The reason why we remember specific moments or movies

is because they have been stored in our memory

under the influence of emotions.

When we win or fail,

cry or celebrate,

we learn fast,

deep and plenty.

But when we are afraid

our brain limits our ability to think,

for a good reason.

Fear is an emotion induced

when we face a threat to our physical

or psychological well being.

It causes a change in brain and organ functions

and ultimately in our behavior

first we get stressed or aggressive,

then we are left with three final ways out:

freeze, fight or flight.

The reason for this is evolution.

Over the last million years,

we learn that when we meet a dangerous animal,

we better freeze,

fight or run and hide.

To save our life this is now programmed in our genes.

But something else happens.

When it gets dangerous a specific region of our brain,

the Amygdala, takes over.

Its job is to protect us and save our life.

To act fast it refrains us from thinking

and leaves us only with those three options.

This makes creative and critical thought processes impossible.

High pressure triggers a similar response.

In one experiment,

German neuroscientist Prof. Dr. Huether

measured the brain function of young men

playing a car racing game.

The race was on and the men eager to win.

When the researchers later looked at the scans of the brain

they saw shockingly little activity.

In fact, the young men hardly used their brains at all

and they certainly didnt remembered much.

Later the researchers repeated the experiment.

This time they did not play the game themselves

but just watched from inside the car

sitting next to the driver.

Instead of focusing to win,

they focused on a lot of other things:

driving behavior, the race track,

other cars.

This time the brains showed lots of activity

Learning happened and memories were created.

The scientists concluded that when we panic at a math exam

or when a salesmen fears to miss his monthly target,

it can create a tunnel vision.

Then our vision field becomes smaller,

our learning limited

and we cannot find the road to success.

Next time when you are stressed to perform

or when you panic during an exam,

try this quick fix.

First slowly breath in through your nose.

To do it slow enough,

count from one to five.

Then breath out through your mouth,

again counting to five.

Repeat that for 1-5 minutes

and your body will relax

your brain can switch from protection mode

back to a learning mode.

What is your personal experience?

Do you think we should apply pressure

and push for a goal in order to maximize our learning?

Or do you think we should free our minds

from pressure and goals?

Please share your thoughts in the comments below!

Thanks for watching!

Even if we try to keep it short,

each video is quite some work.

First we research and write a script.

Then we brainstorm ideas.

And after that we draw the storybook.

Then it's recorded,

narrated and finally edited.

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