Mental Health Crisis: 197M to 2.4B Cases | Arnold Bakers on Prevention

What if mental health isn't something you're diagnosed with—but something you train daily, like physical fitness?

Arnold Beekes watched the mental health system fail his sister. Institutions prioritized filling seats over healing people. Two of her classmates died by suicide that same week. That bike ride home changed everything.

A former corporate executive turned global citizen, Arnold created "brain fitness"—a preventative approach to mental and emotional well-being that treats your mind like you treat your body: strengthen it before it breaks.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• Why mental health cases exploded from 197 million (1952) to 2.4 billion (2024)—and it's not just population growth
• The difference between "mental illness" (the label) and mental wellness (the practice)
• How Arnold's near-fatal car crash forced him to rebuild his relationship with movement and safety
• The "inner cheerleader" technique that replaces self-criticism with self-compassion
• Why his sister's story taught him the hardest lesson about boundaries and willingness
• Three demanding but simple principles: be kind, be present, be creative
• Practical tools: nasal breathing, daily walks, and making space for emotions without drowning in them

GUEST RESOURCES:

Arnold Beekes Website: braingym.fitness Book: "The Adventures of Doctor Alfred Moore" 15-Week Program: "From Fitting In to Flying Out" Masterclasses available on: Curiosity, Emotions, Habits, Aging, Uniqueness

Chapters

• 0:00 Meet Arnold: A Global Citizen
• 3:55 Guided Mindful Check-In
• 7:21 Defining Brain Fitness
• 11:35 System Failures And A New Mission
• 15:25 Leaving Corporate And Finding Purpose
• 18:44 Global Mental Health By The Numbers
• 22:14 Labels, Stigma, And The DSM
• 26:05 Nervous System And Consciousness
• 30:15 Growing Up In Uncertainty
• 33:55 Injury, Movement, And Recovery
• 38:10 Self-Cheerleading And Curiosity
• 41:15 Family Pain And Boundaries

Transcript

NatNat Be - LiftOneSelf: 0:00

Welcome to the Lyft One Self Podcast. I'm your host, Nat Nat, and today I have an amazing guest all the way from Romania, and it is Arnold. So, Arnold, would you be so grateful to introduce yourself and let myself and the listeners know a little bit about yourself?

Arnold Beekes: 0:17

Yeah, well, luckily you say a little bit. I'm trying, I'm trying to understand who I am. It's uh it's been a lifelong journey, and I I'm still learning a lot and growing a lot. So, but that that makes life interesting, I guess. My my name is Arnold Bakers. I have a Dutch passport. Uh I grew up there and lived there most of my life, but currently I'm I'm living in Romania. I'm intentionally saying I have a Dutch passport, not I'm Dutch. I don't identify with being Dutch, I I identify with being a global citizen. That that is truly, truly how I feel. And um about myself, I grew up in a family where I guess these days everyone would be labeled with a mental illness now, but not when I grew up there. So that that was very, very challenging. Then well, I had a traditional thing going in school, going to university. Well, later on, you can guess what I studied. Nobody will, um, and then uh, well, I had to go in military service, and then I I started working in the business world, in the corporate world. From an outside perspective, people would say I was quite successful. And then in 2000, well, I uh got what well the Americans call a perfect storm, like everything changed in my life, uh, in well, mostly involuntary and part voluntary, and since then I I'm I'm I'm on this journey, is like from being a corporate executive to who I am, what do I like, who do I want to be, what do I want to do, and and that's an ongoing thing because there is layers and layers and layers which which come up, and um, I'm currently and hopefully for a large part of the rest of my life working on what I call brain fitness, which my intention is to help people really with mental and emotional health, and although people associate the word mental health, like oh, that's not good, but that is because they choose the wrong definition in the medical system, let me put it like that. They talk about mental health, but it's really mental illness, which doesn't exist either. But yeah, they call it the healthcare system, where it's in essentially a sick care system. So I'm really trying to focus on the health part in what's invisible.

NatNat Be - LiftOneSelf: 3:11

Yeah, I get that. Uh we're aligned in a lot of uh the work and some of the journey uh that we have. I was in the government before, so I get um, you know, changing and transforming into what is it that I'm gonna do and what is it that is within me that wants to come out as creativity and not just check off the boxes that the world tells you that's successful, that you actually take control of creating the story of your life. There's a lot of questions that I have in regards to that. Yet before that, will you join me in a mindful moment so that we can meet ourselves, check in with ourselves, and then continue on with the podcast?

Arnold Beekes: 3:55

Yes, that's fine with me.

NatNat Be - LiftOneSelf: 3:57

And for the listeners, as you always hear me, safety first, many of you are driving or using your visual while listening to the podcast. Please don't close your eyes. Yet every other prompt that I am assisting us to go through, you're able to do that. So, Arnold, I'll ask you to get comfortable in your seating. And if it's safe to do so, you're gonna gently close your eyes or soften your gaze. And you're gonna bring your awareness to watching your breath go in and out. And if it's possible to only breathe in and out through your nose, and just let that awareness watch the breath go in and out. You're not gonna try and control the rhythm, you're just gonna be aware of it, allowing it to guide you into your body. There may be some sensations or feelings coming up, and that's okay. You're safe to feel, you're safe to let go. Surrender the knee to control, release the knee to resist and just be. Now there may be some thoughts or to-do lists or events that have happened that have popped up in your mind, and that's okay. Gently bring your awareness back to your breath, beginning again, creating space between the awareness and the thoughts, and dropping down into the body, being in stillness, in being again, more thoughts may have popped up. Gently bring your awareness back to your breath, creating even more space between the awareness and the thoughts, and completely surrendering into the body, into the moment, into being. Now you may notice that there might be some tension, right? Because that you weren't aware of before. That's okay, just breathe into the body, allowing some relaxation, some unnodding, some unclenching. Now, if you can take a deep breath in through your nose and do a gentle exhale out of your mouth, letting it all go. Repeating that cycle again. Gentle in. And a deep exhale, letting it all go. Now at your own time and at your own pace, you're gonna gently open your eyes and stay with your breath. How's your heart doing?

Arnold Beekes: 7:11

My heart feels very comfortable.

NatNat Be - LiftOneSelf: 7:13

So you mentioned the word brain fitness, and I know many lit listeners are probably brain fitness. What do you mean by that? And do I really want to engage in more fitness in my life? Can you explain what that means and how you came about the title?

Arnold Beekes: 7:30

My definition of brain fitness is a state of psychological and physical well-being in which an individual uses his or her uniqueness, learns continuously, deals with challenges, and contributes to better life for all. That's the definition I'm using. I came up with the name some years ago, which was not a nice moment. I was going, I was accompanying my sister to a mental health institution. She is officially diagnosed with depression, and she was going through a program there, and actually, the the program made things worse. So I had to go with her to tell the people leading or giving the course that she's not gonna continue, and they were pushing her to continue and to do the same courses again, which already didn't help at all, and again made it worse. And even while we were waiting outside, because for the meeting to start, my sister saw some some other folks who were also in the same, well, let me call it, program, and I let her talk to them, so I stayed apart because well, I didn't know them, and it appeared that two of her classmates had committed suicide in the week before. So that's the setting where I get to talk with the well, let's call it leadership of the mental health institution. And at the end, I was totally appalled that these guys were just pushing utilization, they were just pushing like they need to get their classroom full, and not whether it worked or not worked, it's like no, we we still got one slot, so you do it again, and that they were totally not informed about the latest developments in psychology and everything else, nothing zero. So we had that was the meeting. I I I managed to get her out of it. Well, that was still the Netherlands. Everybody's on the bike, including me and my sister. But on the bike going back home, home for me means the home of my mother, who I was the caretaker for. And my mother had dementia and Parkinson. So that's when popped in my head is like both my sister and my mother are screwed. There's no way that, well, at least the way it looked like that there will be a cure, that there will be healed, and whatever. So I'm like, wow, why can't we do something on prevention? Why can't we do just like we do with body fitness? You most people do body fitness to stay healthy and that they're able to do the things which they want to do with their body. Why don't we do something similar with our brain? Hence the word brain fitness popped in my mind.

NatNat Be - LiftOneSelf: 10:57

I know many listeners may be like, oh my gosh, this sounds like my story, or I know somebody in that story. And I just want to meet the listener right there because words can be very impactful. So hearing suicide, hearing depression, hearing dementia, it activates that nervous system. Yet, yeah, as you're seeing, Arnold is when he was in the trenches of his experience, a solution popped up. And I'm thankful that you're listening to that calling that's coming from within you of how can we better remedy what is happening with a lot of individuals where they're trying to seek help, yet a lot of the institutes aren't meeting the individual where they are and finding out, you know, how this can better the people. So moving back, you said that you were in the corporate world and you did military service. What had you leave that type of life?

Arnold Beekes: 12:03

Well, in the corporate world, I I basically was kicked out. So I was laid off. Later on, they wanted me back, but then I said, no way I'm gonna get back to that environment. And this was in 2000. So, mind you, that's a long time ago. And I was in the Netherlands, which is different from the US and Canada. It's like I want to start my own business, I want to do something for myself, and I became very, very good in meeting expectations of other people and doing what other people want me to do. And I'm like, I really dislike bosses. So it's like, I want to be my own boss and figure out what that is, and well, I don't think I even had the word start up then, because again, this was in 2000, and this this was in the Netherlands. So later on, that terminology popped up and is now commonplace, but it was not then. But that that was where it started.

NatNat Be - LiftOneSelf: 13:20

And you know, I know many listeners because as I said, I'm in Canada, and uh a lot of listeners will listen from the US also. And we have we have this conception that the Netherlands is like the utopia of health, and everybody's joyful, everybody's in good fitness, everybody's in good spirits. Yet for your experience, that isn't the actual thing. So for those that don't fit into the box of wellness and fitness, where are they finding their help there in the Netherlands? Like, is there more, are you seeing a more increase in mental, you know, um illness or that people aren't really able to like the world is a shit show right now. So when people are talking about mental illnesses, it's like who who isn't impacted by the instability of everything that's going on? Yet when you want to go and ask for help, it seems like it's a stigma. Is there stigma around the Netherlands around mental health?

Arnold Beekes: 14:30

Well, let me first address your question like everything in the Netherlands was fine and good. Perhaps that was maybe in the 70s and 80s. Yeah. Um, but I noticed that for people for any country and any city, people assume that when they learned about something, that it's static. But just like yourself, your relationship, your environment, it's dynamic, it changes all the time. Yeah, so the Netherlands of today is totally different from the Netherlands from the 70s, 80s, even 90s, and it's going really, really downhill. Yeah, but that's true for all of the Western world. Look at the US.

NatNat Be - LiftOneSelf: 15:18

Oh, yeah.

Arnold Beekes: 15:20

But look at England, Germany, France, Spain, everywhere. So it's everywhere happening, yeah. And and those things are unfortunately going downhill. So, again, people, please don't stick to a label which you once find out and take it for the rest of your life. That's one thing. The the the other thing, your question is is mental health, mental illness, something that it is a global phenomenon. It's a global phenomenon. I may I share with you some numbers, which is a research I did. There were actually on a global scale 197 million global mental health cases in 1952. That's when they started measuring with the DSM and a formal process. That was then 7.6 percent of the world population in 2024. So very latest numbers, we talk about 2.4 billion cases, 197 million to 2.4 billion cases, from 7.6 percent uh percentage of the world population to 29.5 percent of the world population. So this is huge. And I I wanted to find out what is the reason for that. You mentioned stigma and there are many other reasons. Stigma is less stigma, is a time is is part of it, but it's not the main reason. The main reason is pretty unclear. But then I asked, is like maybe it's because the population growth, and I did a study around that. It it's actually there was a population decline, so a decline in the growth, it didn't grow. So that's that that is not a reason. Then I checked, like, is it the DSM is the diagnostic and statistic manual of the psychology industry where they put you in a category and label you as mental ill.

NatNat Be - LiftOneSelf: 17:33

Yeah, that book.

Arnold Beekes: 17:34

I don't agree with that book in a lot of ways, like, yeah, yeah, but it's it like it started like in 1952, they had 106 labels, and now we're close to 300. Because they don't know, but that is not the reason. That is not the reason, so it's a combination of diagnostics, awareness, change in health system, everything else, but it's not, but it's clear that there's something strange going on, and one of the main reasons, what I think are a couple, and one of the main reasons is the pathologizing that you're having problems, you're having challenges in your life, and immediately oh you're this we need to give you a medicine, and that's it. People are not sick. Mental illness is a lie. Mental illness, they say there's something wrong in your inside your head, your brain. They call it a chemical imbalance. We need to give you uh antidepressants or anything else, and then we can fix it, and then hopefully you will be okay. That's a lie. There's nothing wrong in your brain. So that's why I call mental illness currently a straitjacket. We're putting people with a label where we can medicate them, where we can label them as like you're sick and you're sick for the rest of your life, which is not true.

NatNat Be - LiftOneSelf: 19:03

I just want to be mindful that some listeners, I I don't think that there's certain diagnosis like when you're getting into schizophrenia or um different elements where their reality is much different in a string. And there are some people that are born with, you know, a chemical imbalance. So it's not that you put it all or all or nothing on people. I do believe that um pharmaceuticals are leveraging trying to tell people that there's something wrong with them so that they can medicate rather than find out, well, how does your biology work and how can it be best suit you rather than you fit in this box? So I think we are given a kind of prognosis of, well, you follow this and you everything will be fine, like a carrot in front of the donkey kind of scenario. However, to for me to say that there's no mental illness, I wouldn't, I think that would be very unjust for the population that has tried everything and that there is, there are chemical imbalances because the way biology was created, it it's lacking certain things. Like from for me, for instance, a part of my thyroid doesn't produce certain iodines and it's not nothing that I did. It was just the way I was born that way.

Arnold Beekes: 20:27

So that doesn't mean that you are ill.

NatNat Be - LiftOneSelf: 20:30

No, it doesn't mean that I'm ill. And I understand that where it's given that kind of stigma that there's an illness, that you aren't fitting that perfect model of what we deem as health. So I think yes, we are being measured to a standard uh that if you don't meet that, then there's something wrong with you rather than treating everybody with their unique biology.

Arnold Beekes: 20:55

Exactly.

NatNat Be - LiftOneSelf: 20:56

Yeah. So I I agree with you on that. I just I'm just mindful because certain listeners may hear this and they get triggered by it because it's like you don't know my experience and what I'm going through and and whatnot. So um I just want to have compassion and let the listeners know that I see them and that they are heard about the experience. Because it is a very, you know, it it is uh a hot topic. Uh, I think there isn't enough research. We talk about the brain, yet where is the nervous system? Because the nervous system is what's intaking all of our sensations and then scripting and protecting things. So in your brain fitness, do you dive into that nervous system to better understand and our emotions?

Arnold Beekes: 21:47

Yes, I I started first studying psychology, self-help. I'm a certified coach. Then I'm like, that doesn't provide the answers. Then I studied neuroscience and everything around that. Well, these guys in neuroscience they don't know much, let me put it politely. Well and they admit it, which is at least honest. And now I'm more into consciousness, yeah. So it's um it it is not an exact science at the moment, yeah. And and even like I say, neurosurgeons and everything, there are a lot of things which I don't know.

NatNat Be - LiftOneSelf: 22:34

Yeah, it's a mystery for a reason. Science, I think what people don't realize is that science and medicine is always on a quest. There is not an absolute truth with things, and they don't have control over a life force. All they can do is give more time, possibly. Like when I hear save a life, oh, you saved my life, it's like, well, is it saving a life, or is it just that you were given a little bit more time for your life? Because at the end of the day, people pass away and there was nothing that you could do about it. So the same thing that created you is the same thing that can say that it's no longer. Do you believe in that? Or is it that you are in control of your life force in your life?

Arnold Beekes: 23:20

No, I totally believe I'm totally not in control, and and I I'm 300% convinced that every human being is unique. So what happens to you or to me could have a similar, but it just could have a total opposite effect. And what I'm I totally believe that somehow I'm programmed and I I have no clue how my life is gonna show up or whatever. If if you would ask me in my 20s, like Arnold, you you will be working on mental health, and you're living in Romania, would say you were totally stupid. It's like yeah, it's like and and I I have the feeling that I had totally no control about that.

NatNat Be - LiftOneSelf: 24:09

Yeah. How did you develop the trust within yourself into that unknown and not having control? Because our brain is made to make meaning of everything. And so when you when you go into a conscious state, it's releasing that filter of the mind has to make meaning and be in the everything and be observant and allow there to be a flow and a guidance. So, how did you learn to start trusting within and not trusting these visual eyes and this make this mind that wants to make meaning and control and really settle into consciousness?

Arnold Beekes: 24:47

Yes, that that is what we call the comfort zone, and and that is what the institution they want us to stay in our comfort zone because we are programmed to stay in our comfort zone. And fortunately, I never had much of a comfort zone. I told you I grew up in a dysfunctional family. My father was a military officer, and he was at home even worse than at his work. So there was always fear. Fear that he would be angry, fear that he would criticize, fear that I didn't do something good. So there's no comfort zone. So that's how I grew up. In the business environment, mostly of the time, they well, I grew into that. They they asked me to set up new products, new services, new technology, which is by definition uncertain. Which by definition, there's no plan or programming, you just have to figure it out. And well, maybe partly because I'm used to uncertainty and getting out of my comfort zone. I was very good at it. And now into well, diving into the deep water not knowing where you're going is like that's something where I was I'm comfortable with being uncomfortable.

NatNat Be - LiftOneSelf: 26:13

So let me ask you this: how did you learn to rest and feel safe? How did you learn for your body to rest and to feel safe, not to have that fear, not to feel that there has to be production to be able to be in stillness?

Arnold Beekes: 26:32

Well, I tried a lot of things, yeah. I was even a spiritual teacher at some point. I meditated, I don't now anymore, but I meditated for something like 15 years. Um, so I'm constantly figuring out what helps me to get out of my head, and and and which is very easy. Well, I know a lot of people that you start ruminating and repeating, and it's all the same and everything, yeah. Uh, but what helped for me um is doing sports, which actually changed four years ago. I've been doing sports all of my life, and that was my way of really being in another environment and doing something else. But four years ago, I had a very severe car crash, I nearly died. Now I can barely walk, my heel is destroyed, so I cannot do well all of the sports I did before, I cannot do them anymore. So I'm still finding ways to to relax, and I'm I'm constantly but the main thing, and well, I'm I'm I'm really happy about it. I I trained myself from being in a wheelchair walking with crutches, and now I'm able to walk like every morning 45 minutes. That's really good to get out of my head. Yeah, that's a huge and that's what I recommend to people because most people, unfortunately, not all people, but but everybody can walk. And and I walk a bit with a limp over there, but it's like it feels so great, be in your body, yeah, yeah, and movement, yeah, yeah. So, like I said before, I wouldn't say all the sports I did, but well, that's the most terrible thing. Yeah, I still have a lot of effects from from the accident, but it'll like I cannot do my sports anymore.

NatNat Be - LiftOneSelf: 28:32

Yeah, so you had to adapt and find something else to be able to come out. And the as I say, you know, many people are neck up, that's where they live. They don't even know what it feels like to be in their body. So when I do those two-minute, that mindful uh moment, and when I talk about the ache and the pains, like people are like, oh, I didn't even know I had that, or I didn't even know that this was going on because we don't know how to be in the body. And for you to be in a wheelchair, crutches, and then walking, it took a lot of awareness and being in that body and telling certain, because I completely ruptured my achalase and I had to learn how to walk again. So I know that that frustration with your mind of like leg just move and foot just move and find the balance and then getting frustrated that it's not working like it used to and having to slow down. Yet it really for myself deepens that body awareness, that mindfulness. And also it really deepened the practice of being kind with myself when that inner critic wants to come up because it's not looking like it used to, really taking in of what's here right now and having kindness with it.

Arnold Beekes: 29:48

Absolutely. That's the one thing I I say to most people, and it touches most people, is like be kind instead of the inner critic, become an inner cheerleader.

NatNat Be - LiftOneSelf: 29:59

Yeah. I like that.

Arnold Beekes: 30:02

That is really, really, really important.

NatNat Be - LiftOneSelf: 30:05

Yeah.

Arnold Beekes: 30:05

And that's what I do all the time. I'm I'm just living here in this city, in this country. I knew nobody. I don't speak the language. I'd never been here. So talking about being comfortable with uncomfortable. Yeah. But like, so I I'm just in this, but I'm just living by myself. Yeah. And I'm I'm doing every day. It's like, okay, Arnold, well done. Yeah. Well, I made some really good progress. So sometimes I'm like, yeah, and then well, if people would see me, maybe they'd say I'm crazy, but it'll like it's really crucial.

NatNat Be - LiftOneSelf: 30:40

It is, it's important. I don't think we are taught enough to celebrate ourselves, to cheer ourselves on. We're always looking for that external.

Arnold Beekes: 30:48

We're taught to criticize ourselves.

NatNat Be - LiftOneSelf: 30:50

Yeah. We we we're looking externally for that validation, not realizing no, we have the power to validate ourselves and make sure that we're cheering ourselves on along the journey because it's the small things that make big impact. And I, you know, when you said that, I think what's what you're really doing is always feeding your curiosity, because your curiosity is insatiable. That when you put yourself in situations that you don't know, it really helps to feed that curiosity to learn more, to figure out things. Because when you know it all, then I think it might feel a little too claustrophobic. So your curiosity needs to be fed.

Arnold Beekes: 31:31

Absolutely, absolutely. And that's true for anything. I I just I decided a few weeks ago that I will move on to another country in a half years. It's like that's the ultimate thing for people. It's like go to another country where you've never been, you don't speak the language, you don't know anyone, but just go anyway. And I love it. It it's being the first time I did it, is is like I would say the yeah, it's the multiplier where a lot of processes started started. So but when I tell people, and well, I'm not the youngest guy anymore. When I tell people when when when I was leaving the Netherlands when yeah, my mother died, and and I had to sell the house and everything, they're like, Arnold, what are you doing? I'm going to Romania. Oh, do you have a job there? No. Have you been there? No. You speak the language, no, they're out, they're totally out. Yeah, it's uh but it's so enriching for your life, it's so enriching, and it's it's such a nice experience, and it's so good for your confidence and your curiosity and and your energy and understanding the world a little bit better.

NatNat Be - LiftOneSelf: 32:57

Yeah, how is your sister?

Arnold Beekes: 33:00

My sister is basically staying the same. I would say she she's depressed since she was 14, 15, and it's not changed much throughout her life, and but she's comfortable with being that.

NatNat Be - LiftOneSelf: 33:17

I think that can be the most painful is witnessing that kind of pain in somebody else and not being able to do anything, and there it is so painful and irritating at the same time, and I try to help her with so much.

Arnold Beekes: 33:32

I paid coaches for her, I send her books, I talk with her, but nothing helps. Because the main thing is like, well, like you said, I'm a coach, I'm a trainer. Well, I'm a coach for more than 50 years now. It's like I cannot do anything if the person doesn't want to grow or change.

NatNat Be - LiftOneSelf: 33:56

The willingness, yeah. If there's no willingness, that's the willingness opens up the door.

Arnold Beekes: 34:03

Exactly, but she doesn't want.

NatNat Be - LiftOneSelf: 34:05

Yeah, because the nervous system is a very strong, intelligent system. So when it's protection and and defense, and when you've been insulated in this same programming and script, it's very difficult to come out of that kind of prison of that nervous system. And many of us don't know how to befriend the nervous system. We try to attack it and get through it, where it's like, no, befriend and integrate to have a better understanding of what why is this protection there? Why is it more comfortable to stay in such a low state and not really be able to open yourself up to receive abundance and possibilities and potentials and you know, let that light of your own awareness shine in those shadowy parts and everything else. Yet you can bang on the door all you want. It's just like sobriety. Uh, you know, you can keep bringing people to uh counseling or detox and all that yet, and they can get sober, yet all of a sudden they all of a sudden go right back because if it's not activated internally and that there's a willingness to go beyond what they know, then there's nothing you can do on the outside. And that for especially when it's family members and it's somebody close, that's the most painful, helpless state to be in. And you know, did you ever feel like you weren't doing enough for her?

Arnold Beekes: 35:35

Well, yeah, I I I tried so many different things, and every time the well the door was shut by throwing it in my face, yes. It was like it's I I well, I would say there's not a week or well, yeah, that goes by that doesn't think about that. And it's like she never asks how I'm doing, yeah. And if I ask her how she's doing, she doesn't answer. So it's like it's and well, and would say it's a minor thing which caused that, but it's like she's so comfortable with that that she's the victim, yeah. And that victimhood makes that she doesn't need to stretch herself.

NatNat Be - LiftOneSelf: 36:24

Yeah, I just want to hold a moment to feel that pain because it's a strain and it's you know, um it's painful. So I just want to see you in that and recognize that in a way that uh gives admiration that you still choose life, you still choose and living and not getting stuck. How did you learn to because it sounds like you were able to put some separation from that and you know, be in your own life and and cultivate what you need to do and listen to about this brain fitness and bringing that forth. How did you learn to create that separation so that you didn't feel you had to still be there for her?

Arnold Beekes: 37:11

Because our family was so dysfunctional, I was thrown on myself. Yeah, so I had to take care of myself, and really nobody helped me or supported me. So that is why I'm also very comfortable in being alone and and and and trying to get out of shit. And and that is what I it's not a conscious decision, it's like unconsciously I learned from a very young age.

NatNat Be - LiftOneSelf: 37:42

Understood. So I want to bring you into a reflective question since you're talking about childhood. I want to ask you to bring this awareness right now that you have and to go back to your 18-year-old self. And you have three words to tell your 18-year-old self to get to this moment. What would those three words be?

Arnold Beekes: 38:06

Live your own life, follow your heart, don't care what other people think or do.

NatNat Be - LiftOneSelf: 38:15

Very powerful sentences. So I know many listeners now want to know where do I find more about this brain fitness and where can I find more about Arnold? So could you let the listeners know where they can find you and where they can find more about brain fitness?

Arnold Beekes: 38:29

Yes, thank you. Um, the easiest way is to go to my website called BrainFitness, Braingym.fitness, braingym.fitness. There they can find my I have some master classes which are personalized workshops and video around specific topics like curiosity, like emotions, like habits, like aging, yeah, uh, your uniqueness. So there are a couple of different masterclasses uh available. I have a training program called From Fitting In to Flying Out, which is a 15-week training program where each week I hold a live 90-minute session with my clients, and then in the week in between, well, I hope you're gonna experiment with it. And uh and I also uh I just uh released a new book, it's called The Adventures of Dr. Alfred Moore. It's about the transformation of a traditional doctor into a social entrepreneur. So brain.fitness, that is where people can find me. And if they still have any questions, there's a link where they can book a meeting in my agenda.

NatNat Be - LiftOneSelf: 39:42

Congratulations on the book. Uh, and all of uh Arnold's information will be in the show notes, so it's easily clickable. At any time, if there was anything that popped up or you know, curiosity came, just click and contact Arnold. There's a reason why that's signaled in there, and he possibly has something that you've been seeking uh to help you with your well-being and your life. Arnold, I want to ask you a question that I ask all the guests from this conversation. Is there something that you believe will leave a lasting impression to empower the listeners?

Arnold Beekes: 40:22

Well, I was going to say, but now even more based upon our discussion, it is I I would like people to take three simple messages that are simple but not easy, is be kind, be present, and be creative.

NatNat Be - LiftOneSelf: 40:40

Very powerful. Yes. Indeed, they're simple, yet they're not always easily accessible, that you'll take action with them. So I want to thank you for doing the alchemy in your life, that you have taken those impurities and you've turned them into gold, yet you haven't kept the gold for yourself. You're sharing it with other people. So thank you for all that you do and all that you bring into the world. And I am wishing you health and I'm wishing you more vitality in your body that those 45-minute walks will be longer and you'll be able to get into more play and more movement in your body. So thank you for being you, Arnold.

Arnold Beekes: 41:22

Thank you.

NatNat Be - LiftOneSelf: 41:23

Please remember to be kind to yourself. Hey, you made it all the way here. I appreciate you and your time. If you found value in this conversation, please share it out. If it was somebody that popped into your mind, take action and share it out with them. It possibly may not be them that will benefit. It's that they know somebody that will benefit from listening to this conversation. So please take action and share out the podcast. You can find us on social media, on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok under LiftOneself. And if you want to inquire about the work that I do and the services that I provide to people, come over on my website. Come into a discovery call at liftoneself.com. Until next time, please remember to be kind and gentle with yourself if you matter.