Brene Brown has a PhD in social work. She conducts research on shame, vulnerability, and leadership, and she teaches at the University of Houston. Her latest book is Atlas of the Heart. I give this book four stars out of five. I really enjoyed it. The only reason that I’m not giving it five is there are some areas of the book where I think she could have gone into a little bit more detail about some of the emotions... Read more
We hear this word all the time, bias, but what does it actually mean? It means we favor or don’t favor a certain belief, person, group of people or activity over another. And this favoring is not based in reasoning, but instead based in assumptions–probably faulty assumptions. Cognitive bias has to do with having biases in our thinking. This means we favor a certain belief, or we favor a certain idea, or a certain choice. This favoring we can think... Read more
All of us experience fear in some way. For example, fear of being alone, fear of not having control, or fear of not being in control. Fear of being seen in a certain way. Fear of emotional discomfort. Fear of death. Then we have this response to fear. For example, the fear of being alone might cause worried thoughts. Another response we might have to our fears is avoiding certain situations. So if you have a fear of not being... Read more
An acceptance practice is helpful for anybody who has a challenge. Some of the realities that we might be struggling with might be a breakup, a divorce, or our plans not working out. Mental health challenges, such as depression or anxiety. Additionally, our emotions can be a reality that we struggle with, such as anger, grief. Also, being unhappy in our job or being unhappy in our relationship. Getting older can be one of these realities that we struggle with.... Read more
A study published in 2015 showed 89% of American women are dissatisfied with their bodies, and 84% of those women want to be thinner. I had to take pause when I read that. That is very high. This is becoming more of a global experience. Years prior, the studies were showing that body dissatisfaction was more isolated to certain cultures and countries, but now it’s a global issue, and I would imagine a lot of that has to do with... Read more
The Emotional Clusters is the single most effective tool that I use during coaching. When people begin coaching with me, their emotional vocabulary is usually limited. Most of us know when we’re angry, and we know when we are sad, and we know when we’re happy. But beyond that being able to name specific emotions such as disgust, responsible, hesitant, pressured, yearning, or hopeless does not usually come naturally. However, if we can use our mindfulness abilities to take pause,... Read more
Intrusive thoughts are unwanted thoughts or images or impulses, and they can sometimes make us question our stability. They might make us question our mental health, not to mention cause feelings of shame. Ninety percent of the population experiences intrusive thoughts. And many people are hesitant to reveal or disclose these intrusive thoughts to other people. Here are some examples of intrusive thoughts, thinking about swerving your car into incoming traffic. Thinking about images of hurting a loved one, thinking... Read more
Our sympathetic nervous system gets triggered due to physical or emotional threats, and we go into either fight, flight, freeze or fawn response. The fawn response means we try to survive by becoming more appealing to the threat. The Fawn response was first coined by psychotherapist, Pete Walker, in his book Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving. It’s important to mention, Pete Walker is a marriage and family therapist. This is pertinent because we develop a fawning response if our... Read more
Enneagram is a personality typing tool. It’s rooted in ancient knowledge traditions. It’s been around since about 330 AD. I think it’s really rooted in some of these ancient traditions and things, like mindfulness. The word itself, Enneagram, means a nine-sided figure. It comes from a Greek word. The figure that we’re talking about here is a circle. There are nine types, numbers one through nine. They’re next to each other on the circle as you go around. The Enneagram... Read more
Research shows mindful leadership training and coaching supports three major categories: (a) decrease in stress and overcoming burnout, (2) better organization and focus, and (3) improved relationships and how you are perceived by others. Listen and find out how study participants are gaining these benefits with mindful leadership skills.If your mindset is the beliefs you bring to a situation, how does your mindfulness compare to your mindset? Mindful leadership experts say the key to successful leadership is having a combination... Read more
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