Mental and physical performance - The Basics

The Struggle with Work Who doesn't know this: In addition to the high workload, digitalization, and increasing work intensification, one also has a family on the side and wants to be a good mother/father. And all of this over a longer period, for years - and one also wants to advance in their career or build a business. However, dealing with one's own energy is like managing a bank account: only withdrawing without depositing much, that won't work in the long run. Eventually, you'll receive a warning call from your bank. You also need to deposit or simply relax. Medically explained: a healthy balance is needed in the autonomic nervous system between the sympathetic part (activity and stress) and the parasympathetic part (regeneration and recovery). However, often the sympathetic part, which is chronically overexcited, hardly comes down. Those who do not regenerate in the long term will eventually lose their performance. If you drive your car in 1st gear but at full throttle from Hamburg to Munich, it will end up as junk at the destination - if you even make it there. The chronic overload of individuals often manifests itself initially with sleep disturbances, addictions may threaten for compensation, then chronic exhaustion sets in leading to burnout, as well as the risk of mental and physical illnesses. As long as things are still going well, we usually ignore it. Once the imbalance between activity and regeneration is severely disturbed, it becomes increasingly difficult to counteract. Taking action in time makes it much easier. Incorrect Regeneration - Widely Spread I often hear: "No problem, I exercise, I love socializing, and I can distract myself well anyway." Nothing against sports, a good glass of wine, or a bit of distraction. However, upon closer inspection, a few downsides often reveal themselves:

• Exhaustion: Someone who has to run 15 kilometers in the evening to finally feel exhausted and calm is confusing exhaustion with relaxation. It may feel similar, but it is not the same at all. Exhaustion is only superficial, and one can still be tense while experiencing it.
• Distraction: Many surf the internet to distract themselves from stress. However, the internet additionally stimulates the mind. It may distract from everyday work or worries, but ultimately, the "chatter" in the mind only gets louder, making it harder to calm down in the long run.
• Intoxication: If someone needs a bottle of wine to relax from stress, rest assured that this is not proper relaxation (emphasis on "needs"). Even though no one likes to hear it, this is more like a (mild) poisoning. Usually, one either wakes up again at night and/or feels tired and weakened the next morning.

  Correct Regeneration - Quite Simple Proper relaxation, which also reaches the regenerative - the parasympathetic - part of the autonomic nervous system, is something natural but often needs to be relearned. Mindfulness, meditation, and medical self-hypnosis are wonderful tools for this and can be easily learned by anyone. They are easy because they ultimately all rely on natural phenomena. But even a (regular!) walk in the forest (without a phone!) can work wonders for regeneration. For those who immediately say, "That may all be true, but I simply have a high workload to manage," I would like to share a brief but fundamental story on the topic of regeneration: It's about a former client - a 40-year-old man, CEO of a medium-sized company. He came to me due to sleep disturbances and a chronic irritable bowel syndrome. Before we even started with any other measures, I recommended (to be honest, I insisted) - due to stress and a high workload - a "proper" lunch break, daily for a week. Until then, this break had lasted a maximum of 10 minutes due to the heavy workload and consisted of eating a sandwich while sitting at the computer. The result of this small measure was impressive: He took a break of at least 45 minutes daily and left the company to visit a pub on foot (using the phone only in urgent cases). And solely because of this one measure, his afternoon became so much more efficient that despite the "lost 45 minutes," he could leave the company an hour earlier. This meant his son was still awake, he could play with him, and he also relieved his wife - a classic win-win-win situation. And YOU, how do YOU relax?