Breathing and Leadership

by Scott PatchinSep 1, 2011Insights, Leadership, Leadership Transitions, Performance Management, Professional Development, Self awareness

I had the opportunity this week to go through a neurofeedback process at a local organization that revealed some cool things about my brain. Here is a link if you want to know more. http://www.theneurocore.com/

The big takeaway, for the body and the brain to work the best we have to do a better job at breathing. Here is the sequence for Americans:

We take more breaths (17/min) but they are shallow and quick
The body does not get big doses of oxygen because of our breathing rate, so it has to work harder.
The heart pumps a little harder and has to react to the oxygen flow which is a bit irratic.
On and on and on . . . . .

Maybe a little oversimplified. The good news – there is actually an app for breathing!

My trU Tips that went out yesterday is about resilience and leaders. (here is the video)One way to look at building resilience is to learn how to breath correctly. When we get knocked off our feet by a surprise:

A key executive quits
Partner passes away
Sales dip 40%
We lose a large customer
A tsunami hits a key supplier

We freak out. Yes – that is normal. Then we start breathing normally, think, and react. Resilience is not about getting knocked off your feet, that is called life. Resilience is about how we start breathing normally again and live into/through the challenge.

Breath.

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