We all know that stress doesn’t feel good, but did you know what effects it has on your individual organs? Here is a tour of your body in the minutes after a stressful trigger… SKIN: pales as blood diverted to vital organs. HEART: begins to pound, sending blood around body carrying sugar (energy) and hormones (eg. adrenalin) MUSCLES: tense in readiness for action. LUNGS: air passage dilates, breathing becomes more intense to provide more oxygen to feed increase blood supply.

You can imagine the scene.  The noise.  The screeching.  Chimpanzees running around wildly.  Some inconsolable.  Youngsters huddling under the big arms of their parents.  Parents rushing to scoop up their youngsters and carry them away from danger. They would be fraught with worry.  Needing reassurance but unable to hear it. Sometimes this scene is borne out within our own minds when we feel threatened. Our mind screeching.  Irrational and excessive reactions.  Unable to reas

Here are five things to do when you find you can’t leave work behind and the stress is starting to take its toll on your mental or physical health. Be in the moment while doing each task at work. By this I mean really focus on what you’re doing, not on the 10 other things you need to do. Easier said than done I know but if you can it will help your brain to park it once you’re done. Notice what you DID, rather than what you didn’t get around to. This is a glass half full mind

When the going gets tough you tap into your ‘Well of Resilience‘. If your well is deep and full – if you have effectively maintained it through focused action and attention – you will quickly return to a sense of calm and clarity. If you haven’t been refilling your well when resources were plentiful, it will quickly run dry – resulting in burnout. When your ‘Well of Resilience’ is deep and replenished, you will be supported by: A sense of calm Clarity and very clear focus on

I’d like you to view yourself as your own resilient role model. We often think that others are more resilient than we are.  We look at them in awe and think “How do they keep going?”, “I could never do that”. I would like to challenge those thoughts. If you are a parent who found hidden depths of energy during period of exhaustion (night-time feeding, teething, tantrums, illness, unexpected trips to A&E) – you are resilient. If you are a carer who yearns for a break, but who

In April 2001, Commander Chris Hadfield suited up and went outside the International Space Station with a colleague to do some work. A few minutes later, the oil and soap mixture that was used to keep his visor clean got into his eye.  It stung his eye very badly and his eye teared up.  In zero gravity tears don’t fall out of the eye – they remain on the surface of the eye, effectively creating a pool of water between the eyelids.  The more his eye got irritated the more tear

This week we continue our focus on resilient role models – people in the public eye who are recognised as having real determination and grit in the face of adversity. Helen Keller Most who have both sight and hearing would say it would be extremely difficult to manage without either sense, but almost impossible to have a life without both. Yet Helen Keller didn’t just manage, she thrived, lived a full life and even wrote and inspired others who are more fortunate than her.  S

We are inclined to look at others and think they are more resilient than us. But this is simply not true.  You have the capacity to be as resilient as anyone you have admired for their grit and ability to bounce back. This month the focus of these blog posts will be on resilient role models – people in the public eye that participants at my resilience talks have identified as displaying real determination and grit in the face of adversity. Our exploration of their inner stren

To develop your level of resilience, your mindset must be programmed so that you are ‘Open for Business‘ in terms of personal growth. Experiences (both good and bad) are a wasted opportunity for personal growth if you don’t reflect on them and identify what you have learned from them. In the Resilience Hub this week there is a new video with 14 ways to make small changes in attitude and behaviour, that will ultimately help create and embed a resilient mindset. If you haven’t

I have wondered how to write this post without it sounding ‘preachy’ because I definitely do not want that.  So suffice to say what I’m sharing with you is just that – sharing – in case it helps point the way for someone towards better health as a cornerstone of a resilient life.  It’s as difficult for me, (a healthcare professional turned Resilience Coach!), to follow healthy habits as it is for anyone else.  My personal challenge is my sugar/chocolate addiction requires con

Now that we are in the darkest months of the year in the northern hemisphere, many of us are feeling the effects of sleep deprivation because we are sleeping the same number of hours as we do during the summer – and possibly this is even less than we actually need. Aside from the natural world being different at this time of year, some of what disturbs our sleep is self-inflicted.  We don’t allow ourselves adequate time to wind down in the evening, we take on or retain too mu