Finding Your Stress Sweet Spot for Peak Performance

Did you know there is a "stress sweet spot" for achieving peak performance in your business? That's one of the findings Dr. Stephen Sideroff, an internationally renowned psychologist and consultant, shares with me in this enlightening episode. We explore his groundbreaking approach to resilience, peak performance, and transformational psychology. This conversation is perfect for anyone feeling overwhelmed or struggling to achieve that elusive work-life balance while maintaining vital energy. Show Notes | Transcript "There's always a best way to move forward. There's always a best way to handle what you're engaged in." - Dr. Stephen Sideroff Dr. Sideroff shares invaluable insights from his new book, "The Nine Pillars of Resilience: The Proven Path to Master Stress, Slow Aging, and Increase Vitality." Together, we uncover practical tools that blend science with soul, helping you navigate the challenges of entrepreneurship while preserving your well-being. Discover how to: Reframe your understanding of resilience and use it as a tool for personal growth Identify your "stress sweet spot" to maximize health and performance Cultivate a growth mindset to break free from unproductive habits and patterns Key insights include: Why stress isn't always bad and how it can be a useful tool when managed correctly The importance of emotional balance and mastery in navigating challenging situations How to develop a healthy internal voice that supports and nurtures you The role of neuroplasticity in breaking old habits and creating positive change Dr. Sideroff also challenges common misconceptions about stress management and offers a fresh perspective on creating a work-life balance that honors both our professional ambitions and personal well-being. Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting your business journey, this conversation offers practical strategies to help you thrive without sacrificing your health. Tune in to start your path towards mastering stress, slowing aging, and increasing your vital energy! Resources: Join the Soulful Women's Network here Receive daily inspirational email messages: bit.ly/LoveLightNotes Need support? Go to engagewithgloria.com to schedule a call. Connect with Dr. Stephen Sideroff Website: drstephensideroff.com Connect with Live Love Engage: Send Gloria Grace a message ☕ Support the podcast ❤ Love this episode? Leave us a review and rating LinkedIn: Gloria Grace Rand Facebook: Gloria Grace Rand YouTube: Gloria Grace Rand TRANSCRIPT Gloria Grace Rand Namaste. Is building your business kind of adding too many gray hairs to your head maybe because you're not achieving that elusive work life balance that you would love to be able to have? Well, if that is the case, today's episode is for you because my guest is going to be diving deep into his game changing approach to mastering stress and maintaining your vital energy while growing your business. And I promise you're going to come away with from our interview with some practical tools that blend science with soul. But first, I do want to welcome you if this is your first time to Live Love Engage. I am Gloria Grace. I am the founder of Align to Shine Academy and I empower women over 50 to really love themselves and the life they're living also, which is so important and which is why today's episode I think is going to help, help you to do that if you are in that category. So just in just a moment, I'm going to bring on Dr. Steven Sideroff, who is an internationally renowned psychologist and consultant who has developed a groundbreaking approach to resilience, peak performance and transformational psychology. And he has a new book out this year that's called the Nine Pillars of Resilience, the Proven Path to Master Stress, Slow Aging, and Increase Vitality, which I think is something that we all really would like to do. So without further ado, I'm going to bring him up here and we're going to jump right into this conversation. So I want to welcome you, Dr. Stephen, to live Love Engage. Dr. Stephen Sideroff Thank you very much, Gloria. It's a pleasure to be here and in conversation with you. Gloria Grace Rand Well, I am really looking forward to this. You had, you recently had, as we were recording this, had published an article in Psychology Today about, about your book. And, and it was very interesting. And, and I know one of the things you mentioned in there and was one of the other reasons why we connected. I, I love the concept that you have. You've got like a new definition of resilience. It's something that I think people wouldn't necessarily think would be a definition. So I was wondering if you can share. I'm going to let you tell us what that is. And what do you mean by that? Dr. Stephen Sideroff Yeah, well, certainly. So most people think about resilience as the ability to bounce back. And while that has some validity, my new definition is resilience as the ability to bounce forward. And why I make that distinction is that after you're going through a stress, a challenge in life, you don't want to go back to where you started from even though recovery is an important aspect of that, you want to learn the lesson of that experience. You want to find how you can break away from lessons of childhood and learn new ways of handling the stresses that you're dealing with. And so every time we engage in a stress and we are successful, what's the lesson to be learned from that experience so that you bounce forward? And then the next time you engage in any stressful behavior, you have the advantage of that lesson, of that learning, and new ways of doing how you engage with the stresses. And I refer to this also as a growth mindset where we're always looking to benefit from experience. Gloria Grace Rand Yeah. And it makes a lot more sense to. To refer to it that way. We're getting a little strange feedback there. Oh, well. But anyway, yeah, I mean, I like that idea of bouncing forward because. Yeah, you do. I think that is part of what helps you to be able to cultivate resilience is you do have to learn. You learn some. Take the time to learn some lessons about what happened so that you can, you know, use that, apply that the next time. You know, I know that you had. And again, when we were recording this, you live in Southern California, and so you were dealing a lot with the threat of the horrific wildfires that were going on. And that's part of what your article was about, was how you have been applying the pillars you wrote about in your book. And I thought maybe, maybe one thing, because I know there's nine pillars, and we don't necessarily have to go into all of them right now, but if you had to pick, you know, maybe one or two, that would be important for someone to consider. What, maybe even to start with, if. When they're trying to build resilience, which. Which ones would you use would you talk about? Dr. Stephen Sideroff Well, if we take a look at my own experience during this really disaster where I was evacuated and couldn't get back to my home, where the fire was right in the line, my house and community was right in the line of fire. The first step for me is my fifth pillar, which is mental balance and mastery. And so the first thing is to realize, no matter what your circumstance there, there's always a best way to move forward. There's always a best way to handle what you're engaged in. And this is so important to recognize because much of the time, and, you know, in the situation that I've been in, it's so easy to go to catastrophic expectations. The worst outcome, my. My house will burn down. And for each person out there in all the situations we encounter, there's always a negative way that we can go into it. We can start by saying, oh, this is going to be difficult. Or we can start by saying, I don't know if I'll be able to do it. So that already takes you in the negative direction. That turns out to make a situation more difficult than it has to be. When we start out by saying, there, there is a best way, let me find it now. I'm starting out by heading in the right direction. I'm looking at possibilities for. For achieving my goals. I'm looking immediately for how I could take the first steps forward. So that's the first. My first tool and recommendation is that positive mindset. That mindset of there is a best way. Let me find it. Second has to do with our emotions. So you can imagine under this circumstance, my amount, my emotions were going all over the place. When the wind was going in the wrong direction, I'd be, you know, very upset. When the wind turned direction and was heading away, oh, what a relief. And it was like a roller coaster. And so my sixth pillar is emotional balance and mastery. And what I did in that situation and I encourage people to do is stay current with your emotions. Now, what do I mean by staying current? It means if an emotion comes up, don't push it down, don't distract from it, don't ignore it, deal with it. Let yourself feel the feelings. There's no right or wrong with feelings. We don't go, well, I shouldn't feel that. No, if it comes up, if you're feeling those feelings, allow yourself to feel them, find a way to express them. But then you want to make sure you let go of them so that you're not carrying excess baggage around with you. You know, so much of the time we have feelings from situations with other people where we're frustrated, angry, and sometimes we tend to just ignore those feelings because maybe we don't feel we can tell that other person how we're feeling. We're afraid that they will make judgments, that we're afraid they'll reject us, be even more angry than we are. But it's important to realize that if you're carrying a feeling, you have that responsibility to deal with that. And it hasn't. Doesn't have to be related to the other person because the other person