Are you trying to grab fog?

Welcome,

As the Learner that I am, I love sharing tips that I find too juicy to keep to myself! On my morning walks I often listen to podcasts, and today I was catching The School of Greatness, Episode #1072, “Unlocking the Power of Your Mind with Neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Huberman, and I appreciated the 30 minutes that I was able to ingest.

Because I know so many of you (like me!) may not have 1-2 hours to take in valuable content, I wanted to share this juicy nugget today so you could benefit from it immediately. You see, as busy high-achieving leaders, we encounter STRESS all the time.  AND as leaders, we are expected to manage our our stress effectively.

This looks like…

1. Reducing our own stress and not REACTING, and
2. Not letting our stress spill over onto others. 

Except… THIS IS SO HARD! Do you agree? Bottom line, like everything we have to do in life that we want to master, it takes work. Here’s what I learned today that can help you. 

First, there are 2 types of stress (there are no actual names for these!)–let’s call them:

1. Hyper overwhelm (feels like fight, flight, freeze), and 
2. Exhaustion overwhelm (where you have no energy to even figure out how to get things done). 

BTW…too much of #1 will create the scenario for #2, which in my world of leadership = NO MOJO–a serious problem for businesses of all shapes and sizes, and an even bigger problem for the leader him/herself.

Depending upon which one you’re experiencing, there is a certain BREATH technique that can help you to quickly manage that stress.

Dr. Huberman shared EXACTLY what happens in your body (between the heart and the mind), but since that’s his job (go listen to the full episode if you want to dive deeper).

What I want to leave you with today is THIS MASSIVE MIC DROP….

When under stress,

Don’t try to change to your thoughts with another thought.

It’s like trying to grab fog!

Instead, go in this order… BREATH. HEART RATE. MIND. 

Address your BREATH, to affect your HEART RATE, in order to calm and redirect your MIND. So, if you’re dealing with a fight, flight, freeze stress response, you will want to SLOW YOUR HEART RATE.

The kind of breath you want to create is: 2 short inhales and 1 long exhale (audible). 

Yoga Nidra is also great for this type of stress and to help you sleep. Do this for about 1 minute. 

If you’re dealing with an exhaustion stress, you’ll want to INCREASE YOUR HEART RATE to get you into action and a positive thought process. The kind of breath you want to create is: 1 long deep breath to a short audible exhale (a la Wim Hof).

So, give it a try and let me know if this was helpful. As you know, I love getting leaders to operate at their very best, inside and out. And, if you care to share, let me know which type of stress you are mostly experiencing in your life right now.

Mindfully,

Coach Mo