A Yogi’s View of Peak Performance
I went back to my notes on Steven Kotler (author of The Art of Impossible) this week to parse why I struggle with the notion of peak performance in yoga. The industry gives very mixed messages about what it means to be an advanced yogi or even to live a yogic lifestyle.
Just the fact that Yoga is an industry with corporations, celebrity, and product lines is immensely complicated and predictably corrupt. To be an advanced yoga practitioner in a culture that values power, wealth, and prowess while professing humility, generosity, and acceptance is its own mind bending oxymoron--i.e., you're supposed to grab success by any means possible and then humbly pretend that you didn't.
My initial impressions of peak performance was that it would be yet another way to spiritually bypass the aggressive aspects of human nature and the pervasive pressures of capitalism. What I found, instead, was something incredibly close to a scientific rubric to measure one's mastery of yoga, delightfully distinct from anything that can be manipulated by the beauty/wellness industry.
Peak performance comes down to our ability to be curious, passionate, purposeful, autonomous, and masterful.
In a nutshell:
we need to have an interest
be inspired by that interest
connect that interest to inner and outer transformation
have the freedom to pursue that interest
and we need to have opportunities to challenge ourselves
Our brain/mind is powered by an efficient set of neurotransmitters that produce the wide range of impulses and actions that that make this process come to life. Our ability to progress from interest to mastery is something that is not only possible but extremely intrinsically pleasurable. In fact, it is more fulfilling than most other activities. What makes Peak Performance unique is that our risk/reward centers, our pro-social centers, our pleasure centers, and our pain relieving centers all fire at the same time while our rational mind steps to the side and rests.
The six primary neurotransmitters in this process are:
Dopamine
Serotonin
Norepinephrine
Anandamide
Endorphins
Oxytocin
What makes these six so special is that they are the multi-tools that most of us recognize in experiences like the Runner's High, Falling in Love, Pain Relief, Excitement, Bonding, Fight or Flight, Risk and Reward, Healing and the Immune Response. The importance of the flow state is that it activates all six Neurotransmitters simultaneously and may be the only process that does so.
When I think of what makes advanced yogis, I think of how frequently they are able to find flow, what percentage of their time is spent in a flow state, and how committed are they to sharing their insights with others. That to me, is the true definition of a practitioner.
No where do you find any specific physique, athletic ability, studio franchise, tax bracket, or Instagram following. Instead, you find people who know what inspires them and are naturally generous with their talent and time because sharing increases their Peak Performance. They may have conquered the industry, they may be incredible athletes, they may be philosophers, they may be ANYONE like me and like you. Their yoga is the yoga that turns on their brain/mind/being/body in the ways that are intrinsically motivating to them.
If anyone has a great idea about how to get that information streaming through social media, let me know. But until then, I am happy to quietly disrupt any narrative that is holding us back from being the unique shining beings that make this world.