As the speed of change continues to dominate our lives, and the news is littered by stories of trouble and turmoil it is easy to forget that each of us has the ability to decide how we respond to these events.
Emotions peak and ebb constantly amid a bombardment of choices. Uncertainty is growing about our direction and the future.
Despite the stress and chaos caused by climate change, economic instability and global insecurity, people are coming together. Hope and a positive momentum are building among the future caretakers of humanity and our planet. These people are what I call the Joined Up Leaders of the future
Hope is driven by the qualities of the heart: appreciation, happiness, care, compassion, etc. These qualities are strengthened by:
• Spiritual practices like meditation, prayer and coherence-building techniques.
• Heart connections with others and caring relationships within and outside our families.
• Frequent gathering with friends and loved ones
Great leaders are masters at demonstrating the traits of being Joined Up and living from the heart. Some the practices they adopt include:
• Genuinely appreciating everything and increasing heartfelt positive emotions.
• Generating positive feelings before, during and after activities and encounters to increase the texture and richness of life experiences.
• Practice care for yourself and others.
• Guard against negative projections about themselves, someone else or the future.
• Be objective about issues that arise, as if they are someone else’s. Focus on the heart area and breathe in a positive feeling or attitude. Listen to their heart for solutions.
Interestingly, practising these activities also leads to coherence. Among the characteristics of psycho-physiological coherence are smooth heart-rhythm patterns, greater heart-brain synchronization for improved cognitive ability, and efficient, harmonious functioning of cardiovascular, nervous, hormonal and immune systems.
So what is Coherence?. The Institute of HeartMath define coherence as: 
“Feelings of genuine hope, appreciation, care and compassion signal your heart to send harmonious and coherent signals to the brain/mind, replacing feelings of separation with connection. The heart and brain align, and your electromagnetic field sends out a coherence wave, locally and globally. Higher cortical functions are enhanced, enabling greater objectivity and intuitive perception”
as opposed to incoherence which is:
“Stress, overwhelm, anxiety, uncertainty and fear send chaotic and incoherent signals to the brain/mind, inhibiting higher cortical functions and trigger stressful responses. The heart and brain are no longer in sync and solutions to personal and global problems elude us. Negative emotions register in your magnetic field, generating an incoherence wave”
And guess what, I always notice that my clients become more coherent in the presence of the horses. (And to prove this I have recently started using the HeartMath emWave and Inner Balance applications to help confirm this). There is just something about the energy of the horses and the connection that people experience that unlocks their heart and makes them open to these emotions of hope and possibility. This is why it is not unusual for people to cry during the experience, as they get deeply connected to their true authentic self. The part of us that often, especially in a corporate environment, we hide and leave at the door. And yet this is the part of us that others want to see and that effortlessly enables us to develop connection and relationship to build our business.
So if you’d like to get connected and find your true authentic self, then give me a call and I’ll book you in for an appointment with the horses.
PS. Want to learn more about how to Build Relationships To Build Your Business?. Then come and hear me speak at the THRIVE conference on 24th September
(Article inspired by the Institute of Heart Math, Tips for Heart Based Living)
Julia Felton (aka The Business Wrangler) is the founder of Business HorsePower. Business leaders, entrepreneurs and executives hire her to accelerate their business performance by harnessing the energy of their people to work more collaboratively together. By aligning purpose with actions the team achieves exponential results as everyone starts pulling in the same direction.
Julia believes that business is a force for good and through designing purpose-driven businesses that leverage the laws of nature, and the herd, you can create businesses founded on the principles of connection, collaboration and community that make a significant impact in the world.
