Hello!
Seiiti Arata.
Today we are going to present to you some neuroscience concepts in a simple, understandable
and applicable way that will allow you to achieve practical results.
In order to do this, let me start by asking you something: Do you really control your
mind... or does your mind control you?
If your answer is that you have control over your mind, let’s put it to the test to see
if it’s true.
Try not to think about anything.
Clear your mind and silence your thoughts.
So, did you manage to do it?
Not really, right?
You probably ended up thinking about something… maybe you thought about trying to show who’s
really in charge here, or about commands such as “clear your mind, clear your mind”,
or even about something random.
This is completely normal.
Our brains evolved this way.
Thanks to a structure that scientists call the default mode network, our mind is always
active, even when we don’t want to think about anything.
The good news is that you can train your mind and force your default mode network to work
so that it’s easier to achieve your goals, instead of having a mind that is always sabotaging
you.
If your default mode of thinking is making you sad, anxious or unproductive, let’s
now learn how to change this so your brain’s default mode favors focus and productivity.
You need to understand how your brain works before you can have a productive default mode
of thinking.
The brain is, by far, our most complex organ.
Until the very beginning of the 20th century, when the electroencephalogram was invented,
we knew very little about how the brain really worked.
It was during this period that, almost accidently, a study reached an important conclusion.
[source: https://arata.se/source-0o64].
In this study, scientists asked a group of people to execute a number of mental tasks,
while electrodes and machines monitored their brain activity.
This monitoring also had to be compared with a basic level of brain activity.
Because of this, the scientists also asked the people to get some rest between each task.
That’s when things got weird.
Scientists expected that, during the resting moment, the brain activity would slow down,
but this didn’t happen.
Actually, the brain activity increased in some areas of the brain during the rest period.
Initially, the increase of brain activity during moments of rest was seen as a mere
curiosity.
But many years later, the neuroscientist David Ingvar started to compare test results that
measured blood flow when people were resting.
This is how we accidently discovered that specific areas of the brain go through a network
activation when we are supposedly resting.
In other words, when we are actively using our brain to do a mental activity, some areas
are activated.
And when we are not actively thinking, other areas of the brain are activated.
Our brain never stops working!
The way we think whenever we are not actively engaged in a mental activity is our “default
mode network”.
It’s our default thinking mode.
When your brain is in default mode, your mind gets distracted and you are not able to focus
on the tasks you have to do.
When you are resting and not actively engaged in a mental activity, your brain continues
to be active, but it’s working in default mode.
In the default mode, your brain creates mental images, takes you to the past and creates
plans for the future.
You know when you are not doing anything and suddenly you remember the perfect comeback
you wish you had said in an argument last week?
Or when you start to wonder about your future, what it is going to be like on a special date?
This is the standard way of thinking.
Whenever you are not actively using your brain to solve a problem, your mind starts to wander,
to daydream and imagine situations.
Often, your mind finds creative solutions to problems during these ramblings.
And this is interesting and surprising, especially when the solution shows up out of the blue
without you even thinking about it.
This is something very positive.
However, mental ramblings aren’t always a good thing.
Think about people with depression, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and other mental disorders.
They usually have stronger connections between brain areas activated by the default mode
network.
People with Alzheimers and on the Autism spectrum also have dysfunctions in their default mode
network.
Excessive rambling can bring trouble even to healthy people.
Just remember all the times when you had to focus on a task and your mind started wandering,
conjuring up random thoughts, reminiscing about the past or making plans for the future.
There are some actions that increase the default mode network’s activity, making our mind
even more distracted.
Now I’m going to teach you a couple of practical tips.
One tells you what NOT to do, and the other tells you WHAT TO DO.
You should not sleep too little or sleep badly.
And what should you do?
Meditate.
Meditation is the most efficient way of controlling the default mode network.
Controlling our thoughts is not an easy task.
We are beings who are way more inclined to emotion than to reason.
Yet, there is a very useful technique to help take control of the default mode network:
focused attention meditation.
We already covered this type of meditation in episode 192 of the Hello!
Seiiti Arata series [https://arata.se/hello192].
In focused attention meditation, you have to choose something to focus on.
Anything: your breathing, an object in your room, or even a random image.
Your goal is to keep your attention completely focused on what you have chosen, for as long
as you can.
When you notice that you are losing focus, you must simply bring your focus back to the
object.
In theory, it’s very simple.
In practice, it’s very hard.
Usually, the thoughts responsible for making you lose focus involve the past or the future,
almost never the present moment.
The correlation between lack of focus and the default mode network was scientifically
proven in a 2012 study [source: https://arata.se/source-x75w].
Scientists asked people very experienced in meditation to practice focused attention.
Everything was very thoroughly monitored with mental activity scans.
Whenever the volunteers got distracted, they had to press a red button.
That’s how the scientists were able to compare the moments of distraction with the images
showing which brain area was active at the time.
And they were always the default mode network areas.
So, the more you practice focused attention, the less dominant your default mode network
will be.
Even through constant practice of this type of meditation, thoughts will keep popping
up in your mind.
However, these thoughts will not be able to hold your attention for long before you manage
to regain your focus.
This shows that you are training and strengthening the brain areas responsible for keeping you
focused.
Those areas form the so-called executive network, since they have the role of executing our
cognitive control.
It’s as if the executive network is a positive mental activity for executing tasks, and the
default mode network is a negative mental activity for executing tasks.
The more you practice focused attention meditation, the stronger your executive network will be,
as by default, the network is relatively weaker.
Therefore, your mind will wander less often and get less distracted.
The default way of thinking will not be in charge anymore.
Instead, your brain will be strong enough to focus whenever needed, therefore increasing
your productivity and improving your ability to make decisions.
The brain is our most complex organ.
However, scientific studies reveal more and more about how our mind works every day.
The default mode network causes your brain to become distracted when you are not actively
engaged in a mental activity, but has been scientifically proven that you can reduce
these distractions by practicing focused attention meditation.
There are many other techniques proven by neuroscience that can help you to control
your mind more and therefore become a smarter person.
I teach many of these techniques in the Intelligence Arata Academy course, which you can learn
more about right now by visiting the link https://arata.se/intelligence