July 18, 2024
Failure to manage stress properly can impact performance and ultimately result in ill health, but in the NBAA Business Aviation Management Committee (BAMC) “Summer Learning Series Webinar — Becoming Your Best Self, Optimizing Brain Performance,” experts noted that the growing science of neurotherapy is discovering new and improved ways each of us can mitigate the downsides of stress.
“Life is a constant adjustment and adaptation to change, and that’s what we call stress. We measure stress by the amount we have, how long we have it, how intense that stress is and how successfully we adapt to it,” explained Dr. Stella Wuttke, associate of the Wuttke Infinite Potential Institute in Santa Barbara, CA, and founder and CEO of the Wuttke Infinite Potential Institute. “If we fail to adapt, that’s called distress, and that’s the problematic part because if we become overwhelmed over a period of time, eventually our whole nervous system adjusts, and we cannot keep up with it anymore.”
Webinar panelists said it’s important to realize that stress compounds, and that’s why a seemingly innocuous and even positive event can have an outsized or adverse effect. “This gives us a better understanding for when there’s turnover in our organizations, or a new CEO comes in, or procedures are changed. No matter if these changes seem to be small to you, if there are other things in your life that [are stressing you,] even small changes can put you at risk,” said Dustin Cordier, founder of StepZero Coaching and chair of the NBAA Leadership Development Subcommittee.
Those risks are real, said Dr. Wuttke. “If our autonomic nervous system, which the brain controls, gets out of balance, it usually means that you’re stuck on alert – almost like you are in a constant fight-or-flight mind. In this state, your brain loses its flexibility, so we cannot relax, we cannot heal, and we have problems sleeping and digesting. This all leads to increased risk of ill health in the near future,” she noted.
If stress is impacting you, you may want to consider neurotherapy, also known as neurofeedback or brainwave training, a drug-free, non-invasive treatment that measures brainwave activity to help patients handle stress more effectively and better adapt to it.
“We’ve got used to this notion that if you have this problem or that problem you just take a pill, but more and more physicians are recognizing that the human brain is miraculous and still not completely understood,” said A. Martin “Marty” Wuttke, founder and CEO of the Wuttke Institute of Neurotherapy. “Neurotherapy is the one tool that we have available to us that we can get to the root of so many problems – and by that, I mean you can go directly to the brain, see where the brain isn’t quite functioning right, and allow it to make a shift.”
In addition to this cutting-edge approach to stress therapy, you can also manage your mental health with some common sense self-help routines, including a good sleep routine, a nutritious diet, exercise, avoiding toxins and – importantly – finding a purpose in your life. “All these factors and more, fit together to give the brain and body the appropriate support so it can achieve the optimal level of function,” he explained.
International Business Aviation Council Ltd.