It is widely understood that:
Stress creates high levels of cortisol on the body, causing inflammation and weakening our vitality over time.
Deep sleep restores us at a cellular level, but REM sleep is vital for cognitive processing and memory.
A varied microbiome is vital for good gut health, the renowned second brain.
If we know what improvements and habits we need to make, why haven’t we done that yet? We are hardwired to look for known pathways, short cuts, comfort zones that our brain has established.
This is why habit adoption can be challenging. We’re told that humans are ‘creatures of habit’; we might always choose the same locker at the gym, the same parking slot at the store or prefer our morning coffee from a specific mug.
Some of these habits make good sense. Choosing the same parking space means you don’t have to actively think about where you parked your car, it’s a brain efficiency.
However, some of these habits have sheltered us in so-called comfort zones and can feel hard to change, even when we know there are profound benefits, such as going for an early run before our morning coffee.
The power of understanding how to apply my expertise in neuroscience to my coaching practice profoundly affects the personal work I do with each client.
Our bodies and brains are highly attuned to each other. We may believe we make decisions entirely within our brain, but recent studies show that the ‘gut instinct’ is a true reflection of where the brain and gut microbiome work together to foster chemical reactions that drive some of our thinking and behavior.
At the start of our client and coach journey we take a full audit of your life and lifestyle to understand how your brain and body connection is serving you. Using a toolkit that looks at your circadian rhythm, we can identify your peak points for hormone release, rest and focus during the day.
By working with your body’s rhythms and responses, we can optimize for successful behavior modification by coaching for change that is in tune with your body.
For example: if you regularly feel lethargic and unfocused in the afternoon, by moving your fitness schedule to your lunch break and reviewing your nutrition we can make working out feel easier and your afternoon’s more energized by the endorphins from exercising.
If you’ve tried adopting standardized executive optimization programs such as The 5am Club, only to find yourself feeling stressed, unsuccessful and ultimately demotivated, this is likely to be because your personal rhythm and lifestyle doesn’t support what has worked for some others.