As a chiropractor by trade, Dr. Heather Denniston regularly worked with professionals in stressful situations and high-demand jobs. Inspired to help people do more for their wellbeing so stress impacted their life less, she developed her career as a wellness strategist for elite leaders and their teams.
Dr. Denniston will present a special presentation at The RISE Women in Health Care Leadership Summit, held December 9-10 in Scottsdale, Ariz., on the personal and professional cost of unknowingly leaking your energy and how to easily integrate strategies to shore up holes in your energy bucket.
“So many people are completely out of energy, and they don’t know where they’re spending their energy and what it is that’s draining them. There are some surprising things that we do every day that suck us dry of our very most precious resource,” said Dr. Denniston.
Different areas of your life can drain you in different ways, according to Dr. Denniston. She breaks it into two categories: brain drain and soul suck.
Common culprits of brain drain are decision fatigue, hyperfocus, hypervigilance, and what Dr. Denniston refers to as context shifting, or what others may perceive as multitasking.
“People don't realize that they're not actually multitasking, because your brain is incapable of doing two things at once,” she said. “You are shifting from A to B very, very quickly. And some people do that quite well, but that bridge between A and B, it's actually a toll bridge. So, every time you cross it, you are using brain glucose, and you only have a limited quality of quantity of that. And so, you can multitask, but the problem is, your productivity depletes because you don't have the glucose left to utilize.”
The factors that soul suck go a bit deeper— spending time on things you have no control over, toxic relationships, over giving, working outside your zone of genius, and boundaries.
Throughout her presentation, Dr. Denniston will walk attendees through their own inventory to see where they rate as an energy leaker and share practical tools for each of these common challenge areas.
But a sentiment she shares across the board: Let go of immediate results; let go of expectations.
“I often say, don’t be outcome dependent. Start making changes because you know those are the shifts you need to make long-term,” she said. “I like to speak about our inner elder…this idea of your most optimized 80-year-old version of yourself. What does she want you to do right now?”
Dr. Denniston’s special presentation, You Are Spilling Your Most Precious Resource – The Personal and Professional Cost of Unknowingly Leaking Your Energy, will take place at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 10, the second day of The RISE Women in Health Care Leadership Summit in Scottsdale, Ariz.