Welcome to another episode (episode 3) of The Patel Perspective. This episodesdiscussion is all about achieving mental clarity. Thanks for listening!
0:00 – 2:05 Intro + Welcome
2:06 – 6:50 Why mental clarity?
– Mental clarity is related to mental health and cognition
– Very important for today because we have to engage in deep work to get things done
– From students to older individual, mental clarity is essential for brain age
– Learning and memory comes from mental clarity
– Conversations with other people are better, thus relationships get better
– Being distracted is not what you want in any of your life’s situation
– Mental clarity is essential for short term decisions (like improving ones diet, making healthy decisions) and long-term (career)
6:51 – 21:38 Scheduling, Planning, Goal setting
– An organized mind is an organized life
– A structure to your day is essential to having an organized mind AKA mental clarity
– Short term planning (to do lists, time block, weekly goals – high protein meal ideas, losing 1lb fat, getting groceries)
– Long term planning (calendars and reminders – taking GREs in 3 months, buying a house in 6 months)
– I use #notion to organize my life, just like @aliabdaal
– I explain how to make to-do lists, less the better, weekly goals lists, and Eisenhower decision matrix
21:39 – 30:30 Highly addictive activities (social media, scrolling etc)
– Do you start your day with a scroll through your phone? Don’t feel guilty. Everyone does it. I myself succumb to that malicious cycle of scrolling first thing in the morning. Technology is never going anywhere.
– I do not think scrolling and using your phone serves any good for mental clarity. You have already opened dopamine flood gates with excessive scrolling. That’s the reason why you feel demotivated to do work. Demotivation is distraction in disguise. If you have to check your phone first thing, do it. But do not gawk at pictures or unintentionally scroll through TikTok in hopes to land on a twerking video.
– Speaking of that, people who watch porn/ejaculate in the morning might be setting themselves up for failure. I personally abstain from that because it is so unproductive. Typical porn addiction behavior is highly time consuming. You will easily spend at least 10-15 min wasting time.
– Prolactin is a hormone that released post ejaculation. Elevation of that hormone results in reduction of dopamine, testosterone, and estrogen.
30:32 – 33:03 Meditation
– Mindfulness is essential for mental clarity so mediation is the best tool for it
– You can follow any of meditation types. There are many out there.
– I do about 5 min of meditation (breathing) as early as possible in the morning. You can also try after working out.
– When you meditate, the levels of ACH, a nts in our NS, goes up. It is a molecule of attention.
– Meditation seems to be a great warm up before deep work session because you are priming your brain to focus better.
– I advice not to do it at night, if you main goal is focus and clarity. Research has shown to reduce sleep quality if it is done too late in the day (like evening, so after sunset or around it). @hubermanlab has talked about this on his podcast.
33:04 – 42:51 Fasting
– This is the first behavioral interventions I used to cure my brain fog during my freshmen year college.
– There is research that supports IF increases cognitive performance
– Sympathetic NS = fight or flight state
– Gluconeogenesis, ketone bodies, increased fatty acid oxidation, glutamate, epinepherine
42:52 – 48:10 Low carb/keto meals (specifics of nutrition)
– These meals are a way of fasting too
– Healthy fat are important for hormone, neurotransmitter, cell membrane production. Your brain is made up a lot of fats too.
– Healthy fats have antidepressant effects, improving positive mood. Have a variety of them. Saturated fat and cholesterol are essential for cells and hormones.
– Overall: better functioning brain, increased mental clarity
48:11 – 52:11 Sleep
– We all know this but only a few take action
– Lack of sleep = Impaired short and long term memory
– Sleep leads to alertness
52:12 – 55: 55 Exercise
– resistance training or cardio, pick what you like, avoid power lifting
– Exercising a few times a week improves memory, sleep, anxiety, energy etc.
– Exercising in the morning and evening, both are good
– Mornings – alertness, evenings – relaxation, stress relief
55:56 – 1:02:29 Caffeine
– Increases alertness, focus, and elevates mood
– Increases dopamine, its receptors, epinephrine, and acetylcholine
– Inhibits adenosine
1:02:30 – 1:07:53 Creatine
– stored as phosphocreatine in muscle
– brain creatine depends on creatine transport in the blood brain barrier
– Only some study show increases in cognitive improvement but there is data
1:07:53 – 1:09:36 Closing remarks