Maria Gonzalez Blog
Mindful Leadership

Learn to Listen and Trust Your Body – It Has a Great Deal to Teach You

I wrote at length in Mindful Leadership that “physical sensations” in the body drive behaviour. This is always the case if the sensations go unnoticed. If they are noticed, then you remain in control and do not find yourself behaving in ways you later regret.

Our bodies are very articulate about our emotions. They are communicating with our minds, all day. Unfortunately, sometimes we don’t listen, or know how to listen. Or even worse, it could be too painful to listen, therefore, we don’t listen in the hope that our discomfort will go away.

When our bodies speak and tell us something isn’t right, we always benefit by listening. But how do we listen? A way to start listening is to notice where you are experiencing sensations in the body and staying with those sensations, without trying to control or deny them. By staying with the sensations, more is revealed to you. The more you are able to do this, the quicker your response time.

Here is an example. You are about to acquire a business, negotiate with a new client or hire a new member of your team and your body tightens. At first you may not know why. But, if you really listen with deep equanimity, without trying to justify what your mind may be saying, you might realize that these may not be good decisions. The business you wish to acquire may not be as good as you thought it might be. The new client may not be someone you wish to develop a relationship with. And the potential new member of the team many not be a good fit.

All this information may be coming to you instantaneously through the body. If you learn to communicate with your body with ease, life has less friction and less stress. You save time because you are aware of the appropriate response moment by moment. And you make better decisions. In time, you develop greater intuitive ability and deeper wisdom. You may have noticed that exceptional leaders have developed this skill.