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Here for the WIN!

2/27/2020

Want some big wins every day? Pause periodically and check in with your WIN - What’s Important Now.

We all want more time. How to not fritter the precious moments on things that don’t really matter and just lead you down a path covered in shiny objects that are costly to productivity and skillful attention?

We all want to feel accomplished. How to stick with the priorities, stay energized, and not use a boat-load of motivation and willpower to get things done?

We all want the feeling of flow. How to adapt easily, instead of resisting hard, to the changes that invariably take place throughout the day?

You got it! By keep WINning.

Instead of trying to cram the day into the way you think it should go (aka creating more stress and tension), take a moment to pause so you can re-assess and decide what the next most important thing to attend to is. Oftentimes it’s not what you had initially planned but it does keep you ahead of the change game.

I check in with my WIN every time I’m done with a deep work block, complete a task or set of emails / phone calls, come back to my desk, or take a mini ultradian body break. It makes a huge difference!

Try it on and see how you can win with your WIN.

Sending you lots of Peace,
Shanti

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Got Rhythm?

2/19/2020

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Just like you, I’ve got a ton of things that need my attention through the day. There are a lot of pieces to keeping a business prosperous and, if I’m not careful, shiny objects can’t tantalize my attention away from what’s really important. I want, and need, to stay focused.

My tendency, though, is to be a pendulum swinger, going from being FULL ON for days and then, invariably, swinging in the other direction and feeling fizzled out. I swing from 100% to near zero… and then have to energize myself to get going again. This wide swinging is terrible.

Something I’ve been doing for the past year, though, has changed all of this. As much as possible, I work with my ultradian rhythms throughout the day.

I’m sure you’ve heard of circadian rhythms. These are the 24 hour cycles we go through each day that help us with sleep-awake cycles. They’re connected to our hormonal system, specific brain activity, cell regeneration, and other biological processes.

Ultradian rhythms are smaller chunks - typically 90 minutes on then 20 minutes off. During the 90 minutes, we can give it our all and be really energized and focused. After that, though, we need to take a rest of at least 20 minutes, doing something that relaxes our body and brain or changes the energy of what we were doing before. AKA, this means not scrolling on-line, staying seated, or trying to hammer out “one more thing” even if it’s a small task. Be ALL IN and then be ALL OFF.

Personally, most of the day I break this 90 minutes down even further into 30 minute cycles, giving myself a 2-5 minute break in between. I do a few simple stretches, 10 deep breaths, bio break, or check in with my WIN (more on that next week). This helps me stay refreshed and energized, without the end-of-day-dead-tired. And when I do the bigger 20 minutes break, I take a walk, do some jigsaw puzzle, sit in the sun and play ball with Suki, meditate, or take a nap.

And speaking of napping: Yes, yes, yes do it… but not more than 30 minutes. Anything beyond the cat nap situation will begin the 90 minute sleep cycle… which is why it can take hours to “wake up” after a longer nap.

Try working with ultradian rhythms this week and see how your day flows and energy stays more balanced. Again, it’s all about experimenting with optimizing our lives.

Sending you lots of Peace,
Shanti

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No Doubt the #1 for Energy Management

2/17/2020

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Since I was a very young person, I've always made connections between things. How does this impact that and then how does it tie into all of that? Connecting the dots helps me make sense of what happens in life and to see its vast interconnectedness.

For energy, it's the same thing. It's obvious that I won't be at my best when I'm sick (as noted in my last newsletter) but what about those times where I'm hungry, feeling busy, worried, distracted, tired, or lethargic from sitting too much? What are the consequences of those not-so-obvious energy drains?

It can be a really interesting experiment to start monitoring your life since what gets measured gets managed. If you don't know, how can you know?

There are several foundations of energy management that are important to take a look at with my clients, even if it's not their primary reason for working with me. If they're not well resourced in their energy, how can they activate the energy to optimize their hopes and dreams?

Today we’re going to take a peak at #1... sleep. Why sleep? If you're not getting adequate quality sleep, it's nearly impossible to have any positive impact on any area of your life. You tend to eat carbage and sugary foods for energy, over-caffeinate to stay awake, and don't have the organic energy to move freely and with joy in your body. Plus, those nasty gremlins take the bait and run amock with your attitude, focus, and psyche!! After a rough day like that, good luck getting a good night’s sleep... which leads to a continuation of that ill-being cycle.

Sleep is the number one fundamental and the beginning of everything.

How is your sleep? How many hours a night do you get? 7 to 8 hours of restful sleep is the basic prescription; anything under 6 is in the depletion zone. While it might not be as obvious as an all-nighter, that's only because it’s easy to get acclimated to slower / lower functioning and performance, low energy, and sub optimal health.

In his awesome book Why We Sleep, neuroscientist Matthew Walker shares some ugly statistics:

4 hours of sleep for 6 days is the same as being awake for 48 hours.
5 hours of sleep is like having blood alcohol level of .08.
6 hours of sleep is like being awake for 24 hours (the red eye without the flight?).
Emotional reactivity goes up 60%.
Learning and memory are reduced by 50% and more mistakes are made (how much of your day do you spend redoing things or correcting simple errors?).
Spacing out, forgetfulness… 400% lapse in concentration.
The Geneva Convention prohibits sleep deprivation. It’s considered torture.

Yikes! I told you they were ugly.

Not to fear. There are many simple things you can do including:

Stop caffeine in the early afternoon (including dark chocolate - OK, that one might not be easy).
Install a digital sunset = shut electronics and screens off at least one hour before bed. The blue light in the screen messes with your natural production of melatonin, a hormone necessary for balanced sleep cycles.
Check your room temp: 65° is best and no more than 70°.
Have a regular bed and wake time, even on the weekends, one that will get you at least 7 hours. This creates sleep cycles that your body will look forward to.
Stretch and move your body throughout the day, not just at the beginning or end. Get up at least every hour for 2-3 minutes and shake it up!
Nap… but no more than 30 minutes (I’ll share more on these last two in an upcoming Wonder & Wisdom).
Track your sleep. Start a journal and notate how you slept the night before and the effect it has on your day today: what you ate, how you moved, your attitude, focus, and energy level. You might be surprised at some connections that would have been invisible before.

A good night sleep... #1 energy management, plain and simple.

Would it be helpful to figure out your particular secret sauce to better sleep? Let's chat!I'd love to help dissect what's working and not working for you. I want you to have your optimal energy available. How else to have your optimal life?

Sending you lots of Zzzzzzs.

Shanti

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Oh.... so many lessons

2/4/2020

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After finishing my 10 month Optimize Coaching program in December, I was on fire. My confidence was huge, I was feeling courageous, I was putting myself out there in ways I haven't done in a while (which felt really good), and my creative juices were flowing.

Getting through the weird mid-week holidays and into January, this awesomeness continued. And then I faced something I didn't want to do but previously committed myself to. Even though I was getting a huge nag to change the committed plan, I stuck with it… but it cost me a lot of energy and willpower and totally took me out of flow. And then I got sick, really sick. Laid up in bed for with the flu for five days, recovery still slowly lingering.

During the time that I was sick, there was no energy available to entertain my mind. It was all I could do to maintain awareness of my body, supporting its healing. So I have to smile that the mend begins when the mind comes in… although that is really quite the opposite of what happened.

Instead of my mind being my champion, it was the most disruptive unhealthy part of me. It was like the gremlins got together while I was “unconscious” for so many days and decided to attack when things started to get better. Every nook and cranny of how bad and wrong and insignificant and unworthy of greatness I might be was busting out at the seams. The flu was nasty enough but this mindset? How can I be doing this to myself? I'm in the practice of self-love, self-care, and self compassion. Where was it for me?

Of course I didn't have the energy to fight with my mind. It was hard enough trying to walk up and down the stairs. So here I was, face-to-face with the Gremlins of Dark. What to do?

Since I was already laying down, it was natural just to have my gremlins lay down next to me. What are you really trying to say to me? What's your real message? Hopefully somewhere in there you're trying to inspire me… what insights can I draw from your criticisms? What are you hoping that I'll do differently in my life? And who invited you into this room, anyways? Do I want you here? Do I need you here?

It's easy to get lost in the fear mind, in the old tapes we play, the ones that have been playing for decades about how we're not as good as we think we are and we'll never make it the way we really want to make it. Even after decades of work, we might ask ourselves "is any of that true?"

Laying there with my fear, it was true… from my fear’s perspective. But it wasn't true from my heart’s perspective.

My heart is deeply and directly connected to my basic goodness and the all the ways I want to make this world a better and more loving place. I have so much to offer and, while I’m not always showing up as fully as I’d like, I'm working on it. Every day I head a little bit more in that direction. I help people through my coaching practice, supporting others to connect with their possibilities and worthiness. I share a lot of skills with business organizations throughout the world, helping team members have a little bit more ease and balance in their jam-packed days. And I provide a safe place for people to share themselves, to be seen and heard.

All I can give to my life is a chance, to optimize as best I can every moment that I'm given. Am I 100% “on” all the time? Absolutely not. But identifying more “on” than “off” and celebrating that keeps the spiral moving upward. Sure, the gremlins are going to be right there but maybe they'll be a little bit quieter if they can lay down next me instead of screaming in my face.

Reminders and learnings? Plenty:
1) Honor the inner message of NO.
2) A low-resourced body = a low-resourced mind (more on this next time).
3) Just because you think it certainly doesn't make it true.
4) Emotions are to be understood, not feared.

Peace and Love to you,
Shanti

P.S. You might be wondering why I share these stories of myself so often. Isn't that a backwards thing for a coach to do? Where's the rah-rah and inspiration? Well, first of all, coaching isn't about being a blind cheerleader. It's about getting real with the ins and outs, the pushes and pulls, that we're presented with on a regular basis. I see my life experience reflective of and rooted in our shared humanity. If I can't be real with my shenanigans, how can I possibly support you to be real with yours? And somewhere within that I hope it's inspiring. Thanks for being in my world.

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Here for the WIN!

Got Rhythm?

No Doubt the #1 for Energy Management

Oh.... so many lessons

Author - Shanti Douglas

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