Becoming Neuro Ninjas with Action Your Potential
By Holly Ward, Head of Sales and Marketing
At Carnegie Group, our people are our superpower; we have a team that all support each other and work to each other’s strengths. It’s why we have thrived. As part of our people first ethos, we regularly have workshops for our newcomers with the brilliant Andrew Wright at Action Your Potential, who helps us understand what’s going on in our brains, because they are very good at sabotaging us on a daily basis!
Here are 4 key take outs from the session*.
1.The value of checking in with yourself every day.
By simply grading yourself against 3 measures you can really start to gain perspective.
Mental Health – how you feel in yourself, happy/sad/middling/could be better?
Physical Health – how you feel in your body, tired/energised/achy.
Social Health – how are you feeling about others and your relationship with them. Your kids, spouse, work colleagues, friends.
By doing this you will effectively take yourself out of your own head and gain some perspective.
2.The worry system works off our prediction modelling.
Throughout our lives we form memories of our experiences, and we use those as a lens with which to respond to events that happen now. This is where the ‘what if..’worries come from, the ‘I know it’ll turn out badly for me’ thought patterns that are so exhausting for us and those who are closest to us. In reality we don’t know how events will turn out, we can make an educated guess based on previous experience but it’s not a prediction, it’s a guess.
3.An unmanaged worry system is a loaded gun
When our worry systems are left unchecked, meaning that we don’t deal with what’s worrying us by talking it through with someone we trust, we become what we might call ‘energy vampires’. Everything is going wrong, everyone we meet is an idiot, we’re grumpy and negative and, frankly, a massive drain on the people around us. We may feel anxious and have physiological symptoms such as increased heart rate.
This is a massive signal that we need to deal with what’s worrying us. If we leave it, it won’t go away, it can start to affect our lives.
4.Use GLADEN
At the end of each day make a journal entry using GLADEN as a mnemonic to help organise your thoughts.
Checking off your day against these prompts makes journaling a useful, practical process. It also helps you to gain perspective on your day and your life. Try it – it works!
These things only really work through repetition. Building new pathways in our brains is a powerful tool we have within us and if we are mindful of these 4 things we will start to become more resilient at work and at home. We will always come up against problems, that’s just life, but understanding how we react to those problems is our key to unlock a happier and, hopefully, a more peaceful life.
*With apologies to Andrew Wright for my rather simplistic interpretations of his work*