Simple Ways to Sharpen Your Memory, Learning & Thinking

Have you ever had a day where you're quick, you're creative, you almost feel like limitless and unstoppable, and then the next day your brain feels like it's maybe stuck in molasses, that you're in just slow motion?

First, the bad news is, is that we lose about 5% of the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus every decade after 40.

What if being sharp wasn't random? What if it was something that you could really train? It's something that you could influence. It's something that you can control. What neuroscientists have found is that 40 Because there are really only 2 ways to think about your brain. It either serves you incredibly well, or it could serve you a lot better.

Right, so picture this in detail, and part of that's gonna be you've now given yourself an action plan to put into place, but another part is you've activated this, this brain area that's really good. Like I said, it finger wags and will get you to do the thing you're feeling conflicted about.

What we're gonna be talking about is what if becoming sharper wasn't about working harder, but it was about thinking smarter and focusing smarter, remembering more, Welcome back, Kwik Brain. I am your host and your brain coach, Jim Kwik. Today we are diving into one of the most important conversations that we can have. How do you use your brain? How, how does it work? How can you use it to be sharper, more decisive, more resilient in a world that really demands more from your mind every single day? Yeah, I think that's a great question. single day. And my guest today is Dr. Therese Houston, a cognitive scientist and the author of this book, Sharp. And I highly recommend you get your copy, 14 Simple Ways to Improve Your Life with Brain Science. So, you know, this is going to be a fun conversation. She's here to show us how these small shifts in how we live, how we think, you know, what we choose, how we respond can radically upgrade our mental clarity, our confidence, and our creativity. And hopefully doing this in a way where we don't feel exhausted and burnt out, right? So whether you're a student, you're a leader, you're a parent, you're a lifelong learner, this episode is really packed with science-based strategies to help you make better decisions, to be able to learn more effectively, to be able to recover faster from setbacks, and become the sharpest version of yourself. So get ready to rewrite your story, whatever chapter you're in, especially around your brain, that you are the pilot of your brain. You don't have to be the passenger because we know it's not It's flexible. And today we're going to prove it. So let's jump in. Welcome to the show, Dr. Houston.

Oh, thank you so much, Jim. I've been a fan of your show for quite a while now. So what a treat to be here.

From your point of view, why, why is it important to understand our brains and how to work with neuroscience easier? Because what I love about the book is there are all these references. You even see in the subtitle, it says, you know, Wisp Brain Science, but you make it very easy for people. So why is that important to understand the brain and to make it more accessible for everybody?

Well, we use our brain obviously in everything we do. Students know they're using their brain when they're studying or taking exams. But as you move through life, parenting, listening, even exercising, you're using your brain in all the different things that you do throughout the day. But most of us don't know how the brain works. And neuroscientists, I'm sorry to say, my colleagues haven't done a great job of making it accessible. But if you understand how your brain works, you can optimize, you can make better choices, you can have more control. I like to think of it as, would you, you know, if you sat down in a Porsche 911 with a stick shift and you've only driven a stick shift 5 or 6 times, are you going to be able to pull it out of the driveway? Probably. Are you going to have a smooth ride? Probably not. Are you going to get the most out of the experience? Definitely not. And likewise, if you don't understand how your brain works, at least those things that we want to improve upon are much harder to improve upon.

Right, because it affects everything.

Absolutely.

Is there one myth that kind of stands out for you or one habit that you wish people would unlearn when it comes to improving their brain and how it functions?

I think, I think the myth that people cling to is that multitasking makes you more effective and more efficient. In fact, I've heard particularly women will brag about how they're better multitaskers than, you know, their male partners. And it's one of these funny things because the neuroscience is really clear on this, and that is that multitasking is bad for you.

Hmm.

Uh, first of all, it reduces brain activity by about 37% for whatever the main task is that you're trying to do.

Wow.

And that, and some people might be thinking, oh, but Therese, maybe I'm more efficient. Errors go up by almost 50% when you multitask. And so, so you've got reduced brain activity, so you're not using your brain as effectively as you could, and you're making more mistakes. And if it's an important task, obviously you don't want to make more mistakes. The other thing that is, and it slows you down. The thing that I found most concerning when I was reading the research on this is that people who multitask a lot will, as a result, find it harder to focus deeply later when they want to focus, right? So you might be thinking, well, I just have to, I just have to multitask for an hour or 2 this afternoon because, you know, I have, I have so much to do and I keep getting all these texts and I just need to pivot back and forth. It will be harder later when you say, okay, now I can really focus. It will actually be harder to do. So my, my motto right now is single task, single task, single task. And I know that's hard, but if you can, like, one of the things I'll sometimes do when I'm having trouble single tasking is I'll set a timer. I'd set it on my phone and, and I'm going to, and I'll set it for 20 minutes and I'm just going to do one task for 20 minutes, no interruptions. And it, it, it's, it's amazing how much more effective and deeper into the work I can get when I take that little, little, give myself that gift of single tasking.

Yeah, we could do so much in 20 minutes. Um, many people are listening to this, you know, This is their 20 minutes, uh, for learning and engaging their curiosity. I have a, uh, I think my son took it. I have a timer on my, I had an analog, uh, uh, kitchen, uh, like a tomato timer, like for our Pomodoro technique. And it's, I like everything that's analog. I even have like a, like an hourglass here. People are watching this on, on YouTube, the extended version. Any opportunity to not, you know, engage with another, uh, form of technology. But yeah, monotask over multitask for sure.

Yeah, well said. I like that monotask. And I'm going to look for that timer. I just, I haven't seen that, but I love to have gadgets. So that's a nice one.

In the book, 14 Simple Ways, right, to Improve Your Life with Brain Science. Everybody wants the magic pill, right? Of course. But if someone could only start with one, I'm thinking about the smallest hinge that swings the biggest door. What would you You're your favorite bee.

Well, you know, we were just talking about attention and multitasking is bad for attention. So something that is now one of my go-tos, I don't use it daily, but I use it at least once a week, are binaural beats. Have you talked about binaural beats on the show before?

A little bit.

A little bit?

Yeah, we can definitely talk about it.

Great. So with binaural beats, you're basically, you know, putting on your headset, your headphones or your AirPods, and you want to You know, go to YouTube and search for 40 Hz binaural beats, and you can, you know, put in the show notes how to spell binaural beats. But basically 40 Hz binaural beats, that's going to be an incredible tool for giving you concentration and focus. So on a day when you're feeling distracted or on a day when you sit down at your computer and you just keep checking other websites and doing searches that are not relevant to your work, which we've all been there, Like I said, put on your headphones, search for binaural beats, 40 Hz. And what you're gonna hear is it's just gonna be a steady tone. Sometimes there's music, you can choose whether or not you like music in the background. Sometimes I find the music distracting, but basically the brain is doing, you're gonna hear 2 different tones in the 2, your 2 ears, but it's only gonna sound like one humming sound, like a, and turn it to a volume where you can pretty much ignore it. And what it's going to do, neuroscientists have found your brain when it's doing the math basically between those 2 different tones, it puts your brain into something called entraining the brain, and it allows your brain to be synchronized with that frequency. So if it's synchronized with 40 Hz, what neuroscientists have found is that 40 Hz is your concentration frequency. When your neurons in your brain are firing at more or less 40 Hz, you're very focused. And so I love this trick because if you're already working at your computer, you, and you need to focus, you Turn on your 40 Hz binaural beats and within minutes you will be so focused. It is, it's just one of my favorite techniques nowadays when I'm just feeling scattered.

And it's again, it's this wonderful illustration of once you understand how your brain works, you can work your brain better.

Exactly.

I use an app. My favorite is one called NuCalm and they have different tracks for focus, for recovery, for flow states, and they have a proprietary audio technology that actually mixes it. It's again, like the binaural beats where it's below our conscious level of awareness, but it's randomized. So we don't get truly retrained and trained with it. So we always have to make those kind of connections.

Oh, interesting.

But more for both the binaural beats, NuCalm, everything in the show notes, always at jimkwik.com/notes. When we announced that we would be having this conversation with you, a lot of questions revolved around mental and cognitive fatigue, right? Many of our listeners, they are aspiring or established, you know, high performers, like entrepreneurs, executives, actors, athletes, students, but they feel exhausted. What does the science say about cognitive fatigue and how do we sharpen our minds when we might be feeling mentally drained, but we're still expected to perform?

It's tough. It's really tough. So, yeah, yeah, we've all been there where we, you know, it's Friday, it's been a really stressful day and your friend asks, hey, what do you want to do for dinner tonight? And you're like, I don't know. Can you please pick?

Right?

And you just feel, you know, not only cognitive fatigue but decision fatigue, especially if it's been a stressful day or you've had to make a lot of decisions. We've all been there. So a number of different things you can do. First of all, doing a quick mindfulness meditation, because often one of the things that's happening there is that you're feeling very stressed and When you're stressed, your ability to think clearly, your prefrontal cortex, this area right behind your forehead, becomes impaired and diminishes function and executive function goes down. That's one of the key things that your prefrontal cortex is responsible for doing is having high executive function. And so a 10-minute mindfulness meditation researchers have consistently found is one way to reduce that, those stress levels so that you'll feel less cognitive fatigue. I'm also a big fan of yoga nidra, which is like taking a power nap, which is— so again, you can find this on YouTube. Maybe NuCalm even has some yoga nidra, but it's a great way to recharge. And then researchers are now beginning to call these exercise snacks.

Exercise snacks.

You know, yeah. So, you know, you might be feeling like, okay, I know I should go to the gym. I don't have the energy to do that because it's been such a hard day and I'm feeling cognitively fatigued, running up and down the stairs, you know, do, do, do that 5 times. Do, do something that— or do hold a plank for 30 seconds. So there are these, these very brief exercise bouts that they thought that researchers are finding won't have long-term benefits in terms of heart health, but can immediately give you a cognitive boost so that you can reset. So if you're about to spend a, you know, you just finished one Zoom call, you've only got 5 minutes before the next Zoom call starts, go do, you know, turn off your camera, go do a 30-second plank, and chances are you'll feel a bit refreshed. It's surprising how effective it is.

Our audience ranges in age and stages, you know, of life. And I'm just curious with your research how age matters when it comes to cognitive functions and our focus, our creativity, our thinking process, our ability to remember. Does it change Have you, have you seen research or your personal experience, like with, with working with clients earlier in life and, and later in life? Like where, where, where have we seen people excel maybe early in life, where later in life maybe we could share an insight or an instruction where we can apply, apply it to navigate the seasons?

Nicely said. Well, let's, let's do a quick comparison of the 25-year-old brain compared to the 55-year-old brain. And you, you know, you can put yourself wherever you are on that continuum. At 25, or in your teens, but in your early to mid-20s, you're going to have incredibly quick processing speed. So your ability to think quickly is going to be at its peak in your, in your 20s, early 30s. And that's called fluid intelligence, is what psychologists would call it. It's this ability to absorb new information, solve new problems, you know. So if you're on a team, And you're trying to figure out, okay, how does our company adapt to all these new AI innovations? Someone who's younger is probably going to be quick to solve that problem because they're quick thinkers. And that's, that's not because someone who's older is overwhelmed by the technology. No, they, as you get older, we just don't tend to think as quickly as we did when we were in our 20s. So that's one of the big advantages for the 25-year-old brain. There are, however, advantages to the 55-year-old brain as well. So the first, the bad news is, is that we lose about 5% of the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus every decade after 40. So you might not feel it at 40, you might not even feel it at 50, but often at 60 you begin to feel like, oh, I'm trying to think of someone's name and it's just not coming to me. And part of that's loss of the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex, which are going to help you with working memory and the ability to recall things. But there are some advantages. So that's the downside of being 55. But one of the good pieces of news is that what you have more of is something called crystallized intelligence. So we had fluid intelligence peaks in your 20s, crystallized intelligence is peaking in your 50s and 60s. And that is your ability to recognize patterns. So drawing upon experience. And so it might seem if you're younger thinking, oh, it is so annoying that people will often refer back to other things. But their ability to notice patterns is beginning to peak in your 50s and 60s because you have seen so many different things and you're able to pull and synthesize that information. So that's great news because maybe it's the 20-year-olds who are saying, OK, here's how we can adapt to AI and all the challenges it's bringing to our group or our organization. But The 55-year-old in the group can say, okay, well, when we've made big changes before, here's what I've noticed has worked and here's what I've noticed hasn't worked. And that's going to be a contribution that they can make that's going to be unique and highly valued. So those would be 2 ends of kind of the continuum, at least within the workforce. Now, how can you optimize at different ages? So one of the challenges When you're younger is, you know, knowing how to, to capitalize on that fast thinking. And so being, having really explicit goals can be very helpful. It doesn't mean that has to be your goal for the rest of your life, but your goal for right now and getting clarity on the way that you want to, you know, use your, use your abilities for the day and getting focused. When you're older, one of the things that can be really helpful is to make sure you're still doing a lot of exercise. One of the ways to gain neurons back in both the— you can gain neurons back in the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex. We don't add neurons as adults, but we can add more connections. And exercise is, particularly aerobic exercise, is one of the best ways to do that. So if, you know, maybe your knees aren't allowing you to run or play basketball the way that you used to, but find some other form of aerobic activity. Maybe that's swimming, maybe that's a Zumba class.

Mm-hmm.

Find cycling, find something that can get your heart rate up and sustain it up beyond just the exercise snacks. And that's, that's demonstrated as one of the best ways to gain neurons back, build brain reserves in your hippocampus.

Yeah, I found that generally what's good for your heart is going to be good, good for, good for your head.

Exactly.

You know, also as well, that when our body moves, our brains, you know, are grooving also. A lot of our listeners, they're students of ours for like our accelerated learning, reading, memory improvement programs. And the topic was brought up in Sharp about emotional regulation. And how important is emotional regulation to learning? And can emotional regulation in a way make us more effective, more Absolutely.

So 2 things. First, everyone can relate to the experience of you've had something that made you angry, and you just keep replaying the experience and justifying to yourself how outrageous someone else's behavior was. And you find then it very hard to be present for new things that are coming your way. You find it hard to be present for the conversation that you're having with someone else, or you find it hard to now focus on your schoolwork. You're trying to learn something and you're just repeating that fence in your head of what happened and how indignant you feel. Okay, that we've all been there. That's really tricky. That's a case where you're having trouble regulating your emotions. You may not think of it that way. You may think, well, I'm justifying, Therese, you know, why this was so upsetting to me, but it's getting in the way of your ability to think and focus. And there's clear research indicating that people who have high working memory, which is your ability to you know, maintain multiple things in memory at once. People who have high working memory also have high abilities with emotional regulation. They don't know exactly what's going on there. At first, they thought maybe it was the same brain mechanisms, but that's subsequently been shown not to be the case. But there's something about— right now, the current hypothesis is maybe it's about focus. Are you able to direct your attention where you want it to go? And so I think that's a really helpful insight. Jill Bolte Taylor is a neuroanatomist, I believe, University of Indiana. And she makes the observation that when something is emotionally agitating, there's about, she calls it the 90-second rule. You have about 90 seconds where there's a flood of chemicals and you're angry or you're afraid. And after about 90 seconds, those chemicals are cleared for the most part from your system. And at that point, if you're still angry or afraid, it's because of the story you're telling yourself. And that's where emotional regulation comes in. A couple of minutes after whatever the upsetting experience was, are you ruminating on it? Are you reframing it? You know, you had a recent guest on who was talking about an experience he had where he was— he'd lost so much money and he was devastated by it. And then he, a day or two later, he realized, wait, this is— I can have the biggest comeback ever. And I love that, right? That's emotion regulation at its finest. And so if you can find a way to, it's called cognitive reappraisal from psychologists, but just reframe the situation. How do I want to think about this differently? It doesn't mean that the issue doesn't matter to you. It just means you're being smart about how you're using your energy.

Yeah. We had the opportunity to interview Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor. We'll link to that in the show notes.

Oh, please do.

I want to go back to solid decision-making. I have a belief that That our lives are the sum total of all these decisions we've made right up to this point. And, you know, every day we have a chance because we can make a new choice. I want to maybe think about how we can enable better decisions. You know, sometimes when we're in that, we're in a stress state, we're in that fight or flight, we're kind of held hostage in our survival brain.

Yes.

And we don't have easy access to the executive functioning, problem solving, creativity, innovation, all those different areas. You also talk about in Sharp, you know, about our vagus nerve. So I'm wondering, how can we use the vagus nerve potentially in other parts, you know, in that parasympathetic state to make better decisions, you know, do it from a place of clarity and calm? You know, I don't know if you have an exercise that maybe, you know, we could go through, but I'm sure right after this, if people aren't, you know, are listening during the day or in the afternoon, they going to have to make decisions and there's always a consequence from those decisions. And I don't want people to do it out of, you know, in a stressed state. You know, when we're angry, we probably don't make the best decisions, you know, as an example. But is there something you do to get yourself centered and clear and calm? None of the ingredients contained in the Kwik Mind product are claimed to treat any disease or health condition. Consult your own physician before commencing a nootropic regimen to ensure that this product is appropriate Do you struggle to stay focused or find that your mind wanders when you need to be sharp? Are you looking for an advantage or an edge that can eliminate sluggishness and elevate your cognitive performance? That's why after decades of research and development, I'm thrilled to bring you Kwik Mind. It's more than just a supplement. It's a key to unlocking your cognitive freedom on a day-to-day basis. Just imagine having of clarity of thought, sharp focus, better memory, and being calm under pressure. Every capsule of Kwik Mind is a blend of 5 pristine ingredients, each backed by research and chosen for its ability to support specific cognitive functions. So are you ready to meet the sharpest version of yourself? It's just a click away. We have it all at kwikmind.com. Place your order for Quick Mind today and join a community that's redefining what it means to live a life of mental abundance.

Thank you for giving me this opportunity. I'd love to demonstrate. It's a, it's a brief breathing activity that objectively improves decision-making. And it's when I'll step you through it here and people can join along.

Okay. Yeah, I would love to do that.

Would you love to do it?

Okay, great. I'd love to do it. Yeah. So if anyone, some people are listening to this right now, you might be working out and you might be driving, you might be journaling, whatever it is, if it's safe to do so, you know, you know, take a minute and do this with us, or definitely pause it and come back to it.

Great. So I'll describe it briefly, and then we'll step through it. So what I'm going to have you do in a moment is exhale all of your air. And then I'm going to instruct you to do a 5-second, which is long, inhale, hold for 2, and then a 7-second exhale. And we'll do it, we'll run through it twice.

Are you, are you inhaling through the nose or exhaling out of the mouth?

Great question. Thanks, Jim. You wanna inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth, ideally like you're, you're blowing on a piece of hot pizza or you're, you're blowing out a straw. So, you know, it's pursed lips. So inhale through your nose, exhale through pursed lips. And if you find during the inhale that you've— it's suddenly hard to do a 5-second inhale, you get to 3 and you're like, I can't inhale anymore, Therese, just start holding your breath early. That's fine. The most important part is that long, slow exhale.

Eyes open or closed?

Whatever you prefer. I often, when I do this with a group, people close their eyes, but whatever's comfortable for you.

Yeah. Obviously people are driving or operating machinery. Don't use your intelligence. We have a very smart community here.

So there's still going to be benefits if you keep your eyes open. So, all right. So everybody exhale your air and inhale 2, 3, 4, 5, hold 2, Exhale, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Again, inhale, 2, 3, 4, 5. Hold, 2. Exhale, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Okay, how do you feel, Jim?

I feel good. It was like, yeah, that was a 5-2-7 count.

5-2-7, correct.

I feel energized but not jittery. Like I feel calm.

Yeah.

You know, even, even just doing like a couple cycles of that.

Yeah. In the, in the lab, what researchers found, we just did about 25 seconds worth. If you did this for, in the lab, they do it for 2 minutes. So we did 2 cycles. 2 minutes would be about 8 cycles. Now what they find is that objectively improves decision-making. People make fewer decision-making errors. They make faster decisions even under stressful time-pressured conditions. Now, there are some complex decisions, you know, around like, you know, which college should I accept? There are some that are— you're not going to necessarily make that decision instantly when this is done, but it should offer some clarity. It should clear out some cobwebs and allow some priorities to rise to the surface. So it's a— and what it's— one of the things it's doing, it's activating the vagus nerve. That really slow exhale activates the vagus nerve.

Mm-hmm.

Which increases activity in some areas of the brain, decreases activity in others. It increases activity in the prefrontal cortex. So it's improving your decision-making and it reduces activity in your amygdala. So you feel less threat. And often it's that threat response that makes it hard to make a decision. We feel like there's so much on the line and taking down that amygdala activation can make it seem like, okay, wait, I can do this.

That's amazing. And what I like about it, it doesn't take a lot of resources, right? It's very quick. So it doesn't take a lot of time. There's no financial, you know, investment to be able to do that. And then, you know, we have everything with us at all times. And so, you know, taking time to be centered and calm to be able to, in a way, prime yourself before you need to perform or make a quality decision. Like, it's interesting that you have the word sharp, the title of your book, because as a kid, I used to go outside with a magnifying glass over the summer and burn these like leaves, right? And that point that was doing the burning was very bright and it was very sharp. But it's interesting as humans how we use language. Like we use the word bright or sharp to describe somebody, you know, that's smart, that's intelligent. And but maybe they're not necessarily more intelligent. Maybe they're better focused, right? Like the magnifying glass, right? It's bright and sharp.

Great analogy.

I'm just thinking about increasing focus, specifically in where I think a lot of listeners struggle with procrastination, right? Putting something off because of dread, you know, or self-sabotaging. So I'm just thinking about, is it possible to increase our listeners' productivity and focus when they need to tackle something instead of them backing off and procrastinating, you know? And I know this could be a whole episode onto its own. What are your thoughts around procrastination? People who are putting things off that they really need to do?

Yes. So there's a whole chapter in the book on that called Accomplish More. It's really a productivity chapter, but I like to focus, focus on accomplishment. So in terms of the neuroscience, one of the brain areas that you want to bring online is the right— this is going to be a mouthful, but the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. So that would be on the right side. It would be, you know, kind of here above your temple on the right side. And it's like your finger wagging area of your brain. So it's— or you can think of it in like those old movies where you've got the good angel on the one shoulder, the demon on the other. It's like the good angel. It's saying, you've got to do this. Come on. I know you don't want to, but you've got to. So the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex will get you to do the things you know you should do. You're feeling conflict, but if it's activated, you're more likely to do the thing you know you should be doing. It's kind of going to get you to do the shoulds. And one, there's probably multiple ways, but one of the ways that has been studied to increase activity there would be to picture the process of getting something done. So don't picture the end product. Don't picture being done. Picture if, for instance, you need to sit down and write something. Maybe it's a paper, maybe it's a proposal for work. Picture yourself, OK, I'm gonna sit down with my cup of tea or my cup of coffee, and I'm opening up my laptop, and I'm bringing— getting out the documents that I'm going to need for my research, and opening up Word. So you're picturing these boring, boring steps. And researchers find that this activates a bunch of brain areas. But one of the areas that it most activates is it activates this right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. And as a result, people get more done when they picture the process than when they picture the outcome. And so it's kind of boring, it's unglamorous, but it's highly effective in helping you get more done.

Focusing on the process.

On the process.

And that's the thing you could control, right? You can't always control the outcome, but you could always control the the journey.

Yes, exactly. You can, you can, you can control at least some of the factors. Maybe you can't make the environment perfectly quiet when you're trying to do the writing. You know, there are things you might not be able to control, but there's a good chance you can control the steps of, am I going to— where am I going to sit down to do the work? And how long can I give myself? And there's some factors that you can picture. And, you know, picture turning off your phone or, you know, setting it on the floor outside of, outside of view, right? So picture this in detail. And part of that's going to be you've now given yourself an action plan to put into place. But another part is you've activated this, this brain area that's really good. Like I said, it finger wags and will get you to do the thing you're feeling conflicted about.

If you were to design like, not that anything's ever perfect, right? It's always progress. But if you were to design like a perfect brain day for you, maybe a morning routine or evening routine or something in the middle with brain breaks, you know, for maximum clarity, what were some, what would be some of the things you'd want to highlight?

Sure. I love this question and want to offer a couple of different things you could do as the day progresses. So I'd start off the morning, have a cup of tea. I— we probably have a lot of fans of coffee, but tea contains something called another amino acid, L-theanine, plus caffeine, and that gives you focus.

Yeah.

So, and it helps you avoid distractions. So I'd start off the day with some tea. Then I would go for a brisk walk, just 10 minutes. Again, you know, you've already said how things that are good for the heart are good for the brain. That's going to be a good way to get you engaged, particularly if it's cold outside. That's going to increase some of your dopamine levels. So go for a brisk, you know, just a 10-minute walk, get some sunlight. Then I'd have a high-protein breakfast because that's going to help you out with your dopamine levels. Let's say then you need some focus. It's getting close to lunchtime and you're, you don't, you can't break right away, but you know, you need more focus. I put on those binaural beats, right? That's going to help you zip up your focus for the time until you can take a break at lunch. At lunch, if you have the ability to get out and do some aerobic exercise. So many of us, I know this was me for years, I didn't do my aerobic exercise until after work, but aerobic exercise, particularly moderate to high intensity, is going to improve your ability to think on your feet. So especially if you have something, a presentation in the afternoon or an exam, doing some aerobic exercise at lunch, even just half an hour, will improve your ability to think on your feet. In the afternoon, I might do a 10-minute meditation. That's going to improve your ability to remember things. A 10-minute mindfulness meditation improves immediate It's huge. It's huge. 75% on average. So you could be above that. So yes, so 10-minute mindfulness meditation. And then in the evening, I would work on good sleep hygiene. I'd put— one of the things I now do is I put a red filter on my phone because blue light interferes with sleep. Getting a good night's sleep is going to make all the difference. So I turn my phone to a red filter after about 8 PM. To make sure that my, my brain's not getting mixed signals about it being time to wind down. So that would be kind of your optimal day.

So many nuggets here. I'm thinking about our listener right now. And we have a, we have a book club every month. I do a live coaching in the beginning of the month, we read a book together. That's kind of like a recent favorite. And then we have the author come in and join us and we ask them Our burning questions, right? And one of the questions I always ask our authors, people could find out about this at quicksuccess.com. Many people listening are members of the book club. One of the questions I ask the authors, which I haven't asked on a podcast before, but I'm just curious, is there something you've discovered during your research for any of your books, maybe some study or some brainy insight that really surprised do and maybe even shifted the way you live or learn today?

I love this question. I'm going to give you, if it's okay, can I give you 2?

Absolutely.

Okay, great. So I'll give one that I discovered researching the book and one that I'm just learning about right now and plan to make a new blog post about. So the one that I learned in researching the book that really had a life-changing impact was the benefits of meditation. You know, when I ask a room full of people and I'm giving a presentation, how many know know that meditation is good for you? Almost everybody raises their hand. And then I ask, how many of you meditate on a regular basis? And most of the hands go down. The thing that I learned in doing the research for the book is that meditation is one of the ways that you can add new connections within your prefrontal cortex. Again, as I said, you lose about 5% of your prefrontal cortex every decade after 40.

Hmm.

It's a way to get those connections, to gain new connections rather than just losing brain material. You add more gray matter. So I now meditate on a daily basis, just 10 minutes. That's, that's enough to get the benefits. So that would be one big change. And the other change, and this is something I didn't know about before the book went to print, but I'm now doing more reading on, are the brain benefits of high percentage dark chocolate. So 70% or higher. You know, it's, it's got very, we've known for, at least I've known for a while that it has good cardiovascular benefits, but now there's increasing research that It can improve concentration, it improves executive function, it improves working memory. So this is an exciting area for me because I love chocolate anyhow. And so I'm excited to learn more and dive into teasing apart what, what is the neuroscience behind that. So that would be the one change that I'm beginning to make now.

Yeah, dark chocolate is not only nutritious but delicious.

Exactly.

I find things that are generally good, generally good for your mood, it could be good for your mind also as well. I do these kind of thought experiments I do all the time in my mind.

Yeah.

So if your brain had a dashboard and it, we could only fit like 3 real-time metrics on there showing how sharp we are at any given moment, what would those 3 metrics be? Or if you are 2 or 4, um, and is there a tip to, you know, to kind of nudge each one if they were kind of below what they needed to be?

Yeah, I, I want to develop this now. You've got me excited. All right, so one you would want a dopamine— dopameter, we'll call it. Just making that up. But you'd want a dopameter to indicate your dopamine levels so that you know, is this a time where I, I, my dopamine levels are high enough that I'm going to feel motivated, or do I need to bring my dopamine levels up a little bit? So I would have— and unfortunately, there's, there aren't great lab tests out there to measure dopamine at a given moment. So that one's not a realistic, and none of these are gonna be realistic, but that one doesn't exist yet. So I'd have one be a dopamine level. I'd have another be a level of how's my amygdala doing?

Mm-hmm.

Because if your amygdala, your amygdala's not so much a threat detector, but it's a salience detector. Is this important or not? If it's firing and the thing that you're thinking about is not helpful to you right now, That's a problem because it means that you're feeling your sympathetic nervous system is aggravated, agitated, and that's going to be disruptive to doing deep thought or problem solving or decision making. So that would be helpful to know because there are things you can do to bring down that threat, like activating your vagus nerve. And I'd say probably the third one I would be interested in, because I'm so interested in that productivity, that right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is, that's a very specific one, But, but with that brain area, am I able to do the things I know I should do? Because if, if it's not activated, then that means I'm going to have trouble living up to my values. Or if I have a plan, I'm going to have trouble acting out that plan, or I'm going to have to— I'm going to show more bias. If the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is low in activity, I'm likely to show more bias right in that moment. So that there's a bunch of different problems if, if that's not right where you want it to be. Yeah.

Before we wrap, I always ask one question of our guests because this show is primarily at its core, the love of learning, the art and, you know, and love of learning. What, what is one thing that you're currently learning about or studying outside of what we've discussed that has, has you particularly excited or could be tangential to what we've discussed? Is there anything that's on your to-learn list?

Right now I'm learning about, again, the cocoa flavanols, about high, high percentage cocoa to try to understand how that benefits. I also want to better understand how dance— dance actually appears to improve cognition. And that's an area that I'm fascinated about because it doesn't get nearly as much discussion. I'm not a dancer, but it makes me think maybe, maybe I want to become one. And so that's another area that I'm excited to learn more about.

I love it. Where can people go? I'm sure so many people are gonna be inspired to go deeper in your work. How do they connect with you? How do they get the book? How do they go to your website? Anything? How can they continue the relationship with you?

Well, the great news is the book is available anywhere you like to buy books. And so you can find it online or, you know, in your favorite brick-and-mortar bookstore. You can find me online at theresehouston.com. And I'm active on LinkedIn and Instagram. Again, just Therese Houston, and you'll find me.

I love it. Thank you so much, Dr. Houston, for being on our show. There's so many, so many gems here. This was— I encourage everyone to If you're listening to this on an audio, then we limit it at 20 minutes. We go a lot longer, and this is probably one of the longest conversations I've had on the podcast. So this is the— we'll upload the entire expanded version on our YouTube. So I encourage people to do that. So thank you. Thank you so much. Everyone, I just, please show Dr. Houston some love on social media. Go to her website. Get a copy of your book. I would suggest people get 2 copies, one for themselves and one to be able to gift out to somebody else because this was like a neuroscience masterclass on how to think sharper and just live smarter. And I would recommend everyone to actually screenshot wherever you're consuming this and you could tag us both if you post on social media and share one thing that you could do to be sharper, to claim more of a sharp life and brain. Because you'll tag us, we get to see it. And, you know, I'll repost some of my favorites. And just reminding you that your brain isn't something you have, it's something that you could build. And what we've discussed are these small science-based changes that could create, in a lot of ways, exponential results. If you enjoyed this episode, take, again, screenshot, tag us both, share your aha moment, and don't forget to get your copy of Sharp added to your mental fitness library. Until next time, remember, we're not always born with a sharp mind, but you can build it. So be kind to your brain and it will be kind to you. I'll see you in our next episode. And as always, be limitless. Thank you.