What do you do when your dream life starts to feel like a nightmare?

In this chapter, we sit down with Brandon Day to explore the "dark places" that high performance often hides. From winning National Championships and being featured in Sports Illustrated to waking up on a deflated air mattress in a shoebox condo, Brandon shares the raw reality of when success stops feeling sustainable.

We dive deep into his journey through chronic pain, mental health struggles, and the "applied neurology" that finally helped him heal his body and mind. Brandon explains how our brains use pain as a protection signal and why "hustle culture" and the constant grind can lead to burnout and isolation.

This conversation is for anyone feeling the weight of expectations, struggling with invisible pain, or looking for a more sustainable path to peak performance and flow state. Discover how to move from a state of survival into a state of thriving by understanding the science of your brain and the power of vulnerability.

In this video, we discuss:

- Overcoming rock bottom and finding a new path.

- The connection between neurology, chronic pain, and recovery.

- Why traditional "high performance" leads to burnout.

- The role of flow state in sustainable success and mental health.

- Breaking the cycle of isolation in the pursuit of greatness.

Follow Brandon:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iambrandonday/

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Brandon, you achieved a lot of what young athletes dream of. National championships, captaining the team, and even a Sports Illustrated cover.

But underneath that, you found yourself in chronic pain and some pretty dark places. At what point did the life that looked successful on the outside stop feeling sustainable on the inside?

Oh, Sam, great question. I mean, there was one point where it was very clear that it was no longer sustainable.

Unfortunately, that was a very dark point and surely, like, a rock bottom. I just remember, you know, waking up one day, living in this little, kind of like, shoebox little condo with my cousin in. In Los Angeles.

And I was on a mattress, an air mattress that deflated every night. And, like, a hole in there somewhere, I couldn't find it. So I'd wake up every morning on the hard floor with this deflated air mattress on top of me.

And I remember waking up one morning and just. I was. I was hungover from partying. I was depressed. I was in pain.

Like, you mentioned, physical pain, along with, like, all of this mental anguish that I had been dealing with after. After a few years of just being lost in life and not knowing what to do next and all these expectations that I had put on myself.

And.

And I just remember that I couldn't. I was so angry at myself because I couldn't afford a pack of cigarettes.

And all I wanted to do was just smoke cigarettes and, like, just say goodbye to the world. Right. Like, I just wanted to crawl in my hole and smoke my cigarettes. I just remember thinking, like, dude, what is happening?

And it was in that moment that I also, like, you know, my mental health was really bad, and I. I didn't really see a way out except for. And then that's when I had, like, the idea of taking. Taking matters into my own hands and making my own exit.

Yeah.

And that was the moment where I was like, okay. There was, like, some kind of switch flipped in my brain that was like, okay, we've officially gone on too, too long in this.

Yeah.

And we have to change something.

We'll get onto that in a moment. What was the support around you like in that time? Like, did you have people around you when you're in that spot?

Yeah. I mean, that's a big reason why I'm still here today. I didn't have them. It would be. It could have ended very differently.

You know, I will give myself some grace there. And, you know, I made that decision, but I don't know if I would have been able to really pull myself out of that hole unless I had people around me.

I Mean, like I said, I was living with my cousin, and he was a huge.

He's always been a huge supporter of me and one of my best friends, and I had a couple other friends around me down there that were invaluable, you know, people to talk to. And I had.

My dad and my brother literally came into town, you know, like a week later and just, like, picked me up, physically picked me up, put me in the car and drove me to Arizona, where I've been for the past, you know, going on 15 years. So even without the close proximity, I knew that, you know, which is weird.

Like, when you're in that state, there's, like, these blinders and this dark cloud around you that you can't even see all of these people that are around and supporting you, and you're so lost in your own mind that you're blind to it.

And you think that there's nothing, and you think that everyone else that actually is supporting you and wants to help you would be better off without you. It's the weirdest, like, mind f. Right, that, like, switches this thing in your brain where you actually think that when you.

When you speak about it from a place of, like, strong mental health, it sounds like, how could you get to that point? But when you're in it, it's such a rational thing. It's not even. It doesn't even. It's not even a question. It's like, this is just what it is.

Yeah. And only when you're outside of it, looking back in on that time, can you really see it for the truth. But when you're in it, like you said.

No, there's no. It's like a mind virus that just.

It's like a parasite that lives in your brain and literally changes the way that your brain works and the way that you think. And it's a slow progression, usually, which is the wildest thing. It's like. It's little steps, you know, what's the. The Chinese, you know, proverb?

It's like death by a thousand cuts. Right. It's little things over time that keep building up that eventually lead to that really radical thinking.

Yeah.

You know, it's not. It's not, you know, right after something happens that somebody goes to that.

Nah, it's a long progression, which is why it's so insidious and so dark. Because, you know, we don't.

We build up a lot of experience and a lot of things and a lot of repetition that then the brain does totally change the way that it sees the world. And. And. And then it does. It seems very rational and logical. Like, of course that's the next step, right? It's.

It's a lot of steps that have come up to this. That's the next one. But for some reason, you know, and I don't. I don't know why.

I wish I did, because I think we could save a lot of lives if I knew why and how that switch flipped for me, when for some people it doesn't. But for me, it was. If I could point to one thing or, you know, one big factor was that I did have a really. I have amazing family and great parents.

That the support around me and my parents and my family and close friends. I knew somewhere deep down that, like, my thinking was faulty and they would really hurt if I was gone.

So there was this cognitive dissonance in there. Like, they're gonna be better off, but they're also gonna be really upset, and it's gonna hurt them a lot if I'm gone. So that's when it flipped.

And it was like, well, then you gotta do something about this. You know, talking to myself. You have got to get your shit together and figure something out. Like, it's been done before. You can do it.

Like, just start.

What was your starting point for that journey? Obviously, it's such a massive journey to go on, and when you're in that state, it's a very difficult decision to make.

So where do you even begin to start there?

Yeah, that's. That's the question. Because it's like, you can decide that and everything can change in that moment. But then it's like, what action do you take?

Because that's. It's a long journey to get to that point, but it's also. It's a pretty long journey to get out of it, too, when you're pretty deep in there.

For me, I remember it like it was yesterday. I went for a run.

I went outside, which I hadn't been outside of my house in, like, three weeks at that point, because I was so anxious, I couldn't even go to the grocery store to buy food, which was a block away, because I was just so anxious I was going to run into somebody and have to talk to them. Like, it was like a wild place. I can't even believe that I was in that place, but that's what it was.

And so I was literally ordering everything to my doorstep, paying credit cards, money I didn't have because I couldn't go out of my house. So even going outside like, that should be the first step.

That's the first thing I did was I finally went outside and then I took another step, right? And then that turned into a run. Like, I imagine there's like this movie montage sequence happening.

It's like he took the first step and then he took another, right. It's like Forrest Gump when he. When he gets rid of the braces on his legs. Ah, I'm going to.

It's true, though, because it's those. Those tiny steps are so important.

And the same way that you spoke about getting into that state was very small steps down that you don't see coming until you're at the bottom of that last step. It's the same way up.

And it could be something as small as literally standing at the door and opening the door and just looking out from the door and then closing it. And then the next day you step out and you go. And it's going to be so individual for people. But what.

What sounds like a small step to someone who maybe has never been through that? It's a massive step.

It can feel huge. Yeah. And it did. And I'm laughing because, like, then what I did was, I mean, okay, and this is kind of like a pattern with me.

And I'm sure a lot of other people, like, well, if a little is good, then a lot is better. Right. So I went for a straight up run thinking I'm like, back in my football days and I'm going to just run down Santa Monica Boulevard.

I made it like four blocks and I threw up. I was just so out of shape. So, like, you know, that initial one, I bit off a little bit more than I could chew.

But to your point, like, it's those little steps. I didn't need to go that hard, that quick.

But the little first steps of just getting outside the door, just going for a walk, like, I could have just went for a walk and I probably felt great, you know what I mean? But no, I had to go, like, sprint down the street like I'm frigging Ladanian Tomlinson.

And, well, you mentioned there about your sort of football times, and obviously that's where you excelled when you're a bit younger than that and you've had a lot of success there. Was there part of that, that obviously you still thought you were in that space even then you were saying, like, big time.

Yeah, I left the house and I still thought I had that same level of fitness.

Yeah. I mean, this is.

That's such a perfect question, Sam, because It highlights what really got me into the situation in the first place was the, the insane expectations that I put on myself for my life at that moment versus the reality of my life at that moment. And so you, you mentioned like a lot of the success that I had in football. Yes. You know, played for a small school, but we won national titles.

I got to play in three of them, won two of them. I was an all American in the nai and I made on the COVID of Sports Illustrated. Awesome. Like incredible.

I mean, I made it to the peak of sports journalism.

How old were you at that point?

I was 21 at that point. Cool. So just a young man trying to figure out life and just having fun playing college football and hanging with my friends and chasing girls.

And I was like, put on this magazine. I got a lot of empathy for athletes that get thrust into spotlight like that.

It's a lot, it's really interesting and I got a very, very tiny slice of it. Tiny, tiny slice.

Compared to like the Jaden Daniels of the world from a few years ago, you know, Heisman winner, you know, all over everything now playing in the NFL, like just that little window though, I can kind of see, you know, the, I sometimes say like the, the brightest light creates the darkest shadow or shows you the darkest shadow. Right.

And for me that was a lot of, a lot of insecurities around my own self worth and you know, imposter syndrome is a word that gets thrown around a lot these days, which I think is pretty accurate for what I experienced. Just didn't really feel like I deserved it or I was worth it. Okay.

But then the expectation was Sports Illustrated national championships in everything that you do.

And so that I carried that over into then making films and when those didn't weren't really successful, I, I really beat myself up and like blame myself and you know, it wasn't good enough. The next job that I looked to try to find, like nothing was ever good enough. You know, my health and fitness, like nothing was ever good enough.

So I was just like everything that I was doing in my life was just falling way, way short of this expectation that I had for myself that was totally just asinine is the word that comes to mind. Just a ridiculous, ridiculous like bar to shoot for when, you know, I'm starting something brand new.

I'm not skilled at whatever this is, this career or whatever. And you know, when I don't cross the finish line first in whatever it is that I'm doing, then, then I'm the worst thing ever And I'm a huge failure.

And, like, again, looking back on it, I'm like, what are you doing? Like, just manage your expectations a little bit. Give yourself some grace. Like, be kind to yourself. But in those moments, I just. I was.

No, I didn't have the mindfulness or the awareness to see what was happening. So it was just like, down, down, down, down, down.

Yeah. On the topic of managing expectations, you obviously are someone who wants to be better and wants to be the best at whatever you're doing.

And people of that disposition often have these high expectations that maybe work against them sometimes. But also, it's important to have, like, dream big and have these goals and look at maybe push the boundaries of what we're capable of.

How do you manage that now in your life, now that you've learned from that moment?

So around two or three years into my Odyssey Back to Health. I love the Odyssey, one of my favorite books ever. Um, so that's actually what I called my business back then. I'm like, this is.

I'm going on an epic journey, right? I'm gonna call my business Odyssey Health.

So two or three years into that journey, I read a book by a guy named Steven Kotler called the Rise of Superman.

And he was explaining, through his investigative journalism career over 20, 30 years, how these action and adventure sport athletes were accomplishing impossible feats, like jumping over the Great Wall of China on a skateboard. Danny Wei. Or doing a backflip on a dirt bike. Mike Metzger. And then, you know, a few months later, Travis Pastrana doing a double backflip.

Like, what the heck? You know, Dean Potter, like, Wing suiting by these cliffs and doing, like, these guys are doing wild stuff, right?

And they all had talked about how they kind of access this. This state, right, that they couldn't really explain in words. It was a very spiritual thing. And.

And Kotler, you know, through his journalism and research and everything, put all these pieces together, and he's like, flow states. That's what they're describing, right? This altered state of consciousness where we feel and perform our best.

We're so engrossed in the moment that everything goes away. Time goes away. We have this, like, feeling of effortless effort where one action just flows seamlessly to the next. You don't overthink it.

Your inner critic goes silent, and you're just, like, taking risks and doing big, huge things and performing at a level you may have never even attempted before. So it's like, wow, that's incredible. When I read those words, I was like, holy smokes, this is what I lost and what I've been missing.

So I dove headfirst into it, and it really changed a lot in my life. To your question.

One of the things that really helped me manage expectations after that and as a result helped me find more flow in all the things that I do is the simplest explanation is this golden rule of flow called this challenge skills balance, where if you want more presence, if you want more enjoyment, fulfillment, and more flow in anything that you do, I don't care if it's folding laundry or championship game or writing your next book or having a conversation like we're having.

If you can tune the challenge level to sit just outside or beyond your current skill level, if you can push yourself just a little bit beyond where you're currently at, just stretch just a little bit before breaking, you'll find more flow. Because when you stretch, your brain has to pay more attention. It's like, oh, this is hard. This is gonna require something a little extra.

And then you can dig down and you can access that state more frequently and consistently.

When you push it too hard, like I was doing before with the expectations that are way, way beyond my current skill level, then that's gonna just end every time in disappointment. Right. If the challenge is too high for your skill level, the that usually leads to anxiety, frustration. Like, this is not fun. It's too hard.

Imagine any sport that you play. Like, I talk to my clients all the time about this. Like, you're going out on the pickleball court, you love it, it's fun. That's awesome.

I love that for you. Go out and have fun. If you want to find more flow in it, you need to play against somebody that's just a little bit better than you.

Yeah.

Somebody that's going to stretch your skills. Okay. That's going to be the most fun you have. Don't let your competition get the best of you, but have some fun with it. Right?

But if you play with somebody that is way better than you and they're going all out, that's not fun. You're just getting smoked. That sucks.

On the other hand, if you play with somebody that's just not on your level and they it's a first timer, you've been playing for years, they don't have the skill, they're missing shots, you might have some fun, but you're not going to find much flow in that. Right. It might be a little boring, honestly.

However, you can tune the challenge skills balance with both of those players with the Person that's way hard, way better than you, maybe they only play with their opposite hand to even the score a little bit, right? Or you got to give yourself a step. Same thing with somebody that's not as good as you.

Maybe you put a constraint on yourself to make it more challenging for you and easier for them. Let's even the playing field a little bit.

Everybody's gonna have more fun when we challenge ourselves in that way, just beyond our current skill level. So that's how I try to approach everything I do now. Like, where's my skill level? Be honest about it. And how can I challenge myself just a little bit?

Right. I still have the huge goals, but this allows me to break it down much more succinctly. Step by step with milestones to hit, right.

And just continually challenging myself.

And with this framework, when I make flow the goal, those big dreams, those big aspirations, they're just an eventual outcome that's going to happen on my path to bettering myself in whatever I'm doing. I often say that when you make flow the goal, the outcome takes care of itself.

So just fun, fun is a useful metric, I suppose, in a lot of it because you can still be challenging yourself, but also having fun. It's when you stop having fun because you're just getting beaten in every point, that's no fun. And yeah, it's because it's too challenging for you.

So I suppose for anyone doing something where they're not having fun, that's like a signal to just have a little reflection and go, is this, am I asking too much or too little of myself?

Yes, perfectly put. Yeah, that's exactly what somebody should do and it should be fun.

Like that's, I mean, why do we do these things in the first place, especially sports or games? We do them to have fun. So that when you stop having fun, you gotta think about like, what are you doing? Why are you actually doing this thing?

And I can't tell you how many like elite level performers in whatever. I train a lot of athletes, right? Some that are like elite professional level, but a lot that are just, you know, amateur level.

But the higher end, they love competition. But their, their main sport is like running a business or being parents, right?

But they love this, this other sport because it's fun and they challenge themselves, they find more flow in it.

But I can't tell you how many of those like high achieving people are like in this sport and they're frustrated by it or they're not enjoying it like they used to because they one put way too high of expectations on themselves and they focus so much on the outcome. Winning the championship, winning the game, like crushing the competition, whatever.

All of these are, like, externally focused things that may or may not come true. And if you're putting your worth and your happiness on external targets, then you are, you know, likely to be let down. Right.

And even if you do win, you are wasting all of that time preparing for it and being angry about, like, practice and, like, failing here, missing that shot, whatever. And then you win this thing, this championship, and then you. You have the utmost joy. But for how long before that's gone?

And now you're back into the old pattern of, like, being angry because I gotta go to practice and I missed that one shot. And like, you know, it's like, if you could just take a step back, remind yourself to your point, like, why am I doing this in the first place?

And use fun or flow. Kind of the same thing. Like, when you're having fun, you're. You're likely getting into a flow state.

Like.

Yeah.

Side note, if you ever want to see someone in flow, like, all the time, watch a baby, watch a toddler or a little kid just playing, they're like, locked in it. The world is gone. They are in their own world. That's a flow state, though, so we can take lessons from that.

And when you make play and having fun kind of the goal. Right. Then you're going to naturally find interesting ways to play with that challenge. Skills, balance, using your imagination.

Like, you're going to naturally do that, which is so cool. But when we lose sight of that. Yeah, that's where we start to.

Things start to break down and we put too much pressure on ourselves and we get into that anxiety or boredom and. And it's just not as fun. Like, who wants that? Yeah.

I really like the way you've put it. And I like the crossover of fun being like an extra, a way to almost measure it and reflect with it.

Because I've heard the term flow state a lot before and it's quite difficult to really say exactly what it is. And people will just say it's that time when time's not in it and time's not a thing.

You're just doing what you're doing and you're not thinking about anything else. And it's like, okay, but. And. But fun is a part of that. Like, I'm just thinking personally of times I've played sports or starting jiu jitsu.

It's a sport where you're Always going to be like losing if you're looking in an external way, because it's impossible to turn up and beat someone who's been training it for years. So you have to start going, okay, how do I make this fun? What did I learn today? How did I get better in myself?

And so it's like that internal versus external. I just wanted to touch on before we go into sort of your.

Your what you do and the applied neurology stuff, I just want you to just expand on the pain that you were going through that sort of led you into this field of work.

So we mentioned where you were mentally, and you did mention about chronic pain, but could you just tell us a little bit more about what that was in that time?

I experienced chronic physical pain probably since puberty, let's say. Maybe I had a.

A growth spurt that went real fast, and my brain didn't do a very good job of kind of integrating this new body and, you know, creating these body maps and stuff that I had no idea about before I learned about applied neurology and the brain. But regardless, I had, you know, back then it was, I got bad knees, quote, unquote, or I got weak ankles. They're not very stable.

I've sprained each ankle like a dozen times, some worse than others, but, you know, same with my knees.

Torn both meniscus in the knees, stretched out all the ligaments in there, very fortunately, never had to have surgeries, never had any big breaks, lots of sprains, lots of pain. So I just played, played with this pain in my ankles, my knees, my lower back. I played American football. So, you know, lots of hits to the head.

I've got arthritis in my neck and my back, bulging discs. You know, I've had stingers, like all sorts of stuff, you know, which is kind of par for the course.

We always thought playing football, you know, you're like, you're out there like, getting into a car accident every day for years, right? So we accepted it as just part of the game, part of the process.

And I even accepted that I'm probably just going to live with chronic pain for the rest of my life, because that's kind of what I saw with other, you know, former players and what you hear about and this kind of the pervasive language and the thoughts out in the world around this kind of chronic pain, okay? So that's kind of the mindset I had throughout all of this. But when I got done playing, I didn't have pain for a short time.

Like all My pain was gone, which was to me was like really weird. Why would it just go away after I like stopped playing and working out? I didn't understand it.

I just kind of was like, okay, great, I hope this lasts. Which it didn't, of course. You know, about a year later it started to come back in these little ways.

And then like it started to kick up even more to the point where, you know, around that time when I was kind of in my darkest hour, my chronic pain was pretty bad.

You know, waking up the deflated air mattress probably didn't help much, but you know, with back pain that I felt like an 80 year old man trying to like straighten myself up as I got up during the day and you know, turning your head wrong and your neck just locks down.

I was having headaches and just, you know, pain that was stopping me from doing really most of the things that I wanted to do, like physically I couldn't really work out because everything hurt.

It would be one thing, my shoulder one day, the knee the next day, you know, and so day in and day out, when you're dealing with chronic pain, there's really only a couple options, right?

You can, you know, go the pharmaceutical route, which, I mean, I was taking handfuls of ibuprofen or Advil all throughout my playing days to kind of make it through. And so it's like you either step it up from there and start into the opiate world or you self medicate, which is the path that I chose.

And there's, you know, there's a lot more going on there in the terms of like actual nervous system regulation.

And I leveraged that for a long time to try to self regulate and self medicate myself because of the pain and because of the dysregulation, Mike, fatigue and then just overwhelm and back and forth, which the head injuries played a big part in. But yeah, the pain itself showed up in all of these different ways, right? Until it reached a breaking point.

So when you got to the point where you sort of found applied neurology, firstly sort of, how did you find that? And secondly, what did it give you that the other things didn't? What does it explain?

Well, the story of finding it was actually kind of funny.

My brother married a German woman after the pandemic and you know, they met, they fell in love super fast and it kind of worked out pretty well because at that time they were, the government was talking about revoking her visa and sending her back to Germany. And they had been dating for, you Know, six months or something. And that would have been.

It wouldn't have been the end of their relationship, but it would have put a big strain on it. Right, because we don't even know if she would be able to come back in the country at that time.

So they decided to get married and I officiated their wedding. I married them locally here. We just ran up the. It's called South Mountain over here. It's like a huge city park.

We did the thing and she brought along her mentors that she was here studying with in Applied Neurology. She was a neurotrainer. I met them. They. They were streaming the wedding back to Germany for her family. And just so happens they're like, oh, we're.

You're into, you know, kinesiology and movement science and all this stuff and brains. And we run this mentorship. It's actually our inaugural mentorship. It starts in two weeks. Do you want to join?

And I was like, ah, well, isn't that fortuitous? So I joined it and it burst open the gates for me.

So the biggest thing, I would say Applied Neurology, you know, gave to me as far as, like, understanding and knowledge and helped me to basically abolish all of my chronic pain within just a month or two of starting to learn and apply the principles. And what the biggest unlock for me was understanding that pain is 100% of the time an output from your brain. Hmm.

My bad knees had nothing to do with my knees. It was my brain feeling threat coming from somewhere in the system. And it was using pain in the knees as the output to protect me. Right, right.

What was it protecting me from? Well, from dying really is the only answer, because the brain really is only concerned with your survival.

And so if the survival feels threatened because of perceived threat from inputs coming in, then it will give you an output that is meant to protect you. And for me, that pain. Pain is a signal. That's what it told me. Okay.

If pain is a signal and it comes from the brain, then it was like, okay, so then I can use any input to help remove the threat and therefore get the output of no pain.

Expand on that bit and.

Absolutely.

Yeah. So how we create that pathway, how people can create pain when there's not actually nothing wrong with something.

Yeah.

So what I often will have clients do when they're skeptical about this initially is like, okay, I want you to go onto like a PubMed or some kind of scientific journal database and just search for the term asymptomatic orthopedic. Injuries, asymptomatic, meaning they have no pain, they have no symptoms, but they have an orthopedic injury.

And basically what you'll find is, like, all of these different studies and reviews and stuff where they take people that have no pain, and they put them in an MRI or CAT scans or X rays and. And they find all of these injuries. And the statistics are ridiculous.

They're like, for something like 85% of people over 75 have operable issues in their spine. It's like, on their mri, it looks like, oh, you got bulging discs. Oh, you got degeneration.

We better go in there, cut those discs, and fuse that spine. But the patient is like, no, thanks. I have zero pain. Why would I do that? Right. And the other way works too.

There's lots of people that have nondescript low back pain, which is just a way to say you got back pain. I don't know why? Because your scans are clear.

Yeah.

So what's up? Right.

Goes back to that idea that there's a threat in the system somewhere, and the brain is giving you the output of pain in your lower back to get you to stop something or change something.

Right.

So if we know that and it's living up here in your brain, doesn't mean it's all in your head. No, no, no. Pain is a very real experience and totally individual to the person. Your worst pain you've ever felt is the worst pain you've ever felt.

For me, same thing. I can't compare mine to yours. Our reaction and experience of the same exact insult, like a paper cut, can be completely different.

So many factors that go into it. Okay, so that's one thing, but it does live in your brain. It comes from your brain. It's an output from your brain.

So that means that we can use anything to affect anything when we talk about neuro training. So I can. I can use an eye drill to move your eyes in a specific way to make the brain feel kind of safer in the environment.

Like, when I see better, I feel more safe in the environment. Right, right. And then the brain can go, okay, I'll let the brake pedal off a little bit.

I'll release some of that tension that we're holding back there in your spine, and I'll get rid of that pain because I don't need to protect you anymore, because now I understand what's going on in my environment, I feel more safe. So we could do the same thing with breathing, with body movement, with your inner ear or your vestibular system.

Yep.

It's always saying, where am I at? What relative to gravity?

All of these different sensory input systems that inform the brain about where we are and what's going on can be tools to change the input to get a better output.

So you're.

You're creating a safe space, whether that's visually, by audio, whatever it is, in order to tell the brain to just chill out, whatever you think is threatening us and our survival is not at this time. And then you can start to manipulate it easier.

That's a great way to think about it. Yeah. We use the language of threat, like remove the threats.

And with the applied neurology process, we have a much more precise way to actually look at the nervous system specifically and the brain specifically and train them intentionally. Instead of, you know, going at your lower back, I might. I'm gonna look there.

I mean, I was trained for 15 years in movement science, orthopedic rehabilitation, and kinesiology and all these things. So of course I'm gonna look there. Because the other thing that neuro.

Why I'm so passionate about applied neurology now and why I teach it and talk about it so much is because when you understand that, that lays the foundation. I think of it like a skeleton key. We have this house with all of these different modalities. And, like, in my own journey, I've tried them all.

I've done chiropractic, physical therapy, like, for years. Massage, acupuncture, structural integration. You know, all of the things I learned about them, I tried them on myself. I do them with clients.

All those traditional modalities are like rooms in this house, but they're all siloed and separate. Applied neurology is like the. The key that unlocks all those doors.

So now all of those things you have a better understanding of, and they all work better because you understand layers deeper of what's going on under the muscles, under the joints, under all of the systems. Because when you peel them back, you always run into the nervous system.

So you can have someone who may be. Let's go with lower back pain. They've had sort of scans. There's nothing showing. There's no obvious reason for this pain.

So we start to think, okay, this might be something that the brain's creating cause of a threat somewhere. So we can use it in that instance.

Can we also use it if someone does have an injury, so they do have something wrong there, can they use it to minimize that pain or help them heal faster in any way?

Yeah, for sure. I Have worked with numerous athletes that are, you know, like in season or getting close to season.

It's like, I don't care what you gotta do, help me get back on the field or on the court. Right? And using the techniques of applied neurology, we will get them back to play.

Like, I don't have any specific statistics for you, but anecdotally and generally like at least 30% faster on average. So that's like two games in a football season, right? Two or three games. You know, that's, that's significant how we do that.

It's the same principles, right? We take, peel back the layers of what's going on in an injury and start to retrain the brain to help it heal faster and more completely.

So, for example, um, I worked with a kid, played college football, and he had broken his leg. And normal treatment would take, you know, at minimum of eight weeks for this kind of a break. And we got him back in five.

Not because we did anything like drastically different, but we just added a couple things that were precisely and intentionally to create safety in that area from the brain with some different and more comprehensive or wide ranging inputs.

For example, just some sensory inputs like light, touch, heat, cold, these things that are already being used, but without the understanding of the nervous system. Right.

With that understanding and with the process that we use to test the inputs, we picked the specific inputs that the brain needed in order to go. Oh, yeah, okay, that feels way better. Okay. Now I'm gonna allow these processes to happen faster.

I'm gonna release some of this tension so the inflammation can come out of there. I'm going to allow a little bit of movement back in there. And so that quickens the process of building the strength back up. Right. As the bones heal.

So little things like this with the applied neurology lens, we add onto the traditional modalities and make things like rehabilitation happen a lot faster. Plus, when we know that, okay, we have this local problem, it's a problem, right?

You can't really, like visually train your way out of a broken leg, right? That's not gonna happen.

However, we can use things like vision training, breath work, or this concept called opposing joints, which is saying, I broke that right leg, I'm gonna move the left arm. Because they're connected with how we walk. They communicate to each other, right.

So I can move this arm in specific ways to help the healing of that leg and not even touch that leg. Right. So in that way we can do more work, whereas we couldn't do it initially with that leg, because it needs to be like, it needs a little rest.

We can't overdo it. But I can do all sorts of stuff over here that's gonna work. Work to remap that area and just quicken the pace of the rehabilitation.

Yeah, it's fascinating to me how much control our mind has over these sorts of things.

And the thing I always remember is when I was reading Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl, so he's a prisoner in the war camps during World War II, including Auschwitz, and he was a psychologist. And the work he'd been doing prior got taken off him, confiscated.

And so he was trying to remember it all and rewrite it all in his mind, ready to release once he gets out of there. And it's almost like that telling himself that story keeps him alive throughout. Cause he's got something to look forward to.

And one of the things he, he sees during that time is in the Christmas period before the Allies came.

Because that story they told himself in, in here has, is now having an effect on their life. And he saw people die because of it.

Yeah.

When we look at performance and going back to sort of the sports performance, I suppose there's this story and this, this idea that pushing hard and grinding yourself to the bone and like, just working harder every day, like, regardless of what your body's trying to tell you or what your brain's trying to tell you, what does sustainable performance actually look like compared to that?

I think we can generalize a few things with sustainable performance and then also leave some room for individuation. Right. Like, my performance metrics may look different than yours because of my season of life. Right.

I currently, you know, am building a business and raising triplets that are toddlers. So my life is pretty insane, as you might imagine. Um, ten years ago, my life looked a lot different.

I was playing more sports and I was working for a company, so my hours were set and, you know, my performance there was more focused on physical feats and, and, and that kind of stuff.

So allowing for those individual differences, the broader view of sustainable performance is something that is progressively making you more antifragile, so resilient to stress and capacity increasing, while Maintaining a certain level of fun, enjoyment, and flow. And then I would also.

And this might be a little bit deeper, a little side topic, but I would add in some form of purpose and meaning in there in order for it to maintain sustainability. Okay, so sustainable performance has kind of got this physical aspect of it or nervous system aspect of it that allows for the physical capacity.

Right? Um, and then it's got the psychological and, dare I say, even spiritual aspect of it with this idea of purpose and meaning.

Because when you stack your intrinsic drive, like when you actually get your biology and these intrinsic drivers to work for you, right, you get motivation for free. You get focus for free.

You become more resilient, because there's still a pitfall there for everybody, which is this idea that you alluded to about pushing, grinding, like getting stuck in the hustle culture of burnout. The burnout cycle, really. But really the. The antithesis of burnout is flow. So when you have these things aligned, then you're.

Your performance is much more sustainable, and you continue to grow in a very healthy way in your capacity, in your psychological state and evolution, your emotional intelligence, your spirituality, all of these things tend to align and go together when those things are aligned in the beginning, right?

So again, if you had, like, three big buckets of physical, psychological, and spiritual, getting those things aligned is, I think, key for sustainable performance. And without it, you're much more likely to become. To get stuck in a state of unsustainable performance or the burnout kind of cycle. Yeah.

If someone's in a place now, listening to this podcast where they feel like their body or their mind or their life has stopped responding to that sort of constant pushing through, whether that's pain or anything, what would you want them to take away from your story?

There's a better way.

There's just a better way you can achieve all of those dreams and goals that you're shooting for, that you're working so hard for faster and easier, if you just take a step back. And reaffirm, number one, why you're doing what you're doing and really get clear on what is most important to you.

Because I guarantee somebody in that situation, if they take that time, could be five minutes, and really get clear on why they are pushing so hard and who they want to become by this pushing, by reaching these goals and these things, then you gain with that an awareness that you are most likely living very differently than what your ideal version is. And that awareness of that gap can be curative, can be like, okay, I'm very Much out of integrity right now.

And it would be better if I just live as this person right now that has boundaries, that has. That is now looking for more efficient ways to do the same amount of work in less time.

That is, that can push, push, push, but also recovers like a boss. Right.

And knows that when I do that and I take care of myself first, then I'm much more productive in these things, and I don't have to work as hard to get the same outcome.

Yeah, so many people get caught in being busy thinking that it's productivity, and they're just busy going from one thing to another, and all the while they're getting distracted. So what they've sat down to do actually takes them a lot longer. And I fall into this a lot as well.

I find I sit down to do some editing, and then I remember something else I've got to do, and I start doing that, and then I do another thing that I've got to do. And rather than just having one focus session doing one thing, I've ended up not really doing any of the three things.

And I think people listening will resonate with that in some form. And it's that constant, that hamster wheel of stuff to do.

We think that by getting to the bottom of our to do list, we'll get a moment to just relax and have some time to ourself. But that to do list is never ending. There's always something else ready to jump on the end of it.

And, yeah, it's just that, that moment of realization for people listening to be like, yeah, I need to chill out here, and I need to reflect on what I'm actually doing and how I'm doing it. But, yeah, one of the questions that. Well, the question that I always end with is I ask my guest to leave a question for the listener.

So I love listening to podcasts and going away and having conversations about what I've listened to.

So if you were to give the listener a question to go away and start a conversation today, whether that be with a family member or a friend or even a stranger, what question would you have them ask?

My instinct is to go with the question that I always come to with every client at some point. Sometimes it's right away in the first, first meeting.

Sometimes it's like a couple months later after we've kind of dealt with some heavy pain issues and worked through some trauma, and we're at a place of like, a little bit better baseline. But I get to it as quick as possible. And the question is very simply, you know, where are you finding flow in your life?

And if you just stop and think about it, then if you are finding flow, it's gonna come to you Right away you're like, oh, it's when I'm golfing, it's awesome. Nothing else is there. It's just me and just having the best time ever. If you don't have an answer, then you need to make that a priority.

Yeah, it could be painting, it could be playing music, it could be anything.

Having a conversation with an old friend, like something that gives you a sense of meaning and fulfillment and enjoyment and allows your, your mind to go quiet and completely focus on something, anything. It's so healing and it's so powerful for every other part of your life that if you can find that, it will really raise the tide of your life.

So where is your flow? That's your question?

Good question. Brandon, thank you so much for coming on today. I've really appreciated your time and really enjoyed the conversation.

Thank you so much.

If people want to keep up to date with what you're doing, where can they find you online?

There's two places I kind of hang out the most. I'm on Instagram at ambrandonday, all one word. And I have a free school, community school. The platform S K-O-O-L.com evolved.

That's where my evolved athlete community lives. Lots of fun, cool, free resources in there. There's the pain relief switch, which is totally free.

Little mini course to get you a little bit of relief and show you what neuro training is all about. So anybody that's dealing with any kind of issues, I would go there first.

And it's just a good community full of cool, awesome people that are talking about performance, flow states, transformation, all the cool things, triplets, that kind of stuff.

Yeah, I'll. I'll link those two down below so anyone listening can just scroll down and click on them and be taken straight there. But.

But yeah, thank you so much. Again, from myself to the listener, if you have enjoyed this episode, please do share it with someone who you think would find some value from it.

If you haven't already, please do follow or subscribe wherever you're listening or watching. It really helps the show get shown to more people. And if you've already done that, then maybe leave the show a rating.

If you haven't done that and if you've done all of those things, then thank you. But lastly, from me, thank you for listening. Stay curious and I will see you in the next one.