Jan 2024. Blues Vol 40 No. 1

A BADGE OF HONOR
healing our heroes
Thirty Minutes
of Tactical Brain Tools
By John Salerno
Gearing up. What does this
mean to you?
Gun, Vest, Taser, Cuffs. Check!
We all make sure, that all
our safety equipment we use
each day, is in proper working
order. We wouldn’t go out on
shift without our gun or vest,
that would be crazy. The Boss
wouldn’t allow such a thing to
happen, they would stop you
at the door! But what about the
most important piece of equipment?
Which is not located on
your gun belt.
Our Brain. If our brain is not
properly working during the
shift, it can be as deadly as
going out without a vest or an
empty clip in our firearm. How
many Bosses check your brain
health prior to you going out on
patrol?
So what does it look like
when you are getting ready
for a shift? It’s how you begin
your day that plays a vital role
in how the day will most likely
end, and vice versa, how you
end your day is how the next
Day will begin. This cycle is
critical in your career.
Your days are full of stressful
SAMANTHA HORWITZ &
JOHN SALERNO
events, and you don’t need to
add any extra baggage.
Most of us start the day
wrong! Rushing around, shoving
an unhealthy breakfast down
our throats, and speeding to
work. This is because we stay
up late, eat a late dinner, and
deal with all the stressors of
our daily life.
When we finally get to bed,
we toss and turn before finally
falling asleep. The reason for
this is we didn’t fully decompress
from shift or before bed.
When we get home from a
long day, we tend to follow the
same patterns which for each
person, may vary depending on
lifestyle.
We need to break some of the
toxic habits that have become
the norm in our lives. Taking a
few steps each day will help in
a longer and healthier career.
First, our new day should
start the night before. What
does that mean? It means we
need to adapt to any de-stressing
activity which works best
for you after we get off shift.
This can include breathing
exercises, a short walk, meditation
yoga, or anything to get
your mind out of a hypervigilance
state and slow down the
chemical dump and place it
back into healthy balance
Remember the 5 Ps? Proper
Planning Prevents Poor Performance.
Proper nutrition and a good
night’s rest is a great place to
start and will make a world of
difference in how we react on
our next shift. So how to we
achieve this.
Plan on at least 15-30 minutes
of activity to get your
mind back in balance. We cannot
carry the weight of the day
into the night. When our brain
is full of the day’s activities, It
places us in a state of Hypervigilance,
causing disruption in
sleeping and poor eating habits.
Eating an early dinner will
allow your body to properly
digest food before bed.
To get a good night’s rest, all
our bodies’ internal systems,
which include our digestion,
need to slow down.
Prepare the night before.
Make sure you have everything
ready before you go to bed.
122 The Blues - January ‘24