April 6, 2022 • 28 mins
On this episode of the Fitness Disrupted podcast, Tom talks about a recent study that shows how stress can be a choice, and presents actionable ways to gain the tools for your mental toolbox that you need to be able to control the things that you have been trained to believe you can't control.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Fitness Disrupted, a production of I Heart Radio.
I am Tom Holland and this is Fitness Disrupted. All right.
Just got off doing a podcast myself, being a guest
on a podcast. I don't do that that frequently. I
(00:23):
know I should, we should. I just there's it's got
to be the right one and it doesn't have to
be a super popular I gotta agree with with what
we're gonna talk about. I mean, I know what I'm
going to talk about, but you know, you know what
I'm saying. And there's only so many hours in the day.
(00:45):
But but let's listen that whole pr promotion thing. I
hopefully I am going to let the show's content speak
for itself and push it that way. But yes, I'm
going to do other podcasts. Uh. And so I just
literally just ended it and I'm like, know what, I'm
gonna ride this energy? Uh well, that was an hour.
(01:05):
That's a long time, and I'm going to do this show.
And it's just another fantastic study, another fantastic topic in
the sports psychology realm or just psychology. But you can
absolutely and I will apply it to the sports psychology
realm as well. And it's something that I want almost
(01:26):
every episode to have take away that you can utilize
right away. You can utilize it right away. And so
I'm going to talk about pain and nostalgia and this study,
and there's been a bunch, but this was a recent
one that added to this body of research into nostalgia.
(01:49):
I'm gonna have trouble saying that. I think I say
that word very frequently. Nostalgia, nostalgia, nostalgia and pain and
the perception of pain. And this goes to the mind
body connection, obviously, and how powerful that is. And if
you've listened to prior podcast, you know that this was
(02:10):
a huge part and is a huge part of my studies.
But when I said I'm going back to school for
the master's program, it was had to be exercise science,
but I also wanted to sports psychology. So I found
a program that had both. And so within that program
there was the exercise science exercise physiology courses, and then
(02:32):
there was counseling courses and psychology those three buckets. And
it was amazing because I said, I need to figure
out this connection. Because I had worked for so many
years in the industry already as a trainer group exercise instructor,
all of these you know, different aspects of the industry,
(02:55):
and I realized, like, yeah, a huge part of this
is motivation. A huge part of this is behavior, human
behavior and all of the associated issues they're in. And
so this study, this recent study that you know, plays
on the body of work prior, is awesome and it's
(03:16):
a little unique in that they added another element, another
layer to the studies that had come before. And it's
about nostalgia and pain and basically controlling the mind and
what you can do and how you can do it
in your everyday life in sports performance. And it's what
(03:39):
I say at the end of every show, we control
three things, how much we move, what we put into
our mouths, and our attitudes, and our attitudes is just
our state of mind, our mental state, what we think.
And so awesome new study quick break when we come back,
and to jump right into it, I want to hear
the title of study or is this gonna are people
gonna are you gonna say? I'm not waiting for that.
(04:01):
The study title is is a mouthful as well as
they usually are. Thou a mo cortical, turning down, turning
it off already, thou a more cortical mechanisms for nostalgia
induced analgesia. I'm going to break this down. Trust me,
Trust me, you want to hear what this is all about.
(04:22):
All right, quick break. I will be right back all right,
checking the news, reading articles. The other day this popped
up without hesitation, said, this is a show. This is
(04:43):
such a perfect show. It's the mind body connection. It's
all about psychology, you know, I say frequently and wrote
in many of my books when it comes to performance
sports performance. Let's take anything a marathon. The top athletes
male female are pretty darn close physiologically, pretty darn close.
(05:09):
They've done the training, they have similar attributes VO to
max and all that kind of stuff. It's who wants
it more? Oversimplification maybe, but not really. Who wants it
more that day? Who's more in control of their perceptions
of pain? Who's more willing to suffer that day? But
(05:30):
then the interesting caveat twist is are they suffering as
much as we think? Where are they managing? That's suffering?
And that's what today's shows about. And I love everything
about this because it does apply to endurance events that
I do. And one of the reasons I do One
(05:50):
of the many reasons I do them is this is
learning about coping, about controlling discomfort, about learning how to
do that mentally alright, mental training, mental control. And I've
done podcasts on visualization and self talk. Self talk one
(06:14):
of my favorite. So there's many different ways I should say, too,
control our thoughts, control our perception of pain. Self talk
is one of them. I've talked about association and dissociation.
Quick refresher for those people who are running and you
throw your music on and you need your music to
(06:35):
run or whatever exercise, whatever cardio you do, you need
the music. That's because you want, by and large, to dissociate.
You want to think about anything other than what you
are doing, and quite often that's running for many people,
and for me it's swimming. When they invented or perfected
the waterproof iPod at the time and headphones changed my
(06:56):
life because I wanted to think about anything other than
going back and forth in this pool for an hour.
Just saying it out loud is torture to me, and
I apologize to all you swimmers out there. We can
still be friends, but I need my music if possible, right, Okay,
So that is a huge difference in the approach to performance,
(07:18):
and top athletes can't afford to disassociate or dissociate. Who's
going to add that a in there dissociate the way
the average person can write, because they need to monitor
their breathing and their foot strike if you're running, and
all the different you know, attributes that add to their performance,
(07:38):
all the mechanisms and biomechanics and physiology and all that
kind of stuff. All right, but a huge part of
life is coping, right, and control and stress and anxiety.
You know a few more of my favorite topics because
they're all connected, and you know, association and dissociation, their
attentional strategies broad attentional strategies for or coping, and that
(08:04):
can be external stimuli, right, events, effort performance, sports, performance
of musical performance, you know, a lecture. So there's different
ways to cope, right, and those are within our control.
Quite often people want to say it isn't right, and
(08:26):
you know, stress is a choice. Stress is not a thing.
It's our what it's how we perceive that event. It's
the thoughts in our head. Okay, And so now we
have a new way or you have a new way
to potentially cope in times of discomfort, and that could
(08:52):
be this study was about physical pain, but I would
and will add in mental right, mental discomfort, physical discomfort.
All right? So what is nostalgia? Sounds like something on
a Seinfeld episode, all right. One definition is a sentimental
(09:14):
longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a
period or place with happy personal associations. For me, because
I'm in my fifties, that's the seventies and the eighties,
more the eighties when I was in high school. Right,
seventies though, a lot of nostalgic thoughts and memories, I
should say for me, all right. And one great line
(09:39):
in these articles I read about this study talked about
fuzzy feelings about bygone days. Right, you think of those
TV shows or music, Oh my gosh. Right, that's another
reason listen to the music. It elicits feelings in our body, crying, happiness, anger,
the depending on what you associate that music too. Right.
(10:04):
So nostalgia is so many different things, but it reminds
you of bygone days, Happy days, happy days. It's a
show it was on when I was a kid, and
that brings up nostalgic feelings, all right, So this study
so interesting looking at the perception of pain when people
(10:26):
are shown nostalgic images. Now, as I said in the opening,
it's not new. Bunch of studies, including one set of
two thousand studies two thousand twenty where people looked they
had writing assignments that were meant to bring up nostalgic feelings. Okay,
and they had one group that were chronic pain sufferers
(10:49):
and another that were healthy individuals who were given physical
discomfort lab generated similar to the one I'm gonna talk
about in this study, and what they found us uh well,
let me not let me similar findings to what I'm
gonna tell you. But it's not new. These studies are
not new, different ways to do it. But what they
(11:11):
say is with this new study, they are still looking
at how it affects the brain. Right, so they know
the perception of what people are saying, the perception of
pain when they are experiencing it different ways, But what's
the brain doing And that's what this study looked at specifically. Okay.
So in this study, they not only induced pain physical
(11:32):
pain not really bad. I'll tell you how they did it,
but they put an m r I headset on the
participants as well, so they're gonna ask them the perceptions
of pain as they experience nostalgic images that I will specify.
And then they also looked at what's what's lighting up
in the brain, what's going on? All right? So that
(11:55):
great title again, let me see if I can say
it thalamo cortical. There we go, make is ms for
nostalgia induced analgesia. Okay, what's going on in the brain
for feeling better when you look at things that make
you feel good. Ridiculous oversimplification of it, okay. And this
was a bunch of researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Okay,
(12:19):
they recruited thirty four people between eighteen and twenty five.
That's going to be one of the limitations I will
get to. But eighteen years old with no particular sensitivity
to pain. So in some of those prior studies I mentioned,
they had people with chronic pain. Nothing here right there,
going to induce the pain themselves, the which is which
(12:40):
is obviously pun intended a touchy subject when it comes
to research, all right. And they had m ri I
headsets put on to monitor their brain activity. So this
is interesting how did they induce pain in these participants
where they use something called CHIPS right, which is an
acronym for contact heat evoked potential stimulator. And this is
(13:03):
a device with the metal surface that you put on
the skin. And for these participants, they had them on
the forearm and the researchers can gradually make this metal
plate hotter, increasing feelings of pain, but as they say,
and not so much as to seriously harm the participant.
This is a great example two of why certain types
(13:24):
of research is problematic. Right, you can't hurt people, you know,
you can't do harm to people, So that actually goes
to the findings. This was moderate discomfort, which is also
one of the limitations. Will look at right, Okay, so
thirty four people eighty five no particular sensitivity to pain,
had this CHECKS device on their forearm and the researchers
(13:46):
are going to make it hotter. But what are they
going to do at the same time, were they're gonna
be shown one of two sets of images right on
a projector they're going to show them images. The first
set are gonna be photos that bring up nostalgic feelings
things from their childhood, like toys, chewing gum package they used,
or a cartoon. I don't know about you, but, like
(14:08):
you know, sometimes when cartoons from uh my childhood come up,
just brings back crazy feelings, right, especially when you haven't
seen them in a long time. You know, I have kids,
they're out of the cartoon age, but every now and again, right,
and yeah, you know what I'm talking about, that feeling,
it's powerful, It's super powerful. So those are the first
(14:31):
set of photos and then the second set, same exact
or categories. Right, they're gonna do toys, chewing gum packages
or cartoons, but they were from present day. Such a
cool study, right, simple but like you get it. You know,
a lot of studies we talked about here they could
be really complex. This one's pretty darned straightforward, and I
(14:52):
would argue with you know, just some great concepts going on.
That's what they find. What did they find? Well, let
me say this though. As they were showing them the images,
the heat that they were being exposed to increased gradually,
so the researchers would gradually turn up the heat and
then they would be asked to rate their feelings of
(15:13):
pain on a scale of one to ten. I'm sorry,
zero to ten, so zero being nothing tend being like
ridiculously bad. What were the findings When we come back
from the break, I'm going to give it to you
and then the takeaway which you probably guess it, and
that's exciting, right, Okay, quick break. When we come back
the results from this study, we'll be right back all right,
(15:43):
talking about how nostalgia can decrease your perception of pain.
Bunch of research into this already, but I didn't give
you where. This article is study Journal of Neuroscience, and
this was March of onet, so just came out really exciting.
And so again this research had been done before, but
(16:04):
this was one that truly started to look at the
brain activity right to see what was going on and
what did they find. So the group that looked at
the nostalgic images, in addition to having different brain activity,
which I'm gonna give you in a second, rated their
pain levels as what we're than the ones when they
were shown photos of the present day, same amount of heat,
(16:26):
the same amount of moderate low to moderate discomfort, but
they perceived it as being less. And some of you
may be going big deal it is. It is one
thing I keep saying about this podcast is bringing you
all the different concepts and then all the different empirical
(16:50):
studies and articles and research that corroborate slowly over time.
The associations. Sure, but when we have so many in
so many different ways, start to go, do I have control?
Do I have control over what I think? And do
those thoughts in my head make a difference self talk,
(17:11):
visualization association versus dissociation. I love this. I love the
control that we have according to this research. Okay, uh so, yeah,
and then and I'm just gonna read this to you
(17:31):
because it's interesting, and for those of you who want
to know more, go to the go to the study itself,
the research. Um. But what was unique about this study
was the m r I headsets right, that they're looking
at what's lighting up, what's going on in the brain
when they're looking at the nostalgic images, what's going on
in the brain when they're not when they're looking at
the images from the present day. So when they viewed
(17:53):
the nostalgic images, there was reduced activity in the left
lingual gyrus and para hippocampal gyrus to brain regions implicated
in pain perception, okay, and activity in the thalamus, a
brain region involved in laying information between the body and
the cortex reading directly from it here was linked to
(18:16):
both nostalgia and pain ratings. That's what they're saying is
the thalamusts may integrate nostalgia information and transmit it to
pain pathways. All you need to know, all we need
to know at this level is that different things happened
in the brain. They saw it. They saw different things
happen when people controlled their thoughts, when they felt good,
(18:38):
when they thought about and saw So you gotta go.
It's visual here, happy images, happy thoughts. And the takeaway
at the end of this summary is that these findings
offer implications and perspectives for the further development and improvement
of non drug psychological analgesia. In other words, let's try
(19:04):
to control what we think first before we medicate. Let's
do and control as much as we can naturally. And
this again is low to moderate, but just really cool findings.
And another way of putting this is viewing nostalgic images
(19:24):
of items and scenes associated with childhood can help to
reduce pain perception. Okay, I'm going to use this as
I do and have before. Even more this is even
more proof that we have this whole arsenal of mental tools. Right,
(19:48):
So if i'm you know it, got an iron man
coming up in Brazil, getting ready to go across the
Grand Canyon and back, two things that are gonna take
a long time, going to be in moderate too, depending
on where and when. Then the race of what's going
on discomfort, and so I use all of those tools
that I talk to you about, the self talk, the visualization.
(20:09):
So since I can't bring a projector with me and
watch images projected onto a screen, I can combine what
visualization and then this concept of nostalgia, so in my
mind I will think about happy thoughts from my childhood
(20:31):
to help decrease my perception of pain discomfort. We're already
doing this, and anyone who has competed has done anything
like this at any level. You have a lot of time, right.
The the joke I used to give at pre race
lectures is, you know, you start the race, you go
this greatest thing I ever did. Ten minutes later you're like,
(20:52):
why am I doing this? This is the worst thing.
Why why do I? And then that goes on for
the rest of the race. However many hours you're doing it.
So we need to control those thoughts and so this
is more exciting, should be more exciting news. You know,
(21:12):
I talked about all the different workouts and ways to
work out that you should add to your exercise arsenal. Right,
body weight workouts, micro workouts, you know, jim workouts, cardio workouts.
I want as many options as possible. And now to
learn how you can do the same thing right with
(21:34):
your psychology Arsenal, of tools to control your thoughts, your emotions.
You're perceived perception of pain and this is physical pain, right,
this is this is listen thirty four people right, and
they always and these studies by saying more research needs
(21:54):
to be done. Of course, what's the downside? That's? Does
it always love to go to rite? So many people
take supplements where you're spending a ridiculous amount of money.
There's little to no research at all, usually none at
all into them, and the downside is you're wasting your
time and your money. Well, we're all gonna be in
times of discomfort and pain, whether it's chosen activities where
(22:18):
it's gonna happen or just everyday life. What's the downside
to going You know what? When I'm stressed out and
I don't know. Pick some activity of daily living where
you have to do something for a couple of hours
where you know, maybe you don't want to be doing it,
and you're in if nothing else mental, but maybe a
little physical discomfort. Now you can start thinking about who
(22:44):
watched chips back in the day. I just hurd the
theme to that, whatever your happy thoughts are, you go
to your happy place. Top athletes are doing this all
the time. Back to what I said at the beginning,
basically the same physiologically, who's in better control of the
(23:07):
psychological and what tools are they using at what point
in their performance to maximize their performance? And this can
be pre event, this can be during the event so
often and should be both. Let me read you the
significant statement significance statement which is significant from this UH research.
(23:33):
Nostalgia is known to reduce individuals perception of physical pain.
The underlying brain mechanisms, however, are unclear. Our study found
that the thalamus plays a key role as a functional
linkage between nostalgia and pain, suggesting a possible analgesic modulatory
mechanism of nostalgia. These findings have implications for the underlying
(23:57):
brain mechanisms of psychological analgesia use the power of your mind.
I get excited every time I bring you more research
into control. I get excited because it benefits me even more.
I mean, I've been doing this in different ways, but
it gives me different ideas for competition and for enjoyment,
(24:23):
to control what happens in my daily life as well
as those competitions and just activities. When I run across
the Grand Canyon again and back, it's not a competition,
that's just chosen insanity with a friend, and it's challenging
and like one of the most amazing things I've ever done.
(24:44):
Surprised I'm going back. But because when you learn how
to manage the discomfort, the chosen discomfort, the payoffs are enormous.
We control our thoughts. Stress is a choice. I've learned
(25:06):
not to say that to stress out people right away.
You want to wait till a happier time. It's our perception.
Do I have the tools necessary to get through this?
Have I experienced it before? If so, was I successful?
If not? Do I have the tools necessary? And the
(25:28):
more challenges you take, the more obstacles you overcome, the
less scary it all becomes when you don't and you
you give up that control, that perceived control, everything is
much scarier. Everything is a much bigger hurdle. So there
(25:55):
you have it. I love it. Can I read you
the title one more time? What's see if I can
do it without getting tongue tied fallow? More Cortical Mechanisms
for nostalgia induced analges a Journal of Neuroscience March. People,
you have another tool in your mental toolbox. You're welcome
(26:17):
fuzzy feelings about by gone days that now research shows
it shows up on an m R. I that's exciting,
at least for me. All right, enough, thank you for listening.
Tom h Fit, Instagram and Twitter. I love hearing from
you guys, and you're you're reaching out much more. Questions
and comments, keep them coming. I will answer them and
(26:39):
shows I will answer them directly. UM and I love
your success stories. Oh my gosh, so thank you. Thank
you for reaching out. Follow the show, Rate the show,
rate this show? Have you rated the show? I haven't
looked into that in a while. Please do greatly appreciated.
The newest book is The micro Workout Plan, and if
you have read that, I always appreciate Amazon reviews. Huge
to authors, but thank you, super excited to continue to
(27:03):
bring you the best information so you can live your
best life. And now you can use this today when
you're stressed out, Start thinking about that barbied all you had,
or your that I have Big Jim, who is the
guy's equivalent Back in the day we had everything. Oh
my gosh, just thinking about it makes me nostalgic right
(27:24):
thinking back to those times. But that's good news. Control
what you can, let the other stuff go, and we
control on which we love, what we put into our mouths,
and are mental tape recorders what we think, and that's awesome.
I am Tom Holland. This is Fitness Disrupted, Believe in Yourself.
(27:52):
Fitness Disrupted is a production of I Heart Radio. For
more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
Welcome to Fitness Disrupted, a production of I Heart Radio.
I am Tom Holland and this is Fitness Disrupted. All right.
Just got off doing a podcast myself, being a guest
on a podcast. I don't do that that frequently. I
(00:23):
know I should, we should. I just there's it's got
to be the right one and it doesn't have to
be a super popular I gotta agree with with what
we're gonna talk about. I mean, I know what I'm
going to talk about, but you know, you know what
I'm saying. And there's only so many hours in the day.
(00:45):
But but let's listen that whole pr promotion thing. I
hopefully I am going to let the show's content speak
for itself and push it that way. But yes, I'm
going to do other podcasts. Uh. And so I just
literally just ended it and I'm like, know what, I'm
gonna ride this energy? Uh well, that was an hour.
(01:05):
That's a long time, and I'm going to do this show.
And it's just another fantastic study, another fantastic topic in
the sports psychology realm or just psychology. But you can
absolutely and I will apply it to the sports psychology
realm as well. And it's something that I want almost
(01:26):
every episode to have take away that you can utilize
right away. You can utilize it right away. And so
I'm going to talk about pain and nostalgia and this study,
and there's been a bunch, but this was a recent
one that added to this body of research into nostalgia.
(01:49):
I'm gonna have trouble saying that. I think I say
that word very frequently. Nostalgia, nostalgia, nostalgia and pain and
the perception of pain. And this goes to the mind
body connection, obviously, and how powerful that is. And if
you've listened to prior podcast, you know that this was
(02:10):
a huge part and is a huge part of my studies.
But when I said I'm going back to school for
the master's program, it was had to be exercise science,
but I also wanted to sports psychology. So I found
a program that had both. And so within that program
there was the exercise science exercise physiology courses, and then
(02:32):
there was counseling courses and psychology those three buckets. And
it was amazing because I said, I need to figure
out this connection. Because I had worked for so many
years in the industry already as a trainer group exercise instructor,
all of these you know, different aspects of the industry,
(02:55):
and I realized, like, yeah, a huge part of this
is motivation. A huge part of this is behavior, human
behavior and all of the associated issues they're in. And
so this study, this recent study that you know, plays
on the body of work prior, is awesome and it's
(03:16):
a little unique in that they added another element, another
layer to the studies that had come before. And it's
about nostalgia and pain and basically controlling the mind and
what you can do and how you can do it
in your everyday life in sports performance. And it's what
(03:39):
I say at the end of every show, we control
three things, how much we move, what we put into
our mouths, and our attitudes, and our attitudes is just
our state of mind, our mental state, what we think.
And so awesome new study quick break when we come back,
and to jump right into it, I want to hear
the title of study or is this gonna are people
gonna are you gonna say? I'm not waiting for that.
(04:01):
The study title is is a mouthful as well as
they usually are. Thou a mo cortical, turning down, turning
it off already, thou a more cortical mechanisms for nostalgia
induced analgesia. I'm going to break this down. Trust me,
Trust me, you want to hear what this is all about.
(04:22):
All right, quick break. I will be right back all right,
checking the news, reading articles. The other day this popped
up without hesitation, said, this is a show. This is
(04:43):
such a perfect show. It's the mind body connection. It's
all about psychology, you know, I say frequently and wrote
in many of my books when it comes to performance
sports performance. Let's take anything a marathon. The top athletes
male female are pretty darn close physiologically, pretty darn close.
(05:09):
They've done the training, they have similar attributes VO to
max and all that kind of stuff. It's who wants
it more? Oversimplification maybe, but not really. Who wants it
more that day? Who's more in control of their perceptions
of pain? Who's more willing to suffer that day? But
(05:30):
then the interesting caveat twist is are they suffering as
much as we think? Where are they managing? That's suffering?
And that's what today's shows about. And I love everything
about this because it does apply to endurance events that
I do. And one of the reasons I do One
(05:50):
of the many reasons I do them is this is
learning about coping, about controlling discomfort, about learning how to
do that mentally alright, mental training, mental control. And I've
done podcasts on visualization and self talk. Self talk one
(06:14):
of my favorite. So there's many different ways I should say, too,
control our thoughts, control our perception of pain. Self talk
is one of them. I've talked about association and dissociation.
Quick refresher for those people who are running and you
throw your music on and you need your music to
(06:35):
run or whatever exercise, whatever cardio you do, you need
the music. That's because you want, by and large, to dissociate.
You want to think about anything other than what you
are doing, and quite often that's running for many people,
and for me it's swimming. When they invented or perfected
the waterproof iPod at the time and headphones changed my
(06:56):
life because I wanted to think about anything other than
going back and forth in this pool for an hour.
Just saying it out loud is torture to me, and
I apologize to all you swimmers out there. We can
still be friends, but I need my music if possible, right, Okay,
So that is a huge difference in the approach to performance,
(07:18):
and top athletes can't afford to disassociate or dissociate. Who's
going to add that a in there dissociate the way
the average person can write, because they need to monitor
their breathing and their foot strike if you're running, and
all the different you know, attributes that add to their performance,
(07:38):
all the mechanisms and biomechanics and physiology and all that
kind of stuff. All right, but a huge part of
life is coping, right, and control and stress and anxiety.
You know a few more of my favorite topics because
they're all connected, and you know, association and dissociation, their
attentional strategies broad attentional strategies for or coping, and that
(08:04):
can be external stimuli, right, events, effort performance, sports, performance
of musical performance, you know, a lecture. So there's different
ways to cope, right, and those are within our control.
Quite often people want to say it isn't right, and
(08:26):
you know, stress is a choice. Stress is not a thing.
It's our what it's how we perceive that event. It's
the thoughts in our head. Okay, And so now we
have a new way or you have a new way
to potentially cope in times of discomfort, and that could
(08:52):
be this study was about physical pain, but I would
and will add in mental right, mental discomfort, physical discomfort.
All right? So what is nostalgia? Sounds like something on
a Seinfeld episode, all right. One definition is a sentimental
(09:14):
longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a
period or place with happy personal associations. For me, because
I'm in my fifties, that's the seventies and the eighties,
more the eighties when I was in high school. Right,
seventies though, a lot of nostalgic thoughts and memories, I
should say for me, all right. And one great line
(09:39):
in these articles I read about this study talked about
fuzzy feelings about bygone days. Right, you think of those
TV shows or music, Oh my gosh. Right, that's another
reason listen to the music. It elicits feelings in our body, crying, happiness, anger,
the depending on what you associate that music too. Right.
(10:04):
So nostalgia is so many different things, but it reminds
you of bygone days, Happy days, happy days. It's a
show it was on when I was a kid, and
that brings up nostalgic feelings, all right, So this study
so interesting looking at the perception of pain when people
(10:26):
are shown nostalgic images. Now, as I said in the opening,
it's not new. Bunch of studies, including one set of
two thousand studies two thousand twenty where people looked they
had writing assignments that were meant to bring up nostalgic feelings. Okay,
and they had one group that were chronic pain sufferers
(10:49):
and another that were healthy individuals who were given physical
discomfort lab generated similar to the one I'm gonna talk
about in this study, and what they found us uh well,
let me not let me similar findings to what I'm
gonna tell you. But it's not new. These studies are
not new, different ways to do it. But what they
(11:11):
say is with this new study, they are still looking
at how it affects the brain. Right, so they know
the perception of what people are saying, the perception of
pain when they are experiencing it different ways, But what's
the brain doing And that's what this study looked at specifically. Okay.
So in this study, they not only induced pain physical
(11:32):
pain not really bad. I'll tell you how they did it,
but they put an m r I headset on the
participants as well, so they're gonna ask them the perceptions
of pain as they experience nostalgic images that I will specify.
And then they also looked at what's what's lighting up
in the brain, what's going on? All right? So that
(11:55):
great title again, let me see if I can say
it thalamo cortical. There we go, make is ms for
nostalgia induced analgesia. Okay, what's going on in the brain
for feeling better when you look at things that make
you feel good. Ridiculous oversimplification of it, okay. And this
was a bunch of researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Okay,
(12:19):
they recruited thirty four people between eighteen and twenty five.
That's going to be one of the limitations I will
get to. But eighteen years old with no particular sensitivity
to pain. So in some of those prior studies I mentioned,
they had people with chronic pain. Nothing here right there,
going to induce the pain themselves, the which is which
(12:40):
is obviously pun intended a touchy subject when it comes
to research, all right. And they had m ri I
headsets put on to monitor their brain activity. So this
is interesting how did they induce pain in these participants
where they use something called CHIPS right, which is an
acronym for contact heat evoked potential stimulator. And this is
(13:03):
a device with the metal surface that you put on
the skin. And for these participants, they had them on
the forearm and the researchers can gradually make this metal
plate hotter, increasing feelings of pain, but as they say,
and not so much as to seriously harm the participant.
This is a great example two of why certain types
(13:24):
of research is problematic. Right, you can't hurt people, you know,
you can't do harm to people, So that actually goes
to the findings. This was moderate discomfort, which is also
one of the limitations. Will look at right, Okay, so
thirty four people eighty five no particular sensitivity to pain,
had this CHECKS device on their forearm and the researchers
(13:46):
are going to make it hotter. But what are they
going to do at the same time, were they're gonna
be shown one of two sets of images right on
a projector they're going to show them images. The first
set are gonna be photos that bring up nostalgic feelings
things from their childhood, like toys, chewing gum package they used,
or a cartoon. I don't know about you, but, like
(14:08):
you know, sometimes when cartoons from uh my childhood come up,
just brings back crazy feelings, right, especially when you haven't
seen them in a long time. You know, I have kids,
they're out of the cartoon age, but every now and again, right,
and yeah, you know what I'm talking about, that feeling,
it's powerful, It's super powerful. So those are the first
(14:31):
set of photos and then the second set, same exact
or categories. Right, they're gonna do toys, chewing gum packages
or cartoons, but they were from present day. Such a
cool study, right, simple but like you get it. You know,
a lot of studies we talked about here they could
be really complex. This one's pretty darned straightforward, and I
(14:52):
would argue with you know, just some great concepts going on.
That's what they find. What did they find? Well, let
me say this though. As they were showing them the images,
the heat that they were being exposed to increased gradually,
so the researchers would gradually turn up the heat and
then they would be asked to rate their feelings of
(15:13):
pain on a scale of one to ten. I'm sorry,
zero to ten, so zero being nothing tend being like
ridiculously bad. What were the findings When we come back
from the break, I'm going to give it to you
and then the takeaway which you probably guess it, and
that's exciting, right, Okay, quick break. When we come back
the results from this study, we'll be right back all right,
(15:43):
talking about how nostalgia can decrease your perception of pain.
Bunch of research into this already, but I didn't give
you where. This article is study Journal of Neuroscience, and
this was March of onet, so just came out really exciting.
And so again this research had been done before, but
(16:04):
this was one that truly started to look at the
brain activity right to see what was going on and
what did they find. So the group that looked at
the nostalgic images, in addition to having different brain activity,
which I'm gonna give you in a second, rated their
pain levels as what we're than the ones when they
were shown photos of the present day, same amount of heat,
(16:26):
the same amount of moderate low to moderate discomfort, but
they perceived it as being less. And some of you
may be going big deal it is. It is one
thing I keep saying about this podcast is bringing you
all the different concepts and then all the different empirical
(16:50):
studies and articles and research that corroborate slowly over time.
The associations. Sure, but when we have so many in
so many different ways, start to go, do I have control?
Do I have control over what I think? And do
those thoughts in my head make a difference self talk,
(17:11):
visualization association versus dissociation. I love this. I love the
control that we have according to this research. Okay, uh so, yeah,
and then and I'm just gonna read this to you
(17:31):
because it's interesting, and for those of you who want
to know more, go to the go to the study itself,
the research. Um. But what was unique about this study
was the m r I headsets right, that they're looking
at what's lighting up, what's going on in the brain
when they're looking at the nostalgic images, what's going on
in the brain when they're not when they're looking at
the images from the present day. So when they viewed
(17:53):
the nostalgic images, there was reduced activity in the left
lingual gyrus and para hippocampal gyrus to brain regions implicated
in pain perception, okay, and activity in the thalamus, a
brain region involved in laying information between the body and
the cortex reading directly from it here was linked to
(18:16):
both nostalgia and pain ratings. That's what they're saying is
the thalamusts may integrate nostalgia information and transmit it to
pain pathways. All you need to know, all we need
to know at this level is that different things happened
in the brain. They saw it. They saw different things
happen when people controlled their thoughts, when they felt good,
(18:38):
when they thought about and saw So you gotta go.
It's visual here, happy images, happy thoughts. And the takeaway
at the end of this summary is that these findings
offer implications and perspectives for the further development and improvement
of non drug psychological analgesia. In other words, let's try
(19:04):
to control what we think first before we medicate. Let's
do and control as much as we can naturally. And
this again is low to moderate, but just really cool findings.
And another way of putting this is viewing nostalgic images
(19:24):
of items and scenes associated with childhood can help to
reduce pain perception. Okay, I'm going to use this as
I do and have before. Even more this is even
more proof that we have this whole arsenal of mental tools. Right,
(19:48):
So if i'm you know it, got an iron man
coming up in Brazil, getting ready to go across the
Grand Canyon and back, two things that are gonna take
a long time, going to be in moderate too, depending
on where and when. Then the race of what's going
on discomfort, and so I use all of those tools
that I talk to you about, the self talk, the visualization.
(20:09):
So since I can't bring a projector with me and
watch images projected onto a screen, I can combine what
visualization and then this concept of nostalgia, so in my
mind I will think about happy thoughts from my childhood
(20:31):
to help decrease my perception of pain discomfort. We're already
doing this, and anyone who has competed has done anything
like this at any level. You have a lot of time, right.
The the joke I used to give at pre race
lectures is, you know, you start the race, you go
this greatest thing I ever did. Ten minutes later you're like,
(20:52):
why am I doing this? This is the worst thing.
Why why do I? And then that goes on for
the rest of the race. However many hours you're doing it.
So we need to control those thoughts and so this
is more exciting, should be more exciting news. You know,
(21:12):
I talked about all the different workouts and ways to
work out that you should add to your exercise arsenal. Right,
body weight workouts, micro workouts, you know, jim workouts, cardio workouts.
I want as many options as possible. And now to
learn how you can do the same thing right with
(21:34):
your psychology Arsenal, of tools to control your thoughts, your emotions.
You're perceived perception of pain and this is physical pain, right,
this is this is listen thirty four people right, and
they always and these studies by saying more research needs
(21:54):
to be done. Of course, what's the downside? That's? Does
it always love to go to rite? So many people
take supplements where you're spending a ridiculous amount of money.
There's little to no research at all, usually none at
all into them, and the downside is you're wasting your
time and your money. Well, we're all gonna be in
times of discomfort and pain, whether it's chosen activities where
(22:18):
it's gonna happen or just everyday life. What's the downside
to going You know what? When I'm stressed out and
I don't know. Pick some activity of daily living where
you have to do something for a couple of hours
where you know, maybe you don't want to be doing it,
and you're in if nothing else mental, but maybe a
little physical discomfort. Now you can start thinking about who
(22:44):
watched chips back in the day. I just hurd the
theme to that, whatever your happy thoughts are, you go
to your happy place. Top athletes are doing this all
the time. Back to what I said at the beginning,
basically the same physiologically, who's in better control of the
(23:07):
psychological and what tools are they using at what point
in their performance to maximize their performance? And this can
be pre event, this can be during the event so
often and should be both. Let me read you the
significant statement significance statement which is significant from this UH research.
(23:33):
Nostalgia is known to reduce individuals perception of physical pain.
The underlying brain mechanisms, however, are unclear. Our study found
that the thalamus plays a key role as a functional
linkage between nostalgia and pain, suggesting a possible analgesic modulatory
mechanism of nostalgia. These findings have implications for the underlying
(23:57):
brain mechanisms of psychological analgesia use the power of your mind.
I get excited every time I bring you more research
into control. I get excited because it benefits me even more.
I mean, I've been doing this in different ways, but
it gives me different ideas for competition and for enjoyment,
(24:23):
to control what happens in my daily life as well
as those competitions and just activities. When I run across
the Grand Canyon again and back, it's not a competition,
that's just chosen insanity with a friend, and it's challenging
and like one of the most amazing things I've ever done.
(24:44):
Surprised I'm going back. But because when you learn how
to manage the discomfort, the chosen discomfort, the payoffs are enormous.
We control our thoughts. Stress is a choice. I've learned
(25:06):
not to say that to stress out people right away.
You want to wait till a happier time. It's our perception.
Do I have the tools necessary to get through this?
Have I experienced it before? If so, was I successful?
If not? Do I have the tools necessary? And the
(25:28):
more challenges you take, the more obstacles you overcome, the
less scary it all becomes when you don't and you
you give up that control, that perceived control, everything is
much scarier. Everything is a much bigger hurdle. So there
(25:55):
you have it. I love it. Can I read you
the title one more time? What's see if I can
do it without getting tongue tied fallow? More Cortical Mechanisms
for nostalgia induced analges a Journal of Neuroscience March. People,
you have another tool in your mental toolbox. You're welcome
(26:17):
fuzzy feelings about by gone days that now research shows
it shows up on an m R. I that's exciting,
at least for me. All right, enough, thank you for listening.
Tom h Fit, Instagram and Twitter. I love hearing from
you guys, and you're you're reaching out much more. Questions
and comments, keep them coming. I will answer them and
(26:39):
shows I will answer them directly. UM and I love
your success stories. Oh my gosh, so thank you. Thank
you for reaching out. Follow the show, Rate the show,
rate this show? Have you rated the show? I haven't
looked into that in a while. Please do greatly appreciated.
The newest book is The micro Workout Plan, and if
you have read that, I always appreciate Amazon reviews. Huge
to authors, but thank you, super excited to continue to
(27:03):
bring you the best information so you can live your
best life. And now you can use this today when
you're stressed out, Start thinking about that barbied all you had,
or your that I have Big Jim, who is the
guy's equivalent Back in the day we had everything. Oh
my gosh, just thinking about it makes me nostalgic right
(27:24):
thinking back to those times. But that's good news. Control
what you can, let the other stuff go, and we
control on which we love, what we put into our mouths,
and are mental tape recorders what we think, and that's awesome.
I am Tom Holland. This is Fitness Disrupted, Believe in Yourself.
(27:52):
Fitness Disrupted is a production of I Heart Radio. For
more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.