When my older son was 8 years old he was addicted to Minecraft, an incredibly creative online game with nearly limitless possibilities.

In the beginning, we only allowed him to play in Creative mode. He could build without the threat of zombies attacking him.

But then he (and we) realized he could do even more in Survival mode, which required him to find his own resources (like seeds), so he could plant and grow his own crops for food. It also presented the challenge of evading threats from monsters and needing to survive the elements.

In Survival mode, my son learned to be incredibly resourceful and resilient. It was scary sometimes, but the rewards seemed to be greater.

One night at dinner, my husband posed the question: are you playing in Creative mode or Survival mode?

And it hit me: what a great question for us all!

When you have to put dinner on the table and pay the bills, you are often more motivated by the reality of needing to Survive to be more creative, resourceful, and resilient. In contrast, when everything is safe and provided to you, it’s easier for your brain to become sluggish and to become lazy.

What comes to mind is the term “affluenza” (coined in the 1990s) —the disease of overconsumption and disconnection that comes from having everything provided to you.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m neither promoting poverty and suffering, nor trash talking wealth. (Nor am I equating Creative mode in Minecraft with affluenza!)

But, I do observe that the desire to have “more” is tightly connected with the culture of overwork in our world. The habit of working longer hours to make more money to buy more stuff results in greater disconnection from oneself and those people who are most important to us. That disconnection leads to unhappiness and then a desire to have more stuff to make us feel better. A truly sad and unhealthy cycle.

With the recent impact of the pandemic, I have also observed that more and more of us are coming face to face with the reality that we don’t need all these material possessions!

So, maybe there is something to living in Survival mode. The question is: what is “just enough” and how can we ride that intelligent edge between being just comfortable enough and having too much?

I invite you to not only ask yourself whether you are in Survival Mode or Creative Mode, but also:

What helps you to feel truly alive in your life, motivated to keep striving, but—and here’s the key element—present and grateful for all who are in your life and all that you have now, in this moment?

I know what helps me to feel this way: my meditation practice and daily PQ reps for strengthen my mental fitness. These practices support me in being my most positive, creative, resilient and resourceful self, regardless of what pandemic, social, political, economic challenges are coming at me at full speed.

How about you? What helps you to feel most alive and present and motivated in your life? Perhaps we can all move beyond the question of Creative mode versus Survival mode, to be in Thriving mode.

I look forward to your reply!

Have you ever noticed how certain people leave you feeling angry or frustrated or even combative? These might be people you work with, or one or more members of your family , or perhaps a politician or other person who is often in the media. Maybe it was even a written social media post that made your blood boil.

Before this person “made you” feel angry or frustrated, how were you feeling prior? Did the person in some way shift you from feeling peaceful or happy to feeling negative?

It is most likely because of mirror neurons in your brain. Mirror neurons act like little sponges & switches that first observe what someone is saying or how they are behaving, absorb that data, and then “fire”— causing you to “mirror” the other or act in the same way.

When someone “comes in hot”, speaking loudly and with an angry tone about something they are frustrated about, their energy directly influences your own mood via your brain’s mirror neurons. And that reaction also triggers the release of adrenaline, cortisol, and norepinephrine — the trifecta of stress hormones — that get your body primed to flee or fight or freeze, and also when released regularly and daily can lead to chronic health conditions.

The good news is: positive emotions are also contagious in this same way.

You may know certain people who often (or always) make you feel good. You like to spend time around them because they lift up your spirits, turn your day around in a good way, and as a result boost the level of feel-good serotonin in your brain. It is thanks to that person – and your mirror neurons — and the release of “positive” neurotransmitters like serotonin, that your mood changes and your body produces a health-promoting chemical cocktail in your body.

Serotonin for example is critical for healthy digestion, for good quality sleep, for healthy sexual function and more.

But you already know this from your own experience: when you’re stressed and wound up, you don’t want to eat or when you do your digestion is messed up. You don’t sleep as well, and your interest in being with others diminishes — whether platonically or romantically.

Let’s step back and consider this on a macro level: how does a work environment full of positive people affect your mood and your health?  Your creativity and performance?

How does a household full of negative people — or even a TV show with sensationalist negative news programming — affect you? Notice how it influences your mood, your perspective of other people, your day ahead, your prospects in life, and on and on. One negative moment can trigger a ripple effect of negative interactions in your day.

It is important to know that BOTH positivity and negativity are contagious due to how your brain functions.

And, more good news: you can strengthen your mental muscles so that you stay more in positivity and intercept the negativity so your mirror neurons don’t hijack your mood in a destructive way.

HOW?

By practicing little 10 second reps to shift your brain function out of the survival brain (which is activated with the influence of negative emotions and mirror neurons) instead to activate the parts of the brain associated with empathy, creativity, and positive social engagement.

What are these little 10 seconds reps called? PQ reps. They are the core daily activities you learn to integrate into your busy, stress-filled life as part of the mental fitness course called Positive Intelligence. PQ is short-hand for “Positive Intelligence quotient” (like EQ for emotional intelligence quotient).

Try PQ Reps now:

Shift from anxiety and distraction to calm, focus, and productivity with PQ reps

Release stress & tension to bring in greater peace and relaxation with PQ reps

Quiet your inner critic: let go of unnecessary negative judgments and shift to wiser discernment with PQ reps

You can learn how to strengthen your 3 core mental muscles so your mirror neurons do not hijack your mood and unintentionally lead to strain in your relationships, underperformance at work, or poor health from all the stress and anxiety. And here’s how…

The six-week Positive Intelligence course begins in September, just in time for you and your brain to go back to school! I am guiding 10 people through the course right now and spots are now open for the next “pod” (group). You will join 3-5 others moving through the program — or if you have an intact work team or family unit or friend group you can request to do the course together. More details here.

Here’s to building resilience, positivity and creativity for a better life and a better world!

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS ERIN?
As Erin and her family continue their year of nomadic life, they will be exploring different states in the U.S. and also (as restrictions lift) different countries. In August, Erin and her husband and sons will be spending time in Philadelphia, Vermont, and Maine. Then in September they will venture west to Colorado!

Missed any past newsletters? Check out our newsletter archive here.

What if you could improve your performance at work by 31% while experiencing greater happiness in all of your life? What if you could sell 37% more while tripling your creativity? And what if you could do this by upgrading your brain’s operating system, making changes that are long-lasting and sustainable?

The past several weeks I’ve shared glimpses into the approach I’ve been using most recently with myself and my clients and now I want to share it with you. It’s called the Positive Intelligence or the PQ Operating System.

As you know, I’ve used yoga, meditation, Reiki and other practices the past 20+ years to separate myself from my thoughts, manage my mood and mindset, shift my nervous system, boost my productivity, and re-wire my neural patterns. These approaches have worked well, but require carving out large chunks of time – and I’ve long craved a simpler approach that can be easily integrated into my day with greater ease.

In my coaching with clients, the biggest inhibitor to the client experiencing long-lasting results has been the same factor that has challenged me: mental saboteurs. Or, as one client used to call it, your mind’s internal “itty bitty shitty committee.”

You take a course, you work with a coach, your find an approach that works but then eventually the results diminish or eventually completely fade away. You get frustrated, perhaps even blaming yourself for wasting your time or blaming the course instruction or the coach. When in reality it’s your mental saboteurs that are derailing you and robbing you of the happiness and success you deserve.

In the Spring, I completed the six-week Positive Intelligence course that complemented and brought together the many practices and executive & leadership frameworks I’ve drawn on over the decades. It was a special offering of this course, just for professional coaches like me, and the approach it taught me has worked so well that I find my inner skeptic occasionally poking me and asking: is this really still working?

This week, I begin guiding 10 people through this same six-week Positive Intelligence course as part of a six-month long coach training program I am doing. Who is in this group (or “pod”) as we call it in Positive Intelligence? A physician, a business owner, a nutrition educator, an estimator, an alliance manager, a startup cofounder, a university department chair, a director of community and school relations, and a medical director. Most have children (or grandchildren), and all have intense schedules and complex lives. Just like you.

Soon, I will be offering the course another time to another group – and I hope you will want to be a part of it.

Why do I want you to take the Positive Intelligence course? By applying the approach taught by Positive Intelligence, I have greatly boosted my ability to quickly shift from feeling triggered to being able to feel grounded, clear-headed, and resourceful. I am much LESS often caught up in critical judgments about myself, about others, or my circumstances. I am sleeping better and feeling better about all my relationships.

I want the same and more for you!

How confident am I that this approach works? I have fully integrated it into my coaching work with existing and new clients. It is now a required component in the foundational work I do with all new clients who begin working with me. And I am gradually introducing existing clients to it, by integrating it into the work we’re already doing together.

Just like the fact that you must first install an operating system into your computer before adding apps and software, I am now offering Positive Intelligence as the operating system for clients to establish the strongest available foundation for successful outcomes from coaching. It’s not brainwashing or anything creepy. It’s rooted in solid scientific research, tested with more than 500,000 participants in 500 countries, so it works for people across all cultures.

Ready to learn more and join the next “pod”? This link takes you to a page on my website where you can read more information about Positive Intelligence, take two free assessments to learn your PQ Score and the strength of your mental Saboteurs, then (if you want) sign-up to join the next pod. And if the info on this page does not answer all your questions, you can schedule a 30-minute call with me to discuss what is on your mind.

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS ERIN?

As Erin and her family continue their year of nomadic life, they will be exploring different states in the U.S. and also (as restrictions lift) different countries. In July, Erin will be staying with family in the state of Iowa, and in August spending time in Philadelphia, Vermont, and Maine.

Missed any past newsletters? Check out our newsletter archive here.