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-welcome to hubman Labb Essentials where
-we revisit past episodes for the most
-potent and actionable science-based
-tools for mental health physical health
-and
-performance I'm Andrew huberman and I'm
-a professor of neurobiology and
-Opthalmology at Stanford School of
-Medicine today's episode is going to be
-all about the science of emotions and
-today we're going to talk in particular
-about something that most often is
-called stress now you might be thinking
-wait stress isn't an emotion but stress
-really lies at the heart of whether or
-not our internal
-experience is matched well or not to our
-external experience or the events that
-are happening to us and around us and as
-you'll soon see those converge or
-combine to create what we call emotions
-I'd like you to come away from today's
-episode with what I call an
-organizational logic a framework for
-think about these things that typically
-we just call happy or sad or depressed
-or anxious and I'm going to make sure
-that you have tools that are grounded in
-physiology and Neuroscience that will
-allow you to navigate this otherwise
-complex space that we call emotions that
-will allow you to ground yourself better
-when you're feeling like life is
-Weighing on you or you're kind of being
-pulled by the currents of life as well
-as to support other people whether or
-not that's in a psychological practice
-if you're if you're a practitioner or
-you have clients or children or spouses
-really to be able to support other
-people in your environment better and as
-you may recall the nervous system which
-includes the brain and the eyes and the
-spinal cord but also all the connections
-with the organs of the body includes the
-brain and body and those organs of the
-body your gut and your liver and your
-spleen they are also communicating with
-the brain so I look forward to a day in
-fact when we no longer think about
-Neuroscience as just the brain and many
-neuroscientists now also think about the
-body of course the brain controls the
-body but the body is also having a very
-profound and concrete influence on the
-brain today we're going to talk about
-objective tools that match the brain
-body experience or separate the brain
-body experience in ways that leverage
-your ability to lean into life better to
-feel better literally to just feel
-better about what you're experiencing
-and believe it or not to be able to
-control your emotions when that's
-appropriate okay so what is stress we
-hear all the time that stress is bad we
-hear people saying they're really
-stressed out what is
-stress stress at its core is a
-generalized system it wasn't designed
-for tiger tigers attacking us or people
-attacking us it's a system to mobilize
-other systems in the brain and body it
-wasn't designed for one thing
-thing and that gives it a certain
-advantage in taking over our the state
-of our brain and body but it also gives
-you all of us an advantage in
-controlling it because it's based on
-hardwired biological mechanisms and
-there are hardwired biological
-mechanisms meaning cells and chemicals
-and Pathways and tissues that exist in
-you right now that require no
-neuroplasticity that allow you to put a
-break on stress and so we're going to
-talk about those so let's talk about the
-stress response and by doing that you
-will understand exactly why the tools
-I'm going to give you work for those of
-you that are saying wait I just want the
-tools just give me a summary trust me if
-you understand mechanism you are going
-to be in a far better position to
-incorporate these tools to teach these
-tools to others and to modify them as
-your life circumstances change let's be
-clear about what we already know which
-is that
-stressors can be
-psychological or they can be physical
-okay if I put you outside on a cold day
-without a jacket for a very long time
-that is stressful if I have you prepare
-for too many exams at once and you can't
-balance it all with your sleep schedule
-and your other needs for comfort and
-well-being like food rest sleep and
-social connection that is stressful so
-what happens when the stress response
-hits let's talk about the immediate or
-what we call the acute stress response
-response we could also think of this as
-short-term stress so you have a
-collection of neurons that start right
-about at your neck and run down to about
-your navl a little bit lower and those
-are called the sympathetic chain ganglia
-when something stresses us out either in
-our mind or because something enters our
-environment that chain of neurons
-becomes activated like a bunch of
-dominoes falling all at once it's very
-fast when those neurons are activated
-cocoline is released but there are some
-other neurons for the afficionados out
-there they're called the postganglionic
-neurons those ones respond to that
-acetylcholine and then they release
-epinephrine which is the equivalent to
-Adrenaline so we have this system where
-very fast whenever we're stressed the
-core of our body these neurons down the
-middle of our body release these
-chemicals and then there's adrenaline or
-epinephrine released at particular
-organs and acts in particular ways some
-things like the muscles of your legs and
-your heart and other things that need to
-be active when you're stressed they have
-a certain kind of receptor which is
-called the beta receptor and that beta
-receptor responds to epinephrine and
-blood vessels dilate they get bigger and
-blood rushes into to our legs the heart
-rate speeds up lots of things happen
-that get activated and at the same time
-that epinephrine activates other
-receptors on certain tissues that we
-don't need the ones involved in
-digestion reproduction and things of
-that sort that are
-luxuries for when things are going well
-not things to pay attention to when
-we're stressed so the stress response is
-too pronged it's a yes for certain
-things and it's a know you may not right
-now for other things that's why you feel
-blood in certain organs and tissues of
-your body but not in others but
-basically you are activated in ways that
-support you moving and that's because
-fundamentally the stress response is
-just this generic thing that says do
-something you're going to feel agitated
-and that's because it was designed to
-move you so this is important because if
-you want to control stress you need to
-learn how to work with that
-agitation I'd like to give you a tool at
-this point because I think if we go any
-further with a lot more science people
-are going to uh begin to wonder if this
-is just going to be a kind of standard
-university lecture sure about the stress
-response if you want to reduce the
-magnitude of the stress response the
-best thing you can do is activate the
-other system in the body which is
-designed for calming and
-relaxation and that system is called the
-parasympathetic nervous system and the
-parasympathetic nervous system is really
-interesting because especially the
-cranial nerves the ones that are up in
-the brain stem and in the neck area
-those have a direct direct line to
-various features of your face in
-particular the eyes they control things
-like eye movements pupil dilation things
-of that sort as well as the tongue the
-facial muscles Etc so I'm going to teach
-you the first tool now so I don't
-overwhelm you with all this academic
-knowledge without giving you something
-useful and the tool that at least to my
-knowledge is the fastest and most
-thoroughly grounded in physiology and
-Neuroscience for calming down in a
-self-directed way is What's called the
-physiological sigh s g what I'm talking
-about when I refer to physiological size
-is the very real medical school textbook
-relationship between the brain the body
-and the body as it relates to the
-breathing apparate ey meaning the
-diaphragm and lungs and the Heart let's
-take the Hallmark of the stress response
-the heart starts beating faster blood is
-shuttled to the big muscles of the body
-to move move you away from whatever it
-is this stressor is or just make you
-feel like you need to move or talk your
-face goes flushed Etc there is however a
-way in which you can breathe that
-directly controls your heart rate
-through the interactions between the
-sympathetic and the parasympathetic
-nervous system here's how it works when
-you inhale so whether or not it's
-through the nose or through the mouth
-this skeletal muscle that's inside your
-body called the diaphragm it moves down
-and that's because the lungs expand the
-diaphragm moves down your heart actually
-gets a little bit bigger in that
-expanded space there's more space for
-the heart and as a consequence whatever
-blood is in there is now at a lower
-volume or moving a little bit more
-slowly in that larger volume than it was
-before you inhaled okay so more space
-heart gets bigger blood moves more
-slowly and there's a little group of
-neurons called the sinoatrial node in
-the heart that registers it's pay
-believe it or not those neurons pay
-attention to the rate of blood flow
-through the heart and send a signal up
-to the brain that blood is moving more
-slowly through the heart the brain then
-sends a signal back to the heart to
-speed the heart up so what this means is
-if you want your heart to beat faster
-inhale
-longer inhale more
-vigorously than your exhales now the
-opposite is also true if you want to
-slow your heart rate down so stress
-response hits you want to slow your
-heart rate
-down what you want to do is again
-capitalize on this relationship between
-the body meaning the diaphragm in the
-heart and the Brain here's how it works
-when you exhale the diaphragm moves up
-which makes the heart a little bit
-smaller it actually gets a little more
-compact blood flows more quickly through
-that compact space the sinoatrial node
-registers that blood is going more
-quickly sends a signal up to the brain
-and the parasympathetic nervous system
-some neurons in your brain stem send a
-signal back to the heart to slow the
-heart down so if you want to calm down
-quickly you need to make your exhales
-longer and or more vigorous than your
-inhales now the reason this is so
-attractive as a tool for controlling
-stress is that it works in real time
-this doesn't involve a practice that you
-have to go and sit there and do anything
-separate from Life the phys ological
-sigh is something that people naturally
-start doing when they've been crying and
-they're trying to recover some air or
-calm down when they've been sobbing very
-hard or when they are in claustrophobic
-environments however the amazing thing
-about this thing that we call the
-diaphragm the skeletal muscle is that
-it's an internal organ that you can
-control voluntarily so this incredible
-pathway that goes from brain to
-diaphragm through What's called the
-frenic nerve p h re n i c frenic the
-frenic nerve innervates the diap you can
-control anytime you want you can double
-up your inhales or triple up your
-inhales you can exhale more than your
-inhales whatever you want to do such an
-incredible organ and the physiological
-sigh is something that we do
-spontaneously but when you're feeling
-stressed you can do a double
-inhale long exhale now I just told you a
-minute ago that if you inhale more than
-you exhale you're going to speed the
-heart rate up which would promote more
-stress and activation now I'm telling
-you to do a double inhale exhale in
-order to calm down and the reason is the
-double inhale exhale which is the
-physiological
-sigh takes advantage of the fact that
-when we do a double inhale even if the
-second inhale is sneaking in just a tiny
-bit more air because it's kind of hard
-to get two deep inhales back to back you
-do big deep inhale and then another
-little one sneaking it in the little
-sacks in your lungs the aoli of the
-lungs your lungs aren't just too big
-bags but you've got millions of little
-sacks throughout the the lungs that
-actually make the surface area of your
-lungs as big as a tennis court which is
-amazing if we were to spread that out
-those tend to collapse as we get
-stressed and carbon di carbon dioxide
-builds up in our bloodstream and that's
-one of the reasons we feel agitated as
-well but when you do the double inhale
-exhale the double inhale reinflates
-those little sacks of the lungs and then
-when you do the long
-exhale that long exhale is now much more
-effective at ridding your body and
-bloodstream of carbon dioxide which
-relaxes you very quickly when you're
-feeling stressed the physiological side
-done just one to three times so it would
-be double inhale exhale double inhale
-exhale maybe just two times will bring
-down your level of stress very very fast
-and as far as I know it's the fastest
-way to accomplish that be aware that if
-you're going to use the physiological
-sigh or exhale emphasize breathing to
-calm down that your heart rate will take
-about 20 to 30 seconds to come down to
-basine and you may need to repeat the
-physiological s a few times so let's
-think about something now let's think
-about stress from not whether or not
-it's acute or chronic whether or not
-it's good for us or bad for us but on
-three different time scales because then
-we can arrive at what this is all about
-as it relates to emotions but I really
-want you to understand the difference
-between the three kinds of stress on
-three different time scills short-term
-medium-term and long-term and what it's
-good for and what it's bad for I think
-we've all heard that stress is bad for
-us we've seen these pictures intended to
-frighten us and indeed they are
-frightening you see the nice really
-plump brain on the left says healthy or
-control and then you see the brain that
-says stressed above it on the right and
-it's like withed or we see that the
-hippocampus an area involved in memory
-is smaller people that are stressed I
-think we've all heard now so many times
-that stress is bad but in that
-conversation unfortunately it's a lipsed
-some of the really positive things that
-stress does for us in the short term
-when the stress response hits that is
-good for your immune system I know that
-might be a tough pill to swallow but
-it's absolutely true in
-fact stress often comes in the form of
-bacterial or viral infection and the
-stress response is in part organized to
-combat bacterial and viral infection so
-short-term stress and the release of
-adrenaline in particular or epinephrine
-same thing adrenaline epinephrine is
-good for combating
-infection and this to me is just not
-discussed enough so that's why I'm
-discussing it here and it relates to a
-particular tool that many of you ask
-about but I don't often get the
-opportunity to talk about in such an
-appropriate context it's not that it's
-ever inappropriate to talk about but
-what I'm about to talk about now is the
-use of again respiration breathing to
-somewhat artificially activate the
-stress response and that will accomplish
-two things okay I'll return to medium
-and long-term stress but I want to say
-short-term stress is good because the
-dilation of the pupils the changes in
-the Optics of the eyes the quickening of
-the heart rate the sharpening of your
-cognition and in fact that short-term
-stress brings certain elements of the
-brain online that allow you to focus now
-it Narrows your focus you're not good at
-seeing the so-called big picture but it
-Narrows your focus because it allows you
-to do these what I call duration path
-outcome types of analysis it allows you
-to evaluate your environment evaluate
-what you need to do it primes your whole
-system for better cognition it primes
-your immune system to combat infection
-and that all makes sense when you think
-about the fact that famine
-thirst bacterial infections viral
-infections Invaders all of this stuff
-liberates a response in the body that's
-designed to get you to fight back about
-against whatever stressor that happens
-to be psychological physical bacterial
-viral again the stress response is
-generic the
-tool takes advantage of the fact that
-when adrenaline is released in the body
-from the adrenals it has the effect of
-also liberating a lot of these killer
-cells from the immune organs in
-particular from the spleen but from
-elsewhere as well and interactions with
-the lymphatic system that combat
-infection
-the way this works in the real world is
-best captured by a study that can be
-mapped back to so called Wim Hoff
-breathing now Wim Hoff breathing is so
-named after the so-called Iceman Wim
-Hoff there are two components to a sort
-of breathing protocol that he
-developed that was based also on what's
-called Tumo breathing TMO so before whim
-there was Tumo breathing and many people
-call this now super oxygenation
-breathing so it's deliberate
-hyperventilation why would somebody want
-to do this well deliberate
-hyperventilation done for maybe 25
-Cycles so inhale exhale inhale exhale
-inhale exhale that pattern of breathing
-rapid movements of the
-diaphragm will liberate adrenaline from
-the adrenals when adrenaline is released
-in the body you are in a better position
-to combat infections and so whether or
-not you breathe very quickly in these
-cycles of 25 breaths and regardless of
-what you call it doesn't matter
-adrenaline is released if you take a
-cold shower adrenaline is released if
-you go into an ice bath deliberately and
-even if you do it non- deliberately
-adrenaline is released you are mimicking
-the stress response and that
-adrenaline serves to suppress or combat
-incoming infections and this was
-beautifully shown in a study that was
-published in a very fine journal the
-proceedings of the National Academy of
-Sciences for the US it's it literally
-called proceedings of the naal Academy
-USA to distinguish it from other
-proceedings of other National academies
-in other
-countries the way the experiment went is
-that people were injected with
-endotoxin or in some cases they were
-injected with with a bacterial wall that
-mimics infection it g it gives you a
-fever it makes you feel nauseous it
-makes you feel sick it is not pleasant
-half of the people did a particular
-pattern of breathing that looked very
-much like the pattern of breathing I
-described a moment ago of doing 25 deep
-inhales and exhales followed by an
-exhale holding their breath then
-repeating 25 inhales exhales holding
-their breath so this would look
-something like this or if you're
-listening it sounds
-like 25 30 times you'll start feeling
-heated up you'll start feeling the
-adrenaline response you're liberating
-adrenaline in your body then exhale hold
-your breath for 15 seconds and then
-repeat now I want to emphasize never
-ever ever do this anywhere near water
-people have passed out so-called shallow
-water bra out people have died please
-don't do it at all unless you get
-clearance to do it from your doctor
-because there are some pulmonary effects
-and whatnot and the breath holds should
-definitely not be done by anyone that
-has glaucoma or pressure uh you know
-concerns for the eyes but these
-repeated cycles of breathing that
-liberate adrenaline allowed the group
-that did that protocol to essentially
-experience zero symptoms from the
-injection of this ecoli which is
-remarkable they had much reduced or no
-symptoms they didn't feel feverish they
-didn't feel sick they weren't vomiting
-no diarrhea which is remarkable but
-makes total sense when you think about
-the fact that the short-term stress
-response that what's typically called
-the acute stress response is designed to
-combat all
-stressors many of us are familiar with
-the experience of work work work work
-work or taking care of a loved one or
-stress stress stress stress stress then
-we finally relax maybe we even go on
-vacation like oh now I'm finally going
-to get the break and then we get sick
-and that's because the adrenaline
-response crashed and your immune system
-crashed with it so please understand
-this now many of you might say well how
-long is it 2 hours is it 3 hours a lot
-of you out there that really like
-specificity it will vary for everybody I
-would just kind of use a rule of thumb
-when you are no longer able to achieve
-good sleep what good sleep means to you
-please see the episodes on sleep if you
-want more about tools to sleep when you
-are no longer able to achieve good sleep
-you are now moving from acute stress to
-chronic stress you need to be able to
-turn the stress response off okay so now
-let's talk about medium-term stress
-medium-term stress is going to be stress
-that lasts anywhere from several days to
-several weeks what is stress threshold
-well stress threshold is actually our
-ability to cognitively regulate what's
-going on in our body a lot of stress
-inoculation a lot of managing
-medium-term stress on the on the time
-scale of weeks or maybe even a couple
-months so we're not talking about years
-of
-stress a lot of that has to do with
-raising our stress threshold it's about
-capacity and there are very simple tools
-excellent tools that will allow us to
-modulate our capacity for stress and
-they look a lot like the tools I just
-described they involve placing oneself
-deliberately into a situation where our
-adrenaline is increased somewhat not to
-the extreme
-and then when we are feel flooded with
-adrenaline and normally we would Panic
-it's about cognitively mentally
-emotionally calming ourselves and being
-comfortable with that response in our
-body and what would this look like you
-can use the cyclic hyper oxygenation
-breathing to combat infection if you're
-feeling kind of run down and there is
-also a way in which you can use things
-like cold showers or if you exercise and
-you bring your heart rate up very high
-you kind of go into that high intensity
-realm where your heart is beating a
-little bit harder than you're
-comfortable with the key in those
-moments is to learn to relax the mind
-while the body is very activated one way
-that you can do this and this is kind of
-fun if it's approved by your physician
-and you're able to do this you can bring
-your heart rate up you could do this
-through an ice bath if that's your thing
-or a cold shower or cyclic oxygenation
-breathing or you could Sprint or you
-could go hard on the bike whatever is
-that brings your heart rate up and then
-what you want to do is you want to
-actually try and calm the mind while
-your body is in this heightened state of
-activation when we are stressed our
-pupils dilate the effect of that pupil
-dilation is to create tunnel vision it
-literally Narrows our view of the visual
-world we no longer see in Panorama and
-there's some other effects as well but
-that's because the visual system through
-this cranial nerve system that I
-described before is Tethered and is part
-of this autonomic nervous system
-by deliberately dilating your gaze
-meaning not moving your head and eyes
-around but by deliberately going from
-tunnel vision to broader panoramic
-Vision literally seeing more of your
-environment all at once it creates a
-calming effect on the mind because it
-releases a particular circuit in the
-brain stem that's associated with
-alertness AKA stress now this is very
-powerful if you're running for instance
-and you're at Max Capacity you're close
-to it or you're kind of hitting like 80
-90% of maximum on the bike and you
-dilate your gaze what you'll find is the
-mind can relax while the body is in full
-output and this is um relates to work
-that in various communities people are
-are working with this in the sports
-Community military communities Etc but
-it's a form not really of stress
-inoculation it's more about raising
-stress threshold so that the body is
-going to continue to be in a high
-alertness high reactivity mode high
-output but the mind is calm and so this
-isn't about you unifying mind and body
-this is actually about using body to
-bring up your level of activation then
-dissociating not the clinical
-dissociation kind of disorders but
-dissociating the mental or emotional
-response from what's going on in your
-body and over time so if you do this you
-know a couple times you don't have to do
-this every workout but if you do this
-every maybe once a week or so you start
-being comfortable at these higher
-activation States what once felt
-overwhelming and like a lot of work now
-is manageable it feels tolerable so
-that's for navigating medium-term stress
-and then there's long-term stress now
-long-term stress is bad you do not want
-adrenaline up in your system for a very
-long time in fact you you ideally you
-would have your stress go up various
-times throughout the day but it would
-never stay elevated and it would never
-prevent you from getting a good night's
-sleep we know that chronic stress
-elevated stress and especially in the
-so-called type A personalities
-creates heart disease leading killer of
-for in most every country but in
-particular in the US but by no means do
-you want to be stressed out all the time
-chronically for months and months and
-months and years on
-end the best tools the best mechanisms
-that we know to modulate long-term
-stress might surprise you a little
-bit first of all there are going to be
-the things that don't surprise you which
-is everyone knows getting regular
-exercise getting good sleep um using
-realtime tools to try and Tamp down the
-stress response Etc that's all going to
-be really
-useful the data really point to the fact
-that social connection and certain types
-of social Connection in particular are
-what are going to mitigate or reduce
-long-term stress and this is a
-particularly important issue nowadays
-where we have all these proxies or
-surrogates for social connection you
-know online and texting with people a
-lot everyone has this kind of need to
-stay connected to one another humans are
-incredibly social creatures the way to
-think about social connection and how it
-can mitigate some of the long-term
-effects of stress is really through the
-systems of neuromodulation like
-serotonin serotonin again is a
-neuromodulator neuromodulators are a
-little bit like playist in the brain
-they tend to amplify or bias the
-likelihood that certain brain circuits
-and body circuits are going to be
-activated and that others will not
-serotonin generally gives us feelings of
-well-being at very high levels it makes
-us feel blissed and it tends to make us
-feel like we have enough in our
-immediate environment when we see
-somebody that we recognize and Trust
-serotonin is released in the brain and
-that has certain positive effects on the
-immune system and on other systems of
-neural repair and and synapses and
-things that really reinforce Connections
-in the brain and prevent that long-term
-withering of connections so serot on is
-tied to social connection now social
-connection can take many forms some of
-those can be romantic attachments those
-could be familial attachments that are
-non-romantic friendship pets even
-attachments to things that just Delight
-us having a sense of delight a sense of
-really enjoying something that you see
-and engage in witness or participate in
-that is associated with the serotonin
-system and certainly play is one of
-those things social connection of
-various forms those are things to invest
-in I'll be the first to admit social
-connection and friendship and
-relationships of all kinds to animals or
-humans or inanimate objects takes work
-it takes investment it takes time in not
-needing everything to be exactly the way
-you want it to be social connection is
-something that we work for but it is
-incredibly powerful finding just a few
-people even one or an animal or
-something that you Delight in believe it
-or not has very positive effects on
-mitigating this long-term stress on
-improving various aspects of our life as
-it relates to stress and emotionality
-now how do you know if you're making
-serotonin you don't know in the moment
-but you can learn if you pay attention
-to kind of recognize these feelings of
-comfort trust Bliss delight and those
-are not weak terms those are not
-associated just with uh psychological
-terms they are they are every bit as
-physiological as the movement of your
-muscles or the secretion of adrenaline
-now there are a plethora of things that
-will also impact well-being and allow
-you to mod modulate your long-term
-stress reduce the likelihood that you'll
-engage in long-term stress there are
-compounds that are not prescription
-compounds that can modulate the stress
-system and sometimes because of the way
-that life is we just don't have the
-opportunity to control life and to
-control our response to stress the three
-I want to focus on and one that I think
-you need to be cautious about that I've
-mentioned before include
-ashwagandha eleanine and melatonin let's
-talk about melatonin first melatonin is
-a hormone secreted from the pineal in
-direct relationship to how much Darkness
-you are in not emotional Darkness but
-light suppresses melatonin melatonin
-helps you fall asleep it doesn't help
-you stay asleep I personally do not
-recommend supplementing melatonin
-because it's supplemented typically at
-very high levels you know 1 to 3
-milligrams or even more that is an
-outrageous iously high doses also has a
-number of potentially negative effects
-on the reproductive axis and and
-hormones there the other is Aline I've
-talked about Aline which provided it's
-safe for you can be taken 100 milligrams
-or 200 milligrams about a 30 minutes or
-60 minutes before sleep it can enhance
-the transition to sleep and depth of
-sleep for many people it increases Gaba
-this inhibitory neurotransmitter in the
-brain it tends to turn off our forbrain
-a little bit or reduce the activity of
-our kind of thinking systems and
-ruminating systems help people fall
-asleep but theanine has also been shown
-for people that are chronically anxious
-or chronically stressed to significantly
-increase relaxation it is known to have
-a minor effect on anxiety but eight
-Studies have shown that it definitely
-has a notable effect on stress the other
-supplement that can be very useful is
-ashwagandha ashwagandha is known to
-lower anxiety and cortisol this is great
-I mean the opportunity for me anyway to
-be able to take something that can help
-me reduce my cortisol so that I don't
-get some of the long-term effects of
-stress and I'm not going to take
-ashwaganda year round I would only do
-this if I was feeling like I wasn't
-managing my short and medium-term stress
-well so I don't take it on a regular
-basis I do take it when I'm in these
-times when things are particularly
-stressful so social connection and some
-supplementation of course diet exercise
-sleep for long-term stress so I hope
-today you were able to take a slightly
-different view of this thing that we
-call stress not just see it as evil but
-see it as power powerful and useful in
-certain contexts great for us in certain
-contexts and problematic in other
-contexts and as well to think about the
-various tools that I've presented that
-can allow you to adjust and modulate
-your internal levels of alertness or
-calmness so that you can lean more
-effectively into life which includes
-sleep and social connection and the work
-you have to do and of course
-acknowledges that the events in the
-world are beyond our control what's in
-our control is how we react to them
-something that's ly said in the wellness
-and self-help and psychology world but
-for which there often aren't as many
-concrete tools that we can really look
-to and Trust in real time as always
-really appreciate your time and
-attention today I hope you practice some
-of the tools if they're right for you I
-hope you think hard about stress and how
-you can control your stress and above
-all as always thank you for your
-interest in science
-[Music]

Data/get_video_link.py

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ from dotenv import load_dotenv
 from Data.new_video_added import get_new_video_url
 from datetime import datetime
 import json
-
+from pathlib import Path
 load_dotenv()
 
 api_key = os.getenv('API_KEY')
@@ -14,10 +14,11 @@ BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
 channel = "https://www.youtube.com/@hubermanlab/videos"
 new_video_added = False
 # video_links_folder_name = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, "videolinks")
-print("THIS IS BASE DIR:", BASE_DIR)
-print("THIS is current dir:", CURRENT_DIR)
-video_links_folder_name = os.path.join(CURRENT_DIR, "videolinks")
-
+PROJECT_ROOT = Path(__file__).resolve().parent.parent
+# print("THIS IS BASE DIR:", BASE_DIR)
+# print("THIS is current dir:", CURRENT_DIR)
+# video_links_folder_name = os.path.join(CURRENT_DIR, "videolinks")
+video_links_folder_name = os.path.join(PROJECT_ROOT, "Data", "video_links")
 
 def ensure_directories():
     if not os.path.exists(video_links_folder_name):

Data/yt_transcript.py

@@ -1,53 +1,34 @@
 from youtube_transcript_api import YouTubeTranscriptApi
-# from get_video_link import video_links_main
 from Data.get_video_link import video_links_main
-import os
-from datetime import datetime
-transcripts = []
-
-import os
+from pathlib import Path
 from datetime import datetime
 
+# Dynamically get the root directory of the project
+PROJECT_ROOT = Path(__file__).resolve().parent.parent  # Moves up from /Data/
+TRANSCRIPTS_FOLDER = PROJECT_ROOT / "Data" / "transcripts"
 
-def save_transcript(video_id, transcript_text, folder_name="Data/transcripts"):
+def save_transcript(video_id, transcript_text):
     """
-    Saves transcripts to the local folders
-    :param video_id:
-    :param transcript_text:
-    :param folder_name:
-    :return:
+    Saves transcripts to the local folder
     """
-   #using abosule path
-    base_dir = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
-    folder_path = os.path.join(base_dir, folder_name)
-
-    if not os.path.exists(folder_path):
-        os.makedirs(folder_path)
+    # Ensure the transcripts folder exists
+    TRANSCRIPTS_FOLDER.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
 
     timestamp = datetime.now().strftime("%Y%m%d%H%M%S")
     filename = f"{video_id}_{timestamp}.txt"
-    filepath = os.path.join(folder_path, filename)
-
-    with open(filepath, "w", encoding="utf-8") as f:
-        f.write('\n'.join(transcript_text))
+    file_path = TRANSCRIPTS_FOLDER / filename
 
-    return filepath
+    file_path.write_text('\n'.join(transcript_text), encoding="utf-8")
+    return file_path
 
 
 def get_video_id(video_links_list):
-    video_ids = []
-    for links in video_links_list:
-        video_id = links.replace("https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=", "")
-        video_ids.append(video_id)
-
-    return video_ids
+    return [link.replace("https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=", "") for link in video_links_list]
 
 
 def fetch_yt_transcript(video_ids):
     """
-    fetched youtube transcirpts using videoids
-    :param video_ids:
-    :return: None
+    Fetches YouTube transcripts using video IDs.
     """
     video_transcripts = {}
 
@@ -61,7 +42,7 @@ def fetch_yt_transcript(video_ids):
             file_path = save_transcript(video_id, transcript_text)
             video_transcripts[video_id] = {
                 'text': transcript_text,
-                'file_path': file_path
+                'file_path': str(file_path)
             }
             print(f"Transcript saved to: {file_path}")
 
@@ -77,51 +58,37 @@ def fetch_yt_transcript(video_ids):
 
 def all_video_transcript_pipeline():
     """
-    Check if there is local folder called transcripts, if not then create one.
-    if there is then look if new video is added or not
-    if new video is added then fetch transcripts for the new video and saved it locally.
-    :return:None
+    Handles fetching and storing transcripts, checking for new videos.
     """
-    CURRENT_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
-    transcripts_folder = os.path.join(CURRENT_DIR, "transcripts")
-
-    print(f"Looking for transcripts in: {transcripts_folder}")
+    print(f"Looking for transcripts in: {TRANSCRIPTS_FOLDER}")
     video_links_list, new_video_added, new_videos_link = video_links_main()
     video_transcripts = {}
 
     # Always load existing transcripts
-    if os.path.exists(transcripts_folder):
-        existing_files = os.listdir(transcripts_folder)
-        print(f"Found {len(existing_files)} files in transcripts folder")
+    if TRANSCRIPTS_FOLDER.exists():
+        existing_files = list(TRANSCRIPTS_FOLDER.glob("*.txt"))
+        print(f"Found {len(existing_files)} transcript files.")
 
         for file in existing_files:
-            if file.endswith('.txt'):  # Make sure we only process text files
-                video_id = file.split("_")[0]
-                file_path = os.path.join(transcripts_folder, file)
-                try:
-                    with open(file_path, "r", encoding="utf-8") as f:
-                        transcript_text = f.read().splitlines()
-                    video_transcripts[video_id] = {
-                        'text': transcript_text,
-                        'file_path': file_path
-                    }
-                    print(f"Loaded transcript for video: {video_id}")
-                except Exception as e:
-                    print(f"Error loading transcript {file}: {e}")
+            video_id = file.stem.split("_")[0]  # Extract video ID
+            try:
+                transcript_text = file.read_text(encoding="utf-8").splitlines()
+                video_transcripts[video_id] = {
+                    'text': transcript_text,
+                    'file_path': str(file)
+                }
+                print(f"Loaded transcript for video: {video_id}")
+            except Exception as e:
+                print(f"Error loading transcript {file.name}: {e}")
     else:
-        print(f"Transcripts folder not found at: {transcripts_folder}")
-        os.makedirs(transcripts_folder)
-        print(f"Created transcripts folder at: {transcripts_folder}")
+        print(f"Transcripts folder not found at: {TRANSCRIPTS_FOLDER}, creating it.")
+        TRANSCRIPTS_FOLDER.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
 
-    # Then fetch new transcripts if there are any
+    # Fetch new transcripts if needed
     if new_video_added and new_videos_link:
-        print("New videos have been added... Fetching transcripts for new videos")
+        print("New videos detected... Fetching transcripts.")
         new_video_ids = [url.split("v=")[1] for url in new_videos_link]  # Extract video IDs
         new_transcripts = fetch_yt_transcript(new_video_ids)
-        # Merge new transcripts with existing ones
-        # video_transcripts.update(new_transcripts)
-        # print(f"Added {len(new_transcripts)} new transcripts")
 
     print(f"Total transcripts loaded: {len(video_transcripts)}")
 
-

ui/app.py

@@ -4,8 +4,15 @@ from typing import List, Dict
 import sys
 from pathlib import Path
 
-project_root = Path(__file__).parent.parent
+project_root = Path(__file__).resolve().parent.parent
 sys.path.append(str(project_root))
+sys.path.append(str(project_root / "Rag"))
+sys.path.append(str(project_root / "Data"))
+sys.path.append(str(project_root / "Data" / "transcripts"))
+sys.path.append(str(project_root / "Data" / "video_links"))
+sys.path.append(str(project_root / "Llm"))
+sys.path.append(str(project_root / "Prompts"))
+sys.path.append(str(project_root / "utils"))
 from Rag.rag_pipeline import (
     query_database,
     generate_response,