Chapter Content
Okay, so, let's talk about how our bodies and minds are, like, totally connected. It's kind of wild when you think about it. You know that feeling when you're hiking, and you just, like, get into this amazing rhythm? Like, you're hopping from rock to rock, even with a heavy backpack, and it feels effortless? That's kind of what I'm talking about.
For, like, most of human history, our brains and bodies were partners, right? Your mind helped your body, and your body, in turn, helped your mind, you know, through work, rest, and even play. There’s this BBC documentary with David Attenborough where he's following the San people, these hunters in the Kalahari. They're hunting kudu, and it's fascinating. They track this animal for hours, moving at this, like, steady pace, almost like they're in a trance. And then, when the kudu separates from the herd, one of the hunters, Karoha, chases after it. Then the tracks disappear, and Karoha stops, tries to figure things out. The way he moves, the pace of his mind, the speed of his body, it all mirrors each other, like, perfectly.
But, things changed, you know? With the invention of assembly lines, we started to separate the body from the mind. The body worked, but the mind, well, it was practically asleep. And now, in the modern age of knowledge work, it's almost the opposite. The mind's working like crazy, but the body? It's basically just, well, sleeping. This disconnect, it's robbed our minds of, like, all these signals that used to come from the body, signals that helped us, you know, tune things, get into the right state of mind at the right time. Without those signals, our brains have to work a lot harder, and they inevitably, like, wander off.
So, what I want to talk about is how our body's rhythms influence our minds, specifically through movement, like, moving your body, and even the movements of your eyes.
Think about it – if your mind starts to panic, your body totally does too, right? But the cool thing is, you can actually use your body to influence your mind, you know, by kind of harnessing this dialogue.
One way is through this, like, huge network of nerves called the autonomic nervous system. This system is constantly tracking everything you do and adjusting your body to what the world demands. It has two main parts: one that speeds things up, the sympathetic nervous system, and another that slows things down, the parasympathetic system. These two parts are constantly working to keep you balanced.
Even something as simple as standing up or sitting down affects this system. When you stand up, your body has to work harder to get blood to your brain, so the autonomic system speeds things up. When you sit back down, it slows down.
And here's the thing: your mental state tends to follow what your autonomic nervous system is doing. You can't really daydream if you're sprinting, and stretching helps you relax, right? So, shifting your autonomic state also shifts your mental state, your, like, "gear." And the way you change your autonomic state is by giving your body more or less physical work.
So, exercise – like, general exercise – anything that makes your body work harder raises your gear. The more intense it is, and the longer you do it, the bigger the effect. And the thing is, your gear doesn't just go back down right away when you stop exercising. It stays up for a little while. That's why you feel more alert after a workout, even if you were feeling sluggish before. Like, a half-hour of moderate exercise can improve how fast you think for at least a half-hour afterward.
And this can be especially helpful for people with ADHD. Exercise can actually make it easier to get into a focused state of mind. Studies have shown that cycling, for example, can boost attention and processing speed.
But it's not just about general exercise. Even something as simple as contracting your muscles can make a difference. There was a study way back when that found that students did better on arithmetic problems just by tensing their muscles. So, you can, like, almost instantly feel more alert by doing that. And a more recent study showed that squeezing a stress ball periodically actually improved performance on concentration-based tests.
And just as tensing your muscles shifts your autonomic system toward acceleration, relaxing them after contracting them shifts it toward deceleration. That's the basis of things like yoga and progressive muscle relaxation.
Another thing you can do is mess with your body temperature. Your autonomic nervous system also regulates that, and it kicks into high gear when your core temperature is threatened. That's why your heart rate goes up in a sauna or an ice shower. Both, even though they're opposite, trigger a response that raises your gear. So, even just a little "shock" to your body temperature will do it. Hot or cold showers can shake you into gear two in the morning, if you're lethargic.
Hot baths before bed are tricky, though. The process of cooling down afterward can actually help lower your gear and help you sleep.
And then there's breathing. Slow breathing, especially prolonged exhalations, lowers your gear. There's a direct nerve connection between the part of your brain that sets your breathing pace and your "blue dot network," which we talked about earlier. So, slowing one down slows the other.
Breathing at a rate of about ten seconds per breath – five seconds in, five seconds out – can stimulate the vagus nerve, which is a "calming" branch of the autonomic nervous system. Recent research even suggests that stimulating the vagus nerve this way directly shifts the blue dot network into a gear two pattern. So, you can use breathing – about five or six breaths per minute – to stay in gear two, or quickly get back there if stress pushes you into gear three.
There's also this cool state of "calm alertness." Alertness and calmness are contradictory, right? But there's this sweet spot in the middle where you can be both at the same time. One way to do it is by activating both the accelerate and decelerate arms of the autonomic nervous system simultaneously.
Cold-water bathing is one example. When you put your face in cold water, you get this "dive reflex" that slows down your physiology. But the shock of the cold water also triggers the accelerating branch, giving you an alert, fight-or-flight response. Some people think this creates an "autonomic confusion" where both arms are turned on at once, leaving you feeling focused and tranquil.
Hot yoga can have a similar effect. Yoga decelerates the autonomic nervous system through stretches and controlled breathing, but the hot environment stokes the accelerate branch as your body tries to keep its temperature down.
Now, let's talk about your eyes. You can often tell what someone's thinking just by watching them.
If you're surrounded by lions, your eyes would dart around, sending a danger signal to your brain. But if you're just looking at a weird plant, your gaze might linger, shifting your mind into gear two.
The patterns of your gaze are closely linked to your gear network because how you look at things affects how you pay attention to them. You can shift into different gears by playing with your gaze.
Narrowing your gaze can help. When you're anxious, your eyes dart around. When you're concentrating, they stay still. So, actively forcing your eyes to stay still by focusing on a small target enhances your focus and anchors you into gear two. This is called "Quiet Eye," and it's used in high-pressure situations. Meditators have used it for ages to enter deep states of concentration.
Surgeons, snipers, hunters – they all perform better when they fix their gaze on a target. As someone wrote in a book about tennis, focusing on something subtle, something not easily perceived, can really engross your mind. Surgeons use the Quiet Eye technique to keep their hands steady. If they overshoot into gear three, it affects their fine motor control.
If you're already focused, forcing your eyes to stay on a target won't make much difference. But if you're anxious and losing control, it can help restore your concentration.
Widening your gaze can also be helpful, but in a different way. When you concentrate hard, you tend to ignore what's going on around you. But forcing yourself to pay attention to a wider area can nudge you into a more creative mindset. It's like, when your brain registers information in your periphery, it also does the same for information in the periphery of your mind.
Some research even suggests that your facial expressions can affect your creativity. Keeping your eyebrows raised can help you come up with more original ideas than frowning. Maybe that's why we raise our eyes in wonder or surprise – it helps us think more creatively.
And sometimes, you need to detach your gaze altogether. Focusing too intensely can make you miss the big picture.
One way to loosen your focus is by briefly closing your eyes. Your eyelids are like curtains, blocking out all distractions. When your eyes are shut, your attention drifts inward, making it easier to remember things or solve problems. That's why people often close their eyes when they're thinking deeply.
Another way to unglue your attention is by "looking at nothing." Blank walls and empty spaces are too boring to pay attention to, so your mind wanders.
Anything that lacks an anchor for your attention can help your mind drift – dull meetings, long showers, washing the dishes. When you walk or jog, the world is in constant motion, so your attention can't fixate on anything, and it's free to wander and stumble upon new insights.
Detaching your attention can help you: wipe your mental slate clean, rest and recharge, and free your attention to be reallocated to another task or wander for creative ideas. This is especially helpful in a work environment where you have to switch tasks frequently.
But you don't want to detach your gaze for too long, or you might drift into gear one. One way to detach your focus without doing that is to use a cue to stay alert while your mind drifts. And one of the best ways to do that is by walking.
Walking creates a unique mental state – it lets your attention float while keeping you in gear two. First, it keeps you alert, but not too alert. Running can push you into gear three, which blocks creative ideas. Second, while you walk, the world moves past you slowly enough for you to gaze at it, but too fast for you to fix your gaze upon it. You can't become too entrenched in any one thought. Third, when you move relative to the world, your brain processes more visual information from the periphery, which can widen your attention.
Where you walk makes a difference, too. Walking on a treadmill doesn't expand your attention field like walking on a normal surface. And how you walk matters. The more restrained you are, the narrower your focus becomes.
And this "restraint" effect applies to movement in general. If you're sitting in a restrained way and have to hold your gaze, your creative scores will be lower than if you're sitting however you want. It even applies to hand movements. Doodling increases scores on creativity tests, whereas drawing straight lines does not.
Finally, let's talk about stimulants, like tea and coffee. They contain caffeine, which raises your gear.
The practice of taking a coffee break started when a company discovered that workers were more productive after taking a short break to drink coffee. It's no coincidence that coffee's popularity rose alongside the industrial revolution. Coffee continues to fuel knowledge workers all over the world.
As a stimulant, caffeine raises your gear and can amplify the effects of other gear-raising events, like stress and exercise. Taking caffeine before a workout can make your gear swing higher and prolong the time it stays raised. This can help you avoid a boredom-induced crash or get into the right mental state for focused work.
But if you're already in gear two or three, caffeine can make it harder to concentrate, impairing your ability to filter out distractions. You might work faster, but you'll make more mistakes, especially on tasks that require careful thought.
Caffeine's effect on creativity is nuanced. It helps you converge disparate elements, but it doesn't help you think outside the box. For that, your mind needs to wander.
Caffeine is useful in professions where sleep deprivation is common, and the risk of waning alertness is high. But that much caffeine isn't recommended for the typical knowledge worker.
Other stimulants, like those prescribed for attention disorders, also raise your gear. They can make focused work feel easier, but the quality of your thoughts might not be optimal. And while they might make you feel more alert, they don't undo the chemistry of fatigue. They just raise your gear so your performance dissociates from fatigue.
By overriding your brain's reflex to pull you down into gear one when you're tired, stimulant use can block your descent at the end of the day, which is why insomnia is a known side effect.