Discover how to harness the dual nature of stress and transform self-doubt into a powerful catalyst for growth. Learn effective strategies to expand your window of tolerance, manage stress, and embrace challenges with confidence. Read on for practical tips, mindfulness techniques, and insights to help you navigate professional and personal growth with resilience.
“Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford
Growing up, many of us didn’t learn an essential tool that would have helped us recover from mistakes, move forward after failure, and embrace our ups and downs as milestones on the road to our dreams and goals. We didn’t know that at the heart of success, resilience, and personal transformation lies a key mental shift: adopting a growth mindset. But the good news? We can all learn this now!
Coined by psychologist Carol Dweck, a growth mindset is the belief that our abilities, intelligence, and talents can be developed through effort, learning, and persistence. But this isn’t just a nice idea—it’s backed by neuroscience, which, as many of you know, is something I always celebrate. Our brains hold the key to our well-being, creativity, and ability to thrive. And the best part? We have the power to shape them.
What Science Tells Us About a Growth Mindset is that our brains are neuroplastic, which means they can literally rewire and reshape themselves based on our experiences and thoughts. When we shift into a growth mindset, we strengthen the neural pathways that support resilience, problem-solving, and confidence.
People with a growth mindset show increased activity in the prefrontal cortex—the part of the brain that helps with decision-making, goal-setting, and emotional regulation. They also get dopamine boosts when facing challenges, which reinforces motivation and the desire to keep learning. Pretty cool, hey?!
On the other hand, a fixed mindset—the belief that our abilities are set in stone—activates the amygdala, our brain’s fear center and threat detecor. This can make challenges feel threatening instead of exciting and can even lead to avoidance behaviors, self-doubt, and anxiety.
So, how do we train our brains to embrace growth instead of fear? Keep reading…
1. Reframe Challenges as Opportunities
Every time we hit a roadblock, we have two choices: see it as a sign to stop or as a chance to grow. The next time something feels hard, try this simple shift:
➡ Instead of saying, “I can’t do this,” try, “I can’t do this yet.”
That one small word—yet—changes everything. It tells your brain that growth is possible, keeping you engaged and ready to push forward. Research even shows that this type of reframing activates the learning centers of the brain, making it easier to develop new skills.
2. Train Your Brain to Notice Growth
Our brains are wired to focus on what went wrong—it’s a survival instinct. But we can retrain them to look for progress instead of failure. Try this quick nightly reflection:
✔ What’s one thing I did today that stretched me?
✔ Where did I step outside my comfort zone?
✔ What’s one thing I learned from a challenge?
Each time you do this, you reinforce new neural connections that make resilience and adaptability second nature. Once you start doing this, you will feel the difference and the difference feels good!
3. Regulate Stress to Support Brain Growth
If we’re overwhelmed by stress, our brains literally shut down the learning process. High cortisol levels make it harder to think clearly, solve problems, and embrace new challenges. That’s why managing stress is a non-negotiable part of building a growth mindset.
Try:
☀ Deep breathing (inhale for 4 seconds, exhale for 6)
☀ A 5-minute movement break to reset your nervous system
☀ Journaling about what’s within your control instead of what isn’t
A calm brain is a flexible brain, and flexibility is key to growth.
4. Take Action, Even When It’s Uncomfortable
Growth isn’t something we just think about—it’s something we practice. The best way to build a growth mindset is to take small, intentional steps outside your comfort zone.
This week, can you challenge yourself:
➡ Speak up in a meeting, even if you feel nervous
➡ Try something new that you’ve been avoiding
➡ Set a tiny goal that stretches you just a little
Each step forward, no matter how small, rewires your brain for resilience and confidence.
I hope that you can now see that growth mindset isn’t just a feel-good concept—it’s a scientifically proven way to rewire our brains for success, well-being, and fulfillment. When we learn to embrace challenges, manage stress, and take small, courageous steps forward, we don’t just change our mindset—we change our lives.
So, where will you stretch yourself today? Maybe the first step is being kinder to yourself when you make a mistake or have a failure!
Learn how understanding your core values can transform your decision-making process and boost career success. This guide offers 5 simple steps to help you identify your values, align them with your daily choices, and create a more fulfilled, intentional career path. Start making decisions that truly reflect your authentic self today.
Unlock your full potential by understanding how your nervous system impacts your behavior and success. In this blog, Sarah dives into Polyvagal Theory, offering valuable tools for stress management, emotional regulation, and building stronger relationships. Discover how this neuroscience-based approach can transform both your personal and professional growth. Read more now!
Havening is a practice that was designed as a self-soothing tool that brings one back into a sense of wellbeing and safety. When we feel soothed, we return to our window of tolerance, which means we activate the parasympathetic nervous system of the ANS and can rest in a state of ease, relaxation, digestion and confidence.
This is a great method to use when we are feeling stressed, hyper-vigilant, anxious, overwhelmed or shutdown (numb).
Self-soothing is a powerful tool, as it is literally at your fingertips to use anytime and anywhere. Havening can help to repattern our nervous system, to create new neural pathways that feel secure, safe, soothing and empowering.
Below are three basic havening techniques that you can safely use on your own.
1) Arm Havening: Cross your hands over your chest, as if you are giving yourself a hug. Slide your hands down your arms in a soothing motion and then slide them back up. Do this for 5 – 30 seconds. You can begin to sink it with your breathing. Exhaling as you slide the hands down and inhaling as you slide the hands up. Pause now and feel the difference.
2) Face Havening: Place the palms of your hands on your face and let your hands, very gently and slowly, slide down the front of the face. Repeat that for 5 – 30 seconds.
3) Hand Havening: Bring the hands together, palm to palm, in front of your chest. Slowly slide the palms up and down against each other, in a soothing pace. Repeat for 5 – 30 seconds.
Great work! Take a moment to notice how you feel right now. If you are still in need of more self-soothing, do the practice again. You can bring in a positive phrase this time that may help you to feel even more empowered. For example, repeat to yourself “I am safe.” “I am well.” “Everything is going to be okay.” “I got this.” “It’s okay to relax now.”
Use whatever phrase feels most supportive to you.
Copyright Sarah Norrad 2022, www.sarahnorrad.com
*These instructions were created by Sarah Norrad. All copyright laws, creative or otherwise, apply, are reserved & bound to Sarah Norrad. This practice is not meant to take the place of clinical, medical or other professional support.
Tonglen is an ancient Buddhist practice that was developed to support easing the suffering of not only ourselves, but our community and our planet. Translated it means “giving and taking.” In this practice we turn what might be viewed as things to fear or push away, into healing medicine. It’s a great tool for tough times and for being with our own and others hardship too.
In the lineage of Shambhala Buddhism, of which I am a part of, Pema Chodron taught this practice frequently. She taught us that this is how we may turn “Poison into medicine.”
Instead of strengthening our habitual patterns of aversion and anxiety, Tonglen helps us shift these old methods into an empowering and uplifting experience instead.
How to Practice Tonglen
Tonglen can be practiced anywhere, but to get to know this medicine, begin in a place that feels comfortable to you. You can take a seated position or lie down and close your eyes while doing it.
1) Connect to Sunyata --- In Buddhism this means an expansive openness and space. You can visualize a wide-open blue sky or a vista of a large, still lake or sea. Connect to the concept of all is one and interconnectedness.
2) Focus on Personal --- Begin this practice by focusing on your personal suffering or pain. What is currently bothering you?
3) Begin to Visualize, inhale and take in --- See/visualize that which you would normally push away; the challenge you are working with right now. See its darkness, its thickness, and its claustrophobic nature. What color is it? What is the cloying smell? Breathe all of this in. With each inhalation take in the suffering of this into every pore of your body. Do this for 5 breaths.
4) Begin to Visualize, exhale and give --- See now that which would offer your challenge peace, light and positivity. What color would its healing be? What does its medicine smell like? Exhale this medicine out. Turn poison into healing. Exhale safety, comfort and love. Do this for 5 breaths.
Begin to sink this practice with both inhalation and exhalation. Taking in what’s hard and releasing what’s soft and comforting.
5) Expand to the Collective --- Now expand this practice to not just include your pain, but a close relations hurt. Breathe in their discomfort. Breathe out peace. Feel the suffering of those in your immediate vicinity (family/friends) first and then take it a step further and feel the hurt of those in your city, who may be going through suffering too. After you inhale the suffering, always exhale the medicine.
6) Expand on this after 5 breaths, from working with the suffering of your close community and city, to include your country. Then make the practice even bigger to include the whole planet. Inhale the planets pain and exhale the planets healing.
Beautiful work!
Tonglen is a great way to build compassion and connect to the expansive wisdom that not all is solid, even things we would normally run from and see as undesirable. It is a useful practice to bring into your meditation time, your work adversities and your relationship navigation too. Use it when you, or someone you know, needs to build courage, reassurance and strength.
So it is that we increase the courage of all beings, including ourselves; may all beings be free from suffering always.
Copyright Sarah Norrad 2020, www.sarahnorrad.com
*These practices, writings and instructions were created by Sarah Norrad. All copyright laws, creative or otherwise, apply, are reserved & bound to Sarah Norrad. This practice is not meant to take the place of clinical, medical or other professional support.
Before we begin something powerful, it’s helpful to set an intention for alignment with “what” we truly desire out of it and how we desire to feel while doing it. The yogic version of this is a Sankalpa, a Sanskrit word. San means self and kalpa translates to a vow. Together this word symbolizes the setting of a heartfelt intention that wilfully aligns the body, mind and spirit with a vow.
Dr. Wayne Dyer writes beautifully about this in his book, “The Power of Intention” (if you felt like a read, this is a good one and helpful to build inner motivation!). He says something I don’t hear many people suggest when working with intention, but which I believe is entirely the truth:
“Imagine that intention is not something you do, but rather a force that exists in the universe as an invisible field of energy.”
As we open more to our goals for the next little while, set aside time and space to create your intention of alignment clearly, as an invisible field of energy that will support you in all the work you do. Begin to see intention as the rudder to guide you to the destination you wish to arrive at.
Let’s check-in for a moment: where do you desire to be and feel in the near future? Really get a sense for what your heart-felt intention in all of the growth, exploration and transformation of the next little while shall be? What would you like to feel like at the end of next month? What is it you would like to know more deeply? What would you like to be offering in the world? Who wold you like to be?
Now we are going to take that further…
Setting a Sankalpa Directions:
1) Sit with yourself for a few moments. Notice your breath & close your eyes. Feel the ground beneath you and your connection to earth.
2) Become aware of the feeling in your pelvis, your belly & your heart.
3) Allow your Sankalpa/intention to come to you. Give it space to become clear. Take your time. This is the overarching intention and the driving alignment. Let your heart speak here too. For example, your Sankalpa may be, “I wish to know clarity about my direction forward and then go for it,” “I wish to feel joy, hope and liberation,” “It’s my intention to increase my confidence and inner power so that I feel like I can do anything, “or “I’d like to know that I am inspired, aligned and ready, each day.”
4) Now, visualize your Sankalpa in your pelvis and belly. Plant it there.
5) Once your lower Chakras are full with this Sankalpa, raise your intentional vow, with warmth, up into your heart where it will bloom!
6) Say your intention quietly to yourself, but speak it out loud.
7) Bring your hands to your heart and say thank you to yourself; honour this step.
8) Close this practice by opening your eyes and feeling awake, ready and present… Bring this intentional vow into your day, each day! Breathe with it when you remember. Repeat it to yourself regularly. Let it in, by repeating it each morning as you awaken and before you fall asleep!
Good work — open up to receiving powerful results from this practice!
As a greater practice, you can come back to this type of alignment (sankalpa) work, as often as you need. Setting a Sankalpa is a great way to start fresh after conflict, stress or a hard experience, or simply to align with before you take on a task, practice, conversation or work. I regularly set a Sankalpa before sitting with clients or engaging with community and loved ones.
Let aligned intention support you with ease towards your dreams & goals.
Or, connect here for more 1:1 work with me
*These practices, writings and instructions were created by Sarah Norrad. All copyright laws, creative or otherwise, apply, are reserved & bound to Sarah Norrad. This practice is not meant to take the place of clinical, medical or other professional support.
The Emotional Freedom Technique is a highly effective, non-invasive energetic and therapeutic practice to move stuck energy and beliefs that may be keeping us feeling unwell in either our mind, body or spirit.
In my years of practicing and teaching this method to clients, I have never witnessed adverse effects and often observed powerful shifts. I used this technique particularly to relive myself from chronic pain – It worked!
EFT is believed to create a balance in our energetic and nervous system, similar to how acupressure and acupuncture work by tapping on meridian points on the body; EFT also includes Cognitive Behavioural phrases that make EFT, in my opinion, even more powerful.
Below is the traditional EFT tapping sequence outlined, as well as my own cognitive behavioural phrases that I have found are the most effective to repeat while tapping. If you investigate this technique, you will get to know that many people use slightly different phrases and it is safe too to make up your own! Important to note that this technique works best when you actually say the statements out loud!
The traditional EFT tapping sequence is the methodic tapping on the ends of nine powerful energy centers/meridian points in the body. When we tap on these points, energy moves. Remember, it is not necessary to tap hard! Just tap firmly enough to notice without leaving a soar spot or bruising.
9 Point Sequence & connecting Meridian
karate chop (KC): small intestine meridian
top of head (TH): governing vessel
eyebrow (EB): bladder meridian
side of the eye (SE): gallbladder meridian
under the eye (UE): stomach meridian
under the nose (UN): governing vessel
chin (Ch): central vessel
beginning of the collarbone (CB): kidney meridian
under the arm (UA): spleen meridian
*this 9 point sequence was recommended and outlined by healthline.com
5 Setup Phrases to match the EFT Tapping Sequence:
Tap each statement once fully through the EFT sequence…
1) Even though I feel this deep… (you fill in the blank with whatever you are working with. Perhaps fear, anxiety, heartbreak or blame), I love and accept myself completely.
2) This (name whatever you are working with). I love and accept myself.
3) Even though I feel this (use the name again of what you are working with), I’d like to open up space for something greater in my life.
4) I allow myself to be and experience freedom. I love and accept myself completely (or you can replace “freedom for whatever feels like the right medicine for the original suffering; love, power, energy, courage etc.).
5) I am free (or, I am happy, energized, powerful etc).
Pause after you do the 5 rounds in total (one round of the 9-point tapping with each phrase). Let your hands rest on your lap and imagine breathing in warm golden sunshine and exhale out any remaining tension.
Beautiful work! Reach out if you have any questions about this process or your own experience with it. I love including EFT in practices to support my clients in their own emotional freedom and regulation.
For 1:1 options to work with me, head here
*This practice, writing and instruction was created by Sarah Norrad. All copyright laws, creative or otherwise, apply, are reserved & bound to Sarah Norrad. Please ask for permission before sharing this practice. This practice is not meant to take the place of clinical, medical or other professional support. If you are feeling in danger, please seek the help of a professional immediately.
The Safe Container of My Body
A Somatic Containment Exercise for Restoring Body Wisdom
When we work with somatic healing and restoration practices, we are more focussed on tuning into the sensation of the body, rather than focusing on our emotions. This is because as we connect to our body’s wisdom and experience, we are then able to regulate, release trauma with ease and safety, as well as avoid becoming retriggered.
This practice is a very gently, non-invasive exercise that supports us in regaining our awareness of our skin, muscle and bone boundary (and creating a safe container for our feelings to move through). It originates from some of the research done by Dr. Peter Levine, the foundational creator of somatic healing studies. As you practice with this, you may notice that you begin to understand again that your body is a solid and secure boundary from the world that feels restorative and protective to rest inside of.
Often we do not realize that we are not truly “in” our bodies. We are dissociated (having vacated our bodies), or our body boundaries have been ruptured, due to stress, habit, trauma and underlying fears. Somatic practices are effective ways to reclaim the experience that is rightfully ours, of living fully in the here and now, in these beautiful bodies that are our safe home.
I recommend trying this practice everyday for a week. Then, bringing it in when you feel the need to feel deeply grounded or reclaim an experience of safety. It is great to do this exercise before you practice deeper healing work. It brings us into the healing vortex of our system, where our parasympathetic nervous system can support us in regulating with ease. When ending something that may be triggering, try this practice out and see how quickly you deescalate. It can be quite effective!
Let’s Begin.
1. Find a safe place to practice this exercise, where you can relax and feel grounded (I often do this practice in my bedroom with the door closed).
2. Sit comfortably and begin to notice what is supporting your seat. Notice the feeling of your legs and bottom being held by what’s underneath you (perhaps a chair or a cushion) as well as notice where your hands are resting.
3. Take your dominant hand and place it on your other hand. Notice how your skin feels. Notice the temperature, the texture and begin to even feel the bones in your hand.
4. Give your hand a few gentle squeezes to get a further sense of this body part. Now give it a gentle tap.
5. Rest your hand on your hand now and say the words to yourself slowly, “This is my hand. My hand. This hand belongs to me and is part of the safe container that is my body.”
6. Continue to do this practice for your whole upper body (you can do it for your entire body, lower too, if you like). Move from your hand, to your wrist, to your forearm, to your bicep and so on, all the way to your shoulder and chest.
7. When you need to, switch hands so that you can also do this to the non-dominant side of your body, starting at chest, to the shoulder and heading down the arms to your other hand.
8. Depending on how much of your body you include in this practice, it can take 5 minutes to 30 minutes. Just do the amount that feels comfortable for you and allows you to stay in your window of tolerance, without being overwhelmed.
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Beautiful work. I hope you now feel the ease and groundedness of the amazing container of self that is you.
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Copyright Sarah Norrad 2020, www.sarahnorrad.com
*These practices, writings and instructions were created by Sarah Norrad. All copyright laws, creative or otherwise, apply, are reserved & bound to Sarah Norrad. This practice is not meant to take the place of clinical, medical or other professional support.
