[00:00] You'll just notice a slight shift and then you breathe, you accept it, you notice where that shift comes from, and you come back.

[00:08] Welcome back to the Focus B show. This is Katie Sudddock here aka the focus b. And on this show, I interview high performers and leaders around the world to discover their secrets on peak for performance, productivity, mindfulness, and leadership. So if you want to take your performance and your leadership to the next level, then you're in the right place. Listen up and connect with the magic.

[00:44] Our brain has such a huge impact on how we feel every single day. And the good news is we can actually do something about it. Instead of just thinking, oh, this is my brain, I'm feeling low, we can change it. We can have habits and do things that shift how we feel and change the way we process information and how we deal with circumstances. Let's look at one of them to begin with. The sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system is that fight, flight, active, go go part of the nervous system. And the parasympathetic nervous system is the rest, digest, ease. In today's world, where we're constantly writing emails, in meetings, back to backs, and always in action, our sympathetic nervous system is always on. And what happens is that this links to an imbalance in terms of emotions, and it can add to extra stress because you're basically telling your body and your mind to be on alert the whole day. If you think about it biologically, that doesn't make sense. Biologically, we have those moments where we're running away from the tigers or looking for food, and we have the moments where we're eating and resting and sleeping. So, sure, you might be resting and sleeping in the evening, but we also need to take breaks during the day in order to do this. It's not just a matter of taking breaks. What we need to do is we need to activate that parathympathetic nervous system so we're not in the sympathetic go go. And if during the day you have those moments of sympathetic nervous system and action and those moments of rest, then you'll have that balance and you won't feel as stressed, and this will contribute to greater well being. So how can you do this in practice? One thing is to take breaks, and by breaks, I mean not on your phone or on your computer, because that's still sympathetic. That's still reading and absorbing information and processing things. It's not restful. Restful would be going for a nice walk. It would be drinking some water, getting up, having a quick chat, maybe tidying things around, drawing. These things are relaxing. These things will calm you down. So that's one aspect really having breaks even. It's just five minutes here, five minutes there, avoiding back to back meetings, just fitting in, at least a 510 minutes break to breathe. This will help a lot. Another thing is breathing. If you pause and change the way you breathe during the day, and just take deep breath into your stomach, into your chest and out. And you do this several times during the day. This can be while you're working, you just need to remember it. This can be while you're writing a document or sending that email. And just notice your whole body relaxes. So maybe you're still in the sympathetic nervous system, but you're still calming down your body and maybe you're accessing it a bit. Avoid multitasking if possible, please single task. Because then otherwise you're really taking up all that attentional space and it really creates a lot of tension and chaos in your mind. So even if you're super, super busy, you will get more done and be more productive if you single task. This is also a way to calm your nervous system and help you to be focused and aligned with what you need to do. So, hugely important. So, taking breaks, breathing, single tasking, all of these are hugely important to calm down your nervous system. How you manage your emotions is also key. So start paying attention to how your emotions show up in your body. Start to notice if your stomach clenches when you're stressed, or your breath gets shorter and tighter, or if you feel anxiety in your throat. And when you do, just manage your emotions, which means notice it, breathe through it, accept that it's there, know why it's there. Just breathe, accept and wait for it to pass. And don't force it to pass because that doesn't work. Trust me, I've tried this. It doesn't work. The best way is just accept, show some compassion, wait, acknowledge and move on managing your emotions, this is hugely important and will help in terms of your well being for sure. So, coming back to the brain, the neuroscience of well being. So, we've discussed the sympathetic and parasympathetic aspect of the nervous system. There's also the prefocal cortex and the amygdala. Now, I like to have sometimes little conversations in my head where I discuss both of these sides. I'll give you an example. If something happens that causes you sudden fear or anxiety or stress, chances are your amygdala the reptilian part of your brain that deals with these things. It deals with a lot of things, but one of them is fear that will be activated. And what happens is in those moments, sort of amygdala takes up all of your thoughts and you think, oh my God, I won't manage, or this is terrible, or I'm so scared, or DA DA DA. And you go a bit in panic mode, or fear. This is because your amygdala is sending out the information to the rest of your brain and saying alert, alert, alert, panic, panic. And what can help you is to access your prefrontal cortex. So once you've learned, and by the way, meditation helps a lot with processing emotions and going back to the Prefrontal Cortex. But the Prefrontal Cortex is the more rational side of you. It's a planning and decision making, and it tends to be more analytical. And so what we want is to get out of that fear and panic and access a more sort of rational, okay, now what shall I do about it? And sometimes in moments when I feel sudden fear, I literally say, okay, Amygdala, got the message. Calling prefrontal cortex. Calling prefrontal cortex. And as crazy as this sounds, this actually works. Why does it work? Because first of all, I'm interrupting the pattern. The pattern is those fear, those thoughts that come into your mind. And so you're interrupting the pattern by saying, okay, got the message. Moving on to processing it. But also when I say this, I'm already showing logic and reason because I'm already saying, okay, I've acknowledged this fear, or there's some form of panic or worry. Now, want to do something proactive or think it through and think it logically and calmly. So this is my technique. This is what I do. But you don't have to do it that way. And also you'll start to learn to be able to breathe, accept the emotion, and then think calmly about it and access that Prefrontal Cortex. So this is another neuroscience part of well being. And the last part that I think is hugely important is when you think during the day of different aspects, different things that are bothering you, different projects that you have on your mind. This is causing so many different things in your brain that you're probably not aware of. And it doesn't matter if you can name Prefrontal Cortex or Amygdala or parasympathetic nervous system or sympathetic nervous system. What really it comes down to is your ability to recenter yourself. Now, what do I mean by this? When I was talking earlier about breathing, this was one key tool. What you want to be able to do is that at any moment during the day, you're able to refocus totally on a present moment to realign with exactly what your intention is, where you're going, what you're focusing on, to breathe deeply and to reground yourself and be at peace. This takes practice, by the way. It sounds super easy. Sounds so easy, right? Just be at peace during the day. But it comes with practice. What happens is the more you're in tune with your emotions, the more you'll notice when you go slightly off, when you get suddenly in that panic mode of the Amygdala, or when you get slightly worried and preoccupied, you'll just notice a slight shift. And then you breathe. You accept it. You notice where that shift comes from, and you come back. And you come back. And it's a practice. This might sound strange, but this is probably the most powerful thing that I have implemented in the course of maybe the last year or so. It's this ability to have an inner camera and an outer camera. So we're always focused on the outside world, on what's going on, the sound, the noises, the stimulation. But we forget what's going on inside. This means looking at our thoughts. It means looking at the emotions. It means looking. Are you feeling rested? Are you feeling tense right now? Is any part of your body tense or clenched? Is your breath deep or is it shallow? Are your thoughts really fast or are they calm? Do you have mental images of something that just happened or is about to happen? Does this make you feel happy or sad? Is your whole energy sort of low or are you feeling really excited? All of these things is having an inner camera. And it doesn't matter if you don't know. Again, the neuroscience terms behind it. What matters is that you're aware. What matters is that you notice during the day. How did that conversation impact you? How did you feel when that person spoke or said these words? What were your thoughts when that email popped up? Why did you get a certain shock? Being aware and noticing this will help you to rebalance and calibrate and be like, okay, this is how it feel. Deep, breath, calm, come back. Hugely important. Love this topic of inner camera, an outer camera. As a highly extroverted person, I spent most of my life with just an outer camera. Focusing everything on the outside world. Took years of practice to actually tune in, look inside, meditate, journal, breathe, be mindful. And it's really changed my life and impacted me in so many ways. To have this ability to notice what's going on inside and how is this affecting me and what can I do about it. This is a huge part of how we master our brain, our emotions. So I hope you've enjoyed today's episode on the sympathetic parasympathetic nervous system, the whole amygdala prefrontal cortex and the more, how would I say, alignment tool of noticing what's going on inside at the same time as what is going on on the outside. And if you've enjoyed today's episode and if you like this podcast, be absolutely amazing to share with other people that can enjoy it, to help me to spread this message and these ideas and concepts. And the best way to do this is either to directly share it with them or to write a review for Apple podcasts or Spotify. This means the world to me. It means so much. Thank you in advance if you're doing it and wishing you a wonderful, wonderful day ahead.

[13:17] Thank you so much for tuning in today to the Focus Bees show. I would absolutely love to hear your feedback. So let me know in an Apple review or YouTube comment what was most valuable for you, and feel free to share this episode with a friend or a family member. Wishing you a wonderful, magical and focused day ahead.