Latest / Do You F*cking Mind? / 373. What is your default mode network? & how you can reset it

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373. What is your default mode network? & how you can reset it · Do You F*cking Mind?

0:09
Speaker 1: Hello, beautiful beans, and welcome to the episode of Today.
0:12
Speaker 1: So in today's episode, this is like a brain factory
0:16
Speaker 1: kind of episode. So the whole thing is pretty much
0:19
Speaker 1: a bit of a brain fact and something that I'm
0:21
Speaker 1: very surprised I have not spoken about, because it is
0:24
Speaker 1: something that we all have, we can all improve on.
0:28
Speaker 1: Well maybe not all of us, some are some of
0:30
Speaker 1: us are enlightened beings that don't need to improve on it.
0:33
Speaker 1: And the beauty about this thing that I'm going to
0:35
Speaker 1: talk about, which you've already seen in the title it's
0:37
Speaker 1: called the default mode network, is that it is moldable,
0:41
Speaker 1: it is changeable. It is something that we can be
0:44
Speaker 1: editing and rewriting with effort.
0:46
Speaker 2: With conscious effort. Okay.
0:48
Speaker 1: So it's not something that's absolutely like cemented and like
0:52
Speaker 1: set in stone.
0:53
Speaker 2: Okay.
0:54
Speaker 1: So that's going to be the episode of Today, and
0:57
Speaker 1: we'll be answering one listener question at the end of
0:59
Speaker 1: the episode. And I thought, because I dabbled into my
1:04
Speaker 1: pet hate last episode, and I'm like, oh love talking
1:07
Speaker 1: about I really sound quite negative here, but I do
1:10
Speaker 1: enjoy talking about a pet hate, So I thought I
1:13
Speaker 1: would bring in another pet hate. And this is based
1:17
Speaker 1: on something that I saw on TikTok or Instagram, and
1:23
Speaker 1: basically it's when like there was a guy. Basically it
1:26
Speaker 1: was like a stitched video and this guy was saying,
1:30
Speaker 1: you know, or everyone complains that they can't find the
1:32
Speaker 1: nice guy, but the nice guy is right in front of.
1:35
Speaker 2: You, and then you choose the bad guy.
1:37
Speaker 1: And that anyway, So it's basically this guy who claims
1:39
Speaker 1: to be a nice guy and was having a bit
1:42
Speaker 1: of a tantrum saying that all the women that get
1:46
Speaker 1: stuck in toxic relationships, it's pretty much their fault because
1:48
Speaker 1: they never choose the nice guy.
1:50
Speaker 2: And I thought that i'd talk about my pet.
1:51
Speaker 1: Hate around this whole idea of the nice guy and
1:54
Speaker 1: people that identify with being nice. Nice does not mean good, okay.
2:02
Speaker 1: Nice is a behavior that you display, Okay, I am polite,
2:07
Speaker 1: I am nice, okay. It doesn't mean you are innately good.
2:11
Speaker 1: In fact, often to be a good person it requires
2:15
Speaker 1: you sometimes not being completely nice. For example, if I
2:19
Speaker 1: need to protect myself and respect myself, it would mean
2:23
Speaker 1: that I'm sometimes going to be letting people down. That
2:25
Speaker 1: doesn't make me a bad person. That still makes me
2:27
Speaker 1: a good person, But it doesn't necessarily mean that I
2:30
Speaker 1: was nice.
2:31
Speaker 2: Quote unquote in that moment.
2:32
Speaker 1: If I, for example, am in a relationship and I
2:37
Speaker 1: don't want to be with that person, to continuously lead
2:41
Speaker 1: them on by being quote unquote nice to them does
2:43
Speaker 1: not make me a good person. There's a lot of
2:46
Speaker 1: behaviors that people will do that are nice for face value,
2:50
Speaker 1: and they think that automatically makes them a good person,
2:54
Speaker 1: all right, And a lot of us are done with
2:56
Speaker 1: people's fucking bullshit. And just because someone's displaying this nice
3:00
Speaker 1: behavior doesn't mean that I now have to date you
3:02
Speaker 1: because you're justspying nice behavior, because even then it doesn't
3:05
Speaker 1: mean that you're.
3:05
Speaker 2: A good person.
3:06
Speaker 1: So these people that have been nice as their identity
3:09
Speaker 1: need to calm the fuck down and really look into
3:13
Speaker 1: themselves and think, am I good?
3:16
Speaker 2: Am I a good innately good person or not?
3:18
Speaker 1: Because this superficial nice shit actually doesn't get you anywhere,
3:23
Speaker 1: because there are many peo.
3:24
Speaker 2: I know many people.
3:26
Speaker 1: I've dated people who were very nice at the beginning,
3:29
Speaker 1: and I've dated people who are nice for ages and
3:32
Speaker 1: probably stayed with me for a lot longer than was
3:35
Speaker 1: necessary and could have left me a whole lot earlier
3:37
Speaker 1: and saved us both a whole fucking lot of time,
3:40
Speaker 1: but they probably didn't do it because they were just
3:42
Speaker 1: wanting to be nice.
3:43
Speaker 2: You know. I feel like the issue with.
3:47
Speaker 1: Identifying as nice and thinking that that's my part of
3:52
Speaker 1: my makeup and who I am is that it stops
3:55
Speaker 1: you from well. Firstly, from a personal perspective, it stops
3:58
Speaker 1: you from defending yourself properly, for standing up for yourself,
4:01
Speaker 1: from standing up two and four other people as well.
4:05
Speaker 2: And it also.
4:08
Speaker 1: Makes you be less honest, more passive. You lead people
4:12
Speaker 1: on you. Really, it's the kind a nice person is,
4:16
Speaker 1: the kind of person that says to someone, Oh, it's
4:20
Speaker 1: just that, you know, maybe this could work, this relationship
4:23
Speaker 1: could work in the future.
4:25
Speaker 2: You know, maybe we should still be friends. Maybe you know.
4:27
Speaker 1: They never they always want to let people down really gently.
4:30
Speaker 2: They always want to leave the window open.
4:32
Speaker 1: They always want to A good person says, I know
4:35
Speaker 1: this is going to be really painful to hear, but
4:36
Speaker 1: this is done, this is finished.
4:38
Speaker 2: There is no fucking chance for us.
4:41
Speaker 1: And I know that's horrible and I feel like the
4:43
Speaker 1: devil and you're gonna hate me, but I am willing
4:45
Speaker 1: to have you hate me so you can heal then
4:48
Speaker 1: to expect you to like me, but keep you suffering.
4:51
Speaker 2: Okay, that is nice versus good. That's my pet hate. Okay.
4:56
Speaker 1: I have done many things in my life do not
5:00
Speaker 1: equal nice, but were the right thing to do. And
5:04
Speaker 1: I think there's many people who have you know, come
5:06
Speaker 1: across me that think, oh, maybe I was a bit brutal,
5:09
Speaker 1: or a bit blunt, or a bit cold, or a
5:11
Speaker 1: bit savage or what I often get, which I think
5:14
Speaker 1: is this makes another pet hate laid into this pet
5:17
Speaker 1: hate is when I get called a fiery latina. Firstly,
5:20
Speaker 1: my culture has nothing to do with why I'm standing
5:22
Speaker 1: up for myself, and they will diminish why I get
5:25
Speaker 1: passionate about standing up for myself by making like, oh lol,
5:29
Speaker 1: your fiery latina up.
5:30
Speaker 2: Firstly, irrelevant where my parents were born.
5:34
Speaker 1: If I'm standing up for myself and you can't deal
5:36
Speaker 1: with the fact that there's some sceric of passion behind that,
5:40
Speaker 1: that's on you and your inability to look at your
5:42
Speaker 1: own behavior as to why we're having this, you know, confrontation.
5:47
Speaker 1: But anyway, that's me going on a fucking tangent. But
5:51
Speaker 1: pretty much it's I have done many things that would
5:54
Speaker 1: not be interpreted as nice for face value, but it
5:58
Speaker 1: still sticks with my moral and my beliefs, and I
6:01
Speaker 1: stay consistent in who I am and in what I do,
6:04
Speaker 1: and that's what I would expect from people that I
6:06
Speaker 1: interact with. I'd rather have a not so pleasant interaction,
6:08
Speaker 1: but it'd be honest and it'd be real, and I'm
6:11
Speaker 1: getting you for what you are, not just this facade
6:14
Speaker 1: of Oh.
6:14
Speaker 2: That was a really nice encounter. So the nice guy bullshit, like,
6:18
Speaker 2: fuck off.
6:19
Speaker 1: If you were a good guy, you wouldn't be blaming
6:22
Speaker 1: these women for dating someone that ended up being toxic,
6:25
Speaker 1: because you'd be like, wow, that's really unfortunate that people
6:27
Speaker 1: end up in unhealthy relationships. You wouldn't be like, well,
6:30
Speaker 1: you didn't choose me because I'm the fucking nose guy.
6:33
Speaker 2: Anyway. That's my pet hat. Hello, my beautiful beans.
6:49
Speaker 1: Whether you're a long time listener to this podcast or
6:51
Speaker 1: tuning in for the first time, I hope you would
6:54
Speaker 1: check out my new audio book, How to Chase Change
6:57
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7:18
Speaker 1: Start listening today. Now let's move on to a more
7:21
Speaker 1: sciencey side of the episode, and we're going to be
7:23
Speaker 1: talking about something called the default mode network. I actually
7:28
Speaker 1: don't think I've spoken about this before, and it's been
7:31
Speaker 1: four years of the podcast, and I've referred to it
7:34
Speaker 1: in many different ways, but I definitely have not covered
7:37
Speaker 1: this as like a topic on its own, and if
7:39
Speaker 1: I have, then I have amnusia because I do not
7:42
Speaker 1: recall it anyway. The default mode network is basically your
7:47
Speaker 1: brain's resting state. Okay, so this is your brain when
7:53
Speaker 1: it is in a task free environment, like it's not
7:57
Speaker 1: focused on the outside world, it's not doing a goal
8:00
Speaker 1: oriented task, but you're awake, you're in a wakeful state. Now,
8:05
Speaker 1: this default mode network. Think of it as like the
8:09
Speaker 1: background mode. So for a lot of us, it's our daydreaming. Okay,
8:15
Speaker 1: well I'm going to I'll go into the list now.
8:17
Speaker 1: So the role of the default mode network, there's many
8:19
Speaker 1: things that go on, but memory consolidation is happening future planning,
8:25
Speaker 1: so this is where you're thinking, you know, when you're
8:26
Speaker 1: not like you're just cruising around and you're going for
8:28
Speaker 1: a walk in your brain's like and you start thinking
8:30
Speaker 1: about the future. You're planning this, you're planning that. Self inspection,
8:34
Speaker 1: emotional regulation occurs during this time mind wandering slash daydreaming,
8:40
Speaker 1: autobiographical memory. So this is replaying events in your own life.
8:45
Speaker 1: And this is quite common for people with certain kinds
8:47
Speaker 1: of anxiety and what happens in their default network versus
8:51
Speaker 1: someone who does not have an anxiety or a mood
8:54
Speaker 1: disorder and what their default network.
8:56
Speaker 2: Looks like self referential thought.
8:58
Speaker 1: So there's all these things that go down during this
9:01
Speaker 1: like resting state when we're not doing a goal oriented task, okay.
9:06
Speaker 2: And this is.
9:07
Speaker 1: Also what you could look at as being on autopilot.
9:10
Speaker 1: So if you're doing a task but it doesn't require
9:12
Speaker 1: focus or it doesn't require significant amount a significant amount
9:16
Speaker 1: of attension like unloading the dishwasher or driving or things
9:20
Speaker 1: that you have already gotten good enough about it that
9:22
Speaker 1: you don't have to be like consciously thinking about what
9:24
Speaker 1: you're doing in the moment, then that is when your
9:26
Speaker 1: default mode network is on.
9:28
Speaker 2: Okay, Now the default mode network. It's not good, it's
9:33
Speaker 2: not bad. We all have it.
9:34
Speaker 1: It would be impossible not to have it, because it
9:36
Speaker 1: would mean that you are not thinking at all and
9:38
Speaker 1: there's not much activity, intentional activity going on.
9:41
Speaker 2: In the brain. We all have it.
9:43
Speaker 1: But there's many people that are going to be listening
9:45
Speaker 1: to this being like, oh my god, I hate I
9:47
Speaker 1: hate when I'm in this like time. So I'm constantly
9:52
Speaker 1: trying to distract myself. I'm constantly I can't sit with
9:55
Speaker 1: my thoughts. So if you're someone that's saying I can't
9:57
Speaker 1: sit with my thoughts, you probably have some level of
10:00
Speaker 1: dysregulation or something that's going on within your default Murde
10:03
Speaker 1: network that makes you feel quite uncomfortable, or it triggers
10:06
Speaker 1: an anxious response, or it makes you feel quite like
10:11
Speaker 1: it's all doom and gloom and pessimistic about your life situation.
10:15
Speaker 1: So you're or you're thinking about really negative past events.
10:18
Speaker 1: So that's when you're always wanting to distract yourself, or
10:20
Speaker 1: you're always wanting to be around people all the time
10:22
Speaker 1: because you don't like to sit in this kind of
10:24
Speaker 1: default or resting state. For a lot of other people
10:28
Speaker 1: who don't suffer from anxiety or mood disorders. The defaultmurd
10:31
Speaker 1: network can be quite enjoyable. It's like, oh, finally I
10:34
Speaker 1: get some like reprieve, and I could just be alone
10:36
Speaker 1: and I can think about this. I can start day
10:37
Speaker 1: dribbling about that. I can start planning this. You do
10:40
Speaker 1: a lot of planning. Like sometimes, for example, if you're
10:43
Speaker 1: like in a good head space, sometimes I like to
10:45
Speaker 1: walk with no music and nothing because I like that
10:47
Speaker 1: default network to do. And that's when a lot of
10:50
Speaker 1: creativity happens for a lot of people. That's when a
10:52
Speaker 1: lot of ideas come. Also, interestingly, this is what is
10:57
Speaker 1: in charge of you know, when you're trying to think
10:59
Speaker 1: of somebody's name or the name of celebrity or whatever,
11:03
Speaker 1: or whatever it is. You're trying to think of something
11:04
Speaker 1: and it's at the tip of your tongue and you
11:06
Speaker 1: can't fucking figure out what that thing is, and then
11:09
Speaker 1: you think, all right, I'm just gonna leave it. It
11:11
Speaker 1: will come to me. The thing that's responsible for it
11:15
Speaker 1: coming to you is this default mode network. You're kind
11:18
Speaker 1: of on a bit of an autopilot. You push it
11:20
Speaker 1: to the side. I'm not consciously actively doing it. Different
11:23
Speaker 1: brain regions are now activated during the default mode network
11:27
Speaker 1: versus brain regions that are activated when you are on
11:29
Speaker 1: a focused task, So it switches from where the activity
11:34
Speaker 1: is within the brain. We go kind of like wide
11:36
Speaker 1: focus default mode network, narrow focus when we're on task
11:40
Speaker 1: that and then you'll.
11:41
Speaker 2: Be talking to someone blah blah blah.
11:42
Speaker 1: You're distracted, you're just doing something that's not high focus,
11:45
Speaker 1: and bang that thing comes into your mind. You're like, ah,
11:47
Speaker 1: that's the name, I got it, I got it, just
11:49
Speaker 1: came to me. That's your subconscious mind and the default
11:52
Speaker 1: network doing its thing. Okay, same as when you come
11:55
Speaker 1: up with creative ideas. If you ever listen to the
11:57
Speaker 1: Ted talk of I can't remember her name, but the
11:59
Speaker 1: woman invented spanks.
12:02
Speaker 2: What is her name?
12:03
Speaker 1: Anyway, she speaks about how the idea for spanks came
12:06
Speaker 1: to her and she would always come up with her
12:08
Speaker 1: ideas driving. A lot of people get their ideas when
12:12
Speaker 1: they're in the shower, and it's always these tasks that
12:15
Speaker 1: don't require higher levels of focus or attention, and this
12:19
Speaker 1: idea just comes to you because that's where creativity is
12:22
Speaker 1: at its greatest for a lot of people, not everyone,
12:26
Speaker 1: especially if the default mode network for you.
12:28
Speaker 2: Is a time of high anxiety, all right.
12:31
Speaker 1: Now, the areas that are involved in this network, I'm
12:37
Speaker 1: just gonna go through a bunch, but I'm gonna lean
12:39
Speaker 1: into one a little bit more because it's really interesting.
12:42
Speaker 2: Is multiple areas within the brain.
12:43
Speaker 1: That I've mentioned across the lifespan of this podcast. You've
12:46
Speaker 1: probably heard me refer to them all in different times.
12:48
Speaker 1: But we've got the medial prefrontal cortex, that part that's
12:52
Speaker 1: involved in like forward thinking and reasoning and executive function,
12:56
Speaker 1: all of that, posterior singular cortex, superior prefrontal gyrus, the
13:01
Speaker 1: parietal cortex, the inferior temporal cortex, the hippocampus, you guys
13:05
Speaker 1: know that, the medial temporal gyrus. And really interesting this one.
13:10
Speaker 1: It's the subgenial anterior singular cortex.
13:13
Speaker 2: Also known as sgACC.
13:15
Speaker 1: Fun times, this is really interesting this part of the
13:19
Speaker 1: brain because this is crucial for emotional regulation, in particular
13:24
Speaker 1: something referred to as extinction and also something that is
13:28
Speaker 1: referred to cognitive regulation. Now extinction and this part of
13:33
Speaker 1: the brain really important. Extinction is where a fear is
13:38
Speaker 1: basically dismissed through learning that something that used to be
13:43
Speaker 1: a threat is no longer a threat. So it's a
13:45
Speaker 1: cognitive process that this part of the brain specifically is
13:49
Speaker 1: in charge of that reinterprets something that was a threat
13:54
Speaker 1: and or like a conditioned fear, a conditioned stimulus, and
13:58
Speaker 1: turning it into something that's no longer a threat, and
14:00
Speaker 1: that is referred to as extinction. That threat is now
14:03
Speaker 1: extinct and you no longer it's no longer triggering a response.
14:07
Speaker 2: In you anymore. Okay.
14:10
Speaker 1: And then cognitive regulation is where you are learning to
14:13
Speaker 1: reinterpret a threat to be non threatening, and this is
14:17
Speaker 1: done through conscious processing.
14:18
Speaker 2: Okay.
14:20
Speaker 1: Now, what's really interesting about this area of the brain
14:24
Speaker 1: is that a lot of people who don't suffer from anxiety,
14:27
Speaker 1: they are doing this automatically. They are regulating these emotions
14:32
Speaker 1: and these fears semi subconsciously, kind of automatically.
14:36
Speaker 2: Okay.
14:36
Speaker 1: We have these inbuilt processes in us where we are learning,
14:39
Speaker 1: oh wait, I'm going to re look at this and
14:43
Speaker 1: it's actually not a fear anymore used to scare me.
14:45
Speaker 1: It's fine, and it kind of you kind of can
14:48
Speaker 1: talk yourself down off that legend. The brain's kind of
14:50
Speaker 1: doing the work for you. People with anxiety they've seen
14:54
Speaker 1: that the activity is different in this particular, the sgACC
15:00
Speaker 1: genial anterior singular cortex is different, so they're not able
15:05
Speaker 1: to do it, but they found that in So there's
15:09
Speaker 1: actually a study, a paper that was published in twenty
15:11
Speaker 1: twelve and it's called if you want to check it out,
15:13
Speaker 1: it's called functionally functional network dysfunction in anxiety and anxiety disorders.
15:19
Speaker 1: And basically, for people that do not suffer from anxiety,
15:23
Speaker 1: this is done automatically because there is more activity in
15:26
Speaker 1: this particular region within the default mode network. However, people
15:30
Speaker 1: with anxiety can still do this, but they need to
15:33
Speaker 1: be given explicit instructions on emotional regulation on how to
15:38
Speaker 1: do it. So basically they're able to do it, but
15:40
Speaker 1: they need external tools that need to be taught and
15:42
Speaker 1: given these tools to do it. And when they are taught,
15:47
Speaker 1: anxious individuals, especially people with social anxiety, experience the same
15:53
Speaker 1: degree of reduction in negative emotion. Okay, so that just
15:57
Speaker 1: shows that it can be learned, and when learnt, you're
16:00
Speaker 1: seeing the same activity and down regulation of anxious thoughts
16:06
Speaker 1: and negative emotion occurring whether you are doing it automatically
16:09
Speaker 1: or whether you are taught it. And that is really
16:11
Speaker 1: important because it just shows how much cognitive behavioral therapy
16:15
Speaker 1: and retraining and training how you approach and how you
16:17
Speaker 1: think and how you perceive things has a massive impact
16:20
Speaker 1: on how you perceive a threat or a stimulus or
16:23
Speaker 1: something like that. So that's really really interesting. Check that
16:28
Speaker 1: paper out if you're interested in a bit of a longer,
16:30
Speaker 1: more technical read. Now, the strength of this network is
16:38
Speaker 1: altered and vary during rest versus other mental states. So
16:44
Speaker 1: for example, we've got this active default mode network, and
16:48
Speaker 1: then that default mode network kind of switches to a
16:52
Speaker 1: like way less activity when we switch to a focused task,
16:56
Speaker 1: and the brain areas that are related to that focused
16:58
Speaker 1: task kind of takeover and they're the more active parts
17:01
Speaker 1: of the brain. Okay, Now, changes in activity within the
17:07
Speaker 1: default mode network, I don't want to say reduction or
17:11
Speaker 1: increase in activity, because we're looking at a whole network
17:14
Speaker 1: of activity, so it's not to say the whole thing
17:17
Speaker 1: is more active or the whole thing, but basically dysregulation
17:21
Speaker 1: or changes within that default mode network kind of point
17:25
Speaker 1: to they can indicate certain neurological disorders or degeneration. So
17:30
Speaker 1: they are one of the indicators for the pathogenesis of
17:33
Speaker 1: Alzheimer's disease, autism spectrum disorder, and also depression. And there
17:39
Speaker 1: are also a bunch of studies that kind of point
17:42
Speaker 1: to the fact that changes within the default mode network
17:46
Speaker 1: versus when you look at like the quote unquote typical
17:49
Speaker 1: or yeah.
17:49
Speaker 2: Like typical population.
17:52
Speaker 1: Is associated with ADHD, and it's believed that individuals with
17:55
Speaker 1: ADHD might find it harder to sustain attention because of
18:00
Speaker 1: this default mode network interference. And we're seeing, like the
18:04
Speaker 1: activity is just different when you compare it to a
18:07
Speaker 1: typical subject. Okay, Now, people who are lonely, people who
18:47
Speaker 1: feel lonely basically have excessive activity in certain parts of
18:54
Speaker 1: this default mode network where they spend a lot of
18:57
Speaker 1: time thinking about the past, war about the future.
19:01
Speaker 2: They have a lot of dread.
19:02
Speaker 1: So this is seen in people that consider themselves to
19:06
Speaker 1: be quite lonely.
19:07
Speaker 2: Now, please, lonely and being alone of two separate things.
19:11
Speaker 1: You want to look at lonely as someone who doesn't
19:13
Speaker 1: feel connected, who feels relatively emotionally isolated. We're not talking
19:16
Speaker 1: about physically being alone. If you, for example, live alone,
19:20
Speaker 1: if you enjoy your time alone and you have really
19:23
Speaker 1: healthy connections, then this doesn't apply to you, you could
19:26
Speaker 1: be someone who's in a marriage and be extremely lonely
19:30
Speaker 1: because you have no strong emotional connection where you feel heard, seen, fulfilled,
19:36
Speaker 1: where you feel like you can open up to someone
19:39
Speaker 1: and be vulnerable and be supported and feel safe. Okay,
19:42
Speaker 1: so when I talk about loneliness, we're talking about emotional loneliness.
19:47
Speaker 1: So basically the aim here is to create healthy activity levels.
19:52
Speaker 1: So all the regions are communicating properly during this default
19:55
Speaker 1: mode network. Okay, we're not looking at switching it off,
19:58
Speaker 1: or we're not looking at like how I increase it.
20:01
Speaker 1: If you're someone that's sitting here listening to this podcast
20:04
Speaker 1: and thinking, well, I am thrilled when I you know,
20:09
Speaker 1: when I have my default mode network on, I like
20:12
Speaker 1: to daydream, I like to do this.
20:13
Speaker 2: I'm really creative.
20:14
Speaker 1: Then you're cruising and there's like nothing that needs to
20:17
Speaker 1: be done. However, if you're somebody that is like, all right,
20:21
Speaker 1: this is like, this is what's fucking me up. Every
20:24
Speaker 1: time I'm not on a focused task and I'm with
20:26
Speaker 1: my mind, I.
20:27
Speaker 2: End up feeling really horrible.
20:29
Speaker 1: I end up like either getting anxious or worrying about
20:32
Speaker 1: the future, or you know, rehashing the past in a
20:36
Speaker 1: negative way, like I should have done this, I regret this,
20:39
Speaker 1: or why didn't I do this? Or ruminating or replaying
20:41
Speaker 1: scenarios again and again. And then you're someone that's like,
20:44
Speaker 1: all right, maybe I would like to alter this default
20:47
Speaker 1: mode network.
20:48
Speaker 2: And the beauty of it is that you can do it.
20:51
Speaker 1: Like I mentioned in that twenty twelve study that was published,
20:54
Speaker 1: when given the tools, you do see that you are
20:58
Speaker 1: getting this similar activity in the brain reagion and similar
21:01
Speaker 1: reduction in negative states. Okay, so how are we altering it?
21:06
Speaker 1: I've got a whole bunch of things. The first one
21:09
Speaker 1: that I'm going to mention is so fucking easy, so
21:13
Speaker 1: fucking easy, and we all need to be doing it.
21:16
Speaker 1: We need to take a page out of like the
21:18
Speaker 1: Book of Mammals, dogs, all kinds of animals in.
21:22
Speaker 2: General, not necessarily just mammals.
21:23
Speaker 1: But basically it is six roughly six or so deep breaths. Okay,
21:29
Speaker 1: I'm talking step aside from whatever stressing you out, step
21:33
Speaker 1: aside from anything, be in your own zone, and just
21:37
Speaker 1: six deep breadth, big inhale, pause, long, strong exhale.
21:44
Speaker 2: Do that roughly six times. For some people.
21:46
Speaker 1: That can be less for some people they might need
21:48
Speaker 1: maybe eight, but let's just say six. And this instantly
21:53
Speaker 1: starts to calm down your central nervous system. Okay, So
21:57
Speaker 1: what is happening is that you're activating your parasympathetic nervous system.
22:02
Speaker 1: So this parasympathetic nervous system. I've got a whole episode
22:04
Speaker 1: on nervous systems. But this is what's in control of
22:07
Speaker 1: your involuntary bodily functions.
22:11
Speaker 2: Okay.
22:12
Speaker 1: And that happens, and that is at its best when
22:15
Speaker 1: you are resting, when you are relaxed, when you feel safe.
22:19
Speaker 2: Okay.
22:20
Speaker 1: So if I'm feeling safe and relaxed, my parasympathetic nervous
22:23
Speaker 1: system is like flowing beautifully.
22:25
Speaker 2: All is well.
22:26
Speaker 1: If my sympathetic nervous system were to kick in, And
22:29
Speaker 1: this is what's in charge of fight or flight, it's this.
22:32
Speaker 1: It's activated to escape danger and where you think you're
22:35
Speaker 1: in danger, whether it's physical.
22:37
Speaker 2: Danger or emotional danger.
22:39
Speaker 1: When that is activated, you see a reduction in activity
22:42
Speaker 1: in this involuntary bodily functions. That's why people that are
22:46
Speaker 1: really really highly stressed, highly strung, super reactive, super stressed,
22:53
Speaker 1: you see, they actually start getting you know, gut problems
22:56
Speaker 1: and problems with like the stomach, ass and things like that,
23:00
Speaker 1: because these normal bodily functions are not happening the way
23:03
Speaker 1: they're supposed to be happening. So that's where you see
23:05
Speaker 1: literal stress. Emotional stress play a role in your involuntary
23:10
Speaker 1: bodily functions because your sympathetic nervous system is operating more
23:14
Speaker 1: often than it needs to be instead of your parasympathetic
23:17
Speaker 1: nervous system. But when we are stressed, pay attention to
23:20
Speaker 1: the bodily functions that are going on. So when you're
23:22
Speaker 1: super stressed, you're breathing shallow. I'm getting ready, I'm getting
23:26
Speaker 1: ready for something. There's a threat, there's a threat. Do
23:28
Speaker 1: I need to pounds? Do I need your heart starts
23:30
Speaker 1: to pump? You feel anxious? We all know what anxiety well,
23:35
Speaker 1: I will claim to say maybe not, but I would
23:37
Speaker 1: imagine that we all know what anxiety feels like. The
23:41
Speaker 1: heart rate for some people. You feel hot, your face
23:43
Speaker 1: feels hot, you feel like you're going read even though
23:45
Speaker 1: you're not.
23:46
Speaker 2: You're a bit like jittery.
23:49
Speaker 1: But you're breathing is shallow, okay, And these are the
23:52
Speaker 1: physical symptoms that also will help exacerbate this sympathetic nervous system,
23:58
Speaker 1: So the these things.
24:00
Speaker 2: Are talking to each other.
24:01
Speaker 1: The physical symptoms trigger the activation of this nervous system,
24:07
Speaker 1: and vice versa. So when you are feeling this kind
24:11
Speaker 1: of way, especially in this default mode network, when you're
24:14
Speaker 1: trying to just be on autopilot and chill and you're
24:16
Speaker 1: starting to feel a bit anxious, deep breaths is the fastest,
24:21
Speaker 1: the most efficient, and the most well for a lot
24:24
Speaker 1: of people effective way of activating the parasympathetic nervos system
24:29
Speaker 1: because we are not doing deep, relaxed, long drawn out
24:32
Speaker 1: breadths when we're stress, when we're anxious, when it's fight
24:34
Speaker 1: or flight, we're not doing that, So we're kind of
24:36
Speaker 1: tricking the body into Okay, my parasympathetic nervous system is
24:40
Speaker 1: switching on the moment the parasympathetic nervous system is being activated,
24:44
Speaker 1: it's sending signals to the central nervous system saying okay,
24:47
Speaker 1: we're safe, we're fine. We can reduce activity in this
24:50
Speaker 1: area in the amygdala in the fight or flight or
24:54
Speaker 1: freeze part of the brain and we can return back
24:57
Speaker 1: to normal operations. Okay, Now, what's in interesting is you
25:00
Speaker 1: look at animals and animals are so fucking good at
25:04
Speaker 1: doing this.
25:04
Speaker 2: Look at a dog when it's about to go to sleep.
25:07
Speaker 1: Okay, it will go round around around in circles on
25:09
Speaker 1: its bed, will collapse, And for the most part, dogs
25:11
Speaker 1: will take a huge breath in and this long drawn
25:15
Speaker 1: out exhale, and that is their way of switching states.
25:18
Speaker 1: Not that they were necessarily stressed, but they're like, I'm
25:21
Speaker 1: ready to switch into a calmer state. I want to
25:23
Speaker 1: go to sleep now, i want to wind down, I'm
25:25
Speaker 1: ready to whatever. So they'll release this huge sigh okay,
25:30
Speaker 1: and then very soon after that they go to sleep.
25:32
Speaker 1: You look at so this could work for you if
25:35
Speaker 1: you struggle to go to sleep at night, you could
25:37
Speaker 1: do like maybe a few deep breasts, just to like
25:39
Speaker 1: relax into it.
25:40
Speaker 2: You look at animals that are about to fight in
25:43
Speaker 2: the wild. Swans. Look at swans, they're about to fight.
25:47
Speaker 2: They're about to fight, and they don't fight.
25:49
Speaker 1: They've got all this built up energy in them, this
25:52
Speaker 1: built up basically you're looking at cortersol.
25:55
Speaker 2: You're looking at adrenaline they've got. They're ready to go.
25:58
Speaker 1: And when the fight doesn't have and they don't just
26:01
Speaker 1: not do anything. You see the animals shape like birds
26:05
Speaker 1: in particular, they're shaking shake chack, chack, chack chack. They're
26:08
Speaker 1: getting rid of all that energy, and then they calm
26:11
Speaker 1: themselves down and they settle and in no time they're fine.
26:14
Speaker 2: Right.
26:14
Speaker 1: Our problem is that often we're not actually ever engaging
26:17
Speaker 1: in a fight, so we get all the emotions that
26:20
Speaker 1: prep us for this fight, whether it's verbal or physical.
26:24
Speaker 1: We get geared up, where like anxiety, we've got you know,
26:29
Speaker 1: you feel the physical symptoms.
26:30
Speaker 2: It's crazy.
26:31
Speaker 1: You've got the quartersol which is there to action to go.
26:35
Speaker 1: You've got obviously adrenaline or a benephrine.
26:40
Speaker 2: It feels like it's pumping through your veins.
26:41
Speaker 1: You're faring, ready to go, And then that thing isn't
26:43
Speaker 1: happening like because it might just be a thought in
26:45
Speaker 1: your mind. You haven't actually expressed what you needed to say,
26:48
Speaker 1: and a lot of us will just kind of ruminate
26:51
Speaker 1: and fair st fester fester festa. And if you're someone
26:54
Speaker 1: that just feels that way occasionally here and there, and
26:56
Speaker 1: you're pretty good at talking yourself down off the ledge.
26:59
Speaker 1: Like I mentioned in the quarters episode, your body has
27:01
Speaker 1: a natural process to downregulate the amount of quarters of
27:03
Speaker 1: that's being released.
27:04
Speaker 2: But if you're someone that's suffering with a.
27:06
Speaker 1: Lot of anxiety in your default mode network, then you
27:09
Speaker 1: want to be doing things to help your body reduce
27:13
Speaker 1: this level of stress. This is where the breath comes in.
27:16
Speaker 1: You want to release it. We're not here to hoard
27:18
Speaker 1: these negative emotions, these anxious feelings.
27:21
Speaker 2: We don't need to.
27:22
Speaker 1: Whenever we need it again, the body will produce it again.
27:25
Speaker 1: So when you notice that I've built up all this,
27:28
Speaker 1: I'm feeling anxious, but you've got to let it go.
27:30
Speaker 1: The breath is such a good way of doing that.
27:32
Speaker 1: So that's the number one way if you learn anything
27:34
Speaker 1: from this episode is do six deep breaths when you
27:37
Speaker 1: feel stress is coming on, anxiety is coming on, when
27:40
Speaker 1: you start feeling these negative.
27:41
Speaker 2: Ruminating folks.
27:42
Speaker 1: Deep breath activate the parasympathetic nervous system, calm the sympathetic
27:46
Speaker 1: nervous system down, and just chill. Think about the dog
27:49
Speaker 1: that does the big side, Think about the bird that
27:51
Speaker 1: flaps its wings. You are releasing, releasing, releasing, and switching
27:55
Speaker 1: which from.
27:57
Speaker 2: From sympathetic to parasympathetic.
27:59
Speaker 1: Okay, now another one that's absolutely phenomenal, And obviously this
28:04
Speaker 1: can be done with a therapist.
28:06
Speaker 2: That's the most.
28:08
Speaker 1: Popular way of doing it, but you can there are
28:10
Speaker 1: ways you can do this on your own as well.
28:11
Speaker 1: But it's cognitive behavioral therapy. This is one of the
28:15
Speaker 1: best ways, if not the best way or the best
28:17
Speaker 1: way to retrain how you process thoughts, how you process emotion.
28:22
Speaker 1: This happens through repetition, through exposure, through exploration, through counter thoughts,
28:26
Speaker 1: and things like that. But cognitive behavior therapy is phenomenal
28:30
Speaker 1: because you are consciously retraining your subconscious mind. And it
28:34
Speaker 1: is relatively basic what they get you to do, but
28:38
Speaker 1: very effective, okay. And this is things like understanding counter thoughts,
28:42
Speaker 1: coming up with the thought, and coming up with two
28:44
Speaker 1: or three different counter thoughts, like, for example, if someone
28:47
Speaker 1: didn't call you back.
28:48
Speaker 2: If someone didn't call me back.
28:51
Speaker 1: Because I'm at least currently in my life not anxious,
28:54
Speaker 1: I would think they must have been busy, maybe they've
28:57
Speaker 1: forgot maybe whatever.
28:59
Speaker 2: Maybe. But when I was more.
29:01
Speaker 1: Anxious and when I was dating, you know whatever, in
29:04
Speaker 1: my past, if someone didn't call me back, I'm like,
29:07
Speaker 1: are they saying someone else?
29:07
Speaker 2: Whoever?
29:08
Speaker 1: Who are the Maybe they're texting someone else, maybe they're this,
29:10
Speaker 1: Maybe they're angry, maybe and I'd come to all these conclusions,
29:13
Speaker 1: and it's only through paying attention to that kind of
29:15
Speaker 1: behavior and rewriting that thought and thinking, okay, it could
29:19
Speaker 1: mean this, but it.
29:19
Speaker 2: Could mean this, this, this, or this.
29:22
Speaker 1: You instantly feel a little bit calmer because you're like, now,
29:25
Speaker 1: I don't have a shure. It's not a sure thing
29:26
Speaker 1: that it's this negative thing that I've concluded. It could
29:29
Speaker 1: be many other things. That's just one example, but cognitive
29:32
Speaker 1: behavior therapy is also when I was talking about extinction
29:35
Speaker 1: and things like that, it teaches people how to use extinction,
29:38
Speaker 1: how to train themselves from seeing something as a threatening
29:41
Speaker 1: stimulus to a non threatening stimulus.
29:43
Speaker 2: So that is absolutely phenomenal.
29:45
Speaker 1: And if you find that you are very anxious and
29:48
Speaker 1: you cannot sit alone with your thoughts, that I would recommend,
29:50
Speaker 1: if you have the means to do it, to go
29:54
Speaker 1: to a cognitive behavioral therapist to work through it, because
29:57
Speaker 1: it's amazing what can change for you. Meditation is also
30:01
Speaker 1: a great fucking way to calm down, like this ruminating
30:04
Speaker 1: side of the default mode network. Okay, Meditating increases connectivity
30:11
Speaker 1: between particular brain regions. So if you're someone that ruminates
30:14
Speaker 1: or is really anxious. You might have certain regions that
30:17
Speaker 1: are hyperactive in this default mode network, but others that
30:20
Speaker 1: are not. A meditation really gets the brain regions talking
30:23
Speaker 1: to each other and it really helps you calm down
30:24
Speaker 1: as well. And then interestingly, I found this really I
30:29
Speaker 1: found an article about this and it was very fucking interesting.
30:31
Speaker 1: But improvisation improv is one of the best ways to
30:35
Speaker 1: learn to be more creative and get looser because it
30:38
Speaker 1: takes you out of this self.
30:39
Speaker 2: Critical part of you.
30:41
Speaker 1: Okay, if you're rehearsing the same thing again and again,
30:44
Speaker 1: you can start to critique and whatever, which is fine,
30:46
Speaker 1: But if you're trying to change your default mode network,
30:49
Speaker 1: improv whether it be acting they found rappers as well,
30:54
Speaker 1: whether it be drawing something that's kind of improvising on
30:57
Speaker 1: the spot, gets you out of this self critical.
30:59
Speaker 2: Mode and more into this creative mode.
31:00
Speaker 1: And they've found that it actually has shown to reduce
31:04
Speaker 1: self criticism because improvising shuts down this like.
31:09
Speaker 2: It the inhibition.
31:10
Speaker 1: Okay, and I'm not recommending that you go and do this,
31:14
Speaker 1: but one thing that's found to really disrupt unhelpful default
31:19
Speaker 1: mode network activity is mushrooms psilocybin, which is the active
31:23
Speaker 1: ingredient in shrooms basically really helps disrupt this kind of activity,
31:29
Speaker 1: so it can alter your self perception. It can change
31:31
Speaker 1: how much you judge yourself, and it changes how much
31:36
Speaker 1: time you spend like living and regret and second guessing
31:38
Speaker 1: yourself and things like that. So if you are going
31:42
Speaker 1: to fucking go and do shrooms, definitely do your own research.
31:45
Speaker 2: I didn't tell you to do it, but I'm going
31:49
Speaker 2: to fit.
31:49
Speaker 1: So that's basically ways to start to retrain the default
31:53
Speaker 1: mode network. We're looking at cognitive behavior therapy, We're looking
31:56
Speaker 1: at the deep breaths, we're looking at meditation exercise as well.
31:59
Speaker 1: Is always good And I thought a listener question came in,
32:04
Speaker 1: so I'm actually going to answer it and give more
32:06
Speaker 1: advice because it's specifically about daydreaming, So let's get straight
32:11
Speaker 1: into it for the question of the episode. Hello, love
32:16
Speaker 1: your podcast and have just ordered your book, don't. Basically,
32:20
Speaker 1: I've always struggled with daydreaming about future events, a potential
32:24
Speaker 1: things that could happen, often dating that I'm always thinking ahead.
32:28
Speaker 2: And not in the moment.
32:29
Speaker 1: It also usually means that I build up unrealistic expectations
32:33
Speaker 1: and I feel let down from things. I feel like
32:35
Speaker 1: I'm always waiting for something to happen and then I'll
32:38
Speaker 1: be present and happy. I meditate and journal and have
32:42
Speaker 1: just finished three months of therapy, and overall, there isn't
32:44
Speaker 1: too much I wouldn't change about my life, so I'm
32:46
Speaker 1: not sure how to stop this. I feel sometimes my
32:49
Speaker 1: life is slipping past and I'm really present, and I'm
32:53
Speaker 1: rarely present enough to enjoy things because I'm always daydreaming
32:56
Speaker 1: about the next thing. I read about manifesting and think
32:59
Speaker 1: that might have made it worse for me, since I
33:01
Speaker 1: was always thinking I must have these goals and what's
33:04
Speaker 1: my dream life? But then it feels like I'm always
33:06
Speaker 1: striving and not enough because I'm not my best self.
33:09
Speaker 1: I guess what would your advice be to maybe stop
33:12
Speaker 1: striving and let life happen while still taking action. When
33:16
Speaker 1: I've let things go, they've fallen into place. I'd love
33:19
Speaker 1: to just switch that part of my brain off, because overall,
33:22
Speaker 1: I just want to feel confident and good in myself.
33:25
Speaker 1: If you have some self love practices that I could
33:28
Speaker 1: do also, that would be great.
33:30
Speaker 2: Thank you, very good question.
33:33
Speaker 1: And there's several things that you can do about it
33:35
Speaker 1: because this obviously sounds.
33:38
Speaker 2: Like it's not necessarily negative.
33:40
Speaker 1: It doesn't sound like you're spiraling with anxious thoughts and
33:45
Speaker 1: it's all bad. It's just that you're struggling to be
33:47
Speaker 1: in the present moment and your mind is always about
33:49
Speaker 1: the next thing, the next thing manifesting and growing in
33:52
Speaker 1: my life has to be a lot.
33:53
Speaker 2: Which can be.
33:55
Speaker 1: Enjoyable at the time when you're thinking of it, but
33:58
Speaker 1: then you look back and you're like, I'm actually not
33:59
Speaker 1: in doing anything about my present life right now. So
34:02
Speaker 1: there's a few things that you can do. The first
34:05
Speaker 1: thing is identify when you're doing it the most. So,
34:10
Speaker 1: I mean, it might be all the time, but is
34:12
Speaker 1: it when I get home from work and I start
34:14
Speaker 1: to like calm down and it's that's when it's happening,
34:17
Speaker 1: or is it on my way to work. There you're
34:19
Speaker 1: going to if you start really becoming away, you're going
34:21
Speaker 1: to be aware of a few pockets in the day
34:22
Speaker 1: where it's likely to happen more.
34:25
Speaker 2: Okay, then I want you to think of.
34:29
Speaker 1: What you can like some gentle focused tasks that allow
34:34
Speaker 1: you to be quite present in the moment. So something
34:36
Speaker 1: that isn't stressful but takes up quite a bit of
34:40
Speaker 1: your attention. So this could be reading. You could more reading,
34:45
Speaker 1: especially leaning into fiction, things that awaken your creative mind,
34:51
Speaker 1: but in the moment, not your creative mind in the
34:53
Speaker 1: sense of like I need to like do this for
34:55
Speaker 1: my future. I need to brainstorm this and brainstorm that.
34:57
Speaker 1: More so, it allows you to imagine in a world
35:00
Speaker 1: that the writer is talking about or things like that.
35:02
Speaker 1: That's a great way to be switching off from your
35:06
Speaker 1: future thoughts and all of that and really sink into
35:09
Speaker 1: this moment and it's very good for you. Okay, So
35:12
Speaker 1: reading is a great one. Doing something like an activity
35:16
Speaker 1: that's enjoyable, like puzzles or cooking or something that's enough
35:20
Speaker 1: of a challenge that I've got to focus. And that's
35:22
Speaker 1: why I call I always call puzzles like the gateway
35:28
Speaker 1: into meditation, because for me, when I am stressed or whatever,
35:32
Speaker 1: I'll do a puzzle and there's not that much that
35:34
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about other than the fucking puzzle. Like I'm
35:37
Speaker 1: just in and I'm gonna start competing in puzzle competitions
35:41
Speaker 1: with my cousin. But that's another announcement for another day.
35:43
Speaker 1: But basically, I just get really in the zone and
35:47
Speaker 1: you could do that with. There's a whole bunch of
35:49
Speaker 1: hobbies that you could do it with, but it's got
35:50
Speaker 1: to be enjoyable, but enough of a mental task that
35:53
Speaker 1: you can't totally daydream because, like I spoke about earlier
35:55
Speaker 1: in the episode, if you're like doing something that's fully
35:58
Speaker 1: on autopilot, like cleaning or driving or something like that,
36:02
Speaker 1: then you've still got that default mode network you know
36:05
Speaker 1: quite a bit.
36:06
Speaker 2: So find a task that is really enjoyable.
36:10
Speaker 1: Ideally, Also, like if you did a musical instrument, you're
36:13
Speaker 1: a focusing on something, so you're not constantly this day
36:16
Speaker 1: dreaming state. Be able to enjoy the present moment because
36:19
Speaker 1: you're doing something that's for you in that moment and
36:22
Speaker 1: it's quite enjoyable. And see you're also learning something. You're
36:26
Speaker 1: doing stuff for your brain, so it's really really beneficial.
36:28
Speaker 2: So hobbies like that are really really good.
36:33
Speaker 1: Another really important thing other than the things I've already mentioned,
36:36
Speaker 1: because of course I know you're already meditated, but cognitive
36:38
Speaker 1: behavioral therapy.
36:39
Speaker 2: All of that you've been doing. But another thing that
36:43
Speaker 2: is really potentially.
36:46
Speaker 1: Helpful is to allow scheduled time in your day for
36:51
Speaker 1: your mind to be free and think about whatever it is,
36:53
Speaker 1: whether it be that kind of thing or that, because
36:55
Speaker 1: you don't want to say to yourself self, I'm not
36:57
Speaker 1: thinking about these things. I don't because restriction rarely works.
37:01
Speaker 1: So instead you could think, I'm going to give myself
37:04
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes for my brain to just think what it
37:06
Speaker 1: wants to think, and you just like, you can lie
37:08
Speaker 1: there or sit there, or go for a walk and
37:10
Speaker 1: allow the brains. And then after that, when you have
37:13
Speaker 1: this allowed time without trying to switch your thoughts, it
37:17
Speaker 1: can sometimes help you feel a bit more relaxed about
37:19
Speaker 1: other times, especially if you're someone who's always thinking about
37:22
Speaker 1: how can I improve my life?
37:23
Speaker 2: How can I bring on this? How can I bring
37:25
Speaker 2: on that?
37:25
Speaker 1: Because we're always going to be in a state of wanting,
37:28
Speaker 1: so don't think that you have to switch that off
37:30
Speaker 1: all together. But if you allow time for your brain
37:33
Speaker 1: to be like, this is your scheduled time.
37:34
Speaker 3: To manifest for the future and think about your future
37:37
Speaker 3: goals and think about then you're actually going to be
37:40
Speaker 3: a lot more relaxed in other areas of the day
37:42
Speaker 3: where you're like, all right, now, this is my time
37:44
Speaker 3: to literally do not much at all and just be
37:47
Speaker 3: in this task, or just have my friends over and
37:50
Speaker 3: have a conversation over a glass.
37:51
Speaker 2: Of wine or you know.
37:52
Speaker 1: So those are the things that when you have that
37:54
Speaker 1: scheduled time, you're probably going to be less aversive to
37:57
Speaker 1: the fact that you're having these thoughts throughout the day.
38:00
Speaker 1: So definitely give that a go, the scheduled time hobbies
38:03
Speaker 1: where you're in that in between. If I'm focused, but
38:07
Speaker 1: I'm also relaxing something where there's no like necessary outcome
38:11
Speaker 1: that you have to achieve. It's just more like a
38:12
Speaker 1: process based activity that allows you to be relatively present.
38:18
Speaker 2: In that moment. Okay.
38:21
Speaker 1: Also, you know, like if you're someone that's also always
38:24
Speaker 1: thinking about manifesting this, that pay attention to all the
38:27
Speaker 1: information that you're consuming. Like I know that my podcast
38:30
Speaker 1: is self developmental and self help and science and all
38:32
Speaker 1: of that, So I'd love you to keep listening to
38:35
Speaker 1: my podcast, but don't always be consuming stuff about self help,
38:39
Speaker 1: because there's a difference between being aware of yourself and
38:42
Speaker 1: then self intellectualization.
38:44
Speaker 2: That's a whole episode that I need to talk about.
38:46
Speaker 2: So I will write that down and plan that soon.
38:48
Speaker 1: But sometimes we can go too far and then we
38:51
Speaker 1: are just it's just too much in our consciousness and
38:53
Speaker 1: we're not even applying what we're learning. It's just this
38:56
Speaker 1: constant I become really aware of the knowledge around it,
38:58
Speaker 1: but how much of that has been applied. So even
39:02
Speaker 1: for me, I think a lot of people are surprised
39:03
Speaker 1: to know that I don't consume that much self development
39:07
Speaker 1: self help stuff. I do a bit, but not a lot,
39:10
Speaker 1: and a lot of the time when I'm listening to podcasts,
39:12
Speaker 1: it's entertainment. It's like stuff about I love stuff about
39:17
Speaker 1: like con artists and really interesting true stories and things
39:21
Speaker 1: like that, and that to me helps me really present
39:23
Speaker 1: in the moment I'm interested in a story.
39:24
Speaker 2: It's you know, that's my switching off. Pay attention to.
39:27
Speaker 1: How you actually switch off, because if it's always self help,
39:31
Speaker 1: self help, self help, then you're thinking about, this is
39:34
Speaker 1: what I've got to change, this is what I've got
39:35
Speaker 1: to do, to do, to do, to do, to do. Okay,
39:38
Speaker 1: So I definitely have it, but compartmentalize I've got this
39:42
Speaker 1: amount of self help because I'm always working on myself,
39:44
Speaker 1: which I also have.
39:45
Speaker 2: I've got this.
39:45
Speaker 1: Amount of like fuck around, like just this is fun,
39:49
Speaker 1: mindless stuff, which is fun. It doesn't always have to
39:52
Speaker 1: be intellectual that kind of stuff. Then I've got this
39:54
Speaker 1: is knowledgeable whatever, but it's not about myself. I'm learning
39:57
Speaker 1: something that's not related to me and break it into
39:59
Speaker 1: different cat agrees and that will start to you start
40:02
Speaker 1: to feel less pressure on how much change that you
40:05
Speaker 1: have to create, because most of the change that's beneficial,
40:08
Speaker 1: ironically is created just by being present in the moment.
40:11
Speaker 1: Like you said, when the times that you have relaxed
40:14
Speaker 1: and let go is when things start to come your way.
40:16
Speaker 1: Because when you are present, you are in your best
40:20
Speaker 1: energy to be receptive to what's coming your way. You're
40:23
Speaker 1: in your best energy to be able to make the
40:24
Speaker 1: most of these things.
40:25
Speaker 2: You're happier. And when you're happier, you feel freer, you're
40:27
Speaker 2: less anxious, not a lot and everything. It's a positive
40:30
Speaker 2: flow and effect from that.
40:32
Speaker 1: Hopefully that helped, but yeah, I think a lot of
40:35
Speaker 1: people can sit in that and I have definitely in
40:38
Speaker 1: the past as well. And the things that helped me was,
40:40
Speaker 1: you know, like the tasks that to me was the
40:43
Speaker 1: best thing that helped, like being the on focus tasks
40:45
Speaker 1: because when I was working on like building the podcast
40:48
Speaker 1: and doing this and doing that, and I still get it.
40:50
Speaker 1: I still fall into these zones often, but it's just
40:54
Speaker 1: this conscious awareness of like, all right, I'm slipping into
40:57
Speaker 1: this zone. I'm noticing I'm not as present, so I
40:59
Speaker 1: need to slow down. I need to pull back a
41:01
Speaker 1: little bit and just do things for fun, not for
41:04
Speaker 1: my overall progress. And I've got to always be progressing
41:06
Speaker 1: because you are already doing things that are contributing to
41:10
Speaker 1: your growth for the most part. So what is going
41:12
Speaker 1: to be something that slows me down and be more present,
41:14
Speaker 1: like cooking puzzles, things like that that I really personally enjoy.
41:18
Speaker 1: So that is everything for the Default Mode Network episode.
41:24
Speaker 2: Hopefully that taught you something.
41:27
Speaker 1: Hopefully it's taught you how to basically understand what's going
41:31
Speaker 1: on when you're currently in that default Mode network.
41:34
Speaker 2: So a little exciting announcement.
41:36
Speaker 1: I have, as some of you may or may not know,
41:39
Speaker 1: my company, which my podcast is under and everything is
41:44
Speaker 1: called Mindset Recreation Club. And I always had this goal
41:48
Speaker 1: of turning Mindset Recreation Club into a brand on its own.
41:51
Speaker 1: So I always called the company that with this like
41:53
Speaker 1: long term goal of having that as a brand on
41:55
Speaker 1: its own.
41:56
Speaker 2: And I've started this brand.
41:59
Speaker 1: It's very very early days, but there's so much growth
42:02
Speaker 1: that's going to happen with different things that are going
42:04
Speaker 1: to be including in different products and whatever. But go
42:07
Speaker 1: follow it on Instagram. It's just Mindset Recreation Club. But
42:11
Speaker 1: I do have the first ever product for Mindset Recreation
42:14
Speaker 1: Club and it is my baby and I'm so excited
42:16
Speaker 1: about it.
42:16
Speaker 2: And it is called the Brain Journal.
42:19
Speaker 1: It is basically a five week well these little booklets.
42:24
Speaker 1: You can buy one, you can buy three, six, or
42:26
Speaker 1: twelve for the whole year. But it's a booklet that
42:28
Speaker 1: has five weeks worth of journaling prompts and it is
42:32
Speaker 1: it is everything you've ever wanted in a journal, like
42:36
Speaker 1: a journaling.
42:36
Speaker 2: Prompt book and more.
42:37
Speaker 1: Because I talk about within the book, I talk about
42:41
Speaker 1: you've got something to set up your week, So at
42:43
Speaker 1: the start of the week you set it up. We've
42:45
Speaker 1: got something on time blocking, so there's literally a way
42:48
Speaker 1: to format how you block your time every single day
42:52
Speaker 1: or just the days that you want to time block.
42:54
Speaker 1: Then we've got ways to track your mood, your habits,
42:58
Speaker 1: and what you and then like actual prompts for your day.
43:02
Speaker 1: Then we've got a section in each day for just
43:04
Speaker 1: like brainstorming where you can do like budget, you can
43:06
Speaker 1: write a little to do list, you can write all
43:08
Speaker 1: sorts of things. And then what is probably my favorite
43:12
Speaker 1: thing about this book, and this is where it kind
43:13
Speaker 1: of leads into a bit of like cognitive behavioral therapy,
43:16
Speaker 1: is there's literally a chart for you to track your
43:19
Speaker 1: own data. So you begin to learn that you can
43:24
Speaker 1: correlate how you felt that day based on what different
43:29
Speaker 1: activities you did within your habits. So whether it be
43:32
Speaker 1: my deep breathing, my meditating, I did one hobbier day,
43:35
Speaker 1: I moved my body, I got sunlight in the morning,
43:39
Speaker 1: whatever you but you choose what you're to do is
43:41
Speaker 1: and the more you tick off, then you transfer that
43:44
Speaker 1: information into a particular chart within this journal, and then
43:48
Speaker 1: over time you were able to see a pattern of
43:51
Speaker 1: your own behavior and how it correlates to different mood states.
43:54
Speaker 2: And that to me is like.
43:58
Speaker 1: Game changer for you because you start to realize I
44:00
Speaker 1: always talk about the real changes with your mood and
44:03
Speaker 1: your overall happiness and your relationship with yourself are always
44:06
Speaker 1: in the little things, and you can actually see it
44:08
Speaker 1: manifest on paper in front of you. It is just
44:11
Speaker 1: unbelievable and what I love about it is they're little booklets.
44:14
Speaker 1: They're just five weeks, so you always got like a
44:16
Speaker 1: fresh one once that one's run out. But they're really
44:19
Speaker 1: pretty beautiful colors.
44:20
Speaker 2: I've got three colors so far.
44:22
Speaker 1: I'll be launching other colors in the future, and they
44:25
Speaker 1: just look so pretty and you can save them. So
44:30
Speaker 1: then when you want to look at, like how was
44:31
Speaker 1: my overall state that time when I was, for example,
44:35
Speaker 1: like six months ago and I was going through the
44:37
Speaker 1: breakup and this and that, you can go back and
44:39
Speaker 1: look at your overall state, and you can actually look
44:40
Speaker 1: at how your mood has changed throughout from like month
44:43
Speaker 1: to month, week to week, and eventually if you use
44:46
Speaker 1: it for that long like year to year, and it's
44:48
Speaker 1: a really good way of seeing progress in certain areas
44:51
Speaker 1: and what habits and behaviors were attributing to your heightened
44:55
Speaker 1: mood state and your better mood states. There's also a
44:58
Speaker 1: whole section in there for like both connection and purpose,
45:01
Speaker 1: and it keeps you on purpose every single day with these.
45:04
Speaker 2: Prompts, I'm just so fucking excited.
45:06
Speaker 1: I spent quite a bit of time putting this thing together,
45:08
Speaker 1: but still trying to keep it simple so it only
45:10
Speaker 1: eats up a couple of minutes of your day.
45:12
Speaker 2: I don't even want to call it eat up.
45:14
Speaker 1: It like contributes, but only with a couple of minutes
45:17
Speaker 1: of your day.
45:17
Speaker 2: So I am pumped. I am pumped.
45:20
Speaker 1: So go check out the Instagram page which is Mindset
45:23
Speaker 1: Recreation Club. Go check out the website Mindset Recreation Club
45:27
Speaker 1: dot com and pre order the Brain Journal. You can
45:32
Speaker 1: buy it as one, as a three pack, six or
45:34
Speaker 1: twelve and that will be ready to be shipped like
45:39
Speaker 1: early December, the start of December, so I'm so excited.
45:44
Speaker 2: And it is printed and made in Australia.
45:47
Speaker 1: So cute local little thing we've got going on here anyway,
45:51
Speaker 1: That is all.
45:52
Speaker 2: Go check it out.
45:53
Speaker 1: Love you guys so much, and always remember, be kind
45:55
Speaker 1: to yourself, be kind to your brain, don't take shit
45:58
Speaker 1: from anyone, and especially and take ship from yourself.
46:01
Speaker 2: Dn'ger