Stay And You Have Time For More

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Health-promoting benefits for leaders

It was a time about 18 years ago when I ran, ran on the must and the tables, said to myself, I should just, just have to do this, should just write the compilation, do not have time right now, will only, I increased the speed, must get all the lists together, should just make this call, then I should take time off, then I should sign up for the one that paints the course, then I will, then, then, then. "Just going" never ended and "late" never came…. It was usually as much mental as physical stress. The anxiety of thought and attempts to create control are some of our major stressors. After many years of ignoring stress signals, the pace eventually began to slowly slow down, I became more tired, the body signaled with pain, the brain slowed down, lost focus, suddenly stopped beating, the brain stopped, lost memory, forgot where I lived. The body had long sought attention but without an audience it chose to stop working, I slept most of the day, woke up 4 months later in a haze. Apathy and emotional turmoil about every other. I received from a really good doctor prescribed support adapted for me. No pills without conversation, image therapy and body awareness that took me slowly forward, not back but to something new.

What I thought would be two weeks of sick leave was a year and a half. It was my greatest learning time and the turning point in my life from a stressed achiever in need of external confirmation (which I did not believe or understand then, I was strong and had always managed myself) to a life-affirming person with security inside and out. There my passion for personal development and self-leadership was aroused and every day since then I have explored man and life. Big events in life often make us humble people, we increase understanding of ourselves and others, we get access to a great deal of empathy and the opportunity to both see and cherish what really matters and creates meaning in life.

So what do I mean by "stay and you have time for more"? I am, first of all, living proof of the opposite, that the faster you run over time, the slower it goes and the less you have time and in the end, it is not even a question of catching anything, just surviving. Stress research shows that good sleep, rest, and recovery are needed for a healthy and actively functioning nervous system, for the brain's nerve cells, a good heart rate, a good immune system, and much, much more in our fantastically complex physical system.

A paradox, "to stay increases the pace". Just stopping in everyday life, taking a break, and breaking conditions mean that we suddenly get new energy, become more efficient, and have time for more. You have probably experienced that with a certain type of stress, most things go wrong and when you are calm, things tend to work and fall into place, we experience flow and have time for what we are supposed to and more. However, I would like to point out that we often work efficiently and well in the press, for some even better. Stress is natural and can make us both alert and effective in specific situations. It is negatively experienced (sometimes also positive) stress over time that hinders us and makes us sick. We need to stay, give time to recover and find a balance to regain access to energy, focus, and efficiency. When we stress too much or over time, the brain slows down, and we lose focus. When we stop and let go of worries or thoughts of stress, the highway suddenly opens in the brain and we become more clairvoyant and creative.

Make an appointment for self-leadership

As an elite athlete, I have experienced that muscle mass and strength grow when we give room for rest. Not only in sports, but diet is also a major contributing factor to good health. When we stop and give ourselves time for presence, reflection, and processing, the pace of our development increases, we increase our awareness, self-insight, worldview, and personal maturity, thus also our self-leadership in all areas, thought, feeling, body and soul. In this way, I take it for granted that a leader sets aside time for reflection and books himself in the calendar for recurring developmental conversations with himself!

Just as music and tones on different hertz affect the cell's vibration, we affect the body's and cells' vibration with thought and feeling. Anxious and stressed thoughts and feelings have a certain vibration (feeling of sugar drink or high frequency on the inside) and can be compared to standing in line on the highway, it is a complete chaos and everything stands still, nothing happens and you get nowhere. Harmonious and joyful thoughts and feelings have a certain vibration (usually feels warm and full in the chest) and are like floating downstream on a river, you move compliantly and easily forward.

Rest and recovery - a natural need

As we usually do not give ourselves time for natural rest and recovery, we have adopted health forms from Eastern philosophy such as yoga and chi gong. Some get their presence and recovery in the form of meditation or mindfulness which has been shown to have extremely good effects on our brain, heart rate, and state of health. But is that all it's about? Health is more than our physical activity, healthy food, and rest, right? If we explore stillness on a deeper level, we get access to something much bigger, an inner world beyond intellect and body. A monk expressed it as if the space of the universe fills us as much (within us) as it surrounds us. Are you curious?

In the wake of silence, we can have access to experiences of the words we sometimes utter that we often do not really know what really mean, words such as happiness, true joy, self-love, and harmony. When we are in the hurricane of life, we can visit ourselves by staying in the quiet center of the hurricane, breathing, listening inward, and gaining access to a new world. In the beginning, many people feel that they need to go through a lot of filters, noise, and old rubbish, ie spinning thoughts about what has been, what is to come, one thing, one thing the other. Feelings of restlessness, impatience, and discomfort may also need to go through. All this is often a sign that you are up in circles or have swept things under the rug. It is when we have not cleaned our interior for a long time that it can become too full. As full as it was for me many years ago when the body and the bud could not bear to carry anymore. So patience and perseverance are good qualities on the journey to inner stillness to gain access to more freedom and power. Then you often realize that you actually calmly "catch up" with life. Who do you want to be and how do you want to live your life?

I have had the privilege of studying with Indians in Mexico, the USA, and Sweden and when I in my restlessness searched for silence and presence, I occasionally asked my shaman (wise man/woman) what I should do to get there. Below is his answer.

"Under the stars, with the people on earth, silence always lives in our hearts, rest there often and you will find peace"

By: Anna Ugander

Categories: : English