Why the Body
In case you've forgotten the part of you that's carrying your head around
I was coaching Felipe, a regional CFO for a Fortune 500 technology company. We’d met several times, and on this day, he seemed edgy. Felipe was an astute learner. He was passionate about excellence and equality and cared deeply about growing as a leader. He had attended a regional offsite the week prior and was frustrated by how it went. Felipe felt conflicted between wanting to throw in the towel and not wanting to be someone closed off or resistant to change. “Is it me, or is it them?” he asked. “It feels like it’s them.” He kept circling the topic for several minutes. Since we seemed to be going nowhere fast, I asked, “How does your body feel right now?”
Felipe’s posture straightened with this prompt, and he leaned back in his chair.
Felipe: My neck and shoulders have been bothering me, and I haven’t slept well. I’ve been so busy with work that I haven’t seen my chiropractor.
He took a deep breath, and I welcomed the pause.
Me: Could there be a correlation between how you’re feeling physically and how you’re feeling emotionally about what happened at the offsite?
Felipe: Wow. Maybe.
Me: Do you want to try a short exercise to see if it makes you feel better physically?
Felipe: Yes. Absolutely.
Me: Okay. What if you took those shoulders that feel tight and raised them toward your ears, intentionally tightening even more? Squeeze your shoulders up tight, tight, tight, and then release. Allow them to lower gently.
He exhaled more fully and slowly opened his eyes - they were brighter and more focused than before.
Felipe: Ah, I feel a lot better. Could it be that simple?
Me: You tell me. When you think of the offsite now, what do you notice?
Felipe: That agitation is gone. I don’t feel so frustrated.
I repeated one of the sentences I heard him say. It was a phrase from the mental loop he was stuck in earlier.
Felipe: Wow. (He chuckled.) I can see why they pushed so hard on this new strategy. It makes sense to me. I don’t feel triggered by it now.
Me: How interesting. What does this experience show you?
Felipe: I need to prioritize my physical health. When I’m off physically, it skews how I perceive things. I’m less patient or tolerant.
Me: And what does making your health a higher priority look like?
Felipe: I need to get back to the chiropractor this week.
The insight
When we’re physically off because we’re out of alignment or experiencing pain, it can adversely affect our thoughts and emotions. In Felipe’s case, taking good care of his physical body paved the way for clearer thinking and the ability to consider multiple perspectives. The moment Felipe felt better physically, his perspective shifted.
The nudge
When did you last work with a practitioner (chiropractor, rolfer, acupuncturist, or other trained body therapist)?
What was the result?
I love the subtitle 'the part of you that's carrying your head around'. For many years, I treated my body like this subtitle, simply a part that was carrying my big thinking head. This is when my body started to alert me that I was not paying attention and that it brought a lot of wisdom. Between frozen shoulder and knee inflammation that resulted in daily 60-minute physio sessions that lasted almost a year, it was the (painful) hint I needed to embrace it as one of my intelligences.