Building Resilience and Motivation For

A Happy and Successful Life

These slides support the conference session delivered by

David HodgsonRO Conferences 2019

Survive or ThriveHow can we live the best life possible?

“We want to be defined by what we can be, not by what we can’t, live to our potential not by our limitations.”

The Wizard of Oz

Only when we develop all three parts of our character can we become a balanced resilient adult.

½ Building Resilience:Purpose/Action

Cortisol CourageFight Flight Fear Freeze

+ Hyper Alert, Focused- Paranoid, anxious, bored, give up easily

Testosterone BraveryPower Control Choice RiskHigh+ Focused, Resilient, Persevere- Aggressive, BullyLow+ Calm, - compliant, obedient,

Rites of passage help us develop courage and bravery and these have always been used in human societies.

Cortisol: Don’t be scared of cucumbershttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qblgGOa48Bw&t=42s

Don’t be scared of cucumbers

For protection/survival

Ask: What’s the cucumber?

Fear of not being good enough

When we compare self to others

Better to compare self to self

Testosterone &Bravery

High:

Achiever, Self Focus,

Aggressive, Winner, Bully.

Low: Melt, compliant,

obey, play safe.

Gaokao:Winners and losers

• Chinese University Entrance Exam

• 9 hours over 2 days, 9.4m p.a.

• ‘Top’ Universities offer 1 place per 50,000 applicants

• 93% of teenage suicides linked to exam pressures

( Debrakidd.wordpress.com, 2017)

Compare self to self

• How am I better today than I was yesterday or a month ago?

• How can I make the most of being part of RO?

Airbrushing:Before & After

Try some of these to build your resilience:Purpose/Action

Testosterone and Cortisol/Bravery, Courage and Self-Control1. Choose your Mood, stand up and stretch, Haka, power stance.2. Be a Planner, prepare for tomorrow the night before, declutter by tidying a cupboard, shelf or room.3. Expand your comfort zone, work out a dance routine for a favourite song, ride a rollercoaster, see a horror movie.4. Body aware, try a new exercise, eat well, improve your sleep, take a relaxing bath5. Compete: challenge a friend and loser buys the other a present from Poundland, list your strengths and get even better. 6. Abstain: Avoid doing something you know isn’t good for you for a day or week.

Courage Activity

Testosterone Bravery

High Power (2 mins)

Cortisol (+stress-relaxed)-10%

Testosterone (+dominance-passive)+25%

Low Power (2 mins)

Cortisol +15%

Testosterone -20%

½ Building Resilience:Connection/Meaning

OXYTOCIN Love

High= caring, calm, creative, healthier,

Exam performance enhancer!

Low=impaired immune system.

SEROTONIN Bliss, spirituality

High= Happiness, Belonging, contentment, bravery

Low=Depression, loneliness (dehumanised)

QUESTION

• How many people put together the R.O. Programme pack you have today?

• In pairs agree an answer, you have 30 seconds! (answer: thousands)

• The success of our species is largely due to our ability to co-operate and specialise.

Oxytocin (Ian Wright)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omPdemwaNzQ

Right MoodThe Aberdeen & York Puppy Room

Compliments Activity

Compliment someone you know well.

What do you like most about them?

What are their strengths?

This builds strength in a powerful way.

Knowing others really care about us makes us stronger. Knowing our strengths is also important.

‘There is only the moment, the now. This does not mean we should live for the moment it means we should live in the moment.’

Leo Buscaglia

If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear as it is, infinite.

William Blake

Loneliness is measurable as a gene expression in our blood. It triggers the sympathetic nervous system. Loneliness is as damaging as smoking or obesity.

“Our bodies are programmed to turn misery in to death”.

Social GenomicsProfessors John Cacioppo & Steve Cole

Jane

I am in this waiting room for half an hour.

I will keep it together. I will use the time wisely. Look out of the window, enjoy the view, remember something good from yesterday.

I will live in the moment not the future or the past.

Time is our most valuable resource.

‘The mind is a universe and can make a heaven of hell or a hell of heaven.’

John Milton

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

HAPPY LIST ACTIVITY

Jot down all the things you do that make you happy.

Exclude anything that could harm you or anyone else.

You have 3 minutes, aim for at least six.

Do more of these and you’ll be happier!

Try some of these activities to build your resilience:Connection/Meaning

Serotonin and Oxytocin/Humanity and Soul1. Connect with nature, go on a walk and

look at the world, take an amazing picture of something small you see

2. Support nature: feed birds, plant something, pick up litter

3. Connect to people: tickle a baby or stroke a pet and teach them something new, learn a joke and tell three people

4. Compliment a friend and seek meaningful feedback on something important to you

5. Volunteer: Give some of your time to help someone else

6. Imagine the best version of you five years from now, where will you be living?, what job do you do? How will you have made a positive influence in the world?

Building Motivation:Learning/Curiosity

DOPAMINE Learning

High=alert, curious, able to learn new things, elation, very addictive

Low=zombie, unmotivated

ENDORPHINS Flow Curiosity

High=focus on task, Concentration, flow, absorbed,

Low=sadness, bereft, hurt, agony,

Who would like to win £20?

There’s no catch!

The best motivation comes from within.

Which subjects, topics do you study and really enjoy?

Which degree course excites you?

The HAKAhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiKFYTFJ_k

w&t=2s

Mood MovingBe in the right mood for whatever it is you’re about to do.

• Nerves, Fear

• Boredom, Hesitation

• Curious, Go For It! Buzzing

What can you see?

A Cow

Pareiodolia

Try these activities to build motivation:Learning/Curiosity

Dopamine and Endorphins/Wisdom and Justice1. Read a book, newspaper, article youtube

clip wouldn’t usually look at, look at a work of art or read a poem and analyse it

2. Learn to repair something or make something new

3. Learn more about someone you admire and memorise a quote or story about the person

4. Make an alphabetical list, one item for each letter in order, comprised of a random category such clothes, foods, countries, blue things.

5. Become an expert, dive deep in to a subject you love

6. Be creative: identify a ‘problem’ generate dozens of ideas, only then dissect each one until you reject all but the best.

The Wizard of Oz

Lion: Draw strength from our past experience and skills forCourage & Bravery

Scarecrow: Guides us in the present, wisdom forged by blending our Lion and Tin Man forCurious & Learner

Tin Man Why Build AFuture? Gives our life Meaning & Purpose through connection to people and places.

Signature StrengthsMartin Seligman

We express our identity by living through one of more of these.Which of these six appeal to you? 1. WISDOM/Dopamine (curiosity, love of learning,

judgement, ingenuity, emotional intelligence, perspective)2. COURAGE/Testosterone (valour, perseverance, integrity)3. HUMANITY/Oxytocin (kindness, loving)4. JUSTICE/Endorphins (citizenship, fairness, leadership)5. TEMPERANCE/Cortisol (self-control, prudence, humility)6. TRANSCENDENCE/Serotonin (gratitude, hope, spirituality,

forgiveness, humour, zest, aestheticism)

Resources

Ted Talks:

Graham Shaw Draw to remember Tedx Vienna, 2016*

Russell Foster The neuroscience of sleep TEDGlobal2013*

Allan Jones A map of the brain TEDGlobal2011

Ed Boyden A light switch for neurons TED2011

Robert Stickgold Sleep, Memory and Dreams TEDxRiverCity2010

Steve Ramirez & Xu Lui How to manually change a memory TEDxBoston2013

Dr Nancy Chiaravalloti Techniques to Enhance Learning and Memory TEDxHerndon2016 (Youtube)*

Elizabeth Amini Top 10 Tips to Keep Your Brain Young TEDxSoCal2011

Kelly McGonigal How to make stress your friend TEDGlobal2013

Dan Buettner How to live to be 100+ TedXTC 2009*

Research Papers

Sleep restriction worsens mood and emotion regulation in adolescents Baum, K. 2014 (Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry)

How do we learn in a negative mood? Effects on transfer and learning Brand S. et al 2007 (Learning and Instruction)

Genes linked to educational attainment expressed in the brain during prenatal development Benjamin, D. 2016 (Nature)Skills underlying mathematics: The role of executive function in the development of mathematics proficiency Cragg, L. 2014 (Trends in Neuroscience and Education)Smart drugs: A dose of intelligence Dance, A. 2016 (Nature)

The amygdala: vigilance and emotion

Davis, M. 2001 (Molecular Psychiatry)

The consolidation and Transformation of Memory Dudai, Y. 2015 (Neuron)

Neuroscience and education: myths and messages Howard-Jones, P. Dec 2014 (Nature Reviews Neuroscience)More evidence for three types of cognitive style: validating the object-spatial imagery and verbal questionnaire using eye tracking when learning with texts and picture Hoffler, T. 2017 (Applied Cognitive Psychology)

The role of reward and reward uncertainty in episodic memory Mason, A et al Oct 2017 (Journal of Memory and Language)

A network neuroscience of human learning: potential to inform quantitative theories of brain and behaviour Bassett, D. 2017 (Trends in Cognitive Science)

The functional profile of the human amygdala in affective processing: Insights from intracranial recordings Murray, R. J. et al 2014 (Cortex, 60)