We’re just a month into 2023, yet many of us have resumed powering through our days like locomotives. Although adrenaline-fueled activity can feel rewarding, research suggests that “busyness” is counterproductive. It depletes us and frays our connection to what matters.
My new Conscious Leader Toolkit series offers practical tools to promote well-being, improve leadership skills, and attain success on your terms. Each month I’ll share a practice, skill, or resource. We begin with pausing and centering to give ourselves a reset throughout the day. This quick step enables us to be more present to ourselves and with others, and helps us focus on what’s important. We can then choose our response instead of reacting.
Practices
Try the practices below several times a day to de-stress and be more impactful. No time? How about between meetings? You can reset in less than 30 seconds.
6 Second Centering*
- Feel your feet on ground. Breathe in deeply and uplift through your spine. Recover your dignified posture
- Take a long exhale down your front, soften your body, and think of someone or something that makes you smile
- Expand your awareness of the space around you and settle
The 3 Breath Pause
- Take three breaths
- Relax the body
- Ask yourself:
- “What’s important now?”
- What do I need right now?”
* Modified from the work of the late, great Wendy Palmer, Leadership Embodiment
