EP010: Applying Neuroscience to Choosing Winning Mindsets

Do you really have to crush, grind, and power through to perform? Does it have to be that difficult? Today’s episode is a practical experiment on the neuroscience principles that underpin neuroplasticity and the way humans learn in general.

 

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Dr. Andrew Huberman has been making the podcast rounds lately, talking about the fine balance that needs to be struck between agitation and relaxed focus — sympathetic/parasympathetic nervous systems — to create the brain environment required to better integrate information, neuroplasticity.

 

To figure out if there are practical ways individuals can achieve this easily, return guest Andrea Hollenback agreed to play along in a three-part test where we:

1. Pushed her limits, in the form of a workout.

2. Helped her relax and coached her in Big Mind.

3. Pushed her limits again to see if they had moved at all.

 

The first part of this video podcast is the training and coaching session and the second part is where we pull apart the experience and establish if we were successful, listen in for an enlightening episode!

 

 

 

 

Key Takeaways

 

Experiment

 

Set 1 — Why did I sign up for this?! [7:24] Andrea — out of breath — shares her impressions on the first workout set and talks about the negative self-talk she had to battle to manage to get through it.

 

Coaching — Big Mind and Body scan [10:50] To help Andrea recover from her first set, Tony talks her through a body scan, and in order to get her primed and in the right mindset for her second set, does a Big Mind exercise with her.

 

The Big Mind process was created by Tony’s Zen master Genpo Roshi.

 

Set 2 – Better faster stronger [12:00] Andrea shares her thoughts on the second workout set which comparatively felt like an enjoyable experience.

 

She and Tony posit that this positive feeling carried through a difficult or challenging experience will lead to repeat performance which is ultimately key to any long-term success.

 

Discussion

 

The empowered, relaxed Andrea [14:45] Andrea shares her surprise at the results of the Big Mind exercises she went through with Tony and how it was the key to getting her into the right mindset quickly.

 

Putting your energy to better use [18:52] Despite having done an entire first — and exhausting — set, it would stand to reason that the set following the coaching would have been harder, but the opposite occurred!

 

The seemingly paradoxical neuroscience [19:51] Being able to focus through agitation is the neuroscience principle that underpins neuroplasticity and finding that delicate balance between agitation and relaxed focus. It’s finding the interplay between your sympathetic and parasympathetic systems.

 

Wider applicability [24:27] Tony and Andrea discuss how these principles can be applied to our work and private lives insofar as we manage to gain control of the mindset balance required to be in that hyper-aware state.

 

The aftermath [26:59] Beyond just the event itself — in this case, a workout — Tony wonders at the importance of the general feeling that follows and its purpose in your general disposition towards maintaining this behavior in the future. When the parasympathetic system takes over, you are in a position to learn.

 

Andrea’s epiphany [31:36] So you can retrain your autonomic nervous system, and it doesn’t even feel difficult! Tony and Andrea discuss the crush and grind of their careers.

 

On Tony [35:09] From panic attacks to adrenal