Implementation of the relationship between stress and biological state and recovery facilitates our pursuit of health, wellbeing, and sustainable high performance.
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+.
The prior article described the four quadrants of relating stress and biological state, including degree of recovery. While this framework helps to inform the inter-relationship between the stresses we may encounter and our biological state, including the degree of recovery and restoration we exhibit, the true importance of this quadrant illustration lies in the actionable strategies which emerge from it. Once we locate our current situation on the four quadrant grid, we can then utilize this knowledge to inform strategies and tactics to further our pursuit of health, wellbeing, and sustainable high performance.
For further details regarding the specifics related to the four quadrants, the reader is referred to the previous article in which these are described in detail. To summarize, the upper right quadrant is a situation with higher levels of demand and stress accompanied by anchored and grounded states with higher degrees of recovery and restoration. The lower right quadrant reflects lower stress within anchored and grounded states with higher states of recovery. The upper left quadrant reflects lower degrees of recovery and restoration within activated, attacking, anxious, overwhelmed, and shutdown states associated with higher degrees of stress. The lower left quadrant reflects lower degrees of stress and shifts away from anchored and grounded states with lower degrees of recovery.
Utilizing awareness skills our level of stress and biological state can be recognized and we can then locate our current position on the grid. As described previously, our location is not static. Rather, it is highly dynamic and reflects not only our current activities and pursuits, but also our degree of recovery and restoration. Each of these contributors are dynamic and evolve over time.
Utilizing this framework, we can appreciate how we will experience higher degrees of stress and therefore be positioned to the upper portion of the grid in either the right upper or left upper quadrant when we are engaged in activities related to the pursuit of sustainable high performance. In day-to-day life, it is also inevitable that we will experience higher degrees of stress at times and locate within similar quadrants. During situations in which we are stabilized within anchored and grounded states and are actively engaged in recovery and restoration, we will typically be located in the right quadrants in either the upper right or lower right quadrant dependent upon the activities in which we are engaged. During periods of emphasis on recovery this will typically be in the lower right quadrant.
In order to spend as much time as possible in the right sided quadrants, it is important that we implement strategies to improve the strength of our anchored and grounded states. As discussed in past articles an important contributor to this strategy involves an emphasis on recovery routines and restoration practices. These will increase our degree of anchored and grounded states which are strongly influenced by greater degrees of recovery and restoration. This is important not only to replenish resources which have been expended over the course of our activities and, in particular, those with higher levels of demand, but also to allow us to experience higher demand situations with less susceptibility to shifts into activated, attacking, anxious, overwhelmed, and shutdown states. As described throughout this article series, the attributes which are most consistent with being at our best as often as possible emerge from anchored and grounded states. This is consistent with the right upper and right lower quadrants.
It is also important to recognize that when we are in the upper left quadrant associated with higher demand and higher stress situations in which we have shifted away from anchored and grounded states and have lower degrees of recovery and restoration that we must implement tactics in order to increase the degree of recovery and restoration and shift back towards anchored and grounded states. These can include practices such as breathwork, adjustments to our muscle tension and posture, and utilization of voice. When possible, increasing the utilization of recovery specific activities is also important. These can all provide powerful cues towards shifts into anchored and grounded states thereby improving our degree of restoration and recovery. This is necessary as these higher demand situations are associated with increased consumption of metabolic resources, which must be replenished for future situations and activities. In addition, maintaining an element of anchored and grounded state is important to remain within the optimal states for performance as well as health and wellbeing.
The lower right quadrant reflects a situation in which we are experiencing low demand and low stress associated with anchored and grounded states and higher degrees of recovery and restoration. While this scenario may not reflect experiences in which we are challenging ourselves and pushing the limits of our potential, it is nonetheless an important quadrant to be able to access so that we are able to fully recover, especially following high demand situations. It is within this quadrant that we get our greatest degree of recovery. As such it is important that we develop strategies so that we are able to implement a regular routine, including physical, mental, and emotional recovery. This includes use of physical recovery devices; optimizing sleep quantity, quality, and duration; and replenishing nutrients through optimal nutrition and hydration. This also is improved through optimal mindset skills, which can be effectively implemented from anchored and grounded states. By utilizing strategies, such as reframing, attention control, self talk, promoting confidence, and mind-based skills to enhance calm, we are able to implement mind-based skills in the optimization of our recovery. Without sufficient recovery, we will not be able to optimally experience the inevitable high demand and high stress situations necessary to pursue sustainable high performance and will eventually experience depletion of our resources leading to overwhelmed and shutdown states.
The lower left quadrant represents a situation in which we are experiencing low demand and low stress situations and simultaneously have shifted away from anchored and grounded states and have a low degree of recovery and restoration. Managing this situation requires acknowledging the importance of increasing our recovery and restoration. This is accomplished through shifting towards anchored and grounded states. This quadrant is often associated with overwhelmed and shutdown states. In order to shift from this biological state to one conducive to recovery, specifically anchored and grounded states, it is first necessary to mobilize our biology through increasing energy within our system. This can be accomplished, for example, through light and non-vigorous physical activity. Once we have shifted more towards activated and mobilized states we can then implement tactics to shift into anchored and grounded states through the use of breathing, adjustments in posture and muscle tone, use of voice, and implementation of mind-based skills as described above.
The pursuit of health, wellbeing, and sustainable high performance is associated with inevitable periods of high demand and high stress situations. In addition, given the nature of these pursuits, there will also be scenarios in which we have shifted away from anchored and grounded states and are not as recovered or restored as we would ideally like to be. Through utilization of the four grid framework we can readily identify the necessary strategies and tactics to optimize our biology towards the pursuit of health, wellbeing, and sustainable high performance.
To learn more, including about biologically complementary 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+.