If you think you might be overreactive to stress-related events, strengthening your own brain can help you recover better functioning. See a previous post on this topic here. Additional benefits gained from strengthening one’s brain include: Strengthens the blood-brain barrier, which keeps harmful substances (such as inflammatory agents and toxins) from reaching the brain Influences … Continue reading Resilience: Protecting That Brain!
Tools
Self-compassion is Critical
We are in a run of tough years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. It looks like things are not improving even as the pandemic impacts subside. The world is, as Randy Stonehill stated it, "turning sour." Many people are suffering, including those who do not yet realize how much they are suffering. For … Continue reading Self-compassion is Critical
Leadership: Empathy from Starbucks
Who would have thought one could look to Starbucks for a power tool to improve leadership? Yet it was Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, who summed up the importance of empathy in the workplace in his book, “Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul”: “Don’t embrace the status quo. Find new … Continue reading Leadership: Empathy from Starbucks
Strengthen the Brain
When a person has experienced traumatic stress in childhood or as an adult it can change the architecture of the brain in unhelpful ways. This is because traumatic stress changes neural pathways in the brain, making it easier for the brain to interpret normal stimuli in abnormal ways. This rewiring can make the brain respond … Continue reading Strengthen the Brain
Take Your Meds Outside!
Tools for tough times - Get outside to build your good side. Check out these super strategies for shedding stress and increasing resilience and wellbeing. Move naturally – moving naturally by walking, biking, swimming, or going for hikes can improve health markers in a person like blood pressure, heart-rate, blood chemistry, sleep, and weight Moving … Continue reading Take Your Meds Outside!
Tools for Tough Times: Mind the Gap
We are living and working in a world of uncertainties. Disruption, unending difficulties and having every hopeful question answered with a firm “no, not yet,” have been our fare for 20 months. Most of us are conditioned to react automatically to the circumstances that occasion our emotional responses. Our sense of emotional equilibrium is usually … Continue reading Tools for Tough Times: Mind the Gap
Building Wellbeing
Why invest in wellbeing when the times are so busy, even overwhelming? Wellbeing strategies can work to reduce stress and prevent burnoutWellbeing improves mood, reduces illness and fatigue, improves outlook, and strengthens all our livingWellbeing activities can be fun, can lighten our load, and brighten our moodWellbeing strategies can be fit into almost any day … Continue reading Building Wellbeing
Tools for Tough Times: Shedding Stress
Why shed stress and harmful emotions? They have a negative impact on us physically, and that impact can build up over timeUnremitting stress, anger, anxiety, or bitterness can “rewire” our brains and predispose us to reactions that we neither want nor needIf left unmanaged and unresolved, they can damage our relationships at home, work, and … Continue reading Tools for Tough Times: Shedding Stress
Tools for Tough Times: Step By Step
How can we transit the difficult times in our lives, with a greater opportunity to thrive? We do this step by step. Here are a few steps you can take now or later this week that may help you to thrive. 1. Recognize when you are experiencing loss, including ambiguous loss. For many, the pandemic … Continue reading Tools for Tough Times: Step By Step
The Pause That Refreshes
Ninety-eight years ago, Coca-Cola rolled out a slogan for advertising their product; “the pause that refreshes.” That slogan was in the Coke line-up for much of the 20th century. A few weeks ago I introduced a similar idea, the “One Minute Pause” (OMP). The OMP is taking a minute to interrupt your negative emotions or … Continue reading The Pause That Refreshes
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