You think too much.

You think too much.

There, I said it.

Have you ever considered that perhaps you think too much? Spend too much time in your head? Perhaps over analyse things?

It's a common thing, after all. At least in our Western societies. The glorification of the intellect. The praise of the common sense. Heck, even Descartes said: I think, therefore I am.

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Yet, what we don't necessarily consider is that this super power of ours, our analytical and intellectual capability, might be our biggest obstacle on our way to the greatest of human potential.

If you look at frameworks around human development - I myself am most familiar with those of Robert Kegan and?Michael A. Singer (reading rec: his wonderful book The Untethered Soul) - it is generally agreed that one of the big leaps in human development takes place when we make the infamous subject/object shift.

You might not be able to name it - but you know when you can do it. This shift makes us humans uniquely abled to be and do from higher planes of consciousness, as this very act develops the fabric of our consciousness - where everything arises from.

This shift gives us the ability to go beyond our thoughts…and notice, we are more than our thoughts.

I could potentially go on for a good while about this stuff, however today I really only had two points to cover.

Thinking AND leadership

Let me set the scene first, however, When it comes to leadership, there's a strong ask for presence and high sensory acuity. Leadership happens in the now, not in the tomorrow. Call it sixth sense - leaders must have sensitive ears, eyes on their back, an open heart, and a porous skin.

If a leader is in their head…they're dead (not me but thx Tony Robbins).

Now, two things are of particular interest to me:

1. When we start to explore life beyond our head, our feelings, bodies and other sensations are naturally brought into the equation. You can only be present if you're in your body. One of my fav quotes goes (apparently by the Sioux Indians, although I've seen this to be contributed to Lao Tzu as well): the longest journey you will make in your life is from your head to your heart. It is a journey for sure - and it's worthy one. When we land into our bodies, we're able to receive raw, unfiltered, sensory data from within. Data that is not coloured by our past experiences (that's what the head does). We can also observe our surroundings more precisely. When we learn to invite the body, and combine both top-down and bottom-up information, we become more available to what is, have more choice and I'd argue we have a much better chance to do the 'right' thing.
2. As I wrote above, we're more than a thinking head. As a student of meditation and breathwork for some time now, I am often invited to 'go beyond my thinking mind'. This is where it gets exciting - consider that a thought needs our consciousness, but our consciousness doesn’t really need any thought at all. I'm only at the start of this adventure but 'going beyond the mind' is the journey towards the Holy Grail concepts of peace, joy and happiness - completely independent of circumstances. From a business/leadership point of view, consciousness is a fascinating focus of exploration - I'll lean into Albert Einstein who said you can't solve a problem from where you created it from… Today, in this world, we need 'higher consciousness' solutions, ideas, and innovations…and someone needs to go 'there' to 'get them', right?

Finally, why I'm so passionate about these topics in the context of leadership in particular (and I've spoken about this before, you can for example check out the newsletter on "Becoming present to invite the unimaginable" with the cute drawing ?? - find the link at the end) is that it is leaders who set the tone, they set the quality of the awareness and presence for the wider group. It's important to understand that when a high standard is set by the leader, it automatically raises the quality of awareness in others - often called emergent consciousness. If you're not going to set the bar high, who is?

I'd love to continue the conversation with you in the comments - let me know what resonated, if you have questions (I can attempt answering!), or wishes for future topics. You can also always approach me by DM.

If you're curious about getting closer to me and my work, that's available, too. This is the work I do with my clients, privately on our 1:1 coaching journeys or through my training programs for leadership teams and high performing teams. My passion is to help you harness the power of your mind, as it's meant to be used, and leverage our mind-body connection for higher performance. I believe we need more of the new - rather than repeating the same - in the future, and that requires us to unlock more of our innate capabilities. Get in touch to meet.

Happy weekend all ??

x Anna

Ps. click here to read the earlier newsletter mentioned above: