NLP, Health and Resilience

NLP, Health and Resilience. 10 Absolutely Essential Tips

How can we build health and resilience? Whatever we want to achieve in life is influenced by how healthy and resilient we are. The more health we have, the more energy and more flexible we are, the more resilient we are. The more resilient we are, the easier it is for us to get up, if and when we’re temporarily knocked of course.

My view is that the human body can take a significant amount of punishment and survive, however investing in good health habits will, overtime help us thrive. And thriving is better than merely surviving!

NLP, Health and Resilience

Health and resilience – what works for me

I’ve done a lot of work to find out what works for me, and this is what I’ve found. Please experiment to find out what works for you.

I recommend two great books – Magic in Practice by Garner Thompson, and The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss, and I also suggest you use your NLP modelling skills, when you find anyone with skills in health and resilience, find out what they do, and build on it in a way that works for you.

These are the nine areas that I find bring the best results when I concentrate on them.  In which areas will you invest your own time and energy?

How I build Health and Resilience

1. Purpose and meaning
2. A sense of control
3. Great connections and relationships
4. Exercise
5. Great eating, drinking enough water
6. Releasing Stress
7. Good breathing habits
8. Stretching
9. Sleep
10. Good daily habits and routines – This helps up establish, maintain and build on all the above,

Purpose and Meaning

The more we connect to, and align our lives to, our own purpose and meaning the more fulfilled and resilient we become. NLP has a whole range of approaches to help us achieve this.

A Sense of control

Life is uncertain and is in a state of flux between order and chaos. A starting point is to identify what is in under our control and  what we can influence. The next step is to develop a series of daily habits which are under our control. A further stage, as above, is to 1) clarify our purpose and meaning, 2) lead how we invest out time, energy and focus on a daily basis and 3) develop feedback and feedforward systems so we have a view of where we are and continually seek ideas of how we could improve.

Over time we’ll have much more control over or lives.

Connection and Great Relationships

Connection to ourselves, the universe and the people that are important us. The more we invest in developing great relationships with ourselves and the people that are important to us,  the more fulfilled and resilient we become. Again NLP has a range of approaches to help us develop great relationships

Exercise

A short short amount of high impact exercise seems to make a significant difference to our well being. An alternative 20 minute session first thing every morning can work particularly well.

A gym isn’t necessary as it is easy and inexpensive to get the minimum kit required for home.

A ‘check in’ with a physiotherapist or body training professional can be invaluable.  I started with some of the exercises in Tim Ferriss’  The 4-Hour Body book, and built on the routine with the help of a physiotherapist from my local doctors’ surgery. The physiotherapist was particularly helpful as she corrected what I was dong wrong and suggested additional exercises.

Great Eating and Drinking Enough Water

What we eat, how much we eat, and when we eat it, can make a lot of difference to our health. We’re programmed to eat when we see food, and this programming becomes much stronger if the food contains salt, sugar, or certain types of fat. This programming would have kept us alive in the past when food was scarce, but can be harmful when food is abundant.

We’re all likely to thrive on different options, but what works for me is to only eat between 8:00 am and 9:00 am and between 11:30 am and 1:00 pm. And I only drink water outside of those hours. In the process I’ve also drastically reduced the amount of simple carbohydrate (sugar, pasta, white bread, potatoes) and processed foods.

And plenty of plain water is good.

However I do have feast days when I eat and drink whatever, and however much, I want.

Again, a good starting point is reading the appropriate chapter of the 4-hour body book.

Releasing Stress

We all thrive on a certain amount of stress, however excess stress releases chemicals that potentially have a seriously harmful impact on our bodies.

Developing good ways of releasing stress: exercise, meditation, hobbies, relaxation techniques, occasional drinking, and so on are really useful,

There are less good ways of letting of stress, such as excessive use of drugs, alcohol, and anger, these can end up being far more harmful than the original stress.

Good breathing

Breath is life, or so we’ve been told! Meditation, specific breathing exercises, good posture, singing, and stretching can all improve our breathing. Diaphragmatic breathing can interrupt our ‘fight or flight’ response, and lead to deep relaxation.

Stretching

Over time, our muscles and tendons tend to contract and eventually, if we don’t stretch them, we’ll loose our flexibility. Building in  stretching routines will keep us young and flexible.

Sleep

Lack of sleep shortens our life expectancy and can cause serious medical conditions. The right amount of sleep (it varies between people, but most of us need about 8 hours), helps our bodies grow and repair any damage we may have.

Tips to sleep better include:

1. ensure we’re exposed to bright light during the day,
2. reduce blue light (phones, TV and computer screens) and bright light just before sleeping,
3. keep our bedrooms dark, quiet and cool,
4. reduce caffeine, alcohol intake and exercise later on in the day,
5. be consistent with our getting up and gong to bed times,
6. naps during the day can be good, but keep them to 20-30 minutes and not to close to our bedtime. (Check out any possible sleep disorders like sleep apnoea),
7. invest in a great mattress,
8. sleep with a pillow between our knees to improve our sleeping posture,
9. develop meditation and relaxation routines, relaxation MP3s maybe useful.

Good Health and Resilience Habits and Routines

How do we improve our health habits and routines? I’ve built my own habits up over time, using a number of books and specialists on the journey.

What works for me:

• Morning routine: Short morning questions which include: 1) setting the key priorities for the day (maximum 3), 2) short morning exercise routine, 3) listening 3 Marshall Goldsmith thoughts, 4) 8 minute meditation session
• After lunch: 1) 10 minute meditation 2) 3 times a week a 15 minute yoga stretching session
• Evening: 1) Reading affirmation lists 2) Daily questions starting “Did I do my best to….” (This gives me a short review of the day), celebrate successes,

Thistakes no longer than an hour a day,

My suggestion to you is that building a series of health habits is well worth the investment.

It will help you in all areas of your life.

Building a series of daily habits and routines, is something on its own that will improve our lives. It’s something we’ve created, that in turn will give some real sense of certainty, in a world that otherwise might seem very uncertain. That sense of certainty can help us really enjoy and thrive in that part of the world that seems uncertain.

We offer prospective coaching and training clients 3 ‘no charge’ Skype/Zoom/Google Meet discovery sessions, so you can make your own decision as to how well it will work, before you go ahead with a programme.

NLP, Health and Resilience  – Recommended Resources

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