You know how you’re always looking for the edge? Whether we are here as students or employees of Virginia Tech I’ve yet to meet anyone (myself included) that wouldn’t be able to benefit from cutting edge techniques for better conflict management, decision-making and implementing better habits. With that in mind I thought it be fun this summer 2021 to begin exploring in a series of workshops lessons from neuroscience that we can apply to our lives.

If you missed the series the recordings are available on our YouTube Channel and here are some of the highlights:

The past couple of decades much research and discussion has taken place around a simple idea that when external events happen to us we either tend to react and behave in some default way (think fight, flight, freeze) or, we have an opportunity to do what I call “respond” to the situation. It seems like semantics between the words “react” and “respond” but the distinction is that when we react we’re letting our primal brain take over (what some call the “amygdala hi-jack”) and let our ourselves go into a default state that, no doubt, can be beneficial in life or death situations. Think of those videos you might have seen earlier this year where people fought off bears and bobcats. There, instinct may have saved people’s lives. In most day to day situations though we don’t need to resort to this instinctual state. Shutting down, or becoming defensive, say when someone gives us feedback may seems what our brain wants (is perhaps conditioned to do) but it doesn’t ultimately perhaps serve us as well. Instead, we need to activate parts of our brain that help us better manage the moment. For example, one such part of the brain is the pre-fontal cortex (PFC), which is critical in helping us make decisions. When we are in a reactive state though our amygdala actually shuts-off the PFC. So, what to do? How do we utilize those parts of the brain that will help us respond to the moment?

Once seen as a “woo-woo” practice that begin in the 1960’s when some now baby boomers smoked pot, ate mushrooms and took mind-trips meditation wasn’t taken too seriously until the past couple of decades. Nowadays, even the Marines have embraced the benefits of meditation (sans the drugs), which include preparing for and recovering from stressful combat situations to reducing depression, anxiety and PTSD. The research is this field is fairly consistent that when we manage everything from our breath to our mental focus, we actually activate different parts of the brain that help us manage our “state”, physically, emotionally and mentally. If meditation is good enough for the Marines it’s got to be good enough for the rest of us. Think of mediation as giving your brain exercise. The more we do it, the more conditioned it becomes.

Our brain is not the only thing that needs training. It may seem basic, what I sometimes call “third-grade”, but we often forget the power of exercise. Over eons it has been said, “Emotion comes from Motion.” When we move, we create a physiological shift (for example cortisol levels tend to go down, testosterone goes up) that can prime us for better mind-hacks. Just spending some time in nature has been indicated to help us de-stress and manage our emotions immensely.

For other mind-hacks visit this list and the accompanying links.

At this point in this blog post you might be noticing that there is a common thread in these highlights and that there is a specific pattern, a circuit in a sense, that kicks in when something happens. A bear jumps out of the woods we react. We decide to hit the gym and (though we might feel tired afterwards) our minds and bodies reap benefits. We close our eyes, and slow our breathing down, and this shift helps us to be more in control. Similar to physics, for every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction. Here, whenever there’s a “trigger” they’ll be a reaction.  It’s quite the breakthrough moment though when we realize that we can control our response to events; and an ever greater revelation when we realize that in some cases, perhaps we can even control the stimuli (the event).

What do I mean by that? When it comes to habits there is a loop our brain runs in that there is a trigger/event that makes us react in a specific manner and the brain then receives a reward. Think of your favorite food. Seeing it, thinking about it, but especially eating your favorite food is the trigger and (most likely) you react by craving it, knowing how good it is going to taste and when you consume it your brain actually releases a chemical, dopamine, that trains your brain to seek that pleasure in the future.

Mind-hacks around habits are about breaking down that habit loop process and intentionally creating new, and actually good, habit loops for us. For example, one effective strategy to change our habits is to change our environment. If we are at the gym, we’ll probably work out. If we are at a bar, we’ll probably drink. If we are the library, we’ll probably study more. You get the picture. Change what you are exposed to, the trigger, and you’ll change your habits.

For other mind-hacks that help us create better habits visit this list and the accompanying links.

We all make decisions on a daily basis. The number of decisions vary in estimates from a few hundred decisions to tens of thousands decisions daily. Some decisions might seem trivial, such as whether we brush our teeth after we shower or before we shower. Most decisions we don’t even think about, but our brains are constantly making choices for us, similar to habits. Some decisions we put a bit more thought into such as what to wear for the day, whether we work out now or perhaps later.

Other decisions are more impactful in their consequences; whether we apply to a new opportunity across the U.S., whether we move in with someone or where (and what) we end up studying (or should we) after high school?  Though the impact of the decisions might vary what most choices have in common is that whenever we actually deliberate that process takes brain power. It is no surprise then that research indicates that when it comes to willpower that more decisions we make, just like our muscles eventually get exhausted, our willpower diminishes.

Accordingly, we need to make sure we replenish the energy in our brain. Ever experienced being “hangry”? That’s the state where we are both hungry and angry and we tend to be short with others, make sarcastic remarks and are probably not in the best physiological state to make a decision. When we are hungry a specific hormone, ghrelin, is actually released and so if we want to make better decisions it’s best we stay fed. Seems like third-grade common sense advice but it is truly one of those “little things” we might not be paying enough attention to.

For other mind-hacks that help us make better decisions visit this list and the accompanying links.