Episode 103
Building a Resilient Mindset with Jo Britton
Jo Britton, a Neuroleadership and Neurosculpting coach, shares her experience of helping clients to build their resilience. True resilience is more than just endurance. True resilience is about being adaptable and having the capacity to navigate change with grace and composure. Jo shares how she helps high achievers shift their unproductive mental and emotional patterns so they build a positive mindset that boosts their productivity and wellbeing. Jo shares practical tools that we can all implement immediately to enhance our resilience.
Takeaways:
- The critical importance of resilience in navigating the complexities of high-pressure work environments, emphasizing the need for adaptability and emotional regulation amidst challenges.
- Practical tools and strategies that individuals can employ to enhance their resilience, such as physical movement and breath regulation techniques designed to stabilize emotional responses.
- Resilience is not merely about enduring stress but involves a dynamic process of adaptability and self-awareness, recognizing triggers that lead to dysregulation.
- Resilience can be cultivated through neuroplasticity, allowing individuals to rewire their responses to stress and develop more constructive behavioural patterns.
- By reflecting on our personal journey and the lessons learned from previous challenges, we can foster a mindset that embraces growth through adversity rather than defining ourselves by failures.
Transcript
Foreign.
Speaker B:Welcome to the Career Confidence podcast where we share inspiring stories, practical strategies, hints and tips so that you can build your career with confidence in this ever changing world.
Speaker B:I'm your host, Nicholas Semple, a career and confidence coach and author of the Career Confidence Toolkit.
Speaker B:Today I am delighted to welcome Jo Britton to the podcast.
Speaker B:Now, Jo is a neuro leadership and neurosculpting coach and I have to say the work she does is, is absolutely fascinating.
Speaker B:So she works predominantly with ambitious high achievers who are in challenging roles and they really need to excel under pressure.
Speaker B:Every day they're making high stakes decisions, they've got to make those decisions quickly and they've got to be resilient so that they can keep on going with without burning out.
Speaker B:So she works with her clients to help them shift unhelpful mental, emotional and physical patterns.
Speaker B:And what that then allows them to do is to release stress and move to a place of high performance so that they can be resilient, they can be focused and they can remain calm.
Speaker B:Now make sure you listen the whole way through because Jo shares some absolutely brilliant practical tools that we can all start to use right now to help us become more resilient.
Speaker B:Jo, hello.
Speaker B:Very, very good to have you here.
Speaker A:Thank you for the opportunity.
Speaker B:I'm really looking forward to our conversation today where we're going to dive into resilience and what resilience is.
Speaker B:But before we get to that, I'd love for you to share a little bit about who you are and the career journey that you've been on.
Speaker B:So can you give us a little potted history, tell us about you?
Speaker A:Well, it's a really, for me, it's a really interesting journey in terms of where I've got to now as a neural leadership and neurosculpting coach and facilitator.
Speaker A:But I started out in telesales way back before the Internet and it was cold, calling for windows and doors and replacement kitchens.
Speaker A:In fact it was kitchens was the first one that I did.
Speaker A:And that was quite interesting because resilience really played a part there, but I didn't realize it at the time.
Speaker A:So you would be calling the public out of a telephone directory.
Speaker A:And I'm showing my age here now because you know, phone directories, often you would go in for a four hour shift, it was a smoky room, the telephone's there, the supervisors there, rips a page out the phone book.
Speaker A:And usually it was the Smiths.
Speaker A:And for the next four hours I was calling trying to get appointments for the Salespeople to go and sell them a bit of kitchen.
Speaker A:It was brutal, really brutal.
Speaker B:Jo I think we maybe worked for the same company in different cities, really.
Speaker B:When I was a student, I did exactly that.
Speaker B:And I have to say I only lasted a week because I made an appointment with an old lady who I knew could not afford a new kitchen.
Speaker B:And the guilt that I then felt in terms of somebody actually going out to try and sell her something, I think she just wanted a chat with somebody and for somebody to come and visit her home.
Speaker B:But yes, it was brutal.
Speaker A:So you would have known as well then the number of times people put the phone down on you, the abuse that you get.
Speaker A:And it was kind of four hours.
Speaker A:And actually, I think back in those days, employment law was not as rigorous as it is these days.
Speaker A:And some of the supervisors would say if you don't get used to have to get three confirmed appointments in the.
Speaker A:In the session that you were in the time that you were in.
Speaker A:And if you didn't, they locked you in until you got them.
Speaker A:So there'd be sometimes six hours.
Speaker A:But, you know, at the time I.
Speaker A:I was 17 or 18, you know, was in sixth form at the time.
Speaker A:But actually that's probably one of those, when you reflect back, one of those really key defining moments that almost shaped my career to a certain degree, because every time I then went to get a job and that was the thing I had on my cv, that was the thing they were always interested in.
Speaker A:The fact that I did cold calling telesales ago.
Speaker A:You must be resilient or, you know, you must be able to get on with people.
Speaker A:And I never really thought about it like that.
Speaker A:You know, you probably don't when, when you're young.
Speaker A:Yeah, they.
Speaker A:When I reflect on a.
Speaker A:Learning from that, what it did give me did give me some resilience, actually.
Speaker A:But it also gave me the ability to listen and then to ask really good questions.
Speaker A:And I think from a career, if you link it to a career point of view with people, that that's really important.
Speaker A:Whatever job you're in, the ability to be able to listen to people and then be curious and ask questions.
Speaker A:And the fact that it was sales, there are lots of people that I work with now or I've worked with that are kind of really afraid of sales.
Speaker A:And in your.
Speaker A:Wherever you are in your career, you've got to sell yourself as well, haven't you?
Speaker A:For lots of people, they find that really, really icky.
Speaker A:But actually what you're doing is you're solving A problem for somebody.
Speaker A:You know, I, I, you know, somebody that doesn't have a kitchen at that time or wanted to, you know, it was a bit like how much mud you could throw at a wall and how much would stick because it was just rattling through lots of names at the time.
Speaker A:But actually there's always somebody out there that has a problem that you can solve, whether that's, you know, in the job that you have in the business that you're working in or whatever.
Speaker A:So the ability to be able to really listen to people and ask them really good questions means that you can help them solve a problem.
Speaker A:So that was where it all started, to be honest.
Speaker A:But then after that I moved into a sales role that was working with and selling, it was educational products actually to manufacturers.
Speaker A:And at the time, I was then in my early 20s, I had no experience of manufacturing and we had products books that had actually hadn't even been developed.
Speaker A:And I was sent out on the road in my little Vauxhall Corsa to knock on doors.
Speaker A:MDs of companies or whatever might sell them this concept.
Speaker A:And I remember and I had this big sales target, never really been trained properly in sales.
Speaker A:So even though I did telesales, there wasn't training as such.
Speaker A:And then this was now sort of field, field sales.
Speaker A:And I remember having to go into a meeting where I'd not, you know, we'd not quite hit the sales target and crying, you know, like, oh, I can't do this.
Speaker A:And then I say, I can't do this because I don't know anything about manufacturing.
Speaker A:And they're like, you great, Joe.
Speaker A:You know, just keep going.
Speaker A:So again, it's another kind of lesson in resilience, albeit I never really had any coaching or mentoring or, or support.
Speaker A:So I did that and then I got promoted because I did hit my targets and things also because I was so.
Speaker A:I didn't want to feel so embarrassed and humiliated that I hadn't met my target.
Speaker A:So I did absolutely everything possible and learned so much on the job, really because you're working with lots of people and got really good at it.
Speaker A:So I was promoted into a management position and my goodness, was that a learning curve and, you know, everything that, you know, I've no training in how to be a manager.
Speaker A:And I guess even if I had to add some formal training, it's, that's not real life at that point as well.
Speaker A:So again, you're learning on the job by making loads of mistakes.
Speaker A:But some of the stuff, I apologize if there's anybody listening to this, that I manage particularly early in my career.
Speaker A:I was pretty, pretty poor with that.
Speaker A:But again, there are sort of lessons really that, that you take with that and you take that forward.
Speaker A:And so that was quite a pivotal moment, I would think.
Speaker A:And I think it is for anybody, you know, if you get your first management managerial rule.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:And I don't know about you, but at first I was a bit like, oh, I'm a manager.
Speaker A:And I was really ambitious as well.
Speaker A:So I wanted a man, I wanted to be a manager and manage a team of people.
Speaker A:And then suddenly it hit me and dawned on me that this is not easy at all.
Speaker B:No, anything where you're dealing with other human beings is not easy.
Speaker B:And as you see, nobody trains you.
Speaker B:And the reason you get promoted is because you were really good at the content of your job.
Speaker B:And what then happens is you become a manager and actually you do less of that content and more of the managing.
Speaker B:And it can be quite a tricky time for people when they first step into that managerial role.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:And 100 agree with you because I think as you put your career or my career progressed and it sort of ascended through the ranks, made it to sort of senior leadership positions in, in marketing director level positions.
Speaker A:The game changes at every single point, doesn't it?
Speaker A:So, and the teams get bigger and the amount that you're delegating gets bigger and you have to manage through other people.
Speaker A:But also there's all the other stuff then that comes with it.
Speaker A:So like again, a key learning point for me when I first got into a very senior leadership position was, oh my God, goodness.
Speaker A:Like I was exposed to so many things that I'd never previously been exposed to.
Speaker A:Probably because I've had some decent managers who shielded that from me in the past.
Speaker A:Yeah, and you're absolutely right.
Speaker A:It's less about the technical aspect of you.
Speaker A:Oh, that's just assumed, you know, that that's a given, isn't it?
Speaker A:That you can do that, that part of it.
Speaker A:And then it become more about influencing and being able to navigate politics well.
Speaker A:And all the reporting that you have to do and how to lead and drive change.
Speaker A:And all of this involves people, all with personalities, all who are very different.
Speaker A:And you know, some of the shocks that I got along the way, I just used to think, well, I'm a hard worker, everybody's a hard worker, they'll just do these things.
Speaker A:And then I suddenly realize, oh my gosh, you know, not everybody thinks like me or not everybody feels like me.
Speaker A:And it's a massive wakeup call.
Speaker A:And I think this is where also, you know, had I understood, because we're going to talk about resilience, I think in a moment, but had I understood how important spending time is on building your resilience, I think I would have been in a much better place personally, emotionally and physically, which is kind of now why I do what I do.
Speaker A:Because I've got one of those burnout stories really from all of the, I guess a lot of the stories that I used to tell myself about, you know, who am I to be a director in a business, you know, I'm going to get found out in a minute.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And also having worked in very male intensive industry sectors, often when you're either only the female, the only female in the room, or you're in the minority, you tend to end up working harder to try and prove yourself.
Speaker A:Or certainly that was my experience.
Speaker A:And so with that, that brings up an awful lot of stuff in your brain.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:And it was this lived experience that you had that then led you to what you're doing now.
Speaker B:Tell us a little more about what, what the current incarnation of Joe Britain is.
Speaker A:I know, and you know, when I've sort of said when I started my career, Joe, you would be, you will be in 30 years time applying neuroscience to help people, organizations be even better at what they do without burning themselves out and making more money and be more productive.
Speaker A:I would have gone, what's neuroscience?
Speaker A:You know, so that's essentially what I do now.
Speaker A:And it is, has been born out of a burnout at the top of my career in industry, where I noticed at some point I had a recurring habituated pattern which was around, who do I think I am to do this kind of stuff?
Speaker A:You're not good enough.
Speaker A:Which manifested in behavior like work harder, work more, work longer, till eventually I burned myself out.
Speaker A:And I suddenly realized that it was these patterns and stories that I've been telling myself that influenced the way that I behaved.
Speaker A:And I was doing this to myself.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So I probably had some excuses around people.
Speaker A:Some people that I work with maybe were toxic or the environment was toxic.
Speaker A:And actually, you know, sometimes we are in those environments and this is where, you know, resilience isn't something that you develop to deal with a jerk of a boss.
Speaker A:You know, I often get organizations who'll contact me and say, we need, we need some resilience training for all of our people.
Speaker A:And you know, for me it's.
Speaker A:The questions are really around culture because it doesn't fix a toxic culture.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:I did used to blame, you know, other things or other people quite a lot until I really looked into myself and thought, you know, what a lot of this I'm doing to myself.
Speaker A:So this is where that's quite a.
Speaker B:Big, brave and quite scary realization.
Speaker A:It is.
Speaker A:But when you're.
Speaker A:I'm going to say this word, desperate.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Because you're not functioning and you're not well and you're kind of thinking, on the one hand, I've got tons of qualifications and experience, and on the other hand, I'm spiraling to anxiety and I can't get out of bed and I can't function.
Speaker A:A lot of this happened also.
Speaker A:I've started my business a year before the pandemic hit.
Speaker A:And we're five years now was an anniversary, aren't we now?
Speaker A:Time of recording that it had gone really well, like sort of the first year of my business and the pandemic hit and, you know, everything shut down, didn't it?
Speaker A:Including a lot of my clients and the contracts that I had.
Speaker A:And I went straight back into that spiral and I didn't qualify for the furlough support.
Speaker A:And I just.
Speaker A:I was.
Speaker A:Got really angry about it.
Speaker A:But I also thought, joe, no one's going to come and help you.
Speaker A:No one's coming to save you.
Speaker A:And that's.
Speaker A:That was where there was a lot of introspection that I did.
Speaker A:And it got me really interested in neuroscience because that's what I discovered that, you know, how your brain and body is working can either be working for you or against you.
Speaker A:And I would rather it be working for me because at the moment I'm feeling like.
Speaker A:And I look at these, you know, situations I've had during my career when it was working against me.
Speaker A:So it's up to me to fix that.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:And also in the work that you now do, you're helping others to fix that for themselves as well, to make.
Speaker A:Not only their life better.
Speaker A:Because.
Speaker A:Because, you know, in.
Speaker A:And you see it, and I was there.
Speaker A:In today's modern world and environment, things are so much more chaotic, hectic.
Speaker A:I think about, you know, 10 years ago, if you were a leader, your span of control was about sort of.
Speaker A:You were trying to influence about 20 people, and now it's 80 to 100 people.
Speaker A:That's a lot of noise.
Speaker A:There's a lot of adaption.
Speaker A:We're going through the way technology impacts us.
Speaker A:We're constantly having to adapt to change and be flexible, and our brains and bodies are really not wired for that overload and that noise.
Speaker A:And so to be able to have the capacity yourself, to be able to deal with that comes a lot from introspection and what are the things that are going on.
Speaker A:That means I become disregulated as a human, as a.
Speaker A:As a leader, because when I'm disregulated as a human and a leader, I transfer that dysregulation to the people that I'm leading.
Speaker A:And when I say leader, we're all leaders.
Speaker A:So you don't even, you know, you don't have to have that conferred as a.
Speaker A:As a job title because we're all leading the most important group, and that's ourselves, every single day.
Speaker A:So if we want to navigate life with a bit more ease and grace and get the results that we deserve, whether they're the ones that the business is expecting of us or our impersonal ones, then it's up to us to put ourselves in the best position to be able to do that.
Speaker B:And one of the words that you've used probably four or five times now is resilience.
Speaker B:And I.
Speaker B:I think it's a word that is banded around quite a lot, but I'm not sure people fully understand what it means.
Speaker A:I know, and I think, actually, I think more recently it's got a bit of a bad reputation.
Speaker A:And I say that because, like you say, it's banded around quite a lot.
Speaker A:But also I say again because a lot of organizations, for instance, as I said earlier, will say we need to get our people to be more resilient.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Because.
Speaker A:But their environment that they've created is not particularly pleasant environment.
Speaker A:I'll tell you what it isn't, and then I'll give you my version.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:What I believe it is because I work with people and again, I think about senior leaders and they'll say they're resilient because they've got thick skin and they're a bit tea foul.
Speaker A:And, you know, they'll.
Speaker A:They'll just suppress their emotions.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And that's exactly what resilience isn't.
Speaker A:So it's not about that.
Speaker A:You know, whatever confronts you in life or at work, you're able to just brush it off and not be affected by it.
Speaker A:Because as humans, we all experience emotions and we label them as positive or negative emotions, but we're emotions.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And so it's not about ever feeling like the.
Speaker A:You don't ever feel negative emotions.
Speaker A:It's not about, you know, suppressing those emotions.
Speaker A:It's not about having a thick Skin.
Speaker A:What it is about for me is more of a process of being able to adapt and be flexible through situations that challenge you mentally, emotionally and physically, so that you can navigate with a bit more ease and grace and come out the other side of it.
Speaker A:And so where resilience really starts for me, you know, we're all resilient actually, and we all have attributes within us as human beings that make us resilient.
Speaker A:Whether that's because, you know, lots of times where you need to be resilient, whether that's change you're going through, whether that's change at work or it's changing your personal life, whether it's financial issues that you have, whether it's loss or grief, there are lots of situations or illness or emergencies.
Speaker A:There are lots of situations where we need resilience.
Speaker A:But the attributes to be resilient are things like adaptability, flexibility, creativity, problem solving.
Speaker A:All your best qualities actually, that we've all got within us and that ability to remain sort of calm when we need to be.
Speaker A:And they are.
Speaker A:And this is where the neuroscience bit really comes into this and why I got fascinated with it.
Speaker A:Those are all pro all things we can access part of us when our nervous system is regulated.
Speaker A:And they are a product of a function of the front of your brain, your prefrontal cortex, so that I call him your Einstein genius.
Speaker A:So I have a nickname for that.
Speaker A:So your Einstein genius, your prefrontal cortex is the home, I would say to your best self qualities, they will be the qualities you put on your cv, right?
Speaker A:You wouldn't put when you're applying for a job, you don't put, I'm a complete chaotic nightmare that gets really angry and frustrated.
Speaker A:You put, I'm really creative, I'm really compassionate or empathetic with people.
Speaker A:I can achieve goals and get results.
Speaker A:I'm motivated.
Speaker A:You put that on your cv, right?
Speaker A:And those are all your Einstein genius qualities in the front of your brain.
Speaker A:But what happens is when we experience stress and difficult situations is we become very mid brain dominant.
Speaker A:So the, the part of the brain that is evolutionary, really, really old, that is home to your fight or flight center, that I then nickname your Frankenstein brain.
Speaker A:So that's a life saving gift when we need it.
Speaker A:You know, if your life is really under threat and in danger in those moments there's a car hurting towards you and you have to get out, then you absolutely need midbrain and your Frankenstein to mobilize adrenaline and cortisol to your muscle masses so that you can fight or flee Right.
Speaker A:But most of the time, we're living in, you know, in work environments or home environments.
Speaker A:We are living in that stress arousal response.
Speaker A:So the sympathetic arousal response triggered by, like, Frankenstein, whether that is because there's real threat to us, and that's when it saves our life, but a lot of it is perceived or imagined threat, I.
Speaker A:E.
Speaker A:You know, we're going through some sort of change and we're not clear about what's going to happen.
Speaker A:And so we might get anxious or worried about it or it might be thoughts that we have.
Speaker A:We activate the same thing, you know, and for me, that was my burnout, was I'm not good enough.
Speaker A:You know, that.
Speaker A:That story that I tell myself, or it might be that we do work with a jerk of a boss or whatever who knows how to press our button.
Speaker A:So resilience, therefore, is about understanding that we have that dynamic going on in our nervous system.
Speaker A:It's like a spectrum.
Speaker A:And in the middle, when we're at rest and digest, is where everything's good in our world.
Speaker A:It's where we access our resilience, or Einstein genius bit.
Speaker A:So we're centralized with blood glucose, oxygen, all is well.
Speaker A:That's when I'm going to perform at the best and, you know, access my resilient attributes and qualities.
Speaker A:Whereas when there are things that trigger us, whether it's fight or flight, or it's the freeze response, which is more extreme, parasympathetic response tips us the other side and we freeze or get highly aroused and supercharged and we're fight or flight.
Speaker A:Then we're not accessing our Einstein genius because you're not in both parts of the brain at the same time.
Speaker A:So resilience to me is about how you move the seesaw, which means you have to be able to recognize in yourself what are those things that presses my buttons.
Speaker A:That means I get inappropriate Frankenstein moments.
Speaker A:And then what are the tools I can use to bring myself back to my Einstein zone?
Speaker B:And one of the things you talked about quite early on and that was about regulating our nervous system, how do we do it?
Speaker A:How do we do it?
Speaker A:Okay, so first of all, it is about awareness first.
Speaker A:So if you think when I say there's a spectrum and we do a dance through that spectrum from highly charged arousal, sympathetic response, that's fight or flight response, through to, for some people, where you become so extremely parasympathetic that you can freeze, withdraw, dissociate, and then in the middle, we've got rest and digest.
Speaker A:So if you're very it's recognizing what is it that triggers any of those extremes for you.
Speaker A:So I use a tool, it's called Scar and it's a neuroscience based tool by somebody, you can look it up.
Speaker A:It's Dr.
Speaker A:David Rock.
Speaker A:This changed my life.
Speaker A:And it's, and it's 5 domain.
Speaker A:It works on the way that our brain responds to its perception of threat and reward.
Speaker A:And there are five areas or domains that if the brain perceives are triggered, will send us into some form of dysregulation in the nervous system.
Speaker A:So one of them is.
Speaker A:The first one in Scarf is status.
Speaker A:Now this really makes sense if you think about it in a work point of view.
Speaker A:Have you ever noticed how much attention people pay to building their status in work?
Speaker A:And for some people more than others?
Speaker B:Well, I was going to say for some people that's 95% of, of their day job.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker B:It shouldn't be.
Speaker B:But, but so many people spend a huge amount of time building their status, building their personal brand as opposed to actually delivering on what needs to be delivered.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker A:And so for some people that will be hugely important to them.
Speaker A:And you see it all over, don't you, from you know, the job title somebody wants and the car that they drive and you know, the social groups they're in and the communities they're in at work and building that personal brand.
Speaker A:So for some people actually if they perceive their status to be threatened, that can dysregulate them.
Speaker A:The second one is certainty.
Speaker A:So if I feel uncertain about things in the world, then that's going to dysregulate me.
Speaker A:The third is autonomy.
Speaker A:So if I don't feel like I've got a con, any control or a sense of control over things that will dysregulate me.
Speaker A:The fourth one is relatedness.
Speaker A:So if I don't feel like I have a sense of belonging because as human beings that's you know, going way back to caveman times.
Speaker A:We needed to be part of a drive tribe that will dysregulate me.
Speaker A:And if I don't perceive things as being fair.
Speaker A:So the first thing that you can do is kind of work through that and look at what are the things that trigger me.
Speaker A:Is it when my status is threatened or it could be status being I'm not listening to in a meeting, that's a knock on my status and that sends me over the edge or I withdraw or I get really angry.
Speaker A:So whatever those things are and then notice what happens in your body.
Speaker A:Is it that I get really hyper aroused Angry, frustrated.
Speaker A:So am I sympathetically aroused in fight or flight mode?
Speaker A:And if that's the case, then I need to discharge adrenaline and cortisol in my body.
Speaker A:And there are some really simple ways that you can actually do this.
Speaker A:And, and this is where like the neuroscience sounds like really difficult but actually really easy.
Speaker A:You can shake your body.
Speaker A:So if we did that now, Nicola, let's do that together.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:For people to listen to and join it would be a really big vigorous like so 30 to 60 seconds of that is going to discharge that arousal and that works a bit like, you know, if you ever see an animal under threat in the wild, once that threat has disappeared, you'll see it shake its body.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:Neurogenic tremoring it's called as well.
Speaker A:So shaking is really good.
Speaker A:The breath is really helpful to us now.
Speaker A:You know, we often don't think about breathing because it's, it's predictable and it's automatic.
Speaker A:And actually predictability is really helpful to ground us because the brain wants to know that it's, it's comfortable, it's stable, things are predictable.
Speaker A:So actually what you can do also is just think about what's going on in my life that actually is predictable.
Speaker A:When my breath's breathing itself, that's predictable and automatic.
Speaker A:But actually when you breathe, if you're hyper aroused, people will say take some deep breaths.
Speaker A:But if I go try and breathe in when I'm really hyper aroused, that can make me feel worse.
Speaker A:So what you want to do is, is kind of put the brake on it.
Speaker A:So lengthen your exhale and that will bring me down.
Speaker A:There's all sorts of things.
Speaker A:Like lots of people will meditate, which is brilliant.
Speaker A:If you're in a hyper arousal state, not good.
Speaker A:If you're in an extreme parasympathetic, withdrawn state because meditation makes you like really calm.
Speaker A:And if you're not aroused at all because you're very withdrawn, the last thing you want to do is make yourself even calmer.
Speaker A:What you do is like put the accelerator on and kickstart your nervous system.
Speaker A:So hyper aroused, in a sympathetic state, your exhale, usual exhale, shake your body, do some exercise, like something vigorous, run, dance, meditate.
Speaker A:But if you're extreme, the other side then shaking again, that works on both sides of the equation.
Speaker A:Shaking is really good.
Speaker A:But also the, the inhale will kick start your nervous system.
Speaker A:So it'll be some of those quick breaths to do that rather than the exhale.
Speaker A:But there are also some really fun things that you can do to condition Your brain for adaptability and flexibility, which is what resilience is, because an adaptable and flexible brain is a resilient brain.
Speaker A:And that.
Speaker A:And that's when neuroplasticity comes in.
Speaker A:So we have this gift, it's how we learn things, these patterns that we've learned, like how to pick up a coffee cup or how to tie your shoelaces, they're all patterns that help us navigate.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And we also have patterns that we may have learned and rehearsed that are life preserving, which are the stories we tell ourselves that may not be particularly helpful to us.
Speaker A:So you can self direct neuroplasticity in much more helpful ways to change or unscript some of the unhelpful patterns and to build new ones.
Speaker A:And that's where I do neurosculpting.
Speaker A:That helps you kind of do that really, really quickly.
Speaker A:But actually some things we can do right now.
Speaker A:So to boost neuroplasticity in the brain for learning.
Speaker A:So if you were to take your right hand right now and you were to then go from your thumb to your finger and then to.
Speaker A:What's that finger called?
Speaker A:The next finger along your middle finger and then your index finger and go backwards and forwards.
Speaker A:Does that feel quite easy to do, Nicola?
Speaker B:Yeah, it does feel quite easy.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's quite easy to do.
Speaker A:Right, so then, so that's right hand, left hand though.
Speaker A:You're going to do something similar but instead of going some to.
Speaker A:We did little finger, did we?
Speaker B:Yeah, we did, yeah.
Speaker A:We're gonna go thumb to index finger inst and do that backwards and forwards.
Speaker B:You're not going to ask me to do them both at the same time, right?
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker A:So I've been practicing that both at the same time for months and I still can't do it.
Speaker A:Which means it's a good neuroplasticity exercise for me.
Speaker A:Because what it's actually doing is fo is recruiting focused attention to the front of your brain.
Speaker A:So your brain's got to really think about it.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:If you can do it.
Speaker A:And what I often discover is there'll be some clients I work with and they do it really quickly and then I'll say are you a musician?
Speaker A:And they go actually I do play piano or guitar.
Speaker A:Notice that.
Speaker A:And it kind of makes sense.
Speaker A:If it's easy for you to do, then it's not a neuroplastic exercise for you because it's too easy.
Speaker A:What we're always trying to do is get your brain to really think and focus.
Speaker A:So those sorts of Things really help you just do some fun things every day to help build your adaptability and flexibility so that you're resilient.
Speaker A:There's also now.
Speaker B:And actually, sorry to interrupt, but I'm just curious about that.
Speaker B:So is that, you know, a lot of people will do Wordle or Sudoku or things that.
Speaker B:That they feel get their brain moving.
Speaker B:Is.
Speaker B:Is that another element to that or does it be something that's physical?
Speaker A:No, it is.
Speaker A:There are lots of things that you can do to boost neuroplasticity.
Speaker A:I mean, exercise is neuroplastic boosting.
Speaker A:Well, and the reason those things like Sudoku or crossword or whatever is because you're concentrating and you're focused.
Speaker A:So you're bringing.
Speaker A:When we talked about the seesaw, you're bringing your resources to the front of your brain.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And you're able to access, like really good quality.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:So all of that, you sort of train in your brain for resilience when you're doing that, because you're training it for flexibility and up to adaptability and focused attention.
Speaker A:So anything that does that.
Speaker A:But you can do that with.
Speaker A:I don't know, you might.
Speaker A:The front of your brain gets really engaged when it gets curious or whether.
Speaker A:Where there's something fun or novel.
Speaker A:So even, you know, a couple of minutes of.
Speaker A:Excuse me.
Speaker A:A couple of minutes of your mind wandering, thinking crazy stuff like, I wonder what it would be like to be a spoon for the day.
Speaker B:Mm.
Speaker A:Oh, I've never been a spoon before.
Speaker A:What's that like?
Speaker A:Or I wonder what it would be like if raindrops could sing.
Speaker A:What would they be singing?
Speaker A:Or if raindrops were flavored, what would they flavor?
Speaker A:What would the flavor be?
Speaker A:Anything that's a bit outlandish is going to get your brain scared.
Speaker A:Oh, that's interesting.
Speaker A:That's novel.
Speaker A:And you're out of dominance in your midbrain and you're into your prefrontal frontal cortex.
Speaker A:So there are loads of, like, silly things that you can do like that.
Speaker A:I wonder what it would be like right now for you, Nicola, if you just noticed one eyelash on your left eyelid.
Speaker B:I'm having to concentrate really hard on that.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And it's not.
Speaker A:Because it's not something that you.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:So you.
Speaker B:So I'm.
Speaker B:I'm loving all of these ideas that, that we can implement for ourselves.
Speaker B:There will be people listening who perhaps they manage a team or they've got responsibility for other people in their organization.
Speaker B:How can we support each other to become more resilient yeah, really good question.
Speaker A:And it's what I do every day, actually working with organizations.
Speaker A:So the first thing is do the work yourself, right?
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:When you understand this and you understand how you're wired and what pushes your buttons and you can regulate, guess what, whatever's going on, you have the ability to be resilient and calm and collected in that moment.
Speaker A:And when you're calm, the rest of your team are going to replicate that behavior.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:But just teach others how to do this.
Speaker A:This is stuff I do in organizations all the time.
Speaker A:And even if I start with leadership teams, what I've been finding, which is brilliant, is they actually start meetings with these neuroplasticity exercises because they're fun.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:You know, and they get.
Speaker A:People invent them and you know, so none of this is actually, it is brain science, but it's not the hard brain science.
Speaker A:It's quite simple and fun today.
Speaker B:And actually I love what you're saying there about they're taking what they're learning and they're actually just making it part of the culture of the organization and just making it part of everyday life, that this is just what we do.
Speaker B:And what you're doing is giving them a common language or a common, a common way of being that allows them.
Speaker A:To do that and a set of tools and guess what happens?
Speaker A:The more we practice and rehearse that stuff, which is good patterning, the more we default to that and therefore that becomes, you know, if that's teams of you, that becomes the culture.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's what culture is.
Speaker A:Whereas if we are every day showing up and practicing and showing people our bad patterns and behavior and we're scarfing everybody, guess what, that's what we get back and that becomes the culture.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So this is like immensely powerful stuff that doesn't cost you really anything to do.
Speaker B:And it's brilliant work that you do, but it's a long way from tearing out pages of the phone book and cold calling.
Speaker B:And so I'm curious about what would, what would you say to 21 year old Joe about how her career would progress?
Speaker A:You know that there's a trend going on at the moment, isn't there, where I took 21 year old Joe and.
Speaker B:I can't, I can't bear, I can't bear reading those.
Speaker B:They just.
Speaker B:Yeah, it just gets my hackles up.
Speaker A:I know, but I think, you know, if I was speaking to 21 year old Joe about a career, I mean, I think I mentioned it earlier, you know, quite frankly, the Stuff that I do now didn't exist when I was 21.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So to be able to say to 21 year old Joe, you're going to be doing this stuff, right?
Speaker A:You're going to be taking your science and you're going to be applying it and you're going to be doing all this stuff.
Speaker A:I'd have been like, what?
Speaker A:And also I probably would have been like, well, I'm not good enough or clever enough to do, do that kind of thing, you know.
Speaker A:But I think also what's got me here and what I'd be saying to Jo is as you go through life, things are going to come up and challenge you and you can either take those challenges on and may not be successful and think that you have failed with those things, but that's not your identity.
Speaker A:So there's a difference between failing, which we as humans need to do, because that's what neuroplasticity is as well.
Speaker A:It's error correction.
Speaker A:I fail, I learn from it and I correct.
Speaker A:That's exactly how your brain works versus what I think probably younger Joe did was take those failures on board as Joe is a failure, you know, as an identity.
Speaker A:And so actually these are gifts that are going to get you to do something in 30 years time that you're going to absolutely love and change the world with, right?
Speaker A:So embrace every opportunity, whether that's going to really test you.
Speaker A:Because you know, when I was much younger, I'd have been too fearful of like taking on opportunities or roles or whatever.
Speaker A:Because even if you fail at particular things, you're going to learn so much.
Speaker A:And each of those things that you learn is all part of you get into doing something in the future that now doesn't exist.
Speaker A:That's going to be absolutely, you're going to love doing every, every single day.
Speaker A:And you're going to impact lives in a really positive way.
Speaker A:To do that, Joe, you're going to have to work in some environments that maybe you didn't think you'd work in and weren't particularly pleasant at times.
Speaker A:You're gonna have to push yourself to maybe cold call and develop because those skills are going to be really important, like the ability to listen and, you know, have conversations with people.
Speaker A:You're gonna learn along the way that not everybody thinks like you.
Speaker A:And actually that's a real gift because that's going to help you understand other people so that you can help them in the future.
Speaker A:You're going to work with some people who are brilliant and you love and become you know, maybe friends for life or whatever.
Speaker A:And you're going to work with some people who are, you know, a jerk.
Speaker A:And actually those jerks are really going to help you because that's again, going to teach you lessons.
Speaker A:So I think you know much at times where in life or in our careers, we probably have things that you might think are, you know, lemons being thrown at you and you don't want to drink the lemonade.
Speaker A:And people say that to you.
Speaker A:I think when I reflect back and I was reflecting for this podcast, I thought, you know what, each of those things has really been a gift.
Speaker A:And I've not realized until I was preparing for this podcast how much of a gift they were and how much they've really helped me get to where I am.
Speaker B:And also when you're in the thick of those inverted commas, gifts, they don't feel like gifts.
Speaker B:But it's only with that benefit of hindsight that you can look back on things.
Speaker B:I know for sure that when people listen to this, they're going to want to find out more about you and more about the work that you do.
Speaker B:So where is the best people, the best place for people to go to find out more?
Speaker A:The place I hang out the most, to be fair, is LinkedIn.
Speaker A:So if you want to come and give me a follow or connect with me on LinkedIn, I'm Jo Britton Pace on LinkedIn.
Speaker A:I always love to connect with people.
Speaker A:I always give away lots of free resources and tools just to help people.
Speaker A:I'm also on Instagram if anybody wants to join me over there.
Speaker A:My handle's a bit different.
Speaker A:It's Joe Britton.
Speaker A:Mojo.
Speaker A:How you find your mojo all linked to resilience.
Speaker A:Come give me a follow there.
Speaker B:Absolutely fantastic.
Speaker B:Thank you so much for taking the time to share all of that with us today.
Speaker B:And I am definitely going to be off practicing touching my pinky to my fingers and vice versa on my other hand, to help build up that neuroplasticity.
Speaker B:So thank you so much.
Speaker A:You're welcome.
Speaker A:Thanks for having me.
Speaker B:A huge thank you to Jo.
Speaker B:I found that conversation so fascinating and I could happily have spent the entire afternoon chatting with her.
Speaker B:I've got more brilliant guests lined up over the next few weeks, so be sure to hit subscribe on your podcast app of choice so that the episodes are delivered straight to your device when they become available.
Speaker B:That's all from me for today.
Speaker B:Remember, you can buy my book, the Career Confidence Toolkit on Amazon and it's available there on Kindle paperback and in audible format.
Speaker B:And if you'd like to keep in contact, be sure to download my free guide Back yourself.
Speaker B:Your seven step plan to build confidence and achieve your career goals.
Speaker B:And you can do that by going to Nicholas Semple.com backyourself when you do that, you'll get instant access to the guide, but I will also send you my fortnightly newsletter with lots of career confidence hints and tips.
Speaker B:Thank you so much for listening and I'll talk to you again very soon.
Speaker B:Bye for now.
