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Hey everyone, welcome back to The Testing Psychologist podcast. Good to be here and nice to be starting a new little mini-series. So this is the first episode in a three-part series where I’m talking about a supplement called Magic Mind.
You might be thinking, why in the world are we talking about a supplement on The Testing Psychologist [00:01:00] podcast?
Well, I like to experiment on the podcast. The idea is that the next few episodes will take us through my experience using Magic Mind, which is a nootropic and adaptogenic drink aimed at producing “a sharper mind, steady energy, and less stress.” This is important for business, productivity, and efficiency, or at least that’s the way I’m framing it, and it just seemed like a fun thing to do. So the next three business episodes will chronicle my journey testing out Magic Mind.
I’m going to start today with the background and rationale for trying it. The next episode will focus on the current research on its ingredients and their effects. And then the last episode will talk about my reflections on using it in my daily life for a two-week period. So let’s get to it. If you are someone who enjoys [00:02:00] biohacking and optimizing your performance as I do, then I hope you will enjoy this little mini-series.
Now, before we get to the episode, at this point, I’m projecting out, there might be two spots left in the Crafted Practice Retreat, the first annual crafted practice retreat for testing psychologists summer 2023. You can get more information at thetestingpsychologist.com/retreat. I would love to have you join us for a time of spaciousness connection and support in working on your business.
All right, let’s start to talk about Magic Mind.
Okay, everyone. Let’s jump right to it. As I said in the intro, today is the first episode in The Magic Mind mini-series. I want to give a little bit of background and rationale for even undertaking this experiment.
If you’ve listened to the podcast for any amount of time, you’ve probably picked up on the idea that I’m a little bit of a sucker for any productivity hack. I mean, we can talk for days about the value of productivity and ”grind culture” and all the things that entails, but when it comes down to it, I would love to be more focused and have more clarity doing whatever work I choose to do. It may be real work or might be just hanging out with my [00:04:00] family. It might be focusing on a movie or a book or a video game.
The current state of our culture, I think is that there are distractions all over the place, and there are plenty of reasons not to sleep well or take care of yourself. And this is just one avenue to potentially cut out some of the noise and give your brain a little bit of a boost in the activities that you’re engaging in. So that’s the ultimate underlying motivation to try something like this.
Now, a second motivation though is that… so you might be saying, oh, well I just drank coffee. Coffee does that for me. It helps me focus and stay dialed in. That’s pretty normal, right? Coffee is a super common drink. It’s maybe the most commonly used substance around the world. I think I read that somewhere, but I have a love-hate relationship with coffee [00:05:00] as some of you might.
My coffee story is, I didn’t drink coffee at all until I was 25, and honestly didn’t really care about it even after I tried until I had kids. Then I started to drink a lot more of it and crossed the threshold of buying an espresso machine for our home and ended up drinking quite a bit of coffee for a number of years. But then about three years ago, I gave it up entirely and went totally to decaf which sounds crazy to a lot of you, I’m sure.
Three years ago, I was finding it difficult to find the balance between the benefits of coffee, which would be alertness and a little bit of motivation and focus, and the downsides, which for me were primarily anxiety. At that [00:06:00] time, about 3 years ago, I was having some issues with my heart rate and rhythm, and I thought maybe the caffeine had something to do with it. So I wanted to do everything that I could to reduce any potential stressors. Now, since then, I’ve figured out that caffeine likely was not a risk factor for heart rate issues, but at the time I did not know that. I was just doing everything I could.
Interesting rollercoaster with coffee: I have come back to it over the last six months where I’ve slowly built up from decaf up to half a shot of espresso, up to about a full shot of espresso each day for the past six months or so. And that’s been good. That seems to be the zone for me. But like I said, love-hate relationship.
And so when this thing came along, this Magic Mind experiment, [00:07:00] I wanted to give it a shot. It’s not coffee based. There is caffeine in it, which I will talk about, but it is not coffee. And I wanted to see if there was another version of caffeine that might work a little bit better for me.
Another factor in this whole experiment is that I just love new things. I just love doing new things and experimenting with things. I also identified with the founder of this company. He had a stress-induced heart event several years ago that motivated him to develop a coffee alternative that would still boost productivity without the potentially harmful effects. So a lot of parallels with our story. And that resonated with me and was just enough to maybe push me over the edge to actually try this. So those were some of my motivations.
I should say, just before I dive deeper into the product and what this [00:08:00] drink actually is, I want to say explicitly, this is not an ad series. They are not sponsoring this podcast or anything like that. In fact, I opted out of a formal affiliate relationship with them so that I could do this objectively. I purchased Magic Mind with my own money, and like I said, opted not to engage in any kind of formal relationship with them because I want to do a truly objective review of this experience. So just to put that out there, this is not just an excuse to advertise a thing. I don’t know how this is going to turn out.
So what is Magic Mind?
Magic Mind is a, this is from their marketing materials, a nootropic, adaptogenic drink called “The World’s First Productivity Shot.” Okay, so let’s break that down just a little bit.
Nootropic: What is a nootropic? Nootropic is a drug or substance that [00:09:00] enhances cognitive functioning. That’s the general definition.
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All right, let’s get back to the podcast.
Basically, smart drugs, if you’ve heard of [00:10:00] that term, smart drugs could be synthetic. This will be something like modafinil. If you’ve heard of modafinil, it’s a stimulant or Adderall is even a synthetic nootropic. Or they could be natural, so could be green tea matcha, caffeine, it could be L-theanine. So these are things that occur naturally in the environment and things that you can ingest to enhance cognitive functioning. So that’s the first half-nootropic drug that enhances cognitive functioning.
The second part: adaptogenic is a natural plant-based substance that helps the body respond to stress, anxiety, and fatigue to help increase well-being. Typically, these are, like I said, plant-based. These are substances like Ginseng, Ashwagandha, and different mushrooms- you’ve likely heard of mushroom tea and whatnot. Over the last few years, it’s gained [00:11:00] a lot of popularity.
So a nootropic, adaptogenic drink called the World’s First Productivity Shot. It truly is a shot. It comes in a little bottle that is about an ounce, I would guess. I actually didn’t look, but it’s about an ounce. It’s very dark green because of the green tea or the matcha that is primary ingredient. And that’s what it looks like.
Let’s think about the main ingredients here. The main ingredients in Magic Mind, and again, I’ll cover the research on each of these ingredients in the next episode. So this is more just letting you know what is in the substance. But Matcha, which is green tea extract or green tea in a purified form; Bacopa Monnieri, which is a plant; Lion’s Mane mushrooms; Turmeric. This is going to be tough. I’m struggling with pronunciation. It’s Phosphatidylserine. [00:12:00] It seems like there’s a better way to say that, but it is another supplement. Vitamin C, Cordyceps, which is a variety of mushroom; Echinacea, which you may have heard of in cold remedies; Vitamin D3, Ashwagandha, which is an anxiety reducer; Rhodiola Rosea, another plant; vitamin B Complex and Choline.
So these are the main ingredients. If you go to the Magic Mind site, you can see the research that they have found to support each of these ingredients. And it also talks a little bit about the functioning of these ingredients.
I’m going to dive deep into each of these and their actual research support in the next episode, but that gives you a sense of what’s in the drink. The only caffeine comes from green tea extract. That’s the only stimulating factor. [00:13:00] The quantities of these ingredients are proprietary. So that’s where the magic happens in this product. Like many products, the actual quantity of ingredients is again, proprietary.
There are many products out there that combine, I think, similar ingredients, but the quantity and type are what makes this a little bit different. So the caffeine comes from the matcha or the green tea, and it’s not much, which I like.
So again, a small green shot of liquid. Taste is like a slightly sweet citrusy green tea is the way that I would characterize it. So what I’ve done so far in my experiment is to make it like a green tea latte, if you ever had a green tea latte from Starbucks or wherever, where I mix it with just a touch of sweetened creamer, like a vanilla [00:14:00] creamer or something like that, and then mix it with warm oat milk and it tastes really good. You don’t want to overdo the sweetener. That to me, in my experience, has really thrown the balance off. So just a touch of sweetener and then some oat milk makes it pretty good. I imagine it would be good with other kinds of milk as well.
So here’s the plan. So I’m going to be drinking it in the mornings in place of coffee for 15 days straight. This is a recommendation of the company to get the full benefit. So I’m going to do it in place of coffee for 15 days straight, and I’m going to keep a little journal to track the effects and the contents of that journal will produce the material for the last episode in this series when I reflect back on my experience with Magic Mind.
So that’s it for the introduction and background. As I said next episode, I’m going to dive deeply into all of [00:15:00] these ingredients. So if you’ve ever wondered about the effectiveness of some of these homeopathic or nootropic or adaptogenic ingredients, the next episode will likely be quite informative for you.
All right. Thank you for checking this out. Thanks for going with me on another experimental ride through the business world. It’s time to focus on productivity and brain hacking, and I look forward to seeing where this goes.
Alright, y’all, thank you so much for tuning into this episode. Always grateful to have you here. I hope that you take away some information that you can implement in your practice and in your life. Any resources that we mentioned during the episode will be listed in the show notes, so make sure to check those out.
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And if you’re a practice owner or aspiring practice [00:16:00] owner, I’d invite you to check out The Testing Psychologist mastermind groups. I have mastermind groups at every stage of practice development, beginner, intermediate, and advanced. We have homework, we have accountability, we have support, and we have resources. These groups are amazing. We do a lot of work and a lot of connecting. If that sounds interesting to you, you can check out the details at thetestingpsychologist.com/consulting. You can sign up for a pre-group phone call and we will chat and figure out if a group could be a good fit for you. Thanks so much.
The information contained in this podcast and on The Testing Psychologist website is intended for [00:17:00] informational and educational purposes only. Nothing in this podcast or on the website is intended to be a substitute for professional, psychological, psychiatric, or medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Please note that no doctor-patient relationship is formed here, and similarly, no supervisory or consultative relationship is formed between the host or guests of this podcast and listeners of this podcast. If you need the qualified advice of any mental health practitioner or medical provider, please seek one in your area. Similarly, if you need supervision on clinical matters, please find a supervisor with expertise that fits your needs.