5 Easy Habits That Could Transform Your Life

2024-11-08 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali, TJ Power · recording, 15:29 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Health, sleep and habits · mode: Explanation and tutorial · tags: Evidence-based framing, His medical past, Sponsor segment present

In the third episode of his four-part series with neuroscientist TJ Power, Ali explains serotonin, which is made mostly in the gut, and five habits to raise it: TJ's law of serotonin (a daily headphone-free walk in nature), sunlight before social media, gut health, resonance breathing and deep sleep.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Why serotonin is so important; TJ Power and the four-part brain-chemical series

★★ TJ Power says that if you eat unhealthy food, stay inside all day and sleep badly your mood dips: mood is a clever communication pathway between brain and body guiding us to a healthier way of being. — 00:00:29
★★ The third episode of Ali's four-part brain-chemical series with TJ Power is about serotonin, how it influences mood, and five simple habits to improve your mood. — 00:00:58

00:01:18 — The second brain: the gut, the vagus nerve and tryptophan

★★ Ali says the gut is known as the second brain: it has more than 100 million nerve cells, and brain and gut communicate all the time through the gut-brain axis. — 00:01:21 · second brain
★★★ Ali says serotonin is the chemical responsible for our mood and energy, and the most important thing to understand is that 90% of it is made in the gut. — 00:01:50
★★ Ali says that when the body is well rested, gets sunlight and has nutrient-dense food, serotonin in the gut rises and improves how we feel; when serotonin falls, mood and energy are low. — 00:01:50
★★ Ali says serotonin influences the signals sent from the gut to the brain through the vagus nerve, so if the gut makes less serotonin those signals change. — 00:02:19
★★ Ali says the brain makes serotonin from tryptophan, an amino acid from our diet, so without enough tryptophan in the diet we cannot make enough serotonin. — 00:02:49

00:03:18 — Action one: the law of serotonin, forest bathing and grounding

★★ Ali says boosting your serotonin makes you feel happier and more energised, which reinforces the healthy behaviours that keep serotonin high. — 00:03:18
★★★ TJ Power's law of serotonin: walk headphone-free in nature every day; it affects every aspect of serotonin, from nutrition and sleep to sunlight and breathing, by aligning us with nature. — 00:03:18

“the law of serotonin is to make sure you walk headphone-free in nature every day”
★ Ali describes shinrin-yoku, a Japanese practice whose name means forest bathing: spending time walking in a forest and looking around. — 00:03:18 · Japan
★★ Ali cites a study in which university students spent a day doing shinrin-yoku in a forest and a day walking in a city: forests gave lower cortisol, pulse rate and blood pressure. — 00:04:06
★★ TJ Power says humans are only at home in nature, their original home, where they spent 300,000 years in forests, beaches and mountains. — 00:04:35
★★★ TJ Power believes time in natural environments is the most important thing in his DOSE theory: humans are misaligned with their hunter-gatherer selves, and the more you live like one, the more you thrive. — 00:05:05
★★★ Ali's goal is to spend some time in nature every day, even if that means cycling or walking to a local park in a big city, and to be mindful there of what you hear, see, smell and feel. — 00:05:05
★ Ali says there is some evidence that walking barefoot on grass helps through what people call a grounding effect, though more research is needed. (hedged) — 00:05:34
★★ Ali has yet to find major scientific evidence that grounding works, but traditions outside the West and people he knows swear by it, and he wants to experiment with it more himself. — 00:06:03

00:06:25 — Sponsor read for Brilliant

00:07:31 — Action two: sunlight before socials

★★★ Ali advises sunlight before socials: morning sunlight raises cortisol so you feel awake, syncs your circadian rhythm so you feel sleepy at the right time, and tells the brain to make serotonin. — 00:07:31
★★ Ali says morning sunlight works even when it is cloudy: about five minutes on a really sunny day, about 15 minutes on a really cloudy one. — 00:08:06

00:08:26 — Action three: happy gut, happy brain

★★ Ali says a daily probiotic supplement could have a positive effect on mood, anxiety and cognitive symptoms in major depressive disorder, perhaps because probiotics, like some antidepressants, try to raise serotonin. (hedged) — 00:08:28
★★ Ali lists probiotic foods such as kombucha, kimchi, sauerkraut, tempeh, cheese and yogurt, and advises eating nutrient-dense foods with lots of fibre, which helps the body make serotonin. — 00:08:58
★★ TJ Power says that as ultra-processed foods enter the body, making serotonin becomes its least priority next to removing these toxic products, so serotonin levels dip. — 00:09:27
★★★ To tell whether a food helps you make serotonin, Ali gives two questions: could this food have been on earth before humans got here, and do I recognise all of its ingredients? — 00:09:56
★★ Working in medicine, Ali saw many people with depression, most of whom did not have healthy diets; granting correlation is not causation, he says most people's diet is largely under their control. — 00:10:26
★★ TJ Power says that when the body breathes very slowly, serotonin levels rise because the body is getting into a calmer state. — 00:10:55
★★ Ali says slow, deep breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which puts us into a relaxed state of rest and digest. — 00:10:55
★★★ TJ Power explains resonance breathing: breathe just six times a minute, each breath taking 10 seconds, four seconds in and six seconds out. — 00:10:55

00:10:58 — Action four: in for four, out for six

★★ After two rounds of guided breathing Ali feels a little better; anyone can do it at any time, and it is easy to forget how much control our breathing gives us over our physiology. — 00:11:58

00:12:43 — Action five: delta sleep, the wind-down routine and the rules we make for ourselves

★★ Ali says serotonin mostly switches off at night, especially in deep (delta wave) sleep, letting serotonin receptors reset so that the next day the same serotonin is more effective. — 00:12:43
★ Ali says this is probably why you feel cranky in the morning after too little sleep: your serotonin receptors have not had the chance to reset. (hedged) — 00:12:43
★★★ TJ Power says your brain needs a calming period before it enters sleep, so social media should not be the last thing you do. — 00:13:16
★★ Ideally, Ali says, we would not look at our phone at all before bed and would do resonance breathing or reading instead to calm down. — 00:13:16
★★ Ali reads on his Kindle at night, and these days his night-time books are about spirituality. — 00:13:16 · Kindle
★★ Ali is reading Michael Singer's Living Untethered, which he calls amazing, and recommends The Power of Now, The Untethered Soul and The Surrender Experiment to anyone interested in spirituality. — 00:13:45
★★ If you are on your phone in the evening, Ali advises turning down the brightness, turning on night mode so the light is yellow rather than blue, and keeping the screen away from your eyes. — 00:13:45
★★ Ali says watching high-octane, high-dopamine short-form content is a terrible thing for your brain. — 00:13:45
★★★ Ali does not need to watch anything before bed, but if you tell yourself you need to watch something to relax before sleep, he advises long-form rather than short-form content. — 00:14:15
★★★ Ali is amazed how many people convince themselves they must do unhealthy things, such as two hours of Netflix to wind down: with something better to do, such as a social plan, sport or a camping trip, they would not. — 00:14:15 · Netflix
★★★ Ali, who says he does this himself, suggests asking which arbitrary rules we have made up for ourselves and whether they serve us: keep those that do, and drop those that do not. — 00:14:44

Threads in this video

milestone · Ali's four-part video series with TJ Power on the four main brain chemicals (2024) — The third episode of Ali's four-part brain-chemical series with TJ Power is about serotonin, how it influences mood, and five simple habits to improve your mood. (00:00:58)
refine · How do you become happier? — TJ Power's law of serotonin: walk headphone-free in nature every day; it affects every aspect of serotonin, from nutrition and sleep to sunlight and breathing, by aligning us with nature. (00:03:18)
restate · How do you reduce stress? — Ali's goal is to spend some time in nature every day, even if that means cycling or walking to a local park in a big city, and to be mindful there of what you hear, see, smell and feel. (00:05:05)
restate · What morning routine should you have? — Ali advises sunlight before socials: morning sunlight raises cortisol so you feel awake, syncs your circadian rhythm so you feel sleepy at the right time, and tells the brain to make serotonin. (00:07:31)
refine · What should you eat to stay healthy? — To tell whether a food helps you make serotonin, Ali gives two questions: could this food have been on earth before humans got here, and do I recognise all of its ingredients? (00:09:56)
restate · How do you reduce stress? — TJ Power explains resonance breathing: breathe just six times a minute, each breath taking 10 seconds, four seconds in and six seconds out. (00:10:55)
refine · How do you reduce stress? — After two rounds of guided breathing Ali feels a little better; anyone can do it at any time, and it is easy to forget how much control our breathing gives us over our physiology. (00:11:58)
restate · How do you sleep better? — TJ Power says your brain needs a calming period before it enters sleep, so social media should not be the last thing you do. (00:13:16)
restate · How do you sleep better? — Ideally, Ali says, we would not look at our phone at all before bed and would do resonance breathing or reading instead to calm down. (00:13:16)
refine · How do you sleep better? — Ali does not need to watch anything before bed, but if you tell yourself you need to watch something to relax before sleep, he advises long-form rather than short-form content. (00:14:15)
restate · Should you avoid blue light before bed? — If you are on your phone in the evening, Ali advises turning down the brightness, turning on night mode so the light is yellow rather than blue, and keeping the screen away from your eyes. (00:13:45)
refine · Should you watch TV? — Ali is amazed how many people convince themselves they must do unhealthy things, such as two hours of Netflix to wind down: with something better to do, such as a social plan, sport or a camping trip, they would not. (00:14:15)

Where the stories that moved here went next

Ali's four-part video series with TJ Power on the four main brain chemicals (2024) — completed; last: outcome, 2024-11-12

Mentioned

Central: law of serotonin · resonance breathing · serotonin · TJ Power · ultra-processed food

Also: People: Andrew Huberman · Michael Singer

Works: Living Untethered · The Power of Now · The Surrender Experiment · The Untethered Soul

Organizations: Brilliant · Dose Lab · Instagram · Netflix

Concepts: blue light · circadian rhythm · deep sleep · depression · dopamine · grounding · gut-brain axis · oxytocin · parasympathetic nervous system · probiotic · second brain · shinrin-yoku · sympathetic nervous system · tryptophan · vagus nerve

Places: Japan

Products: Kindle

Also centred on TJ Power: How to Reset Your Dopamine (And Change Your Life) · 5 Habits for Happier Relationships - The Oxytocin Effect · Why You’re Overwhelmed - 5 Ways to Beat Stress

Also centred on ultra-processed food: How to Get in Better Shape than 99% of People

← Previous: 5 Habits for Happier Relationships - The Oxytocin Effect · Next → Why You’re Overwhelmed - 5 Ways to Beat Stress