Sharp Brains: Brain Fitness and Cognitive Health News

Neuroplasticity, Brain Fitness and Cognitive Health News

Summit
Book
Market Report
Council

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.
Be Socia­ble, Share!

Face­book Responses

Print This Article Print This Article Email This Post Email This Post

Categories: Brain Teasers, Cognitive Neuroscience, Peak Performance, Professional Development, Technology

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Welcome to SharpBrains!

As seen in The New York Times, The Wall Street Jour­nal, CNN and more, Sharp­Brains is an inde­pen­dent mar­ket research and inno­va­tion think tank 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 Event

Sponsored Ad

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
Enter Your Email and Sub­scribe to our free Monthly eNewslet­ter:
Join more than 40,000 Sub­scribers and stay informed and engaged.

Monthly Blog Archives