Learning to control the breath is one of the most powerful (and free!) neurohacks we have for improving concentration, managing stress, developing optimal health, and guiding our spiritual advancement.
We are in the midst of an educational crisis, the scope of which professionals do not have measures or words to address. And so, they wring their hands about our kidsā math scores and the state of our schools. Understanding that our schools are in trouble is a start (and you donāt need the PISA to tell you that). Yet the intensity of the current educational crisis extends far beyond what most people have considered.
We live in remarkable times. We really do. We often donāt pause and reflect upon the amazing things we have created. We have self driving cars, and we carry computers in our pockets. Itās all pretty awesome, but it comes with a price. The price of this ubiquity of technology and convenience is distraction. We are more digitally distracted today than at any other time in our history, itās all happened quite recently, and we havenāt had the time to adapt and evolve yet.
It is an imperative of both morality and self-preservation to improve our circumstances. British philosopher David Pearceās 1995 work The Hedonistic Imperative speaks to this outrageous scope of suffering not so much being a condition of modernity, but more so a condition of being human.
Explore the mindset, practices, and pursuit of optimizing cognitive performance and well-being, also called, neurohacking.
Today, the emerging field of human microbiome research has indicated that gut microbiota may play an important role in influencing brain development, behavior, and mood in humans.
If neurohacking is about upgrading the hardware our consciousness runs on, we would be remiss not to mention these technologies of altered states.
The world is more complex, more interconnected, the problems are bigger, theyāre harder, and that means the people doing the problem-solving have to have capabilities that are commensurate with the scope and magnitude of the problems.
We may not immediately think of influencing the microbes in the gut when looking to improve brain function and mental health, but we should.
Nootropics. You might have heard of them. The ālimitless pillā that keeps Billionaires rich. The āsmart drugsā that students are taking to help boost their hyperfocus. The cognitive enhancers that give corporate executives an advantage. All very exciting. But as always, the media are way behind the curve.
Whereas biohacking concentrates on the body, and consciousness hacking explores the inner experience, neurohacking is somewhere in the middle, focusing on the mind-brain interface - the intersection of neurology and consciousness. Specifically, neurohacking involves applying science and technology to influence the brain and body in order to optimize subjective experience.
