I recently finished a 3-day AI employee boot camp with Callan Faulkner, and it opened my eyes to how helpful AI can be. As I was watching, I could feel my mind expanding with new possibilities.
But as I thought about it later, I could feel my world speeding up, and that caused me to pause.
I'm still not completely comfortable with the thought of using AI. But it's a tool that's not going away.
I'm sure that back in the day, when vehicles started becoming popular, the horse-drawn carriage drivers and diehards were afraid of giving up their carriages too, for something that was faster, made more noise, and was unfamiliar and possibly scary.
There's no denying it: change can be scary. Change is unfamiliar, and because it's unfamiliar, it's usually unpredictable. For our nervous system, unfamiliar is dangerous and unsafe. So if you feel some hesitation about AI, or about any big change, that hesitation makes sense. It's your nervous system doing its job.
But our hesitation doesn't have to stop us or paralyze us. We can use it as caution moving forward, to help us focus and pay attention. For me, paying attention means making AI the tool, not the god or the master. We must stay the master.
That being said, I have decided to incorporate AI into my business to better serve the people I serve. And I'm also paying attention to that pause I felt after the boot camp, because I know the nervous system needs time to settle. That pause is where this idea of AI and shifting gears came from.
AI might speed up our world - like adding a higher gear. But adding another gear doesn't automatically mean adding more stress. Regardless of the number of gears there are, stress becomes a problem if we don't have the tools and the skills to "downshift" our nervous system to a lower gear.
I often describe stress management and nervous system regulation as learning the skills to shift gears. The higher gears aren't the problem. They're what help us focus, meet a deadline, or respond when something important needs our attention. The trouble comes when we get stuck in a gear and can't shift out of it.
You might recognize it. The workday is over, but your mind is still racing. You sit down to rest and feel restless, or even a little guilty. You finish one thing and immediately reach for the next.
Remember that the nervous system reads unfamiliar as unsafe? When we've been running in high gear for a long time, high gear becomes the familiar thing, and slowing down starts to feel unfamiliar, even unsafe.
That isn't a personal failing. It's the same nervous system doing its job.
If we know how to shift gears up and down, we can meet the demand of the situation, whatever that situation is.
That's what resilience really is: not the ability to handle more and more, but the ability to be adaptable and shift gears as the situation requires.
We can't control how fast the world moves, but we can practice downshifting, so that a new gear becomes one more option rather than the only speed we know.
Downshifting doesn't always mean physically slowing down. Sometimes it does. But more often, it's finding an inner pace that's more appropriate for the situation.
And downshifting doesn't have to be one big thing. It can be small and frequent - often easier, more attainable and more practical.
Here's where we can start.
Next time you notice you're running in high gear, try taking your foot off the gas pedal, even just for 10 breaths. This could be between meetings or tasks, before you open your email, or when you close your laptop after learning something new.
Bring your attention to the area around your heart and let your breath slow down and deepen a little, breathing in for about five seconds and out for about five. This is HeartMath's Heart-Focused Breathing Technique.
The goal isn't to suddenly feel completely calm. It's to downshift, even just a little.
You can also get curious: "What gear am I in right now?" "When was the last time I shifted down?"
The more we practice shifting gears, the easier it gets, and the less a faster world has to mean a more stressful one.
If you'd like a simple way to practice downshifting, my 3-Minute Stress Reset is a good place to begin.
Here's to calming stress at the source.
With heart,
Louise
The Stress Experts
--
Did this blog help you?
Consider sharing it with someone who needs to hear it!
Have a question?
Let me know. I love answering questions! Contact me!
0 Comments