You may not realize this, but when you talk to yourself, your subconscious mind is listening, and what it actually hears and registers may not be quite what you’d expect. In the first episode in a series on the power of words, Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen discuss how the subconscious mind processes your self-talk, how it differentiates between different type of language, and why the words you choose matters.

Dr. Amen often says that it’s best to do the right thing not because you should, but because you love yourself. This episode of the podcast explores this concept of self-love, or “philautia,” as it was coined by the Greeks. Self-love is best looked at through the lens of how we react to the development of our own brains, and Dr. Amen and Tana use this lens to show us how we can use this self-focus to improve our lives.