After talking yesterday about How Our Brain Works, the question now is how you can actually use this information in a productive way?

Controlling Neurotransmitters

We can influence the production of neurotransmitters to increase greater productivity, happiness or whatever else. We’ve learned neurotransmitters can alter our mood and our ability to learn, so changing the balance of these chemicals could certainly be very useful.

Many people often rely on drugs, supplements and medications to influence the production of their neurotransmitters. This is also what caffeine does, by removing the inhibitory neurotransmitter adenosine (or neutralizing it, to be more precise).

The problem with this strategy is that it fixes the brain into a specific, unnatural state and prevents you from being able to easily ‘switch modes’. No one brain state is superior to all others. For example, creativity actually requires relaxation, not stimulation.

Worse, the brain can adapt to those changes by creating more or less ‘receptor sites’ (the points where the neurotransmitters work) to make us more or less sensitive to the neurotransmitters in question. This can eventually lead to addiction. What is a much more useful solution is to look at those factors that natural influence neurotransmitter release. If you want to hack any system, then the answer is to look at what the inputs are.

Brain Hacks

We know that bright light can increase energy and make us less sleepy, so why not consider investing in a daylight lamp which is designed to combat SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) by simulating the sun’s rays? We know that cold likewise can increase focus, while heat can help us to feel more relaxed and happy. We know that the sun and that exercise can boost our mood through the production of serotonin.

We also know that our brain is subject to certain natural cycles, those relating to sleep and hunger for instance. By timing our productivity around those things, we can work more effectively and freer from distraction.

If you find yourself feeling very stressed or depressed, then it might pay to consider some of the biological factors that may be causing that. Perhaps you’re hungry or you’re a little ill and the pro-inflammatory cytokines are causing brain fog? Once you know the problem is transient(lasts just a short about of time) and biological, it can be much easier to let it pass.

Controlling Your Brain

More importantly though, it is critical that you learn to create the moods and the feelings that you need by changing the way you think and use your brain.

The thing that makes humans unique is our ability to visualize – to internalize events and to imagine future scenarios or possibilities. This is our working memory at play and it is what enables us to think of long-term goals and to invent new ideas. When we visualize or imagine, we do so by lighting up the same neurons in the brain as though the event were really happening. Neurologically, we find actually doing something and imaging doing something almost indistinguishable.

This means that you can use visualization in order to practice things and develop skills. You can trigger brain plasticity just as though you were really practicing the event! Not only that, but you can also use this as a way to trigger the correct neurotransmitters in order to put yourself in the correct state of mind.

Ultimately, this will lead to the ability to control your own emotions and trigger the best possible mental state for the task at hand. It requires training of your visualization skills and the awareness to then use those skills to ease your anxiety and to motivate yourself to focus and to become more alert as necessary.

This is also why it is so important to avoid bad habits, even in our thoughts. This will strengthen connections and make those habits harder and harder to break.

There’s a lot more to making the most from your own brain, but this at least gives you a basic breakdown on how to better understand the brain and give it you a bit more control if you implement the correct measures.

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