12-01-2022

WedNeSday, JaNuary 12, 2022
5
Natalie Parletta
Heart disease, an umbrella term for
conditions that impair blood flow
including stroke and vascular disease,
affects about 1.2 million Australians and
is one of the leading causes of death
worldwide.
Lifestyle factors, including exercise, are
important for heart disease prevention
and are vital for recovery. While exercise
can be daunting for fear of injury,
experiencing symptoms or having a heart
attack, Dr Angela Spence from Curtin
University says it can be done safely.
Getting it right could even be a life saver.
"When prescribed well, the benefits of
exercise for people with heart disease can
be extensive and include improved
quality of life, physical performance
[and] reduced risk of having another
event and developing additional
conditions," she says.
During a heart attack, heart rate and
blood pressure go up, explains accredited
exercise physiologist Bridget Nash. Heart
rate and blood pressure also go up when
exercising, so this will improve the body's
ability to handle that stress.
But when being active it's important to
focus on intensity, Nash adds, as
medications tend to interfere with heart
rate and blood pressure response.
Before undertaking any exercise
regimen or activity, consult your doctor
or physician. To strengthen the heart's
ability to handle high blood pressure and
heart rate, Nash recommends highintensity
interval training.
How to move: with heart conditions
"But when I say high-intensity interval
training, I don't mean anyone with a
heart condition should be signing up for
the nearest F45 class," she hastens to
add. Completing a 10-second effort at a
perceived exertion level of six to seven
out of 10, followed by 50 seconds of
complete rest and repeating a couple of
times, will hit the mark while allowing
the body to recover quickly. The easiest
way to do this is on a bike, Nash says.
If doing longer spurts of activity,
Spence recommends a lower intensity
level that feels light to moderate - around
two to four out of 10.
Cardio-based activity helps improve
blood flow around the heart, she says but
strength training is also important, as it
can build muscle as well as improving
self-confidence to perform activities of
daily living.
Nash agrees, saying: "The importance
of exercise is to increase the efficiency of
the muscles to de-load the heart. A strong
muscle is an efficient muscle."
Get out your dancing shoes! Nash is a
big fan of dance for a social class activity.
Not only can dancing be fun, but it can be
a safer option without the one-on-one
attention you might have with an
exercise physiologist.
"A dance class, ballroom, jive or tap
gets the heart rate up a little, but not an
Bike riding is an ideal way to do high-intensity interval training that strengthens the heart's
ability to handle high blood pressure.
Photo: Getty images
awful lot," she says. "And it's a great way
to build some strength along the way."
Water aerobics is also a good option,
says Spence. She describes a recent study
in which people with stable heart disease
who took part in a 12-week water-based
circuit exercise program (three 60-
minute sessions a week) improved their
fitness and leg strength while also
reducing body fat - a key risk factor for
heart disease.
The world's your oyster when it comes
to opportunities for free exercise, just by
increasing incidental activity. "Reducing
sedentary behaviours can be a great way
of incorporating more activity into your
day," says Spence, "simply by modifying
your habits."
To achieve current recommendations
for exercise in people with heart disease -
30 minutes of moderate intensity activity
on most, if not all, days of the week - try
breaking up time sitting down, listening
to podcasts or audiobooks while walking,
cleaning or gardening. Use active modes
of transport like getting off the bus one
stop earlier or parking the car further
away from the shops. Indeed, "walking
will always be one of the easiest, most
available and most affordable hearthealthy
exercises", Nash says.
t could be risky exercising at a
prolonged intensity rating of eight out of
10 without rest, Nash warns. She
suggests not starting any new exercise
without expert supervision and an
individually tailored program,
particularly if you have resting blood
pressure of 180/100 or higher. Heart
Research Australia recommends
consulting a health professional if
exercise feels uncomfortable or painful.
Are there any exercises to avoid? "Avoid
being inactive," says Spence.
Jamie WaterS
Dr Nate Zinsser, a top US army psychologist
renowned for helping lieutenants and officers
build their confidence, is giving me a talking-to.
We've been discussing highly disciplined writers
who sit at their desks at 9am each day, no matter
the circumstances, and assertively punch out
stories. "I definitely don't do that," I say,
remarking that I envy their confidence to sit and
deliver. An aggressive perfectionist streak
combined with niggling impostor syndrome
insecurities mean I need conditions to be just-so
in order to have faith that I'll produce anything
decent. Zinsser blanches.
"The statement 'I don't do that' is a decision
you're making about yourself," he says, speaking
over video call from his office at the US Military
Academy in upstate New York; behind him
there's a whiteboard, ornamental Japanese
swords and photos of athletes he's counselled,
including the Olympic-medal-winning US
men's bobsled team. "A constructive shift in
your thinking would be the idea that, 'Whether
or not I got the right amount of sleep the night
before or had a good breakfast, once 9 o'clock
strikes, I am at my desk, lights on, ready to go -
and I'm producing good stuff,'" he says. "That's
a belief about yourself that you can de-li-berate-ly
cultivate," he adds, stretching out each
syllable in "deliberately" so there can be no
question that in this matter, as in all selfconfidence-related
issues, change lies with me.
Delivered with a gentle assuredness, rather
than barked across the screen, it's not the tone
you might expect from a man who for 27 years
has directed the academy's performance
psychology programme. Indeed, the only thing
about him that screams "army" is his black
jacket, which has the word emblazoned in
capitals across its front. With his snow-white
beard and softly yawning New Jersey twang, the
67-year-old has a calm, almost paternalistic
presence. His brand of optimism is far more
reserved than the full-throttle enthusiasm often
associated with self-help gurus. "We don't live in
a world of sunshine and lollipops," as he puts it.
"We live in a real world of deadlines, sweat,
blisters and muscle fatigue, and we have to look
at what is a constructive way to think in those
situations."
In addition to his army duties, in his private
practice Zinsser has worked with a glittering
roster of clients, including neurosurgeons,
congressional candidates, ballerinas, writers
and star athletes, such as two-time Super Bowlwinning
quarterback Eli Manning. Whether
their arena is the surgical table or the running
track, they come to him for gamechanging
advice on how to dispel those pesky naysaying
voices in their head so that they can deliver
knockout performances under pressure. And
now he's distilled his knowledge into a book,
The Confident Mind: A Battle-Tested Guide to
Unshakable Performance.
I'm hoping to glean some tips from the famed
confidence-whisperer. While hardly a quivering
mess, I do have a habit of second-guessing
myself in parts of my professional - and social -
life. And the thought of public speaking sends
me into a cold sweat. The chance to smooth out
the chinks in my self-belief armour and come
away with a quarterback's swagger is tempting
to say the least.
But is it realistic? We tend to view confidence
as a magical elixir that's only available to
Olympic sprinters, CEOs and other creatures
blessed with rare talent, puffed-out chests and
Colgate-white teeth (plus, the odd blustering
buffoon). For most of us, being an adult means
having a PhD in our multitude of shortcomings,
foibles and crippling insecurities. And while I
can improve my fitness with a Peloton, and my
inner calm with meditation, surely I can't just
learn how to think highly of myself, can I? How
to be unflappable under pressure? How to
believe - with a surety that overrides any
lingering doubts - that I can be good at
anything?
In his poised, methodical way, Zinsser is here
to tell me that, if I doggedly commit to altering
the story I tell myself about myself, then yes: yes
I can.
First, some housekeeping: Zinsser wants to
straighten out some common misconceptions
around confidence - starting with how we define
How to learn the trick of confidence
Can suggestions from Nate Zinsser help gain wavering self-belief?
Photo: Pål Hansen
it. Although we tend to think of it as a sense of
belief in one's own ability, he finds this
unhelpful because it neglects a crucial fact: we
are hardwired to perform skills unconsciously.
When we're in the zone - whether during a
tennis match, maths exam or violin concerto -
we're not critically assessing each movement
but operating in a free-flowing state. "If you're
hung up with the mechanics, and trying to think
about what you're doing as you're doing it, you
access a whole lot of neural pathways that tie
you up," he says. He defines confidence, then, as
having "the sense of certainty about your ability
that allows you to do something without
thinking about it: that allows you to execute
more or less unconsciously."
Being in this state makes success possible, not
guaranteed. It won't conceal a lack of ability, but
it will enable you to go into a performance
thinking: "I've got this money in my wallet and
now I can spend it - let's see if I've got enough,"
he says. Without confidence, we'll never know
how good - how talented, how skilled - an
individual really is.
Zinsser doesn't particularly see confidence as
a product of genetics. Nor is it necessarily linked
to competence. Sure, we idolise superstar
athletes whose talent and bravado seem to go
hand-in-hand, but he comes across just as many
gifted people lacking self-belief. "The
unfortunate fact I have seen is that our actual
competence is higher than our degree of
confidence in it," he says, speaking about the
population generally. "It's the conclusion you
draw about yourself from experiences of success
[that breeds confidence]," he says. "Unless you
make those conclusions, the actual success that
you have might not do you any good."
He believes confidence is cultivated during
childhood - "how you were encouraged as a
young person to think about yourself" - and cites
as an example King Richard, the recent biopic
showing Richard Williams constantly telling his
daughters Serena and Venus that they were
destined to become the world's best tennis
players.
Can anyone become more confident or is it
only attainable for certain individuals? He
pauses for a few beats, chewing over his words.
"I think it's quite possible for anyone to develop
a greater sense of certainty," he says, eventually.
"Some people might have to overcome more
baggage from their past than others, but I'm
quite a believer in that kind of human potential."
In any event, there's no such thing as "a
confident person"; it's more that you're
confident in a particular skill or situation (and
even within a skill, you'll feel better about some
things than others). Case in point: Eli Manning.
The former NFL superstar, who twice led the
New York Giants to Super Bowl triumphs, "was
very confident in his ability to throw certain
balls and reach certain defences, but he did not
like to stand up and talk in front of a crowd,"
says Zinsser. "I'm convinced that's the case for
all of us: I don't think there's anybody who's
confident across the board."
"Have you ever produced good work in
suboptimal conditions?" asks Zinsser
rhetorically. We're back to helping me forge a
bulletproof writing mindset. "I would think so,"
he continues, "otherwise, you wouldn't be in the
job you're in. So what you need to be
reinforcing, a story that you need to tell yourself
about yourself, is: 'I work well, despite
distractions. I work well, in almost any
condition. My editor can count on me to deliver
quality work, even when things are chaotic
around me.'"
This rather simple reframing of how I view
myself feels pretty significant. And I put it into
immediate practice: in a meta situation, I'm
writing this article from a cramped plane seat en
route to Australia, a series of pre-flight texts
from my editor demanding reassurance that I
will be able to deliver words by the deadline still
warming my phone. With each blood-curdling
wail from a baby in a nearby bassinet, I repeat
my new mantra about myself with an
increasingly feverish vigour.
Yet there's much more to be done. Zinsser
likens confidence to a mental "bank account"
that we must constantly top up with valuable
deposits. That includes mining our memories
for instances of when we have done things well.
After each training session, or day at work, we
should devote about five minutes to reflecting
on things we have accomplished and
committing them to our "internal hard drive".
No victory is too small for inclusion. (He also
notes that it's worth spending time looking
ahead and envisioning, in realistic HD-film
quality, the dreams you most desire.)
This can apply to whatever knee-knocking
situation is keeping you up. Plagued with
impostor-syndrome thoughts of not being
qualified to do your job? "I'd tell you to give me
the whole of your résumé," says Zinsser. "We're
so good at overlooking the skills that we have
cultivated, the effort that we have put in to
develop ourselves to the point where we are
indeed employable and competent. Look for
some of the reasons that you are indeed the
genuine person for the job."
His book contains countless tactics for
keeping that bank account fat by recasting how
you think about your missteps. Some are
sourced from Martin Seligman, the father of
"positive psychology". These acknowledge that
you will have negative thoughts and will make
mistakes, but you can effectively see them off by
viewing them as "temporary ("It's just this one
time"), limited ("It's just in this one place") and
non-representative ("that's not the truth about
me"). There are physical techniques, too:
keeping your shoulders slightly back and eyes
straight ahead will improve your posture, while
focusing on breathing during a performance can
be a powerful way to bring a feeling of control
and yank you into the present moment. (Note
that none of these require you to obnoxiously
strut about like The Wolf of Wall Street.)
The most extreme example of selective
thinking, the "shooter's mentality" pursued by
Golden State Warriors basketballer Stephen
Curry, involves treating missed shots as
temporary and as an omen that you're about to
experience a return to fortune ("I'm bound to
make the next one"), while viewing successes as
permanent ("Now I'm on a roll").
One nagging thought I had while reading
these passages: building confidence often
requires you to ignore logic. This took me back
to the late 2000s when, as a tennis-obsessed
teen who travelled around Australia competing
in tournaments, my on-court confidence was
fragile at best. If my warmup went badly, I was
convinced the whole match would be a disaster.
And I couldn't get my head into the game if I had
assessed, pre-encounter, that my opponent was
better than me - smoother technique, bigger
shots, flashy overseas academy training. In
those instances, I was defeated before the match
started. As often happens when we enter a
situation devoid of confidence, it became a selffulling
prophecy.
If someone had told me about the shooter's
mentality, which Zinsser calls a "thermonuclear
psychological weapon", I would've said: "Great,
but how am I actually meant to believe these
things?" To cast aside all reason and buy into a
fantasyland where errors lead to success and
success also leads to success?
If I'm being honest it sounds slightly
delusional, I tell Zinsser now. It is, he replies.
But the way to wholeheartedly believe in it is to
practise it, repeating these mantras, memories
and mental tricks until the story they tell
becomes "your dominant way of thinking about
yourself in that context", he says. "It's got to
become your dominant habit of thinking about
yourself - just like you brush your teeth every
morning and night - if you want it to materialise
in a challenging atmosphere. You can't just turn
it on. It has to be already in you." He can't say
how long this could take: for some clients it's
happened after only a few sessions, while for
others it has taken six months of conscientious
observance before it became endemic to their
thinking.
In case confidence wasn't slippery enough,
once you have gained it, the struggle continues.
"We're all imperfect beings and, no matter how
many times you practise that second serve,
occasionally you're going to mess it up," says
Zinsser. Confidence is more delicate than a
handblown vase. Acquiring some of it "doesn't
mean you're going to have it for ever. It can
easily be knocked down. You're going to have to
wake up again tomorrow and rebuild it."
Talk of confidence has been around for as long
as humans have been going into battle. Zinsser's
book opens with a quote from the legendary
Chinese general Sun Tzu who, in his fifthcentury
BC treatise The Art of War, declared:
"Victorious warriors win first and then go to
war, while defeated warriors go to war first and
then seek to win."
Yet now, perhaps more than ever, individuals
need to embrace self-assured thinking. Modern
society is, at best, "very ambivalent" about
confidence and is not about to puff us up, says
Zinsser. Growing up, we're taught that a
soupçon of it is good; any more and we risk
becoming smug or arrogant and therefore
unlikable. Zinsser believes the biggest hurdle to
striving for greater confidence is "the misguided
impression that if I become certain about
myself, I will somehow become lazy and
complacent and I will lose my fire and
motivation to improve," he says. "Boy, is that a
big misconception."
As part of our education and socialisation,
we're taught to focus on fixing imperfections
and mistakes, marking every facet of our lives
with red pens. "There is a curious tendency in
our modern world to over-identify with our
shortcomings and even define ourselves by our
mistakes, presumed limitations, and all the
things we can't yet do," writes Zinsser. While he
admits that there's a time for being a harsh
critic, "there's also just as much value in being
one's best friend".
Social media hasn't helped the cause. "The
24/7, nonstop barrage of messages are always
putting these somewhat false images in front of
us: 'Look at me, at this place, enjoying this
wonderful day and this fabulous drink," he says.
"It tends to make us think, 'Well, gee, I'm not in
a beautiful location with a beautiful someone
enjoying a beautiful drink. What's wrong with
me?'"
Are we less confident than previous
generations? There's another long, reflective
pause from Zinsser. In the 1950s and 1960s, he
says, "There was a whole generation or two of
folks who really grew up believing, 'Things can
be better, I can have a great life, I can succeed.
Today, with the generation that's grown up
online, I'm not sure there's the same general
level of optimism," he says. "My sense is that
maybe we're not quite as confident and
optimistic now."
A few minutes
of joy before
starting work
StePHaNie CoNvery
"If it's your job to eat a frog, you'd better do it first
thing in the morning" is a bit of wisdom
attributed to Mark Twain that has inspired
many an entrepreneurial go-getter. But in my 37
years of endeavour, procrastination, discipline
and punishment, one thing I have learned is that
even the worst days are infinitely better if you
start them not by swallowing the frog, but by
being just a little bit kind to yourself.
Consider: which activities bring you joy?
What's your idea of bliss or comfort? What do
you do to feel most like yourself? Now, imagine:
what if that blissful, comforting, singular joy was
the thing you woke up to?
Maybe your joy is having a bubble bath. What
if you started having them first thing in the
morning, in the quiet, before anyone else in the
house was awake? Maybe it's lying on the couch,
reading a poem. What if you did that with your
coffee in the morning sun? Maybe it's listening
to your favourite heavy metal song at earsplitting
volume. Maybe it's sketching, or
throwing a stick for the dog, or staying in bed,
doing other bedtime things.
I think many of us are doing mornings all
wrong. We've been telling ourselves that
because they so often involve gruel and grind,
this is what they must always be. But that is kind
of the point, because even with the tightest
schedule and the most soul-destroying list of
tasks to accomplish, it's all the more difficult and
important to tend to your soul - to make time for
your own desires, joys, pleasures.
My advice is: do that first. Very first. For five
minutes, if that's all you have.
My joys are fairly small, like reading a good
novel and knitting, sometimes both at once.
Frequently, now, these are the first things I do
when I wake up. Even on workdays. Especially
on workdays. Sometimes I get up earlier so I can
do them - it's the closest I get to the childlike joy
of knowing when I open my eyes there will be a
treat under the tree. Yes, I know the frog is
waiting - maybe a whole pond of them - but it's
so much easier to get out of bed knowing that
between the frog and me sits a little slice of pure
joy.
Consider: what activities bring you
joy?
Photo: Collected