Our programs are backed by extensive research.
Read the studies and learn why Wellbeing, Performance & Leadership emerge from an Optimal Mind.
Optimal Mind Curated Studies and Literature.
Optimal Mind Training provides a systematic approach for elevated wellbeing, enhanced performance and conscious leadership. It incorporates insights and practices from numerous innovative fields including brain neuroscience, Internal Family Systems, Interpersonal neurobiology (IPNB), peak performance, contemplative neuroscience and positive psychology.
The Optimal Mind Training roadmap is focused on developing the ten pillars of Optimal Mind.
Below you will find studies and literature reviews that have informed the Optimal Mind Programs.
Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal
By Melis Yilmaz Balban, Eric Neri, Manuela M Kogon, Lara Weed, Bita Nouriani, Booil Jo, Gary Holl, Jamie M Zeitzer, David Spiegel, Andrew D Huberman, 2023
Breathwork, especially the exhale-focused cyclic sighing, produces greater improvement in mood and reduction in respiratory rate compared with mindfulness meditation. Daily 5-min cyclic sighing has promise as an effective stress management exercise.
Read the researchExercise and well – being: a review of mental and physical health benefits associated with physical activity
By Frank J Penedo, Jason R Dahn, 2005
Exercise, physical activity and physical activity interventions have beneficial effects across several physical and mental-health outcomes.
Read the researchLeader Mindfulness and Employee Well – Being: The Mediating Role of Transformational Leadership
By Anna Sophia Pinck, Sabine Sonnentag, 2017
Multilevel mediation analyses showed that leader mindfulness was positively related to subordinates’ positive affect as well as job satisfaction and negatively related to subordinates’ psychosomatic complaints via transformational leadership.
Read the researchDeconstructing the relationship between mindfulness and leader effectiveness
By Matthew Lippincott, Daniel Goleman, 2018
Mindfulness is perceived by practitioners as significantly influencing the development of behaviors, and changes to awareness, that they link to improved leadership effectiveness. Mindfulnessis also perceived as enhancing cognitive function, and may contribute to the development of emotional intelligence competencies linked to increased leadership performance.
Read the researchOn the road to resilience: Epigenetic effects of meditation
By Loredana Verdone, Micaela Caserta, Tal Dotan Ben-Soussan, Sabrina Venditti, 2023
Mindful practices modulate the epigenetic landscape, leading to increased resilience. Therefore, these practices can be considered valuable tools that complement pharmacological treatments when coping with pathologies related to stress.
Read the researchDeep rest: An integrative model of how contemplative practices combat stress and enhance the body’s restorative capacity
By Alexandra D Crosswell, Stefanie E Mayer, Lauren N Whitehurst, Martin Picard, Sheyda Zebarjadian, Elissa S Epel, 2023
Engaging in contemplative practice facilitates a restorative state termed “deep rest,” largely through safety signaling, during which energetic resources are directed toward cellular optimization and away from energy-demanding stress states.
Read the researchCognitive flexibility and entrepreneurial creativity: the chain mediating effect of entrepreneurial alertness and entrepreneurial self-efficacy
By Xiaoling Yu, Xiuli Zhao, Yongxiong Hou, 2023
Cognitive flexibility has a positive effect on entrepreneurial creativity; entrepreneurial alertness plays an independent mediating role between cognitive flexibility and entrepreneurial creativity, which is similar to how entrepreneurial self-efficacy plays the role between cognitive flexibility and creativity; entrepreneurial alertness and entrepreneurial self-efficacy then play a chain mediating role between cognitive flexibility and creativity.
Read the researchHigher psycho-physiological refinement in world-class Norwegian athletes: brain measures of performance capacity
By H. S. Harung, F. Travis, A. M. Pensgaard, R. Boes, S. Cook-Greuter, K. Daley, 2011
33 Norwegian world-class athletes when compared with 33 average athletes had much higher brain integration, frequency of peak experiences and psychological development when compared with 33 average performing athletes.
Read the researchAdvancing (Neuro)Entrepreneurship Cognition Research Through Resting-State fMRI: A Methodological Brief
By Frédéric Ooms, Jitka Annen, Rajanikant Panda, Paul Meunier, Luaba Tshibanda, Steven Laureys, Jeffrey M. Pollack, Bernard Surlemont, 2023
Habitual entrepreneurs have increased functional connectivity between the insula (a region associated with cognitive flexibility) and the anterior prefrontal cortex (a key region for explorative choice) as compared to managers. This increased connectivity could help promote flexible behavior.
Read the researchPeak performance and higher states of consciousness: A study of world-class performers
By Harung, H. S., Heaton, D. P., Graff, W. W., & Alexander, C. N., 1996
Investigates higher stages of human development in some of the world’s most accomplished performers. Indicates that far more frequent experiences of a silent, expanded, restfully alert and non-attached state of heightened awareness characterize those individuals who display outstanding skill and accomplishment in their action.
Read the researchThe Psychological and Neurological Bases of Leader Self-Complexity and Effects on Adaptive Decision-Making
By Sean T. Hannah, Pierre A. Balthazard, David A. Waldman, Peter L. Jennings, Robert W. Thatcher, 2013
Complex contexts and environments require leaders to be highly adaptive and to adjust their behavioral responses to meet diverse role demands. Such adaptability may be contingent upon leaders having requisite complexity to facilitate effectiveness across a range of roles.
Read the researchMental and physical attributes defining world-class Norwegian athletes: Content analysis of interviews
By R. Boes, H. S. Harung, F. Travis, A. M. Pensgaard, 2021
These findings highlight the importance of both inner- and outer-oriented development for high-level achievement in sports – the “mental game” is as important as the physical game, both during training and competitions.
Read the researchFunctional connectome stability and optimality are markers of cognitive performance
By Anna Corriveau, Kwangsun Yoo, Young Hye Kwon, Marvin M Chun, and Monica D Rosenberg, 2022
People with the highest level of functional connectivity within their brain have significantly higher levels of cognitive performance, including attentional control and working memory.
Read the researchHigher mind – brain development in successful leaders: testing a unified theory of performance
By Roger E. Beaty, Yoed N., Alexander P. Christensen, Monica D. Rosenberg, Mathias Benedek, Qunlin Chen, Andreas Fink, Jiang Qiu, Thomas R. Kwapil, Michael J. Kane, and Paul J. Silvia, 2018
Successful, top-level managers and leaders have a significantly higher level of brain integration, peak experiences and mind-brain development when compared with low-level managers.
Read the research