NEUROSELFCARE
Awellbeing
Gyminyour
Focusband and NeuroSelfCare app measures and trains your brain and neuronal system to be hard wired for resilience and wellbeing.
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For the cost of gym membership you get a Brainwave head band + NeuroSelfCare app + monthly discounted coaching = Train your brain and body for resilience and wellbeing.
Before Covid-19 74% of UK employees were 'overwhelmed or unable to cope' at some point in the past year(1). Stress related mental health conditions were on the rise(2), due to an always on culture(3) as were stress related physical health conditions(5). The pandemic may have reduced stress for some, for many it has increased stress further. Now during these pandemic times stress related health problems have risen and we've become more acutely aware of the impact of lifestyle on our health(8).
Stress causes problems for the workplace(4), in some sectors more so than others(6). Research shows the costly negative impact of stress on employee health as well as engagement and work performance, absenteeism and turnover(7). So more than ever its essential for businesses to promote employee resilience and wellbeing.
Pre-covid rising levels of stress, depression and anxiety represented 49% of the reasons why people were absent from work. NHS funding for mental health was on the rise by £2b per year (1) and was the largest single reason for disability at 23% of all ill-health. We do not currently know the impact of covid on these figures, some expect the trend to worsen due to the impact of the pandemic.
It is chronic stress that we are most concerned about. Persistent levels of stress can be both a driver for and cause of poor lifestyle management including poor fitness, comfort eating and increasing toxic stress hormones and the probability of stress related dis-ease. For instance obesity and diabetes makes us vulnerable to catching the worst kind of covid-19. Notwithstanding covid-19 has become an evident driver of poor long term health for some survivors and for others, sadly, death. We also know that stress is a contributory factor to the rise of conditions like auto-immune conditions, dementia, pain and many other common conditions.
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Its about recognising that what we do today, the way we lead our lifestyle, our work and personal lifestyles, has an impact on our wellbeing today and down the line. It impacts on our longevity and the quality of life in our elder years.
This pandemic has given many of us a greater sense of realisation that the way we've been operating our lifestyle does actually have an impact on our health. For some it has become a matter of life and death. And we've had to ask ourselves to what extent am I at risk of catching covid, and death or causing the death of a vulnerable loved one? To what extent can I reduce my risk of such? Besides wearing a mask, what other lifestyle changes can I make that will positively impact on my wellbeing? The question often is do I want to change? Many say yes but then easily slip back to their old ways, it feels easier being in the comfort zone. Is this pandemic enough of a critical moment to make some simple changes to your lifestyle, and making a profound positive impact on your resilience, wellbeing and lifetime longevity?
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There is clearly a need for a culture change in business. employers are starting to recognise they can have a positive impact on WELLBEING. NEW technology brings the future, right here right now!
But first we must understand a little more about what stress is. What is causing this thing we call 'stress' and what do we mean when we refer to 'stress'? There are 3 different types of stress. Eustress, distress and traumatic stress. Stress thats actually good for us is known as eustress or positive stress and it makes us feel good, it tends to be short term, task focused, meaningful and supports our wellbeing.
Then there's stress that isn't good for us known as distress or negative stress, which tends to accumulate over time and is caused by excessive workplace pressure, lack of work life balance and support and tends to associate with behaviours like sedentary habits, poor diet and poor sleep and/or excessive alcohol intake. All of which can result in a bottle neck of stress toxins building up in the system.
And finally there's stress that is caused by trauma known as traumatic stress. Everyone has experienced trauma in life to varying degree's. Given a certain set of conditions the trauma people endure can become encoded in our amygdala, a part of our limbic brain that stores trauma. People who've experienced one or more trauma's in their life are at risk of being left with unresolved trauma emotions, which can generate excessive unconscious mind chatter, which can flare up when enduring negative stress/distress, and add to out already busy minds due to modern day busyness and over stimulation from technology and information.
We're working with NeuroSelfCare, which is a mobile app that enables us to evaluate, track and optimise keys areas of wellbeing, known as lifestyle pillars. Your lifestyle pillars include: Mood, Rest, Nutrition, Brain Training, Fitness and Environment. When we make little improvements on these every day they add up ... over a month, a year, a life time.
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When your lifestyle pillars are optimised you are more likely to be in homeostasis (the green zone), a place of balance within the body in which. The objective is to train your mind and body to sustain being in the green zone resulting in increased and consistent higher levels of feel good neurochemicals running around your nervous system system, over time, rather than toxic stress neuro-chemicals. The outcome: improved levels of resilience, wellbeing and peak performance/flow and a boosted immune system too. Click on the Lifestyle Pillars screen image to download the Lifestyle Pillar tool.
HOW DOES BRAIN TRAINING WORK
Our brains operate on 6 electrical frequencies, known as brain waves, which have an influence on the way we feel, think and behave. A blend of these brainwaves oscillate in reaction to what goes on inside us, perceptions of our past in reaction to life experience create frequency patterns which reflect our past and present lifestyles and future desires. They generate chemicals which circulate around our brain and neuronal system resulting in thought, emotional and behavioural patterns that effect the way we present to the world. We can be at the mercy of brainwave patterns that are unintentionally generated from our past whether or good or bad. Or we can intentionally generate brainwave frequencies that can have an intended positive impact on the brain and body. We can use the right kind of brainwave patterns to self heal unresolved traumatic emotions, that can form as one of the pillars of chronic stress within the brain. By increasing a type of brain wave called Delta we can make edits to our brain to let go of unresolved and unnecessary emotions and thereby reduce stress within us. This is the same Delta brainwaves that increases significantly when we're in deep non-dreaming sleep which is essential for helping us to wake up feeling refreshed the next day.
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Distress in our work and personal lives affects the way we think, feel, behave, which affects us electro-chemically sending messages via our brain waves, and engages our sympathetic nervous system. If engaged all too often and too intensely we may inadvertently find ourselves in flight fight mode, aka survival mode, which can cause a range of emotional, mental and physical health issues. The brain wave frequency associated with distress is known as high beta. In many cases extended periods of high beta results in generating excessive amounts of stress chemicals, which deplete our immune system and can lead to dis-ease. All of which could also be associated with employee disengagement, presenteeism and poor performance.
Greater levels of eustress and brain wave coherence (harmony of our brainwaves) enables greater levels of flow and performance neurochemicals circulating our system which helps us to build resilience and peak performance in goal and purpose centred activities. Awareness is curative. What we measure we can manage and our goal in this case is to manage and train the brain and nervous system to be in the 'green zone'. More green zone, more of the time, means greater levels of wellbeing. Call it the science and art of wellbeing. Sculpting your personal resources to your advantage: comfortable stretching yourself whilst maintaining positive mental, emotional, social and physical health.
