On Stressing Less & Performing at our Best

There are 3 things in particular that I work with my clients on, in helping them find their voices and realise their full potential as Entrepreneurs, Leaders ad Public Speakers ; their state (e.g. their mindset, energy and holistic wellbeing), how they communicate and relate with others (individually and as it relates to presenting to or leading groups) and their content and delivery in their work.


From time to time, I am reminded of the importance of the first, when an aspiring entrepreneur I’ve recently spoken to about how adolescent to middle aged womens’ monthly cycles effect their productivity, energy levels and mood throughout the month, returns to me to thank me for how much of a difference the knowledge has made to her productivity and her perception of her capabilities and hence self worth, since she found out.


In Western Society, regardless of gender, we often have this expectation (or at last hope) of our bodies and beings that they should be able to run flawlessly and endlessly like machines, to help us meet the demands of the many roles we have to play in work and life. But in reality, our bodies, and what we’re physically, mentally and hence spiritually capable of achieving, is impacted by the cycles unique to our (genetically speaking) sex, within each phase of the life cycle.


Once we understand what they are and what our strengths and weaknesses are at each phase within these cycles, we can both start being a little more gentle on ourselves for not being able to be “better” than we are at any particular time in life, and then both start to better plan our work (and life) activity around our unique set of holistic health needs for that phase and plan to take better care of ourselves at the moments when we’ll need to.


What are some examples of some of the phases each of us might need to navigate in our working lives (just to be clear we’re on the same page)?

• There’s learning to work with our daily circadian rhythms and cycles as (genetically speaking) either females or males.
• There’s learning to work with  the flow of our menstrual cycles and the 4 distinct phases within each monthly cycle
• There’s learning to work with the flow of a pregnancy, each trimester within it and preparation for birth
• There’s then learning to work with the flow of being post-natal and for new parents of all genders, the early demands of being a parent
• Then there’s learning as parents to flow with the demands of every new developmental phase their children will subsequently grow through
• There’s learning to work with the flow of becoming peri-menopausal for a woman
• There’s learning to work with the flow of menopause for Women
• There’s learning to work with the flow of andropause for Men

Think each as being a boat that goes past you while you’re on a surfboard in the water. A couple of those boat services, might not be relevant to you (but may impact people you work with or manage). Others, like ferries, whether we like it or not, are scheduled to be coming past at some point. And they’ll make waves of various sizes when they come past. Think of the range of holistic health, pharmaceutical (or worst case, surgical) choices and interventions you can make as being the means of asking the Captain of the boat to drive at a speed and in a way that makes a minimal amount of waves from each boat, for you to have to navigate. Think of you learning to surf them and work with their flow as being how you better manage your stress levels, become more productive and able to perform at your best throughout each phase.


The gorgeous thing for me about having originally Practice Managed Mental Health, Holistic Health and Birth Focused Wellness Clinics, having originally, in my own Private Practice, as a Counsellor and Human Biological Science graduate, specialised in Stress Management and Holistic reproductive health for mainly 18-40 something Women and Men, and later, having Mentored and Trained so many thousands of people in the Wellness Industry in their Business, Leadership and Pubic Speaking development, is that I have both come to have an amazingly knowledgeable network of health professionals I can refer to, who can help you (or those you might work with) better manage every single one of those “boats.” But I also have a great understanding of how to account for them, as it comes to managing the Inner game (your state) as a part of helping you (or those you work with) reach your/their, highest potential as a Leader and Public Speaker.


How on earth does that relate to your Leadership and Speaking you might ask? Are you one of the folks who rates Public Speaking as being about as appealing as death, yet you still have to do it for your work? Or are you someone who enjoys or aspires to do more of it, but experiences varying degrees of fear and anxiety still about any given presentation that you have to give? Would you like to be better able to stress less, both before you go on and while you’re on stage?


Doing so is in part about the routines you do pre, during and post speaking. But it’s also about increasing your awareness around what is cumulatively adding to your general stress levels throughout your working and personal life prior. The more sources of stress you’re dealing with, the less your tolerance of and ability to potentially cope with the challenge of stepping in front of any given audience, when you’d like to.


Which is why, at the upcoming October Sydney Leaders and Public Speakers Meetup Group event, one on the things I’ll be introducing attendees to is 12 of the most common sources of stress you need to be mindful of managing in your holistic wellbeing routine, to help you stress less and perform at your best as a Leader and Public Speaker. There’ll also be a complimentary download on how to better manage them for everyone who attends. 

You can find our more about and register to attend the event at the link below. ​

FIND OUT MORE...

Or if you have any questions about how to better manage, or support someone you work with, to better manage and flow with the unique challenges of managing their state, relative to the phase of the life cycle you/they might be navigating too, please feel free to reach out to me, so that I can connect you or them with some expert support.

​Until next time

Nat xx