Written by: Jean Gomes, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Our mindset is much more than just the beliefs or mental models we carry. It’s our foundational sensemaking system and it can be strengthened and adapted throughout our lives.
Today, mindset is used to describe everything, from the zeitgeist, generational values, lifestyles, to philosophy, ideas, personality, and beliefs. Perhaps, as we’ve become more physiologically savvy, mindset is now shorthand for describing how our inner experiences shape the way we look at the world. The dictionary definition – a fixed set of beliefs and attitudes that shape our actions – is far too incomplete to reflect how we now use the word. More importantly, it falls way short of what we now know about how our minds work.
Instead of thinking of mindset as an attitude, or intent grounded in beliefs, or alternatively, as an idea or mental model, it’s more useful to consider it as our sensemaking system. This dynamic system comprises how we feel, think, and see, creating moments of knowing, doubt, or certainty. Understood in this way, mindset is a system that we can better understand, build at a neurological level, and more intentionally apply to the challenges facing us.
At the turn of the 20th century, the biologist Jakob von Uexküll developed the concept of unwelt to describe the sensory bubble we operate within. Today, the fields of neuroscience, psychology and physiology are unlocking a new picture of how our unwelt operates, suggesting a fundamental overhaul of how we think about mindset. It starts by reconsidering the metaphor that has dominated recent thought about the brain; that of the computer. Our brains don’t run like laptops or phones, processing and reacting to information, but are engaged in a type of constant improvisation, continuously second-guessing the future. Neuroscientists are coming to a new conclusion about the brain’s principal function and operating system that has less to do with the higher functions of imagination, problem solving and logic, but is founded on the less exotic mechanisms of keeping us alive by regulating our metabolism.
This regulation is achieved as the mind and body performs a ceaseless, unconscious loop of prediction and sensory processing. Our predicting brain runs by producing assumptions about the future based on the past. These ‘top down’ assumptions are met by ‘bottom up’ sensory information (sight, sound, touch, etc) which allow us to course correct if the predictions prove to be wrong.
Thousands of research studies are now showing us that increased self-awareness about our feelings, thoughts and perception build the neural networks and structures in our brains. In other words, we can intentionally build mindsets for the future. The benefits of doing so, particularly in enabling us to navigate uncertainty, are far-reaching including better wellbeing, judgement, and relationships.
Take the work of Alia Crum at the Stanford Mind and Body Lab, who is establishing that mindset isn’t just about adopting a positive mental attitude. As she puts it, what we believe ‘alters objective reality’ through physiological, psychological, and behavioural changes. Crum started by examining, ‘do our beliefs about what we're eating, change our body's physiological response to that food?’ In one of her earliest experiments, ¹ she showed the extraordinary influence our assumptions have over physiological responses in our body. Participants were offered a milkshake, supposedly full of ice cream and sugar which was labelled with a suitably tempting description and rated as having over 600 calories. A few weeks later the same group was invited back to try a ‘heathy’ fat and sugar free milkshake with only 140 calories.
What the participants didn’t know was that both milkshakes had the same caloric value. On both occasions, blood samples were taken before the test, after they had read the descriptions of the milkshakes, which were designed to prime their beliefs, and after drinking them. Crum’s team wanted to know how the different expectations of consuming a ‘treat’ versus a ‘healthy’ option affected the production of the hormone ghrelin. Ghrelin regulates our appetite, satiation, and energy. When the stomach is empty it is secreted, increasing appetite, and lowering our metabolism and promoting fat storage.
What Crum’s team found was remarkable. When the group consumed the ‘full fat and sugar’ shake their ghrelin levels dropped at a threefold rate in comparison to the ‘sensible’ shake. Their metabolisms responded as if they had eaten more food. Up to this point, studies had shown that what we eat changes our perception of satisfaction and feelings of fullness, but this was one of the first to demonstrate that belief in what you’re eating has a metabolic effect. The key takeaway is if you believe what you’re eating is indulgent and giving you enough, your body will respond accordingly.
Crum’s work is just part of a revolution in understanding how our mindset operates. Researchers are piecing together a picture of how better connection to our physical sensations makes us less prone to illness and more adept at decerning risks. They also show us how we can become better at thinking more creativity and strategically. Perhaps most needed is that they are also showing the mechanisms at play that narrow our perspectives of others, leading us to consider how, given the growing polarisation the world is experiencing, we might be able to reverse a seemingly inevitable spiral of social conflict.
As we face what seems like a prolonged period of extreme uncertainty, investing in developing our mindset gives us huge potential for greater resilience and psychological freedom and – the best part – it’s possible for anyone to do.
Follow me on LinkedIn, listen to our podcast, The Evolving Leader, and visit my website for more info.
Jean Gomes, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Jean Gomes is a New York Times bestselling author and trusted advisor to CEOs and leaders. His research and practice centres on creating More Human organisations, harnessing the latest findings in neuroscience and experimental psychology. In his most recent book, Leading in a Non-Linear world, he explores a new approach to embracing uncertainty by building mindsets for the future. The team at his research-based consultancy, Outside, works with a community of scientists to develop simple and powerful strategies to transform wellbeing, leadership, and organisational agility. He is co-host of the popular podcast, The Evolving Leader.
Reference:
[1] Crum, A. J., Corbin, W. R., Brownell, K. D., & Salovey, P. (2011). Mind over milkshakes: Mindsets, not just nutrients, determine ghrelin response. Health Psychology, 30(4), 424–429. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023467
