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Hey everyone. Welcome back to The Testing Psychologist. Today is the third and final episode in My Magic Mind series. If you have not listened to the first two episodes, then this one probably won’t make much sense. [00:01:00] I would encourage you to go back and listen to the first two just to get the background for this little mini-series.
In brief, it is a mini-series dedicated to my experience trying a supplement called Magic Mind, which claims to be the world’s first productivity shot. So it was immediately appealing to me, and I documented the experience of taking magic mind over the last 15 days or over a 15-day period. Today’s the third episode. I’m going to talk about reflections on the experience, final thoughts about Magic Mind, and whether it might be useful to continue to take.
Before we transition to the episode, y’all know what I’m going to say. If you’re a group practice owner or a solo practice owner or a hope to be solo practice owner, I’d invite you to join The Testing Psychologist Mastermind groups. These are group coaching experiences with 6 psychologists. We provide support and accountability to help [00:02:00] you reach the goals that you might have in your private practice. I would love to help you. If that sounds intriguing, you can get more info at thetestingpsychologist.com/consulting.
All right, let’s wrap up this Magic Mind series.
Okay, folks. Let’s get right to it. As you know, I have been on this experimental journey over the past few weeks with Magic Mind. First episode, I gave my background and rationale for even trying this product. Second episode, I talked about the ingredients in it and the research behind those ingredients.
In case you missed that one, just very briefly, I [00:03:00] largely decided that the ingredients were somewhat legitimate and worth trying out and that there is a decent amount of research behind most of them. So I think it was worthwhile and whatever I experienced could not be attributed entirely to the placebo effect.
Today I am chatting about my experience and trying to reflect on taking Magic Mind for 15 days. That’s what they recommend. They recommend that you do a 15-day stretch where you drink it every day. The effects reportedly build on one another, so it is best with sustained use.
I kept a journal of sorts along the way and just documented my feelings, both physiological, cognitive, and emotional. I’m going to summarize and talk through those today for anyone who might be interested about [00:04:00] taking magic mind. So let’s dive into it.
I will say right off the bat, that I think this might be a little anti-climactic. And what I mean by that is that Magic Mind, and I’ll dive more into this as I go along, but the theme with Magic Mind is that I noticed it more for what was missing than what was there.
Here’s what I mean. The first two days were a little bit jittery for me within the first two hours. Just to flashback, remember that I previously had about a one-shot-a-day espresso habit. So, I would consider myself somewhat sensitive to caffeine. There have been times in my life that I was drinking 3 or 4 shots of espresso a day, and was fine, but I [00:05:00] definitely built up to that. I took two years off of drinking caffeine entirely and just resumed a little bit of espresso about six months ago. So, my existing caffeine habit about one shot of espresso a day.
So first two days of Magic Mind, this could be placebo, could be in my mind, but I perceived it to be a little bit more caffeinated than what I was used to, but not a lot. I should also say that I, maybe like some of y’all, am highly attuned to any physiological changes. And so knowing that I was drinking this drink and expecting something, I think I was probably more attuned in to what my body was doing. And so that maybe played a role as well in feeling a little more jittery.
But first two days, little jittery within the first two hours. [00:06:00] That tended to smooth out after two hours. And then it just settled into what I would call focused tranquility which was interesting. So after the first two days, I did not feel any jitteriness or really any sense of activation or stimulation. So that’s where I go back to what I said in the beginning, which is, I ended up appreciating magic mind more for what it’s not than what it is.
For me, this is the analogy of, it’s like the CBD to THC comparison, if that rings true for anyone, with Magic Mind being the CBD to coffee’s THC. So it’s not like drinking Magic Mind felt like[00:07:00] some noticeable physiological change by any means, either by being more stimulated or caffeinated or anything like that, it’s more what was missing from my days. And so that’s how I’ll describe the effects.
I felt genuinely less stressed. I’ll just use that general term. I found myself pretty chilled out and non-reactive to a variety of what I would say were objectively stressful situations, particularly at work. So during this time, we had some changes in our leadership team. We rolled out some fairly significant policy changes within our practice. I think we had a resignation during this time. I [00:08:00] was quite behind on reports for the first time in a while. So there were several notable stressors in my life. And just looking back, I genuinely think that I was less reactive and just more grounded during this time.
One other thing that I noticed was just being less frenetic. I might also call this just being less distractable. I was genuinely focused on my tasks at hand. When I did task switch, it felt more deliberate and methodical rather than bouncing around with that squirrel mentality. So there were certainly times when I checked my email or looked at my phone when I was trying to do other work, but it certainly felt less frequent and it also felt more deliberate when I did. [00:09:00] It’s like I had more of a window between the thought and the action.
So that was nice to notice. I did feel more focused and less distractable. As I said, I had no jitters after the first couple of days, and in fact, this is where I call back to the CBD comparison. There’s no noticeable on-ramp or off-ramp in terms of the product kicking in, so to speak. It was a much smoother up and down compared to coffee which means that I also didn’t feel any kind of crash in the afternoon. I didn’t feel a huge crash with coffee, I’ll be honest, but this, like I said, was a very smooth on-ramp and off-ramp.
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I think I was getting slightly better sleep during this time. Now, I was not one of those folks who ever drank coffee past noon, so I’ve never really struggled with caffeine-disrupted sleep. So this is a little bit of a null hypothesis comparison, I suppose, but I think I did sleep better over those [00:11:00] two weeks that I was drinking Magic Mind potentially due to some of those adaptogens that are said to improve sleep and decrease stress. And again, this was happening in the middle of an otherwise stressful time at work. And typically when I get stressed out and push past my limit of stress management, sleep is the first thing to take a hit. So, that was interesting to notice that I did sleep pretty well over these two weeks.
As we start to wind down, the interesting thing is that after the first day or two, I really didn’t have any thoughts about the Magic Mind, which is good for me. I think I mentioned in the past that when I was drinking coffee, I had a hard time dialing in the sweet spot where I was drinking enough that it was effective, and I was getting some benefit from it, but not enough to make me anxious. [00:12:00] That was a fine line for me, but with Magic Mind, it just sort of faded into the background.
And again, depending on how you like your substances, I can’t think of a better way to put it, this could be good or bad. So if you’re someone who really needs to notice the effect of something, it may not be for you because it is very subtle. And honestly, if I hadn’t been paying attention and deliberately reflecting on my experience with Magic Mind, I don’t know that wouldn’t necessarily notice these absences from my life. Positive absences certainly, but I don’t know that I would’ve noticed them.
It is funny, the return to coffee has been a little bit jarring for me. I’ve now been drinking coffee again for, I don’t know, a week or two. [00:13:00] And it’s definitely a different experience. The thing I notice most is, again, that quicker ramp-up. And interestingly, I was a little bit more jittery the first two days. The comedown, so to speak, is a little bit harsher with coffee.
I also really noticed the acidity in coffee after returning to it. Magic Mind, even though there’s a citrus component, it does not feel, it’s not bitter. And just taste-wise, I actually really got into the taste of Magic Mind. And like I said, it tasted like a, I don’t know if you ever got those lemon green teas. I always got them at the gas station, but anyway, it tastes like a citrusy green tea with just a touch of sweetness. But I really enjoyed the flavor.
Bottom line, I’ve been thinking about this a [00:14:00] lot. Would I continue to purchase Magic Mind? I would certainly keep trying it. I do like it. But for me, it’s a little expensive. There are many options to purchase it ranging from, well, you have to buy in bulk. I don’t think they have an option to just buy a single bottle. So the smallest increment you can buy in is 15 bottles. So that’s theoretically 15 days.
You can do that in a single purchase of 15 bottles versus a subscription, but at that single purchase of 15 bottles, it’s still $5.95 per bottle. That ranges up to the cheapest option or maybe down to the cheapest option where if you subscribe, and again, commit to that monthly delivery or regular delivery, and you purchase the largest quantity [00:15:00] available, which is 30 bottles, then it drops down to $3.25 per bottle. So that’s a significant saving. We’re in a gray area here. I mean, if you’re one of those folks who get a latte or whatever from Starbucks every day, you might not blink at the $5.95 cost per bottle. And in fact, the $3.25 would be relatively cheap for your daily caffeine dose.
For me, my coffee regimen is pretty dialed in. We have an espresso machine here at the office and so even $3.25 for that least expensive version of Magic Mind is at least 3 times as expensive as making lattes here at work or at home for that matter. So cost is probably the thing for me right now.
[00:16:00] I don’t know that I would add this to my monthly grocery list, so to speak. Just as someone who’s relatively conscious of the money I spend on supplementing and these extraneous substances that I drink, whether it’s alcohol or caffeine or THC or CBD or whatever it may be. The cost does start to add up depending on your lifestyle. I don’t know. I’m going to be thinking about this. I’m not writing it off entirely. I really did enjoy it and I think it’s useful. And just from lifestyle perspective, I could see myself maybe doing 15 days a month here or there to switch things up.One important factor is that one of the [00:17:00] ingredients in magic mind is Ashwagandha. And there is some research to say that you should not actually consume Ashwagandha every day. And so that in and of itself is enough of a limiting factor where I know that I don’t think I would ever convert to a literal, everyday magic mind routine, but certainly enough to stay on my plate as a potential supplement to my life.
Thanks, y’all for going on this ride with me. This is a little bit of an experiment, of course. As I mentioned at the beginning, this was not a paid ad or anything like that. If you want to try Magic Mind, there’s a link in the show notes, but yes, this was not sponsored or anything like that, so hopefully came at it from a fairly objective place and it was fun. I like doing this sort of thing, switching it up, and [00:18:00] always interested in anything that will help decrease stress and get our work done a little bit better, and by extension be better people. So again, thanks and we’ll catch you next time.
All right, 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. If you like what you hear on the podcast, I would be so grateful if you left a review on iTunes or Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcast.
And if you’re a practice owner or aspiring practice 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, we have resources.[00:19:00] 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 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 [00:20:00] 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.