What's up, bro.
Speaker 2:What's going on?
Speaker 1:<laugh> oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:I'm Jonathan Noel.
Speaker 1:I'm Brian Noel.
Speaker 2:This is forms and focus
Speaker 1:And we provide guided forms that manifest
Speaker 2:Radical
Speaker 1:Focus.
Speaker 2:Absolutely,
Speaker 1:Bro. We are, and we hope you are focused as
Speaker 2:Boy,
Speaker 1:Boy.
Speaker 2:Yeah. By episode five, you know, we may have a buzz
Speaker 1:Maybe,
Speaker 2:Maybe, maybe not, maybe
Speaker 1:Not
Speaker 2:<laugh> who knows? You have to watch the YouTube.
Speaker 1:That's right. And speaking of buzz and all over the place and inability to focus and tons of thoughts. What are we talking about today? I
Speaker 2:Think there's a term for this. It's almost like the monkey brain
Speaker 1:Monkey brain. Ooh. Today we're talking about the monkey brain. I love this subject.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It's the endless, the chatter. Yep. The chatter
Speaker 1:You can't shut up
Speaker 2:In your head brain. It just goes nonstop.
Speaker 1:I, I suffer from the monkey brain so much. It, it plagues me.
Speaker 2:Sounds terrible.
Speaker 1:It's terrible.
Speaker 2:I can't relate as much<laugh>
Speaker 1:Monkey brain. Oh my gosh. So here's the problem with monkey brain. So stress.org, our brain can be separated into three sections, the lizard brain, the monkey brain and our human brain. What's the lizard brain, bro.
Speaker 2:So lizard brain it's I think we've kind of heard that term. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like I think Jim Morrison sang a song about it, but
Speaker 2:So it's found in the, at the base of the brain and contains the CRE cerebellum and brain stem lizards only have these elements of the brain, which controls our most basic instincts
Speaker 1:Need to eat, need to sleep, need to procreate.
Speaker 2:There you go.<laugh> lizard brain<laugh>.
Speaker 1:So the next part is the monkey brain includes the majority of our tissue and controls more complex task as well as emotions. Most mammals lead with their monkey brain, which is fueled by our most basic responses to fear and desire. Mm.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So if you have fear and desires,<laugh> your monkey. Brain's going nonstop. If
Speaker 1:You look at social feeds, you can pretty much take every single one of those articles or post and go. That's a fear. That's
Speaker 2:A click. That's a desire click brain.
Speaker 1:That's right. Click brain
Speaker 2:Click click eight.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Oh my gosh. What's next?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So looks like the most advanced part of the human brain or part of the brain is called the human brain, which consists of the outer layers. So it's the area that allows for logical emotionless thought as well as delayed gratification.
Speaker 1:Ooh,
Speaker 2:That sounds
Speaker 1:Nice. The human brain actually allows you to pause, think strategize and make a move.
Speaker 2:Exactly. Emotionless thought.
Speaker 1:Nice. All right.
Speaker 2:Just nice concentrated. You know, let's figure this out.
Speaker 1:Let's figure it out. So, uh, article from psychology today, according to Buddhist principles, the monkey mind is a term that refers to being unsettled, restless, or confused writer. The, the Buddhist Natalie Goldberg who teaches many writings and workshops suggests that the monkey mind is our inner critic.
Speaker 2:Totally. Yeah. I've, I've seen the videos where they mention it. Yeah. And the way they talk about it, it makes perfect sense.
Speaker 1:The monkey mind,
Speaker 2:It's just trying to quiet that, you know, that's how they describe it. Shatter the endless kind of the self ridicule, the chatter
Speaker 1:Telling you, you suck.
Speaker 2:<laugh> so, um, as we were reading, it looks like, um, the monkey mind that's right. Is, um, it's the part of the brain connected to the ego, which contends that you can't do anything. Right.<laugh> and is also the part that stifles creativity and prevents you from moving forward from your passions.
Speaker 1:Mm whoa.
Speaker 2:That's huge.
Speaker 1:I know the monkey mind, this is, this whole podcast is about the ability to increase, focus, right? So you can accomplish your dreams
Speaker 2:And this is your self doubt. Yeah. This is your, your walls. You put up that's right. You know, I'll never be able to do this. That's right. I can't accomplish this. Yep. I'm too
Speaker 1:Old. I'm too stupid.
Speaker 2:Whatever. Yeah. I'm
Speaker 1:Too poor.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Uh, whatever it is, this is the monkey mind telling you that you can, can
Speaker 2:You can't do it.
Speaker 1:Hold on. You monkey mine.
Speaker 2:Hundred percent.
Speaker 1:<laugh> all right. So science.org, Timothy Bushman, and Earl Miller talks about top down versus bottom up control of attention and the prefrontal posterial paral courtesy.
Speaker 2:Okay. What's
Speaker 1:<laugh> that's that's pretty serious. What's top down, bro.
Speaker 2:That's<laugh> I'll let you know when I read it.<laugh> so, so top down. So this would be for voluntary focus. This is generated mostly in the prefrontal cortex. Top down focus is goal oriented. It's responsible for seeing the bigger picture and uses your past experience to figure things out.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:So this is your MacGyver<laugh>
Speaker 1:That's right. So the opposite, the bottom up is more stimulus driven focus. This is generated mostly in the paral lobe. When a thought creeps up on you or something around you grabs your attention like a ping or a being or a notification. Remember when we talked about in the previous podcast. Yeah. A notification on your phone triggers the same part in your brain of like a line in the woods.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:So this is the bottom up. It's pretty much you're suffering from bottom up focus. You can't help, but pay attention to what's happening around you. People, uh, notifications, emails, news. Yeah. Things that are constantly distracting, grabbing and distracting your attention. That's bottom up.
Speaker 2:You just feel like you're spinning,
Speaker 1:Spinning. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:This sounds terrible. No wonder the monks<laugh> are talking about shutting up the monkey
Speaker 1:Mind. No kidding. Well, it's interesting because you know, we're, we, we talk about social and spending too much time on social and, and how the algorithms kind of play to your subconscious fears.
Speaker 2:Like totally. If it, the leads, it leads.
Speaker 1:If it bleeds, it leads. So essentially everything we consume from a media standpoint plays to the monkey brain, the monkey mind,
Speaker 2:100%.
Speaker 1:It wants to reduce your defenses. It wants to put you in that stress mode to where you can fight or flight or spin because,
Speaker 2:Or
Speaker 1:Consume
Speaker 2:<laugh> because they make money from engagements. That's right. And clicks. Yeah. And add revenue. Yeah. So how do you keep someone engaged?
Speaker 1:Hmm. Stress'em out.
Speaker 2:Monkey. Mind, monkey. Mind you monkey. Mind them.<laugh>
Speaker 1:Hey bro. You just got monkey. Mind. You just got
Speaker 2:Monkey mind, bro.
Speaker 1:So the next time you spend two hours on a social platform and you're stressed out, Hey bro, you just got monkey. Mind,
Speaker 2:You just got monkey mind. They got you.
Speaker 1:They got
Speaker 2:You. They're literally farming your monkey mind for, for ad revenue. So think about that. Um, we're also reading the, uh, university of California Irvine study. It takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back on task, bro.
Speaker 1:That's a quarter hour.
Speaker 2:That's too long.
Speaker 1:That's that's too long. If you're trying to focus on something, get something done. If you're trying to focus on your dreams and you get distracted, it takes you 23 plus minutes to stay back on task,
Speaker 2:Man. That's a long time.
Speaker 1:How many people are just, I mean, if you think about the calls, the text, the emails, the pings, the chat or the slack, like how many people are actually freaking focused.
Speaker 2:That's what I think about like when you, those days where you feel like you can't get anything done. Yeah. You know you but
Speaker 1:Whole day work and you
Speaker 2:Working all day. Yeah. And you're like, what's going on? I, I feel like I worked all day, but nothing happened. I feel like that's what it is. You kept switching tasks. You know, you've got the, the, the task switch costs. That's right. The time
Speaker 1:We talked about that.
Speaker 2:Yep. The time in between tasks, the lag, and then boom, eight hours goes by and you're like, I didn't get anything done.
Speaker 1:I didn't get anything done. And then you go home and then another six hours goes by and you're tired, ready to go to bed. Dang. And you know what? You didn't do focus on your dreams.
Speaker 2:Gotta focus on those dreams.
Speaker 1:<laugh> so solution. What do we do against the monkey? My number one, do everything. I'm gonna say this with as much intensity as I can do everything you can to stay in the present.
Speaker 2:There you go.
Speaker 1:You are here right now
Speaker 2:Because you can't relive the past and you can't know the future.
Speaker 1:That's right. Your dream is right now. If you sit there. When we talked about like billionaires sitting around, talking about being billionaires is the least billionaire thing do
Speaker 2:100%
Speaker 1:Like thinking about how you're gonna be. Whatever you want to be. One day is counterproductive. The monkey mind wants you to not work on your dreams. It wants you to just sit there and think about you already in your dreams
Speaker 2:Or tell you that you can do it.
Speaker 1:That's right. That you, yeah, you can't accomplish
Speaker 2:It. So tell, tell the monkey mind, Hey
Speaker 1:<laugh>
Speaker 2:Today, it's you? Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, and let's focus. Let's go focus on
Speaker 2:Right now. I'm gonna spend, even if it's only five minutes, that's enough. That's enough. If you start it right now, let's go. That's right. Yeah. Another thing, you know, you're trying to stay in the present. So how do you do that? You reduce distractions and increase like intentional breaks. Yeah. So you're reducing like, like bro said the pings. Yeah. Whatever. Turn your phone off. Whatever you can do to stay in that moment to finish your task in hand.
Speaker 1:That's right. Involuntary distractions. Everyone's trying to pull you away. Yep. And what you want to do is be intentional about where you dedicate and focus your time. Oh my gosh. So one thing I put here is a lot of times we spend our time, uh, obsessing over something. We said some, the, the last meeting, the last email we sent where we were frustrated, um, the last report we got from a boss or whatever. So, um, if you said something you didn't, you know, intend to, if you were frustrated with someone, um, apologize immediately and move on, like the monkey brain will sit there and tell you, like you screwed that up.
Speaker 2:Yeah. You just sit
Speaker 1:There and obsess over him. Yeah. And you'll, you'll spend hours. You won't be able to sleep because this thing you said, or you did, and sometimes it's better just to call that person immediately and just say, Hey man, I was stressed out. I was off. I said something I shouldn't have. Um, I apologize. And, and just move on. Yeah. Go.
Speaker 2:Uh, that's actually a great strategy. Yeah. I've done that before. Like, um, with work, if you do it fast enough, you actually catch people off guard and they literally can't respond. Oh yeah. Oh. You're like, Hey man, that was my fault. Blah, blah, blah. You move so fast. They, they can't even be mad.
Speaker 1:Yeah. They're
Speaker 2:Like, you know,
Speaker 1:It's okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly. You literally just basically you slap'em in the face with
Speaker 1:It. Yeah. You know what the monkey mind does
Speaker 2:Thinks about
Speaker 1:It too much thinks about it and argues and debates and manifest about how you were. Right. And they were wrong. You know what the focus brain does, where you accomplish dreams and do everything you want to accomplish in life.
Speaker 2:Nip it, nip it in the bud and carry
Speaker 1:On. Hey, I'm sorry. I'm working on bigger things. Yeah. This is too small for me
Speaker 2:Too small. Why would I even waste my energy?
Speaker 1:Thinking about little menial. That's right.
Speaker 2:Yeah. My new little thing. That's
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:I've got bigger fish. The fry
Speaker 1:Dreams.<laugh> oh, I love that. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:So another thing to help you with your monkey mind breathe, which we talked about. Yes. And exercise. So they're huge. I mean exercise, you can, you can look it up. It's not a secret anymore. Yeah. The how it releases the endorphins and how it makes you feel. And you know, you get the transient kind of release of dopamine throughout the day. It's just great for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah. If you have a restless mind, you're just spinning sometimes it's best just to close the laptop. Yeah. Turn it off and go, go for a walk, go, go, move, go do something.
Speaker 2:Actually I will always remember this quote from Joe Rogan. Hashtag triggered. I'm just kidding. Now I'll remember this quote from Joe Rogan. Um, he literally said, I basically, I have to torture myself to sleep at night because his brain is so active that he has to work out in so hard and push himself so hard that he has to do all that just to fall asleep. That's crazy. So if you're that kind of person, you almost have to embrace it. Like this is the way it is. Yeah. You know, it sucks, but I can't change that. So I have to whatever. Yeah. You know, I have to push myself. It takes, you know, physically just to work out enough to push me to that limit, to where I can actually fall asleep at night just to turn off the brain.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Oh, that's good. So, uh, last bullet I got is, so there's a lot of distracting task or distracting things that we do in our life. Like email, like you show up to work, um, you got a hundred emails, you know? Yeah. From the, the previous night. So really focus on when you schedule those tasks that are seemingly distracting. Mm. Um, one of the worst things you can do is have your email open all day. So university of British Columbia checking email three times a day, reduce stress. No freaking surprise. Yeah. If you're someone that has your email open all day, like, and you're just waiting for someone to email
Speaker 2:You that's, it's your stress brain expecting
Speaker 1:It. That's your monkey mind, bro. Yeah. Like, like you're, if you're to the point to where you don't know what to do, unless someone emails you you're in a bad place.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:The habit is check your email, be intentional about when you do those things. If you're gonna check your email, check it in the morning, check it right after lunch, check it. Not at the end of the day and in
Speaker 2:Between. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Not go home at the end of the day. Yeah. Spend time with your family.
Speaker 2:It can wait. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Social.
Speaker 2:One thing about work is it's not going anywhere. Yeah. You know, like it never ends,
Speaker 1:It never ends.
Speaker 2:So why kill yourself? Yeah. You know, I
Speaker 1:Mean, pace
Speaker 2:Yourself. If you don't, if you don't have an equity stake,<laugh> in the business. Why are you killing yourself for them? Yeah. That's what I think.
Speaker 1:Well, and a lot of it is just like, we put so much pressure on ourselves. Like if you work hard and you provide value for whatever you're doing, whoever you are, whether it's a, a company you work for, whether you're the owner, whether you're a stay at home parent, like you're doing great things. Yeah. And when, when that time is done, like turn it off and go to the next thing, for sure. Like allow yourself to take that break and reset. Yeah. Cause it's gonna make you a better person. Anyway. It's gonna make you better at your job. It's gonna make you better at your family man. Oh, one of the, my favorite quotes go abroad. Busyness is a form of laziness. Mm. If you don't want to accomplish the thing, you need to, you surround yourself with the busyness that distracts you from the thing you need to do. Ooh, busyness. It's a form of laziness. You can look like you're busy. You can be tired. You can be a workaholic. You can work 90 hours. You're lazy.
Speaker 2:But if you're not getting anything done,
Speaker 1:You're lazy.
Speaker 2:You're doing all. You surround yourself with the wrong things to do. That's right. In order to not do the things you need to do.
Speaker 1:That's right. That's monkey mind, right? That that's business. That's monkey brain business. Sorry,
Speaker 2:Business. That's not business. It's busyness.
Speaker 1:That's monkey brain. That's monkey brain.
Speaker 2:Don't get caught
Speaker 1:Up. Don't get caught up. Don't
Speaker 2:Let the monkey
Speaker 1:Brain win. That's right. It's
Speaker 2:Gonna tell you. You can't do it. You're not good enough.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Whatever you do. Maybe you're too old. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Don't listen. It's just a limitation.
Speaker 1:Hey, monkey brain.
Speaker 2:Don't fight for your limitations.
Speaker 1:You<laugh>. And don't fight for your limitations. One of my favorite quotes and uh, yeah. All right. Cool. I think
Speaker 2:That's, it went on a rant there, so
Speaker 1:<laugh>, let's close it out. Let's close it out. All right, bro.
Speaker 2:All right. No, do the plugs. Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Go to forms and focus.com. Subscribe the newsletter, go to YouTube and subscribe. And we're out.