BITESIZE | How to Make Change That Actually Lasts | Dr Rangan Chatterjee #618

Why is it that 80% of New Year’s Resolutions fail? In my opinion, it is because many of us are taking the wrong approach. But, if you take the correct approach it is absolutely possible to make meaningful changes in your life that actually last. Feel Better Live More Bitesize is my weekly podcast for your mind, body, and heart. Each week I’ll be featuring inspirational stories and practical tips from some of my former guests. Today’s clip is from episode 506 of the podcast which was a solo episode I recorded to celebrate the launch of my sixth book ‘Make Change That Lasts: 9 Simple Ways To Break Free From The Habits That Hold You Back’. In this clip, I share a powerful idea that could help you make meaningful changes that actually last. Thanks to our sponsor ⁠⁠⁠https://heights.com/livemore Show notes and the full podcast are available at https://drchatterjee.com/506 Support the podcast and enjoy Ad-Free episodes. Try FREE for 7 days on Apple Podcasts ⁠⁠https://apple.co/feelbetterlivemore⁠⁠ For other podcast platforms go to ⁠⁠https://fblm.supercast.com. DISCLAIMER: The content in the podcast and on this webpage is not intended to constitute or be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your doctor or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on the podcast or on my website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Rangan Chatterjee?

  Today's Bite Size episode is sponsored by AG1, a daily health drink that has been in my own life for over seven years. Now, this is the time of year when our immune systems are under the most pressure. It's natural to look for extra ways to support our immune defences. But most people don't want to juggle multiple pills. They want something simple, effective and easy to stick with. AG1 is a daily health drink that provides key immunity-supporting nutrients, vitamin C, vitamin A, zinc and selenium, all of which contribute to the normal function of the immune system.

• 0:41Rangan Chatterjee?

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• 1:20Rangan Chatterjee?

  See all details at drinkag1.com/livemore. Welcome to Feel Better Live More Bite Size, your weekly dose of positivity and optimism to get you ready for the weekend. Today's clip is from episode 506 of the podcast, which was a solo episode which I recorded to celebrate the launch of my sixth book, Make Change That Lasts: Nine Simple Ways to Break Free From the Habits That Hold You Back. In this clip, I share a powerful idea that could help you make meaningful changes that actually last.

• 2:05Rangan Chatterjee?

  Idea number one, trust yourself. What do I mean when I say trust yourself? Well, I think perhaps the most useful way to look at this is to examine the state of the world when it comes to health. We're living in a time where we've got access to more health information than ever before, more podcasts, more books, more Instagram posts, more online blogs. Yet despite this increase in information, our physical health is getting worse and our mental wellbeing is declining. And for the last years, I've been thinking, what's going on?

• 2:47Rangan Chatterjee?

  We've got more knowledge than ever before, yet worse health outcomes. So why is that? Well, of course, there are some external factors that we need to think about, the food environment, the pressures that many people are facing at work, the cost of living, et cetera, et cetera. I recognise that those things are real and that they're having a huge impact on our ability to make change. But it's not just that. There's also something internal going on within each and every single one of us that unless we address, the truth is, we're never going to make changes that last in the long term.

• 3:30Rangan Chatterjee?

  And that's this idea that we all have an inner expertise within us over what is best for us. But we've outsourced that inner expertise to external experts. So people will say, with all this health information out there, it's important that you only listen to advice from experts. But here's the problem with that. Let's take this podcast, for example. I could talk to an expert, let's say Chris Palmer, this wonderful psychiatrist from Harvard, who came on to this show a couple of years ago and showed that for some people

• 4:09Rangan Chatterjee?

  with severe mental health problems, bipolar, schizophrenia, for example, he has seen that a ketogenic diet can transform these people's lives. And when he came on this podcast and in his book, he shares. Published research to support what he is saying and clinical case studies. Right. And then, so I can talk to Chris on this podcast and try and tease out when that approach might be useful and for whom. And then I could also talk to another expert, let's say a few weeks later. Let's say someone like Professor Felice Jacka, who published a randomized control trial a few years ago, showing that a modified Mediterranean diet

• 4:54Rangan Chatterjee?

  can put some cases of depression into remission. And if you look at what that diet was, it was full of whole grains, lean meat, fatty fish, lots of diversity, nuts, pulses, legumes. Right. So two experts

• 5:15Rangan Chatterjee?

  that on the surface are saying two completely different things. So what I would often get is messages, emails or DMs on Instagram from people saying, hey, Dr. Chachi, both experts sound really, really good and convincing. I like them both, but I don't know which expert I should be trusting. I think the most useful question is not which expert should I trust? The more powerful question, the more useful question is why do I no longer trust myself? This, I think, is probably the most important thing for you to think about this year if you want to make transformative change.

• 5:59Rangan Chatterjee?

  Why do you no longer trust yourself? I contend that nobody knows what is better for you in the context of your life than you. Now, I'm not saying ignore external experts like me, not at all. I'm saying the balance has shifted too much. Whereas now we forget, or so many of us forget about what we think. And we're putting all our faith in that external expert. But here's the thing, no expert's advice is going to be right for every single person. And I include the advice that I give in that.

• 6:41Rangan Chatterjee?

  Use the advice, but then pay attention to how that advice works for you. So through the lens of diet, for example, I would say to people, well, if you think both of those experts sound credible, you resonate with what they're saying and you're interested in trying, well, one approach might be to try one expert's diet for four weeks. And whilst you're trying it, pay attention. Pay attention to how you feel. What's your energy like? Your vitality, your sleep, your focus? How do you feel in yourself?

• 7:21Rangan Chatterjee?

  What is your bloating like? Your bowels, your gut? Pay attention to those things. Observe them and then perhaps try the other person's diet for four weeks and pay attention to those same things. And I contend that if you start paying attention, you will very quickly realise which of these approaches might be the right approach for you at this particular moment in your life. Again, I want to be really clear, I'm not saying ignore external experts. I'm saying the balance has shifted too much. We want a balance between

• 8:01Rangan Chatterjee?

  the two, external expertise and internal expertise. But too often now, we're getting confused. We say, I don't know who I should be trusting. All the information is conflicting. But actually, if you start paying attention to how you feel when you're doing certain things, and let's take this beyond diet. If you listen to my podcast every week, you'll be constantly hearing different ideas, perspectives, viewpoints, practices, and not all of them are going to be right for you. But if you want to change your life for good, you have to become your own expert. And it is possible. If I reflect on the patients throughout my career, who have truly transformed their lives for

• 8:46Rangan Chatterjee?

  good, not just for a few weeks or a few months, for good. At some point, they became their own experts. At some point, they were able to say to me, hey, doc, what you recommended those five or six things, I think those five were really well, but that sixth thing that you recommended, I don't think that's the right approach for me. I don't think that's going to fit in my life. When I do that, it doesn't seem to work for me. And it's that internal expertise, that ability to trust ourselves, that I think we need to take back. It's the only way, in my view, that you're going to be able to navigate this world where you're being constantly bombarded by more and more information, is by spending a bit

• 9:31Rangan Chatterjee?

  of time developing and relearning the skill of listening to yourself. One of the problems when we don't do this, when we don't trust ourselves and put all of our faith in external experts, is that if the plan that the expert is offering us doesn't work, we never think the plan was wrong for us. We don't think the expert gave us the wrong advice. We think that we're the failure. We think that we're the ones who've got something wrong with us. The expert had the perfect advice, but we weren't able to follow it.

• 10:11Rangan Chatterjee?

  And I would argue that sometimes if we follow the wrong plan for us, and then we end up thinking that we're the failure, we're worse off than had we never even started off that plan in the first place. That's a really key point. If you never followed that expert's plan, and then not managed to do it and failed, and then thought that you were the failure, in some ways, you would have been better off not even following that plan in the first place. So what you have to do, in my view, the more helpful way to look at these things is to go, no, I'm gonna, let's say you like a certain plan that someone's offering you, give it a go, but pay attention, ask yourself, is this working for me?

• 10:55Rangan Chatterjee?

  How do I feel when I do this? Does this resonate deeply within me?

• 11:02Rangan Chatterjee?

  Now, chapter one is called "Trust Yourself", the whole of that chapter is dedicated to this concept. And in the chapter, I explain that our bodies are astonishingly deep sources of information, if only we learn to listen to them properly. One of the most exciting and rapidly growing new fields is the study of what's known as interoception. Interoception is literally a sixth sense, like sight, touch, taste, sound and smell. It's a basic power of detection that we're born with. But interoception doesn't interpret signals from the outside world.

• 11:45Rangan Chatterjee?

  Instead, it's directed inward at the signals that are transmitted from our internal organs to our brains. And the better we get at listening to its messages, the better able we are to thrive. There's a lot of scientific research now that shows us that developing our sense of interoception can transform our wellbeing. There was a study published in The Lancet where they reported on research done by Professor Hugo Critchley at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School with autistic individuals who had symptoms of anxiety. And Professor Critchley was able to significantly reduce their stress levels by training them

• 12:28Rangan Chatterjee?

  to become more aware of signals from their heartbeats. After just six sessions, 31% of them recovered completely from their anxiety, compared to only 16% in the control group. There was another study. Professor Cynthia Price at the University of Washington in Seattle has carried out equally impressive work with people who have substance abuse problems. Drug and alcohol addicts who relapse often struggle to regulate their emotions.

• 13:00Rangan Chatterjee?

  Cynthia Price found that training patients to be more acutely aware of their internal sensations with sessions of mindfulness that were focused inward, lessen their cravings, reduce depression, and help them remain abstinent over the course of a year. I mean, that's remarkable. These improvements are there when we teach people to trust themselves, to pay attention to what's going on inside their own bodies. This is the theme that I'm trying to get across. There's nothing wrong with listening

• 13:37Rangan Chatterjee?

  to advice from external experts, but you've also got to tap into your own internal expertise. In fact, researchers believe that one of the reasons why physical exercise can be so powerful for so many different aspects of our health, including anxiety and depression, is because of increased interoceptive awareness. By regularly increasing your heart rate and working out your muscles, you actually become more attuned to the signals your body is emitting, which in turn helps you feel more capable and in control. So this whole idea is about trusting

• 14:21Rangan Chatterjee?

  yourself. I really think at this time of year, it's the most important thing you can be thinking about. Are you someone who needs to start tapping into their own internal expertise? Now, the truth is, if you've spent your whole life not listening to your body's signals, and instead listening to the advice from people outside of you, it's not going to happen overnight. It's a skill that you can develop and cultivate, but it's going to take practice. Think about this another way.

• 14:58Rangan Chatterjee?

  If you wake up in the morning and the first thing you do is start consuming information, so the news, emails, social media, even if you're consuming high-quality information, you're still getting information in from the outside, which means that you have potentially lost the opportunity to start listening to your body's own signals. How are you feeling? Are you overly stressed? Have you got some tightness somewhere? Is your mood slightly off? You see, we don't realise that when we start consuming from the outside, we're distracting, we're not having to sit with ourselves. And if you cannot sit with yourself,

• 15:41Rangan Chatterjee?

  you're not going to learn about yourself, which is one of the reasons why we keep jumping from plan to plan, from expert to expert, wondering, why can't I find the right approach for me? Why does this expert's plan not work? Or this expert's plan not work? If you're somebody who's constantly getting confused by the advice from other people, I would say that it's really, really important for you this year to focus on some solitude each day. If you've listened to this podcast before or read any of my previous books, you will know that I think in this day and age, one of the most important practices

• 16:21Rangan Chatterjee?

  for any one of us is a daily practice of solitude. Why? Because this is how you develop the skill of learning about yourself. You sit with yourself. You step outside of your life so you can start reflecting on your life. But if you get up and straight away you're consuming information, you've lost that opportunity. So the idea here is about trusting yourself and the practical take home is, what daily practice of solitude can you bring into your life this year?

• 16:56Rangan Chatterjee?

  Now, in keeping with the theme of this idea, you're gonna have to find what works best for you. Yes, I have my own way of doing this. I have a morning routine of the three Ms. Mindfulness, movement and mindset. I start off each day with about 10 minutes or so of meditation and breath work. I then do some movement, a five minute strength workout while my coffee is brewing. And then I finish off with that third M mindset where I write in my journal. This is an intentional way of starting each day, which works for me. It means I'm not reacting to the world around me.

• 17:37Rangan Chatterjee?

  I'm actually intentionally setting the tone of how I want my day to go. I'm learning about myself through that morning practice. So I would say you have to figure out what is that daily practice of solitude gonna be for you? It could be journaling, meditation, breath work,

• 17:58Rangan Chatterjee?

  going for a walk whilst not also staring at your phone. It could even be you have your morning cup of tea or coffee each morning in your kitchen or your living room in silence without also checking your emails or Instagram at the same time. That is solitude. That will allow things to come up for you that allow you to reflect on your life and make changes in your life. So I really want you to think this year about what daily practice of solitude can you bring? And you may already have one and maybe me sharing this idea will powerfully remind you why it's so important for you to keep that practice up. And whilst you can vary the practice from day to day,

• 18:43Rangan Chatterjee?

  I think it's better to stick to the same one every day, ideally at the same time. I think when you do the same thing every morning, it becomes repetitive, but the magic lies in the repetition. When you repeat a practice over and over again, you quickly build up your innate intelligence and intuition. You start to learn what is normal for you and you start to learn when things start to feel different. So I have a friend, for example, who does five yoga postures every morning. It's the same five every day. Because on some days when she's doing those practices, They feel easy. She feels that they're fluid. She feels really flexible.

• 19:28Rangan Chatterjee?

  And on other days, things feel a bit tight and rigid. Because she's doing the same practice every day. When things feel different, she knows it's not the practice. Because that's what's happening every day. That's her constant. She knows that there's something different within her. So for example, when she feels tight and rigid when she's doing it. She knows that the stress load is building up in her life. Maybe there's a relationship issue she needs to address. Maybe she's taken on too much at work and she's stressed out and underslept. It's a practice that helps her tune into herself.

• 20:10Rangan Chatterjee?

  So I'd highly encourage you this year to find your daily solitude practice that's going to work for you. Hope you enjoyed that bite sized clip. Do spread the love by sharing this episode with your friends and family. And if you want more, why not go back and listen to the original full conversation with my guest? If you enjoyed this episode, I think you will really enjoy my bite sized Friday email. It's called the Friday Five. And each week I share things that I do not share on social media. It contains five short doses of positivity. Articles of books that I'm reading, quotes that I'm thinking about, exciting research I've come across and so much more. I really think you're going to love it.

• 20:53Rangan Chatterjee?

  The goal is for it to be a small, yet powerful dose of feel good to get you ready for the weekend. You can sign up for it free of charge at drchattity.com/fridayfive. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Make sure you have pressed subscribe. And I'll be back next week with my long form conversation on Wednesday. And the latest episode of Bite Science next Friday.