The ability to be calm and poised under high pressure and high stakes situations is highly desirable and is a skill that can be trained.
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+.
Across all domains in life, including professional and personal roles and pursuits, it is highly desirable to be able to maintain calm and be poised. This is particularly important during high demand situations when the consequences and stakes are elevated. By virtue of being able to maintain calm and be poised in these situations, we are best able to consider alternate explanations and options, perform skills to the best of our abilities, and make decisions in a logical fashion that is consistent with our values and objectives.
Within the domain of performance psychology, the ability to maintain calm under pressure is often attributed to the development of various mind-based skills. From this paradigm, the recommendation is to develop, in advance of high pressure situations, the necessary psychological skills to maintain calm and be poised when stakes are high. Within this perspective, it is also advocated that the ability to maintain calm and be poised under pressure is a psychologically based attribute and if we are unable to maintain these traits under high pressure situations, it is reflective of an underlying need to further develop psychological skills.
When considered from a more biologically based perspective, such as from the framework of the Practices of Healthcare Athlete, it becomes evident that the ability to maintain calm and be poised under pressure is as much a physically based skill, if not more so, than a psychologically oriented one. From this perspective, the ability to be calm and poised in high stakes situations emerges from anchored and grounded states.
What is not considered from the typical psychological perspective is that under high pressure situations we are exposed to numerous cues towards activated and attacking states across each of the three pathways. When our physiological response to these cues predominates, we will shift into the associated biological states. In such a circumstance, we will instantaneously and beneath conscious awareness shift into activated, attacking, anxious, overwhelmed, or shutdown states. By the nature of these states, we will notice a reduction in our ability to maintain calm and be poised under pressure. There will also be an associated reduction in our ability to perform at our highest level which may serve as an additional cue towards these states.
The above scenario is not intentional or deliberate. Rather, it is reflective of our underlying biology. When there is a discordance between what we are psychologically attempting to do, in this scenario maintaining calm and be poised under pressure, and our physiological experience, the result of exposure to activated cues across the three pathways, eventually our physiology will shift our biological states irrespective of what we may intend or desire.
With this understanding in mind, we are able to conceptualize a framework regarding the ability to develop and demonstrate calm and poise under pressure which is more biologically consistent. By virtue of it being more reflective of our underlying biological processes, we are better able to train and prepare for these situations, respond to the reality of a given experience, and also maintain better awareness of how to manage our biology when we are exposed to high pressure situations. This is particularly true when we shift into activated, attacking, anxious, overwhelmed, or shutdown states.
Without an understanding of the significant physiological influence on our ability to maintain calm and be poised under pressure, we will attempt to increase our ability through further training of psychological skills. Irrespective of the degree to which we may have trained these skills, however, there will inevitably come a time in which our psychological skills will be overwhelmed by the physiological reality of the situation. This will lead to shifts in biological state as described above. The reduced ability to be calm and poised under pressure despite our attempts to do so may become an additional cue towards activated, attacking, anxious, overwhelmed, and shutdown states.
From the perspective of the Practices of the Healthcare Athlete, the ability to be calm and poised under pressure is reflective of an ability to maintain an anchored and grounded state in high consequence situations. If we are to shift towards activated and attacking states in such a circumstance, from this paradigm, we can regain our ability to maintain calm and be poised by shifting back towards an anchored and grounded state.
As has been discussed throughout this article series, the ability to shift back towards anchored and grounded states once we have shifted away from these states requires an initial implementation of body-based skills. The reason for this is the very nature of activated and attacking states is such that the effectiveness of our mind-based skills will be reduced on account of the neurophysiological shifts which occur. Once we have regained an element of anchored and grounded state, we can then reintroduce mind-based skills in combination with our body-based skills to shift back into and maintain an anchored and grounded state.
The ability to increase our capacity to maintain calm and be poised in high pressure situations rests on the ability to strengthen our anchored and grounded states, as well as increase nervous system flexibility. These attributes allow us to maintain a greater degree of poise across all aspects of our life and increase that degree as needed when we are exposed to high pressure situations. By developing a flexible nervous system, when we experience the inevitable shifts in biological state which will occur in response to high stakes situations, we will be able to leverage our biology and return to anchored and grounded states.
These skills are foundational attributes within the Practices of the Healthcare Athlete. By developing mind-based and body-based skills, we are able to implement strategies and tactics to leverage our biology in the pursuit of health, wellbeing, and sustainable high performance. An important aspect to this pursuit is the ability to maintain calm and be poised under pressure.
These skills are particularly important within high demand situations as we are exposed to more frequent and higher magnitude cues towards activated, attacking, anxious, overwhelmed, and shutdown states. This increases the likelihood that our biological states will shift in response to these cues. Through developing, in advance of exposure to these situations, the ability to leverage our biology through implementation of these skills we are better positioned to maintain calm and be poised under pressure. This optimizes our ability to perform at the limits of our potential while pursuing health and wellbeing even in the face of high pressure situations and experiences.
To learn more, including about polyvagal informed 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+.