The Game of Change

Geeta Ramakrishnan

Brains and Science

Are you fit, both mentally and physically?

By

In the past year, we have seen a lot of focus being shifted to being physically fit. The pandemic has shed light on the importance of physical fitness. Just as physical fitness indicates ability of the body to physically function efficiently and effectively, mental fitness is recommended for the mind to function well across a range of situations. We have also witnessed growing concerns and conversations around the importance of mental health.

As you take each day head-on, you have an important role to play in protecting the physical and mental health of yourselves and making it your topmost priority. Staying both mentally and physically fit can be an effective treatment against both depression and anxiety. Each day brings with it a renewed opportunity to engage in physical and mental activities that showcase benefits in the long and short run. I have listed down some key topics that will help build your wellness quotient.

Physical Fitness

Physical activity is important for women of all ages. Regular physical activity can improve your health and prevent many diseases and conditions that become a major cause for death and disability. If keeping aside a large chunk of the day aside for physical activity is not impossible, try to break it into 2-3 small parts. For eg: Three 10-minute bouts of physical activity over the day have the same health benefits as a continuous 30-minute session.

Mental Gym

Keep your brain active. There are various scientific ways that assist you in building your own mental gym.  Building mental strength is not different from building physical stamina. Training your brain can help you be more creative, productive and resilient. Practice solving puzzles, build your vocabulary, learn a new skill, take a new route, learn a new language etc. to stimulate and enrich your mind. The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is look into the mirror and smile. This is the best way to trick my mind into staying happy irrespective of whatever the mood I wake up in.

30 Day-Challenge

Take a 30-day challenge. Note down 30 things you want to do in a particular month. It could be anything small from call a friend to practice gratitude. Allocate one activity for each day and tick off all the boxes. You could include your fitness goals as one activity per day. This helps you to consciously make an effort to focus on self-care and find ways to make mental and physical fitness a part of your daily life.

Start Journaling            

Journaling is a tool that allows you to process complex thoughts and emotions, to understand them more clearly. This promotes positive thinking and self-talk. Journaling is an effective way to help clear your mental clutter, focus on your mind, and build awareness of your thoughts and feelings.

Time Management

Allocating time for fitness related activities can seem like a daunting task. Most of us are unable to allocate time for activities are important for our personal growth.  Managing your times plays an effective role to solve this problem. You need to dedicate time to think about your goal and priorities to divide time between personal, professional and family time. Prioritize important tasks and do accomplish one task at a time. Value your time and use time management tools effectively and recognize and reward your achievements however close or distant they may seem from your milestones.

4 Choices to Make While Using Technology

By

The global pandemic has exposed the fragility of our world and our sense of wellbeing. Workplaces and schools have turned to remote working via platforms such as Zoom and Teams to sustain lives.  Even when it comes to education, home schooling has relied heavily on such platforms. Technology is growing at a revolutionary pace in today’s time. Some people see it as a blessing, while others consider it a curse. Technology has definitely been a saviour in this time, yet, there are plenty of downsides that cannot be overlooked.

By following these tips, you can effectively handle the use of technology in your daily life.

Reduce Dependency 

With the increasing number of digital apps and social media platforms, dependency on technology has increased. Time management is crucial and dependencies on technology create a decline in human capital. It is important to reduce dependency by increasing personal effort such as using GPS only when needed, or avoiding calculators instead calculating manually. This technique will help you be more involved in your daily life instead of relying on technology 24/7.     

Save your Sleep 

All devices emit “blue light”, which according to researchers, affects production of the sleep-related hormone melatonin in turn interfering with the quality of your sleep. Secondly, a text or a tweet before bedtime can be stimulating enough to make your mind start racing when it is supposed to be winding down. You must refrain from using the phone at night, even avoid setting an alarm as it can be tempting to have the phone on the bedside table. A good night’s sleep will help you stay fresh and active during the daytime. 

Practice Self Control

Cellphones and other devices have become a huge part of our lives, on one hand it has increased connectivity, on the other it has reduced the need for interpersonal conversations. Often, we feel tempted, even more so, obliged to respond to a work email or attend a business call, post working hours. Scrolling mindlessly on several social media channels has also become a natural habit for us. Many people experience feeling inadequate or incompetent when they see other people showcasing their “perfect lives” on social media. We are plainly deceived without realizing that people’s lives are rarely as perfect as they make it seem online. You can change your relationship with social media and the internet by setting a time limit every day in order to practice self-control. 

Take Time to Appreciate Real Connections 

As we move towards a digital world at a fast pace, we have increasingly become distracted from connecting with people in real life. Face-to-face interactions have a great impact on your emotional well-being, it’s crucial to unplug when you’re with friends and family. When you want to avoid temptation, you can switch your phone off, this will help you detach and reduce anxiety.  

Technology addiction is running rampant, but there is a need to use technology on a daily basis. It might be a requirement for your job, or it might be a safety issue (such as ensuring everyone in the family has a smartphone in case of emergencies). That is why is it not completely possible to limit the usage of technology in our daily life. Get in touch with me today to understand how you can use apps and gadgets to become a smarter version of yourself.

The Game of Hormones in Goal Setting

By

Did you know that our actions have a direct impact on our physical and mental wellness? This happens as every emotion results in our brain producing certain hormones and these hormones are responsible for our moods, temperament, and overall physical and emotional well being. Today, I want to simply talk about four hormones that are the answer to questions like ‘How to increase productivity?’ or ‘How to improve memory?’ or ‘How to improve memory retention?’ or ‘How to enhance your mood and energize yourself?

These are the famous-four happy hormones:

  • • Serotonin
  • • Oxytocin
  • • Dopamine
  • • Endorphins

Let’s begin with Serotonin – the feel good hormone. It helps positively regulate our mood, our digestion and our sleep pattern. Did you know  your gut bacteria is involved in the production of this hormone? Serotonin along with Melatonin controls the circadian rhythm of your body. By that I mean, the 24 hour internal clock responsible for sleep. So Serotonin helps regulate your mood naturally. When your serotonin levels are at a normal level, you should feel more focused, emotionally stable, happier, and calmer. This obviously impacts your performance at work and in general. It’s a chain reaction. This hormone impacts your entire body. It enables brain cells and other nervous system cells to communicate with each other, enabling you to be more present, creative and focused at work.  When you tie it with goal setting,  sky’s the limit in what you set to achieve. Serotonin also helps with sleeping, eating, and digestion. However, if the brain has too little serotonin, it may lead to depression.

The second one is the hormone called oxytocin – the hormone that promotes bonding and trust. It’s also referred to as the cuddle hormone because a simple hug to your loved one helps your brain produce oxytocin. That is why if you want to share your happiness or if you wish to express sympathy, a good hug actually helps.  If you are feeling a bit low, the same hug helps lift you up.  The best example that comes to my mind is the bond between a mother and a newborn child and how a hug automatically induces trust. Essentially, this hormone brings about a healing effect, easing pain and improving the immune system. As a result, it promotes mental well being to a great extent. It goes without saying that when your mental health is well taken care of, you are better equipped at anticipating and dealing with a changing environment. And as we all know, change is the only constant. In our personal and professional lives, dealing with change can be cumbersome, but if you are mentally fit, you can easily handle any challenge thrown at you.

Next is the hormone called dopamine – the third in the series of happy hormones and one that loves to work with a  reward system. Hence, any kind of achievement – big or small – is translated into the creation of dopamine in your body.

So when you are pursuing a goal, start with baby steps and look for small wins. As the happy hormone dopamine kicks in, your body starts craving for more, and the brain motivates you and supports you in doing better for further wins. However, the downside of dopamine is that it is addictive. For instance we’re all addicted to our mobile phones, to social media. You post your picture on Instagram or Facebook and as soon as you get likes and appreciative comments it kicks off the dopamine in your system eventually wanting more and more. This is an addiction that must be maneuvered well, else it can prove to be detrimental in more ways than one.

Also dopamine is said to enhance productivity. Use these tips to boost the level of dopamine in your body and you’ll see how effectively you can achieve your goals.

Finally, we come to Endorphins. When you exercise, cardio activities like walking, running, dancing, swimming release endorphins into your system. These are known to give you the high you feel after a good workout session and also known to block physical pain. It basically keeps you in a happy space. Being physically active thus has a boosting effect on your moods, to help you maintain positivity, which inturn can help in reducing anxiety and depression. So exercise and physical activities promote great mental well-being. You will always notice that before your workout laziness may creep in, but once you push yourself to do it, you feel elated and energetic afterward. It gives you a positive feeling and being in a positive state of mind goes a long way in supporting you to meet your goals, to dealing with change and the stress that come with the challenges of life. I strongly believe that the area of your focus brings you results in exactly that direction, be it the positive or the negative aspects of life.

If you still feel downhearted and overwhelmed with the never ending challenges that come with being a professional in a working environment that is constantly changing, visit my blog for valuable reads on how to promote wellness in the workplace, dealing with change in the workplace, anticipating and dealing with a changing environment and ultimately creating a fulfilling professional journey.

Personal Health and Wellness Goals

By

What does Holistic  Health and Wellness mean?

I look at health and wellness from a holistic point of view. If you were to measure your health, is it only your physical health? Do you have any lifestyle diseases or sleep deprivation. How much water do you drink. What about your physical activity level.  But focusing on this alone is not enough. Now you have your mental health to look after as well. What is your stress level, how do you handle stress, Do you get frustrated at work or at home, how do you express anger. The mental health also touches on your emotional health. Do you shy away from expressing your thoughts, your hurt? Once you start focusing on and putting your thoughts together on all these questions, you start to look at health with a 360 degree angle, with a holistic view . This will help you understand that being physical fit will support how you stay mentally strong to face all the stress and difficulties in life and enhances your ability to be more productive and successful.  And your mental fitness supports you being physically able and active.  

 Focusing on one at the cost of the other:

Often focusing on your professional life, family and social life, the health part gets ignored, not to mention your personal choices gets not time or attention at all. For example when you want to achieve in your professional life, you spend more energy and hours in that space. And you are unable to balance the time left for things you love to do or your family, cause you have just 24 hours and you are super drained already.

Prioritization Trick:

I follow this prioritization that has worked for me. I first focus on myself. What I want and why it is important. Then I add my wish list and work out time slots for the week: Yoga, meditation, workout and cycling time, add self-improvement time, which currently includes reading and taking a health coaching assessment exam. I fix my work time and note what I can focus within it for that week. I also put in family time,  my chill time and sleep time. I also make a weekly food and water plan chart. With most of what I want being slotted in the chart, I weed out the things that are neither important not urgent and keep it in my  future ‘todo’ list.

Does it Always Succeed:

I may not always stick to my plan, but that is still ok. Just the act of slotting things in makes my life less overwhelming, and increases the probability of me actually accomplishing my goals. And this is a good attitude to adapt. It goes a long way in supporting your goals and resolutions for the year. While not sticking to your goals can get you frustrated and can put you in a negative thought spin, and it is a natural way how your mind reacts. But telling yourself that you  are not perfect and things don’t always go the way you plan, helps you get back your confidence and re-focus on what you want to achieve.

How does this Tie Back with your Holistic Health:

This constant dance of doing things the usual way, getting overwhelmed, then taking a step back and reflecting and re-calibrating, helps you deal with the stress in life. This works well for your mental health, learning to cope with failures. Now you add some focus on your physical health, take some extra effort to do exercise and healthy eating. Your body and mind is offering you a holistic health package, going a long way in increasing your physical and mental wellbeing, and supporting you in your professional and personal goals.

This is coachgeeta signing off.

Need more ideas to deal with Stress?

For more inspiration and ideas on handling stress and achieving success in what you seek, you can read through all my blogs .

Interested in taking this Further?

Curious about my coaching methods and easy to follow tips and tricks in managing your stress and achieving success in professional and personal life?

To learn more about Winning the Game of Change, you can schedule a complimentary coaching call from my website :   https://coachingwithgeeta.com/book-a-session/

Keep a watch….

Uploading some complimentary resources ..coming soon…

The Beautiful Concept Of Yin-Yang and its relevance in human partnerships

By

Yin-Yang symbol, also known as the Tai-Chi symbol, is an ancient Chinese duality concept of co-existence, where two opposites are teamed to create one whole. Yin represents passive femininity and Yang represents active masculinity. Much like the Indian concept of God and Goddess. In the same line, relationships between two people can be looked as a partnership where you seek and derive strength from the opposites.

While gender equality involves focusing on providing men, women and gender diverse people with an equal opportunity, it can improve the organizational performance by enabling diversity which helps provide a holistic approach at work, it also addresses some legal issues of right to employment, land rights or even right to education. This holds good especially considering the reality that even today top managerial posts are still male dominated, in many industries and even in politics. One still needs to start with gender equity, which provides fairness.

Men and women have been genetically and socially wired differently. They behave differently, for example men want short explanations and to simply choose between A or B. Men like to narrow their focus and not get entangled with unnecessary information, Men decide rationally, are naturally aggressive, having a higher level of testosterone, women love to bargain, haggle, and want big explanations, more options and want to touch and feel things before deciding. Women tend to be emotionally stronger. Women are more adept in handling complex roles and multitasking, juggling multiple roles as daughters, mothers, wife, home-makers and professionals. They have better communication skills and articulate better, and lend clarity to the situation. Being better at recalling, they make better choices in tricky meetings. At the end of the day, taking into account that men and women can complement each other beautifully, and work in a holistically manner will be the best win-win, Yin-Yang way to success.

Positive Affirmations

By

We generate an average of 50,000 thoughts every day. Approximately 95% of these thoughts are negative and recurring and is focused on the past regrets, complaints, blaming others or worrying about the uncertain future, wondering how you can cope with changes you think you are equipped to handle. It could be losing your job, not finding another good opportunity, or health issues with COVID hanging around, financial crisis, things that stress us so much that we just don’t know how to handle them. And it is not surprising, as all this stress has shut down our problem solving side of your brain, which is what we want to access in the first place. It pulls down our self-confidence making us unsure of and doubt our own capabilities.

One useful step it to first understand that we are not a superman or superwoman and it is ok to fail. And to break the habit of ruminating on negative thoughts, we can write down some positive affirmations and speak it aloud daily. This is a good brain-hack. It could be ‘I am capable of handling any challenges that come my way’ and ‘ I see failure as an opportunity’.

These positive affirmations and self-talk will help in accepting our failures, our fears and doubts in life. We will be open to learning from our failures. This learning from mistakes will help us develop a positive attitude and a growth mindset, helping us cope with confidence, anything that life throws at us.

Mid Day Article On Masks & Communication

By

It is indeed a strange and sobering reality we all live in today. Yes, the pandemic has changed everything, right from our daily lives, to something as small as the way we greet people. Here are my excerpts from an article in Mid day, wherein I emphasise on the importance of gestures, and how masks have changed a lot of things.

Here is the full link to the article: https://www.google.com/…/expert-tips-on-how-to…/22849247

Let’s Examine the Assumptions We Build in Life

By

Let’s examine the assumptions we build in life. We form opinions and perceptions based on the assumptions we make in accordance to the experiences we pick up and build in life. Some specially strong experiences from our childhood have a profound influence in the assumptions we tend to make. Over time we start believing these assumption as ‘Facts’. As days pan into months and years, we don’t have time to examine and introspect some assumed ‘facts’. For example, if you are struggling to raise your children and struggling in successfully juggling home and work, you start developing a complex and may start believing that you are a bad mother. Possibly your mom was also busy and had no time for you. These memories add to your assumption. And right enough, one of your kids may have had a bad fall at home, when you were in the office. You are guilt ridden now with the ‘what if’ thoughts. Now if your other child failed their final exam and it came as a shock to you, again another valid reason to further entrench your belief that you are a bad mom. Now you will base all your future actions based on this truth that you are a bad mom, not be able to give the required attention to your children. You may compensate with material gifts for the children, again not a helpful reaction. Now if you were to take an intentional break, a pause, and do an audit of your juggling life, to introspect. Just because you are successful at work and spend more time in the office does not make you a bad mom. Maybe it is a good time to look at a better time management system for your work life balance. With this open mind you will be able to figure out some quality changes, maybe more interaction time with your children. You can also have a simple conversation with the children, explaining how you have responsibilities and you want this mother-child bond to be better, they will be more accepting and together you can work out some great ideas.The idea is to poke holes on some assumptions we build with age, and keep the helpful ones and replace the unhelpful ones.