Embodied Energy Approach: Transformative learning that sticks

(8 min read)

Traditional approaches to training and development have you learn lots of great concepts... until the day you find yourself struggling to remember that tool you picked up in that half-day webinar masterclass training thing...only to spend more time and money trying to relearn things you've already heard.

This cognitive-first approach is outdated and ineffective because it neglects an important source of wisdom - your body.

Our one-of-a-kind Embodied Energy Approach unleashes your leadership potential by facilitating awareness of your mind, body and the connection between the two. 

This neuroscience-backed system is designed to leave you knowing yourself as a leader who is aware, embodied, fearless, connected and unstoppable in your mission to build a world that works for everyone.

IT ALL STARTS WITH UNDERSTANDING ENERGY

“Energy” might sound a little “woo”, but hear us out. 

We define “energy” as your attitude, it’s how you show up. It’s your “way of being and acting in the world”. 

Your energy is influenced by your beliefs - about the world, past experiences, situations and beliefs you have about yourself. 

Your energy is at the core of how you’re showing up in all given moments, and it directly impacts the results you produce in your life.

Let’s break it down here and put it into context.

If you’re working on a project and your situation seems “hopeless”, you’re going to bring a certain kind of energy with you to that situation. You might feel lethargic, move slowly and think to yourself “What’s the point?”. You’re going to think, feel and act in ways that resonate with “hopelessness”.

Alternatively, if you’re working on a project and your situation seems “very hopeful”, the energy you bring will be completely different. You might feel excited, move around quickly and think to yourself, “Yeah, I’ve got this!”. All the actions you take, feelings you feel and thoughts you think will resonate with “hopefulness”.

We can agree that resonating with hopelessness or with hopefulness will certainly produce different results. 

That’s why, at Level 7 Leadership, we focus on energy. 

Because your energy is what’s at the source of how you think, feel, and act. 

Energy = Thoughts + Feelings + Actions = Results

The question is: what type of energy are you bringing to your work and your life? And how is it helping you or hindering you?

Learn more about catabolic & anabolic energy.

The fact that your beliefs colour your world may not be mindblowing to you (or it might, and that’s totally awesome - yay insights!) - what makes the Embodied Energy Approach so transformative is...well, our embodied approach. 

 

WE ROCK THE BODY 

To “embody” something means to “give a visible form to”. So, “embodied energy” means to give a visible form to your energy. 

If you are feeling hopeful, you may embody that feeling with a smile. If you are feeling hopeless, you may embody that feeling with a slouch. These are super simple examples of how your body expresses itself in relation to your energy. 

But embodiment is that and so so much more. The way you stand in line at the grocery store, the way you walk to the fridge, the way you tilt your head when you talk to your mom... all of your body positions both inform your energy and dictate your energy. And there is a lot of neuroscience to back up the power of notice and working with the body.

Your physical body patterns directly relate to how you perceive and interact with the world around us and how it interacts with you. 

But what does this have to do with how you are leading?

Imagine yourself as a confident, powerful person. How do you look? How are you standing? How are you moving, walking? You might have your chest out, standing tall, shoulders wide. Perhaps you are wearing a small smile on your face. You move fluidly and yet, and at the same time, do so with purpose and direction. You are breathing deeply and very obviously appear to be at ease.

Now, imagine yourself as a timid and shy person. How is your posture, breathing and movements? Your chest will probably be caved in, shoulders slouched… you would probably appear smaller than usual. You may have a scowl or just hold tension in your face. Your strides would be shorter and your breathing faster and more shallow.

You can see by these examples, although maybe a bit exaggerated, the bottom line is: 

Your body patterns inform who you are being in any moment.

And that’s where we go to work.

By noticing and working with the body’s posture, movements and breath, you can shift your energy and transform how you show up as a leader to produce new, extraordinary results.

 

IN A NUTSHELL: WHY OUR APPROACH WORKS

Surely you’ve had the experience of learning at a brain-only level:

• Math quizzes *shudder*
• That time your mentor shared some semi-important legal advice that you didn’t put into practice immediately...what did she say again?
• Lectures on emotional intelligence
• Reading that super interesting book, taking notes, never looking at the notes again and remembering a few lines of semi-helpful information...you’ll probably review those notes sometime? Maybe?

We’ll agree that learning like that can be useful - especially if you put it into practice immediately and it makes a difference for you! 

But what we’ve found with building leadership skills is that working at the brain-only level is much less effective. It’s not a surprise that only 15% of organizations feel their leadership development training is highly effective.

This is because when you need to be at your best it’s also when you find yourself in the middle of a shitstorm, piled with work and literally cannot even - you’re not about to remember that mindset model you saw on that leadership webinar 6 months ago. 

How are you supposed to remember information in times of overwhelm?

By mastering your energy and learning how to do that through the use of your body, you will not have to memorize or recall what to do because your body will already be handling it for you. 

By utilizing the body as a tool in addition to using your cognition, you’ll have more choice in how you show up, even in times of stress. 

That’s real transformation.