We made it through the year. An impressive achievement. Well done! But what now? Where do we go from here after such a taxing time? It all starts with our Wellbeing Series hosted by Anne Moore - work futurist, CEO, and resident founder at Stone & Chalk. We also welcome Alessandra Edwards, Performance and Wellbeing Expert. Alessandra boosts the performance of top CEOs by improving their mindset and biohacking their skills to reach new peaks. Her insightful and practical tips will help you gain a fresh perspective.
Alessandra opened the call by reminding us that ‘high performance’ goes beyond the workplace. High performance is the ability to optimise our whole selves, sustainably. That includes optimising our emotional self, mental self, physical self, professional self and social self. This balance empowers us with the energy we need to renew - an important message for many of us. We often prioritise certain parts of our lives over others, and our performance suffers.
The first step to refreshing your perspective for the new year is understanding where you are at, right now. Alessandra guided listeners through an insightful exercise, and we discovered where our energy and motivation is at now and where we want to be.
Why is that important? Alessandra tells us that “over the last five to ten years, we have accumulated high-level evidence that our thoughts and beliefs have a huge impact on the physical process that shapes our brain. In other words, regularly thinking certain thoughts changes the connections between brain cells. They activate certain pathways and links that did not exist before.”
Therefore our brains are malleable, and we have the power to mould our mindset. So, if we take note of our current mindset, and how we react in stressful situations, we can learn to increase our performance and wellbeing in those situations. Alessandra gave several mindset examples she has come across in her work, and how to shift each mindset to improve performance.
After covering longer-term mindset shifting exercises, Alessandra moved onto evidence-based tips and tricks you can implement in the moment - right when you’re hit with the stressful situation. The following steps send signals to your nervous system to calm down.
Tip One – Scrunch up your face muscles and then relax them.
Tip Two – Splash cold water on your face.
Tip Three – Exhale twice as long as you inhale to offload carbon dioxide.
Tip Four – Press the palms of your hands against your eyes.
Tip Five – Supplement your diet with L-Theanine
Alessandra's presentation has reframed our understanding of high performance. She's reminded us that it doesn't necessarily mean more hours behind the desk. To reach our peak, we need to address our whole being, our wellbeing. That means taking care of our emotional, mental, physical, professional and social selves.
Are you ready to perform at your peak? Watch the complete presentation here.
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