Andrew Huberman: The Simple Habits That Will Transform Your Health

Jay Shetty (0:00)

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Hey, it's Jay. I don't know what your day's been like, but I was just thinking about you for a minute. And I hope you're being a little patient with yourself because you deserve it. And yeah, I'll talk to you soon.

Hey, everyone. Welcome back to On Purpose. Today's guest is one of your favorites. This isn't his first time, not his second time, but his third time on the show, Dr. Andrew Huberman, neuroscientist, professor at Stanford School of Medicine and creator of the Huberman Lab podcast. Andrew's new book, Protocols, An Operating Manual For The Human Body, is a practical guide to improving your health, energy, focus, and performance using science-backed tools for everyday life. Andrew Huberman, welcome to On Purpose.

Andrew Huberman (3:02)

Thanks for having me back, Jay. Great to see you.

Jay Shetty (3:04)

I know we want to spend more time together than we get to, but I have to be honest and say that whenever we do get together, I feel like we have the best conversations.

Andrew Huberman (3:11)

It's rich.

Jay Shetty (3:12)

Yeah. I'm very grateful. I'm very, very grateful. I want to dive straight in and ask you, seeing as Protocols is all about a manual for the human body, if the human body came with an instruction manual, what's the first page everyone should read?

Andrew Huberman (3:26)

Get some light first thing in the morning.

You know, the title in the book, Protocols, is both accurate and a little bit misleading. Accurate because indeed the book has lots of protocols for sleep, for navigating stress, neuroplasticity, and learning, and on and on.

But the goal of the book is that these protocols, of which there are many, but there will be more in the future, can be organized into simple frameworks that allow people to be healthier, mentally and physically, but also live their life with more ease and peace. And I think right now, thanks to podcasts like yours, perhaps podcasts like mine and others, in the last five years, we've arrived at a place where it's very clear what the core elements of health and wellness are. But one of them, which is social connection and ease and peace, internal and hopefully external as well, is a little bit incompatible with the rest. The rest is all about doing lots of protocols and optimization. So the fundamental theme of the book, despite the title, is to look at your day, check with yourself, and figure out what you can do that's in alignment with who you are, that allows you more peace and ease, and that also allows you to be healthier and quote unquote optimize. Although I'm a bit anti-optimization in the classic sense, it's really about getting your morning sunlight. Why? Because there's a larger principle there to wake up your body so that you have more alertness, better mood, and so that it sets you up for better sleep at night. So it's not about ticking off a thousand different things, or even just that one or two things are the things, although some move the lever more than others in terms of health and wellness. It's about understanding some of your biology so that on any given day, you can do the things that are most accessible to you and that you enjoy the most. Maybe a few things that you have to push yourself to do here and there.