Coaching – A Solution for Mental Fitness in a VUCA World
Posted on March 07, 2022 by Azmina Mulji, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.
How to achieve your goals with Mental Fitness Coaching in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex & Ambiguous Environment.
Mental health is a topic that is gaining a lot of attention around the globe. At the turn of the decade, the world has faced a truly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environment. The Covid pandemic brought unprecedented difficulties for people globally. From the loss of loved ones, jobs, business and finances to being forced into isolation, loneliness and despair, the effects of which continue to live in many of us. And understandably so, this new world order has left us unable to cope emotionally and mentally with events that continue to turn our lives upside-down.
How can one adjust to these new set of circumstances without affecting emotional and mental health? How can one possibly heal from the loss, grief and trauma. How can one pick up the pieces and start to live life from a positive mental space.
Interventions such as medical treatments, therapy, yoga, meditation and coaching have helped those who have sought and used them. Of particular interest is the use of professional coaching to promote mental fitness and I have found that one of the most effective, life changing programs that has had a permanent impact on my clients as well as my self is the Mental Fitness Program by Positive Intelligence (www.positiveintelligence.com). This program has been developed by Shirzad Chamine, a Stanford Lecturer and founder of Positive Intelligence Inc. He is the author of the New York Times bestselling book “Positive Intelligence’. The program is based on research validated by 500,000+ participants from 50 countries across the globe which included CEOs & other executives, students, elite athletes, sales, operations and technology teams.
In his research, Shirzad explored the various areas of positive psychology, neuroscience, cognitive psychology and performance science and using factor analysis to discover the root cause and simplifying the entire spectrum he found that at the root of mental fitness there are only three core muscles, just like the root of thousands of colors there are only 3 factors: Red, Blue and Yellow.
He defines Mental Fitness as “the capacity to respond to life’s challenges with a positive rather than a negative mindset” and hence at the centre of mental fitness is our mind which can broadly be divided into 2 parts. We have the left brain, “the Survive Brain” which operates with negative emotions like fear, stress, anger, guilt, shame, insecurity. This is the area in which “saboteurs” thrive. Saboteurs are those negative voices in our head that motivate us towards self-sabotage and though they might generate success for us, they drive us away from happiness.
Then we have the right brain, “the Thrive Brain” where we have the inherent perspective and powers of the sage. The sage perspective that “every event can be converted into a gift and opportunity” can be actualized by using the five sage powers of empathy, explore, innovate, navigate and activate. In essence, accessing these powers are present in all human beings, and learning how to access and use them helps us thrive in life converting EVERY event into a gift and opportunity. The tools help one to experience empathy for self, others & circumstances, explore like a curious fascinated anthropologist, innovate ideas in quantity and then assess the quality, navigate with inner wisdom and finally act with clear-headed laser focused actions. All this with ease and flow.
So, when a circumstance or event happens in our life, do we react from our left survive brain leaving us drained and unhappy even if success comes through this, or do we act from our right thrive brain generating our highest success AND sustained happiness. Most of us would be from a space of saboteur reaction rather than sage action thereby depleting our mental fitness.
So how can we move from saboteur reaction to sage action to strengthen our mental fitness in times of uncertainty? The program has a simple 3 step process. The first is the saboteur interceptor muscle, which requires one to know their saboteurs, identify them when they attack and be able to intercept them at that precise moment. The second step is the self-command muscle which boosts ability to command the mind to quiet the saboteur region and amplify the sage region using daily concise bite-size mental exercises (known as PQ reps in the program). And the third step is to respond with a sage perspective using the five powers described above.
Hence the operating system is as simple as this. If you are feeling negative emotions STOP. You are in saboteur mode. Do some PQ Reps to quieten the saboteurs and activate the sage perspective. Then generate the gift by using the sage powers.
The Mental Fitness program is one of a kind as it is app based which provides weekly hour-long videos delivering deep experimental exploration of the week’s focus, daily practice module requiring 15 minutes a day of app guided exercises to help you grow mental muscles, instant real-time measurable progress/feedback on your progress and community support.
In addition, as a Mental Fitness Coach in the program, I undertake sessions with clients in the program that focus on the application of the process to personal and professional areas where help is required; stress reduction, wellness, relationships, parenting, career, emotional intelligence, conflict management, creativity, leadership and performance.
The author, Azmina Mulji is a Certified Professional Coach with the International Coaching Federation and licensed by Positive Intelligence Inc. to offer the Mental Fitness Coaching Program to clients globally. Reach out to her on +254707166751 or email azminamulji@gmail.com
