Hello and welcome to Healthy Mind Healthy Life with your host Eric. This podcast is all about exploring the latest research, sharing personal stories, and providing personal tips for improving our mental health and well-being. Each episode will be joined by experts in the field of mental health, as well as individuals who have experienced the transformative power of a healthy mind firsthand. Together, we will dive into a range of topics from managing stress and anxiety to building resilience and cultivating happiness. So join us on this journey to discover new ways to take care of our minds, bodies, and souls, and let's work together to create a healthier, happier world one episode at a time. So let's get started. Hello dear listeners, welcome to Healthy Waves, the live group podcast where we dive deep into the sea of topics with the experts who bring their wealth of knowledge and insights to our discussions. I'm your host and together we will explore the nuances of the mental and the physical wellbeing and also at the same time, uncover the new perspectives and provide the practical advice to help you lead a healthier and more fulfilling life. So. But before we delve deep into the topic, because today's topic is very great, where we'll be talking about from shadows to the serenity, like harnessing the power of your mind to overcome the addiction, trauma, chronic illness, and others. So, uh, but before we do that, uh, I really love to introduce you to all of our guests. So we'll start with Dave. Dave. Maury. So, uh, the listeners, Dave, uh, lives with the bipolar disorder and is the beacon of hope and the humor for many. So as the bestselling author of the OMG That's me mental health books and stand up comic, he teaches others with the mental illness how to find humor in the darkest days. So his journey from hospitalization and homelessness, uh, to becoming a transformative figure in the mental health is nothing short of inspiring. So through his work, uh, Dave shatters the stigma, shares laughter, and offers a message of resilience and recovery. So welcome to the show, Dave. Thank you. Okay. So we'll quickly also introduce you to our, uh, next guest, Micheal Martin. So, uh, like, following a series of life changing events, Michael turned of nature and turned to nature to find that inner peace and heal himself. So after a difficult, uh, divorce, he embarked on a solo backpacking trip that led him to reconnect with the, uh, tranquility and the resilience of the natural world. So his journey of self-discovery and the emotional healing in the wilderness has given him a renewed sense of peace and the purpose which he now shares to inspire others. Also, we have, on the other hand, we have Len Len May. So he is a pioneer in the, uh, uh, medical cannabis industry and the CEO and the co-founder of Endo DNA with over 25 years of experience, Lin has shaped the legislation and culture around the cannabis, and his expertise in genomics and, um, uh, into the system has revolutionized the personalized health and the, uh, wellness. So, uh, his mission is to educate and empower the individuals through the healing powers of cannabis and the personalized medicine. So welcome to the show, Len. And, uh. Uh, Michael. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. Lovely, lovely. So to start with, uh, I'll quickly, uh, start with Martin. Uh, so, so, uh, so, Michael, like, uh, to start with, I mean, how do you I mean, how did your solo backpacking trip to the wilderness contribute to your emotional and mental healing after, uh, uh, the phase you've been through? Uh, and what lessons did you learn during that journey? So I think overall through that journey, I rediscovered something that somebody took away from me, which was my sense of self-worth, my sense of self value. And it expanded and really took shape once I learned to embrace the idea of meditation. And once I started working that into my practice of sitting in the wilderness and learning how to befriend myself and befriend the different emotions that I was struggling with, I started to gain a sense of balance and peace and that journey. It's taught me to not only rely on the skill set that I've learned throughout life, but it's also taught me to be open to the different examples that I encounter within the living world around me. Okay. Okay. So, um. Okay. Thanks. Thanks for sharing. Uh, this. Michael. So, uh, I'll come to the, like the, like, uh, uh, so exploring the humor in the healing, uh, if you can share with us, like, how the humor became, uh, pivotal tool in your recovery journey and also, at the same time, how it can transform the lives of those with the mental illness. Um, I had a breakdown in in 1996 and from 1996 to 2010, where my last years, my dark days, uh, suffering in silence. Um, just hiding from from everyone. And then in 2010, I took a stand up comedy class for folks with mental illness, and it changed my life. Instead of, uh, me having the thought and, uh, about a past trauma and reliving that experience, I started to look for the humor in in those triggers, those things that would trigger those, those, uh, memories and, and take me to those darkest places. And once I started doing that, it again, it changed. It changed everything. I, I when the trigger happened, uh, I no longer went to those dark places. I looked for the humor in it, and, like, Lynn was talking. You know, Lynn's talking about cannabis. And I have a cannabis joke. When, uh, when cannabis was legalized in in Oregon, uh, we got a new airline. It's called Air Cannabis, and they don't charge it by how far you go, but by how high you get. So you know, it does a couple things. One, it it it, uh, made a huge difference in my life. And then I teach standup comedy to others, and I see the same transformation in them. And, you know, I'll be able to talk a little bit about that. Um, but it it also helps shatter the stigma. People, when people find out I'm bipolar, uh, you know, they tend to back away and, and actually run away as fast as they can. But by including some humor, it humanizes me. It makes it so much less scary and helps shatter the stigma. Lovely. Thank you. Thank you so much for sharing. Yeah. So I'll come to Len. Um, so after that joke. Definitely. So, uh, we'll, uh, so regarding that personalized health through the, uh, genomics, uh, if you can, if you can share, I mean, how, uh, know DNAs technology harness the power of DNA to provide that personalized, uh, health recommendations and how this can be beneficial for the individuals who are dealing with the chronic illness. Yeah. I just want to say that Dave and I got the orange memo, and I think Mike didn't get the memo, so we're, uh, we're we're very coordinated today. Uh, so, uh, I didn't check my email before this. My apologies. Yeah. I'm sorry. Uh, so I wanted to, uh, kind of take a step back and really explain to people. And I really appreciate everybody's sharing their personal journeys, because that's what it is. Uh, we are all individuals, and we all should be treated personally, individually, and not like one size fits all. Uh, medicine and wellness. That's what. That's how we treat it today. And, you know, focusing on the root cause of something instead of addressing with a pill or a shot. So I just want to say, you know, I always focused on we started with the endocannabinoid system. That was that was my goal because I was noticing I was a dispensary owner at the time, had five different dispensaries under the same brand, uh, in Southern California. And, uh, I was noticing that people would consume the same chemical variety and have a completely different experience. And the first thing I did, I focused on a plant genomics. So doing genetic sequencing in the plant, we named this plan different names, but it really doesn't mean anything. It's what the components of the plant are that you're putting in your body. So once I started realizing that, I started looking at the human genetic side and merging those two together, not defined. You know, what is the ultimate plan? It's to help people avoid or mitigate possible adverse events. So now your DNA is your personalized roadmap. So this is your human, uh, G.P.S. system. It shows you where your own personal potholes are in your road. Where is there your own personal traffic jam. So if you're aware of this, it's empowering because you can then, uh, create lifestyle, uh, modifications to be able to avoid those possible personal potholes along the way. So the way that it works is, you know, we have a it's a saliva based test you swab into your cheek or your register because we're a hippo, we're GDPR compliant. It's medical data. You send it over to our lab, we'll sequence that and genotype that and provide you a report. So like I said, uh, it's it's focusing on your endocannabinoid system first. But now we expanded the whole genome and we're providing precision, uh, wellness and precision therapeutic, uh, suggestions across the board. So we have like, uh, for women. Uh, female hormone health. So looking at predisposition and menopause. Perimenopause post menopause. Extremely helpful to women who have a predisposition to something that they can actually turn off the genetic expression by taking certain things in advance. Also, it helps their significant others because we had a lot of calls from husbands and boyfriends saying, thanks, you saved my marriage because I don't have to deal with my wife going through certain, you know, genetic challenges based on her menopause. So we have a male hormone health, we have neutral genomics or personalized supplements and, and, uh, and vitamins, etc., skin, etc., even even canine, uh, for dogs. But the concept is you book an the experience starting with DNA, giving you a suggestion, then being able to have a feedback loop on how is that working for the individual and using AI to be able to start creating predictive inferences. So the next person that comes into a healthcare professionals office, you can say, you know what, there was 100 people that were similar to your genetics that took this protocol and showed that it was efficacious, that it worked for them. And that's the way, you know, you really building personalized precision health and wellness and medicine. And, Mr. Minister, thank you for sharing this. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's amazing. Yeah, exactly, exactly. We talk about it. I don't want to step on anybody's toes because you're moderating this. But you talk about, you know, addiction. You talk about mental health and all of these things. Well, I just want to make a couple of statements. Number one, there's a very large percentage of human beings that have a treatment resistant gene. So we have these, uh, you know, antidepressant, anti-anxiety medications. We go to a psycho pharmacologist. They look at us, they diagnosis, and they say, all right, here's your medication, here's your SSRI, etc. well, guess what? Maybe close to 30% of the population has a predisposition to treatment resistance. So they're going to get their pill. It's not going to work for them but they'll get all the side effects from that. So why are we not making that standard practice to be able to do that? Additionally, you know, we work with a lot of pain management specialists, and, uh, there's one quarter of the population has a predisposition to opioid, uh, dependence. So we're giving people opioids without understanding that by giving them the opioid, you can actually turn on the expression of the genetic predisposition and get them to be dependent. Not everybody. But if there's four of us on this, if we all take an oxy. One of us may actually get triggered that, uh, that dependence gene. So these are the things that we have to be extremely aware of as, as us, as patients or as humans and working with our health care professionals. It has to be a more of a collaborative kind of approach to health and wellness, I understand. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for shooting. Yeah. So, uh, I'll come to, uh, Michael again. So, uh, for the power of solitude, if you can describe the impact of it. And, uh, also like disconnecting from the stress of the everyday life, uh, on your mental health. So, uh, if you can share and also, like, how can others incorporate this into their own lives? So when you bring up the word disconnection, I have a very, very strong relationship with that word because it's a trait that I have, and I really rely on the idea of disconnecting and it brought me into the wilderness is something we all do. Now, a part of that that we all face is like the fear of sitting alone with ourselves. We bring the mindful aspect of that out here with you. It almost makes it a little bit more comfortable because you're relying on the power of observation, which is something that we all utilize in our everyday life. And you're able to observe the animals, plants, trees and the way that they move and what it does for me and what I like to point out, the people that I work with is it gives you an opportunity to step away from that story of self suffering that we all tell ourselves that we all caught up in, because it's easy and just watch the environment, watch how things move and how they interact with each other. You can build a new story around which team to correct the story that's holding you back. So it helps you to bring this ability to sit with yourself and connect emotionally and inside while engaging the living world around you and removing that disconnect to build a new narrative and a new story that helps you to get and achieve the goals in it. You know, I think it really builds on the clinical aspect of things, because we essentially work hand in hand and whether we're in the clinical. From the outdoor side. We're still working with that collaborative property, you know, vibrating with the person that's guiding us one or the other or the environment around us. But it all comes back to the fact that we got to believe. We got to believe that the steps and the effort that we're putting into whatever avenue we're pursuing is going to achieve that goal. You know, we talk about the medications and this and that. Well, if we rely fully on somebody to give us an answer, it's not going to be a long term fix. So by bringing these mindful practices in to a nature background, you know, peaceful tranquility setting like this. You're able to speak and listen to that voice of hope inside of you. Okay. Got it. Understood. So, um. Okay, I'll come to Dave. Uh, like, what was the turning point that shifted your control over the bipolar disorder? And, uh, how do you guide others to find their own moments of the transformation through the stand up comedy? For me. You know, manic depression, bipolar disorder is cyclical. So I would go into depressive episodes. And as I got older, the depression, the episodes got deeper and deeper, darker and darker and lasted longer. And the same thing with the mania. It it it, uh, I the fly among the clouds, I'd get higher. I had to think I was the smartest person in the room. And, uh, you know, uh, oftentimes I was I was an asshole. Uh, without planning it, without knowing it. It's just how it came out. And so, uh, through I think what I hear, too, from from Lana and Mike is, you know, for me, taking quiet time, I don't necessarily call a meditation. uh, because meditation for me means I've got to get somewhere to, uh, that quiet place where I really don't have any thoughts or they're minimal. And with bipolar disorder, the anxiety is constant and it's always there. And our minds are racing and loops of negative thoughts that are constant. And so the quiet time gave some reprieve for that. And what would happen would be the things that were important would just bubble up in my head. And I knew, you know, maybe it's two things or three things. Um, but oftentimes, um. One thing. If I could accomplish one thing, um, that was success. And I found I was making lists of, uh, lists of things to do, the things that I wanted to do, things that needed to be done. And I could, uh, it was overwhelming and, uh, created anxiety and worse than the depression or the mania. And when I started making lists of one thing or two things or three things, then I could have success by doing just that one thing, and I could mark it off my list and feel good about it. And then that encouraged me to do the other. As far as a turning point, um, part of it was writing my blogging. I blog for BP, hope.com, and my blog posts have been read by over a million people, and the most comment common comment from them was OMG that's me, you're telling my story and I was writing it. When I was writing it, I was actually telling my story and I was helping other people, but I was also helping myself and and I could see it. So the combination of that and then being able to start looking for the humor in my experiences and, uh. You know those? Those were the things that that started me in a different direction. Also, I've got to say medication helped the medication. You know, you don't you don't, uh, you get cured from having bipolar disorder or depression or anxiety, but the medications I'm making can make it so the the lows aren't quite so low and they don't last quite so long. And the, the high is don't go quite so high and they don't last too long. Uh, but again the anxiety was the worst. And you know, just getting out of my own head, whatever, you know, I was stuck. We were stuck. When we're doing that in our own heads, and we have senses of dread and senses of guilt, and it's just constant. So being able to get out of my head, uh, was just and it was, it was just a little bit at a time, but it was a blessing and helped turn, start to turn things around for me. Um. Sort of minister. So can I jump in there real quick to something that was very important to me. It was the assumption of meditation that you had. You know, it was always had to go somewhere. When I got into meditation, I had the same kind of view as caught in the stigmas of it. Like, you know, you got to shave your head. You got one of those 1998, uh, chant CDs or whatever the case may be. I had to talk therapy session where it was introduced to me. I thought it just like that. Just like you were talking about. And then I went out back and I picked up my crossbow and I started shooting, and I realized that all the different things in meditation that are important the breathing, the slowing your thoughts down to being able to center yourself were a part of my my enjoyment, my shooting. So then I started to be able to transition that into coming out in the wilderness. But what I'm looking at is the fact that we all, in one form or another, have, within our daily processes and our daily routines, some form of meditation, which it doesn't necessarily have to go to a certain spot or a certain destination. It's about the journey, the thought process, just like you were talking about writing things down, how you work through them. That's the that's essentially what meditation is about. It's not about chasing a thought or a direction or even technically sitting still. Nine times out of ten, when I'm out in the wilderness with a group, we're walking. We're focusing on walking meditation. It's simply about channeling your thoughts and being able to look at them, to slow down and bring yourself back into the present moment so that everything else is beating down on you. All that stress disorder and, you know, just disruptions are not what you're focused on. You're focusing on you and how you can overcome each of those. And. It's a staircase essentially in front of you to climb and reach each one of those objectives that you write down on the paper. Yeah. And if I may, I like what you said. And if I sit down and I'm going to meditate and I have a purpose for that, I'm going to work on this aspect of what's going on in my life. It doesn't...