So good afternoon, good evening, even to people as they begin to come in to. Session 2 of this harnessing neuroscience course. Aimed at helping you to manage stress.
And welcome to those of you who are participating live and welcome to those of you who are coming into the recordings. It's, it's really a, I'm, I'm, I've been really excited by this stuff. The more I learn about it, the more I start to look at, applying it in the therapy that I still do with the, the, Small number of people that I offer therapy to still, but we're really, it's really making such a difference.
And Dawn and I were just talking before we came on about, some of the shifts in, in my world and in, in this world, and an incredible new book that's just come out called Brain Energy, . Christopher M. Palmer, I think it is.
And it's absolutely amazing with talking about how they're treating things like epilepsy, schizophrenia. Depression, obsessive compulsive disorder. Neurologically and using largely a sort of ketogenic diet.
And we're, we're only able to make these shifts. We're only able to know and recognise that things like a ketogenic diet. Can have such an impact on the brain chemistry because of this incredible burgeoning in the understanding of neuroscience, which is coming from, you know, the two big American universities, you know, Harvard and Stanford is where the, the real breakthroughs are occurring, but, I was listening to, Professor Huberman.
In one of his podcasts a few weeks ago, where he was pointing out that in their university, they have more fMRI scanners than we do in the whole of the UK, apparently. I'm not sure I entirely believe that, but it sounds an incredible claim. And it is this use of neuroscience and this increased understanding through the amount of research into.
Functional FMRI scanners that are giving us this sort of new way of working. So it's very exciting for me to be able to lead you guys through some of this stuff, and I hope you're gonna find. Our session tonight really useful.
Got a bit of a treat for you later. We're going to do, a, an experiencing of what we called, it's called somatic experiencing, and it is just revelatory for stress, and revelatory for changing your ongoing experience of living with stress. Pause as long as you do it a lot.
So we we are after that real brain plasticity shift. So. Without ado, let's crack into tonight's session.
As always, I think it's really important for you guys to know because . You know, it might be that you're on my course tonight because you're really struggling at the moment, I hope not. And if you are, I really think tonight is going to be very, very useful to you.
And what we did last week can be so incredibly useful as we start to harness our understanding and our familiarisation may be that we have this old brain and this new brain that conspire. And you guys, you do have resource and you do have the ability to get help from MetLife, and hence why I think it's important that I just pop this slide up for a few moments. So use the chat function, use the Q&A, whichever one you feel comfortable with.
But how did you get on? Were you able to, now the thing I found with the webinar series I've done in the past with vets is you guys are so busy. You know, I think GPs are busy and then I meet vets.
And, you're, you're so, so busy that you come along sometimes to this sort of thing, and then quite often when I bump into you at conferences or, you share stuff with me, or I get contacted in between sessions, and people say, you know, Mike, it was really, really helping. I was putting this stuff into action. Pause and then I got too busy.
Self compassion, that's what this is about. Have the self compassion to Find the time, make the time. Make sure that you're doing that 5 minute sighing practise.
A piece of research I came across this week, which, you know, I don't know if you ever do you ever do this, which I stuck in a folder somewhere because I thought, oh, I'll share that with the, the . With the people in my Tuesday group, and basically it was, it was comparing the 5 minute physiological sighing practise to . Meditation and really the outcomes you could slice with a very, very sharp knife, almost nothing, and the positive findings around this 5 minute physiological sighing practise where we go outside.
And we do the gentle inhaling, another one. We really oxygenate and then we let go a great big sigh, and we do that for 5 minutes, ideally, with our eyes closed, sitting on a bench outside with the sun on your face, neurologically speaking, you've got so many incredibly powerful components going on there, you know. And also, how are you getting on with stopping during the day and interspersing that physiological sigh in between.
Your clients in between your tasks in the day, you know, rather than that sort of rolling through the day without a break, without stopping, without taking a hesitation, remembering Viktor Frankel's wisdom between stimulus and response, there's a space, and in that space lies our freedom and our growth, and you can find that space. You can find freedom and growth in. And a neurodevelopment by just stopping and pausing.
And breathing between clients. And you might recall I asked you also to practise this old brain kicking in the loops. Do you remember the loops where we get the physiological brain stem response, the fear response or the ah.
Complete drop in mood response and then our new brain kicks in and very often the new brain then will, will kick in from a fear place. If it kicks in from a fear place, very often what we experience is our inner critic, you know, that inner child of us, but in a very abrasive, unpleasant, critical way. So we find ourselves being driven.
We find ourselves stuck in that dreadful paradoxical effect where we are worried so much about being stressed that we're worrying about being stressed, which makes us worry more. And that paradox gets really difficult, but we can. Start to work our loops by labelling, do you remember that?
Right, it's this old brain kicking in here. But if I'm not careful, my new brain's gonna kick in with that harsh critical voice. How can I respond better?
To that fear. And remember last week we talked about beginning this process of seeing, seeing this stuff as data. We're gonna build on that today, I think, in a very exciting, useful fashion.
And next session, we start to blend in some of the neurology of the better thinking, to combine with this emotional hack that we're working with, this emotional work we're doing today. And as we start to stop. As we start to slow down, as we start to find.
The self compassion to Label, understand, work with our neurology rather than against it, rather than be driven by it. As we start to develop what we very often call in psychiatry, executive control, which is you labelling and being the boss of your own brain. This is where emotional intelligence starts to emerge in ourselves, you know, and when we're busy, and when we've been stressed for too long, we start to misinterpret.
What our colleagues our intentions are towards us sometimes we start to misinterpret kindness. We start to misinterpret facial cues. We start to misinterpret our own bodily neurological cues the self.
What we want to do is. Through the work we're going to do together over this six week course is start to build our ability to accurately perceive and identify emotions in ourselves, of course, first, and as we get better at that, to start to recognise what's happening with our mirror neurons, and mirror neurons are when we find ourselves amongst other humans. Bouncing and picking up on their emotional exchanges, on their moods, on their facial expressions, on their mirror neurons, and we can only do this if we are finding the right state of tension.
To exist within. So what do we mean by state of tension? Let me share this with you.
And the the reason I like this is because we're able to use a very simple numerical . Reflective process, to do a sort of check in with oneself, to check in and say. Oh God, where am I?
How am I doing? What state of tension am I at? So if we think about.
State of tension one. State attention one you might see in yourself or in colleagues if we're using our emotional intelligence we can almost recognise, you know, my colleague is at a one. You know, they're struggling.
And the state attention one looks like you're almost comatose, you know, you're there. But You're tired You're lethargic, your movements are slow. Your colleague is there.
They're tired. Their movements are slow. Their responses are laboured and turgid.
And we would suggest there that this is not a good time to argue with that person. It may not be a good time to even converse with that person. It may not be a good time to have any expectations of ourselves.
State attention to is a little more active than one, and it's we're, we're sort of aware of others, but we're feeling flat. Demotivated, still very low in energy. State attention 3.
Can be seen. It's when we are with colleagues and they look like. They are not paying attention to what we're saying.
They look like our words are. Not even going in, they're sort of vaguely interested in what's happening, but their levels of flat motivation are palpable and obvious. Ideally, In our exchanges with others as human beings.
We ideally want to be at a 4. Or a 5. A fool Is very, very sustainable and doable.
That's when we're paying attention, we're interested, we're functioning, and we're doing OK. We're assimilating information and we're communicating pretty well. Right now I'm at a 5 because I'm I'm leading some learning, you know, so I need to be at a 5.
You guys need to hear the 5 in my voice. I need to beer to 5 to maintain the level of excitement that I feel about. What I'm sharing with you.
And this works, you know. And sometimes I will catch myself. I was teaching at a university today, and it was one of those things where I did the same lecture twice in the morning.
So it was about 5 hours of teaching. And I was going through the same material with another group, sort of 3 hours later. And I was definitely at a 3, and I could sense that they too were mirror neuring, neuron mirror neuroning my 3 because they.
We're picking up on my 3 and responding in a 3, and this is how mirror neurons work. I deliberately was able to go, Mike Scanlon, to myself, I don't talk to myself in front of the students usually. You're at a 3.
You can't teach at a 3, and they won't respond well if you're at a 3, up to a 5, and we might get the group in at a 4. And I have these conversations with myself, and by being able to monitor this, I'm also able to make sure that I don't go into gabbling. You know, and gabbling is when we're at state of tension 6.
The excited and keen has turned into too much tension. You'll definitely know if you've hit a 7 or an 8 because by then we're not thinking clearly our sense of neurological hurry up. Is bordering on overwhelm and.
Nearly always, our behaviour is destructive to self and others. So by Beginning to Bring emotional, bring attention to this emotional, cognitive processes on the slide here, which we call states of tension. We are better able to communicate with others, we're better able to share knowledge, we're better able to influence, we're better able to parent.
We're better able to love the people that matter to us. And the trick of this is start to label where you are. Do you know, I think I'm at a 2.
Well, that won't work. Let's bring it up to a 4 because I can keep it a 4 without burning out a 5 you can do for about an hour I reckon. And then, and then it gets a bit tiring.
So, bear in mind your states of tension as we move forward, because this is a real wonderful neurological . Strategy That helps us build emotional intelligence. And as we build that emotional intelligence, we find that we're getting on better with others.
People are understanding us better. We're relating better, and people are relating better to us. We are more able to pick up on their states of tension and recognise the mirror neuroning if there's such a word that is taking place.
Fascinating stuff. So we work tonight. As we start to look at how do we use this stuff then Mike to.
Really begin to. Impact on our stress that we're feeling. Well, I'm gonna recommend, and there's a handout that the wonderful Dawn at webinar that we'll be sending out to all of you guys, tomorrow, along with the recording that I made earlier this week of the somatic experiencing for you to practise with, and to stick on your phones or on your devices so that you can really work the somatic experiencing, which is going to be so important.
And I've put this into a handout or used a handout with this approach, but it's really, really very important for what we're looking at today. Because, particularly with difficult emotion. When we are Experiencing.
Difficult emotion. Such as fear. Anger Loss Sadness.
Rage Our frontal cortex very often. Gets overstimulated, and as the frontal cortex gets overstimulated, we start to get much more amygdalic. Drive and amygdalic drive remember is we start to get driven by this real.
Brat drive. Do you remember the, the, the three systems of emotional regulation from last week? And we move from being driven to succeed.
We move from being driven to be liked, we move from being driven to do a great job, we move from being driven to be. Kind and to be received well by people around us, into the drive function changes we get driven just to seek safety. And that means that we Our our stress levels become so intolerable because the more we start to seek safety and we get it by becoming avoidant.
Our neurological functioning starts to appreciate that and and likes it. And so the more we avoid. The more the brain recognises that, well, all I need to do is is stress, and if we stress, they avoid, and we want them to avoid because avoiding is safe.
So we get driven by this, urge for safety, the be safe brain, and that doesn't work at all well for us as human beings. So what we want to do really simply is get brilliant. At spotting these emotions as they bubble up and they arise.
And then accurately naming them. This is anger This is anxiety. This is fear This is excitement.
Because actually Sometimes we misinterpret. Some of this stuff as we'll see it on the next slide because they are so closely correlated. Sometimes an emotion like excitement has real positive valence attached to it, i.e., it's a positive response to something.
However, if we are very used to responding with overwhelming anxiety. If we don't stop. Breathe, sigh, create space.
If we don't name that emotion, and as the slide says, as soon as we name the emotion, we have a dampening down effect on the frontal cortex. There is a, oh. Just by naming emotion amazing but true just by naming emotion so Rather than be A marionette or puppeted by our emotions.
Simply by Noticing And naming emotion, we can achieve that. Frontal cortex. Oh, dampen down.
We can in effect put a break. On our emotions. And as soon as we do that.
We are able to gain a degree of mastery. Over responding. Much, much better to these emotional.
Hijacks. And what we start to see is. As we are less.
Hijacked by our emotions as we start to move from a reaction which is Infinitesimally quick to a response which is still quick but much slower. Our functioning starts to change and we notice it. And other people notice it.
And our stress levels. Begin to improve simply by spotting, naming emotion. If we're really brilliant at this, we spot it, we name the emotion, and then we go curious.
And when we go curious, we stimulate the appetitive part of the brain isn't that just brilliant. So As soon as we go curious, the brain goes looking for reward, and the reward we find. If we stay with this process is the answer.
Why am I Why am I responding to this old brain new brain stuff that's going on here? What's going on with me? What is this about?
Oh, it's because it's that client that comes in with the dashund, and she's always so critical and so rude when she speaks to me. That's why my fear brain's been activated, right. Ah, to be honest, I'm the expert here.
I'm the person who trained for 67 years to be as expert as I am. I don't need To be feeling a sense of threat from this cross angry human that's brought their animal in to see me. To gain from my expertise.
So we Build in that reward chemistry by merging a bit of curiosity once we've noticed and named that emotion, isn't it brilliant? I love this stuff. And After a while of doing this, we get much, much better accurately.
Naming the emotions that are showing up because in my years and years and years and years of working in this field. I've come across this phenomenon which is that very stressed people misinterpret their emotional cues, so there are times when. They are Absolutely Delighted about a situation.
But they misinterpret it as being tense. And Over agitated. You know, and vice versa, so.
What we want to do is we want to get so good at this spotting and naming emotion that we spot it. We name it, and then we lean in. And we check it out, is that actually threads?
Or is this annoyance? Or is this Righteous Indignation And we narrow and we're much more accurate. With the naming of what it is that our brains are actually sending us.
And as we start to do this, we begin to develop the executive control of emotional mastery. And we can all do it. We just have to start working with it.
It's great, isn't it? And the more we practise this stuff, the better we get at it, the . The better we deal with.
The stress in our lives. The more we master this, the more we recognise this then in others, because when we're stressed, we misinterpret so many of these mirror neuron exchanges that we have with others. And when we misinterpret others, they get cross and angry with us or impatient or dismissive of us.
And of course we pick that up and it becomes a a sort of vicious circle. As we get better at noticing and spotting emotion in ourselves. The byproduct is we get much better.
At Managing that mirror neuron exchange by Having the emotional intelligence to recognise much more accurately. What's going on with others as well, because we do lose that so often. When we get stressed.
So We need to see this stuff as data. And some data, some emotional data is a lot easier. To Decipher than others.
Let's just try and make sense of this. So if you imagine emotions and cognitions for a second, but we imagine them as boats for a second. So Something happens where someone is rude to us or dismissive of us or somebody.
Does something that triggers an angry response. Neurologically speaking. The emotion comes first.
So we have this, and if it's anger, if we imagine anger for a minute the boat. The anger boat is not. A quiet rowboat or a serene sailboat.
The anger boat is like a, a speedboat with board motors on it. It's a well. And the speed.
That that travels with and it picks up thoughts on the way and the thoughts that it delivers. For us to Engage in particular behaviours are jumbled and hurried and quick, and multiple in their numbers. So We have to slow down.
We have to quieten the brain in order to be able to make sense, in order to be able to manage the speed of that emotion. Sadness On the other hand, Sadness is different. When we feel sadness, it is a much slower boat.
And the thoughts it pick up are fewer. And heavier And darker and when it delivers that to us. It's not accompanied by a sharp energy.
But accompanied by a slow dull fear. Now, As we start to get better. At Seeing emotion.
As data we are so much better at responding well to it. And very often What the emotional data is asking for is reassure me. Be kind to me.
Make me feel safe. Find solutions. Slow it down, please.
Give me a break. And unfortunately as human beings. We don't slow down enough and we don't interpret that data slowly and carefully and warmly and with compassion.
And we just get more and more stressed. So we need to be slowing down. And we do need to see the emotional.
Neurological Drives phenomena that we experience throughout our day. As data And we need to meet it with that appetitive curiosity to look at what's this wanting from me. Remember you're in executive control.
And what do I need to do? To improve this situation. And do I need to avoid?
Which is what my brain usually wants us to do, or can I meet it differently? And ideally We meet that data with warm, compassionate self-talk, which we really go into in a lot more detail next week. So we do need To recognise that.
As the slide says, we don't have to be ruled or puppeted by the unconscious biological neurological forces that I call amygdalic hijacks. Or the mimicry of mirror neurons we can hone our emotional intelligence to. Acknowledge and listen to our minds and bodies by actually saying what's going on in my flipping body right now?
Why is my heart beating like this? You know, I'm, I, I'm, I'm enjoying . I'm enjoying A coffee break with colleagues.
What? Why would my brain be charging like this? What's this data telling me?
What emotions am I picking up from others in my room? Look around. Meet it with this wonderful.
Adaptive curiosity. And accept that feelings nearly always offer useful information. So we need to ask ourselves, what are these sensations and emotions wanting from me?
This is actually just data, I don't need to be scared of it. What does it want me to do? Say, act, think.
And do I want? To do as I'm told, really importantly. And sometimes what we need to do is we need to step out of actual self.
And into what we call that observing self, and we'll do, we'll we'll look at this, in a minute actually, because when we do the somatic experiencing, you are doing it from your observing self. You're gonna experience it in 2 minutes. If my heart weren't pounding like this.
Would I Could I respond differently? So we've gotta get better. At just chatting.
To that brain of ours. And the way To hone that Is to keep seeing emotion. As data Sighing, slowing down, using your loops.
And beginning to develop a new language. It's it's a bit like going to China and speaking Greek, you know, we're not gonna get very far. We've got to speak to our brain in a language it understands.
And that's some of what we're doing today. So we look at this. I put this slide up because when you do.
Somatic experiencing as an exercise. In effect, what you're doing is a bit like this slide, you're. You're coming up alongside someone.
And you're gently cajoling them and reassuring them and making them feel safe just as I think. Poo is doing with Piglet in the slide. We'll be friendly forever, won't we, Pooh?
Asked Piglet. Even longer Who answers reassuring. Warm and kind, making Piglet feel safe.
Who knew we'd be talking about pooh bear tonight, eh? So we need to come up alongside our own brains, and this is what we do. If the somatic tracking, and that's the link there.
But the wonderful dawn will send that link along with the handout from today, to you tomorrow, so don't worry too much, about that. So I'm gonna ask you to get yourself into a meditative. Stance position.
And, and broadly speaking, when we're meditating, we want to just ask ourselves, imagine a mirror in front of you, and if that full length mirror in front of you and you were sitting, I'm going to shift to make myself more dignified. You just want to, do I look? Relaxed Calm and dignified.
Cause that's how we need you to be looking. So uncross your legs if you're slumped on the sofa or lying down, sit yourself up. Find a position that is dignified, relaxed.
And comfortable. And when you're ready This should take about 9 or 10 minutes, guys, so. You know, This isn't that quick, but it's.
Revolutionising the way we work with stress. Let's give it a go. So we just begin By allowing our eyes.
To just close And if we don't feel comfortable closing our eyes to allow them to grow heavy. And maybe focus on a spot on the floor or the wall. And eventually maybe even let them close relaxedly and quietly.
And we take our attention outside. And We get a sense of any we can hear outside. And we get a sense of what the weather might be like out there.
And We just Get a sense then. Of It's safe outside. My where I am, there is no danger there.
We quietly reassured ourselves. Then we bring our attention to the room that we're working in. And we notice that the room we're in.
I also Pretty safe. And we listen to the sounds in this room. And we settle in and Allow And then we bring our attention right into our own.
Inner experience and we find our breath. We just anchor our attention. To the Motion Of breathing Breathing in And breathing out, not particularly changing the way we breathe, just enjoying it.
Noticing that in this present moment. Our bodies are sensing. No threat We are safe.
And now I'm going to ask you to bring your attention. Deliberately on purpose. To the physical feeling.
A physical sense of anxiety. See if you find it. You may need to Go find that sense of anxiety.
That you know That you've experienced. That you can recognise, just find. Any anxiety.
That's bubbling around in you. This evening And See if we can locate. With our mind's eye where that anxiety is sitting.
And quietly Using our inner voice. Just describe where that anxiety is manifesting itself. Is it in your throat?
Or in the chest. Or in your tummy Just find where it sits and focus your attention. On the bodily sensations of anxiety.
And now deliberately on purpose. Using that mind's eye voice. Just quietly to yourself, describe the sensation.
That accompanies the physicality of that anxiety. Is it flattery? Is it tight?
Is it uncomfortable, discomfort? Is it possibly painful? And Now we're going to do something that might feel quite counterintuitive.
We're going to Deliberately on purpose, focusing on that anxiety. We're paying attention to the anxiety and really important we need to be aware of intent. Reminding ourselves this isn't about Making the anxiety go away.
Ridding ourselves of this stuff. Our purpose is To sit with it. To meet it and explore it.
So as we sit here With our eyes gently closed. Attending warmly. Curiously and compassionately to this anxiety.
Just notice whether your old brain and new brain. A conspiring It shouldn't feel like this. It's rubbish.
Why, why do I Feel like this. Others don't feel this way and Just notice whether any of that. Criticism-based response is babbling around.
And I just ask you to consider. The anxiety to be rather like a scared in a child. That needs reassuring.
And soothing So let's meet our anxiety. And let it know. It's OK.
This is just anxiety. There is no threat. We are safe, you know.
This is just bodily sensations. And maybe We Breathe into it with 2. Very quiet, gentle inhales.
And as we breathe out and sigh. We just let go. And we allow the anxiety to dissipate.
And we remind ourselves we're safe. This is just old brain. New brain stuff.
There is no threat. We don't need to make the anxiety go away. Because it's just stress.
It's just anxiety. Will soothe it instead. So as we sit here, Just watching, noticing.
With a sense of detached curiosity. And compassionate interest. Our minds will wander.
Yours probably have already. What's for tea? What time are we finishing?
What have I got tomorrow? What was that sound and just noticed that If the mind feels able to go wandering away from that sense of threat. Then it must be feeling comfortable.
So we are safe. Hm. And finally What emotions?
Are showing up as we sit here. Allowing getting to know our own brains. Reminding ourselves that we are safe.
And when we find the motion. We name it Yeah, and be curious about its function. And we wait for that emotion.
To subside Because emotions do. Especially when We are safe. This is just data.
And we can be with that data. And recognise what our brain wants for us. And we can remind ourselves that we're the boss.
We have emotional. Executive function. We will choose.
Our responses. And in this moment now. We are experiencing the beginning.
Of a liberated mind. When you're ready, everybody. Just gently come back to the room.
The recording, I've sent you through is, I think it's about 12 minutes long. So this does require some commitment from you. And what I would say is that.
If we are able To create new habits and new conversations. Using what we have done today. We are beginning this process of neuroplasticity.
But neuroplasticity will only occur in a positive helpful way. If we are creating new habits and new conversations, pause. Every day.
So my ask of you guys is maintain the 5 minute sighing practise into your mornings. Keep finding time to stop between tasks and breathe. Keep noticing when your old brain becomes activated.
Build on your labelling habit. You know, there's my new brain, there's my old brain. And start making that new brain work for you.
By making sure that you always recognise that you have a multitude of responses to choose from. What anxiety does and avoidance does is it shrinks our lives. And we're not gonna allow that anymore.
What are my choices? Wait. See them, find them.
Make judgments about them and choose a response that is kind and good for you. And let's really work on the noticing and naming of emotions in order to dampen down that frontal cortex. And please, please find 1213 minutes.
At least once a day, preferably twice a day. Be kind to yourselves. And start that somatic experiencing.
Because the more you do that. The greater mastery. You will gain over.
Your neurological functioning and you will start to feel a lot less stress in your life. Next week I will be sharing with you some references from sessions 12, and 3, in case you want to do a little bit more. Reading around what we're covering.
I'm aware I haven't yet, but I just thought I'm giving you enough homework as it is, so I was trying to be a bit kind. So, before we finish, . It's 10:58, about time, I think.
If anybody's got any questions, any observations. Anything you'd like me to respond to? Now is your opportunity.
If you feel uncomfortable sort of asking or sharing live as it were, if you send any queries to Dawn at the webinar that, she would always forward your emails on to me and I promise to answer. So, And Dawn's very kindly put her email out there. And Thank you so much for being with me tonight.
You saw a glimpse of next week's session. It's a cracking session next week as well. I'm so enjoying putting this stuff together and I'm, I'm putting it together each week.
Just in case, . Any sort of insights come from you guys in between sessions. So I'm trying to be responsive to whatever you send.
And so, bear that in mind and You know, ask away. Thank you all very much tonight. Massive thank you to Dawn for being so fabulous and steering us through tonight.
And if there are no questions. Have wonderful Calm Relaxed, self-compassionate evenings. Enjoy No questions from you, Kirsty.
And super duper. Well, I'll go with that. Good night everybody.