At one point or another, like any one else, you felt stuck in a rut with feelings of laziness and fear. During these times it can be really hard to take a step back and wonder what’s happening in the body, as opposed to just the mind, but it’s the link between the two that can push us through it.
Dopamine Is the Key
Neurotransmitters have incredible power over how the body and mind function. Let's look at the chemical symphony happening in the body all the time.
Dopamine is responsible for craving, motivation, and pursuit.
Adrenaline relates to agitation and endurance.
Serotonin helps us be grateful and feel good about what we have.
And, acetylcholine can helps focus.
You can react to the world around you and make positive changes by purposefully leveraging these inner reactions.
In this Podcast, Dr. Andrew Huberman talks about opening the window into the body's own inner neurochemistry, training the nervous system, and confronting the body's inner real estate.
Dr. Andrew Huberman is a neuroscientist and tenured Professor in the Department of Neurobiology at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He has made numerous important contributions to the fields of brain development, brain function, and neural plasticity, which is the ability of our nervous system to rewire and learn new behaviors, skills, and cognitive functioning. He is a McKnight Foundation and Pew Foundation Fellow and was awarded the Cogan Award in 2017, which is given to the scientist making the largest discoveries in the study of vision. His lab’s most recent work focuses on the influence of vision and respiration on human performance and brain states such as fear and courage. Work from the Huberman Laboratory at Stanford University School of Medicine has been published in top journals including Nature, Science, and Cell and has been featured in TIME, BBC, Scientific American, Discover, and other top media outlets.
The Podcat dives into:
- The connection between fear, laziness, and motivation (0:40)
- The difference between dopamine, adrenaline, and serotonin (13:35)
- How to increase dopamine (15:04)
- How to get your mind to stop racing (26:41)
- An exercise to try if you are having a hard time falling asleep (31:32)
- The benefits of hypnosis (34:41)
- What to do if you are having trouble focusing (48:32)
- Why structure is one of the best ways to create freedom (57:17)
- How our phones are eroding our creativity, relationships, and more (1:01:37)
- The importance of having times of no focus each day (1:12:24)
For more on Dr. Andrew Huberman, you can follow him on Instagram @hubermanlab, and through his website http://www.hubermanlab.com/.
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