In this episode, Amanda Anguish and Dr. Daniel Binus reveal how true connection and four simple practices—simplicity, slowing, silence &amp; solitude, and Sabbath—can unlock lasting health and happiness for your mind and body.

<p>In this episode, Amanda Anguish and Dr. Daniel Binus reveal how true connection and four simple practices—simplicity, slowing, silence &amp; solitude, and Sabbath—can unlock lasting health and happiness for your mind and body.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Beautiful Minds Wellness

The Brain People Podcast 2025

Amanda Anguish

Daniel Binus

Politics and Mental Health

Psychology of Marketing

K'dee Elsen Crews

Complex PTSD Part 1

Complex PTSD Part 2

Anger-Management

DBT Skills

Psychedelics

Dark Psychology

Shame

Men-vs-Women

Ultimate Health

Welcome to the Brain People podcast, a show where 4 mental health experts team up to bring you practical tools for overcoming mental health challenges.

The Brain People don't replace your doctor or therapist, but we will give you some extra tools to help you on your journey.

So join us as we fight mental illness, 1 episode at a time.

I'm Amanda Anguish, and I'm a licensed marriage and family therapist and I am joined by my co-host Dr.

Daniel Bynas and I'm a psychiatrist and we are going to do something We probably shouldn't do but we're pretty sure about it We're gonna promise you a way to ultimate health and happiness in your mental health.

So before we get started, I'm gonna ask a question, Dr.

Binus, or as we get started, I'm gonna ask a question.

You do a lot of research, and I know your research is taking you different places.

What do you think is 1 of the most important things to help us have ultimate health?

Yeah, that's a great question because there's so many things when we think about holistic approaches to mental health and health in general that are important.

But what's fascinating to me is that when you really boil it down and when you look at the research, more and more we're discovering that the number 1 thing to improve health, both physically and mentally, is actually connection, meaning relationships, meaning not just the number of relationships that we have, but that sense of belonging, that sense of really having a community and having relationships that are meaningful to us.

I know that's a scary word to use sometimes.

Not everybody has the same definition of intimacy, but intimacy talks about that deep closeness and connection that we can have with others.

And I know that there are some things that sometimes get in the way of that.

What are some things that help us from building good, healthy, close relationships?

And in today's fast-paced society, it's hard for people to really stop, slow down, and to connect.

Oftentimes we're so busy with our day-to-day lives that we don't really take the time.

We might have a lot of friends, so to speak, on Facebook or whatever social media platform.

We might even interact with a lot of people.

But what we find when it comes to true connection, that it's not the number of interactions that make people feel connected and have the sense of intimacy, like you said, healthy intimacy, but it's actually the quality of the connection.

And so it's not the quantity, but it's the quality.

And what we find when people are lonely and they're missing that is that it affects health in a huge way.

For example, some studies support the idea that loneliness is actually equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes per day.

And that it's worse for your health than high blood pressure or obesity.

I don't want to give anybody encouragement to do those sorts of things, but to think that our connection...

Now a lot of us think that connection is just, you know, interacting with people.

Like, I'm around people all day, every day.

But you're talking about a specific kind of connection.

So basically I'm talking about the kind of connection where people feel like they're, you might say in a way, unconditionally valued, like they're valued and they're accepted, they're heard, right?

They're seen and it's not because of just this commodity that you can offer me.

In other words, if someone comes to me, even as a psychiatrist, but they're just interested in what I can do for them as far as like medication and that.

You know, it's like, OK, I can do something nice for them that that helps maybe a little bit of connection.

But that's a whole different thing than if someone comes and they're some some of my patients even say like, well, how are you doing today?

And that's nice, you know, I see that they have a genuine interest in me as a person.

And then especially when we have conversations where there's a dialogue and we're going to a depth.

So that's the type of connection I'm talking about where, you know, there's a degree of healthy vulnerability.

There's a degree of being able to be, you know, who I am, be seen for who I really am and be accepted and loved despite even my shortcomings and that sort of thing.

I know you and I probably deal with a lot of people who they want that, but they don't know how to do that or they're afraid to connect with people.

And I think, you know, that would be a lot, depending on the situation, right?

Because like you said, there's certain barriers.

And I think that's the point is that we want to identify what are those barriers.

If we're not feeling connected, if we're feeling isolated, if we're feeling lonely, like we don't belong, we need to identify, well, why is that?

And I would argue some people are just like, well, there's no 1 out there like me, or there's not enough people that are interested in me or whatever, but there's always some things that can be identified.

Sometimes we can't always see those ourselves, And this is where sometimes getting feedback from somebody that we trust, maybe a therapist or someone else can be helpful.

But the general barriers that I see, again, the fast pace of life, Things like media are huge.

In my mind, we see a huge decrease in the face-to-face connection and that sense of real, more deep intimacy since social media has come on stage.

So the pace of life, media, and then like you said, the past wounds and hurts.

That's a huge 1 because you know a lot of people maybe never got the tools or maybe they had some example of decent relationships but then they were traumatized by people and they just want to shut down.

And so those are the big barriers I generally see.

Yeah and it's so much easier to consume yourself in something that requires no commitment or connection with it, like television or movies or something like that, Netflix, because I can consume myself with it.

It feels like I'm having some kind of interaction, but I don't actually have to invest in that.

Yeah, and that's an interesting point because what we find when we have a sense of connection, it actually does stimulate the reward circuit, which is good, you know, it's not all bad, right?

And oxytocin is released, dopamine is released, and all those things can be really healthy and good at the right levels, right?

So come in addiction or even media, these can provide a pseudo relationship, so to speak.

And so that same reward pathway that's activated with addiction, that's activated even with media, is also activated when we're connecting in relationships.

And so If we're not connecting enough in relationships, then like you said, it's so easy to gravitate towards media.

It's so easy to gravitate towards addictive things to fill that void, but in the end, does that really satisfy us the same way?

Yeah, It doesn't hurt, but it also doesn't heal.

Well, and I mean, you say it doesn't hurt.

Well, some of these things really can hurt, right?

Like some of the addictions and even the media, some of the research, actually a lot of the research is showing more and more how much it can hurt.

And so again, it's trying to fill this void, but it's not actually helping us.

It might temporarily feel like, oh yeah, I know, I can kind of check out this way and connect, so to speak, on media or with alcohol or sugar or whatever that is, but it doesn't give us the benefit that connection does.

Yeah, it's a compensating strategy, just for the moment, but not long term.

So you have, you have, you and I have talked about this and you have some solutions that you have found to help us, you know, satisfy this need for connection, which also then in turn makes us feel happier and healthier.

So you wanna share some of those with us, or all of them, because there's only 4, I think.

Yeah, 1 book that I've been browsing recently, which I think has been, I've really appreciated a lot of the principles in the book called the Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer.

What's interesting, of course, is his book as a theologian and a pastor is not particularly research-based as far as scientific and that sort of thing.

But when you look at the points that he makes, we're gonna see as we talk together today that he makes some really good points that are supported by science.

And so the big 4 practices that he encourages, which we're going to touch on, they all start with S, so that might be a good way to remember it, but it's simplicity, slowing, silence and solitude, and then Sabbath.

Okay, so let's talk about the first 1, and simplicity.

So simplicity, And Amanda, this is something that I think you could say a lot about because you've even done talks about like hoarding and that sort of thing.

And it's so true that our society is so packed with stuff and we live in this very consumerist sort of mentality and the more stuff you have, the more happy you're gonna be.

But in reality, the research actually shows that when we simplify life and we focus on the things that really matter, which like we said at the beginning of this this time is relationship, that's where we actually find more happiness.

So a big part of the simplicity factor is decluttering and then you know also not introducing too much new stuff into our life.

In other words, being very selective in what we allow into our world, instead of just like, oh, buy and buy and buy, because I have the money or this looks shiny or interesting, we need to ask ourself with every item that we are considering purchasing, what is the true cost to this item?

In other words, if I want to buy a bicycle, it's like, okay, the bike costs $299 at Walmart or whatever, right?

And so I look at that and I'm like, okay, well that's the true cost.

There's a lot more cost associated with that.

Not only is there sales tax, but there's also What's the cost as far as the amount of time that I need to spend repairing it or keeping that item up?

Or even what's the cost in the time that I need to spend enjoying it in order for it to be worthwhile the purchase?

Series

The Brain People Podcast 2025

Ultimate Health

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

InVerse, 1st Quarter 2022: Hebrews

05 Jesus, the Giver of Rest

27m

InVerse, 3rd Quarter 2022: The Sabbath

02 The Right Focus

27m

InVerse, 2nd Quarter 2023: Three Cosmic Messages

08 The Sabbath and the End

29m

InVerse, 3rd Quarter 2022: The Sabbath

07 Enter Rest

27m

InVerse, 3rd Quarter 2022: The Sabbath

06 Sabbath Sanctification

27m

InVerse, 3rd Quarter 2022: The Sabbath

05 Resting in Salvation

27m

GYC SE 2011 Seminar: Reaching Postmoderns

Parable: Sharing Your Faith with Postmoderns

53m

To Know and Be Known

Remember

58m

From Sabbath to Sunday

47m

InVerse, 4th Quarter 2020: Education

09 Education and Sabbath

27m

Daniel 7, The Sabbath, and Health

46m

Sound Doctrine