369. Body, Mind, Soul Connection with Robert Brace

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Robert Brace: 

The body is malleable, and if you work at it with intention, there's incredible things that not only you can heal from, but incredible heights you can get to, and serve my career really well.

Dr. Richard Shuster: 

Hello and welcome to The Daily Helping with Dr. Richard Shuster, food for the brain, knowledge from the experts, tools to win at life. I'm your host, Dr. Richard. Whoever you are, wherever you're from, and whatever you do, this is the show that is going to help you become the best version of yourself. 

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Thanks for tuning into this episode of The Daily Helping podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Richard. And our guest today in a word is awesome. He is known in the wellness community as the mind, body, soul connector and selected by verywell.com as one of the top hundred voices in wellness. 

Robert Brace is our guest today. He's a celebrity wellness expert, motivational speaker, former soloist ballet dancer, and the star of Food Network's weight loss reality show, Fat Chef. He has inspired thousands with his story and his engaging workshops, and he shared his knowledge on such media outlets as Good Morning America, The View, Food Network, Shape Magazines, Self Magazine, New York Daily News, Bloomberg Businessweek, BET.com, CBS Sports, and others. 

It's going to be a great conversation. Robert, welcome to The Daily Helping. It is awesome to have you with us today. 

Robert Brace: 

All right. Thank you, Dr. Richard. It’s good to be here. Thanks for having me on. 

Dr. Richard Shuster: 

Absolutely. So one of my favorite things to do is to find out people's why. So what I want to do is right off the bat, let's jump into the Robert Brace time machine and let's go back and share with everybody what was kind of that pivotal moment that put you on the journey you're on today? 

Robert Brace: 

Well, I think there's a few pivotal moments, but I think two things that lend themselves to the work I do now is that I was a soloist professional ballet dancer. I came to New York from London. I was on scholarship to the Alvin Ailey school. And so I was very much about communicating emotions, concepts through physicality, right, through dance. 

And so during that time, when I was about to finish my degree right before I came to the U.S., I had a crippling back injury and I was on scholarship and the school told me that if I did not heal that they would take over my scholarship and I would no longer be able to train in the school, it’s one of the top schools in London. 

And so that summer I took it upon myself. I said, look, this is all I've ever wanted to do. And I don't know what else I would do at that stage in my life. And so I took it upon myself to take eight hours every single day to deconstruct my body, figure out where the injuries were and how to reconstruct my body. 

And so I spent eight weeks doing that, just me by myself in a body conditioning studio with a few pieces of equipment and was able to rehab myself so that my body was even better than it was before the injury. And so that helped me to see that, one, the body is malleable. And if you work at it with intention, there's incredible things that not only you can heal from, but incredible heights you can get to and serve my career really well. 

The second thing that was pivotal for me was while I was in New York and I was dancing and I had some great gigs, great experiences. I was part of a performing arts ministry, just a bunch of performing artists who were exploring ideas of faith and art and all of those kinds of things. And long story short, I got involved in that, started doing small volunteer leadership stuff in that, and then ended up becoming a full-time minister. And I thought I was going to lead in, in Manhattan with the performing arts ministry, but I was sent up to Harlem. 

And that experience of having to serve others and having to build community and having to help people see the best in themselves and see the best in others combined with my background as a ballet dancer and the physicality that that took, and everything I'd learned in my own healing process helped me pull those things together. And so for me, there is a very clear connection between the mind, how it affects the body and how the body affects the mind. And when we say soul, I'm talking about on an emotional level, joy, happiness, peace, gratitude, things that everybody wants and how those three things come together. 

So my back injury, my time leading as a minister in Harlem, brings all of my experience together to be able to serve people in a way that I guess is unique to me and unique to what we do here at Brace Life Studios.

Dr. Richard Shuster: 

And I know you're served so many people. I do want to circle back to the injury, just for a little bit, because you mentioned that once you basically got the ultimatum from your school is like, look, if you can't perform, we’re yanking the scholarship. And you said that you deconstructed, and you reconstructed your body. And so tell us a little more about what that process looked like for you. 

Robert Brace: 

Okay. So my injury, I didn't know it at the time were herniated disc with multiple bulging discs in my lower spine. I couldn't take my chin and put it to my chest. Otherwise, I'd be in excruciating pain. I'd be sitting down for a while, I sat on a chair for a little bit, and I stood up. Then my body was just locked up, I could not stand up. 

And so, what I did was I went into the studio, this is one of the things that I did. And also, you have to remember that I was in an environment where you had to perform physically at a high level, I was going into, we were expected to be in some of the best dance companies, right? So it wasn't just about healing, it was getting back to an elite performance level. 

And so, when it came to things like my back, I would find -- I'm going through the motions now, I would find where the pain initiated from, listen to my body, go into places where that pain initiated and try to find out one, what would strengthen it. Two, what was tight where the range of motion was limited. And three, what would be needed to increase the flexibility, increase the strength and stop the pain from happening.

And so that was the first part. So some of these movements were very, very small movements. And I was lucky enough during my training to have a lot of different techniques, Alexander technique. There's a very -- a little known, but very effective technique called Feldenkrais technique. There's also gospel techniques. And so using these techniques to pay attention to what was going on, figure out how to make them better, figure out how to strengthen them. And then from there figure out how to increase the flexibility and strength and mobility so that I could perform at a high level.

So that's kind of it in a nutshell but I went from my upper back through my lower back, through my hips, through ankles, knees, and shoulders. So every single part of my body, I would kind of deconstruct, see what the movement was, see what the range of motion was, see where it was weak, and then find exercises to build it back up again. 

Dr. Richard Shuster: 

Okay. That's very clear. So really what it sounds like, it's kind of a combination of kinesiology plus muscle testing, like a little bit, right? Like when you're doing a body scan of yourself, so to speak. 

Robert Brace: 

Exactly. And the way that it relates to what's happening now is to be able to form on that level, you obviously need a very strong core, right? And so years later, I'm in New York and this is actually, this is a good friend, Steve Cohen also is connected to this guy called Mark Malcov, who was a comedian and a filmmaker. And he would do these crazy publicity stunts. He was always on TV, always in the media. And he came to me, and he said, look, the next thing I want to do is I want to see if it's really possible for a regular guy like me, he was kind of soft around the edges, not physical, to get six pack abs in 30 days, right? 

And so it was early in my career. I just said yes without really thinking about it. And I put into practice some of those principles I learned in the studio. And we did for that little, short film that he made, we didn't do it in 30 days, we did it in 28 days. 

That became a -- well, I called it the 28-day challenge. We had loads of people wanting to come and do that challenge because at the time he put it on some obscure website, and it got close to a million views. So that became a thing everybody wanted to do. I put the program together. That program was then licensed to become an infomercial. So we soundstage out in LA and they built a whole program around this 28-day challenge. But the genesis of that, the ideas of being able to do that in a systemized way consistently came from my work in the studio and from my injury. 

Dr. Richard Shuster: 

It is -- and I can relate to this personally. It's amazing how an injury can really reshape the direction of one's life. 

Robert Brace:

Oh, absolutely.

Dr. Richard Shuster:

So I am grateful that you, when given a choice between overcoming that adversity and figuring out how to get yourself physically well, and now you're changing lives all over the planet, I'm glad you did that rather than just get mad at the sky and yell at clouds and who knows what you'd be doing today. So I'm grateful that that happened. 

So you're really known everywhere as the mind, body, soul connector. I want to talk about that a little bit more deeply. And I think people intuitively understand, well, I see on TV that they were talking on today's show about how your gut biome can actually impact your mood and these different things. 

But I think you're talking about kind of this triumvirate, this, that there's this more holistic way of looking at this because it's not just what you put into your body physically. It's not just how you take care of your body physically. It's how you think about things and how you experience things. So I'd love for you to take a deeper dive, particularly about the soul piece of this, because I think that's probably the piece that so many people kind of glance over that isn't talked about in studies. Right?

Robert Brace: 

Right, right. Yeah, absolutely. And I think in general, my industry, the fitness industry has done a poor job of really helping people make that connection, which I think is honestly the most important connection. So when we talk about soul, we're not talking about the ethereal soul, right? We're talking about soul level qualities that everybody wants to experience, more love, a sense of peace, a sense of belonging, a sense of gratitude, clear a mind and clear a focus, right?  All of those things, I think pretty much everybody can agree that that's what we'd like to experience in our life. A life with less anxiety, right? 

And so, if you take those as soul level qualities, we know that when we move, the body increases serotonin, which is the body's feel good hormone, right? We know it increases endorphins, which have been clearly proven to take the edge off of stress and reduce the physical markers of stress, right? So right there, just by moving, you've increased your endorphins, which change your mood, you experience more joy, you experience more happiness, which is a soul level quality, right? Endorphins take the edge off anxiety. You feel a sense of peace and a sense of calm. Again, soul level quality. 

When we move in big groups, if you've ever been to an intense soul cycle class or something where you're in a big group and everybody's moving together and you feel that euphoria, right, the body releases oxytocin, which is the bonding, the love hormone, right? So just by moving, you're releasing a hormone that makes you feel more bonded and more connected to people. When you move, the oxygen to your brain helps increase the prioritizing function of the brain. So if you eat too much, gamble too much, spend too much, whatever you do in excess, by moving and you increasing the prioritizing function of your brain, you're able to gain more of a sense of control over your life, right?

So just by moving, you can increase bonding connection, a sense of peace, a sense of love, a sense of joy, and the sense of control over your life. Right. So that's a very simple way of making that connection. And sometimes you hear the phrase my body is a temple, right? And when the ancients built a temple, it was to reflect the glory of the deity that they worshiped, or whatever the spirit of what they worshiped is, but they knew that the temple could never actually capture what was inside because what was inside was so much more important. 

And so what we encourage people is when you're moving and when you're building your temple and look, it's New York, everybody wants to look great, someone's coming, everybody wants to look good, right? But what you're doing in addition to that is providing this temple where your soul lives, where you move from, where you think from where you create, the thing that actually animates the creativity in your life and any goodness in your life. You're building a temple around that so that that can thrive and so that not only yourself you benefit from it but the world around you benefits from it. So those are two ways in which physicality informs what I call soul level qualities and also mental acuity and mental focus  

Dr. Richard Shuster: 

I think the piece about soul level qualities is interesting and you do clearly differentiate that from a direct connection with a higher power, right? It's these aspirational things that we would all want, more love, more gratitude, more happiness, more exuberance. These are these things. I think for a lot of people, they don't have any idea how to even access those things. 

So if somebody were to come into your studio and say Robert, I don't really know how to connect with my sense of joy, or I don't know how to feel like you feel. Obviously, you talked about, and the science is very clear how physicality releases neurotransmitters and hormones that are good for us. But if somebody is on this journey to not only physical wellness, but emotional wellness, what are some of the signposts that they should look for, really the starting blocks, if you will, to move towards that state?

Robert Brace: 

Well, I think there’s those two ways to look at it. I think on a very basic level is if you're somebody who's in that place, but I'm not really sure how my physicality affects these qualities and I want to feel more of that, I think you've got to find whatever physical activity just makes you feel good, right? Let's take out the whole, all right, I'm going to change my body and lose 10 pounds. And even with stuff I do, the 28-day challenge transformation, let's take that out for a second and let's just figure out what you do moving physically, that makes you feel that some people it's dancing, some people it's playing golf, some people it's riding a bike, some people it's gardening, right? 

So let's just start there because once you start there, you're going to -- it's going to be easier for you to feel those endorphins. It's going to be easier for you to connect with the release of dopamine, right? Because you feel better after you do what you do and it's that simple. Okay. And once you're paying attention, because a lot of times we don't pay attention.

Once you're paying attention to that, that's where I would start. If you feel like a nice walk in your neighborhood, see some greens and trees and all of that, do that. 

On the other hand, what we do here in the studio is, and this is where my background as a dancer, my background as a minister coming to play, is we create a community where everybody feels uplifted and encouraged. And now I know you're probably a thousand places say the same thing. But there is a specificity and a mechanism and there are things that me and my team do, can't give away the whole secret sauce here, but that we do that when people walk in the door and if they're a little nervous because you're walking into a gym and everybody, you might be feeling that everybody else is connected to their bodies, everybody else looks great. I don't know if I could do what that woman over there is doing right now. Right? You have all these hang ups anxiety. Is this going to work? This is the first time I've joined a gym and last time I only managed two months or whatever. 

There's specific things we do that help you feel welcome, help you get connected to your body. Because a lot of times people aren't connected and that just means helping people pay attention. If you teach people to pay attention to their form and how it feels, moves with their breath. And how their body feels if you do it in the wrong way, but if you do it in the right way, then you're starting to really get a sense of that mind body connection, which begins to lead -- which begins to like to drop some of that anxiety around your physicality and begin to explore deeper. If I can do that, and if I can discover this new principle, and it changes my body in this way, or how I feel in this way, then what else is going to happen when I continue to go down this road. 

And not only that but making sure that we celebrate every single victory. You go from doing one push up to go to three push ups, everybody in the floor is cheering you on. Right? You have a birthday, we celebrate our birthdays with extra brew champagne, low sugar content, right? We have champagne glasses in here. Everybody gets a glass of champagne, right? So we do specific things to uplift the community here and keep people connected as well as our events and that kind of thing.

Dr. Richard Shuster: 

What I enjoyed that you said was we celebrate the small victories. And I think whether your goal is weight loss, whether it's finding a spouse or improving your relationship or whatever it is, so often we set this mile marker and that's what we have to hit. And if we're not paying attention to the baby steps along the way, we can get discouraged pretty easily, and we can get off track. 

So thank you for sharing that because I think people need to hear that. Like, look, if you try and go do 10 pushups today, and you can only do 1 or 2, but you keep trying to do them day after day, and you could do 3 and 4 and maybe eventually 5, and maybe 20, 20 is just as important as 2. 

Robert Brace: 

Right, exactly. And again, and I'm glad you're picking up on that because it, like, for instance, even today, we have a client. When she came in here, she got a shoulder injury, she couldn't do any pushups, right. And she left here today able to do -- you see, she's gone from doing pushups on her knees to pull pushups, able to do 10 pushups.

Now, the reason I'm bringing it up is we have to be so deliberate and almost forceful about encouraging people because even though she came in and she couldn't do pushups before and she's done 10, now she's done 10. She's like, oh, but I didn't go down far enough. Right. Or I didn't bend my elbows in the right way. And I'm like, no, stop, we tend to just get -- we'll pay attention to the things where we're struggling or this is a negativity, but we'll discount very easily the successes that we've had. 

And so I think it's important, not only for me to practice it myself, because I'm goal oriented, I'm going off to high achievement, right, but to practice it myself, but also to stop people in their tracks and say, hold on a second, while that may be true, look at how far you've come and let's stop and actually celebrate this moment without you putting some kind of negativity on it, right? Because that really does take practice because we do it so easily. 

Dr. Richard Shuster: 

And there's the mind piece and the mind, body, soul, right, the soul level, aspirational feelings, you're never going to get a certificate in the mail, Robert, that somebody is going to send you and say, congratulations, Robert, like you are the most joyful that a person can be. 

But this piece about putting ourselves down, not believing in ourselves, a lot of these are patterns we've learned. A lot of these are things that we pick up in our environment. And I'm sure you've seen this and had this experience with some of the clients you’ve worked with. If somebody comes in and said, I want to get healthy, I want to stop smoking, I want to lose weight, your advice to them is probably not to keep hanging out with people that smoke and go to the bars and go to McDonald's every day. Right? 

So the mind piece is really almost it's an unwinding of these patterns that we've had in instilling discipline. But I think what's cool if I'm tracking along with the way that you operate is by intrinsically attaching value and joy to the goal. So it's not just about, do I want to lose 10 pounds? It's what will my life be like? And if you're not doing this, I want royalties for all of this. 

Robert Brace: 

But no, you're absolutely right. There's a Greek principle called eudaimonia, right. It's literally translated means human thriving. And it's a very simple concept. It’s pretty much what you said that whenever you have a goal, if you can connect that goal to something that aligns with your core values as a human being, then the discipline, the motivation, whatever it takes to reach that goal becomes easier because it's more aligned with what your values are. 

So it's the difference between, oh, I want to come in and lose 10 pounds. Well, why do you want to lose 10 pounds? How is that going to make your life better? Right? We can lose 10 pounds and you can put it right back on again. But how is that going to affect you? Is it, you're going to have more energy, you can pick up your kids, confidence? Whatever it is, you've got to figure out how it aligns with who you are. 

Like right now, I have a 20-year-old daughter, I have a 14-year-old daughter, right? And so my why for working out is very different. Before, it was to perform at an elite level, right. Now, it’s to make sure that I have the energy to -- they're older now, so I'm not running around with little kids, but to keep up with them, to be relevant with them. Right. 

And so I remember one time when I was working so much on the business, I wasn't taking care of myself, my back injury resurfaced. We were going on vacation. I decided that day, I just had to take one more client, right, before we left. So the car is packed up. My wife was tired. She needed to get away. The kids were just stressed out. We're like, this is a time we're going away. 

And I’m like just get that one last client. And I hadn't been taking care of myself. I took this one last client, I demonstrated an exercise, my back went out to the point where we drove to the location, to the hotel and I had to literally walk on my hands and knees through the lobby of the hotel because my back was in complete spasm. And so now my wife is stressed and what was supposed to be a getaway is now her taking care of me. The kids want time with me. They're frustrated. Everything's on my wife. 

And so at that moment, I was like, you know better. You know better than to -- you're telling everybody else make time for your wellness, but you're not making time for your own wellness and now look at what it's done to your family. This was supposed to be a time for you to be away. So my why is very different. It's to have the energy and the strength to give back to those who I really love. 

And also look, I'm still in an image obsessed industry. So I've got to look a certain way, I want to look a certain way, I want to have a certain kind of vitality and keep my connection to my dancing roots, but it's a very different why than when I first started.

Dr. Richard Shuster: 

And I think that it's like a company's mission statement and their vision statement, right? Like these things, your mission can shift over time, but your vision or rather your values, that's usually pretty stable. Right? Like -- but I think you're right. Like, your why of a parent of a 20-year-old and a 14-year-old is very different than your why of somebody who has toddlers. Right? So I'm grateful that you described that the way that you did. Really, really great. 

Robert, I have loved our conversation. I love everything that you're doing. This I'm sure resonates with so many people. As you know, I wrap up every episode by asking my guests just this one question. And that is what is your biggest helping, the single most important piece of information you'd love somebody to walk away with after hearing our conversation today?

Robert Brace: 

The most important thing is remembering, going back to what we talked about, about the body is a temple. Yes, the outer shell, and that can include your body, that can include what we achieve, the things we have and things we buy. But the most important thing is what's inside that temple is the soul that is within every single person listening to this podcast. 

Within that soul, there is a spirit of goodness because people at some point in their lives has done something good for other people, some calls, or whatever. There's a spirit of greatness because everybody has some gifts, some talent, something that they do better than anybody else, whether it's big or small. 

And there’s a giving spirit within everybody, right? We've sacrificed at some point we've given of ourselves at some point. And that goodness, that greatness, and that giving spirit is what resides in your soul. And whatever you do, you want that to be steamed by the world, because if you're -- if that's how -- if that's the place you're living from, you're happier, you're fulfilling your purpose, you're changing the world in the way that you're supposed to change the world and you'll find whatever you need to do that gives you a life purpose, right? That goodness, that greatness and that giving spirit. 

And so do whatever you can in your life. Whether it's taking care of your physicality, whether it's taking care of your environment, whether it's taking care of the career that you're in, to give yourself the opportunity for that goodness, that greatness, and that giving spirit to thrive because that's where you'll find your true purpose and your true happiness. 

Dr. Richard Shuster: 

I love that, Robert. Thank you for sharing that wisdom with us. Tell us where people can go online and learn more about you and what you're doing. 

Robert Brace: 

You can find me at bracelifestudios.com. That's our studio. That's the easiest place to find me bracelifestudios.com. You can also find me with our online platform, thebracelife.com, thebracelife.com. 

Dr. Richard Shuster: 

Awesome. And we'll have everything Robert Brace in the show notes at drrichardshuster.com. So we got you covered there too. Robert, this was a blast. Thank you so much for coming on today. I loved our conversation.

Robert Brace: 

Thank you so much. Appreciate it. 

Dr. Richard Shuster: 

Absolutely. And I also want to thank each and every one of you who took time out of your day to listen to this conversation. If you're excited, if you're inspired, if you're going to go work on those soul level values as soon as you get off this podcast, go give us a follow and a five star review on your podcast app of choice, because that is what helps other people find the show.

But most importantly, go out there today and do something nice for somebody else, even if you don't know who they are and post it in your social media feeds, using the hashtag #MyDailyHelping, because the happiest people are those that help others.