In this episode 18 protocols
▶ 1:00:19 Practice Divergent and Convergent Thinking Between Ages 5 and 25 Behaviors “For those of you that are aged between five and 25, all I can say is, please learn to engage both divergent and convergent thinking as much as possible, because you will enhance your ability for both.” ▷ 1:03:53 Open Monitoring Meditation Behaviors “Open monitoring meditation is typically done for about 10 to 30 minutes, although it could be longer. And unlike other forms of meditation... open monitoring meditation is simply a matter of having you sit there or lie down, close your eyes, and to allow whatever surfaces in your mind to surface.” ▷ 1:07:45 Focused Attention Meditation Behaviors “Focused attention meditation... involves sitting or lying down, closing your eyes, focusing either on your breath or some element of your body, could be the tops of your knees or the clasp of your hands. It could be focusing on an auditory tone.” ▷ 1:09:18 Dual Meditation Behaviors “I would encourage you to do a dual meditation. That is a meditation that starts with open monitoring for maybe five to 10 minutes, and then transitions to focused attention for maybe five to 10 minutes.” ▷ 1:17:11 Avoid Additional Dopamine Stimulation When Already in a Good Mood Behaviors “If people are already in a very good mood, elevating dopamine further is not conducive and in fact is detrimental to divergent thinking. And in that case, they would be better off... limiting the amount of external stimuli that are coming in through music and visual stimuli and really focusing on divergent thinking in the creative process immediately.” ▷ 1:18:36 Elevate Mood Before Divergent Thinking When Mood Is Low Behaviors “If you're in a low mood or kind of meh mood, by all means, engage in something probably for about five to 30 minutes that elevates your mood before trying to engage in divergent thinking.” ▷ 1:19:55 Caffeine Supplements “I would recommend not using stimulants such as caffeine prior to divergent thinking, but rather use stimulants if you do want to use stimulants such as caffeine, prior to convergent thinking. Turns out it's one to three milligrams per kilogram of body weight, by the way.” ▷ 1:21:22 Assess Mood Before Creative Work Behaviors “You can, however, learn to calibrate your mood, that is to assess your mood, whether or not you're in low, medium or high mood... and then decide whether or not you're going to use some dopamine elevating stimulus from the outside.” ▷ 1:24:30 L-Tyrosine Supplements “If you were to amplify dopamine levels, for instance, by taking the amino acid precursor to dopamine L-tyrosine, something that I occasionally do to enhance dopamine levels for sake of work or energy, 500 milligrams or a thousand milligrams, even of L-tyrosine.” ▷ 1:24:43 Alpha-GPC Supplements “Sometimes I'll combine that with other things like alpha-GPC, it's going to enhance dopamine transmission in the nigrostriatal pathway, the mesocortical pathway, but also in the mesolimbic pathway.” ▷ 1:29:35 Phenylethylamine Supplements “In particular, phenylethylamine is very effective in doing that. 600 milligrams of that has a brief effect, lasting only about 30 to 45 minutes, but it is one that many people find beneficial for sake of studying or for creative thinking.” ▷ 1:29:56 Foods High in L-Tyrosine Diet “For instance, the consumption of foods that are high in L-tyrosine, such as aged Parmesan cheese, for instance, of all things, very, very high in L-tyrosine, the precursor to dopamine.” ▷ 1:39:23 NSDR / Yoga Nidra Behaviors “So my recommendation would be, for those of you that are trying to enhance divergent thinking and creative ability, that you would do this practice at a minimum once per week. And I should say, if you were going to do it once per week, I'd recommend doing it for about 20 to 30 minutes.” ▷ 1:42:27 Do Divergent Thinking 5–15 Minutes After NSDR / Yoga Nidra Behaviors “The idea would be to do anywhere from 10 to 20, maybe 30 minutes, maybe even as much as an hour... of such a meditation NSDR practice. And then, not necessarily immediately, but within the five to 15 minutes following, then to go into a practice of divergent thinking and start doing creative exploration.” ▷ 1:55:17 Treadmill Walking Tools “There have been some studies of whether or not people are able to engage in divergent thinking more effectively when they are doing things like pacing or walking, and this could be on a treadmill or back and forth across the room.” ▷ 1:55:17 Movement for Divergent Thinking Behaviors “There have been some studies of whether or not people are able to engage in divergent thinking more effectively when they are doing things like pacing or walking... and in fact, that is absolutely the case.” ▷ 1:57:34 Voice Recorder Tools “Some of you might benefit from, for instance, if you are engaging in writing or you want to write, to talk into the voice recorder of your phone while walking.” ▷ 1:57:50 Capture Ideas During Movement Without Phone Distractions Behaviors “As ideas surface, seemingly out of nowhere... you could either put them into your phone by voice dictation, or you could type them out if you like. The key thing is to not be distracted by other things in your phone.”