135 episodes

Helping marketplace leaders #UnStuck their true potential to thrive in life and leadership to build a successful, sustainable business with collaborative, high performance teams and Joy@Work with practical, neuroscience-based AdvantEdge Guides and coaching.

www.joyatwork.coach

Joy@Work Podcast Dr John Kenworthy

    • Business
    • 5.0 • 2 Ratings

Helping marketplace leaders #UnStuck their true potential to thrive in life and leadership to build a successful, sustainable business with collaborative, high performance teams and Joy@Work with practical, neuroscience-based AdvantEdge Guides and coaching.

www.joyatwork.coach

    The 4Cs of Joyful Living

    The 4Cs of Joyful Living

    At the beginning of this series of GuidePosts we noted that the number of people reporting stress, anxiety and depression is massive! The WHO note that mental health issues have increased 13% in the last decade (in 2017) and substance disorders up some 20% and with suicide as the second leading cause of death among 15-29 year olds - you realise that this is a huge problem.
    1 Billion people across the world suffer a mental health problem in 2022!
    That’s 1 person in 8!!!
    WHO World Mental Health Report 2022
    The increase of substance abuse is evidence that people are trying to cope with their stress, anxiety and depression with the “pleasure” of the dopamine high. This is creating a dopamine imbalance which can lead to addiction and is instead making us chronically unhappy according to Dr Robert Lustig in his excellent book, Hacking of the American Mind.
    In all our striving in the pursuit of happiness we seem to be paying the price in alcohol and drug abuse, gambling, excess unhealthy food (ice cream, chocolate), smoking and social media “likes”. Meanwhile stress and anxiety are on the rise and incidents of rage make the news daily.
    And that stress and cortisol increase reward seeking behaviour and decrease reasoning ability!
    The world isn’t in pursuit of happiness, it’s seeking pleasure to offset the stresses of living… because it’s quicker than actually pursuing happiness and joy!
    How do you increase happiness and joy in your whole life?
    I’m so glad that you asked.
    As I mentioned - taking a dopamine pleasure high route is quicker - especially (ab)using substances. BUT, it’s short lived and within minutes or hours you’ll be after another high due to the increasing dopamine imbalance and addiction.
    Instead we can deal with chronic unhappiness and gain long term benefits through some simple, deliberate changes to how we go about our every day life. Dr Lustig proposes a solution he calls the 4C’s of Happiness: Connect, Contribute, Cope and Cook. (Check out “Hacking the American Mind”)
    Connect.
    Connect with people you like and enjoy. Join your local church, a social group or simply have a conversation. Preferably in person. Make sure that you practice empathy with them - this engages your mirror neurons to feel what they feel, or to “walk in their shoes”. The result is a serotonin boost and a feeling of personal contentment and fulfils your own personal need for belonging and perhaps mattering.
    Time with pets can also be beneficial and achieve much the same result.
    PS. Emailing, Facebooking, Insta’ing, Threading or X’ing is NOT connecting.

    Contribute
    Give something of yourself: your time, your resources, your skills, your energy and your attention to something larger than yourself. Volunteer at a shelter, help a charity, make or repair something for someone else who needs your help.
    Giving to others is self-transcendent (spoiler alert! This is a large part of your purpose in this life!) and fulfils your personal need to matter.
    Cope
    Three activities that will improve your serotonin receptors in your brain (and hence make you feel happier and better): Sleep, Mindfulness and Exercise.
    Sleep deprivation increases stress and cortisol and causes depression!. Sleep is so essential for your brain and body and can fill several volumes alone for the essential benefits and much advice. Read Why We Sleep, by Mathew Walker or Claudia Aguirre’s 7 Healthy Tips for a Better Night’s Sleep.
    PS. Screens KILL sleep!!! And trying to multitask (which you cannot!!) is costing you sleep because it increases stress and cortisol.

    Mindfulness practice helps you alter your brain waves and calms your mind deliberately. We’ll be using a mindful process in bridging from stress to joy.
    Exercise regularly. Whatever takes your fancy. I personally recommend walking - even better with some company or a dog. Decent brisk walking is nothing but beneficial. Running is tougher on your body, cycling means dodging pedestrians

    • 11 min
    How to Raise Performance and have Joy@Work

    How to Raise Performance and have Joy@Work

    From what we’ve learned so far, we know that to raise performance anywhere, we need to be able to choose to be At Cause.
    We’ve also learned about the affects of five important neurotransmitters: Dopamine (pleasure), Serotonin (happiness), Cortisol (stress), Adrenaline (fear), Anandamide (Peace and Joy).
    We need to know about four additional Neurotransmitters in your brain’s “cocktail bar”: Oxytocin (love, trust), Vasopressin (attachment), Endorphins (resilience) and Acetylcholine (focus).
    Stay with me, because I am coming back to the impact on your leadership and performance improvement @work. Meantime, let’s talk about love:
    Love, often confused with joy or happiness (and sometimes pleasure) is a combination of two things: Attachment and Attraction:
    Attachment
    Attachment is tied to the neurotransmitters Oxytocin and Vasopressin. Oxytocin is known as the “love and trust” chemical. It’s responsible for increasing the bonding between a mother and her new born, and for that trusting relationship bond with a colleague or team member.
    Vasopressin’s effects are less well understood but it appears to be gender specific. For men, Vasopressin is believed to make men more suspicious, even aggressive, towards novel males. Thus a new male joining the team may be viewed with more suspicion by the other males in the team.
    In contrast, for women, it appears that Vasopressin makes them friendlier towards novel women.
    Attraction
    When you enjoy doing something, you are attracted to it, which makes you feel “happy” with a cascade of Dopamine, Norepinephrine and Serotonin.
    You can see why feeling attracted to someone or something can easily get confused with fear mixed with pleasure mixed with happiness! Explains a lot that I wish I’d known when puberty struck!
    It’s also why attraction can also cause a lack of appetite (your digestive tract got shut down in the fear response!) and a loss of sleep (which is affected by Serotonin).
    Performance Enhancement
    As you do things well and get into your “zone” or in your “flow”, your performance improves thanks to the additional cascade of Anandamides and Endorphins.
    Endorphins are your brain’s natural pain killers. They are released to help cope when your body feels pain or stress. You can get a boost of these through exercise or any demanding activity.
    Performance improvement @work
    Ok, we’ve got the necessary foundational understanding.
    When you do something that matters to you, you are attachedto it (Oxytocin and Vasopressin).
    When you do something that you enjoy, you are attracted to it and just a little fearful (Dopamine, Norepinephrine and Serotonin).
    Then you get into your zone or flow or your high performancestate (Anandamides and Endorphins).
    You stay focused on task because the dopamine high mixed with a little fear to make it an exciting challenge triggers Acetylcholine - and signals your Reticular Activating System (RAS) to focus attention on the task at hand.
    These eight neurochemicals significantly enhance performance and is addictive (scientists prefer to use the word “autotelic”). Hence we experience “flow” in our performance and we will go out of our way to re-experience it. Basically, we increase our own intrinsic motivation and inspiration to continually enhance our own performance!
    AND there’s more! These chemicals also augment the creative process and pattern recognition. Oxytocin and Vasopressin disregulate your Neo-cortex, widening your self perspective, liberating your mind to new thoughts and feelings. Making us more creative and faster in how we do things!
    Command and Control leaders should be aware that, in contrast, fear narrows perspective and inhibits performance and increases distress further degrading performance!
    Which would you choose?


    This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.joyatwork.coach

    • 8 min
    Choosing to Be At Cause or At Effect

    Choosing to Be At Cause or At Effect

    Regardless of your choices in life, you will face adversity, trauma, threats, difficulties, trials and tribulations - such as family or relationship issues, health problems, financial concerns, or workplace stressors. Everybody does. Nobody likes it, nobody wants to, but everybody does.
    How you respond to those challenges makes all the difference in the world!
    Where is your Locus of Control - “At Cause” or “At Effect”?
    When you choose to be “At Cause” for your life, your focus is on choosing your actions and this increase your Circles of Power and Influence expanding them into your Circle of Concern. You have an Internal Locus of Control - that is, you believe that you have control over external forces in your life.
    When you are “At Effect” of others or circumstances, your focus is on factors outside your inner circles, your Concerns gain ground, shrinking your Circles of Power and Influence. You have an External Locus of Control - that is you believe that external forces beyond your control have control over your life.
    When you are “At Effect” you are more likely to experience anxiety, which gives you the illusion of control over others or over external events.
    This bears repeating: When you are anxious or you worry, this gives you the illusion of control over others or external events!
    Congratulations, your anxiety and worry about something beyond your control just reinforced and perpetuated your need to be anxious and worry!
    On the other hand, when you choose to be “At Cause” you are reinforcing your stress resilience.
    Remember The “Shortcut” and The “High Road”?
    You’ll notice that I say that you "are At Effect versus you “choose to be At Cause”. That’s because your default is to be At Effect. It’s not a conscious, thought through, choice. It’s unconscious and automatic. Choosing to be At Cause is a conscious, considered, deliberate choice you make.
    As our brain senses information about the challenge ahead, you’ll recall what we learned in Fear, Stress, Anxiety and Depression in Your Brain that stimuli from the outside world first take “The Shortcut” either directly to the amygdala (smells and touch) or via the Thalamus to the amygdala (sights and sounds). That is: your brain is already reacting and responding to the threat of the challenge ahead!
    Meantime, some information takes the “High Road” through the cortex and your thinking brain can choose to change or reinforce the threat response. Milliseconds after your brain and body have started to react and respond, this is your moment of choice! This is the moment you can choose to be “At Cause”.
    How does this help me? How do I stop worrying, anxiety and distress? Let me be clear, there isn’t a magic pill that does this (no matter what Big Pharma tries to tell you) but we do have access to a simple solution. Before that though, let’s recognise two common enemies we all have in the (conscious) mind.
    Two Enemies of Being “At Cause”
    And allies of remaining “At Effect”
    People, most often, spend much of their time and energy worrying or concerned about the challenges that they cannot control, which cause them to feel anxious or stressed.
    The first enemy is “If only…”
    If only I had the [skills, money, strength, power, connections, knowledge, fortitude, faith] I would have…
    If only … my parents had… I could have…
    If only I … were a different race, gender, nationality, person … I should have…
    If only I … had studied harder, taken that job, not taken that job, gotten married, not gotten married, had kids, not had kids…
    “If only” pines over the past.
    The second enemy is “What if…”
    What if… I fail, succeed, look stupid …
    “What if…” frets about the future.
    The problem of these two enemies is that they give you the illusion of control over others or external events!
    That is, you think that worrying about something makes a difference!
    "Your mind would rather fret about the

    • 12 min
    This is Your Brain on Joy

    This is Your Brain on Joy

    It’s not all doom and gloom in the brain! There’s the positive aspects of Eustress and on the flip side of fear, anxiety and depression, we can feel Pleasure, Happiness and Joy!
    If you ask, most people will tell you that their goal in life is to be happy. Indeed the United States Declaration of Independence considers the “Pursuit of Happiness” to be an unalienable right.
    But there’s a problem. When most people think about happiness, they’re really thinking about what gives them pleasure and having more of those things. These are by definition, temporal - Aristotle referred to this as Hedonia, which is happiness as pleasure.
    Eudainomia, on the other hand is happiness as personal Fulfilment.
    Let’s begin with a quick reminder about the six essential human needs and then examining the important differences between the three states: Pleasure, Happiness and Joy.
    Six Essential Human Needs Recap
    Everyone shares six essential human needs that drive our behaviour to satisfy those needs. When those needs are not being met or they are threatened, our fear, stress and anxiety response kick in.
    The more basic the need, usually, the more pressing our response.
    For example, freedom needs were being threatened across the globe throughout the COVID pandemic by well-intentioned authorities. At first your response, like most people, was accepting such limitations on your freedom as justified and “for the greater good” (notice how they appealed to your need to belong and transcend and care for others!)
    As the weeks and months passed with further restrictions imposed, your freeze, flight or fight response kicked in. Some of you kept your heads down and stayed quiet until the danger passed. Others, with the means, ran off to other countries with fewer restrictions. Others fought against the restrictions risking arrest, fines and worse.
    In a moment, we’ll also see how those more basic needs are the key areas of our hedonic pleasures in life. We’ll also see how our higher needs are areas of Eudainomic happiness and joy.
    Pleasure
    Pleasure is visceral when we enjoy taking something from outside of ourselves, like taking pleasure in eating, having a good massage or receiving an encouraging message from a friend.
    Pleasure is short-lived and is experienced alone.
    Pleasure can be addictive and may also be achieved through the use of substances.
    Pleasure is tied to the neurotransmitter dopamine which fires motivation and desire. The dopamine pathway includes five areas of receptors in your brain:

    Happiness
    Happiness is ethereal, circumstantial, outward expression and usually involves us giving or serving others, like volunteering to help a charity, organising community events, giving money to someone in need.
    Happiness is longer term and experienced in social groups
    Happiness is not addictive and cannot be achieved through the use of substances.
    Happiness is tied to the neurotransmitter Serotonin which regulates your mood and general well-being. The serotonin pathways touch at least 14 receptor areas in the brain:

    Joy
    Joy is an ethereal state of mind. It is a choice you make in spite of your circumstances, often manifest as encouraging, giving and serving others.
    As a choice, joy is always available to you that overflows to your social groups.
    It may be addictive and similar feelings may be achieved through the use of substances (though only for self and not for others).
    Joy is linked to the neurotransmitters Serotonin (as happiness) and Anandamide - an endocannaboid fatty acid which binds to the cannabis (CB1) receptors of the brain. These receptors are throughout the brain in the Cortex, Cerebellum, Hippocampus and Basal Ganglia and throughout the body.
    The Timeline of Pleasure, Happiness and Joy
    As I was researching this, I began to notice a difference in tense people use when considering each facet of these phenomena.
    The event(s) is now and in the future, I am choosing to respond appropriately now
    #😲 Insight: Pleasure, Ha

    • 10 min
    This is Your Brain on Fear, Stress, Anxiety and Depression

    This is Your Brain on Fear, Stress, Anxiety and Depression

    Fear, stress and anxiety increase when we believe or perceive that our power, influence or control are diminished or threatened by challenges beyond our control. Fear, stress and anxiety are reactions (not illness). We have shifted our locus of control from us… to ”them”.
    The similarities and differences between these reactions.
    Internally, your reaction to fear, stress, anxiety and depression are similar yet with key difference in triggers, affects and timeframe.
    Fear is an intense, biological response to immediate externalthreat and a danger to your safety. Your response is usually intense, physical and very short term. It’s usually unsafe, negative and unpleasant. During the event time dilates, you see more, feel more. By the time you think about it, the trigger is in the past and you may then experience the euphoria of relief and survival. “Adrenaline junkies” thrive on that “high” and deliberately seek such challenges.
    Stress is your brain’s response to, mostly externally triggered challenge, change, demand or threat that may trigger a physical response but mostly psychological and short term. It can be positive and helpful (eustress) or negative and unpleasant (distress). Both eustress and distress are of the moment, they are in the present. Eustress fires you up 🔥, distress shuts you down 🔐. Eustress motivates, distress demotivates.
    While anxiety is the result of internal tensions creating fear about your ability to perform or address a future challenge. Your response may be physical discomfort, but mostly mental (such as humiliation or rejection) and can be very long term if left untreated.
    Depression is an experience where you feel low most of the time and you have also lost interest in things you usually enjoy. You may also have changes in your sleep, appetite, feel guilty, de-motivated and generally withdraw from others.
    What Happens in Your Brain:
    In the brain: fear, stress and anxiety each have specific triggers for an individual, and each have certain reactions. Between trigger and reaction, a lot of what goes on in the brain is remarkably similar.
    It’s worth reminding ourselves that a challenge we consider fearful, someone else may consider a little stressful or even pleasurable!
    One simple example I experience regularly. I have a dog, she’s a sweet, but nervous rescue dog about the size of a Labrador. Some people find her adorable, others consider her to be very frightening.
    On the other hand, some people find snakes to be interesting and pleasant, whereas I run from them - even video or images of them!
    Six stimuli
    Remember, Your brain’s #1 job is to keep you “not dead”. You are constantly scanning your environment for any threat that might compromise that situation. Which can be anything that is deemed to threaten your circle of power.
    Scanning for threats are your five senses - and these have two routes into the brain:
    Visual and auditory stimuli (sight and sounds) go to the Thalamus in the brain. You can think of the Thalamus as the reception lobby of an office where incoming visitors are screened and sent to the appropriate office. If the sight or sound is threatening - the amygdalae are signalled.
    Olfactory and Tactile stimuli have direct access straight to the Amygdalae! That is smells and touch go straight to the amygdalae. That’s why you recoil immediately from bad smells or unpleasant touch. Fractionally later from something you see or hear.
    Yes five senses, but six stimuli. When they pick up a threat, the information takes one of two routes in your brain:
    Route 1 - The Shortcut
    Smell, taste and touch stimuli bypass the Thalamus reception desk and gain immediate access to the Amygdala. (This is why smells can evoke such powerful responses!)
    The amygdalae informs other brain structures to respond to the perceived threat:
    * Your Hypothalamus and Pituitary gland trigger your adrenal glands to boost your stress hormones: adrenaline and cortisol.
    * Too much cortiso

    • 24 min
    Discover Your Key to Overcoming Fear and Anxiety

    Discover Your Key to Overcoming Fear and Anxiety

    We know that choosing joy means higher performance, more happiness, less stress, less anxiety, better results, greater health. And we know that choosing joy is simple. So why do we all find it so dang difficult?!?
    In large part, it’s about another need we, or rather our brain has; to feel that we have control.
    But, we have established that you cannot control what happens outside - you may be able to influence it or concerned about it, but you cannot control it. You only control your own thoughts and your own actions. Sorry, you CAN only control your thoughts and your actions. It’s your choice.
    You can influence others and some things outside but you do not control them.

    So, I’m borrowing and adapting from Steven Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Imagine 3 circles:
    Thanks for reading Joy@Work! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

    * The inner circle is our circle of power and contains all the things that you know that (on your better days) you can control. In this inner circle, you have the full power of choice. These include your own thoughts, the words you use, the actions you take. You also have control over your emotions, your effort and your own self-care.
    * The middle circle are things over which you have influence, limited control and less power. These are things that you can directly influence. These include your health, your family, home, job, finances and friends.
    * The outer circle is our circle of concern. Things and people that matter to you but over whom you have much less influence and even less power. The further from your inner circle, the less influence you have. These might include the weather, world events and politics, accident or injury or illness. Also other’s perceptions and their actions.
    When you perceive or believe that external events or people threaten your circle of influence or your circle of power you are focused on things that you cannot control. And when you choose (or allow yourself to) focus on what you cannot control, your Circle of Influence contracts! You have chosen to have an external locus of control.
    In contrast, when you choose to focus on what you can control, your Circle of Influence expands. You have chosen an internal locus of control.
    A third, and more profitable focus is on the Spirit within and a God who is still on His throne and in control of everything (a fourth outer ring) and then we humble ourself to the finished work of Christ knowing that “…all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Rom 8:28
    Fear, stress, anxiety and depression can increase when we believe or perceive that our power, influence or control are diminished or threatened by challenges beyond our control. Fear, stress and anxiety are reactions (not illness). We have shifted our locus of control from us… to ”them”.
    I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.
    Stephen Covey
    Six Essential Human Needs - SPACES Recap
    It’s not just about any threat to your circle of power, it’s what you perceive is being threatened and how important that need is to you!
    You’ll recall that we all share six essential needs. These are the key things we wish to influence.
    When we perceive that our circle of power is being threatened, our influence to have our own needs fulfilled diminishes.
    The more fundamental the need, for example something life threatening, the greater our fear response to the threat.
    And, we should all be acutely aware that the more fundamental the need for us, the easier it is for someone else to influence our response both positively and negatively. The advertising industry is successful precisely because it plays on our more fundamental needs and fears.
    For example, your need to eat food is most often associated with pleasure and price in advertisements. New cars are associated with prestige or significance (a higher need for mattering or signifi

    • 12 min

Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5
2 Ratings

2 Ratings

J Carbary ,

New & Noteworthy

Found this podcast in the New & Noteworthy section, so this is definitely a show you want to keep your eye on. Keep up the great work, John.

Sonia E. Thompson ,

Important topics

Really enjoyed the episode on the importance of taking breaks as we learn.

Sometimes we try to cram too much in and it was really helpful to k ow that there are scientific reasons why we need to good off for a few minutes :)

Love the music too, John's accent, and being able to feel his passion for his topic come through.

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