Unlocking Peak Performance: The Power of Neurotransmitters in Achieving Greatness

Ep 103. Neurotransmitters play a crucial role in shaping human actions and behaviors, particularly those we label as successful or skillful. Skill building inherently involves effort, and to sustain this effort, there must be a rewarding payoff that reinforces the behavior. In today’s fast-paced world, we constantly strive to elevate our behaviors to achieve peak performance, enhance outcomes, and elevate our skills from the ordinary to the extraordinary—reaching legendary heights. The concept of performance enhancement is not new; it dates back to our ancient ancestors, who utilized basic tools to improve their survival. This drive for excellence is deeply rooted in our evolutionary history, where competition for gene proliferation was key. In this discussion, we will explore how neurotransmitters influence peak performance, goal achievement, flow states, and the realization of what once seemed impossible in our contemporary landscape. Embrace the journey, dare to explore, and walk your path with purpose.

Transcript

Welcome back folks to episode 103 of the Running Man Self Regulation Skills Project podcast with me, your host, Dr. Armando Dominguez, PhD in Health Psychology, licensed professional counselor and an adjunct professor at a local community college. What we'll be discussing today is going to be the neurochemistry involved in peak performance, peak experiences, flow, and also accomplishing the impossible.

And yes, impossible is an absolute and I'm going to be using that term for our purposes today, but we're going to make a very distinct point of kind of describing those things that are going on inside of us when it is that time to exceed our expectations, our normal human limits, our baseline, and to optimize our output, to optimize whatever it is that we call our performance, whether it be work.

personal or even professional even in sport and martial art for that matter and what we're going to start off with is the fact that often whenever we look at what we do There's an intrinsic drive if you really like what you're doing There's even a little passion in what you do and pursuing what you do over a long period of time It's not always about exploding from the finish line at the highest fastest farthest level that you can muster but rather over time Enjoying something till you achieve

arrive at a point of mastery, not final mastery, but one where you're very comfortable and you're at ease in performing said skill, whether it be a mental skill or a physical skill such as sport, this sort of thing. But the importance is recognizing that there is a process from the start.

liking that and that starts with curiosity. Now, Steven Kotler in this gem of a book, it's called The Art of the Impossible. Amazing read. If you get an audible, please do. Has a lot of really good things in there that are worth listening to. This came out in 2022, you, but it's one heck of a book to have as a reference point. And it doesn't matter if you're in sport or trying to find a way to improve yourself, whether it be in business or even counseling for that matter. If you want to learn how to increase your skill at doing those

armando (02:37.509)
things that maybe you do for a living versus just what we would call a fun or hobby activity or even a sport activity that you take seriously. But whenever we call something an avocation, not a vocation, my job, but an avocation, something that I spend time doing and get skilled at, but continue to do and want to improve. there's a payoff at some point. Then we're looking at something that requires a bit of curiosity, something that's an interest.

there's got to be some sort of payoff and the payoff is very much intrinsic. Not just where somebody pats you on the back for a job well done that is part of it and that's the external world telling you do this and do it again more often and that will give us that endogenous internal dopamine rush so to speak. But what is it that drives me to seek out an activity? Once again I've been doing martial arts for about 40 years and I like practicing such as Tai Chi the the forms themselves because

those are textbooks of martial methodology. No, it's not finding when you're training, but it is training the body to remember and respond and do things that require not only grace but skill, but self-control, self-regulatory skill, and how to breathe and how to move appropriately and with efficiency and effectiveness. And then you drill that and get the benefit of it, not unlike going to a batting cage and learning how to keep your eye on the ball, so to speak. And I say that in quotes because

is quite the misnomer if you really follow what it is that we do when we see a target, but along those lines where we're seeking to improve constituent skills, bits and pieces that we put together versus doing the entirety of whatever it is I might be doing like running all at once. There are even little details in running to show you how to improve not only posture, but gait, footfall, and also breathing tempo, this sort of thing. So there's a whole lot that goes into any

skill, but I'm just kind of highlighting the physical sported because that's easier to identify. But what about those neurochemicals I just mentioned? So what's the big deal there? Well, some of the things that we pursue over time that we gain skill in,

armando (04:52.418)
Often there's some sort of payoff and the payoff often is the good feeling that I get by having done it or maybe accomplished something. Now, dopamine is the neurotransmitter that is currently the most popular media honey across all platforms, whether it be personal, professional, and biological, this sort of thing. But it is one that isn't just about feel good. And it's not one that you just get when you eat successfully, even though you do get dopamine, but it's one that is also a motive.

armando (05:36.781)
of gets little muddy, but let's just make a point to separating this for now. But dopamine actually is a reward chemical that tells you and motivates you to do things again. So it actually kind of bolsters memory as well as a result of

pulling the memory and I remember how good it felt to do something. Dopamine is one of those things, not unlike adrenaline that tends to, I would say, amplify what memory does. So that way you'd be more apt to not only remember, but do and repeat a certain behavior. Now the next neurotransmitter I'd like to talk about, and this is one that's not spoken about so much, and that's anandamide. Anandamide, you don't hardly hear anything about, but generally is known to a couple at the same time that

dopamine is released and is known for not only mood altering, but a sense of euphoria and bliss that comes along with that. So there are certain activities that may give us that sense of release whenever we are doing things and it's pleasurable.

There's euphoria, there's a general comfort, no anxiety, but there is definitely a generous amount of pleasure that's going along with that. But anandamide is also implicated once again, as in dopamine, but also with more of the end product where you're enjoying, and this is more the peak experience for blissful aspect of what we get when we do something well. And if we do it with a great deal of frequency, our capacity to have that bliss,

goes up whenever we become more efficient. It doesn't mean every time you do that activity, you're going to have that blissful effect, but the more skilled you get with activity over time, you're more apt to have that blissful response that runners high, so to speak, that once we kind of let go and we're not overthinking things, our prefrontal cortex is not nearly as active or we're judging every little detail. We become what's called

armando (07:32.956)
hypo frontal. That means we have less activity in the front, but it's not all gone. We talked about blood flow leaving the front part of the brain for where under stress, but when we're under a measured balance level of stress, we have a measure of hypofrontality. That means I'm thinking less and I'm perceiving more and I'm just experiencing in a very visceral sense what's going on. So anandamide once again is very much associated with bliss. The next one is just endorphins. Endorphins are pain

reduction chemicals, but they're also known for giving a sense of pleasure from effort. If you're doing something like a two mile run and you're trying to get it under six minutes and no, that's not world-class, but it's not bad. If you're doing this in a repeated sense, you may get a sense of endorphins where the discomfort of the running and the pounding on the pavement and the joints no longer is occurring, but there is a sense of wellness.

even though there's a recognition of effort and the endorphins stop the pain. You may feel sore after the fact but probably not so much during and it is also implicated in feeling good and having a sense of enjoyment whenever you're doing things that are maybe a passion activity. Now serotonin is also one of the chemicals that we hear about on the mental health side and I am a

clinician and this is something that often we hear about selective serotonin reuptake and inhibitors and and those that actually encourage a Lessening of serotonin but the SSRIs are meant to keep the serotonin in the synaptic cleft a little space where they plug in where they flow out from to where they run the risk of plugging into receptor sites for those that have less serotonin now serotonin is implicated in people that struggle with

We'll call them adrenaline junkies. take unnecessary risks sometimes to try to elevate their sense of feel good. If somebody, for instance, has fewer receptors and they have regular dopamine, that means that they are awash in good feelings and any little thing can get them off into a good feeling sense. But what if somebody has a limited amount of serotonin, but yet their body still quickly re-uptakes normally, but they have plenty of receptors, just not enough serotonin, then

armando (09:48.912)
The serotonin needs to stay in that area so they run the risk of getting more of the receptor sites to go off and one is less apt to become depressed over time. So there is something there, but serotonin is something that is implicated in general feel good. And another one we talked about the endorphins is oxytocin. Oxytocin is a bonding chemical that we usually talk about whenever mama breastfeeds or holds baby or whenever

We have a friend and befriend activities where you may see people around the fire talking and, and BSing and telling story after a hunt, this sort of thing, or just generally being around family and that wellness and that sense of belonging that comes with oxytocin. We tend to be more in line with it and more able to appreciate it, but there's also something involved with oxytocin whenever we're doing things, when there's a sense of meaning, a sense of

loving what we do, but also that there's more to it than just what we're doing and be just enjoying the fact that I did it, but rather it lends itself to whenever we develop meaning in things where there's purpose involved in those things that we might do. Now GABA, that is a neurotransmitter that in the field that I work in is implicated as being kind of like the, the speeding up or the gas pedal for the body for certain intrinsic systems that might

deal with an autonomic responses like to heat and cold, sort of stuff and heart rate. But, GABA is also an excitatory neurotransmitter. So that will activate the body and that will, in a sense, give us a calm, in the storm sense, so to speak, wherever we're actually able to energize up and meet the conditions of whatever stress or challenge we may be experiencing. So GABA usually is backed off by the brakes and that's in MDA.

That is also the counter to GABA. If NMDA is not there, your body's heart rate and heat could go up to the point of stroke level if you're, for instance, detoxing from alcohol. So it is very, very crucial to much of what our body does. But generally speaking in accomplishing and doing stuff, GABA helps us feel that sense of calm in the storm, wherever there's a sense of confidence within. And serotonin is known to be like the confidence chemical as well. Once again,

armando (12:13.695)
whenever we're washing neurotransmitters, rarely is it just one discrete neurotransmitter, but it's good to know these little things that are going on. And nice to know that it's more than one that's working at any point in time. Now, one that's usually not mentioned very much like anandamide are the endocannabinoids. Usually we talk about those whenever it comes to people that use, for instance, THC for neuro enhancements, such as, you know, cutting down on pain, perceived pain.

or actual pain, medical use of marijuana, that sort of stuff. But the endocannabinoids are actually something that are activated with the neurotransmitters that we're feeling pleasure with. And it gives us a calming effect. Whenever we have that calm in the storm, the GABA, we also have the calming effect generally when there's a stressor and we feel that we're meeting conditions, the endocannabinoids may actually fire off, especially we're successfully meeting.

stressful conditions and overcoming what we would call a challenge, so to speak. But those are things that we need to kind of look at to understand what it is that might be going on whenever we have a sense of ease in the face of challenge, or when we have a challenge that may make us feel ill at ease, that we may trigger these responses to help us maintain not only a sense of equilibrium, but a capacity, maybe even an extra energy to actually make and do what we would call a successful run of things.

we're trying to do something that is new, something that's novel, something that's curious to us. And if we have a good experience, more often than not, these endorphins and dopamine and neurotransmitters of all sorts that we have here, there's probably about eight of them that we were talking about, they're going to be the things that kind of anchor that memory and make us probably more apt to consider that a worthwhile endeavor to we might return and do it again. So really important stuff. So

What we're going to be looking at next is the art of the impossible. Like Steve Cutler said in his book, I love that title, but what is really interesting is that the impossible often the challenging frequently is something that we will look back on once we do things. And we may even develop a narrative or a mythology or a legend of sort that tells us, Hey, this is whenever we were at peak, we did well, not only well, but we overcame and.

armando (14:38.121)
I feel rather heroic and that's okay. Nothing wrong with that. So what I'm going to share with you now is a very personal story, a little self-disclosure. Whenever I was a parent in going back to school and I'd gotten my bachelor's degree in psychology and I was figuring out that I was going to move towards a more professional job and moving into counseling in particular, that graduation from my bachelor's, even though I wound up getting a PhD later in a master's degree,

It was a peak experience for me. remember I was breathing rarefied air that day. was around peers, many that were much younger than I was. And many that I actually outperformed, in my GPA, even though it was incredibly high at 3.75. I was working two or three jobs at a time. Also working, full time, at a retail establishment on top of, raising three little kiddos, little sons, and at the time married.

And trying to maintain balance in that area. And I remember I would sleep about an hour and a half a day and I would take lunch at the establishment I was at and I would stay, I would go to lunch to the McDonald's and whenever I would go there, I would take my study materials. I would do my statistics or reading. And once I didn't do that, I would have an hour. I would decide, okay, I can either take a nap. What do I need more? Or I could reward myself and I could read maybe some science fiction.

one of my favorite authors and usually it was Stephen Barnes whom I love his his work you might want to check some of that out but what I would do is do that and I did that for months at a time and I would crash whenever semesters were over and then I'd get back on the saddle do the same thing it was a very rough time but at the same time I looked back and I realized that I was able to do more than I thought I could and this is an encouragement sometimes we do things that

We don't think we're able to do but once we're in it, we realize that we're actually quite capable of accomplishing and doing a step at a time now the reason I mentioned this Is because often when I talk to people even when I teach a parenting class that I teach then I just taught it this past saturday that there's often an exaggeration a hyperbolic exaggeration of fear Of what's going to be without facts, but rather their opinion based on prior experience that limits them or may

armando (17:04.344)
somebody to exaggerate a response to where it could become dangerous to a child or even to the situation where they may not be able to have visitation because an overreaction as a result of that belief Now back to the peak experience I had I Didn't know but I was afraid but even though I had fear I was willing to say look I know I'm afraid and I acknowledge that I know I fear failure But I'm gonna at least do my best. I can't not do my best

And there were lots of things that were on the heels of my proverbial mind, the hounds of hell, so to speak, of not becoming the negative or dark aspects of what I thought was part of my family inheritance, not so much from my parents, but extended relatives and such, and becoming like my peers that were going to wind up either in the legal system or on drugs or drinking this sort of thing. And I don't drug or drink.

And my martial arts were the thing that kept me steady. That was my so to speak, indulging. And even though was a very visceral thing, it helped ground me, but also knew that whenever I dealt with things that were frightening, my reference point was always, is this going to kill me? Could it hurt me? Could it kill me? And that might be an extreme, but keeping death close in that sense helped me get a reference for what it is I was doing and let me realize that

Well, no, it's not gonna kill me. I may flunk out. I may do this may do that, but it's not gonna keep me from breathing. It's not gonna Compromise my ability to provide for my children that sort of stuff So there were some big things that were at play That would help motivate me that I would remind myself with not to punish myself But rather a reminder because I knew that the fear was there because I was doing things that were novel that were new I'd never gone to college and in my family Nobody else had gone to college and completed at the time. I was one of the first

And that's okay. I mean, I'm not higher or better because of it. just did. And I know that all is very individualistic and it kind of helped to know how to optimize what it is I was doing. I was studying a book, um, to become a better student, to become better at thinking and learn how to, how to learn better and remember better. And it was called supermind 2000 and it was about 2002, 2003. So it tells you about how long ago this was. But when that book came out,

armando (19:29.677)
I was using a Ginkgo biloba and also ginseng in elevated doses, not to toxicity, but just to encourage memory. And then I was also using a subtle choline, the supplement and that when you got to be careful with, or it might give you a body odor or stinky winky. I'm not going to explain that, but only in excess, but a subtle choline is what we use to form memory. Ginkgo biloba helped in memory retrieval. That's been well studied.

And ginseng actually just kind of cut down on the amount of tension in the body around the nerves. So therefore creating a less resistance in signals. So I became more efficient at remembering and making memory. And that exactly was what happened. I wasn't naturally smart in that sense, but I could tell that I was more efficient and working less intensely, less hard, so to speak, to make those things happen, learning and memory and memory acquisition.

Whenever I was trying to do stuff and I realized when I was testing it was just like snapping fingers or pouring water. It's like, okay. I'm trying to remember this. I studied, Oh, there it is. And I'll think about it again. There it is. I got the answer. It was not nearly as hard. And I realized, well, it doesn't have to be as hard as I had experienced it before. So it just required a little bit of passion on my part. And I did lots of research and realizing that, man, now what if I want to learn something I want to learn? I want bananas. I was reading literally between thousands and tens of thousands.

of books and monographs and articles, in the entire time that I'd been going to school because it became easier. The learning became easier. Not that the stuff I was learning was easy, but the capacity to learn and the how to learn was much easier, less effort, much more efficient, therefore more pleasurable. And I got to a level wherever it was no longer work, work, work, uphill, uphill, but rather the process was not only effort recognized,

But also I started moving towards mastery of how to learn. And that is really the whole point of what I'm talking about today. If things are pleasurable, we learn, if things are painful, we learn as well. But we also get really good at avoiding those things that are pain and moving towards those things that are pleasure. And that's just a hedonic responses. We're human. But what I want to point out is that those things that we want to accomplish in quotes, the impossible, they're not impossible. There are very few things in this life that are impossible.

armando (21:53.819)
Also, I would say that there are very few things in this life that with a long enough time horizon and with a steady pace even a step at a time baby step at a time Lao Tzu said a journey of a thousand miles starts with one step every journey starts with the first step the goal is to continue to step after that first and keep doing that being steady being consistent and Fearless doesn't mean fearless in the sense of you have no fear. No fear at all

Fearless in the sense that we become more aware of what we're doing. Become knowledgeable of what it is that you're doing. Allow yourself to enjoy the process of the new, the novel, the exciting, the adventure and encourage yourself to do that because in the process you might find those things that will really trip your triggers in a good way in that you'll have more of the positive, enjoyable and also skill.

acquired through hard work that will give you a sense of wellness and self-efficacy that nothing else will So that's really all I want to touch upon today and I want to tell you thank you for listening to me on this late Sunday afternoon and I certainly hope that you share this podcast with people that you know, and I am working Feverishly at trying to improve what it is that we do here so I can start doing interviews with awesome peers and bringing learning about not only

People that do the kind of work I do but also alternative health such as Rolfing, massage, acupuncture, this sort of thing and those other things that can help us in self-regulating those things that dysregulate our life and put us at elevated stress. Now what I would like to tell you is thank you once again and if you'd like to send me some feedback please send it to the email at runningmangetskillsproject at gmail. I'd love to hear from you.

and I'm hoping that I can let you know about things as we go that'll bring you more quality, more learning, more capacity in those things that you enjoy doing. Have a good day. Take care. Walk well.