Igor Ardoris

Igor Ardoris is the founder of Budo Mental Training—mental training for dealing with difficult situations. He is a mental trainer, writer, lecturer and educational consultant. Since 2007, Igor has trained elite athletes, teachers, police officers, ambulance attendants, business leaders, etc, how to remain calm and balanced in stressful situations. Igor has direct experience in high-risk situations: He competed in elite-level martial arts since his early teens and worked as a nightclub bouncer; but, above all, through being a civilian and vulnerable young man in the middle of the Balkan civil war. These experiences have motivated him to devote most of his adult life to studying, understanding, and developing the skills to manage the human psyche under stressful and frightening circumstances.

Workshops:

W062: Developing Mental Strength for successful teaching and learning at the University

Students´ and teachers´ lives are very challenging in these days. We all face difficult times with climate crisis, war in Europe, rising costs of living and in addition students and teachers have to deal with distractions, social media, lack of motivation, digital learning settings, etc. How can teachers improve students´skill to stay relaxed and focussed and support students´ self-learning and self-organizing processes for a successful start at the university?
How can students learn to stay focussed on what is really important, set the right priorities, take responsibility for their learning process, and develop mental strength to deal with setbacks and stress. Simply telling students to have a positive mindset can backfire, and just telling them „try harder“ can also be problematic. Sometimes another strategy is far more useful than additional effort. Five years ago, Igor Ardoris and Martina Höber started the „Mental training“ project at the THM Business School, University of Applied Sciences and will share their experiences in this interactive workshop.
Igor Ardoris, the Swedish mental trainer, will introduce the principles of mental training to develop mental strength and a growth mindset for better teaching and learning, and will demonstrate several exercises. Martina Höber, professor at the THM, will present her concept and experience in different teaching settings, and students´ feedback with mental training with students.

W080: Mental strength in crisis

Igor Ardoris has developed a model for mental training that is currently tested and used by members of Swedish first responders and special police and military tactical units. In this workshop he will share with you the tools, principles, and theory behind his model.