Is Stress Causing Your Body Budget to be Out of Balance?

In the book, 'How Emotions Are Made', neuroscientist and psychologist, Lisa Feldman Barrett, introduces the concept of body budgeting. Because our brains are hidden and therefore unable to see what is happening, it relies upon predictions using our past experience as well as sensory information such as our heart rate, hormones and breathing.

The predictions our brains make help to regulate our 'body budget'?to ensure we maintain optimum well-being. As an example, when you start running, your brain uses the sensory information of your quickening heartbeat and breathing with your past experiences of running to recognise what you are doing. Your brain then dips into your body budget to take out additional energy which it then restores as you rest, eat and drink after.?

This is an effective and complicated system used to regulate our emotions and wellness. But daily life and work can leave our body budget out of sync. Long hours, poor sleep and diet, and the continual pressure to respond to?emails and calls can cause our brains to make poor predictions because our body's budget is unable to replenish itself.

Let's say you wake up worrying about a work deadline. Your brain takes out energy from its body budget to deal with your panic. It also takes out energy for other?stresses in your day such as meetings, work tasks and even anxious thoughts. If you do not take the time to rest after or prioritise your well-being, your brain is then out of balance.

As a leader, there are things you can do to help people relieve?stress?by regulating their bodies better:

• Make breaks and rest mandatory. Remove the notion that working long hours means you are more driven and hard-working.

• Consider how your presence could trigger an employee's thoughts. Could you create more worry for a person because you are constantly creating new demands???Or do you make employees feel confident and engaged, loyal to you and the organisation?

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• Be one of the many employers who provide flexible work. Giving people more control over their hours can help them manage their time better, leading to an improved work-life balance.

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• Ensure workloads are manageable and people are not regularly working beyond what should be required due to last-minute deadlines.

Podcast: Purposeful Empathy with Anita Nowak

If you are going to have a conversation about empathy, who else to speak to than leading empathy expert, Anita Nowak. An author, speaker, facilitator and award-winning educator, Anita's TEDx?Talk on 'The Power of Empathy' has reached nearly 100,000 people.

Anita holds a doctoral degree from McGill University, where she was named Professor of the Year in 2014 and 2019.

Together with our CEO, Anita discusses:

• Why the world needs more empathy (a detailed look at how many issues are associated with a lack of compassion).
• Why empathetic action can be a powerful, disruptive force for social good.
• Could the rise of people such as Andrew Tate, be linked to his simple answers in our complex world?
• How empathy can co-exist with AI technology.
• Workplace solutions for how we can be more empathetic.

Click here?to watch the interview or listen on?Spotify here.

3 Key Benefits of Our Leadership Retreat

?Next month, the doors close for our Early Bird pricing to our transformational leadership retreat taking place between September 24th - 30th this year. For those of you joining us, here are three incredible benefits you can expect:

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1. Liberation from conditioning and increased awareness?

Your stay will include workshops and training, with experiential exercises to steer you away from overthinking, reacting, and conditioning.

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2. Enhanced leadership skills based on serenity and empathy

Our CEO, Thom Dennis, has coached several Fortune and FTSE 500 company executives. He is joined with Christina Courtright Jenkins, a speaker and entrepreneur who has consulted with businesses and individuals across the globe. Together, they will provide executive coaching to enhance your leadership qualities.?

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3. A new sense of energy, knowing how to be a positive influence and an empowering leader

Connect and learn from expert leaders across the globe, restore with 20 acres of lakefront paradise on sacred ancient Mayan land and renourish with gourmet meals and meditation.

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For more information and to arrange a chat with Thom and Christina to see if this retreat is the right one for you,?Visit?Leading Through the Void?to book your place before tickets run out.?