EP88 Mindset Monday - How to Brain Scrub

This is episode 88 of the Empowered Athlete podcast.

This is the Empowered Athlete podcast Mindset Monday. 10 minutes with Kari Schneider to learn new mindset tactics and tricks to optimize your performance in sport, business and life.

Happy Monday. It's Mindset Monday and I am really excited because this is a huge week. Paul and I are heading to date with destiny. And so today's topic has to do with how to brain scrub. And this is important. I think it has been very important for me personally, because I come from some programming that has very, very limited thinking and not so great self efficacy, let's put it that way. So I literally been busy reprogramming my brain for about 15, 20 years, and the more I learn about it, the more I understand, the more I can see the practical areas that are really, really important. So I'm going to share those with you so that you can do a little brain scrub here and there. Why? Because you know and I know there's going to be those times where you feel foggy, where you feel like you're not clear, where you're trying to learn something new, but you're not retaining it. There's going to be so many times that you want the clarity in your brain so that you can feel your best and think your best and learn and perform. So one of the first things that really landed for me in this is the fact that our brains, they clean and prune. So the word is pruning when we sleep. So when you don't get enough sleep, we don't have the opportunity to clean up all these synapses, all these neural connections that happen in our brain. So these neural connections could be a movement pattern, they could be a language pattern, they could be a way of interacting with somebody. So if you think of that cyclical same argument you have with your spouse or the same thing that goes on at work, those types of engagements are patterns that are already in our brain. So these synaptic patterns. So when we sleep, there's these little cells, some are called glial cells and some are called microglials, and they basically go around and prune, and it's called synaptic pruning. So all these patterns that we have in our brain, these little cells are going around deciding what is old and what is. It's clearing the brush, it's pruning away, getting rid of some of the connections that we have in our brain to make space for more, because our brains get full. You feel that feeling. You feel when your head is full, when I know for me, I've been trying to learn new language, and when I try to do it and I try to use it, I feel like my brain is so full. And so when you feel that feeling, you literally are full. And one of the things that cleans it the best is synaptic pruning. And this is when you get to go to sleep and these little glial cells and microglial cells go around and clean up the stuff that's not useful for you, the connections that aren't useful for you. So if I gave a physical example in my expertise, it would be that if I have given a client or an athlete a new movement pattern one day and two days later, I give them the same movement pattern, but they're picking it up so much more efficiently. Part of the reason for this is because not only have we practiced the pattern, it's not just laying the physical practice one over the other that is part of getting the neural programming, but the other part of it is, is your brain at night when you sleep is literally cleaning up the stuff that didn't work, the stuff that isn't useful. And so that's why when you do it again and do it again, one of the reasons why it becomes more efficient so quickly. So this is what I'm calling a brain scrub. I haven't heard this term very much, but this is how I think of it. And one of the ways I brain scrub is really guarding my sleep. So making sure that I'm getting enough hours of sleep, I'm getting enough deep sleep, I'm doing my sleep routine ahead of time. So my sleep hygiene and those things help me get more clarity during the day. So sleep is one. Another one is being mindful of what you are leaving your brain with at night. Because if you were thinking about, I don't know, total Drama island on the Disney Channel, if that's what you're thinking about right before you go to bed, then that influences your synaptic pruning that night. So being conscious and aware of what's going into your brain two specific times right before you sleep and right when you wake up, that influences your brain and what's going to be retained. So from a brain scrub state standpoint, make sure that what you consume right before bed, it's likely not going to be social media, it's not going to be the Game of Thrones. Maybe you watch that before bed, but make sure you have a buffer time that's reading or thinking about certain things that you are trying to develop in your brain, that's going to make the big difference. So being very conscious and very aware of what's going into your brain right before bed and, and right when you wake up in the morning, those are two times when you're really, really able to influence what sticks, what sticks in that neural programming. So the other two ways that I influence this is what I read right before bed and what kind of podcasts or what kind of things I'm consuming. If I'm first thing in the morning exercising. So it's again close to that sleep time. So, so how well my, or how the quality of my sleep, the consumption I have first thing in the morning and right before bed. And then lastly, the other thing is this massive action, this massive overhaul is another way I Brain Scrub and I mentioned this on our podcast recently, but Paul and I are going to the Tony Robbins event date with Destiny. This is going to be six days of intense, intense brain work, planning, work progression in what we want to do with our lives and creating that and also cleaning out. I also call this a brain scrub. Cleaning out the old programming or thought patterns or limiting beliefs that simply do not serve the direction that I want to go or we want to go in our life together. So those are the main ways that I personally brain scrub and I invite you to take a look at ways or little things, things you can tweak in order to have the clarity that you want. I know I mentioned the entire night sleep, but another way that you can do that little synaptic pruning is a nap during the day or meditation. So those are the other daily things. So from a daily standpoint, it's the sleep at night really guarding that. It's the meditation during the day. If I haven't had enough sleep, then my 10 minute meditation turns into a 15 minute nap. And that's one of the biggest ways I know that I'm not getting enough sleep is when I try to meditate, I fall asleep. So meditation, sleep, and then at the same time consuming very important conscious things before bed versus just anything and right when I wake up in the morning and then from an annual standpoint, or a couple times a year, a really big event that's really going to foster that massive growth and then I do the little things to keep supporting that massive growth along the way. So those are some ways you can look at brain scrubbing and that is what we're wrapping up with for your mindset. Monday. It is a new month, everyone. So we have a new challenge this month and it all has to do with the jar. And I will talk more about that tomorrow on Truth Bomb Tuesday. I hope you are all well and you are priming for an incredible week. We are really excited for ours and pop a message on here. Is there something that you do to scrub your brain? Is there something that you do to get clarity where you can think clearly and it feels so good? Is it exercise? Is it your sleep? What are the things that really work well for you? And if you don't have any practices right now, I hope the ones are that that I mentioned will help you get that clarity and scrub that brain clean so you can add more to it and consume the things you really want. Hope you have a fantastic week. I will talk to you soon.