Maintaining High Performance
How often over the course of the day do you use your Brain and Mind? The obvious answer is ‘all the time, and everywhere.’ Yet, what have you been taught about maximising your Brain-Mind performance?
Your every performance everywhere is determined by this relationship. How your Brain-Mind interact and effect each other will maximise or minimise your ability to perform in any situation, in any task, whether that is professionally, creatively, within your various relationships, or even while engaged in sport or an interest.
Surprisingly, the fundamentals of ‘maximising’ your ability to perform are not complex. That does not necessarily mean they are easy to master especially when you have spent a lifetime developing bad habits that impair and reduce your performance capacity. Indeed, some of these habits can prevent you from achieving your peak level of ability.
I keep using the word performance even though you would rarely consider this measure for your daily living. And yet your Brain-Mind determine how you perform in everything you do. No doubt you have failed at something you desired not because you were incapable, but because at that time your capacity to perform was low. Maybe it was an important exam; maybe it was while on a date, or at a job interview.
That is what we can change for you. We can give you control over your ability to perform at the highest level in any situation.
Knowing some fundamentals about your Brain-Mind and how they work together, can change your work-life performance, and only in good ways.
What we can help with:
- Identifying weakening habits and behaviours.
- Establishing a simple strengthening routine to your week. Helping you to know what ‘you’ need to stay mentally strong and resilient to stress. Everyone is different, your needs are specific to you.
- Improving your important relationships. All of us working for our relationships. If you work so hard during the day that you have nothing left to give to your important relationships (wife/husband; children; family; friends) then you are working wrong.
- Working smart NOT hard. Changing ‘how’ you work to increase productivity and improve the quality of your decision making. Small changes can have a large beneficial impact on how you feel at the end of the day.
- Preventing and recovery from: burnout; mental exhaustion; depression; and, anxiety.
- You will know ‘how’ to be happier every day of your life for the rest of your life.
- Learning to accurately evaluate the true ‘mental-load’ of different work tasks. This will allow you to better control and balance the demands of your day.
- Improving job satisfaction.
- Improving your general mental and physical health.
- Helping you to become the best version of ‘you’.
It is very important to understand that this is not about reducing your work load. Moreover, it is about being more mentally effective and efficient, and happier. I can assure you that this is not complex or difficult to implement. A few changes and you will be more productive in ways that do not mentally drain you. Over our consultations you will also learn ‘how’ to sustain your reserves, be mentally strong and resilient, and in the best position to be successful and happier.
Stress Management & Building Resilience
The key to recovery from stress, and also stress management, is NOT relaxation techniques. It is not deep breathing, and muscular relaxation, or positive thinking and visualisation. These might help you to ‘cope’ but they are not going to prevent you from becoming stressed, and why become stressed in the first place?
We will change how you think about stress.
Anyone can suffer from stress and over a lifetime most of us will. This year alone about one in five of us will become so stressed that they will develop a diagnosable mental disorder. Yet, despite how common stress is many of us make no effort to improve our understanding of how to manage stress.
We typically ignore the emotional and functional messages that tell us something is wrong and try toughing it out by distracting ourselves or self-medicating with alcohol, drugs, or self-destructive behaviours. We bottle up our problems in the hope that others won’t notice. We hope that our situation will eventually improve on its own. Or we simply give up, telling ourselves this is, “just the way things are.”
It may seem like there’s nothing you can do about stress but there are some simple practical ways of preventing, managing, and reducing stress. In normal life there are never enough hours in the day, and your work and family responsibilities are never-ending, but there is still plenty you can do to keep your stress levels in check whether your stress tends to occur at predictable times or takes you by surprise.
Preventing, Reducing, & Managing Stress
As stated above, the key to recovery from stress, and also stress management, is NOT deep breathing, and muscular relaxation, or positive thinking and visualisation.
The first important understanding is that stress is cumulative and quantifiable.
The reason you are now stressed is because you have not yet learnt to identify when you are beginning to ‘mentally’ overload and exhaust your limited reserves, and now you are feeling exhausted and overwhelmed.
There is a dangerous myth perpetrated by the media; no scientist or clinician ever stated that you are using less than 10% of your Brain. In fact, if your work/life is demanding you are using most of your Brain, most of the time.
Your Brain has a ‘finite’ capacity, which also means that there is a limit to how much you can do each day, and if you exceed this ‘limit’ you will become mentally and emotionally exhausted, you will become stressed. Relaxation techniques will not cure your state of being overwhelmed and exhausted they will only help you to cope with it; and nor will relaxation techniques help prevent becoming stressed.
Stress can contribute to or exacerbate many different health problems including cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, gastrointestinal disorders, chronic pain, post-operative and wound healing, and some side effects of cancer and cancer treatments, which are in themselves, very stress-full.
If you are dealing with any significant health concern managing stress can help you reduce anxiety, alleviate fatigue and improve sleep and boost your energy levels and general mood.
Stress management is very practical. You will be using what you learn to stay strong and resilient. You will know how to manage stress-full situations so that you won’t feel overwhelmed and exhausted by these demands.