text stringlengths 0 2.26k |
|---|
**Mireille B. Reece, Psy.D:** So deep, dreamless sleep would take you down to that lowest frequency. 2 to 3 cycles a second. Think of how crazy that is. Delta - 2 to 3 cycles a second, as compared to Beta, which is 15 to 40. It's a pretty big difference. |
So when we go to bed and read for a few minutes before we try to go to sleep, we're likely in that low Beta. Then you put the book down, turn off the lights, then they go from Beta, to Alpha, to Theta, and then finally we fall into Delta. |
The other thing that these researchers looked at were Gamma waves. This is sort of a newer, emerging thing that people are taking a look at. Gamma waves are the fastest of the brainwaves, and relate to this simultaneous processing of information from different brain areas. And I think this is why it's so significant. B... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** \[24:03\] Meaning, not cluttered... |
**Mireille B. Reece, Psy.D:** Mm-hm. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** ...not full of stress... And I don't mean stress like "Oh, I'm stressed out", but more like stress in terms of like decision fatigue, cognitive load - those are all stressful things to a brain. You may not emotionally be stressed, but your brain may be stressed in terms of how much load it's under. |
**Mireille B. Reece, Psy.D:** Yeah. It's interesting -- researchers speculate that Gamma rhythms modulate perception and consciousness, and that a greater presence of this Gamma relates to expanded consciousness. So it's not surprising then that this is highly active in states of universal love, higher virtue, or altru... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** So where does Gamma fit in? You didn't mention the hertz, but the hertz seem to be higher than the others... |
**Mireille B. Reece, Psy.D:** Right. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** So it seems to be faster brainwaves. |
**Mireille B. Reece, Psy.D:** Right, it's 38 to 42 Hz, which is above the Beta, because that's 12 to 38. But it's this juxtaposition. It's high-frequency, so it's fast, but it's quiet. I don't know, I think like electric cars, that are fast... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** ...but quiet. |
**Mireille B. Reece, Psy.D:** Yeah. You can't hear them. Stealth-like. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** So how do we get there then? How do we engage these Gamma waves? |
**Mireille B. Reece, Psy.D:** Well, part of that is being able to calm down. That is the key thing. The unconscious brain is built to deal with more complex problems, but usually we don't let it... Because I'm trying to try harder! Consciously! Snap to it, Adam! Figure it out! |
So this is why when we take our foot off the accelerator and back away and create a sort of hiccup, it allows our brain to sort of defrag for a moment, go do something... Especially, I would think more process-based activities, where you're more mindful, you're engaged in it. That helps your brain go "Oh, let me shift ... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Interesting. |
**Mireille B. Reece, Psy.D:** Yeah. So this is what these researchers, Stratford and Canter showed - that there was this increase in Gamma waves right across the entire brain for each participant, with a decrease in the Beta waves. So these Gamma waves are associated with fast learning, and this sort of "A-ha! Oh my go... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Right. "It was right there." |
**Mireille B. Reece, Psy.D:** Right?! |
**Adam Stacoviak:** It's so deep for me. I can appreciate this knowledge, I can appreciate the depth of this... It's still difficult to really understand how to be a participant, aside from the idea of an empty mind, and Gamma waves live there. This sort of calm mind. And de-stressing isn't just the one way, or \[unint... |
**Mireille B. Reece, Psy.D:** Yeah, so it's interesting - when I was in graduate school I actually had the opportunity to learn this type of therapeutic treatment modality called biofeedback, or neurofeedback. We mainly used it to treat people struggling with anxiety or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder... But w... |
\[28:13\] I just think it's super-fascinating, because there's actually some newer treatment modalities relative to depression, wherein it really is a sort of modification of brainwaves... Because these play a role in how we go about doing our lives. So what it is is really getting feedback that you go "Oh, my goodness... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Yeah. Well, it's instant feedback, too... Especially if you've got the electrodes on your brain, or on your head, and the computer screen or something showing you as you change your thoughts, this ship moves forward or backwards, because of your ability to influence these Beta waves or these brainwa... |
**Mireille B. Reece, Psy.D:** Yeah, sure. But this is the fascinating thing of learning and practicing it. Dr. Stratford said it takes eight weeks on average to build a new neural pathway. So practicing it every day can build this new habit of like -- imagine you're teaching yourself a gear to go into. And you can asso... |
Canter said even though you are not attending to that problem anymore, you've activated the neural network in the unconscious mind. So when I step away, even when I stop looking at it, the back-office is still working on it, and it's reorganizing all that information that you input at the knowledge load stage, making c... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Yeah. |
**Mireille B. Reece, Psy.D:** It's practicing really going down deeper. I think of it like mindfulness/meditation, wherein even though I'm in an environment that might be provocative internally, or there's lots of stimuli externally, that I figure out how to block those out. Having done competitive gymnastics, I think ... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Right. You sort of kick into "Once this thing has happened, it's go-time", right? |
**Mireille B. Reece, Psy.D:** Yeah. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Now it's game mindset, competition mindset, whatever is necessary to flip a switch, essentially, from everyday/normal/whatever to "Okay, now it's time to completely focus on competing and winning and doing our best", or whatever the mindset might need to be. |
**Mireille B. Reece, Psy.D:** \[32:05\] Right. And this is why even the brainwave research is relative to athletes, and that sort of optimal function is not being so energized; calm, but very present. Again, a sort of juxtaposition. When we were talking about this, Adam, I think you had mentioned a strategy that you've... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** It's called Pomodoro. It's a "getting things done" thing. It's just a way of helping you focus. But I find it similar to the whole "Do, step away. Do, step away." Sort of like this constraint of focused work with a reward of a break, and then after a certain amount of time you get another longer bre... |
I'll break it down, but I don't know the exact technique, I don't know the written, black-and-white version of the rules for this thing, but as I understand it, it's essentially chunks of work. And that chunk of work is broken up into generally a 25-minute sprint or session of work, where you're gonna laser-focus on wh... |
It's 25 minutes, and then you get a break of some sort of sustained time - 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, whatever you can really prescribe for yourself... But I think the basis is 5 minutes. So you can do a number of these (they call them) pomodoros, sessions of this focused work, and then you get a sustained break ... |
I look at that like I get a chance to laser-focus on some tasks, and I get to take a break. I get to reward myself with something I learned recently called movement snacks, where I get up and walk. Especially as we start to home-work more often -- I've already done this a long time, but I didn't really consider that th... |
So this Pomodoro effect, this Pomodoro techniques - if you just practice it at a basic level, it has some benefits. But if you layer it into these other things we've been learning about breaks, and things that feed your life in other ways, then you can sort of layer those in... Like, do some sit-ups in that five minute... |
**Mireille B. Reece, Psy.D:** I'm so glad you even brought that up, because I'm super-excited about talking about this relative to exercise. Don't everybody get discouraged, it will be fun, because what the research shows is that ironically, it's not just a physical activity that helps us be healthy and stay healthy, b... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** I thought you were on an elliptical the whole time. That'd be cool. |
**Mireille B. Reece, Psy.D:** No, but they have them. They have bikes that have space for laptop, to be able to work simultaneously... I think that might create a very interesting effect with patients, if I were riding on a bike. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Exercising. |
**Mireille B. Reece, Psy.D:** Yeah. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** "I'm listening, don't worry. I'm just really going for this last mile here..." \[laughter\] I couldn't imagine that. That'd be kind of fun. |
**Mireille B. Reece, Psy.D:** \[laughs\] |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Yeah, but always finding a way to layer in some sort of motion is key. |
**Mireille B. Reece, Psy.D:** \[35:49\] Yeah. So that brings me to talk about our emotions... Because if calm is the ideal state, then I have to be aware if my feelings are running interference with what I'm trying to do. So am I fearful, am I stressed? Because that is definitely not going to help me in doing creative ... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** I don't know though... There's some people though - and I can even look back at my life - are you advocating for these constraints, or against them? |
**Mireille B. Reece, Psy.D:** Against them... In this case, when I'm talking about emotions as interference. I'm not talking other constraints, like setting up parameters to work within. I'm talking about being emotionally activated. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Right. I look back at your example of when you were in grad school - staying up late, waking up early... You had a time box. \[unintelligible 00:37:04.15\] if the problem wasn't solved, you had to solve it in a specific time, so that was your constraint. For me, I thrive -- not always, but there are... |
**Mireille B. Reece, Psy.D:** Well, so my question to you though would be then if you aren't actually in a different state during those moments than what you think you are? |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.