Intro
Leon: All right. This is our very first podcast! It is about our toolbox for mental fitness, what we have in that toolbox, and how you can use it!
Shannon: Awesome. And I think we’re gonna talk about a way too to not just eat your food, but also enjoy it. So we would like to make these podcasts intentional, no? We want to give you guys stuff that’s gonna add value to your life. So for that reason, Leon and I will bounce back and forth with each other, not just to monologues but more of a shared discovery. So let’s dive right into it. Let’s do it. Awesome. So today we’re talking about flow 255, right? What is that Leon? What is it?
Flow 255
Leon: Yes, Flow 255 is our toolbox for mental fitness. Okay, and I like to think of solutions inside of us rather than solutions for us. So rather than external toolbox, you have an internal toolbox. Yeah, you know in a way actually you have a ton of capacities and abilities already inside you right, but you may need some external tools to train those capacities and abilities. You may also need some external tools to help you apply them. And, you may need some more tools to test them. And so at 2Mynds, we came up with a methodology (that describes your internal toolbox) and a technology (an external toolbox to help you develop your internal one). So, you could think of the toolbox as a method as well as a way to deliver the method. The 255 refers to some the things that you can work with. And they are basically two (2) states of mind, five (5) skills and five (5) perspectives.
Shannon: Sounds like the researcher in Leon’s coming out!
Leon: Yeah, it’s very systematic. It’s very nerdy, haha. But but think of it when you think of mental fitness, right because that’s that’s the space that we’re in. Or actually, let me take a step back think about physical fitness. If there are tons of methods that you can use to increase your physical fitness sure and like an example could be Zumba an example could be, you know forms of yoga. It could be CrossFit. Now the nice thing about having a method is that you can go to you can go to CrossFit in New York to gym work out on Monday. flight to LA And on Tuesday or Wednesday, you go to the CrossFit gym and you can continue your workout. Why because there’s method behind the madness! Some nerdy person like me thought about a method.
Shannon: So you mean to say, Leon, that conscious stream of thought in my head… you’re about to organize it!? Let me tell you that’s a scary place to be sometimes.
Leon: Oh, yeah. I don’t want to go there. So we know a little bit about flow 255 now and about where the name comes from. Can you tell us what parts of mental fitness that’s talking about? Maybe what are those skills and perspectives?
Two States of Mind
Leon: So I think an important thing to realize that in terms of what state your mind can be in? You can roughly distinguish two states. And I’m not talking about mindsets, right because in psychology there’s the idea of having a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. I’m not talking about that type of thing. To me that’s not a state of mind. It’s a mind-set, it’s more of a perspective. Do you look at something or yourself as having fixed abilities or fixed characteristics? Or do you see yourself as flexible and malleable?
Shannon: So in 2Mynds what what two mind states are we working with?
Leon: so I like to think of them as not as mindsets but as a states of mind, so if you think about, physiologically, what state can your mind be in then? You can think of a state of mind where you are completely in this moment. You’re simply being or you’re simply doing. You’re just executing. You’re just operating. Right? And we’ve all experienced that. I know you’re surfing…
Shannon: I was already surfing in my mind. I was gonna say it sounds like the flow state, dropping in on a really nice wave. Right?
Leon: Right. And when that happens you’re you’re in it, there are tons of different words for it, like “In the Zone”, “Flow State”, “Peak Performance State”, and we’ve all experienced that.
Shannon: That’s hat is that would be operative.
Leon: That would be… that’s what we call an operative state of mind. You’re simply operating. However, as human beings, certainly the society that were in right now, we tend to be pulled towards a different state of mind, which is the state of mind that we like to call contemplative.
Shannon: The monkey mind!
Leon: A monkey mind, exactly. As human beings we’re really good at that part, compared to you know, other animals in the animal kingdom, so to speak. You know, we can contemplate: we can we can think about what happened in the past like, “Oh that was great, That was not so great!”
Shannon: Doing some mental gymnastics! That reminds me of a good quote, actually, and this was given in one of our blog posts – I’ll share it with you guys: “Modern-day society tends to keep our minds in a contemplative mind state. We constantly think, emote, evaluate, or plan ahead. While that contemplative mind state may have taken us to the top of the food chain, it prevents many of us from enjoying the food.”
Mind Management
Leon: Yeah, exactly. I know that quote ,because I wrote it, haha. Yeah, so that whether that was written well or not, well, you can be the judge of that, but basically what I’m trying to say is that as human beings, we can evaluate the past. We can plan for the future. That is awesome! You know, when we talk about these two states of mind. That’s the “2” in 255 right? When we talk about these two states of mind, there’s not one better than the other. We need them both. The question is can we use them at the right time? Because if you think about your contemplative state of mind… let’s say after this, we go home. We’ll need some food. You better plan for that. Right? Did you get your groceries? “Oh yesterday I forgot to get my groceries…” Well, you learned! Okay, and I know Shan hates shopping for groceries.
Shannon: Oh, I hate that.
Leon: So you plan it, right? You learn! And that’s an awesome ability that we have as human beings. Now, next, we get to cooking! We’re making our food and let’s say we’re eating. Well, if at the time that we’re eating we’re still contemplating and let’s say we’re now worrying about “Oh, I need to take the dog out. Oh, I need to do my laundry. Oh, I need to do this. I need to do that.” But you’re eating! Perhaps you have some great food in front of you. Or perhaps somebody cooked for you, right? And they really did their best! But your mind is elsewhere. So you’re not using that operative state of mind where you are simply in the moment. You are just enjoying that food!
Shannon: Sounds like missing that operative mindset could be a missed opportunity!
Leon: It would be a missed opportunity. So, you know, we I think the the key thing in having a positive presence in your life and also optimizing performance, if we’re talking about sports, is “Can you manage those states of mind properly? Can you can you use that operative state of mind or that contemplative state of mind at the right time?” So it’s a skill to manage that, and, actually, you could call that overall skill mind management.
Shannon: I like that!
Leon: And mind management requires some sub skills…
Shannon: Inside our toolbox!
Leon: Exactly, inside that toolbox.
Contents of the toolbox – five skills
Shannon: So let’s talk a little bit about that. Should we start with the skills?
Leon: Sure the five skills. So, Flow 255: two states of mind, five skills, and five perspectives! That’s why the company is called 2Mynds. It’s why the logo actually has like on the outside has two parts the top five parts at the bottom five parts nothing. I’m nerdy, man, haha. Nothing happens by accident! But so five skills the five also, I should clarify that. Yes, I cooked up this method in a way. Right. It’s in a way my creation. So the same time. Everything that’s in me is in me because I learned from other people sure. I’ve just been very fortunate to meet. People who had great ideas and I took those ideas from various people and I also did quite a bit of research and that’s how we came up with these five.
Shannon: You mean you got gathered these tools and then put them all together in an intelligent design inside your toolbox to create a system.
Leon: That’s why we have her… Yeah, exactly.
Shannon: Awesome. So tell me those five skills…
Leon: Yes. So the five skills are… I’m just going to name them first. Okay, they’re (1) realize, (2) relax, (3) reason, (4) revise, (5) refocus. Okay, and they have an order! These five skills came to be because I did a lot of research related to various things in healthcare, including mental health, and we had a good look at various questionnaires that assess mental health and mental fitness. And some things come back! So I started to make note of what things come back in various questionnaires. That’s one thing and then on the other hand. I have been lucky to have been exposed to a lot of martial arts and meditative practices for martial arts since I was very young and if you think of meditative practices that are practical almost Say functional meditation sure, not the meditation for. To become enlightened, right but whatever that may may mean but the meditation to improve some kind of function which is what you do in some traditional martial arts some traditional Japanese martial arts. So based on that, I just looked okay if I go through that meditation what steps do I take or what step is steps do these people take and you can it’s just logic first. So first you calm your mind. Hmm. Because easier whatever you want to do after that after the fact if your mind’s not come it’s not going to hit the target. Mmm and one key thing before you make decisions or you before you make changes to your behavior is that you actually base that on a view of reality. That is fairly accurate. Hmm, right and if you think of reality us seeing reality. Think of it as a reflection. Right if we had if our brain was like a lake. And we just look at reality via that Lake. Well that leg needs to be really smoothing calm sure. So I calm the mind I come out of a little bit of the contemplated mind. Yes. Exactly. And then what do I do? Exactly? Well, then you want to calm it further. But how do you do that? Well your mind and your body are you know their package deal? Your mind influences your body. And your body influences your mind, so wouldn’t it be smart if we could relax our body? Because that’s gonna calm our mind further. So we realize we make sure that we calm our mind so we can see reality and then we relax why because that will calm our mind further. It’s not it doesn’t have in our system a specific physical purpose per se it’s just before we get to our reasoning and everything that follows. Can we get to a really common Pleasant state? So we realize we relax that comes first. Then the next one is reasoning. It’s basically contemplating. Hmm, you know, can we evaluate the past properly now that we’re calm now that we’re relaxed. Can we plan for the future? So first I’m jumping into more of that operative mind State and being more into the moment and and consciously being in that moment to calm myself and then I jump into a contemplate of mindset exactly exactly. Cool. Okay, exactly and then There’s a lot of talk on the internet about manifestation about, you know, visualizing yourself doing successful things. And but before you get there, you might want to think about. What you’re going to visualize for example, or what you’re going to project so that reasoning needs to come before you do those projections. Sure, so we have and the projections are part in our system of revising. They’re oriented towards revising making a change to your life to practical behaviors. So that’s revise. And then the last one is refocus. Which is basically forgetting everything you just did drop back into the moment you go back to more operative. Right, but now the difference I we could have named both realize but both are very operative. But the first one focuses more on. We use internal awareness taking. Because those are typically more calming. And then in the refocusing part we use external awareness techniques because they’re typically more exciting Plus in the end. You have to engage with the world outside. Sure sure. So that is those are and I went through a lot of trouble to make those five skills start with an R. Hey, what sounds like quite the creativity and it also sounds like quite a dance between the contemplative and operative mindset. I mean it kind of teaches you the correct me if I’m wrongly on but how to dance between those two mindsets. Yes, you know, that’s the Mind management part sure then just very briefly about the perspectives. I think first I thought you just need the skills. Right? We don’t typically in mental health mental Fitness. We don’t do enough of the skill training a lot of it’s very cognitive, but the trouble is and we all know this you can you can know what to do. It doesn’t mean you can do it. Right, I work with tennis players and there are tons of professional tennis players who have done plenty of consults with, you know, extremely knowledgeable people who’ve given them very good advice. They know exactly what to do. but now there’s 10,000 people in the stadium. They’re all yelling. What you know what to do, but can you do it that’s a different thing. Can you perform?
Contents of the toolbox – five perspectives
Initially when we started developing the system we thought if you have the skills, you’re good. But it turns out that we tend to lose perspective when the adrenaline goes up. And that could be in the sporting Arena or or at the business table. Yes, you know in the in the business world or just the Working World, you know, it can be a very a lot of pressure. Yes right now we focus on sports. Mostly 10 is at the moment. But all of this is applicable across the board. So the perspectives so you thank you. I’m like, where are we? Yeah, there’s a German side to share here. Well, me too. Yeah. But yes so perspectives. And also skills go typically go out to window when the adrenaline goes up. So your heart rate goes up your blood pressure goes up your muscles and you know become more tense. You don’t think it’s clearly perspective go out to window and so it turns out that if you can work on perspectives as well as skills. That’s actually that’s the magical combination. Right? So if I have good, for example, I’m nervous before I start a tennis match or you know, I have a golf game and I’m really nervous. then realization and relaxation skills become really important. Sure. So when the adrenaline goes up? skills and perspectives both go out the window and it’s actually important for your skills to work if you can keep your perspectives. So let’s take the perspective that you and I sitting here. Is a gift. hmm the fact that we can do this or we go outside, it’s November. We’re in Santa Cruz. It’s sunny. We can we can just enjoy the weather here. Right and and we can move the way we move. Sure, that is a gift. And now that we talk about this. And you know if you think about it on the other hand other end of the camera here. You may understand that. You can go as you’re watching this video. You’re probably in a pretty comfortable situation. Because you’re watching this video sure you probably comfy my cup of coffee. Well, you know, if I tell you you’re freaking lucky. You might understand that. But if you’re a professional tennis player and you’re step into a stadium and there’s 10,000 people cheering for your opponent. Can you still have that perspective? That’s hard. Sure. Right and it’s hard for various reasons. You might be thinking. Oh, this is unfair. You might have tons of different perspectives that conflict with that what we call a gift perspective. But we can actually train you. Right because associated with that gift perspective is a positive emotion. namely gratitude if you truly see something as a gift. And you you will start to feel that. You will have some level of gratitude well. That’s in your brain. Hmm, right and you have control that was the first two or how does is gift is one? Oh, thank you. So we have five perspectives. There’s a gift perspective. There’s a joy perspective. There is an opportunity perspective a lesson perspective and a Unity perspective. I won’t go into detail, right but Basically these perspectives teach you that in every experience. No matter what. Somewhere in there you can find a gift. It might be tough. It might be very uncomfortable. a good practice To have yes and what can be really valuable is that you? that you learn to associate the thought of that perspective or that perspective with a positive emotion for example gratitude or when we talk about opportunity if you see something as an opportunity man, you get engaged. Sure, you get excited right and I often with some of my students. I compare it to a dog on the beach. You got a dog on a beach. You got a stick or you got a ball man so excited but they have the opportunity to play. They just like us. Yes, and and the funny thing is they’re so in the moment because they go after the ball and they’ve already forgotten that you you’ve thrown it before right because there’s a new opportunity right? Every experience has it Every experience and probably easy to take when it doesn’t go your way that it can become a lesson. Yes. That’s another perspective. Right? Right, but we can actually you can actually besides the fact that you can train skills. Under a certain level of pressure, which is what we do in 2Mynds. We create physical pressure to train our mental skills. You can do the same with the perspectives, right so I can create and actually that’s what Shan does with you guys. You know, you get you get your heart rate up you get your adrenaline up you get your blood pressure up now. Can you generate that positive emotion through your projection skills Now it gets interesting, right sure because if you can do that under like difficult conditions rather than just hanging out on the couch. It’s easy. if you have to take relaxation as a skill you plug in here, but you’re on the couch and you got some incense burning you got some waterfall sounds easy. But it’s not so easy after we do your workout right now. We’re getting much closer to the physiological conditions. That people are in when they perform under pressure and that’s really what the toolbox is about.
Shannon: Well, I’m really looking forward to using Flow 255. And you know what? I also think it’s about lunchtime here in Santa Cruz. So maybe instead of contemplating eating our food, we should enjoy the food.
Leon: All right, let’s do it.