MindBodySpace

What is silent reflux? Find out in this episode of the MindBodySpace podcast, hosted by Dr. Juna.

Every last Friday of the month, she is joined by her guest Dr. April Hirschberg to discuss evidence backed ways to decrease stress and increase resilience.

Dr. April is a board certified psychiatrist specializing in lifestyle and mind-body medicine at Mass General Hospital, Harvard Medical School.

They delve into how stress management and healthy lifestyle choices play a critical role in combating mental and physical health issues.

This episode particularly focuses on gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), its symptoms, consequences, and misdiagnosis. They share personal experiences and insights into how stress exacerbates digestive issues, the significance of the gut-brain axis, and the role of the enteric nervous system.

Practical advice is offered on managing stress through breathing exercises, mindfulness, proper diet, hydration, and the importance of not eating late to prevent reflux.

Additionally, they emphasize the critical nature of seeking medical advice for persistent symptoms and the benefits of incorporating movement and enjoyable activities into daily routines for overall well-being.

00:00 Unveiling the Mystery: Why Stop Eating Early?

00:16 Welcome to the MindBodySpace Podcast

00:21 Stress Management with Dr. Hirschberg

01:31 The Gut-Brain Connection and Stress Impact

01:47 Misdiagnosed Reflux

07:40 Lifestyle Changes and Managing Reflux

15:15 Mindful Eating and Stress Reduction Techniques

22:15 Embracing Movement and Self-Care for Digestive Health

27:32 Closing Thoughts and Encouragement

About Dr. Aviv & His Books!

We are so happy to announce that on the last Friday of each month, April Hirschberg, M.D., DipABLM, will be joining Dr. Juna for regular conversations about the science of resilience. We will share what we learn on our journey as mom-M.D.s specializing in lifestyle and mind-body medicine. We will also discuss evidence based, simple tools that can prevent and mitigate common mental and physical health problems.

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Valerie Cacho, an integrative sleep physician and women's sleep expert.

Listen for insights on how to prioritize sleep, recognizing signs of sleep issues like snoring, and practical tips to improve sleep quality.

LETTING GO OF PERFECTIONISM - A MEDITATION: Self-compassion is key for productivity and achievement without burning out. After a short recap of perfectionism, Dr. Juna leads listeners through a five minute guided meditation focus on self compassion to help dial back unhelpful perfectionist, tendencies.

Just like all things in life, perfectionist tendencies can be good and bad for us, depending on how we use it. The key is knowing how to adjust the dials of perfectionism to make it work for us.

"I've learned that, far from being a waste of time or counterproductive to my success, self-care and self-compassion are actually essential for peak performance. For so many years, I believed that my ruthless self-criticism was driving me forward. But I now know that it can more appropriately be viewed as a massive weight around my ankles that was holing me back. I also now appreciate the extent to which doing things that provide me with a sense of joy, meaning, and connection actually turbocharges my energy, motivation, and performance, as well as my health and happiness."

In this episode, Dr. Juna interviews Jordana Confino, a Yale Law School graduate, who after seven years of practicing law, is now following her passion as a lifestyle coach for high-achieving professionals.

They discuss:

🍎 Jordana's journey from being a perfectionist, overachiever to burning out in law school and discovering positive psychology

💯 How perfectionism is rooted in deep-seated fears of not being good enough

❤️ Why self-criticism and "shoulds" lead nowhere

The importance of self-compassion in achieving sustainable success

🤓 How to separate perfectionism from having high standards

Practical tips for listening to your true passions and values

Jordana Confino is a certified positive psychology coach and the founder of JC Coaching & Consulting. She helps lawyers, doctors, and other high achievers transform their lives for the better.

Connect with Jordana:

Visualization Mental Practice And Quiz Inside This Episode. Why does meditation help high-performing athletes and performers boost their skills? We’ll cover different types of meditation and mental training techniques that can be used right before competition or performance to alleviate anxiety and negative thoughts.

There’s also a quiz inside to see how good you are at mentally visualization practices, a technique used by high performers.

Whether you’re a student, leader, musician, athlete, or parent, understanding your mind and body connection enhances performance both in your personal life and at work. My guest today is Tom Klisiewicz, CPTD, an educator and colleague, who has dedicated his career to teaching youth how to be resilient and perform at their best so that when inevitable downturns happen in life, they’ll have the tools to fall back on.

Welcome to MindBodySpace Podcast 2024!

In this informative episode, Asha Saxena, author of the best selling book "The AI Factor", successful tech entrepreneur and founder of WLDA, Women Leaders in Data and AI, shares her insights on the profound influence of AI and how anyone can get started on getting familiar with AI.

This episode is packed with wisdom and inspiration from Asha's long career as a successful entrepreneur in tech consulting. Asha also shares a heartfelt story about her biggest supporter who was also a role model in entrepreneurship—her mom.

Ever overreact? If you're like me, you've had your fair share of regrets. We all have times when we overreact, and most of the time, it's not in our best interest. So how do we slow down and get more control over our own reactions? 

In this episode, my awesome friend Fiona Murden joins me to discuss the reactionary brain and what steps we can take to decrease overreacting. We're going to talk about evidence-based exercises that we can do to train ourselves to gain control over our habitual reactions to situations and people.  Fiona Murden is a great friend, awesome mom, award-winning author, and host of Dot to Dot Behind the Person Podcast. We discuss the science and real-life applications of topics that help us perform under pressure and achieve our highest potential without burning out. Fi and I hit it off immediately! We are both passionate about teaching the science of resilience, and as parents, we both have a special interest in teaching kids how they can positively influence their brains. We are on a mission to widely share practical cognitive and motivational research tools with curious people who want to fulfill their potential and ultimately lead happier lives. Fiona is a Chartered UK Organizational Psychologist who coaches top performers and C-suite individuals to achieve optimal performance. Juna teaches high-achieving students of all ages at the Juilliard School and has taught at NYU, Columbia, Barnard, Achievement First, and at many other organizations.

For more resources, sign up for the newsletter at https://mindbodyspace.com/podcast

In episode 115, I spoke with Amy Edmondson, the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School and author of "Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well".

In this follow up episode, I wanted to highlight for you, the four basic tools we can master, in order to learn how to fail well.

Grab a pen and paper and let's start practicing together!

Want to change your habits and create massive transformations in your personal health, wealth, and relationships?

In this episode of the MindBodySpace Podcast, host Dr. Juna interviews Leo Babauta, creator of the blog Zen Habits, which has millions of readers. Leo shares his amazing personal story of overcoming smoking, debt, unhealthy habits, and more in 2005 by slowly but surely making small changes.

He gives actionable tips on how to create lasting change in your life by understanding your urges and resistance, creating accountability through your community, and finding a deeper reason why the change matters.

Listeners will be inspired by Leo's journey and gain practical frameworks to transform any area of their life.

In this episode of the MindBodySpace Podcast, Dr. Juna speaks with sociological researcher and Authentic Social founder Caitlin “Caity” Begg about the effects of digital communication and hyper-communication on human relationships and interactions. They discuss how the rise of texting, social media, and constant connectivity has impacted the way we converse, date, work, and even think. Caity provides insights from her research on improving communication and promoting more presence despite our tech-driven world.

Main Discussion Points:

• How asynchronous communication (non real-time like texts) and hyper-communication (excess texts/notifications) causes anxiety and misinterpretations
• The importance of establishing communication norms, especially when dating or starting new relationships
• How starting the day reading physical books helps focus, productivity, creativity
• Caity's “progression to analog” tips like phone-free mornings, taking film photos, and being present with people
• Effects of digital communication on social skills and mental health
• Advice for parents on limiting screen media for kids and having open discussions

Caitlin “Caity” Begg studied sociology at Harvard and wrote her thesis on digital communication and relationships. She founded her company Authentic Social in 2016 to improve workplace communications. Caity speaks globally on making human connections in a tech-driven world. Authentic Social provides business and communication strategies for companies, with a focus on optimizing technology's role in human interaction. Their research is aimed at facilitating effective and less alienating communication in a digital age.

Tanmeet is a mother, physician and author of "Joy is my Justice". Listen in on our conversation as she talks about how a devastating diagnosis changed her life, making her stronger and a thought leader in helping others find joy in the most difficult times.

Dr. Tanmeet Sethi is a board-certified Integrative Family Medicine physician and Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine. She works on the frontlines of the most marginalized communities, as well as globally with victims of school shootings, survivors of hurricanes, citizens impacted by police violence, and psychologists in Ukraine under attack. Her expertise is recognized nationally and she is the author of multiple articles and textbook chapters in Integrative medicine. Dr. Sethi is always on the cutting edge of medicine including clinical research on psilocybin, the first psychedelic research of its kind at the University of Washington.

It's a myth that sleep is a waste of time. In fact our brains are super active when we're sleeping. Now researchers are looking into the hypnagogic state, a transitional state between wakefulness and sleep to see if we can influence our own dreams. During this state, our brains are still active. It's a unique state of consciousness where we can be aware of our thoughts and surroundings, but we are also open to suggestion.

Researchers are interested in the hypnagogic state because it may offer a way to influence our dreams. By focusing on certain thoughts or images before we fall asleep, we may be able to influence the content of our dreams. This could be a useful tool for problem-solving, creativity, or simply for having more enjoyable dreams.

Listen for more details and tips for influencing your dreams during the hypnagogic state.

Download the PDF tips and resource links on how to make your naps more productive and boost your creativity.

How Can We Protect Ourselves from Toxins in our Daily Environment? Firstly, knowledge is power. In this podcast, we explore how we can decrease our daily exposure to >95K chemicals in our world.

Dr. Aly Cohen is the co-author of the bestselling guidebook, Non-ToxicGuide to Living Healthy in a Chemical World. She is a board-certified rheumatologist and integrative medicine specialist who created TheSmartHuman.com to share environmental health, disease prevention, and wellness information with the public. She lectures nationally on environmental health topics for schools and physician training programs. Watch her Tedx Talk "How to Protect Your Kids from Toxic Chemicals.

This episode is all about the inner workings of Sound Meditations for ripples of goodness in a difficult environment. A conversation with NYC Emergency Room Physician and sound meditation facilitator, Dr. William Berk. We talk about how he came to combine modern medicine with ancient techniques and how sound can be a surprising facilitation into a meditative state, especially for people who have trouble just sitting still in mindfulness. An easier, falling into meditative states definitely piques my curiosity!

“Sound has been used throughout time and culture as a powerful way of disconnecting from our chattering and distracted “monkey mind” and connecting with a state that is equanimous, connected and transcendental. 

What is sound meditation?

Sound meditation is a deeply-immersive meditative practice where sound becomes your sole focus. Using a series of carefully selected instruments, we focus the attention and allow the mind to rest as the subconscious and the body comes to a state of loving and connected harmony. 

Most of us know compassion when we receive it and feel it for others, but did you know that compassion is a powerful skill that can be developed? Sometimes it takes an expert to help you unlock your inner superpower! With 3 Harvard degrees, one being a Master's in Buddhist Studies, she is the perfect person to show you how self-compassion can transform your life. Listen to my conversation with Elizabeth as she shares how self-compassion has helped her get through the pressures that come with the extremely high expectations she sets for herself. Your emotional well-being will thank you!

Elizabeth is the founder of Happiness Sangha where she teaches the art of self-compassion. Her impressive education allows her to teach with a depth of knowledge and a unique perspective. Elizabeth graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University, completed her J.D. at Harvard Law School, and completed a Master’s degree in Buddhist Studies at Harvard Divinity School. Elizabeth is also part of the original cohort certified to teach applied compassion by Stanford Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE)

Being extraordinary refers to taking a step back and recognizing that what modern society calls "normal"—ways to eat, sleep, move, connect, and relax—often work against biological wellness. The seemingly insignificant daily "normal" behaviors add up, either moving us toward a healthy, wealthy, and fulfilling life or slowly chipping away at our mental and physical health. Knowing the science behind specific behaviors that strengthen our resilience—the ability to bounce back from setbacks—can strongly motivate us toward healthier habits. 

We all have a tendency to regress to unhealthy behaviors, especially when we're under stress. In this episode, Dr. Beth Frates and I discuss how to practice self-awareness so that we can understand ourselves so that our moment to moment decisions and behaviors align with our best selves. 

In this episode, Peg Frates, M.D. and I discuss the importance of reframing our story of who we are in order to tip our lifestyle habits toward a healthy balance. We also discuss mnemonics that help us remember the key ingredients to mental and physical wellness. Dr. Frates walks us through how to remember what brings us joy in order to strengthen our motivation to exercise regularly. Dr. Frates is the President-Elect of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine.

This episode is Part I of the conversation Fi and I had about the importance of setting and achieving goals, how to figure out what our unique goals are, and how to motivate ourselves to actually change to move towards our goals.

It's my monthly chat with Fiona Murden, my great friend, awesome mom, award-winning author, and host of Dot to Dot Podcast. Each month we sit down to discuss the science and real life applications of topics that help us perform under pressure and achieve our highest potential, without burning out.

Fiona and I hit it off immediately! We are both passionate about teaching the science of resilience and as parents, we both have a special interest in teaching kids how they can positively influence their brains. We are on a mission to widely share practical cognitive and motivational research tools with curious people who want to fulfill their potential and ultimately, lead happier lives. Fiona is a Chartered UK Organizational Psychologist who coaches top performers and C-suite individuals to achieve optimal performance and Juna teaches high-achieving students of all ages at the Juilliard  School, and previously at NYU, Columbia, Barnard, Achievement First and at many other organizations.

For more resources, sign up for the newsletter at mindbodyspace.com/podcast

This Rx Chill Pill meditation is an extended version re-release of a Loving Kindness meditation that will leave you feeling safe and relaxed. The Relaxation Response is a profoundly restorative state that every human being is capable of achieving. You probably have natural ways of eliciting this response daily. Still, with the overwhelming chronic daily stressors, it is becoming more and more important to set aside and plan a time to retrain our nervous system to access this rest and relax system. These physiologic changes bring our parasympathetic nervous system online, balancing out our overworked stress response, leaving us feeling deeply rested down to the cellular level.

About your host, Dr. Juna Bobby:

After a decade-long career in radiology, seeing disease from the inside out, Juna switched tracks to teach people how to stay well and thrive by understanding neuroplasticity. Knowing we can change at a cellular level gives us the power to drive our behavior and the quality of life that we get to live. As a mom-M.D., she understood that there are critical neurological stages in children's lives where healthy mental and physical habits can be more consequential. Her purpose is to share science-backed lifestyle medicine for peak performance, productivity, and wellness, with as many kids, parents, and educators as she can.

This is an updated version with a few extra encouraging words from science. “I believe in you.” These simple four words mean the world to me and now I want to share them with you. So put on your earphones and your sunglasses, get comfortable and sit with me for a few minutes. The best part is that you can take this meditation with you wherever you go, no special place, clothes, or time is needed. I hope it gives you as much peace of mind as it did for me.

Did you find this helpful? If yes, please share, subscribe and rate my podcast. 

Questions? Requests?

Welcome to 2022! Learn science backed ways to take care of our mind-body-space with me! I am so excited to have Dr. Beth Frates with me. She's an MD and a pioneer in lifestyle medicine education. She is also an award-winning teacher at Harvard, and she is now the president-elect of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. Listen as we start the conversation on how powerful lifestyle changes can be to help us be at our best.

In this episode Fiona and Juna talk about psychometric testing and how organizational psychologists use it to coach executives.

It's my monthly chat with Fiona Murden, my great friend, awesome mom, award-winning author, and host of Dot to Dot Podcast.  Each month we sit down to discuss the science and real life applications of topics that help us perform under pressure and achieve our highest potential, without burning out.

Fiona and I hit it off immediately! We are both passionate about teaching the science of resilience and as parents, we both have a special interest in teaching kids how they can positively influence their brains. We are on a mission to widely share practical cognitive and motivational research tools with curious people who want to fulfill their potential and ultimately, lead happier lives. Fiona is a Chartered UK Organizational Psychologist who coaches top performers and C-suite individuals to achieve optimal performance and Juna teaches high-achieving students of all ages at the Juilliard  School, and previously at NYU, Columbia, Barnard, Achievement First and at many other organizations.

For more resources, sign up for the newsletter at mindbodyspace.com/podcast

I am honored to talk with Dr. Jessica Krant, MD, MPH, about our biggest organ, skin. We talk about how she, a prominent dermatologist in New York City, came to be certified in integrative dermatology and lifestyle medicine. We talk about her own journey to a healthier lifestyle — including losing 38 pounds — and how what we eat, how we sleep, and how much we stress affects skin. 

Jessica is a board-certified dermatologist and Lifestyle Medicine-certified physician practicing in Manhattan, NYC. She is also certified in integrative dermatology and is a double-certified life and transformational mindset coach. She studied design and visual arts at Harvard College, where she graduated magna cum laude, and then went on to get both her M.D. and Master’s Degree in Public Health at Columbia University. The great joy of her life and career right now is combining her love of aesthetics, investigative medicine, whole food plant based way-of-life education, to help people investigate their own minds and habits to transform into the joyful, goal achieving, vital creatures they are meant to be. 

In this episode Fiona and Juna talk about three ways to get feedback to increase self-awareness. We discuss three easy methods to gather information about ourselves. 

It's my monthly chat with Fiona Murden, my great friend, awesome mom, award-winning author, and host of Dot to Dot Podcast.  Each month we sit down to discuss the science and real life applications of topics that help us perform under pressure and achieve our highest potential, without burning out.

Fiona and I hit it off immediately! We are both passionate about teaching the science of resilience and as parents, we both have a special interest in teaching kids how they can positively influence their brains. We are on a mission to widely share practical cognitive and motivational research tools with curious people who want to fulfill their potential and ultimately, lead happier lives. Fiona is a Chartered UK Organizational Psychologist who coaches top performers and C-suite individuals to achieve optimal performance and Juna teaches high-achieving students of all ages at the Juilliard  School, and previously at NYU, Columbia, Barnard, Achievement First and at many other organizations.

For more resources, sign up for the newsletter at mindbodyspace.com/podcast