The heart as the very center of our being
Heart-Brain-Coherence in Leadership
Dear reader,
a few years ago I was in Siberia teaching a leadership class. Afterwards a women came to me and said: Your mission is to bring the teachings of the heart into the world and into leadership.
You can imagine that I was surprised. As it sometimes goes I forgot about this. Not that I did not research the role of heart - which I did before and after. But I forgot that she told me my mission.
Today I was listening to the podcast Rich Roll with Kimberly Snyder (see on YouTube). I also immediately bought her new book: The Hidden Power of the Five Hearts. It reminded me of the scene in Siberia and the women who had talked to me.
It reminded me of the very core of my mission: To integrate the science and knowledge about the heart and heart-brain-coherence into the leadership realm, into practical business situations. I am doing this with my coaching and podcasts. This week I am recording my 100st podcast (see my website alexanderschwedeler.com, or my YouTube Channel, mostly in German language). This is a good moment to reflect about these things.
Kimberly’s book is a simple read, well structured, very inspiring. Her main chapters are:
The Dark Heart: Incoherence.
The Propelled Heart: The Beginning of Coherence.
The Steady Heart: Coherence and Connection.
The Devoted Heart: Intuition and Forgiveness.
The Clear Heart: Heart-Brain Harmony.
I can recognize in these five chapters five levels of consciousness, from low emotions and stress to a state of harmony between heart and brain. She describes the evolution of the heart as a path of development.
Recently a CEO told me that she is using the Inner Ease (TM) exercise, as I had explained it to her in one of our coaching sessions (Inner Ease is a simple exercise, developed by the Heartmath Institute, to create heart-brain coherence, see below). She is using it now more often during the day as a preparation for her many meetings. And she noticed that when she is in a coherent state that the other in the room were different than before, also more coherent. This again and again leads to better meetings and results.
She happily explained to me that this little, simple exercise, is helping her a lot to get better through the day, to come to better decisions, to create better psychological safety in her leadership team, to achieve better financial results for her business.
The Inner Ease Technique (TM) goes like this:
“Step 1: Focus your attention in the area of the heart. Imagine your breath is flowing in and out of your heart or chest area, breathing a little slower and deeper than usual.
Suggestion: Inhale 5 seconds, exhale 5 seconds (or whatever rhythm is comfortable).
Step 2. With each breath, draw in the feeling of inner ease to balance your mental and emotional energy.
Step 3. Set a meaningful intent to anchor the feeling of inner ease as you engage in your projects, challenges or daily interactions.
Breathing the feeling of ease supports cooperative agreement between our heart, mind and emotions when we are making decisions, communicating and planning. Our mind and emotions often fight each other for the shot- call in decisions. This confusion blocks our sensitivity to our heart’s intuitive choices for the highest outcomes.”
(Source: 12 Heartmath Tools for reducing stress and staying balanced. See here and for more free resources: https://www.heartmath.org/resources/).
Using the Inner Ease Technique and other techniques developed by Heartmath can strongly increase your leadership effectiveness. It improves your perception, your intuition, your creativity, your well-being, and many more. And it is scientifically proven with more than 400 studies.
I can only recommend that you integrate this knowledge and these most practical and easy to use techniques into your own private and business life. It has greatly supported me through many years now.
Warm greetings,
Alexander