Neuroplasticity, Your Eyes, and The Taste Gap

🤸‍♀️ IN THIS WEEK'S STRETCH:

• Neuroplasticity. How to leverage this underrated feature of your nervous system.

• Eyes. Why and how you should take better care of them.

• The Taste Gap. What you're making, isn't that good. And that's normal.

Neuroplasticity Is the Most Underrated Feature of Your Nervous System

Your nervous system isn't just capable of change.

It's designed to change.

That's an incredible power we don't use nearly enough.

In my latest post, I discuss 4 ideas to keep in mind if you want to get the most out of this innate ability.

Here're the key points:

🧠 Neuroplasticity is the nervous system's capacity to change in response to experience (no matter how old you are!). The objective is to learn how to leverage this state and intentionally direct it to achieve your goals.

👀 After 25, your brain won’t change from every thought or action. To achieve long-term brain change as an adult, you need to pay deliberate attention. Attention + focus creates the perfect neurochemical cocktail.

😴 Accessing the state of neuroplasticity happens during waking states. The actual rewiring and reconfiguration of neural circuits happen during sleep and non-sleep deep rest. Prioritize rest.

😖 Real learning is meant to be chaotic. Making mistakes is critical because it makes the nervous system pay attention to what's not working and adjust accordingly. We've labeled this feeling as 'frustration' and usually take it as a sign to quit. Instead, this is when you need to make the most of the increased alertness and “embrace the suck” of learning something new.

Take Care of Your Eyes. They Do More Than You Think.

I'm now part of a remote, asynchronous team.

I love it.

The only downside?

I'm spending even more time of my day staring at a screen.

So regular, short breaks from the computer. Easy.

But this tweet made me think about how I break.

I go for a walk, looking at my phone. I take a break on the couch, reading my Kindle. I have a conversation, looking at someone's face up close.

You get the picture.

And I want to take better care of my eyes.

One of the coolest things I learned from Huberman is our eyes do SO much more than 'just' seeing objects, movements, and colors.

It turns out, that’s a late-stage evolution of what eyes were designed for.

The purpose of the eyes, first and foremost, is to instruct the rest of the brain and set the overall arousal state (i.e. how alert or sleepy you feel).

I say 'rest of the brain' because they are in fact, part of the brain! The only two pieces of your brain outside the cranial vault. Pretty cool huh?

Anyway, here are 2 fascinating ways you can use your 👁 to talk to the rest of your 🧠:

1. Light

Our circadian clock manages our 24-hour sleep and wakefulness cycle and has connections with every cell and organ in our body.

This master clock sits in the darkness of our skull, so it relies on direct input from our eyes to know when to feel alert or when to feel sleepy.

A specialized group of neurons in our retina (the light-sensitive inside lining of the eye) is responsible for this.

When triggered by light, these neurons send electrical signals to the circadian clock.

At that moment, the clock sets in motion a timed release of hormones:

• 🏃‍♀️Immediate -> release of cortisol. That's the wake-up signal. It promotes wakefulness and the ability to focus throughout the day.

• 🥱 12-14 hours later -> release of melatonin, stimulating the feeling of sleepiness.

So, the #1 thing Huberman keeps hammering on about if you want to feel better during the day and sleep better at night:

View bright light early in the day, as close to waking up as possible.

Ideally, this is natural sunlight.

Stand outside or go for a quick walk. If there is no light when you wake up (hello winter in London) - turn on bright, overhead lights.

Pretty much the worst thing you can do?

Wake up, reach for your phone and stay in bed, scrolling.

The light of screens is not bright enough to trigger the activation of the neurons in your eyes and will delay the release of cortisol and melatonin.

And in the evenings, you do the opposite. Turn off bright, overhead lights to avoid activating the neurons.

If you want to go deeper into this topic, I wrote more about this here.\

2. Visual focus

Mental focus follows visual focus.

This means your visual field determines level of mental focus.

• A narrow visual field = activates the sympathetic nervous system, responsible for feelings of alertness (so-called 'fight or flight response').

• A wide visual field = activates the parasympathetic nervous system, responsible for feelings of relaxation (so-called 'rest and digest response').

This is incredible to me.

We have the ability to activate our sympathetic or parasympathetic nervous system, simply narrowing or widening our visual field.

Although it isn't quite as straightforward as a light switch, it's close.

Play around with this.

How to narrow your visual field (Step 2 in this post):

How to expand your visual field:

All of the above is why I've become so fascinated by the nervous system.

Every experience has taken on this whole new dimension.

For example, going for a walk.

There's nothing ordinary about a walk.

It's a beautiful process of electricity and neurochemicals sloshing around in my system!

Seeing it this way is making it a lot easier to make sure I get outside every morning - now I just need to remember to keep my phone in my pocket and stare into the distance!

The Taste Gap

For me, 75% of writing online is mentally pushing through the cringe attacks.

They stop me in my tracks and almost convince me to stop.

But then, I remember The Taste Gap.

I listen to radio host Ira Glass, whispering into my ear, and I relax.

"It takes a while. It’s gonna take you a while. It’s normal to take a while. And you just have to fight your way through that.”

Thanks for reading!