Inside the mind of a berserker

Why You Harness The Power of Emotion To Become Unstoppable

Want strength? Some of the most feared fighters in history were known as the Berserkers. These Norse warriors were named because of their ‘bersker rage’ – a mad fit of anger that they would leverage on the battle field. In this heightened and agitated state, they would become appear invulnerable and would also be able to accomplish feats of incredible strength.

Enemies facing the Berserkers on the battlefield would be terrified, and it is a well-known fact that campaigns are 90% won when the opposition is defeated in their mind.


This is where the stories of Mothers lifting cars off their children trapped beneath come in.

Think it’s just a myth? Turns out there is a solid scientific explanation for how this might be possible. Under extreme stress, it seems likely that the body produces excess amounts of testosterone, adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones increase the heart rate, focus, awareness and muscle tone and this is where the extra strength comes from.

Actually, it goes even a little deeper than that. The thing is, all of us have limits to our strength imposed by our minds and our biology. When you go to lift a weight, you do so by recruiting muscle fibre – little bands that make up the muscle and contract in order to give us our strength. The most muscle fibre that the average person can recruit at once under normal circumstances is around 30%. The most that a highly trained athlete can recruit is closer to 50%. So, a highly trained athlete is only capable of tapping into roughly half of their maximum strength. This is what we mean when we refer to a ‘mind muscle connection’.

The reason we can’t access so much of our strength is a) that it would likely cause us injury as we would break a muscle, pull a ligament etc. and b) that it would fatigue us. If we were to use that much of our muscle power in a single movement, we’d have no energy left for anything else!

But under the right circumstances, being able to dip into these huge reserves of strength is incredibly useful. And adrenaline and other hormones under the right conditions allow us to tap into that power. Studies show that yelling in the gym can actually increase adrenaline and thereby enhance muscle fibre recruitment, resulting in strength improvements!

Now imagine if you could tap into even just 80% of that power at will simply by harnessing your emotions.

And here’s a great example of an early stage entrepreneur explaining in an interview with Jason Saltzman how she used her pain to keep her pushing forward.

Emotions for Calm, Collected Focus

But there’s only so far that being able to leap tall buildings and lifting cars will get you. In the real world, physical strength isn’t really what matters.

This is where the ‘flow state’ comes in. A flow state is often described as a state of calm, focused, bliss. It is what happens when the world seems to slow down because you are so intently focussed and engaged on what you are doing. This is also known as “being in the zone”.

Have you ever opened a cupboard and seen something fall out but moved in super-fast motion to catch it? That’s flow state.


Outside of physical activities, it is seen in music. When the entire band synchronises whilst playing, this is a type of flow state.



Studies show us that executives in flow manage are hugely more productive than those that aren’t. The same goes for startups and other entrepreneurs.

So, what is flow?


You have the entire attention of your body and mind which brings about a release of excitatory hormones along with calming ones and those related with bliss – such as anandamide. This actually suppresses activity in the prefrontal cortex, triggering a state known as ‘temporary hypo-frontality’. This prevents us from worrying, from second guessing or from over-thinking.

You just do.




This is when our best work is done. This is when we are happiest.


Entering flow means being in the moment which not only makes you happy and confident – it makes you unstoppable.

Taking Control of Your Emotions




The very function of your emotions is to trigger behaviours that will help you to fix the way you feel. When you haven’t eaten enough lately, your blood sugar dips. This, in turn, triggers a release of cortisol – the stress hormone. This tells you that something needs to change and wakes you up and in the wild, this would have encouraged you to look for food.

When you eat, your blood sugar spikes, you produce leptin and serotonin. This makes you happy and content and encourages you to sleep – eventually serotonin converts to melatonin the sleep hormone.


  • You didn’t sleep
  • You’re in mild pain
  • You haven’t eaten enough
  • You’ve eaten the wrong things

So, one way to change your emotions and to take back control is to acknowledge them. Firstlyrecogniseze that if you’re angry, it’s probably due to physiological reasons and it will pass. At least it won’t seem so bad later.




Leave a comment below and tell me when you last went “berserk” and what it took to calm you. Did you calm yourself? Did you change your physiology? Was it something else that made you change your behaviour? When were you last in flow? Why did you access the flow emotions at that particular moment?

2 thoughts on “Why You Harness The Power of Emotion To Become Unstoppable

  1. Esther Nagle

    I love this so much! I used to be a total beserker, anything and everything would send me into a state of mild to extreme rage, and it would generally take a bottle of wine, 10 cigarettes and 3 joints to calm me down (I did have a *bit* of a problem!) Hitting a massive stress wall in 2013 and breaking down completely led me to yoga teacher training where I learned to breathe, among many other ways to process stress and rage, and my life was transformed. Sober for nearly 3 years now, I seldom get the beserks anymore, low level stress Yes, but not often that rage. The ex can get me close sometimes, but when that happens I breathe, talk it out, write it out, stretch and throw it out and let go. It is hard to let go fully if I am honest, but it is easier to live with now I know how to breathe it away!

    1. Tanya Mann Rennick Post author

      That’s really great Esther! I’m so happy that you are now nearly three years sober – well done to you! I hear ya when it comes to dealing with residual stress, especially if an ex is involved, but there are some great visualisation techniques you may like to try sometime. I’ll add it to my list of things to blog about 🙂


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