For those who missed the fabulous workshop which launched the PWN Professional Development programme for 2018 - 2019 “Dare to lead your life”, here are the highlights of the workshop of September 19th : “The brain, your greatest ally”, brought to us by Pierre Moorkens,

“I was very happy to welcome the PWN members for this special “brain shaking” workshop on the premises of the Institute of Neurocognitivism. It was a great pleasure to interact with all of you on the extraordinary abilities of the brain, and how neuroscience can help us lead better and healthier lives, including at work, in the so-called “VUCA” world, provided we are willing to learn more about how the brain functions. 

Exploring our brain: discovering the 2 mental modes 

We started with giving you some insight into how the brain functions, notably by discovering the 4 mechanisms that orchestrate our behavior: the instinctive, gregarious, emotional and adaptative governances. 

We then explored the 2 Mental Modes with a few exercises. Participants experienced with much surprise (and giggles !) how we can get “stuck” in our Automatic Mental Mode; we then discovered how “switching” to the Adaptative Mental Mode can help us develop our creativity and adapt ourselves to unknown or complex situations. 

We ended the first part of the workshop with a group discussion on how stress reveals itself (re: flight, fight, freeze) and what it means to our brain. The good news is that stress can simply be explained as an alarm signal, a warning that we are not using the appropriate Mental Mode!  We can significantly reduce stress levels by training the brain to shift or to “switch” to the Adaptative Mental Mode. Indeed, we can improve our wellbeing thanks to our brain plasticity !

Switching to the Adaptative Mode and reducing our stress: a cognitive exercise

After this discovery, everybody was eager to practice the adaptive switch !  I introduced you to a powerful exercise that enables us to reduce stress in many common, real-life situations. Our stressability is greatly affected by things we strongly dislike, such as inefficiency, disrespect, slowness, failure and so on. 

After a moment of individual reflection, the group discussion that followed made us see how to raise awareness by changing our perception with regards to our dislikes and aversions and get “unstuck” from our limiting beliefs. After this “
brain shaking” experience, we all pursued the discussions during a pleasant cocktail.

I was very pleased to meet all of you and am truly excited about the new partnership between the Institute of Neurocognitivism and PWN for this year’s Personal Development workshops.

À bientôt, I hope!

Pierre Moorkens

https://neurocognitivisme.fr  

Thank you Pierre ! Thank you to the INC for hosting our Professional Development workshops this year and thanks to the INC team for making it happen : Muriel Janoir (PWN member :) and Karine Buriez. 

Save the following dates :

1. Wednesday October 10th -  Learning to inquire and appreciate who and what we are.
2. Tuesday November 20th - Choosing to communicate differently - Register HERE
3. Tuesday January 15th - Exploring our vulnerability - Register HERE
4. Tuesday February 19th - Discovering the power of listening - Register HERE 
5. Tuesday March 26th - Working our network - Register HERE
6. Tuesday April 16th - Managing our career - Register HERE
7. Tuesday May 21st - Planning for the way forwards ! - Register HERE