Nikki Bush discusses the nuts and bolts of neuroplasticity to decrease stress and increase performance with Dr John Molidor, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at Michigan State University, College of Human Medicine. He holds the Certified Speaking Professional accreditation from the National Speakers Association (NSA) in the US one of just over 700 speakers in the world who have it, is past president of the NSA and was President of the Global Speakers Federation 2020-2021. Earlier this year he was the recipient of the very coveted, Cavett Award which celebrates and honours those members whose speaking careers demonstrate the spirit of sharing, guiding and inspiring other professional speakers. You will hear his generous spirit in this podcast.

This conversation covers:

  • How we can help our brains to operate optimally.
  • What neuroplasticity actually is and how it helps us to learn, unlearn and relearn anything at all at any stage of our lives
  • The five step process we go through to learn anything or get anything done
  • The importance of sleep in the learning cycle and to increase mental capacity – it’s not what you think and no, it’s not about having to get eight hours of sleep a night
  • Tricks and hacks to help you to drop off to sleep when your mind is overactive
  • Consistency as an ingredient in the performance of anything
  • Different rhythms in our lives – the circadian rhythm and the ultradian rhythm and how they connect with peak performance and getting deep work done
  • The need to ‘agitate’ the brain for growth and learning to take place
  • The brain-body connection – they are not separate at all
  • Using breathing to manage stress levels
  • The power of consciously directing your brain

“Your cheapest form of therapy for mental health is sleep”

Dr John Molidor, Professor of Psychiatry

“The brain is a prediction machine and neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to modify, change, and adapt both structure and function throughout life and in response to experience.”

Dr John Molidor, Professor of Psychiatry

“When you go to sleep you go through you through different stages, and then you get paralysed”

Dr John Molidor, Professor of Psychiatry

“Introverts and extroverts process information very differently especially right for they go to sleep.”

Dr John Molidor, Professor of Psychiatry

“Calm the brain with 478. Breathe in for four, hold for seven, exhale for eight”

Dr John Molidor, Professor of Psychiatry

“What you want to be doing is sending messages to yourself by repetitive messages along the lines of , I have this. I know this, I can do this,  and so you want to do repetitive message because then your cells will start to eavesdrop on your words or messages.”

Dr John Molidor, Professor of Psychiatry

“In terms of the neuroscience, you would say that this is a repetitive message. It becomes a memory, the brain remembers trying to predict what’s going to happen next and the way it does prediction is it looks to your memory to see what’s there to try to predict. And so if your messages I got this, I’ll be okay, the brain is going to listen to that”

Dr John Molidor, Professor of Psychiatry

“When you’re learning something, the brain has to lay out a brand new neural network and then it prunes off the pieces it doesn’t need”

Dr John Molidor, Professor of Psychiatry

“When you are stressed you’re probably building up carbon dioxide, the physiological sigh allows you to offload that and then there’s a calming feeling to it.”

Dr John Molidor, Professor of Psychiatry

“I want you to think about one thing you heard today that you can use in your life.”

Dr John Molidor, Professor of Psychiatry

“Most people are not aware that we have what are called ultradianin cycles. These are roughly 90 minute cycles and occurs when you’re awake as well as sleep.”

Dr John Molidor, Professor of Psychiatry