Our first meeting with Sustainable High-Performance a.k.a. Super Coach…
So, is Sustainable High-Performance about getting a new set of skills? Tweaking stuff we already know? -- In order for high-performance to be truly sustainable, we must have an accurate understanding of how our experience of stress works. And an accurate understanding of the several states of mind available to all humans.
In this email I give my take on The State of Mind chart. (You could call it a table, but everything’s connected to everything else in it, so I think of it more as a map or a navigational chart.) -
The State of Mind chart, actually a collection of them, that Michael Neill saw in "The Relationship Handbook" (Geo. Pransky) 14 years ago, made him realize that this approach - which had been used in homeless shelters and violent neighborhoods - was more transformative than anything he had designed in the previous 15 years. And it has become the heart of all the success coaching he has done since then.
The videos below are a compressed version of my experience with this material over 10 years... If you are pressed for time, look at # 3 and # 5 first - and then see which of the others might interest you.
1.) What the Survival Brain is really good at…
The Neuroscience behind how we survive immediate physical danger... Not only do the well known threat responses (Fight, Flight, Freeze) give us our best chance to avoid death and injury but two other lesser known responses (Submit and Collapse) actually are designed to restore our connection with others after we have faced great danger! At their best these responses help avoid danger and help us naturally get on with the rest of our life with no emotional after-effects, but…
2.) What the Survival Brain Gets Wrong… Really Wrong…
The Survival Brain does not know that we think. It can treat our thoughts about the consequences of not passing a high-stakes test exactly as it would treat a dump truck about to run us down. And the Fight, Flight, Freeze reactions that are well-fitted to the dump truck, can be disastrous when preparing for and taking the test. But there is good news buried in this...
3.) Our take on the core insight before we move on from stress and overwhelm…
Even before we consider a calmer mind and our highest capacities, it is already plain that our experience of challenging circumstances in our life does not come directly from the circumstances themselves. I.e., Our hard-wired Fight, Flight, Freeze, etc. responses are not created by bears… nor by high-stakes tests.Our reactions/responses are from within us. And that is really good news...
4.) Where Healing & High-Performance Can Be Found…
Healing, Clarity, Fresh Thinking, and High-Performance come from calmer and more open states of mind... And we can access them much more easily when we accurately see where our experience of stress comes from. -- E.g., If our intense stress reactions are coming from a circumstance outside of us, we're going to have to fix it before we can be OK. But… If our intense stress reactions are really coming from reactive patterns in us, then all it takes to change our relationship with that circumstance is... a fresh thought, a new way of thinking about it.
This sounds “clunky” and like we need to bring out the thought police to have a good life. The State of Mind chart actually points to the rich resources we already have... and how, with just a little shift in understanding, the human system is self-corrective and self-healing!
5.) The Core Insight seen from our highest States of Mind…
-- (This is the last 3 mins of pt 4... but this short video can stand alone.) --
All it takes to have a new and life-giving relationship with a stressor/situation, is to have a fresh thought about it. That's all it takes. -- Of course, as our Survival Brain rages on, we are no doubt thinking: "So, how the heck am I to get a "fresh thought" in the midst of all my stress?!"
And that's we are digging into the iRest Program for Healing PTSD and Sustainable High-Performance (aka Super Coach). They both help to open us up to fresh thinking that knows how to deal with the stress caused by our Survival Brain.
Coming Soon…
If it were able to speak (and were a good deal more self-aware)…
What would the Amygdala say?
– How can we turn the intense stress that the amygdala creates… into a useful message?
And some insightful animations about the "Innate Health" within Super Coach…
If you wish, feel free to contact me.
Thanks for your time and attention, Peter Buck
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