I told my husband, “I know I will be successful. There's no question.” Now, five years later, I'm grateful to have had that opportunity.
Jeremy Abramson: Yeah, that's beautiful. I love that you had the courage and the confidence to make that leap.
Cynthia Thurlow: You mentioned something that I'm definitely interested in learning more about. We hear a lot of people talking about micro-dosing. I know the absolute basics, I want to be very clear. But I know that my listeners would appreciate hearing a bit about micro-dosing, what is it? What does it involve? How do you go about doing it safely? Because that's obviously one of the questions that I've gotten. When I mentioned that we were connecting today on social media, people that are familiar with you, were like, “Oh, ask him about the micro-dosing.” Not only do I selfishly want to learn more about it, but definitely the listeners were curious as well.
Jeremy Abramson: Amazing. I'd love to hear that. Micro-dosing is something that has definitely caught fire, I would say, in the last 5 to 10 years, especially where I am in Silicon Valley. Basically, when I speak about micro-dosing, I'm speaking specifically about psilocybin, which is the psychoactive component that's in magic mushrooms, um, but you can micro-dose-- a lot of people also micro-dose with LSD, and those are the two most common things. Basically, a micro-dose is the opposite of a macro-dose. If you think about mushrooms, people are hallucinating, people have this idea of what they think it entails without actually having experience that thing. I think that's a whole separate issue, is people are so quick to judge and assume things when they've actually done very little research, and they've done very little experimentation themselves. I think people really need to be more curious and open-minded, especially during these times, where so many people are struggling with these brain health issues, such as anxiety, depression, PTSD, and all of these things.
Without diving too deep into the history of mushrooms, which I could do, because I'm very passionate about this, basically, micro-dosing is doing an amount about 0.2 to 0.5 grams. Now, a typical dose, if you're going to go into a different dimension is 3.5 grams. Think about this as 1/10 what that would be. You're not going to have any crazy visions or visuals or anything like that. It’s simply going to heighten your senses and heighten your level of awareness. Now, there's been tons of studies out from the Imperial College of London, Johns Hopkins has a whole department dedicated to this, about the efficacy of psilocybin with depression, with anxiety, with PTSD, with post-cancer depression. There's no denying the benefits and the healing potential of this medicine.
I don't call it a drug, because I think a drug is an SSRI. I think a drug is Adderall. I think a drug is one of these chemically concocted pills that we just hand out to our children. You tell a psychologist or a psychiatrist or a doctor, “Hey, can't focus in class.” “Here's Adderall.” “Hey, I'm feeling sad. I'm feeling lonely.” “Here's Prozac.” Really? That's what we're doing and we're not actually addressing the root cause of the issue. I know you're all about identifying the root cause rather than just treating symptoms.
What psilocybin does, it forces you to really face yourself, face your shadow. Similar to when I've done ayahuasca, yeah, are there painful memories, or painful things that have been suppressed that come to the surface? For sure. They're also just absolutely beautiful moments of oneness and clarity, and things like that. 100%. That's really why I think these medicines have healed so many people, because they've turned off what's called the default mode network in the brain. Essentially, the default mode network is our operating system. It's like, I wake up, I smoke a cigarette, I drink my coffee. I go on social media. I watch porn. I pick up the kid in between, I let him play video games, I eat a bag of Cheetos. That's your default mode network. You don't even have to think about it.
What this does, Cynthia, what they say psilocybin does, is essentially have a snow globe effect on your brain. If you think of a snow globe, it's calm, all the snow’s at the bottom, and then you shake it, the snow’s falling, different neural connections are being created. For me personally, I didn't have any like bad cases of anxiety and depression that I was trying to solve. However, I did want to see and explore ways that I could become more effective, more creative, more productive, more optimized with the way I show up.
The way that I do it is I have these special capsules that I've helped formulate, which is 250 grams of psilocybin, then 400 grams of Lion's Mane mushrooms, and 400 grams of cordyceps. Now, if you're not familiar with those two mushrooms, those are just 100% legal, medicinal mushrooms that are really powerful for brain health, focus, energy. If anyone wants to learn more about micro-dosing, or psychedelics in general-- I'm looking for the book. I just finished it. I finished it this morning, actually. I really recommend reading How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan. It goes into the history of psychedelics, and how they got criminalized in the first place in 1970 with Richard Nixon, and then how they've really become back on the radar. Now, there's over 20 publicly traded companies on the stock market that are doing psychedelic therapy, and there's going to be a whole host of other ones.
Something I really believe in, obviously, you can probably tell by the way I'm speaking about it, but what makes these so unique is that there's no addictive qualities. There's no long-term side effects that have been found, because psilocybin then has been found to, again, increase the neural connections happening in our brain, get rid of some of that default mode network happening, and really allow us to create a brighter future for ourselves.
I implement this with my one-on-one clients, only my one-on-one clients, I'm not sending-- Trust me, I get hundreds of messages daily. “Hey, man, can I get some?” Like, “No, I'm not just going to send you micro-dosing.” I think all this stuff needs to be used with intention, in respect. Again, alcohol, whatever it is, a donut from Krispy Kreme, yeah, these things are inherently bad for you. But if you actually have a drink of wine, or tequila, and it's with intention, you’re blessing the people and processes involved for getting that drink in your cup, and you're doing it with dear friends, celebrating something, it's not bad. It can be a very neutral or even good thing, as long as you have full control over the situation.
Same thing with a donut. If you're craving a donut, don't be an asshole and eat one every day, but enjoy it, be grateful that you have access to it, don't feel shame about it, or guilt about it, and enjoy it. Similar to that, if you're doing this or thinking about doing it, really just get clear with why, and my contact info, Cynthia will put it in the show notes, but you can shoot me a DM on Instagram @coachjeremy305. To be honest, I've been pretty bad about checking those lately, but I'll make sure to check because I'll be expecting some messages from this Everyday Wellness Community. Happy to answer more questions, I don't want to ramble on unnecessarily, though.
Cynthia Thurlow: No, it's really fascinating. Although I'm thinking back to when I was a freshman in college many years ago, and my guy friends, there were like eight of them, went out into the woods, and used magic mushrooms, and all of us sat back and were, like, oh, my gosh, they were wrecked, for a day or two. Most of them did just fine, but there's always the outlier. There's always the poor person who has no idea how they're going to react to something like that. Certainly, I think one of the things that's really fascinating, and we had Paul Raven on the podcast last year and briefly touched on psychedelics, but I think it's really exciting emerging research. When you think about, I would imagine the amygdala is involved when you're dealing with PTSD or people that are chronically dealing with chronic trauma, having the ability to reset your mindset or your neurologic prognosis is hugely beneficial. So, I encourage anyone who's interested in learning more, Jeremy provided a great resource guide, I'll have to probably check it out because I'm always innately curious, I'm always-- that's the baseline from where I live my life, is that even if it's perhaps not something that I myself feel comfortable advocating for at this point, I'm curious about it.
I know that psychedelics started in the 1950s, from a very different place. I know, based on the small amount of reading that I have done on them, that there was considered to be the potential for incredible progress, neurologically, psychologically, and from a psychiatric perspective. However, things got off course, they got bastardized. I was an ER nurse in Baltimore. We used to see people when they had had too much psychedelics-- Sometimes, in the case of PCP as one example, they would get superhumanly strong and violent. That's not the way that they're supposed to be used. I don't think that was how they were originally intended to use.
In terms of looking at psilocybin and versus ayahuasca, did you feel significantly differently with both of them? It was a completely different experience? I know for ayahuasca, you went out into what sounds to be like the jungle or you were away, so that in and of itself would probably lend a very different experience. But if you're comfortable sharing with the listeners, what your two experiences were like with both of them, I think that would be really interesting.
Jeremy Abramson: Yeah, for sure. The first thing you mentioned about your friends in college going out, I think that's what most people imagine. Like, “Hey, let’s do acid. Let's do mushrooms.” That is, again, how things get stigmatized a certain way. I think what the psychedelic space is doing right now that's really smart is they're going through FDA trials. They're doing this in therapeutic settings with therapists. So, it's not just like, “Hey, you're going to be able to go to a store like you can with cannabis now and just buy mushrooms.” That's not how it's going to be. It's going to be a lot of intention. What's cool is the people that are spearheading this movement are literally the top-most respected universities in the US, Yale, Harvard, Johns Hopkins. That's really exciting.
Ayahuasca is indigenous plant medicine from the Amazon. It's been used for thousands of years in Peru, in other areas like that. It's again just a really powerful, amazing, beautiful medicine that includes DMT, that's one of the main primary ingredients. Again, this is an experience where there's a shaman, both times I've done an experience, there's been a full medical team, and a lot of integration. I want to emphasize that because when you do these experiences, Cynthia, you go to a different world. The most recent time in October, I did, what was it, four ceremonies? Yeah, four ceremonies in seven days. These typically last six to eight hours. Six hours, I would say, and there's a group of 40 conscious entrepreneurs and leaders, incredible group of people. They're some of my best friends now, that was on the group.
The first night the medicine didn't actually hit me that hard. It was diluted, so it wasn't as strong. I found myself having the most vivid memories from childhood. It was insane. One of the stories I told myself, I was telling myself is like, I’m unsupported. In all of my relationships or a lot of my relationships, like I'm giving more than I'm receiving. Again, this is just a story. It's not actually true. It's just a narrative I made up in my head. In my first experience, I'm literally taken back to all of these moments from my childhood, literally starting in kindergarten. I have vivid images of playing with my friends in kindergarten, my teacher, Susie, first grade, Ms. Wagshell, my best friend, Adam Storm. Literally things that I hadn't thought of in 20 years, so vivid recess, Famous Amos, Gushers, all of these things. Everyone from my sixth-grade basketball team, everyone's first and last name, specific plays from the huddle. Seriously, that's how vivid my memories were. It's carried over today, when I was with my girlfriend in Belgium, it was crazy. I was having the most vivid memories. When we first met in Ibiza, I remember what was on the plate that we had to eat, what the drinks we were drinking, literally everything, our conversations.
So, it really helped me bring back some suppressed memories and let me know that this story I was telling myself is just a story. And then, just a lot of feeling, different things around being able to receive, belief from the divine feminine. Now, these are things that your listeners may like, “What the fuck is he talking about?” Or, they might be more interested. But in either case, with ayahuasca, there's no micro-dosing ayahuasca. You're in it for the experience. In both instances, we really prepared our bodies. We were on a special diet, like avoiding caffeine, alcohol, sex, toxic vegetable oils, sugar, those things two weeks prior, really allowing the medicine to hit us in a more powerful way. But yeah, it opened my eyes. Honestly, I don't like to be that person who says this is life changing but I genuinely have no idea where I would be if I didn't do those medicines, I probably realistically wouldn't have a podcast. I probably wouldn't be as prolific as a speaker and content creator that I am now, it helped me find my voice. I probably wouldn't be as good of a son, as good of a brother, as good of a friend, as I am now. I become so much more compassionate and understanding.
Psilocybin, when you do that in real macro-doses, can have a pretty similar effect, a similar experience as ayahuasca, but I haven't done a macro-dose of mushrooms in 10 years. I really focus on micro-dosing. That's something I do pretty consistently. Now, it's two times a week. Yeah, hopefully-- again, you're asking great questions that I just want to run away with answer, which is great.
Cynthia Thurlow: No, it's all fascinating. As you were talking about the story you had told yourself as a child, I thought about Byron Katie. I don't know, do you read Byron Katie? [crosstalk] For any of the listeners that aren't familiar with Byron Katie, that's a lot of her teaching, and probably one of the more valuable resources I discovered about two years ago. Byron Katie talks a lot about your story, is it true? Oftentimes, what we tell ourselves or remind ourselves about our childhood, or something we've experienced throughout our lifetime is actually not accurate. Giving yourself some grace, giving the person grace, maybe it was a parent or another loved one or friend, if you keep telling yourself a story that isn't true, then it's a lot of wasted energy.
Jeremy Abramson: Yeah. To be honest, most of the stories we're telling ourselves aren't true. That's why again, it's so important to stop, pause. You don't need to be on an airplane to stop, pause, put your phone on airplane mode and ask yourself some questions. I think it's a good opportunity for everyone listening to do that.
Cynthia Thurlow: Absolutely. Well, I want to be mindful of your time, but I do want to ask you, a couple more things. You've talked a lot about brain health, things that can be beneficial for brain health. Do you have specific supplements or foods that you like to integrate into your diet that can be very supportive of mindset, cognition, focus, etc.? What would you say are your top five?
Jeremy Abramson: Yeah, for sure. I think, as you know, nutrition and any of this, people are always looking for, like, “What's the one thing that's going to change everything?” You and I both kind of preach, first of all everyone's different. What works for me might not work for you. The things I'm going to share for me, I found to work with 99% of people. Those are the things I'm going to share because I think those will add the most value. Literally starting my day off, after I go through my hydration protocol, which I think is very important. Most people are underhydrated. Drinking high quality water. I have the Berkey filter. So many people are drinking water from plastic bottles or tap water that's filled with, as you know, either heavy metals or other contaminants. So, being mindful of the water you're drinking. Then, I'll have my organic, consciously crafted coffee by Purity Coffee, and I'll throw that mushroom powder into them. That's not the micro-dosing, that's 100% legal powder. I'll actually send you one, Cynthia, I think you'll really love it.
These are organic fruiting body mushrooms that are really designed to create more neural connections and support your immunity and they're also really rich in vitamin D. That's a powder, doesn't have a taste, I put that into my coffee, all the antioxidants from that coffee. Then just a lot of healthy fats honestly. I have a whole avocado every day. I usually drench it with high-quality extra virgin olive oil. There's more and more research coming out. I read something on PubMed just the other day showing that there's a direct link between olive oil consumption and the reduction in dementia/Alzheimer's. So, these are real. Again, dark glass bottles for the olive oil because there's a lot of garbage out there. And then, yeah, getting my omegas through wild-caught salmon, that's big. Then, a couple supplements that I've been taking recently that just based on research, I think, are beneficial are saffron. What else? Yeah, saffron-- [crosstalk]
Cynthia Thurlow: Are you using it in cooking or is it an actual capsule of saffron because, for listeners, if you're not aware, saffron is as expensive as gold. We needed it for some cooking one night and my kids were like, “Oh my God, it's so expensive.” But I'm like, “Oh, but it's wonderful,” because it's beautiful, it's probably very polyphenol rich, it has a lot of incredible pigmentation. Sorry, I just had to throw that in there.
Jeremy Abramson: Yeah. Actually, it's a capsule with that's filled with saffron and turmeric. Then, like you said, the polyphenols. A couple foods that are really beneficial would be blueberries. They have polyphenol that actually have been found to cross the blood-brain barrier and improve your memory. I'm big on blueberries. I throw a bunch of frozen blueberries into my shake every day. And then, dark chocolate. I love myself-- that's another part of my morning ritual is I have some 90% dark chocolate. I dip that cold chocolate from the freezer into my hot coffee. It's literally the most joyful moment of my day.
Cynthia Thurlow: [laughs]
Jeremy Abramson: Which I know sounds crazy, but people think of chocolate as candy. Actually, cacao is so, so beneficial for you. It's a heart opener, it's really beneficial for the brain as well. Those are a few things that I implement every day and that I think are safe. For a majority of people, they'll see benefits if they implement them.
Cynthia Thurlow: No, those are super helpful. I'm so glad that you're able to share them with the listeners now. How can everyone connect with you? Like I mentioned, you've got an amazing TikTok and Instagram following, an incredible podcast. What's the easiest way for listeners to connect with you?
Jeremy Abramson: For sure. Yeah, I appreciate you, Cynthia. the best way to connect on would be sending a DM on Instagram @coachjeremy305. That's also my handle for TikTok. We're at about 600,000 strong there. I do a lot of lives, I'm actually doing a live right now. I do like a live stream there probably three to four days a week. Then, the podcast, Thrive University. Cynthia is coming on the show. That episode will probably be live by the time you're listening to this. Those are the best places, send me a DM on Instagram. Actually, it would be awesome, Cynthia, if people could tag both of us in this episode, on their Instagram story and let us know, what was the biggest takeaway you had from today's show? What are you actually going to implement into your life that we spoke about? Because we both dropped a lot of knowledge nuggets, and I'd love to see what people are actually going to take action on.
Cynthia Thurlow: Yeah, that's awesome. One of the things that my team does such a great job with is when new episodes are dropped, that's one of the things that we encourage people, like, what's your biggest takeaway? Because I always endeavor-- there are a lot of talking heads that are out there, I'm sure you would agree, plenty of podcasts that just talk and talk and talk, but I want listeners to be able to have actionable steps that they can take for right away. They don't have to buy something weird or unusual. It's things that you can buy easily, locally, or maybe on Amazon. With that being said, thank you again, my friend. It's been so nice to have you on. We'll have to have you back again.
Jeremy Abramson: Yes, much love everybody. Peace.
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