Ultradian Rhythms, Our 6th Sense & Ultra Runners

Happy Thanksgiving and/or Happy Friday!

And welcome to all the new people here.

I can't believe this e-mail is now going out to over 1,300 inboxes. 🤯 It'd be easy (and paralyzing!) to start overthinking what I'm writing about and how it will be received.

Soooo... I'm just going to ignore that number and remind myself of what author Morgan Housel does: "Write for yourself". Best case, it helps others. Worst case, I just learned a few new things.

🤸‍♀️ IN THIS WEEK'S STRETCH:

• Ultradian Cycles. How to best capture neuroplasticity.

• Our 6th Sense. Apply it to emotion regulation and physical movement.

• The Rise of the Ultra Runners. An inspiring book for runners and non-runners alike.

〰️ HOW TO USE ULTRADIAN CYCLES TO BEST CAPTURE NEUROPLASTICITY

Our bodies send us clear signals when we need a break.

Fidgetiness, hunger, drowsiness, loss of focus.

Mostly, we override them.

We find artificial ways to pump up our energy: caffeine, sugary foods, and our body’s own stress hormones — adrenalin, norepinephrine, and cortisol.

A much smarter way would be to work with something we all have at our disposal:

Our ultradian rhythms.

These rhythms exist in all of us, and we can leverage them as a way to engage in focused bouts of deep work.

This is not just another productivity fad. It is a biological fact that we are optimized for focus and attention within these 90-120 minutes cycles.

In his first Premium AMA, Stanford professor Andrew Huberman spoke at length about how he uses ultradian cycles to manage his day and best capture neuroplasticity (even on the weekends!).

In this post, I describe everything I've learned about ultradian cycles, how they work and how I personally plan on applying this to my life (definitely not on the weekends!).

🔬 OUR 6TH SENSE: INTEROCEPTION

I'm guessing you're pretty familiar with your 5 key senses:

• Vision

• Sound

• Touch

• Smell

• Taste

It turns out that we have at least four additional senses.

The most underrated and least understood of them is known as interoception.

Intero (internal) - ception (awareness)

Interoception is the sense of our bodies’ internal state; our capacity to accurately detect and interpret bodily cues.

This includes all the signals from your internal organs (like your cardiovascular system, lungs, gut, bladder, and kidneys) to your brain.

Of course, much of the processing of these signals happen below conscious awareness:

You won’t be aware of the automatic feedback between your brain and body that manages your blood pressure level, for instance, or the signals that help stabilize your blood sugar levels. (Luckily, there're enough things on our to-do list!)

Other cues are obvious, like when you recognize you're hungry or you need to use the bathroom.

But then there are other sensations for which having a higher awareness would be helpful.

Muscle tension. Heart rate. Breath. That pit in your stomach.

The ways you read and interpret these sensations can have important consequences for your well-being.

I've lived the first 32 years of my life in a very 'thinking-centric' way, as Sam Sager would describe it. I paid little attention to my body. It's only once I picked up yoga and meditation that I started appreciating the fact that I have, in fact, a body. And it's much more than a vessel to get me from A to B.

I think that's why discovering the concept of 'expanding your awareness' was so life-changing for me. It yanked me out of my mind — into my body.

Playing around with interoception takes things a step further, and it's so fascinating. It's like there's a whole other world out there I never knew existed; adding a new layer to every experience and interaction.

There are 2 areas in particular for which I have found interoception useful so far:

Emotions - Responding vs Reacting

Research suggests that the more sensitive you are to your body signals, the greater your ability to regulate and cope effectively with stress and other emotions.

Low interoceptive awareness means there is little space between those body cues and our reactions. We're reacting — habitually, unconsciously, defensively.

Higher interoceptive awareness can help us spot certain triggers early on:

Is your heart rate accelerating? Are your palms getting sweaty? Does your chest feel tight? Is your breath very shallow? Or are you holding your breath? Are your shoulders tense?

What happened right before you noticed those body sensations?

You can observe what's happening and take the time and space to decide how to respond.

As this The Guardian article puts it: "If you are more adept at accurately detecting your bodily signals, you will be able to form more nuanced interpretations of your feelings about a situation, and this, in turn, should help you to make wiser choices about the best ways to respond."

This also reminded me of something I heard Sam Harris (neuroscientist/philosopher) and Peter Attia (MD) talk about on The Drive podcast:

When experiencing a strong emotion like anger or annoyance, try this:

It’s nearly impossible for the discomfort to last for longer than a few seconds if you focus deeply on how you physically feel in that present moment.

Be curious about the sensations. Feel them fully in your body.

As long as you’re completely present in the moment, and you don’t ruminate on whatever triggered you — the feeling doesn't last.

It’s only when you’re lost in thought (so stuck in your mind!), thinking about what happened or what will happen, that the negative emotions persist.

So the real practice is this:

• Notice as early as possible what’s happening (i.e. cultivate interoceptive awareness)

• Focus on your body and the present moment

• Let go

It’s not about never getting annoyed or envious or anxious again. But there’s a huge difference between feeling that way for 10 mins or 10 secs.

Exercise - Embodied Movement

A surprising effect of paying closer attention to my body is how it has made exercise more interesting and fun.

I've been experimenting with this on my runs.

Instead of zoning out listening to music or a podcast, I do a body scan. I relax my shoulders. I pay attention to the feeling of my feet hitting the pavement. The wind on my face. My cold cheeks. The sound of my breath and the feeling of my pounding heart.

It makes me feel alive. I don't feel the usual constant urge to stop running.

And the best thing about all of this is: you can bring this embodiment to any physical activity. Cleaning. Walking. Taking the stairs.

I can't help doing another Sam Sager shout-out because I just have to share his post on Discovering Joy Through Embodied Exercise.

Really — read it, go do some form of movement and let me know how you feel. There's a 0% chance it will do absolutely nothing for you.

🏃‍♀️ BOOK: THE RISE OF THE ULTRA RUNNERS

An ultramarathon is a run that covers any distance longer than that of a standard marathon – so, any run longer than 26.2 miles / 42.195 km.

There's nothing in me that feels compelled to start ultra-running, but I've enjoyed reading about this crazy (and rapidly rising!) sport from the comfort of my couch.

I think about the colorful characters in the book while I'm running. The amount of mental prep and 'body focus' it takes for me to run 10k - I can't even imagine what it's like to run 50k. 100k. 150k!

It's a testament to the incredible power of the mind.

Secretly I've also found a new role model in the book's author, Adharanand Finn. He's a writer, journalist, runner, podcaster, AND organizes running/writing retreats around the world. Living my dream life!

Et voilà, that's it for today.

Thanks for reading. Any thoughts, feedback, ideas, or complaints - send 'm over 😉

Charlotte