here to talk about the yes program I’m
here to talk about something which
happened because of the yes programs all
right so we wrote a book it’s called
Ready Steady Go
and it’s about smart ways to learn it’s
about overclocking your brain
it’s about brain hacks can you make your
brain work better than it already does
the first brain hack is amazingly sleep
now sleep is one of the most dangerous
things we do we are utterly vulnerable
anybody can do anything to us we don’t
even know whether we are going to wake
up in the morning and yet we say my bed
my blanket might be low put yourself
three four thousand five thousand years
ago or sleep is basically saying come
eat me one would think that evolution
would have made it vestigial by now but
it’s still there and all of us want our
seven eight nine hours of sleep every
night isn’t it so why is sleep so
important yes a little bit of anatomy so
we have a skull and in the skull there
is a brain and that brain weighs around
a kilo and a half approximately the
brain is supplied blood by two arteries
if you touch here you can feel them
pulse go on do it yeah can you feel that
pulse that’s the pulse of life that’s
what’s keeping you alive yeah now just
imagine two tubes one and a half kilos
of weight on top it’s going to get
squished you would be dead before you
were born an anatomical problem right
one angel who got an A in anatomy
suggested a solution which was
implemented
she said float it just put some water
and let it float and that’s what
happened it’s called cerebrospinal fluid
you can see the blue thing going around
the brain there yes it’s called CSF
cerebrospinal fluid and because of the
cerebrospinal fluid your brain actually
floats and weighs just 300 grams
and everything is great and life goes on
now the CSF is not only to float the
brain the brain uses 20% of the energy
of the body and that’s a lot you know
while you are talking listening to me
interacting doing the stuff of everyday
things whatever we do the brain is using
a hell of a lot of energy right and what
is happening is that when energy is used
a waste product is created that’s basic
chemistry right the waste product of the
brain is called beta-amyloid which is
just a very fancy way of saying brain
and you don’t want a brain full of
do you right this brain is
particularly toxic because it has been
linked with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s
so it’s very important that it gets
flushed out and that’s what the CSF does
it goes in and cleans it up it goes in
and cleans it up and this is happening
the whole day but there is a lot of zing
going on in your brain there’s a lot of
electricity there is a lot of chemical
reactions going on in your brain every
second
and so the CSF cannot go all the way in
and that’s where sleep comes when you
sleep the interstitial spaces in the
brain that the spaces between the
tissues in the brain they actually
become bigger increased by 60% and the
CSF goes in there and cleans it up and
that’s why when you get up in the
morning after a good night’s sleep you
say I’m feeling so fresh yes someone
right so sleep is super important you
have an important interview tomorrow you
have an important presentation tomorrow
you have some important exams tomorrow
make sure you sleep in the night
otherwise you go there with a brain full
of okay and perform accordingly the
next brain hack is amazingly exercise
now you might think what is exercise got
to do with the brain I mean yes if you
exercise you get a body like that
and by the way that was lovely too just
got the hundred bucks same guy you know
he wears more clothes when he doesn’t
exercise
what his exercise got to do with the
brain right well our body is designed to
move see for 5000 years ago our body was
basically doing only two things we were
basically doing only two things either
we were running after something we
wanted to eat or we are running away
from something that wanted to eat us
right so it was a question of survival
right we needed to be fit right and
that’s why exercise comes into play and
when you exercise a a very interesting
thing happens in the brain you know what
instead of telling you about it let me
just invite Dinesh come on Dinesh
you know I read recently that sitting is
the new smoking sitting is injurious to
your health
and a neuroscientist friend of ours put
it very nicely he said the state of your
bum is the same as the state of your
head so if your bum is feeling flat and
uncomfortable chances are you are not
hearing anything anyway so let’s fix
that over to you the nation can we do
that you’ll have to play along with me
for one minute come on yeah jiggle your
bum come on everybody do it they say
hips don’t lie
and there’s a lesson from the animals
what do they do they give a stretch when
they are sitting for some time ah
stretch in all directions with some deep
breaths come on do it everybody don’t be
shy
you’re a TED audience it’s always
participated and then what do the
animals do shake shake shake shake shake
shake shake come on shake all the parts
of the body that you can shake here if
you have any go on your toes to your
right a little faster do your legs move
ha ha ha ha ha thank you just notice how
you’re feeling now are you feeling a
little nice yes some of you are feeling
very nice it’s amazing how this works
you just do two minutes of a little bit
of moment and your brain becomes happy
it says oh wow he is moving the body and
it releases the brain releases something
called dopamine and endorphins which
basically makes you feel great
have you seen how people walk out of a
gym after they were called upon we are
what love ba say that is the dopamine
and orphan effect
it’s your brain going good job so
exercise is a super important thing for
you now what is it to do with learning
and the brain well we start life with
about a hundred billion neurons in our
head right and each of those neurons
they have two thousand to ten thousand
dendrites
which I
we interact with each other in more ways
than the number of elementary particles
in the universe you’ve got a super
advanced piece of organic technology
sitting in your head unfortunately
because of all that electricity zipping
and zapping some of these neurons are
getting fried every few moments every
day we lose around nine thousand neurons
if you do drugs you know that sniffing
business and all that that people used
to do in college you lose 300 thousand
neurons a day on that day it’s not good
for you please don’t do it
because we are losing these neurons
every day you are as you grow older you
are working with lesser and lesser brain
so to speak so it becomes more and more
difficult to do stuff that you could do
easily earlier that was what was taught
but in the early 2000s a whole new field
of neuroscientists came about and it is
called neurogenesis where it has been
conclusively proved that when you
exercise the neurons regenerate you get
new neurons so sleep gives you a cleaner
brain and exercise not only gives you a
fantastic body but it gives you a
younger brain okay so hit the gym guys
all right the third brain hack is what
art of living has been doing for the
last 35 years and what I have been doing
for the last 25 years and we’ve been
telling everybody it’s good for you it
was not until I wrote that book I
realized really how good let me let me
tell you why meditation is great so
again I want a little bit of audience
participation here I want you to turn
around to someone sitting to your left
right argh a peach say whatever and
shake their hands for 20 seconds while
looking in their eyes come on do it
everybody just shake the hands of
somebody sitting next to you for 20
seconds fine if you can be three people
also it doesn’t matter you don’t need to
say anything you can just laugh okay if
you really like your partner you can
give them a hug go and give a hug
come on do it do notice you’re feeling
good yes
turns out that the brain when there is
physical contact for more than 20
seconds with anybody you like and they
like you the brain releases something
called serotonin oxytocin which are the
happiness hormones that’s why you hug
someone when they are feeling not so
good when they are not feeling good they
have got cortisol and adrenaline running
through their system and then when you
hug them the brain starts going ah
that’s nice
set it on an oxytocin what does
meditation do meditation floods your
system with serotonin and oxytocin yes
now again a little bit of evolution yes
you know the middle part of our brain
holds the fight-or-flight response have
you heard of that fight-or-flight yes so
three four or five thousand years ago if
you are in a jungle and you are
confronted by a tiger you cannot hold a
committee meeting figuring out what to
do now it has to be an instantaneous
decision that needs to be taken I need
to run or I need to fight so whenever
you feel threatened unsafe scared
fearful all these things your brain does
this fight-or-flight
it basically pumps cortisol and
adrenaline into your system and what
these two things do is they remove the
blood from the stomach and pump it into
the extremities basically getting you
ready to fight or flight that’s why when
you are scared you feel some cold
sensation here have you noticed that
that letter to the pandava right it also
flushes the blood from the brain
downwards it doesn’t put key it does not
keep too much blood in the brain because
you are getting to either fight or
flight okay that’s why a person who is
scared can think he does not have the
energy to think he does not have the
blood to think all right unfortunately
our brain does not understand
the difference between the threat that a
tiger could pose or a snake could pose
and the threat of an interview so you
are right there
standing there you’ve got four people in
front of you this is the most important
interview of your life you have to crack
it utterly alone utterly threatened
utterly unsafe what is the brain going
to do cortisol cortisol cortisol
cortisol right what does that mean it
means the body is going run run man run
or punch that interviewer in the face
both are not very good interview
strategies right you go you know you
study at home you are perfectly fine you
go in the exam hall you get threatened
now you’re supposed to write the paper
while your brain is going run run little
difficult to perform yeah we have all
had that no all of us who have given
exams haven’t we gone to examine
forgotten everything we know and the
moment we come back home you remember
everything sounds familiar it’s just
your brains evolutionary response to
fear it’s your brains evolutionary
response to feeling threatened that’s
all a meditator and this is where it
becomes interesting knows how to flood
the body with serotonin and oxytocin at
will so even though he is feeling
threatened he can bring about that
change in the chemical atmosphere of the
body and start feeling alright he can
tell the brain hey chill man it’s just
an exam it’s not a snake relax and the
brain says oh all right then right so a
person who is facing an interview who is
a non meditator is going cortisol
cortisol cortisol run run run and the
other guy serotonin oxytocin oh yes what
else can you ask me do you get what I’m
saying so sleep gives you a cleaner
exercise gives you a younger brain and
meditation gives you a happier more
productive brain right now I know we
have a few minutes left and I’m going to
invite Dinesh again to lead us through
three or four minutes of a little bit of
meditation
so can you all just close our eyes for a
minute that’s nice to sit on the Ted
stage eyes and take a deep breath in and
as you breathe out just let the whole
weight of the body sink into the chair
mind is going to glow it’s inside and
all around this take your mind your feet
just become aware of your feet your
knees thighs and hips shoulders right on
[Music]
shanthi shanthi shanthi it’s a few
joyful breaths you may bring a little movement in the body