Speaker 1: Stay Calm as a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
Speaker 1: to Stay Calm, your daily dose of calmness. I'm Bob Roth,
Speaker 1: and I've been teaching people to meditate for fifty years,
Speaker 1: helping them to stay calm under pressure, reboot and re
Speaker 1: energize their lives, and basically be a happier, healthier version
Speaker 1: of themselves. And now I want to help you do
Speaker 1: the same. Ready, sit comfortably, take a few deep breaths,
Speaker 1: and let's begin today's journey. Let's say you have a
Speaker 1: big box you need to move. Now, you could wish
Speaker 1: and hope that that box will move itself, or you
Speaker 1: could exercise the particular muscles in your body that will
Speaker 1: allow you to pick up the box and move it. Well,
Speaker 1: let's say you have some problems in your life that
Speaker 1: require a creative solution. Or let's say you're feeling stagnant
Speaker 1: and you'd like to feel like you're growing and there's
Speaker 1: more innovation creativity in your life. Well you and passively
Speaker 1: sit back and just sort of wish and hope things changed,
Speaker 1: or you could wake up the particular networks in your
Speaker 1: brain that support creative problem solving growth. The keyword in
Speaker 1: this case is networks within the brain. So I want
Speaker 1: to talk a little bit about what science tells us
Speaker 1: about the creative process in the brain. There are three
Speaker 1: main networks in the brain that promote the creative process.
Speaker 1: The first is called the executive control network, and that's
Speaker 1: the part of the brain when you're focused, when you're concentrating.
Speaker 1: The second part of the brain is called the default
Speaker 1: mode network. Now, how did that name come about. Well,
Speaker 1: scientists wanted to know what was the brain doing when
Speaker 1: it was resting. It turns out that there are three
Speaker 1: sub networks within the brain that are active when we're
Speaker 1: not focused on a particular task. Many scientists were very
Speaker 1: dismissive about what they called the default mode network. They said,
Speaker 1: this is just the wandering mind, the daydreaming mind. The
Speaker 1: mind is not on task, that's not being productive. Well,
Speaker 1: now they have a new name for it, the imagination network.
Speaker 1: And here's an even better name for it, the genius lounge.
Speaker 1: When the brain isn't focused and on task and working hard,
Speaker 1: it's this network where those nonlinear, subtle creative ideas can
Speaker 1: bubble up to the surface. Sometimes it happens when you're
Speaker 1: taking a hot shower and you go, oh, my gosh,
Speaker 1: I just realized what I should do. Where you go
Speaker 1: for a walk in the woods, or you're just spending
Speaker 1: time with friends off task. That imagination network allows these
Speaker 1: innovative ideas to come to the surface. Now there's a
Speaker 1: third network called the salience network. Salience network turns the
Speaker 1: imagination network on it and turns the executive control network off.
Speaker 1: So now I have a creative idea. Now I've finished
Speaker 1: with the creative idea that gets shut down, and now
Speaker 1: I'm focused to make it happen. Stress is very destructive
Speaker 1: to the creative process. And when I'm stressed, it suppresses
Speaker 1: the default mode network, writer's block. I can't focus, I
Speaker 1: can't concentrate. I'm distracted in a million different directions. No
Speaker 1: new ideas come out of me. Recent studies on the
Speaker 1: creative process on some of the most creative people in
Speaker 1: the world showed their brains are hardwired differently than ours.
Speaker 1: For them, there's not a wall between innovation and concentration.
Speaker 1: There's a free flow of ideas back and forth so
Speaker 1: that you can focus and innovate at the same time.
Speaker 1: And this takes the creative process to a far higher level.
Speaker 1: Then we transcend in meditation when we settle down deeply
Speaker 1: to our own quiet, innermost self, That effortless process wakes
Speaker 1: up the imagination network and also strengthens the executive control
Speaker 1: network and the neurons or brain cells that connect together,
Speaker 1: that fire together like that connectivity in meditation, they wire
Speaker 1: together out of meditation. So now I'm beginning to bring
Speaker 1: that innovative creative process into all my actions. Now I
Speaker 1: can innovate and focus at the same time, and that
Speaker 1: makes life much more satisfying. Now a takeaway. We all
Speaker 1: focus a lot, concentrate a lot, we all overschedule our
Speaker 1: kids lives. There's an upside to downtime. There's an upside.
Speaker 1: There's a value to not always be being on task.
Speaker 1: In addition to meditating, taking time out for walks to
Speaker 1: enjoy nature, spending time with your kids, not on mission,
Speaker 1: just quiet, huge health benefits to mind and body. So
Speaker 1: schedule into your highly scheduled days downtime. All right, let's
Speaker 1: end this time together doing something that I think should
Speaker 1: be a feature of our everyday life, and that's appreciation
Speaker 1: and gratitude. So let's take thirty seconds of quiet, thirty
Speaker 1: seconds to take a break, just take a moment. It
Speaker 1: turns out when we do that, it's good for our
Speaker 1: health as well. I'll be right back all right. Thank
Speaker 1: you for joining. This is Bob Roth. Keep calm. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening today. I hope you heard something that inspires,
Speaker 1: that uplifts you and that you can incorporate into your
Speaker 1: own life. Until next time, remember, meditate, be kind, and
Speaker 1: be true to yourself. Hey, all of you out there,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your stories, your questions, or anything else on your mind.
Speaker 1: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram at
Speaker 1: meditation Bob. You can also send me an email at
Speaker 1: meditation Bob Roth at gmail dot com. I look forward
Speaker 1: to hearing from you.