Beyond Mental Toughness: Training the Nervous System for Real Resilience
26 February & 2 March 2026
Network Rail Training | Route Services
Beyond Mental Toughness: Training the Nervous System for Real Resilience is a programme designed for professionals working in high-demand, relational roles.
Delivered by Colleen Mizuki and Mark Davies of 7Futures, the training moves beyond conventional notions of mental toughness to explore what resilience actually is at a physiological level: the nervous system's capacity to recover effectively from stress. Drawing on the neuroscience of the autonomic nervous system, participants learn to reframe their understanding of stress and recovery, refine their ability to detect early signals of dysregulation in themselves and others, and reinforce practical habits that build genuine, sustainable capacity over time.
We're delighted to support your team and have prepared some resources to add to your exploration of the concepts, knowledge, and techniques before our next workshop with you. Please do not hesitate to reach out to Colleen (mizukicolleen@gmail.com) or Mark (mark@7futures.com) if you have questions, would like more specific suggestions on further reading from the list provided or wish further guidance on the practices before we meet for our virtual sessions on 23 and 31 March.
Click the images to learn more:
“Whiskey Breathing”
This practice puts on the parasympathetic break. It's great to do whenever we are very amped up and want/need to downregulate quickly. Really helpful at bedtime to prepare our system for sleep.
“Coffee Breathing”
This is a stimulating breathing practice. It's great to do whenever we're not focused or paying attention (or bored but need to be attentive) or when we wake up, as it stimulates the system similarly to caffeine.
"Water Breathing"
This practice is great to do throughout the day when we want to give our system a "tonic." It directly balances the branches of ANS, reduces blood cortisol levels, acts like a tonic to the system.
Furthermore, here are our audio links to nervous system/breathing exercises. These exercises can be incredibly useful in helping you protect/build your resilience because they encourage the ANS to work with stress. Please click on the arrow and wait for the audio to begin playing (may take a few seconds). Please read the instructions (click here to read) for the breathing exercises before listening to the downloads. It has important information about:
the nature of such techniques
the preparation you may find helpful and also safety guidelines for anyone who has experienced trauma/significant stress.
If you have experienced significant trauma in your life then you may wish to get in touch to discuss how to proceed with the use of such techniques. We never discuss any such communication with your employer unless you wish us to i.e. we treat your request for support with complete confidentiality and respect.
