How can tuning into your body make you a better leader?

Embodied leadership – a beginner’s guide – Part I

In many aspects of our lives – at least in the westernized, industrialized world - we are literally suffering from modernity. In our fast-paced, technology-heavy world, we’ve embraced values around rationality, wealth and convenience that have us believing we can control and shape everything around us. To a great extent, we’ve lost our connection to nature, our relationships, and our physical bodies. This disconnectedness is to the detriment of our work lives, and our mental health.

“…innocent but misguided thinking has led us to value intellect and reason over love and compassion, …and to mistakenly imagine that our minds are disconnected from our bodies.”

-        Amanda Blake, Master Somatic Leadership Coach and biologist, Stanford University

The discipline that addresses this challenge of reconnection is called somatics, and can be applied to leaders to create something called embodied leadership.  So what is somatics, how is it connected to embodied leadership, and how can it help us? Let’s start with the “what” (sorry, Simon Sinek). Here are some definitions:   

Soma (pl somas):

the parts of an organism other than the reproductive cells, the body as distinct from the soul, mind, or psyche.

Origin:  late 19th century: from Greek sōma meaning ‘body’.

Somatics:

the study of the soma, which is not only first-person perception of the living body, but also its first-person regulation.  Somatic practices include body awareness and movement.

What is embodied leadership? 

Embodied leadership is a somatics-based approach that starts with awareness of one’s own body and emotions. It enables us to lead effectively as well as create sustainable change in others. Somatic coaches strive toward this same goal by working with people on their physical sensations, which often have strong emotional connections.

Connection

Ask any neuroscientist and they will tell you that our bodies and minds are inextricably connected. However, at work many of us behave as if they were not. Anyone who works with their brain can easily feel disconnected from their body, resulting in fatigue, fogginess and, when there’s significant stress, even serious health problems. This is only exacerbated by spending long hours sitting in a chair at a desk.  Normal symptoms of disconnection can include: sleep disruption, headaches or other body aches, and problems with digestion, among others.

A sedentary lifestyle can make this cycle insidious. We become so used to sitting and working every day that we don’t even realize how badly our body is doing. We do not see how much movement we are missing, how much unused potential our bodies hold.  Our bodies are made for moving, not sitting all day. Why else do we have so many muscles, tendons, ligaments, etc.?

Information flow

The body continually gives us lots of information. It tells us:

·      what we want or need to eat (cravings)

·      when our energy is low

·       when there is a threat to our existence (“fight, flight or freeze”)

·      when we have a reason to feel joy (excitement, increased heart rate)

·      when we are attracted to someone, or feel safe with them ( ‘warm glow’ or arousal)

·      moving is good (“runner’s high”, production of endorphins that lift our mood)

Most importantly, the body usually tells us about a developing emotion before our conscious (rational) brain registers it. For example, are you feeling heat in the chest? Could be shame or embarrassment; tightness in the abdomen or neck? Could be anxiety; tears coming to your eyes? Could be sadness, anger, or being moved emotionally; etc.  This is basic neuroscience, but you’d be surprised how many people cannot answer the question: “When you are angry, what do you feel in your body and where?” The more attuned we are to our bodies, the more we understand what is happening to us in the moment rather than later. This is an advantage for workplace communication and social interaction of all kinds, including leadership conversations. It’s fundamental self-awareness.

The second part of this blog will be published soon. Follow us on social media or sign up to our news for more content like this.