If you have some level of interest in health consciousness, you’ve probably read “You are what you eat!” somewhere more than once in your life.
And while there’s definitely some truth to these sayings, we seem to have abandoned some of the key components of neuroscience that illustrate our bodies’ innate ability to perform, increase mental acuity, and focus under the right conditions, independent of the food we choose to consume.
That’s not to say that I recommend inhaling a large pepperoni pizza and three pints of chunky ice cream tonight (well, maybe just one pint). Food is important, and its associations with our productivity and well-being can be significant— but when your body is experiencing incoherence from negative emotions or thought patterns, the benefits of nutrition become marginal.
- Stress Blocks Nutrient Absorption
Most people spend 70% of their time stuck in the emotional hormones of stress. The problem is that these hormones trigger the immune system to shut down and push blood from our core to our extremities.
In other words, we move from a state of homeostasis to fight-or-flight. And although the fight-or-flight response is excellent if you are being chased by a T-rex, it is incredibly damaging to stay in that state for long periods of time.
So if you are drinking green juice and taking vitamin shots, but spend the rest of your day stressing about your ex’s new partner, the likelihood of absorbing nutrients decreases by up to 80%.
Regardless of any potential association between food and productivity, your body is significantly less capable of utilizing these advantages under the hormones of stress.
- Your Neurological Program Always Wins
How you think, feel, and act on a daily basis is based on 95% subconscious neurological programs. More specifically, the vast majority of your behaviors are on autopilot and you aren’t aware of them.
When you’re programmed into low-level emotions like stress, fear, depression, unworthiness, and so on, you’re likely to inhabit behaviors that correspond to those emotions; like self-sabotage, procrastination, and erratic or poor decision making.
And yet, you may continue to eat salads with avocado diligently for lunch every day. But if your programmed thoughts and behaviors breed a lack of focus, your lunchtime salads likely won’t make a dent in your productivity.
- Incoherence Halts Focus
Some of the latest research in neuroscience shows that having incoherence between the heart and brain due to negative emotions compromises your focus, and has a direct negative effect on your digestive system.
Incoherence is when your body sends disordered signals between the heart and brain, like an angry child scribbling on a piece of paper.
For example, if you’re in the shower and you start thinking about the driver that cut you off and flipped you the bird, you’re probably having an incoherent signal between your heart and brain.
And since these negative emotions can impair your digestive system too, eating healthy food isn’t going to help your mental focus anyway.
So if you’re about to go to your cranky mother-in-law’s house for dinner, you might want to fantasize about winning a lottery ticket before reaching for the steamed broccoli.
Whether it’s derived from the hormones of stress, your neurological program, or incoherence between the heart and brain, it’s clear that negative emotions tamper your brain and body and prevent productivity, independent of nutrition.
So now what?
Well, I’m going to show you the number one strategy that helps combat these barriers so that you can not only get the most from your nutrition, but also use neurological rewiring to double your results.
Ready for it?
it’s called— meditation.
I know, it’s a little disappointing. You thought it would be a cool new technology, a supplement, or something more “sophisticated” right?
That’s the point: most of us are looking for something outside of us to solve an underlying issue inside of us.
I meet many over-achievers who believe that meditation just isn’t “for them” or that somehow it’s for someone with a certain set of characteristics different from their own.
But the truth is, meditation is one of the top ways to get beyond yourself, rewire your negative programs, and substantially reduce or eliminate stress.
So if you’re stuck in a pattern of unproductivity and the green juice doesn’t seem to be doing you any good, I challenge you to give meditation a go— what do you have to lose?