#85 Mental Skills to Perform Under Pressure with Andrew May – Live Keynote for NSW Primary Principals Association

In the past 6 months, one sector we have enjoyed working with is teachers and education. Educators do an amazing job of looking after our kids by providing them with care, attention, guidance, support, and education. If I ask you who was that teacher who made a difference in your life, that teacher who went the extra mile, made an investment in you – who comes to mind? Teachers are dedicated to their craft and despite research showing educators face an array of challenges in staff shortages, high stress, poor sleep, and more. Our programs are designed to support educators equipped with practical strategies to address the physical and mental demands of their roles. We want to give educators an oxygen mask and teach them to put it on first, before others.

Today’s episode is a recording of a keynote presentation Andrew recently did for NSW Primary Principals Association (NSW PPA). It is a blend of science, and strategies, addressing the challenges educators and principals face, and a bit of fun in the process.

In this episode, Andrew talks about:

8:30 Telling people how your day went, the importance of being ready for change and kids having play as such a big part of their lives.

13:00 Getting your 10,000 steps per day, improving your resting heart rate and living to 100 years old.

16:30 The IOS upgrade, making sure to recover after stress and how to optimise your chronobiology.

21:45 Social contagion theory, pushing everything to be faster, higher, stronger and working micro recovery breaks into your day.

27:10 The 3x3x3 downregulation format, humming to calm yourself and adding some grounding to your day.

31:00 The physiological sigh, using box breathing to calm down and using movement to fire up.

35:05 How Tim Tszyu uses imagery in his boxing career, why optimism is so important and using your reticular activating system to train yourself to be more optimistic.

39:35 Noticing your break up song everywhere you go, the benefits of optimism and the famous optimistic/pessimistic nun study.