corporate health & performance prograM
Week 1
breath, heart & Resilience
Increased research around breathing performance has added to the existing well researched benefits of aerobic training (cardio). In this lesson you will learn why breathing performance has stepped into the spotlight, and how your breath, heart and your resilience are deeply connected.
It is my goal, by the end of the next 4-weeks, for you to:
Objectively improve your breathing performance.
To learn how to manage your breath and heart to improve your stress.
And to either achieve a new “cardio” goal, or, at the very minimum, have a better understanding of how to move forward in your health and fitness journey!
1
defining “cardio”
1
the mind-body connection: Breath, heart & resilience
Read below and answer the following questions. *Optional, but strongly encouraged ;-)
What does your mind-body connection, breath, heart, and resilience have to do with improving your aerobic performance aka “cardio”?
Often times in fitness we focus on the “work” we need to do to achieve a desired result. For example, hop in the most convenient high intensity interval group fitness class, or sign-up for a 5k and start logging your miles, or simply go for a walk to hit your step goals. While the “work” is absolutely important, you will have difficulty progressing your cardio and achieving your desired results if you’re unable to manage stress and recover effectively. This is where your mind-body connection and resilience come into play.
We all have unique genetic, environmental, and social influences that shape who were are today. Science is beginning to understand how the complexity of these factors interact to influence our health and fitness shifting the old paradigm of isolation towards a multi-disciplined holistic approach highlighting the positive individual, environmental, and social variables that, not only reduce negative health outcomes, but promote positive whole-mind-body health outcomes.
One such positive trait that integrates mind-body health is RESILIENCE, which can be defined as your ability to “bounce back” from adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant sources of stress (Garmezy and Masten, 1991, p. 459). For the purpose of this program, I want you to begin connecting the dots between both your mental and physical resilience.
Researchers are discovering that resilience is not simply a trait that people either have or do not have, but rather it is a skill that can be learned and developed. (McDonald et al., 2012)
Follow the instructions below to assess your resilience.
Reflect on your personal experiences to explore how you’ve handled stress in the past. Think about a time recently when you overcame a challenge or set back in your life. Perhaps you injured yourself, or received some negative feedback at work, or had an argument with a friend or family member. Briefly describe how you used your personal resources to overcome this difficulty in the 3 areas below:
Dr Lucinda Poole and Dr Hugo Alberts. The Resilience Plan (The Four S’s). https://positivepsychology.com/toolkit/
RESILIENCE SCORE
Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale 10 (CD-RISC-10) ©
Please indicate how much you agree with the following statements as they apply to you over the last month. If a particular situation has not occurred recently, answer according to how you think you would have felt. Your score will be recorded by your coach and shared at the end of the program.
3
one breath at a time
4
practice!
Get comfortable and follow along with the video below as I guide you in the Breath Wave/3-Stage Breathing. Explore the complete video library for more options!