Food for Your Brain

Each week my yoga instructor starts the class by warning the new students that they may feel awkward and that they will be getting the most benefit from attending class, more so than the experienced members.

He explains that muscles need to be challenged with new and different movements all the time. If they get used to specific movements, growth diminishes. You need to constantly be changing your routine to reap the best benefits. Feeling awkward is a good sign that growth will follow.

Isn’t this a great metaphor for life? We need new challenges to grow, and we need to learn how to delight in our awkwardness, whether it involves intimate conversations or learning how to dance.

FACT: We have to train our brains the same way as the muscles in our legs, arms or back. The brain needs new challenges on a regular basis to increase mental capacity. It also needs to be taken care of just as we care for our body to ensure peak performance.

Here are a few tips on how to build a strong and healthy brain.

Avoid chronic stress. Although stressing a muscle will help it to grow, muscles also break down if chronically stressed. The same is true for the brain. Chronic stress comes more from everyday worries than from traumatic events. Yoga and meditation may help with focus and physical performance, but the only way to reduce chronic stress is to learn how to identify the source of negative feelings, then let go of what is not in your control and act on what is. Anybody can deplete stress levels and enhance their brain functions by better managing their worries. An experienced coach educated in emotional intelligence can help you become aware of your emotional states and how to shift them at will.

Balance your work-rest ratio. Body builders don’t work their muscles every day. Muscles need time to heal if they are to grow stronger. The same is true for the brain. If it is constantly working, the result will be frustration, anxiety and loss of concentration. What’s worse, when we feel a little tired, we usually fuel our bodies with coffee? Running on adrenalin only decreases mental capacity. Instead, you should take regular mental breaks. Walk the halls, go outside for a breath of fresh air, or call a friend or loved one. Many studies show that people that take frequent breaks can work fewer hours and get more done. A renewed and fresh brain works more efficiently. Besides, when you are doing something “mindless,” the brain has a chance to activate more pathways. That is why your best ideas come while taking a shower. And while you are on your break, please eat more protein and drink some water instead of sugar and caffeine.

Choose fun activities.The best activities to keep the brain at its peak involve other people. Social activities reduce the body’s level of stress hormones and mastering new skills boosts brainpower. Taking salsa dancing lessons or martial arts classes add more brain cell connections than doing crossword puzzles. Keeping track of more than one bingo card with a group of friends is better than reading alone. The best activities combine mental, social and physical elements.

Change emotional channels. A trainer once instructed me to switch to gratitude every time I was tempted to give into the pain of an exercise. If I was grateful for my legs working and my heart pumping, I could accomplish more than focusing on what hurt. The same is true in life. When we get frustrated, angry or disappointed, if we shift our emotions to gratitude, laughing at ourselves, or creating a challenge to master, the task is easier and solutions are more apparent. Even if you have to fake the emotion at first, your brain will benefit. Acting can produce the same physical effects as real emotions do for a while. Before you face a challenging situation, try to visualize how you want to feel and behave. Then breathe and make the vision real. In other words, if you want to increase your productivity and creativity go out and have more fun. Learn to do the things you avoided because you thought you would look silly. You will be smarter in many ways.

“A mind that is stretched to a new idea never returns to its original dimension.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes

An Empowered Workforce

If you love your job and workplace you don’t have to read this. If you aren’t happy, or you are a manager with troubled employees, please read this and pass it on to every other manager or leader you know.

This is not a brain tip. It is a rant. I simply cannot keep quiet any longer.
I have a confession to make. I have been training people in companies around the world for over 27 years now. I describe what I teach as sessions in leadership, communications and personal effectiveness. In truth, I mostly teach people how to cope. In other words my coaching and speaking is focused more on strategizing how to survive than on how to achieve.

During this economic downturn and times of chaotic change, this is only getting worse. I see managers using this excuse to continue to micromanaging, blaming and putting a lid on creative efforts. Isn’t it obvious that now is the time for creativity and revamping the old hierarchical cultures to make them smarter, faster, and stronger through open communications and participation?

Mostly what I teach is how to really see the people we work with…to hear them, understand them, acknowledge them and see their highest potential. From there, team building, leading, and collaborating are easier skills to implement.
Why do leaders who have read all the books, heard all the gurus speak, and attended all the seminars still manage by fear? They don’t include their employees in decision making, they don’t share information (good or bad) about the future, and they don’t trust people to learn from their mistakes and grow. Can we ever change this habitual behavior?

People don’t work well when their managers don’t trust and believe in them. When you take away their feeling of control over their lives and predictability about their future, they lose hope. Without hope, you will never get their best, creative effort. They will cope, survive, and try not to dwell in their fear.

Worst of all, most managers don’t work to develop their employees to be strong and autonomous. Rarely does a company pay money to develop their high achievers (I am thankfully working with a few who do). Most training for managers focuses on what to do with poor to average performers. What about developing the high-potentials? Shouldn’t a company focus their resources on their strengths?

It’s not all bad though…I do work with a few evolved progressive companies that recognize the world has become more networked, collaborative and accessible. They are easing their hierarchies, opening communication and engaging everyone to co-create. They teach their managers coaching as a leadership style. They engage their employees by caring, not by fear.

“If you wish others to believe in you, you must first convince them that you believe in them.”

Harvey Mackey

“A great leader’s courage to fulfill his/her vision comes from passion, not position.”

John Maxwell

We must never lose faith in what we do especially if the intentions are good. I still have hope that collectively we can change our lives and our world to the better, if only we took a genuine interest in it.

Do drop me a note on info@inspireyourmind.com if you still have hope, too. I would love to hear about your experiences in your personal lives or your workplace. Better still pass this newsletter on. I would love to further the conversation, not about what needs to happen, but how we’re going to make it happen.