🍀'THROTTLE THERAPY' to handle STRESS & ANXIETIES - Issue162
Hi, I am JOE and I write on "Mindful Productivity & Cerebral Happiness". My endeavour is to share life lessons, some thoughts, quotes & links to articles/podcasts/books, I discover during the week.
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During the week, I was toying the idea 💡 of occasionally indulging in a powerful activity called “throttle therapy”. This has triggered my curiosity and I wondered 💭 as to why people buy big motorbikes like Harley, Triumph, Royal Enfield, Kawasaki etc..especially those who have limited manoeuvrability, high Cubic Capacity, thumping exhaust and least fuel efficiency.
So essentially, throttle therapy is in play when you ride a motorbike in a calm and unhurried mindset with sole aim to enjoy the ride and landscapes at optimal speed. When I say throttle therapy, I mean a responsible handling of combustion power and speed. There is a distinct difference between ‘riding’ vis-a-vis ‘driving’ a motorbike, where former is about pleasure riding and later is about commuting.
Throttle therapy can not be clubbed with any other activity because it demands a calm, unhurried and a dedicated indulgence with complete awareness.
If you too are wondering 💭 as to what benefits this therapy can give then do read this newsletter till the end.
Incidentally, I came across a nice work titled ‘Presence’ by Amy Cuddy, a Social Psychologist. So, let me give you a quick snippet of it ;-
Whenever you take a power posing stance, it triggers an internal hormonal changes and body quickly releases a Cortisol hormone. This hormone is responsible for fighting with stress and anxiety.
This concept directly applies to motorbike rides, where you remain in an open environment and occupy a strong power posture during your entire rides. This physical cue is sensed by the body which create an internal chemical change resulting in a release of Cortisol hormone ( also known as a happiness catalyst ).
There are many scientific studies which has proven that riding motorbike for pleasure or on weekends contribute in enhancing our self awareness and provide an opportunity to inculcate life skills. These newly inculcated life skills help us to navigate through our undue stresses and anxieties of the week(s)/ life.
Let me file a caveat here that ‘throttle therapy’ doesn’t apply to adventure riding or racing events. The primary reason is that such activities demand a higher degree of cognitive engagement. This hyper active state of mind interrupt the natural release of cortisol hormone thereby induce stress and anxiety instead of taming them to an manageable levels. That is why flying an aeroplane or driving F1 cars are generally not considered as a throttle therapies per se owing to the hyper engagement of cognitive abilities.
It would be appropriate to say -
“Our brain is hardwired in such a manner that it’s difficult to take action until we feel some level of anxiety”. An ever constant paradox is -
If we get too relaxed then we tend to suffer from inattention and boredom and;
If we are too anxious then we tend to become hyper reactive and create a chaotic environment.
Surprisingly neurological studies has revealed that throttle therapy has been found to improves metrics of focus and decrease stress bio markers. It also provide a benefits akin to yoga and meditation. It aid in building certain set of life skills namely -planning and organising with special focus on attention to minute details, decision making, self confidence, determination, mental stamina and physical courage .
I say so on the following premises -
When you plan a ride, you think through all possible scenarios in your mind and learn to deal with all obvious stresses and anxieties which comes up on board during the planning phase of the ride.
You learn to focus on prioritising the solution instead of focusing on the problems for too long, by quickly finding a better or an alternative routes. This enhances your speed of decision making.
You simply learn to embrace your vulnerability because motorbikes doesn’t come with seatbelts or airbags. This awareness allow you to develop mental stamina and promote a healthy development of physical courage.
When you ride a motorbike, you are vulnerable to the smallest object and variables on the road. This promote development of self awareness in every movement ( In aviation terminology- it’s called total situation awareness).
Riding motorbikes are not like driving cars. Cars do have a forgiveness by virtue of having steering to some extend but when you are riding a motorbike, you go where you look. This limitation will help you to enhance your target fixation skills which is generally found to be in F1 drivers and pilots.
I am certainly planning to implement ‘throttle therapy’ in coming months and actively mulling over few options. However, I find myself leaning towards a motorbike for which western world is paying import duties to lay hands on it. I prefer to call it a ‘apple of India’, and on top of it no waiting for us to access the entire range of its product line-up.
If you are too planning to indulge in a ‘ throttle therapy ‘, then Happy Riding.
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