Training Your Mind Proactively with Dr. Rainer Meisterjahn, Director of Mental Performance, Courtex Performance

Cindra: Rainer I’m so excited that you’re here, joining us for the High-Performance Mindset Podcast. How are you doing there in Charlotte?

Rainer: Doing well. It’s been an interesting year, you know, standing business going well and can complain

Cindra: That’s great. And usually we catch up at the AASP conference. That’s where I talked to you last was about a year and a half ago, I suppose, year and a couple months ago and I remember learning more about your business there and I’m really excited to have you on and have you share your wisdom with us.

Rainer: I appreciate you having me.

Cindra: So to get us started. Tell us a little bit about your passion and what you’re doing right now.

Rainer: Yeah, so my obviously my background is in sports psychology and I run a business called cortex performance where we primarily focus on proactive mouth training for basketball. So basketball. I mean, I’ve dealt with a number of different sports but basketball is the one I’m most passionate about and that’s where we as a company decided to put our focus these past several years, so you know that’s what I deal with each and every day and it’s become a year round thing, you know, it used to be you know more of a, you know, like fall to spring type of thing. But now you got you know, you got the NBA draft in the summertime, you have other leaks, who plays in the summer, you know, we’re, we’re getting more into women’s basketball France. And so there’s a lot of stuff going on that we’re getting into and I’m loving it. You know I love being my own figure out how to run a business, you know.

Cindra: Yeah, that’s wonderful. So tell us a bit about your journey to where you are now you grew up in Germany, and then you came over here in 2005 I got that right. So tell us a bit about how you got to the US and just a little bit more about your background?

Rainer: Yeah so 2005 is when I pretty much moved over your permanently prior to that I’ve already spent some time in the States, but I’ll take you all the way back. So I grew up in Germany in a super small tiny village of about 300 people. And it’s interesting, actually started out in the question in sports, so my, my dad is big on a question on showjumping specifically. So that’s what I am kid and get pretty good at it was competing against adults, you know, and whatnot. And, you know, eventually decided, though, that I wanted to get into basketball. He has some kids at my school plays so I got into that at about age 13 I want to say. And that’s what then kind of motivated me to come over to the states did like a student exchange program when I was in 11th grade came over, went to a small High School in Vermont. So if you’re out there and you had a chance to play some basketball and go back to Germany. Finish up school there. Then eventually come back over a chance to do my undergrad up in Maine. Small school there, you know, played sports, for I was able fortunate that I was able to finish my

degree in three years, because I had a bunch of my high school credits transfer and actually yeah, and that’s when I actually came across sports psychology, because the guy was a psych major and we had a sports psych elective one semester. And that was probably my, my first formal introduction to the field. So, you know, fast forward from there, you know, went back to Germany Played semiprofessionally for a year, did some coaching. I came back with my master’s in counseling psychology and then eventually my PhD in kinesiology and sport, so I can start my business about three years after that.

Cindra: Yeah so fun. So tell us a bit about, you know, I’m just thinking about your work with basketball players and even pros I’m specifically thinking about even your experiences a semi pro. What do you think the best of the best do differently, like what do you see them doing from a mindset perspective?

Rainer: Yes, it’s a great question. I wish we saw as much consistency mentally as we want to see across players, you know, the mental part isn’t always a reason they make it to that level, but for players that that you know that sustain a high level of excellence. I believe it’s you know, it comes down to having a process that they can go to, you know, each and every day when it comes to you know just finding emotional balance, you know, several of my players have committed to meditation. Right, gratitude practices, just simple things you can do to stay even keeled and life. And then, you know, manage everything that’s coming at you. I also think that those players that that are, you know, at the top, typically have some type of tools that they utilize around games. So, whether it be pregame routines, as I’m sure many of your athletes, you know, visualization going in pre planning for mistakes, having specific tools focus cues different likes to go to an end game and then also having a way of processing the game so you don’t get you don’t get too caught up in grades weren’t bad performances, because he got one, especially when I deal with NBA players in particular they have so many games that you know, if you lose them at asleep. Like there’s another game waiting for you and I forgot to get your rest and recovery mentally, emotionally and physically. So I think those are some learnings and then I think also that the pros that have the most you know, or the longest and most stable careers are oftentimes the ones that understand how to navigate life off the court and manage you know, environmental factors because it does get tricky when especially once you start making a really big money, you know, let’s get tricky on you’re an American player, for instance, that goes overseas and now you’re away from your family potentially for nine months out of the year, um, you know, so a lot of factors. He had been able to manage just to be able to play at a high level for 40 or 48 minutes.

Cindra: A lot of stress that could potentially happen with people asking you for money, your family, maybe bugging you up or just and begin overseas as well. And if you don’t have the social support. I like what you said about right. They have a process, they have tools in the game and then they have like a way to process the game afterwards. What do you see them do in terms of process, the game. And do you have any recommendations on how you think? And I’m just thinking about, we can apply this to sport, but we can also apply this to life. Right. You and I perform in some way. So if we have like a maybe a debrief routine that could be even helpful for us?

Rainer:Yeah, for sure. So I think it’s a full process, real quick because I do think with some tweaks, you can actually apply it to everyday life as well so anything that we do with our athletes at the start of our processes we owe them develop your own core values and we typically condense it down to three key areas that the athlete wants to build their identity around so going into game. You know, obviously we have the athlete. Look at the core values incorporate those into their, their previsualization, just like you might at the start of the day you know you visualize executing your core values and you want to see specifically what that looks like an action right so attaching tangible definitions and behaviors to it. I think is really crucial. So pregame typically we have our athletes come up with a few short focus cues for that particular contest. So it could be something like compete. You know, just a simple word that they want to focus on and emphasize that came along with a real definition. Post game we have the athlete come back and essentially rate themselves on their core value execution cross it there. There are three core values and then also on their mental game or their game plan execution, so to speak. So if they had two or three focus. He was going into the game they rate themselves on how well they feel like they executed that game plan, which is typically built around controllable factors. Okay, yeah. From, from there we like doing a quick we call an S3 analysis. So strength struggles and strategies so we have identified a few things that they did. Well, a few things you areas that they feel they struggled in were definitely want to improve in towards the next game and then we have kind of pre plan their strategies which essentially corresponds with the with the pregame focus cue settings, so to speak, so that way you have continuity game. The game. And you have a way of kind of looking back, and also seeing how you did over the past five games, for instance, and we’re actually in the process at this real quick. We’re, we’re in the process of actually partnering with a tech company to where athletes are going to be able to just jump into a into a web platform or an athlete. A quick premium and post-game they have it all in one place, you know.

Cindra: Awesome, that’s great. And what I really like about that is that is focused on the process and it’s focused on you know how they implemented their core values. I didn’t hear you say anything about goals, you know, maybe you know I’m thinking about how sometimes particularly high school athletes might go into a game and they might be focused on how many know how many shots they want or points. They want to score. Right. But if it’s like implementing your core values. That’s controllable.

Rainer: Yeah, for sure. And I, I think as far as goal setting. We do use it selectively I would say so athletes that benefit from statistical goals. We certainly incorporate that into the definitions of their pregame focus cues. So, you know, being so again if compete were like or be aggressive is one of those is is one of your pregame cues, then a behavioral goal that might go along with it or a statistical goal could be to score at least 10 points. Now some athletes, it gets in the way of their confidence if they don’t reach that goal is, you know, right. Really we might stir set more tangible process goals that are not as much about whether or not the ball goes in, but maybe you know maybe a goal is to attack the paint at least five times for half, you know, weren’t to at least accumulates, you know, 30 positive touches as far as connecting with teammates. You know, again, making a mental game as specific as possible, but then also allows for some

flexibility, depending on you know to what degree does that level of specificity actually benefit the individual athlete, because it’s all personality driven

Cindra: Yeah, excellent. How would you describe kind of your philosophy of mental training?

Rainer: Yeah. So we look at it in terms of what we use three terms. So one proactive. Secondly, it should be personalized and thirdly should be systematic and so what I mean by proactive is that you know we want our athletes to look at the mental game just like they do with strength conditioning and it’s essentially strength conditioning for the mind. It’s something that you engage in regularly and not just you know when you’re in a slump or something like that. Yeah, as you not too many athletes to come to us only when they are you know struggling with confidence or they’re going through slump or is like something is going wrong with their coach or something like that. So proactive. The second part is personalized in the sense that we we do personality assessments with athletes on the front end and we, like I said, we developed our customers core values for them and we want to have a really intricate understanding of what matters to the athlete. Well, what are you know the things that really pull on and in terms of motivation. What are the things that really matter for him. What is their vision for their career, you know, and then lastly, systematic just simply means that you know you do those evaluations. You do you meet weekly or whatever the case may be, that there’s a certain structure to it and a way of, you know, measuring progress in a way as tough as it is in our field, admittedly, but you know, again, there is a you know, a kind of a very specific process to it that way. We don’t really see enough in my opinion and the field of mental training to too often. And so reactive and just sort of, you know, the intuitive part is important, but it’s not how I envisioned it, if that makes sense. Yeah, I know. It’s better for that always comes to mind for me is and I’ve actually like I’ve talked to envy organizations about, you know, their higher of sports site person and you know, ask them, hey, like, so what does this individual actually do for you guys. You know he or she they mostly just hang out in case somebody wants to talk and I’m like, okay, like what do you tell your strength and conditioning coach and you’re paying you know $200,000 a year just to hang out in the weight room in case somebody wants to get a lift in.

Cindra: Really? Rainer: Yeah.

Cindra: And I think one of the issues is that it is hard to measure. Right. And there’s so many variables that impact performance and, you know, I also think that’s kind of dangerous. So what do you, what are your thoughts on let’s say if you were having a conversation with the front office person and the NBA team. How do you think we could measure our work and the impact?

Rainer: Yes, it’s such a great question and it’s a complicated answer. And I’m not sure there is one that as clean as we all want it to be. Because a lot of what we do, it’s more, you know, like an athlete. You know, I’ve certainly had athletes that I, you know, they come in and they lack

confidence I don’t enjoy playing anymore. Right, whatever. And then, you know, maybe a couple months later, they’re like, great out there, you know, things are going well. Like I’m loving my sport. Again, but it doesn’t mean the price per game is going up, necessarily.

Cindra: Exactly what their happiness is increased in their confidence in general.

Rainer: Yeah, for sure. And I mean that that’s where I think says assessment is useful as well, you know, the athlete says, well, this month. I’m at, you know, eight out of 10 in terms of my confidence when I was only six out of 10 last month. You know, I mean it’s meaningful. You know, maybe it’s not me. One way that we want to do a you know, a research study around it, but it’s meaningful to the athlete. Another cases. Obviously you can see tangible increases in statistical numbers, but there’s also a lot of confounding variables. So I’m always really hesitant to claim your to take credit for an athlete’s improving a certain area because maybe you know, during a special day improved, you know, that maybe they put an extra time with their shooting coach.

Cindra: Right, yeah, tricky, tricky subject tricky and so thanks for just being open with your thoughts. I’m also a bit about your word, kind of in the pro basketball space and I’m specifically thinking about, like, what do you think a pro basketball player needs from the mental name?

Rainer: Yeah. What do I need from the mental game. I think they need consistency from the mental game behaviors as a professional athlete and especially in you know, in a high visibility sport here in the US in particular, you know, whether it be basketball, football, baseball, you do need consistency, you do need a process. And you do need for the mental game to be tangible. You know, I think that’s really important to us as you know, mental amount performance coaches, we need to be able to give athletes would give professional person particularly hands on tangible things that they can go to, whether it be you know, like I said, a 10 minute visualization routines to pregame or specific focus cues that they can write on their shoe during the game and look at and automatically triggers certain behaviors and actions. And I think that’s where we really got to be careful not to be too philosophical and too fluffy. When we when we do a lot of especially with the NBA, where again like there’s so many games. I don’t have a lot of time so that stuff we give them, they gotta be able to do something with it.

Cindra: Right. Yeah. And I also think about my own experience, you know, as a as a college athlete myself and ran cross country and track and there’s a time my sophomore year that I really struggled mostly with my own confidence and just letting go of report race that I kept on kind of replaying in my own mind and I saw a sports psychology practitioner and it was great, but I didn’t know what to do afterwards. You know, so I am very tangible sometimes too tangible. I think because I didn’t get it, you know, and it was like okay I don’t know about all this stuff here. You know, like, just tell me what to do. That’s it. So I appreciate that perspective. What are your thoughts on the difference between kind of consulting with players who are in the US versus overseas?

Rainer: Yeah, I mean, that’s one of my favorite topics, you know, one of my fav favorite parts of my job now is to you know, have I mean I have a number of players in like, whether it be in the NBA or college, you know, in the space and whatnot web but then we also have players kind of all over Europe. And again, having grown up in Europe, I have a kind of a different appreciation for it. So I think for a lot of players, you know us players, for instance going over getting a custom to new culture and figuring out the language barrier. In some cases, I think that’s really fascinating that the game is played a little bit differently. So that can lead to some challenges. Early on your travels might be called differently give minutes might look different, you know, you could go over there and be a star player you know and like here in the US, we know if you’re a star player in the NBA, you’re probably going to play. You know, upwards of 32 minutes a game and you’re probably score 20 plus points, you know, over in Europe, you might be a star player on a team and play 20 minutes a game and maybe score 15 it’s more team oriented there. You know, in a lot of ways. So yeah I think that’s the big difference in terms of status. I don’t think you know you’re you don’t like you don’t receive the same type of recognition as an individual or playing overseas as he doing the states, whether it be at the college or at the pro level. I think being away from family is a big deal for a lot of athletes like over so if you can, in some cases, you can, you know, obviously, take your family, you know, if you’re. What if you have kids, if you’re willing to take them out of school and maybe put them in a local school or if they’re young and they’re not in school yet, you know, that’s one thing but if you have older kids that are already are established in their local school system, you know. No, you’re not going to see him for most of the year. Right. And now you got to figure out how to use technology in different things and it’s tough, you know, this year. And with the good athletes. I’m thinking of one particular than that, when x East and Europe and because of Toby. He’s not married, but he’s in a serious relationship with a kid. His family over because they’re not married another country just doesn’t allow it. So, he’s extremely, extremely difficult, you know.

Cindra: What are the percentages of you know, the people that made you play overseas that actually make it to the NBA?

Rainer: Wonderful question. I wish I had an answer for that. I almost don’t even look at it like that anymore. You know, you used to be that everybody just wanted to go to the NBA and you know sometimes deal with young prospects now that are looking to make that jump in. It’s extremely difficult. I mean, the percentage of players in the US, even at the college level that make it to the NBA is incredibly small like one or 2% or something like that. I mean, it’s nothing but now we actually see that a lot of players that have been in the NBA end up going to Europe by choice because they can make more money or get more playing time so it’s a bit more of a mix. I mean, you can probably take say like the quote unquote like bottom 50 or 100 players in the NBA and just swap them out with like the top 50 or 100 that are that are playing overseas and I’ve got me much of a difference.

Cindra: And you had mentioned coded and I’m curious when you think about the athletes that you’re working with. Now, or the coaches, you know, there’s just a lot of differences in the game in terms of all fans can’t be there right there, their family can’t necessarily travel. What

are you seeing in terms of kind of the toll that it’s put on athletes and their ability to be resilient or bounce back?

Rainer: It’s been really tough. I would say on a lot of athletes, because even when things are not going well off the court and you know you’re you know, away from family and you’re in a foreign called like if you’re a first year player, you’re in a foreign culture and you’re not really comfortable, you know, I’m asked was, one thing you can typically rely on. Now this year. I’ve had a number of players said that had games cancelled and that had to go into quarantine because I tested positive or were you know games get cancer like kind of scratch at the last minute, or something like that. I mean it’s just been a mess. You know, it’s been a real mess overall yeah, so it’s been really hard. So yeah, I felt myself doing a lot more kind of life skills coaching and counseling, if you will, this season. You know, and a little bit less performance based.

Cindra: Yeah, right. Because if they’re, they have a lot of stress and anxiety in general it’s, you know, I think it’s almost impossible not to bring that to the court in some way.

Rainer: Right. Right. Yeah.

Cindra: I know you also do some work in in the kind of draft in the pre-draft to tell us a bit about that work. And what do you see those athletes need or just tell us a bit more about what you do there?

Rainer: Yeah, so we’ve been doing this for about the past four or five years and I was with different organizations were starting to get into the web space a little bit which is really exciting and what we do for organizations, typically, and then it’s look different differently for different organizations, but kind of a full scale approach would typically include a combination of doing personality assessments with the players that come through along with one on one interviews than conduct just to understand them at a personality level understand them at a mental game level in terms of what are some of the skills and tools that players have, what are some of the struggles that they go through what are some of the resources that they have thought about or have utilize ee’re also starting to look more at bringing in athletic intelligence testing. So looking at things like reaction time and processing speed and one on memory. And then at the end of the day, the idea to form as comprehensive of pictures you can I, as far as who an athlete is. And then we also always look at the cultural context. So what is the organizational culture and what our players and they like based on, you know, based on their head coach for instance or based on how they want the organization to be perceived. So that’s been really fascinating because you have to us as it was, it’s not really as much about if somebody good or bad, mentally, but it’s more so, but you know, are they the right fit for an organization if they enough. What resources do you got to put around them to maximize their mental performance.

Cindra: Yeah, that’s great. Can you give us an example without saying names of, like, you know, maybe what an organization, the culture and maybe how it’s not a good fit for an athlete or is a good fit?

Rainer: Yeah, absolutely. So, and I can just say here, we’ve done with the Miami Heat song and without getting you know, going into too much detail on internal stuff with them. But everybody knows everybody follows basketball Noah said that Miami lights players that are that are tough that are nasty that like to compete that that love to practice, which is not something that’s being done the NBA, a whole lot. To be honest, you know, players that are smart and unselfish so we look for those types of attributes to, you know, determine whether or not somebody is a right yes the right fit you know. So what I’ve learned. You know, in doing this process with different organizations is that was some organizations like players that are you know, really polished, in a way, you know, other stations prefer guys that are maybe a little bit rough around the edges and come with a toughness and have maybe been through some hard stuff in life that’s shape their character, you know.

Cindra: Yeah, I could see how that’s so powerful because then you’re really helping the athletes get to a place where they can thrive and be successful versus a place where you know that they, they, it isn’t set up for them to really be at their best?

Rainer: the right fit is such a big deal and sports period there really isn’t it so overlooked.

Cindra: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And I wonder, from a coach’s perspective and a GM perspective, they might be thinking about that but you and me, who are just watching the game. It’s probably not something that we necessarily consider tell us a bit about how you might work with coaches and what role do you think that coaches play in just like you know mental training in general?

Rainer: I think they played a big role. So essentially, their performance as well. Yeah, just like we are. So one thing that we do with coaches this we are you know if they’re taken through a personality assessment as well and try to understand you know what, what drives them motivational, you know, what are the things that makes them tick. What are the things that that really you know, make up their value system in their identity as a coach, how much flexibility is here within right and then we look at, well, if this coaches personality is that way. What does it mean for, you know, working with this type of player or that type of player, you know, where’s like what’s the right type of fit. And if it’s not a clean fit, you know, how can a player and a coach complement each other. How can different coaches on the staff complement one another and where are the places where there might be some friction and disagreement, because look at the end of the day center, you know, we all have our own value system and it feels like us. So we automatically have a tendency to want to apply that to everybody else.

Cindra: To me, and I think that what I like about what you said is all right. The coach better understand themselves, right where they understand their personality their values, their identity and I don’t think very many people kind of take a step back and really spend time getting to know themselves very much and maybe do a values assessment or consider what’s part of their identity. How do they want to shape their identity intentionally I think.

Rainer: If I can if I can add this real quick, like yeah so curious is such a big deal as well when it comes to professional sports periods so I don’t know in NBA there’s way too many coaches that deal with sleep deprivation. You know that that’s a huge issue, you know, drinking too much, you know, you’re constantly out in social functions team dinners, you know, meeting this person meeting that person having, glass, glass of wine here a couple beers later. It adds up. And do you know it’s poisonous, you know, for your mental and physical health, and it’s really rough on the families as well because these coaches very stressed out, as is. And so when you men make bad choices on top of that it just exacerbates.

Cindra: Yeah, I am thinking about how there’s a rise in like drinking in general and during Kobe people are kind of using that as maybe a stress relief, which isn’t good. Um, can you give us some examples of, you know, when you’re talking about identity and values. What are you seeing some of the athletes that you work with, what did they say their values are or a little bit more about how they like consider their own identity and credit and helping people understand a little bit more in depth?

Rainer: Yeah, so starting with the personality assessment. That’s where we look at things like you know to what degree does the individual value being independent interdependent. Not one being structured and routine oriented various kind of going with the flow and being more spontaneous. There are number of categories that we look at with that. But ultimately, when it comes to the core values, we, we, you know, typically find that athletes tend to identify with things like competitiveness aggressiveness toughness, you know, though. That’s typically one bucket that stands out and second bucket that stands out when we kind of condensed their core values down that they initially map out and paper, a second one stands out is along the lines of, you know, focus like being locked in being yeah, smart with my decision making and then the third bucket typically has to do with, you know, be like your, your presence, your body language, your communication your leadership. Well, whatever you might want to call it. Let’s it’s about. It’s about the way you act. You know, on and off the court.

Cindra: And you see those all of those trades and thinking, well, you know, typically, to be a really good basketball player you need all those. So perhaps they develop them over time?

Rainer: Right, and I can look differently for different players that thank you know the thing that’s important to understand is why when, when you think about coaching someone even think about our role. So you might have you know, two players that that are both competitive, but for one their competitiveness is driven by their sense of you know, vengeance like wanting to get back at their upon for the other player their competitiveness, they might not care about vengeance whatsoever, but their competitiveness might be driven by a like feeling a sense of responsibility towards their teammates were towards their family that’s put in position to be a pro player.

Cindra: All this sounds really good. I’m thinking about how you developed all of this in terms of like your assessments and I’m just so grateful that you spent some time talking with us today.

Tell us how you’ve been doing and how you’ve been just weathering the storm and maybe you’ve had a change and adjust your business too?

Rainer: Yeah, I appreciate the question. It’s been a tough time and in some ways and real opportunity and either way. So I feel like when you know COVID, It first started when I was pre down for I’d say the first week or so, you know, because everything comes to a halt like online watch a lot of games for our clients you know all that stuff’s like everything just stopped and you’re like, man, I can’t. How are we gonna make money. Now, you know, and obviously you worried about your clients as well. You know, because there but then pretty quickly. We kind of shifted and started looking at opportunities in terms of, well, how can we best support our clients right now. How can we use it as a growth opportunity. How can we take another step forward with the business. So we went through a whole rebrand recently, which has been ongoing for a while, you know, building a new website and different things like that, looking at just doing more networking reaching out to folks, you know, doing podcasts like this. Yeah. So, uh, you know, it’s been a good night. From a business perspective, it’s actually been a very, very good year for us. Once we figured out we shift our focus personally today. It’s kind of up and down. So, to be honest, like I do pretty good job. I want to say kind of living. When we preach in terms of doing a daily meditation exercising different things like that but you know it is Sunday just feel really heavy, you know, house and you just want to get out. You want to travel. You want to see people. It’s been hard. In some ways, yeah.

Cindra: Kind of similar, I would say, you know, my mood last year was pretty high and pretty consistent and I am just used to traveling a lot and moving around a lot, and going places. And so it’s been a little difficult for me just kind of being home and virtual I have two boys that are online school. Now, you know, with our schools being closed so, but at the same time, just like you, you know, adjusted adapted my own business and there’s so many things to be grateful for, you know, and I sort of feel like when I say that it’s like, wow, that’s a first world problem. And but I have had to use my own mental strength and my own tools a lot, be a lot more this year than typical.

Cindra: Yeah. Well, right. Thank you so much for being here with us today and sharing your wisdom and your knowledge, tell us how people can reach out to you and your website.

Rainer: Yeah, so our website is cortexperformanceconcert.com Instagram @cortexperformance. You can you can reach me actually on our business line 865-323-8570 and people can also reach out directly via email to Radienr@cortexperformance.com

Cindra: Excellent. Well, here’s some of the things I really enjoyed about our conversation today when I asked you about, you know, what is the best of the best do differently in your life. They have a process, they have tools in game and then they also you know debrief. The game in a way that systematic and builds confidence and I appreciate it and how you described. The ways that you help athletes do that. I was thinking about how we can just do the same kind of process after day at work have a very different type of performance. It also appreciated. When you’re describing the way you do your work like helping athletes, understand their values and their identity. And just better understand themselves through the personality assessments and then we’re talking about the US vs overseas and just the differences that an athlete might experience there so I’m grateful for your time today. Do you have any final thoughts or final advice for people?

Rainer: You know, I mean, first of all, I appreciate being here. So thanks again for having me. I think the main thing is when it comes to the mental game like way again whether you’re an athlete. You’re a coach, you’re, you know, a professional or just a person period you figure out something that gives you a sense of continuity and stability, you know, again, like whether that’s morning meditation and evening relative practice. I’m big fan of of having something in place that sort of frames your day and allows you to, you know, but like kind of be your best self within all that as hard as it’s been for all of us lately, but I think that would be my, my main advice.

Cindra: Thank you so much for joining us today. Rainer. Rainer: Thank you.