Ep 52: Embodied Leadership

Thinking Pilates Podcast

When someone says 'this is too much, I can't do this,' the challenge that they're facing, the can't, is 'I don't know how to contain the experience of feeling this intensity of emotion playing out in my body again." That's really what they 'can't.' That's what the can't refers to and so for me the question is always how do we bring ourselves back to being able to feel that experience but feel it from a place of non-reaction. To be able to feel it and be with it and face it, or maybe face it for the first time. And then from a place of non-reaction make a different choice. And our place of non-reaction comes through stimulation of our vagus nerve through the breath and actually bringing ourselves out of fight or flight and into rest and relaxation mode -- it's all basic bodily processes, breath, relaxation, all the stuff that brings us back into a place where we can choose. But it's doing that while staying in contact with the emotion and the emotional soundtrack of the experience so that we can actually then face it, so that we can then actually start to move into and take different actions in the world. For all of us we've got those bits of work to do around ourselves.

-- Pete Hamill, Leadership Coach, Author of "Embodied Leadership"

Embody. Embodiment. To be embodied. Embodied movement...

EMBODY is almost as big a buzz word these days in the realm of movement as fascia has been for the past 10 years. And like fascia, many of us are still trying to figure out what it actually means. We have a sense of it. We can feel it (we think). We think it's valuable, means that there's greater value, that it leads to more significant or richer experience, but maybe we're just not entirely sure what it means to be embodied.

Well...we couldn't be talking to a more delightful human being and expert on the subject.

Meet Pete Hamill, author of "Embodied Leadership", international leadership consultant and Program Director for their Embodied Leadership program at the Roffey Park Institute in the UK. Pete gave us a unique opportunity to explore embodiment from the perspective of not only leading but being in relationship with others.

Show highlights:

• Embodiment defined in two ways
• The difference between working on, with, or through the body
• What are somatic markers and can they be changed
• What's behind the "I can't", resistance, and how we might begin to respond differently
• Creating a "narrative of relevance" to support a shift in responsiveness
• First steps in facilitating greater levels of embodiment in ourselves and our students

This was such a moving and thoughtful conversation that took us deeply into all the things we imagine "embodiment" might be, and it was so, so much more.

If you're interested in working on yourself, on exploring embodiment from the perspective of your role as teacher and leader, you're going to love this discussion. It runs the gamut from self to other and back again and begins to unravel some of our misconceptions and areas of ambiguity around being truly, deeply embodied.

I'm particularly excited about this conversation because it's taking us another step closer to the realm of soul and spirit and all the good things we have coming your way in episodes to come. (We're setting you up, people ;)

Listen. Enjoy. Share.

-- c

About Pete Hamill

• You can learn about Pete's professional journey here, on his blog, petehamill.co.uk.
• More information on Pete's wonderful book "Embodied Leadership"
• Additional resources recommended by Pete to explore the frontier of embodiment:
• Book - Emotional Anatomy by Stanley Keleman
• Expert - Wendy Palmer
• Strozzi Institute
• Additional resources

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