Mind Blogging. Mind Boggling.

I listened to Tim Ferris interview Dr Andrew Huberman, renowned Neurobiologist of Stanford and author of "Dopamine - the Molecule of More". I found it the most interesting and fun podcast episode I can remember. Tim Ferris podcasts are 2.5 hour long affairs, so it's not for the queasy. I listened to this podcast story over stair climbing routines as I prep for my upcoming Himalayan trek- it gave me company over day 1 (20* (3 stories up and down)) and day 2 (30*3 stories up and down)). So well, we can call this saga : stories over stories. 

The podcast has a delightful mix of three varying flavors 1) immensely implementable lifehacks from a practising neurobiologist, 2) the loftily inspiring life story of Doc Huberman himself and 3) Neurobiology concepts. And thrown in are small bits of crunchy humour. That makes for a perfect ice cream/podcast episode!  In addition, you get to see a lot of the other flavors in the ice cream parlor which you want to savor during your next trip (i.e lots of references you are curious to read up)- so it's not just a good ice cream you had, with this podcast, but a good trip to the ice cream parlor!

Some immensely implementable lifehacks which stuck out, for me:

• 5 mins of sunlight immediately after waking up to trigger the cortisol cycle to ward away sleep
• Coffee preferably after 90 mins of waking up- not immediate- because caffeine immedeiately upon waking means Cortisol can't do its think in fighting Adenosine (the sleepiness hormone). Cortisol is enough to keep Adenosine at bay for an hour or two- so bring on the caffeine after 90 mins pls
• Photo receptors of our eyes being at the lower part of our eye so more receptive to light coming from above (sunlight)- so at night- prefer to have lights which are below your eye level so that they dont trigger the photoreceptors. Also, a brief walk in the dusk hours also helps- giving the photoreceptors some signal saying- its close to sleep time. "layering on timekeepers" as he calls it. 
• The general importance of sleep- for every life-hacky question which TF the 'human guniea pig' throws at him, Doc Huberman first answers- first solution for that is to get your sleep right
• The power of Yoga Nidra and Kamini Desai as a practitioner. I did 2 days of Yoga Nidra immediately after, and slept real well those 2 days.
• Expand your field of view to immediately relax. That's why viewing a panaroma is relaxing.  
• Double inhale - exhale to bring down stress immediately (related to concept 1) 
• Using Ashwagandha during stressful days

Some of the concepts which I found illuminating: 

• Why exhalation is relaxing: because when you exhale, your heart becomes smaller, blood needs to travel lesser distance, and therefore the heart needs to work lesser. Any time your exhale is longer than your inhale- you are calming the system down
• How the eye is actually a part of your brain and only part of your brain outside the cranial cavity
• How dopamine is the molecule of 'more' - it does not really care what caused it's secretion- but it cares about getting more of what caused its secretion. As opposed to serotonin- which makes us feel good with what we already have. Eg: looking at dog
• Breathing as an 'API' into your central nervous system
• You do think when on the bed, before sleeping- but going to sleep means allowing these thoughts to get 'fragmented'
• Concept of 'NSDR' Non sleep deep rest methods (such as yoga nidra)
• Neuro plasticity is triggered by periods of high focus followed by periods of high relaxation
• None of Bill Gates or Steve Jobs or Mark Zuck etc 'dropped out' of college- they took a 'leave of absence'. 
• How an MDMA assisted clinical trial can move the needle on 'feeling comfortable with oneself'. 
• Facing the trauma is the best way to purge the trauma
• When your mind isn't where it wants to be- use your body to control your mind

Inspiring life journey:

• Doc Huberman's journey from a not very good skateboarder or punk rock guitarist living on the streets, being on the throes of depression, to what he is now. 

Chunks of crunchy humor:

• Well, it did have a couple of moments when i laughed out loud, one being when Tim F tries to out German Huberman by pronouncing 'Zeitgeber' in a German accent. 
• Also, when Huberman refers to the tattoos covering his entire arms, as 'birthmarks'  

Read up later references (the other flavors in the ice cream parlor, for the next visit): 

• Wherever you go, there you are: book on mindfulness meditation
• Projections: book on neuroscience
• David Whyte's book being good entry point into poetry (listening may be better than reading)
• Longitude: history and discovery of time keeping at the ocean

One theme is that he really does hark back to Indian practices such as Yoga Nidra and Ashwagandha. Which makes me think- the Indian civizilation (alongside the Chinese? ) is probably the longest surviving single civilization which has had a good amount of scientific temper/skepticism embedded in itself. Which means there are lot of empirical experiments based practices imbibed in the scriptures/customs of the civilization, which today's modern methods are ratifying. However, I personally think - can't just go with everything ancient India prescribes- got to have a scientific ratification of that. However, Ancient Indian prescriptions is a wonderful set of 'hypotheses' for science to test out. After all, a hypotheses based approach which is at the very heart of the scientific process.  

Link to transcript: 

https://tim.blog/2021/07/08/andrew-huberman-transcript/

Link to podcast episode: 

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6Ac19ix9yioyJDXtTtNp2V?si=Nwg058HASOefWKkaqtsbBg&dl_branch=1&nd=1

# posted by Ashwin Ravikumar @ 11:47 AM 0 Comments

I will not name the lake (not that my blog post is going to be trending on Twitter or something, but I still do not want to attract attention to this beauty) - but this one's a a large water body, with an adjacent bush-strewn meadow, providing residence to a stunning variety of water birds and bush birds. 

Today, went with S, D and A;  armed with two pairs of binoculars (one of which (Nikon) was termed HD for its clarity and the other, an Olympus- was termed SD), to witness this : 

Water birds: Pelican, Spoonbill (first time I've seen), Black winged Stilt, Spot billed duck, Purple moorhen, Common moorhen, Eurasian Coot, Bronze winged Jacana, Cormorant, Pond heron, Painted stork, Grey heron. 

Bush/marsh birds: Eastern yellow wagtail, Pied bushcat, Bay backed shrike (the best watch of the day!), a brown UFO grazing in the grass which could be a lark or a pippit, Kingfisher, Spotted dove, Streaked weaver (with many nests dangling from a bush over the banks of the lake), Bee Eater, Brahimini kite, Regular Brown kite.     

That's a good 22 species, spotted over the duration of 2 hours. Quite a visual haul! 

(excluding the pigeon which I scorn for the menace it creates especially in my utility area outside the bathroom, against which I have created massive and elaborate fortifications in my balcony and utility area)

# posted by Ashwin Ravikumar @ 10:11 PM 0 Comments