Psychological Flexibility - Interview with Dr Erik Korem

welcome back to another episode of

Christian Natural Health today I'm

excited to have Dr Eric Quorum with us

Dr Quorum has been has always been

driven by a Relentless pursuit of high

performance as time progressed that

drive became a purpose to improve the

lives of others in ways they didn't know

were possible whether the whether

fueling the performance of NCAA athletes

or the U.S Department of Defense

implementing one of NFL's first sports

science programs or coaching Olympic

gold medalists his desire to leave

people places uh people and places

better than he found them is unwavering

now as founder and CEO of aim7 he's

employing his unique expertise as an

applied performance scientist to unleash

the true power of wearables in a way

that tangibly improves the lives of

others their proven algorithms analyze

users Health Data and provide custom

recommendations for enhancing the Mind

Body and Recovery process leveraging the

science of adaptive capacity Eric and

his teams are unlocking a new level of

human performance for anyone with a

wearable device welcome mayor thanks so

much for joining us thank you so much

for having me it's kind of embarrassing

to hear that

moment I'm sorry I feel really good

about out myself now well tell us a

little bit because you've got such an

amazing background before I launch into

you know our topic today I want to know

how you went from coaching such you know

at such an elite level to designing

wearables and by the way what are

wearables yeah so

um

I spent about 16 years in pro and

college football worked in the NFL and

uh with Elite College pro football

programs and about 12 years ago I

started using athlete wearable tracking

technology so imagine the first time

somebody ever put a Fitbit

on an athlete in a game but it was these

are like very sophisticated devices they

would connect to GPS satellites and have

these things like accelerometers in

there and so what we could do is we

could really understand what was

happening on the football field how fast

people were running how far

um and for the first time ever we

Quantified the game of football but it

was just a bunch of data like millions

of data points

and it really didn't do anything for

quite a while because we're like you

know it's like data without Insight is

useless like so what it's like a

dashboard right but we were able to turn

that information into actionable

solutions for our performance coaches

our medical staff and even the way that

we practiced our players

and we had an 88 reduction in injury the

next year and our team won a and it went

on to win a championship and then the

NFL came in after that season they're

like okay

what's going on here they saw dollar

signs and it opened a multi-billion

dollar market here in the U.S for sports

wearables and other data sets so if you

ever watch an NFL game now or even an

NBA or Major League Baseball game you'll

see these people they'll be like oh they

ran this fast or that was kind of all

started about 12 years ago

so I my career kind of went a different

direction I really got into this field

of sports science and then I got a PhD

studying how sleep impacts our ability

to adapt to stress and we started using

different types of wearables like

an Apple Watch or an aura ring or a

whoop or whatever to understand how our

bodies were adapting to stress

so that we could build the capacity to

adapt to more physical and mental stress

at less cost

so that's a fallacy to say that you can

manage stress sure you can't manage like

I can't manage the the government I

can't manage you know the stock markets

I can't manage how people respond to

what I say sometimes even if it's well

intentioned but what you can do is you

can build the capacity

to adapt to it and so

um what we're doing now with my company

aim seven is we're we're unlocking the

power of these wearables so if let's say

an Apple Watch or a Fitbit or a Garmin

or whatever

it's just data like I walk 6 000 steps

and slept seven hours but so what we

tell you exactly what you need to do

each day in those areas to help you

build more capacity for stress

fascinating wow okay yeah so is this

sort of similar like I'm I'm kind of

thinking about biofeedback as you're

talking the idea of like getting

information that says do more of this do

less of this I mean that's essentially

what you're talking about right yeah

we're using biometric data from the

wearable and we also use how you feel

so there's a big if anybody's listening

and they've ever had a oral ring or

something like that I wear an aura just

it has good sleep data but sometimes

it's like hey you're a 90 today and

you're like I feel like uh 15 I didn't

you know a lot of stress got in an

argument my kids are going crazy today

whatever yeah we combined the the

objective measures from the wearable

with how you feel we have people do the

short quick mental Fitness intervention

in the morning takes 25 seconds and then

our algorithms are like oh so you want

to go exercise today we noticed that you

like to do yoga lift weights get on the

elliptical whatever we're gonna be like

oh

the aim 7 coach recommends getting on

the elliptical go for 30 minutes in this

specific heart rate zone and then pat

yourself on the back and have a great

day

yeah or we do it for mental health and

sleep and napping recommendations as

well yeah that's amazing so it's like

kind of what I do as a doctor is I will

see people's labs and then I'll I mean I

can't usually just prescribe based on

the labs you have to talk to people and

find out yes are you actually feeling

what's optimal for you so it sounds like

you're essentially doing that same thing

you're just integrating because like

your body only has so many dials that it

can dial and maybe you've got high

adrenaline and it's because you're

working out you're feeling awesome but

maybe it's because you just had a fight

so that's exactly right context it's

called contextualized recommendations so

as a doctor you can do that a lot of

people have it was like 120 million

Americans now have these wearables but

it's like what do I do with it exactly

in order to help folks we had to figure

out a system that could reach them

without

having to go in and beat one-on-one with

the sports scientists that's just not

going to happen right right so our our

mission is to empower people to live

healthy and then impactful lives we

believe if you if you're healthy you can

live a life of impact whatever talents

God's gifted you with right you can go

live them out to the to the fullest

degree yeah I love it that's awesome so

I mean I'll get into the psychological

flexibility for a second but if somebody

is interested in finding out more about

that what do they where do they go yeah

so aim seven is the name of the website

aim7.com and uh right now we're in

what's called a private beta so you have

to just sign up on the website and then

we send you a link to download the app

but we'll be in the App Store in late

August but um uh yeah it's it we do it

right through the uh to the aim 7

website and it's a very unique

experience

um people we've had just so many amazing

results after the first 30 days we're

seeing double digit improvements and

things like energy

motivation Sleep Quality perception of

stress it's crazy that's amazing I'm

already thinking of a bunch of people

that I think would be great I know well

thank you that's fantastic okay tell us

a little bit about like you're talking

about ways to essentially build

resilience and build functions yes with

respect to this but tell us a little bit

about like how psychological flexibility

plays into this just as a general

concept can you define it for us first

yeah so psychological flexibility think

about this there's this there's this

dialogue that's always going on inside

your head

right there's always this conversation

going on sure and uh it's something

actually just as a side note that I've

been thinking a lot about lately is

every time you meet somebody or interact

with somebody

like Lauren like you have your own

conversation going on in your head and

you're seeing the world through your

eyes and in some ways not in a selfish

way but you're the center of that world

if that makes any sense yeah and

oftentimes we kind of forget about this

um but you know negative thoughts can

come in and out of our heads sometimes

we dwell on those things

um and what we really need to do is

train ourselves to become aware of the

thoughts emotions and feelings that

we're experiencing so we can take action

anchored in our values and we can

actually live like

you ever had an argument

with somebody or you communicated with

somebody you're like oh

you look back like that's not me yeah

that's not who I am totally this is a

this is a way for us to kind of break

through that and and it can kind of come

into in difficult situations or you're

confronted with with with difficult

thoughts emotions or feelings and so

the way to be psychologically flexible

is tied to something we call mental

Fitness and mental Fitness is the

ability to be consciously present so

that you can process information without

bias this empowers you to quickly

respond in a rational way anchored in

your values yeah yeah so it's more like

not reacting but responding okay yeah

and you're more flexible in the moment

sure yeah so there's really three parts

to this do you want to unpack this

please yeah tell us how do we get there

everybody wants to get there right the

first part is understanding your purpose

okay

and I think this is like a this is kind

of a meta type of thing but like I think

Mark Twain said the two most important

days of your life for the day you were

born and the day you find out why yes

right and you know for me

I believe that I'm here because God put

me on the earth he's gifted me with some

type of talent ability to go out and

impact the lives of others that's my

purpose right and if you're sitting

there going okay that's like really like

okay well what what's like the you know

I'm married like you kind of start

drilling down a little bit I'm married I

have three kids I have a I have a very

specific purpose to nurture that

relationship with my wife to be a role

model for my boys uh to be an active

member of my community so there's some

questions you can ask yourself like what

are my talents skills and abilities and

how can those be used to impact others

that's one question you can ask where do

I find joy and fulfillment because

sometimes we're doing things that don't

bring us joy and God so I think that's

one of God's signals of saying like

maybe this yeah

isn't that where you're supposed to be

right now

um you know does your current job leave

you unfulfilled maybe you're a

stay-at-home parent or maybe you're

working are there things that you need

to be finding other ways to to serve or

do things like that and another one

another way to look at this is like what

would you want your obituary to say if

you were to die

and that kind of like anchors you on

this like purpose that you're here for

the next thing is is identifying your

values

and um if you've ever worked in

Corporate America a lot of these

companies have values they kind of put

up on the wall of a building or whatever

but most people have never truly

identified

their values

and values or core values are

non-negotiable principles that basically

set a tone

for how you behave and act

um goals are about a destination but

values are more about a direction okay

makes sense

values are about like how you want to be

right here right now yep so like

for me it's Excellence caring

faith and health and so those are like

the core values that like when I make a

decision I can say it and this is kind

of one of the the other parts is when I

make a decision or I choose to interact

with somebody in a specific way am I

acting in a way that's aligned with my

values

so when emote when when uncomfortable

thoughts and emotions and feelings come

to the surface or I'm in a difficult

situation

this last part is going to kind of pull

it all together here

but you want to be aware of that

conversation going on in your head or

aware of how you feel

and you want to be fully present and be

open to those thoughts emotions and

feelings

because how you feel doesn't have to

determine how you perform or how you act

and so you can train this so it's

understand your purpose

number two understand what your values

are like identify them and clearly like

hold on to them and embrace them and

then the third is you have to train your

awareness

so mindfulness is an excellent practice

for this I figured you were going with

this yep absolutely

um and for those that are listening like

mindfulness is not uh it doesn't have to

be a spiritual practice it can be right

uh but it's really just anchoring on

some physical sensation

it could be your most people do breath

they just close their eyes and they just

try to observe their breath and

naturally what's going to happen is your

brain's going to wander off

and then you're going to notice that and

then you bring your brain back to the

current situation and that is when the

plastic changes actually occur in your

brain is the process of noting that I'm

over here and coming back so you don't

need to beat yourself down like I'm

trying to do this thing and I can't

focus it's normal it's actually the

ability to go oh

I'm I'm thinking about

whatever now I'm going to come back and

you can do this in a lot of ways I've

started doing mindful walks

so I'll go out

and I'll do a short walk around the

block for maybe 10 minutes and I just

think about my foot touching the ground

coming off the ground like just sensing

what's happening yeah

maybe what's in the environment it's

like all of a sudden when you start

paying attention it's like oh my gosh

there's birds right yeah Incredibles

yeah but we're just not aware and

mindfulness is uh it's a wonderful thing

to practice and it has dramatic

implications on our health there was

actually a paper that was published

recently in Jama Psychiatry where it was

an eight-week intervention where they

did mindfulness based um stress

reduction and uh they had the control

group had that a control group that a

group that was using Lexapro to commonly

prescribed anti-anxiety drug and

mindfulness and mindfulness was um had

the same outcomes after eight weeks as

Lexapro is a 20 reduction in symptoms of

major depression

because when you're aware of what you're

feeling you can then take action

essentially do something

synthetic done absolutely yeah so and

there's you know amazing implications

for you know stress biomarkers cortisol

level

um even blood pressure heart rate

variability metabolic profiles but so

the the three steps are

you know understand your purpose

clearly I articulate and understand your

values

I would train awareness

and then you can take action anchored in

your values and now you have the

flexibility in the moment

to behave in a way that's aligned with

who you really are

so give us an example like you you gave

the example before of you're in the

middle of a fight and you're having all

those emotions are rising up and you

have all these negative thoughts so

somebody that has taken those steps and

they're anchored in the moment and they

know what their values are but

somebody's really pushing their buttons

what are the thought processes that keep

you from reacting and keep you from

reacting and allow you to respond yeah

so

part of this too you know when you have

awareness here's the here's the here's

the cruddy part about this

um when you're aware now you have a

choice

yep and that's that's the grown-up part

about this whole thing you still have to

do the right thing I'm gonna say I'm

gonna tell you guys something that I'm

not too proud of

um a couple weeks ago I was acting in a

way

my wife and I were in a discussion and I

realized that I am in the wrong

and you have two choices to make at that

moment

do I dig my heels in

and be a jerk or do I just go you know

what

you're right I'm wrong I'm sorry yep

um the other side of the equation is if

somebody is coming at you

and you can do a couple things like you

can then now be like Hey listen we need

to take a breath here

or you can be the mature adult and

realize that hey remember we talked

about at the very beginning everybody's

got this whole thing going on in their

head it kind of gives you room for a

little bit of Grace

absolutely so so

um and that this kind of gets into

deeper levels of communication and

de-escalating conflicts but let me bring

it to something a little bit more

maybe performance oriented like you've

got to go get up and speak

at something like a conference or

present to your team at work or do

something with your community group

maybe somebody asks you to teach and

you're like oh gosh and you you get up

there and you have you know you I think

the number one public fear in America is

what public speaking

and um you know you start feeling like

you're gonna throw up you know you're

anxious

it's okay if you're open to those

uncomfortable thoughts emotions and

feelings then you can go you know what

but I've practiced I'm ready and now I'm

gonna shift my attention and I'm going

to take action based off of my training

and my practice and then see what I'm

saying

yeah

um there was an elite athlete I'll just

tell a really quick story his um sir

Chris Hoy is his name he's the greatest

Olympic cyclist of all time he had eight

Olympic gold medals

and when he said that somebody asked

them what does it feel like to race in

an olympic finals and I have trained

athletes that have won gold medals in

the Olympics and

so I understand like the gravity of the

moment you've trained for four years

the difference between getting a bronze

silver or gold can be making a living

for the next four years or you're just

relegated some people are just you know

living in a car I mean it's like that

kind of craziness

and he said it felt like I was going to

The Gallows

see

yeah like you like you're gonna die and

uh but he said but what he did was is he

would

grip the steering wheel

he would feel his feet in the clips

yeah you got it and so what was he doing

he had trained his mind and then he

would take action

and so this is the type of flexibility I

think that all of us desire

but it takes work it just doesn't it

just doesn't happen right yeah

yeah great so um

what what is there that I haven't asked

you that you think think is useful for

the audience to take away from this like

what you've kind of given us some ideas

of action steps but how do we begin to

put this into practice if this is

something that's totally foreign for

people what do they do in order to to

begin

yeah I would I would I would take if

this is something you're like oh my gosh

this is something I would like to do

let's start with I would take some time

and maybe start with the purpose part

uh the uh the core values you can go

online we can I can actually probably

send you a link to a core values

exercise that somebody could take

uh the key is you don't want to have

more than four or five because then it's

like I can't remember all these and

usually you'll start with a list of like

50 and then you're like all right I

gotta cut it in half and it's going to

get smaller and smart doesn't mean like

if you don't have character on there

that you're not a person of character

some of these things from here like

table Stakes you know but and then the

the awareness part you actually have to

train it and if you're like where do I

start with buying fullness there's a lot

of great apps out there

um in our aim 7 app we actually Dr Peter

habriel he's the former senior sports

psychologist for the US Olympics he

teaches we have a whole series in the

app on psychological flexibility

and he teaches people how to take he

calls them weather checks of the mind

and uh it's very it's brilliant stuff

the guy's he's Austrian so he's almost

magical to listen to but um he's one of

these people you're like transfixed on

his voice oh yeah but you could you can

literally use your cell phone start a

timer close your eyes and just observe

your breath

this is zero cost

um and then you know start with three

minutes and just see just don't try to

manipulate anything just sit there and

focus and what you're going to start

finding is the longer you start training

this when you can get up to about 30

minutes a week

um maybe it's a walk maybe you can

practice mindfulness by when you go into

the shower instead of just getting in

there and just showering like you're

actually like I'm gonna feel the water

here on my body and I'm gonna like it

takes perception of the world to a whole

nother level and what you'll start to

see is that you're more keenly aware of

what's happening around you

so that when it comes time to take

action you're like okay

I'm not gonna yell at my child I'm going

to respond to them in a way that's

aligned with my values I think as

parents we struggle with this you know

life gets emotional child says something

and you get over escalated and you're

like uh that's not what I want to do I

would have responded love or be like hey

we're gonna correct this we're going to

fix this

um and responded away there's more

aligned with who you are in your

character

yeah I've heard that the what you're

describing is being defined as sort of

like the mental manager like there's

there's yes constantly thinking of all

the things and all the all the emotions

and then there's the The Observer that's

like that's not really me I don't really

believe that or you can begin to jump in

and correct that to recognize that your

thoughts are not necessarily you that

you do not control over them and you can

so side note too so I started doing

um a little while ago um I started doing

five minutes at the end of every work

day turn off my timer I usually mentally

go to the beach with Jesus

um

either ways and all that kind of stuff

and what I what used to happen is

whenever I would go on vacation the

first couple of days my brain was

spinning spinning spinning spinning and

it would take a couple of days for it to

settle down for me to actually be where

I was but after I started doing that I

could get there right away as soon as I

was I was on vacation I noticed that I

was in vacation mode and I was chill

immediately and I didn't and I the only

thing I could really attribute it to was

that practice of mindfulness so it does

seem like that makes a big difference in

terms of particularly if you're trying

to spin a lot of plates at the same time

that can help you to be grounded where

you need to be

100 that's such a cool anecdote for

people because that is one of the hard

things is when you do have a chance to

slow down

then it's you spend this time like kind

of ramping your body down but if you've

trained it and that's one thing I'd like

to leave people with like from a World

of Sports and performance where I came

from we had a saying what often says

like you're either trained or untrained

you know it's just like your spiritual

life you either you either either

engaged

or you're unengaged when you're engaged

doesn't mean life's going to be easy

it just means that you know where you're

anchored and you can take action

you can you can recall the Bible verses

you can recall you can go okay now I'm

going to go to prayer right and and get

put this at the feet of Jesus and not

just dwell on it make my worries his

concerns that's a great thing about

mindfulness you can stop the rumination

and you can go God

do not be anxious about anything but in

everything through prayer and petition

present your request to God right okay

Lord here it is but if you're not aware

of it guess what it has your attention

right absolutely for sure where can

people go to learn more about you

yeah so um at Eric Quorum on Instagram

I'm on LinkedIn we just launched a

YouTube channel

um I do have a podcast called The

Blueprint where we just do a Cutting

Edge Science Leadership life skills in a

very simple vignettes of like 15 minutes

or less and

um so if you like this you know you can

go check us out on the blueprint but

such a pleasure to be on your show

you're a great host by the way thank you

I appreciate it it's been a pleasure

pleasure to have you this has been

really fantastic information and I'm

excited about your app it seems super

cool yeah thank you it's been it's been

a labor of love

you too are you looking for a

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unfortunately even in the alternative

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right for you

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