August 22, 2020

From Podcast: https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/podcast/anti-aging-podcasts/marisa-peer/

[00:00:00] Introduction

[00:01:13] Podcast Sponsors

[00:06:56] Guest Introduction

[00:11:28] Why Ben And Marisa Will Never “Retire”

[00:13:38] Marisa's Involvement With Anti-Aging And Longevity

[00:17:32] Clues Your Body Leaves That It Is Constantly Rejuvenating

[00:22:27] How To Think And Grow Young

[00:29:25] Podcast Sponsors

[00:32:15] How To Promote Youthfulness In Your Everyday Environment

[00:41:22] Traits That Long-Lived Populations Share In Common

[00:53:20] Marisa's Personal Longevity Habits

[00:57:58] Movie Recommendations For a Good Laugh

[01:00:09] Closing the Podcast

[01:03:23] End of Podcast

Ben:  On this episode of the Ben Greenfield Fitness Podcast.

Marisa:  We've been obsessed with having a young body, which is all very nice, but a young body in an old mind is a bit pointless. You should have a young mind and a young body. That's the great thing about humans. We can choose to say whatever we like, but your body has no choice but to react to the words you use. Make a point to do what you love, do what makes you feel good. I believe if you do what you hate, you pay a price.

Ben:  Health, performance, nutrition, longevity, ancestral living, biohacking, and much more. My name is Ben Greenfield. Welcome to the show.

Hey, I've known today's podcast episode for a while. Her name is Marisa Peer. You may have heard of her before. She's like the–I don't know. I'm going to describe her as the hypnosis to the stars. I don't know. That's what we call her though. She's pretty amazing. She's a great woman. I've had a chance to hang out with her and her husband at a lot of different events and they're just super smart. She has this really intriguing book on longevity, and that's what we are going to talk about today.

This podcast is brought to you by Kion. And at Kion, one of the things that we are very well-known for is our Kion Clean Energy Bar. I formulated this thing. I taste-tested products for like two years before finally settling on the result that is incredibly popular. It's organic cocoa butter, sea salt, almonds, coconut flakes, cocoa nibs, the equivalent of like a half cup of bone broth, of grass-fed gelatin in each bar, organic chia seeds, baby quinoa, which is called Kaniwa, which is full of B vitamins and minerals and flavonoids. I mean, this stuff is–you'd think it would taste like ass with basically as many nutritious and healthy things that are in there, but it actually not only tastes freaking delicious, but I tested it in freezing conditions, in hot conditions, it doesn't turn into a brick in the cold, it doesn't melt in the heat or stick to the inside of the bar, it doesn't get stuck in your teeth. This bar is, in my opinion, if I don't say so myself, the best tasting punch of mouthwatering chocolatey, salty, coconut goodness you're ever going to sink your teeth into. And you get a 10% discount on it. How, you ask? You go to getkion.com, getK-I-O-N.com. And your special discount over there is BEN10. So, BEN10 at getkion.com.

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Many of you have been asking me, possibly because podcasting is now considered to be such a cool thing to do. I was reading an article actually the other day that there's like a billion dollars in advertising and revenue now being poured into podcasting. I don't know where my account to that is, but anyways, what I can tell you is that quality audio is a must and a lot of you have asked me about how the audio quality on my show is so dialed in. Well, it's not me, I can tell you that. If it was me, you guys would be listening to a scratchy, tin foily, tin canny, complete wreck of a show. But here's the deal. My podcast editor, I wanted to tell you about him because again, I get asked so much. I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone and just tell you who this dude is. His name is James, James Newcomb. He's a former professional military musician who actually started getting into podcasting when he was stationed back in Seoul, Korea in 2014 and he founded this digital media service. And he manages like soup to nuts a ton of aspects of my podcast, all of the submission, all the different feeds, all the technical nitty-gritty when crap goes wrong, he makes all the guests sound amazing, he makes all the audio perfectly aligned or at the correct levels. He has half a decade of experience in the podcasting industry.

He is also extremely well-versed in health and fitness and nutrition, possibly because he has to listen to my voice, all my guests every single week a few times a week. So, he knows all that inside and out if you're a health and fitness person wanting to get into podcasting. He's really good at that. And he stays up to date with everything about all the new podcasting platforms, and podcasting apps, and audio and video editing programs. And he also does video. He does YouTube video production. He does video podcasts, he does copywriting, he does a lot of work on my shownotes for the podcast shownotes, he does narration for audiobooks, he does voiceovers, he does coaching and consulting for podcasters and podcast editors. If it's digital media, it can be done.

And I'm going to give you his website URL. Again, because so many of you have asked me, I just figured I would let the world know about this cat because he's amazing. Just please don't all of you go to him at once because he still has to work on my show, too. So, it's beatinpath.media, and that's his website. But here's how that's spelled, Beatin, like B-E-A-T-I-Npath.media, beatinpath.com. And Beatin is spelled with an “I”, B-E-A-T-I-Npath.media. He also told me I could just give out his phone number, so what the hell, here you go. Here's James's phone number, 757-364-8465. That could be a mistake for him to have offered to do that, but there you go, 757-364-8465. You could learn more about James, how he and his team can help take your podcast, your audiobook, your video production, or any of your digital media needs to the next level. So, his name is James. Check him out. He's a real deal, baby.

Alright, folks. Well, I've talked a lot about anti-aging and longevity before on the show, but there is a book that I have not talked about at least that I can remember that I read on a flight back from, I believe it was Sardinia, Italy when I was speaking in Sardinia at a longevity focused event there in of course one of the well-known blue zones. And this was at a–what's called a Mindvalley event. And Mindvalley is one of the companies that I've partnered with in the past to not only speak at their amazing events like Mindvalley U and Awesomeness Fest, let's put on, by Vishen Lakhiani, a former podcast guest of mine. And he of course brings in the speakers from all over the world.

And one person who I met there was a super, super fascinating woman. She's actually very well-known as a therapist. Her name is Marisa Peer. She's written a lot of books and she's very well-versed in hypnosis, particularly, and does a lot of work in hypnosis, and also something called rapid transformational therapy known as RTT therapy. And she, unknown to a lot of people, has actually done quite a bit of research and writing in the realm of anti-aging and longevity, but from a very unique standpoint, kind of more of a standpoint of using your brain and your minds to reverse aging. Now, she had handed me at one of these Mindvalley events her book, her book called “You Can Be Younger: Use The Power of Your Mind to Look and Feel 10 Years Younger.”

And I started thumbing through the book on the plane ride home and wound up folding over a bunch of pages because I found so much of it fascinating and so much of it separate from a lot of the chatter that's going on right now in terms of like NAD, and sirtuins, and peptides, and hormone replacement, and all these things that are often discussed in the anti-aging sector. And it really had a very unique approach, so much so that I wanted to get her on the show. I think we've been trying for like a year to actually hook up for this interview and we have finally, finally made it happen. So, as we chat, I'll not only link to her book but also all of our other resources and her websites in the shownotes, which you can find at BenGreenfieldFitness.com/youcanbeyounger. That's BenGreenfieldFitness.com/youcanbeyounger.

And before I start diving into all these questions that I have for Marisa about some of the rabbit holes I want to dive into regarding this book, one thing that I think I want to say so that you guys are thinking about this the right way as you listen is a little anecdote that I highlighted in the book, and it goes like this. “Artists Michelangelo and Pablo Picasso did amazing work in their late 80s and 90s respectively. Tai-Shan did his best work in his 80s and 90s. Verdi composed Ave Maria at 85 years old. Martha Graham, the brilliant ballerina, was still performing on stage at 75. And at 95, she was choreographing her 180^th work. Lucian Freud continued painting until his death at 88. The pianist, Vladimir Horowitz, played to a sold-out Carnegie Hall at 98. Arthur Rubinstein did the same thing at 90. The Rolling Stones are still performing as they enter their 70s. Rod Stewart is still recording in his 70s. Nicholas Parsons at 88 was just on the BBC Radio 4 program just a minute displaying great mental agility. Bruce Forsyth is very agile and mentally sharp at 86.”

And she just goes on and on and on in this book with a list of very inspirational examples of people who are functioning extremely well into their 70s and their 80s and their 90s, and they're not sitting in a wheelchair in a nursing home, they are crushing life. And that's the type of stuff that Marisa teaches you how to do in this book. So, pretty excited to have you on the show, Marisa. Welcome.

Marisa:  I'm excited to be here. Thank you so much.

Ben:  Yeah. And from what I understand, you guys, you and your husband John, you are in the process of relocating from London to L.A., right?

Marisa:  We did that last year. Isn't it interesting? Many people at our age are retired. Isn't it great? Remember, I'll never retire, ever, ever, ever. I love that saying, “When hope dies, old age runs to meet you.” And I'm a great believer in reinventing yourself. And so, we moved to L.A. and we paddleboard every day. We feel like teenagers. And it's absolutely true that the more youthful things you can do and the more youthful you feel, the more youthful you physically become. And some of you will say, “Oh, I'm too old for that now at my time of life.” So, we really walk our talk. We relocated across the world, we've got a brand new life, brand new friends, brand new pets. And honestly, I've never been happy and neither is he is. It's wonderful.

Ben:  Oh, I love that. So, you guys are just kind of like retiring from retirement?

Marisa:  Oh, we're never going to retire.

Ben:  Yeah, yeah.

Marisa:  I even hate the word “retired” because it means give up. I mean, I would never retire from anything ever.

Ben:  Yeah. Well, I think it's a great perspective. And of course, you highlight a lot of that in your book. And I personally feel like even if I were to “retire” from perhaps the type of work that I'm doing now, my grandfather never retired, I don't think my dad will ever retire in that. They are constantly starting new businesses, making new changes, never looking for that day when they can just golf and live off the income that they've saved up or off of Social Security. They're instead just moving and shaking, and we see that over and over again. Just in the anecdotes that I gave at the beginning of this interview, I mean, like you have to jump out of bed every morning with a distinct and driven purpose in life. And if you're retired, in many cases, unless your purpose in life is to get a better handicap on the golf course, you're probably not going to have the type of purpose that keeps you moving and shaking for very long. So, I love what you guys are doing.

Okay. So, anti-aging and longevity, like I mentioned in the introduction, those are really hot topics right now, especially amongst like scientists and transhumanists and physicians. And for you, I mean, you're a therapist. And so, I'm curious what got you attracted to focus on this field because it's not something you see a lot of therapists talking about. So, what first attracted you to the concept of becoming younger so to speak?

Marisa:  One of the very great things about being a therapist, especially a female therapist, is very few careers for women where you don't have sell-by date, very few careers where people go for your wisdom. But therapist is an amazing career because the older you get, the wiser you're seeing. And so, that's always been great for me. But as a speaker and a writer, and I just wanted to show people that you don't have to fight aging, you have to defy it. I mean, what is it? I spend a lot of time in Africa. I've been to Japan. I've been all over the world. Interesting enough, French women and Japanese, and the longest-living women in the world come from two areas where they really respect older women. They find them attractive, sensual, fascinating.

And then, I began to notice that all the countries where they respect age have people who live not just longer, but they live better. So, in China, they say you're nothing until you're 70 because you haven't lived enough to have an opinion. And countries where they call aging sage-ing and where they really respect. I don't even like the word “elders”, but it always fascinated me that the countries where they respect older people are the countries where people age much better than when they go, “Oh, you're past it, now you've had it. He's just dead word, or you're old, or you're a senior.” And the country where they don't have old people's home is interesting enough. Other countries where people live longer and the countries where they have–is it China where they have a day every year where they celebrate old people? They all tend to live [00:15:36] _____ after that celebration. They choose to hang on for that because it's the time when they are celebrated. We all need to be celebrated.

Ben:  Yeah. And in the U.S., it goes back and forth, right? Like obviously right now during this COVID pandemic, nursing home seems to be getting more attention and sympathy now than ever before, which is great. But it seems like even before the pandemic that we stripped older lives of a lot of purpose and meaning to instead lock people away and protect them in more of like a hospice or relatively isolated care setting. But when you look at, even in the U.S., at a lot of our leaders that we hear about right now, all politics aside, Nancy Pelosi is 80, and Anthony Fauci is 79, and President Trump is 74, and they're doing what they're doing as people who are at the same age as other folks who are just sitting around in nursing homes.

And so, yeah. I think redefining the way that not only we think of age in this idea of like life in many cases, as you've just alluded to, just beginning when you're wiser and more experienced and able to really inspire and help the younger generation versus old age resulting in the body falling apart and you getting locked away. It's a very different way to approach things and I think that there's just so many examples in society even currently, not just in politics and beyond, if people who really are displaying what one can do as they age, if they have that purpose and that drive, not to mention the health, but it goes beyond just being healthy because obviously, any of those folks I mentioned, like Pelosi or Fauci or Trump, they could also be out golfing every day and not making the impact that they're making.

And so, one of the things that's related to aging is this concept of rejuvenation or the idea that the body is kind of constantly rejuvenating, and that's something you get into early in the book that there are clues that it is possible to become younger. But can you get into some of the things that are going on when the body is constantly rejuvenating?

Marisa:  Yes. So, for instance, all of us, we make a new stomach lining every 28 days, we make new red blood cells every 28 days, our eyes rejuvenate themselves all the time and we make new skin constantly. So, the body is always in the state of rejuvenating. And actually, the mind never ages. The memory may change, but if you're a professor at university, a professor in their 80s will have the same mind as someone in their 30s because the mind is rather brutal, either use it or lose it. If you use your mind just like if you use a muscle, it will actually rejuvenate incredibly. So, people who are using their mind, again, composers, pianists, writers, painters tend to have a very active mind. The people who just give up and retire and just surf through the television all day find that they don't because your brain either use it or lose it.

So, as my mother got older, one of the things that brains love is something called neurobics newness. So, if you look at a child, their crayon, they get Lego and then they'll come back and play with the puzzle, they're always doing something new. And as you get older, it's really important. I put my mother on the computer. I got her to use Skype. I got her to use all her–she loved crossword puzzles, and I got her to use those on an iPad. Because every time you introduce the brain to something new, the neurons keep firing and you can have an active brain, but you have to use it. And one of the best things to do to keep your brain really young and agile is to–when you're cleaning your teeth, balance on one foot. You'll find that almost all of us, as we go upstairs, will set off from the right leg. We always hold everything with our right hand unless of course, we're left-handed. If you use the other hand and the other leg, you start to fire different neurons. It will actually keep you incredibly young.

There's so much you can do to keep a young mind. We've been obsessed with having a young body, which is all very nice, but a young body in an old mind is a bit pointless. You should have a young mind and a young body. And one of the reasons people like Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have aged so well, considering that they actually abused themselves a lot with drugs and drink is because it was doing something new that was performing, writing new songs, and anything you can do that's youthful, girly, giggling, dancing. If you do whatever a young person does, have sex in your 80s and beyond, laugh, giggle, try something new, then what will happen is you trick your brain into believing that you are young.

So, we have three ages and it's very important to recognize. We have what we call a birth certificate age, which is the least important one of all. And then, we have the age of our organs, our biological age. And if you were a runner at aged 40 but you ran in the sun, a 40-year-old will have a 30-year-old lungs, a 30-year-old heart, but 50-year-old knees and skin. So, we can see that our organs age on their own time. But we have the age your birth certificate says you are, the age your organs are, which is completely different for everybody, and the age you feel. And the age of your organs is related to the age you feel. So, having sex, laughing, [00:21:19] _____, playing with kids, being silly, being girly, being boyish, actually sends a message to your organs that can only slow down, but can reverse your aging. And that's really good to know and even better to put into practice.

Ben:  Yeah. It is kind of interesting because that idea of liver regeneration goes all the way back to Greek mythology where I think it was Prometheus whose liver was eaten by a bird of prey by the day and then regenerated in the night. And now, we know in more modern medicine that the liver is one of the few organs actually does replace loss liver tissue from–I think the remaining tissue in the liver is the only visceral organ that has the capacity to regenerate, but then there are other organs that contain cells that can regenerate, like the pancreas is a perfect example. They had research that began to appear a couple of years ago showing that caloric restriction or intermittent fasting could actually cause pancreatic cell regeneration that literally did like a mild reversal of type 1 and type 2 diabetes, and it's simply a matter of the body being placed in the right environments to regenerate.

But then, in addition to being placed in the right environment, I think one of the things that you really specialize in is the right thought pattern and literally thinking to grow young. I think that that's a phrase you used in the book, instead of, “Think and Grow Rich” like Napoleon Hill's book implies, “Think and Grow Young.” So, what do you mean when you say, “think and grow young”?

Marisa:  Well, the way you think about aging will really dictate how you age. If you went to Japan and lived there and saw people of 85 doing tai chi every day, that's how you would expect to age. If you went to an old people's home in the middle of Americans who were just surfing the TV all day, that's how you would expect to age. So, thoughts are real. Every thought you think has a physical reaction and an emotional effect. So, you may say, “I'm taking these supplements, I'm doing these exercises, I'm juicing.” But if you do that believing it doesn't really work, it doesn't have the same effect as you're absolutely believing it works.

So, the placebo effect, the belief you have about a drug will have more of an effect on it than the actual compounds of that drug itself. So, what you think is everything. And again, your chronological age, disregard that, it's worthless. Keep telling yourself that you feel young and the age you feel will actually start to affect the age–if you look at somebody like Goldie Hawn or Sally Field, always giggling and very, very girly. They remain forever girly. If you looked at somebody like Bob Hope, I mean, I know he's not here anymore, or comedians that are older and funny, they live a long life. So, the most important thing is diet is important, exercise is important, supplement is important, but the most important thing is to say, “I am younger. I'm an expression of youth.”

And there's a really good doctor, Ellen Langer, who in 1979 took a group of 30 quite old people to a retreat, and it was what's called a closed retreat. So, what it means is they decorated that retreat as if it was 30 years ago. And [00:24:45] _____, or the TV shows, and even the magazines and papers and books from 30 years ago. And because their mind went back to that life of 30 years ago, they began to believe that it really was 30 years earlier. Then, in 2010, the BBC did exactly the same thing, created a whole environment that made it look like it was 1980 with all these significantly older people with a lot of health issues went into this retreat. They tested their grip, their vision, their hearing, their finger, and everything, and they all said the same thing, somehow went back in time to being 30 years younger. “I felt younger and everything changed. I went in [00:25:30] _____ without it.”

Ben:  Isn't that crazy?

Marisa:  Yeah. I mean, it's remarkable. But there are other studies with pilots who say, “If you put people on a flight simulator and tell them they're a pilot, their vision improves.” And your vision can't improve that quickly, but the mind believing you are flying a plane will do everything to give you better vision. So, your mind responds to your thoughts. If you sound being attacked by a lion, even though you know you're lying in bed at night, you will react as if you're being attacked by a lion. If you say, “Oh my god, this stress is killing me,” rather than, “Well, I'm learning a lot through this and stress can be very good for me,” you don't react to the event, you react to what you think the event is.

It's like if I had a lump of meat in my hand right now, if you're a Hindu, that would be disgusting. If you're a vegan, it would be offensive. If you're a bodybuilder, it'd be amazing because it's not the thing, it's what you think about the thing. And what you think about the thing is yours to change. If you think, “I love aging and practice sage-ing, I'm having the time of my life, I feel incredible.” When I was at the very same [00:26:41] _____, this woman came up to me and said, “Hey, what does it feel like to be a senior here?” And I said, “Honestly, I have no idea because I would never refer to myself as a senior ever. So, I can't answer that question.” People said, “Gosh, you're brave paddle boarding. Have you ever fallen?” I'm like, “Never. It wouldn't occur to me to fall in” because I say I've got great balance. I've got a great call. And for me, I love paddle boarding, I love exercising, I love dancing.

But if you do, “I hate exercising, I hate yoga, I hate crunches,” you won't have the same effect as saying, “My body loves Pilates, my body loves weights, my body loves running and jumping, my body loves green juices and it uses all of it to build a better body for me.” So, you can choose what to say to yourself every minute of every day. That's the great thing about humans. We can choose to say whatever we like, but your body has no choice but to react to the words you use. When you say, “This stress is killing me, this job is driving me mad, these kids are driving me insane, this commute will be the death of me,” you're choosing to say that, but your body has no choice but to act upon it because every word you speak is a blueprint that your mind and body have to act on. And when you know that, you think, “Well, I better change the blueprint then. I would never say this is killing me. I'd say, ‘A little stressful, a little challenging.' I'd never say, ‘Oh god, I'm absolutely exhausted. I'm dying of tiredness.' I'd never say, ‘I'm eating like a pig and I could eat a horse,'” because these things are absolute lies. No one could eat a horse, no one eats like a pig, no one is a train wreck or a hot mess.

And if you really are going to lie to yourself, at least tell yourself a better lie. “I'm becoming younger. I'm slowing down aging. I'm going to stay like this for the next 30 years.” You say, “Well, that's not true,” but neither as saying, “My farm is the size of a continent.” But we were prepared to [00:28:54] _____ all the time. So, tell yourself a better lie because the mind, whatever you tell, good or bad, real or false, youthful or not, it lets it in and neither knows or cares if it's true and you can change your entire life by telling yourself better things, and indeed, telling yourself a better lie, which ceases to become a lie and becomes real.

Ben:  Yeah.

Marisa:  So, I'm going to tell youthful is a great thing to say because if you say it enough, it becomes real.

Ben:  Well, hello. I want to interrupt today's show to tell you about shrooms. Yup, shrooms. They're all over the place these days, and you don't have to take the psychedelic kind to get a ton of benefits. I use shrooms every day. I use chaga that'll often blend with my morning cacao. I'll use a lot of times lion's mane, especially in the afternoon if I need a relatively low caffeine pick-me-up or I want to build some new neurons in my brain. I love the reishi for relaxing me at night or before a midday nap. And if I just want a full shotgun formula and don't want to ask any questions, shiitake, maitake, lion's mane, chaga, reishi, just the full meal deal, and I want to dump a little of that in the morning cup of coffee to upgrade my coffee, I'll use that.

I get all this stuff from Four Sigmatic, F-O-U-R, Sigmatic. And if you go to foursigmatic.com/bengreenfield and you use code BENGREENFIELD, you can get 15% off of anything, any fine, fine, true meat product from Four Sigmatic. So, it's foursigmatic.com/bengreenfield. They formulate really good products. As a matter of fact, I think at the time that I'm recording this for you, my friend Tero, who owns that company, he's down in like the backwoods of Hawaii hunting down some brand new rare mushroom to add to his formulas. That's the kind of stuff they do. They're crazy, but I love their products because they're super high quality and well-researched. So, foursigmatic.com/bengreenfield.

In addition to that, I'm actually a big believer in the science behind, surprisingly, nicotine. Nicotine can really help with the mitochondrial health and improve human performance from coordination to memory, to reaction time, to awareness. And if you smoke a cigarette, you're getting nicotine, but you get much other crap along with it. A lot of the gums, and the lozenges, and the sprays out there, they're chock-full of all these nasty artificial sweeteners. But this stuff called Lucy, this company called Lucy, they make gums and lozenges that have nicotine in them, a very slow controlled release dose of four milligrams of pure, clean nicotine. And it comes in three flavors; winter, cinnamon, and pomegranate. And then, the lozenges are super delicious, cherry ice.

They don't have all the same kinds of nasty artificial sweeteners as these other brands. So, it's clean. It's FDA approved. People use it to wean themselves off of smoking. I use it as a nootropic. And you have to remember, I mean, nicotine isn't addictive chemicals derived from tobacco. But man, it does make life a little better when sprinkled into your diet here and there, hither and yawn. So, Lucy is going to give 20% off of any order to any of my customers applicable to all products. And you just go to their site, lucy.co. Lucy, L-U-C-Y.co, and use promo code BEN20 to get 20% off. That's simple, lucy.co and use code BEN20. So, enjoy that.

There's a few things that you highlighted there as you were talking that I think are interesting. One about the humor, and the happiness, and the joy aspect. I came across some research that showed that people in their 20s laugh like, I think about somewhere around less than four times a day, whereas teenagers are like around six times a day, babies are like 300 times a day. And then, once you hit 50, it's like three times a day, then in your 60s, one to two times a day. And a big part of that is that as you age, as many of us know, you just start to take life pretty seriously. And they've also done research that shows that people who are displaying more joy, particularly with the measurement as simple as laughing frequency, they actually have better health with age, and I don't think they've ever done actual telomere length or methylation clock measurements on this.

But I think there really is something to be said for introducing more joy, more happiness, more comedy, more jokes, more kind of tapping into the same type of childlike joy that you did when you were a kid or when you were a teenager. It's funny because I didn't know we were going to talk about this, but I was just talking to my wife this morning. I'm like, “You know, I realized like I haven't really been doing as many little dance parties with the kids or telling as many stupid funny jokes with them at the dinner table. I need to start doing that again.” Because I was just thinking about it last night, about this idea of happiness and joy and just how much better it makes life. And as you've alluded to, and as you talk about in the book, how much of a role it plays in keeping you young.

And then, the other thing that I think is really interesting that I want people to make sure that they take to heart was that that BBC program that you talked about where they took all these celebrities and they had them live in this house, this big country house furnished with kitchen and electrical appliances that they would have seen in their more youthful times, and they actually observe these people getting younger and displaying improved flexibility and improved mobility. And literally, they were just surrounded by the same type of films, and sitcoms, and magazines, and newspapers, and house furnishings as they had when they were younger. And I'm not necessarily saying you got to go throughout all your modern crap and destroy the feng shui of your home by, I don't know, putting up white and red checkered tablecloths and shag carpet and all that jazz.

But I'm curious, Marisa, if you've actually seen of any examples or you've implemented in your own life this idea of how we could practically include things that reflect our youth in our own personal environment. Like, would it be pictures? Would it be music? Or have you thought about that much at all?

Marisa:  Yeah. Music, especially, playing the music that you dated to, that you got married to, music that will take you back, listening to music from when we were younger. Even the way you dress [00:35:17] _____ elasticated pants and flat shoes. That's not a good thing.

Ben:  Knee-high gray compression socks. I got to be careful because there's a sponsor that sometimes sponsor this show that does compression socks. I tell everybody they're not the old man compression socks, don't worry.

Marisa:  When I'm in Paris and Italy, I look at women in their 70s who make an effort and still wear heels, a little scarf, and a bit of lipstick, and they don't go for that white, permed hair. Because if you do something youthful, you feel youthful. So, you don't need to wear a leopard skin top on a mini skirt, but keep up with fashion to a degree, keep up with music, keep up with things that [00:36:00] _____ listen to Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith and all kinds of currents. I'm always saying to my daughter, “What are you listening to now?” My husband's daughter is in the music business. So, we make a point of keeping very up-to-date with stuff. And it's so good for you, but the biggest thing in the world.

There was another study that I love where they took random strangers off the street, mostly in their 50s, 60s, and 40s, too. And they said, “Come up to this room and just read all the words written around.” The first group read words like fragile, careful, antique, delicate, easily breakable, and they just read all the words. And they video them leaving and they said they walked so carefully, sensitive like they would break. Second group came in and their words have been changed to youthful, exuberant, resilient, bouncy, happy. They practically leaped out there like Tigger on steroids because their mind responded immediately to the words they read. And [00:37:01] _____, “Oh, I'm an antique.” Now, “Oh, I'm a bit delicate. Oh no, I couldn't possibly do that.” Then you turn into that expectation, you turn into the way you describe yourself. That is a scientific fact and all you have to do is change your description and turn into that.

So, never say old, say youthful. People say, “Oh, I've forgotten because it's my age.” I say, “Well, go to any children's classroom the end of the day and you'll see swimming trunks, lunch box.” They forget [00:37:35] _____. We just accept they forget. And so, we add on, “I'm tired, it's my age. I can't read that, it's my age. I can't digest that, it's my age.” Do not add that to any sentence. You can say, “I'm tired. I've had a busy day. I can't digest. That is not very healthy. Maybe I've overeaten.” But don't keep adding it's your age to everything you do or want to do. Do everything as if your age is irrelevant.

And again, I go white water rafting, paddle boarding, running, hiking. Last year, my husband and I were driving around Barley on a motorbike. My [00:38:14] _____my mother when she was the age, and I would never in a million years gone around Barley on a motorbike. And her friend said, “Wow, you're so young.” And I said, “I know, it's funny.” Our friends, we have many friends who are same age as our own children. And although I look at that occasionally, usually I just ignore it, but it's such fun. And my daughter said, “It's so funny, mommy. I was lying upstairs in bed with my boyfriend and my boyfriend went, ‘Who are those rowdy people in the streets?'” She goes, “Oh, that's my mom and dad and their crazy friends.” And I thought that was so funny that they looked over everyone, “Be quiet. You're being too noisy.”

Ben:  Yeah.

Marisa:  So, pay attention to your thoughts. Your thoughts control your feelings, your feelings control your actions, your actions control your events, and everything begins with your thinking. And if you think, “Hey, I'm going to enjoy every stage of my life. I'm going to be like George Burns. I'm going to be having a great life in my 90s. I'm going to be Jane Fonda looking super-hot in my 80s. Why shouldn't I?” If you decide to think that, then that's probably what you'll do.

Ben:  Yeah. I have one tip for people, and that is with the music piece, because I started listening to music from my youth, like my early youth, like five to six years old recently because I had my mom find all of our old vinyls and I bought like a vintage record player off of Amazon, but kind of like a modern one that will play records, but can also transmit via Bluetooth to our main sound system, or just play standalone records, do CDs, do cassette tapes. And so, I have a giant box of records. And yesterday, I woke up my boys by playing the same album. I think it was an old school. I believe it was second chapter of Axe or Keith Green, one of the two.

And I was just blasting that in the morning and they opened up the little sliding door to their room and popped their tired little faces out and they're like, “What is that?” I'm like, “These are the songs that I used to listen to when I was a kid, you guys.” They came down and they were dancing around. They absolutely loved it and I love the old school vinyl sound, and literally, just asked my mom and she brought the albums up. If you have some old vinyl around or old music, cassette tape mixes, I'm totally dating myself, but those are the kind of just simple things that you can implement that keep you young.

And I think even things like family photos or photos of you when you were a kid that you're framing and hanging on the walls. There's just all sorts of cool things. I mean, you could even take it into relationships, like my wife and I have both done kind of like boudoir photoshoots of us in our prime and given each other some tasteful yet slightly dirty photos that we keep in cigar boxes. We can look at our lover when they were young. And to me, that just fills me with a surge of youthfulness when I look at my wife in her underwear in her 20s, and here we are in our mid to late 30s. There's all sorts of crazy things that you can do. But yeah, this idea of just sending your body a message over and over again that it's still in this youthful environment. And then, when you combine that with the happiness and the joy, and of course the purpose in life, all that stuff adds up.

Now, you also talked about primitive tribes in the book. I thought this was interesting. You get in like the Hunza area of Pakistan, and Georgia in Eastern Europe, and Ecuador, and parts of South America where people are routinely living to be 100 plus. I'm curious if, in writing the book, you took away anything significant from these areas, aside from what you already talked about in terms of China valuing the older person's experiences. And in China, they believe you're nothing until you're 70. But did you come across anything else in looking at long-lived populations?

Marisa:  I've read a whole chapter on what people who live to be 100 and beyond tend to do because they all leave clues. So, there are certain groups all over the world. In Greece, too, have people who get to be 100 plus, and they all are involved in the family. They still work, they still exercise, they still walk down a steep hill to pick olives or to pick oranges. They come back; they still get involved in cooking. They still have family dinners. The family go to them for advice. They often still, even in their 90s, are having sex, which is incredibly important because it tells you that you're young, even if you're just holding hands and kissing because when you look at the person you're in love with, they forever look young. [00:42:38] _____ say to me, “My wife, she always looks 16 to me. I can never see her any other than the 16-year-old girl I fell in love with.” And often when they show people pictures of their partner, they go, “That's not my wife. No. She doesn't look anything like that. Who's that old person? My wife is young and gorgeous,” because that's what you see.

And so, people who lived a long life are involved in their community, involved in their family. They looked up to–they still cook, clean, run a house, have sex, get involved, [00:43:12] _____, and they feel youthful, they feel desirable, and they feel significant, and they tend to move a lot, they tend to exercise a lot. In the Blue Zones, they're always walking. And so, there's so many things that we need to do. They often have pets, and that's very youthful too because they have to walk them and exercise them. But it's this feeling of mattering, and I think that's the problem with old people's home, don't visit them. And even old people say that if we make our guests make their own food, get their own food, vacuum their own room and dress themselves, they do better. The minute we start doing everything, “Let me launder your clothes,” they just deteriorate because it was like a muscle. If you don't use it, it stops being of any use to you at all.

And we have more 100-year-olds than ever before, and 30–I remember Brigitte Bardot when she was 35. She was old. Now you think, “Old? We don't even know it at 55 now.” Every year in our life, it goes up by. So, every three years, we had a year to our life expectancy. And now, 100 isn't even unusual. People are planning to live to 110 and 120, because so many things that killed us, disease and poor sanitation, just don't exist. We have other challenges, pollutants in the food and all the Wi-Fi. But if you believe you're resilient, and you have a joy for life, and you have things that you love doing, still have hobbies or interests. I thought it was my father who is eternally a fascinating conversationalist and funny, and he lived until he was 90, and he could have lived longer actually, but he was always [00:45:01] _____ very interesting and always loved every stage of his life.

And most people, if you interview 70-year-olds, they go, “It was the best stage,” even though it was just five years ago. They never go, “When I was 20, when I was 15.” They usually say, “Oh, it wasn't that long ago.” And you're very [00:45:19] _____ I want to be 60 again, but not 20. So, it's only 10 years back that we see as being the best time of our life, and you can easily reverse your mental, physical, and emotional age by 10 years. That's not even difficult and you can do it super-fast, too.

Ben:  Yeah. And you know what's interesting is you talked about having sex with a lot of these tribes that are showing better health with aging, or aging at a slower rate. And there is this theory that's basically a theory of reproductive youthfulness from an evolutionary or an ancestral standpoint that the more children a woman has early in life or the more sex, particularly for women, that seems to be more the case, that they have, as they age, the greater the lifespan. And then, when menopause sets in, you often see an acceleration of a lot of biological factors associated with aging.

But what's really interesting is this whole grandmother hypothesis or maternal hypothesis, and what that shows is that basically in societies or cultures where the women are given a more honorable, matriarchal role, or they're given a role of caring for the grandchildren, caring for the village, passing stories onto the tribe, et cetera, you don't see that menopause results in the type of accelerating aging that it does in cultures where matriarchal wisdom is less emphasized or less valued or less honored. And even though most of those studies were done in women, I imagine we could probably extrapolate a lot of that to males as well, that the more that an elder feels honored and is given more of a role of a storyteller and mentor in society, the more that the drop in reproductive youthfulness with age, especially for women, just because of the limited egg supply, whereas men can keep on making sperm later on into life. But the more that that can be done, the less deleterious the loss of reproduction or fertility with age become. So, it's just like if there are different ways in which society begins to find you youthful, they go beyond just propagating the human race. The more likely is that culture is set up for the elders to live a longer time, which I just think is incredibly interesting.

Marisa:  Well, what's so fascinating is that humans are one of the only species–I think humans, dolphins, and monkeys are the only species that mate with the sheer joy of it. Every other–like a lion will not go near a lioness unless she's in heat. Dogs and cats and horses only mate when the female can procreate. So, our primitive brain believes you're having sex to make a baby. Even if you're 70 years old, it believes you are having sex to recreate yourself because it believes that so profoundly the more sex you have, the more your mind goes, so you know you're making an offspring here. And I better keep you young because you're going to have to raise that offspring.

We are wired to recreate ourselves. We're also wired to have the energy to look after what we've recreated. And sex tricks your body into believing you're making a new human being and you're going to have to have the energy to raise that human being. So, the more sex you have, the more orgasmic you are, the more aging slows down. And interesting enough, Chinese emperors and the Turkish ones too, they could only reign for as long as they could physically have sex. So, when the Chinese emperor stopped being able to do it, he was replaced and they would send young pretty girls into his chambers at night to keep him young and agile because they believed if you can actually have sex, your mind is young.

And this whole [00:49:01] _____. They used to paint him with henna and try to make them feel gorgeous and then shove them in the room with an 85-year-old, and they could actually go ahead and do the act with him because they felt good and he felt good. And I always thought that was fascinating, this interesting belief, if you can have sex as a man at 80, you can continue ruling. The day you can't have sex is the day the next generation up comes along, because they knew even then that sex slows down aging, orgasm, slow down aging in humans. And that's such a fascinating thing and it's a good reason to keep having sex, even if it's a bit of DIY sex, and even if it's not full sex and it's just kissing and cuddling.

I used to be a patron of a big cancer, breast cancer charity in England and they said true women who have orgasm survived breast cancer so much more, even if they're giving it to themselves, because of that mind's belief in your pleasure in your body, you're having an orgasm. That's what young people do. Therefore, you must be young, and then you start to make NK, natural killer cells. So, orgasms fight cancer, fight aging, fight depression, fight illness because of that mind's certainty. The only reason you're having sex is to make a human being and is not enough to make one. You got to also raise it. So, we should all have a lot more sex and feel a lot more sexy because that is not the preserve of the young. In fact, my clients in 70s say, “Oh, sex is much better now. It's sensual, we take longer, it's fun, we laugh. We don't worry about, ‘Oh, is my stomach tight? I've waxed everywhere.' We just have a great time.” And we should all do that.

Ben:  Yeah, yeah. Well, to me, when I'm 90, I'd rather be shagging my wife, so to speak, than laying in bed by myself with a castor or coconut oil. But either way, I think yes, sending your body that message that you are still youthful and still reproductively youthful even if you're not making babies per se, I think there is definitely something to be said for that.

Marisa:  And that's so [00:51:17] _____ moves like Jagger. He's 75-year-olds. By the way, he's still fathering children. Running around with two children at 70. There are men who were still fathering children. And for women, although our eggs dry up, the womb never ages. That's why women can actually–a grandmother can carry embryo of her daughter if she needs to because certain parts of the body never age, and one of those is the womb.

Ben:  Yeah, that's true. That's another one that tends to regenerate to a certain extent, the uterus with age, just because of the cell turnover. So, what about–and this might be a good segue from sex or to sex, depending how you look at it, but you also talk about some things in the book that are more kind of like practical in the street's ways to enhance beauty or defy aging as you age like eggs, for example, smearing eggs on your face as a beauty treatment. Is that something that you really do?

Marisa:  I mean, I don't [00:52:13] _____. I have done it. Actually, if you whip up an egg white and put it all over your face and let it dry, just the white, not the yolk, let it dry, and then rinse it off. Ten minutes later, it has an instantly tightening effect and it's what a lot of actually movie stars do before they go on stage or before they go on set. So, it will actually tighten your skin. It's temporary. But eggs, actually, I'm a big fan of eggs because eggs contain everything to create life. And there's also staple foods that people eat who live into 100, and nuts and seeds are one of them, eggs. It used to be soya. Soya used to be recognized as such a healthy food. That's actually changed rather now because it's so adulterized.

Ben:  Yeah. And in many cases, the fermented soy like the miso, and the tempeh, and the natto are still staples. But yeah, GMO-adulterated, unfermented soy is not necessarily, especially for women who live in already estrogen-rich environments with plastics and household cleaning chemicals and personal care products that contain phytoestrogens, things like soy and flax seeds do become a bigger issue. But normally, they shouldn't be that much of an issue.

How about your own personal practice? What do you, apart from what all these Blue Zones or these longevity hotspots are doing and what we can learn from them, how about you personally, like, what do you do? What have you found to be the big wins for you in terms of keeping yourself put together? Because you're, not to blow smoke, but you're remarkably well put together and you look good, and you're obviously a very graceful and beautiful aging woman. So, what do you do? What are your secrets?

Marisa:  So, I rebound a lot. I have a little trampoline, and I love that because it's aerodynamic and it's very good for you. There are many studies that say there is nothing that will reverse aging as well as exercise. So, I do something. I have a Pilates machine in my house, have a little trampoline.

Ben:  I'm going to interrupt you real quick because just so you know folks, I'm 38 and I trampoline every day. I have a little mini trampoline in the room next to my office and that's actually one of the first things I do in the morning just to get the G forces for moving lymph fluid through the body. And also, to really help out with that morning bowel movement is I'll just go and do a little foam rolling and then jump up and down for about five minutes and it feels great.

Marisa:  Because they had some studies with astronauts and say, “Do you go into muscle wastage in a day if you don't move?” Again, it's that use it or lose it. But you have to like it. So, I trampoline for a couple of minutes. I play really young music. I listen to The Cure, The Clash. In fact, in one of my rooms, I've got all my album covers on every bookshelves of the books. And the minute I listen to somebody like David Bowie or Bob Seger or stuff from when I was younger, I immediately feel younger. It's that thing. I'm listening to a song I was dating to maybe Marc Almond, maybe The Clash, maybe The Cure, maybe in excess. And in that instant, I'm always going back to feeling of that girl of 19 and my body believes that I am that girl of 19.

So, that's the first thing I do. Exercise to really powerful music. When I clean my teeth, I tend to balance on one leg. And then, I eat well, I juice, I drink water. I'm very into hydrating. And I'm lucky to have a husband who is hilariously funny. He used to own 22 comedy clubs, and he makes me laugh all the time. He can always go into character. He's immensely funny.

Ben:  Yeah. The great John Davy. Is he there with you right now?

Marisa:  He's in the garden, but he impersonates anybody. He can do any acts.

Ben:  Yeah. He's a pretty funny guy. I had a good time hanging out with him.

Marisa:  Yeah. I mean, I married him because he was funny. That was my biggest thing. He never bores me because he can become someone else. I often say, “Oh, pretend you would do that,” and he's always making faces and showing any part of him. And then, we hang out with people. We have friends over the lunch and dinner. And most of our friends are younger than us, a few are older. But we laugh along and that is the most–I love it when you laugh so much that your stomach aches and you lost so much that you cry. So, I'm very lucky. But also, I love my life. I love my job. I love my kids. I love everything.

And the first thing I do when I wake up, I say, “Wow, I love my life.” Because if you're in that frequency of gratitude and always looking forwards and not back and never think, “Oh, I'm dreading getting older,” it doesn't matter. It's just a number. I don't really focus on that number too much, but I do look at great role models. I used to work for Jane Fonda, and she's always been inspirational to me because you're as young as you feel, you're as young as you want to be. And I have a lot of hope. I plan to be here when I'm 110. We were talking before about retiring, but I won't retire. I might reinvent, I might give up one particular career and do another. But if you keep reinventing what you do and who you are and make a point to do what you love, do what makes you feel good. I believe if you do what you hate, you pay a price.

Ben:  Yeah. So, the whole concept of self-actualization. It's like–I believe it was–was it Tesla? I think it was Edison who said, “I never worked a day in my life.” And it's not as though work doesn't sometimes feel like work, like it's sometimes hard for me to sit in front of the page and write an article. But at the same time, time goes by really quickly when I'm doing it. And once I get started, I'm in the flow and I absolutely enjoy it. And I think that working in your life's purpose with the skills that come easy to you or that you really enjoy doing, I mean, it's self-actualization and something we see over and over again. So, yeah, I'm right on the same page as you as far as that's concerned.

Well, this has been absolutely fascinating. And since we talked so much about humor and about the importance of funniness, a couple last things. What's the best, most funny movie or book that you've recently partaken in that you think people should go see after hearing this, if they want some comedy in their lives?

Marisa:  The funniest [00:58:18] _____ was called “Bad Santa.” I love that [00:58:21] _____.

Ben:  Billy Bob Thornton?

Marisa:  So, I met him and he was [00:58:26] _____. He's very funny. I love that movie. It's probably one of my funniest. All the Monty Python, especially the “Life of Brian.” That still makes me–I mean, that's a very English thing, but I love the “Life of Brian.” I love Chris Rock, I love Billy Connolly, I love stand-up comedians. I was very lucky that when I first met my husband, he had 22 comedy clubs. We spend every Saturday night watching comedians make you cry with laughter. So, it's a really good idea to google 100 funniest films, the things that made you laugh the most and watch them over and over again. In fact, when we're in the car, we occasionally go into Sirius Radio and listen to comedians giving a set and it's such a good thing to do. When you can cry with laughter, there's nothing better than that. I'm sure there are other films I love, but I always go with “Elf.” Every Christmas, I have to watch “Bad Santa.”

Ben:  My kids love “Elf.” They love “Elf,” yeah.

Marisa:  Well, that is just so funny. And then, you want to be around people that are funny, naturally funny, screamingly funny that make you laugh until you cry because that's what children do. They giggle, they laugh. One of the reasons too we were talking earlier about women looking after their grandchildren. When you look after young kids, they make faces, they make you laugh, and it has a constant age-reversing effect. So, I tried to not watch serious stuff. I watch stuff that makes me laugh. If it's serious–unless it's a fascinating documentary. I don't watch it. I tried to watch “Tree of Life” and I found it so boring. I like watching stuff that makes me laugh because when you laugh, you feel good.

Ben:  I agree. Alright. Well, I'll end by telling you one funny corny joke and then we'll part ways. So, here you go. A ham sandwich walks into a bar and orders a beer, and the bartender says, “Sorry, we don't serve food here.”

Marisa:  Ham sandwich walks–oh, I've got it.

Ben:  Maybe John will get it.

Marisa:  [01:00:34] _____.

Ben:  Yeah. Anyways though, so don't worry, folks. I won't give up my day job, but I will put a link to Marissa's book in everything that we talk about in today's show. The book again is called “You Can Be Younger.” Really fun to read, and you can get that at BenGreenfieldFitness.com/youcanbeyounger. And when you go to BenGreenfieldFitness.com/youcanbeyounger, that's also a good spot for you to lead your questions, your comments, your feedback, maybe your own funny jokes because obviously, mine wasn't funny enough, and your own funny movie tips, and anything else you found to keep you younger to spark more joy in your life, more happiness. And I really think that we can take these things to heart. It goes beyond just like popping pills, folks. And there's a lot more that you can do beyond that.

So, Marisa, thank you so much for coming on this show and sharing all this stuff with us. It's been just wonderful talking with you again.

Marisa:  Thank you. Do you want to hear my funny joke?

Ben:  I guess so.

Marisa:  So, there's a woman and her husband. They're both like 65 and they're walking around in Marina in Florida and she says, “Oh, what I would do to go on a cruise? I'd love to go on a cruise. We can't afford it.” And he says, “I'd love that.” And suddenly, a fairy appears with a wand and says, “I'm going to give you both a wish. You can have whatever you want.” The woman says, “Well, I want to go on this cruise more than anything.” She said, “Babam!” Puts in their hand two first class tickets to this cruise. “Oh, thank you.” She said to the husband, “Now, you can have a wish.” And he went, “Okay.” He says to his wife, “I'm really sorry, love, but I want to go with someone 30 years younger.” The fairy waves her wand and lo and behold he becomes 95. And he says, “You never get it. The fairy is a woman.”

Ben:  I love that. I did not see that coming, but that is much more relevant to age reversal than my joke is. I love that one. I'll have to remember that one. Alright. Well, cool. Marisa, thanks so much for coming on the show. Tell John I said hi, whatever he's doing out there in the garden. You probably have him, what, scraping poop or spreading compost or something?

Marisa:  Oh, he's just sitting in the garden talking to our neighbors, having a wonderful time. He's very special and that keeps him young.

Ben:  Of course he is, yeah. I hope to see you guys someday soon. I love hanging out with you at Mindvalley, and I'm sure we'll make it happen again.

Marisa:  My husband always laughs and says, “If ever there was a nuclear war, you always want to be with Ben because [01:02:54] _____ tracking and hunting.” And he often says, “[01:02:58] _____ with Ben if anything goes wrong in the world,” and he's absolutely right.

Ben:  Well, it depends on what goes wrong, but that's high praise coming from John. Alright, Marissa. Well, talk to you later. It's BenGreenfieldFitness.com/youcanbeyounger is where the shownotes are. Grab her book. It's great. And until next time. I'm Ben Greenfield along with Marisa Peer signing out from BenGreenfieldFitness.com. Have an amazing week.

Well, thanks for listening to today's show. You can grab all the shownotes, the resources, pretty much everything that I mentioned over at BenGreenfieldFitness.com, along with plenty of other goodies from me, including the highly helpful “Ben Recommends” page, which is a list of pretty much everything that I've ever recommended for hormone, sleep, digestion, fat loss, performance, and plenty more. Please, also, know that all the links, all the promo codes, that I mentioned during this and every episode, helped to make this podcast happen and to generate income that enables me to keep bringing you this content every single week. When you listen in, be sure to use the links in the shownotes, use the promo codes that I generate, because that helps to float this thing and keep it coming to you each and every week.

 

 

The way you look and feel have very little to do with your chronological age, and my guest on today's podcast believes that positive thinking and changing your belief system are the most important factors in staying truly young. In her book, You Can Be Younger, leading therapist Marisa Peer explains how you can arrest the aging process by harnessing the power of your subconscious mind.

By changing your thinking, Marisa claims you can change your body and become physically and mentally at least ten years younger.

She also discusses how to retrain your mind so you can stay young and vibrant, implement cell regeneration therapy to counteract the aging process, and boost energy and visibly improve your skin's appearance.

There are few speakers today who have the wide experience and stellar reputation of Marisa. Named “Britain’s Best Therapist” by Tatler magazine, she has spent over three decades treating a client list that includes international superstars, CEOs, Royalty, and Olympic athletes.

Training early in her career as a child psychologist, Marisa later earned further qualifications from the Hypnosis Training Institute of Los Angeles and the Pritikin Longevity Centre. In 2015, she founded Rapid Transformational Therapy ™ (RTT), an exciting and award-winning training method that is solution-oriented, fast, and highly effective. Having spent over thirty years developing her life-changing and dynamic technique, Marisa has trained over 3,000 RTT™ therapists around the world. Within two years of its launch, RTT™ won eleven awards in just six months because of its efficacy and revolutionary transformational techniques.

A bestselling author of five books, Marisa’s unique selling proposition is that she teaches “simple steps that produce dramatic and life-changing results.” When she reveals her fundamental rule—that all of our emotional and personal problems come from us believing that we’re not enough, and explains how to overcome it—the results are tremendous and dramatic. Her latest best-selling and powerfully worded book, I Am Enough, will enable you to achieve powerful and recognizable results rapidly and permanently.

During this discussion, you'll discover:

-Why Ben and Marisa will never “retire”…11:30

• “When hope dies, old age comes to greet you”
• The more youthful things you do, the younger you feel and become

-How Marisa became involved with anti-aging and longevity…13:40

• As a therapist, age is an asset, not a liability
• You don't “fight” aging, you defy it
• Many societies revere the elderly for their wisdom and insight (“sage-ing” rather than aging)
  • People in these societies not only live longer but better

-Clues your body leaves that it is constantly rejuvenating…17:30

• The body is always regenerating itself (stomach, blood cells, etc.)
• The mind remains the same: “Use it or lose it”
  • Neurobics newness: Neurons keep firing when the brain is always doing something new (new data stimulate the neurons), keeping the brain young and agile
  • Use the opposite hand or foot to do routine things to stimulate brain activity
• Creators (writers, composers, etc.) keep their minds maintained
  • Do what young people do
  • Young body and an old mind is pointless; it should be young body and a young mind
• Three different ages: birth certificate age (least important one of all), age of our organs (biological age), the age you feel. The age of your organs is related to the age you feel
  • Having sex, laughing, etc., actually sends a message to your organs that not only slows down but can also reverse aging
• Liver is one of the few visceral organs that has the capacity to regenerate cells; 2017 studywherein caloric restriction/ fasting-mimicking diet induces pancreatic regeneration

-How to think and grow young…22:30

• How you view aging will dictate how you age
• Thoughts are real; every thought produces a physical reaction and emotional effect (placebo effect)
  • The belief you have about a drug will have more of an effect than the actual compounds of that drug itself
• Disregard your chronological age, keep telling yourself that you feel young and the age you feel will start to reflect that
• Studies where older people were placed in a closed environment that resembled life 30 years prior produced amazing results regarding people's attitude, health, etc.
• Retired pilots' vision improved instantly when placed in a flight simulator
• Your mind reacts to your thoughts
  • You don't react to the event, you react to what you think the event is
  • It's not the thing, it's what you think about the thing; and what you think about the thing is yours to change
  • You can choose what to say to yourself every day, but your body has no choice but to react to the words you use
  • Every word you speak is a blueprint that your mind and body have to act on
• Whatever you tell your mind—good or bad, real or false, useful or not—it lets in, and the mind neither knows nor cares if it's true; you can change your life by telling yourself better things
• Your perspective of circumstances is an important factor (positive or negative)
• Laughing frequency equates to more youthful persona

-How to promote youthfulness in your everyday environment…34:42

• Playing music that takes you back to happier times in your life
• Keep up with modern fashions (don't dress like a geezer)
• When you do something useful, you feel useful
• In one study, random strangers in their 40s, 50s, 60s, were invited into a room and told to read the words written all over the room…
  • Words like fragile, careful, antique, delicate, easily breakable resulted in them walking carefully upon leaving
  • Words like useful, exuberant, resilient, bouncy, happy resulted in them appearing as if they were on steroids
  • Their minds responded immediately to the words they read; you turn into that expectation, you turn into that word you describe yourself
  • Change your description and change into that
• Quit blaming all of your troubles on your age; do everything as if your age is irrelevant
• Pay attention to your thoughts; your thoughts control your feelings, your feelings control your actions, your actions control your events, and everything begins with your thinking
• Old photos and music bring you back to your youth

-Traits that long-lived populations share in common…41:22

• Involved with family
• Exercise, involvement in day to day activities; remain active
• Family goes to them for advice
• Sexually active
• Active in the community
• They feel useful, desirable, and significant
• Do household chores themselves
• Do things that affect the mental and emotional age
• Theory of reproductive usefulness
  • Sexual activity slows down aging
  • Orgasms fight cancer, aging, NK (natural killer) cells, depression, etc.
• Certain parts of the body never age, like the womb

-Marisa's personal longevity habits…53:20

• Rebounder
• Pilates
• Listening to music from the past
• Balance on one leg while brushing teeth
• Stay hydrated
• Laugh often
• Practice gratitude
• Self-actualization: do what you hate, you'll pay a price

-What movies or shows Marisa recommends to make you laugh…57:55

• Funny movies, shows
  • Bad Santa
  • Monty Python
  • Chris Rock
• Listen to comedians

-And much more!

Resources from this episode:

– Marisa Peer:

• Books: You Can Be Youngerand I Am Enough
• Other booksby Marisa
• Rapid Transformational Therapy™

– BGF podcast with Vishen Lakhiani 

– MindValley

– Other resources:

• Rebounder
• Gratitude Journal
• Article: Fasting-Mimicking Diet Promotes Ngn3-Driven β-Cell Regeneration to Reverse Diabetes

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