The Most Important Thing in Life Is...

Interviewer: Two other ones of your important five, they are rest and exercise.

Dr. Darren Weissman: Mm-hmm.

Unknown Man: Rest is another one that I think, next to water, that gets overlooked a lot. People say 'I don't have time to sleep.' You know, and you get a couple, three, four hours of sleep. How important are those two?  

Dr. Darren Weissman: Essential. Acts of self-love, you know.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Dr. Darren Weissman: Rest is when we restore and there's no pun on the word. Your body heals, regenerates while you're going through the REM stages of sleep. 

Interviewer: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Darren Weissman: People that are thinking that, you know, first and foremost, well I'll be on sleeping pills. You don't get in to the deep states of sleep. You got to go into the third, fourth state of REM sleep to process the emotional and physical stuff that we go through every day. And so, you know, the body needs seven to nine hours every night. And when our body starts speaking to us with physical symptoms, or we're stressed out, we need more.

Interviewer: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Darren Weissman: Kids need more. It's imperative. You know, it's like, do, do, do, do. It's so important to really recognize, keep it simple, keep it simple, drink your water, get good rest, sleep in good posture. My chiropractor says sleep in good posture as well, you know. 

Interviewer: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Darren Weissman: Exercise. Move your body. Move your body. Find a way to create a practice of a healthy habit of moving your body. Do stuff that's fun, you know, whether it be playing tennis, if you like doing yoga, get a trainer. There's so many intelligent ways of exercising and moving the body these days that anyone can do it. And regardless of the age that your are, anyone can find something that will work for them, but movement's the essence of life. Without movement, stagnation occurs and with stagnation, things die.

Interviewer: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Darren Weissman: You've got have change. So that movement of the body, movement of the mind, visualization, aspects of sleep and dream and imagination, those are all important things. I would say the most important thing is that nobody knows enough to be a pessimist. And there's so many flipping pessimists in this world, so many naysayers saying 'This is a bunch of crap.' You know, hey, be open to what possible. You know, it's an infinite universe. Nobody's found the edge of the universe and so as much as you go looking for it, as much as you go into a person's mind, the most powerful thing that we can harness is the power of our mind. We know that because the placebo effect works 50% to 90% of the time. 

Interviewer: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Darren Weissman: The placebo effect works with Harvard studies. What does that mean? 'Oh, you're going to do well by taking this.' And people do well. What if people actually understood the mind. I do. And then you could harness it on a whole other level. Now it's not just placebo, 'Oh, I'm taking this placebo.' Now it's actually an intelligent strategy combined with, you know, things that people can do in their live in the scientific world as well. Now we're really equipped with some great tools. It's so important.