The Impact Of Stress On Problem Solving

Are you struggling to solve problems because you are stressed? Would you like to solve problems with ease?

Join Clare to learn a simple understanding of how the mind works known as the 3 principles, which will allow you to develop self-awareness and connection to intuition. As a result, you can journey from stressed, overwhelmed and anxious to calm, balance and clarity.

Leave your busy intellectual mind behind and listen like you would listen to music.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the CalmCast,

A time to feel calm and think clearly.

I'm Clare Downam,

The Queen of Calm,

A Transformational Life Coach.

I was a burnt out head teacher who finally made the journey to calm after years of trying,

And I want to prevent you from having to do the same.

The CalmCast is a series of short explorations gently guiding you back to your natural state,

Which is calm and clarity.

Just listen like you would listen to music,

With an open mind and curiosity.

There's nothing else to do.

Now let's relax into today's episode.

So today we're exploring the impact of stress on problem solving.

In this next few sessions that I'm going to do,

We will be looking at problem solving.

We've looked a bit at decision making,

But what I think will probably come to light is that there'll be the very similar conversation.

Now that's something that I do want to say,

Is that you might find me a little bit repetitive when you're listening to these sessions.

Well good,

Really,

Because I have listened to this understanding from many different teachers in many different ways over the last three and a bit years,

And I still hear somebody say something almost the same as they said it before,

And I'll hear something different in it.

So that's the invitation really here,

Is to see that there's always the potential to see something new,

Even if you're hearing something very similar to what you've heard before.

So do bear that in mind.

And again,

I'll remind you that where we're pointing here,

We're pointing to human beings working best when they are in a calm and settled place.

But not from this perspective of trying to get you there,

But just from a perspective of understanding that that's one of those key things about how you work as a human being,

A universal thing that is true for all human beings,

Not just you and I.

And we're doing all of this from this three principles perspective,

The idea that there are these three principles that work together to create our human experience,

Thought,

Consciousness and mind,

Where mind is not the space between your ears,

The space inside your head,

But is in fact a name for the universal energy of life,

The God energy,

Whatever,

You know,

The energy of nature,

Whatever you want to call it really,

It doesn't really matter what we call it,

To be honest.

It is just,

There is this aliveness that runs through us as human beings,

And it's always there,

It's unbreakable,

And it is the source of everything that we want.

And that's what we're trying to say,

It's the source of everything that we want.

It's the source of calm,

It's the source of clarity,

It's the source of resilience.

Well,

It is resilience,

It's not the source of it,

It just is resilience,

It is confidence that is available to us all,

And all we need to do really is know that that's true.

So today,

Problem solving.

Problem solving is a really interesting topic to look at,

And especially when we're looking at it from the way in which stress impacts our ability to solve problems.

So what is that impact really?

Well,

As I've already said in this session,

Human beings work best when they're calm.

We just do.

We can think straighter.

We can access wisdom.

We can connect better with other people,

And I don't know about you,

But quite a lot of my problems seem to be about other people,

Quite a lot of the time.

And when we're stressed,

That's our system letting us know that we're not in a good state of mind,

That we're not in a problem-solving state of mind.

And you'll have seen that in yourself.

There will have been times when you have been about to do something,

About to sort something out,

About to solve some kind of problem,

And you've realised this,

And you've stopped and let go,

And realised you need to come back to it later.

I don't think there's one person who hasn't done that.

As an adult,

You will have done that at some point.

The one that I often share with people,

Particularly people who are either in business or employed and have to deal with a lot of emails,

Is the one where we say,

We write an email,

We get an unpleasant email,

Not be happy about,

Hammer out the reply on the keyboard,

And then we come back to it later,

And we realise that perhaps we need to come back to it later.

We pop it into address,

And when we re-read that email,

We can see the toxic nonsense we were going to put into the world.

And that's not us.

We don't need to criticise ourselves about that.

But we can see that it is in that moment,

When we first hammered out the email,

It made perfect sense.

And then,

Even seconds later,

It didn't.

Now,

That's the great thing about email,

Isn't it?

That you do have,

Naturally,

It comes with causes,

Doesn't it?

Because you have to actually press that send button in the end,

Even if you've written it,

You don't have to send it.

A bit harder when we're actually face to face with somebody,

Isn't it,

To keep our cool,

And not say the things that might be bubbling up inside us.

But that's just one example of where,

When we are stressed out,

When we're overwhelmed,

When we're feeling anxious,

We won't solve a problem that we might see in a relationship with somebody else,

Or try to help somebody see our point of view,

Or get a good solution for something that's going on between us and another person.

And I've had so many experiences of this,

Where initially,

I've read something and felt that initial,

Oh,

This is a problem now,

I've got flipping sore out,

And this person,

How very dare they think that,

And how dare they send this message,

And that kind of agitation.

And known,

And I don't always know,

But a lot of the time now,

I know I need to put my phone down,

I need to leave it and come back to it later,

Because I have this,

You know,

I do sometimes,

I have this,

I'm not sure if I'm going to say it,

Sometimes,

More times than I used to,

But not all the time,

Have this awareness in the moment that I'm not in a good state of mind.

Now,

There's some sort of neuroscience,

And I'm not a neuroscientist at all,

But you hear,

You've probably heard this yourself,

And if you haven't,

Then it's an interesting thing to consider.

When,

You know,

When we're stressed,

Even our body is like clued up to it not being,

You know,

Our physiology is clued up to it not being a good idea to do things,

And that's why when you're,

So this is how it would have been in our ancestry,

Let's say,

That stress,

The purpose of that,

Those hormones flowing around your body,

The stress response,

The purpose of that initially was fight,

Flight,

All things,

Get you away from a predator,

Fight the predator,

Or play dead,

So the predator goes away and leaves you be,

And there are some mammals that actually do that,

Is it mongooses?

Some deal that way,

I'm sure.

It's mongooses,

I think,

That do that,

They actually play dead,

So that the predator goes away and leaves them be.

So,

That fight,

Flight,

Or freeze response has a purpose.

Now,

What happens to your brain when you're in fight,

Flight,

Or freeze is your brain prioritizes energy,

You know,

Your body prioritizes energy and focus to that kind of fight,

Flight,

Or freeze bit of the brain,

That the,

A very simple part of the brain that's,

I think people call it the reptilian brain,

It's just like,

What do we need to do,

The smallest,

Most smallest steps possible,

What do we need to do to get ourselves out of this danger?

So,

There's a real thing happening,

There's a real,

You know,

Physically our body is in danger in some way,

Real fear,

Not the fear that most of us deal with because we've got a big inbox full of emails,

Not that,

But real fear,

And then the body just like shuts down this,

The clever bit of the brain,

The bit that's able to bring clarity to situations,

The bit that's able to work well,

To solve problems in a more kind of considered way,

And the body just,

The brain just focused,

Shuts down that bit pretty much,

And then focuses all its energy into the bit of the brain that's not very clever,

But good at getting us out of scrapes,

If that makes sense.

Please do correct me,

Any neuroscientists out there,

But that's pretty much how I understand it.

Now,

So when we are stressed now because we've got a lot going on,

Or we've got too much,

Because we've got too much on our minds,

Let's be honest,

That's why,

That we go into that same state of mind.

So,

We're talking about state of mind,

We're just talking about it there from a neurological position,

We're still talking about state of mind,

Aren't we?

We're still saying,

I'm still saying,

Your state of mind's off,

Your body's telling you that,

You're not in a good place to solve anything that you've got to do,

You're not in a good place to solve a problem,

So what would be helpful in terms of moving yourself towards that space?

Now,

You don't need to move yourself,

Because you're only experiencing that problem in the moment,

As you're thinking about right now,

That will move naturally,

And it will especially move when you come from this place of realizing what's going on,

When you come from this place of realizing that your state of mind is off,

That you've gone on a train of thought that's not particularly helpful,

And that right now,

That horrible feeling in your body is letting you know that,

It's letting you know that you're not in a fit state to make any kind of decision,

Solve any problems,

Or do anything that's particularly useful.

Now,

In an emergency,

That doesn't really matter,

Because your body will naturally move.

I've experienced,

I've got chased by cows a few years ago,

As you've probably heard about,

But I've experienced that thing where I've had to physically get out of the way of a group of charging cows,

And pretty sick cows,

And I know they're not lions,

But people in the UK die every day,

Every day,

Every year,

A few people die having been trampled by cows,

So they can be angry when they've got young,

And they're not very happy about you being there.

Anyway,

I had to move myself out of the path of the cows and over a wall.

There was no thinking,

There was no,

None of this like,

Oh,

Let's think about it,

What's the plan?

My body moved itself out,

Like this piece of my brain just came in and it sorted out,

And I was out of the way,

But it was something very simple.

Now,

When we're stressed,

We don't have,

Life,

It doesn't seem very simple,

Does it?

It seems quite complicated,

Because we're caught up in thought,

And in further sessions,

I will come on to talk a little bit more about what the problem,

What problem really is,

And how much of that is created in the first place in our thinking.

So,

All I'm pointing to today,

Really,

Is for us to start with awareness.

It's always about starting with awareness,

The aware,

How will you know whether you're stressed or not?

If you're stressed,

Do you know that you're not in a good state to solve a problem?

And what's helpful from that state,

State,

From that position,

From that understanding,

That your state of mind's a bit out of kilter right now.

And that's it,

Really.

So,

That's,

That's just the first session on this.

We're going to do a couple of weeks on problem solving,

Having done a couple of weeks on decision making.

So,

Hopefully you find that helpful.

Let me know if you do,

And take care,

Lots of love.

Bye.

Thank you so much for listening.

There's nothing to do now,

But bring some awareness to how this is working out in your life.

Listen regularly to experience longer and longer periods of calm.

This has been the Calm Cast with Clare Downam,

Queen of Calm.

Take care and keep listening.