Tools - Anastasia Nebotova

resources

foundational set of techniques

‘I am having the thought that it is the perfect way!’

Built on the principles of simplicity, clarity, and having fun, this page will teach you skills and strategies that really work. Right from the start, you’ll be able to practice what you learn, moving from old habits into new patterns, and feel the benefits in your daily life to live a more meaningful and joyful existence, regardless of your current circumstances.

Enjoy!

1. based on biology

That’s about your building block.

Regulate system
Teach your system

Start from your biology, as a fundumental layer of your mental health, performance, and well-being. Your growth and your freedom lies in the ability to respond flexibly and versatilely, physically dysregulated system kicks you off-line.

01. Sleep.

Sleep modulates every process in your body. Think of that as a warming up for the most activities you do in life. From every moment you wake up and till every moment you fall asleep, it sets up the quality of sleep. And sleep sets up your overall existence. It’s your: trauma release, immune booster, hormone augmentation, emotional stabilizer, nootropic, and, as you might guess, stress relief, and even your learned information integration. There is no magic pill, exercise, training, quick-fix solution for sleep deprivation. Nothing can replace sleep.

02. Breathing.

Breathing is the fastest way to train your ability for physiological regulation of the nervous system. The phrenic nerve is a mixed motor/sensory nerve which provides exclusive motor control of the diaphragm [the primary muscle of respiration]. It allows you to voluntarily control your breathing. But also has a pathway through the diaphragm up to your brain, delivering information about conditions of your body: that is why breathing is a great tool for operating with your mind. And breathing affects your heart rate. The process of communication through the neural signaling from your heart to the brain, and from your brain back to your heart is the basis of heart rate variability (HRV). Inhaling increases your heart rate; exhaling slows down your heart rate. For example, you need to restore your CO2 levels and balance your heart rate to lessen symptoms of stress. It is impossible to achieve that through thinking strategies. And with regular practice, you teach your system to be flexible and versatile.

03. Physical activity.

The more the lifelong accumulation of your physical activity efforts throughout your lifespan, the better the chances of saying goodbye to cognitive decline when you get older. Physical activity to become smarter is not an odd concept – it’s a research-proven tool. Want to be smart – then move. According to scientific studies the optimal physical activity level is 150 minutes per week. Preferably, it shouldn’t be shorter than 10 minutes at a time, unless you need it as a certain tool with specific outcomes.

04. Connection with others.

There are no single human brains – brains exist within networks of other brains. Beyond individualist theories of consciousness, we know that the dynamics of neural activity through interpersonal synchrony provides functional integration between the intersecting parts – across brains. Prolonged social isolation causes severe psychological effects in humans due to hard-wired brain chemistry and functioning. Invest effort in creating meaningful direct social interactions to activate and reinforce the brain’s relational circuitry.

integration.

The field of interpersonal neurobiology proposes that a healthy mind emerges from a process called “integration”— the linkage of different components of a system.

That system can include the body, as it connects the upper and lower regions to one another. It can also include how we connect with others in a family or a team, honoring differences and promoting compassionate linkages with each other.

Following this proposal and leveraging scientific evidence, these daily activities make up the foundational set of so-called “mental nutrients” as referred to by Dr. Daniel J. Siegel and Dr. David Rock. These activities are what your brain and relationships need to function at their best. By engaging in each of these servings every day, you promote integration in your life and enable your brain to coordinate and balance its activities. These essential activities strengthen your brain’s internal connections and your connections with other people and the world around you.

In short, the concrete scientific findings are that your mind can change the health of your body and slow aging.

Tools & Techniques:

Sleep ↗

Breathing ↗

Physical Activity ↗

Connection With Others ↗

2. based on behavior

Building new workable patterns.

Learn new skills
Clarify your values
Focus attention and engage fully

Actually, even tools in biology are behavioral because they require actions from your side. And if biology is a must, then this set of tools is the next essential step, where you will be pushing boundaries further.

01. Defusion.

Watch Your Thinking. The technical term is cognitive defusion. Defusion means learning to notice, acknowledge, and separate/detach from your cognitions, to step back and observe your thoughts, images, memories, instead of being dominated by them. The aim is to see cognitions for what they are—constructions of words or pictures or both—and allow them to be present. Note, you don’t challenge them, distract from them, or kick them away. Instead, you hold them lightly: allow them to guide you when useful, and you don’t allow them to dominate you.

02. Acceptance.

Open Up And Learn From Pain. Experiencial acceptance means willingly making room for unwanted private experiences, such as cognitions, feelings, emotions, memories, urges, impulses, and sensations. Instead of fighting them, resisting them, or running from them, you open up and give them space; allow them to freely flow through you – to come and stay and go as they choose. Acceptance is not about passively accepting difficult situations.

03. Presence.

Be Here Now. Presence means flexibly paying attention to experience in this moment: narrowing, broadening, sustaining, or shifting your focus, as desired. This involves consciously paying attention to the physical world around you or the psychological world within you, connecting with and engaging fully in your experience, or shared experience with others.

04. Self.

The Art of Perspective-Taking. In everyday language when we talk about “the mind”, we usually mean the part that thinks—generating thoughts, beliefs, plans, memories, fantasies, and so on. And there’s another part that silently notices, focuses, pays attention; that’s aware of what you are thinking, feeling, sensing, or doing in any moment. The techincal term for this in ACT is “self-as-context,” and it’s a synonym for “flexible perspective-taking”—the cognitive process that underpins defusion, acceptance, contacting the present moment, self-awareness, self-reflection, compassion, theory of mind, empathy, the noticing self, imagining yourself in the future or the past, seeing things from other people’s viewpoints, “mindsight” and a whole lot more. The more you cultivate habits of perspective-taking, the more you’ll become aware of this part of your mind, and able to access it when you need it.

05. Values.

Know What Matters And Care by Choice. Values are desired qualities of your actions: how you want to treat yourself, others, and the world around you. They describe how you want to behave in your relationships with anyone or anything— now, and on an ongoing basis. Values are what you would like to be remembered for by the people you love. You can use your values for inspiration, motivation, and guidance. Like a compass, they give you direction, especially when you feel lost.

06. Commited action.

Do What It Takes. Once you commit to building values-based habits of action, you secure your progress with all of these skills. Committed action means taking effective action that helps you get where you want to go, and it requires you to employ the other skills, reinforcing their importance. This not only includes goal setting, action planning, problem solving, and exposure, but it also includes learning and applying any skill that enhances life—from self-soothing and relaxation to interpersonal skills such as assertiveness, communication, and conflict resolution.

so, what ‘s the point for a behavior change?

quality of life.

Scientific discoveries reveal that cultivating different aspects of the mind can also maximize human potential for a rich and meaningful life.

Findings include an increased sense of well-being, a sense of meaning and purpose, enhanced empathy and compassion, emotional balance, and resilience in the face of difficult situations.

From a behavioral standpoint, when you put all these interconnected elements together, you develop ‘psychological’ flexibility. Psychological flexibility enables you to respond far more effectively to your problems and challenges life inevitably brings, develop a deep sense of meaning and purpose, and fully engage in life here and now. The greater your psychological flexibility – the greater your quality of life: sense of vitality, well-being, and fulfillment.

All these activities reinforce each other, constituting a greater whole.

Tools & Techniques: