Crossrail SLT - First release
Following the recent SLT session on resilience there will be a regular release of short advisory material. This is designed to minimise the time you wish to spend on understanding how to:
build your resilience,
improve wellbeing
support your teams
It is important to reflect on how you may wish to model the mindset, attitude and behaviours to help the performance of your teams without unnecessarily compromising their wellbeing. Each release will build upon the previous release. If anyone wishes to ask for additional explanation or other material please email mark@7futures.com
There are two links in this release:
a short 3 minute You Tube clip of Stanford University Professor Robert Sapolsky speaking on the psychology of stress. He is an amusing genius in this field and well worth listening to. We will see more of him in the future. For now there are two or three simple messages to not lose sight of...take a look and see what they are. Please do not underestimate the simplicity of the messages and pause to wonder how much unnecessary 'wear and tear' you may be creating for yourself. Click here to view.
a download (see below) for an entry level breathing and mindfulness technique to help:
- stop the stress response
- trigger the relaxation response; and
- improve your attentional control
Attentional control is an invaluable foundational cognitive quality upon which we can build other beneficial techniques to help your resilience and wellbeing.
Please try to practice as often as you can: when sitting at the desk, in the car, on the train, before a difficult meeting, after a difficult meeting etc. This way it will become more natural for you to breath this way.
What are the benefits of this incredibly simple technique:
less unnecessary wear and tear created by the stress response
stronger immune system
more energy
better decision-making
slowing down the ageing process
improvement in the body language signals you give out to others
improved sleep
It is very easy and safe to share with others.
Crossrail SLT - Second release
During the SLT day we explored the importance of this simple equation:
stress + recovery = resilience
to enable the autonomic nervous system (ANS) to build a greater tolerance for stress and therefore for performance. Sleep is critical to the health of the ANS and to avoid the serious consequences this global expert is referring to:
A “catastrophic sleep-loss epidemic” is causing a host of potentially fatal diseases, Professor Matthew Walker, director of the Centre for Human Sleep Science at the University of California. He warns that sleep deprivation is not being taken seriously enough by employers and everyday people alike — according to his research, there is a “powerful” link between a lack of sleep and cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and other conditions. "No aspect of our biology is left unscathed by sleep deprivation,” he says. “It sinks down into every possible nook and cranny.
The Lying body scan (audio download below) technique I have found to be very successful in helping people get off to sleep or return to sleep upon awakening in the night. You may need to use the download for a number of times before you can manage the technique without any guidance. You could use it to enjoy a power nap over the weekend as a way of familiarising yourself with the method.
What is the correct amount of sleep?
Probably in excess of 5 hours of good quality sleep and probably less than 8 hours if your sleep is regularly refreshing. If you are waking refreshed and feeling resourceful for the majority of the week then you are probably doing fine. If you are having to use caffeine or other stimulants to keep you going then it may be worth reviewing your evening and sleep routine.
Some alarming facts to help motivate your efforts to improve your sleep;
< 5 hours - 3 x risk of developing Type 2 diabetes + 3.5 x risk of high blood pressure
< 4 hours - 2.5. x risk of dying from heart disease (women)
insomnia- 4 x risk of developing depression + 36 studies linking obesity to poor sleep
- teenagers: sleep problems preceded 69% of depression + 27% of anxiety
Please do not hesitate to contact me should you require any further help and support on sleep.
best wishes
Mark
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