Hi guys and welcome back to another episode of your Brains Coach podcast. My name is Angela Sharina, I'm your host, I'm your Brains Coach and it is my job here to share with you all the insights from my ongoing coaching experience with leaders, organizations, teams, startups and founders and just regular folks, regular quote-unquote daily superheroes who want to unlock more of their potential and do their absolute freaking best so together we could create more positive impact and amazing world around us. So it is my job here to share insights from work with daily superheroes and also all the cutting-edge, best science and practice-proven brain-body tools so you can take better control of your thoughts, of your emotions, of your energy and, most importantly, of actions and things you get to accomplish in your life and create the life experience you absolutely love living. Today, folks, we are talking about stress, fitness, stress, resilience, and these days we hear more and more about mental health and mindfulness and our need to slow down and our need to stop and our need to get better at recovery, at things like sleep and taking breaks and resting, and I'm all for it. I'm a huge proponent of adequate recovery so you could recharge your batteries and then get back to making things happen that are important to you creating amazing life and serving the world and building businesses or working in a career that you absolutely love, delivering excellence right. So I'm all for the recovery, for the adequate recovery, but I don't like this narrative about we just need to rest more and have less work hours and do less and focus on living more.
Speaker 1I don't think this is the time for humanity to rest on our lores. I think it's time for humanity to wake the F up and work on things that truly matters, instead of brushing them under the rug, pretending they're not happening and also feeling like we are already burning out. What I'm talking about here. Actually, we also need to train stress resilience. We need to train ourselves to endure more without burning out, without collapsing, without having nervous breakdown and, believe it or not, you can endure more, you can do more, you can be better, and you don't have to burn out of feeling fatigued and tired and burning the candle on both ends at the same time. You can have both. Think about that. Think about your favorite sport. Maybe you were cheering someone or some team or some country in the Olympics, or some team or some country in the Olympics.
Speaker 1Look at those specimens of humanity how much they're able to endure, and if you were to follow their training regimes, you'd be just amazed at the sheer workload physical workload they have to do to be able to get there. And they're the same human species as you are. The only difference, the only true difference we get more and more data on that is their training. So they're able to give more and endure more and deliver more and still feel pretty damn amazing because they train for that. They train their bodies, they train their nervous system and, yes, they do schedule proper recovery and they have all these toolkits to allow their body to also recharge their batteries, their bodies, their minds. But they also train the hack out of it, and I believe that is the conversation that is meaning this is missing Not just taking it easy and recovering and scheduling proper downtime, but also scheduling proper training time, getting hard, going hard after it and training your body and your nervous system with workload, with training, with lifting habit, with making your heart pump and your self sweat, with doing things like cold plunging or heat endurance in sauna.
Speaker 1That actually trains you physically, your nervous system, your body, your whole system, your organism, the whole you. It trains you to be tougher, to be more resilient, to be able to endure more without bringing out, to be able to take on more responsibility and take care of other people without you taking a hit. It's training for life. You know why I take cold shower every single day, with no exception. It's not because I think it's going to make me some sort of longest living creature and I'm never going to die.
Speaker 1That, first of all, not confirmed by science that it adds to any sort of longevity or even well, quality of life. Maybe depends how you do it. The point is I train because that has been shown to make people more resilient to stress, basically meaning you can undergo a lot more stress without stressing out or without having that taking a toll on you. There is so much burnout because, also, people got weak and simply people don't train themselves. And then any sorts of leap of stressor and they're out of order. And I'm not here to make fun of anyone, I'm here to help you. Look at some of the things we have in our society. We kind of like go from one extreme or the other. We are working hard or we need to work only three days a week. I'm like how are we ever going to accomplish anything if we just decide to just work very little because we became those weaklings who cannot endure any stress whatsoever.
Speaker 1And if you want to become a leader, you will have to take on more. You will have to take care of more people. You will have to take on more responsibilities. You will have to be able to deliver more than other people. That's what leadership is all about. It's not about position, it's not about rank. It's not about being smarter and being paid more. It's actually about having to take on more and being able to do so. And in order to be able to do so, you need to train for it your body, your brain, your nervous system, so you could do it sustainably and consistently and so you could show up as a strong, powerful being versus someone who's just stressed out of their mind, on the verge of burning out, burning the candle from both sides, flipping out at everyone, getting cringy, angry and contributing to conflict, making an excuse that you have to work so damn hard and that is why you become an asshole. And that is a long rant. All to help you understand that not everyone will burn out with the same workload. Not everyone will flip out going through the same stressors. Going through the same stressors. Training changes how you deal with life, and physical training has a lot to do with it. Again, it trains your nervous system and your brain is part of that nervous system. It trains your body to be okay with enduring a lot more workload and stress and still have the capacity to perform at your best and recovering to your fullest, to keep going as long as needed.
Speaker 1So today's episode about stress resilience and stress management what I like to call stress fitness it's all about building more of reserve so you can endure more like an athlete, like a runner or a cyclist or a swimmer or whoever again elite sport people you admire. They can endure more and they can still outlast you and they're going to be feeling better. And that doesn't come from luck or specific genetics. It comes from training. And so if you want to shoot high and get to the leadership positions, to change things, to create positive impact, first thing you got to work on is your stress fitness, your stress resilience, your ability to bounce back from any setback, stressor or a high workload really fast back to your normal. That's what resilience is all about.
Speaker 1So there are three parts in it that you need to be aware of First is building the capacity of your body, of your nervous system, to endure more without breaking, and that you do with physical training high intensity, interval workouts, lifting heavy, basically working beyond your capacity, training it. The other modalities that you can use cold exposure, like taking cold shower, doing cold plunges, obviously in a safe manner so you don't damage yourself beyond your ability to recover at this point, and slowly building it up Cold exposure, heat exposure in sauna, again in a safe environment, so you don't die Stress. Resilience is about that building that physical capacity and at the same time, it's also your mental capacity, because your nervous system, the one that does the thinking and goes through difficult emotions, is the same nervous system you train while you're doing hard things. Physically, very simple, and because of that it doesn't require a lot of variety to train your nervous system to endure more stress. So you get your training, physical training, your exercise that pushes you beyond your comfort zone. You get your cold exposure, you get your heat exposure.
Speaker 1Hyperventilation also trains your nervous system. By hyperventilation I mean breathing in and out fast, wim Hof, breathing if you Google it or search for it on YouTube, you'll find hyperventilation, breathing what it's all about. And, yes, it does also help train your nervous system to endure stress and not freak out. But in terms of actually changing your capacity to endure more, nothing works better than exercise, cold and heat exposure. Nothing works that consistently for every single human being I think that's a better way to put it for every single human being. I think that's a better way to put it.
Speaker 1So the first aspect of resilience is training your ability to endure more. The second one is training your ability to go to switch really fast between the state of stress and fight of life, that high intensity, and then back to recovery, to rest and digest, to your relaxation mode. And the best way to do it seems to be breath work. When you finish your physical training two, three, six, three, five minutes you're of big exhale, focused breathing. When you prolong your breathe out. But also things like high intensity interval training also do train that capacity. Any sorts of intermediate or intermittent training when you go through the hard period like really high intensity, and you go to low period and then you do high and low, high and low, high and low.
Speaker 1That trains this switch from being in fight or flight really fast, switching to rest and digest, and the reason why you need to do that to optimize, to maximize your recovery. Because if you just stress yourself and you don't switch fast enough into rest and recovery and you do it consistently, you actually overload your system, your nervous system, specifically, all of your biological systems and you will start under-recovering, at which point you will start breaking down at all the different levels emotionally, mentally, cognitively and physically. Your energy systems, your immune system will be compromised, your DNA repair, your reproductive systems and organs, hormonal systems. So all of this will start breaking down if you don't invest into sufficient recovery and if you don't have that switch between fight or flight, rest and digest working well. And so again, the way how you optimize that that switch working fast and effectively, and then also, if your recovery time you optimize, that that switch working fast and effectively. And then also, if your recovery time you optimize it, you prolong it because you switch into rest and digest fast.
Speaker 1Breathwork helps you to train that capacity and helps you to stay more and longer in that parasympathetic or rest and digest mode, doing breath work and then training in intervals. The same is cold and hot. For example, cold shower one minute, cold a few seconds. Or a minute hot one minute cold one minute hot, one minute cold, one minute hot. So stress, relax, stress, relax, stress, relax. The same with sauna. Spend time in sauna, maybe go in the cold, spend time in sauna, go in the cold. You see, this variation, that's what matters. The same with your training. That's why interval training works so well for your heart rate variability and your recovery, because you switch, because high intensity and low intensity.
Speaker 1The problem is today's environment. It keeps you kind of like in the middle, not on, not off, kind of on the edge. You're not really off, but you're not really on either. And so your nervous system, your heart, they don't train at the lowest and highest ranges of your capacity, and that actually what allows you to endure more and recover effectively. Another aspect of why you want to switch into recovery mode faster first of all, you're going to have more time in that recovery zone, which allows you then to have more time in the on zone, basically endure more stress in your life and take on more workload without it burning it out. So that's one. And then not just you're going to be more effective and you're going to have more time in recovery, but also you're going to spend your energy, like the energy that your cells produce for your life, you're going to spend that energy in a much more economical manner.
Speaker 1So what's so different between fight and flight and rest and digest is that fight and flight uses a lot more energy, having to keep your systems ready to literally fight or flight, whereas rest and digest it's where your cells go into this energy preservation mode, where you waste a lot less energy. You spend a lot less energy and that's how, by the end of the day, you end up with your tanks still kind of full and you can still invest in your life and learning and doing stuff with your loved ones, family and friends, versus so exhausted that the only thing you can fathom is being on the couch and watching Netflix. You don't even have energy to be social or doing again any sorts of reading or mental work, because you feel so damn fatigued. But, guys, you don't feel so damn fatigued because you did more than other human beings or because you did the most that you in potential capable of. You feel so fatigued because you were so wasteful with your energy throughout the day because, number one, you haven't trained your capacity to endure more and be more economical, even when you are undergoing stress and workload, and number two, because you never trained this capacity to switch off fight or flight and switch on rest and digest, to spend less energy while you're doing stuff that doesn't require to be already in fight or flight, and that's why you end up kind of like pushing the gas pedal all the time and having your engine on and running your vehicle 24-7 where you only needed it for an hour of drive during your day. Imagine how much more fuel you would waste if you ran your car like that. So this is how most people run their bodies and their nervous systems, and that's why they feel like they're doing too much and burning out and they need a vacation. It's not that that is your top capacity and you already doing too much more than anyone else. It's just you never, first of all, trained to endure more like those elite runners or cyclists. And number two, you never learned how to recover properly and that's why you're running yourself like a vehicle with a gas pedal on and engine on and running it 24-7 or putting a heater on for If you are from South Africa, you might know that if you put some heater on 24-7, your electric going to be eating up really fast. So the same happens with your body compared to when you just put it on when you need it, maybe an hour a day. How little, how less would your electric bill be then?
Speaker 1I hope, folks, you understand a little bit more, a lot more, how stress resilience and stress fitness work, and how it's not just about meditate and chill and take vacations or do nothing. It's not about that at all. And especially if you are on this podcast, you probably are committed to doing your best, to delivering your absolute best. Then these are the things you need to do. You need to train your body and nervous system through doing intermittent hard stuff, interval hard stuff, like cold exposure, heat exposure, exercise, where you go up and down to the extremes, one might say, but safely on the intensity. Then learning how to make the switch more effective, which also will happen with that interval nature of your physical endurance, and then switching your nervous system with breath work more into rest and digest so you make your batteries last longer. It's kind of like having this additional power bank which will recharge you when you need it. That's what happens when you do breath work throughout the day and you learn, you condition your nervous system and your body to spend most of the time in rest and digest in your biological eco mode, and that's how you outlast and get unfair advantage and be able to endure more, to take on more, without that burning you out Again.
Speaker 1Not everyone will burn out with the same work alone, and that is also where you don't just work hard, you also work smart. If you are someone committed to positive impact and leading others, you also work smart. If you are someone committed to positive impact and leading others, you'll need your battery at their top capacity and endurance and ability to recover and to charge up fast. You need all of that to be able to over deliver. And that's about it.
Speaker 1Folks, if you found this useful, fascinating, like I do, then please do share this with at least one person who needs their batteries to run more efficiently, effectively, so they don't just deliver the work they're so passionate about, but they also feel amazing for years and years and years to come. Also, if you happen to know anyone in the corporate who wants to build their stress-resilient, stress-fit team, please do connect us. I do workshops remotely and in person, and let's train our A game to take on tomorrow and not burn out. So share in whichever shape and form it feels right for you and thank you for your attention. Thank you for your energy and till next time, stay not just stress-free, but also stress-fit and stress-resilient. Chat with you soon. Have an awesome rest of the day.