Hack your own brain | Karolien Notebaert | TEDxUHasselt
Summary
TLDRThe speaker shares her journey of self-discovery, emphasizing the importance of unlocking one's brain potential. She explains how internal interferences, like anxiety, hinder performance and contrasts this with the role of the prefrontal cortex in executive functions. The key to overcoming these challenges is mindfulness meditation, which can reduce amygdala activation and boost prefrontal cortex capacity, leading to improved performance and well-being. The talk concludes with a simple mindfulness exercise and an encouragement to practice it regularly for personal and collective growth.
Takeaways
- 🌍 The speaker left home at 16, driven by a desire to discover the world, but was naive about life's challenges.
- 👩👧👦 The speaker's mother advised them to use their potential to develop the best version of themselves, which took years to fully understand.
- 🧠 The speaker became a neuroscientist and focused on understanding how to unlock the brain's potential and reduce internal interferences.
- 🎤 Performance can be hindered by internal interferences like anxiety, even if one has the potential, as illustrated by the example of public singing.
- 😨 The amygdala, responsible for emotions like anxiety, can over-activate and block our potential, while the prefrontal cortex is needed for executive functions like planning and decision-making.
- 🔋 The prefrontal cortex has limited capacity, like a battery, and its depletion during a busy day can lead to poor performance.
- 👨👩👧 The speaker shared a personal story of dealing with everyday stress, explaining how the amygdala and prefrontal cortex function during the day.
- 🧘♂️ Mindfulness meditation can reduce amygdala activation and boost the prefrontal cortex, leading to improved cognitive, physical performance, focus, and well-being.
- 🐒 The default mode network, or 'monkey mind,' constantly produces thoughts that can distract us, while mindfulness activates the direct experience network, helping to quiet the mind.
- 🕰️ Regular practice of mindfulness meditation (starting with 5-10 minutes daily) can help unlock brain potential, and it can benefit individuals, families, teams, and even humankind.
Q & A
What advice did the speaker's mother give them before they left home at 16?
-The speaker's mother advised them to use their potential to develop the best version of themselves.
When did the speaker fully understand the advice from their mother?
-The speaker fully understood their mother's advice about 10 years later when they were working as a neuroscientist.
What question did the speaker focus on during their scientific and personal journey?
-The speaker focused on the question, 'How can you unlock the potential in your brain and develop the best version of yourself?'
What does the speaker identify as the main cause of internal interferences that block potential?
-The speaker identifies internal interferences, such as nervousness, anxiety, and negative thoughts, which are often caused by overactivity in the amygdala.
What is the role of the prefrontal cortex according to the speaker?
-The prefrontal cortex is responsible for executive functions like planning, organizing, and processing information. It plays a key role in bringing mental peak performance when fully charged.
How does the speaker explain the depletion of the prefrontal cortex throughout a busy day?
-The speaker explains that the prefrontal cortex is like a battery that drains over the course of a busy day, leading to mental fatigue and increased amygdala activation.
What strategy did the speaker discover to downregulate amygdala activation and boost the prefrontal cortex?
-The speaker discovered that mindfulness meditation is a strategy that can reduce amygdala activation and boost the prefrontal cortex.
What are some of the positive effects of mindfulness meditation mentioned by the speaker?
-Mindfulness meditation can improve creativity, cognitive and physical performance, focus, decision-making, well-being, and health.
What is the 'monkey' in the brain, according to the speaker?
-The 'monkey' refers to the constant chatter of the default mode network, a brain network that produces thoughts and can lead to increased amygdala activation.
How can mindfulness meditation help 'shut up' the 'monkey' in the brain?
-Mindfulness meditation activates the direct experience network, which is closely connected to the senses. This network cannot be activated at the same time as the default mode network, thereby quieting the constant chatter of the 'monkey.'
Outlines
🌍 Leaving Home at 16: A Journey Begins
The speaker shares a personal story about leaving home at the age of 16, driven by a desire to explore the world despite being naive and unprepared. Her mother offered advice to use her potential and develop her best self, which only resonated 10 years later when the speaker was a neuroscientist. This moment marked the start of a scientific and personal journey, exploring how to unlock one's brain potential and become the best version of oneself.
🧠 Potential vs. Performance: Overcoming Internal Barriers
The speaker defines performance as the result of one's potential minus internal interferences. While potential includes talents and skills, internal interferences such as anxiety and negative thoughts can block performance. Using an example of singing, she explains how being on stage creates nervousness, which hampers potential. She introduces the amygdala, a brain region that triggers internal interferences, and the prefrontal cortex, which is crucial for peak performance but has limited capacity, similar to a battery.
📉 Mental Battery: The Battle of the Amygdala and Prefrontal Cortex
The speaker illustrates how a typical day drains the prefrontal cortex, leaving it depleted, while the amygdala becomes overactive. She shares a relatable story of waking up after little sleep, negotiating with her stubborn child, and handling a stressful day. By evening, mental capacity is low, leading to irritability and a chaotic family environment. She stresses that this cycle affects everyone, including children, and highlights the need for strategies to recharge the prefrontal cortex and reduce amygdala overactivation.
🧘 Mindfulness Meditation: A Brain Hack for Peak Performance
The speaker introduces mindfulness meditation as a scientifically proven strategy to reduce amygdala activation and boost the prefrontal cortex. Initially skeptical about meditation, she explains how regular practice can shrink the amygdala and improve creativity, cognitive performance, decision-making, and overall well-being. She likens the mindfulness approach to M&Ms and emphasizes the importance of practicing it correctly to unlock these benefits.
🐒 The Monkey Mind: Shutting Down the Default Mode Network
The speaker describes the 'monkey mind'—a constant internal chatter known in neuroscience as the default mode network, which dominates our thoughts and triggers amygdala activation. Mindfulness meditation activates the direct experience network, which focuses on the senses and silences the default mode network. She walks the audience through a simple mindfulness exercise to demonstrate how paying attention to sensations can help deactivate the 'monkey' and shift to a more peaceful mental state.
⏳ Practice Makes Perfect: Starting Your Mindfulness Journey
The speaker encourages the audience to practice mindfulness meditation consistently, starting with five minutes a day and gradually increasing to 10-15 minutes. She explains that mindfulness can be done anywhere, even during daily routines like meetings or classes. Reflecting on her mother’s advice to unlock her brain’s potential, the speaker emphasizes that mindfulness is a key tool for personal and professional success, and advocates for its use not only individually but also within families, teams, and companies.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Potential
💡Internal Interferences
💡Amygdala
💡Prefrontal Cortex
💡Mindfulness Meditation
💡Default Mode Network
💡Direct Experience Network
💡Performance
💡Hacking the Brain
💡Best Version of Oneself
💡Mental Battery
Highlights
The speaker left home at age 16 to explore the world, believing they were ready but later realizing they were naive.
The speaker's mother gave important advice: 'Use your potential to develop the best version of yourself,' which didn't resonate until years later.
The speaker, as a neuroscientist, focused on understanding how to unlock potential in the brain and reduce internal interferences.
Performance is described as 'potential minus internal interferences,' highlighting how anxiety and nervousness can block talents like singing.
Internal interferences are often caused by overactivation of the amygdala, which can block access to full potential.
The prefrontal cortex, which manages executive functions like planning and problem-solving, has limited capacity, acting like a battery that depletes over the day.
A story illustrates how the prefrontal cortex gets drained throughout the day by common stressors, leading to poor emotional control by evening.
The speaker sought a way to reduce amygdala activation and recharge the prefrontal cortex, discovering mindfulness meditation as an effective strategy.
Regular mindfulness meditation reduces amygdala activation and boosts prefrontal cortex functioning, enhancing cognitive and physical performance.
Scientific studies show that mindfulness meditation can shrink the amygdala and lead to better decision-making, focus, creativity, and well-being.
Mindfulness meditation activates the 'direct experience network,' which is linked to our senses and helps deactivate the 'default mode network,' or the mental chatter in our minds.
The default mode network, or the 'monkey mind,' constantly produces thoughts that lead to stress and over-activation of the amygdala.
Mindfulness involves focusing on sensory experiences, which can quiet the 'monkey mind' and promote mental clarity.
The speaker conducts a mini mindfulness meditation exercise, emphasizing that even a few seconds of practice can reduce stress.
The speaker concludes that regular mindfulness meditation can help individuals, teams, and even companies unlock their full potential, ultimately improving humankind.
Transcripts
[Music]
cause many people do not know about me
is that I left my home my parents home
when I was 16 years old I had just
turned 16 and that's the moment that I
believed I was ready for the world I was
ready to discover the world and of
course I was very young and very naive
but the day that I left my mother she
came to me and she decided to give me
her final piece of good advice and she
said Carol I knew you have a lot of
potential however if you want to make it
in life make sure you use your potential
so you can develop the best version of
yourself those words of advice did not
mean much to me when I was 16 but it's
only about 10 years after that when I
was working as a scientist in the field
of neurosciences that the advice came
back to my mind and that for me was the
start of a scientific and personal
journey on which I focused on one
particular question namely how can you
unlock the potential in your brain or
differently put how can you hack your
brain get your potential and develop the
best version of yourself now on this
journey not only have I come to crucial
insights with respect to this topic but
it also radically changed my life and it
those insights that I want to share with
you today first of all let's have a look
at what performance and potential means
the performance that we bring stands for
the potential that we have - the
internal interferences what's the
potential that we have these are your
talents your skills
your expertise what you can do well
however in many situations we are
dealing with internal interferences and
we are blocked to use our potential let
me give you an example let's say that we
all in the room have a great potential
to sing and when we are at home in the
shower we give our best performance but
then you're being asked here and now to
come on stage in experience Li
unexpectedly
to sing a song for us what is going to
happen well it's very likely that your
performance is going to drop now why is
that clearly you have the potential to
sing but standing here on stage all of a
sudden created these internal
interferences such as nervousness
anxiety perhaps even negative thoughts
and these factors they started to act
like internal interferences and they
blocked you in your potential to sing to
get an idea on how we can reduce those
internal interferences so we can access
our potential let's have a look at how
this works in the brain most of the
internal interferences that we
experience are being caused by too much
activation in one particular brain
region which is called the amygdala and
the amygdala they are generally very
important for our survival but if there
are two active they cause our
interferences and block us in our
potential now what do we need for our
potential on the other side for our
potential we need a totally different
brain structure which is called the pre
frontal cortex as the name suggests it's
a brain structure that is fully in the
front of our
brain and this part of the brain is
significantly involved in all your
executive functions and what are those
planning organizing processing
information thinking about solutions in
fact all the tasks that you do
throughout the normal day for these you
need your prefrontal cortex now the bad
news is and you might have noticed that
but the prefrontal cortex has a limited
capacity it works a bit like a battery
if the battery is fully charged we bring
a mental peak performance but the more
we use it and the emptier it gets the
worst version we are of ourselves to
give you an idea of how that Amidala and
prefrontal cortex work throughout the
normal day I'm going to tell you a story
it's a story about you a story about me
about what we did yesterday and what
happens during that day in our amygdala
area and our prefrontal cortex area now
keep in the back of your mind that we
want to have the amygdala not too active
and we want to have a prefrontal cortex
that is fully charged okay so let's say
you woke up yesterday and you hadn't
slept enough and when we don't sleep
enough our prefrontal cortex is not
fully charged you have two children two
girls and the youngest girl she is two
years old
and even though it's not very warm
outside she absolutely insists on
wearing shorts a t-shirt and sandals and
your daughter she's just like you she's
very stubborn and she's not giving in so
what do you do
you used your prefrontal cortex to
negotiate with your child half an hour
later she's wearing trousers you're in
the car you're stuck in traffic where
you also need your prefrontal cortex and
what happens
after that is your day and I can
summarize your day as follows we use our
prefrontal cortex like crazy and after
an extremely busy day we come home and
this is our mental state our mental
battery is empty and our amygdala our
having free play and let me tell you a
secret this is also happening with the
other members of the family because your
children they also have this mental
battery but it's very tiny and super
quickly angry so what do children do
with an empty battery at least mine they
do they start fighting you try to calm
the children you try to make the food
the food burns it is absolutely the
worst case scenario and it's a moment
that you think things can't get worse
that's the moment that you bare feet
step onto a lego breaking have you
already stepped onto a Lego braking it
hurts right and after a day like that it
hurts even more because of the mental
state were in we have too much a missile
activation and our mental battery is
empty and this at a moment where we are
expected to have the best moments of our
lives that our mental state so I say we
can do better as a scientists I was
looking for a strategy with which we can
down regulate the amygdala activation
and give a boost to our prefrontal
cortex because that's what it needs for
a peak performance and I found that
strategy it is a strategy that when you
regularly practice it the amygdala
activation will go down and your
prefrontal cortex will get a boost not
only that it even gets better if you
regularly practice this strategy the
amygdala will eventually become smaller
means that the largest source of your
internal interferences will become
smaller and as a consequence science has
shown that this strategy leads to a very
very long list of positive effects such
as a better creativity a better
cognitive and also physical performance
a better focus better decision-making
better well-being also a better health
what's the strategy I'm talking about
here I'm talking here about mindfulness
meditation mindfulness meditation mmm
you know the M&Ms you eat the sweets mmm
the next time you eat them you think
about mindfulness meditation as a
skeptical scientist the first time that
I read that word meditation I still
remember that very clearly
I put the article aside because I
thought that meditation had something to
do with putting candles in your ears or
sniffing lavender or saying ohm
but I can assure you that mindfulness
meditation is nothing esoteric
mindfulness meditation is a hardcore
scientifically under built strategy with
which you can unlock the full potential
in your brain if you want to experience
those positive positive effects of
mindfulness it is very important that
you practice mindfulness in the correct
way and how do we practice mindfulness
meditation in the correct way well let
me start by telling you that you all
have a monkey in your brain you might
have noticed there is this constant
voice that is constantly chatting to you
Chat Chat Chat Chat Chat it's telling
you what to do you know check your phone
check your facebook page it's also
telling you how to feel to feel good to
feel bad and it's constantly
giving you it's opinion now this monkey
in your voice in science we don't call
this monkey we have another name for it
but in neuroscience we call this voice
in our head the default mode Network
it's a bit like a computer has its
default settings we also have that as a
human being with us it's called the
default mode Network and this default
mode network is a very dominantly
activated Network that constantly
produces our thoughts it's the monkey
setting and it's just hearts that
eventually lead to our amatul activation
for mindfulness meditation we need a
totally different brain network we need
a brain network that is called the
direct experience Network and now why is
it so important the power of mindfulness
lies in the fact that these two networks
cannot be activated simultaneously this
implies that when I activate the direct
experience Network you will deactivate
the default mode network or differently
put you will shut up the monkey in your
mind now how do you do that well the
direct experience network is a network
that is in very close connection to all
of our senses hearing seeing smelling
tasting and when we bring our full
attention to one of our senses we
activate the direct experience network
and we deactivate a default mode network
or we shut up the monkey in our mind but
when we do that what is going to happen
that monkey really likes to chat so
after a few milliseconds or a few
seconds the monkey is going to start
chatting again that's fine if that
happens you bring your attention back to
one of your sense
now that you understand why we might
need mindfulness that's also experience
it
I brought an exercise for you it's only
20 seconds and the only thing you have
to lose this bit of a methyl activation
which is a good thing so we're gonna do
it all together and how does the
exercise look like when I say start
we're all going to tap with both our
hands on our knees until I say stop and
when I say stop you are going to lay
your hands flat on your legs and you are
going to close your eyes and bring your
full attention to the sensation that you
experience on the skin of your hands and
with this simple trick you will activate
your direct experience network are you
ready okay we all tap our knees and stop
now you close your eyes and feel your
hands
okay you can open your eyes again for
those who have never practiced
mindfulness meditation before well
congratulations this is was your first
mini mindfulness meditation session if
you really want to have those effects
it's important to practice practice
practice start by doing this five
minutes per day in this week increase it
to test 10 minutes next week and if you
reach an average of 10 to 15 minutes a
day it's a brilliant start and you don't
always have to fill your hands you can
feel something else in your body you can
mind your breathing and this is
something you can do anywhere during a
meeting where you have no active
participation do mindfulness meditation
session or in your class rather than
playing with your phone coming back now
to the advice that my mother gave me 20
years ago namely unlock the potential in
your brain develop the best version of
yourself I have come to learn that
mindfulness meditation is the key to
high performance it's the way to hack
your brain and this is something that we
can do for ourselves to become the best
version of ourselves but think bigger
this is something we can do as a family
or as a team or as a company as a
company we are seldom the best versions
of ourselves or even thing beyond that
the moonshot thinking with mindfulness
meditation we can create a better
version of humankind which lies in our
hands and this I think was an idea worth
sharing with you today thank you
you
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