The Calm Storm Marathon Method is a Brain Hacking Method that is a unique development of PRAED Technologies by the company’s director and founder Alya Evtikhiadi.
Alya Evtikhiadi
I am a top manager and business coach and business mentor with over 20 years of experience, focusing on business process reengineering, corporate governance, internal audit, internal control, risk management, fraud prevention, compliance, and business optimization.
My experience includes over 30 projects with companies in the financial sector, manufacturing, oil and gas, refining, telecommunications, construction, and agricultural sectors in Russia and the CIS.
After graduating from the Faculty of Economics at Lomonosov Moscow State University, I continued my studies at the International Academy of Sciences of San Marino, where I received a PhD in economics.
I was inspired to create the Calm Storm Marathon Method by my many years of observing people’s behavior at meetings and business seminars. I noticed how the vast majority of my colleagues and audience members lost interest in almost any topic after a certain period of time. People began to get distracted, stealthily glance at their phones, or chatter. Some even fell asleep.
Unauthorized distraction from work or study causes feelings of guilt and does not lead to full recovery.
So I started thinking about creating a tool that would help me teach my students more effectively. After all, I usually only had two or three days. And results were important to me.
After analyzing numerous scientific papers by psychologists, physicists, and neurobiologists, I realized it made sense to try to institutionalize rest and redirect people’s attention from work to relaxation.
Work and study are subconsciously encoded as mandatory. «There’s a time for work and a time for play»—we’ve heard this since childhood. And people always enjoy resting and relaxing. Even those who love their work.
I created a Method that allows people to perceive learning as an interesting game, part of the fun. Learning stops being overwhelming. After all, after an hour of total concentration, complete relaxation follows.
This cycle of tension and relaxation acts like a contrast shower, activating the body’s reserves, toning it, and bringing joy to the entire seminar day.
The Method is based on the discovery by neurobiologists of the passive mode neural network.
The default mode network (also known as the default mode network) was discovered in the early 2000s by a group of neuroscientists led by American professor Markus Raichle.
The default mode network is responsible for the ability to transcend reality. This network is active when a person is not engaged in any externally related task, but is instead idle, resting, daydreaming, or immersed in thought. It is in this state that innovative ideas often emerge in the brain. When a person experiences a flash of insight or a solution to a problem comes unexpectedly, even when they weren’t thinking about it, this is the result of activity in the default mode network.
This discovery suggests that free time, when a person is completely relaxed, is an important factor in generating new creative solutions.
Switching between opposing neural networks in the brain, known as the default mode network and the task-positive network, gives us increased concentration and productivity during learning.
Decreased concentration.
Andrew Huberman, a neuroscientist at Stanford University, has studied the characteristics of learning in adulthood. According to him, two complex but highly effective skills are essential for anyone who wants to acquire new knowledge and skills.
The scientist believes that our brains aren’t predisposed to learning in adulthood, but they can be forced to do so. The fact is that the chemical processes occurring in the brain, while allowing us to easily absorb new things as children, begin to hinder this process in adulthood.
Andrew Huberman identifies two essential tools for successful learning.
Be extremely focused.
«If you want to learn and change the way your brain works as an adult, you need to focus and pay more attention. This is unavoidable,» warns the neuroscientist.
The brain must receive a signal that it needs to learn something; the body begins to release adrenaline. This, in turn, causes anxiety and discomfort. At this point, many people give up.
Get quality rest
To consolidate learning, the brain needs to release another chemical, acetylcholine. To do this, it needs to be given quality rest.
«Many changes in these brain structures occur during deep sleep,» explains Huberman. «They also occur during periods of drowsiness and light sleep. Or even when people consciously relax without focusing on anything in particular.»
Sitting for long periods of time slows down the blood flow to the brain.
Furthermore, sitting for several hours without moving can slow blood flow to the brain. This conclusion was reached by experts after studying the health of office workers.
Furthermore, researchers from Highland University (New Mexico, USA) discovered in a scientific experiment that the impact on the feet that occurs during walking increases blood flow to the brain. The blood flow delivers essential glucose and oxygen to the brain, which has a beneficial effect on its functioning. If the brain doesn’t receive enough sugar, its performance decreases, and the risk of various diseases increases.
Calm Storm Marathon Method (CSMM) training:
When training using this method, sessions begin at 9:00 a.m. and conclude late in the evening with team-building activities over dinner at a restaurant. During the day, active two-hour business sessions alternate with two hours of group rest.
Depending on the seminar location, between training sessions, team members visit a sauna, massage, or thermal springs, take a stroll around the host city, participate in mini-sports tournaments, go on excursions, and undergo energy coaching.
According to leading psychologists in Russia and France, this method promotes improved retention of training materials and is a powerful tool for staff motivation. Achieving maximum results in a short time is ensured not only by neurobiological factors, but also by fostering a positive attitude toward the learning process.