Get enough sleep each night, as it is the critical foundation for mental health, physical health, and performance, and stress is not bad for us provided you sleep well at night.
Control the temperature of your sleeping environment because your body temperature needs to drop by about 1 to 3 degrees to fall and stay deeply asleep, and increase by about 1 to 3 degrees to wake up feeling refreshed and alert.
Aim to go to sleep within plus or minus one hour of the same bedtime for five nights out of the week, as the regularity of sleep is a very important variable for sleep quality.
Practice NSDR (body still, mind awake) for 10-20 minutes, 3-5 times a week, as it replenishes dopamine, restores mental and physical vigor, does not disrupt nighttime sleep, enhances the ability to fall and stay asleep, and may make up for lost sleep.
To quickly enter the rest and digest state and exit constant fight-or-flight, perform physiological sighs, probably repeated two or three times in a row, and combine with panoramic vision for enhanced effect.
Consume one to four servings of low-sugar fermented foods (e.g., kimchi, cheese, sauerkraut, kefirs) daily to enhance the diversity of microbiota in the gut and mouth, which supports the nervous system and is beneficial for mental and physical health.
Understand that the underlying agitation, frustration, and associated neurochemicals (adrenaline, norepinephrine) experienced when struggling to learn something new is the direct stimulus for neuroplasticity.
The actual rewiring of neurons, including improvement or reduction in synapse strength and, in rare instances, the addition of new neurons for neuroplasticity, occurs when we sleep and in states of deep rest or non-sleep deep rest, away from the learning stimulus.
To improve focus, especially if struggling with ADHD or general focus issues, practice staring at a visual target (e.g., on a wall 1-3 feet away) for short periods (1-3 minutes) before starting work to activate neural circuits for enhanced focus.
To enhance focus, remove distractions by flipping your phone over, turning it off, or leaving it in another room, as these clearly intervene in our ability to focus.
Always use zero-cost behavioral tools first for managing stress, improving sleep, and other issues before considering supplements or pharmaceuticals, unless there is a dire clinical need.
Understand that your belief system, including your understanding of the mechanisms driving certain effects of drugs or protocols, plays a powerful role in whether you get the effect you want, as beliefs can change neural activity and performance.
Consider taking a vitamin mineral probiotic drink daily (e.g., AG1) to ensure foundational nutritional needs are met, especially when traveling or busy, as it provides vitamins, minerals, adaptogens, and micronutrients that support gut, immune, and brain health.
Understand whether you feel best going to bed early and waking up early, or staying up late and waking up late, as your chronotype is real and influences your optimal sleep timing.
When trying to learn something, set the difficulty so that you achieve approximately 85% correct trials and 15% error trials, meaning you introduce about 10-20% novel and challenging material.
If you nap, keep them shorter than 90 minutes to avoid disrupting nighttime sleep, and do not nap at all if even short naps disrupt your nighttime sleep.
Do not take LSD or psilocybin as a child, adolescent, or teenager, as your brain is still wiring up, and introducing massive amounts of neuromodulators haphazardly can tamper with this wiring.
For adults not suffering from psychosis or certain bipolar depression, clinical trials suggest that high-dose psilocybin, with medically trained therapist support, can be effective in treating major depression by enhancing connectivity between brain areas.
If considering psilocybin, current trial data suggests that macro-dosing (e.g., more than two grams, taken twice) appears more effective than micro-dosing for conditions like major depression.
In appropriate, clinically supported contexts with proper dosing, frequency, and therapist support, MDMA can act as an empathogen to help people develop empathy for themselves and relieve trauma, showing high remission rates for PTSD.
Exercise extreme caution with psychedelics, ensuring set and setting are important, prioritizing safety, and certainly not using them for children, adolescents, or teenagers.
When using compounds that induce neuroplasticity, the goal should be plasticity directed toward a particular positive outcome, as there is also potential for maladaptive plasticity.
If you are taking antibiotics, do something to counter their effects through pill probiotics or other means, as the overuse of antibiotics can negatively impact your microbiome.
While striving for regularity and consistency in protocols is beneficial, remember that life isn’t about optimizing everything; allow for deviations to party, stay up late, and live life, as consistent adherence makes deviations less impactful.
To aid focus, especially when removing distractions, consider wearing a brimmed hat and a hoodie to create a more narrow tunnel of vision, similar to blinders on horses, to reduce peripheral visual input.
Do not expect perfect, deep trenches of focus all the time; recognize that focus is not an on-off switch but a skill that takes time to ease into and can be built up gradually over time.
Understand that the capacity to focus is present, even for individuals with ADHD, especially when focusing on something they genuinely enjoy, indicating that the challenge is often a higher threshold to access focus for less engaging tasks.