Managing the Big Moments
Managing the significant and big events and moments in our life is a common experience. Optimizing our ability to perform at our best in these situations is ideal.
Dr. Darin Davidson partners with Learner+, a CME/CE reflective learning platform for healthcare providers. For the opportunity to reflect on this article and earn CME/CE credits, Launch here. Check out all past articles which are also eligible for reflections and CME/CE credits.
For downloadable, actionable strategies and tactics to leverage biology in the pursuit of health, wellbeing, and sustainable high performance, visit the resource store, Launch here. Chapters are arranged by topic so those of interest can be selected and each are also eligible for reflections and CME/CE credits through Learner+.
We’ve all been there. A large and significant moment in our lives, either professional or personal, is upcoming. We prepare ourselves as best as possible to be at our best during these moments. When the actual situation comes up, being able to perform to our highest level is highly desirable and also challenging. Our ability to optimally perform within these situations is reflective of our ability to leverage our biology to provide the best possible opportunity to perform to our potential.
Throughout our lives, in both professional and personal domains, we often will experience large and significant events and moments. In these situations, it is our hope that we are able to be at our best. This is a shared and common desire amongst each of us. It can be difficult to prepare specifically for these moments because the context of the large and significant moments is challenging to replicate in a preparation or practice setting. While we can prepare ourselves emotionally, psychologically, and physically for these events, when the actual moment arrives, it can be accompanied by significant cues across the internal, external, and relational pathways towards activated, attacking, anxious, and even overwhelmed and shutdown states. These shifts can make it difficult to perform at our best during these events.
These shifts in biological states are reflective of our common biology, specifically as it pertains to the nervous system. The principles underlying these biological state shifts have been discussed in past articles. One of the foundational aspects to the Practices of the Healthcare Athlete is to best allow us to perform to our highest level in these situations by leveraging our biology.
Across the domain of performance psychology, there are numerous recommendations regarding how to best manage these significant and large moments in life. Michael Gervais, PhD, a highly respected and prominent performance psychologist, advocates preparation with a framework of there being no larger or more significant moments than any other. From his perspective, each moment is similarly and equally important. The underlying rationale for this perspective is that the only moment we can ever have is the present moment. As such the present moment is all that matters. With this in mind, the paradigm is that each moment is of equal importance.
From a conceptual perspective, this consideration of all moments being equal is valid. It is true that the only moment that truly matters in our lives is the present moment as that is the only moment we have any degree of influence or control over. While this is true, it is also important to consider that in reality our embodied experience may not be consistent with this concept at all times. This is particularly the case when we encounter a large number or significant magnitude of cues across the three pathways.
In order for the perspective that there are no big moments to be able to be experienced across our life, it is necessary that we are able to consistently remain in the present moment and if we were to shift out of the present moment, have robust strategies and tactics to return to it. While this can be conceptually accomplished through mind-based skills alone, it is often the case that an over-reliance on implementing mind-based skills will have an upper limit.
Eventually the cues we may encounter across the internal, external, and relational pathways will lead to a biological state shift towards activated, attacking, anxious, or overwhelmed states as well as, possibly, shutdown states. As discussed in past articles, when these particular biological states emerge we are unable to return to grounded and anchored states through mind-based skills alone. The reasoning for this is that from these states the effectiveness of our mind-based skills is substantially reduced on account of the underlying neurophysiological changes which reduce prefrontal cortical activity, thereby decreasing executive functioning and cognitive capacity. In these situations, our neurophysiology shifts our salience network towards a more threat oriented perspective and increases negativity bias.
The above understanding informs that in order to manage these significant moments in our lives, it is valuable to have additional strategies beyond just considering each moment to be of equal importance. While the attempt to stay in the present moment is highly beneficial, it is also important to have additional strategies and tactics to manage situations in which, despite our best intentions and efforts, we nonetheless shift into activated, attacking, anxious, overwhelmed, or shutdown states.
Particularly within the larger moments in life, it is often the case that we can experience a larger volume, a higher frequency, or greater magnitude in intensity of cues towards shifts in biological state into activated, attacking, anxious, overwhelmed, and shutdown states. Even with robust and significant development of mind-based skills, it is inevitable that we will eventually experience situations in which these cues will overwhelm the strength of our mind-based skills. In these scenarios, our physiology predominates and shifts us towards activated, attacking, anxious, overwhelmed, and shutdown states. In this situation, it is important that we have body-based skills available to allow for shifts back to anchored and grounded states.
The above understanding illustrates a limitation of the predominant mind-based approach. This is on account of the fact that at some point, the magnitude and frequency of the cues along the internal, external, and relational pathways will overwhelm our psychology and our physiology will lead to shifts in biological state. With an over-reliance on mind-based skills, when we experience this situation, we are left with limited available strategies and tactics to return to a grounded and anchored state.
The paradigm provided by the Practices of the Healthcare Athlete, allows us to similarly manage the large and significant moments in life, as well as the additive effect of smaller situations discussed in the previous article. This is on account of the capability to leverage our biology by enhancing our nervous system flexibility. A flexible nervous system is one that can experience shifts in biological state and readily return back to anchored and grounded states. By developing the mind-based and body-based skills within the Practices of the Healthcare Athlete, we are able to implement strategies and tactics to manage any, and all, situations we may encounter in any aspect of our life.
From my perspective, this framework, which is biologically consistent and unifying across our psychology and physiology, is more empowering than an over-reliance on mind-based skills. As we can see from case examples, most notably described by Michael Allison, even high level professional athletes with undoubtably well developed mind-based skills eventually encounter situations in which their physiology experiences cues across the three pathways which lead to a shift towards activated, attacking, anxious, overwhelmed, and shutdown states. In this situation, the strength of the mind-based skills is not able to prevent this or manage it. When we consider that this occurs even amongst highly trained professional athletes who have spent considerable time developing mind-based skills, it is axiomatic that the same situation will readily occur within our own lives.
By developing the strategies and tactics within the Practices of the Healthcare Athlete, we are able to increase the strength of our anchored and grounded states as well as enhance nervous system flexibility. These traits allow us to better manage both the significant as well as smaller moments in our lives. This is on account of an increased ability to experience shifts in biological state in response to cues across the internal, external, relational pathways, as well as to recognize such shifts and implement tactics to return to anchored and grounded states.
It is important to consider that we experience these situations in both professional and personal domains in our life, as well as in the more significant, larger situations and the more frequent smaller moments. The skills developed through the Practices of the Healthcare Athlete can be equally applied across each of these scenarios to allow us to pursue health, wellbeing, and sustainable high performance by leveraging our biology in the manner described above.
To learn more, including about polyvagal informed coaching for healthcare professionals and others in high demand domains, please visit www.darindavidson.com.
Dr. Darin Davidson partners with Learner+, a CME/CE reflective learning platform for healthcare providers. For the opportunity to reflect on this article and earn CME/CE credits, Launch here. Check out all past articles which are also eligible for reflections and CME/CE credits.
For downloadable, actionable strategies and tactics to leverage biology in the pursuit of health, wellbeing, and sustainable high performance, visit the resource store, Launch here. Chapters are arranged by topic so those of interest can be selected and each are also eligible for reflections and CME/CE credits through Learner+.
REFERENCES
Allison, M. The Play Zone: A Neurophysiological Approach to our Highest Performance. https://theplayzone.com.
Allison M. How Our Feelings of Safety Guide Our Behavior. Looking at the World Through a Polyvagal Lens. Psychol Today, May 30, 2022; https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/polyvagal-perspectives/202205/how-our-feelings-safety-guide-our-behavior.
Gervais, M; Carroll, P. Compete to Create: An Approach to Living and Leading Authentically. Audible Original; 2020.
Finding Mastery Podcast. Hosted by Michael Gervais.