What are the factors that make life seem to ‘work’ for you? And even more importantly, how can you make those factors come together as often as possible? On the other side of the coin, what aspects make you feel overwhelmed, always tired, de-motivated and depressed? The obvious goal is to experience more of the first and less of the second. In order to achieve this goal, you need to become a resilient warrior, which means developing the mental coping strategies needed to take whatever life throws and to and being able to draw upon the necessary energy. This way, life will no longer be about surviving but about thriving! Is such a prospect worth an 8-minute investment of your daily time? Because that’s all it takes to re-wire your brain and put you on the path of self-control, self-confidence and self-leadership.
Why do you need resilience?
Resilience is the ability to accept the load, momentarily deform and then return, in other words – mental toughness. If you are alive – you are very likely to be stressed – everything around us is constantly taxing our bodies and brains. Lights, sounds, your body dealing with food, or the lack of, how you are sitting or standing, as well as any mental or emotional ‘good’ or ‘bad’ situations are all sources of stress. However, this does NOT mean you are strained, just the same as in architecture: even though every wall is stressed by the weight of the ceiling, it only shows strain by cracking up!
After experiencing the pandemic of stress and the lack of coping strategies and mostly time, I created a unique 8 steps in 8 minutes routine. This resilience-building routine is called ‘Mind Chi’. Developing the ability to carry it out is one of the most sought-after skills in today’s workplace (be that an office or home). The Mind Chi routine is based on the latest neurological findings, proven psychological processes and ancient wisdoms. The advantage is that since it requires only your brain, it can be done anywhere and everywhere.
The Mind Chi 8-minute routine
Here is a short introduction to the Mind Chi basic 8-minute routine. Performed daily the accumulative results are most heartening. Below is a Mind Chi map of the 8 steps. There are four segments to the Mind Chi routine, each with two steps, making the 8-minute total.
‘START’ (top left)
The first two steps, taking a minute each, get your body and mind set up and ready for action. (These two steps are good to do whenever you want to improve your concentration and effectiveness.)
- Breathe – Place one hand on your belly and make sure that it rises and falls more than your other hand, which is placed high on your chest. Do deep ‘belly breaths’ for a minute performing the following actions for 3 seconds each: breathe in, hold, breathe out, and wait.
- Attend – Think of the word ‘One’ for a full minute. As soon as an intruding thought comes in, move up a number. Notice what number you reached by the end of the minute. The object is to keep your score at ‘One’.‘PAST’
The third and fourth steps review your performance over the past 24 hours with the aim of making an objective appraisal.
- Adjust – Rewind the tape to see where you might have acted/spoken/been more helpful. Count these times on your non-dominant hand.
- Associate – Review the tape this time to see where you did perform in a satisfactory, helpful and positive way. Link these with your feelings of success. Count these on your dominant hand.
‘NOW’
The next two steps are of great importance. This is where you can experience (re)gaining control over yourself.
- Be Aware – Check your BEAT: Body, Emotions, Actions and Thoughts to monitor where you re at.
- Choose – The crucial step, because IF you are not where you wish to be, this is where you get to change things!
‘FUTURE’
The final two steps give you the ‘FUTURE’ you desire.
- Plan – Project 24 hours, how would you like to be/act/think and feel? Experience yourself in a forward ‘video’ using all your senses.
- Be Grateful – This is for all that you have received and may receive – it sends you on your way with a happy heart, a spring in your step and an expectant frame of mind.
Start practising this routine daily, maybe in your lunch break or just before you begin your working day. In order to see the effectiveness of Mind Chi, fill in the Mind Chi Questionnaire below which has been designed to give you an idea of how you are presently functioning and how Mind Chi can be of assistance to you by measuring the strain of stress. BEFORE you start practising the Mind Chi routine, please fill in the ‘NOW’ column. After you have performed your Mind Chi 8-minute routine for 28 days, please cover the ‘NOW’ responses and answer the questions again. Then compare where you were with where you now are. When you see the differences, you will be even more motivated to continue to build your coping skills.
We would like to hear how you got on so write to us. You can find more details about the Mind Chi routine at www.MindChi.com.
Vanda North is a joy enhancer. Building resilience is her most recent way of increasing people’s enJOYment of life. For further advice you can contact her at Vanda@MindChi.com.
