Behaviors

Use the same protocol each time you test so that changes reflect progress rather than procedural differences.

For ages 5–25, engage both divergent and convergent thinking as much as possible to enhance ability in both.

For creativity, practice open monitoring for 5–10 minutes followed immediately by focused attention for 5–10 minutes. Doing 5 minutes of each daily may help improve these processes quickly.

If already in a pretty positive mood, do not add more dopamine-elevating stimuli before divergent thinking; extra stimulation can hurt divergent thinking. Limit external inputs like music and visual stimuli and begin the creative process directly.

If in a low or 'meh' mood, spend about 5–30 minutes first elevating mood before trying divergent thinking. Suggested methods include positive stories, music you like, inspirational stimuli, or exercise to raise dopamine enough to support creativity.

Calibrate your mood before creative work using broad bins like low, medium, or high, or a 1–10 scale, and decide whether to use dopamine-elevating stimuli accordingly.

Use NSDR or yoga nidra as preparation, then within about 5–15 minutes afterward begin divergent thinking or creative exploration.

When ideas arise during walking or other movement, capture them by voice dictation or typing, while avoiding distractions from the phone such as social media, calls, or texts because they disrupt the pseudo-random walk associated with divergent thinking.

Take vitamin/mineral supplements with food, ideally early in the day. Especially important because B vitamins, zinc, and coenzyme Q10 can cause stomach upset or should be taken with food.

Avoid very high supplemental doses due to buildup risk for fat-soluble vitamins and because it can reduce attention to nutrition.

Reserve melatonin for occasional use such as jet lag rather than regular nightly use.

Every two weeks or month, take one night off all sleep supplements or leave one out to test dependency/placebo effects; ideally do this on a Friday night or before a low-stakes next day.

Ease into protocols rather than taking more for faster results; start with the minimum amount and find the minimal effective dose for you.

Women may need to titrate dosage, increase dosage, or stop certain supplements at different phases of the menstrual cycle because effects can differ or even reverse.

When trying to focus, avoid being overly hungry, but also avoid large meals, excessive calories, high food volume, or blood glucose so high that it makes you sleepy.

Separate stimulant-based and neuromodulator-based approaches and test individual ingredients before stacking them.

Host is not a fan of melatonin use in kids because melatonin is already chronically elevated and supplementation may be harmful.

Avoid hormone support or augmentation supplements in young people until at least after puberty and probably into the late teens and early 20s unless closely supervised by a physician.

When you wake up, write dreams down; doing so can help more of the dream return even if it does not yet make sense.

Use Yoga Nidra as a pre-sleep practice to clear the mind and create peace before bed.

Do not watch disturbing or violent material before bed.

Allow waking to be gradual rather than immediately engaging intensely.

After morning sunlight, go for a walk—his example is a beach walk for another 60 to 90 minutes.

During walks, avoid looking at the phone and listen instead to lectures, podcasts, or audiobooks.

For 30 seconds, pay attention to one object such as the breath, your hand, or a clock without getting lost in thought; used to reveal distractibility.

Classic mindfulness practice involving scrupulous attention to seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, and touching, breaking experience into microscopic sensory moments; for example, attend to micro-sensations of pressure, temperature, and movement in the hands.

When experiencing pain, direct full attention to it and drop resistance; much of the suffering is described as coming from resisting and worrying about the pain.

Apply mindfulness to anger, depression, fear, and other emotions by feeling their punctate, changeable qualities rather than reinforcing them conceptually; includes feeling anxiety as pure physiology rather than as meaning about oneself.

Beginners can start with a deliberate sitting practice, often with eyes closed, such as setting aside 10 minutes in the morning; formal practice can later be complemented by eyes-open practice and daily-life integration.

Erase the boundary between formal meditation and the rest of life so meditative awareness can continue during ordinary waking activities such as walking, hiking, playing guitar, skiing, and other daily actions.