Bonnie St. John, Former Olympic Skier, Motivational Speaker
Bonnie St. John, author, speaker, and former Paralympian, discusses her book "Micro-Resilience," offering practical strategies like self-hypnosis, conscious relaxation, and purpose-driven actions to boost focus, energy, and daily resilience.
Deep Dive Analysis
11 Topic Outline
Bonnie St. John's Early Meditation Journey
Understanding and Practicing Self-Hypnosis
Goal-Oriented vs. Pure Meditation Approaches
Introducing Micro-Resilience: Small Hacks for Daily Life
Micro-Resilience Framework: Combating Mental Overwhelm
Micro-Resilience Framework: Resetting from Emotional Hijacks
Micro-Resilience Framework: Spiraling to the Positive with a Joy Kit
Micro-Resilience Framework: Refreshing Metabolism and Hydration
Micro-Resilience Framework: Clarifying and Connecting to Purpose
Bonnie St. John's Inspiring Personal Backstory
Applying Micro-Resilience to Daily Stress and Travel
9 Key Concepts
Transcendental Meditation (TM)
A meditation technique derived from Hinduism where a mantra (a word repeated silently in one's head) is used to blot out discursive thinking and achieve a relaxed, meditative state.
Self-Hypnosis
A practice that involves entering a meditative state and then giving oneself positive suggestions. It's described as a form of applied meditation where focus and relaxation are used to supercharge specific, positive affirmations.
Amygdala Hijack
A threat response in the neurosystem where the amygdala takes over, causing muscles to tense up and breathing to become shallow, preparing the body for fight or flight. It's an emotional reaction that can be disengaged through specific techniques.
Labeling (Mindfulness/Noting)
A mindfulness technique, also called noting, where one uses words to identify and name emotions or sensations during an emotional hijack. Research shows this can dial back the intensity of the emotional reaction.
Micro Resilience
A concept focusing on small, practical actions one can take daily to recover from minor setbacks (e.g., a bad meeting) and boost focus and energy. It contrasts with 'macro resilience,' which deals with recovery from major life traumas.
Mental Overwhelm
The state where the prefrontal cortex, the advanced part of the brain responsible for planning and impulse control, is overused due to excessive information and demands, leading to exhaustion and reduced effectiveness.
Spiraling to the Negative
The inherent human tendency, inherited from primitive ancestors, to react strongly and quickly to potentially negative events. This mechanism is powerful for survival but requires training to strengthen positive responses.
Joy Kit
A 'first aid kit for your attitude' designed to help shift one's mindset back to the positive. It contains personally meaningful items (physical or digital) that are stored away and pulled out when needed to evoke positive emotions.
Touchstone (for Purpose)
A conscious reminder, such as a picture, phrase, or specific place, used throughout the day to reconnect with one's core purpose. It helps individuals or teams stay aligned with their mission, especially during challenging or frustrating moments.
9 Questions Answered
Self-hypnosis involves entering a meditative state, often by visualizing descending stairs, then entering a 'good place' to relax, and finally giving oneself positive suggestions to supercharge focus or desired outcomes.
Yes, it is acceptable to have goals for meditation, such as desiring calmness, improved focus, or greater mindfulness. The key is to avoid over-efforting or striving during the meditation itself, allowing what happens in the moment to be.
The phone can be co-opted for meditation by using meditation apps that provide guided meditations, conversations with teachers, and tracking features, effectively turning a distraction engine into a tool for tuning in.
The five categories are: things to help your brain be more resilient (mental overwhelm), responding to emotional hijacks (reset), strengthening muscles to go positive (spiraling to the positive), keeping metabolism even (refresh), and clarifying and connecting purpose to daily work.
To combat mental overwhelm, one should respect the limitations of the prefrontal cortex by offloading tasks (e.g., writing to-do lists, using checklists), reducing decision-making complexity (e.g., consistent wardrobe), and incorporating short bursts of exercise.
Research indicates that even short bursts of exercise, like 20 minutes of dancing or 10 minutes of walking, can make you smarter for hours afterward, improving memory, insights, decision-making, and idea generation.
To spiral to the positive, which counters the natural human tendency to focus on negatives, one can create a 'joy kit' – a collection of items that evoke positive emotions, to be used consciously when needing an attitude shift.
Staying hydrated and keeping blood sugar even by eating regularly are crucial for optimal brain performance, as the brain cannot store glucose or water. Dehydration can impair brain function even before thirst is felt, impacting resilience under pressure.
Individuals can connect their purpose by using a 'touchstone' – a conscious reminder like a picture or phrase – throughout the day. This helps to pull them back to their core mission and inform their next steps, even when tired or frustrated.
17 Actionable Insights
1. Self-Hypnosis for Focus & Calm
To achieve focus and calm, close your eyes and imagine descending stairs, counting backward. At the bottom, enter a ‘good place’ to feel positive, then enter another door to your ‘inner self’ to give yourself positive suggestions, which helps settle and calm the mind.
2. Label Emotions to Reduce Hijack
When experiencing an emotional hijack, use words to label what you’re feeling. Research shows that this practice can dial back the intensity of the emotional reaction by engaging the prefrontal cortex.
3. Conscious Relaxation for Threat Response
To disengage an amygdala hijack (threat response), practice conscious relaxation by deep belly breathing and relaxing your muscles. This counters the natural tension and shallow breathing associated with fight or flight.
4. Clarify & Connect Purpose with Touchstones
To stay connected to your purpose throughout the day, especially when tired or frustrated, identify a ’touchstone’ (e.g., a picture, a phrase, a memory). Consciously use this touchstone to remind yourself of your overarching mission and guide your actions.
5. Micro-Exercise for Enhanced Brain Function
Incorporate short bursts of exercise, such as 20 minutes of dancing or 10 minutes of walking, into your day. This can make you smarter for hours afterward, improving memory, insights, decisions, and idea generation, especially before important tasks.
6. Offload Mental Tasks to Reduce Overwhelm
To prevent mental overwhelm and overuse of your prefrontal cortex, offload information from your brain using to-do lists, checklists for repeated tasks, and creating habit structures (like a consistent wardrobe) to reduce decision-making and cognitive load.
7. Create a Joy Kit for Positive Shifts
Develop a ‘joy kit’ – a physical or digital collection of items (e.g., notes, photos, sounds) that evoke positive emotions. Keep these items put away and pull them out when you need to shift your attitude back to the positive, as familiar items on display can lose their emotional impact.
8. Prioritize Hydration & Stable Blood Sugar
Maintain consistent hydration and stable blood sugar levels throughout the day by drinking water and eating regularly, especially when under pressure. Your brain can dehydrate before you feel thirsty, and an even metabolism supports better performance and resilience.
9. Set Daily Intentions & Reflect
Start your day by setting a clear intention or purpose for what you want to achieve. At the end of the day, revisit this intention to check if your actions aligned with it, helping to guide your overall life thrust.
10. Embrace Goals in Meditation, Avoid Striving
It’s acceptable to approach meditation with goals like seeking calmness, improved focus, or greater mindfulness. However, during the meditation itself, avoid ‘over-efforting’ or ‘striving’ and instead focus on not fighting with what’s happening in the moment.
11. Utilize Meditation Apps to Counter Distraction
To combat distraction from your phone, co-opt its power by using meditation apps. This turns the source of distraction into a tool for mindfulness, helping you engage with meditation rather than being pulled away by other digital activities.
12. Strip Out Drama, Focus on Next Steps
When faced with setbacks or frustrating situations (e.g., travel delays), consciously strip out the drama and focus on ‘doing the next thing.’ This approach helps maintain peace and prevents wasted emotional energy by moving directly to problem-solving.
13. Explore Diverse Meditation Practices
Recognize that there are thousands of types of meditation, and avoid being dogmatic about one ‘best’ method. Experiment with different practices, such as mindfulness or loving-kindness meditation, to find what works best for training your mind.
14. Practice Mantra-Based Meditation
Engage in mantra-based meditation by silently repeating a word or phrase in your head. This repetition can help blot out discursive thinking and induce a relaxed, positive state.
15. Focus on Intention in Loving Kindness
When practicing loving kindness meditation, the key is the intention to send goodwill towards others, rather than needing to feel a specific way. This clarifies the ‘right effort’ for cultivating compassion.
16. Embrace ‘Messing Up’ in Meditation
Understand that ‘messing up’ or getting distracted is a natural and even essential part of meditation. Don’t be hard on yourself; recognizing and moving through these moments is how the practice works.
17. Use Smells & Sounds to Reset
To cut through an emotional hijack, utilize certain smells and sounds. These sensory inputs can help reset your emotional state, though specific examples are not provided.
6 Key Quotes
Meditation is messing up. Yeah, it is. You're not doing it wrong. You're doing it right when you mess up.
Dan Harris
I love the idea of co-opting the engine of our distraction, the phone and using it as a way to actually tune into, you know, being alive, et cetera, et cetera.
Dan Harris
My life is such a symbol of what is possible that you wouldn't have expected.
Bonnie St. John
It's a marriage kind of a wellness and high performance.
Bonnie St. John
If you had to explain your idea to a 10 year old girl in Africa, would you be embarrassed? Maybe you should rethink it.
Bonnie St. John
When you travel as much as I do, you just do the next thing. Like, okay, this plane's not going. There's no drama about it. Why have drama about that? That's just wasted emotion.
Bonnie St. John
4 Protocols
Self-Hypnosis Technique
Bonnie St. John- Close your eyes.
- Imagine yourself going down a set of stairs, counting backwards (e.g., from 50 to 1).
- When you get to the bottom, go in the first door and imagine a great, vivid, positive place (e.g., a library with a cup of tea and your husband).
- Come out of that door and go into the other door, imagining it's your inner self.
- Give yourself a few positive suggestions (e.g., 'tap into your best self,' 'be helpful,' 'deliver the gift,' 'be smooth,' 'stay ahead in the turn,' 'let my body be strong in the process').
Responding to an Amygdala Hijack
Bonnie St. John- Use words to label what you're feeling (e.g., 'noting' in meditation) to dial back the reaction.
- Practice conscious relaxation through deep belly breathing and relaxing your muscles to disengage the threat response.
- Utilize certain smells or sounds that can cut through the amygdala hijack.
Creating a Joy Kit for Attitude
Bonnie St. John- Create a 'first aid kit for your attitude' (e.g., a drawer, a box, or a folder on your phone).
- Put things in it that help you turn your attitude back to the positive (e.g., a note from a loved one, sand from a beach vacation, a digital recording of a pet's bark, pictures).
- Store these items away so that when you pull them out, they still have a strong emotional impact, rather than becoming invisible from constant display.
Connecting to Purpose with a Touchstone
Bonnie St. John- Identify a personal or team touchstone (e.g., a picture, a phrase, a specific place).
- Consciously use this touchstone throughout the day, especially when tired, frustrated, or making difficult decisions.
- For teams, use it to guide discussions and remind everyone of the core mission (e.g., asking 'What would the boss think?' referring to a picture of a beneficiary).
- For individuals, use it to pull yourself back to your sense of purpose and inform your next steps, ensuring alignment with your overall job on the planet.