Ep 180 - Mindfulness & Resilience: The hidden drivers of high performance

What if your greatest performance edge isn’t about doing more, but being more aware?

In this episode of Get Jasched, Jess explores how mindfulness strengthens resilience — not by eliminating stress, but by transforming how we respond to it.

You’ll learn:

- The science behind mindfulness and resilience (and why awareness is the foundation of adaptability)

- How mindful leaders create calmer, higher-performing teams

- Simple, practical ways to build presence and recovery into your workday

This isn’t about sitting still or meditating for hours — it’s about learning to lead from presence instead of pressure.

🎧 Listen now to discover how mindfulness helps you stay steady, sharp, and grounded — especially when it matters most. 

#Mindfulness #Leadership #Resilience #TeamPerformance #EmotionalIntelligence

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Got a thought or story to share? Reach out via Instagram at @j_.leigh , on LinkedIn at Jess Jasch, or https://j-leigh.com.au/ - I’d love to hear from you!

Interested in booking a free consult to discuss wellbeing consulting, or embodied leadership coaching for you or your team? Book your time here: https://calendly.com/jess-jasch/book-zoom-now

Transcript

Hey, everyone.Welcome to another episode of Get Jasched.I am your host, Jess Jasch.And today, we are getting directly to the topic of high performance in teams and in leadership, because when we talk about mindfulness, and we know that I do talk about mindfulness a hell of a lot, um, when we talk about mindfulness, sometimes it can be seen as a bit of a soft word or a soft practice.And, ugh, this just isn't the case, just to put it real bluntly.It's not the case at all.So, I wanted to have a more of a direct conversation today about, um, how, how mindfulness builds resilience in leaders and within teams and, and how mindfulness and resilience together in this way are actually, um, can be really h- like, can be hidden drivers of how we perform at a high level.So there's so many examples I could give just off the cuff, off the top about high performance athletes, um, Olympic athletes, all of these high performers and how they need mindfulness.But we're gonna, we'll work through it.You won't, it, it won't, it won't just be me lecturing at you, I promise.I promise.So it's, i- itIf we look, look, if we look, if we look back at this year, the year 2025, uh, I know that many people, including myself, have had, uh, a- a bit of a curveball of a year.Overall, it's been a lot.And it's one of those years for a lot of people that no matter how well they planned, no matter how much they planned, no matter how meticulous l- they were in their plans, it kind of felt like even one of these curveballs, let alone 3, uh, could derail us or our whole focus.And what I have noticed, both within myself as well as within other people who, who are more likely to practice mindfulness, even in those moments of, uh, wha- f- what felt like derailment, even in those moments of curveball, even in those moments of stress, their practices actually made them handle it a lot better.It made handle the stress and navigating that a lot better because it doesn't make, like, mindfulness doesn't make stress disappear.That's, that's the, umIt's such a misnomer of, of what mindfulness is.It's not necessarily gonna leave you with a feeling of perfect zen and, "Oh my God, everything's perfect and wonderful."It's not necessarily gonna h- how it's gonna work.It doesn't necessarily make stress disappear, but it changes our relationship with it and to it and how we meet stress.So, mindfulness helps us develop resilience, but I, but I also want to talk a little bit about what that looks like, because again, mindfulness can seem like a bit of a dirty word, if not dirty, just soft and milk toasty, you know, um, in some circles.So, Jon Kabat-Zinn defines mindfulness as paying attention on purpose in the present moment without judgment.Who is challenged by the without judgment part?I speak for myself, and I know that I like to judge some feelings, some experiences of myself, um, because I have stories around it.So, mindfulness is the practice of paying attention on purpose in the present moment, practicing non-judgment, practicing not adding stories to it.So it's pretty simple.That's what mindfulness is.Mindfulness, notice how that statement doesn't actually dive into, "It makes you feel soft, it makes you feel gooey, it makes you feel neh, neh, neh."You know?It actually just is just what it is, and yet it still has this, umI guess mindfulness has this reputation or this misconception that it's about being calm all the time, or it's about, like I said, being zen all the time.Uh, and this really damages the potential for people to benefit from things like mindfulness because of this misunderstanding.Um, it's like there was this joke, like it's still going around, I don't know, probably forever going around, um, but when I first started-teaching yoga and learned how to become a yoga teacher and was teaching.Um, it was like all the- all the jokes, all the memes of the mid-2010s internet that was, you know, like something like, "Oh, people s- see I'm a yoga teacher and think I must be calm all the time, ra, ra, ra."Like, and it's like, well, no, because that's not the point and- and yoga is only one form of mindfulness, right?But it's not the point.It- the point isn't to be calm all the time.What we're doing with mindfulness practices like yoga, like meditation, like whatever your mindfulness practice is, is building awareness and choice.So, you are building an awareness of what is showing up for you, and I haven't reallyI'm sure there is, but I haven't really figured out a better way of saying what is showing up for you, because it is.It's what's showing up in your experience, whether that's physical, mental, emotional, otherwise, right?It's building an awareness.It's practicing noticing that in real time as best we can.Just shortening the rebound time, shortening the response time, right?So, it's building awareness, and it then gives us a choice, because then we have a choice of, "What am I gonna do with this?What do I do with this awareness?"So, the way that this awareness relates to resilience and is the foundation for resilience is with that choice it helps us recover faster from things like stress or emotions or whatever, because we can notice it.We can name it, and then we can choose what supports us most from that point, which might be some version of regulating rather than reacting.And by regulating, I don't mean, well, you're gonna take 10 slow, deep breaths, and then you're gonna feel peachy keen.I mean, like, sometimes regulating is the choice of, all right, I know that I'm feeling this.I'm feeling stressed about this project that we have.And what feels most regulating to me right now is doing the next step on the to-do list.You know, it's a choice.That is the whole point.So, Davidson and Kabat-Zinn sh- have- have research that shows that regular mindfulness practice reduces amygdala reactivity, the part of our brain that can get what feels like hijacked by stress.So, it means that that amygdala reactivity, like that reduction in amygdala reactivity means that we are less likely to feel sideswiped or hijacked by the stress.So again, we can be more likely to be able to make a choice.Uh, mindfulness strengthens our prefrontal cortex activation, and that is the area that helps to improve emotional regulation and decision-making when it is strengthened.So again, emotional regulation, decision-making, and reducing that feeling of hijacking by stress, we are in a stronger position.So, we are in a better position to lead.And when this is in a leadership capacity, you know, a mindful leader notices stress signals earlier, both in themselves and in their team.And when you notice it earlier, you have a choice and you can mitigate it.You can counteract it.You can address it.You can do whatever it is you need to do so that it doesn't become this entire debilitating experience.And in terms of leadership behavior, because we know that I'll yap about that all the time too, it alsoLike, that, that kind of awareness helps to pr- helps to prevent reactive leadership behaviors.Like how we accidentally speak to people when, when we're stressed.Like, we might snap at them, or we might be an avoidant, so we might be micromanaging, right?But if a leader is practicing this and noticing, "Oh, I feel worried that something's not getting done well," then the next, to me, logical step is, oh, instead of micromanaging, I am going to have a conversation, make sure that team or person or group or whoever has everything they need.So, that's why mindfulness, in itself, is actually quite a neutral, um, outcome.It's not the soft, the wishy-washy.It's actually quite solid and grounded and neutral, or it feels that way to me at least.Uh, the way it, the way it re- relates to resilience and performance is what most people are interested in, and that's cool.That's what we're here talking about today, at least.Uh, so, let's, um, let's talk about resilience for a moment and, and the perceptions of what resilience is and how it, uh, it, it too can be or has tended to be misperceived.Um, in certain environments, in certain circles of the internet, in certain, um, perceptions, resilience has been mischaracterized as being tough.It's been mischaracterized as not feeling anything, toughen up, tough it out, and any of those things that I can't say with a straight face or without a, a hint of disdain for the damage that those, some of those things have caused, some of those sayings or mentalities have caused to men and women and otherwise, um, all over.But if resilience isn't just toughness, um, what is it?It is close, but it's different.It's adaptive recovery.It is the ability to recover.It is that rebound moment.It's not, "I feel nothing."It's a, "I'm noticing I feel something, and I'm choosing what I do next with that," which maybe from the outside or when you're unaware makes you seem like you feel nothing because you've recovered, but it's not the nothingness that defines it.It's the recovery that defines it.So, resilience is this connected experience to what's happening, even the hard things, and then come, staying connected to what matters, which is the true, the, the choice that you have, the what can you do about it.So, again, mindfulness can help with things like self-regulation, so when you notice you're slipping into overwhelm or over-control, you can self-regulate, which builds resilience rather than burying it and trying to just tough it out and then have it, uh, leak or explode out all over anyone at any unsuspecting point in time.Um, mindfulness helps with cognitive flexibility, so you're practicing responding rather than reacting.So you are not at the mercy of reactions, 'cause if we think about how we feel when we're reacting, we usually feel out of control.I was gonna give, I, I, I was gonnaS- I don't know what I was gonna say.It was gonna be another word, like, we feel this or we feel that, but it's like, no, we just feel out of control most of the time.But when we are responding, even if we don't like what we have to respond to, and this is the most important part, because we are gonna have seasons where we don't like what we have to respond to.It might feel fucking shit, right?We may not like it.We probably won't like it, and we still are practicing that flexibility on a cognitive level of being able to respond, which is more empowering in itself.And because of that, we have a better focus.So, we have fewer mental tabs open, right?So, I, uh I look at the monitor behind this where I'm recording, knowing that I literally always will have multiple windows and browsers with multiple tabs, like many, many, many tabs open all at once in real life.Um, I often leave with a lot of tabs open mentally, but when we are practicing mindfulness, we are m- we are able to be more focused on presence, on one thing at a time, even if there's still tabs open.But we have few of those distracting mental tabs open, so we are more present.And when we are more present, we have better performance.So, I bring this up almost every single episode, broaden and build theory.Frederick, Barbara Fredrickson's broaden and build theory brings us back to this.Mindfulness helps create upward spirals of positive emotion.It broadens our perspective, which then helps us build psychological resources over time, which is broaden and build theory.And, and that means that we are in a much more grounded, solid, optimistic position that allows us to see more, allows us to perceive more reality.Uh, and studies show that mindfulness, that mindful individuals or people who practice mindfulness have h-higher experiences of wellbeing.They have lower ex- like, fewer experiences of burnout or lower extremities of burnout.And gen- generally tend to recover better after stress when, again, mindful, people who practice mindfulness as a practice, as a consistency.So, these are the things that help you get through.These are the things that go beyond just the, if you're me and you had 2 coffees in one day, even if one was a single shot, and immediately realize how quickly you have anxious thoughts out of nowhere, based on nothing, based on made-up scenarios, because just too much caffeine, then cool, that's being mindful.Or it can be how are you showing up in a meeting?How are you showing up in a presentation that might be really important?And if you notice something like your breath shortening, you can, depending on your level of comfort, depending on how this works, you could pause, be like, I'm just gonna take a moment.For me, if it's I'm, if I'm, if I'm in the middle of something, it'll be aSometimes I just need to, but it will be a, "Oh," like internally realizing my breath is short, my breath is shortened, so I'll take a pause.Maybe I'm presenting, maybe I'm facilitating, I'll take a pause, grab my water bottle, and I'll just have a drink.That slows your breath down anyway.But that's just not the only technique, but that's just an example of how you can slow things down once you realize.Reconnect and maybe that 10, 20, 30 seconds of that pause because you were mindful enough to notice that your reaction, something happening within you was not useful for what you were trying to do in the moment or what you were trying to achieve could actually keep things on track in a work context, in a leadership context.So, when we talk about leaders who are mindful as well, when we talk about leaders who are mindful as well, we lead by modeling.We all learn by example.We are all just like little kids, little toddlers who learn more by seeing what example is set for us than by no, no matter how much we are told.And we are all grown-ups, I assume listening, we're all grown-ups with mostly fully formed brains, right?So, we can p- we can understand or, or interpret what we are being told, but we still, as a social species, we still learn by what others are model- modeling to us.So as leaders, this is why it's really important, doesn't matter what the fuck anyone else is doing, it's really, really important to keep grounding back in that for yourself, because if you're practicing mindfulness as a leader, I don't mean just mindful activities but mindful being, showing up mindfully, um, it influences others, it encourages others to do the same.And when you're modeling things like presence and how to self-regulate, which can then help regulate the room, it's co-regulation, that encourages other people to do the same.And it's this concept of collective resilience.Teams, it doesn't have to be a, "We're having forced fun, drinks at lunch," kind of vibes, right?Teams that stay connected in this way are adaptive and supportive under pressure, supportive with each other rather than snapping at each other, supportive towards the same goals.And this is why communication is such an important piece as well, because if we can be mindful and realize, "Oh, there's pieces of communication missing, so we're not really working towards the same goals even though technically we're meant to be."So which leads to my next point on my notes.Awesome.So mindfulness enhances team performance with improved communication.People listen.They don't just react.They, they hear more.Yes, that's a skill and a practice to learn as well, but you listen more, you hear more.I also, I'm sure there's some academia around this, but I have this theory and belief, inherent belief, that unless there is some kind of personality disorder, which I can't speak to, that's not in my remit, we're not talking about people with that, when we are more aware of the fact that we each have our own experiences,whether that's stress or emo- emotional distress in some way or, or whatever that is, when we realize, w- when we acknowledge our own experiences, our own adverse experiences, it is my fundamental belief that it makes it easier for us to acknowledge that other people will ha- be having their own adverse experiences from time to time.Even if we don't understand it, it just creates more empathy.That is my fundamental belief.So when we practice nonju- nonjudgmental awareness for ourselves, we become less defensive and more open to acknowledging other people's experiences, which creates more connection, which creates better communication, which creates clearer communication and a clearer, cl- more clarified path forward.Incredible concept, right?So this is my fundamental belief, but also this is the outcome that can happen with that.Um, we are co-regulating as teams, as leaders, as whatever.And that's not co-dependence.That is a different thing.That's not what we're doing, not what we want to do.Co-regulation, if you want to understand more about what co-regulation is, go back to the episode with Stacey Louise.She explains it incredibly.It's a great episode anyway.But calm leaders help to co-regulate their teams, and they set an example.It's setting an example.It doesn't mean that you can't be dysregulated, doesn't mean that regulation is, being regulated is the ultimate goal, but it's how do, how do we recover?So letting yourself lead in that way is so, so, so, so key.Um, and, and, and that, of course, gives us more clarity, gives us less chaos, and I, I know that people, I know people are going to be like, "I thrive in chaos."I mean like there is a difference between busy, lots on, and fucking chaos that is not useful for anyone, no matter what you say.I'm convinced.There is a difference.I'm talking about the difference here.Uh, so less chaos, um, that stops us from actually progressing, 'cause sometimes chaos is just chaos that we have to keep cleaning up the mess but means we never get anywhere, and then more collaboration.So, um, in some research, they found that mindfulness in organizations improves emotional intelligence, engagement, and collaboration, so all of this is stuff that I've already mentioned.And teams with mindful leaders show higher trust, not just, like show higher trust towards their leaders.It develops higher trust.More creativity.Amazing.I don't care what kind of industry you're in.Accountants are creative, and I don't mean legally.I mean they are creative in their own ways in a way that I don't understand, but I know that they are.Um, more creativity and more performance in their tasks.So here's a couple of things that you can do as a leader, even if you're not a leader, you can do this anyway.Anyone can do this, but here's a couple of things you can do, um, and, and they don't necessarily need to be done in order, but these are 5 things that you can, uh, 5 ways you can practice, that you can apply mindfully.So there's the micro-pause.So before you react to an email or a conflict or a t- a perceived tone in someone's message, I didn't mean to do that, but take a breath.Take a slow breath, can be one, can be 10, and notice your physical response before you actually reply.You may still reply in the same way, but I want you to notice what your physical response is first.I am convinced, look, as much as I love, like, a- a smart, snappy, I don't mean snap, but snappy sort of quick, witty reply that's, you know, like, "Ooh, that's so good," maybe a little sassy.As much as I love that, I also, I don't love it sometimes.I amI feel like, and this is more of, like, a general on the internet kind of talk, right?I feel like, this is not a hot take at all, that it's not, it's barely original, but I, obviously we know that people speak differently to each other online than we would if we were face-to-face.But what I have noticed in my own response, this is from w- my own experience, is if I am looking someone in the eyes, I feel more willing to see them as human.And it's not that I see people online as- as inhuman, "Oh God, this is gonna be on the internet and now people are gonna take this outta context."But it is so much easier to wanna just give the little, the- the witty, sharp, hot take reply, right, that makes you seem so clever, it is so much easier to wanna do that on the internet when you're not actually connecting with someone.So, even if it's a post you see, before you react, take a slow breath and notice your physical response.Is it about them or is it about you?So that's one micro pause.We'll get to the second now.Mindful check-ins.Oh, this is my favorite.Um, I like to start meetings with something intentional.So it could be just 30 seconds of grounding or intentional silence.I don't necessarily, it- it- it doesn't necessarily work in every context, that intentional silence, but something that's just a let's all take a deep breath in and then be dramatic and be a ha out.Whatever, whatever works.Something that's mindful.And a check-in.Um, and then you can get a bit yappier from there depending on the time available, the meeting, the people, but minimum, that's what I recommend.Digital mindfulness.Great topic.Notice your autopilot scrolling.I could be looking in a mirror as I say this.Notice when you're just s- doom scrolling on autopilot.Notice when it's taking all of your attention away from, not just things you have to do, but things you actually wanna do.We forget that sometimes.Like, it's not just a, "Oh, I'm not getting enough done 'cause I'm stuck scrolling."It's a, "What do I wanna get done that this is making me inadvertently say no to because I'm just, my energy and attention's over here?"So we're resetting.This one takes a lot of practice, because, uh, the world is, um, the way it is right now in every way.Uh, so it is really, really challenging.It is so hard.So this one takes practice, but even if we can improve it little by little, and I don't mean delete all your apps.I don't, I don't know, but just notice when you're on autopilot and it's like, oh it'sSometimes you need that.Sometimes it's- it's not helpful.Um, this is one, th- number 4 is one I have literally prescribed to directors I've worked with, uh, clients I've worked with.Reflective journaling.And I don't mean like, oh, just talk about your feelings but in a way.Talk about your feelings.Um, what emotions or thoughts, so it's either what emotions did I feel most today?Sometimes it's what was the my most common thought?What was the thought thatLike, the kind of thought, the tone of thought was my most common, and what triggered them?What activated them?What madeWas there any sort of marker?And it doesn't have to make sense, and it's not about necessarily removing the trigger either, depending.This is deeper work, but you just noticing, what is my most common thought?"Oh.Oh, I had many, many thoughts."We have, like, 60,000 or more thoughts a day, but, "I have many, many thoughts, but I did notice that the feeling or the emotion that I had most of the time because of my thoughts was blah."All right, so what ac- what, what prompted those thoughts or that feeling?What a- what about it?And then you get to know yourself better.It's really helpful.And then number 5.I need to practice this one because I struggle with task switching.Mindful transitions.Again, I've spokenI've told clients to do this as well, and it's creating space between modes, between things, between work modes.So before and after meetings, your commute, or if you work from home, what is your transition from your workday into the rest of your whatever?Or what is yourWhat is your transition from your before work into work?Or, you know, any of those little transition moments, if it's not a- an actual commute, or between roles.Parents, how do you do it?That's a real question.How do you do it?But whatI don't know how you do it, but, uh, what I can recommend, even if it's like a minute or 5 minutes, is between roles, where, where you can.It's like, "Okay.I'm in work mode.I wanna be present for parent mode.Okay.What is my mindful transition?"Create space mentally, emotionally.My favorite kind of transition at the end of the day, I've spoken about this a lot in the past, umE- e- is, was sitting in the backyard with the dogs at sunset.Um, I have a complicated relationship with that transition at the moment because of this year.Um, so I, um, I- I'm exploring slight variations on that.So it's like, at the moment, it could be sitting in my, my, my swinging egg chair at sunset outside with the dog.And, and I'm exploring what that feels like, because life transitions that really happened at the beginning of the year.So, so mindful transitions.So that's micro-pause, mindful check-ins, digital mindfulness, reflective journaling, just dot points.Doesn't have to be full sentences.Mindful transitions.Because mindfulness isn't a soft practice, it isn't necessarily a soft outcome, but it strengthens our capacity.It strengthens our resilience because of the skills it gives us.So it makes us more resilient leaders, more resilient team members.It makes us higher performing leaders, higher performing team members as a result.But it's gr- it's fueled internally rather than this, this hustle externally that burns us out.So, here's a thought for you.What would shift for you or your team or your family, depending on your leader role?What would shift for you or your teamuh, for your team if you led from mindful presence instead of just pressure without being mindful?And your invitation is to try one mindful pause this week.Choose one thing and just try that repeatedly throughout the week and notice what changes.So if this resonated, share this episode with a leader or a colleague who might be navigating high pressure themselves.Um, share this episode on your stories or in a post and tag me.I'd love to see your practices as well.Um, and don't forget to subscribe if you haven't.We are just on a roll of exploring how em- eh- embodiment, emotional intelligence in leadership changes the way we work and live.So, thank you for having me.Thank you for joining me.I will see you guys next week.