Vitae.coach

🎉Program Launch 🎉

Super pumped to announce our new online program, in partnership with the , The Brain Power Series. ⚡️⚡️⚡️

The Brain Power Series is a 12-week online program of weekly neuroscience workshops available, free of charge to; NSW based startups, scaleups, sole traders, freelancers and small businesses. We know how tough these times have been and fundamentally believe everyone should be able to get the support they need during this time regardless of their economic position. 👌🏽

The Brain Power series is all about sharing the science of the incredible brain power you already posses and how you can utilise your vast cognitive capacity during these crazy times to support you, your business and your wellbeing. 🧠

Our first workshop, the Neuroscience of Stress and Resilience kicks off this Thursday the 21st of May 1pm, AEST. To find out more: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/the-brain-power-series-neuroscience-of-stress-and-resilience-tickets-105322075162?aff=Vitae

If you know anyone that could benefit from these neuroscience-based and business focussed workshops please pass the info on. Because we really all are in this together. 🙌🏽🙌🏻🙌🏾🙌🏿

What’s that Rexy, you want to hear about telomeres? Namely, telomere lengthening and meditation? Well ok then....😜

Telomeres are protective nucleoprotein caps at the ends of chromosomes. They stop our DNA from fusing to a neighbouring chromosome and also prevents cellular senescence (cell ageing). They are integral for healthy cell division/replication and thereby overall health & longevity (Blackburn,2000). 👴🏼

DNA replication occurs throughout our entire lifetime. In this process, which starts in the centre of the chromosome, duplicating enzymes duplicate all the way to the end of a chromosome, but do not duplicate the telomere as DNA polymerase is unable to function properly at the end of a DNA strand, which leads to the telomere shortening during replication. Telomere shortening is representative of bodily ageing and a natural process, yet it can be influenced (Epel,2004). 😏

Telomerase is the enzyme our body produces to help prevent unnecessary/premature shortening and can supplement telomeric DNA, to thicken shortened telomeres and promote cell health and thereby increase longevity (Alda,2016). 💥

However as with all things related to epigenetics, our environmental factors greatly influence our bodily changes. Psychological stress significantly shortens telomere length and reduces telomerase levels. Meaning those little caps can become compromised in protecting our chromosomes and leave us vulnerable to disease with compromise immunity (Shalev et.al,2013). 🤒

However, we are not powerless in this situation. Dr Elissa Epel and colleagues (2011) found that Meditation, specifically loving kindness meditation has been shown to improve telomeres health, helping to lengthen them through an increase in telomerase.🧬

Meditation allowed for not only a reduction in psychological stress but also helped to counter some of the ‘natural’ ageing/shortening of telomeres that occurred in replication. 🤩

For more epic neuroscience on mediation, join us tonight 🧠 👉🏻 https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/neuroscience-of-meditation-for-bushfire-relief-tickets-89713321961

First teaser of our upcoming of Meditation for Bushfire Relief event - next week. To join us, see the link below. 👇🏻👇🏻

Default mode chill....✨✨

But.....not really because my default is anything but chill. However, we do all have a relative, sort of default chill mode in our brain, called the Default Mode Network (DMN) which has opened up some very promising clinical therapies for maintaining mental well-being and treating mental illness 🧠. .
The DMN is a link between anatomical regions, covering psychological processes like; envisioning the future, self-reflection, rumination, mind wandering, pondering others perspectives and autobiographical memory (Simon & Engstorm, 2015). 😌

The DMN’s main nodes of activity include the; medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), anterior and posterior cingulate cortex (ACC, PCC), precuneus (PCU), interior parietal cortex (IPC) and lateral temporary cortex. These primary connected areas showcase function connection and fluctuations during the above-mentioned states (Harrison et al., 2008). 🤔

Recently, the DMN has been used as a biomarker (identifier) for measuring neurological changes of meditative effects. As the DMN has anti-synchronic activity to task-positive networks (TPN) which are critical to executive functioning, the regulation of DMN can be employed as a neuroprotection measure to help reduce cognitive decline, more effectively manage mental states and reduce stress and anxiety (Ramirez-Barrantes et.,al 2019). ✌🏻

Meditation and mindfulness based practices really do significantly alter cognitive functions in overwhelming positive ways. These ancient Buddhist teachings, are increasingly gaining scientific and psychological traction. 📿

If you want to learn more about the neuroscience of meditation, and help raise $$ for bushfire relief, join us https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/neuroscience-of-meditation-for-bushfire-relief-tickets-89713321961 👌🏻

Festive Boundaries! 💪🏻🙅🏼‍♀️✋🏻

Today I really had to reinforce some boundaries some people who were seriously wanting to cross them. 🚫

They weren’t being mean, malicious or even meaning to cross my boundaries or encroach on my freedom but they were definitely getting close to that line! 😬 They were actually coming from what they believed was a good place but they were draining me of energy, consuming a lot of my time and pushing on my patience and thereby stress levels.😐

Boundaries, as the incredible says are fences for your freedom - and I love this. ❤️ When you put up boundaries you are protecting yourself, navigating your stress levels and ensuring you respect you (and ultimately) the other person. Boundaries are super loving spaces between you and others. There is nothing negative or cruel about them. 💁🏼‍♀️

With the holiday season approaching here are two quick steps to lay your boundaries and protect your freedom.

1️⃣ Protect your time - it’s precious -schedule in decompression time. 💎

Only allocate the time to people you have. If you don’t have the time see everyone in one day - don’t. Your time is precious and it’s better you spend it present with people than checked out thinking of the next thing you have to do. Try as much as you can to give yourself down time in-between social and family times. Use this time to reflect and process on that encounter. If there are triggers, unpack and resolve them. Don’t take them into the next event and conversation. This metacognition is a great neurohack to decompress and short circuit stress that can build up, often without us being aware of it. 🤔

2️⃣ Only say yes to activities of joy

You don’t have to say yes to everyone. Shock horror - I know! 😱Before you immediately respond to everyone’s invitations, actually think about what you want to do this holiday season and what brings you energy and joy. Say yes to only these things. And the events that don’t bring you joy, avoid or if you can’t schedule in an allocated time that you will perform these obligations, so you have clear end point. 👌🏻

We can’t control others - but we can control us and regulate our choices. 😜

Thank you Marie Claire Australia & Tech Ready Women for featuring us and our startup tips and .

If you want to know how to thrive not just endlessly hustle on the startup journey, check these out.👇

Launching a start-up? These are the skills to make it work co-founder and CEO of Vitae.Coach Shelley Laslett shares the secret to making your start-up idea a success and the skills entrepreneurs need to succeed.

“You do need to take some form of risk to succeed but risk-taking becomes wholly negative when it’s uncalculated. We become blind to risk when we want the positive outcome so badly that we don’t accurately assess the situation.”🤔
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Big thank you to The CEO Magazine for featuring us in this month's edition. We loved shedding some light on the risk-taking myths surrounding entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs are not as 'risky' as people think, and in fact the best entrepreneurs, aren't that risky at all. 😜 Check out the pic below for some quick to take more calculated risks.