Sharp Brains: Brain Fitness and Cognitive Health News

Mar 8, 2007

Stress Management Workshop for International Women’s Day

By: Alvaro Fernandez

Today is Inter­na­tional Women’s Day 2007.

Global con­sult­ing com­pany Accen­ture orga­nized a series of events, and I was for­tu­nate to lead a fun work­shop on The Neu­ro­science of Stress and Stress Man­age­ment in their San Fran­cisco office, help­ing over 125 accom­plished women (and a few men) learn what stress is, its impli­ca­tions for our brain func­tion­ing, per­for­mance and health, and of course some tips and tech­niques to develop our “stress man­age­ment” mus­cles. It was an honor to be able to wrap up a great event that included Dis­trict Attor­ney Kamala D. Har­ris, two of the co-authors of This is Not the Life I Ordered, a video by Sen­a­tor Dianne Fein­stein, and some great Accen­ture women.

We dis­cussed how stress is the emo­tional and phys­i­o­log­i­cal reac­tion to a threat, whether real or imag­ined, that results in a series of adap­ta­tions by our bod­ies. And how stress man­age­ment can bring a vari­ety of ben­e­fits: sus­tained peak per­for­mance, cog­ni­tive flex­i­bil­ity, mem­ory, deci­sion mak­ing, and even longevity.
You can see a very inter­est­ing exam­ple of the rela­tion­ship between atten­tion, mem­ory and stress with this exper­i­ment: Atten­tion and work­ing memory

Let me share some key take-aways from the work­shop, together with some exer­cises we used to illus­trate key points:

1) Stress can be a major road­block for peak per­for­mance and health
2) Some tips and tech­niques to bet­ter man­age stress:
a) Pick your battles
b) Keep an open mind-avoid escalations
What do you see?
c) Pro­gres­sive Mus­cle Relax­ation Technique

- Tighten all the mus­cles you can find: legs, arms, back, face
– Hold for 10 sec­onds
– Then, release
- Repeat a few times

d) Breath­ing and Visualization

–First, travel back, in your mind’s eye, to a time when you felt a healthy exhaus­tion, and let you relive that moment as vividly as you can.

–Then, remem­ber, re-experience, a lov­ing exchange that really touched you. Pause. See the moment. Smell it. Hear what hap­pened around you.

–Next, visu­al­ize the most car­ing ges­ture you have ever received, as full of details as pos­si­ble. Who gave you that gift of car­ing. How you felt.

–Now, travel to the most mag­nif­i­cent place you have seen. Enjoy the views. Pause. Lis­ten. Smile. Appreciate.

e) A high-tech option: biofeedback
f) New habits and abil­i­ties require practice
Count the Fs (check the video in the bot­tom half of the page that will open)
If you want more infor­ma­tion, you can check our Exer­cise Your Brain DVD, and our Stress Man­age­ment section.
Finally, 2 books we men­tioned dur­ing the workshop:
- Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain — by Wall Street Jour­nal Sharon Begley
This was also a great open­ing for our activ­i­ties dur­ing Brain Aware­ness Week.
A few months back we had a sim­i­lar event at Cisco Sys­tems, titled Exer­cis­ing Men­tal Mus­cles for Cor­po­rate Suc­cess. If you are inter­ested in orga­niz­ing events like this in your com­pany or orga­ni­za­tion, please Con­tact Us.
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Categories: Brain Fitness Industry, Brain Teasers, Cognitive Neuroscience, Peak Performance, Professional Development

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28 Responses

  1. Widows Quest » Positive Thinking for the Week Ahead says:
    March 12, 2007 at 12:20

    […] Alvaro Fer­nan­dez presents Stress Man­age­ment Work­shop for Inter­na­tional Women’s Day posted at Sharp­Brains: Your Win­dow into the Brain Fit­ness Rev­o­lu­tion, say­ing, “Here you have some exer­cises and tips to bet­ter man­age stress and anxiety.” […]

  2. » March Madness in Brain Fitness: March Newsletter   « Brain Fitness Revolution at SharpBrains      says:
    March 14, 2007 at 10:48

    […] March 8, Alvaro led the Stress Man­age­ment work­shop at Accen­ture dur­ing the Annual Inter­na­tional Women’s Day. He pre­sented the lat­est neu­ro­science find­ings about the impact of stress on per­for­mance and intro­duced a vari­ety of tech­niques to help man­age stress. […]

  3. Personal Development - The teachings of the Urban Monk » Blog Archive » Blog Carnival Ed.1 says:
    March 14, 2007 at 5:16

    […] Alvaro Fer­nan­dez presents Stress Man­age­ment Work­shop for Inter­na­tional Women’s Day posted at Sharp­Brains: Your Win­dow into the Brain Fit­ness Revolution. […]

  4. » happiness carnival - March 11, 2007Think Happy Thoughts Happiness Blog says:
    March 14, 2007 at 9:11

    […] Alvaro Fer­nan­dez presents Stress Man­age­ment Work­shop for Inter­na­tional Women’s Day posted at Sharp­Brains: Your Win­dow into the Brain Fit­ness Rev­o­lu­tion, say­ing, “Exer­cises and tips to bet­ter man­age stress…and allow our­selves to taste hap­pi­ness more often” […]

  5. Brain Blogging, Fifth Edition | GNIF Brain Blogger says:
    March 15, 2007 at 3:43

    […] Alvaro Fer­nan­dez presents Stress Man­age­ment Work­shop for Inter­na­tional Women’s Day posted at Sharp­Brains: Your Win­dow into the Brain Fit­ness Rev­o­lu­tion, say­ing, “Exer­cises and tips for bet­ter stress man­age­ment based on a recent work­shop.” Share This | Leave A Com­ment (0) | Com­ments RSS | […]

  6. Emmanuel Oluwatosin: Inspiring Excellence, Realising Ambitions » Blog Archive » 1st edition of Carnival of Personal And Company Effectiveness says:
    March 16, 2007 at 6:48

    […] Alvaro Fer­nan­dez presents Stress Man­age­ment Work­shop for Inter­na­tional Women’s Day say­ing, “Man­ag­ing stress is crit­i­cal both for per­sonal and com­pany effec­tive­ness. He shared some exer­cises and tips based on a recent lead­er­ship train­ing work­shop he gave.” […]

  7. Verve Coaching:: Life, Growth and Leadership, Boston MA » Archives » Carnival of Powerful Living - March 17th, 2007 says:
    March 17, 2007 at 1:35

    […] Alvaro Fer­nan­dez presents Stress Man­age­ment Work­shop for Inter­na­tional Women’s Day posted at Sharp­Brains: Your Win­dow into the Brain Fit­ness Rev­o­lu­tion, say­ing, “Here we share some exer­cises and tips for bet­ter stress man­age­ment, based on a recent lead­er­ship train­ing work­shop we gave.” […]

  8. » The Sales Motivation Blog Carnival #003 · Sales Motivation · Sales Blog · Sales Success · SalesMotivation.net · Sales Consultant · Sales Training · . says:
    March 18, 2007 at 4:24

    […] Alvaro Fer­nan­dez presents Stress Man­age­ment Work­shop for Inter­na­tional Women’s Day posted at Sharp­Brains: Your Win­dow into the Brain Fit­ness Rev­o­lu­tion, say­ing, “We all know how soli­tary and stress­ful some oppor­tu­ni­ties can be. Here we explore ways to man­age stress to per­form at top level-and close that sale.” […]

  9. Bryan C. Fleming » 33rd Edition - Personal Growth Carnival says:
    March 20, 2007 at 6:21

    […] Alvaro Fer­nan­dez presents Stress Man­age­ment Work­shop for Inter­na­tional Women’s Day Matthew Paul­son presents How to Get a Decent Job After Col­lege Zechary presents Think It Over; ZecHaryW.com Ted Reimers presents How to get into an Ivy League school Debra Moor­head presents Great Expec­ta­tions? Alexan­dra Levit presents The Grass Is Always Greener? John Wes­ley presents You Aren’t Get­ting Any­where Because You Don’t Know What You Want Christo­pher J. Brun­ner presents The Adverse Effects of Poor Communication […]

  10. Dave Prouhet says:
    March 22, 2007 at 7:01

    Alvaro,

    Enjoyed this post. Found it on Emmanuel’s Carnival.

    Though I’m a guy quite a few of these links were cer­tainly eye opening.

    Dave

  11. Alvaro says:
    March 22, 2007 at 10:03

    Dave: I am a guy too and cer­tainly love learn­ing, and shar­ing, about this topic. Glad you enjoyed it too.

  12. Uncommon Knowledge » Business, Technology and Knowledge 0.7. says:
    March 27, 2007 at 9:18

    […] Alvaro Fer­nan­dez presents Stress Man­age­ment Work­shop for Inter­na­tional Women’s Day posted at Sharp­Brains: Your Win­dow into the Brain Fit­ness Rev­o­lu­tion, say­ing, “Infor­ma­tion and exer­cises on why and how to man­age stress…something we usu­ally know in the­ory but neglect in practice” […]

  13. great resource on stress management World Fitness.com - workout - exercise - fitness - forum - articles says:
    March 27, 2007 at 11:59

    […] great resource on stress man­age­ment have found a blog with great infor­ma­tion on the brain, health and stress… with great arti­cles such as this one on a stress man­age­ment tech­niques » Stress Man­age­ment Work­shop for Inter­na­tional Women’s Day   « Brain Fit­ness Rev­o­lu­tion at Sharp­Brains      and some brain teasers too too relax » Well-deserved break: Top 10 Brain Teasers   « Brain Fit­ness Rev­o­lu­tion at Sharp­Brains      fun! […]

  14. Resources & useful information-work-at-home women,work-at-home moms,home office women,work from home says:
    March 27, 2007 at 9:28

    […] Alvaro Fer­nan­dez presents Stress Man­age­ment Work­shop for Inter­na­tional Women’s Day posted at Sharp­Brains: Your Win­dow into the Brain Fit­ness Rev­o­lu­tion, say­ing, “Infor­ma­tion based on a Stress Man­age­ment Work­shop deliv­ered in honor of Inter­na­tional Women’s Day” […]

  15. » I am busy executive with a challenging job. How is brain fitness relevant to me?   « Brain Fitness Revolution at SharpBrains      says:
    March 29, 2007 at 11:42

    […] Stress Man­age­ment Work­shop for Inter­na­tional Women’s Day Tags: Brain Fit­ness, Brain Fit­ness 101, burnout, con­cen­tra­tion, Elkhonon Gold­berg, Emo­tions, exec­u­tive, GAS, Gen­eral Adap­ta­tion Syn­drome, robert Sapol­sky, Sharon Beg­ley, Stress […]

  16. » Customer Satisfaction Survey/ Tech Museum Awards    « Brain Fitness Revolution at SharpBrains      says:
    April 9, 2007 at 8:29

    […] II. Feed­back about our Stress Man­age­ment for Peak Per­for­mance work­shop (here) […]

  17. Transcending Gender » Welcome to the Tenth Edition of International Carnival of Pozitivities! says:
    April 9, 2007 at 9:01

    […] This post pro­vided a list of resources for stress management. […]

  18. » emWave in Golf Digest   « Brain Fitness Revolution at SharpBrains      says:
    April 12, 2007 at 10:46

    […] — More infor­ma­tion on stress and stress man­age­ment: Stress Man­age­ment Work­shop for Inter­na­tional Women’s Day Tags: de stress myself, emWave PC, emWave PC Stress Relief Sys­tem, emWave Per­sonal Stress Reliever, Golf Digest, golfers, hand held emWave device, Laird Small­man­age anx­i­ety, man­age emo­tions, Peb­ble Beach Golf Acad­emy, pub­lic speak­ing, stress man­age­ment device, stress man­age­ment tech­niques, stress man­age­ment work­shop, trader performance […]

  19. » Yoga and stress management   « Brain Fitness Revolution at SharpBrains      says:
    May 25, 2007 at 12:43

    […] Stress Man­age­ment Work­shop for Inter­na­tional Women’s Day […]

  20. » Brain Health and Fitness Workshops   « Brain Fitness Revolution at SharpBrains      says:
    July 13, 2007 at 8:09

    […] 1. Man­ag­ing Stress for Peak Per­for­mance (we men­tioned some notes here) New and chal­leng­ing sit­u­a­tions – such as tak­ing on new respon­si­bil­i­ties– can trig­ger reac­tions in our brain and body that limit or even block our decision-making abil­i­ties. These reac­tions may also harm our long-term brain power and health. Although we can­not avoid change and stress­ful sit­u­a­tions, we can learn how to man­age our stress lev­els to ensure peak performance-even in tough moments. The lat­est neu­ro­science research proves that stress man­age­ment is a train­able “men­tal mus­cle.” This is true for any high pres­sure pro­fes­sion, be it trad­ing, sports, or sim­ply mod­ern life. […]

  21. » Stress Management for Lawyers   « Brain Fitness Revolution at SharpBrains      says:
    July 22, 2007 at 10:57

    […] And the notes from a Stress Man­age­ment Workshop we run at Accen­ture recently. […]

  22. » Top Ten Tips for Women Who Lead Men   « Brain Fitness Revolution at SharpBrains      says:
    August 2, 2007 at 11:18

    […] We men know we are hard to lead, and that can be stress­ful for you and for us. You should know that stress affects short term mem­ory, so it is impor­tant to be able to man­age stress well, with meditation or other methods. Check here your level of stress to see how much this point applies to you. Please remember, laughing is good for your brain.   […]

  23. The Ten Habits of Highly Effective Brains | Dave Tropeano says:
    August 23, 2007 at 6:30

    […] Now, remem­ber that what counts is not read­ing this article-or any other-, but prac­tic­ing a bit every day until small steps snow­ball into unstop­pable, inter­nal­ized habits…so, pick your next bat­tle and try to start improv­ing at least one of these 10 habits today! Alvaro Fer­nan­dez is the CEO and Co-Founder of Sharp­Brains, which pro­vides Stress man­age­ment Work­shops and the lat­est science-based infor­ma­tion for Brain Fit­ness. Sharp­Brains has been fea­tured by Sci­en­tific Amer­i­can Mind, Mar­ket­Watch, CBS, Forbes, and more. Alvaro holds MA in Edu­ca­tion and MBA from Stan­ford Uni­ver­sity, and teaches The Sci­ence of Brain Health at UC-Berkeley Life­long Learn­ing Insti­tute. Learn more at http://www.sharpbrains.com/ […]

  24. » Brain Teasers and Games for adults: our Top 50    « Brain Fitness Revolution at SharpBrains      says:
    October 16, 2007 at 10:35

    […] 38. Col­lec­tion of Stress Man­age­ment exercises. […]

  25. tjay says:
    October 17, 2007 at 12:50

    Enjoyed your post and com­ments related to “Stress can be a major road­block for peak per­for­mance and health”. How does
    stress affect health? Unless we make changes today we can fall vic­tim to an avalanche of phys­i­cal and emo­tional disorders.

  26. » 10 Stress Management and Memory Improvement Tips izitall.com: Be the Miracle! says:
    November 4, 2007 at 7:53

    […] Alvaro Fer­nan­dez is the Co-Founder of Sharp­Brains, which pro­vides the lat­est science-based infor­ma­tion for Stress Man­age­ment and Mem­ory Improve­ment, and has been rec­og­nized by Sci­en­tific Amer­i­can Mind, CBS, Forbes, and more. Alvaro holds MA in Edu­ca­tion and MBA from Stan­ford Uni­ver­sity, and teaches The Sci­ence of Brain Health at UC-Berkeley Life­long Learn­ing Institute. […]

  27. root123 says:
    November 7, 2007 at 5:02

    Thanks for writ­ing on stress man­age­ment. Its aware­ness in todays 24X7 work envi­ron­ments is very important.

  28. Alvaro says:
    November 7, 2007 at 4:04

    You are wel­come. I agree.

Welcome to SharpBrains!

As seen in The New York Times, The Wall Street Jour­nal, CNN and more, we are a mar­ket research & pub­lish­ing firm track­ing the research and mar­ket­place for brain fit­ness and cog­ni­tive health. Our blog was recently ranked # 3 Ana­lyst Blog.
News: Win­ners of the 2010 Brain Fit­ness Inno­va­tion Awards were announced on May 24th, 2010. Learn more Here.

Top 30 Articles

  1. Top 50 Brain Teasers, by Sharp­Brains Team
  2. The Ten Habits of Highly Effec­tive Brains, by Alvaro Fernandez
  3. Why do You Turn Down the Radio When You’re Lost?, by Car­o­line Latham
  4. Brain Plas­tic­ity: How learn­ing changes your brain, by Pas­cale Michelon
  5. Top 10 Brain Fit­ness Future Trends, by Alvaro Fernandez
  6. 7 FAQs on Men­tal Exer­cise, by Alvaro Fernandez
  7. It is Not Only Cars That Deserve Good Main­te­nance: Brain Care 101, by Alvaro Fernandez
  8. Eval­u­a­tion Check­list for Brain Fit­ness prod­ucts and games, by Alvaro Fernandez
  9. MIT Event on Brain Games: Con­text, Trends, Ques­tions, by Alvaro Fernandez
  10. Stress Man­age­ment Work­shop for Inter­na­tional Women’s Day, by Alvaro Fernandez
  11. Mind­ful­ness and Med­i­ta­tion in Schools for Stress Man­age­ment, by Jill Sutie
  12. Stress and Neural Wreck­age: Part of the Brain Plas­tic­ity Puz­zle, by Gre­gory Kellet
  13. How can I improve my short term mem­ory?, by Car­o­line Latham
  14. Cog­ni­tive and Emo­tional Devel­op­ment Through Play, by David Elkind
  15. Judith Beck: Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Per­son, by Alvaro Fernandez
  16. Easy Steps to Improve Brain Health, by Car­o­line Latham
  17. Info­graphic: State of the Mar­ket 2009, by Paul Van Slembrouck
  18. Improve Mem­ory with Sleep, Prac­tice, and Test­ing, by Bill Klemm
  19. 10 Brain Tips To Teach and Learn, by Lau­rie Bartels
  20. Dr. Elkhonon Gold­berg on Cog­ni­tive Train­ing and Brain Fit­ness, by Alvaro Fernandez
  21. Max­i­mize the Cog­ni­tive Value of Your Men­tal Work­out, by Schlomo Breznitz
  22. Brain Fit­ness Pro­gram and Neu­ro­plas­tic­ity @ PBS, by Alvaro Fernandez
  23. Mind­ful­ness Med­i­ta­tion for Adults & Teens with ADHD, by David Rabiner
  24. Can Intel­li­gence Be Trained? Mar­tin Buschkuehl shows how, by Alvaro Fernandez
  25. How Strong is the Research Sup­port for Neu­ro­feed­back in Atten­tion Deficits?, by David Rabiner
  26. Exer­cis­ing the body is exer­cis­ing the mind, by Adrian Preda
  27. Brain Evo­lu­tion and Why it is Mean­ing­ful Today to Improve Our Brain Health, by Larry McCleary
  28. Phys­i­cal Exer­cise and Brain Health, by Pas­cale Michelon
  29. Posit Sci­ence, Nin­tendo Brain Age, and Brain Train­ing Top­ics, by Alvaro Fernandez
  30. Sleep, Tetris, Mem­ory and the Brain, by Shan­non Moffet
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