Your Brain’s Peak Performance Mode | Heather Berlin
About The Episode
Why does thinking too hard ruin your rhythm? Neuroscientist Heather Berlin unpacks the science of flow states, explaining why mastery means trusting your brain’s hidden systems to do what they do best.
For more, check out the extended interviewwith Heather Berlin.
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HAKEEM: You mentioned the creative flow state. So, I mentioned I was a musician, and sometimes I would go into this flow state where it was the concert type musician.
HEATHER: Where did you play?
HAKEEM: I'm a tubist.
HEATHER: Oh, wow.
HAKEEM: Yes. But I was doing this concert music. You're playing these long pieces and you're reading the music. I would go into the flow state, and at that point, I didn't really feel like I was conscious or even present and everything is just going perfectly. And then I come to an awareness of that's happening, and it completely throws me off.
HEATHER: And that [inaudible 00:50:36]. Yeah.
HAKEEM: Yeah. Yeah.
HEATHER: Totally. That's the thing. Our unconscious can do much more than consciousness in many ways. Once you've trained the brain, let's say you've studied the instrument for many years, your brain knows which notes to hit and whatever. Or let's say you're a tennis pro, you've practiced many years. Initially it had to be conscious. You had to think about every way. But once it becomes implicit and it's part of your brain, your unconscious can process many more variables. It's unlimited as far as we know than consciousness, which is very specific, but limited.
HAKEEM: So, it's almost like your conscious brain is a computer and your unconscious brain is a quantum computer.
HEATHER: Ooh, I like that analogy. Yeah, that's a good one. I like that. Yes.
HAKEEM: It works in parallel.
HEATHER: Yes, exactly.
HAKEEM: In a state of superposition.
HEATHER: Superposition, exactly. I like that. Yeah. And so, let's say you're playing tennis or you think, "What angle exactly should I hit this ball?" You're going to get out of that flow state.
HAKEEM: That's right.
HEATHER: Because you're turning on these parts of the prefrontal cortex. You're not letting your brain do what it knows how to do, and you're getting in the way, your consciousness gets in the way. So, it's not always good to have... Once you've done all the work and the practice, then you got to let go to be in that performance mode. I remember another analogy I like is I was hiking with a friend. We were at Caltech and we were coming down the mountain, and I'm going each step thinking, "Where do I step next?" It's taking me forever. And he's like... He's a German neuroscientist. He goes, "Just run down." I can't do a German accent. And he was, "Just run. Your feet know where to go. Let your body go and do its thing. It knows how to navigate it."
HAKEEM: Yeah.
HEATHER: If you're thinking too hard about it it's going to take forever.
HAKEEM: Right.
HEATHER: And he was right actually, it was just running down. My body knew all the physics and the angles of how to navigate to step down this mountain.
HAKEEM: Right. Yeah. Yeah.
HEATHER: So, it was like a mountain, but you know what I mean? And so sometimes you have to get out of your own way.