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The Mind-Body Connection
Physical well-being is an important element of happiness, of the SPIRE model. Why? Because mind and body are one, interconnected. When it comes to physical well-being, perhaps the most important idea to look at is that of stress. Because long before the COVID-19 pandemic, we had the stress pandemic. The World Health Organization talks about stress as the silent killer. More and more organizations are struggling with stress and consequently with burnout and breakdown.
So what do we do about stress? What can the science of happiness teach us? Well, the first thing that it teaches us is that all along, we have been blaming the wrong culprit. Because stress, in fact, is not the problem. Stress, in fact, is potentially good for us.
Let me explain. When I go to the gym and I lift weights, what am I doing to my muscles? I’m stressing them. And I actually grow stronger, bigger, healthier. Our muscular system is an anti-fragile system. And to trigger it, stress is important. When do the problems begin?
The problems begin when I go to the gym and I lift weights and a minute later, more weights and more weights and more weights. That’s when I get injured, that’s when I get weaker rather than stronger. The problem, therefore, is not the stress, the problem rather is the lack of recovery, whether it’s in the gym physically or in life, psychologically.
Healthy, happy, and successful people experience stress just like everyone else does. The difference is that they punctuate their crazy busy lives with ample recovery. And when we have stress and recovery, the anti-fragile system is triggered. If we only have one or the other, we do not grow stronger. In fact, we can break down, become fragile rather than anti-fragile.
The 3 Levels of Recovery
So what does recovery look like? Well, we can talk about three levels of recovery, mini, mid, and macro. When it comes to mini recoveries, we can talk about a 15-minute break that could include a cup of coffee, a walk or a conversation, or a meal. But not a meal when our phone is on and we’re doing work at the same time, because that’s not recovery, that’s simply more stress.
Physical exercise can be a very powerful form of recovery. You know that people who spend 30 minutes, three times a week working out, they are physically healthier, of course, as well as psychologically healthier. In fact, regular physical exercise works in the same way that our most powerful psychiatric medication works.
Three deep breaths, 30, 40 seconds. Five to six seconds in and five to six seconds out. That’s a form of recovery that shifts us from the fight-or-flight response to what Herbert Benson from Harvard medical school calls the relaxation response.
So ask yourself, what can I do today for recovery?
When it comes to mid-level recoveries, getting a good night’s sleep. Or if you can’t fall asleep, just lying down, taking a day off. People who take a day off are not just happier and healthier, they actually perform better at work.
Ask yourself, what can you do to introduce more mid-level recovery into your life? Do I perhaps need to go to sleep a little bit earlier? Switch those screens sooner rather than later? Is it to take a day or two off?
And then we have macro-level recovery. JP Morgan once said, “I can do the work of a year in nine months, but not in 12.” Most of us don’t have the luxury of taking three months off, but even a month off or a week off here and there can go a long way in triggering the anti-fragile system.
What can you do to introduce macro-level recovery into your life? What kind of vacation do you want? What provides you with recovery? Is it lying down on the beach and doing nothing? Or maybe that’s more stressful for you and what you need is to climb mountains or read books or hang out with friends.
Promoting a Culture of Recovery
It’s difficult to take time off, especially for type A’s, ambitious individuals. Why? Because if I take time off, it means that I’m stopping. I’m slowing down. As a manager, one of the most important things that you can do for your employees and for your organization is to encourage employees to take time off. First of all, by doing it yourself, leading by example. Second, keep in mind that in the United States, more than half of the employees do not use up their vacation time. And even those that do, close to half are still tethered to their work. Encourage employees, encourage yourself to take that vacation, to take that time for recovery so that you can trigger the anti-fragile system for you, for your employees, and for the organization.