¶ Enhancing Leadership Through Somatic Intelligence
Hey there , what's up everybody ? Welcome to Evoke Greatness . This podcast was created for those of you who , like me , are driven by their curious nature and fascination with the champion mindset , if you have an insatiable hunger for growth and knowledge , or maybe you're just curious on how some of the most successful people have navigated their journey .
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My name is Sunny and I am so glad you're here . If you're new , there's a few things you want to know about me . I am a huge book nerd and a wee bit of a control enthusiast , with an obsession for motivational coffee cups . I believe that a rising tide raises all ships and I invite you along in this journey to evoke greatness .
Your book talks about how somatic intelligence can enhance leadership abilities , which I think is a really big deal . Can you share some of those practical tips , just for those listening on ? You know how can someone utilize these to become more powerful or effective leaders through somatic practices ?
Well , can I say I want to share a little bit about the research I've done since the book was published , because there's further research since the book was published and the upshot of that research is that in the realm of emotional intelligence and social intelligence , and actually even lying outside of those realms , there are a few major major things that seem to
grow . Certainly are correlated with strong embodied self-awareness is our capacity to pay attention to our internal sensations in the moment , with our eyes open , in a nonjudgmental way and like , respond to those messages . It's our capacity to use sensation and movement as sources of intelligence . Okay , so that's embodied self-awareness .
When embodied self-awareness , when embodied self-awareness is high , we also see that resilience is high , that adaptability is high , that flourishing , which is a measure of satisfaction with life and a measure of well-being , that flourishing is high . Why ? Because we're more in tune with our intelligence that tells us what we need , right ?
So all of those things are high . So are empathy , connectedness and conflict management right , and conflict management in particular , as a leader , I mean resilience and adaptability . Goodness knows like we desperately need that in today's world . We're in a constant onslaught of change , right ? And conflict management ?
Don't even get me started right On the sort of level of public discourse , like we , just we need to be able to engage with one another in ways that grant one another legitimacy , humanity , that we're being kind and deeply listening to one another , but not without like we also don't need to sacrifice where we stand on particular positions or points of view inside
the workplace , in society , etc . Right , so how do you actually develop those skills ? Well , embodied self-awareness appears to be like a really powerful lever where all of the skills of emotional and social intelligence that set outstanding leaders apart from average leaders can be developed .
Like , if you do this one thing , all these other things appear to come along with it . So that's a little bit why you ask for practical tips . So one of the things that you can do that is just very simple , very easy is to make and I I highly recommend making your own list .
You can go on the internet and and find a list , but I'm going to tell you why in a moment . Make your own list of sensation words . So what are experiences of sensation ? If I just ask you right now , sunny , three to five words of sensations that you might experience Excitement , excitements and emotion . Okay , yeah , what is the physical sensation .
Yeah , so the excitement between this is hard for us to do and the reason I'm suggesting doing it is because we actually have very we're not used to looking here , so we have very paltry language around . Some of us have very paltry language around . Emotions , right , and we can go like happy , sad , right . So think about sensation .
Words are things like temperature or weight or pressure or movement . So I'm going to challenge you , if you don't mind . I'm totally , totally out of this thought . But like what are some words that might describe physical sensations ? And even to get there , you might notice what's happening in your own body right now .
Yeah , and even to get there , you might notice what's happening in your own body right now . Yeah , so when my mind went to excitement , you know that . And then you talk about temperature .
That could even be like a rise in temperature , that could be an increase in heart rate , right , those sensations of what an emotion may cause in you , yeah , Okay , you might feel heat , you might feel fluttering or stirring or beating of your heart .
All of those are sensation , orange , awesome .
Yeah , and I find myself , even as you're saying this , physically like leaning in , to be cut from a learning and a curiosity perspective , right , and really wanting to wrap my brain around it , and I think that almost causes a bit of relaxation , because there's not a , or you know , shoulders like dropping , leaning into the experience , not in a way of being
nervous or not having the right answer , rather being genuinely curious about the distinction between the two .
Yeah , yeah , Great . And so there is this distinction and it's actually it's challenging for us to get at , like , what is the ? How do we tease it out ? What's the difference between sensation and emotion ? So why I'm saying write a list and why I'm saying do it yourself rather than just go look for a list . You could start by looking for a list .
It does something different in our brain when we have to kind of rack our brain to come up with it ourselves . And if you reference your own physical experience , well , what's happening in my jaw right now ? Well , what's the temperature in my feet ? Are my feet moving ? Are my feet clenched ? Right ? Clenched is a sensation . It's not an emotion , right ?
So , really , looking for those physical words , make a list for yourself and then go through your day and just every now and then look over at that list , check in with your body and go what am I sensing ? Not what am I feeling in an emotional way , what you're sensing might be tied to that , but what am I actually physically experiencing right now ?
That has a way of bringing you present . You can't experience sensation five seconds ago or five seconds in the future . You can only experience it right now . So it'll bring you into the present .
The more keenly clear you get about your language to describe sensation actually , the better you get at sensing it , because you have sort of like a better linguistic math that lays over the physical math of your body . It helps you in a sense see more , but by see here I really mean sense , physically sense more .
So just making a list for yourself of sensation words it's actually harder than you think and doing that and paying attention on a daily basis , that will start . That's a very sort of simple initial start down the path of building embodied self-awareness . Further steps are about contextualizing that .
So further steps would be , well , what's my experience in when I'm experiencing joy ? What's my experience when I'm experiencing confidence ? What's my physical experience of being in a difficult conversation , right ? So any of these particular situations in our lives we can start to go . What are my sensations ? What's my physical position in space ?
That's known as proprioception , right ? So , like I'm leaning in with curiosity and I'm interested and I'm eager , okay , there's like a physical lean in , so being able to notice those things in salient , important moments of our lives and then to build on the ones where we're at our best . Here's what it feels like to be confident .
This is my experience of myself . Here's how my eyes are , here's how my jaw is , here's how my shoulders are , here's how my stomach is in a situation where I really feel like I'm crushing it , situation where I really feel like I'm crushing it . Well , what if I were to just actually practice that five or 10 times a day , right , where I go ?
Oh wait , when I'm confident . For me , it'll be different for you , sunny , it'll be different for any of your listeners . We have our own unique responsiveness , some themes among humans , but in my case , confidence feels like relaxed . I'm aware of my back .
I can feel either my seat on the chair or my feet on the floor , like I feel certain heaviness or weighted ness . When I feel confident . Most of the time but not all the time my eyes are relaxed . Most of the time , my jaw and shoulders are relaxed .
Most of the time I'm a comfortable temperature , so I'm neither flushed and heated up nor am I too terribly cold , right . So what do I do to invite in confidence ? Oh well , I know that my shoulders are relaxed .
So can I relax my shoulders , can I relax my eyes and jaw , can I feel my seat and my back Right and then invite more of that embodiment of confidence into the next conversation ? But you don't do that by having an idea of it . In the same way , you don't like get a six pack by going to the gym one day . Right , you do that .
You get a six pack by going to the gym over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again until your body is trained a different way .
So if you want to develop confidence , you are going to develop over and over and over relaxed jaw , relaxed eyes , relaxed shoulders right , or whatever the shape of confidence is for you is for you , and much like defining what that desired state of your body is .
If you so you don't just go to the gym and get on the treadmill one day and get on , you know , do some bench press another day , like you really have to understand how do you want to craft your body as you use that . The gym reference , like it , makes me think about identifying what your desired state is .
The practice that we just went through all these thoughts came flooding to me about whether it's when I'm at the dentist office and I have to consciously remind myself because I usually I'm holding on , not that it's hurting , but it is the meaning in which I've assigned going to the dentist is some anxiety , some stress .
Going to the dentist is some anxiety , some stress . And so I'm white knuckling the armrests and I'll look down and I'm like it's not , like , let go of that , loosen your grip up , sunny , it's not hurting . It's this meaning that I've assigned to it .
And so I love that you pulled that in so real time with me , because I think about , okay , how you know what is that desired state of how I want to feel , those sensations I want to have , and so now I'm able to piece those two together , because I do think most people probably lean into the emotion side of it yeah Like , but it's the emotion or that
feeling that actually gives us the sensation . So the discernment between those two really helped me walk through that just live .
Oh , I'm so , I'm so , so glad
¶ Mastering Emotions Through Body Awareness
. And it's true because , as I said , emotion is a combination of our interpretation and our physical sensations , and so we can actually , if we're having an emotion in a situation where that's not really our preferred experience let's say there are at least two doorways in , and one is to look at how we're interpreting the situation .
We actually tend to go there a lot , right , well , what did this person mean ? Well , what's my role in the situation ? Well , what if I'm thinking about it all the wrong way ? Like , is there a way I could reframe this ? And we're kind of used to going there .
Some of us could go there more often , right , like , sometimes it's really hard to get a new perspective on a situation , and sometimes we need the help of our friends or family or professional supporters , whether that's a coach or a therapist or somebody , a clergy person , right , somebody that you work with .
But we don't often go through the doorway of the body , so we don't often in the dentist's office , go . What I could do is just like unclench my hands right and maybe a different interpretation here , like I've never actually been injured at the dentist , if that's true for you . Right , so you physically shift and you shift your interpretation , and I'm so .
I'm like when's your next dentist appointment and are you going to call me afterwards and let me know how it goes ? Right ? Because the and that's why this stuff is actually incredibly practical , because in the , in the difficult moments , our thoughts move so fast it's often hard for us to remember like , oh , I could take a different perspective on this .
But if , over time , we've been practicing unclenching our hands in situations of high stress and even practicing unclenching our hands in situations where there's absolutely no stress at all , right , think about how an athlete trains they don't wait until the moment of competition to start training . Right , way before , and for many , many repetitions they're going .
I'm going to unclench my hands , unclench my hands , unclench my hands until the moment of I'm at the dentist , and now my hands remember how to unclench right , right , and I can do that more automatically .
And that is what it means to have a quality embodied , to have it emanate from you , to have it be second nature , and so we can , through these approaches , come to embody different qualities , including different leadership qualities , that help us in all aspects of our lives .
And that just happened to be what came to my mind was the dentist . Right , because I recognize that , the sensation caused by emotions in those circumstances .
But again , right , take that walking into a leadership meeting , sitting down with your board , that's where a lot of people experience those same type of emotions of stress and anxiety , and so you may be showing up in that same white knuckling manner in which I do at the dentist , in the boardroom , and so those , I think they're so transferable to the different
experiences that we're having , be it personal , be it professional , and so practicing those things leading up to that big board meeting , that big meeting that you're going to have , whatever that looks like , but doing the work , taking out your notes and really , after this podcast is over , or hit pause throughout it , to say , okay , what experience have I had that
I can identify right now , based on this experience that Amanda and Sunny just went through this practice round ? How can I identify that to myself ?
Yeah .
And then the ability to actually practice that we all get better with practice .
Yeah , and it's useful too to bear in mind , like because sometimes practice is hard . One of the hardest things about it is remembering to practice . This is not actually as hard as going to the gym and doing sit-ups or getting on the treadmill , but often remembering to do it as hard , and so it's helpful if it's connected to something we care about .
So if you think about , like , okay , if I'm white knuckling it through my next board meeting , what results are ? What's the likely outcome ? Right , and if I'm relaxed at my next board meeting , how might that affect the outcome and why does that outcome matter to me ?
And so , okay , let me , if that outcome really matters and the outcome is positively affected by me entering the board meeting more relaxed , how do I practice that relaxation in advance ? What does it look like ? What does it feel like ? And I do mean what does it look like in your body ? Are you leaning forward ? Are you leaning back ? Are you ?
You know how's your spine ? Are you a little bit collapsed , or are you stretching up or are you just sort of your natural height , right ?
So , really looking carefully about what it means to physically embody a state of relaxation that will support you in , for example , your next board meeting is a game changer and in fact , there's someone I specifically write about , a general manager at Microsoft , who did this very thing meeting with executives at Microsoft .
It was a total game changer for her career .
Yeah , and there are a lot of stories like that for the book , where you give these relevant examples of people in situations that I assure you anyone listening there is something in there that is going to completely resonate with you and you're like I'm them , I'm them , I go , I go through that same experience where I feel that same sensation or feeling .
And so , you know , lean into the experience . Oftentimes , when there's something that we don't have a great amount of knowledge around , we step out of it because we don't . We sometimes feel like we have to have the right answer . We have to fully understand it when , if we lean in with that openness and the curiosity around this topic , it may not .
You know again that discernment between what we just discussed . A lot of people may not really be aware of that , and so , you know , lean into the experience . You have a something that's applicable here . You have a stress to serenity guide . You want to share a little bit about that .
Oh yeah , I'd be happy to . So that's actually a really useful resource . It's available totally for free on the Embrite website I'm sure you'll have a link to it in the show notes and it's seven sessions over 14 days of learning how to really feel your sensations and align yourself with what you care about . So it's a combination of those two things .
It's a particular kind of we might call it a centering practice and it's a . It's something that you can try on for yourself . That and it's me just leading you through in the same way .
You and I just talked Sunny right Like a seven step process of do this Now , now , now , whatever we just did together , go do it 10 times today and do it 10 times tomorrow , and then I'll send you another one , and it's just a little ad it's not something totally different , but a little ad to what we just did and then , a couple of days later , another
little ad until by the end of it , by the end of it , by the end of a couple of weeks , you have a really solid practice for yourself that lets you line up with what you're , what you care about , and when I say line up with or align , I mean like you're the whole of your intelligence is standing behind what matters to you , and then you bring that into
your board meeting , you bring that into your next performance review , you bring that into the next difficult conversation you need to have with your spouse or your child or your best friend and boom , there's something different available in the conversation from there .
That's why we see , when people do this work and the research I was referring to earlier surveyed hundreds of people right , and we just saw really consistently , when people dial up their embodied self-awareness , more resilience , more adaptability , better conflict management , more connectedness , right , all these really valuable qualities come along .
Yeah , and those are interwoven into everyone's personal and professional development .
I mean , there's not an area that it really couldn't serve , if really leaning into the practice , and that's the beauty of it right , for those of us who were like , okay , I really want to grow in X , y or Z way , this has the opportunity to serve you as much as you will allow it , and that's a really cool offering to be able to do through your own
practice and your own mindfulness around what is that ultimate desired state I want to be in ?
Yeah , you know it's interesting because I say this somewhere near the beginning of the book and you're pointing to it now . I set out to write a book about leadership because that was my interest . That was a people that I was working with and I couldn't do it .
I totally failed , because we take our bodies with us everywhere we go , and it turned out it had to be a book about all of life , not just so there are a lot of leadership stories in there , but it's true , there's there's no aspect of our lives that isn't touched by our capacity for somatic or embodied intelligence , and so , wow , why not learn to use it
well ?
be it for your kids , your spouse , your friends that you're surrounded by , maybe your team . There is nothing better than a leader who really models that peak state , if you will . That is not just performance related , it's not just EQ related . It folds in the threads of all of that in one .
Yeah , and there's some interesting stories too in the book about teams that have taken this on as a team and have gone into this kind of a learning for themselves , to to try and see , like how , when we are trying to coordinate our action as a team , when we're trying to communicate with one another like well , what if all of us are more centered , grounded ,
bringing more of our best selves , bringing more of what we care about , embodying a sense of , like , calm , clarity , confidence in whatever we're working together on . And teams that have done this work together have seen tremendous results .
There's , you know , in the book I write about , some of the amazing , substantial financial impact of teams that just work better together because they've learned how to , because they've all learned how to organize themselves , to be present , calm , open , connected with one another Well as we wrap up , I encourage everyone to grab the book .
Your body is your brain . There's also an audio book , so not everybody is a physical book nerd like me . Sometimes you want to be able to listen to it on your commute or on a plane or going wherever you're going . So there's an audio book offering as well . And will you share ?
I'll have all this linked in the notes , but will you share where everyone can find you connect with you .
Yeah , you bet . So the easiest place to find me , my online home , is at mbrightorg E-M-B-R-I-G-H-T . Bright , light yourself up . And that is org . And there you'll find just tons and tons of free resources , links to more podcasts . If you ever decide you want to dig deeper , there's lots of free resources , links to more podcasts .
If you ever decide you want to dig deeper , there's lots of free stuff , so avail yourself please .
¶ Inspiring Call to Action
Thank you so much for listening and for being here on this journey with me . I hope you'll stick around If you liked this episode . It would mean the world for me if you would rate and review the podcast or share it with someone you know may need to hear this message .
I love to hear from you all and want you to know that you can leave me a voicemail directly . If you go to my website , evokegreatnesscom , and go to the contact me tab , you'll just hit the big old orange button and record your message . I love the feedback and comments that I've been getting , so please keep them coming .
I'll leave you with the wise words of author Robin Sharma Greatness comes by doing a few small and smart things each and every day . It comes from taking little steps consistently .
It comes from making a few small chips against everything in your professional and personal life that is ordinary , so that a day eventually arrives when all that's left is the extraordinary .