Most of us know how it feels to choke under pressure. The good news is you can train your brain to help, not hurt, your cause.
Let’s focus first on maximizing working memory, which provides access to information you need for complex tasks such as reasoning, comprehension and learning. Working memory is kind of like a mental scratch pad that stores information relevant to the task at hand, whether you’re calculating the tip, figuring out new software or responding to tough, on-the-spot questions from a client.
Any thoughts of worry and anxiety you feel in a pressure-filled situation – Did I say the right thing? How am I going to learn all this? – deplete valuable processing power of your working memory.
The solution is to exercise your mind so it becomes more agile under duress. (Don’t waste any working memory being skeptical – ongoing research by experts such as University of Chicago psychologist Sian Beilock and Mind Fitness Training Institute (MFTI) founder Dr. Liz Stanley are providing definitive proof of the powerful impact of mental fitness exercises such as meditation and mindfulness.)
Here’s a mental push-up from the MFTI that’s simple, (Marines did them in a recent Department of Defense study) and it takes less than five minutes.
So lets start practicing;
- Sit with an upright posture, eyes closed or loosely focused on the ground in front of you.
- Do a quick mental scan of your body, from head to feet, becoming aware of any areas of tension or discomfort — not necessarily to make it go away, just to see if it lessens by bringing attention to it.
- Focus your attention on the physical sensation of where your bottom makes contact with the ground or your chair.
- When you realize your attention has drifted, and it will — usually within a few seconds — bring it back to the sensation of contact.
- Every time your mind wanders and you bring it back, that counts as one rep.
Let us know if it is working for you.