Overwhelmed? – Rewire your brain

If you are feeling overwhelmed you may need new wiring.

I was working with an executive client this week who is 6 months into her new role as CEO.  She hired me because she is feeling overwhelmed and the new role isn’t what she thought it would be. It’s much harder than she expected – not the actual business stuff, it’s the people stuff.  She said if she knew then what she knows now, she probably wouldn’t have taken the role on. She had decided to believe that she is not ‘cut out for this’, that maybe she is not a wired for being a CEO.

Hmmm, interesting idea, are we wired for intelligence, for particular functions or roles?  What if we could look at brain scans as well as CVs and see what type of jobs would suit us best.

Imagine a world where you go to a career coach and as part of the information gathering you do an MRI scan which determines what professional function aligns to your brain function connections.

In a recent article on WIRED, called ‘Scientists can now predict intelligence from brain activity’, this is our future.  It refers to a study published recently in Nature Neuroscience which tells us that ‘some brains are better than others at certain things, simply because of the way they are wired’.

This is why I love science and why I am so fascinated with the human brain and how it impacts human behaviour.

This brings our focus again to neuroplasticity – the ability our brain has to grow new pathways of neural connections.

Science has proven that we can, with the right focus and attention, learn how to wire our brain for new functionality. This proves, as whole system humans we have the ability to lead our brains to new potential, new opportunities and ultimately new results.

What we know…

We know we have sleep functions in our brain that enable us GO to sleep

We know we have left brain functions in our brain that enable us GO to analytical thinking

We know we have right brain functions in our brain that enable us GO to creative thinking

We know that the female brains enable us GO to relationship management with ease

We know that the male brain enables us GO to yes/no functions with ease

We know we have emotional pathways that enable us GO to pathways that mobilise us

Going back to the client I mentioned earlier, we worked on doing just that, creating new thinking that creates new pathways that leads her to better success and performance in her CEO role.

She moved from feeling overwhelmed to feeling calm and  in control by re-wiring with some new thinking and pressing her GO button.

Neuro-biologist, Richard Davidson calls it ‘neurally inspired behavioural therapy’. Its about raising your awareness to identify the thinking around an emotional trigger/trait and then actively designing personal mental exercises to result in a healthier ’emotional style’.  In short  you can steer yourself towards healthier emotions via your thinking.

Another discovery from Davidson was that resilience shows up in the brain as strong connections between the left prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. People with less resilience have weaker connections in this space. Co-active coaching is a process that helps strengthen these connections, no wonder it has such great results.Other activities such as mindfulness and meditation also help build these specific connections.

With the right knowledge and practice, we can steer our thoughts, emotions and behaviours towards the GO buttons that enable us grow into our potential.

Let’s say YES to that.

Donaldson says, “Well-being is strongly related to your emotional and physical health. If your emotional style is not working for you, the first and most important ingredient of change is awareness.”

This is why Coaching with the knowledge and practice of Neuroscience is so powerful

It’s time to GrOw

Photos are from FreeDigitalPhotos.net chatchai_stoker and  smokedsalmon