Exercises / Practices

By Patrick Briody, guest contributor 

If only I didn’t have this horrible feeling in my gut every time I think of updating the committee on this project. Why am I such a wimp? 

Whether you’ve had exactly that thought or not, managing our emotions in professional life can be a significant source of difficulty. For some leaders, unregulated emotions are the main limitation on their upward trajectory.

The bad news is, of course, that eliminating difficult emotions is probably not going to happen…

By John J. Murphy, guest contributor 

You turn on the daily news and hear about more businesses slowly reopening. You wonder when you will be going back to work. And then you wonder if you will be going back to work. After all, a lot of people are getting permanently furloughed these days. Or, maybe you are already back to work and you wonder how you will lead your team with poise and confidence when a lot of people are anxious and afraid, just like you. How can a fearful leader inspire anyone?…

By Steven Cohen, guest contributor 

These are really crazy times. There is a need to physically distance ourselves from others to avoid the spread of a virus that traveled in an unknown web of human interactions around the world in months. Recommendations about what to do change by the hour, but ultimately, many of us are quarantined in our own houses.  At the same time, we need each other for emotional support and to avoid isolation. We want to be there for our family, friends, customers, coll…

By Joy Reichart, guest contributor 

In these times of massive change and disruption, many of us are starting to look inward to see how we can be of greater support to our families, communities, and the world. Integral Coaching, which is a sustainable, self-generating framework for developing ourselves and others, offers several practical ways to take up this inquiry. 

One of the assessment models we use to help us in this is called the Six Streams of Competence. This model serves to give us a …

By Fleet Maull, guest contributor 

During these times of great uncertainty and anxiety, I believe we need to begin a serious conversation about resilience. Resilience is simply no longer a luxury. It's becoming essential and even critical to our very survival… in much the same way that His Holiness the Dalai Lama, a global voice for peace and nonviolence, has said that compassion is not a luxury, that it's actually critical to our very survival in the highly complex, interdependent world in whi…

By Marc Brackett, guest contributor 

When we are overly stressed and worried, like many of us have felt lately with threats like the coronavirus, it becomes even more difficult to regulate our emotions with effective strategies.

But what exactly is effective emotion regulation?

Emotion regulation is how we deal with the feelings we experience from moment to moment to have wellbeing, build positive relationships, and achieve desired goals. When we’re feeling disappointed or joyful or anxious o…

By Loch Kelly, guest contributor 

Effortless mindfulness is both a natural capacity and a skillful way to connect with ourselves and others. It is a way of being mindful from a different level of mind than we are used to. There is more to effortless mindfulness than meditation. Effortless mindfulness is primarily an off-the-meditation-cushion way of weaving together contemplation and compassionate actions. Effortless mindfulness begins by opening to a natural spacious awareness in order to beco…

By Pilar Gerasimo, guest contributor 

Feeling a bit worn out or freaked out these days? Yeah, join the club.

You’ve probably heard by now that stress-related diseases and conditions rank among the top contributors to our country’s healthcare expenses. Many sources suggest that up to 85 percent of all doctor’s-office visits are in some way tied to stress. Many chronic diseases have a stress-related component. And today, more than 50 percent of U.S. adults have been diagnosed with at least one c…

By Max Strom, guest contributor 

Why is it that so many people in urban environments across the world are now experiencing exponential growth in anxiety and depression? What can we make of the fact that anxiety is now an epidemic in America? It’s also alarming that suicide was the second leading cause of death among people between the ages of 10 and 34. 

Most of us are thankful that we live in a time when we have medications for anxiety and depression, but I haven’t met anybody who wants to li…