The Internal Training Edge

Rewire your nervous system to transform how you respond to stress

The pandemic has negatively affected the mental health of 78% of the global workforce, according to a new global survey of more than 12,000 employees, managers, HR leaders, and C-level executives across 11 countries.

More than two-thirds of respondents said they were more stressed at work than ever before during the coronavirus crisis, according to the survey by US tech giant Oracle and HR firm Workplace Intelligence. More than 4 in 5 respondents said stress at work was affecting their home life, with 40% reporting sleep deprivation as a result of pandemic-related anxiety.

Add in related worries over health, money, and political and racial turmoil, and it’s no wonder so many people are reporting record levels of stress, anxiety, and burnout, both inside and outside the workplace.

The health consequences of all this stress are well documented, including increased levels of depression, anxiety, high blood pressure, heart attacks, and stroke. Our brain, nervous system, and physiology are simply not designed to operate in a state of chronic stress.

Another consequence: chronic stress can harm our performance, relationships, and sense of well-being. Chronic stress literally makes us stupid, robbing us of our ability to think clearly, creatively, and strategically, and causing us to react in ways that are counterproductive to the vision we hold for ourselves and our work.

Chronic stress can be described as a state of continual low-level fear triggered by a sense of unease or foreboding. When we feel threatened, our sympathetic nervous system activates the fight-or-flight response, including short rapid breathing, elevated heart rate, and muscle tension. This was helpful for our evolutionary ancestors fleeing predators, but is the opposite of what we need to deal with the modern challenges we face in and out of the workplace. 

Internal training — including meditation, deep-breathing, and refocusing — can help us break out of a state of stress and regain access to higher thinking directed by the prefrontal cortex. This is the brain region responsible for executive functions such as processing information, focusing attention, anticipating events and consequences, managing emotions, and adapting to change. 

We need all of these capabilities to navigate the challenges we face. The power of internal training and focus can help us shift out of fear, anger, and other negative emotions, and into love-based states that support our health, well-being, relationships, and success.

Many of us take time to exercise our physical bodies because we know it is good for our health, relieves stress, and feels good. Internal training is just as important as proper movement, adequate rest, and good nutrition when it comes to managing our emotional and mental state. 

When you practice deep breathing and focus on relaxing your body, you're doing the opposite of what your physiology does when you're in a fight-or-flight state. This calms your nervous system and helps reactivate the prefrontal cortex and the higher levels of thinking and being it controls. Here’s how it works:

Begin by sitting up straight with the center of your head over the center of your pelvis. Sit comfortably either on the floor or in a chair. Close your eyes and place your tongue behind your front teeth, allowing it to rest against the roof of the mouth. Four-sided breathing consists of four steps:
 

Repeat this technique for 20 minutes, keeping your focus on your breathing. If your mind drifts to other thoughts, gently acknowledge whatever thought is occurring and redirect your focus back to your breath. Try not to judge your level of focus, as this disrupts your concentration on your breath. 

Deep breathing and meditation exercises are very helpful for getting out of the fight-or-flight state. However, cultivating calm and training your neurology to stay in a calm, love-based state requires an additional step: Refocusing on the outcome you want to achieve in whatever situation you face.

Whatever we focus on, the mind will answer to that focus. When something happens and we focus on what went wrong, we will answer that by feeling anxious, sad, or worried. If I take action from that state, it may elicit a negative reaction from others and lead me to an undesirable result.

We can disrupt this cycle by consciously re-focusing our thoughts on what we want to achieve. Once you feel calm and centered, think about the outcome you want to create in the situation you face. This will generate a different interior experience — one of hope, optimism, and inspiration — that will allow you to execute at a much higher level.

Repeating these practices regularly, along with other internal training exercises, can help you to become more resilient in the face of stress, and achieve the results you want in your work, relationships and life.