Jill Whittington outlines how we all need to get our brain in gear and deal with stress.
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Something caught my eye on a news item today. It was reporting on a new smart watch (which does everything but make the tea!) which rivals the most expensive ones currently available, for a fraction of the price.
This set me thinking. We are willing to pay considerable amounts of money to help us become fitter, healthier, and more aware. In this pandemic world we are now living in, stress remains prevalent. I’m curious to know if we make the link between our ability to cope with stress if we use an expensive smart app to help us become healthier?
Whilst I am the first to encourage people to take responsibility for their well-being, I find it interesting that the most readily available, free and limitless ‘computer’ we ALL have on tap is frequently unknown and under-used, and at worst used to limit our ability to cope.
Yes, you may have guessed – it’s our brain!
Did you know the brain does what the mind tells it to?
The mind changes your brain in temporary and lasting ways by creating neural pathways – ‘neurons which fire together, wire together ‘
Unfortunately we evolved to pay great attention to unpleasant experiences. This negativity bias overlooks good news, highlights bad news and creates anxiety and pessimism.
Some physical and mental discomforts are unavoidable however left unchecked, the mind adds secondary and many more ‘darts’ to the brain which dictates our reaction.
Many people experience second ‘dart’ cascades with numerous negative consequences for physical and mental health. I suspect that is happening now and adding to many people’s stress and strain.
Stress and strain have their routes in engineering. ‘Stress’ being the load applied and ‘strain’ the level of deforming. The amount of resilience to ‘strain’ depends upon the material absorbing the ‘stress.’ It’s the same for human beings too. The same stressor e.g. work-related stress through working from home/online, when applied to different materials (people) with different levels of resilience will affect us differently. The stressor may be the same but our reaction to it different.
One thing we ALL have in common is the ability to utilise our brain to help us become more resilient.
What is the investment?
Well investing just 8 minutes a day in a regular ‘Mind Chi’ practice can help us to understand our stressors and our reaction to them. Then we can choose to change our thoughts, feelings, and reactions ‘in the moment’ thus becoming more resilient.
Mind Chi is based upon acknowledged science and research as to how the brain works. It is a fast, easy way to reduce stress and build resilience. Small positive actions every day create new habits which build upon one another and add up to large changes as you build new neural structures resulting in greater resilience.
So………………………………. Consider what you unconsciously spend 8 minutes a day on – perhaps social media, procrastinating, worrying, listening to bad news, talking about bad news, researching best ‘smart apps’ etc, etc.
How about you find out more about the amazing capability of the brain and how you can use it anytime, anywhere to help improve your resilience?
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Contact Jill to discuss Mind Chi and how personal resilience can help you at [email protected]
Please get in touch or book a call. We’d love to chat.
