How to Be Calm & Confident | Cesar Millan & Dr. Andrew Huberman

Defining A Meaningful Life

00:00for somebody who's trying to move from unskilled to skilled in the domain of like slowing down thinking about what the priority in this interaction is getting all that working while life is happening in real time lots happening and it's coming through the phone and this and that schedules how do you recommend young or old that people start to cultivate this awareness and this I think the quicker we become aware what is life about right because we're all going to die and so what what what is life out and life is about life, right?

00:32Life is to be happy, to be healthy, to be loving, and to be smart. That's life. And then is [clears throat] time. How you structure, how you manage time, right? And and then is memories. That's all you take. Once you realize those three things, I I think you're going to be able to focus and and experience life um the way animals do, right?

00:49Because they're very grateful of life. They structure time very wisely. And then by the time they die, they only take good memories, right? Because that's all you take, good memories. And so the quicker we surrender to that concept, the quicker we are going to uh focus and what's what's valuable, right?

01:08And and what and things that we can definitely practice that this this concept of love, right? And so that to me is be grateful of life every day. Be thankful of life every day, you know. Uh learn with your mind to learn to achieve. Give it away.

01:25It's very important to be at service and make other humans, you know, or or animals, you know, uh achieve what you just achieved. And of course, you know, the energy of love to love those three things about it, right? Your spirit, your instinct, and your mind.

01:39Learn to love that about you because that's who you are. So who Caesar Milan? Caesar Milan is a spirit. He's an instinct. He's a heart. And he's a mind, right? So then, oh man, I value that so much. And and now once I value that, it's easy to love what you value.

01:53You see it? It's easy to love what you value. And so once you realize this this natural, simple, profound self, you want to give it away.

Humanizing Dogs In America

02:05I give it away to dogs. And because I do that, I get to rehabilitate dogs that people unconsciously have confused. See, because dogs in America, you know, dogs in toward country are skinny, but they don't have psychological problems. Dogs in America are chunky and I get to have a TV show.

02:20So, dogs in America should be the happiest, healthiest, loving, smartest dog on earth because that dogs in America have rights. You understand that concept? But why would a guy from Mexico comes to America and National Geographic gives them a TV show?

02:38Mhm. Because America was uh created fightlight avoidance unconsciously. Even though America loves dogs more than any other country I ever seen in my life, dogs have birthday parties in America. Dogs have Christmas presents in America. Dogs get married in America.

02:55Dogs get married. That's, you know, taking [clears throat] the humanization to another level. But that's that's just shows you, you know, the uh the the creativity of human. But not because the dog has all this money, fame, and power. The dog is happy.

03:13Mhm. My goal is is for people to understand that, you know, happiness and health and and and having a good heart and having a a good creative mind. It shouldn't take too much, right? It's just it's just about being grateful, right? It's just about being thankful.

03:27It's about loving those two things. And then make sure that your mind learn achieve gives it away or learn to turn it off. So don't use your mind to think bad things. What's your process for turning off your mind? This is a very um common challenge for people.

03:44I think the easiest way for people to experience because they have to see it, right? You can tell people, but if they

Cold Plunge For Mental Focus

03:50don't see it inside, they they're never gonna see understand what you mean. So what what I help people with is I put them in the cold plunge, right? And once they go through the fightlight avoidance, they want to see and they get to the calm surrender.

04:03What are you thinking? I'm thinking nothing. That's exactly what what what a clear mind looks like, right? So through that cold plunge experience, the human gets to understand breath, patience, you know, confidence and not to think anything because you're doing this with your spirit and your instinct in your heart.

04:23This is your mind just have to wait for the the three minutes. That's it without anticipation. So it's just nothing there, right? And then of course the cold doesn't let you think, right? But the only thing you can do is breathe and wait. And so then once they see it, okay, that is the meaning of not having nothing in your mind, right?

04:45So I make them experience it versus if I just tell them, they can't picture it. As somebody who's a real believer, as you probably know, in deliberate cold exposure, I mean, I think it's it's uh people, it's zero cost. I mean, you use a cold shower, you know, it saves on the water bill, so this isn't like having to run out and buy something.

05:03what it tells me because the cold plunge immediately reliably releases adrenaline. Yeah. Which then wakes up the brain as well. That's your instinct. Shuts down the forebrain. The very It's fascinating um that you're saying this because the forbrain is strategy etc.

05:22But in the first 20 or 30 seconds of deliberate cold exposure, the prefrontal cortex, which controls all the top down inhibition of impulse, is it's not shut off, but it is greatly diminished. You can't strategize well. You're just thinking out.

05:37You know, so you're saying people need to get past the point where they're trying to uh suppress impulse, but they need to experience adrenaline. That's right. Got it. Yeah. That's right. And then they get to peace. Yeah. Yep. And that's the energy to bring to your interaction with your dog.

05:55Yes.

Spreading Calm Energy Everywhere

05:56And ideally to your spouse and your kids too. Everywhere. Everywhere. So a human after a coal plunge brings that energy everywhere. You don't have to talk. Everybody knows your energy feels really good. All because you went to mother nature, right?

06:09That was mother nature. Coal, right? It's water, cold, that's mother nature, right? So imagine you bring that energy to your to to meeting a dog, to walking with a dog, to feeding a dog. That's it. That's all I want people to experience because everybody wants a they want to do that, right?

06:25Or they want to do I'm not aware how I feel. I just want to give affection. You see it? So that so that that is good for the human, not necessarily good for everybody else because that human is spreading that energy. So [snorts] my goal is for people to spread, you know, silence, calmness, confidence, love, joy, because that's exactly how you feel after a cold plunch.

06:44Exactly. In three minutes, [laughter] you get into that stage. You have to learn to love, you know, the process of I'm going to fight flight avoidance. But I'm not going to listen to that part of me. I'm going to listen to my calm surrender.

07:00I'm going to listen to my calm confidence. And then once I finish, I'm going to listen to my happy golucky. And

Long Lasting Dopamine Benefits

07:06that's all you want. That's it. Those three state of minds are super powerful. You know, I've thought a lot about deliberate cold exposure, adrenaline, norepinephrine. You get this long arc of dopamine that lasts hours and hours and hours afterwards.

07:19And that my critics will say, well, it's just dopamine in the body, not in the brain. Actually, new findings show it's dopamine in your brain and body. Long arc. Very few things produce this thing of longlasting dopamine. Drugs will spike in drugs, right?

07:34Well, a good relationship with a dog is long-lasting dopamine. You know, a well- balanced dog is a longlasting whatever you want. You know, I hope you want the four worlds. Your spirit, your instinct, your heart, and your mind. All of them by walking.

07:47Just walk with the dog for a long period of time. Then you do your play explore. That's the best medicine any human can can get. [music] [music]