OPTI-THOUGHTS
I’m passionate about being happy and healthy – in short, living optimally. Every day I strive to have a positive outlook on life, whether it be about my health, my future, or random challenges that any other twenty-something might face. I live by mantras with continuous improvement in mind.
These are my opti-thoughts on one of my favorite books, “Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, the Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work” by Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal.
Have you ever reached a flow state? Been in the zone? I’ve found that the best moments in life are when you feel on top of your game, like you’re ripping through whatever you’re doing with ease and great output. Hours fly by and you don’t even notice. It’s awesome, and it’s probably the healthiest addiction someone can have.
By nature, I’m ambitious. I get thrills from optimal performance. I’m competitive and relentlessly driven to reach my full potential. Who wouldn’t want to be their absolute best? Sometimes I obsess over ways to gain an edge, to require less sleep, to get ahead, to maximize time. In fact, research indicates that making the most out of time is five times more important to people than sex or money … surprised?
Such a focus on time has led some to explore innovative ways to hack mental performance and capitalize on every moment – technological advancements make this possible. This statement from “Stealing Fire” reminds me that I’m not the only one who thinks this way, ”We are witnessing a groundswell, a growing movement to storm heaven and steal fire. It’s a revolution in human possibility.“
I’m definitely not the only one who is obsessed with getting in the flow state. If you train your body and brain, and manage your energy and attention, you’ll be able to get into flow more frequently and perform better at work and at home. Jason Silva, a futurist and host of BrainGames, perpetuates the fascination with flow through what he calls “Shots of Awe” – inspirational videos which have received more than 100 million views across social platforms. Passionate about disruptive innovation and a self-proclaimed wonderjunkie, Silva eloquently describes flow in his video “Hacking Your Flow State”. Notice his nod to Jamie Wheal and Steven Kotler, co-founders of the Flow Genome Project and co-authors of “Stealing Fire”.
You don’t have to be an Emmy winner or a neuroscientist to understand flow – rapper Eminem sums it up pretty well in his song “‘Til I Collapse”:
Music is like magic, there’s a certain feeling you get
When you real and you spit, and people are feeling your shit
This is your moment, and every single minute you spend
Tryna hold on to it because you may never get it again
Biohacking and Non-Ordinary States of Consciousness
“Stealing Fire” explores non-ordinary states of consciousness, or NOSC for short. Thanks to accelerating developments in psychology, neurobiology, pharmacology, and technology (known in the book as the the Four Forces of Ecstasis), we’re increasing our understanding of NOSC and gaining greater access to the keys that unlock these states. Think about our psychology like a computer, but rather than the operating system of our entire lives, we can train it to function more like a user interface, an easy-to-use dashboard. By treating different states of consciousness like apps to be judiciously switched on and off from our dashboard, we can bypass a lot of psychological noise and get better results faster. This is the future of cognitive science – embodied cognition, where we treat the body, mind, and environment as critical elements in an integrated, whole-system cognitive experience.
Hacking Flow
Supplementation is one of the most easily-accessible ways to enter into NOSC or hack flow. In 2012, a study conducted by the American Pediatric Association found that one out of five Ivy League college students employed “smart drugs” to help improve academic performance. Not shockingly, that number has increased in the last five years. Why wouldn’t you want to radically upgrade your life? There are plenty of skeptics that view smart drugs or nootropics as a cheater’s shortcut, but proponents are typically futurists that are ahead of the curve and know the limitless potential of biohacking and what’s possible with supplementation. If we continue to insist that it’s cheating, what happens as the boundaries between ourselves and our mechanisms continue to blur? According to Mikey Siegal, MIT and NASA-trained roboticist, consciousness-hacking technology will become as dynamic, available, and ubiquitous as cell phones.
Imagine the possibilities if we can leverage personal technology, experiences, and our environment to support and catalyze our cognition and performance … If we can retune our systems and increase the amount all of us are in flow, we can do more work at a higher level and make a real impact in the world. When we can tune our energy, fire our thought, deepen our sleep, brighten our senses, and build our strength, we become our own inspiration.
Let’s choose to progress.
It’s a fact – health is THE most important thing in LIFE. In fact, HEALTH = LIFE.
That being said, it’s essential to enrich your life with positive thought, foods that nourish your body, and activities that keep you moving and make you smile. This practice of optimal health puts us in the right position to succeed at anything we do, anything we put our mind to.
Think Positively
Never underestimate the power of positive thinking. There is no shortcut, no secret weapon to optimal health – it’s common sense. Don’t separate those healthy people from YOU. It could be you, but it’s up to YOU. A study at the University of Washington in Seattle led by Anju Aggarwal, PhD examined whether attitudes about healthy eating influenced diet quality among supermarket shoppers. Researchers asked participants to rate their level of agreement to the following statement:
“It is important to me that the foods I usually eat are healthy.”
As you may have guessed by the headline of this post, a positive attitude towards healthy eating was significantly associated with a higher diet quality. Shoppers with a strong, positive attitude towards healthy eating consumed roughly twice as many fruits and vegetables per day than people with neutral or negative attitudes.
… Which brings me to one of my pet peeves – I hate the word diet. It’s not a positive word, and from what I’ve observed, it doesn’t have a long-term connotation. Try to focus on positive habits instead of the negative associations that go along with dieting or don’ts. It always helps me to think of positive habits that I can add to my life. Here are some of my favorites that have made the biggest impact in my healthier lifestyle:
- Drink water. When you think you’ve had enough water, drink more water.
- Eat veggies every day.
- Eat fruits every day.
- Eat breakfast.
- Know what’s in your food.
- Add protein.
- Keep it simple, stupid.
“When I wake up in the morning, I know that it’s going to be the best day of my life. I never think about what I can’t do. Make sure positive thoughts are the first ones you think in the morning. And never procrastinate.”
-Tao Porchon-Lynch
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These opti-thoughts were originally posted as “Think Positive” in September 2013 on elizabethsanders.net.
