Mindfulness as a Strategic Advantage in Performance with Chris

We have been sold a dangerous myth: that the more exhausted we are, the more successful we must be. This fallacy perpetuates the belief that burnout is merely the price of ambition, obscuring the notion that well-being could serve as an individual's most strategic advantage. In this enlightening discussion, we delve into the transformative power of mindfulness and its potential to serve as a secret weapon, not solely for achieving peace but also for enhancing performance. Joined by Chris Vasiletis, a self-described burnout buster and founder of Priority Wellness, we explore the intricacies of systems thinking and intentional energy management. Together, we aim to illuminate how one can lead a life imbued with vitality, all while safeguarding one's health against the incessant demands of modern life.

The discussion delves into the pervasive myth that equates exhaustion with success, positing that burnout is merely an unfortunate consequence of ambition. We explore the transformative notion that well-being is not a luxury but a strategic advantage. Mindfulness emerges as a pivotal theme, presented not merely as a tool for peace but as a crucial asset for performance enhancement. Our esteemed guest, Chris Vasiletis, a self-described burnout buster and founder of Priority Wellness, shares her personal journey, which shifted from being a systems engineer to advocating for wellness after her diagnosis with multiple sclerosis. This life-altering experience catalyzed her commitment to helping individuals manage stress and prevent burnout, emphasizing the need for systems that promote sanity and well-being in both personal and professional realms. Throughout our conversation, we dissect the nuanced definitions of burnout, as outlined by the World Health Organization, which identifies it as a syndrome characterized by depletion, cynicism, and feelings of ineffectiveness. Chris articulates the gradual nature of burnout, often unnoticed by the individual but perceptible to those around them. By engaging with practical strategies, we address how mindfulness can be operationalized in everyday tasks, thus enabling listeners to reclaim their energy and enhance their productivity without sacrificing their health. As we conclude, we invite our audience to reflect on their daily habits and consider integrating intentional breaks into their routines to foster resilience and creativity. The episode serves as a clarion call for listeners to prioritize their well-being as an integral aspect of sustained achievement, advocating for a paradigm shift in how we view productivity and success.

Takeaways:

• In contemporary society, we have been misled into believing that relentless exhaustion equates to success and ambition.
• Mindfulness should not merely be perceived as an abstract concept but rather operationalized into our daily routines.
• To effectively combat burnout, individuals must recognize the incremental nature of its onset, which often manifests through subtle changes in behavior.
• Creating systems of sanity within professional environments is essential for fostering sustainable performance without compromising individual well-being.
• The importance of taking regular breaks cannot be overstated, as they significantly enhance cognitive function and overall productivity.
• Engaging in mindful practices allows individuals to experience heightened awareness, thereby enabling them to make more informed and effective choices.

Links referenced in this episode:

• prioritywellness.com
• linkedin.com

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Priority Wellness

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Transcript

Unpacking the Myth

SPEAKER_01 0:00

We have been sold a dangerous myth. Yes, tier listeners. You might be wondering, like, why I'm starting like this. So, yes. So, let's uh hear this. So, as I mentioned, we haven't sold a dangerous myth that the more exhausted we are, the more successful we must be. Right? That burnout is just the price of ambition. Yes. But what if well-being was not a kind of luxury? What if it was your most strategic advantage? So today we are exploring how mindfulness can become your secret weapon, not just a kind of for the peace, but for the performance. So hey dear listeners, welcome back to another powerful episode of Mind Meets Machine, where we explore the intersection of human potential, performance, and the systems that shape our lives. I'm your host Avik and today I'm joined by lovely guest. Please welcome Chris Basilatis. Welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_03 1:08

Thank you so much, Abby, for having me here today.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

Amazing. Thank you so much, Chris, for joining us today. And dear listeners, before we get into the discussion, I'll quickly love to introduce Chris. So Chris is a self-described burnout buster and the founder of Priority Wellness. So Chris helps overwhelmed individuals and corporate teams build what she calls systems of sanity. So they can run their days without running themselves into the ground. And she is also the author of Ignition, a professional woman's guide to energized, burnout-proof living. Yeah. And in this episode, dear listeners, we are, I mean, we will explore how mindfulness, systems thinking, and intentional energy management can help us lead our lives with vitality without sacrificing our health in the process. So I'll not take much of your time. Let's get started. Welcome to this again.

SPEAKER_03 2:10

Thank you so much, Abby. I really appreciate being here today.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

Amazing. So, Chris, like before we get into the frameworks and uh the strategies and other things, um, I would love to ask you, like, because I'm I'm very curious on this, that when you look back at your own journey up, especially from the systems engineer to the burnoutburster, what was the moment that you realized that something had to fundamentally change?

SPEAKER_03 2:37

Yeah, and that was quite a journey from the time I was a systems engineer to the work that I do now. What happened somewhere along the way is three years before I started my business, Priority Wellness, I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, which is a chronic disease of the central nervous system with no cure. And that diagnosis led to multiple lifestyle changes for me. And health and wellness became much more important to me, so much so that I wanted to help other people create their ideal state of health and well-being. So at the time this all happened, I had long not been a systems engineer. I had changed careers a couple of times and I was doing marketing consulting at the time that I had my diagnosis. And basically, I made the decision to change careers and get trained and certified as a health coach and did that. And basically, when that was done, I hung up my virtual shingle to priority wellness. And when I first started my business, Avi, I focused on stress management. And over the years, it's evolved into burnout prevention. So that's kind of the highlights of how I came to call myself a burnout buster.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

Lovely. Thank you so much for sharing that. And yeah,

Understanding Burnout: Myths and Realities

SPEAKER_01 3:59

yeah, and and you know, like um there's this cultural narrative that uh being busy, which is equals being important. And like I'm curious, like, what's the biggest misconception that you see people carry about the burnout?

SPEAKER_03 4:17

Yeah. Busy is definitely uh considered by many to be a badge of honor of sorts.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 4:27

And I just need to keep busy, I need to keep my heads down, and oh, I'm so busy. I getting all these things done. And we we can often put our self-worth in that by how busy we are or how much we're generating and and things like that. Your question regarding um the the myth about burnout, I want to make sure I get the question correct. Is that what you asked?

SPEAKER_01 4:51

Exactly. Like uh what do you think? Like how people, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:55

So a couple of things. With burnout, it happens over time. It's not like you had an exhausting day and I'm so burnt out. There's there's three different aspects to burnout. Uh definition put out by the World Health Organization puts it in, it's it's considered a syndrome with three different aspects. The first aspect is a sense of depletion cognitively, physically, physically, emotionally.

SPEAKER_00 5:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:23

And then the second phase, feelings of cynicism or what's called depersonalization, basically being disconnected from feeling disconnected from other human beings. And then the third piece is feeling ineffective and incompetent. So, and it's again, the World Health Organization also defines this as job-related. And I have an opinion on that, but I'll get to that in a second. So you can think of the three pieces as they build upon each other. Some people feel that you're in this phase of getting depleted cognitively, physically, emotionally. And if you're in that for a certain period of time, that will lead to feelings of cynicism and depersonalization. And then if you're in that for a certain period of time, that will lead to feeling ineffective and incompetent. Others feel like you can enter it at any one of those phases. But if you think about it, no matter which one it is, and none of those things happen overnight. Those happen over time. I said I would get back to an opinion that I had on this. So yes, the World Health Organization defines this as job-related stress, but I've experienced people who either work part-time or don't work at all, and for example, are a full-time caregiver of their children and or maybe their parents or other older loved ones in their lives. And you can get burnt out from that if you think of it. All those things can come into play, not feeling effective, getting cynical, getting exhausted, all that can happen when you're a caregiver as well. So I just, even though that's not part of the official definition, I personally feel like it should be expanded to include non-job related things.

Recognizing and Addressing Burnout

SPEAKER_01 7:07

So um, I mean, when someone like um is kind of high performing and kind of externally successful, so how do they even recognize that they they are already on the path toward the burnout?

SPEAKER_03 7:24

Yeah. Oftentimes you might not recognize it in yourself. It's it can typically be someone else close to you who recognizes it. And so whether that's a coworker, a manager, a loved one, friend, they might notice you being different in certain ways. Perhaps you're usually like always getting your deliverables in on time. That's that's your standard. And then you start slipping or missing deadlines or or showing up late at work. You typically take breaks and have meals and things like that. Well, you start working through lunch more often than not, or you're overeating or under-eating. You seem to have a shorter fuse. Again, that cynicism piece, or you're more irritated, you're more exhausted. And so again, it's not gonna happen over time. I mean, excuse me, it does happen over time. It doesn't happen overnight. So because it happens so gradually, you might not notice the gradual changes. Others closer to you might have better insight into seeing. And if we're heads down busy, we're typically not gonna tune into how we're feeling.

SPEAKER_01 8:33

I agree. I agree. So, I mean, just to mention that what I'm hearing is that burnout doesn't usually announce itself loudly, but it peeps in to the Yeah, that's a good way of just describing it.

SPEAKER_03 8:47

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 8:47

And through kind of, I'd say, the overextension, ignored signals and misalignment also. And that brings up something interesting about the deeper patterns behind it. Exactly. And like near work with the individuals and the corporate teams. How does the burnout typically show up before people are willing to call it out as a burnout?

SPEAKER_03 9:14

Yeah. So again, if it's in a corporate setting, it could be any of any of those situations that I mentioned. And oftentimes when I deliver workshops inside programs, it's to a combination of managers and might be middle managers and people who are on um who report to them. But I underscore, I usually have a section in the in the workshop geared toward just the managers. I'm quite clear in defining all these different symptoms that can show up when people are burnt out and being okay with kind of calling out uh compassionately to your employee, like, hey, I've done, you know, not in front of everybody, obviously, like off to the pull pulling someone off to the side or say, hey, can I talk to you? Or if it's virtual, you know, set up a quick connect. Uh, but you know, hey, I've noticed, you know, I'm concerned about you. I've noticed a couple of these things. This doesn't seem like you. Is everything okay? So just to start opening up the conversation around something seems off. Um, I want to make sure you're okay. And um, you know, what can we do? And and things like that. Yeah, that's that tends to be the first thing is once you once a manager notices so those certain things happening to name it and open up the conversation to see what might be happening and and causing this person to burn out. In the corporate setting, it can be a variety of different things. It can be them being oh feeling overloaded. It can be they feel like they're not getting clear communication or direction, not being treated fairly. And then, and or there might be personal things happening in their home. They might have a sick child or sick uh parent or extra responsibilities that they've taken on at home. There might be too many responsibilities that they have at work and that needs to be redelegated. So again, we we don't know what it is until we open up the conversation. And to see if it's something within the system of the business, a process or an expectation or what have you, or if it's something at home or both.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

Exactly. That's really powerful because on paper everything can look successful, but while internally people are depleted. So the real question comes is how do we build sustainability into the performance?

SPEAKER_03 11:41

Yeah. So achievement isn't a bad thing. Wanting to perform well is not a bad thing. But we don't need to do it at the expense of our well-being. So we can both be well and produce, and it's figuring out a way to do that in a sane way. So again, part of that is making sure that people aren't overloaded in their job or for people who are self-employed, being mindful of the expectations that you put on yourself, both personally and professionally, and making sure that that's something that's realistically achievable. And then working on different ways to have a sustainable pace. So that would include things like interweaving in breaks throughout the day. I will often ask people if I would ask you to open up your calendar, whether it's paper or electronic, how much white space would I see on your calendar? Or are things shoved in back to back to back to back and you're never taking any breaks? So what might that look like to experiment with? And oftentimes I find people can be resistant to taking breaks because they're concerned that it's going to affect their productivity. Yes. But when I explain the brain science behind it, like we're not robots. We're not designed to go, go, go, go 24-7. Our brain needs periodic breaks, our body needs periodic breaks. It's not a sign of weakness to take breaks, it's actually a sign of strength to know that this is what my body needs to function well. I mean, uh, we're recording this at the time that the Olympics are happening. Athletes, when they train, they don't train 24-7. They have a pretty intense training schedule, but they have rest days. They have recovery days. They build in rest and recovery into their preparation. And it's the same thing as us for, you know, those of us who are not professional athletes, but for us to run our days effectively, we need to build in rest and recovery time to function well. And when we do allow ourselves those breaks, that enables our brain to function better. We can be more innovative, more creative, come up with better ideas. I mean, think about the times that you're in the shower and ideas come to you. Why does that happen? Because your mind's been allowed to be. Yeah, your mind's been is allowed to wander. So we need to build kind of those shower breaks into our days to make that happen. And so I invite people to play with different time periods to take breaks that works for them. I typically recommend sometime between every 25 minutes or every 90 minutes or something in between. Play with, and a break could be as simple as, especially for folks who work on a computer all day. If you have Zoom meetings back to back, you know, physically just, yeah, physically, just get up out of your chair and bounce up and down a few times. That that helps to reset you. Get up and look outside, look at a window and kind of remind your body that there's a bigger world out there. Ideally, if you can get outside. And if again, if you work from home, walk around the house. If you work elsewhere, walk around the building, walk around the block. Just look out at the horizon, see the spaciousness that's out there versus being so confined at your desk all day. There can be quick things, you know, it doesn't have to be a lengthy break. I do advise taking breaks for your meals away from your workspace. But yeah, like you can do a quickie break. Just even like taking your eyes up out of the computer and looking from side to side a few times. That's called giving yourself a panoramic view, and that can neurologically reset your brain. So a bunch of different things to do. And it doesn't mean, you know, taking a half-hour break every 20 minutes, but taking mini breaks, micro breaks here and there.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

Exactly. Yeah. So, like um, you know, you you often talk about the systems

The Importance of Mindfulness in Everyday Life

SPEAKER_00 15:39

of sanity.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

And I really love this phrase. Yeah. So how do you translate mindfulness from something abstract into something operational?

SPEAKER_03 15:48

Yeah, great question. First of all, there's a lot of myths out there about what mindfulness is and what it's not. A definition that I like is one from a gentleman by the name of John Cabotzin. He's a huge thought leader in the area of mindfulness, and he defines it as a way of paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally. So you can apply that to anything. It's that definition is very secular. I equate it to when I was a child, we used to have in school, we used to have these overhead projectors that had slides on them. There were physical films that you would put on and they would change a figure. It would have a clear film. A teacher would write on it, maybe put another film on top, and that would change the figure way before PowerPoint. But that's what mindfulness is like. You overlay it onto anything. So I can be mindful, for example, in this conversation with you, in the way I'm paying attention, on purpose in the present moment and without judgment. You can mindfully eat a meal. You can mindfully perform a task, whether it's a work task, could be folding laundry, could be washing dishes. And so what that when we're able to be mindful, we're able to be more engaged and even and more present. And because we are able to do that, it enables us to be more effective. When we're able to be mindful, we're able to regulate ourselves better and to see, notice when we're off or notice when things are great. You can even notice when things are neutral, huh? Okay. But it helps you to make wise choices in how you want to see what makes the most sense here for the next moment. I often tell people developing mindfulness, you can think of it in two branches. One branch is using everyday life as a lab for mindfulness. Just all those examples that I suggested. You can you can choose to give your mindful attention on whatever task or person you're talking to. And then you can also use meditation as a way to build your mindfulness muscles. Very simple meditation, simply sitting and watching your breath. You're not trying to breathe any certain way, but you just notice how your breath's coming in and out. Where is it most prevalent? Is it most prevalent in and out of your nose, your chest rising and falling, your belly rising and falling? And you just notice it with curiosity. You don't, you don't, by doing a mindful meditation like that on a regular basis, that can help build your mindfulness muscles. You can think of mindful meditation as attention training, because that's what it's doing. It's you choose a point of focus, a very common one is to focus on your breath. And that will then can then translate when you're using life as a lab for mindfulness. Okay, where am I, where is it most important for me to place my focus now? I just said a lot, so I'm just gonna take a beat and see how that all lands for you and if you have questions.

SPEAKER_01 19:08

Different, different. I totally agree. And um, I would say it's not just about overhauling, but it's all about the recalibration and intentional uh recalibration, just to complete it properly. And I also feel it it definitely leads to something that many people are obviously struggle with. So for people who are listening right now, or someone who is listening right now who feels overwhelmed, for them, what will be the one small but kind of I would say the meaningful shift they can implement this week to start reclaiming their energy.

Mindfulness in Daily Life

SPEAKER_01 19:43

I mean, if you can suggest something.

SPEAKER_03 19:46

Yeah. Um, much of what we discussed earlier, if you if you do look at your calendar and don't see a lot of white space, perhaps decide, okay, I'm gonna start taking a 10-minute break at two o'clock in the afternoon. Because that's that's my when I start to feel tired and exhausted, and what might that look like? I'll play with different things. I'll look out the window. I'll get if I work from home, maybe I'll vacuum a room just to get out, just to get out of my office. I might fold some clothes, whatever. If I'm working in an office space, maybe I'll get up, walk up and down the hallway a few times, walk outside the building just to try it and see what happens. So you know, pick another time during the day if mid-afternoon doesn't work for you. Or play with this notion of choosing to for this span of time or this interaction, I'm gonna be as mindful and present as possible. So I'm gonna, for example, I've chosen the day before for the next day. Okay, this is if I get anything done today, this is the most important task I need to get done. So, how do how do you create mindfulness around that? You can time block that, say, depending on if you're a morning person or an evening person. I'm personally a morning person. So for me, I would book my most important task to happen between 9 and 10:30 in the morning. And I would have no other, make sure I have no other interruptions. I put my phone on, do not disturb. If it's something that requires my computer, I would only have whatever application I need open to perform that task. I don't take phone calls, I don't, I don't look at texts or or what have you. And I do that. So that's the one thing that I focus on so I can be mindful about that. If that feels like too long or something too big a chunk, be mindful in your next conversation with someone. Don't be looking at your phone, get your phone out of the way. Be present with the person that you're with, or be mindful the next time you do a household chore, whether it's holding laundry, washing dishes, preparing. A meal. Because so many times we do things to, oh, let me just do this to get through this so I can get to the next thing. That's not what being present is about. It's being present and mindful, noticing, let's use meal prep. Yeah, you're cutting, you're cutting different food. So you're noticing the color, noticing the sound of the knife hitting the food. You're getting all your senses involved, noticing your feet on the ground. And how what does that feel like? Noticing how your clothes feel on you. How comfortable are you? How do you feel about the environment that you're in? So I would say be light and playful with it. I'm certainly not setting the expectation to be mindful 24-7. That's not possible. The Dalai Lama's not mindful 24-7. So pick different moments to start, make it a game. Pick moments to start playing with or tasks to start playing with. Like I'm going to give my full attention to this block of time, this particular task, this particular human being that I'm interacting with. And just see how that experience goes when you do that.

SPEAKER_01 23:07

Yeah, that's very, very important. And even when people start building healthier systems, they often relapse into the old habits also, like overworking, overcommitting. So when someone slips into the burnout uh potentiary again, how can they respond with awareness instead of self-judgment? What do you say?

SPEAKER_03 23:31

Such a great question. Anytime someone's creating a new habit, I often tell folks, hey, baby steps, don't take too big a step because you want to build some small successes and build those upon each other. And give yourself grace and compassion as you go through it. You, when we create new habits, it's not a straight line as we implement that. It's very much a zigzag. You're going to have ahead days and you're going to have behind days. And if you know that going in, it makes the behind days more acceptable in a way. You don't have to love it. But okay, this is normal because we're training our brain how to do new things. And our brain needs repeated behavior over and over again to create that new groove in our brain. So all the habits that we've performed up until today have created grooves in our brain. So when we try to create a new, that's this notion of neuroplasticity. When we try to create a new habit, that old pathway is what's pulling us. So it's not a matter of willpower, it's brain science. It because that's the conditioning that we've had up until now. So going into habit change with the realization that, okay, I'm going to need to repeat this behavior a number of times before it sticks and creates a new path. Just like if you were to walk over a patch of fresh grass. And when you walk over it the first time, it doesn't make a dirt path. But if you or a bunch of people walk over that same pathway multiple times, ultimately you're going to get to dirt and it creates a new path. It's the same way with creating new habits in our brain. It's not going to happen overnight. That's why New Year's resolutions, people say, oh, I'm going to go to the gym five days a week. And if you haven't been in months, that's not likely to happen. Oh, it's more realistic to let me try going once a week or twice a week first. Pick, pick that baby step that you will feel good about achieving. I usually say to think about what a no-brainer would be and amp that up just a little bit because that'll give you more satisfaction.

SPEAKER_02 25:39

But we don't need to stretch so far. You'll ultimately get to the stretch. So, you know, a little, a little bit of a stretch initially with that baby step plus.

SPEAKER_01 25:52

So um okay. And

Understanding Habit Change and Burnout

SPEAKER_01 25:55

uh for someone who is listening who feels chronically exhausted, but also at the same time afraid that slowing down might cost them their success. So what would you gently invite them to consider?

SPEAKER_03 26:09

Yeah, well, if they're chronically exhausted, their success is already being impacted. And I say that gently. Like understand that you're all you're already not performing at your best if you're chronically exhausted. So why not look at a way to start performing better that's gonna boost your energy and make you feel better. Um, and I do also just want to point out if you're chronically exhausted already, that also might merit being seen by a medical professional, just to make sure there's no underlying medical conditions going on in you. Nothing clinically is happening for you. So I just want to make sure that people take that step as well.

SPEAKER_01 26:54

So uh if the listeners want to explore your book, connect with the priority wellness, or learn more about your book, where they can find you.

SPEAKER_03 27:03

Yeah, I would say the two best places are my website, which is prioritywellness.com, or social media-wise, I'm most active on LinkedIn. So if you find me on LinkedIn, those would be that, or on my website would be the best places to find me.

SPEAKER_01 27:20

So, dear listeners, what I'll do is I'll put all the links into the show notes for a easy reference so that you can easily reach out to her. And I'd love to say that burnout is not a kind of requirement for the impact, but it's a kind of signal. And as we continue exploring the intersection of human potential and the intelligent systems here on Mind Meets Machine, I always invite you to ask yourself that are you running your day? Such a great question.

SPEAKER_03 27:48

Yeah. And and even pausing to ask yourself a question like that is a mindfulness step. It's it's giving you a pause to step back and say, okay.

SPEAKER_00 27:58

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 28:00

What's the answer to that question? And now, based on that answer, now what's my next step?

SPEAKER_01 28:05

Definitely. Definitely. So do let us know, realists, what do you think, what do you feel. Would love to know your answers. And if today's conversation or today's episode presented with you, please share it with someone who needs permission to lead with well being. And with this hope, until next time, align your energy with what matters and let your well being be your edge. So, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_02 28:30

Thank you, Abby.