Your Thoughts Your Reality
Welcome to "Your Thoughts, Your Reality with Michael Cole," the podcast that shines a compassionate light on the journey of veterans battling through life's challenges. Michael Cole, a Certified Elite Neuroencoding Specialist, dedicated to guiding military veterans as they navigate the intricate pathways of post-deployment life. Join him as we delve into the profound realm of Neuroencoding science, empowering these brave individuals to conquer universal battles: procrastination, self-doubt, fear, and more. Together, let's uncover the strength within you to re-engage with families and society, forging a new path forward.
Your Thoughts Your Reality
Empowering Veteran Minds: Dr. Michelle Odette Green's Journey from Neuroencoding to Transforming Brain Health and Wellness
Discover how Dr. Michelle Odette Green is changing the game for veterans with her expertise as a dual elite neuroencoding specialist. Join us as Dr. Green shares her inspiring journey, driven by compassion and empathy, to help people lead happier, healthier lives. Learn about the transformative power of neuroencoding and brain health strategies that can empower veterans to rewire their minds for success and joy. We also discuss valuable resources like e-books and community groups designed to provide support for veterans and their families on their journey to well-being.
Our conversation also explores the broader implications of brain health in mental wellness, highlighting how natural methods can be a powerful alternative to medication. Drawing inspiration from Dr. Daniel Amen's groundbreaking work and connections with figures like Tony Robbins, we emphasize personal responsibility and understanding one's emotional state. From brain scans to practical strategies for reducing anxiety and sadness, we present actionable insights that underscore the vital link between brain health and overall mental wellness. Don't miss Dr. Green's three impactful tips that can help veterans and their families move forward with confidence and resilience.
Welcome to your Thoughts, your Reality with Michael Cole, the podcast that shines a compassionate light on the journey of veterans battling through life's challenges. Michael is a dual elite certified neuro encoding specialist in coaching and keynote training presentations dedicated to guiding military veterans as they navigate the intricate pathways of post-deployment life. Join him as we delve into the profound realm of neuroencoding science, empowering these brave individuals to conquer universal battles procrastination, self-doubt, fear and more. Together, let's uncover the strength within you to re-engage with families and society, forging a new path forward.
Speaker 2:Hello, hello, hello everybody. So today, super excited, we have Dr Michelle Odette Green on. She is a dual elite neuroencoding specialist. She holds advanced expertise in neuroencoding, empowering individuals to rewire their minds for success and happiness. Love that, obviously. To rewire their minds for success and happiness. Love that, obviously. She's a brain health trainer, specializing in teaching practical strategies to optimize brain function, resilience and mental well-being. So, again, super excited, you're on the show today. She's a speaker, an author and committed to transforming lives. So you know, michelle, I am so happy to have you on today and why don't you tell us just a little bit more about yourself? So happy to have you on today, and why don't you?
Speaker 3:tell us just a little bit more about yourself. Oh, my goodness, you did a great job with that introduction, so thank you, thank you, thank you for that. You know there's so much to me, so I'll just say just a couple of things, and that is I love helping people. Is I love helping people? My mission is to educate and inspire individuals to lead a happy, healthy and productive life, and my mission statement for my life came about in the 90s. Can you believe it? So I've been holding on to this mission statement since the 90s and ever since then I've been doing things to fulfill my mission.
Speaker 3:And so I am on a mission to help people improve the health of their brain, to be happy from the inside out, and I have a show Elevate your Life.
Speaker 3:And so I do teach the principles that we will talk about today during my show. I have exciting guests on my show, which I want you to be one of my guests, please, and you know we just drop nuggets and I love to call them nuggets where people can pick up those gold nuggets and put them in their pocket and they can learn from us, they can live it, they can help other people, and I like to say when you learn something, apply it to your life, live it, and that's applying it to your life. Give it away, teach other people what you know, and then you get to also keep it, because you're practicing what you know. And I love helping the generations that I will never know about. And how do we do that? By helping individuals now so that they can pass the information to others, and so that's just a little bit more. The bigger thing is is that I love people and I want to see people win.
Speaker 2:Amen, I love that. You know those golden nuggets, those seeds for growth later on, are so important, you know, truly. So thank you for saying that and I will absolutely be on your show. I think we have a tentative date scheduled, so I'm honored to be on your show as well. So thank you, thank you Absolutely.
Speaker 2:So before we get really into this, I just want to remind everybody. There's a blue QR code on the top right-hand side of your screen that takes you to empowerperformancestrategiescom, again for people listening on the podcast forums. Later on it's empowerperformancestrategiescom. There are free e-books. I've written for veterans and their families, two different books. There's Facebook groups, again for veterans and their families, so you can join and be part of the mission, part of our community, so you're not in solitude, you get involved and have some fun with us. So just lots of tools and tips in there. So please check that out. At the end of the show, we're going to ask Michelle for three tips to get veterans further, faster, and their families, of course, and so stay tuned and stick around for that. So, michelle, you ready to get ready to play?
Speaker 3:yes fantastic.
Speaker 2:So I want to start off with you know what? What was the, the guiding moment that said that in your life whether that be a leverage or you know something like that that said I want to help people. This is my calling. This is what I want to help people, this is my calling. This is what I want to do. Is it for fulfillment or what's going to make my life the best it can be?
Speaker 3:Thank you for that question. I have thought about this over the years and what I uncovered was when I was a child as far back as I can remember, say about six or seven I was always helping individuals, and in elementary school I remember one situation that stands out for me, that that stands out for me at the school. I don't know what this was about, but the school had like this little yard sale and one of the families, or the families that I knew, and the children went to the same school that I attended. They were poor and what I consider poor Now. I was poor too when I was young. I just didn't know it. I felt like we were rich. But as I got older I realized we had the same struggles as this family had. But during this yard sale they were selling some clothes and I decided that I wanted to buy the clothes for one of my classmates so that she could have some extra clothes, and that, right there, it's like well, where did that come from?
Speaker 3:Within me, you know, I had the compassion and I was empathetic about what I perceive to be lack in this family's lives and I wanted to help fulfill some of that lack, and so that's where I can trace back where I really wanted to start helping people, and then from there I was the go-to person for my friends. They would come to me when they needed help, when they needed advice, and I just was that person that was called on, and so that continued into my adulthood, and then the jobs that I started seeking were all jobs centered around helping disadvantaged individuals become skilled if you will learn a skill and then help them become self-sufficient. And so when I even look back on my notes and the things that I've done over the years, I started calling myself a coach before people were calling themselves a coach, and so with that, I'll leave it at that and then turn it back over to you.
Speaker 2:Thank you for sharing that and how. What a blessing to know and have that calling at that young age. I mean thank you for being that light in the world, because not everybody is that way, you know. They're so just trying to figure it out and absorbed in their life and so on, so that's absolutely fantastic. Thank you for sharing that story as well. As far as like your personal mission, what inspired you to focus on brain health and neuroencoding? What kind of took you down that road? If you'll share that, Absolutely so.
Speaker 3:With the brain health. Share that with you. Absolutely so. What's the brain health? The brain health really started for me in the early 2000s, so I was serving as the center director for Urban Job Corps Center, and Job Corps is a residential career facility which is actually like a mini college, and so individuals, they live on campus and we help them to uncover their talents and we place them into career paths, teach them the skills, then afterwards help them get a job. And within that program, though, it was like, I say, it was the full campus where we had a wellness center and we had the gym, the cafeteria, just you know, it was a beautiful campus that I served as the center director, which was in Long Beach, and the thing about it, though, the kids that came into the program, some of them did have some psychological issues, and so I had a psychiatrist there as well as a psychologist there, and the psychiatrist, of course, he was just medicating the students. When they would sit down, the psychologist would go through their intake process with them. When they would sit down, the psychologist would go through their intake process with them, and if they uncovered that they believed they had some type of mental health issue. Then he referred them to the psychiatrist and they put them on medication. I always had an issue with that, but I did not know what to do about it at that particular time.
Speaker 3:And one day I was watching a PBS special and Dr Daniel Amen was speaking on change your brain, change your life and I have the book here. So this book right here, and Dr Daniel Amen changed my life when it comes to brain health. And so in listening to that I said that's it, because his model was more so teach me skills, don't just give me pills. He was into the natural remedies. Let's try that first. What can we do first? Through exercise, self-talk, foods, all of that? What can we do first to help an individual before we resort to medication? And that, right there, just lit me up and from there I purchased the book. I purchased it for all my supervisors, my senior staff. I said we have to learn this information because we need to help these kids at a different level, because the medication, it may help a person become stable, but all the side effects associated with the medication? That was the problem for me. It's like, yes, we're medicating them to stabilize them and we're not weaning them off the medication, but now they have all of these side effects, including suicidal ideation. And so, again, that's what got me into brain health, because I'm like, no, there is a better way other than the medication. And so, again, that's fulfilling my mission helping people to be healthy, so healthy minded, healthy in their body, and I understand that when your brain works right, your life works so much better. And so that was the beginning of getting me into brain health.
Speaker 3:And so I knew about Dr Daniel Amen. I start following his work, excited about his work. Then I'm a Tony Robbins fan. I'm truly a Tony Robbins fan. Then, in around 2010, 2011, I was introduced to Joseph McClendon. Now I had enrolled with this health organization and so I had opened up a fitness club. So it was a health and wellness fitness club, and so I opened up that club, but it was a multi-level marketing company that I was involved with, and Joseph was our keynote speaker at one of our events. And so I'm like who is this guy? So I start following Joseph and then learn he was connected to Tony Robbins, and so on and so forth.
Speaker 3:And in 2021, oh my God, I was minding my own business and I got a prompt on my phone about the brain revolution and I saw Dr Daniel Amen and Dr Joseph McClendon III. They had partnered to bring about the brain revolution and normally I would talk to my husband about joining various things and this thing. I was like I don't care what he says, I'm joining this and I put my money. I said I'm putting my money where my mouth is. I joined the brain revolution and I have been excited ever since and as part of that it was a marriage between the Neural Encoding Institute as well as Dr Daniel Amen University, and so with that marriage so that is where this neural encoding path came from and the brain health came from, and so I've just married the two and I love everything about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's fantastic. And you know, with Dr Amen, let's go back. I mean you dropped so many amazing thoughts there With the pills. How many people do you know that when they're dealing with something and the doctors are feeding them pills and I'm not throwing shade I mean they can help all that stuff, but long term we're not even going to talk about the side effects, but long term, how many people?
Speaker 2:just they're increasing the dosage and not weaning off, like you said. But when I've seen, I've literally seen people taking antidepressants and that kind of thing and with the right brain work and the right you know thought processes and and changing their belief systems and and so on, I've literally gotten off of them. And I'm not saying go jump off your medications, everybody, just disclaimer. Now. I'm not saying go jump off your medications, everybody just disclaimer.
Speaker 2:Now I'm not saying that, but I've, I've seen that you know, many times and it's, it's um, it's really fulfilling to see it happen. It really makes you feel good to see that happening for somebody because there are so many side effects. I mean, there, it's, it's insane. There's a reason why it takes them eight minutes to go through the side effects in a commercial.
Speaker 3:Right, exactly.
Speaker 2:And again, medications are there for reasons I'm not saying don't go jump off them, but there are other options to make progress and then wean off them later on with your doctor's help. So fantastic. And here's the other quick story I want to share. You know, just, you know, tony Robbins fan, my wife and I obviously, for years and years and years. And you know, up, uh, upw, um, you know, joseph McClendon always does day two, right, and I remember the first UPW that we did or watch, uh, you know, virtually we said who's that guy? Right, because he has so much charisma and what he says is awesome. And then day two or day three, it's like I hope he's back, where's Joseph McClendon? And that's the same thing that happened to me. Is that just that connection is, like you know, done. Let's sign up and change my life, you know so I love that you. You know you brought that up, thank you, yes, question for you.
Speaker 2:You know, when you're talking, let's talk brain health first. With the brain health, you know, for veterans and their families, give some thoughts and tips on things to be looking for that you know they may be struggling with depression, or, you know, or just being stuck. Let's just keep it simple if we can Give some tips and thoughts on hey, how do you realize that? First, because a lot of times people are just stuck in the cycle. Right, I call the spin cycle. There is there, is there, you know. So give us some thoughts and maybe some tips on um, how do you know you're there? And then tips to come out of it or to help you know work, do the work to make progress absolutely so.
Speaker 3:Number one is awareness. So it starts with awareness. We got to be aware, and that's where, if you are aware, then you have the choice to do something about what's going on. So, if you find yourself arguing a lot, if you find yourself sad, if you find yourself crying, if you find yourself having negative thoughts all the time or ruminating over the past, you can tell by what you say. So if you listen to your conversation, what are you talking about? That's going to give you an indication of where your head space is. And so once you can truly become aware and my thing is, sometimes we're not aware, we have blind spots so if you have people around you who are aware and they can point those things out to you, that's a start as well.
Speaker 3:So first is awareness, becoming aware, and then wanting to do something about whatever is going on that's negatively impacting your life or where you're just stuck and I like to say stuck in a rut. So you got to want to do something about it, and that means you got to take 100% responsibility for doing something about it. For doing something about it I want to make this comment when your brain actually is working right, your life is so much better, so you are happier, you are healthier, you are more financially stable because you're making better decisions. So, again, if you're realizing that you're sadder, that you're sicker, that you're poorer, then nine times out of ten there's something going on with your brain that you need to have checked out. The thing about when I say have checked out, you know, if we have something going on, say it feels like something going on with our heart we go to the doctor and then they do the necessary scans, x-rays, whatever they do to check our heart.
Speaker 3:Or if we break our foot which I broke my foot they do the x-ray. But if you're having trouble with your mind, most times they just go through a psychiatrist. If you will go through about you know, 10 questions or so and then, based on the DSM, which is a diagnostic manual, they prescribe you medication that sounds like it matches the symptoms that you say you have. So my thing number one if you can get a brain scan, if you can, if you are committed to improving the health of your brain, I would recommend get a brain scan. I have not had my brain scan just yet, but this year I'm committed to having my brain scan.
Speaker 2:The second option is doing a Michelle, really quick. I'm sorry to interrupt, but when you're saying brain scan, so we're not talking about an MRI or a CAT scan, correct? We're talking about with dog scan we're talking about.
Speaker 3:So I'm going to show you this chart right here. This chart right here shows you what a healthy brain looks like. This here, and this is the front side, the top side, and this is the underside, but around the circle there, if you can see there, put that in front of my face just for a second. So the brain with the holes and the way all of that is. That's based on things that we do to our brain, so I'll talk about that as well. So the brain scan is called a SPEC scan and I'll read what SPEC stands for it's single photon emissions, computed topography. That's the best way I know how to say that You're good.
Speaker 2:You're good. That's the best way. I know how to say that You're good.
Speaker 3:You're good. So that is the brain scan Now, dr Daniel Amen and many others, they do the brain scan now because they know how important it is to see how your brain is functioning, if it has enough blood flow, if it's operating too low in an area, too hard in an area. So there are different brain systems that we have that operate different parts of what we do. You know our brain is involved in everything or everything we do, from our emotions, from, you know, just our thoughts. It's our command center, if you will. So it actually it controls everything that we do. So with that in mind, dr Daniel Amen, he has done thousands of brain scans and he realizes that everyone cannot afford to invest in the actual SPECT scan. So he has come up with an assessment I should say that you can take. That will give you a starting point for the health of your brain. Now the only way that that assessment is accurate is if you tell the truth on the assessment. So you got to be honest on the assessment in order to get the information that's going to help you start moving in the right direction as far as helping optimize and improve your brain. So once you take that assessment, it will actually then give you what type of brain type you have and it will give you strategies to improve your brain health. And see, let me tell you this real quick A lot of people think that mental health is well.
Speaker 3:Mental health is on the rise, let me put it that way is well, mental health is on the rise, let me put it that way. But a lot of people don't really understand this is a better way of saying that that mental health in a lot of cases, a lot of cases, it's just brain health. If your brain is healthy some of those things that seem like it's a mental health issue it's really just you changing a few small things and the sadness goes away. You start feeling healthier, you start feeling happier. But you don't know unless you either look or take the assessment to start uncovering. What can I do to help improve the health of my brain? So I hope I answered that question. We can delve a little deeper into it if we need to, but that is my answer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's. It's fantastic. You gave a lot of details and the science behind it is fantastic as well. So thank you, you know, and it's it's. I took, took the test and it really is unlikely. You know it really is. So you know, I think it's important. The spec scan, right. Spec scan, yeah, or you know something. The questionnaire, if you will test, it's easy, but be truthful to yourself and to the test Because otherwise nothing's going to help for yourself again or for the test to work correctly. So love that We've got about five minutes left as far as let's move into kind of neuro encoding. So you know, neuro encoding, you know I obviously we're both huge fans Give some tips for some families and so on, and veterans of neurocoding, you know, maybe again we're feeling stuck. What are some thoughts and some things that can help people? Because obviously neurocoding, the complexity is assassinated and you know they're easy things to do. What are some thoughts as far as helping people move forward with the neurocoding side of what you do?
Speaker 3:Thank you. So I do want to say I'm going to give you the information to put in the show notes for the brain health assessment, if you will. I said brain scan, but the brain health assessment, because I think it's important, helping you to understand how you operate and teaching you skills to default to your better behaviors.
Speaker 3:Yes, and so what I do want to say before I really get into a few things there, I want to make sure that I explain something about everyone's brain reserve, because your brain reserve is so important to understand. And that's where the resilience come in, because when things happen to us in life, our brain reserve is what is going to help us get through those challenges. And so when your brain reserve is depleted, that's when you also start seeing yourself having issues. You'll have issues such as depression, memory loss, brain fog if you will, lack of focus and temper problems. And so some of the things that you want to make sure that you do, to reserve, have that brain reserve, is to eat healthy, do exercise, have positive self-talk.
Speaker 3:Dr Daniel Amen refers to ants as automatic negative thoughts. We have over 60,000 thoughts a day and those thoughts a lot of times are negative and they lie to us. The greater percentage are negative, and so you got to challenge those thoughts, and the only way that you can challenge those thoughts is if you know how to challenge those thoughts. And so you got to ask the question is this true? Is this really true? What would I be without the thought. Who would I be without the thought? So you got to question those thoughts and then I like reframing. So also reframing those thoughts when you find yourself thinking negative, because what happens? Every thought that you have, every word that you say, activates neurochemicals in the brain and those neurochemicals can either make you feel good or they can make you feel bad. Neurochemicals that make you feel bad are cortisol, adrenaline. Those are necessary because if a dog is chasing us, a pit bull, like one was chasing me, I want you to know that adrenaline kicked in, that cortisol went up and I got out of there. So we need it. It's healthy to have it because it tells us when we are in danger. But too much of that, that's where our arteries start getting harder. You don't have that blood flow because your brain needs a lot of blood flow, and so I just wanted to bring that up, and I also want to say this to the mothers, really, really quick when your child is in your stomach, that's when the brain reserve is also being developed. So how stressed out the mother is the foods that the mother eat, the environment that the mother is in. If there's toxins, a lot of toxins, or what have you that all is building the brain reserve in the infant, and when you come into this world you only have so much brain reserve tissue, and so I think it's important for that to be said as well. And with the neural encoding, I'll just want to say this we have this thing about as I think, so I feel, as I feel, so I do, as I do, so I have.
Speaker 3:And back to that thinking, it's about awareness. When you are aware, then you can start making changes. Then that's when you start the activity, which is the action, to start doing things, to move your life in the direction that you want your life to go in. And then there's that accountability. You got to be accountable to yourself and you can have a mentor, a coach, or you put in accountability measures for yourself because you want to be able to track what you do so you can make sure that you're on the right track. And then, lastly, that's that attraction, the right track. And then, lastly, that's that attraction Once you are having the right thoughts, taking right action or activity, being accountable, you'll just start naturally attracting the people, places and the circumstances to you to fulfill your dreams and desires. And that is about that magnetism. You're just magnetizing stuff to you. So I know that I said a lot there, but if you want to delve into the neuro encoding a little bit more because I know we're up against time, I really wanted to talk about that brain reserve though.
Speaker 2:No, absolutely, and unfortunately we are now out of time. So I want to make sure we get your three tips and how people can reach you and that kind of stuff. We'll, of course, have you back on for more amazing tips and thoughts. So, just so everybody knows, everybody that has a TV show that I've had on here. They're used to being on here for an hour and the time flies for us. You know we do five shows a week, so we'll have you back on if you're up for that, michelle, awesome, awesome. So let's start with again how do people reach you?
Speaker 3:I know you have your website up there and so on, but is there other ways people can reach you or you prefer for them to reach out? Definitely on my website. You can reach out in the contact section. I'm also on Instagram at Dr Michelle Odette. I'm also on Facebook at Michelle Odette Green. I am on LinkedIn as Dr Michelle Odette and I need to get better with my LinkedIn page. I'm not as active there, so I will get better. I also have a YouTube channel. I would love people to subscribe to my YouTube channel and my YouTube channel. You can find it by my name, Dr Michelle O'Day-Green, and please subscribe. It is wonderful. You'll learn so much from my guests and myself, from the shows, and those are ways that individuals can get in contact with me at this time Fantastic.
Speaker 2:And if you're on Instagram or you can't find Michelle anywhere, we're friends. Reach out, I'll connect you, so don't fret, I got you.
Speaker 3:So, michelle, if you can give us our three tips to get veterans and their families further friends, yes, your brain is involved in everything that you do, so please remember that it is involved in everything that you do. So you want to take 100% responsibility for the health of your brain and you want to do things that will help your brain. And then, lastly, I will say, it starts with awareness. So you being aware and having people around you your family, friends, coach, mentor that can help you be more aware because of the blind spots that you may have and taking that action, take action to improve your life. And again just back to that accountability, and you will see the results. Your life will improve, you'll be happier, healthier and wealthier. And that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Speaker 2:I love it. Thank you so much, michelle. You know, as always you know, time is the most valuable resource we have as human beings. We do not get it back. So thank you so much for spending a little bit of time of your life with us and dropping golden nuggets and information to create that ripple effect. You know down the road, like you talked about in the beginning, so thank you again for being on the show.
Speaker 3:Yes, my pleasure. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:Absolutely All right. Everybody, we are out of here.
Speaker 1:Absolutely All right. Everybody we are out of here, visit empowerperformancestrategiescom. Remember your thoughts shape your reality, so make them count. Until next time, stay inspired and keep creating the reality you desire. Catch you on the next episode.