WINTER 2 0 1 8 / 2 0 1 9
JUST AS your mind finally
exhausts its relentless efforts to
mentally prepare you for the
day ahead, you are jolted
awake by an alarm clock with a
groggy awareness: there is not
enough time in the day to get it
all done. This seemingly
simple thought shifts your
brain-body chemistry into a
state of survival, energizing
only the most critical elements
of your operating system.
Yet, when moments become
available for us to rest and
recharge, we find ourselves
restlessly stirring, reaching out
for something to “kill time”
even though we complain there
is never enough of it to begin
with. Our deep-seated longing
for information, connection,
and validation makes
technology an open source for
our drug of choice: constant
stimulation that provides a
temporary fix to override the
exhaustion we fear will take us
down for good.
“If I do stop, what if I can’t
start back up again?”
WELCOME TO THE
HUMAN ENERGY
CRISIS—THE EPIDEMIC
OF OUR TIME
We’re running on empty, and
the problem is not that we don't
know what to do. It's that we
don't have the energy to put any
of some simple practices into
place. We know we should eat
better. We know we should
move our bodies more
regularly. We know we should
get more sleep, take more
breaks, and spend more time
investing in meaningful
relationships. But what I've
learned in over a decade of
consulting with organizations
about health and performance
initiatives is that common sense
is certainly not common
practice.
The fact is there is not enough
YOUR BRAIN ON STRESS
time in the day to complete
every task that you could
possibly hope to accomplish.
There never will be. And this
perception of not having
enough—whether it be time,
money, food, energy or love—
sends a message to the brain
that there is a threat lingering
somewhere in the near future.
This immediately triggers our
innate stress response, designed
to motivate us to get more of
what we might need. If we
never sense that we have
enough, we will always be in a
state of chronic stress whether
we recognize it or not. If our
environment is intentionally
designed to trigger desires for
more in order to make us
consume as much as possible,
how will we ever break the
cycle?
THE NEW SCIENCE OF
STRESS
When it comes to human
beings, it turns out that stress is
not a noun nor a verb, but
rather a dynamic relationship
between our perceptions of
capacity versus demand. When
we have what we need to
effectively adapt, challenges
can ultimately make us
stronger. There are countless
stories and studies of people
who experience growth post
trauma rather than disorder.
When resources are
inadequate, tension or strain
results and what initially holds
us together eventually breaks
us apart.
As Robert Sapolsky describes
in his seminal book, Why
Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, most
animals experience stress when
they realize something truly
threatening is in their
environment. Because of our
advanced neurological
networks, only humans (and
perhaps a few of our closest
relatives [still to be
determined]) are able to plan or
predict that something
dangerous might occur in the
near future. In a very protective
design feature, our brains
create neural networks (or
maps) that recognize patterns
over time. They make
assumptions based on those
patterns as to what might
happen. One tricky element is
that sometimes the patterns
that we believe exist are merely
worrisome thoughts, messages
passed down over generations,
or plots picked up in movies
along the way.
This leads us to the good, the
bad, and the ugly of our
relationship with stress. The
good news is our experience is
determined by our perception
and therefore can be highly
modified by our own mind.
The bad news is that our
experience is determined by
our perception and therefore
can be highly modified by our
own mind. So depending on
our state of mind at the time,
our response can either help us
or hurt us. The ugly part of our
relationship with stress is that
sometimes, dare I say most of
the time, our minds are not our
own.
Without targeted focus on our
own internal dialogue, our
minds are easily swayed
towards the goals of others. It is
the brain’s beautiful sensitivity
that enables us to experience
empathy, compassion, and
intuition. It is also the same
sensitivity that guides us
towards creative expression and
innovation. However, if not
appropriately focused on our
13
own intentions, the noise of the
world around us quickly
hijacks our attention. The
human brain is already wired
with sensitivity towards
potential threats, causing us to
pay about 80 percent more
attention to the bad rather than
the good. We have about five
times more fear-based circuitry
in the brain than reward-based,
and fMRI (functional magnetic
resonance imaging) data
clearly shows we respond much
more quickly to danger than
delight.
BECOME A BRAIN BOSS
So how do you become the
boss of your own brain and
transform your relationship
with stress? The answer is
simple, but it’s not easy. You
put taking care of yourself and
managing your personal energy
on the very top of your to-do
list. You schedule time first
thing in the morning to place
your attention firmly on the
intentions you have for the day
ahead. Before you think about
what you need to do, you
consider who you want to be.
Ground yourself in the energy
quality required to make the
day as impactful as possible.
You already know how to do
that. Now you just need to
retrain your brain to follow
your heart, instead of the other
way around.
To learn more about building
resilience, check out my
eight-week Stress Mastery
Course or my 21-day Stress
Smart Jumpstart course.
Dr. Heidi Hanna is a New York Times
best-selling author; CEO and founder
of Synergy, a consulting company
providing brain-based health and
performance programs to organizations;
and the executive director for the
American Institute of Stress. She also
created the Beyond Funny project,
which provides educational resources
related to humor and mental health.
heidihanna.com