A Powerful Tool to Defuse Choking

This event was important for my mentor who was giving a TEDx Talk. A thought leader, speaker, coach with profound wisdom. His talks often intrigue me to think and look beyond.

I was totally surprised, in fact shocked to see him blank out for a split second during the talk but after the recovery he owned the space and came out really strong with a thought provoking message.

It’s human to err and I could empathize with my master but my analytical neural circuitry kept pushing me to think what might have caused the choke. I know him as a person who deeply cares and scores extremely high on the accountability and personal responsibility spectrum.

So was it the responsibility of the impact that fogged his brain or was it the pressure of TEDx itself that caused the choke…

I did some research on choking and this is my finding..

Sian Beilock, one of the world’s leading researchers studying the science of optimal human performance says people choke under pressure because they worry. They worry about the situation, its consequences, what others will think.

If we are worried, that worry takes up REALLY PRECIOUS energy. It uses up valuable working-memory resources. It diminishes our working memory just enough so our brain can’t perform at its best. When we allow worry to seep into our brains, we tend to bring *too* much thought into what should be a thought-less activity. Rather than letting our body or mind do what we’ve trained them to do, we attempt to control our behaviors and our once fluid free flow of thoughts is constricted and our motions become rigid, mental activity choked.

She says we can train our brain to discard these thoughts and thwart the negative effects of stress. Discarding these thoughts is not the same as trying to ignore them or dismiss them which uses up working-memory. When a worrisome thought arises, you acknowledge it and then let go of it, not getting stuck on any given thought. When you do that, you don’t attach any more brainpower to it.

That’s hard to do. One of the best ways to master the skill is to give that skill a workout and this is EXACTLY what meditation is.

Isn’t this a strong reason why regular practice of meditation should be followed..

Until Next,

Keep Smiling..