Maria Gonzalez Blog
Mindful Leadership

Mindful Leadership in Action – Tip of the Week – Listen to the Body to Create Calm in the Mind

The body and the mind are constantly communicating.  Sometimes you will be conscious of what they are saying and sometimes you will be unaware.  Your mind looks to your body to see if there is a reason to be concerned.  If your body is tight, your mind will interpret that there is need to be on alert.  In turn, your body looks to your mind for clues.  If your mind is agitated, your body will become tighter. And this quickly becomes a vicious cycle.  If the cycle is not broken, there is the possibility that you will feel anxious and, potentially, out of control.

The most effective and direct way to stop this cycle is to deliberately relax your body.  No matter what is going on in your mind, work to relax your body — your mind will eventually follow suit.  It’s very difficult to create calmness through the mind.  The body is your most effective route to relaxation and anxiety reduction.  With practice you can train yourself to maintain a relaxed body at all times.  So that at the first sign of muscles tensing up you can just release.  This will create the gap you need to determine if you need to eliminate avoidable stress or if you need to manage unavoidable stress more deliberately.