Hi, guys, and welcome back to Change Wired Podcast. My name is Angela Shurina, I'm your host and your change guide and today and on this podcast, we are learning how to take better control of our thoughts, of our emotions, of our actions and even designing our life and environment around us and our schedule, and everything with the purpose to create life experience, to shape, to design our life and experiences in the way that feels us, that feels so aligned with who we are and what we want to achieve in this life. And in order to do that, we just need to get better at figuring out change and how to adjust, adapt and stay more in tune with the environment around us so we could use all of the resources and all of the opportunities that life gives us. So, then again, we can create the life experience and achieve our goals and dreams as we want. And today, guys, did you know? I want to start with a fact, as Chad GPT suggested, did you know that exercise has been found to be very often 1.5 times more effective than other therapies and even medications for treatment of depression? That's what a university in Australia found when they did their research. You can even Google or chat GPT exercise and other therapies effectiveness University of Australia and you'll get the research. Other therapies effectiveness University of Australia and you'll get the research. But the point is, folks, more and more research it's just piling up research data about this beautiful bi-directional connection between our body and our brain and how, by changing one, like when we change our body, we change our thoughts, we change our emotions, we change our thinking, our decisions, which ultimately shapes our life. How this is there. So exercise, like in this case, is used to treat depression, what you might think of a mental, cognitive, cognition, emotional maybe, but to use the body to change your mind, to change your emotional mental state. But then it goes the other way around.
So when I talk, when I teach resilience for companies, in teams, for entrepreneurs, I always talk about how, when you look at any stressor, any failure or setback in your life, you actually A if you tell yourself different story, you look at it differently through different lens. You start feeling different in your body. You literally how your cells work and produce energy and whether you feel fatigued or full of energy. That actually changes when you create different story narrative around what just happened to you, that setback, that failure. Not only that, but it also opens up your brain, like if you start to looking at failure and setback as an opportunity to learn, as an opportunity that will allow you to get better and actually achieve your results faster and become more successful. If you look at setbacks and failure like that, what also happens is your brain gets into creative mode and we're going to talk about why exactly it happens. But your brain gets more creative. You get more solutions, more ideas how to solve, resolve that setback and get better, and that changes the course of your life, of your business and everything else. And, plus, you get better mood and instead of feeling like you don't want to do anything and you just want to go on the blanket and watch Netflix and eat, instead of that you want to approach it, you want to work on it, you want to figure it out. You get almost enthusiastic about that setback and failure.
Speaker 1So this beautiful connection again, more and more research is piling up that it's not some kumbaya and woo-woo. You actually can control it. You are responsible for mastering this connection to benefit your life. So, guys, I mean, you've been given a remote and it's a curse and a blessing. Like again speaking about animals, none of the other animals were given this remote that allows them to choose how they interpret a stressor and, based on that, changing their biology and also their emotional state, how they feel about anything. Emotional, like animals do not have this choice. Environment comes and the animal reacts. That's it. State how they feel about anything emotional Animals do not have this choice. Environment comes and the animal reacts. That's it. You have a choice. You have a remote and today you're going to learn three practices that will allow you to control, to take back control, a proper control of your remote systems, of your nervous system.
Speaker 1To learn how to use that remote control, which then allows you to make better decisions, even under pressure and in case of uncertainty. It will also help you to get better health, like right now I'm helping my mom to work through her mental condition, where she has a condition in her nervous system where she gets a little bit of shaking going on right. So your health is going to get better. Your immune system will work better. You'll get sick less. Not only that, but you'll have less pain. You'll have more energy. Also, you'll learn better. Brain under chronic stress does not learn well, so you're going to just become one of those old dogs that doesn't learn new tricks kind of person. And also, again, fatigue. Just so much more fatigue accumulates if you don't regulate your nervous system.
And speaking about regulation of your nervous system, you know there is a saying that this is where I'm from stress is a cause of all diseases. From Stress is a cause of all diseases. Now, why is that? And why we have more and more scientific evidence that that is true? Because stress, chronic stress, is nothing more, nothing less than dysregulated nervous system. Your nervous system is supposed to be stressed acutely and then most of the time be in that relaxation mode, parasympathetic mode, stressed, prolonged stress or stress that is just ongoing, wears off your body on a cellular level. Your cells work double shifts to produce energy and take care of things because they know, because they feel well if cells could feel a thing. But they feel like you are under a threat and you might not survive and all systems are pre-regulated. And also just your mental and emotional state gets different. You become reactive, you start to look at everything as a threat, literally, and when somebody gives you feedback, you react. You're like, oh my God, this person is trying not to kill you but is a threat to my professional well-being. So, dysregulated nervous system. I want you to understand what it's all about this brain-body connection Nothing more, nothing less as dysregulated nervous system which is supposed to be acutely stressed and then most of the time, be relaxed. Not stressed all of the time and sometimes relax. That is a dysregulation state which your body and brain are not designed for. And good news, you have a remote that you've been given by Mother Nature and Evolution, but again, nobody gave you a user manual. So today you're going to upgrade your knowledge of how this remote works.
Three practices that I give to all of my clients. I use them myself every day. They're research-backed, very effective, to help you change the state of your nervous system from stress to rest, relax, digest. And not only that, but also there's going to be one cognitive practice, or talking to yourself kind of practice that allows you to change your body in an ongoing fashion, so you don't actually become that stressed by only things that might go wrong in your life. You don't become that stressed by only things that might go wrong in your life, from missing I don't know a bus and being late somewhere to having real struggles, you know, maybe losing a loved one or a friend or losing your job, which are stressful events you know, no matter how you look at it. So three strategies, one breathwork and there are many kinds of different breathworks and relaxation and cognitive techniques, but today I'm going to give you the most effective one, the basic ones, the one you can Google, easy to do and which, again, research-based, very effective in helping you to down-regulate your nervous system. I took a sip of water stay hydrated and let's continue.
Speaker 1So number one breathwork, specific kind of breathwork that Professor Andrew Huberman and some other researchers showed to be the most effective in producing this calming effect faster. So, physiological side, please Google it. Andrew Huberman, in his short on YouTube, shows how to do it. What it basically is double inhale and the second one is really quick at the end and very long, long exhale, and you do that for about six cycles and you're good to go. It is recommended if you want to increase the effect, especially if you are going through something stressful or want to have a really good night's sleep, then try five minutes of it before sleep.
Speaker 1How does it sound like? Breathe in and then long breathe out, and again your inhale is double. So you breathe in and then one small at the end and then breathe out. So, for example, I can do it when I'm on stage and I feel like I'm just forgetting, or about to forget, what I'm about to say and I feel like I'm more stressed and I'm getting into my head too much. So I do it right on the stage and because I usually speak about topics that are relevant to this, so I even practice it to show people that you can use it to change your state in a negotiation and right on stage to get back into flow and start performing optimally. Even now that I did it, it already allows me to stay present for this podcast better.
Speaker 1So double inhale and then exhale. You can use it also when, for example, you got some not-so-good news or some challenging assignment at work and you're like, oh my god, I don't know what to do or it can turn out really bad. So what you do before you take any action, you take three to six better five to six breath cycles like that, which will relax your nervous system, which will allow your brain to see more opportunities, more resources, instead of being tunnel visioned or focused on you know, just the first thing that you see, like you know the animals trying to escape a predator. Just one thing Open up yourself to creativity, to more decisions, to collaborations, to asking for help, to evaluating the situation in a more balanced way, which then allow you to find a better course of action and be more effective at work. But again, there are so many situations where you can personally use it. I do it after my workouts to start recovering faster. I do five minutes before sleep to sleep better, and I do it whenever I feel like I'm more in the anxiety stress state and I need to be calmer to make better decisions and learn better. So I do a few cycles of this breath work.
Speaker 1Practice. Number two progressive body relaxation. Also yoga nidra, non-sleep depressed protocol. Let's stick with yoga nidra. You can Google yoga nidra non-sleep depressed protocol. Let's stick with Yoga Nidra. You can Google Yoga Nidra 10-minute protocol.
And it is basically you sitting down very comfortably or lying down, even better closing your eyes and paying attention to different parts of your body, from your fingers to your arms, your hands, your body, your legs, your feet, finger by finger, body part by body part. You relax all of them. By doing so, you relax your nervous system, you relax your breathing and you release the tension, whatever tension you might be holding. You improve blood circulation. You improve the way your immune system works. There are so many things that you improve blood circulation. You improve the way your immune system works. There are so many things that you improve by doing that, which also allows you again to then prime your nervous system into the relaxation state and keep it for longer and also will allow you based again on Andrew Huberman's work and research and studies also helps your brain to recharge its capacity to focus and do challenging work. It increases your dopamine production and, yeah, just so many things become better when you take this break, let's say midday. As I do it, I do a lot of work in the morning and then I take a break and in that break I include that yoga nidra protocol to then refresh my brain, refresh my body, stay relaxed and have more energy and have less fatigue and just be the best I can possibly be for the moment Present, relaxed, thinking in a balanced way. Practice number three In scientific literature it's often referred to as self-distancing, basically talking to yourself about a stressful situation in a third or second person, for example.
Speaker 1I might say to myself oh my God, angela, you just got this request for this offer and you don't know how to do it and it stresses you out, it makes you feel anxious and like you're never going to be able to handle everything, to go to the next level, whatever that might be. And then I say but, angela, you figured things out. For more than a decade of being on your own as a coach, you've been through all kinds of situations that you didn't know how to handle and you did so many things for the first time, from establishing your business to doing corporate workshops, to doing workshops on the mountain, to working with teams. You need already so many things for the first time. And just like that, you can ask for help, you can research and with ChatGPT it makes it easier than ever. You can again ask for help from people who have already done it. You can do so many things. You've done it already. So, one step at a time, you'll be able to do it too, and then you can iterate it and ship the first version and then improve. And just like that, just like you always did, angela, you can do it. So let's get into the first action and then I'll make a list and take action. But you get the idea.
What research found is that when you talk to yourself in second or third person in your brain. It's kind of like you are talking to somebody about somebody else's situation, and what happens is because of that, because we don't really care and that is true about other people's situations as about our own we don't react as emotionally. We think in a more balanced way, kind of like giving advice to your friend, and because of that we make better decisions, we take better actions, and a good plus, a huge bonus of that is you are not that stressed and so you're more relaxed, which benefits all the processes down the stream, from your immune system to your energy levels to simply being a more balanced thinker and having better health outcomes down the road. So this is the third technique, which is very powerful and very easy to do. You can even talk to yourself while sitting in the office, surrounded by other people, quietly talking in your head to yourself. When somebody drops a bomb on you, you can handle it that way as well, and that's the power of this technique From breath work to relaxation. You can lean back in your chair and just close your eyes and relax, and nobody really would care in the whole office. Probably most of the people won't even notice. You can do it anywhere. It's no cost. The only thing you need is your body and your attention and your presence, and that's it, guys. So you do these techniques and you prime your nervous system to be in a relaxed state more than in a stressed state, which is how your nervous system was designed to function in the first place. And when you do that, good things will happen from greater decision-making, greater business career outcomes, to a better immune system and getting sick less and having less pain, to having more positive emotions and getting less fatigued. All of that you'll get by mastering the control of your nervous system through this body-mind practices.
Speaker 1We talked about breathwork today. We talked about yoga nidra. We talked about self-distancing. If you're not sure about self-distancing, sometimes people get more confused and need more example. You can chat GPT, you can ask chat GPT to give you examples, or you can also Google it. You can ask chat GPT to give you examples, or you can also Google it. Google still works, guys. I just checked it today.
Speaker 1So try it out in different situations in your life. And, most importantly, don't just leave it on the yoga mat. Bring it into life, into office, into negotiations, before you need to talk to your boss or to your team or to your customer, whoever it is that you know you might get emotional, you might get tense. Then use breathwork, use these techniques, use self-distancing, talk to yourself in the second and third person Angela, you got it. Stay calm, breathe, and you'll do, and you'll master it. You'll get the best possible outcome.
Speaker 1Talk to yourself like that and don't forget, guys, to share this episode with at least one other person who you think might need it and might benefit from taking better control of their emotions, nervous systems, their body, their mind to master a life, go through challenges and chaos with a smile, genuine smile, on their faces. Like, share this podcast episode with that person and let's all do better. Because why not, guys? We've given this one chance to live this beautiful life, so let's make the most out of it no challenges, keeping smiles on our faces and staying super energized and healthy. So share it with one other person. Use the tools that you learned today and, until next time, stay in change.