WEBVTT 00:00:07.834 --> 00:00:09.459 This is kind of nice. 00:00:09.459 --> 00:00:12.722 Because it is incredibly difficult to contain what you want to say 00:00:12.722 --> 00:00:15.467 in 18 minutes, but it's for me anyway. 00:00:15.467 --> 00:00:21.297 So we kind of showed you earlier on what goes wrong under pressure. 00:00:22.357 --> 00:00:27.939 The human brain is constantly getting a signal from all the bodily systems, 00:00:27.939 --> 00:00:30.539 but particularly the heart, the vagus nerve, 00:00:30.539 --> 00:00:33.449 which, as we showed you is sort of erratic and under pressure, 00:00:33.449 --> 00:00:37.640 super chaos causes that DIY lobotomy. 00:00:38.360 --> 00:00:42.274 You're all built that way, and you've all had the experience 00:00:42.274 --> 00:00:44.590 when somebody kind of puts a challenge to you 00:00:44.590 --> 00:00:47.900 and it doesn't really matter as you saw how small that challenge is. 00:00:47.900 --> 00:00:49.547 It can be any type of challenge. 00:00:49.547 --> 00:00:52.958 A challenge to your point of view, a challenge to your ego, 00:00:52.958 --> 00:00:54.637 a challenge to your relationships, 00:00:54.637 --> 00:00:59.288 any type of challenge causes the physiology to go chaotic, 00:00:59.288 --> 00:01:04.564 causes the frontal lobe to be inhibited, and you become suboptimal straight away. 00:01:04.564 --> 00:01:09.406 What's kind of interesting about that is when the brain is inhibited; 00:01:09.406 --> 00:01:11.506 it also inhibits your perceptual awareness, 00:01:11.506 --> 00:01:14.457 so you don't realize it's happened. 00:01:15.487 --> 00:01:18.902 So you can come out of a meeting and think, "Oh, that went well." 00:01:18.902 --> 00:01:22.609 And everyone,s going, "What do you mean it went well? You were rubbish." 00:01:22.609 --> 00:01:26.730 Because your awareness is inhibited, you don't realize how rubbish you were. 00:01:26.730 --> 00:01:28.581 So it's a bit of a catch-22. 00:01:28.581 --> 00:01:33.082 This is the phenomena that underpins lots of different things 00:01:33.082 --> 00:01:36.209 that you've seen and experienced yourself or seen on telly: 00:01:36.209 --> 00:01:40.315 Stage-fright, people get stage fright and can't remember their words; 00:01:40.315 --> 00:01:41.961 Kids go blank in an exam. 00:01:41.961 --> 00:01:44.253 It's the same phenomena. 00:01:46.079 --> 00:01:49.743 Or my personal favorite - Family Fortunes, if you've ever watched that show - 00:01:49.743 --> 00:01:51.273 the two people sit at the front. 00:01:51.273 --> 00:01:53.003 We've asked 100 people on the street 00:01:53.003 --> 00:01:55.113 to name something you put in a jacket potato. 00:01:55.113 --> 00:01:56.303 (Bzz) "Jam!" 00:01:56.303 --> 00:01:58.083 (Laughter) 00:01:58.083 --> 00:01:59.843 It's hysterical. 00:01:59.843 --> 00:02:04.793 When your frontal lobe's inhibited you say anything, and it's really funny. 00:02:04.793 --> 00:02:07.004 Anne Robinson, The Weakest Link, 00:02:07.004 --> 00:02:09.673 she throws you a simple question, then stares at you. 00:02:09.673 --> 00:02:12.154 You blurt out any all sort of rubbish. 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. 00:02:17.395 --> 00:02:19.834 If you're feeling a little under pressure, 00:02:19.834 --> 00:02:24.615 you suddenly discover you're talking rubbish. 00:02:24.615 --> 00:02:26.556 Sometimes you even have that awareness. 00:02:26.556 --> 00:02:31.534 You almost see yourself coming out with the most ridiculous nonsense. 00:02:32.264 --> 00:02:35.747 You think, "Why is this happening?" It's because you're built that way. 00:02:35.747 --> 00:02:39.875 The human system is built that way is that under pressure, 00:02:39.875 --> 00:02:43.126 physiological chaos, the brain shuts down. 00:02:43.126 --> 00:02:45.695 You're designed that way. 00:02:45.695 --> 00:02:50.237 You think, "Why are we designed that way?" 00:02:50.237 --> 00:02:54.147 And the only reason you have anything in your physiology is survival. 00:02:54.147 --> 00:02:58.027 There are survival advantages to having brain shut down, 00:02:58.027 --> 00:02:59.547 and it goes back 200,000 years. 00:02:59.547 --> 00:03:02.457 So when you were wandering across the prairie, 00:03:02.457 --> 00:03:05.488 and a big grizzly bear comes out from behind the rocks and says, 00:03:05.488 --> 00:03:08.127 "Oh, human being! There's my lunch." 00:03:08.127 --> 00:03:10.337 You don't need clever thinking. 00:03:10.337 --> 00:03:12.298 In fact, if you stood going to be clever, 00:03:12.298 --> 00:03:15.028 "Is that the brown bear, or the lesser-spotted gray bear?" 00:03:15.028 --> 00:03:16.138 (Laughter) 00:03:16.138 --> 00:03:18.368 He will eat you, right? 00:03:18.368 --> 00:03:20.674 So you need brain shut down. 00:03:20.674 --> 00:03:23.159 Your thinking has to become very unsophisticated, 00:03:23.159 --> 00:03:25.588 in fact, it has to become binary. 00:03:25.588 --> 00:03:29.359 So you either have fight-flight or play dead. Two choices. 00:03:29.359 --> 00:03:32.339 You either just drop to the ground in a faint, 00:03:32.339 --> 00:03:35.391 or you're prepared to slug it out or run. 00:03:35.391 --> 00:03:36.632 It's binary. 00:03:36.632 --> 00:03:40.171 Anything more sophisticated you don't need, it will kill you. 00:03:40.171 --> 00:03:42.779 So here we are, 200,000 years later, 00:03:42.779 --> 00:03:47.280 we still have the same biological mechanism. 00:03:47.280 --> 00:03:50.277 We've basically got a 200,000-year-old software, 00:03:50.277 --> 00:03:54.045 and we've never had the upgrade, right? 00:03:54.045 --> 00:03:57.127 We don't meet a bear today; we meet each other. 00:03:57.127 --> 00:04:00.566 But in meeting each other, the same phenomenon goes on. 00:04:00.566 --> 00:04:02.336 We showed you how that chaos 00:04:02.336 --> 00:04:07.576 can cause somebody who's even good at math, like Neil is, 00:04:07.576 --> 00:04:12.696 "Uh ... 200 ... Uh ... Shut up, you're putting me off! 200 ... Uh ..." 00:04:13.526 --> 00:04:15.717 It becomes impossible, a simple task like that. 00:04:15.717 --> 00:04:18.496 I can tell you, I did this in the office of the chief exec, 00:04:18.496 --> 00:04:21.537 one of the leading retailers in the UK, 00:04:21.537 --> 00:04:24.627 and his first answer was 298. 00:04:24.627 --> 00:04:26.028 (Laughter) 00:04:26.028 --> 00:04:27.827 And, he went, "Oh. No, that's wrong!" 00:04:27.827 --> 00:04:30.346 He was so embarrassed that he got the first one wrong, 00:04:30.346 --> 00:04:32.076 he couldn't think of the second one. 00:04:32.076 --> 00:04:35.040 It literally sounds like, "Ah ..." a rabbit in the headlights. 00:04:35.040 --> 00:04:36.898 He just couldn't come up with anything. 00:04:36.898 --> 00:04:39.516 So as I said, you're all at the mercy of that. 00:04:39.516 --> 00:04:44.327 The point being, until you've got control of this physiology, 00:04:44.327 --> 00:04:47.980 anybody can make you look like an idiot. 00:04:47.980 --> 00:04:49.597 And what's worse? 00:04:49.597 --> 00:04:52.118 You're doing it to yourself an awful lot of the time. 00:04:52.688 --> 00:04:55.070 Your own anxiety about your own performance 00:04:55.070 --> 00:04:58.550 is actually causing the chaos, so you're lobotomizing yourself. 00:04:58.550 --> 00:05:01.938 A lot of people around you can trigger you into a lobotomy, 00:05:01.938 --> 00:05:04.989 but most of the time, you're just lobotomizing yourself. 00:05:05.629 --> 00:05:10.530 So until you've got control of that absolutely, fundamental basic - 00:05:10.530 --> 00:05:13.570 you might be brilliant one day, you might be poor, 00:05:13.570 --> 00:05:16.511 and who knows what's going to show up that day. 00:05:16.511 --> 00:05:20.063 So right about fundamental, the cleverness of your thinking, 00:05:20.063 --> 00:05:24.141 or your ability to read the line on a golf putt, 00:05:24.141 --> 00:05:26.291 or your ability to come up with a great idea, 00:05:26.291 --> 00:05:29.983 or how to innovate that sales process, or any of that stuff. 00:05:29.983 --> 00:05:36.242 The quality of your thought, in fact, the very things that you think, 00:05:36.242 --> 00:05:41.213 and how well you think them is hugely influenced by your biology. 00:05:41.213 --> 00:05:44.032 I'll give a couple of live examples, then get Neil back up, 00:05:44.032 --> 00:05:46.392 and we'll show you how to control your physiology. 00:05:47.532 --> 00:05:50.063 So if you haven't yet clocked 00:05:50.063 --> 00:05:53.355 that your biology is controlling your brain function. 00:05:53.355 --> 00:05:56.983 If we held you and locked the doors and filled you up with coffee, 00:05:56.983 --> 00:06:00.094 what happens is your bladder gets bigger and bigger and bigger. 00:06:00.094 --> 00:06:02.593 It starts to send alarm messages to your brain, 00:06:02.593 --> 00:06:05.795 and you're getting one of these pee. 00:06:05.795 --> 00:06:08.026 "I've got to pee ... I've got to pee." 00:06:08.026 --> 00:06:09.704 If you've ever had that experience 00:06:09.704 --> 00:06:13.518 when you can't get out, but your bladder is sending alarm signals, 00:06:13.584 --> 00:06:16.854 and all of that - you haven't got Pampers on - 00:06:16.854 --> 00:06:18.684 (Laughter) 00:06:18.684 --> 00:06:22.470 what you'll discover is you go deaf. 00:06:22.470 --> 00:06:25.096 You ever notice that? You can't hear people. 00:06:25.096 --> 00:06:28.518 You're so internally focused, "My bladder is going to burst..." 00:06:28.518 --> 00:06:29.576 You go deaf. 00:06:29.576 --> 00:06:33.098 You can see people's mouths moving, but you can't hear what they're saying. 00:06:33.098 --> 00:06:34.966 Then beads of sweat start to break out, 00:06:34.966 --> 00:06:37.465 you're trying to pee urine out through your forehead. 00:06:37.465 --> 00:06:39.486 (Laughter) 00:06:39.486 --> 00:06:43.337 Literally, your consciousness is completely eradicated. 00:06:43.337 --> 00:06:46.944 So that's the biology disrupting your consciousness. 00:06:46.944 --> 00:06:51.766 Well, I was in a meeting recently with an eight-month-pregnant woman. 00:06:51.766 --> 00:06:53.036 We were chatting away, 00:06:53.036 --> 00:06:57.567 and you saw the baby visibly ripple across, went like that, 00:06:57.567 --> 00:07:00.078 and you could see the ripple go across her abdomen, 00:07:00.078 --> 00:07:02.747 and she was chatting, then ..."Ooh ..." 00:07:02.747 --> 00:07:08.428 For about 20 seconds she was gone, completely kind of left the room, "Oh ..." 00:07:08.428 --> 00:07:11.496 and then she went, "Oh, hello!" 00:07:11.496 --> 00:07:12.498 (Laughter) 00:07:12.498 --> 00:07:13.598 Back in the room again. 00:07:13.598 --> 00:07:16.479 It was like her consciousness disappeared for 20 seconds. 00:07:16.479 --> 00:07:19.818 So these are live examples. 00:07:19.818 --> 00:07:23.869 You think you just think, right? 00:07:23.869 --> 00:07:27.531 But what do you think, and why do you think it? 00:07:27.531 --> 00:07:31.480 I was talking to a senior exec, he was from a government think tank. 00:07:31.480 --> 00:07:34.272 I said, "Oh, government think tank, that's interesting! 00:07:34.272 --> 00:07:36.690 You probably sit around with loads of clever people 00:07:36.690 --> 00:07:38.200 debating the issues of the day 00:07:38.200 --> 00:07:40.860 and trying to come up with some clever answers." 00:07:40.860 --> 00:07:43.800 He said, "Yes, pretty much what we do." 00:07:43.800 --> 00:07:46.230 I said, "Have you ever thought 00:07:46.230 --> 00:07:49.141 about why those answers are not these other answers? 00:07:49.141 --> 00:07:52.651 Have you ever thought about your own thinking?" 00:07:52.651 --> 00:07:54.852 He said, "I never thought about that." 00:07:54.852 --> 00:07:58.611 "Spotted it! You're a think-tank; you've never thought about thinking. 00:07:58.611 --> 00:08:00.311 What's that about?" 00:08:00.311 --> 00:08:02.911 So we just think, 00:08:02.911 --> 00:08:06.332 but we don't realize that what we think and how well we think it, 00:08:06.332 --> 00:08:08.691 is actually influenced by something else. 00:08:08.691 --> 00:08:12.993 Thought is really an emergent property within your system. 00:08:12.993 --> 00:08:14.676 The very things that you think, 00:08:14.676 --> 00:08:18.632 you will think different things if you're happy than if you're depressed. 00:08:18.632 --> 00:08:24.492 And how well you think them will depend a lot on the biology. 00:08:25.452 --> 00:08:28.794 So if you want to step-change thinking, 00:08:28.794 --> 00:08:33.906 if you want to really double or treble the quality of your thinking, 00:08:33.906 --> 00:08:36.303 you can't do it by thinking about it. 00:08:37.563 --> 00:08:39.103 Wouldn't that be nice if I said, 00:08:39.103 --> 00:08:41.574 "Look, I've spotted the problem for you in your life, 00:08:41.574 --> 00:08:43.884 you're not thinking smart enough. 00:08:43.884 --> 00:08:45.904 So I want you to go away over the weekend, 00:08:45.904 --> 00:08:50.345 come back 25 percent smarter on Monday morning, alright?" 00:08:50.715 --> 00:08:52.205 That will be nice, wouldn't it? 00:08:52.205 --> 00:08:54.205 "Oh, I haven't thought to do that, 00:08:54.205 --> 00:08:57.256 I'll go away, and I'll think about my thinking over the weekend, 00:08:57.256 --> 00:09:00.004 25 percent better on Monday, here I am!" 00:09:00.004 --> 00:09:01.206 It doesn't work that way. 00:09:01.206 --> 00:09:04.295 That's what Einstein said, "We can not solve our problems 00:09:04.295 --> 00:09:09.376 with the same level of thinking that created them." 00:09:09.376 --> 00:09:13.216 You don't get a new level of thinking just by thinking about it. 00:09:13.216 --> 00:09:17.987 You've got to change the context in which thoughts emerge. 00:09:20.217 --> 00:09:24.096 It's the context, in human terms, is the biology. 00:09:24.096 --> 00:09:27.468 What is the biological context from which thought emerges? 00:09:27.468 --> 00:09:31.159 What is the emotional state from which thought emerges? 00:09:31.159 --> 00:09:35.112 You change that context, the biological and emotional context, 00:09:35.112 --> 00:09:37.577 and you can change the quality of the thought, 00:09:37.577 --> 00:09:40.177 and the actual thought itself. 00:09:40.177 --> 00:09:42.277 That is the source. 00:09:43.157 --> 00:09:44.648 I suggest we get Chris back up 00:09:44.648 --> 00:09:47.748 and I'll show you how Chris can learn with no training before, 00:09:47.748 --> 00:09:49.439 how to control his physiology. 00:09:49.439 --> 00:09:52.739 You do not need to be - sorry, Neil - a yogic master. 00:09:52.739 --> 00:09:54.018 (Laughter) 00:09:54.018 --> 00:09:56.070 Neil: What happens to short term memory? 00:09:56.070 --> 00:09:58.540 (Laughter) 00:10:00.020 --> 00:10:01.099 Here we go. 00:10:01.099 --> 00:10:03.460 Which ear are we on? Neil: This one. 00:10:04.770 --> 00:10:08.569 If you just hold that, change chair around a bit if you like. 00:10:08.569 --> 00:10:11.481 Turn your chair around, so you can see the screen more easily. 00:10:11.481 --> 00:10:15.790 So exactly as before, is he still alive? Yeah. 00:10:15.790 --> 00:10:17.671 So we'll start recording. 00:10:17.671 --> 00:10:20.321 So again, just picking up each heartbeat, 00:10:20.321 --> 00:10:23.232 the software is measuring the distance between each heart beat 00:10:23.232 --> 00:10:24.717 and calculating his heart rate. 00:10:24.717 --> 00:10:27.111 Because he walked up the stage out of the audience, 00:10:27.111 --> 00:10:29.111 he's going about 90 miles an hour. 00:10:29.111 --> 00:10:31.311 Just the excitement about being the front here. 00:10:31.311 --> 00:10:33.791 So if you want to control your physiology, 00:10:33.791 --> 00:10:36.663 this isn't years and years and months and months of practice. 00:10:36.663 --> 00:10:39.751 You don't have to be a yogic master to control your physiology. 00:10:39.751 --> 00:10:42.512 You just have to know exactly what to do, right? 00:10:42.512 --> 00:10:46.204 So we're now going to show Chris, sorry, Neil exactly what to do. 00:10:46.204 --> 00:10:47.474 (Laughter) 00:10:47.474 --> 00:10:48.782 Mental block. 00:10:48.782 --> 00:10:51.042 Over here is a breath pacer, 00:10:51.042 --> 00:10:54.413 so when that goes up, I want you to breathe in ... (Inhales) 00:10:54.413 --> 00:10:58.594 when that goes down, I want you to breathe out. (Exhales) 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? 00:11:02.031 --> 00:11:04.614 (Inhales) 00:11:04.614 --> 00:11:10.464 And a long, slow ... (Exhales) Okay? 00:11:10.464 --> 00:11:11.925 Wait for it. 00:11:11.925 --> 00:11:16.075 (Inhales) A long, slow ... (Exhales) 00:11:16.075 --> 00:11:18.174 You can follow this in the room, if you want, 00:11:18.174 --> 00:11:20.626 just breathe in this rhythmic fashion. 00:11:20.626 --> 00:11:22.435 It's a nice rhythmic breathing. 00:11:22.435 --> 00:11:27.741 So a long breath in, and a long, slow breath out. 00:11:27.741 --> 00:11:31.756 I'll leave Neil to do that, and I'll carry on talking to you guys. 00:11:31.756 --> 00:11:35.567 So of all the things that you can do to get your physiology under control, 00:11:35.567 --> 00:11:37.657 there are many things. 00:11:38.547 --> 00:11:42.967 But the start point is to do something that you can get conscious control over, 00:11:42.967 --> 00:11:45.587 and you can get conscious control over your breathing. 00:11:45.587 --> 00:11:51.747 Now, there are 12 different aspects of your breath that you can regulate. 00:11:51.747 --> 00:11:53.267 12 different aspects. 00:11:53.267 --> 00:11:54.967 So when you go to classes, 00:11:54.967 --> 00:12:01.207 whether it's singing, sports, fighter pilots, all sorts of things, 00:12:01.207 --> 00:12:04.949 they'll talk to you about breathing and breath practice. 00:12:04.949 --> 00:12:06.889 Yoga, you know. 00:12:06.889 --> 00:12:09.030 But what are they teaching you? 00:12:09.030 --> 00:12:10.766 For example, there's a yogic practice 00:12:10.766 --> 00:12:13.298 where they teach you alternate nostril breathing. 00:12:13.298 --> 00:12:14.908 That's kind of interesting, 00:12:14.908 --> 00:12:20.158 but in my view, that's number nine on the list of priorities, of the 12. 00:12:20.158 --> 00:12:26.170 The single most important thing is rhythm, which is what this is training. 00:12:26.170 --> 00:12:31.300 So we've seen that this measures the level of coherence in Neil's system. 00:12:31.300 --> 00:12:33.950 When he's in complete chaos, he's down here in the red. 00:12:33.950 --> 00:12:37.291 And just with a bit of guidance, in less than or about a minute, 00:12:37.291 --> 00:12:40.260 he's up and into the coherent green. 00:12:40.260 --> 00:12:42.270 He is the yogic master. 00:12:42.270 --> 00:12:43.989 (Laughter) 00:12:43.989 --> 00:12:47.690 Neil brackets Yoda, right? 00:12:49.780 --> 00:12:52.882 So you can see the physiology has changed from this erratic 00:12:52.882 --> 00:12:56.343 to this coherent waveform in less than a minute, 00:12:56.343 --> 00:12:58.349 when you know what to do. 00:12:58.349 --> 00:13:01.061 So of all the things in your breathing that you can do - 00:13:01.061 --> 00:13:05.561 if you start to control the rhythm of the breath, 00:13:05.561 --> 00:13:08.642 that will start to change the physiology, just as you've seen. 00:13:08.642 --> 00:13:10.602 And you'll start to become more coherent. 00:13:10.602 --> 00:13:15.233 So his frontal lobes will work better now than at the beginning of this trace, 00:13:15.233 --> 00:13:19.233 when his physiology was erratic, you all see the difference? 00:13:19.233 --> 00:13:22.064 Even though the average heart rate is about the same, 00:13:22.064 --> 00:13:24.644 during that period and during this period. 00:13:24.644 --> 00:13:28.574 The heart rate is the same, but the pattern is different. 00:13:28.574 --> 00:13:30.824 So when you change that pattern, 00:13:30.824 --> 00:13:32.934 you're basically sending better quality fuel 00:13:32.934 --> 00:13:36.975 from the heart to the brain, the brain is going to work better. 00:13:36.975 --> 00:13:38.504 And when the brain works better, 00:13:38.504 --> 00:13:40.702 you're more perceptive, you're more insightful, 00:13:40.702 --> 00:13:45.095 you're more clear thinking, you can understand how to problem-solve. 00:13:45.095 --> 00:13:46.637 So I saw the other speakers say, 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? 00:13:50.267 --> 00:13:51.285 If brains inhibited, 00:13:51.285 --> 00:13:54.165 you probably won't come up with the idea or the right answer. 00:13:54.165 --> 00:13:58.228 But if you've got your brain switched on, you've got a much better chance. 00:13:58.228 --> 00:14:00.306 Does that all make sense? 00:14:00.306 --> 00:14:03.326 So when you hear people say to you, 00:14:03.326 --> 00:14:07.866 "Oh yeah, before that big presentation, take a few deep breaths." 00:14:07.866 --> 00:14:10.376 I'd say, "Don't bother." 00:14:10.376 --> 00:14:12.045 Because a few deep breaths 00:14:12.045 --> 00:14:14.857 isn't actually going to alter your brain function that much. 00:14:14.857 --> 00:14:18.807 By the way, when they say deep, what they actually mean is large. 00:14:18.807 --> 00:14:21.495 Large volume breath is what they mean. 00:14:21.495 --> 00:14:24.927 Because depth is the area where the air in the lungs is going. 00:14:24.927 --> 00:14:27.477 What they mean is a few big breaths. 00:14:27.477 --> 00:14:29.201 But even volume 00:14:29.201 --> 00:14:32.537 is only about number five or six on the batting order. 00:14:32.537 --> 00:14:35.958 The number one priority is rhythm. 00:14:37.048 --> 00:14:41.637 Take a few rhythmic breaths, that will start to change your physiology. 00:14:41.637 --> 00:14:43.430 So you can put this to the test. 00:14:43.430 --> 00:14:46.430 Next time, before you might have to make a difficult phone call, 00:14:46.430 --> 00:14:49.530 rather than taking a few deep breaths or even a few large breaths, 00:14:49.530 --> 00:14:50.889 take a few rhythmic breasts, 00:14:50.889 --> 00:14:53.971 and rhythm really means a fixed ratio of in-to-out. 00:14:53.971 --> 00:14:57.890 It doesn't matter what that ratio is, so long as it's fixed. 00:14:57.890 --> 00:15:01.081 So this is four seconds in, six seconds out. 00:15:01.081 --> 00:15:04.751 Four, six, four, six, four, six. 00:15:04.751 --> 00:15:08.851 You could do five-five. Five, five, five, five. 00:15:08.851 --> 00:15:10.171 So long as it's fixed. 00:15:10.171 --> 00:15:11.141 What you don't want 00:15:11.141 --> 00:15:16.581 is four, six, five, five, eight, three, three, seven, two, five. 00:15:16.581 --> 00:15:19.182 That's erratic breathing, okay? 00:15:19.182 --> 00:15:21.442 You want a fixed ratio. 00:15:21.442 --> 00:15:25.182 And then, once you've got a rhythmic breath going, 00:15:25.182 --> 00:15:29.013 the second most important thing is smoothness. 00:15:29.013 --> 00:15:31.342 Because you can breathe rhythmically but staccato, 00:15:31.342 --> 00:15:37.353 so you could go (Puffing in and out) 00:15:37.353 --> 00:15:39.403 That's entirely rhythmic, but it's staccato, 00:15:39.403 --> 00:15:45.773 so what you want is smooth, so (Slow inhale and exhale) 00:15:45.773 --> 00:15:50.014 which is a fixed volume per second round the entire cycle. 00:15:50.894 --> 00:15:53.653 Just as we're probably both rowers; my sport was rowing. 00:15:53.653 --> 00:15:54.975 That's what they teach you. 00:15:54.975 --> 00:15:57.424 How are the rowers going to win all the gold medals 00:15:57.424 --> 00:16:00.195 in the Olympics in 147 days? 00:16:00.195 --> 00:16:03.615 Neil: The first ones in 151 days. 00:16:03.615 --> 00:16:05.707 They'll teach you whenever you learn to row, 00:16:05.707 --> 00:16:08.035 blades in the water, blades out the water. 00:16:08.035 --> 00:16:10.805 In, out, in, out. Rhythm, right? 00:16:10.805 --> 00:16:13.665 And then once you've learned that rhythm as a novice oarsman, 00:16:13.665 --> 00:16:16.076 the next thing is once the blades are in the water, 00:16:16.076 --> 00:16:18.785 even smooth pressure through the water. 00:16:18.785 --> 00:16:20.275 All the way through the stroke. 00:16:20.275 --> 00:16:22.236 You don't want to put a blade in a water, 00:16:22.236 --> 00:16:25.556 pull really hard, let it drift a bit, and pull really hard at the end, 00:16:25.556 --> 00:16:27.776 because boat goes "Uh..." like that. 00:16:27.776 --> 00:16:29.927 In, even pressure. 00:16:29.927 --> 00:16:31.947 And the same with Chris Hoy on the bicycle. 00:16:31.947 --> 00:16:34.737 If you look at the metrics that is done around Chris Hoy - 00:16:34.737 --> 00:16:36.851 I don't know if you realize this - 00:16:36.851 --> 00:16:40.417 novice cyclist thinks it's just about the kick down, 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. 00:16:44.407 --> 00:16:47.648 So if you look at the metrics on that, they've got to go circular, 00:16:47.648 --> 00:16:51.428 and get as much pressure evenly applied around the whole cycle. 00:16:51.428 --> 00:16:53.729 So you'll see the Olympic cyclist 00:16:53.729 --> 00:16:58.569 will have a smooth, and even force all the way around the loop, 00:16:58.569 --> 00:17:01.029 and those are the guys that win the gold medal. 00:17:01.029 --> 00:17:03.429 So it's smoothness through it. 00:17:03.429 --> 00:17:05.379 So exactly as we've got here 00:17:05.379 --> 00:17:11.570 is if we can (Exhales erratically) then (Inhales erratically) 00:17:11.570 --> 00:17:14.100 So you might have rhythm, but have you got smoothness? 00:17:14.100 --> 00:17:17.111 As you get smoothness better, it becomes more and more coherent. 00:17:17.111 --> 00:17:19.142 So rhythm and smoothness exactly 00:17:19.142 --> 00:17:21.440 as you would cycle, exactly as you would row, 00:17:21.440 --> 00:17:25.079 gives you the most powerful effect. 00:17:25.079 --> 00:17:26.530 Does that all make sense? 00:17:26.530 --> 00:17:29.150 So one other thing, if we got time, we probably have. 00:17:29.150 --> 00:17:31.730 I'm just yapping because we don't have lunch till one. 00:17:31.730 --> 00:17:34.362 I might as well tell you something. 00:17:37.662 --> 00:17:39.470 The third most important thing 00:17:39.470 --> 00:17:43.262 is the location of your attention while you're breathing. 00:17:45.062 --> 00:17:46.862 What we say is ... 00:17:46.862 --> 00:17:51.636 People teach you abdominal breathing - breathe through the belly and all of that. 00:17:52.676 --> 00:17:56.917 Breathe through the center of your chest, through the heart area if you will. 00:17:58.207 --> 00:18:01.552 Three reasons why we say breathe through here not through there. 00:18:01.552 --> 00:18:05.033 Or don't imagine you're sucking the air up through the soles of your feet. 00:18:05.033 --> 00:18:07.523 It's coming in through the crown chakra, or whatever. 00:18:07.523 --> 00:18:08.723 You do any of that stuff. 00:18:08.723 --> 00:18:10.883 Where is your attention when you're breathing? 00:18:10.883 --> 00:18:13.073 Put your attention to the center of your chest. 00:18:13.073 --> 00:18:16.994 Three reasons why you put your attention on the center of your chest is number one: 00:18:16.994 --> 00:18:22.984 The heart generates more electrical power than any other part of your system. 00:18:22.984 --> 00:18:26.144 So even though there are billions of nerve cells up here, 00:18:26.144 --> 00:18:28.264 and only a couple hundred thousand down here, 00:18:28.264 --> 00:18:30.954 the power output of your heart is three and a half watts, 00:18:30.954 --> 00:18:33.835 which is the way greater than the power output of your brain 00:18:33.835 --> 00:18:35.525 Because what happens in your brain, 00:18:35.525 --> 00:18:39.020 the electrical charges are going all different directions, it all cancels. 00:18:39.020 --> 00:18:41.555 But here you've got something called "auto coherence." 00:18:41.555 --> 00:18:44.318 The heart has to synchronize in order for it to pump. 00:18:44.318 --> 00:18:45.534 So electrically speaking, 00:18:45.534 --> 00:18:49.002 the heart generates 50 times more electrical output than the brain. 00:18:49.002 --> 00:18:51.125 If you want to record somebody's brain waves, 00:18:51.125 --> 00:18:53.696 you have to put a clip on their ear, like Neil's here, 00:18:53.696 --> 00:18:57.006 pick up the heartbeat, mathematically remove the heart beat, 00:18:57.006 --> 00:18:58.694 because the heart beat is this big, 00:18:58.694 --> 00:19:02.156 and the brain beat or brain wave is only that big. 00:19:02.156 --> 00:19:04.867 The heart's wave more powerful electromagnetically; 00:19:04.867 --> 00:19:10.347 the heart generates 5,000 times more energy than the brain. 00:19:10.347 --> 00:19:14.304 So it starts to, forgive the pun, turn on its head. 00:19:14.304 --> 00:19:17.238 Hang on, what's controlling what here? 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. 00:19:21.277 --> 00:19:24.108 We're so brain dominant, brain-centric. 00:19:24.108 --> 00:19:26.178 So if you put your attention in the heart, 00:19:26.178 --> 00:19:30.448 you're putting your attention where the primary source of power is here. 00:19:30.448 --> 00:19:32.619 So that's the first reason. 00:19:32.619 --> 00:19:33.738 The second reason: 00:19:33.738 --> 00:19:36.178 If you drop your attention and breathe through here, 00:19:36.178 --> 00:19:40.039 it gets you out of the noise in your head, which is where we usually confuse, 00:19:40.039 --> 00:19:43.463 just to drop into the body, and breathe through the center of your chest. 00:19:43.463 --> 00:19:45.999 And the third reason which we're going to get onto 00:19:45.999 --> 00:19:48.179 is actually, we're ultimately going to go 00:19:48.179 --> 00:19:51.389 from controlling that physiology up to the emotional state, 00:19:51.389 --> 00:19:54.580 and show you actually how do you turn on the passion; 00:19:54.580 --> 00:19:56.870 how do you turn on a positive emotional state. 00:19:56.870 --> 00:19:58.920 We know an awful lot about positive emotions 00:19:58.920 --> 00:20:00.920 are experienced in the center of our chest. 00:20:00.920 --> 00:20:04.062 “Hence, I love my son with all my heart.” 00:20:04.062 --> 00:20:07.619 Why do you even say that? Because that's actually where I feel it. 00:20:07.619 --> 00:20:09.881 The awareness might be in our mind, 00:20:09.881 --> 00:20:13.807 but where do we feel the sensation of love? In the center of the chest. 00:20:14.957 --> 00:20:18.903 So where do you clutch the baby? You clutch them to your heart. 00:20:18.903 --> 00:20:21.756 You don't clutch the baby to your knee. 00:20:21.756 --> 00:20:23.712 "I love my son with all my knee." 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. 00:20:27.378 --> 00:20:29.423 So the very fact that you put your attention 00:20:29.423 --> 00:20:31.732 on the center of your chest, or in the heart area 00:20:31.732 --> 00:20:35.333 starts to drift you into a slightly more positive state. 00:20:35.333 --> 00:20:37.283 Does that make sense? 00:20:37.283 --> 00:20:40.243 So the last thing I want to - just while Neil's impressing you, 00:20:40.243 --> 00:20:41.777 give you this other bit, 00:20:41.777 --> 00:20:44.433 so in my view, the biggest myth of performance, I think, 00:20:44.433 --> 00:20:47.494 is that it's something to do with adrenaline. 00:20:47.494 --> 00:20:49.404 You'll see this in business or in sport, 00:20:49.404 --> 00:20:52.044 If you're not a bit pumped, you won't perform. 00:20:52.044 --> 00:20:54.042 For that meeting you've got to be psyched, 00:20:54.042 --> 00:20:56.674 that exam you've got to be a bit psyched up. 00:20:56.674 --> 00:21:00.024 You said, "No, no, no, You've got to be relaxed under pressure." 00:21:00.024 --> 00:21:03.534 Now you've got to be psyched; you've got to relax. 00:21:03.534 --> 00:21:07.175 You get both types of advice, neither is true. 00:21:07.175 --> 00:21:12.625 It's not about sympathetic activation, or even parasynthetic activation. 00:21:12.625 --> 00:21:15.756 it's not about how hot the system is or how cold the system is. 00:21:15.756 --> 00:21:19.805 There's another part of your system which really determines your output, 00:21:19.805 --> 00:21:23.916 which is whether you're in a negative emotional state. 00:21:23.916 --> 00:21:25.186 So, if this is adrenaline, 00:21:25.186 --> 00:21:28.005 and this is a chemical called Acetylcholine, ACH, 00:21:28.005 --> 00:21:31.868 negative emotion underpinned by the hormone cortisol; 00:21:31.868 --> 00:21:37.647 or positive emotion underpinned by the anabolic hormones 00:21:37.647 --> 00:21:42.617 like DHEA, Dehydroepiandrosterone, banned substance in the Olympics. 00:21:42.617 --> 00:21:45.108 You get caught taking those tablets, you're out, 00:21:45.108 --> 00:21:46.978 because they're performance enhancers. 00:21:46.978 --> 00:21:49.468 In the States, this is known as the elixir of youth, 00:21:49.468 --> 00:21:50.508 the vitality hormone. 00:21:50.508 --> 00:21:52.428 You can get them on the internet. 00:21:52.428 --> 00:21:53.568 (Laughter) 00:21:53.568 --> 00:21:54.718 DHEA tablets. 00:21:54.718 --> 00:21:57.478 The point is you don't need them. 00:22:01.678 --> 00:22:05.688 So when you heat somebody's system up, you can heat it up negatively. 00:22:05.688 --> 00:22:09.489 Anxiety, anger, frustration. 00:22:09.489 --> 00:22:11.890 Or you can heat it up positively. 00:22:11.890 --> 00:22:18.210 Passion, determination, focus. 00:22:19.400 --> 00:22:24.000 The heart rate over here is 120, but erratic. 00:22:24.000 --> 00:22:28.287 The heart rate is 120 over here, but coherent. 00:22:28.287 --> 00:22:30.140 Both of them have the same heart rate, 00:22:30.140 --> 00:22:32.391 both of them have the same amount of adrenaline. 00:22:32.391 --> 00:22:35.681 That will impair your performance; that will enhance your performance. 00:22:35.681 --> 00:22:38.081 Passion is the number one predictor of performance 00:22:38.081 --> 00:22:41.840 across every aspect of life, including health. 00:22:41.840 --> 00:22:44.409 If you're passionate about something, you do it better. 00:22:44.409 --> 00:22:46.181 It predicts all types of performance. 00:22:46.181 --> 00:22:50.443 Simply, when you cool the system down, relaxation is not necessarily valuable. 00:22:50.443 --> 00:22:53.422 In fact, I've given lectures to some of my medical colleagues, 00:22:53.422 --> 00:22:57.132 entitled, "Relaxation can kill you." 00:22:58.632 --> 00:23:01.412 Sometimes lecture titles can pull the crowd in. 00:23:01.412 --> 00:23:04.653 And it can, because you can be relaxed and negative. 00:23:04.653 --> 00:23:10.672 So apathy, boredom, detachment, indifference, 00:23:10.672 --> 00:23:12.654 all those kinds of things. 00:23:12.654 --> 00:23:17.774 The heart rate is erratic, averaging 50. 00:23:18.644 --> 00:23:20.844 Now you can be relaxed, and it can be positive. 00:23:20.844 --> 00:23:26.537 So things like contentment, curiosity, equanimity, those kinds of things - 00:23:27.587 --> 00:23:31.854 heart rate coherent, and 50. 00:23:31.854 --> 00:23:35.465 So it doesn't really matter whether the heart rate is 50 or 120. 00:23:35.465 --> 00:23:40.025 What matters is, am I on the left, or am I on the right? 00:23:40.025 --> 00:23:42.855 And so, the secret really ... 00:23:42.855 --> 00:23:48.526 If you map most organizations, you'll see a rightward skew, 00:23:49.076 --> 00:23:52.136 people are rightward skewed over here. 00:23:52.136 --> 00:23:55.016 If you don't believe me, go stand next to the coffee machine, 00:23:55.016 --> 00:23:56.686 and you will hear the negative hum. 00:23:56.686 --> 00:23:58.496 (Humming) 00:23:58.496 --> 00:24:00.896 "Do you know what so and so said to me yesterday?" 00:24:00.896 --> 00:24:03.798 " That's outrageous!" 00:24:04.008 --> 00:24:06.217 And then you bump into somebody else over here, 00:24:06.217 --> 00:24:07.727 full of the joys of spring, 00:24:07.727 --> 00:24:10.747 What’s up with you? How dare you be that cheerful? 00:24:10.747 --> 00:24:13.391 You don't realize it's shit - the economy. 00:24:13.391 --> 00:24:16.366 (Laughter) 00:24:17.516 --> 00:24:21.488 They're trying to drag you back over to here, back to "reality." 00:24:22.688 --> 00:24:24.172 So as a leader, you really ... 00:24:24.172 --> 00:24:26.477 And a large part of the work we do with folks 00:24:26.477 --> 00:24:29.788 is get them over here, and you live your life over here, 00:24:29.788 --> 00:24:36.169 so somebody references Csikszentmihalyi in the zone or the state of flow 00:24:36.169 --> 00:24:39.719 is about being over here. 00:24:39.719 --> 00:24:43.349 And how controllable is our emotional performance, 00:24:43.349 --> 00:24:47.000 we've got Neil's point, can we live our life over here? 00:24:47.000 --> 00:24:50.279 Now, as you've seen most people haven't got control of their behavior. 00:24:50.279 --> 00:24:52.652 Let alone their thinking; let alone their feeling; 00:24:52.652 --> 00:24:55.220 let alone their emotional physiology. 00:24:55.220 --> 00:24:57.099 So how do you live your life over here? 00:24:57.099 --> 00:24:59.920 That's where the training comes in, and we've shown in Neil 00:24:59.920 --> 00:25:04.930 that when we've taught him how to regulate his physiology, 00:25:04.930 --> 00:25:06.609 that's the start point. 00:25:06.609 --> 00:25:11.390 The regulation of the physiology would get you to the midpoint. 00:25:11.390 --> 00:25:15.393 You at least get to the midpoint with regulating your physiology. 00:25:15.393 --> 00:25:19.720 So you'll get to this point just through breathing. 00:25:19.720 --> 00:25:24.861 If you learn to breathe properly, you'll at least get to the midpoint. 00:25:24.861 --> 00:25:25.940 How you get over here 00:25:25.940 --> 00:25:29.043 is you've got to learn to regulate what emotional state you're in. 00:25:29.043 --> 00:25:31.242 Now, most people have got no control over that. 00:25:31.242 --> 00:25:34.302 Their emotional state is dependent on everything outside of them, 00:25:34.302 --> 00:25:36.732 not on what's going on the inside. 00:25:36.732 --> 00:25:38.033 So you've got to learn 00:25:38.033 --> 00:25:41.062 how to train yourself to stay on this side of the thing, 00:25:41.062 --> 00:25:44.753 but if you take nothing away, at least you get yourself to the midpoint 00:25:44.753 --> 00:25:48.183 by learning how to breathe properly. 00:25:48.183 --> 00:25:52.173 So to help you remember that, think of "BREATH" as an acronym: 00:25:52.173 --> 00:25:55.274 "B" stands for breath, "R" stands for rhythmically, 00:25:55.274 --> 00:26:00.544 "E" stands for evenly, And Through the Heart Every day. 00:26:00.544 --> 00:26:03.934 So if you breathe rhythmically, evenly, and through the heart every day, 00:26:03.934 --> 00:26:06.660 you'll at least get to the midpoint. 00:26:06.660 --> 00:26:07.955 OK. Thank you. 00:26:07.955 --> 00:26:10.785 (Applause)