Jake Burhans explains why pressure shuts down your thinking: your nervous system can't tell a presentation from a lion, so it kills off the prefrontal cortex. Box breathing (4 seconds in, hold, out, hold) resets it and gets your brain back online.
I'm gonna explain to you why you can't think under pressure and how to fix it. When you're in a dysregulated nervous system state, or what I would call survival mode, the part of your brain responsible for thinking and problem solving and seeing all the options on the field, your prefrontal cortex, it literally goes offline because your body thinks it's running from a lion. Obviously, when your body's in fight or flight mode, it's not trying to analyze the color of the tiger's fur or how fast is the tiger running. It doesn't care, just wants to run away. But your body doesn't know the difference between actually running from a lion and being scared about a presentation or being nervous for a sales call or having a difficult conversation. So we need to be aware of when our body is in survival mode, be able to regulate in real time. Using the breath is probably the best way to regulate. Box breathing in particular, 4 seconds in, 4 seconds hold, 4 seconds out, 4 seconds hold. You'll physiologically kick your body down a few gears, turn the part of your brain back on that is responsible for perception and thinking and problem solving and nuance, and you'll be able to perform at the highest level.
