Sian Beilock

Get your mind unstuck. It can be challenging to be mindful when you're trapped in your own head. Overthinking comes in many forms—overanalysis, perfectionism, worry, rumination—and each of these can be harmful to your productivity and well-being at work. This book will teach you how to understand what type of overthinking you are experiencing, realize when you're cycling in a mental loop, and break free so that you can trust your gut, make a decision, and move forward with confidence. This volume includes the work of: Alice Boyes Melody Wilding Thomas H. Davenport Sian Beilock HOW TO BE HUMAN AT WORK. The HBR Emotional Intelligence Series features smart, essential reading on the human side of professional life from the pages of Harvard Business Review. Each book in the series offers proven research showing how our emotions impact our work lives, practical advice for managing difficult people and situations, and inspiring essays on what it means to tend to our emotional well-being at work. Uplifting and practical, these books describe the social skills that are critical for ambitious professionals to master.

A renowned neuroscientist applies cutting edge research to the interesting area of how the body and mind interact, and how we can use our body to make our mind calmer, more creative and better at communicating.

"Beilock reveals one intriguing secret after another... That Beilock is supercharged with enthusiasm about her topic is evident and infectious" (Booklist, starred review). The human body is not just a passive device carrying out messages sent by the brain, but rather an integral part of how we think and make decisions. In this groundbreaking book, Sian Beilock, award-winning scientist and author of the highly acclaimed Choke, draws on her own cutting-edge research to turn the conventional understanding of the mind upside down in ways that will revolutionize our lives. At the heart of How the Body Knows Its Mind is the tantalizing idea that our bodies "hack" our brains. The way we move affects our thoughts, our decisions, and even our preferences for particular products. Called "embodied cognition," this new science--of which Beilock is a foremost researcher--illuminates the power of the body and its physical surroundings to shape how we think, feel, and behave. For example, pacing around the room can enhance creativity; gesturing during a speech can help ensure you don't draw a blank; teaching kids through body movement helps them learn better; walking in nature boosts concentration skills; using Botox could lead to less depression; and much more. "Insightful, informative, and beautifully written" (Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness), How the Body Knows Its Mind unveils a wealth of fascinating mind-body interconnections and explores how mastering them can make us happier, safer, and more successful.

A new popular psychology title from a renowned neuroscientist applying cutting edge research to the interesting area of how the body and mind interact, and how we can use our body to make our mind calmer, more creative and better at communicating.

Choke provides the missing link between brain and body, science and life. Here's what really happens during mental and physical performance when we crack under pressure, and here are simple ways not to choke in stressful situations. Why do the smartest students often do poorly on standardized tests? Why did you tank that interview or miss that golf swing when you should have had it in the bag? Why do you mess up when it matters the most--and how can you perform your best instead? It happens to all of us. You've prepared for days, weeks, even years for the big day when you will finally show your stuff--in academics, in your career, in sports--but when the big moment arrives, nothing seems to work. You hit the wrong note, drop the ball, get stumped by a simple question. In other words, you choke. It's not fun to think about, but now there's good news: This doesn't have to happen. Dr. Sian Beilock, an expert on performance and brain science, reveals in Choke the astonishing new science of why we all too often blunder when the stakes are high. What happens in our brain and body when we experience the dreaded performance anxiety? And what are we doing differently when everything magically "clicks" into place and the perfect golf swing, tricky test problem, or high-pressure business pitch becomes easy? In an energetic tour of the latest brain science, with surprising insights on every page, Beilock explains the inescapable links between body and mind; reveals the surprising similarities among the ways performers, students, athletes, and business people choke; and shows how to succeed brilliantly when it matters most. In lively prose and accessibly rendered science, Beilock examines how attention and working memory guide human performance, how experience and practice and brain development interact to create our abilities, and how stress affects all these factors. She sheds new light on counterintuitive realities, like why the highest performing people are most susceptible to choking under pressure, why we may learn foreign languages best when we're not paying attention, why early childhood athletic training can backfire, and how our emotions can make us both smarter and dumber. All these fascinating findings about academic, athletic, and creative intelligence come together in Beilock's new ideas about performance under pressure--and her secrets to never choking again. Whether you're at the Olympics, in the boardroom, or taking the SAT, Beilock's clear, prescriptive guidance shows how to remain cool under pressure--the key to performing well when everything's on the line.

A ground breaking study of why we choke under pressure and what we can do to ensure we perform at our best.