EP 79 — Chris Bertram, PhD, on Flow and Learning
Highlights
- How to Reduce Stress in a Meeting
Key takeaways:
(* If you want to reduce stress, you can do things like do breathwork exercises that involve an exaggerated exhale,., * If you're in a meeting that you can't get out of, try to avoid looking at screens for the rest of the time.)
Transcript:
Speaker 1
You know, if I just do things like for me, the things that I do is I do certain breathwork patterns where there's an exaggerated exhale, any kind of breathwork that you do where the exhale is longer than the inhale is going to bias your relaxation system to come on board. So you can do that in five minutes and it will bring your heart rate down. It'll bring your blood pressure down and it will calm the mind. Right. So that's one thing you can do if I'm looking at a screen. So even if I'm in a meeting, it doesn't mean that I have to stare directly at the screen, right? Because, you know, there's one of the things that we know about the way the brain works is that when your eyes are hyper focused on a small point, you get a small stress response, right? It's just what happens versus when your eyes are fully panoramic, like when we look out at the ocean, right? You've got the ocean out your window. You look out there, your eyes stop focusing on a small point and they get into this state of panoramic vision. As soon as that happens, guess what happens? Heart rate comes down a little bit. Blood pressure comes down a little bit. The mind relaxes a little bit and you're pushing directly against the stress signals. Those are things you can do right here right now. Even if you're in a meeting that you can't get out of, but for the rest of the time, yeah, like just, you know, try not to stare at a screen. If you've got a little bit of time, like don't look at your phone in between meetings, because even if there's nothing on the phone that is particularly (Time 0:26:40)
- The Neuroscience of Flow
Key takeaways:
(* When people are in flow, part of their brain that is responsible for making decisions and willpower decreases in activity., * This allows skills to be expressed more freely and allows for a sense of connection with others.)
Transcript:
Speaker 1
Well, one of the things that relates to your question that specific to the topic of flow is one of the things we know that happens inside the brain when flow starts to show up, is that part of your brain that's calling into question, whether you're a good doctor or a good athlete or a good leader or whatever it is? It is your frontal lobes, like the frontal cortex of your brain is where executive function happens in willpower and conscious decision making, but also the inner critic lives up there. We could put you right now into an FM or IDAD and have you tell me a story where you really blew it or where you did choke. And as soon as you start to do that, there's part of the lateral side of your frontal cortex starts to really get active. That same part of the brain is one of the places that starts to deactivate when we start to get into flow. And there's some really interesting deactivations across the frontal lobes, generally speaking. And so what starts to happen when we get into flow is that inner critic goes quiet, this sense of connection with others starts to emerge, our ego starts to get quiet, and freedom shows up because we're no longer operating under the executive oversight as much of our frontal lobes. And what happens there is our skills are allowed to emerge kind of unfiltered by the frontal lobes. And so this is why it's so interesting when you hear this all the time in sport, like paralysis by analysis or, you know, and pick your, pick your term here. (Time 0:32:53)
- The Effects of Transient Hypofrontality on Cognition
Key takeaways:
(* Flow is a state of intense focus and concentration that can be achieved through a variety of activities, such as exercise., * When the inner critic goes quiet, a sense of connection with others emerges, and the ego becomes quiet., * This is why it is so important to strive to do activities with intention, as this can help to deactivate the frontal lobes.)
Transcript:
Speaker 1
And there's some really interesting deactivations across the frontal lobes, generally speaking. And so what starts to happen when we get into flow is that inner critic goes quiet, this sense of connection with others starts to emerge, our ego starts to get quiet, and freedom shows up because we're no longer operating under the executive oversight as much of our frontal lobes. And what happens there is our skills are allowed to emerge kind of unfiltered by the frontal lobes. And so this is why it's so interesting when you hear this all the time in sport, like paralysis by analysis or, you know, and pick your, pick your term here. But what we try to strive to do is figure out one of the things you, you know, you talk about, you know, doing this with intention. We know, for example, that there are ways that you can create this condition. And so it's called, by the way, if you're curious, that it's called transient hypofrontality, which just means temporarily your frontal lobes are in patterns of deactivation. And we know, for example, that you can, in about 20 minutes of mild to moderate exercise or about three to five minutes of pretty intense exercise, deactivate your frontal lobes to a large extent, called exercise induced transient hypofrontality. (Time 0:33:41)
- How to Prepare for the Arena
Key takeaways:
(* If you want to be prepared for the arena, you need to train in a stressful situation., * This can be done through practice, or by preparing yourself mentally and physically for the moment.)
Transcript:
Speaker 1
Yeah, well, one of the things that I that really caught my attention in your book, Dan, and the things I've heard you talk about on different podcasts is, you know, this idea that if you, you know, you have to prepare yourself for the arena by training in some version of the arena, right? So a great example of this, no matter, you know, how much training you have, you know, real life seldom looks like a simulation, right? Or it seldom looks like, you know, the Super Bowl seldom looks like what practice looked like despite our best efforts. But that doesn't mean there aren't things we can do. It was a great example of this last night in the NFL. If you're watching the game last night, right? I'm sure you if you didn't see, you heard about it, but like all those medical staff that showed up to help tomorrow, Hamlin, last night, you know, that had never happened in the NFL before. That particular type of a situation in crisis and emergency on the field had never happened before. A version of it happened in the NHL a few years back, interestingly, but it wasn't as dire. But you know, how did those people prepare themselves for that moment? And undoubtedly, it had to do with a lot of the work that you talk about where you have to train yourself in stressful situations. There's this, you know, long existence, you know, the world of psychology, you'd call it state dependent learning, where, you know, your likelihood of being able to pull up your skills. And when the matter when the moment shows up is higher, if you've trained in that same sort of state of mind and body. (Time 0:46:01)