CFEEB Your Way Through Challenges

C F E E B

Center | Face | Enter | Extend | Blend

Originally formulated primarily for use as a leadership concept by my good friend Dr. Richard Strozzi-Heckler, CFEEB describes an orientation to the world that allows the individual to respond powerfully to change – specifically through a process of centering, facing, extending, entering, and blending. In using CFEEB its useful to remember that everything I encounter in my life has a relational quality to it. CFEEB is, quite literally, a way to structure a generative relationship with potentially unsettling and debilitating life experiences.

Let’s look at each element of CFEEB in sequence.

Center

The intent and the focus of this element is to position the individual in a resourceful and flexible “location.”?This “location” is physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual. It is both metaphoric and literal. From a centered position we are able to be deliberately and consciously available and engaged with our life. The ability to quickly come back to our place of center allows us to withstand the inevitable likelihood that we’ll be surprised and knocked off balance.

?In order to establish an awareness of your physical center of being try the following:

• Stand with your feet approximately shoulder width apart, your knees slightly bent.
• Physically lower your breath, moving it from your chest and into your belly.
• Feel yourself and your energy focused in an area just below your navel.
• Feel yourself physically balanced in 3 dimensions – your length or top to bottom, width or side to side, and depth or front to back.
• Feel yourself grounded to the earth through the downward direction of your attention, breath, and energy.

In order to establish an awareness of your observational center of being take notice of what I call the witness. This is the part of you that is aware of your body, your thoughts, your feelings and the physical sensations you experience. Because you can notice these things, by definition, you are not any of them. This is the subject/object dichotomy. By centering yourself in and observing what’s going on from the witness position you are better able to respond to what your life is presenting. Rather than being “captured” by your emotional or physical reactions to what is presented, you are now in a position to intentionally respond to what is being presented as your current reality.

Face

From a centered position the next move is to face what is happening. When moving to face anything perturbing, I am physically, emotionally, mentally and even spiritually exposed. This is a vulnerable position, which is why many have difficulty with it. Contraction is the natural defense in the face of perturbation.

Practices that you may find useful as a way to more fully experience this are:

• Move to face into your story. This occurs literally as you physically turn to face your story: become curious and inquire about the aspects of the story.
• Be willing to face your fears, indecisions, confusion, your need to be right, your need to be in control: acknowledge their presence to yourself.
• Facing makes possible the process of engaging directly.

Extend

Extending is the process of moving toward and meeting. Extending is most often thought of as the engagement step in the process.

• While maintaining your center and being cognizant of your story, imagine moving your awareness and energy outward to encompass your story.?Don’t become overbalanced forward as you do this; expand your whole self so that you can include your story and stay connected to your center of being at the same time. Notice from the witness position what is occurring in yourself and with your story.
• Inquire into your story’s various attributes – become aware of the various experiences that they generate.
• Be curious and sensitive in your inquiry.

Enter

This requires the use of your imagination; it requires familiarity with how energy moves and is held in your body. You want to be able to experience your story and the description of your world from this perspective without losing your sense of center.

• Energetically move toward your story.?You might do this by asking questions of the story, listening to what comes back and deliberately moving to understanding from the perspective of your story.
• Monitor your body, your energy, and your focus for what’s too much and what’s too little
• Maintain your sense of center as you imagine “seeing” from your story’s perspective.

Blend

This conversation with your story is a dance. By blending you can more readily identify aspects of your story’s shape and structure while being curious in order to explore and illuminate.

• Move with your story – noticing the energetic qualities of it – validating its presence but not agreeing to its truth.
• Hold your center and balance and don’t sacrifice your center to power through the exploration.
• The intent is to lead from behind, not dominate or force your desired outcome. Let the exploration of your story be your guide rather than attempting to force a specific outcome or conclusion.

CFEEB may seem abstract…and indeed it is until we consider that it is simply a way of describing something that generally happens quite quickly when we approach events in our life with the intent of having generative “conversation”. By breaking the process into discrete parts, we are better able to practice maintaining our presence at various stages of the conversation.

You can learn more about developing the kind of leadership mindset that can transform how you and your organization handle change and growth – and the challenges that are?always?part of this process. Learn how to do this with greater elegance and certainty. Request a personal interview with me to see if joining my acclaimed, invitation only?Leadership Mindset Mastermind?makes sense for you. Simply follow this?LINK ?to schedule an interview. I look forward to speaking with you.

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Leadership is the Art and Science of?influencing relationships in order to co-create coordinated movement.?It's what?effective?leaders do when they so firmly declare a possibility that it becomes a probability in the minds of their followers. Learn how to do this with greater elegance and certainty.

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