Dr. Christy Goodwin

So one of the key things that we have to develop is our, I call it our stress adaptability.

And there are three ways we can do that.

The first thing we can do is to build our tolerance for stress.

And there are so many

any science-backed solutions in terms of how do we develop that tolerance for stress.

This is why things like cold exposure, and it doesn't have to be ice baths, but cold showers, going outside in winter with one less jumper on, some sort of deliberate cold exposure.

Maybe you'd prefer saunas, heat exposure, vigorous physical activity, learning a new language, anything where you stretch yourself

Because we know that the part of the brain, it's called your anterior mid-cingulate cortex.

It's the willpower center of your brain.

We now know that we can physically train that to become larger by doing hard things.

So we're developing that window for stress so that when we get the angry email, when we see something distressing on social media, we can respond rather than react.

So the first part is building that tolerance for stress.

The second thing is about eliminating the micro-stresses in your days.

You

because we've got this ancient software, our brains, they were never designed to have things constantly coming to us.

Our brains cannot physically, physiologically, they can psychologically distinguish between a team's ping and a tiger chasing us.

And let's be honest, some days our team's pings feel like a tiger chasing us.

So turning off notifications, bundling or batching your notifications, putting on a VIP list,

reducing the amount of time you have on back-to-back virtual meetings, working in sprints, not marathons.

So there are small little things we can do to sort of reduce those little micro-stresses.