Huberman’s Podcast Will Help Anybody Understand Their Body and Mind
Using meditation to enhance focus and relaxation in your day-to-day
Huberman’s podcast on biology and neuroscience is a staple for anybody looking to understand their body and mind.
But they’re long, and we don’t all have time to sit through 2.5hrs of information (even when it’s delivered as beautifully as Dr. Huberman does).
Here are some of the key takeaways from his most recent podcast titled: How Meditation Works & Science-Based Effective Meditations.
The core of meditation centres on the premise that “the things we are thinking are more impactful on our happiness than the things we are doing” (this applies even if we are thinking positive/happy thoughts).
A wandering mind is an unhappy mind.
How the Brain Interprets the Body and Surroundings
There are three regions of the brain which work together to perceive sensations and perception of our bodies and the world around us:
Left Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex — controls bodily senses and interprets emotions. When active, it enables emotional interpretation and decision-making.
Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) — collects information about what’s going on inside (and on the surface of) your body.
Insula — interprets signals of what’s going on in your brain and body. Also interprets these internal signals relative to the external environment i.e. When walking up a steep hill, and heart rate increases, the Insula processes that this is a naturalinternal response to the current external environment.
Interoception vs Exteroception
Meditation makes us more mindful of changes in internal and external stimuli.
At any given moment, we exist on a spectrum, or continuum, of interception and exteroception.
Interoception = our perception of internal feelings and sensations (what’s going on in your body and mind).
Exteroception = our awareness and perception of the physical environment around us.
When we close our eyes, we limit our exteroception. This is because our eyes are a key sensory input for exteroception.
Closed-eye meditations are therefore often biased towards honing interoception, whereas open-eye or walking meditations bias improvement of exteroception.
It is not necessarily good or bad to have high interoception or exteroception. We all have different predispositions to each, and it is helpful to do meditations which run counter to our position on the continuum in that moment.
For example, if caught up in your head or dealing with intrusive thoughts, an open-eyed exteroceptive-focused meditation may be helpful to alleviate the noise.
The Third Eye
Several religious and spiritual practices involve focusing on the ‘third eye’ — which sits metaphorically behind the centre of the forehead.
Scientific literature has referred to the pineal gland as a possible biological ‘third eye’ because it is the only structure in the brain which is not replicated on both the left and right hemispheres.
The pineal gland produces melatonin when the sun goes down, and responds to light during the daytime to suppress melatonin.
Certain animals have small holes in their head which physically allow light to interact with the pineal gland.
In contrast, the human pineal gland sits deep within the brain and does not interact with light directly. Fun fact: our brain tissue actually has no sensory neurons at all (i.e. you can’t feel your brain).
Cyclic vs Non-Cyclic/Complex Breathing
Cyclic breathing is the processing of clear in and out breaths. The type of breathing you don’t really think about. The type of breathing you’re doing right now.
Complex breathing involves more complex patterns (wow!), such as multiple breaths in followed by a breath out, different lengths of inhales and exhales, inhales followed by holding the breath and then exhaling etc. etc. This form of breathing can be useful because it requires mental attention and therefore reduces distraction.
Different patterns of breathing have different effects but can broadly be mapped to either (a) increasing alertness or (b) inducing relaxation. As a general rule, longer exhales lead to a state of relaxation. Longer (or more intense) inhales lead to an increase in focus.
Actually Meditating
Meditation is a practice of focusing and refocusing. Individuals with many hours of meditation practice are not actually better at focusing itself but rather capable of focusing and refocusing extremely quickly and effectively.
Concern yourself less with the duration of the meditation, but the act of meditating itself.
There are a wide range of meditations available on various apps (e.g. Waking Up, Headspace, Balance etc.).
Scientific literature has demonstrated beneficial effects from meditations ranging as short as 3 minutes (Huberman’s lab itself), but a reputed study by Dr. Wendy Suzuki has demonstrated benefits from a 13 minute meditation.
It appears that a consistent meditation practice is the most important, so don’t stress too much over duration. Identify a duration that you can do consistently.
Dr. Suzuki’s study (over an 8 week period, with meditations performed daily) demonstrated:
- Decreased mood disturbance, anxiety, and fatigue.
- Enhanced attention, working memory, and recognition memory.
- Reduced behavioural anxiety response to an acute psychosocial stress.
Sounds pretty good to me..
Other Types of Meditative Practices
Yoga Nidra (yoga sleep)
This practice has centuries of history and is most commonly used to improve sleep (whether falling asleep, or returning to sleep after awakening).
Yoga Nidra helps to reduce cortisol (the stress hormone) and replenish dopamine. It can be done at any time of day.
Hypnosis
Technically distinct from meditation, which is a more general practice. Hypnosis attempts to address specific problems faced by individuals rather than a general improvement in focus or relaxation.
Getting Started with Meditation
A helpful starting point for meditation (other than the guided meditation apps listed above), suggested by Dr. Huberman, is ‘Space Time Bridging’ (STB).
When we focus on sensations closer to us, or within us, we ‘slice’ time into smaller intervals. This is liked to our system for visual attention. We can perceive more minute details (and by extension, time) when it comes to sensations more proximate to our bodies.
STB involves conscious movement along the spectrum of interoception and exteroception. One cycle includes the following. Each stage requires focus for three full breaths (inhale and exhale):
- Close your eyes, focus on your breath or third eye centre
- Open your eyes, focus on the palm of your hand, and your breath (split your attention evenly between the two)
- Focus on something slightly further away (e.g. 10m), and your breath (split between the two)
- Focus on something in the far distance (e.g the horizon), and your breath (split between the two)
- Focus on the idea that you are a small speck on a floating rock within a vast universe, and your breath (split between the two). It is unclear from the podcast whether you keep your eyes open, or close them, for this stage. Given that, my my analysis, this is a monumental task in itself, I’m going to suggest closing your eyes.
You can decide how many times to go through this cycle. The idea is that it helps you practice moving between points on the interoception-exteroception continuum. Being able to transition between these states is very important in day-to-day life.
If you made it this far!
Thank you, I hope you found this interesting. Of course, this was a brief summary of a much longer (and possibly more engaging) podcast, linked here. Definitely check it out.
