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Mar 8, 2007

Stress Management Workshop for International Women’s Day

By:

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 Teasers, Cognitive Neuroscience, Peak Performance, Professional Development, Technology

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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, Sharp­Brains is an inde­pen­dent mar­ket research and pub­lish­ing firm track­ing brain fit­ness and applied neu­ro­plas­tic­ity research and mar­ket­place. AARP recently named The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness a Best Book on the subject.

UPCOMING ONLINE COURSE: How to Be Your Own Brain Fit­ness Coach in 2012 (March 2012).

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