Sharp Brains: Brain Fitness and Cognitive Health News

Mar 29, 2007

I am busy executive with a challenging job. How is brain fitness relevant to me?

By: Caroline Latham

Here is ques­tion 21 from Brain Fit­ness 101: Answers to Your Top 25 Ques­tions.

Ques­tion:

I am busy exec­u­tive with a chal­leng­ing job. How is brain fit­ness rel­e­vant to me?

Key Points:
  • Reduce your stress to improve con­cen­tra­tion and learn­ing readi­ness and reduce distractions.
  • Increase your men­tal stim­u­la­tion to help main­tain a healthy, flex­i­ble brain.
Answer:

Exec­u­tives, or any­one involved in com­plex and rapidly evolv­ing envi­ron­ments, need to make pres­sured deci­sions based on sound logic, instead of emo­tional impulses. It is not easy to deal with the frus­tra­tion, for exam­ple, when the mar­ket doesn’t go the way we antic­i­pate. Stress can also limit our men­tal flex­i­bil­ity and abil­ity to see alter­na­tive solu­tions, thereby pre­vent­ing us from adapt­ing to, and suc­ceed­ing in, new circumstances.

Stress is an unavoid­able con­se­quence of life. But when work stress becomes too much, it can lead to burnout, a com­bi­na­tion of:

  • Emo­tional exhaustion,
  • Phys­i­cal exhaus­tion, and
  • Cog­ni­tive weari­ness (slow thinking).

Exces­sive stress also leads to var­i­ous car­diac, immune, and other health prob­lems as well.

There is such thing as the “pos­i­tive”  stress you feel pre-game or pre-performance that helps you deliver the per­for­mance of your life. You may feel that same good stress at work if you are primed for an activ­ity that you can accom­plish right then and there. Short term, acute stress, known as the fight-or-flight response, can help you focus and per­form, if it is in the right amount. This kind of stress is short lived. You feel the jit­ters or adren­a­line for a period of time, then you use it up accom­plish­ing your goal, and then you get to rest and recover while bask­ing in the glow of your accomplishment.

There are tools we can use to bet­ter man­age stress, such as the ones described in Best prac­tice for top trad­ing per­for­mance: biofeed­back (Freeze-Framer).

The Gen­eral Adap­ta­tion Syn­drome (GAS) describes the long-term, nasty kind of stress that just doesnt go away. The kind of stress that par­a­lyzes you into inac­tion — where you just stare at the prob­lem and worry about it with­out being able to do any­thing about it. This is the kind of stress that kills your neu­rons, destroys your immune and car­dio­vas­cu­lar sys­tems, and makes you anx­ious, irri­ta­ble, and unable to sleep. This is the kind that can be helped through a biofeedback-based Peak Performance/Stress Man­age­ment pro­gram which pro­vides real-time visual feed­back on your “inter­nal per­for­mance” and helps you iden­tify and learn how to man­age the emo­tional arousal that can dis­rupt exec­u­tive func­tions: judg­ment, plan­ning, ana­lyz­ing, and reasoning.

As with most things, there are lev­els of stress. While an opti­mal amount can help you, too much or too lit­tle can hurt. Find ways to help con­trol and lower your long-term stress, such as biofeed­back based pro­grams (Freeze­Framer, emWave) or Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduc­tion (MBSR) ones.

Fur­ther Reading
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Categories: Health & Wellness, Peak Performance, Professional Development

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14 Responses

  1. Wanda Grindstaff says:
    March 31, 2007 at 5:39

    Thanks for post­ing this great arti­cle to “Suc­cess and Abun­dant Mind­set” Car­ni­val Car­o­line. Look for it on April 5.

  2. Personal Development - The teachings of the Urban Monk » Blog Archive » Blog Carnival Edition 4 says:
    March 31, 2007 at 7:31

    […] Car­o­line presents I am busy exec­u­tive with a chal­leng­ing job. How is brain fit­ness rel­e­vant to me? posted at Brain Fit­ness Blog. […]

  3. stress affects our brain! World Fitness.com - workout - exercise - fitness - forum - articles says:
    March 31, 2007 at 7:38

    […] stress affects our brain! found a very good arti­cle i just enjoyed with my husband-see… Stress can also limit our men­tal flex­i­bil­ity and abil­ity to see alter­na­tive solu­tions, thereby pre­vent­ing us from adapt­ing to, and suc­ceed­ing in, new cir­cum­stances. Stress is an unavoid­able con­se­quence of life. But when work stress becomes too much, it can lead to burnout, a com­bi­na­tion of: Emo­tional exhaus­tion, Phys­i­cal exhaus­tion, and Cog­ni­tive weari­ness (slow think­ing). » I am busy exec­u­tive with a chal­leng­ing job. How is brain fit­ness rel­e­vant to me?   « Brain Fit­ness Rev­o­lu­tion at SharpBrains      […]

  4. Widows Quest » Carnival of Positive Thinking says:
    April 1, 2007 at 5:09

    […] Car­o­line Latham presents I am busy exec­u­tive with a chal­leng­ing job. How is brain fit­ness rel­e­vant to me? posted at Sharp­Brains, say­ing, “How stress man­age­ment may help us improve our qual­ity of life and per­for­mance at work” […]

  5. Personal Development Carnival 4-1-07 | Alex Shalman . com says:
    April 1, 2007 at 7:05

    […] Car­o­line Latham presents I am busy exec­u­tive with a chal­leng­ing job. How is brain fit­ness rel­e­vant to me? posted at Sharp­Brains, say­ing, “How stress man­age­ment may help us improve our qual­ity of life and per­for­mance at work” […]

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    April 1, 2007 at 10:52

    […] Car­o­line presents I am busy exec­u­tive with a chal­leng­ing job. How is brain fit­ness rel­e­vant to me? posted at Brain Fit­ness Blog […]

  7. Bryan C. Fleming » Personal Growth Carnival Turns 35 says:
    April 5, 2007 at 7:33

    […] Car­o­line Latham presents I am busy exec­u­tive with a chal­leng­ing job. How is brain fit­ness rel­e­vant to me? posted at Sharp­Brains, say­ing, “How stress man­age­ment may help us improve our qual­ity of life and per­for­mance at work” […]

  8. Carnival of Powerful Living - April 5th, 2007 at Verve Coaching:: Life, Growth and Leadership, Boston MA says:
    April 5, 2007 at 1:22

    […] Car­o­line Latham presents I am busy exec­u­tive with a chal­leng­ing job. How is brain fit­ness rel­e­vant to me? posted at Sharp­Brains, say­ing, “How stress man­age­ment may help us improve our qual­ity of life and per­for­mance at work” […]

  9. Declutter It! » Organize Your Life/Carnival Edition #6 says:
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    […] Car­o­line presents I am busy exec­u­tive with a chal­leng­ing job. How is brain fit­ness rel­e­vant to me? posted at Brain Fit­ness Blog. […]

  10. Modern Sage Online: New Traditions for Living Well - **Women’s Health and Wellness Online Community** » Carnival of a Modern Sage: Third Edition says:
    April 13, 2007 at 10:28

    […] Car­o­line Latham presents I am busy exec­u­tive with a chal­leng­ing job. How is brain fit­ness rel­e­vant to me? posted at Sharp­Brains, say­ing, “How stress man­age­ment may help us improve our qual­ity of life and per­for­mance at work” […]

  11. Karen Lynch says:
    April 16, 2007 at 8:16

    Great post!
    you know stress can affect us all in a neg­a­tive way. We all need to be cog­nizant of ways to reduce our neg­a­tive stress.

  12. Caroline says:
    April 16, 2007 at 10:26

    Karen,

    I’m so glad you liked the arti­cle. While a lit­tle stress can get you going, but too much over­whelms you. Like every­thing else, the answer lies in find­ing the balance.

  13. Michael Lim says:
    January 29, 2008 at 1:05

    Prob­a­bly the first step in deal­ing with stress is to first admit that you are under stress! Alot of peo­ple deny this as as a result of some fool­ish pride and let stress takes its toll.

    Michael Lim (Singapore)

  14. Alvaro says:
    January 29, 2008 at 7:52

    Excel­lent point, Michael.

    And not just regard­ing stress. One sim­ply can­not improve on areas he/ she doesn’t acknowl­edge improve­ment is a good option!

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