Good Life Project - Sparking Others | Building Strength With Your Brain.

Episode Date: November 9, 2017

Good Life Riff: Have you ever been "sparked" by someone? Given permission to do the thing that was in your heart, acknowledged and seen for who you are, even when it seemed everyone else was shutting you down or telling you to take a different and often "safer" option? If so, you know the power of that person who accepted and inspired you in that moment.But, what about the other side of that conversation? What's it like to be person who lights that fire, who sees, heres, feels and acknowledges someone else at a moment that sparks a profound awakening to possibility? That's what we're talking about on today's GLP Riff.Good Life Science: In our Good Life Science segment, we're diving into some fascinating research on how "visualizing" exercise can potentially deliver similar gains in strength as "doing" the exercise. Hey, it's not permission to be a couch potato, but it has pretty cool implications for everything from rehab to treating muscle disorders or even helping out when you're sick or on the road, or just want to accelerate gains without pushing your body to the point of injury. And, as always, for those want to go to the source, here's a link to the full study.Rockstar Sponsors: Are you hiring? Do you know where to post your job to find the best candidates? Unlike other job sites, ZipRecruiter doesn’t depend on candidates finding you; it finds them. And right now, GLP listeners can post jobs on ZipRecruiter for FREE, That’s right. FREE! Just go to ZipRecruiter.com/good.ShipStation: Do you sell on Amazon? Ebay? Shopify? Your own website? Then you need ShipStation. It’s the fast and easy way to manage and ship your orders- all from one place. Now, you can try ShipStation FREE for 30 days, plus get a special bonus. Visit ShipStation.com, click on the microphone at the top of the homepage and type in GOODLIFE.Thrive Market: Get $60 of FREE organic groceries + free shipping and a 30-day trial at thrivemarket.com/goodlife Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So can you even imagine how amazing it would feel to be the person in another person's life who turned on a light bulb, who made something incredible happen? Well, that's one of the places we're going in today's Good Life Project update. We're starting out with that idea in the riff, and we're also going to dive into, in our Good Life Science update, some kind of fascinating research around how your brain, how simply visualizing moving your body may actually give you substantially equivalent results to actually moving your body. Now, I'm not arguing for just completely becoming a couch potato, but it is really interesting data. Those are the ideas we're diving into in today's Good Life Project update. I'm Jonathan Fields, and this is Good Life Project. The Apple Watch Series 10 is here.

It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest-charging Apple Watch, getting you 8 hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series X. Available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum.

Compared to previous generations, iPhone Xs are later required. Charge time and glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone XS or later required, charge time and actual results will vary. Mayday, mayday. We've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were going to be fun. On January 24th. Tell me how to fly this thing.

Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're going to die. Don't shoot if we need him. Y'all need a pilot? Flight Risk. So a couple years ago, for some of you, you may know this, a Good Life Project actually started out as a video series. We would film on location, travel around with a crew and set up shop.

And a couple years back, I had a pretty incredible opportunity to sit down with a man called Milton Glaser. Now, if you're in the design or art field, you know that name. I mean, he is a legend, arguably the most iconic living designer in the world. He has designed so many things, experiences, logos, images, brands, many of which people know the actual things that he's created, but you may not know his name. The single probably biggest thing that he's become known for is designing the most ripped off logo in the history of logos. And that would be I Heart NY. He did that for New York back in the 70s when the city was in bad shape. And that became this iconic thing that has now been, let's say, used in a lot of different ways by a lot of different people for a lot of different brands. his absolutely remarkable journey. When we actually taped that show, I believe he was 86

years old. He was still running this powerhouse design studio in New York. He was one of the founders of New York Magazine, in addition to teaching for some 40 years at Cooper Union and affecting the thought process and creativity of thousands of some of the world's greatest creators who have been students of his. And there was one moment in the conversation filled with just incredible, beautiful moments that left me thinking. But there was one single moment in that conversation that I want to reflect on with you today. And it was a moment where somebody else stepped in and took a simple act of kindness that would forever change him. He tells the story of actually not being able to retell that story without being moved to tears. And it was when

Glazer was a kid, he knew from the age he was five or six that he wanted to make beauty, that he was an artist. He could draw and he could make people smile and he loved it. And at the same time, he was also very good at science. And he ended up going to Bronx Science, actually, which is kind of a famed public school in New York. And there came a day where he had to take an exam to determine sort of like which direction he would go in academically. And it was assumed that he would go and take the science exam. And he went about his, you know, his day and he vanished and he took an exam. And the next day he came back and guidance counselor kind of, you know, saw him walk down

the hall and pulled him in and said, hey, so I heard that yesterday you didn't actually take the science exam. You took the art exam. And, you know, Glazer was pretty nervous because it was the expectation from the mature adults that he would go and follow the intelligent route, you know, the route that would set him up in a career path, which was more certain and sustainable. And he knew in the back of his mind that he was here to make beauty and to create art,

but he didn't want to tell anyone before that. So he just kind of vanished, and he took the path that was for art and not for science and math. And the guidance counselor found out about it the next day, and he called him in, and he could have said, what are you doing? You're ruining your career. You're making a big mistake. Rethink what your path is here. But instead he sat him down and he opened his drawer and he pulled out a small box of beautiful pastels and he handed it over to them. And he looked at him and he said something like, do good work or make good art. And it was this moment where even at the age of 86, Glazer sat there and recounted it some 70 or so years later.

Because it was that impactful for him. It was a moment in his life where an adult whose approval he sought and whose respect he had, looked at him and said, I see you. I hear you. I believe in you. And I believe in the choices that you're making. And I believe in your capacity to do good work in this one direction, along this one path that maybe other people didn't see. And it was such a powerful moment of opening and acceptance and permission and empowerment to go and do the thing that he felt here to do, that it stayed with him and it became a defining moment in his life. And in fact, in his career, and he went off and he did that thing. And he has made a stunning mark, not just in the world of design, in the world of art, but in the world in general, with what he's created and with the people that he's now

affected and taught. And through conversations that I have had with so many hundreds of people now, both in private and a lot of research that I've done in preparation for writing books over the years, and in this project, in the Good Life Project, I have heard this theme ripple out so many times and been repeated in conversations so many times that somebody is going along a path and they hit a point where, you know, there's the expected road, there's the, quote, safe road. There's the intelligent path, the one where there's a high likelihood of success and a clearly demarked set of steps to take. And then there's the path that is bubbling deeply in somebody's heart, but it may be very unclear. It may be very uncertain. But on a deeper level, there is a knowing that, man, if I could just make this happen, this is the path I would love to take. And just around the time when somebody had to make the choice, even without even knowing it, somebody else showed up and looked at them and said, without necessarily saying this, but act it in some way to say, I see you, I hear you, I feel you. I acknowledge what is in your heart to be valid and true. I can't promise it's going to work. But I'm behind you if you make the choice to go and do it.

Somebody sparked another person. They sparked a possibility in another person. And that changed the trajectory of that other person's life. And I'm fascinated by that moment. I'm fascinated by how that can affect a person and the choices they make and the work that they do in the world. But I've also become really fascinated by how that affects the person who is the empowerer, the person who is the seer, the listener, the feeler, the person who then turns and acknowledges the other who is at a point of decision. I'm fascinated by how it changes that person in the moment as well. moment, they stand in a place of knowing that they have just done something that will potentially

make a profound difference in the life of somebody else, that will open a door to them living a life of coherence, aligned action, congruence with the deepest parts of who they are, without saying that, yes, you will absolutely succeed by societal standards, but just saying, this is an option. How does it make that one person feel? This is what happens a lot with people who play the role of being a mentor in other people's lives. Not so much a paid coach or a paid teacher, but simply being there. Maybe it's being an aunt or an uncle to a niece or a nephew or a kid who you don't know who's struggling. Maybe it's volunteering to play that role. Or maybe it is that person who

is the guidance counselor and is charged with helping a whole community of people who are not as far down a particular path as them kind of see the opportunities, see the paths. And I think I've, for a long time time was really focused on how does that moment affect the person who has been sparked, who has had possibility awakened. But increasingly, I'm fascinated by how it affects the sparker, the mentor, not just the mentee. fulfillment and satisfaction of knowing that without a big sweeping grand gesture, but a simple nod, a simple smile, a simple, yeah, I can see that in you. How being that person in that moment affects you and allows you to feel nourished. Like you have a sense of purpose that the work that you're doing in the world is making a difference for someone else, even in a momentary way. And increasingly, I've had the opportunity to play

that role, to be that person here and there in moments. And I know how it feels for me. And it feels amazing. And I think my invitation, as I always try and offer at the end of these riffs, is to think about opportunities that you might have in your own life. To be that person. To play that role. To see, to hear, to feel, to acknowledge somebody else. To acknowledge the moment they're in. To acknowledge the deeper parts of who they are, the yearning for who they want to grow into, and the possibility that even though there may not be a clear path or a high probability of success along that path, that this may be a thing that is a valid pursuit for them and something that is worthy of being pursued. And to think about how could you play

the role of being that person in another person's life. Because when you do, it's not just about the feeling you create in them. It's about what happens to you when you play that role as well. Look for those opportunities. See if you can be that person. And notice how it changes not just them, but you. That's what I'm thinking about as we wrap up today's riff. And I'm really excited to dive into today's Good Life Science update, where we are going to talk about some kind of cool research on how getting fit, gaining strength, which is a pretty important part of filling your vitality bucket, may not just be about moving your body.

It may be about moving your brain. The Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest-charging Apple Watch, getting you 8 hours of charge in just 15 minutes.

The Apple Watch Series 10. Available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone Xs are later required. Charge time and actual results will vary. Mayday, mayday. We've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were going to be fun. On January 24th.

Tell me how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're going to die. Don't shoot him, we need him. Y'all need a pilot. Flight Risk. And on today's Good Life Science update, we're talking about a kind of a quirky relationship between your brain and your ability to get stronger. Turns out the old no pain, no gain thing might not be entirely true. The big question we're

dealing with is can your brain make you buff? Can imaginary workouts build strength and potentially even fuel weight loss? So research in the field of exercise physiology has yielded some pretty stunning revelations about the way we get fit. The big surprise though is not what we have to do, but maybe what we might not have to do. Turns out our thoughts can quite literally redefine the strength of our bodies and maybe more. So for decades, exercise scientists have worked to discover how we get fit. Getting stronger was all about creating enough resistance in a muscle to create these millions of little micro tears that would over days, weeks, and months rebuild themselves bigger, leaner, and stronger. So when we lift weights, sprint, or engage in pretty much any kind of exercise, we set this whole process

in motion. The entire cycle is known as this kind of funky little word called hypertrophy. And it's always been considered a pretty mechanical experience. Weight loss has also been toughed off with a similar assumption, regardless of the method that you use. On some level, it's all about the way that you control the food that goes into you and then the calories that you burn through moving your body. It's kind of mathematical on some level. Yes, I'm making this way oversimplified, but for our purposes, I think it's helpful. So it's just about hard work. But it seems there may be a giant kink in this system, and it has to do with the brain's role in the whole process.

So building muscle, it turns out, may not be nearly as purely mechanical as we thought. In fact, a study out of Bishop University research team of Lionel Standing and Aaron Shackle a couple years back reveals that you may be able to make nearly identical gains in strength and fitness without lifting a finger. And of course, for all our fellow science geeks, we will link directly to that study so you can check it out in more detail. So the study measured the strength gains in three different groups of people. The first group did nothing outside their usual routine. The second group was put through two weeks of highly focused strength training for one specific muscle three times a week. And the third group listened to audio that guided them to imagine themselves going through the same workout as the exercise group that same three times a week. Now here's where it gets a little bit spooky.

The control group who didn't do anything saw no gains in strength. Not a big surprise, right? The exercise group who trained three times a week saw a 28% gain in strength. No big surprise there either. But the group who did nothing, but rather thought about exercising, rather they did the guided visualization of the exercises, but didn't actually exercise, they experienced nearly the same gains in strength as the exercise group. They had a 24% gain in strength compared to 28% for the people who actually did the exercise.

So that leaves us with a couple of questions. One, how in the world does this work? And two, does this mean I can really get totally buff without working out? Mayday, mayday. We've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were going to be fun. On January 24th. Tell me how to fly this thing.

Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're going to die. Don't shoot him. We need him. Y'all need a pilot. Flight risk.

The Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest charging Apple Watch, getting you eight hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series X, available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone XS or later required. Charge time and actual results will vary.

So let's talk about that first question for a couple of minutes. So how does it actually work? The truth is we don't really know. We do know that muscle conditioning and in fact, all aspects of fitness and performance, they're not nearly as purely mechanical as we once thought. Your mind plays a pretty big role in at least two distinct ways. Through its connection to the endocrine system, which is the body's sort of chemical plant, different thoughts and mental states release hormones that can dramatically accelerate or retard muscle growth. In fact, some people in search of a way to speed this process, ingest or inject extra amounts of these similar chemicals. And we all know that these are, you know, steroids or various derivatives.

Not the smartest choice to do that. Other chemicals work on different organs to either fire up or slow down your metabolism in the blink of an eye, causing you to either burn more calories or slow burn calories. So the chemical part of strength gaining and physiology and metabolism plays a huge role. We actually can even see this happening in caloric expenditure. So a Harvard study in 2007 looked at housekeeping and how their thoughts changed the calories that they were burning and the shape of their body and their fitness. In that study, the housekeeping staff in a major hotel were told that what they did on a daily basis qualified as the amount of exercise

needed to be fit and healthy. They made no changes in behavior, just kept on doing their job. Four weeks later, those same housekeepers had lost weight, lower blood pressure, body fat percentage, waist-hip ratio, and BMI. And a similar group of housekeepers who had not been led to believe their job qualified at exercise saw none of those same changes. So really interesting corollary here, right? Simply believing their jobs were exercise caused their bodies to change, right? There was no change in physical exertion, but there's something beyond the link between thoughts and chemistry when it comes to the specific quest to gain strength. Chemistry may accelerate the growth of muscle, but it turns out strength may not be nearly as much about muscle size or

hypertrophy as we thought. In addition to its chemical system, your body has at least one major electrical system, the nervous system. And the signal that makes a muscle contract begins as an electrical impulse in your brain. That impulse is transmitted through your body's electrical circuitry or nerves to your muscle. Now, how efficiently that impulse is delivered and how receptive your muscle is to that impulse, that determines in large part how forcefully your muscle can contract. The more fully and faster it contracts, the stronger we say it is. We call this process neuromuscular facilitation. Now, here's the rub. You can turbocharge your body's electrical impulse by repeatedly visualizing a muscle contracting without ever actually contracting it.

And based on this knowledge, we've known for years that visualization is a great way to slow down the loss of strength during recovery from an injury. But the big news is that simply visualizing exercise may also provide a nearly equivalent strength building benefit as working out. Now, we need a lot more studies to go a long way towards really confirming this. And if it's for real, can you imagine what that might do? Now, that leads to the second question. Does this mean I can really just get totally buff without ever working out and gain a ton of strength? Well, the short answer is probably not, at least not yet. Exercise or gains in muscle and weight loss are all extremely complex. There's a ton going on all at

once, which is why almost every study done on exercise is what they call correlation-based, not causation-based, meaning we can say that this correlates with that, but it's much harder to say it causes these outcomes, right? So for now, a really well-conceived visualized workout may yield similar gains in strength, but we're not able to really say that it's possible to think your way thin or to think your way to way thin or to think your way to bigger muscles or to think your way to consistently stronger muscles with every muscle across the entire system in your body. Can that change over time as more research is done? Maybe, we'll see. But it's incredibly exciting to sort of think about the potential of highly efficient virtualized

workouts in the near future, because the applications really make a difference when it comes to things like accelerating rehab to slowing disease-related muscle degeneration and yes, even potentially delivering a bit of a, you know, quote, lazy person's workout for those times where you want to try and sustain your physical strength, but you just can't actually get to the gym or move your body. Now, a final word of caution, though.

Exercise, actually moving your body in a sweat-drenching, joint-freeing, breath-and-movement way are not only mission critical to keeping your joints, muscles, and connective tissue healthy, but when chosen the right way can actually lead to a lifetime of fun. And they're really important in brain health as well. So, you know, there are lots of other reasons to get out and move your body. So this is not so much permission to hang out and eat chips and lie on the couch and binge watch the latest season of whatever you want to binge watch and know that during the commercial breaks that you can't fast forward past, you cannot visualize yourself working out. It's not so much for that. But what it does tell us is that when we go through moments in our life where we're trying to hone our strength or our physical abilities,

and we simply don't have access to movement, that we may be able to sort of supplement with really well thought out visualization. Or for times where we may be injured or struggling with some sort of illness or disease, that makes it much more difficult to move in a meaningful way, that really intelligent, well-thought-out, visualized movement may go a long way to giving us the outcomes that we're looking for and helping us top off our vitality buckets and keep them full. So as always, I hope you found this interesting.

I love kind of geeking out on these types of things. And we're always looking for interesting ideas. So if you have something to share or a bit of science or an area that you'd love us to turn our science lens on, be sure to reach out to us. You can find us all over on social media. And until next time, I'm Jonathan Fields, signing off for Good Life Project love with friends. Because when ideas become conversations that lead to action, that's when real change takes hold. See you next time. Mayday, mayday. We've been compromised.

The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were going to be fun. On January 24th. Tell me how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're going to die. Don't shoot him.

We need him. Y'all need a pilot. Flight risk. The Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping.

And it's the fastest charging Apple Watch, getting you eight hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series X, available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone XS or later required, charge time and actual results will vary.