Building resilience: food and rhythm

We are still working on the fifth resilience factor here: namely discipline. Today we are looking at the next 2 elements of discipline. That, together with the previous 2 – healthy movement and healthy sleep – form the basis of this resilience factor.

Building resilience: sleeping well!

Having a good-night-rest. Sleeping long enough. Waking well-rested! What a luxury. Sadly, for quite some people, it has become a luxury that they often have to do without. Someone (some time ago) came up with the story that one can manage fine with 5 to 6 hours of sleep a day. The thing is that it actually seems to work for a few years. And yet, these people are (seemingly without really noticing it at first) damaging their brain and body extensively.

Someone who goes with less than 5 hours of sleep twice a week has a 200% bigger chance of getting a stroke (Dr. Helmut Kolitzus). Rene Kahn wrote the very nice and practical book ‘The 10 Commandments for a Healthy Brain’. One of these commandments is ‘sleep healthy and sleep plenty’. For all phases of life it is important to get enough sleep. What is enough though? For teenagers that is actually a lot: 10 to 12 hours. But for all others it is AT LEAST 7-8 hours. Another interesting fact is that one can’t really catch up lost sleep. So, sleeping very little during the week, and trying to catch it up by sleeping a lot during the weekend doesn’t work.

Building resilience: discipline

The resilience-factor nr. 5. Confronted with the word discipline many people suddenly get the feeling of powerlessness. A bit of this kind of a story: ‘Tried it each year, but gave in after a couple of weeks.’ For many people discipline has something of a slightly demotivating and unreachable ideal. People with a high resilience-factor however, have a rather well-developed form of discipline, and are therefore better capable in enjoying life. They are less dependent on the change of mood or luxury-problems (like too much fat on the bones, too little or too irregular sleep, too little exercise, etc.).

In his newest book ‘Great by Choice’ Jim Collins gives an overview of 10 companies that even amidst of the great turbulences within the markets have kept on growing constantly and are still very successful and healthy. One of the principles that is distinguishing these companies from their main competition is ‘the 20 miles march principle’. If you are walking each day for 20 miles from out of LA, you’ll get to New York within 100 days. The Roman army forces have also lived by this rule (literally). They marched each day for 20 miles, and made camp at exactly that spot, no matter if it was only 3 PM or already 7 PM.

Building resilience: employing your skills

This forth resilience factor ‘employing your skills’ is, on the one hand, quite easy and fun to develop, but it is often also not consciously and regularly implemented. And that is a shame.

Daniel Pink describes, based on numerous researches, 3 basic forms of motivation in his book ‘Drive’:

Motivation 1.0: the will to survive

Motivation 2.0: reward and punishment

Motivation 3.0: intrinsic motivation

Resilience in Peru

I have just arrived on 3400 meters, on the top of the Mirador san Christobal, amidst the old Inca-land in the southern Andes in Peru. After a little climb of about 2 hours I am sitting here together with Robin – our youngest son, enjoying the majestic scenery. We are surrounded by 6000-meter mountains. On our right the abyss drops down for almost 1000 meter, and all the way down there the brown ‘Rio Apurimac’, a wild river, is winding its way through the untouched and wild nature. Lots of little green terraces are scattered about the mountain slopes. And here and there we spot some little primitive huts. The Quecho-Indians live here together with their sheep and lamas.

Robin and I are here for 8 days to discover Peru and to support the amazing hospital, the Diospi Suyana, in Curahuasie, as I have been conducting a ‘Healthy Leadership’ training for some of the employees of the Hospital for the last couple of days. Like so often during journeys like this one, I find that I am learning and discovering as much as the participants of the training!

Building resilience: and being amazed!

After an intensive trainingsday in Paris, together with 8 beautiful people, covering the theme: ‘how to build a positive team’, I am now sitting by myself in ‘Café de France’, on the ‘Place d' Italie’. Just before coming here I’ve changed into my relax-pants and a cozy sweater, and went looking for an inspiring nice typical French Café. And, obviously, I didn’t have to look far.

And already I am enjoying a glass of Saint Émelion, and I can take some time to write a little. I love it! Writing is one of the most ultimate ways for me to relax and be creative. And, in the middle of the autumn, which is the most busy and stressful time for me in the year, a little resilience is becoming quite handy…

The resilience-factor Nr. 2 is optimism and basic-trust. People that have an optimistic view of life, regenerate much faster after major efforts or high-stress-phases. Optimism is in this sense often a consequence of a positive attitude: ‘things will work out fine, after rain comes sunshine, etc.’! Optimism is also a consequence of positive amazement. Being amazed is an attitude through which one be positively surprised by (re)discovering the little things in life. Children are much better at this then us! It often seems we have unlearned it by growing up.

Building resilience: going for gold!

The first resilience-factor that contributes to a lifestyle of resilience is: a reconciled past and an emotional stability. A dear friend of mine, Guenter Refle, a philosopher and consultant has described it as follows: ‘he who isn’t aware of his own history, who doesn’t accepts and embraces it, cannot really enjoy his present, and can hardly plan his future in a meaningful way. Who gets stuck in his past, because of unresolved negative experiences has not enough energy to build a healthy lifestyle of resilience and emotional stability.

Naturally, I am not saying that it has to be the goal to ‘solve’ everything of our past, or that we are able to reconcile it all to gather and would be able to leave it behind us. We are all human beings and are faced with our personal boundaries within this thematic.