The One Where I Pretend to be a Scientist
A couple months into the pandemic I decided I wanted to take control over whatever I could as far as the health of my body was concerned. Even thought I knew the virus could still be lethal to healthy people, I figured it couldn’t hurt to get myself stronger. During lockdowns when we weren’t allowed to go more than 100 meters from our homes, I ran circles around the 100 meter radius around my building.
During this time I listened to my first ever podcast. I had never listened to a podcast before. I associated podcasts with talk radio, and I associated talk radio with annoying morning talk shows on radio stations in the 1990’s that took over when I just wanted to listen to music on the way to school. So for most of my life talk radio was just an impediment to music as far as I was concerned.
Then during the pandemic a friend of mine shared a link on social media to a podcast episode that sounded interesting. I had never heard of the host or the guest, but the title of the episode was “How to Change Your Brain.” I think the episode actually did change my brain. Or at least it got me on a new trajectory towards understanding the way the brain works better so I could use that knowledge to my advantage.
The podcast episode is the most listened to episode of “Roll On” (which is already a very popular podcast), and I can absolutely see why. Huberman is a neuroscientist who does research on plasticity in the brain among a variety of other topics. He has subsequently gone on to start his own podcast which is also very popular.
In that episode Dr Huberman talked about how the reward systems of our brains are designed to optimize the progression of the species. Learning new things, neuroplasticity, is uncomfortable because the hormones that signal to the brain that we need to remember new information are the hormones associated with stress.
Our brains are very good at pursuing behavior that makes us feel good, like scrolling through social media, but often that type of reinforced of behavior is maladaptive. Our reward system can better be used to learn new behaviors in life threatening situations. But in modern times we don’t usually find ourselves in the type of situations our brains have evolved to encounter.
Basically, what I’m getting at is, we can use what we know about the brain to help us adapt better to the lifestyles we live today. It takes work because our brains do get fixated on feel good behaviors and automated tasks. Our brains only want to deal with discomfort and learn new things if our lives depend on it. This means that we have to voluntarily choose to put ourselves through discomfort if we want to advance.
When I’m trying to learn something new or get better at something, I now understand that the feelings of discomfort and frustration that come up are a result of my body releasing stress hormones (acetylcholine and norepinephrine - I think). Pushing through these uncomfortable hormonal states and continuing even though we are not experiencing pleasure is the exact process that tells our body to mark these hormones to change our neural pathways.
In other words, the discomfort we feel is the exact signal from our body that tells us we are entering a state in which we can change our brains. So, when you’re studying something new and you’re getting so frustrated because you feel like you’re not making progress and you want to throw your book at the wall and give up, that’s the exact signal that your brain is going to be able to create new neural pathways if you can just push through.
When we’re in a state of threat we respond in one of three ways; freeze, retreat, or move forward. Moving forward triggers the activation of the dopamine circuitry of the brain, which is both a reward and motivator to keep going. “Not only is forward action rewarded at a neurochemical level which sets you up for more forward action, but the highest level of agitation and stress was associated with moving forward…Stress is designed to move us forward.” Andrew Huberman
But the actual changing of the brain doesn’t happen during the time of stress and duress, it just gets marked for change during that time. The actual change occurs during times of rest and relaxing. So, if you really want to change your brain you need to include sleep/rest/relaxation in the equation.
One of the most fascinating things Huberman talked about on this episode was that lateral eye movements bring the brain to a state of relaxing. There’s a type of therapy that utilizes this idea in its practice. It’s called EMDR and it’s supposed to be very effective for dealing with trauma. Huberman says he was skeptical when he first heard about EMDR but then 5 separate papers came out in 5 different trusted scientific journals between 2018-2020 which all had the same findings; moving the eyes from side to side quiets activity in the amygdala. The amygdala is the part of the brain that’s primarily responsible for threat detection and stress.
The eyes are essentially just two pieces of brain that stick out of our skull. We can use our eyes in all sorts of interesting ways to help us accomplish certain tasks. Narrowing our visual focus indicates to the brain that we need to concentrate and focus, and broadening our gaze helps bring the brain to a state of relaxation. This is why going to the beach or looking out at a view is relaxing.
Is any of this as fascinating to you as it is to me, or did I lose you as soon as I started? I can’t imagine who exactly would be interested in reading this. If you have any academic experience in neuroscience I probably lost you many paragraphs ago when you realized, “this idiot doesn’t know what she’s talking about.” If you don’t know anything about neuroscience you might think I do know what I’m talking about but you probably don’t want to read some layperson’s understanding of such a complicated topic. So basically, everyone has stopped reading at this point.
I just want to use this blog space to discuss things I do to help me live a better life and this one particular podcast episode was a real catalyst for positive change in my life. I like thinking about how our minds and bodies work on a scientific level because sometimes emotions get overwhelming. It’s comforting to know that emotions are related to the chemistry of our biology.
Learning about this type of stuff really opened up a new kind of living for me. I like taking my personal ego out of the equation and operating more from a place of wanting to advance as a part of an entire species. I think the fact that all of humanity went through this pandemic together connected us in ways we don’t usually think about.
Operating from a place of concern for the best interest of the whole human race rather than just personal interest is kind of freeing. It’s like when you sit and look out at a horizon or stare up at the sky on a starry night and realize you are just one tiny particle in this enormous, beautiful universe.
When I feel like I don’t know what to do with myself to be useful to the world, or how to make something meaningful of my time, I exercise. I move my body and keep in mind that my body is not just my own, it is a small part of this unfathomably large universe I exist in. I am like one small cell in the body of the universe. All I can do is stay active and healthy. That’s all I can ask for of each cell in my body.
Something I have come to learn about myself is, and I believe this is true for everyone, if I don’t make a point to exercise at least 30 minutes or more 3 times I a week, I get depressed, my back hurts, I’m chronically tired and always feel like I’m on the verge of getting sick.
As I approached and entered my middle age I realized if I want to feel good as I get older, regular exercise is a nonnegotiable. Also, existence is just enhanced to a whole new level when you exercise and move your body every day. Movement/exercise is literally the answer to basically any and every question.
Am I being preachy? My kids tell me I do too much preaching. It’s just hard to not want to scream it to the world, “the answer to the majority of your problems is completely in your hands!” It’s so exciting. Sure, it’s an absolute pain in the ass, and I usually have to fight myself to exercise, but you know what’s worse? Feeling like shit.
So yeah, if you want to feel good, move your body. It’s a real use it or lose it kinda situation. If you’re wondering how I got from neuroplasticity to exercise, that makes two of us. But actually it does make sense if you know more about Rich Roll who decided to turn his physical health around at age 40 by becoming an Ultra athlete. His book, “Finding Ultra” inspired me to get off my ass in my late 30’s. So basically, everything I wrote about here connects back to the same point – it’s never too late to change yourself for the better. And IMHO (in my humble opinion) bettering yourself will help lead to the betterment (that’s a word?) of mankind.
Also, listen to that episode of the Rich Roll Podcast, but skip to minute 25 to get straight to the interview.