What does being a leader have to do your mind-body connection?

Ray (details changed for confidentiality), one of my coaching clients, works as the director of a company. He wants to feel more confident and assertive in his role. He feels that he might have let his team down in the past because he acted under pressure, and sometimes feels unsure if he is making the right decisions. He wants to be a leader that his team can count on.

What role are you playing in your job right now? What role would you like to play?

The beginning of the session

We started our session with a meditation to arrive in the body in the here and now. Because the present moment is where we are alive and where we meet our true selves. Then we took some time to clarify the goal of the session including both Ray's current and future feelings and the actions that they are taking or want to take around the goal.

The middle of the session

Once we had clarified the goal, I used the Roles tool and guided Ray to go within their body. I asked him, "What role are you playing in your job right now? What role would you like to play?"

He said that he feels like a hiking guide who is trying to give directions and support while sinking in quicksand. And he would like to feel like a tribal chief who consults his tribe while feeling secure in his wisdom.

Embodying who you are, feeling, and letting go

I first guided him to go into the body and feel how his current role (the sinking hiking guide) shows up in his body. He mentioned that he feels constriction in his chest and upper abdomen and his shoulders feel hunched.

I guided him to feel this role fully and welcome it into his body instead of shying away from the constriction. During embodiment sessions, we welcome all parts of ourselves.

And this step of connecting with where we are right now, accepting and fully embodying it is a key part of embodiment. We don't minimize, deny or avoid what is alive within us. Instead we fully embrace it.

This way we can feel what we need to feel, let it pass through us, and create space for clarity, creativity, growth and decisiveness.

Embodying who you want to be

Later, I guided him to go into the body and see how his desired role (a tribal chief) feels in his body. He mentioned things like spaciousness in his chest, tingling in his limbs, feeling grounded, and engaged.

We went deeper and I asked him questions to discover what this role needed to come out and play and what was it waiting for, etc. And from this place of feeling grounded and open, he could access the wisdom within him easily.

The end of the session and after the session

Flow, Wisdom, insights, and action

Towards the end of the session, Ray mentioned how he was feeling emotional and alive within his body. He told me his next steps clearly and he left the session feeling energized and lively.

This feeling of flow, openness, comfort, and relaxation is often results from taking the time to meeting the tension, fears, worries, anger, etc. which live in our body.

After the session

When I checked in with him some days after the session he mentioned that he was feeling confident in his decisions, and had embodied the tribal chief within several times over the week.

Once our body has known something, it is much easier for our mind to recall it and act from that place.

In summary

This journey of connecting with where we are right now, accepting and fully embodying it, helps us let go of what we don't need and creates space for who we want to be - both in our mind and body - in the entirety of ourselves.

If you would like to work towards being an embodied leader or manager who leads from their heart and a place of authenticity, you can schedule a discovery call here: https://calendly.com/beant-ux/discovery-call