And still we are depleted, depressed and disconnected as a society. The average human attention span dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8.25 sec in 2015, putting us now below the 9-second attention span of a Goldfish. The average office worker checks their email 30 times an hour. Media overload is the sixth top cause of stress in the U.S. including all forms of Media ranging from television to social media.
Breaking from that cycle, I created a yoga-inspired approach that includes a more comprehensive examination of how we can become the best leaders possible. The dimensions this approach considers includes:
- Physical: diet, exercise, yoga asana, sleep
- Energy: conscious breathing, communication
- Mind: self-observation, self-awareness, perspective
- Knowledge: space, meditation
- Bliss: Principle-led living, finding your purpose, and doing things that bring you joy
By considering the health of each of our dimensions we can move beyond our disconnected tendencies, cultivating qualities essential to leadership success.
Because the truth is, our personal well-being is directly connected to leadership success. To function fully as a leader, we need to be happy, healthy and connected to ourselves and our lives so we can engage, motivate, and even inspire our teams. We do this by taking care of ourselves. If leaders are not fully functioning, they can’t be there fully for their teams or their families.
My yoga teacher Rolf Gates once said to us quite early in our year-long teacher training, “We do yoga for ourselves and others.” He said it a lot. I didn’t get it at first.
Now it has become the mantra that has guided the last five years of my research. I’ll state it a little differently:
We take care of our holistic health for ourselves and others.
Inspiring leaders have great habits of health and wellbeing. They invest in their success by investing in themselves. When you truly begin to realize how much you can positively enhance the lives of others through your own good example, being your best self-offers life meaning and purpose.
