Finding Peak Performance Through Stress

Stress can increase our ability to perform. It’s indisputable. Everyday you see people (athletes, students, business people) take the stress of the situation and use the stress to build great performances - the extemporaneous speech that brings people to tears, the A+ paper created during a stress laced all-nighter, the tournament winning chip shot two feet from the hole. Stress can help us find the zone. (Stress can also detract from performance which I will discuss this fact another day.) To starts let’s discuss finding peak performance through stress by asking a few questions:

Why does stress help us with peak performance and why do we use stress in the way that we do? Why do people drink lots of coffee when they’re trying to get something done? Why do people procrastinate until the last minute? And more importantly what can stress teach us… so that we can optimize our performances in a less stressful way? 

Basically, what we’re gong to discuss is how intense stress or panic activates the right side of your brain and overrides your analytical left brain. Analysis/paralysis is pushed aside and pure performance takes over.  By the end of this post it will all make sense. Now, let’s work it through.

Everyday Stress

The best way to understand anything is to look at real life. So let’s start with a little survey of stressful situations. Of the following what would cause you personally more stress? (a) A dirty house with clothes and newspapers strewn about and dirty dishes in the kitchen, (b) Ignoring a droning business associate who goes on and on and who makes you want to flee the room. (c) Moving into a new house and all the aggravation that goes with moving. (d) Being stuck in traffic.

It doesn’t matter which answer you chose. My point in asking is to demonstrate that there is such a thing as everyday stress. Stress is a part of life and is not only associated with critical moments (giving a big presentation, hitting the winning golf shot). Life is full of situations that cause us to be uncomfortable and feel stress.

First a Reminder on Stress and the Brain

Before we move on I want to remind you how the brain reacts to stress. I’ll use the example of the dirty house. If you feel stress about a dirty house either you are feeling anxious apprehension and your left brain is more highly activated because you’re embarrassed by how your house looks to others.

Or you are angry and mad that you let the house get so bad or you’re mad at your kids who messed it up. In this case, you have mild anxious arousal and your right brain is more highly activated. This is hard science and is indisputable. For more details on this topic please go to Searching For Peak Performance.

The Ongoing Stress Cycle - Training Your Brain

Everyday you learn. And as you learn you experience a little bit of stress, a little discomfort every step of the way. Think about it.  Think back to your days in school. When a teacher presented a new concept at first you were a little confused. Not baffled mind, just not confident that you knew it all and not sure you could connect all the ideas that your teacher was discussing. You needed to study a little to get it all straight and be prepared for the exam. Connecting the dots and building comprehension is slightly stressful. When you’re learning you’re right brain is being activated more than your left.

Learning is a Right Brain Activity

Know what’s interesting, learning starts out as a right brain activity. I covered this topic in Mounting Evidence of Peak Performance.  Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg confirms that the right brain is more active in learning new information, while the left brain is more active once you’ve mastered a topic. The picture is starting to fit together.

Learning and the Stress Response Cycle

Just to make this clear lets review. Learning induces a little stress that activates your right brain. As you learn you go through this process over and over. I call this the learning stress response cycle. Step 1 is learning and is right brain dominant. Step 2 is being proficient and is left brain dominant.

This is a good point to stop as how people respond to stress kind of depends on the type of activity. In the next three posts we’re going to look at stress in (a) active, aggressive sports like hockey and football, (b) in activities like golf and music that require precision during a performance, (c) in mental activities like work and school.

The mind responds to stress a little differently in all three. Till next time. David

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Enter your email address to receive updates to our blog:

Why Stress Affects Intelligence

Mental Focus, Stress and the Incredible Shrinking Brain

This post will explain how stress affects your brain and decreases intelligence.

Let’s Start At The Beginning

You see, stress is a part of life. Drive your car - and when a car cuts you off - you feel stress. Get a new assignment that’s due in a few hours - stress. Make a presentation - stress. Talk to a pretty girl - lots of stress.

Life contains stress. Even if you ran away to a remote island to live in a grass hut you would likely feel stress. Remember Tom Hanks in “Castaway”. Every scene is filled with his next stressful challenge – catching fish for dinner, building a hut, coping with his boredom by talking to the volleyball. Look at the hippie communes of the sixties. Supposedly, each member lived together with love and peace and without stress. It didn’t last. Pettiness, selfishness and disillusionment followed; all causes of intense stress.

Fact: We all face stress in some form or another everyday of our lives.

So…some stress in your life is normal. The next obvious question to answer is: what about lots of stress? What does that do to a person?Lots of stress puts people into panic. We’re talking fight or flight for men and friend or befriend for women. Lots of stress bathes your brain in all kinds of naturally occurring chemicals – cortisol, dopamine, endorphins, and more. Why does this happen? Because…to overcome a stressful situation you need to make quick decisions. When you’re running away from an angry bear or preparing to battle the oncoming hordes of enemy fighters you don’t want to spend too long thinking things through. It’s not about logic. It’s about right brained action. We can’t escape thousands of years of evolutionary programming. For this reason, a screaming client sets off the same stresses as an angry bear. (Please note: that there are different levels of stress. In another post I will discuss how psychologists define these levels.)

Long Term Affect of Stress

Over an extended period of time some of these naturally occurring chemicals can have a neurotoxic affect on the hippocampus. Basically, some of these chemicals (including cortisol, which I know you’ve heard of) eat away at the neurons surrounding the hippocampus. This doesn’t mean that a few upsetting days will hurt you. It does mean that over an extended period of time that the brain will start to decay from long term stress. The hippocampus literally shrinks and as a result your brain capacity shrinks. The hippocampus is critical to the processing of memories.

More Than The Hippocampus Is Affected By Stress

The corpus callosum is also affected. The corpos callusm connects your left brain with your right brain. A recent study of children with PTSD looked at the size of the corpus callosum. Turns out that a child with PTSD - a child living with an emotionally abusive parent, a child who doesn’t get the love they need, a homeless child - is likely to have a smaller corpus callosum. The stress and cortisol shrink their corpus callosum. Other studies on adults with PTSD have found similar shrinkage of the corpus callosum.

Does The Size Of Your Corpus Callosum Matter?

A recent study unequivocally confirmed that the size of a persons’ corpus callosum is directly related to intelligence. The study left no doubt. Long term stress makes you dumber. If you have to face stress over many years and you can’t cope or process these stressful emotions, you won’t be as smart. It’s that simple.

Long Term Memories

Long term memories are stored throughout your brain - in the left hemisphere and in the right hemisphere. Using a pencil as an example, in one place you know how to spell pencil. In another place you know how to use it. In another spot of your brain you recognize the shape. Somewhere else you recall that a pencil is made from wood and graphite. If stress has reduced the size of your corpus callosum you might temporarily forget how to spell pencil, but still be able to use it just fine.

Why Focus Stones Helps You Think More Clearly

Focus Stones helps increase the communication between your left hemisphere and your right hemisphere. Focus Stones help you use your corpus callosum more efficiently. Focus Stones help you to be more intelligent.

Len Kasper Walks

Chicago Cubs Broadcaster Finds Relief through Bilateral Stimulation

Len Kasper, the broadcaster for Chicago Cubs baseball, worked through a tough time by using bilateral stimulation. He took a walk.

Background On Len Kasper

Before being hired as a Cubs broadcaster Kasper spent many years struggling to get a stable broadcasting job. He served as fill in announcer for the Milwaukee Brewers for three years. He then tried to get a full time jobs with the California Angels and Milwaukee Brewers, but they passed him over.

“A few weeks after Kasper lost out on the jobs, the Kasper family took a trip to Sanibel Island in Florida. After lunch one day, he remembers he took a walk along the beach. Kasper started walking and thinking. The what if’s came one after another: What if this doesn’t happen? What if he wasn’t meant to be a baseball announcer?

Back at the rented condo hours passed and Pam (his wife) got worried. It was so unlike her husband to disappear without notice. He hadn’t even brought his cell phone.He returned in the evening some five hours later, having walked nearly 15 miles around the beach. Pam was angry and relieved. He told her he had come to a conclusion: If it’s mean to be, it’s meant to be. Kasper was at peace. Two weeks later, right before spring training, the Florida Marlins called.”" Chicago Tribune, Thursday February 28th, 2008.

Yes…the story has a happy ending. Kasper got the job he was looking for.

Why Did Kasper Walk?

Kasper’s five hour walk must have been filled with a tremendous amount of anxiety. His lifelong dream had been to be a sportscaster. He had a family to support and it wasn’t happening. He wasn’t getting the jobs.

Feeling the anxiety while walking was the key. Over five hours he must have visualized so many different scenarios - going back to the minors and working his way back up to the majors, getting another part time job and hoping for another opportunity. I wasn’t there with him so I can only imagine. I’ sure it was difficult.

The Key - Kasper Found Peace

When Kasper finished his five hour walk - he had found peace. Even though something he had wanted desperately for his entire life was slipping away, Kasper was okay with that fact. He had moved on and was prepared to look for another line of work.

Unintentionally, Kasper applied the same techniques recommended by Thom Hartman in his book, “Walking Your Blues Away”. He unintentionally used the same technique utilized in EMDR, TFT and EFT. Len Kasper did something that we’ve all been doing for thousands of years, he worked through a problem while walking. Kasper applied bilateral stimulation to work through an issue.

How Focus Stones Help

Focus Stones apply bilateral stimulation while you’re sitting down or standing in place. Focus Stones help you to concentrate on whatever it is that you need to do - even if its figuring out the next career move. Focus Stones let you focus on the task at hand. Focus Stones help you to be a better you.

Barbara Walters Applies Bilateral Stimulation

I’m always on the watch for people who use bilateral stimulation to help them deal with life. This week I ran across a quote from Barbara Walters.

I’m Sitting At The…

…kitchen table with my wife and she says I have to look at this. I ask, look at what. She hands me the March edition of Vogue and points to a picture of Barbara Walter’s power walking in central park wearing a clean white coat, white cotton gloves and large sunglasses. The caption read and I quote, “ALWAYS ON TRACK, Walters power-walks her way around the Central park Reservoir when she wants to think through a problem.”

AMAZING

When Barbara Walters want to think through a problem she walks. One of the most powerful women in the country walks to think things through. Barbara Walters uses the power of bilateral stimulation to focus her mind.I can only speculate about what she’s thinking about on her walk. I do know how my own mind works. She’s visualizing different scenarios. She’s processing how she feels.

In her brain she is imagining conversations. She is seeing things happen before they happen. She is extracting as much detail as she can before she makes a decision. My guess, and this is purely a guess, that her thoughts are incredibly visual detailed and precise. She is practicing visualization. This practice is nearly the same as someone who is meditating or performing self hypnosis.

Yet Another Example Of The Power Of Bilateral Stimulation

Focus Stones help you utilize the power of bilateral stimulation when you’re working, or studying or even playing golf. Focus Stones help you focus on the task at hand.

What Sigmund Freud Knew About Bilateral Stimulation

If I hadn’t read it, I never would have even thought about it. Sigmund Freud used bilateral stimulation in treating his patients. Its indisputable and if it wasn’t for the research of Thom Hartman at Air America I never would have put two and two together.

What Frued Did

During therapy Freud used, “his hand or watch to move the patient’s eyes from side to side, and occasionally stroked alternate sides of the patients body.” (Walking Your Blues Away, Thom Hartman). Freud used bilateral stimulation to help his patients process their emotions. If you’re interested in further reading, Hartman pulled this information out of a paper published by Freud and his mentor Josef Breur titled “On the Physical Mechanism of Hysterical Phenomena: Preliminary Communication“.

So What - Why This Matters?

Think about it. Sigmund Freud - the father of psychoanalysis - saw the power in bilateral stimulation. Now, mostly what we read about is Freuds theory of the Id, Ego and Superego, but what’s ignored is the mechanism. Bilateral Stimulation was a key component of what Frued’s therapy. Why did he feel compelled to use this technique?

Because It Worked

It helped his patients to better focus on dealing with their emotional issues. I’m not suggesting that just using Focus Stones can cure emotional issues. That would be silly. Freud obviously was a brilliant man who helped lead his patients toward their cure. What I am suggesting is why bilateral stimulation aided Freud.

When you’re sitting and not moving neither is your brain. To focus on the therapy, the patient needed to move his or her body which in turn stimulated the left and right hemisphere of the brain.

Bilateral stimulation helps you focus on something and understand it, even when its a painful emotion.

What This Has To Do With Work Or Mediation Or Golf

When you’re standing over a golf ball or sitting in mediation or hunched over your computer, your body is not moving, which is really no different than a patient laying on a couch and going through psychotherapy. Sometimes your body needs to move to help your mind focus.

Focus Stones help you to focus on the task at hand.

Why Some People Are More Intelligent

Intelligence and the Corpus Callosum

In a recent study the size of a persons corpus callosum was linked to intelligence. The corpus callosum links activity in your right brain to activity in your left brain. To make the information easy to digest, I’ve excerpted two sentences of the study.

“Significant negative correlations were absent. Positive associations between intelligence and posterior callosal thickness may reflect a more efficient inter-hemispheric information transfer, positively affecting information processing and integration, and thus intellectual performance” (Narr, Bilders, Thompson, Szesko, Hamilton, Toga, 2007)

The phrase inter-hemispheric information transfer was not chosen by accident. What the study is saying is that the ability to access information on both sides of your brain is a key indicator of intelligence. In other words, the more easily and rapidly you can access an idea, the greater your intellectual capacity. If a person has a larger corpus callosum, the more easily he or she can transfer information between hemispheres and the more likely he/she is to be intelligent.

Takeaway on Corpus Callosum Size

You see, the brain is not static. It is considered a plastic organ that is always changing. Which brings us to the take away. Anything you can do to increase communication between the left hemisphere of your brain and the right hemisphere of your brain will increase your intelligence. As an example, it was found in a recent study with golfers that the more skilled players had many more active brain areas distributed bilaterally across their brain. They had access to both sides of their brain, which help them be more skilled and intelligent at playing golf.

Increased bilateral brain communication makes you more intelligent. Focus Stones help increase bilateral communication in your brain. Focus Stones helps you to be more intelligent.