The VUCA world in which we are living since the year 2000 is rapidly changing, unpredictable, complex and ambiguous. The continuous connection and thousands of stimuli that are heading our way sometimes put us in a position where we live in a world full of threats, missed opportunities and overstressed feelings. Our brain has a hard time processing all these stimuli and we get stressed.
Many people dream of a life without stress. Stress, however, is nothing but a signal in your brain. Other than something external that is coming your way, it is an internal bug indicating that you are handling things the wrong way. How are you supposed to handle things the right way then? It all starts by knowing what is going on in your brain.
Your brain is made up of four brain parts:
- an instinctive brain part, which makes you flee, fight or stiffen when there is a sudden threat (lizard brain)
- a part of the brain that turns you into a social animal (paleo-limbic brain)
- a part of the brain that serves as your autopilot and contains all your experiences, emotions, personalities (neo-limbic brain)
- a relatively new part of the brain and the pinnacle of your intelligence (prefrontal cortex)
Your blue capital, as 361° names the prefrontal cortex, does a wonderful job coming up with fresh answers that have never been thought of before to challenging and complex situations. Understanding time and space, setting priorities, structuring, managing your emotions, putting yourself in someone else’s shoes and putting things into perspective are also part of the job responsibilities.
In a world in which life, at work and elsewhere, brings us so much stress, switching to the most recent part of the brain is the key to success. If you use this part of the brain to cope with difficult issues, unexpected problems or other challenges, your chronic stress level will drop and you will often find appropriate answers.
If it is that simple and the solution for stress management lies only in our heads, then why don’t we just do it? Well, we at 361° are also looking for the answer to that question. The key words here are mindfulness and neuroplasticity.
- Mindfulness, because stopping your brain for a second allows you to get out of your stress mode and switch to your blue capital, so that you can see things clearly again and that you handle all the difficult things coming at you using the part of the brain adequate to the task.
- Neuroplasticity, because every behavioural change goes hand in hand with changes in your neural pathways. For example, those who are not used to remain calm during stressful situations will have to make a considerable effort the first couple of times. The more you do this, the more enabling your blue capital becomes a habit, which is also easier. It is crucial to get rid of your inner demons or ghosts during this process. A balanced brain leads to a balanced life.
