Cool your mood and keep your productivity with a S.O.D.A.
Cool your mood and keep your productivity with a S.O.D.A.
By Carolina Lozada
Click aqui para español- >Refresca tu estado de ánimo y mantén tu productividad con una S.O.D.A.
Have you experienced one or a couple of external situations that have ruined your day?
You cannot always control what happens around you. However, you can always control how you respond to the situation and therefore you can control and keep being productive.
The following method is based on neuroscience and can be very helpful when you feel that your mood is starting to go from a good to a not so good mood. It’s known as S.O.D.A., which stands for Stop, Observe, Detach, and Act. It has been proven effective, and takes only 1 minute to put in practice. You and your body will thank you for it.
STOP:
Stop for a moment and...
If you are sitting in a meeting, move your body slightly from front to back.
If it’s conversation on the phone, walk.
Drink a glass of water.
Observe: the situation as if you were outside it to gain perspective and rationality.
Detach: The emotions associated with the event like frustration, sadness
Act: Take the most convenient actions to adapt or manage the event.
The objective of these actions is to send a different signal to the brain and distract it from the “getting angry” signal. A sudden change of mood is interpreted by the brain as a threat, so it sends a message to your whole body of “fight or flight”, which reduces your ability to make rational decisions and increases impulsivity.
Consequently, in the short term, you will lose much of your physical and mental energy feeling literally as if you had been in a physical fight. This leaves you exhausted, which takes recovery time and affects your productivity. A long term consequence is that, you are at risk of saying or doing something that you will regret later once the event has passed.
