The summer begs lazy days and trying to unwind. The reality is that we’re working, balancing family obligations and trying to take vacations — which seem almost non-existent in corporate America. One of my large global clients has actually replaced the term “work-life balance” with “work-life integration.” Their thinking? There is no more balance. We are working all the time, whether at the office or at the beach.
The most effective and powerful communicators and leaders know how to decompress and find ways to release tension. As a coach to C-suite executives all over the world, I help them de-stress before high-powered presentations to executive boards, global team meetings and high-stake investor reviews, and I give some very simple yet incredibly impactful tips which can be applied to a host of business and life situations.
Let’s say you’re trying to leave on a seven-day vacation with your family. But at the office there are reports to be completed, clients to be updated, 200 emails to answer and four more meetings than there are hours left in the day. Your to-do list is longer than your arm.
Stop and try this: Close your eyes, take two deep breaths and imagine you are at the beach. Hear the surf, and feel the sand between your toes and the sun on your skin. Why the beach? The warmth of the sun, the white noise of the waves, the smell of the surf, the feel of sand between your toes. In other words, four of your five senses will become involved in this imaginary excursion. (If you want all five, imagine eating an orange, or something else juicy and delicious.)
Why do this? If you can truly put yourself in this imaginary “play” — your mindset will shift and hopefully put you in a different, less tense state. By enlivening the five senses, by shifting focus, by creating a mental image that engages the mental “body” summer vacation will come early.
The ability to alter your mind to minimize the internal feelings of stress is a powerful tool for business and life. Recent studies have shown that it is not stress itself that is damaging to our health, but our opinion about stress. Those who think stress is bad have increased restriction in their blood vessles, which is indeed damaging over the long haul. But those who see stress as a part of life, a welcome challenge, nothing to be worried about, a strength or character booster seem to suffer far fewer physical effects.
We know so little about the impact of the mind on the body. I recall reading about a study years ago where a smell was associated with the delivery of a pain-reducing drug. Later, those who had associated the smell with the drug merely needed to smell the same scent for their pain to be reduced. I do not know, but have often wondered if perhaps they reached the point where just imagining the smell had the same effect. What I do know is we all tend to get stuck in the same mental ruts as we do physical ones. We think the same tired, and perhaps stress-inducing, thoughts over and over and rarely give ourselves the time and space to play with our thoughts in the same way. For example, we’ll give ourselves a break from routine by playing a sport. Why not?
Why not bring summer into winter? Why not spend a few solitary moments imagining sitting under your favorite tree, feeling a breeze, listening to birds and smelling the grass? Why not bring summer vacation a few days early? What might happen? You may just find that by allowing yourself a few moments of imaginary play, when you do reenter the stress of work and deadlines and meetings, they’re not nearly as onerous as they seemed before.
Gina Barnett is the founder of Barnett International, Inc., an executive communications consulting firm. Her clients include Novartis, HSBC, GSK, The Guggenheim Foundation, and since 2011 she ‘ s been speaker coach for the main stage TED Conference. She’s coached C-suite executives on how to present to stakeholders, heads of sales on how to inspire their teams, medical students on how to communicate more effectively with patients, and scientists to express complex ideas to the general public. She ‘ s consulted with thought leaders in science, healthcare, finance, the arts, and technology and coached teams to become far more cohesive, creative, and collaborative. She has worked internationally with individuals from over thirty countries. Coaching from Russia to Thailand to Spain has served to deepen her belief that communication excellence in today ‘ s global economy is essential for success.
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How To Take the Stress Out of Summer originally appeared on usnews.com
