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Leadership and Your Body

Posted by Cindy Anderson

| January 4, 2012

What is your body telling you about your leadership? Are you tired, do you have consistent pain in your body, are your shoulders rounded, your belly tight? When have you felt tall, light and at ease in your body? It what situations do you feel these different sensations? Do you notice the difference in your body when you speak to your ‘problem employee’ vs your ‘super star’?

Through sensations our bodies talk, to us and those around us, every day and in every situation. It is our responsibility to listen and learn from our bodies. We will know real change has transpired when the same situation occurs but our bodies feel differently.

Mindfulness is the first step to understanding the wisdom stored in our bodies.

Lets walk through an exercise in practicing mindfulness

Right now think about a recent situation that resulted in a habitual thought and/or behavior that causes you stress and discomfort. Do you have that fully in your mind? Now take notice of your body. How does it feel? Are there specific sensations or areas that are prominent? If so how do those sensations feel? Be as specific as possible. What is your posture? How are your shoulders? Are you breathing? Is there tension if so where and to what degree?
Once you are able to identify the sensations ask you body what it would like to do to relieve the pressure? Options here can include breathing, opening up, unclenching etc. Follow what comes up for you and allow your body to release the pressure. This is the process of centering and grounding within our body. Your body knows what it needs to so listen for its insights.
From this centered and grounded position re-examine the recent situation, do new possibilities become open to you now that your body has released the tension?

Being in a positive state within our body as well as our mind opens up new possibilities for some of our hardest leadership challenges. It actually gets easier to handle these challenges when both our attitude and our bodies are grounded, calm and centered.

For the next week I invite you to be mindful of the messages your body is giving you and to experiment with centering and grounding yourself when you feel off balance.