Have you ever had a near death experience?
I sincerely hope not. But as long-time listeners know, I’ve had a couple of close calls.
A simple twist of fate or freak accident can alter the course of your life. But if you let them, tragedies can set us on a new path that can change us for the better.
The reason I disappeared for the past few months isn’t because I took vacation. I was seriously injured in a hit-and-run car wreck.
A speeding driver rear-ended me out of nowhere going 80 mph in 35mph zone, hitting so hard it ripped off my rear wheel and ruptured the gas tank. I was knocked unconscious briefly, but somehow managed to get the car off the road instead of being dragged into oncoming traffic (on three wheels). The other driver fled, but good Texans who saw what happened helped me get out of harms way.
It only seems appropriate that this week’s guest shares his name with Lazarus, the legendary Biblical figure who was raised from the dead.
In this episode, Abel James shares a personal story about his recent near-death experience in a car accident, which left him with a concussion and other injuries. He reflects on the importance of resilience and the ability to recover from setbacks, emphasizing the concept of becoming antifragile. Abel introduces his guest, Dr. Ryan Lazarus, who also faced a life-altering accident at a young age, leading him to a career in functional medicine. Dr. Lazarus shares his journey of overcoming chronic health issues and the importance of a holistic approach to health.
Dr. Lazarus discusses the paradigm shift in healthcare towards a more holistic model, emphasizing the importance of balance, flexibility, and consistency in health practices. He introduces the concept of the "Lazarus Method," which includes seven essential health elements: nourish, rest, move, learn, connect, challenge, and spark. The conversation explores the importance of mindset, the power of small, consistent actions, and the role of technology in personalized medicine. Abel and Dr. Lazarus also discuss the impact of technology on human connections and the importance of maintaining meaningful relationships in an increasingly digital world.
This episode is brought to you by:
Manukora - Go to MANUKORA.com/WILD to save 31% plus $25 of free gifts.
Fresh Pressed Olive Oil Club - Go to GetFreshAbel.com to get your free $39 bottle for just $1 shipping.
iRestore.com - Go to iRestore.com and use the code WILD to save on the Illumina Mask.
To stay up to date on our next live events, masterminds, shows and more, sign up for my newsletter at AbelJames.com, and check out my substack at abeljames.substack.com
[00:00:00]
Unknown:
Hey, folks. This is Abel James, and thanks for joining us on the show. Have you ever had a near death experience? I sincerely hope not, but as long time listeners know, I've had a couple at this point. A simple twist of fate or freak accident can alter the course of your life. But if you let them, tragedies can also set us on a new trajectory that can change us for the better. The reason I disappeared for the past couple months isn't because I took a vacation. Unfortunately, I was injured in a serious car wreck. I found myself on the receiving end of a speeding driver who rear ended me out of nowhere while doing probably around 80 miles an hour in a 35, hitting me so hard and fast that it ripped off my rear wheel and ruptured the gas tank among other things. And I was knocked unconscious briefly, but somehow managed to get the car off the road instead of being dragged into oncoming traffic on three wheels.
The other driver fled the scene, so it was a hit and run, but some good Texan saw it. I'm really grateful for them. They saw what happened. They helped me get back to safety and out of harm's way. So it only seems appropriate, and this is totally by chance, that this week's guest shares his name with Lazarus, the legendary figure who was raised from the dead. Though I wasn't quite dead, I've felt no more than half alive the past couple of months as I recover from a concussion, which unfortunately is not my first traumatic brain injury. So I've been through physical therapy, speech therapy, met up with a bunch of doctors. The crash also tore some ligaments in my neck, which is similar to tearing, like the ACL in your knee, except it's impossible to stay off your neck so the pain can be unrelenting. And you're probably wondering what became of the other driver as am I. But since it's an ongoing police investigation, I don't really have more information that I can share, right now. But all in all, I'm just so grateful to be in one piece, the accident, looking at what happened to the car, which unfortunately was also totaled.
But I have a great team of doctors who are, leading my recovery. I appreciate all the well wishes, and I look forward to keeping in touch with friends and family. You've all been great, so I really appreciate it. But accidents and setbacks are common. It's how we respond, react, and recover that really matters, especially over the long term of our lives if we're talking about health and longevity. It's this ability to get back up after you're knocked down that's far and away the most important quality for long term success in health or anything else. Fate is coming for all of us, and, eventually, we'll all be ravaged by time, So it's important to build in yourself the qualities of becoming antifragile, and I'm doing the best I can. So as this week's guest, doctor Ryan Lazarus faced a near death experience at age 18 in a devastating sports accident that crushed his organs.
For years, he grappled with life altering health issues, including type one diabetes, digestive failure, and immune problems, each day presenting a new battle to be fought. He's navigated through a maze of trauma, illness, confusion, setbacks, and despair, often questioning the purpose and meaning behind chronic illness and suffering. It was precisely this burden of hardship that molded Ryan's resilience and fueled his passion for helping others. After years of pain and struggle, Ryan mustered the courage and determination to seize control of his own health journey. Ryan delved into the realms of functional medicine, nutrition, fitness, and mental fitness, acquiring a wealth of knowledge and tools that enabled him to forge his own path to recovery. Before we get to the interview with Ryan, please make sure that you're subscribed wherever you watch or listen to your podcast. You can also sign up for my newsletter for some free goodies. That's at ablejames.com, abeljames.com.
And And if you'd like to support this show, you can also sign up as a free or paid member of my Substack, which is at ablejames.substack.com. And you can also get an ad free version of this show in video and audio. So one more time, ablejames.substack.com. Look forward to seeing you there. You can also since I'm not super active on most social media, you can DM me and get in touch and join the comment section on substack. That's where I tend to be most active. So look forward to seeing you there. Alright. So how do you transition your mindset from being a victim to a victor? In this episode, you're about to hear why you don't need to take extreme actions to get extreme results, how to overcome the victim mindset, practical techniques for reprogramming negative thoughts, the role of technology in the future of personalized medicine, and much more. Let's hang out with Ryan.
Welcome back, folks. Doctor Ryan Lazarus has been a patient as long as he's been a doctor. At age 18, he faced a near death experience in a devastating sports accident that crushed his organs. For years, he grappled with life altering health issues, including type one diabetes, digestive failure, and immune problems. After transforming his own health, Ryan now dedicates his life to healing others as the founder and clinical director at the Lazarus method and author of the Essential Health Playbook. Thanks so much for joining us, doctor Lazarus.
[00:15:50] Unknown:
Thank you for having me, Abel. I'm stoked to, discuss some really interesting health topics, and I'm also stoked to be with the OG podcaster. And I know you've been doing this for a while. I've enjoyed your shows over the years, and so I'm really happy to be part of it now. Thanks, man. Yeah. It's been a minute. The thing I love about it the most maybe aside from learning so much is building this network of rock star incredible people who are just
[00:16:14] Unknown:
changing the world so much in their own fields. But I think it's it's so much more powerful, especially now that we can get together through the promises of technology and the fact that there are get togethers kinda scattered around the country, but but certainly in Austin, Texas, and I know you're coming here. So lots of things to be excited about in this whole world. But take us back, and maybe you can help explain what it's like to be, on both sides of the equation from the medical side of things. I've heard you say that there's a huge difference, and I agree, between The US acute trauma and emergency care and the conventional chronic sick care models that we're looking at. So maybe you can use your own experience to help differentiate between those worlds a little bit.
[00:16:54] Unknown:
Yeah. I'm happy to. Yeah. We are in a paradigm shift right now. You know, in 2025, there is a great demand for this holistic approach to health, and we can see this. The momentum is increasing every single year with people realizing there's a different way to be healthy. And the, you know, the sick allopathic model is starting to dwindle down, and there's now a large group of people that are now coming into my office asking for interviews about what does it mean to be a holistic doctor. And, I could tell you all about the protocols and and, you know, what it's like being an integrative functional medicine doctor, but like you alluded to, I've been on both sides. And so the emergency care in our country is amazing.
Like you said in the intro, they saved my life. You know, I actually, thirty years ago in 1995 when I was 18 years old, I crushed my organs, and the emergency surgery was cutting from the chest to the belly button, opening me up and removing my my organs, and I would have been dead, you know, a hundred years ago. And so we have the best emergency medicine in the world, and it's incredible. And the people that saved my life, gratitude, and still stay in touch with many of them. But then there was this kind of conventional approach in which we call it in functional medicine, you know, pill for every ill or the name blame tame game. You go in, you name the problem, you blame it on something, and you tame it. That paradigm shift is slowly becoming a what I hope is a model of the past and now appreciating where the science is emerging, where this new kind of genetic, information and research along with, you know, the mind and the body and the spirit. It it was always put out as this kind of, like, holistic voodoo, but now the science is emerging with it, and now we have some really great protocols to help every person and help them heal.
So emergency medicine saved my life. Conventional medicine kind of compromised my life. I was given many different medications for these symptoms that I did not know what was going on, and they didn't they didn't really know what to tell me. And so I kinda hit a dead spot, and that's what really kinda prompted me to become a holistic practitioner and really create the Lazarus method.
[00:19:23] Unknown:
And you also talk about how some of these tragedies or personal health setbacks can be used as a weapon to your own advantage in some ways. Right? So in many ways, if you experience a health setback when you're younger, it can help recalibrate your trajectory such that you're not dealing with some of these chronic diseases later because you had to dial it in young. So maybe you can you can offer that to the people who out there are who are still struggling a bit. And, you know, at any point in your life, you can always make it better, but especially if you catch it, you know, the younger, the better.
[00:19:53] Unknown:
Yeah. That's a great point. Yeah. There it was a dark time, Abel. It was, you know, again, I was three months away from graduating high school. I thought I had it all figured out. I thought the path was there, and, you know, boom. It changed really, really quick. And it was it was a decade of darkness and anger and frustration and and fear. I you know, instantly, you know, checking blood sugar. We didn't have CGMs at that time. And so, you know, dialing in syringes and insulin and, like, having to take these these digestive enzymes because I couldn't break down my food, and then going in and out of the hospital. And I still think about it, even thirty years after, and it was, a very dark time, but it built up a lot of scar tissue and a lot of resilience. And that's that's why I love doing what I do now, which is helping heal people. But I understand the challenges, the headspace of every person that I work with about why they're not changing or the resistance or just the the paralysis by analysis right now about what am I supposed to do.
And so it's made me a more effective, more empathetic doctor to help as many people as I can. So it really happened for a reason, and it's it's prompted, you know, the the purpose of my life and and my career right now.
[00:21:17] Unknown:
And what was the the process of kind of going from that place of struggle to feeling self actualized again? Like, maybe I can do something here. Maybe I got this.
[00:21:27] Unknown:
Yeah. It got to a point where I just needed to make a decision. You know, I had it was very victim mindset. It was why this happened to me. It was these people's faults. Why can't these doctors give me the medicine that I need? It revealed a lot about my personality, and really issues that I needed to deal with personally in my spiritual health, my mental health. There was an epiphany where there's no one going to come and save me. There's no doctor that's going to give me what I need. There's going to be no miracle supplement. I mean, I I had permanent issues, and so, you know, once that light bulb went off, and I I remember it. It was, it was powerful. It was okay. It's on me. I'm going to learn everything I need to learn. In fact, it became an obsession about how the body works, how the physical body works, how metabolism works, how blood sugar works, how mindset works, and that's what basically prompted me to go into med school and then graduate school and go into functional medicine, become a nutritionist and a a personal trainer and all of these, you know, designations.
But I just became obsessed with trying to figure out how I could heal myself. In that, just realized so many different ways that are not being advocated to many of your listeners, many of my patients, and that's why we see this paradigm shift. So I needed to go through it, and it needed to reveal some a lot of mental, emotional, and spiritual inadequacies that I had that I'm still I'm still working on. I'm, you know, I'm not, you know, the the all enlightened one. I'm still in the trenches. I still have to deal with my health, but I have a new perspective that can really help a lot of people now.
[00:23:13] Unknown:
Yeah. And what would you say to some of the people who think that the way that they feel is permanent? You know, once you've tried a number of different approaches that have failed or didn't stick for some reason, and a lot of people are there, there's really a magic when you find the simplicity of the fundamentals again. Right? And you put you start putting them into action, and there's you cover some of this in your book and in your work. There's a tendency to think that we need to take these extreme actions and just kinda push it all into one day or or one massive expenditure of energy. But the truth is if you really wanna get results, it's all about consistency. It's not about these huge expenditures. It's not about a giant workout. It's about tiny ones that add up over a long time. Yeah. Well said. You know it. You stated it perfectly.
[00:24:01] Unknown:
You know, my philosophy on health after all these years and, you know, all this training and working with thousands of patients, you know, for twenty years in private practice is there's three fundamentals, and I wrote it in the book. In in health is it's balance, it's being flexible, and it's being consistent. And what I see and what probably you see and many people actually do is, okay, there's this goal, and I'm gonna set it, and I'm gonna go full force, and I'm gonna set other things aside, and I'm gonna recalibrate my priorities. And what I've seen over the years is that's unsustainable. It's really about making your health a priority, but being flexible and and just trying to achieve just small little changes, you know, day in, day out, month in, month out, year in, year out. And, you know, I talk about this in the book, and that's what the Essential Health Playbook is about is I just see health as a game, and there's offense, and there's defense. And, you know, offense Abel, is when we're, you know, leaning forward and there's order and we have clear cut goals and everything is going right and we're on our toes and we're proactive. You know what that feels like. It just feels like we're accomplishing our goals in our career or in our family or in our personal life and in our health. But then there's defense, and defense is, you know, you're reactive, and you're on your heels, and there's more chaos than there is order, and you're having to pivot and improvise.
And I make the argument in the book, and and and I'll make the argument with you, is I believe that in our life, in our daily lives, there's probably more defense than there is offense. And what I see is people come in and say, I have these offensive goals, and and, you know, this is what I wanna achieve, and that's awesome. Everyone should set that. But being able to pivot when you know you're on defense and say, okay. This is where maybe it's a floor goal we need to do, which is the minimal amount of effort just to be consistent, And I wanna be flexible, and that takes the pressure off trying to be perfect all the time with so many of these different health concepts that we're all hearing about all these great trends. And so, you know, the long story short is that life and our health is a game, and knowing when you're on offense and knowing when you're on defense and knowing when to pivot can take the pressure off, and that's the key for the long term health game plan.
[00:26:18] Unknown:
Yeah. And I love the concept as well of floor and ceiling goals. This is something that I've been using, not necessarily calling it that, but using this this principle for a long time. And I find it's really powerful to be able to bend the rules in your own life such that you can do a two minute workout one day and check that box. You know, like, that day's cool. Like, we're good. And you don't have to dedicate yourself to a three hour slog or a long run or something like that, especially if your body's not up to it. So maybe you can talk to that piece a little bit too, because one way that I've been able to use the floor ceiling goals is kind of checking in with myself if I'm not wearing a wearable and it's not, you know, data that I'm looking at that says, like, not today, Abel. You know? Because there are days like that for sure. But you can also intuitively sense when, alright. This is not gonna be a personal best attempts kind of day. Right? Like, this is going to be a check the box. Let's do the minimum thing. So how are you seeing people apply these floor and and ceiling goals or standards to their own lives? And, and what does that look like in the schedule?
[00:27:21] Unknown:
Yeah. It's a great question. So, you know, after working with patients for twenty years and thousands of different types of people, what I realized is that even if you give people exactly what they need to do, you have all the information, you have the resources, you're motivating them, you know, on paper they have everything, there's still a lot of resistance that we have. And it it you know, I can go into it a little bit deeper in another question, but, you know, it's our mindset. It's our true beliefs. And so what I have people do is part of the method is there are seven essential health elements, and I teach them them, and I can go over them. But it's just part of their daily routine is they take inventory. It's just a quick self health audit about how am I doing in these seven elements. So I teach them. They understand it. They understand the framework and the road map, and then they just take inventory.
And that is basically saying, okay. I'm opening my game plan here, you know, symbolic game plan. And am I on offense or am I on defense? Who's my opponent today? Like and that quick inventory will allow the person to be present and aware and say, okay. These are the things that maybe I just need to check the box with today. Just stay consistent. Check the box. I'm not feeling it. It might be a headache. It might be a kid problem. It might be a bunch of fires you need to put out at work. I mean, like I said, there's so many different barriers and obstacles that we have. Check the box here. So I would say the answer to your question is the ability to just remove distractions, just sit with yourself for a moment and just say, where am I? And take inventory, and then be like, okay. Today's a defensive day. What is my game plan? What health element do I just need to allocate a little energy? And then I'll just do that.
So that is really what I teach my patients in the programs.
[00:29:10] Unknown:
Let's go over some of the other seven in whatever order makes sense.
[00:29:15] Unknown:
Yeah. Over the essential health elements? Yeah. Yeah. So it was born from what what happened to me, and it was in my head, and and I never really created a framework or graphical representation of it. It was just kinda something that made sense to me. And then as I was going through all of the, you know, licenses and certifications and reading tons of books, you know, Taoism and and stoicism and, you know, Hawkins levels of consciousness and then, like, wrapping all of these different concepts of, like, philosophy and psychology and ancient healing paradigms with meridians and chakras and now functional mess and all that. I kind of basically stamped seven essential elements. On the bottom are the foundations. And these are you know, you have conversations on your podcast all the time with experts of these. So it's nourish, rest, and move.
And these are the anchors. Right? It's what we're eating. It's our hydration, what supplements you need to take, your alcohol, all of that. And then there's rest and sleep, and I'm sure your listeners know how important that is, and I can talk all about that. But that's like the base. And then there is move. And then it's the the pillars of movement that is about walking and, you know, functional movements and progressive overload and the different pillars and, you know, how can you move that's appropriate for you. And so that's the those are the bottom. Move, rest, and nourish.
But the top three are a little different, and those are the ones that are a little harder to to quantify. And those are the ones that this is where growth comes in. This is, you know, expansion and mindset. And so it's learn, connect, and challenge. And learn is just being open to new experiences and meeting new people and listening to different podcasts and reading books and challenging conventional wisdom. It's just, you know, life gets pretty stale when you just sit in the same loop and you're not learning. And so, this is where flow states come in, and this is where like, you can broaden your perspective, which is very important. And then connect is connecting to self and understanding that we have this roommate in our head just constantly talking.
That'd be our ego. And just can you sit there and be a witness and observer of, you know, the loud ego yelling at you and reacting, versus the soul over here, which kinda whispers and kinda nudges you some time? And so just being able to connect with yourself and then connect with your tribe, And that's what you're great at doing. Right? Connecting with your tribe is, you know, we're hardwired for a sense of belonging, to be part of a group, and have friends, and and have family, and have a community that supports our goals and, you know, we can socialize with. You know, that's the kind of concept of blue zones, and that's what they've all agreed upon is that that is a very important element of health is just that feeling of tribe and belonging. And so that's a big part of it. And then the top of my health element is challenge, and that is setting either micro challenges or macro challenges, intentions and goals that ultimately provides, like, deep motivation and inspiration towards moving towards something. And so all three of those are like the expansion zones and growth. And then in the middle, I call it spark.
You know, that's the juice. Right? That is our potential, our passion, our purpose. And so these seven elements all work with each other. You have the anchors and the foundation, which is just great for fundamental health, and then you have kind of the growth up top. And they all kind of circulate, and I want ultimately my patients in the method to be balancing them because it feeds the spark and vice versa. So that's kind of the the short of it. And what I'm ultimately trying to do is teach these patients and friends and people that I meet that there is this framework, and can you take inventory on all of those? Can you identify your strengths, maybe your weaknesses every day? And then just allocate a little bit of energy or some movement over there because it doesn't make sense if you're dialed in nutrition, like, absolutely perfect. You're taking every supplement. You eat perfectly. Your macros are all dialed. Right? To continue to be absolutely perfect if your connect score is a three out of 10.
That that seems like a little imbalance. And so that's kind of the overview of the method.
[00:33:31] Unknown:
I love that. It's and it's different from traditional allopathic medicine where at least years ago, you would typically hear, oh, diet doesn't matter, or, you know, don't eat dietary cholesterol as a hard and fast rule. So thankfully, that's that's changing and getting a little bit better, but still we find ourselves often in a sea of confusion. But one thing that I think is so important that you share is that these concepts in people's lives are interconnected. And if you're obsessing about one piece, like sleep, but ignoring your water quality or air quality, I see this all the time where people are are obsessed about food and, like, personally invested their identity as well in that, you know, even squabbling with friends and family about those tiny little details while completely ignoring the fact that they are just huffing on environmental pollution indoors as well all day long and drinking tap water and all these other things and being exposed. So what are some other examples of how you can see these things as linked? Another quick example is it could be as as simple as someone's energy level. At work, if they're kind of stagnating.
[00:34:38] Unknown:
You might find that in their own health life, that's kinda stagnating too. So you start fixing up these one piece at a time, and you can lift up the other sides of the equation. Right? Yeah. You totally get it. You we I'm sure you see it in your life, and you will see it with friends, and I see it with patients. And if you understand this, you can really realize that the rigidity of trying to be here all the time is sometimes unsustainable and can possibly neglect these other things that, in my opinion, are equally important for your health and your performance and your life optimization. And so that's where, like, the the balance comes in, and I would rather have somebody who is a seven out of 10, if I wanna quantify it, and all seven rather than somebody who is a nine and a two and a three.
And so that's where, like, taking inventory and just realizing there is this road map, and I can remove distractions, take get use a grounding session, whether it's meditation or going for a walk or journaling or, you know, whatever you need to do or the listeners need to do to just kinda take inventory and say, alright. What do I need to do? Now that's where I came in and coached them and say, here's the small tweaks that you can make that can allocate some bandwidth over here. And and that's the beauty of this thing is that once they understand the map, then it's a great partnership. We work together, and and I nudge them to do these things, hold them a little bit accountable. So, I mean, I have all kinds of different examples, and that's kind of, like, my ultimate philosophy in the Lazarus method is habit formation through gamification.
And in my opinion, after, you know, twenty plus years of working with so many different people and holistic health, it really comes down to, like, our mindset, our our habits, and our rituals. And, you know, if you really wanna assess if somebody's healthy, just take a look at all the decisions that they're making. And if they're making good decisions most of the time, you could generally consider them healthy. Right? And if they're making bad decisions a lot of the time, they're unhealthy. And so, you know, how can we nudge them to have a couple habits, remove a couple, add some, and then how do we make it fun? I mean, look. Change is hard. We resist it even if we know it's net positive for us. That's just the human experience. Right? Because what you're not changing, you're choosing. And so that could be very, very hard. And so my answer is, how do we gamify it? How do I know what's important to them with their values, beliefs, nudge them, make it fun for them, and then just take the pressure off, and then they do it over and over all of a sudden. You know, three to five weeks, these are now habits and rituals that they can sustain.
[00:37:17] Unknown:
What are some examples of gamification making this process fun for people? Yeah.
[00:37:23] Unknown:
So the challenge well, I call these micro challenges. And micro challenges are anything that could basically be done in five minutes or less that you just kinda poo poo or say, I don't have time for this. It could be simple, like maybe drinking water. Okay. First thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna drink water. Somebody is weak in their hydration. Right? If they don't do that, okay. Let's set a micro challenge for three out of the seven days. I just want you to drink eight ounces of water when you wake up. Simple. Right? Something like, okay. I I wanna meditate, but I do not like sitting down. This is what I'm saying to a patient would say, this is very hard for me. I can't sit down. I have the monkey mind, and I have a whole concept of dealing with that. But I would say, okay. Then let's do this. When you're brushing your teeth, you dedicate that, let's call it sixty seconds of brushing your teeth as completely focused on what does it feel like with the toothbrush, the bristles on your teeth, on your gums. You're gonna you're gonna start thinking about something else because that's naturally what we do. We think about what do we need to do today or what do we do today or, you know, what's the next checklist is just say, hey. Focus on what does it feel like? What does the toothpaste feel like in your mouth? So they are 100% focused. These are simple things that people don't have to add that they're they're changing about their routine. So that's that for mental fitness or connect. It could be simple label reading for for foods, and then I have this really great infographic. It's called the Nourish Target where you aim for the greens and kinda be mindful of the yellows and avoid the reds. And so I'll say, hey. Here's a micro challenge.
Just for today, no reds. Nothing in there. And you could imagine what would be in the reds, like the additives and the dyes and seed oils and the sugars and the crap. Right? And if somebody's really struggling with nutrition, it just it's a simple little thing that they could do where it doesn't feel like they need to blow up their entire schedule, but, oh, it's like a little challenge, a little micro challenge. And so I have, like, 30 of these for each one of those elements, and it builds momentum. It's so awesome to see because, you know, we feel like momentum and, you know, like, we're super encouraged and motivated when we have this big goal and we're moving towards it, and that is true. But I see momentum actually when you just, like, check-in little boxes of things that you normally don't do, and then you're like, okay.
I I could do this, and I can add this one to this tomorrow. And so it builds up that confidence. So all kinds of different micro challenges to to gamify it and kinda hold them accountable.
[00:39:55] Unknown:
Isn't it interesting that sometimes the cure for stagnation is throwing challenges at it? Right? Yep. It's For sure. No wonder we don't wanna do it because that's the the time we wanna do anything the least, but it's that tiny bit of taking action that, like you said, starts to build that momentum. And that cascades throughout the days too. Like, I'm pretty strict on my recording days when I tend to batch interviews and and do a bunch of them. And so because there isn't much wiggle room to goof off or do the wrong thing, like, I'm waking up and I'm doing the breathing exercises. And I'm, like, going in front of the red light, and I'm going outside for the walk, and I'm, like, dialed in. And I can tell the difference between those days and the ones when I'm just kinda, like, kicking back and I'm not doing the breathing exercises because it's not noticeable right away. It's like, oh, I've got so much free time right now. Whatever. But by the afternoon, it's like, oh, the crankiness is is seeping, or there's a little bit of anxiety or something like that. You start to see over time that you can link these tiny little things that you do, even if it's just a few minutes of breathing in the morning, can dramatically change where you're at by that afternoon.
[00:40:58] Unknown:
100 they're little catalyst. Right? I mean, they the the book, make your bed in the morning, is this it's the same concept. Or James Clear, atomic habits, is that momentum is such an interesting thing. We talk about it in sports and all of that, but it is really a a phenomenon that occurs in all of our lives where we just feel like there's goals and we're hitting them, and there's accomplishment and fulfillment. And it's just it's an addicting thing. But also, here's another concept that I just wanna share. When we think about momentum, generally in sports, we think about, like, offense. Okay. The momentum has shifted where offense, you know, they they really have the energy now. There's this cohesive manner. I would argue that there's actually momentum on defense.
And this is a concept that I I call failing forward, which is if you take the pressure off yourself and try to not try to be perfect all the time, and you're making mistakes, those those really aren't failures. They're just lessons. But you can fail backwards, which is reactive and blame and anger and shame, or you can fail forward, which is, okay. I didn't do what I needed to do, but why? What is that lesson? And my argument about momentum is if you're constantly reacting and feel like you're falling backwards, that's where you can many people start to regress and go, I can't do this, and then the mindset takes over. And then you can kinda see these habits go up and down rather than a a frame of mind where it's, okay. What did I learn from here? I'm failing forward. This is a lesson. I apply it the next day. And although it's not offensive momentum, there is this sense of accomplishment and defensive momentum. And so, again, it's it's a reframe about how we go about our health and the decisions. And so, it is it's a it's a super powerful thing, and I'm always trying to create as much momentum as I can for people in the morning, like, in that first, like, twenty minutes. It's a very sacred space for me and what I'm advocating to my patients of even just doing breath work or a quick, you know, mental fitness or, you know, just journaling or getting out or, you know, anything that really prompts them as a catalyst to start being productive with their health decisions in the day.
[00:43:13] Unknown:
Yeah. I'm sure you find this as well that some people come in having not done the thing or the things, and they're, like, very apologetic. Like, oh, I'm so sorry, Abel, or I'm so sorry, Ryan. Like, it was like, wait. No. No. This is on you. Like, I have nothing. It's like, I could go either way. I would love for this to be helping you, but it's totally on you. Like, this isn't something you can apologize to anyone else or apologize to yourself. Right? So how do you get people to get over that hump of instead of kind of going through the motions, maybe to even get approval from their practitioners or the coaches, whatever, to being like, oh, wait. No. This is actually on me.
[00:43:50] Unknown:
Yeah. It's a big discovery. I'm with so many different patients where no matter what I say, they nod their head. But this is the internal dialogue. This is the operating system that many people have, which is to be very non serving. And, you know, we can get into, like, the psychology of this, but, no matter what they do, it's always not good enough. Or if they mess up, it diverts them. And so I have real conversations with these people, and that's where it's just, hey. You set an offense. You set a defense. Take the pressure off. It's about being flexible.
It's about, you know, the balance. And, you know, it's really an important pep talk because no matter what I could say, you know, that we people have this operating system that can lead them astray. And the and the emotions with that of shame and guilt, especially with health changes, can be very, very strong. So, you know, I give, different tips and tactics about, you know, taking inventory, journaling, talking with people, mental fitness, meditation, a lot of different, like, centering grounding practices to allow them to hear this and then ultimately nudge them to to take the pressure off themselves and to move at the pace that's right for them. So when the light bulb goes off, that's when they can start, you know, generating more momentum.
[00:45:18] Unknown:
You have a few exercises too, in your book. One that I love is seeing your life as a movie. Maybe you can explain that and people can kind of run through that in in their minds right now a little bit.
[00:45:29] Unknown:
Yeah. When we realized that, you know, we're not the main actor, we're just kind of watching our movie, you know, Ram Dass and many spiritual leaders and teachers and, you know, very wise elders and shamans have really helped me with my journey about understanding what consciousness really is, is we we are really just blank consciousness and awareness. And, you know, we have these thoughts, and these thoughts can be serving, and they can be scary. And we should do this, and I should have done this. And when you can kind of kind of just fall back and listen to all of that, it really kind of opens your whole mind about the experiences that you're having.
And, you know, I've turned it in the book Mind Medicine, and, you know, there were some really unique stories that I have where I kind of ripped off some labels of, you know, being a diabetic when I was tagged with that in my early days of being injured. And and the mind is super, super powerful. And just learning how to train your mind instead of your mind training you can allow you to to sit back, be the observer. And the more you emphasize this, when whatever practice works for you or for the listeners, it allows you to kinda just be looking this way rather than through these eyes. And it is an enlightening, game changing moment in our lives when we have the power to do that. And, so I'm always trying to advocate different ways for people to experience that.
[00:46:59] Unknown:
And the way we use words throughout this process is also very important, and a lot of people might not be aware of of how even they are kinda building in this negative bias to what they're saying just by virtue of using those certain words. So, for example, you you offer instead of intermittent fasting, intuitive eating, and I love that. That's how I tend to think about it in my own life as well. It's like I'm not obsessing about the time that I'm fasting. That's that's generally unless it's a long extended fast, which happens pretty rarely in my own life. That's something where I'm more focused on enjoying the nourishment that comes from the food at the right times and not chasing it around all day like I used to being kind of enslaved to hunger. So what are some other examples of how people can maybe clean up their language in a sense or or use more positively oriented language that's that's aligned with their goals?
[00:47:52] Unknown:
Yeah. It's the story in our head. Right? This the the narrative that we create, you know, kinda create the lens in which we see everything. Right? Our mind is always looking for evidence of what we truly believe. So if we're always looking for or we we believe I can't do this, your mind is just going there looking for evidence to basically confirm this bias. And the opposite is true. Right? And this is where where it really comes down to mindset. And you can absolutely change your mindset through various practices. But, yeah, these words, this dialogue in our head is where I really think the juice is about how we can sustain, you know, optimal health in all of those elements in those elements. So first of all, you gotta be aware of them. You gotta be able to listen to them. And then if it's non serving, instead of, you know, going along with it and basically having it take you for a ride, you can just say, I know what you're trying to do, and I'm gonna rewrite it. So there's different ways of doing this.
Look. There's some amazing medicines that people can consume and take and, you know, journeys and, you know, ceremonies and retreats that allow that narrative in your head to become very clear, and you can literally say, okay. You're done. Move on. You know, the psychedelic world is obviously a very emerging, topic, in in 2025, and for good reason because those have the abilities to kind of, you know, reshape the clay and rewrite the narrative and realize that, you know, that's just an amount of energy and story that we've told ourself, and you can clear that out and move it on. So I have, you know, personal experiences with those, but you could do it with nature, just time and nature and breath work like you you brought up. It, you know, it doesn't need to be, you know, these really long retreats. There's so many different ways that you can rewrite that story in your head, and it just takes, in my opinion, a vulnerability, an awareness, and some persistence to reshape it. And it's powerful when you do it, and it has been a big part of my journey, and I'm always advocating it to my patients as well.
[00:50:06] Unknown:
What about your own mental fitness? This is something that you also focus on. I think, many people, especially these days, are guilty of letting that atrophy only because of the distracting nature of technology, which just kind of sucks us in. And most of the time that we're on technology isn't, if we're honest about it, productive. It's consumption of stuff that's pretty frivolous. So how do we get away from that, and and how can we train our brain to be less attracted to wasting time that way?
[00:50:36] Unknown:
Yeah. I mean, really, that's the real pandemic right now. Right? Is Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. Is it is there are so many distractions. So, you know, tools I have, I give people, you know, tech cleanses. I'm sure you've heard all about those. And you can do this even for a short period of time. You know, a digital detox. You can call it whatever you want. But the first thing is realizing that, you know, the little buttons and the little dings and the little red dots and, you know, our laptops and our phones, they do load up, light up dopamine, and and there can become this very, very strong addiction. And then you're connecting to the matrix, and you're disconnecting from yourself. And so a a very important thing, like I said, that sacred time in the morning is I ask every single patient to start with five minutes and do not get on anything because that is a very important time where you're you're coming off of sleep. You're in this alpha mode. You're not in beta. You're not thinking, analyzing, deciding yet, and check-in with yourself and take inventory. How did I sleep? How do I feel? Were the decisions I made in the previous day alignment with what my health goals are? And just check-in without judgment.
So, you know, those are really important things to is to just if you really feel like you're kind of in the hamster wheel and being distracted by a lot of technology is is to set a small little goal and work on it that way. The ability to intermittently throughout the day to, like, just get off a laptop, get off a TV, a phone, and just simply go for a walk, I mean, these are foundations. These are simple, simple things. But that is very, very powerful too, to be able to just take intermittent inventory on how you're feeling.
So, you know, there's many different ways to do it, but understanding why you are and realizing that there is an ROI, there's a return on investment of doing this and connecting with yourself is probably the most important part.
[00:58:51] Unknown:
What about flow and and play and putting that into your life? These other things that might look on the surface at least to be time wasters or distractions in and of themselves, When you look a little more closely, it turns out that that's not quite the case.
[00:59:06] Unknown:
Yeah. I mean, flow states in play is I mean, that's the ultimate kind of joy of being a human being. Right? They've described, you know, what does it feel like to be in flow? Whether, like, you playing guitar or music. I mean, you know that very, very well. Or or an athlete, where they're in the zone and, they're in a flow state, you know, which is defined that, you know, your challenge and your skill are aligned perfectly. The challenge is just a little bit more, and your ego goes away. And it's just all intuition, and you're just rolling. And your your, you know, concept of space and time starts to change. And and so, you know, the argument is that that's not pleasure. That is just pure joy. And, you know, can you find different ways in your day to feel that? And it's usually something that you enjoy or a hobby, but I make an argument that you could also do it just every single day. You could do it with your family. You could do it in work. If you understand a little bit about the anatomy about how to get there, and one of those is removing distractions. Right? You can't have a bunch of windows open and distracting you from that. But play, I mean, you talk about movement and exercise, and, you know, play is what we did for thousands and thousands of years. We didn't really exercise. We would just do what we needed to do to survive and walk and, you know, lift heavy shit and then, you know, play.
And, you know, many of us have gotten away from it, myself included, about just going around and playing, whether it's throwing a Frisbee with a dog or playing in a league or playing basketball or throwing the ball with your kids or, you know, whatever. But there is this really important, like, primitive yearning for playing and getting in these flow states. And, you know, I I think the reality for many of us that work all day long and then, you know, go on to the next thing and the next thing of what we need to do can sometimes be lacking that, and that's a really great remedy to kinda bring the spirit back into feeling healthy again.
[01:04:12] Unknown:
Yeah. Now this this piece probably doesn't have an obvious answer, but it's just worth kind of chatting about and and thinking about. You talk about and this isn't exactly your words, but basically the concept of many people have replaced respectful and reciprocal eye to eye in person kind of sacred relationships with just doomscrolling social media drama and distraction. And that trend is certainly not slowing down. It seems like it's accelerating. And and I talked recently to an AI expert named Dan Fijello on the show, and he talked about how the amount of time that we're going to be spending with these nonhuman AIs or agents, bots, robots down the road, who knows? The amount of time that we're spending with these nonhumans is quickly replacing the amount of time that we're spending with the the actual humans, the imperfect, you know, animals, mammals here on Earth. And so this is going to be a a fascinating dynamic as it plays out over the next few years. But what's your take on where things are going?
What's going to happen to the people who, kind of thrive in the future versus those who might just be swept away by the wave of technological innovation and robots replacing humans and all the rest of it? Yeah. Such a great question. I I listened to that podcast with Dan. Oh, cool. Yeah. He's very smart. He's very passionate. And and I was listening, and
[01:05:39] Unknown:
he gave some perspectives that I haven't heard or haven't even considered. And it is I mean, it's a little scary. But, like, when we're recording this, right, in kind of, you know, let's call it May of of, '25, we are in the brink of something that is massive. And I, you know, I kinda relate it to, like, the birth of the web, but even bigger than that. I mean, it is go we will look back at the middle of this decade with this was the birth of where everything changed. I mean, it is massive. And I've talked about this topic. I mean, we talk about it a lot, my friends and my patients and, you know, probably you and colleagues and other, podcast guests.
Here's what I do know, is this, is we are not short of information right now. The real challenge in health is not a lack of information. I mean, right now, we could literally prompt into any of these AI exactly my profile, exactly what I'm looking for. And in ten seconds, it will tell us very, very accurate what we need to do. Or you could just listen to so many different podcasts or social media. I mean, everyone. It's just screaming information right now. And what I actually see with a lot of my patients, in some extent to myself, is just paralysis by analysis. It's like, what are we supposed to do? You got experts arguing. And so we're all in this together. I really think what you brought up is we are going to go back to our default, which is human connections doing what we're doing. We're talking. You're here. We're giving different opinions.
Not that AI is bad. I'm I'm not saying that at all. But, like, where I see health going is it's not the information. It's how is this meaningful to me? Like, how do I personalize this information? And then how do I integrate it into my life? And that's basically, like, the habits. AI is not gonna make you make different decisions. It's gonna give you information. It's gonna say, here's your game plan, Abel. You need to do x, y, and z, and here's the reason why for your metabolic health and for your gut and detoxification and your musculoskeletal health. And, I mean, I that's all really important, but, like, I think the the coach now comes in and says, okay. Where's the resistance?
How do we personalize this for you? And then let's make it fun for you, and let's integrate this into your life based on your values, based on your priorities. I think that is the future, to answer your question.
[01:08:04] Unknown:
Yeah. I love that. We've just got a couple minutes left here, but I wanna make sure that we cover off on anything else that you wanted to talk about today. Your book is rich in frameworks to think about all the different aspects of your life and how they link together. But what are some of the things that people need to hear right now?
[01:08:22] Unknown:
The biggest things I would say is what I just touched on there, which is, you know, the framework that I use is the seven essential health elements. It it is a framework. It is not the framework. It's how I teach people, how I advocate, how I lecture, how I work with corporations. But find a framework that works for you, and it can be even simpler. It could be two elements. Right? And just check-in and take inventory and say, am I doing the right things the majority of the time? And if I'm not, learn from it, and then try to apply it. And don't take guilt and don't take shame with it. It's a process. I would say challenge conventional wisdom. Yes. There's a lot of information out there, but there's still there's still some bad information. And so there's some really convincing books and podcasts and opinions out right now. And so I would just say, like, take it in. Be open to all information and, you know, use your intuition and your curiosity and then kind of wrap that with what your values and what your priorities are and, you know, where you see you know, you could use a little bit of bandwidth or energy that way. I just see so many people on autopilot able. They're coming in. They're like, I I I'm doing this, and and I'm taking this supplement. And and and so that's what would be, like, the take home of any listeners that just feel bombarded by this, which is, you know, listen to this information.
Maybe try it out. But does it work for you? Try to gather gather information. Is this a tool that you can use in your tool belt? Does it apply to you? And if it does apply and you're having a hard time implementing it as, you know, a lifestyle, don't judge yourself. Don't be hard on yourself. Just stay with the progress and not perfection.
[01:10:07] Unknown:
Yeah. Right on. Doctor Ryan Lazarus, what's the best place for people to find your work and your book?
[01:10:14] Unknown:
The the book, The Essential Health Playbook, is on Amazon. So that's usually how people order it. And then The Lazarus Method is the website. And I have some pretty cool things on there that like, free health tools. So I mean, I have over 60 health resources that I recommend people taking a look at, and they're there. And, there's so many that people use and still use, and I've never even worked with them that they find a lot of value in there. And so you can utilize those. I'm trying to become more active on social media. You know, I'm old school, you know, 48 years old, and so I'm, you know, still on the the the birth of putting the phone in front of me and talking about it. But, yeah, I'm on. My Instagram handle is doctor Ryan Lazarus, and I'm committed to throwing some things on there and, you know, sharing some more of these stories and and, kind of concepts. But those are usually the three best ways to get the book, the program, and then kinda learn from
[01:11:14] Unknown:
me. Right on. Doctor Ryan, thanks so much for joining us here today. Thank you, Abel. I really appreciate talking with you. Hey. Abel here one more time. And if you believe in our mission to create a world where health is the norm, not sickness, here are a few things you can do to help keep this show coming your way. Click like, subscribe, and leave a quick review wherever you listen to or watch your podcasts. You can also subscribe to my new Substack channel for an ad free version of this show in video and audio. That's at ablejames.substack.com. You can also find me on Twitter or x, YouTube, as well as fountain f m, where you can leave a little crypto in the tip jar. And if you can think of someone you care about who might learn from or enjoy this show, please take a quick moment to share it with them. Thanks so much for listening, and we'll see you in the next episode.
Hey, folks. This is Abel James, and thanks for joining us on the show. Have you ever had a near death experience? I sincerely hope not, but as long time listeners know, I've had a couple at this point. A simple twist of fate or freak accident can alter the course of your life. But if you let them, tragedies can also set us on a new trajectory that can change us for the better. The reason I disappeared for the past couple months isn't because I took a vacation. Unfortunately, I was injured in a serious car wreck. I found myself on the receiving end of a speeding driver who rear ended me out of nowhere while doing probably around 80 miles an hour in a 35, hitting me so hard and fast that it ripped off my rear wheel and ruptured the gas tank among other things. And I was knocked unconscious briefly, but somehow managed to get the car off the road instead of being dragged into oncoming traffic on three wheels.
The other driver fled the scene, so it was a hit and run, but some good Texan saw it. I'm really grateful for them. They saw what happened. They helped me get back to safety and out of harm's way. So it only seems appropriate, and this is totally by chance, that this week's guest shares his name with Lazarus, the legendary figure who was raised from the dead. Though I wasn't quite dead, I've felt no more than half alive the past couple of months as I recover from a concussion, which unfortunately is not my first traumatic brain injury. So I've been through physical therapy, speech therapy, met up with a bunch of doctors. The crash also tore some ligaments in my neck, which is similar to tearing, like the ACL in your knee, except it's impossible to stay off your neck so the pain can be unrelenting. And you're probably wondering what became of the other driver as am I. But since it's an ongoing police investigation, I don't really have more information that I can share, right now. But all in all, I'm just so grateful to be in one piece, the accident, looking at what happened to the car, which unfortunately was also totaled.
But I have a great team of doctors who are, leading my recovery. I appreciate all the well wishes, and I look forward to keeping in touch with friends and family. You've all been great, so I really appreciate it. But accidents and setbacks are common. It's how we respond, react, and recover that really matters, especially over the long term of our lives if we're talking about health and longevity. It's this ability to get back up after you're knocked down that's far and away the most important quality for long term success in health or anything else. Fate is coming for all of us, and, eventually, we'll all be ravaged by time, So it's important to build in yourself the qualities of becoming antifragile, and I'm doing the best I can. So as this week's guest, doctor Ryan Lazarus faced a near death experience at age 18 in a devastating sports accident that crushed his organs.
For years, he grappled with life altering health issues, including type one diabetes, digestive failure, and immune problems, each day presenting a new battle to be fought. He's navigated through a maze of trauma, illness, confusion, setbacks, and despair, often questioning the purpose and meaning behind chronic illness and suffering. It was precisely this burden of hardship that molded Ryan's resilience and fueled his passion for helping others. After years of pain and struggle, Ryan mustered the courage and determination to seize control of his own health journey. Ryan delved into the realms of functional medicine, nutrition, fitness, and mental fitness, acquiring a wealth of knowledge and tools that enabled him to forge his own path to recovery. Before we get to the interview with Ryan, please make sure that you're subscribed wherever you watch or listen to your podcast. You can also sign up for my newsletter for some free goodies. That's at ablejames.com, abeljames.com.
And And if you'd like to support this show, you can also sign up as a free or paid member of my Substack, which is at ablejames.substack.com. And you can also get an ad free version of this show in video and audio. So one more time, ablejames.substack.com. Look forward to seeing you there. You can also since I'm not super active on most social media, you can DM me and get in touch and join the comment section on substack. That's where I tend to be most active. So look forward to seeing you there. Alright. So how do you transition your mindset from being a victim to a victor? In this episode, you're about to hear why you don't need to take extreme actions to get extreme results, how to overcome the victim mindset, practical techniques for reprogramming negative thoughts, the role of technology in the future of personalized medicine, and much more. Let's hang out with Ryan.
Welcome back, folks. Doctor Ryan Lazarus has been a patient as long as he's been a doctor. At age 18, he faced a near death experience in a devastating sports accident that crushed his organs. For years, he grappled with life altering health issues, including type one diabetes, digestive failure, and immune problems. After transforming his own health, Ryan now dedicates his life to healing others as the founder and clinical director at the Lazarus method and author of the Essential Health Playbook. Thanks so much for joining us, doctor Lazarus.
[00:15:50] Unknown:
Thank you for having me, Abel. I'm stoked to, discuss some really interesting health topics, and I'm also stoked to be with the OG podcaster. And I know you've been doing this for a while. I've enjoyed your shows over the years, and so I'm really happy to be part of it now. Thanks, man. Yeah. It's been a minute. The thing I love about it the most maybe aside from learning so much is building this network of rock star incredible people who are just
[00:16:14] Unknown:
changing the world so much in their own fields. But I think it's it's so much more powerful, especially now that we can get together through the promises of technology and the fact that there are get togethers kinda scattered around the country, but but certainly in Austin, Texas, and I know you're coming here. So lots of things to be excited about in this whole world. But take us back, and maybe you can help explain what it's like to be, on both sides of the equation from the medical side of things. I've heard you say that there's a huge difference, and I agree, between The US acute trauma and emergency care and the conventional chronic sick care models that we're looking at. So maybe you can use your own experience to help differentiate between those worlds a little bit.
[00:16:54] Unknown:
Yeah. I'm happy to. Yeah. We are in a paradigm shift right now. You know, in 2025, there is a great demand for this holistic approach to health, and we can see this. The momentum is increasing every single year with people realizing there's a different way to be healthy. And the, you know, the sick allopathic model is starting to dwindle down, and there's now a large group of people that are now coming into my office asking for interviews about what does it mean to be a holistic doctor. And, I could tell you all about the protocols and and, you know, what it's like being an integrative functional medicine doctor, but like you alluded to, I've been on both sides. And so the emergency care in our country is amazing.
Like you said in the intro, they saved my life. You know, I actually, thirty years ago in 1995 when I was 18 years old, I crushed my organs, and the emergency surgery was cutting from the chest to the belly button, opening me up and removing my my organs, and I would have been dead, you know, a hundred years ago. And so we have the best emergency medicine in the world, and it's incredible. And the people that saved my life, gratitude, and still stay in touch with many of them. But then there was this kind of conventional approach in which we call it in functional medicine, you know, pill for every ill or the name blame tame game. You go in, you name the problem, you blame it on something, and you tame it. That paradigm shift is slowly becoming a what I hope is a model of the past and now appreciating where the science is emerging, where this new kind of genetic, information and research along with, you know, the mind and the body and the spirit. It it was always put out as this kind of, like, holistic voodoo, but now the science is emerging with it, and now we have some really great protocols to help every person and help them heal.
So emergency medicine saved my life. Conventional medicine kind of compromised my life. I was given many different medications for these symptoms that I did not know what was going on, and they didn't they didn't really know what to tell me. And so I kinda hit a dead spot, and that's what really kinda prompted me to become a holistic practitioner and really create the Lazarus method.
[00:19:23] Unknown:
And you also talk about how some of these tragedies or personal health setbacks can be used as a weapon to your own advantage in some ways. Right? So in many ways, if you experience a health setback when you're younger, it can help recalibrate your trajectory such that you're not dealing with some of these chronic diseases later because you had to dial it in young. So maybe you can you can offer that to the people who out there are who are still struggling a bit. And, you know, at any point in your life, you can always make it better, but especially if you catch it, you know, the younger, the better.
[00:19:53] Unknown:
Yeah. That's a great point. Yeah. There it was a dark time, Abel. It was, you know, again, I was three months away from graduating high school. I thought I had it all figured out. I thought the path was there, and, you know, boom. It changed really, really quick. And it was it was a decade of darkness and anger and frustration and and fear. I you know, instantly, you know, checking blood sugar. We didn't have CGMs at that time. And so, you know, dialing in syringes and insulin and, like, having to take these these digestive enzymes because I couldn't break down my food, and then going in and out of the hospital. And I still think about it, even thirty years after, and it was, a very dark time, but it built up a lot of scar tissue and a lot of resilience. And that's that's why I love doing what I do now, which is helping heal people. But I understand the challenges, the headspace of every person that I work with about why they're not changing or the resistance or just the the paralysis by analysis right now about what am I supposed to do.
And so it's made me a more effective, more empathetic doctor to help as many people as I can. So it really happened for a reason, and it's it's prompted, you know, the the purpose of my life and and my career right now.
[00:21:17] Unknown:
And what was the the process of kind of going from that place of struggle to feeling self actualized again? Like, maybe I can do something here. Maybe I got this.
[00:21:27] Unknown:
Yeah. It got to a point where I just needed to make a decision. You know, I had it was very victim mindset. It was why this happened to me. It was these people's faults. Why can't these doctors give me the medicine that I need? It revealed a lot about my personality, and really issues that I needed to deal with personally in my spiritual health, my mental health. There was an epiphany where there's no one going to come and save me. There's no doctor that's going to give me what I need. There's going to be no miracle supplement. I mean, I I had permanent issues, and so, you know, once that light bulb went off, and I I remember it. It was, it was powerful. It was okay. It's on me. I'm going to learn everything I need to learn. In fact, it became an obsession about how the body works, how the physical body works, how metabolism works, how blood sugar works, how mindset works, and that's what basically prompted me to go into med school and then graduate school and go into functional medicine, become a nutritionist and a a personal trainer and all of these, you know, designations.
But I just became obsessed with trying to figure out how I could heal myself. In that, just realized so many different ways that are not being advocated to many of your listeners, many of my patients, and that's why we see this paradigm shift. So I needed to go through it, and it needed to reveal some a lot of mental, emotional, and spiritual inadequacies that I had that I'm still I'm still working on. I'm, you know, I'm not, you know, the the all enlightened one. I'm still in the trenches. I still have to deal with my health, but I have a new perspective that can really help a lot of people now.
[00:23:13] Unknown:
Yeah. And what would you say to some of the people who think that the way that they feel is permanent? You know, once you've tried a number of different approaches that have failed or didn't stick for some reason, and a lot of people are there, there's really a magic when you find the simplicity of the fundamentals again. Right? And you put you start putting them into action, and there's you cover some of this in your book and in your work. There's a tendency to think that we need to take these extreme actions and just kinda push it all into one day or or one massive expenditure of energy. But the truth is if you really wanna get results, it's all about consistency. It's not about these huge expenditures. It's not about a giant workout. It's about tiny ones that add up over a long time. Yeah. Well said. You know it. You stated it perfectly.
[00:24:01] Unknown:
You know, my philosophy on health after all these years and, you know, all this training and working with thousands of patients, you know, for twenty years in private practice is there's three fundamentals, and I wrote it in the book. In in health is it's balance, it's being flexible, and it's being consistent. And what I see and what probably you see and many people actually do is, okay, there's this goal, and I'm gonna set it, and I'm gonna go full force, and I'm gonna set other things aside, and I'm gonna recalibrate my priorities. And what I've seen over the years is that's unsustainable. It's really about making your health a priority, but being flexible and and just trying to achieve just small little changes, you know, day in, day out, month in, month out, year in, year out. And, you know, I talk about this in the book, and that's what the Essential Health Playbook is about is I just see health as a game, and there's offense, and there's defense. And, you know, offense Abel, is when we're, you know, leaning forward and there's order and we have clear cut goals and everything is going right and we're on our toes and we're proactive. You know what that feels like. It just feels like we're accomplishing our goals in our career or in our family or in our personal life and in our health. But then there's defense, and defense is, you know, you're reactive, and you're on your heels, and there's more chaos than there is order, and you're having to pivot and improvise.
And I make the argument in the book, and and and I'll make the argument with you, is I believe that in our life, in our daily lives, there's probably more defense than there is offense. And what I see is people come in and say, I have these offensive goals, and and, you know, this is what I wanna achieve, and that's awesome. Everyone should set that. But being able to pivot when you know you're on defense and say, okay. This is where maybe it's a floor goal we need to do, which is the minimal amount of effort just to be consistent, And I wanna be flexible, and that takes the pressure off trying to be perfect all the time with so many of these different health concepts that we're all hearing about all these great trends. And so, you know, the long story short is that life and our health is a game, and knowing when you're on offense and knowing when you're on defense and knowing when to pivot can take the pressure off, and that's the key for the long term health game plan.
[00:26:18] Unknown:
Yeah. And I love the concept as well of floor and ceiling goals. This is something that I've been using, not necessarily calling it that, but using this this principle for a long time. And I find it's really powerful to be able to bend the rules in your own life such that you can do a two minute workout one day and check that box. You know, like, that day's cool. Like, we're good. And you don't have to dedicate yourself to a three hour slog or a long run or something like that, especially if your body's not up to it. So maybe you can talk to that piece a little bit too, because one way that I've been able to use the floor ceiling goals is kind of checking in with myself if I'm not wearing a wearable and it's not, you know, data that I'm looking at that says, like, not today, Abel. You know? Because there are days like that for sure. But you can also intuitively sense when, alright. This is not gonna be a personal best attempts kind of day. Right? Like, this is going to be a check the box. Let's do the minimum thing. So how are you seeing people apply these floor and and ceiling goals or standards to their own lives? And, and what does that look like in the schedule?
[00:27:21] Unknown:
Yeah. It's a great question. So, you know, after working with patients for twenty years and thousands of different types of people, what I realized is that even if you give people exactly what they need to do, you have all the information, you have the resources, you're motivating them, you know, on paper they have everything, there's still a lot of resistance that we have. And it it you know, I can go into it a little bit deeper in another question, but, you know, it's our mindset. It's our true beliefs. And so what I have people do is part of the method is there are seven essential health elements, and I teach them them, and I can go over them. But it's just part of their daily routine is they take inventory. It's just a quick self health audit about how am I doing in these seven elements. So I teach them. They understand it. They understand the framework and the road map, and then they just take inventory.
And that is basically saying, okay. I'm opening my game plan here, you know, symbolic game plan. And am I on offense or am I on defense? Who's my opponent today? Like and that quick inventory will allow the person to be present and aware and say, okay. These are the things that maybe I just need to check the box with today. Just stay consistent. Check the box. I'm not feeling it. It might be a headache. It might be a kid problem. It might be a bunch of fires you need to put out at work. I mean, like I said, there's so many different barriers and obstacles that we have. Check the box here. So I would say the answer to your question is the ability to just remove distractions, just sit with yourself for a moment and just say, where am I? And take inventory, and then be like, okay. Today's a defensive day. What is my game plan? What health element do I just need to allocate a little energy? And then I'll just do that.
So that is really what I teach my patients in the programs.
[00:29:10] Unknown:
Let's go over some of the other seven in whatever order makes sense.
[00:29:15] Unknown:
Yeah. Over the essential health elements? Yeah. Yeah. So it was born from what what happened to me, and it was in my head, and and I never really created a framework or graphical representation of it. It was just kinda something that made sense to me. And then as I was going through all of the, you know, licenses and certifications and reading tons of books, you know, Taoism and and stoicism and, you know, Hawkins levels of consciousness and then, like, wrapping all of these different concepts of, like, philosophy and psychology and ancient healing paradigms with meridians and chakras and now functional mess and all that. I kind of basically stamped seven essential elements. On the bottom are the foundations. And these are you know, you have conversations on your podcast all the time with experts of these. So it's nourish, rest, and move.
And these are the anchors. Right? It's what we're eating. It's our hydration, what supplements you need to take, your alcohol, all of that. And then there's rest and sleep, and I'm sure your listeners know how important that is, and I can talk all about that. But that's like the base. And then there is move. And then it's the the pillars of movement that is about walking and, you know, functional movements and progressive overload and the different pillars and, you know, how can you move that's appropriate for you. And so that's the those are the bottom. Move, rest, and nourish.
But the top three are a little different, and those are the ones that are a little harder to to quantify. And those are the ones that this is where growth comes in. This is, you know, expansion and mindset. And so it's learn, connect, and challenge. And learn is just being open to new experiences and meeting new people and listening to different podcasts and reading books and challenging conventional wisdom. It's just, you know, life gets pretty stale when you just sit in the same loop and you're not learning. And so, this is where flow states come in, and this is where like, you can broaden your perspective, which is very important. And then connect is connecting to self and understanding that we have this roommate in our head just constantly talking.
That'd be our ego. And just can you sit there and be a witness and observer of, you know, the loud ego yelling at you and reacting, versus the soul over here, which kinda whispers and kinda nudges you some time? And so just being able to connect with yourself and then connect with your tribe, And that's what you're great at doing. Right? Connecting with your tribe is, you know, we're hardwired for a sense of belonging, to be part of a group, and have friends, and and have family, and have a community that supports our goals and, you know, we can socialize with. You know, that's the kind of concept of blue zones, and that's what they've all agreed upon is that that is a very important element of health is just that feeling of tribe and belonging. And so that's a big part of it. And then the top of my health element is challenge, and that is setting either micro challenges or macro challenges, intentions and goals that ultimately provides, like, deep motivation and inspiration towards moving towards something. And so all three of those are like the expansion zones and growth. And then in the middle, I call it spark.
You know, that's the juice. Right? That is our potential, our passion, our purpose. And so these seven elements all work with each other. You have the anchors and the foundation, which is just great for fundamental health, and then you have kind of the growth up top. And they all kind of circulate, and I want ultimately my patients in the method to be balancing them because it feeds the spark and vice versa. So that's kind of the the short of it. And what I'm ultimately trying to do is teach these patients and friends and people that I meet that there is this framework, and can you take inventory on all of those? Can you identify your strengths, maybe your weaknesses every day? And then just allocate a little bit of energy or some movement over there because it doesn't make sense if you're dialed in nutrition, like, absolutely perfect. You're taking every supplement. You eat perfectly. Your macros are all dialed. Right? To continue to be absolutely perfect if your connect score is a three out of 10.
That that seems like a little imbalance. And so that's kind of the overview of the method.
[00:33:31] Unknown:
I love that. It's and it's different from traditional allopathic medicine where at least years ago, you would typically hear, oh, diet doesn't matter, or, you know, don't eat dietary cholesterol as a hard and fast rule. So thankfully, that's that's changing and getting a little bit better, but still we find ourselves often in a sea of confusion. But one thing that I think is so important that you share is that these concepts in people's lives are interconnected. And if you're obsessing about one piece, like sleep, but ignoring your water quality or air quality, I see this all the time where people are are obsessed about food and, like, personally invested their identity as well in that, you know, even squabbling with friends and family about those tiny little details while completely ignoring the fact that they are just huffing on environmental pollution indoors as well all day long and drinking tap water and all these other things and being exposed. So what are some other examples of how you can see these things as linked? Another quick example is it could be as as simple as someone's energy level. At work, if they're kind of stagnating.
[00:34:38] Unknown:
You might find that in their own health life, that's kinda stagnating too. So you start fixing up these one piece at a time, and you can lift up the other sides of the equation. Right? Yeah. You totally get it. You we I'm sure you see it in your life, and you will see it with friends, and I see it with patients. And if you understand this, you can really realize that the rigidity of trying to be here all the time is sometimes unsustainable and can possibly neglect these other things that, in my opinion, are equally important for your health and your performance and your life optimization. And so that's where, like, the the balance comes in, and I would rather have somebody who is a seven out of 10, if I wanna quantify it, and all seven rather than somebody who is a nine and a two and a three.
And so that's where, like, taking inventory and just realizing there is this road map, and I can remove distractions, take get use a grounding session, whether it's meditation or going for a walk or journaling or, you know, whatever you need to do or the listeners need to do to just kinda take inventory and say, alright. What do I need to do? Now that's where I came in and coached them and say, here's the small tweaks that you can make that can allocate some bandwidth over here. And and that's the beauty of this thing is that once they understand the map, then it's a great partnership. We work together, and and I nudge them to do these things, hold them a little bit accountable. So, I mean, I have all kinds of different examples, and that's kind of, like, my ultimate philosophy in the Lazarus method is habit formation through gamification.
And in my opinion, after, you know, twenty plus years of working with so many different people and holistic health, it really comes down to, like, our mindset, our our habits, and our rituals. And, you know, if you really wanna assess if somebody's healthy, just take a look at all the decisions that they're making. And if they're making good decisions most of the time, you could generally consider them healthy. Right? And if they're making bad decisions a lot of the time, they're unhealthy. And so, you know, how can we nudge them to have a couple habits, remove a couple, add some, and then how do we make it fun? I mean, look. Change is hard. We resist it even if we know it's net positive for us. That's just the human experience. Right? Because what you're not changing, you're choosing. And so that could be very, very hard. And so my answer is, how do we gamify it? How do I know what's important to them with their values, beliefs, nudge them, make it fun for them, and then just take the pressure off, and then they do it over and over all of a sudden. You know, three to five weeks, these are now habits and rituals that they can sustain.
[00:37:17] Unknown:
What are some examples of gamification making this process fun for people? Yeah.
[00:37:23] Unknown:
So the challenge well, I call these micro challenges. And micro challenges are anything that could basically be done in five minutes or less that you just kinda poo poo or say, I don't have time for this. It could be simple, like maybe drinking water. Okay. First thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna drink water. Somebody is weak in their hydration. Right? If they don't do that, okay. Let's set a micro challenge for three out of the seven days. I just want you to drink eight ounces of water when you wake up. Simple. Right? Something like, okay. I I wanna meditate, but I do not like sitting down. This is what I'm saying to a patient would say, this is very hard for me. I can't sit down. I have the monkey mind, and I have a whole concept of dealing with that. But I would say, okay. Then let's do this. When you're brushing your teeth, you dedicate that, let's call it sixty seconds of brushing your teeth as completely focused on what does it feel like with the toothbrush, the bristles on your teeth, on your gums. You're gonna you're gonna start thinking about something else because that's naturally what we do. We think about what do we need to do today or what do we do today or, you know, what's the next checklist is just say, hey. Focus on what does it feel like? What does the toothpaste feel like in your mouth? So they are 100% focused. These are simple things that people don't have to add that they're they're changing about their routine. So that's that for mental fitness or connect. It could be simple label reading for for foods, and then I have this really great infographic. It's called the Nourish Target where you aim for the greens and kinda be mindful of the yellows and avoid the reds. And so I'll say, hey. Here's a micro challenge.
Just for today, no reds. Nothing in there. And you could imagine what would be in the reds, like the additives and the dyes and seed oils and the sugars and the crap. Right? And if somebody's really struggling with nutrition, it just it's a simple little thing that they could do where it doesn't feel like they need to blow up their entire schedule, but, oh, it's like a little challenge, a little micro challenge. And so I have, like, 30 of these for each one of those elements, and it builds momentum. It's so awesome to see because, you know, we feel like momentum and, you know, like, we're super encouraged and motivated when we have this big goal and we're moving towards it, and that is true. But I see momentum actually when you just, like, check-in little boxes of things that you normally don't do, and then you're like, okay.
I I could do this, and I can add this one to this tomorrow. And so it builds up that confidence. So all kinds of different micro challenges to to gamify it and kinda hold them accountable.
[00:39:55] Unknown:
Isn't it interesting that sometimes the cure for stagnation is throwing challenges at it? Right? Yep. It's For sure. No wonder we don't wanna do it because that's the the time we wanna do anything the least, but it's that tiny bit of taking action that, like you said, starts to build that momentum. And that cascades throughout the days too. Like, I'm pretty strict on my recording days when I tend to batch interviews and and do a bunch of them. And so because there isn't much wiggle room to goof off or do the wrong thing, like, I'm waking up and I'm doing the breathing exercises. And I'm, like, going in front of the red light, and I'm going outside for the walk, and I'm, like, dialed in. And I can tell the difference between those days and the ones when I'm just kinda, like, kicking back and I'm not doing the breathing exercises because it's not noticeable right away. It's like, oh, I've got so much free time right now. Whatever. But by the afternoon, it's like, oh, the crankiness is is seeping, or there's a little bit of anxiety or something like that. You start to see over time that you can link these tiny little things that you do, even if it's just a few minutes of breathing in the morning, can dramatically change where you're at by that afternoon.
[00:40:58] Unknown:
100 they're little catalyst. Right? I mean, they the the book, make your bed in the morning, is this it's the same concept. Or James Clear, atomic habits, is that momentum is such an interesting thing. We talk about it in sports and all of that, but it is really a a phenomenon that occurs in all of our lives where we just feel like there's goals and we're hitting them, and there's accomplishment and fulfillment. And it's just it's an addicting thing. But also, here's another concept that I just wanna share. When we think about momentum, generally in sports, we think about, like, offense. Okay. The momentum has shifted where offense, you know, they they really have the energy now. There's this cohesive manner. I would argue that there's actually momentum on defense.
And this is a concept that I I call failing forward, which is if you take the pressure off yourself and try to not try to be perfect all the time, and you're making mistakes, those those really aren't failures. They're just lessons. But you can fail backwards, which is reactive and blame and anger and shame, or you can fail forward, which is, okay. I didn't do what I needed to do, but why? What is that lesson? And my argument about momentum is if you're constantly reacting and feel like you're falling backwards, that's where you can many people start to regress and go, I can't do this, and then the mindset takes over. And then you can kinda see these habits go up and down rather than a a frame of mind where it's, okay. What did I learn from here? I'm failing forward. This is a lesson. I apply it the next day. And although it's not offensive momentum, there is this sense of accomplishment and defensive momentum. And so, again, it's it's a reframe about how we go about our health and the decisions. And so, it is it's a it's a super powerful thing, and I'm always trying to create as much momentum as I can for people in the morning, like, in that first, like, twenty minutes. It's a very sacred space for me and what I'm advocating to my patients of even just doing breath work or a quick, you know, mental fitness or, you know, just journaling or getting out or, you know, anything that really prompts them as a catalyst to start being productive with their health decisions in the day.
[00:43:13] Unknown:
Yeah. I'm sure you find this as well that some people come in having not done the thing or the things, and they're, like, very apologetic. Like, oh, I'm so sorry, Abel, or I'm so sorry, Ryan. Like, it was like, wait. No. No. This is on you. Like, I have nothing. It's like, I could go either way. I would love for this to be helping you, but it's totally on you. Like, this isn't something you can apologize to anyone else or apologize to yourself. Right? So how do you get people to get over that hump of instead of kind of going through the motions, maybe to even get approval from their practitioners or the coaches, whatever, to being like, oh, wait. No. This is actually on me.
[00:43:50] Unknown:
Yeah. It's a big discovery. I'm with so many different patients where no matter what I say, they nod their head. But this is the internal dialogue. This is the operating system that many people have, which is to be very non serving. And, you know, we can get into, like, the psychology of this, but, no matter what they do, it's always not good enough. Or if they mess up, it diverts them. And so I have real conversations with these people, and that's where it's just, hey. You set an offense. You set a defense. Take the pressure off. It's about being flexible.
It's about, you know, the balance. And, you know, it's really an important pep talk because no matter what I could say, you know, that we people have this operating system that can lead them astray. And the and the emotions with that of shame and guilt, especially with health changes, can be very, very strong. So, you know, I give, different tips and tactics about, you know, taking inventory, journaling, talking with people, mental fitness, meditation, a lot of different, like, centering grounding practices to allow them to hear this and then ultimately nudge them to to take the pressure off themselves and to move at the pace that's right for them. So when the light bulb goes off, that's when they can start, you know, generating more momentum.
[00:45:18] Unknown:
You have a few exercises too, in your book. One that I love is seeing your life as a movie. Maybe you can explain that and people can kind of run through that in in their minds right now a little bit.
[00:45:29] Unknown:
Yeah. When we realized that, you know, we're not the main actor, we're just kind of watching our movie, you know, Ram Dass and many spiritual leaders and teachers and, you know, very wise elders and shamans have really helped me with my journey about understanding what consciousness really is, is we we are really just blank consciousness and awareness. And, you know, we have these thoughts, and these thoughts can be serving, and they can be scary. And we should do this, and I should have done this. And when you can kind of kind of just fall back and listen to all of that, it really kind of opens your whole mind about the experiences that you're having.
And, you know, I've turned it in the book Mind Medicine, and, you know, there were some really unique stories that I have where I kind of ripped off some labels of, you know, being a diabetic when I was tagged with that in my early days of being injured. And and the mind is super, super powerful. And just learning how to train your mind instead of your mind training you can allow you to to sit back, be the observer. And the more you emphasize this, when whatever practice works for you or for the listeners, it allows you to kinda just be looking this way rather than through these eyes. And it is an enlightening, game changing moment in our lives when we have the power to do that. And, so I'm always trying to advocate different ways for people to experience that.
[00:46:59] Unknown:
And the way we use words throughout this process is also very important, and a lot of people might not be aware of of how even they are kinda building in this negative bias to what they're saying just by virtue of using those certain words. So, for example, you you offer instead of intermittent fasting, intuitive eating, and I love that. That's how I tend to think about it in my own life as well. It's like I'm not obsessing about the time that I'm fasting. That's that's generally unless it's a long extended fast, which happens pretty rarely in my own life. That's something where I'm more focused on enjoying the nourishment that comes from the food at the right times and not chasing it around all day like I used to being kind of enslaved to hunger. So what are some other examples of how people can maybe clean up their language in a sense or or use more positively oriented language that's that's aligned with their goals?
[00:47:52] Unknown:
Yeah. It's the story in our head. Right? This the the narrative that we create, you know, kinda create the lens in which we see everything. Right? Our mind is always looking for evidence of what we truly believe. So if we're always looking for or we we believe I can't do this, your mind is just going there looking for evidence to basically confirm this bias. And the opposite is true. Right? And this is where where it really comes down to mindset. And you can absolutely change your mindset through various practices. But, yeah, these words, this dialogue in our head is where I really think the juice is about how we can sustain, you know, optimal health in all of those elements in those elements. So first of all, you gotta be aware of them. You gotta be able to listen to them. And then if it's non serving, instead of, you know, going along with it and basically having it take you for a ride, you can just say, I know what you're trying to do, and I'm gonna rewrite it. So there's different ways of doing this.
Look. There's some amazing medicines that people can consume and take and, you know, journeys and, you know, ceremonies and retreats that allow that narrative in your head to become very clear, and you can literally say, okay. You're done. Move on. You know, the psychedelic world is obviously a very emerging, topic, in in 2025, and for good reason because those have the abilities to kind of, you know, reshape the clay and rewrite the narrative and realize that, you know, that's just an amount of energy and story that we've told ourself, and you can clear that out and move it on. So I have, you know, personal experiences with those, but you could do it with nature, just time and nature and breath work like you you brought up. It, you know, it doesn't need to be, you know, these really long retreats. There's so many different ways that you can rewrite that story in your head, and it just takes, in my opinion, a vulnerability, an awareness, and some persistence to reshape it. And it's powerful when you do it, and it has been a big part of my journey, and I'm always advocating it to my patients as well.
[00:50:06] Unknown:
What about your own mental fitness? This is something that you also focus on. I think, many people, especially these days, are guilty of letting that atrophy only because of the distracting nature of technology, which just kind of sucks us in. And most of the time that we're on technology isn't, if we're honest about it, productive. It's consumption of stuff that's pretty frivolous. So how do we get away from that, and and how can we train our brain to be less attracted to wasting time that way?
[00:50:36] Unknown:
Yeah. I mean, really, that's the real pandemic right now. Right? Is Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. Is it is there are so many distractions. So, you know, tools I have, I give people, you know, tech cleanses. I'm sure you've heard all about those. And you can do this even for a short period of time. You know, a digital detox. You can call it whatever you want. But the first thing is realizing that, you know, the little buttons and the little dings and the little red dots and, you know, our laptops and our phones, they do load up, light up dopamine, and and there can become this very, very strong addiction. And then you're connecting to the matrix, and you're disconnecting from yourself. And so a a very important thing, like I said, that sacred time in the morning is I ask every single patient to start with five minutes and do not get on anything because that is a very important time where you're you're coming off of sleep. You're in this alpha mode. You're not in beta. You're not thinking, analyzing, deciding yet, and check-in with yourself and take inventory. How did I sleep? How do I feel? Were the decisions I made in the previous day alignment with what my health goals are? And just check-in without judgment.
So, you know, those are really important things to is to just if you really feel like you're kind of in the hamster wheel and being distracted by a lot of technology is is to set a small little goal and work on it that way. The ability to intermittently throughout the day to, like, just get off a laptop, get off a TV, a phone, and just simply go for a walk, I mean, these are foundations. These are simple, simple things. But that is very, very powerful too, to be able to just take intermittent inventory on how you're feeling.
So, you know, there's many different ways to do it, but understanding why you are and realizing that there is an ROI, there's a return on investment of doing this and connecting with yourself is probably the most important part.
[00:58:51] Unknown:
What about flow and and play and putting that into your life? These other things that might look on the surface at least to be time wasters or distractions in and of themselves, When you look a little more closely, it turns out that that's not quite the case.
[00:59:06] Unknown:
Yeah. I mean, flow states in play is I mean, that's the ultimate kind of joy of being a human being. Right? They've described, you know, what does it feel like to be in flow? Whether, like, you playing guitar or music. I mean, you know that very, very well. Or or an athlete, where they're in the zone and, they're in a flow state, you know, which is defined that, you know, your challenge and your skill are aligned perfectly. The challenge is just a little bit more, and your ego goes away. And it's just all intuition, and you're just rolling. And your your, you know, concept of space and time starts to change. And and so, you know, the argument is that that's not pleasure. That is just pure joy. And, you know, can you find different ways in your day to feel that? And it's usually something that you enjoy or a hobby, but I make an argument that you could also do it just every single day. You could do it with your family. You could do it in work. If you understand a little bit about the anatomy about how to get there, and one of those is removing distractions. Right? You can't have a bunch of windows open and distracting you from that. But play, I mean, you talk about movement and exercise, and, you know, play is what we did for thousands and thousands of years. We didn't really exercise. We would just do what we needed to do to survive and walk and, you know, lift heavy shit and then, you know, play.
And, you know, many of us have gotten away from it, myself included, about just going around and playing, whether it's throwing a Frisbee with a dog or playing in a league or playing basketball or throwing the ball with your kids or, you know, whatever. But there is this really important, like, primitive yearning for playing and getting in these flow states. And, you know, I I think the reality for many of us that work all day long and then, you know, go on to the next thing and the next thing of what we need to do can sometimes be lacking that, and that's a really great remedy to kinda bring the spirit back into feeling healthy again.
[01:04:12] Unknown:
Yeah. Now this this piece probably doesn't have an obvious answer, but it's just worth kind of chatting about and and thinking about. You talk about and this isn't exactly your words, but basically the concept of many people have replaced respectful and reciprocal eye to eye in person kind of sacred relationships with just doomscrolling social media drama and distraction. And that trend is certainly not slowing down. It seems like it's accelerating. And and I talked recently to an AI expert named Dan Fijello on the show, and he talked about how the amount of time that we're going to be spending with these nonhuman AIs or agents, bots, robots down the road, who knows? The amount of time that we're spending with these nonhumans is quickly replacing the amount of time that we're spending with the the actual humans, the imperfect, you know, animals, mammals here on Earth. And so this is going to be a a fascinating dynamic as it plays out over the next few years. But what's your take on where things are going?
What's going to happen to the people who, kind of thrive in the future versus those who might just be swept away by the wave of technological innovation and robots replacing humans and all the rest of it? Yeah. Such a great question. I I listened to that podcast with Dan. Oh, cool. Yeah. He's very smart. He's very passionate. And and I was listening, and
[01:05:39] Unknown:
he gave some perspectives that I haven't heard or haven't even considered. And it is I mean, it's a little scary. But, like, when we're recording this, right, in kind of, you know, let's call it May of of, '25, we are in the brink of something that is massive. And I, you know, I kinda relate it to, like, the birth of the web, but even bigger than that. I mean, it is go we will look back at the middle of this decade with this was the birth of where everything changed. I mean, it is massive. And I've talked about this topic. I mean, we talk about it a lot, my friends and my patients and, you know, probably you and colleagues and other, podcast guests.
Here's what I do know, is this, is we are not short of information right now. The real challenge in health is not a lack of information. I mean, right now, we could literally prompt into any of these AI exactly my profile, exactly what I'm looking for. And in ten seconds, it will tell us very, very accurate what we need to do. Or you could just listen to so many different podcasts or social media. I mean, everyone. It's just screaming information right now. And what I actually see with a lot of my patients, in some extent to myself, is just paralysis by analysis. It's like, what are we supposed to do? You got experts arguing. And so we're all in this together. I really think what you brought up is we are going to go back to our default, which is human connections doing what we're doing. We're talking. You're here. We're giving different opinions.
Not that AI is bad. I'm I'm not saying that at all. But, like, where I see health going is it's not the information. It's how is this meaningful to me? Like, how do I personalize this information? And then how do I integrate it into my life? And that's basically, like, the habits. AI is not gonna make you make different decisions. It's gonna give you information. It's gonna say, here's your game plan, Abel. You need to do x, y, and z, and here's the reason why for your metabolic health and for your gut and detoxification and your musculoskeletal health. And, I mean, I that's all really important, but, like, I think the the coach now comes in and says, okay. Where's the resistance?
How do we personalize this for you? And then let's make it fun for you, and let's integrate this into your life based on your values, based on your priorities. I think that is the future, to answer your question.
[01:08:04] Unknown:
Yeah. I love that. We've just got a couple minutes left here, but I wanna make sure that we cover off on anything else that you wanted to talk about today. Your book is rich in frameworks to think about all the different aspects of your life and how they link together. But what are some of the things that people need to hear right now?
[01:08:22] Unknown:
The biggest things I would say is what I just touched on there, which is, you know, the framework that I use is the seven essential health elements. It it is a framework. It is not the framework. It's how I teach people, how I advocate, how I lecture, how I work with corporations. But find a framework that works for you, and it can be even simpler. It could be two elements. Right? And just check-in and take inventory and say, am I doing the right things the majority of the time? And if I'm not, learn from it, and then try to apply it. And don't take guilt and don't take shame with it. It's a process. I would say challenge conventional wisdom. Yes. There's a lot of information out there, but there's still there's still some bad information. And so there's some really convincing books and podcasts and opinions out right now. And so I would just say, like, take it in. Be open to all information and, you know, use your intuition and your curiosity and then kind of wrap that with what your values and what your priorities are and, you know, where you see you know, you could use a little bit of bandwidth or energy that way. I just see so many people on autopilot able. They're coming in. They're like, I I I'm doing this, and and I'm taking this supplement. And and and so that's what would be, like, the take home of any listeners that just feel bombarded by this, which is, you know, listen to this information.
Maybe try it out. But does it work for you? Try to gather gather information. Is this a tool that you can use in your tool belt? Does it apply to you? And if it does apply and you're having a hard time implementing it as, you know, a lifestyle, don't judge yourself. Don't be hard on yourself. Just stay with the progress and not perfection.
[01:10:07] Unknown:
Yeah. Right on. Doctor Ryan Lazarus, what's the best place for people to find your work and your book?
[01:10:14] Unknown:
The the book, The Essential Health Playbook, is on Amazon. So that's usually how people order it. And then The Lazarus Method is the website. And I have some pretty cool things on there that like, free health tools. So I mean, I have over 60 health resources that I recommend people taking a look at, and they're there. And, there's so many that people use and still use, and I've never even worked with them that they find a lot of value in there. And so you can utilize those. I'm trying to become more active on social media. You know, I'm old school, you know, 48 years old, and so I'm, you know, still on the the the birth of putting the phone in front of me and talking about it. But, yeah, I'm on. My Instagram handle is doctor Ryan Lazarus, and I'm committed to throwing some things on there and, you know, sharing some more of these stories and and, kind of concepts. But those are usually the three best ways to get the book, the program, and then kinda learn from
[01:11:14] Unknown:
me. Right on. Doctor Ryan, thanks so much for joining us here today. Thank you, Abel. I really appreciate talking with you. Hey. Abel here one more time. And if you believe in our mission to create a world where health is the norm, not sickness, here are a few things you can do to help keep this show coming your way. Click like, subscribe, and leave a quick review wherever you listen to or watch your podcasts. You can also subscribe to my new Substack channel for an ad free version of this show in video and audio. That's at ablejames.substack.com. You can also find me on Twitter or x, YouTube, as well as fountain f m, where you can leave a little crypto in the tip jar. And if you can think of someone you care about who might learn from or enjoy this show, please take a quick moment to share it with them. Thanks so much for listening, and we'll see you in the next episode.
Abel's Near-Death Experience and Recovery
Resilience and Antifragility
Interview with Dr. Ryan Lazarus: Overcoming Trauma
The Shift in Healthcare Paradigms
From Victim to Victor: Mindset Transformation
The Essential Health Playbook: Balance, Flexibility, Consistency
Gamification and Micro Challenges in Health
The Seven Essential Health Elements
Mind Medicine and Rewriting Personal Narratives
The Role of Technology and Human Connection in Health
Final Thoughts and Takeaways from Dr. Lazarus
