Claudia von Boeselager On The Key Triad for Life & Longevity Often Overlooked

The Longevity & Lifestyle podcast

The Longevity & Lifestyle podcast

The Longevity & Lifestyle podcast

Episode 180

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I'm cLAUDIA!

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Performance coach, detail-loving educator, big-thinking entrepreneur, podcaster, mama, passionate adventurer, and health optimization activist here to help people transform their lives, and reach their highest potential! All rolled into one.

“I believe that we're actually at the beginning—or at the beginning of—one of the most exciting times in history. A new era is upon us. More and more people are waking up and realizing that we have a choice. We have a choice to choose a different path away from suffering and disease—to one of potential and vibrant energy, connection, and purpose. Imagine you could be 70, 80, or a hundred years old in a 30-year-old body. What would you do? How would you use this time and energy?” - Claudia von Boeselager

In today’s episode, I’m excited to take you through my personal health journey, one that’s been shaped by my deep dive into the science of longevity, biohacking, and transforming biological age. Health optimization is something many of us strive for, but it can be tough to navigate. After facing serious health issues from my high-pressure career in investment banking and tech startups, I had a moment that completely changed my life. My doctor gave me a dire warning, and that became the catalyst for a 12+ year journey of research and self-improvement.

In this episode, I share my triad approach to longevity—focusing on the body, mind, and spirit—which I believe is essential to not only reaching your highest potential but even “growing younger.” I’ll dive into chronic health issues, the power of biohacking strategies, some of my go-to dietary tips, supplements, detox methods, and how to optimize your daily routine.

I’ll also talk about brain health, especially the role of neuroplasticity and gratitude. We’ll explore healing from trauma, the potential of self-discovery, and how to find your life’s purpose.

This episode is filled with practical tips and personal insights from my own experiences. I can’t wait to share it with you and help you on your journey to health and transformation. Tune in!



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Show Notes 

00:00 Choose health and vibrant life over disease.
04:21 Health crisis realization prompts urgent lifestyle changes.
09:49 Optimize biomarkers, gut, and hormonal health carefully.
10:47 Hormone changes significantly impact aging and health.
14:46 Optimize sleep: avoid blue light, eat early.
18:00 Manage blood sugar, fasting, avoid inflammatory foods.
22:16 Enjoy activities regularly; cold exposure boosts dopamine.
26:40 Shift mindset positively with meditation and breathwork.
28:53 Music profoundly impacts memory and well-being.
31:11 Unresolved trauma led to healing through self-discovery.
34:46 Embrace vision, act now, connect via Instagram.

People mentioned

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  • Apollo Wearable - get 15% off with code CLAUDIA at checkout.
  • Nomosu - get 15% off with code CLAUDIA15 at checkout.
  • Levels Health

MORE GREAT QUOTES 

“I believe the body is your temple for housing your divine self, one that deserves the utmost respect and maintenance throughout life's journey. Yet so many of us, myself included, have forgotten this along the way. Instead, we use and abuse it, in part because we've been confused and even brainwashed by billion-dollar budgets to believe consuming highly inflammatory, highly addictive, toxic food and chemicals—put in the medicine we feed our bodies daily, our food—is somehow good for us.
This, coupled with the chemicals and radiation we're exposed to, not just in our foods but in our products that we use and in our environments, is making us sick. What is the result? An epidemic of chronic health issues, over-medication, disconnection from our bodies and their intrinsic ability to heal. Our current healthcare system is broken.” - Claudia von Boeselager


“When I began my journey, I thought it was all just about optimizing the body. But in my quest, I realized a key to longevity and optimization lies in doing the shadow work and healing the trauma. So you can step into a higher consciousness and align with your true purpose.” - Claudia von Boeselager

Legal Disclaimer: Please note, to avoid any unnecessary headaches, Longevity & Lifestyle LLC owns the copyright in and to all content in and transcripts of The Longevity & Lifestyle Podcast, with all rights reserved, as well as the right of publicity. You are welcome to share parts of the transcript (up to 500 words) in other media (such as press articles, blogs, social media accounts, etc.) for non-commercial use which must also include attribution to “The Longevity & Lifestyle Podcast” with a link back to the longevity-and-lifestyle.com/podcast URL. It is prohibited to use any portion of the podcast content, names or images for any commercial purposes in digital or non-digital outlets to promote you or another’s products or services.

PODCAST EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Claudia von Boeselager: Welcome to another episode of the Longevity and Lifestyle Podcast. I'm your host, Claudia von Boeselager. I'm here to uncover the groundbreaking strategies, tools, and practices from the world's pioneering experts to help you live your best and reach your fullest potential. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast to always catch the latest episodes.

Legal Disclaimer: Please note, to avoid any unnecessary headaches, Longevity & Lifestyle LLC owns the copyright in and to all content in and transcripts of The Longevity & Lifestyle Podcast, with all rights reserved, as well as the right of publicity. You are welcome to share parts of the transcript (up to 500 words) in other media (such as press articles, blogs, social media accounts, etc.) for non-commercial use which must also include attribution to “The Longevity & Lifestyle Podcast” with a link back to the longevity-and-lifestyle.com/podcast URL. It is prohibited to use any portion of the podcast content, names or images for any commercial purposes in digital or non-digital outlets to promote you or another’s products or services.


PODCAST EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Claudia von Boeselager [00:00:00]:
Hello sweet friends, and welcome to the Longevity and lifestyle podcast. I'm your host, Claudia von Boeselager, here to bring you the latest insights and learnings to improve your health, life and happiness for longer. I'm so excited to share this special episode with you, a solo episode with yours truly on a topic I feel is often overlooked in the longevity and health optimization space. I'm so delighted to see this community of amazing souls grow and honor you in your journey to increase your health span and step into the highest version of yourself for longer. The world needs more of you. So in today's episode, we'll be looking at biohacking tips at longevity and at raising consciousness. We'll be covering some territory together here today that have helped me not only recover from health issues, but reverse my biological age to 16 years younger than my chronological one. I am now 26 again.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:00:59]:
This episode is based on a keynote presentation I held recently at a conference, and I wanted to share my message with you too. Dear audience, if something really resonates with you today, please go ahead and share this episode with someone who might need to hear it too. Now, speaking of health and longevity, isn't it astonishing how many of us has or knows a loved one or a friend who suffers or has suffered with a chronic disease such as cancer, dementia, heart disease, stroke? Often at talks, I give most of the hands, if not all of the hands in the room go up. What has our world turned into? It's a sad reality of our current system, this so called healthcare system, but more aptly, I believe, called a sick care system. And yet, this is not what life is meant to be, right? I believe that we're actually at a beginning, or at the beginning of one of the most exciting times in history. A new era is upon us. More and more people are waking up and realizing that we have a choice. We have a choice to choose a different path away from suffering and disease to one of potential and vibrant energy, connection and purpose.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:02:13]:
Imagine you could be 70, 80, or 100 years old in a 30 year old body. What would you do? How would you use this time and energy to make a positive impact in the world? I firmly believe that if you can live in this peak state now and for many years to come, this will fundamentally change the world as we know it. And this is why I'm so excited to share my journey and learnings and biohacking and healing trauma, growing spiritually and enhancing longevity for a happier, healthier and longer life with you. And for those of you perhaps newer to my audience, or unfamiliar with my story. I wanted to share this with you. I was born in New York City to an irish mother and german father and since went on to live in nine countries and places across Europe and the US, Shanghai and Buenos Aires. So I don't really know where I'm from, but I call London and Florida home and you see, I've always been very driven, but hugely to the detriment of my health. And I pushed myself to do more and be more and achieve more, in part to not focus on the pain inside.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:03:30]:
Which led me to start my career in investment banking at Goldman Sachs with notorious long hours and later going on to found and working in tech startups where sleep of more than just a couple hours a night was not unusual. But somehow I found the drive and energy to push through until I didn't. Early thirties and my lifestyle of burning the candle at both ends really caught up with me. Chronic health issues like chronic fatigue and leaky gut and chronic sinusitis. The list of issues was long and growing and it all came to a climax one day. I remember it was a beautiful blue skies and sunshine kind of day. The kind of day that would normally give you a spring in your step. But for me that day, it was the day I got a call from my doctor who wanted to share my recent blood test results.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:04:21]:
My blood markers were so bad, so many in the red, that he told me in no uncertain terms that he was two weeks away from hospitalizing me if I didn't act fast. I was stunned. And as I got up to climb the stairs, I felt like what it must be like to climb Mount Everest, one slow step in front of the other. I was exhausted. I was on empty. And I remember looking down at my watch and realizing it wasn't even lunchtime and I was beyond exhausted. How could this have happened? How did my years of just pushing through lead me to this point? And where did all my boundless energy go? How was I going to make it through the day and run my business and take care of my small kids and a busy schedule? And it dawned on me, worse yet, what were the next 20, 30, 40 years going to be like if I even made it that far? In that moment, I viscerally felt what a disease ridden life could look like. And in that moment, it clicked.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:05:26]:
Enough was enough. This was not my destiny. This was not who I was here to be. And it set me on a journey of now over twelve plus years, researching, testing, interviewing the world's leading experts in pioneers in science and longevity medicine, in peak performance, biohacking and spiritual connection to uncover the key modalities to optimize health, have vibrant energy for a longer, happier life. I studied and trained in health and life optimization, coaching and peak performance and NLP meditation, Reichi mastery, and went through trauma healing processes including plant medicine. I tested and biohacked myself, which has now enabled me to have the biological age of 16 years younger than my chronological one. And I'm so passionate about helping others heal and optimize themselves to reach their highest version of themselves. I now want to live life to the fullest.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:06:23]:
Climb Mount Kilimanjaro at 90 with my kids, go skydiving at 100 and I made a promise with my then three year old Francesca that I would go to space with her when she grew up and most importantly, to help as many people as I can live a longer, healthier and happier life. There is a way scientific breakthroughs and technological innovation is here to allow us to let diseases be a thing of the past. Like dementia, which many of you will know my mother sadly suffers from. And if I had known earlier what I know now, it could have been reversed. Instead of watching her fade away, diseases like cancer, which my father suffer from, could be eradicated, for the most part, metabolic diseases as well. And so many more. The time has come for this needless suffering to end. So let me share some of the keys to longevity that I've learned along my journey, which I've come to realize.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:07:23]:
Fall into a triad. A triad for longevity, compromising the body, mind and spirit. Each piece essential for stepping into the highest version of yourself for longer. Which, by the way, can also help you grow younger, too. When I began my journey, I thought it was all just about optimizing the body. But in my quest, I realized a key to longevity and optimization lies in doing the shadow work and healing the trauma so you can step into a higher consciousness and align with your true purpose. I'll share more about this shortly. So let's start with the body.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:07:59]:
I believe the body is your temple for housing your divine self, one that deserves the utmost respect and maintenance throughout life's journey. Yet so many of us, myself included, have forgotten this along the way. Instead, we use and abuse it, in part because we've been confused and even brainwashed by billion dollar budgets to believe consuming highly inflammatory, highly addictive, toxic food and chemicals put in the medicine we feed our bodies daily, our food is somehow good for us. This, coupled with the chemicals and radiation we're exposed to, not just in our foods, but in our products that we use and in our environments, it's making us sick. What is the result? An epidemic of chronic health issues over medication, disconnection from our bodies, and their intrinsic ability to heal. Our current healthcare system is broken. Many of our doctors are overworked, with an average of six minutes per patient. And medical schools are not teaching anything about nutrition, the medicine we feed our bodies every day.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:09:08]:
Instead, the model is diagnosis, prescription, and that's what's pushed. And it's no wonder when you look at who is actually funding medical schools. Yet the magic is available to us when the body is given the right support, the right food, the right hydration, rest. Healing the body can work wonders for us, many times healing itself and even aging backwards. So here are some key strategies and biohacks for those starting out to better support your body. Number one, test and repair. What gets measured, gets managed. The expression goes, you need to know your baseline also, so you can track it over time and see how you're doing.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:09:49]:
So this includes looking at biomarkers in your bloods, and you want to ensure that you're looking at them from a functional medicine perspective and that they're in the optimal range for you, not just how the average range is for the average population. You might also want to test your gut health. You may have heard your gut is your second brain, so healing and optimizing your gut is crucial for me. Between my years of eating disorders, high stress work environments, together with my love of travel to exotic places, led to my gut health being in a pretty bad state. From too much of the not so good bacteria to too little of the good bacteria and lovely parasites and hdd pylori. Thankfully, that's all been solved and helped me get my high energy back. You also want to check your hormonal health, which is super important. We're faced with real challenges to our health and so many endocrine disruptors from plastics and BPA wreaking havoc on our hormonal health.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:10:47]:
Did you know that men's testosterone levels decrease 1% each year from as young as age 30? And women? Well, we are very complex. And from the age of 35 or so, hormone levels begin to change as perimenopause can begin. And this has a real impact on the quality of our lives. Did you know, as shown by research from biological age testing company Glycan age, that women age biologically on average of eight to nine years. In that one year between their last period and twelve months plus a day when menopause is officially declared eight to nine years. It's because estrogen falls off a cliff, much to the detriment of women's health and well being. This is why bio or body identical HRT is so crucial. And thankfully, the myths around HRT have finally been debunked.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:11:41]:
Another thing really important to check is your toxins exposure to mold, which can happen in your house if there's leaks or even between the walls. Heavy metals, which can be from mercury and fish to mercury fillings. Others. You can even consider having an air filter system in your home too. For me also, I found out doing a cortisol response test really helpful, especially if you've spent years working in high stress environments. I had given myself adrenal fatigue along the way. If you're over 45 or 50 looking at a recommendation from leading neuroscientist doctor Dale Bredesen of doing an annual cognoscopy, checking your cognition and keeping up to speed on that. Also, functional genomics is super exciting because even though you can't change your DNA, you can change if those genes are expressed.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:12:33]:
It's like a light switch. It's there, but you don't have to turn it on. So much depends on your epigenetics or the environment inside and outside of you. Also, biological age testing. I believe glycanage is one of the most reliable ones because markers one of inflammation in the body. And this helps to establish a good baseline and keep you informed of your progress. You can also consider doing a full body MRI screening for early disease detection, which is shown to be quite powerful too. I know a close friend used it to discover she had stage one cancer that could successfully be treated, thankfully, which otherwise might have gone unchecked.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:13:10]:
Another way for supporting your body is regaining vibrant energy. This, I believe is so important. Don't we all want to have this? Well, through understanding, rejuvenating and optimizing your mitochondria, you can mitochondria. Many of you might have heard it, it's definitely a trend word these days. But they're the energy packs of your cells responsible for producing the energy that fuels every action in your body. When your mitochondria are functioning optimally, you feel more energetic, focused and alive. So let me share some biohacks, some ways to optimize your mitochondria, and thus your energy. Paramount is sleep and sleep hygiene and timing.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:13:56]:
You see, I used to embarrassingly think that I could sleep when I'm dead. This was the 20 year old version of me. So anyone else who might have done that? Yeah, but I've now learned the importance of what goes on during our sleeping hours and why it's so crucial to get quality sleep. You see, it's the time that when the cells are rejuvenating and detoxification happens. And that's why getting seven to 8 hours of quality sleep is so vital. And by the way, that means typically being in bed for 1 hour longer to get the quality sleep time in. I like to track my sleep with an Oura Ring, for example, and I leave it on in the airplane mode overnight to reduce EMF radiation. And it's helped me to better understand how my sleep cycles actually work and what impacts my sleep and how I can optimize it.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:14:46]:
And so for some of you, maybe unfamiliar ways to have a more optimal sleep hygiene, well, that includes things like no blue or aka junk light an hour and a half before bedtime, as this will interfere with your mind and your ability to really unwind and relax. Getting to sleep and having your last meal at least 3 hours before going to bed so that you're fully digested. Going to sleep so your body can work its magic and rejuvenation and detox during the night and not focus on the actual digesting. Also to wind down with a book, not the news or social media, because as they say, if it bleeds, it bleeds. So no sensational news that will raise your cortisol levels. Sleeping in a cold like 65 degree dark room is shown to be really great for your health and sleep quality. Also removing EMF radiation, electromagnetic field radiation. There's so many devices around us, and if we live in a city, we have neighbors with Wi Fi and all their devices as well.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:15:46]:
So put as many as you can into airplane mode, put it away from you have EMF mitigation devices as well. If you can't avoid, let's say, a neighbor's Wi Fi, etcetera. Another thing that's really important is nasal breathing. So you want to increase your oxygen uptake through nasal breathing. And you can even use mouth tape. I know it sounds not very sexy, but it's proven to work wonders. There's a brand called MyoTape that I like. It goes around your mouth so it doesn't actually cover your mouth.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:16:19]:
And I find that my cognition in the morning is even sharper as a result. Another important way to improve your mitochondria is through movement and mobility. But think of the minimum effective dose. You see, there is a danger in over exercising. I used to think I had to kill it at the gym for 2 hours at a time, 1 hour of spinning, 1 hour of weight training, and not only was it taking up a huge chunk of my day, but it was actually zapping my energy because it was depleting my body's nutrients and minerals and actually increasing inflammation, the exact opposite of what I was trying to achieve. So it's about finding that minimum effective dose of cardio and weight training really important. And women, please listen to this as well. Super, super important to optimize your body and also building in recovery days, which are just as essential as well.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:17:10]:
And in terms of mobility, we can't forget about this as we age. We need to maintain that full range of motion and movement, essentially for optimal health. I know Doctor Kelly Starrett, an expert in this I've had on the podcast. He was still doing splits at age 50. So very impressive and something to aim for. We also want to look at nutrition and when and what to eat, because the goal is to achieve what they call metabolic flexibility, which is the ability to adapt the body's fuel selection between glucose and fatty acids. Metabolic inflexibility is linked to insulin resistance, obesity and type two diabetes. And what I find super helpful is to just stick on, even for two weeks or even a month, a continuous glucose monitor, you just put it on the back of your arm.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:18:00]:
Some countries you can order it online, in other countries you can get a prescription from your doctor, and it just allows you to understand how your body, because we're all different, how your body reacts to certain foods and exercise, stress drinks and sleep. And it's key to understanding how you can keep your blood sugar levels in that optimal range. I'm a fan of Levels Health for this as well. You also want to look at when to eat. So prolonged intermittent fasting, and I'm talking about 1620 or more hours a day, which some people do, is not for everyone, and a huge caution around that as well. So instead, we've all heard about the trends of intermittent fasting, or time restricted eating. But according to the thought leader in this space of the circadian rhythm optimization expert, Doctor Sachin Panda, he recommends at the very minimum, and frankly, for most people, that the best is to do an overnight fast of twelve to 14 hours, and ideally also to do a three to five day fast once a quarter. So once every three months, then the question is, what to eat? Well, hopefully many of you listeners are very familiar with this, but in case you may not be, it's so essential to avoid highly inflammatory foods, like processed foods, which are pretty much everywhere, sugar.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:19:25]:
Again, learning how to read labels per 100 grams, you want things that are 5 grams of sugar or less. And where possible to buy organic to avoid toxic pesticides in our food. Also want to increase whole foods. So essentially you want to avoid the middle aisles in the supermarket and just focus on the parameter and consuming healthy fats like nuts and seeds and olive and coconut oils and fatty fish like salmon eggs and grass fed meats. Also you want to increase the variety of organic vegetables. Doctor mark hyman recommends eating the rainbow of 30 different colored vegetables and some fruit each week to get the nutritional benefits and increasing fiber. This is a big one. A lot of people have very low consumption of fiber each day as well as your protein intake.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:20:11]:
Looking at supplements, depending on how well you're able to get the required nutrients from your food, and if you are able to get it from your food, then you might need supplementation. The best is to actually personalize your supplementation according to your blood biomarkers. Key supplements I found essential for me was vitamin d three with vitamin K to help with the absorption. So many of us are vitamin D deficient. Vitamin B. I'm very low in this as well. Magnesium omega three digestive enzymes found super helpful. Just so we can make sure that we're getting the most out of our food.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:20:47]:
And coenzyme q ten or coq ten, which is a powerful antioxidant. There's also some more longevity focused supplements like spermidine, there's synolytics, there's NAD which comes in different forms from patches to subcutaneous injections. What I hear, and I haven't tried the drip myself, but that's not for everyone. And people can actually feel quite nauseous as well. So just do your research and know what's right for you. Next one is detoxification. And as much as we try to avoid it, we are exposed to so many chemicals in our environment and in our food and the products that we use and put on our skin, in our hair, etcetera. So it's so important to detox these chemicals in our environment, which can include mold or heavy metals, pollutants, etcetera.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:21:34]:
The benefits of this is reduction of inflammation and cortisol levels, improved cardiovascular health and circulation, libido and longevity, enhanced immune system and metabolism. And it promotes injury, healing and growth factor production. So what are some ways? Well, the hot and cold, right? So heat is really, really great way to detox and this can be from heat exposure. So sweating and saunas are an excellent way of doing this. And despite the current type around saunas. My german grandmother was doing this over a century ago. So you have the finnish sauna, you have steam rooms, red light saunas. This really supports mitochondria as well.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:22:16]:
Do what you enjoy and try to do it regularly. They say two to three times a week. Ideally, if you can manage it best, as if you had something at home, but if not, maybe somewhere locally that you can go to. And then cold exposure, this can increase dopamine levels and for all of us adhders out there by up to 500% over a prolonged period of time, according to research, this can be anything from having a cold shower or turning the water cold for a few minutes at the end of your shower, to jumping into cold water, to sitting in an ice bath for three to five minutes. And this is also something I think is really important. Next one here is optimize daily routines. The idea of, you need to just think once about it and then roll it out from there. I'm a huge fan of designing optimal routines to really help avoid decision fatigue.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:23:09]:
We're already making, on average, up to 30,000 decisions in a day, according to research. So the more we can optimize and plan and just have it as a no brainer schedule, it's just part of your day, the better. And so particularly optimizing your morning routine, that was a real game changer for me. For me, it included getting daylight exposure first thing in the morning to reset circadian rhythms. Also doing heart rate, increasing exercise first thing, which promotes BDNF production, that brain derived nootropic factor, which is like a fertilizer for your brain. And breath work and meditation practice with some visualization and morning journaling, followed by a cold shower and an organic green juice to detox and replenish your body to start the day. Another big one is managing stress, which is huge for longevity. Looking at metrics like your HRV, heart rate variability, your breath and meditation can be really helpful.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:24:09]:
We're living in a chronic stress epidemic and it's hugely to the detriment of our health. So you really want to monitor stress and you can do, for example, the cortisol response test. But even just, just checking in on your HRV levels and your resting heart rate. And great tools for then managing stress include breath, meditation and smiling. When you smile, you tend to relax and it triggers the body to thinking that you are safe. It can really create your state. And the beautiful thing is that these three things are all free. So let's look at part two of the triad for longevity.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:24:47]:
Which is the mind. We don't see it, but it controls all that we do. And I mean, how many of us are focused on optimizing our brain health? I've had the pleasure of interviewing some of the world's leading neuroscientists, like Doctor David Perlmutter, Doctor Dale Bredesen, Doctor Kristen Willemire, and Doctor Julia Jones, who are showing that not only can we reverse conditions like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and other cruel diseases, but that we can optimize our brains for better memory, focus, and cognition for many years to come. So what can we do to improve our brain health? Well, focusing on consuming food and supplements our brain loves, like avocados, blueberries, broccoli, olive oil, eggs, green leafy vegetables, fatty fish, salmon, mackerel, anchovies, sardines, and herring. Anti inflammatory spices like turmeric and curcumin, walnuts. And dark chocolate. Yes, chocolate, which I love, ideally 85% or more cacao content. And a great brand made with organic stevia, which won't elevate your blood sugar and is actually good for you, is by Nomosu.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:25:56]:
So a shout out to them and you can check them out. Nomosu is no more sugar, and they've got delicious chocolates that are actually healthy for you. Also using neuroplasticity to rewire your mindset, this was a big one for me. Our brains are elastic, so you can create new neural pathways even as you age. What does that mean? Well, imagine you have a tendency for a negative mindset where your default thinking is being your biggest bully. That pathway is like a superhighway in your mind with a trigger. It goes right there. While the maybe optimistic positive mindset is more like a jungle path, and it needs a lot of clearing with the machete to get there.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:26:40]:
With repeated practice, you can shift the pathway and your mindset from the negative to the positive, essentially creating the positive mindset as the superhighway and the negative one as the jungle path. I can't emphasize enough how critical mindset is and rewiring it for the positive so that we can stop beating ourselves up and instead become our biggest cheerleader as part of this, a meditation practice is really, really phenomenal to incorporate. And again, it's a practice of something that you do regularly. I love that neuroscience has caught up with ancient practices like meditation. So we can see on brain scans how meditation, a free tool, can synchronize our brain waves, help us thicken the corpus callosum, which is a connection between the left and right hemispheres in our brain and become more creative, intuitive and develop a higher Eq. Another tool is breath work, which is excellent to help calm or energize the mind. It's free and readily available, found at the bottom of your nose. Right there are beautiful calming breath work practices like box breathing used by the US Navy Seals, which is essentially breathing in for four, holding it for four, breathing out for four, and holding it out for four.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:28:00]:
Also energizing breath practices like fire breathing to wim, hof breathing and holotropic one and a half hour breath work sessions. These are really, really powerful and typically a free tool as well. Another one that is so beautiful and important is gratitude and presencing. Thinking of the future causes anxiety and thinking of the past causes depression. But being in the now is actually all we have presence. As Eckhart Tolle says that life is just a series of nows. So a gratitude practice and being in the present moment will also help raise your vibration and help rejuvenate you in an instant. Some other brain biohacks are for neural pathway rewiring using those cool devices like BrainTap or I'm currently loving the NeuroVizr.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:28:53]:
There's nutritional mushrooms like lion's mane, reishi and cordyceps. There's vagus nerve stimulation devices for calming stress states like sensate or pulsetto hyperbaric oxygen therapy or hbot for brain and overall well being to music. And this was really interesting. I mean, you can use things like white, brown or pink noise to help to energize or to calm you. Using energizing music even is super powerful. And interestingly, in my podcast conversation with doctor Julia Jones, aka Doctor Rock, who works with Olympians and Navy Seals alike, she shared that in dementia patients, typically the last part of the memory to go is the one that has music. So if you play a favorite song from younger years to a dementia patient, the patient can often remember the words despite hardly being able to speak anymore. That's how powerful music is for us.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:29:47]:
Now let's look at the third triad to longevity, a key to longevity, I believe that's often overlooked. The journey of self discovery, healing trauma, and doing the shadow work, healing past trauma to finding love for yourself. How many of us don't love ourselves? And finding your purpose in life, what the Japanese call ikigai. As Joseph Campbell shares in his hero's journey, we all go through these phases of waking up and doing the work so we can learn and go on to help and to teach others. It's a journey of conscious awakening. Because, you see, all this optimization means nothing if you're suffering inside with unresolved trauma. A journey to remembering who you truly are. A journey of remembering that we are all connected.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:30:41]:
Like the wave that forgets it is the ocean. Remember to make more time for fun and play, presence, love, and connection. Each of us needs this. And the world needs this more than ever. This has been a key part of my journey too. You see, I grew up in a house where we didn't talk about emotions. My mother, an internal optimist, always just reassured me that tomorrow is a new day. My father, who was born in 1938, war torn Germany.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:31:11]:
So any problem wasn't really a major problem that needed to be solved. And this led me, growing up with an inability to discuss emotions and unresolved trauma from being sexually abused as an eight year old for many years, not being able to talk about it, to feeling completely abandoned and alone in the world. When my parents sent me at age twelve with my older sister to boarding school in a faraway country, leading to years of eating disorders, to staying in a toxic marriage far too long, leading to postnatal depression and even suicide ideation at one point. We all have our painful stories, and I used to think I could just push these all down. And I was a champion of putting a smile on my face and a facade while the house was burning down inside. But that's when the real health issues creep up on you. All this optimization means nothing if we are suffering inside, if we have this unresolved trauma. So in my thirties, when I was melting down, I found meditation that led me to reconnecting with myself and my journey of healing that included talk therapy and eft tapping, to hypnotherapy, to past life regression, and even a between lives regression session to plant medicine.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:32:29]:
Last year, I had the pleasure of awakening my spirit even further with an ayahuasca retreat with peruvian shipipo shamans. It was, amongst others, a beautiful knowing, a remembering of what powerful creatures we are. Each of us. In one vision, I saw myself as an infinite being in the cosmos with such an ability to create and a reminder of what beautiful, powerful being we all are. And how the ego was just this mini grain of rice, so tiny and small, and that we actually shrink ourselves from these beautiful beings down to this small ego. And we let our lives run from there, instead of from the magnificent, infinite creators that we actually are. It's time for us to remember the infiniteness of our oneness. Ikigai, find your purpose and remember that we are all connected and one this, my sweet friends, I firmly believe, is the key to longevity.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:33:28]:
I'll leave you with this final thoughts. Please choose to step into the highest version of yourself today, not someday. Because as we know, the road to someday leads to nowhere. May today be the day that you make the choice the world needs you to step into that highest, brightest shining light you can be now more than ever. It's not just about longevity and optimizing yourself. It's about becoming the shining light so that you can give. From the overflow of your cup, you can find your true purpose and live that mission to serve your highest self and help the human collective. So let's take one moment here together and place your hand on your heart and close your eyes if you're not driving, of course, and just take a deep breath in and ask yourself, what is the vision you have for the highest version of you, the version of you that is limitless? How will you contribute to raising the vibration of this planet? What is the legacy that you're creating in this world? Really see it, visualize it, and most importantly, feel it.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:34:46]:
Be in that energy. This vision and version of you is available to you right now. Be in that vibration and start making choices and taking action from there. What is one small action you could commit to right now that will propel you towards your vision? Just take that one step. One small step at a time. Sweet friends, it has been an absolute honor and pleasure to speak with you today. Thank you so much for your listening and for your support. I'm available to connect with you on Instagram, on lifestyle and make sure to sign up for my free weekly newsletter by going to llinsider.com.

Claudia von Boeselager [00:35:30]:
if something resonated with you today, please go ahead and share this episode with someone who might need to hear it too. With much love always and see you next week. Thank you for listening.

I’m Claudia von Boeselager

Longevity Coach, detail-loving educator, big-thinking entrepreneur, podcaster, mama, passionate adventurer, and health optimization activist here to help people transform their lives, and reach their highest potential! All rolled into one.

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