by Wendy Palmer

In the 1990’s the world of business and organization discovered that having a high IQ (Intelligence Quotient) by itself does not make a person a great leader. EQ (Emotional Intelligence) emerged as the new paradigm for developing leaders. The notion that human relations are as important as managing data became the main tenet of leadership competences. This idea evolved into a movement that spread to the far corners of the planet. Mind and emotions area vital part of our capacity to engage with the challenges of today’s demands but they are not the whole of who we are nor do they represent our full potential of human possibility.

We are also a body that communicates and processes information on a sensory level far more encompassing than our cultural view leads us to believe. We have access to an immense intelligence that informs us through all of our multi dimensional ways of being. Research has shown that 70% to 90% of communication is non-verbal. We are exchanging information all the time even when we are not speaking. The process of discovering how we communicate non-verbally and accessing intuition – information that comes from intelligence beyond what is already known – is the field of Somatic Intelligence. Somatic Intelligence is the study and practice of what unites mind, emotions and intuition – the body.

Personality and Center

Our ability to unite mind, emotions and intuition in the body, rests on our understanding of the energy patterns that keep us from living in such unification on a day-to-day basis. In order to make a distinction between the energy patterns that support unification and those that inhibit unification we will name these parts of ourselves ‘center’ and ‘personality’.

Personality is the part of us that references on managing the stuff of life –relationships and things. It is triggered around issues of safety, approval and control. To be clear, in this exploration we are interested in how the pattern organizes not why it came to be. Our assumption is that everyone has a survival pattern that arose in an attempt to manage the relationships and things in their life. From the point of view of this study all personality patterns are equally unskillful and will fail to bring about happiness and security. This is because all personality survival patterns are referenced on safety and security in a world where we can never be entirely safe and secure. Ultimately everything in the universe is subject to change – everything is impermanent. Like Sisyphus, continuously rolling the rock up hill, personality is constantly trying to achieve security in and insecure world.

Center is the part of us that references on unification – the recognition of interconnectedness. In center we experience effortless action and stillness with the same even regard. When we are in the zone or the flow state we experience unification as a natural strength or intelligence moving through us. The state of center, sometimes called the zone, is often described as an experience where there is plenty of time and space and a difficult task becomes effortless. Center is referenced on the whole of life while personality references on the individual segments. Because the centered part of us is not cluttered with survival concerns and needs there is space for insight, creativity and innovation to arise through intuition.

Our interest in making this distinction between personality and center is to be able to closely examine the process of development in the personality’s pattern. The more we can actually notice, the more we become aware of how the pattern begins, the easier it will be to effect the pattern. In other words, if we catch it at the beginning before too much momentum has gathered, we will be able to choose to activate the alternative – a more centered pattern based on unification. This shift does not occur because we wish to become more centered. It happens because we have done our homework. We have practiced strengthening the pattern of center.

Strengthening the pattern of center is the second practice we engage in because if we focus on developing the unified centered state first we will tend to default to the more positive alternative and try to skip or suppress the personality’s pattern. If this happens then we will be unable to look closely at the small incremental shifts that make up the momentum of personality’s pattern and we will miss the opportunity to discover how it originates and begins to develop into a full-blown survival reaction.

Becoming attuned to the way our energy moves allows us to work with ourselves before the patterns becomes thought. Small children and animals can tell when a person is upset before the people know it themselves. There are dogs that can tell when a person is going to have a seizure thirty seconds before the onset of the seizure. The dogs bark so the person can get them selves in a safe place or make a phone call. By paying close attention we can use the same principle, we can train ourselves to be able to tell when we are beginning to react. Once the reactive thoughts come to our field of awareness the momentum of the pattern is already quite strong. If we study ourselves closely enough we will begin to discern how the pattern originates before it shows up as a thought.

We need courage and a sense of humor to be able to expose this unskillful behavior to ourselves, in Conscious Embodiment our training partner is also a witness. As a coach our partner can add helpful feedback to illuminate aspects of our pattern that are often invisible to us. This practice is the unique piece that Conscious Embodiment brings to the area of Somatic Intelligence. Rather than offering ways to layer helpful skills and behavior on top of a potentially activated survival pattern, Conscious Embodiment directs the focus to uncovering the process of the survival pattern. It is by bringing the light of awareness, by examining in great detail the way the energy moves within the pattern, that the choice point can arise. When we actually see the beginning of personality’s survival pattern emerging we recognize the cues and consciously shift attention to the energy pattern of center. With practice we can access this alternative more centered way of relating with the situation. Over time the move from personality to center becomes more fluid.

The Art of Leadership

Leadership requires more than skills and business acumen, great leadership is an art form that requires qualities that signal a capacity for relational and intuitive processes. Presence, compassion, integrity and inquiry are qualities that enhance leadership in today’s fast moving, complex world of organization. Presence is the embodied capacity for expansion, the ability to extend energy that carries the context and meaning of the organization and what it stands for in a global perspective. Compassion is the authentic awareness that our lives are interconnected and the embodied message - ‘we are all in this together’. Integrity is manifested through transparency and provides a basis for credibility and accessibility. Inquiry is the ability to tolerate uncertainty as an arena of possibility and innovation.

The recognition that all of us have a personality that is driven by a survival pattern is baseline for the Conscious Embodiment process. The most challenging part of becoming aware of our actions is to recognize one of personalities favorite strategies, self-deception.

For a leader, the capacity to be aware of a survival energy pattern emerging creates transparency and a choice point. She can choose to make a shift in energy. Self-deception shows up as an impulse to control others and the outcome without taking one’s own behavior into account. Remember, the personality references on control, approval and safety. Rather than looking inward to become aware of how we are participating in a difficult situation the personality looks out at other people and sees how they need to adjust their behavior. A leader who is willing to acknowledge this and make a shift in her energy pattern brings a combination of humanity and centeredness to the challenges of attending to the immediate details of the moment within a sense of the larger context of past, present and future.

Conscious Embodiment

One of the most important aspects of the Conscious Embodiment work is examining the way the body organizes energy when it shifts to survival or senses a threat. In other words we look at how our survival pattern shapes our body. One of the ways the survival pattern is activated is through physical pressure.

Conscious Embodiment allows us to trigger the discomfort of the survival pattern in a controlled environment. By holding the wrists and applying a quick and constant pressure the body automatically goes into its survival pattern. Acting out a pressure situation triggers the energetic shape for irritation, anxiety etc… so you can observe how it presents as an energy pattern in the body. While the pressure is sustained it is possible to observe how energy is organized in three areas - the head and neck, the arms and chest and the hips and legs. This is useful because we may think that how we are responding is limited to what we are thinking. What we discover in the exercise is that our emotions and below that, our gut (belly), may be responding in a very different manor. This awareness helps us realize why, when we think we are being so clear about something others react as if we are giving them different information - and often we are doing just that. We are saying one thing, feeling another thing and below that we may have a deep sense of commitment to safety.

Once the observer is awakened it shifts the way we see ourselves in relationships. When the survival pattern is brought to the surface and seen in a non-judgmental way, there is less self-deception. Because our reactive pattern is no longer hidden we can say to ourselves, “Oh, look at me - my personality wants to be in control. I want respect and appreciation.” Then instead of pursuing the story, we can stop and shift our attention to the concentration of the centering process.

The centering practice can manage the discomfort of recognizing the story with more dignity and wisdom. The shift is from awareness - recognizing personality’s reaction, to concentration - the elements of centering. The short version for centering - exhale down, lengthen the spine up and open out, then relax; or the longer process - focus the attention on relating with the vertical core, exhale into the earth, inhale up, balance your energy; back, front, left and right; let the pressure of gravity soften your jaw and shoulders and inquire… what if there were a little more… (generosity) in my being? The centering process shifts the body’s energy pattern to a more calm, stable state. This centered state communicates a different message into the environment - a message of strength, inclusiveness and awareness of what is being communicated.

Leaders have a responsibility to be models for the community they influence. Somatic Intelligence recognizes the body is a vehicle to unify mind, emotions and intuition as a path to empower leadership. Conscious Embodiment is a somatic process through which leaders can model strength and humility through the embodied practice of inclusiveness, confidence, compassion and transparency. Understanding is not enough. If understanding was enough, then the smartest people would be the best leaders. We now know it takes more than IQ to be a great leader. It is time to move beyond the limitations of understanding and insights. The embodiment of insights, both emotional and cognitive is the next paradigm in the evolution of leadership.

Wendy Palmer will be leading modules on Embodied Leadership - Empowered Life at ALIA West and the Shambhala Summer Institute. Wendy has been teaching and coaching the Conscious Embodiment model for over twenty-eight years. She is a sixth degree Black Belt in Aikido and she teaches at Aikido of Tamalpais in Sausalito, California. Wendy is author of two books a DVD and a CD: The Intuitive Body: Discovering the Wisdom of Conscious Embodiment and Aikido (Blue Snake Press, 1994) and The Practice of Freedom: Aikido Principles as a Spiritual Guide (Rodmell Press, 2002) DVD Conscious Embodiment 2006, CD Recover Your Center 2008. She offers coaching in embodied leadership for individuals, groups and teams. Her clients include NASA, Genentech, Oracle, McKinsey and The US Forest Service. For more information go to: www.consciousembodiment.com