Key takeaways:
- Turn anxiety into excitement by using music or other stimuli to get psyched up for an event.
- Arousal regulation is a technique used by athletes to manage their nervous system and perform at their best.
- Stress reappraisal involves viewing stress signals as positive rather than negative, which can improve performance and well-being.
- Excitation transfer is the process of arousing oneself in one way and then transferring that arousal to a different activity.
- Distracting oneself from an activity can improve performance if one has reached a state of automaticity or is experiencing performance anxiety.
Get psyched up, not psyched out #
- Anxiety can be turned into excitement by listening to music that gets one amped up.
- This technique can be viewed as an example of arousal regulation, which is used by athletes to get into the right state for competition.
- Arousal regulation involves the conscious manipulation of one's state of arousal, which can be too high (leading to panic and poor decision-making) or too low (leading to lethargy and poor motivation).
- Stress can be a superpower, as it narrows vision, increases focus, and gets blood flowing where it's needed.
- Stress reappraisal involves viewing stress signals as positive, which can improve performance and well-being.
- Excitation transfer is the process of arousing oneself in one way (e.g., through music) and then transferring that arousal to a different activity (e.g., an interview or competition).
Distracting oneself can improve performance #
- Dual task interference is the idea that doing two things at once leads to multitasking and poorer performance.
- However, automaticity is a state where an activity becomes so automatic that one doesn't need to think about it (e.g., driving a car).
- Distracting oneself from an activity can improve performance if one has reached a state of automaticity or is experiencing performance anxiety.
- Examples of distractions include holding a conversation or counting.
- This technique can be seen as similar to a flow state, where one is fully focused on a task and not being distracted by competing neural activity. However, in this case, the neural activity is separated, allowing the body to perform the task while the brain is busy doing something else.
Summary for: Youtube