Stress, Resilience & Contemplation
In the workplace, it can feel that we are required to be more and more productive, but often without additional resources. Decisions, often with huge financial implications, or that have the potential to affect the lives of others, have to be made quickly and in pressurised environments. Events beyond our control affect our daily lives and we have to deal with these as best we can. This can be very stressful.
What exactly is stress? And what function does it serve for us? Why would we have evolved to be stressed? And, how come some people seem to be much better at dealing with the stresses of life than others? What can we learn from these people about how to be more resilient?
In this workshop, we will address the stress mechanism in the brain and what benefits it has for our performance under pressure. We will consider when stress is problematic, and what tools we have at our disposal to control it so we can work more effectively and live more stress free.
Recent advances in neuroscience have demonstrated that contemplation of different forms (e.g. mindfulness, meditation, yoga) can have an effect on the way that we think and the structure of the brain. We will explore this evidence and provide tools for how to best use contemplation in different forms to reduce stress.
By the end of this workshop, you should:
- Understand the function of stress and how to use this effectively.
- Understand the nature of resilience and have tools to increase resilience in self and others.
- Have tools to decrease stress and increase resilience in self and others to work/live more effectively.
- Understand the nature of contemplation and its benefits.
- Understand the links between contemplation and techniques including mindfulness and meditation.
- Understand the benefits of meditation and mindfulness practices to brain functions.
- Be able to describe the brain systems involved in stress, resilience and contemplative neuroscience in a manner that is accessible and useful to non-expert.
Please note: This workshop is Module 5 of the Applied Neuroscience Programme and is exclusively open to those who have completed the full 10 day programme previously.
Meet the trainers
Professor Patricia Riddell
Patricia is a Professor of Applied Neuroscience, a chartered psychologist and a chartered scientist. She creates cutting edge training tools that integrate and expand on the most recent findings in neuroscience.
Ian McDermott
Over the past 7 years, Ian McDermott has worked with Patricia Riddell to bring the fruits of Neuroscience research out of the lab so that everyone can have access to the practical benefits of current cutting edge neuroscience research.
Ian and Patricia are the co-creators of the 10 day certified programme: Applied Neuroscience