De-stress for business success!
When we are running our own business we need to be ‘mind smart’, we need to use our mind as effectively and as efficiently as possible so we make choices that nurture our business.
In order to be ‘mind smart’ we are the ones who need to be in charge, not our emotions or unhelpful thought patterns that pull us back or can feed strong emotions such as fear or anger.
When we are stressed or anxious or too competitive our ‘fight of flight’ response is activated and this can lead us to faulty decision making. We either fail to take the next logical step (our fear/ flight response) or we charge full on into a venture without weighing up the pros and cons (our fight/anger response).
If we look at the mechanisms behind this we can begin to make more intelligent and creative decisions about where we are taking ourselves and our business.
When we are driven by very strong emotions our intelligence is basically shut off. Cortisol, our stress hormone literally floods our neo-cortex, which is our logical thinking brain, and shuts off all logic. We literally cannot see the wood from the trees and begin to make either/or decisions without weighting up consequence.
If you find yourself falling into this trap there are some simple yet extremely good practices you can build into your daily schedule, you will literally become more intelligent as you start to active areas of your brain associated with good decision making and creativity and calm areas associated with emotional behaviour.
Here are 5 tips to help you grow your mind;
- Focus on your breath, take a deep in breath and a very long slow out breath – this stimulates your parasympathetic nervous system which is associated with the relaxation response, this will reduce your cortisol levels so you can literally begin to ‘think straight’ again. Do this for about 5 mins or longer if you can.
- List your past success, not just in your business career but in all areas of your life, personal, academic, sporting, voluntary. No success is too small, it may range from winning a championship medal to smiling at, or helping out a neighbour. What we focus on is what we get so be very careful to nurture what you’ve done well.
- Build a vision of the future, where would you like to see yourself and your business in 5 years, step right into that vision. Notice the people around you, your team, notice how you interact with them and how you get the best out of them.
- View everything as a learning experience, when we do this we help grow our mind in two ways, we start to focus on new ways of doing things which means our imagination is engaged positively and we negate the effect of strong negative emotions that arise if we tend to view things as a disaster rather than a lesson.
- Enjoy the journey! Having your own business is a wonderful way of meeting new people, and when engage positively with others we decrease our stress hormones and release chemicals that can help nurture a long and healthy life.
Ann can be contacted at mindsmartpsychology@gmail.com or 086 0222672
