How Are You Feeling? Part 1

In this issue we’re going to talk about our feelings. Their role in decision making, their appropriateness in the workplace, and their implication on our leadership development. So, locate the nearest chaise lounge chair and get yourself comfortable.

If you’re neglecting your feelings then you’re possibly neglecting up to two thirds of your intelligence center. 

Both our gut and our heart help in overall thought process and creating well-being. 

Broken hearts and gut feelings are more than just metaphoric expressions; they represent insights into the comprehensive intelligence system within us. 

We now have scientific evidence supporting the notion that our intelligence stems from our brain, heart, and gut. 

The most effective leaders are capable of tapping into both their emotions and intuitions to inform their critical thinking.

Feelings 101

Feelings are subjective experiences in response to emotional or physical sensations. Feelings are personal. Emotions are universal.

Emotions are the raw data, real-time feedback sparked by body sensations in response to the moment. 

Feelings are our minds' interpretation of those sensations. 

Feelings are heavily influenced by our perceptions. The way we see and perceive everything and everyone around us, impacts how we feel. 

The same physiological response to the same sensations can lead to distinctly different feelings.

It all happens in a moment 

A moment is a unit of time measuring 1 and a half minutes. 

Don’t feel bad if you didn’t know this, we just became aware of this fact too. Apparently, for centuries a moment referred to something very specific: a 40th of an hour, or around 90 seconds.

Modern society no longer treats a moment this way. Its definition has become very ambiguous with a moment referring to anything from a millisecond to a period of time in which we embodied a specific state.

Why does this matter you might be wondering? As mentioned previously emotions are real time feedback of the moment. 

This means we have 90 seconds between the initial onset of the emotional or physical sensation to interpret how we feel, and decide how we’d like to respond.

Set a timer for 90 seconds and sit there in silence. I bet it “felt” a lot longer than the time you typically have to determine how you feel when stimulated by a strong emotion. 

What accounts for the difference? 

We’ll dive deeper into this question next week, but in the meantime we encourage you to contemplate that for a moment or two.

Feeling Better

Most of us are operating from a very limited understanding of our feelings. This is because we haven’t spent much time contemplating why we’re feeling, what we’re feeling, when we’re feeling it. 

Suppression is the go-to response to our feelings, especially in the workplace.

With each passing day our ability to feel accurately is diminishing. The more attuned we are to our emotions the more accurately we can translate them into feeling and action. The more aware we are of our bodily sensations the greater our potential to grow our self-awareness. 

These processes require constant calibration, ie. practice. 

Openly talking about your feelings with people on your team doesn’t mean you're soft. It means you’re taking your leadership life seriously. 

Sitting in silence, taking inventory of the physical sensations doesn’t mean you’re weird. It means you’re taking your leadership life seriously.

Talking through your feelings is an effective way to calibrate the mind.

Taking a quick inventory of physical sensations is an effective way to calibrate the body.

Mind-Body practices like these are revealing processes that always lead to feeling better in both the literal and figurative sense.

Better feelings lead to clearer thinking resulting in right action.