by admin | May 31, 2022 | General, Mind
The Science Of Willpower
If you feel like your life has been following the same script and nothing works out, well, you might be lacking something called “self-control”. Self-control and willpower are two components of your psyche that are in constant dialogue. Oftentimes, we blame ourselves for not doing the things that have to be done in order for us to achieve our goals.
For instance, that burger you ate last night contrary to your weight loss goal, felt natural and temptations… Or maybe, you got as far as buying a gym membership, but you only attended once for a half-assed workout.
Sounds familiar?
If the answer is “Yes”, then you’re in to learn something new in this article.
Let’s talk about willpower.
The Biology Of Willpower
Willpower and its development is without a doubt a hot topic for many people, which is why you can probably find a lot of people talking about it online. But really, to fundamentally change how your willpower functions, you have to understand how it works on a physiological level. If we trace the human history, we can come to find that willpower & self-control are instincts that formed throughout our evolution.
For instance, when humans were more primal, you had to somehow know that you should stay away from other humans’ things, or otherwise, you might get hit in the head. This is exactly how in time, the prefrontal cortex has developed – This is the section of the brain that is responsible for self-control. The thing is, this part of your brain uses up quite a lot of energy and when you’re tired, underfed, or under-recovered, it suffers the most.
What this means is that you are practically off your leash in terms of self-control, if those conditions are present. And the problem is that nowadays, we are exposed to such conditions EASILY, leading to more and more people finding less and less motivation and willpower to do the right things for themselves.
Stress vs. Willpower
If you know a thing or two about stress, you’d be aware that the body has the so-called “stress response”. This is a self-protection response that arose back when our ancestors were living in the wild, where predators were behind every tree.
The stress response is also known as the “fight or flight” response and is characterized by an increased heart rate, alertness, lowered immune function & high cortisol and adrenaline levels. (1) The same response gets triggered in animals, such as when a gazelle gets attacked by a cheetah.
Contrary to the fight or flight response, the instinct of willpower kicks off another response, called the “pause and plan” response. (2) This is basically the moment of rationalization when you’re responding to an internal conflict.
So, you see, with the stress response, you respond to a threat in the environment… But with willpower, you realize you are your own threat. If you trigger the pause and plan response, you will be able to induce self-control and develop more sustainable, healthier habits, and overall, make the right choices in any situation.
It’s All In The Heart
Your heart rate variability (HRV) is one of the most important variables that can speak about your internal response and whether it’s a stress or self-regulation response.
Heart rate variability (HRV) is basically the variance of time between the separate beats of your heart.
When under stress, the heart rate goes up and the variations decrease, pushing the heart to work closer to its maximum capacity. This in turn triggers the feelings of fear or anger that are relevant to the fight or flight stress response.
Oppositely, when you successfully trigger the pause and plan response, your parasympathetic nervous system takes over to induce a relaxation signal. This makes the heart rate come down while the HRV increases and this, therefore, creates the feeling of calmness, present alertness, and focus.
Heart-Brain Coherence
You see, willpower, self-control, or however you like to call it, is not just about one component of your brain, such as the prefrontal cortex. The moments of self-regulation and willpower are the end product of the work of a countless number of intricately connected neurons and systems in the body.
But we can certainly look at two specific organs that seem to govern the majority of physical and mental responses. Those are namely the heart and the brain. Studies find that the heart has its own “mini-brain”, which is basically a bunch of brain neuron-like cells. (3) This means that the heart can do almost everything the brain does, independent of the brain.
And then again, these two organs are intimately connected through the neural network, constantly governing each other’s work.
Isn’t It All Autonomous, Though?
When we talk about biology, most of the processes in the body are automatic. You don’t consciously digest, control your blood pressure, heart rate, etc… (4) BUT… There is ONE autonomous function that can make you capable of powerful self-regulation responses… Breathing! (5)
Now that you’ve read the word above, you’re probably breathing consciously, but don’t worry, you’ll switch back to autopilot in a second. However, whenever you decide to, you can take conscious control over your breath. Even at moments when willpower needs to come into play, you can use breathing to induce powerful self-regulation.
Breathing Willpower Practice
Remember, most of your responses and thoughts are a repeating pattern and you have the willpower to change that, in case it impacts you negatively.
Here’s something you can do during moments when you need willpower/self-regulation:
- Breathe in deeply and slowly (4-6 seconds)
- Hold your breath and just pause the world for 2 seconds
- Exhale slowly
- Repeat a couple of times
Though you may think “Hell, what will breathing do?”, this sends a powerful relaxation signal to the brain and the heart.
Each breath takes you further and further from the stress response, thus opening the doors for a brief moment of pause and plan, that will improve your thoughts, feelings, emotions, actions, and therefore, end results.
Conclusion
Willpower and self-control are instincts that have allowed us to survive, thrive, and evolve. Much like the stress response, the willpower response doesn’t get triggered as it used to during the times of our ancestors. Nevertheless, it remains a functional part of people’s character and is something that can be worked on.
It is just a matter of YOU taking conscious control over your own actions, thoughts, and feelings. Remember, you are the master of your body and mind, you are capable of powerful, internal self-regulation.
References
- https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/understanding-the-stress-response
- https://scopeblog.stanford.edu/2011/12/29/a-conversation-about-the-science-of-willpower/
- https://www.huffpost.com/entry/heart-wisdom_b_2615857#:~:text=Yes%2C%20the%20human%20heart%2C%20in,the%20body%20feels%20and%20more.
- https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-the-autonomic-nervous-system-2794823#:~:text=The%20autonomic%20nervous%20system%20regulates,flow%2C%20breathing%2C%20and%20digestion.
- https://www.heartmath.org/articles-of-the-heart/the-math-of-heartmath/heart-focused-breathing/#:~:text=Typically%2C%20HeartMath%20recommends%20that%20you,establish%20your%20own%20natural%20rhythm.
by admin | May 31, 2022 | Mind, History
The Founder Of Neuropsychology – Brenda Milner
The 103-year-old lady who holds the title “founder of neuropsychology.” Brenda Milner is one of the most famous names in the field of neuropsychology in the world. She has more than 20 awards and has made some groundbreaking discoveries concerning memory, brain damage, and language. She’s a member of the royal society both in London and in Canada, and she teaches and researches to this very day.
This is her story.
Brenda Milner was born in 1918 in Manchester with two musicians as parents. Her father taught her mathematics when she was a child and when she started studying in Newham College Cambridge, this was her initial field. However, she soon changed it to psychology and graduated in 1939.
Soon after, she was given a research studentship, allowing her to stay in the university for two more years. With the start of the second world war, the Cambridge psychology laboratory was tasked with researching aircrew selection. Milner’s task specifically was designing tests to distinguish future fighter pilots and bomber pilots.
After this, she continued working to help in the war, investigating different methods to ease radar operators, which is how she met her husband. Peter Milner was an electrical engineer who was also recruited, just like her. They married in 1944 and moved to Canada, where he was invited to help with atomic research while she started teaching psychology at the University of Montreal.
In 1952 Brenda earned her Ph.D. in experimental psychology with a thesis on the intellectual effects of temporal lobe brain damage. In 1954 she published a research paper about temporal lobe damage and how it can cause emotional and intellectual changes, thus discouraging invasive surgeries on humans that could negatively impact their lives.
She was later invited to Hartford to study patient Henry Molaison and, in doing so, became a pioneer in the field of neuropsychology concerning memory and cognitive functions. Patient H.M. had undergone a bilateral temporal lobectomy which included removing major portions of the hippocampus and Brenda Milner studied the effects this damage had on his memory and cognitive ability.
What she found out is that the brain damage affected his memories from a few years before the surgery but those from further in the past remained intact. She also explained that while he is unable to form new memories, he can learn new cognitive abilities. For example, she spent three days teaching H.M. a simple but different way to draw a star, and after those 3 days, he could use the newly learned technique even though he had no memory whatsoever of any events that occurred in those three days.
This led to her realization that there are different types of memory and learning. She split them into episodic memory and procedural memory, one being the recollection of everyday events, while the other is connected with doing unconscious tasks.
She was also the first to introduce the concept of multiple memory systems and their different places in the brain, which led to researching other areas of the brain to find where specific memories are stored. Brenda Milner had another breakthrough concerning the lateralization (the tendency for the brain to use mainly one of its two hemispheres concerning specific processes) of the brain and its connection to language.
Here she came to the conclusion that hand preference and speech are connected and, based on that, managed to prove that brain lesions have an effect on the way our brain is organized physically. She recently deals with brain activity in more ordinary cases, specifically bilingualism and spatial memory.
Milner donated 1 million dollars (gathered mainly from praise money) to the Montreal Neurological Institute after establishing a foundation in her name. Throughout her life, she has received many awards and memberships. She is part of the royal society both in London and in Canada and the National Academy of Sciences in the USA.
She has received the Gerard, the Balzan, and the Kavli prizes, all connected with neuroscience, and was given the national academy of sciences award for her research in brain regions in learning, language, and memory. She continues to teach and research to this day. She’s a professor in neurology and neurosurgery at the McGi Universityity as well as a Dorothy J. Killam Professor at the Montreal neurological institute.
All in all, Brenda Milner is one of the brightest minds today. Her work has influenced the lives of countless people both because of her findings and the changed perspective of other doctors. She’s the pioneer in neuropsychology right now and is simply amazing in what she did and continues to do.
by admin | May 31, 2022 | Mind
The Mind – Conscious & Subconscious | Part 1 – The Conscious Mind
When your goal is to step up your personal development game and create the best habits and thought patterns for your future self, there is something you simply cannot ignore. That is namely the conscious & subconscious parts of your mind, which play a big role in how you think, feel and act in this world.
Think of the mind as the engine of your experience – If you want to make changes/repairs to an engine, you have to know it quite well. In this article series, we’ll give you insight on the conscious & subconscious mind, starting with the conscious mind.
So let’s get to it, shall we?
What Is The Conscious Mind?
By definition, the conscious mind is the part of your mind that thinks logically, applies critical thinking, analyzes and compares. The conscious mind, quite simply, takes in sensory information, through the 5 senses:
- Smell
- Touch
- Vision
- Taste
- Hearing
At its very essence, the conscious mind can be responsible for your thoughts, actions and self-awareness. So think of the conscious mind as the tool you use to interact with the external world.
The Filtration
One of the main functions of your conscious mind is to filter information and select the things that you need (or strongly believe in). The conscious is kind of like a storage, which saves everything significant that happened in our lives at one point or another.
Where Does It Go, Though?
Now, 95% of our wake time, we exist and act upon already established patterns of thoughts and actions. As a matter of fact, the conscious mind takes just a tiny bit of control in your wake life (roughly 5%). These patterns of thoughts, actions, behaviors and emotions are executed by the SUBCONSCIOUS mind.
To say it simply, the conscious mind once took in information which made sense, seemed probable and believable. Once that information was taken in, it was pushed to the subconscious mind, where it quite literally, became a program.
Conclusion
The conscious mind takes in information from the external world, through the 5 senses that we have. Once taken in, the information is filtered and broken down to what can actually make a logical picture of the world. Then, the things we believe to be true about the world/ourselves, get pushed to the subconscious mind, where a program is established.
That program then leads to certain thoughts, emotions and behaviors, which are essentially a pattern. In the second part of this article series, we’re going to tell you more about those patterns and the subconscious mind and will give you actionable advice on how to REWIRE your subconscious, to ultimately develop better habits and boost your personal development journey.
Stay tuned!
by admin | May 31, 2022 | General, Mind
The Power Of Introspection And Why We Need To Know Ourselves
Who Am I? And Other Questions We Tend To Avoid Most of us automatically assume we know ourselves. Our experiences tied together with our memories, perceived tastes, fears, and hopes form our ego and our idea of ourselves.
Still, most people have sides of them that remain unexplored given the tendency of humans to avoid deep thought and thorough honesty with themselves. Unfortunately, we are the person we lie to the most sometimes.
For example, aside from generic job interview questions most people simply don’t have a good overview of their shortcomings. Because let’s be honest, no one wants to think about what they’re not good at. However, questions like ‘’What am I bad at?’’ or ‘’What am I good at?’’ can serve as a foundation for your self-development journey.
Questions like these don’t arise automatically or out of the blue. We need to set the scene for these questions to be examined in a truthful and honest way. And setting the scene for this kind of self-analysis employs a not-so-secret technique that is becoming increasingly rare and avoided, and that technique implies being alone with yourself.
Solitude And Its Benefits
Without great solitude, no serious work is possible.
—Pablo Picasso
Living in the age of informational abundance and the internet, being alone is hard to come by. After all, all your friends are there simply a click away on this little magic rectangle you keep in your pocket, called a phone. However, studies seem to show that voluntary solitude has been linked to a great number of benefits like lowered depressive symptoms, well-being, and greater life satisfaction.
Even throughout time and across different cultural segments, detaching oneself from the business of daily life and practicing voluntary solitude most often in nature has been shown to be a common form of anxiety relief and a tool one uses to get to know themselves better.
Ancient and not-so-ancient writings show that being alone facilitates inspiration and insight and serves to erase the never-ending inner chatter most of us have. Once all those voices that delegate your daily life have been muffled, then you can begin to look inside yourself and find answers and guidance coming from the best of all places, your gut.
Confidence Comes With Knowing Yourself
Confidence comes with being able to spend time alone voluntarily and having a good time doing it. Spend enough time alone, and you’ll find that you’re the most reliable person you know. You’re available to yourself 24/7 from the day you are born to the day you die.
Can you then think of a more trustworthy person than yourself? Once you start trusting yourself, you inadvertently begin building greater levels of confidence. The real type of confidence that’s gifted only to those who spend enough time getting to know themselves and their abilities.
Confidence can rarely be faked, and on the accounts that it can, it’s hardly sustainable. And let’s be honest here – When you know it’s something that will serve you for the rest of your days, what’s the point of faking it, rather than building it from the ground up?
Knowing Yourself Is A Journey With No End
Human desires are like the horizon – you’re walking towards it but never getting any closer. The same goes for the desire to know and improve yourself. You may need to re-examine your shortcomings and your strengths once in a while. Maybe you’ve improved on one point but weakened another.
This isn’t necessarily bad. It only serves to show that you’re indeed further on your journey and making progress. There is one thing to remember on this journey to knowing yourself – one never arrives. Because personal development is a never-ending journey that lasts a life time.
Final Thoughts
We all have the power to change our lives and do amazing things. But we need to be honest with ourselves first in order for that to happen. Introspection is a powerful tool, but it can also feel like an unnecessary burden when you’re trying to get through your day. The key is finding the balance between introspection and action so that you can make changes without feeling overwhelmed by self-reflection. It takes time, practice, and effort, but though that’s the case, you should remember that even small steps build momentum over time.
by admin | May 31, 2022 | Mind
The Mindset Of The Performer
Artistry Was Actually Never Hard To Obtain When you hear the word “performance” your first association probably isn’t about mindset. Big stages, spectacular shows, colors, music, and people who are extremely talented are probably what you imagine. As it turns out though in order to achieve all of this and more, you need to think in a specific way.
Having the right mindset is essential up from the forming of ideas to the very last moment on stage. Here we explain in the simplest terms what being a performer means in terms of the state of mind.
What Is It?
Let’s break down the general definition of a performer’s mindset first. People who adopt this way of thinking are mainly driven by recognition and appreciation. To them, the end result matters not only because of their personal relationship to it but because it influences those around them as well.
Therefore, many times, their opinion is at least somewhat based on the response others have about their achievements. Now, although this has its cons, it can also be rather positive. For instance, the connection people with the performer’s mindset have with others is often well built and respected.
The reason behind this is that they deem other people’s criticism just as important as their praise. This shouldn’t, however, lessen the importance of self-evaluation and opinion. Believing in yourself is, in fact one of the most critical aspects of this mindset. As Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can or can’t, you’re probably right,” and this couldn’t be more relevant for performers.
Performing & The Growth Mindset
In order to fully understand why these two mindsets are connected, let’s first explain what a “growth mindset” is. It’s the basic idea that intelligence, creativity, and success are products of hard work instead of innate qualities. People with this mindset believe that what they have achieved is because of their devotion and that therefore, everything is possible.
Once you adapt to this way of thinking, the concept that there are some things that you can’t do, that there are mountains that are too high to climb, simply becomes invalid. As opposed to people with a fixed mindset, with enough hard work and dedication, those with growth one can achieve even their wildest dreams.
That means that they can sustain almost a constant state of change and improvement which allows them to be better performers.
What Are Some Of The Benefits You Can Extract?
As most of you would have guessed, there are many positives that come along with the performer’s mindset. Let’s start with the most obvious one – you’re in touch with your imagination and creativity. Being any sort of performer, you thrive when you have new ideas and an opportunity to showcase your abilities, and this mindset is perfect for putting you in situations where you have just that.
Suddenly talking with agents or booking a show isn’t an impossible feat, filled with fear, but an exciting time for which you look forward to. Another benefit the performer’s mindset has is that it teaches you to love to share your knowledge and skills with others. You can be a great artist, but you also need an audience, and the more you use this mindset, the more you start appreciating this.
That, in turn, means you’re not afraid of being seen and/or judged. Criticism is a tough pill to swallow for most people, but performers know that it can be very useful. And even if the people you share your talents with aren’t acclaimed critics, you’re conscious of their opinions regardless. This forms beautiful relationships in all sorts of aspects.
Finally, but definitely not less importantly, you enjoy new moments and difficulties. The entire motivation you need to dive headfirst into a specific thing is that it will be a challenge. This means that fear rarely holds you back from experiencing what you truly want to, which is incredibly valuable.
Take-Home Message
So what is the performer’s mindset? Well, it’s a valuable ideology that provides you with everything you need to show your talents and strengths. It nurtures creativity, helps you find your way of expression and connection to your audience, and makes you less afraid to go after your dreams.
Even just from these points alone, one can agree that the performer’s mindset is extremely beneficial, not to mention tremendously fun. So, don’t wait for a second more and start thinking of ways to adapt it to your lifestyle!
by admin | May 31, 2022 | Mind
The Psychologists From Centuries Ago That Still Matter
Some Of The Most Influential Minds That Keep Impacting The World Of Psychology Psychology is the study of human behavior and state of mind.
Throughout the years, we have come to many different conclusions about ourselves and how our brains work. The field of psychology is where all that valuable knowledge is stored. Although psychology is a quickly developing science which talks about many different subjects, certain ideas were so revolutionary that they changed the collective worldview of future generations.
Some people’s insights were so unique and their work so diligent that they still have a massive influence centuries later. In this article, we have listed some of the pioneers of psychology in the previous centuries, that have had a great impact, that still matters!
Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
He is the first person to discover and start using the scientific method. He was also the first to believe that grand theories and ideas should find their beginnings from more minor facts. He believed that these methods could be used when talking about human behavior.
The true character of any individual can be found through observation, and once you have gathered a considerable amount of information, you can deduct the individual’s future behavior. This was later recognized as the inductive method – the notion that specific facts which can be tested should lead to a general rule. He changed the way we collect and process information, which started the biggest trends in 17th-century psychology.
Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
Known as the father of modern philosophy, Descartes was an astounding thinker in many fields. In psychology, he is most well known for his theory on dualism, in which he splits the world into two separate parts. One is the physical “realm of matter and energy” – the one which is quantifiable and can be researched.
The second is the “mental realm,” which cannot be measured and holds our behavioral and mental traits. He is also the pioneer in a field called rationalism – the concept that everything should be doubted until it is proven.
John Locke (1632-1704)
He is the person who introduced the concept of Tabula Rasa – the belief that the mind is a blank slate at birth and that every individual is formed thanks to their environment. Locke was a strong defender of the nurture side to the “nature vs. nurture” debate precisely because of his belief in Tabula Rasa.
Because in his eyes, every behavior, thought pattern, and inclination was learned, he believed that the first few years since birth are the most important ones for human development. He is also one of the biggest contributors to the liberal theory, seeing as he strongly believed in the natural right of life and freedom.
Imannuel Kant (1724-1804)
Immanuel Kant is famous for many things. He revolutionized the way we understand knowledge. Before him, people generally agreed that the minds are simple mirrors for the outside experience, and thus everything we knew was a simple reflection of our environment.
Kant said that our minds are responsible for all of our perceptions and that therefore they are the ones that shape our knowledge. He is also famous for trying to unite empiricism and rationalism. He believed that both experience and reason are equally important and that we should work with both of them all of the time. He explained why, by saying that all experience is subjective but using solely reason would only lead to illusions.
Gustav Fechner (1801-1887)
He is the German philosopher who founded psychophysics and formulated the Fechner law. This law states that the sensation a human experiences is proportional to the magnitude of the stimulus and is connected to Weber’s law. Fechner also conceptualized that the mind and body were two parts of the same thing instead of two completely separate systems.
This led him to panpsychism – the doctrine that the universe is created and governed by the mind or the soul. He also proved that physical stimuli have an effect on the human psyche. From that discovery, he started being an avid believer that the brain can be studied mathematically and that psychology, therefore, should be a quantified science.
Final Thoughts
Psychology has always been an interesting science, and by extension, psychologists have always been fascinating people. Most of the notions we connect to the field today have their foundations because of the people listed here! There truly are some genius minds, and it’s a wonderful thing that some chose to specialize in this enchanting field of study.
How do you like psychology, and which do you think are the people that most influenced this field of study? Comment below and let’s discuss!
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