The Neuroscience of Performance Resilience

David Krueger, M.D.

More than education, more than experience, more than training, a person’s level of resilience will determine who succeeds and who fails. That is true in the cancer ward,
it is true in the Olympics, and it is true in the Boardroom.
Dean M. Becker

How can you develop resilience in performance?

Theo Epstein guided the Boston Red Sox to their first World Series victory in 86 years. Then he agreed in 2011 to lead the Chicago Cubs, whose last World Series Championship was in 1908. The Cubs then won in 2016. Widely touted as having an innate and rare intelligence to deconstruct a situation to its simplest form and generate strategic possibilities, he was asked how he decides what he looks for. Epstein said that the first thing he wants to know about any potential player is how he has handled adversity.

Resilience is the ability to regulate stress, and sustain optimum performance. Management of setbacks to productively progress is an essential process of peak performance. From athletes to executives, persistence toward a goal in the face of challenges characterizes success. A resilient individual is not someone who avoids stress, but someone who learns how to effectively master it, and optimize performance while doing so.

Studies show someone can boost resilience by these four strategies:
• Reinterpreting negative events by reframing for possibility
• Enhancing positive emotions
• Becoming physically fit
• Maintaining a supportive social network for resilience role models

Two approaches demonstrated in recent research to regulate states of mind and enhance resilience are cognitive reappraisal and mindfulness meditation.

1. Cognitive reappraisal reframes from a negative to a positive, from problem to possibility in order to reinterpret the meaning of an adverse event to see it as a challenge and opportunity. A Mount Sinai School of Medicine study of Vietnam prisoners of war found that those who had actively reappraised their imprisonment to find meaningful ways in which to grow stronger and more resilient showed the most adaptive responses.
2. Mindfulness meditation focuses on how to get grounded and centered in the present moment, and is associated with improved ability to focus, increased flexibility of thinking, and greater psychological wellbeing.

Both cognitive reappraisal and mindfulness meditation have been shown to increase activation of the left prefrontal cortex, a brain pattern associated with greater emotional control, a boost of positive emotions, and faster recovery from uncomfortable feelings.

Announcing: STRESS MASTERY AND PEAK PERFORMANCE: The Neuroscience of Optimum Performance under Pressure
4-part Teleseminar series presented by David Krueger, M.D. Tuesdays, 7:00 PM E, beginning July 10, 2018. www.HardWorkMiracle.com Recorded for playback + download.