Mindfulness Tools for Entrepreneurs

Mindfulness Tools

for Entrepreneurs

Miriam BekkoucheFounderThe Brain Spa

General AssemblyFebruary 25, 2015

All Rights Reserved. The Brain Spa

Miriam BekkoucheFounder of The Brain Spa

Contact: [email protected]@miriam_leia@brainspanyc

Nadine BekkoucheFounder of NBE Education

Contact: [email protected]@NBE_education


mailto:[email protected]


Our focus for the next 90 mins…

• Why Are We Here?

• Let’s Talk About Stress, Baby

• What Can We Do About It?

• Your Brain Waves on Mindfulness


Happiness

Happiness =

Connection (Love) +

Having and Pursuing meaningful goals that create

flow and engagement (Work)

The Psychological Price of EntrepreneurshipNo one said building a company is easy. But it's time to be honest about how brutal it really is--and the price so many founders secretly pay.

- Inc Magazine

Tech Has a Depression ProblemStart-up founders might seem like they've got it made, but long hours, isolation, and stress put them at risk of mental illness.

- The Atlantic


“Our life is what our thoughts make it.”

Marcus Aurelius

The Science of Stress

By Nadine S. Bekkouche, M.Sc.

Medical Psychology

“How to win the stress game?”

The Benefits of Stress

Yerkes-Dodson Curve

• Stress has an extremely adaptive function: it allows us to go for longer, to work harder, and to survive traumas and hard experiences

• It’s also fun, and productive, and allows us to get into flow (“the zone”)

Benefits of Stress


• But that’s all short term

• Performance is not meant to go on forever, leads to chronic stress

• Chronic stress does not have any benefits, it is simply extremely bad for the health


Stress & its Effects on Your Body

• These are basically 2 stress systems in the body: the NS (NE and NA) and the HPA axis

• Both can get burned out, supposed to turn them off REGULARLY

• If you are cramming, or running around, or have a deadline, you are activating these systems.


Yerkes-Dodson Curve v.2.0

Chronic Stress

• Chronic stress is harmful to almost every body system

• Chronic stress also provides a good basis for the development of emotional and mental disorders


Being Flexible

• We are not meant to spend long periods of time in a state of stress or performance

• We are meant to regularly and thoroughly shut these stress systems off

• The problem is we are creatures of habit, and being stressed out can become a habit



There’s good news…

• We can practice feeling good

• Develop new psychological and physiological habits


5 Stress Modalities

• EMG

– Muscle tension

• GSR

– Skin conductance

• Respiration

• EKG (ECG)

– Cardiac rhythms, HRV

• Peripheral temperature


How?

• The body is very intelligent

• CNS = PSN + SNS

• Always seeking balance


EEG: Electroencephalography

https://mcb.berkeley.edu/courses/mcb61/

http://arttechlaw.com/if-i-only-had-a-blue-brain

Bufferapp blog


Mindfulness

• 1) Decrease chronic stress

– Get in the habit of feeling calm and peaceful at rest

• 2) Optimise acute stress

– Get in the habit of feeling engaged in the present moment


4 – 7 - 8

#1

#2

Targeted Muscle Release

#3

Meditation

Wait, am I doing it right?

And how do I know if it’s working?

Meditation & Wearable

Mindfulness MeditationChanges Your Brain in 8-Weeks

• Areas related to emotional regulation, positive emotion, self-control increase in volume

• Cortical thickness increases in areas related to awareness, focus, attention, and decision-making

• Grey matter regenerates

• Amygdala shrinks

Cultivating a New Habit

“People have been transforming their minds for thousands of years. Every major world religion includes some form of contemplative exercise, though today meditation is often practiced apart from any belief system.

Meditation is pragmatic, the psychological and emotional equivalent of physical exercise.”

Sharon SalzbergCo-Founder

Insight Meditation Society

Miriam BekkoucheFounder of The Brain Spa

Contact: [email protected]@miriam_leia

Nadine BekkoucheFounder of NBE Education

Contact: [email protected]@NBE_education



Meditation & Wearable

Meditation Apps

Small Business & Entrepreneurship

Mindfulness Tools for Entrepreneurs