1
00:00:07,834 --> 00:00:09,459
This is kind of nice.

2
00:00:09,459 --> 00:00:12,722
Because it is incredibly difficult
to contain what you want to say

3
00:00:12,722 --> 00:00:15,467
in 18 minutes, but it's for me anyway.

4
00:00:15,467 --> 00:00:21,297
So we kind of showed you earlier
on what goes wrong under pressure.

5
00:00:22,357 --> 00:00:27,939
The human brain is constantly getting
a signal from all the bodily systems,

6
00:00:27,939 --> 00:00:30,539
but particularly the heart,
the vagus nerve,

7
00:00:30,539 --> 00:00:33,449
which, as we showed you
is sort of erratic and under pressure,

8
00:00:33,449 --> 00:00:37,640
super chaos causes that DIY lobotomy.

9
00:00:38,360 --> 00:00:42,274
You're all built that way,
and you've all had the experience

10
00:00:42,274 --> 00:00:44,590
when somebody kind of
puts a challenge to you

11
00:00:44,590 --> 00:00:47,900
and it doesn't really matter
as you saw how small that challenge is.

12
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It can be any type of challenge.

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A challenge to your point of view,
a challenge to your ego,

14
00:00:52,958 --> 00:00:54,637
a challenge to your relationships,

15
00:00:54,637 --> 00:00:59,288
any type of challenge
causes the physiology to go chaotic,

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causes the frontal lobe to be inhibited,
and you become suboptimal straight away.

17
00:01:04,564 --> 00:01:09,406
What's kind of interesting about that
is when the brain is inhibited;

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it also inhibits your
perceptual awareness,

19
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so you don't realize it's happened.

20
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So you can come out of a meeting
and think, "Oh, that went well."

21
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And everyone,s going, "What do you mean
it went well? You were rubbish."

22
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Because your awareness is inhibited,
you don't realize how rubbish you were.

23
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So it's a bit of a catch-22.

24
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This is the phenomena that underpins
lots of different things

25
00:01:33,082 --> 00:01:36,209
that you've seen and experienced
yourself or seen on telly:

26
00:01:36,209 --> 00:01:40,315
Stage-fright, people get stage fright
and can't remember their words;

27
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Kids go blank in an exam.

28
00:01:41,961 --> 00:01:44,253
It's the same phenomena.

29
00:01:46,079 --> 00:01:49,743
Or my personal favorite - Family Fortunes,
if you've ever watched that show -

30
00:01:49,743 --> 00:01:51,273
the two people sit at the front.

31
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We've asked 100 people on the street

32
00:01:53,003 --> 00:01:55,113
to name something
you put in a jacket potato.

33
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(Bzz) "Jam!"

34
00:01:56,303 --> 00:01:58,083
(Laughter)

35
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It's hysterical.

36
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When your frontal lobe's inhibited
you say anything, and it's really funny.

37
00:02:04,793 --> 00:02:07,004
Anne Robinson, The Weakest Link,

38
00:02:07,004 --> 00:02:09,673
she throws you a simple question,
then stares at you.

39
00:02:09,673 --> 00:02:12,154
You blurt out any all sort of rubbish.

40
00:02:12,154 --> 00:02:17,395
So when you're up with your boss,
he might be the nicest boss in the world.

41
00:02:17,395 --> 00:02:19,834
If you're feeling a little under pressure,

42
00:02:19,834 --> 00:02:24,615
you suddenly discover
you're talking rubbish.

43
00:02:24,615 --> 00:02:26,556
Sometimes you even have that awareness.

44
00:02:26,556 --> 00:02:31,534
You almost see yourself coming out
with the most ridiculous nonsense.

45
00:02:32,264 --> 00:02:35,747
You think, "Why is this happening?"
It's because you're built that way.

46
00:02:35,747 --> 00:02:39,875
The human system is built that way
is that under pressure,

47
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physiological chaos, the brain shuts down.

48
00:02:43,126 --> 00:02:45,695
You're designed that way.

49
00:02:45,695 --> 00:02:50,237
You think, "Why are we designed that way?"

50
00:02:50,237 --> 00:02:54,147
And the only reason you have anything
in your physiology is survival.

51
00:02:54,147 --> 00:02:58,027
There are survival advantages
to having brain shut down,

52
00:02:58,027 --> 00:02:59,547
and it goes back 200,000 years.

53
00:02:59,547 --> 00:03:02,457
So when you were wandering
across the prairie,

54
00:03:02,457 --> 00:03:05,488
and a big grizzly bear comes out
from behind the rocks and says,

55
00:03:05,488 --> 00:03:08,127
"Oh, human being! There's my lunch."

56
00:03:08,127 --> 00:03:10,337
You don't need clever thinking.

57
00:03:10,337 --> 00:03:12,298
In fact, if you stood going to be clever,

58
00:03:12,298 --> 00:03:15,028
"Is that the brown bear,
or the lesser-spotted gray bear?"

59
00:03:15,028 --> 00:03:16,138
(Laughter)

60
00:03:16,138 --> 00:03:18,368
He will eat you, right?

61
00:03:18,368 --> 00:03:20,674
So you need brain shut down.

62
00:03:20,674 --> 00:03:23,159
Your thinking has to become
very unsophisticated,

63
00:03:23,159 --> 00:03:25,588
in fact, it has to become binary.

64
00:03:25,588 --> 00:03:29,359
So you either have fight-flight
or play dead. Two choices.

65
00:03:29,359 --> 00:03:32,339
You either just drop
to the ground in a faint,

66
00:03:32,339 --> 00:03:35,391
or you're prepared to slug it out or run.

67
00:03:35,391 --> 00:03:36,632
It's binary.

68
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Anything more sophisticated
you don't need, it will kill you.

69
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So here we are, 200,000 years later,

70
00:03:42,779 --> 00:03:47,280
we still have the same
biological mechanism.

71
00:03:47,280 --> 00:03:50,277
We've basically got
a 200,000-year-old software,

72
00:03:50,277 --> 00:03:54,045
and we've never had the upgrade, right?

73
00:03:54,045 --> 00:03:57,127
We don't meet a bear today;
we meet each other.

74
00:03:57,127 --> 00:04:00,566
But in meeting each other,
the same phenomenon goes on.

75
00:04:00,566 --> 00:04:02,336
We showed you how that chaos

76
00:04:02,336 --> 00:04:07,576
can cause somebody
who's even good at math, like Neil is,

77
00:04:07,576 --> 00:04:12,696
"Uh ... 200 ... Uh ... Shut up,
you're putting me off! 200 ... Uh ..."

78
00:04:13,526 --> 00:04:15,717
It becomes impossible,
a simple task like that.

79
00:04:15,717 --> 00:04:18,496
I can tell you, I did this
in the office of the chief exec,

80
00:04:18,496 --> 00:04:21,537
one of the leading retailers in the UK,

81
00:04:21,537 --> 00:04:24,627
and his first answer was 298.

82
00:04:24,627 --> 00:04:26,028
(Laughter)

83
00:04:26,028 --> 00:04:27,827
And, he went, "Oh. No, that's wrong!"

84
00:04:27,827 --> 00:04:30,346
He was so embarrassed
that he got the first one wrong,

85
00:04:30,346 --> 00:04:32,076
he couldn't think of the second one.

86
00:04:32,076 --> 00:04:35,040
It literally sounds like, "Ah ..."
a rabbit in the headlights.

87
00:04:35,040 --> 00:04:36,898
He just couldn't come up with anything.

88
00:04:36,898 --> 00:04:39,516
So as I said, you're all
at the mercy of that.

89
00:04:39,516 --> 00:04:44,327
The point being, until you've got
control of this physiology,

90
00:04:44,327 --> 00:04:47,980
anybody can make you look like an idiot.

91
00:04:47,980 --> 00:04:49,597
And what's worse?

92
00:04:49,597 --> 00:04:52,118
You're doing it to yourself
an awful lot of the time.

93
00:04:52,688 --> 00:04:55,070
Your own anxiety
about your own performance

94
00:04:55,070 --> 00:04:58,550
is actually causing the chaos,
so you're lobotomizing yourself.

95
00:04:58,550 --> 00:05:01,938
A lot of people around you
can trigger you into a lobotomy,

96
00:05:01,938 --> 00:05:04,989
but most of the time,
you're just lobotomizing yourself.

97
00:05:05,629 --> 00:05:10,530
So until you've got control
of that absolutely, fundamental basic -

98
00:05:10,530 --> 00:05:13,570
you might be brilliant one day,
you might be poor,

99
00:05:13,570 --> 00:05:16,511
and who knows what's going
to show up that day.

100
00:05:16,511 --> 00:05:20,063
So right about fundamental,
the cleverness of your thinking,

101
00:05:20,063 --> 00:05:24,141
or your ability to read
the line on a golf putt,

102
00:05:24,141 --> 00:05:26,291
or your ability to come up
with a great idea,

103
00:05:26,291 --> 00:05:29,983
or how to innovate that sales process,
or any of that stuff.

104
00:05:29,983 --> 00:05:36,242
The quality of your thought, in fact,
the very things that you think,

105
00:05:36,242 --> 00:05:41,213
and how well you think them
is hugely influenced by your biology.

106
00:05:41,213 --> 00:05:44,032
I'll give a couple of live examples,
then get Neil back up,

107
00:05:44,032 --> 00:05:46,392
and we'll show you
how to control your physiology.

108
00:05:47,532 --> 00:05:50,063
So if you haven't yet clocked

109
00:05:50,063 --> 00:05:53,355
that your biology is controlling
your brain function.

110
00:05:53,355 --> 00:05:56,983
If we held you and locked the doors
and filled you up with coffee,

111
00:05:56,983 --> 00:06:00,094
what happens is your bladder
gets bigger and bigger and bigger.

112
00:06:00,094 --> 00:06:02,593
It starts to send
alarm messages to your brain,

113
00:06:02,593 --> 00:06:05,795
and you're getting one of these pee.

114
00:06:05,795 --> 00:06:08,026
"I've got to pee ... I've got to pee."

115
00:06:08,026 --> 00:06:09,704
If you've ever had that experience

116
00:06:09,704 --> 00:06:13,518
when you can't get out, but
your bladder is sending alarm signals,

117
00:06:13,584 --> 00:06:16,854
and all of that -
you haven't got Pampers on -

118
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(Laughter)

119
00:06:18,684 --> 00:06:22,470
what you'll discover is you go deaf.

120
00:06:22,470 --> 00:06:25,096
You ever notice that?
You can't hear people.

121
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You're so internally focused,
"My bladder is going to burst..."

122
00:06:28,518 --> 00:06:29,576
You go deaf.

123
00:06:29,576 --> 00:06:33,098
You can see people's mouths moving,
but you can't hear what they're saying.

124
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Then beads of sweat start to break out,

125
00:06:34,966 --> 00:06:37,465
you're trying to pee urine out
through your forehead.

126
00:06:37,465 --> 00:06:39,486
(Laughter)

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Literally, your consciousness
is completely eradicated.

128
00:06:43,337 --> 00:06:46,944
So that's the biology disrupting
your consciousness.

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00:06:46,944 --> 00:06:51,766
Well, I was in a meeting recently
with an eight-month-pregnant woman.

130
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We were chatting away,

131
00:06:53,036 --> 00:06:57,567
and you saw the baby visibly
ripple across, went like that,

132
00:06:57,567 --> 00:07:00,078
and you could see the ripple
go across her abdomen,

133
00:07:00,078 --> 00:07:02,747
and she was chatting, then ..."Ooh ..."

134
00:07:02,747 --> 00:07:08,428
For about 20 seconds she was gone,
completely kind of left the room, "Oh ..."

135
00:07:08,428 --> 00:07:11,496
and then she went, "Oh, hello!"

136
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(Laughter)

137
00:07:12,498 --> 00:07:13,598
Back in the room again.

138
00:07:13,598 --> 00:07:16,479
It was like her consciousness
disappeared for 20 seconds.

139
00:07:16,479 --> 00:07:19,818
So these are live examples.

140
00:07:19,818 --> 00:07:23,869
You think you just think, right?

141
00:07:23,869 --> 00:07:27,531
But what do you think, 
and why do you think it?

142
00:07:27,531 --> 00:07:31,480
I was talking to a senior exec,
he was from a government think tank.

143
00:07:31,480 --> 00:07:34,272
I said, "Oh, government
think tank, that's interesting!

144
00:07:34,272 --> 00:07:36,690
You probably sit around
with loads of clever people

145
00:07:36,690 --> 00:07:38,200
debating the issues of the day

146
00:07:38,200 --> 00:07:40,860
and trying to come up
with some clever answers."

147
00:07:40,860 --> 00:07:43,800
He said, "Yes, pretty much what we do."

148
00:07:43,800 --> 00:07:46,230
I said, "Have you ever thought

149
00:07:46,230 --> 00:07:49,141
about why those answers
are not these other answers?

150
00:07:49,141 --> 00:07:52,651
Have you ever thought
about your own thinking?"

151
00:07:52,651 --> 00:07:54,852
He said, "I never thought about that."

152
00:07:54,852 --> 00:07:58,611
"Spotted it! You're a think-tank;
you've never thought about thinking.

153
00:07:58,611 --> 00:08:00,311
What's that about?"

154
00:08:00,311 --> 00:08:02,911
So we just think,

155
00:08:02,911 --> 00:08:06,332
but we don't realize that what we think
and how well we think it,

156
00:08:06,332 --> 00:08:08,691
is actually influenced by something else.

157
00:08:08,691 --> 00:08:12,993
Thought is really an emergent
property within your system.

158
00:08:12,993 --> 00:08:14,676
The very things that you think,

159
00:08:14,676 --> 00:08:18,632
you will think different things
if you're happy than if you're depressed.

160
00:08:18,632 --> 00:08:24,492
And how well you think them
will depend a lot on the biology.

161
00:08:25,452 --> 00:08:28,794
So if you want to step-change thinking,

162
00:08:28,794 --> 00:08:33,906
if you want to really double or treble
the quality of your thinking,

163
00:08:33,906 --> 00:08:36,303
you can't do it by thinking about it.

164
00:08:37,563 --> 00:08:39,103
Wouldn't that be nice if I said,

165
00:08:39,103 --> 00:08:41,574
"Look, I've spotted the problem
for you in your life,

166
00:08:41,574 --> 00:08:43,884
you're not thinking smart enough.

167
00:08:43,884 --> 00:08:45,904
So I want you to go away
over the weekend,

168
00:08:45,904 --> 00:08:50,345
come back 25 percent smarter
on Monday morning, alright?"

169
00:08:50,715 --> 00:08:52,205
That will be nice, wouldn't it?

170
00:08:52,205 --> 00:08:54,205
"Oh, I haven't thought to do that,

171
00:08:54,205 --> 00:08:57,256
I'll go away, and I'll think
about my thinking over the weekend,

172
00:08:57,256 --> 00:09:00,004
25 percent better
on Monday, here I am!"

173
00:09:00,004 --> 00:09:01,206
It doesn't work that way.

174
00:09:01,206 --> 00:09:04,295
That's what Einstein said,
"We can not solve our problems

175
00:09:04,295 --> 00:09:09,376
with the same level of thinking
that created them."

176
00:09:09,376 --> 00:09:13,216
You don't get a new level of thinking
just by thinking about it.

177
00:09:13,216 --> 00:09:17,987
You've got to change the context
in which thoughts emerge.

178
00:09:20,217 --> 00:09:24,096
It's the context,
in human terms, is the biology.

179
00:09:24,096 --> 00:09:27,468
What is the biological context
from which thought emerges?

180
00:09:27,468 --> 00:09:31,159
What is the emotional state
from which thought emerges?

181
00:09:31,159 --> 00:09:35,112
You change that context,
the biological and emotional context,

182
00:09:35,112 --> 00:09:37,577
and you can change
the quality of the thought,

183
00:09:37,577 --> 00:09:40,177
and the actual thought itself.

184
00:09:40,177 --> 00:09:42,277
That is the source.

185
00:09:43,157 --> 00:09:44,648
I suggest we get Chris back up

186
00:09:44,648 --> 00:09:47,748
and I'll show you how Chris can learn
with no training before,

187
00:09:47,748 --> 00:09:49,439
how to control his physiology.

188
00:09:49,439 --> 00:09:52,739
You do not need to be - sorry, Neil -
a yogic master.

189
00:09:52,739 --> 00:09:54,018
(Laughter)

190
00:09:54,018 --> 00:09:56,070
Neil: What happens to short term memory?

191
00:09:56,070 --> 00:09:58,540
(Laughter)

192
00:10:00,020 --> 00:10:01,099
Here we go.

193
00:10:01,099 --> 00:10:03,460
Which ear are we on? Neil: This one.

194
00:10:04,770 --> 00:10:08,569
If you just hold that,
change chair around a bit if you like.

195
00:10:08,569 --> 00:10:11,481
Turn your chair around,
so you can see the screen more easily.

196
00:10:11,481 --> 00:10:15,790
So exactly as before,
is he still alive? Yeah.

197
00:10:15,790 --> 00:10:17,671
So we'll start recording.

198
00:10:17,671 --> 00:10:20,321
So again, just picking up each heartbeat,

199
00:10:20,321 --> 00:10:23,232
the software is measuring the distance
between each heart beat

200
00:10:23,232 --> 00:10:24,717
and calculating his heart rate.

201
00:10:24,717 --> 00:10:27,111
Because he walked up the stage
out of the audience,

202
00:10:27,111 --> 00:10:29,111
he's going about 90 miles an hour.

203
00:10:29,111 --> 00:10:31,311
Just the excitement
about being the front here.

204
00:10:31,311 --> 00:10:33,791
So if you want to control your physiology,

205
00:10:33,791 --> 00:10:36,663
this isn't years and years
and months and months of practice.

206
00:10:36,663 --> 00:10:39,751
You don't have to be a yogic master
to control your physiology.

207
00:10:39,751 --> 00:10:42,512
You just have to know exactly
what to do, right?

208
00:10:42,512 --> 00:10:46,204
So we're now going to show
Chris, sorry, Neil exactly what to do.

209
00:10:46,204 --> 00:10:47,474
(Laughter)

210
00:10:47,474 --> 00:10:48,782
Mental block.

211
00:10:48,782 --> 00:10:51,042
Over here is a breath pacer,

212
00:10:51,042 --> 00:10:54,413
so when that goes up, I want you
to breathe in ... (Inhales)

213
00:10:54,413 --> 00:10:58,594
when that goes down, I want you
to breathe out. (Exhales)

214
00:10:58,594 --> 00:11:02,029
At the bottom, there's a hold.
So wait for it. Don't go too soon, ready?

215
00:11:02,031 --> 00:11:04,614
(Inhales)

216
00:11:04,614 --> 00:11:10,464
And a long, slow ... (Exhales) Okay?

217
00:11:10,464 --> 00:11:11,925
Wait for it.

218
00:11:11,925 --> 00:11:16,075
(Inhales) A long, slow ... (Exhales)

219
00:11:16,075 --> 00:11:18,174
You can follow this
in the room, if you want,

220
00:11:18,174 --> 00:11:20,626
just breathe in this rhythmic fashion.

221
00:11:20,626 --> 00:11:22,435
It's a nice rhythmic breathing.

222
00:11:22,435 --> 00:11:27,741
So a long breath in,
and a long, slow breath out.

223
00:11:27,741 --> 00:11:31,756
I'll leave Neil to do that,
and I'll carry on talking to you guys.

224
00:11:31,756 --> 00:11:35,567
So of all the things that you can do
to get your physiology under control,

225
00:11:35,567 --> 00:11:37,657
there are many things.

226
00:11:38,547 --> 00:11:42,967
But the start point is to do something
that you can get conscious control over,

227
00:11:42,967 --> 00:11:45,587
and you can get conscious control
over your breathing.

228
00:11:45,587 --> 00:11:51,747
Now, there are 12 different aspects
of your breath that you can regulate.

229
00:11:51,747 --> 00:11:53,267
12 different aspects.

230
00:11:53,267 --> 00:11:54,967
So when you go to classes,

231
00:11:54,967 --> 00:12:01,207
whether it's singing, sports,
fighter pilots, all sorts of things,

232
00:12:01,207 --> 00:12:04,949
they'll talk to you about breathing
and breath practice.

233
00:12:04,949 --> 00:12:06,889
Yoga, you know.

234
00:12:06,889 --> 00:12:09,030
But what are they teaching you?

235
00:12:09,030 --> 00:12:10,766
For example,
there's a yogic practice

236
00:12:10,766 --> 00:12:13,298
where they teach you
alternate nostril breathing.

237
00:12:13,298 --> 00:12:14,908
That's kind of interesting,

238
00:12:14,908 --> 00:12:20,158
but in my view, that's number nine
on the list of priorities, of the 12.

239
00:12:20,158 --> 00:12:26,170
The single most important thing is rhythm,
which is what this is training.

240
00:12:26,170 --> 00:12:31,300
So we've seen that this measures
the level of coherence in Neil's system.

241
00:12:31,300 --> 00:12:33,950
When he's in complete chaos,
he's down here in the red.

242
00:12:33,950 --> 00:12:37,291
And just with a bit of guidance,
in less than or about a minute,

243
00:12:37,291 --> 00:12:40,260
he's up and into the coherent green.

244
00:12:40,260 --> 00:12:42,270
He is the yogic master.

245
00:12:42,270 --> 00:12:43,989
(Laughter)

246
00:12:43,989 --> 00:12:47,690
Neil brackets Yoda, right?

247
00:12:49,780 --> 00:12:52,882
So you can see the physiology
has changed from this erratic

248
00:12:52,882 --> 00:12:56,343
to this coherent waveform
in less than a minute,

249
00:12:56,343 --> 00:12:58,349
when you know what to do.

250
00:12:58,349 --> 00:13:01,061
So of all the things
in your breathing that you can do -

251
00:13:01,061 --> 00:13:05,561
if you start to control
the rhythm of the breath,

252
00:13:05,561 --> 00:13:08,642
that will start to change
the physiology, just as you've seen.

253
00:13:08,642 --> 00:13:10,602
And you'll start to become more coherent.

254
00:13:10,602 --> 00:13:15,233
So his frontal lobes will work better now
than at the beginning of this trace,

255
00:13:15,233 --> 00:13:19,233
when his physiology was erratic,
you all see the difference?

256
00:13:19,233 --> 00:13:22,064
Even though the average
heart rate is about the same,

257
00:13:22,064 --> 00:13:24,644
during that period and during this period.

258
00:13:24,644 --> 00:13:28,574
The heart rate is the same,
but the pattern is different.

259
00:13:28,574 --> 00:13:30,824
So when you change that pattern,

260
00:13:30,824 --> 00:13:32,934
you're basically sending
better quality fuel

261
00:13:32,934 --> 00:13:36,975
from the heart to the brain,
the brain is going to work better.

262
00:13:36,975 --> 00:13:38,504
And when the brain works better,

263
00:13:38,504 --> 00:13:40,702
you're more perceptive,
you're more insightful,

264
00:13:40,702 --> 00:13:45,095
you're more clear thinking,
you can understand how to problem-solve.

265
00:13:45,095 --> 00:13:46,637
So I saw the other speakers say,

266
00:13:46,637 --> 00:13:50,267
you have to figure out when things
go wrong, what I'm going to do about this?

267
00:13:50,267 --> 00:13:51,285
If brains inhibited,

268
00:13:51,285 --> 00:13:54,165
you probably won't come up
with the idea or the right answer.

269
00:13:54,165 --> 00:13:58,228
But if you've got your brain switched on,
you've got a much better chance.

270
00:13:58,228 --> 00:14:00,306
Does that all make sense?

271
00:14:00,306 --> 00:14:03,326
So when you hear people say to you,

272
00:14:03,326 --> 00:14:07,866
"Oh yeah, before that big presentation,
take a few deep breaths."

273
00:14:07,866 --> 00:14:10,376
I'd say, "Don't bother."

274
00:14:10,376 --> 00:14:12,045
Because a few deep breaths

275
00:14:12,045 --> 00:14:14,857
isn't actually going to alter
your brain function that much.

276
00:14:14,857 --> 00:14:18,807
By the way, when they say deep,
what they actually mean is large.

277
00:14:18,807 --> 00:14:21,495
Large volume breath is what they mean.

278
00:14:21,495 --> 00:14:24,927
Because depth is the area
where the air in the lungs is going.

279
00:14:24,927 --> 00:14:27,477
What they mean is a few big breaths.

280
00:14:27,477 --> 00:14:29,201
But even volume

281
00:14:29,201 --> 00:14:32,537
is only about number five or six
on the batting order.

282
00:14:32,537 --> 00:14:35,958
The number one priority is rhythm.

283
00:14:37,048 --> 00:14:41,637
Take a few rhythmic breaths,
that will start to change your physiology.

284
00:14:41,637 --> 00:14:43,430
So you can put this to the test.

285
00:14:43,430 --> 00:14:46,430
Next time, before you might
have to make a difficult phone call,

286
00:14:46,430 --> 00:14:49,530
rather than taking a few deep breaths
or even a few large breaths,

287
00:14:49,530 --> 00:14:50,889
take a few rhythmic breasts,

288
00:14:50,889 --> 00:14:53,971
and rhythm really means
a fixed ratio of in-to-out.

289
00:14:53,971 --> 00:14:57,890
It doesn't matter what that ratio is,
so long as it's fixed.

290
00:14:57,890 --> 00:15:01,081
So this is four seconds in,
six seconds out.

291
00:15:01,081 --> 00:15:04,751
Four, six, four, six, four, six.

292
00:15:04,751 --> 00:15:08,851
You could do five-five.
Five, five, five, five.

293
00:15:08,851 --> 00:15:10,171
So long as it's fixed.

294
00:15:10,171 --> 00:15:11,141
What you don't want

295
00:15:11,141 --> 00:15:16,581
is four, six, five, five, eight,
three, three, seven, two, five.

296
00:15:16,581 --> 00:15:19,182
That's erratic breathing, okay?

297
00:15:19,182 --> 00:15:21,442
You want a fixed ratio.

298
00:15:21,442 --> 00:15:25,182
And then, once you've got
a rhythmic breath going,

299
00:15:25,182 --> 00:15:29,013
the second most important
thing is smoothness.

300
00:15:29,013 --> 00:15:31,342
Because you can breathe
rhythmically but staccato,

301
00:15:31,342 --> 00:15:37,353
so you could go (Puffing in and out)

302
00:15:37,353 --> 00:15:39,403
That's entirely rhythmic,
but it's staccato,

303
00:15:39,403 --> 00:15:45,773
so what you want is smooth,
so (Slow inhale and exhale)

304
00:15:45,773 --> 00:15:50,014
which is a fixed volume per second
round the entire cycle.

305
00:15:50,894 --> 00:15:53,653
Just as we're probably both rowers;
my sport was rowing.

306
00:15:53,653 --> 00:15:54,975
That's what they teach you.

307
00:15:54,975 --> 00:15:57,424
How are the rowers going
to win all the gold medals

308
00:15:57,424 --> 00:16:00,195
in the Olympics in 147 days?

309
00:16:00,195 --> 00:16:03,615
Neil: The first ones in 151 days.

310
00:16:03,615 --> 00:16:05,707
They'll teach you
whenever you learn to row,

311
00:16:05,707 --> 00:16:08,035
blades in the water,
blades out the water.

312
00:16:08,035 --> 00:16:10,805
In, out, in, out. Rhythm, right?

313
00:16:10,805 --> 00:16:13,665
And then once you've learned
that rhythm as a novice oarsman,

314
00:16:13,665 --> 00:16:16,076
the next thing is once
the blades are in the water,

315
00:16:16,076 --> 00:16:18,785
even smooth pressure through the water.

316
00:16:18,785 --> 00:16:20,275
All the way through the stroke.

317
00:16:20,275 --> 00:16:22,236
You don't want to put a blade in a water,

318
00:16:22,236 --> 00:16:25,556
pull really hard, let it drift a bit,
and pull really hard at the end,

319
00:16:25,556 --> 00:16:27,776
because boat goes "Uh..." like that.

320
00:16:27,776 --> 00:16:29,927
In, even pressure.

321
00:16:29,927 --> 00:16:31,947
And the same with Chris Hoy
on the bicycle.

322
00:16:31,947 --> 00:16:34,737
If you look at the metrics
that is done around Chris Hoy -

323
00:16:34,737 --> 00:16:36,851
I don't know if you realize this -

324
00:16:36,851 --> 00:16:40,417
novice cyclist thinks
it's just about the kick down,

325
00:16:40,417 --> 00:16:44,407
but, then it's the drag and it's the lift,
and actually, it's a circle.

326
00:16:44,407 --> 00:16:47,648
So if you look at the metrics on that,
they've got to go circular,

327
00:16:47,648 --> 00:16:51,428
and get as much pressure evenly
applied around the whole cycle.

328
00:16:51,428 --> 00:16:53,729
So you'll see the Olympic cyclist

329
00:16:53,729 --> 00:16:58,569
will have a smooth, and even force
all the way around the loop,

330
00:16:58,569 --> 00:17:01,029
and those are the guys
that win the gold medal.

331
00:17:01,029 --> 00:17:03,429
So it's smoothness through it.

332
00:17:03,429 --> 00:17:05,379
So exactly as we've got here

333
00:17:05,379 --> 00:17:11,570
is if we can (Exhales erratically) 
then (Inhales erratically)

334
00:17:11,570 --> 00:17:14,100
So you might have rhythm,
but have you got smoothness?

335
00:17:14,100 --> 00:17:17,111
As you get smoothness better,
it becomes more and more coherent.

336
00:17:17,111 --> 00:17:19,142
So rhythm and smoothness exactly

337
00:17:19,142 --> 00:17:21,440
as you would cycle,
exactly as you would row,

338
00:17:21,440 --> 00:17:25,079
gives you the most powerful effect.

339
00:17:25,079 --> 00:17:26,530
Does that all make sense?

340
00:17:26,530 --> 00:17:29,150
So one other thing,
if we got time, we probably have.

341
00:17:29,150 --> 00:17:31,730
I'm just yapping because
we don't have lunch till one.

342
00:17:31,730 --> 00:17:34,362
I might as well tell you something.

343
00:17:37,662 --> 00:17:39,470
The third most important thing

344
00:17:39,470 --> 00:17:43,262
is the location of your attention
while you're breathing.

345
00:17:45,062 --> 00:17:46,862
What we say is ...

346
00:17:46,862 --> 00:17:51,636
People teach you abdominal breathing -
breathe through the belly and all of that.

347
00:17:52,676 --> 00:17:56,917
Breathe through the center of your chest,
through the heart area if you will.

348
00:17:58,207 --> 00:18:01,552
Three reasons why we say
breathe through here not through there.

349
00:18:01,552 --> 00:18:05,033
Or don't imagine you're sucking
the air up through the soles of your feet.

350
00:18:05,033 --> 00:18:07,523
It's coming in through
the crown chakra, or whatever.

351
00:18:07,523 --> 00:18:08,723
You do any of that stuff.

352
00:18:08,723 --> 00:18:10,883
Where is your attention
when you're breathing?

353
00:18:10,883 --> 00:18:13,073
Put your attention
to the center of your chest.

354
00:18:13,073 --> 00:18:16,994
Three reasons why you put your attention
on the center of your chest is number one:

355
00:18:16,994 --> 00:18:22,984
The heart generates more electrical power
than any other part of your system.

356
00:18:22,984 --> 00:18:26,144
So even though there are billions
of nerve cells up here,

357
00:18:26,144 --> 00:18:28,264
and only a couple hundred
thousand down here,

358
00:18:28,264 --> 00:18:30,954
the power output of your heart
is three and a half watts,

359
00:18:30,954 --> 00:18:33,835
which is the way greater
than the power output of your brain

360
00:18:33,835 --> 00:18:35,525
Because what happens in your brain,

361
00:18:35,525 --> 00:18:39,020
the electrical charges are going
all different directions, it all cancels.

362
00:18:39,020 --> 00:18:41,555
But here you've got something
called "auto coherence."

363
00:18:41,555 --> 00:18:44,318
The heart has to synchronize
in order for it to pump.

364
00:18:44,318 --> 00:18:45,534
So electrically speaking,

365
00:18:45,534 --> 00:18:49,002
the heart generates 50 times
more electrical output than the brain.

366
00:18:49,002 --> 00:18:51,125
If you want to record
somebody's brain waves,

367
00:18:51,125 --> 00:18:53,696
you have to put a clip
on their ear, like Neil's here,

368
00:18:53,696 --> 00:18:57,006
pick up the heartbeat,
mathematically remove the heart beat,

369
00:18:57,006 --> 00:18:58,694
because the heart beat is this big,

370
00:18:58,694 --> 00:19:02,156
and the brain beat
or brain wave is only that big.

371
00:19:02,156 --> 00:19:04,867
The heart's wave
more powerful electromagnetically;

372
00:19:04,867 --> 00:19:10,347
the heart generates 5,000 times
more energy than the brain.

373
00:19:10,347 --> 00:19:14,304
So it starts to, forgive the pun,
turn on its head.

374
00:19:14,304 --> 00:19:17,238
Hang on, what's controlling what here?

375
00:19:17,238 --> 00:19:21,277
We've got to start to look more broadly
in terms of the human system as a system.

376
00:19:21,277 --> 00:19:24,108
We're so brain dominant, brain-centric.

377
00:19:24,108 --> 00:19:26,178
So if you put your attention in the heart,

378
00:19:26,178 --> 00:19:30,448
you're putting your attention
where the primary source of power is here.

379
00:19:30,448 --> 00:19:32,619
So that's the first reason.

380
00:19:32,619 --> 00:19:33,738
The second reason:

381
00:19:33,738 --> 00:19:36,178
If you drop your attention
and breathe through here,

382
00:19:36,178 --> 00:19:40,039
it gets you out of the noise in your head,
which is where we usually confuse,

383
00:19:40,039 --> 00:19:43,463
just to drop into the body, and breathe
through the center of your chest.

384
00:19:43,463 --> 00:19:45,999
And the third reason
which we're going to get onto

385
00:19:45,999 --> 00:19:48,179
is actually, we're ultimately going to go

386
00:19:48,179 --> 00:19:51,389
from controlling that physiology
up to the emotional state,

387
00:19:51,389 --> 00:19:54,580
and show you actually
how do you turn on the passion;

388
00:19:54,580 --> 00:19:56,870
how do you turn
on a positive emotional state.

389
00:19:56,870 --> 00:19:58,920
We know an awful lot
about positive emotions

390
00:19:58,920 --> 00:20:00,920
are experienced
in the center of our chest.

391
00:20:00,920 --> 00:20:04,062
“Hence, I love my son with all my heart.”

392
00:20:04,062 --> 00:20:07,619
Why do you even say that?
Because that's actually where I feel it.

393
00:20:07,619 --> 00:20:09,881
The awareness might be in our mind,

394
00:20:09,881 --> 00:20:13,807
but where do we feel the sensation
of love? In the center of the chest.

395
00:20:14,957 --> 00:20:18,903
So where do you clutch the baby?
You clutch them to your heart.

396
00:20:18,903 --> 00:20:21,756
You don't clutch the baby to your knee.

397
00:20:21,756 --> 00:20:23,712
"I love my son with all my knee."

398
00:20:23,712 --> 00:20:27,378
We don't say that because we feel it
in our knee, we feel it in our chest.

399
00:20:27,378 --> 00:20:29,423
So the very fact
that you put your attention

400
00:20:29,423 --> 00:20:31,732
on the center of your chest,
or in the heart area

401
00:20:31,732 --> 00:20:35,333
starts to drift you into
a slightly more positive state.

402
00:20:35,333 --> 00:20:37,283
Does that make sense?

403
00:20:37,283 --> 00:20:40,243
So the last thing I want to -
just while Neil's impressing you,

404
00:20:40,243 --> 00:20:41,777
give you this other bit,

405
00:20:41,777 --> 00:20:44,433
so in my view, the biggest myth
of performance, I think,

406
00:20:44,433 --> 00:20:47,494
is that it's something
to do with adrenaline.

407
00:20:47,494 --> 00:20:49,404
You'll see this in business or in sport,

408
00:20:49,404 --> 00:20:52,044
If you're not a bit pumped,
you won't perform.

409
00:20:52,044 --> 00:20:54,042
For that meeting
you've got to be psyched,

410
00:20:54,042 --> 00:20:56,674
that exam you've got
to be a bit psyched up.

411
00:20:56,674 --> 00:21:00,024
You said, "No, no, no, You've got
to be relaxed under pressure."

412
00:21:00,024 --> 00:21:03,534
Now you've got to be psyched;
you've got to relax.

413
00:21:03,534 --> 00:21:07,175
You get both types of advice,
neither is true.

414
00:21:07,175 --> 00:21:12,625
It's not about sympathetic activation,
or even parasynthetic activation.

415
00:21:12,625 --> 00:21:15,756
it's not about how hot the system is
or how cold the system is.

416
00:21:15,756 --> 00:21:19,805
There's another part of your system
which really determines your output,

417
00:21:19,805 --> 00:21:23,916
which is whether you're in
a negative emotional state.

418
00:21:23,916 --> 00:21:25,186
So, if this is adrenaline,

419
00:21:25,186 --> 00:21:28,005
and this is a chemical
called Acetylcholine, ACH,

420
00:21:28,005 --> 00:21:31,868
negative emotion underpinned
by the hormone cortisol;

421
00:21:31,868 --> 00:21:37,647
or positive emotion underpinned
by the anabolic hormones

422
00:21:37,647 --> 00:21:42,617
like DHEA, Dehydroepiandrosterone,
banned substance in the Olympics.

423
00:21:42,617 --> 00:21:45,108
You get caught taking
those tablets, you're out,

424
00:21:45,108 --> 00:21:46,978
because they're performance enhancers.

425
00:21:46,978 --> 00:21:49,468
In the States, this is known
as the elixir of youth,

426
00:21:49,468 --> 00:21:50,508
the vitality hormone.

427
00:21:50,508 --> 00:21:52,428
You can get them on the internet.

428
00:21:52,428 --> 00:21:53,568
(Laughter)

429
00:21:53,568 --> 00:21:54,718
DHEA tablets.

430
00:21:54,718 --> 00:21:57,478
The point is you don't need them.

431
00:22:01,678 --> 00:22:05,688
So when you heat somebody's system up,
you can heat it up negatively.

432
00:22:05,688 --> 00:22:09,489
Anxiety, anger, frustration.

433
00:22:09,489 --> 00:22:11,890
Or you can heat it up positively.


434
00:22:11,890 --> 00:22:18,210
Passion, determination, focus.

435
00:22:19,400 --> 00:22:24,000
The heart rate over here
is 120, but erratic.

436
00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:28,287
The heart rate is 120
over here, but coherent.

437
00:22:28,287 --> 00:22:30,140
Both of them have the same heart rate,

438
00:22:30,140 --> 00:22:32,391
both of them have
the same amount of adrenaline.

439
00:22:32,391 --> 00:22:35,681
That will impair your performance;
that will enhance your performance.

440
00:22:35,681 --> 00:22:38,081
Passion is the number one
predictor of performance

441
00:22:38,081 --> 00:22:41,840
across every aspect of life,
including health.

442
00:22:41,840 --> 00:22:44,409
If you're passionate
about something, you do it better.

443
00:22:44,409 --> 00:22:46,181
It predicts all types of performance.

444
00:22:46,181 --> 00:22:50,443
Simply, when you cool the system down,
relaxation is not necessarily valuable.

445
00:22:50,443 --> 00:22:53,422
In fact, I've given lectures
to some of my medical colleagues,

446
00:22:53,422 --> 00:22:57,132
entitled, "Relaxation can kill you."

447
00:22:58,632 --> 00:23:01,412
Sometimes lecture titles
can pull the crowd in.

448
00:23:01,412 --> 00:23:04,653
And it can, because
you can be relaxed and negative.

449
00:23:04,653 --> 00:23:10,672
So apathy, boredom,
detachment, indifference,

450
00:23:10,672 --> 00:23:12,654
all those kinds of things.


451
00:23:12,654 --> 00:23:17,774
The heart rate is erratic, averaging 50.

452
00:23:18,644 --> 00:23:20,844
Now you can be relaxed,
and it can be positive.

453
00:23:20,844 --> 00:23:26,537
So things like contentment, curiosity,
equanimity, those kinds of things -

454
00:23:27,587 --> 00:23:31,854
heart rate coherent, and 50.

455
00:23:31,854 --> 00:23:35,465
So it doesn't really matter
whether the heart rate is 50 or 120.

456
00:23:35,465 --> 00:23:40,025
What matters is, am I on the left,
or am I on the right?

457
00:23:40,025 --> 00:23:42,855
And so, the secret really ...

458
00:23:42,855 --> 00:23:48,526
If you map most organizations,
you'll see a rightward skew,

459
00:23:49,076 --> 00:23:52,136
people are rightward skewed over here.

460
00:23:52,136 --> 00:23:55,016
If you don't believe me,
go stand next to the coffee machine,

461
00:23:55,016 --> 00:23:56,686
and you will hear the negative hum.

462
00:23:56,686 --> 00:23:58,496
(Humming)

463
00:23:58,496 --> 00:24:00,896
"Do you know what so and so
said to me yesterday?"

464
00:24:00,896 --> 00:24:03,798
" That's outrageous!"

465
00:24:04,008 --> 00:24:06,217
And then you bump
into somebody else over here,

466
00:24:06,217 --> 00:24:07,727
full of the joys of spring,

467
00:24:07,727 --> 00:24:10,747
What’s up with you?
How dare you be that cheerful?

468
00:24:10,747 --> 00:24:13,391
You don't realize it's shit - the economy.

469
00:24:13,391 --> 00:24:16,366
(Laughter)

470
00:24:17,516 --> 00:24:21,488
They're trying to drag you
back over to here, back to "reality."

471
00:24:22,688 --> 00:24:24,172
So as a leader, you really ...

472
00:24:24,172 --> 00:24:26,477
And a large part of the work
we do with folks

473
00:24:26,477 --> 00:24:29,788
is get them over here,
and you live your life over here,

474
00:24:29,788 --> 00:24:36,169
so somebody references Csikszentmihalyi
in the zone or the state of flow

475
00:24:36,169 --> 00:24:39,719
is about being over here.

476
00:24:39,719 --> 00:24:43,349
And how controllable
is our emotional performance,

477
00:24:43,349 --> 00:24:47,000
we've got Neil's point,
can we live our life over here?

478
00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:50,279
Now, as you've seen most people
haven't got control of their behavior.

479
00:24:50,279 --> 00:24:52,652
Let alone their thinking;
let alone their feeling;

480
00:24:52,652 --> 00:24:55,220
let alone their emotional physiology.

481
00:24:55,220 --> 00:24:57,099
So how do you live your life over here?

482
00:24:57,099 --> 00:24:59,920
That's where the training comes in,
and we've shown in Neil

483
00:24:59,920 --> 00:25:04,930
that when we've taught him
how to regulate his physiology,

484
00:25:04,930 --> 00:25:06,609
that's the start point.

485
00:25:06,609 --> 00:25:11,390
The regulation of the physiology
would get you to the midpoint.

486
00:25:11,390 --> 00:25:15,393
You at least get to the midpoint
with regulating your physiology.

487
00:25:15,393 --> 00:25:19,720
So you'll get to this point
just through breathing.

488
00:25:19,720 --> 00:25:24,861
If you learn to breathe properly,
you'll at least get to the midpoint.

489
00:25:24,861 --> 00:25:25,940
How you get over here

490
00:25:25,940 --> 00:25:29,043
is you've got to learn to regulate
what emotional state you're in.

491
00:25:29,043 --> 00:25:31,242
Now, most people have got
no control over that.

492
00:25:31,242 --> 00:25:34,302
Their emotional state is dependent
on everything outside of them,

493
00:25:34,302 --> 00:25:36,732
not on what's going on the inside.

494
00:25:36,732 --> 00:25:38,033
So you've got to learn

495
00:25:38,033 --> 00:25:41,062
how to train yourself to stay
on this side of the thing,

496
00:25:41,062 --> 00:25:44,753
but if you take nothing away,
at least you get yourself to the midpoint

497
00:25:44,753 --> 00:25:48,183
by learning how to breathe properly.

498
00:25:48,183 --> 00:25:52,173
So to help you remember that,
think of "BREATH" as an acronym:

499
00:25:52,173 --> 00:25:55,274
"B" stands for breath,
"R" stands for rhythmically,

500
00:25:55,274 --> 00:26:00,544
"E" stands for evenly,
And Through the Heart Every day.

501
00:26:00,544 --> 00:26:03,934
So if you breathe rhythmically,
evenly, and through the heart every day,

502
00:26:03,934 --> 00:26:06,660
you'll at least get to the midpoint.

503
00:26:06,660 --> 00:26:07,955
OK. Thank you.

504
00:26:07,955 --> 00:26:10,785
(Applause)