Stress Better, Modupe Akinola
Modupe Akinola, Associate Professor at Columbia Business School, shares her meditation journey and research on stress. She teaches how to reappraise stress as enhancing, interrogate its source to find purpose, and navigate diversity and unconscious bias for better performance and well-being.
Deep Dive Analysis
18 Topic Outline
Introduction to Stress and Modupe Akinola's Expertise
Modupe Akinola's Personal Meditation Journey Begins
Family Background, Immigration, and Generational Stress
Confronting Emotions and the Hoffman Institute Experience
Discovering Tonal Meditation and Vipassana Retreat in India
Insights and Emotional Processing During Vipassana
Personal Transformation Through Consistent Meditation Practice
Overview of Stress Research: Adaptive vs. Maladaptive Stress
Understanding Stress is Enhancing vs. Debilitating Mindsets
Technique 1: Reappraising Stress for Improved Performance
Technique 2: Acknowledging Stress to Uncover Deeper Purpose
Applying Stress Management to Personal and Professional Burdens
The Stress of Diversity and Feedback Asymmetry in the Workplace
Addressing Unconscious Bias and Fostering Diversity Consciousness
Meditation's Role in Enhancing Self-Awareness and Following Advice
Research on the Link Between Stress, Depression, and Creativity
Counterintuitive Benefits of Task Switching for Creativity
The Importance of Self-Value and Personalized Self-Care
8 Key Concepts
Stress is Debilitating Mindset
This mindset views stress as an awful, frustrating, and negative force that leads to a downward spiral and poor performance. It can result in freezing up and not doing well in stressful situations.
Stress is Enhancing Mindset
This mindset recognizes that not all stress is bad and can be a signal that one cares deeply about a goal or purpose. It allows individuals to leverage stress to propel them to higher levels of performance and achieve a flow state.
Reappraising Stress
A cognitive technique where one interprets physiological stress responses, such as a racing heart or sweaty hands, not as signs of impending failure, but as the body's way of preparing to act and perform effectively. This shift in perception can lead to better outcomes.
Acknowledging Stress (Why Dance)
A technique that involves interrogating one's stress by repeatedly asking 'why' it is present, aiming to uncover the underlying purpose or what truly matters. Connecting stress to one's core values or purpose can reduce its negative impact.
Loyal Soldier Idea
This concept describes old, ingrained patterns or coping mechanisms that were once useful for survival or success but may no longer serve one's current self. It suggests recognizing these patterns and gently setting them aside, acknowledging their past service without letting them dictate present behavior.
Diversity Consciousness
The practice of intentionally noticing and auditing the demographic makeup of any environment one enters. This awareness aims to increase sensitivity to diversity and can prompt more inclusive interactions and conversations.
Depressed Artist Effect
This phenomenon suggests that individuals predisposed to depression, when exposed to negative or stressful situations, can channel that negative mood into creative projects. This creative output acts as a form of mood repair, facilitating a shift towards more positive feelings.
Interoception
The ability to notice and be aware of internal bodily sensations, such as a racing heart or nervousness. Developing interoception can help individuals recognize unconscious biases or stress responses that they might otherwise deny or be unaware of.
8 Questions Answered
The Hoffman Institute is a program for type-A achievers designed to help them understand and address unhealthy patterns and baggage picked up from their parents and families, in an effort to live a more fulfilled life by dropping habits that no longer serve them.
Tonal meditation involves taking a vowel or sound and saying it out loud as a breath. This practice allows individuals to feel the sensation of the sound in their lungs and body, which can be a powerful way to connect with bodily sensations.
One way is to notice the stress and then interrogate it by repeatedly asking 'why' you are stressed until you uncover the underlying reason or what you truly care about. This process helps to see the bigger picture and can reduce the felt stress.
When stress is reappraised as a positive force, the walls of the blood vessels expand, allowing more blood to circulate efficiently through the thoracic cavity and body. This delivers the necessary energy and resources to thrive under stress.
Unconscious bias can lead to an asymmetry where minority individuals may be nervous to ask for feedback, and those giving feedback (often from a majority group) may be uncomfortable or less effective in providing it, fearing it might seem discriminatory or not knowing how to deliver it well.
VR training can provide realistic simulations where physiological responses are measured, demonstrating how biases can lead to actual mistakes in low-stakes virtual contexts. This allows individuals to recognize and adjust their behavior before real-world situations occur.
Yes, when focusing on two similar creative tasks, switching back and forth between them can increase creativity. This is because it prevents fixation on one problem, helping individuals get unstuck and come up with new ideas.
Clocking the mosaic of a room can increase the likelihood of engaging in conversations with people who look different, fostering new connections, learning new things, and helping individuals from minority groups feel more comfortable in environments where they might be the only one.
34 Actionable Insights
1. Change Stress Response
Recognize that while life is inherently stressful, you have the power to change how you respond to stress, rather than being controlled by it.
2. Adopt Stress-Enhancing Mindset
Consciously shift from a ‘stress is debilitating’ mindset to a ‘stress is enhancing’ mindset, understanding that not all stress is bad and can improve performance.
3. Reappraise Stress as Preparation
When experiencing physiological signs of stress (e.g., racing heart, sweaty hands), tell yourself that this is your body preparing to act and perform better, viewing it as an ally rather than a threat.
4. Interrogate Stress for Purpose
Repeatedly ask yourself ‘why am I stressed?’ to uncover the underlying values or purpose you care about; connecting to this deeper meaning can deflate stress and bring clarity.
5. Release Need for Gold Stars
Recognize when the drive for constant accomplishment and perfection is no longer serving your well-being, and instead focus on simply being present and authentic.
6. Decommission Loyal Soldier Patterns
Identify and gently set aside ’loyal soldier’ patterns or outdated coping mechanisms (e.g., gold star seeking, bully/be bullied mode) that once served you but are no longer functional.
7. Deeply Understand Your Stress
Invest effort in truly understanding your personal stress and its origins, as this deep self-knowledge can lead to a lighter and more liberated way of living.
8. Prioritize Self-Value Time
Dedicate time to yourself, even if just a minute, to reflect your self-worth, as this investment can provide more energy and a sense of peace for other aspects of your life.
9. Embrace Full Emotional Range
Allow yourself to experience and express the full spectrum of human emotions, including vulnerability and sadness, rather than only focusing on strength and resilience.
10. Connect with Your Emotions
Actively work to understand and feel the full range of your emotions, rather than suppressing them, to gain deeper self-awareness and personal growth.
11. Process Repressed Grief
Be present with bodily sensations and emotions to uncover and process repressed grief, whether it’s personal (like miscarriage) or generational, by learning more about family history.
12. Live with Greater Presence
Through consistent practice, cultivate greater presence and awareness in daily life, allowing you to observe reactions and understand their deeper origins before responding.
13. Begin with 5-Minute Breathing
To start meditating, sit, close your eyes, and try to breathe for five minutes a day; schedule it in your calendar to ensure consistency.
14. Gradually Increase Meditation Time
Before engaging in intensive meditation, practice sitting and breathing for gradually longer periods (e.g., an hour every now and then) to build stamina and presence.
15. Accept Monkey Mind During Meditation
When meditating, acknowledge that your mind will wander and experience various thoughts and sensations; recognize this as a normal part of the process and simply sit with it.
16. Explore Tonal Meditation
If traditional sitting meditation is difficult, try tonal meditation by vocalizing a vowel with your breath to connect with bodily sensations and find a practice that resonates.
17. Consider a Meditation Retreat
If you feel a strong need for dedicated time and space for your meditation practice, consider attending a retreat to deepen your experience and focus.
18. Lower Meditation Bar
Give yourself a break by accepting that some days you might only meditate for 2-10 minutes, while other days you can dedicate more time, to maintain consistency without self-criticism.
19. Audit Schedule for Practice Time
Conduct a ‘dry-eyed, skillful, holistic’ review of your daily schedule to identify pockets of time, perhaps by reducing social media or TV, that can be dedicated to meditation practice.
20. Rehearse Past Stress Successes
When facing stress, recall previous situations where you thrived under distress or overcame panic, as remembering these successes can empower you to push through current challenges.
21. Identify Unhealthy Family Patterns
Reflect on patterns and habits learned from your parents and family to discern which are healthy and which are no longer serving you, allowing you to drop unhealthy ones.
22. Cultivate Diversity Consciousness
Actively notice the demographic makeup of any environment you enter (e.g., number of people from different backgrounds) to increase your awareness of diversity and your own exposure to it.
23. Notice Bias in Diverse Interactions
Pay attention to your physiological responses (e.g., heart rate, nervousness) when interacting with people different from you, and then interrogate the ‘why’ to address unconscious biases and promote equal treatment.
24. Embrace a ‘Good-ish’ Mindset
Instead of believing you are perfectly ‘good,’ adopt a ‘good-ish’ mindset that allows for a growth-oriented view of your mistakes and biases, making you less defensive and more open to learning.
25. Engage with Diverse Individuals
By being aware of the diversity in a room, you may be more likely to initiate conversations with people who look different from you, fostering new connections and understanding.
26. Undergo Unconscious Bias Training
Participate in unconscious bias training to increase awareness of societal stereotypes and expectations that everyone holds, which can help in making different choices in behavior.
27. Use VR for Bias Reduction
Engage in virtual reality training that measures physiological responses in real-world simulations to reveal and adjust biases, preventing real-world mistakes.
28. Channel Negative Mood to Creativity
If predisposed to depression and experiencing a negative mood, channel that energy into creative projects as a form of mood repair to shift towards a more positive state.
29. Enhance Creativity with Stress Mindset
Adopt a ‘stress is enhancing’ mindset when stressed to boost creativity, allowing you to see connections between things more clearly and generate new ideas.
30. Switch Tasks for Creativity
When stuck on a creative task, strategically switch to a similar task for a period, as this can help you get unstuck and generate new ideas by breaking fixation.
31. Ask ‘Is This Useful?’
When you find yourself ruminating or worrying excessively, especially about interpersonal conflict, ask yourself ‘Is this useful?’ to determine if your thoughts are constructive or merely degrading your well-being.
32. Reflect Constructively on Conflict
After a conflict, engage in constructive thinking by asking how you can communicate better, the best way to address the issue with the person, and what moves are best if you want to repair the relationship.
33. Practice Skillful Vulnerability
Improve communication and prevent conflict by being a clearer communicator of your internal state, practicing skillful vulnerability by openly sharing your feelings and the stories you’re telling yourself.
34. Find Your Meditation Mosaic
Recognize there’s no single ‘right’ way to meditate; instead, get to know yourself and create a personalized ‘mosaic’ of different techniques that best support your well-being.
7 Key Quotes
Our bodies were designed to give us the energy and resources that we need when we experience stress to, for instance, run away from the lion, which was the antiquated way, but now to really thrive under that stress.
Modupe Akinola
You feel the racing heart as an ally instead of somebody who's a mutiny.
Dan Harris
This isn't going to kill me. This is a good thing. Then your heart can keep on racing and you're going to be okay.
Modupe Akinola
I don't need any more accomplishment. I just need to be who I am and be present in that. And my presence will help me to get people to where I want them to be. My vulnerability will help me to get people to where I want them to be. I don't need one more gold star. I just need to be.
Modupe Akinola
You're carrying the weight of a whole community.
Dan Harris
The war is over. The war is over, you know, and you've got those degrees up on your wall. The war's over. Nobody can take that away. Yeah. What are you still trying to prove?
Dan Harris
If I can't give myself 15 minutes in a day, if I can't give myself an hour in a day, but I'll give it to work and I'll give it to my, and I'll give it to this and I'll give it to that. What is that saying about how much I value myself?
Modupe Akinola
2 Protocols
Reappraising Stress for Performance (Co-opting Stress)
Modupe Akinola- Notice your stress and the physiological reactions in your body, such as a racing heart or sweaty hands.
- Tell yourself that this physiological reaction is actually good and is your body getting prepared to act.
- Remember that people who experience these physiological reactions often perform well, transforming the stress into an ally.
Acknowledging Stress to Find Purpose (Why Dance)
Modupe Akinola- When you feel stressed, notice it and ask yourself: 'Why am I stressed right now?'
- Continue asking 'Why do I care about that?' for each subsequent answer, digging deeper into your motivations.
- Persist with the 'why' questions until you arrive at the underlying reason or what you ultimately care about, which helps to deflate the stress.