Vitality: The Fifth Pillar of THRIVE for Health and Wellness

In this episode of The Erik and Matt Show, Dr. Erik Axene and Matt Ball tackle the critical topic of vitality, the fifth pillar of the THRIVE series. They dive into how mental health impacts overall well-being, sharing personal stories, strategies for resilience, and the importance of community support for EMS professionals facing frequent trauma.

Transcript

Matt: [00:00:00] Understand that, hey, your husband or wife might've seen some really bad stuff over the last 12, 24, 48 hours, whatever the case may be. 

Erik: When you're alone, are you happy?

Narrator: You are listening to EMS. With your hosts, Erik Axene and Matt Ball. 

Matt: So, second to last. Part of our Thrive Health and Wellness [00:00:30] series. Mm 

Matt (2): hmm. 

Matt: Vitality, we're on the V. Yep. Talked about intake, uh, last week. Uh huh. And so, Vitality. 

Erik: Yeah, and, and we talked about, uh, intake as being one of the more popular, uh, Ways to get more healthy along with exercise as maybe being number two people might debate on what's one and two there But certainly the top two would be exercise and nutrition.

Matt (2): Sure. 

Erik: I think the one that's the most underappreciated [00:01:00] Might be the R. I think the most important is debatable and it could be V It could be V or maybe T. I was going to say T, yeah. Um, but you know, if you're not monitoring the gauges in your life with the H, I mean, it's like flying without gauges. I mean, it's like Kobe Bryant situation.

You're lost in the clouds and you're not, it's not going to end well. We have got to monitor ourselves. And I think that gauge for V. Our mental health really is really [00:01:30] what this is about is brain health. Again, the focus is on physical health. You talked about it. People go to the gym to look better.

People want to eat weight, eat weight. Yeah. People want to eat better to lose weight, right? To look, it's the aesthetics. I mean, I've been there. I feel it. I understand that. We all want to look good. We all want to look good. Sure. But there's, uh, when you're alone and you're, you're, um, Uh, you know, whatever you're alone somewhere and you're just alone with [00:02:00] your thoughts, which again is a good practice and a discipline to have time alone.

And just with your thoughts, are you happy? Are you, what is your mental health? What is your, are you doing things in your life because your mental health sucks? 

Matt: Right. 

Erik: Are you, are you just driving and driving and. Making more money and working overtime to buy that boat and to do this and to do that. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

A bunch of stuff because you're trying to compensate for poor mental health. 

Matt: I 

Erik: believe that with [00:02:30] vitality, um, it's a perfect word for V. And for mental health is because when you're in a good spot, it doesn't matter what your circumstances are. It doesn't matter if you have the boat or not. It doesn't matter if you're making a ton of money or you're dirt poor, whatever.

When you're in a good spot with mental health, regardless of circumstances, you're content and you're at peace. And that's what I think 

Matt: that's what we want. Oh yeah, deep down I think all of us want that, yeah. And we've [00:03:00] looked for these other ways of getting it, especially in our culture, this immediate, gratification culture, this social media culture, which I mean, I'm guilty of it too.

We all are, 

Matt (2): you know, 

Matt: uh, we, you know, we don't want to put in the work on things. We just want to eat something to make us feel better or watch something to make us feel good. 

Erik: Give me a pill doc. 

Matt: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Take a pill as opposed to, you know, lowering your cholesterol by your diet. You know, um, yeah, [00:03:30] vitality is and for first responders specifically, which is the majority of our audience, you know, our jobs and what we see directly have an impact on our mental health 

Erik: more than most.

Yes, absolutely. 

Matt: Like we've talked about, you know, most people in their life see three traumatic events and most the typical first responder sees almost a thousand. So it's not even. Relatable the general public to first responders and I think and as a first responder I can [00:04:00] say that um It's hard for me sometimes to relate to the general public and I think that people veterans You know first responders nurses doctors people that work in an environment Where they see things that most people don't see it's hard sometimes to relate to other people Because you just Unintentionally, through your job, you start to see the world in a different way.

And, [00:04:30] you know, you talked about having a gauge and a monitor, and I remember my department is, is, my, the city I work for, I'm very thankful, very lucky, that they do focus a lot on mental health. And they take it seriously, We have CISM teams, we have access to counseling. What does CISM stand for? Critical Incident Stress Management Team.

So basically, like, we even have it so detailed that we actually, on our PCR reporting platforms, [00:05:00] if we go on a bad call, if I get a bad call, let's say a bad call with a kid or a bad record, whatever the case may be, and I feel like, Hey, I was on this call with Eric and this call seemed to really impact Eric.

I can click a tab In my PCR that this was a critical incident and that immediately activates our CISM team And they will reach out to me I don't know the whole process exactly how it goes But I know for a fact because i've done it that someone from our CISM team will [00:05:30] reach out To whether it's the company officer whoever it was on that call and say hey This call was flagged You guys need to talk about anything But we had, um, we had a group come in, a local group come in and talk to us and I've talked about this before, but it made a big impact on me.

That's why I'm bringing it up again is a lot of us. You know, we don't like to say that we might have issues or problems or PTSD or whatever the case may be. We kind of stuff it down. I think that's part of our [00:06:00] nature as first responders. That's what we do. But when you're sitting in a room full of first responders.

And what this, this, um, activity that she had us do was we had a piece of paper and it was think of somebody that knows you that, let me take that back, somebody that knew you before you became a first responder and that knows you still after you've been a first responder for a while. And in one word, how they would describe [00:06:30] how you've changed.

And so we all wrote a word or two down or whatever. And then we pass those pieces of paper all over the room. And then she went up on the board and she started writing down all the pieces of paper. And as she's writing these things down, I'm sitting there looking going, she's literally writing the thoughts that are in my head, you know, angry, you know, pissed off all the time.

Don't like to be around people, all these, just, and I'm thinking. Oh, [00:07:00] that had a big impact on me because again, it was, oh, wow, these are my brothers and sisters, police, fire, you know, and they're thinking the exact same things. They're having the same thoughts, unintentionally, the same thoughts and feelings that I'm having.

Huge impact on me. So, you know, it's hard sometimes for us to relate to the general public because we see so much trauma and things like that. 

Erik: And you're so busy, these things accumulate. Yes. And I believe that the brain keeps score. It holds on to these [00:07:30] things. 100%. And if you don't, if you're not processing it, doing something with it, it just accumulates.

100%. And it, and it manifests in different ways, whether it's certain mental illnesses, or even in behavior, addiction, there's a lot of things it can do. That, that I think is, is really at the heart. I'm glad you brought it up because that's really at the heart of what vitality is all about is like how healthy is your brain when you're working in an environment like this, [00:08:00] your brain takes a toll.

Matt (2): Yeah. 

Erik: I don't care. I mean, you're not an accountant sitting in a desk, 

Matt (2): right? 

Erik: I mean, that can be stressful in different ways, but yeah, but when you're dealing with literal trauma, life trauma, stress, Overworked, underslept. 

Matt: Massive impact on your mental and physical health. Yeah, so it's like eating fat in our intake podcast where we talked about if you make consistently bad choices of eating bad processed food All the time.

It's an accumulation. You're not gonna get fat by eating one cheeseburger Yeah, you [00:08:30] get fat by eating a hundred cheeseburgers over a period of time or whatever the case may be It's the same thing The problem is is that as first responders and as doctors and nurses is that that's our job is to eat those cheeseburgers You know to mentally that trauma that we're seeing 

Erik: I was so busy You A few years ago, I guess it's been more than that now, but I was so busy as a workaholic, just make, you know, checking in, doing what 

Matt: we all do, clocking in, clocking 

Erik: out, making money, being a good soldier and providing for my family.

It [00:09:00] felt like I was doing a good thing, but I was so busy that I was not dealing with a lot of the, Things I was seeing a lot of feelings. I had I just they just accumulated and they started to manifest unhealthy and unhealthy ways in my life. And, and I think that this mental health thing we have to listen to this and we have to be honest about it because our mental health is is really connected to our health in ways that are some, you may not be aware of it.

And again, that's like what, that's what we talk about these gauges. You gotta be, you [00:09:30] gotta be honest about your mental health and get help if you need help and, and really try to, um, you know, deal with things. Um, and uh, anyway, so 23. 1 percent of Americans in 2023 had a diagnosed mental illness. The number's bigger than that.

Oh, for sure. That's about one quarter of the country. But I believe it's higher than that. Of und, when you add the undiagnosed mental illness on [00:10:00] top of it. So I think a lot of people are walking around with, uh, uh, poor mental health. Yep. In some dimension of mental health. Yep. That aren't diagnosed. 

Matt (2): Yep. 

Erik: So, that is a big problem.

59. 1 percent of Americans, um, mental health disease. Yep. So, that's vitality. How is your brain? How's your brain? Now, one thing I'd like to just say is sometimes people think their brain is, like, Eric, I'm thinking to myself, my brain is me. I said to myself, [00:10:30] self? Yeah, I said to myself, self? No, really, when I talk to myself or just say something like, hey, you know what, Eric, come on, pick yourself up by the bootstraps.

Yeah, 

Matt: suck it up. 

Erik: Sometimes we think that our, us, our self, is our brain. Well, that's not true. I believe it's not true. Our soul or spirit or whoever we are is that. And our brain is an organ in our body, just like our heart, just like our liver. And our [00:11:00] brain, um, can, can be shaped. It's plastic and we can, we can, uh, you know, if, if, uh, if addiction, for example, was a.

Junkyard dog chain to the fence in your brain. If you continue to have. You know, be a victim to that keep feeding that dog. It's going to get stronger and stronger and stronger eventually to take over and it's going to wreak havoc on your life. It's going to rip that chain off the fence and it's just going to be all over the [00:11:30] place.

Now if you try to work on that addiction, for example, just one example of a mental health mental illness is addiction. If you work hard to work on that depression or the anxiety or the addiction or whatever it might be. The PTSD, take responsibility for it and really fight against it. We can starve that junkyard dog instead of feeding it.

And, uh, and, and we can then live our lives, uh, and compensate for some of these [00:12:00] tendencies that we have. Some people aren't. Alcoholics. And they don't, they aren't struggling with alcohol. Right. They aren't struggling with anxiety or depression. Right. But whatever it might be, within mental illness, within vitality, I think we need to lean against it.

But we, if we don't know what's there, we can't work on it. 

Matt: What's, yeah, an alcoholic, like the, the um, you know, denial that I'm an alcoholic. Well, you can't fix it if you are denying that you have a problem in the first place and that's, the [00:12:30] same applies here. 

Erik: What is the definition of an addiction? 

Matt: An addi Oh, I don't know what the Webster's definition 

Erik: is.

Well, uh, and I, and I, and I, we all could have different definitions, but here I believe is the medical definition for me in my mind as a doctor. If you're making choices that you know are unhealthy for you, but you continue to make them anyway, even though you don't want to, Uh, by definition is an addiction.

So addiction is always a negative. Well, I think you can, you can, [00:13:00] you can build positive habits in your life. Right. But you wouldn't call that an addiction. No, like working out. Yeah. It can become an addiction. Eating healthy. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Erik: For me, like I haven't missed a workout in 17 months. What I mean by that is three days a week.

I've gone at least three days a week for 17 months. I try to go six, but, uh, I think on average, it's, Pretty much five days a week consistency consistency. So for the 17 months, I've done that. Yeah It's a big part of why I've lost 50 pounds and have much more healthy today Than I was 10 years ago or maybe [00:13:30] even longer than that and has it impact it has it impacted your mental health Yeah, I do struggle with mental health and we've talked about that and it's gotten better and I'm fighting against it There are a lot of things I wasn't even aware of that.

I'm I'm learning comes to the surface. It comes to the surface Yeah, I think 

Matt: everybody to some degree I know your number But I think at you know, nobody goes through life without some sort of a struggle whether it's depression or anxiety or fear or You know, and like you said at the [00:14:00] beginning, we're all striving for, we all want peace and joy in our lives, right?

Everybody, the pursuit of happiness. Yes. That's yeah. That is 

Erik: to 

Matt: you and 

Erik: me. 

Matt: Exactly. It means different things to different people, right? To somebody that might be a nice car. Like, you know, my motorcycle, like that brings me a lot of peace, right? And joy. Because that's that kind of that time that you said, you know, that alone time where I can just not think about anything else.

Absolutely. You know, so it means different things to different people. [00:14:30] But I think everybody, if they're honest with themselves, at some point struggles with some Just like health, you know, at some point in your life, you're not born with six pack abs and a perfect body and 3 percent body fat and live that way for the rest.

Nobody does that. At some point, you're like, Oh, I probably need to eat a little bit better, you know, or make better choices. So I heard, Oh, go ahead. No, 

Erik: go ahead. I heard an interview recently. There's a, there's a man talking to a bodybuilder, basically, they both went to the same gym and this guy was talking about [00:15:00] himself and he asked his friend to take his shirt off.

He's wearing like a tank top underneath his t shirt and his guy was yoked. I mean, this guy was built. Oh yeah. But they both work out at the same gym. They, they both, literally the same amount of time at the gym, basically. Now there's some other factors. And the guy, the other guy wasn't small. He was a pretty big guy.

He looked like he was in good shape. Yeah. Whoa, but no. Wasn't. Anyway, as he got to know this other guy, though, he learned about him. He was, [00:15:30] when he, when he left the gym, he, he never left the gym. When he would go out to eat somewhere and he was making healthy choices. He was eating the, the, the salad with, you know, a low fat kind of a low calorie meal because when he left the gym, he was still at the gym and he was making choices that reflected him being at the gym and wanting to, to really be healthy.

He was, and, and it really, uh, to make a long interview kind of short, it, he, all of [00:16:00] the components of health to this guy. Infiltrated every area of his life to where it wasn't just going to the gym and this guy confessed, he's like, Hey, you know what? I go to the gym so I can live the way I want. Yeah. Out there.

Yeah. Totally different mentality. Yeah. I want to go to the gym so I can eat badly. Right. I want to go to the gym so I can do these other things that aren't so healthy in my life. Right. That's, that's not the right attitude to have, I think. So I [00:16:30] think with mental health, uh, you know, this, and, and I think it's important that we walk through the different dimensions of mental health and vitality and how it can affect us.

Um, but mental health is, it infiltrates every pillar of health and wellness. For sure. Um, so, um, The first letter we talked about, and we're going to get a little bit of preview to the last one because we haven't done that. Right. That's the last, the E, but the T in Thrive. Yep. Uh, team, uh, community, network of [00:17:00] support, friends, family.

It's huge. I believe the most important component of health, in my opinion, um. Certainly impacts greatly your mental health. And maybe V is, I don't know. It's arguable. All right. But how, you know, it's been shown medically that we're learning so much about how loneliness affects our mental health, uh, the, and, and our health in general.

Yeah. Being lonely is the equivalent, uh, risk factor anyway, to smoking 15 [00:17:30] cigarettes a day. Uh, it's equal to obesity. So if you're thinking to yourself, Hey, you know what? Hey, at least I don't smoke. At least I'm not fat, you know, right? Well, if you're lonely, you might as well smoke. That's the way that's the equivalent health detriment by being lonely.

And the surgeon general just put this report out last year, uh, that for the first time in our history, more than 50 percent was actually 60 percent of Americans consider themselves lonely. More [00:18:00] than half of our country considers themselves lonely. I think a lot of it has to do with COVID. I think a lot of it has to do with social media.

I was going to 

Matt (2): say, yeah. But 

Erik: people feel lonely. And that, Is an epidemic of isolationism is way of the blogs. I've written have said that I've written on it at the epidemic of isolationism is really, I believe, far more unhealthy than any disease we have right now is our mental health as a country. And the surgeon general agrees [00:18:30] based on the report that the surgeon U.

S. Surgeon General just put the health benefits to being in community. Having friends like you, Matt, um, you know, family members, uh, unfortunately a lot of people are going through divorce. A lot of people are going to have broken families, uh, broken friendships and they, they're isolated. These are, these are the ones, you know, when a lion attacks a herd, which ones do they go for?

Matt: Yeah. 

Erik: The weak ones, the weak ones that are [00:19:00] isolated outside of the herd. Right. I think that meant that analogy plays here. It's like when you're alone, it's just, you're just putting yourself out. They're for, for just bad things. 

Matt: Yeah, yeah. 

Erik: We need to be part of a community, whether you're part of a faith community or a community, like some sort of a, a, a church or a, like a, uh, some sort of a, uh, Yeah, organization.

some sort of camaraderie, like, you know. Well, I 

Matt: think when we talked about it and, you know, we'll probably touch on it with exercise that, [00:19:30] um, you know, that's why CrossFit got so big was because it wasn't so much the workouts. Yeah, the workouts were effective workouts, but it was a community, right? That's what made it so popular and was so successful was that aspect of it.

Erik: You know, one of the things I love most about being when I was a volunteer firefighter, Um, a long time ago, uh, one of the things that, you know, it was the community of it, the camaraderie. 

Matt: Yeah, that's why everybody, a lot of people get in the fire service. 

Erik: But what I found though, [00:20:00] as a medical director, just in observing things and, you know, I've learned about people who have taken their lives.

I've learned about guys that were struggling in their marriage and nobody knew about it. Um, guys that are getting arrested for, you know, for, for, you know, for, 

Matt: Yeah. All kinds of things. All things. 

Erik: All things. Um, but nobody knew about it. Yeah. So I think it's one thing to have camaraderie when you're working together.

But that's 

Matt: not depth. 

Erik: No, it's like, are you really known? Right. Do people know you? Are you known? 

Matt: Yeah. Very surfacing. 

Erik: When a man feels known, when a [00:20:30] woman feels known, it's a, that's a, that's a need. It's a, we really want to be known. Yeah. If you're not known, it can feel pretty lonely. For sure. So team is a big part of it.

What's the next one we got? Team, health. Health. Yeah. Health metrics. Yeah. The gauges on the cluster is a pilot, right? Yep. There's a gauge there. Yep. Brain health. Yeah, that's a big one. Are you watching? That's your fuel gauge. That's your fuel gauge. Or your oil pressure gauge. Pretty 

Matt: important gauges to pay attention to.

Yep. 

Erik: Yep. Just like we should be watching our cholesterol [00:21:00] level. Right. Just like we should be watching our weight. Yep. Just like we should be watching our fill in the blank. 

Matt (2): Yeah. 

Erik: With, you know, doing the colonoscopy with age 45, you know, just these Preventatives. Keeping your eye on 

Matt: the gauges. It's changing your oil in your vehicle.

If you do those preventative things in your vehicles, it'll probably last a lot longer. And it's very simple, uh, to do like we've always said, simple, not easy. I love it that you said 

Erik: that I actually have taken that now. Thank you for giving that to me. Cause it's not mine. I didn't 

Matt: create it, but yeah, you gave 

Erik: it to me.

[00:21:30] It's very, very, I call it a mad ism, but 

Matt: yeah, it's yeah. I mean, it's that, that preventative maintenance is part of that health thing. You know, getting an annual checkup again, I'm lucky in my fire department, we partake in the 1582 physical program and we go out and we have a medical doctor and we get, you know.

Blood work done, you know, vision, hearing, 12 leads, all that kind of stuff. And if anything's out of whack, you know, we have resources that we can go, Hey, your cholesterol is too high, you know, here's some ways to combat that. [00:22:00] Uh, 

Erik: And that's the problem with vitality. That's the problem with mental health is that, you know, I can go to the gym and I'll see guys that had obviously just gotten back into the gym.

They're real overweight and they're really struggling on that, that elliptical to try to burn the weight off. And, you know, going to the gym over the course of years, you know, 17 months now is I, I seen a lot of changes in my life physically. Right. And, uh, you know, if I weighed 500 pounds, it would be perfect.

It's really obvious to everybody walking down the street, [00:22:30] that guy's got a weight problem. Needs to exercise or eat less, one of the two, right? Or both. Just thinking of Chris Farley. A bit of a weight 

Matt: problem. 

Erik: But with mental health though, you could be walking through life and nobody would know. That's exactly right.

You can hide it. And 

Matt: especially with, as you said, social media. You know so many people I think part of the depression and anxiety that's in our country And across the world is that they're turning on instagram or whatever the social media platform is And they're seeing these fake lives. They're seeing this [00:23:00] fakeness and over and over and over again, it's been like It's come out that it's like yeah, that's not their real life like this person that looks like they're filthy rich They're actually broke this person that thinks they've got their family all together.

They really don't you know? So it's but We look at that stuff and we're feeding, we're intaking, like we talked about, 

Erik: our brain. I'm so glad you brought that up. 

Matt: All this information and it's telling us you're a failure, you suck, you're out of shape, you're too tall, you're ugly, you're whatever the thing is, right?

[00:23:30] And we're intaking this information that's then affecting our mental health. And 

Erik: social media is associated with all of these mental illnesses. Depression and anxiety. You want to, you want to, you want to increase your risk for mental health illness? 

Matt (2): Yeah. 

Erik: Be on social media. Yeah. It's, there's no two ways about it.

The data is clear. Kind of skipped to intake a little bit, but super important. But the, uh, the R rest restoration, rejuvenation, there's a lot of R words you can say here. It's a no brainer. It's more than sleep. But if you're [00:24:00] not sleeping, you are, again, that you're just ripe for mental illness. And if you're struggling with mental illness is one of the red flags you'll see is the sleep problems.

It's one of the diagnostic criteria for depression is a sleep problem. Okay. And, uh, the, the sleep, the restoration, the giving our brain a rest, you know, that is really important. And I'm guilty. 

Matt: I do not do a good job 

Erik: of this. Probably 

Matt: podcast, first responders, nurses, doctors, we're all guilty because it's the, again, back [00:24:30] to the trauma.

It's part of our job. You know, again, we've talked about it on this podcast, about the 4896, you know, I work 48 hours straight. And luckily, you know, I mean, I don't work at a super busy station anymore, but those guys that are running on those busy ambulance and running 40 calls in 48 hours, they're 100 percent going without sleep, you know, so it's very important that they get that rest.

On those days off, you know, it's super important for their overall health, 

Erik: super important. Really give your brain a rest Because your brain's [00:25:00] making the choices for all these other dimensions of health and if you're not taking care of the brain Most important organ in our body. Yeah, 

Matt: the rest of it's gonna 

Erik: it's going to be a struggle It's going to be you want to make the health choices.

You want to make the good food choices You want to you want to make the the good, you know Vitality kind of positive self talk decisions and avoid the negative. So you want to make these good choices, but if you're not sleeping, it's just an uphill battle. 

Matt (2): Yeah. 

Erik: Uphill battle. 

Matt (2): Yeah. 

Erik: So that's, uh, are we could, again, I love talking about that.

And, [00:25:30] and all of these components of health are so much more complicated than we're giving it time for, but at least we're touching the surface. So then, uh, obviously I, the intake is, is, uh, the, the food. You talked about social media. You talked about the stuff we put into our brain. We could talk about, you know, even little things that could be big things, that stuff we put on our body, stuff that we, we, uh, the meds we use, the supplements, the, uh, the, uh, the stuff we listened to.

Matt: Yeah. Getting [00:26:00] sunlight. That's good. You know, getting outside, um, And walking, having the wind, the air in your face, the sunlight on your skin, that is a good benefit. Absolutely. You know, we talk about all the bad things, but those are things that are positive. If you're feeling anxious, if you're feeling depressed, if you're feeling mad, like, go for a walk.

Yeah. You know, get on your bike and ride outside, get in the sunlight, get outside. You know, that's, they're, they're good. Just the restorativeness of that is, is proven to improve mental [00:26:30] health. As opposed to reaching for a drink. Right, right, right. 

Erik: You know? Yeah, last night I, I was, um, um, What am I going to do?

I'm going to go watch a movie tonight with the family. And my daughter had some homework and my wife just wanted to read. And, and so, uh, it was, we weren't going to watch a movie, which is what I wanted to do. 

Matt: Yeah. I want to watch 

Erik: it by myself. You know, I did. Instead I went jogging. I went on a jog and I had some time alone with my thoughts and it was nice.

And I came back a little restored and engaged with the family a little bit better than I [00:27:00] would have. Um, the other part of intake, we spent a lot of time on was food and we don't need to get into that right now, but the gut brain connection is huge. And again, you eat poorly, garbage in, garbage out, and it's going to have a huge effect on your brain, what you eat.

And, uh, definitely watch the, uh, the intake one. I wanted to 

Matt: touch on one thing you were talking about when you went for the run. Um, I was talking to somebody about, um, you know, coming home from work. And sometimes it's really hard as first responders. And you probably felt this as a [00:27:30] physician, if you've had a rough shift at the hospital or I had a rough shift at work and coming home, and we have a tendency to bring that home with us.

And they were telling me about like, find a way to process your shift, your shift at the hospital, your shift at the fire station or whatever. Find a way to process that on your way home, deal with it and move past it. And, you know, hopefully for the spouses of first responders that might be watching this, you know, understand that, [00:28:00] hey, your husband or wife might have seen some really bad stuff over the last 12, 24, 48 hours, whatever the case may be.

And so if they come home and they're a little bit grumpy, maybe give them a little bit of grace. Hey, go take a nap. Hey, I'll take care of the kids. I know that you might have been home with the kids for the last 48 hours and that's hard. I 100 percent understand that, but maybe your husband or your wife's been up for the last 48 hours running calls and had bad calls and seeing some bad stuff.

You know, let them go rest, let them go get some sleep, you know, let them restore, hey, go for a walk, whatever [00:28:30] the case may be, and try to process through that stuff. That was really good advice to me that I just wanted to make sure we got on before we ended. I love that you 

Erik: said that. There's so much to say.

Uh, Within vitality, brain health is huge. Uh, you know, I arguable whether it's the most important thing or not. I sometimes, like I said, team, but 

Matt (2): yeah, 

Erik: is it the support of others? That's more important than your own mental health. And I mean, I just, it's hard to separate the two in my opinion, more important than exercise and nutrition.

Um, but the one thing I I'd like to end [00:29:00] with and, and, and say is that a lot of these decisions that we make every day, you know, you, you could go home and it's like, man, I heard Matt talk. I just. Man, I need to tell you, honey, about Some of the things I'm thinking about it's been tough at work with these case these runs I've had You know, and then you may be thinking yourself man.

I don't I don't feel any better. Yeah, right. Yeah And you could say the same thing. Hey, you know what? I was inspired with dr. X scene said about eating, right? I'm not gonna [00:29:30] eat a McDonald's every day. I stop at McDonald's on my way home for an egg McMuffin I'm not gonna do that anymore. I'm gonna go home and I'm gonna eat oatmeal now every day and you go home and I didn't have McDonald's and I made oatmeal, right?

Yeah, two days in I don't feel any better. Why 

Matt: isn't 

Erik: my 

Matt: gut gone? 

Erik: Right. Because it took you 10 years to build it. So what I would advise in all of these different pillars of wellness, and I think it's so important with vitality is whatever it is that you want to change in your life, make a small change.

Think about something that small that you can [00:30:00] make over a lifetime, like something you could do the rest of your life. Saying that I'm never going to have sodas again or never going to eat carbs again doesn't make any sense. Don't do those things. Make small decisions that you know you could do the rest of your life.

And then those little small decisions over the course of time are cumulative. So, like I've experienced in my life, after 17 months of working out consistently, my goal was to work out three days a week, one hour a time, three [00:30:30] hours a week, right? That's not a huge undertaking. And I've been able to do that, and I've done it for 17 months now.

Now it's such a habit in my life, it's almost going to a bad, unhealthy thing where I've got to have a balance where, you know what, today I think I need sleep more than my workout. My point is, when you make little decisions That are cumulative over your lifetime, then you see health benefits. Yeah, that's going to happen.

I think that's a good thing to remember, because we as men, what do we do? 

Matt (2): Yeah. 

Erik: I'm going to conquer the world. 

Matt (2): Yeah. 

Erik: I'm going to [00:31:00] climb the mountain. Yeah. Right? I'm going to beat this evil in my life. 

Matt (2): Yeah. 

Erik: But it's, it's really about the little decisions every day that are unnoticeable. I think that's a good way to finish it.

Matt: Yeah. See you on the next one. Be safe out there. 

Narrator: Thank you for listening to EMS, the Erik and Matt Show.