EMBODIED-MINDFULNESS AND THE SOMATIC SHIFT
EXPLORING SENIOR LEADERS' ABILITY TO SHIFT ATTENTION TO EMBODIED STATES OF AWARENESS IN THE WORKPLACE AND EFFECT ON WELLBEING AND LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVNESS
Seedling 2: Research Project Proposal, Introduction
Christopher L. Wilson
BPSY at California Institute of Integral Studies
Research Methods In Psychology, GEN11105-01
Dee Reed, PhD
February 19, 2025
Research question: Can senior leaders notice and shift attention to embodied states of awareness in the workplace, and if so, does this increase a sense of well-being and leadership effectiveness?
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Introduction
According to Banfield (2024), who researched ten senior-level managers' ability to navigate embodied states of awareness (ESA) in the workplace, the ability to navigate between different ESA states is crucial for effective leadership. This skill enables managers to choose adaptive stress responses that allow them to maintain stress eustress, work performance, and environments that lead to psychological safety and collaboration. Specifically, leaders who can recognize when they are in dysregulated embodied states of awareness (DESA) and intentionally shift toward modulated embodied states of awareness (MESA) can maintain productivity and psychological safety while avoiding maladaptive stress reactions that lead to conflict and burnout, suggesting this is a vital skill for sustainable leadership effectiveness. Banfield (2024) found that leaders reported being unable to access RESA in the workplace. Banfield suggested this as an opportunity for deeper research because of the importance of the RESA state for restoration, repair, and transformation, as outlined by Fogel (2020).
VanderPal and Brazie (2023) state that leadership in agile environments demands adaptability and a deep sensitivity to team members' emotional and psychological states. VanderPal and Brazie (2024) suggest that incorporating Polyvagal Theory into agile project management enhances team dynamics, communication, and collaboration by fostering a deeper understanding of how the autonomic nervous system impacts behavior.
Peter Senge, a prominent management theorist, asserts that effective leaders must be deeply committed to their personal growth and understanding of their own humanity (2012), and Pete Hamill (2024), author of the book Embodied Leadership (2013) and lead somatic leadership facilitator of the Strozzi Institute, says that effective leadership requires more than relying on coercion and authority. Hamill says that effective leadership requires embodied development, a process of transforming one’s ingrained physical and emotional patterns, what Damasio (1995) calls somatic markers, through sustained practice. Hamill points out that this form of direct physical practice is more than intellectual understanding and theory because reshaping these habitual reaction patterns changes our biology and corresponding psychology, inspiring an inner creative, collaborative call to declare a deeper purpose to leaders organizing principles (Hamill, 2024).
Recently, mindfulness and mindfulness-based stress reduction, known as MBSR programs, have become popular components used in the workplace to combat stress, well-being, and leadership performance. It’s important to recognize that mindfulness is effective if it is embodied (King, 2018; Vago and Silbersweig, 2012; Cebolla et al., 2016). King (2018) proposed four aspects of mindful embodied leadership in order to train leaders to develop the skills of mindful embodied leadership aspects: ‘Mindful Self-Awareness,’ ‘Mindful Self-Regulation,’ ‘Mindful Presence,’ and ‘Mindful Communication.’ King (2018, p 206) states that participants in the training reported that their leadership improved not only through cognition but also by experiencing mindfulness as an embodied awareness. This is an important distinction to make because of the constant possibility of escapism through theory and intellectualization.
Finally, Fogel outlined three embodied states of awareness, or ESA, that align well with Polyvagal Theory and embodied leadership development. In Fogel's research with therapists trained in the Rosen method, he found that the most crucial state to develop is the RESA, or restorative embodied state of awareness. He points out that this is because DESA, or dysregulated embodied states of awareness, and MESA, or modulated states of embodied awareness, tend to be adaptive for everyday living, working, and relaxing. While RESA is essential to the transformation, restorative, and repair process, it can quickly go unnoticed by the untrained eye or bodymind. Fogel discovered two key insights from clinical observation. Clients and clinicians need help to differentiate between MESA and RESA states. Fogel outlined three reasons. First, RESA is rare. Second, MESA is adaptive to most everyday tasks and captivates our attention, keeping us moving, thinking, and doing. Third, MESA is perverse. When Fogel describes MESA as perverse, Fogel points out that RESA is not thinking or even “what you think.” RESA is characterized by felt experiences like sustained present-moment awareness and spontaneous emergence without planning, which requires surrender and letting go, results in a lasting sense of relief, and absence of deliberate control. (Fogel, 2020, pg. 44)
Fogel further concluded that therapists, coaches, and leaders should focus on cultivating the skills and environmental qualities that allow RESA to emerge because the qualities of RESA allow the regenerative and long-lasting therapeutic and transformational process to emerge adaptively. Fogel positioned the therapist’s ability to relax into a present state of embodied self-awareness, which acts as a catalyst and co-regulating leading source for the client. When practitioners are trained to become aware of their own ESA – as opposed to trying to remain “distant” or “objective” toward the client – there is more possibility for the client to develop similar attitudes of self-awareness and embodiment. (Fogel, 2020, pg. 44)
This research is significant because of the ongoing need to develop leadership strategies that allow leaders and teams to develop organizational cultures that can respond to competitive needs and create effective, psychologically safe environments that promote individual and societal well-being. Traditional organizational development and leadership theories fall short because they are often disembodied and leave managers and leaders without the necessary ability to respond to challenges with responsive skills. This is one of the reasons why I have made it a point to outline the difference between mindfulness and embodied leadership. Furthermore, noticing and consciously bringing attention to ESA is a central component of embodied leadership that has not yet been studied in a leadership and management context.
For this research project, I will interview ten privately held company founders who manage executive leadership teams of over five and less than ten individuals. The research study will be organized into eight interviews over eight weeks. The interview questions will be designed to assess a leader's capacity to shift attention to embodied states of awareness. I will assess the self-reported increase or decrease in well-being and effectiveness over the eight weeks through qualitative interview analysis. I will develop a series of questions for each of Fogel's ESA and pay special attention to RESA.
I expect that leaders can increase their awareness of DESA, learn to describe it, and become aware of their ability to respond to DESA with MESA skills. When leaders become more aware of what activities and somatic markers notify them of DESA and MESA states I expect their assessment of their effectiveness and sense of well-being to increase. RESA is likely to be more difficult to recognize in the workplace. I will attempt to develop questions that point to tiny moments or glimmers of RESA within the workday. My expectation is that if leaders can become conscious of tiny moments of RESA and aware of their innate ability to savor and to expand these moments I might find an opening for potential specialized training to teach leaders to increase this ability. My intention is to begin with this study to lay the groundwork for additional evaluations into how to access RESA in the workplace.
My research question: Can senior leaders notice and shift attention to embodied states of awareness in the workplace, and if so, does this increase a sense of well-being and effectiveness?
References
Damasio, A. R. (1995). Descartes' Error (1st ed.). HarpPeren.
Hamill, P. (2024). Understanding the path of embodied leadership development. Strozzi Institute for Somatics. https://strozziinstitute.org/understanding-the-path-of-embodied-leadership-development/
King, R. (2018). Mindful Embodied Leadership: Mindfulness-in-Action as a Catalyst for Leadership Performance [Doctor of Philosophy, De Montfort University]. 10.13140/RG.2.2.10454.11848. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/364959163_Mindful_Embodied_Leadership_Mindfulness-in-Action_as_a_Catalyst_for_Leadership_Performance
Vanderpal, G., & Brazie, R. J. (2023). Exploration of How Polyvagal Theory and Autonomic Nervous System Impact Organizational Performance Through Reduced Employee Turnover and Improved Work Culture. Journal of Strategic Innovation and Sustainability, 18(13). https://doi.org/10.33423/jsis.v18i3.6528
Khoury, B., Knäuper, B., Pagnini, F., Trent, N., Chiesa, A., & Carrière, K. (2017). Embodied mindfulness. Mindfulness, 8(5), 1160–1171. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-017-0700-7 https://www.gallup.com/workplace/395210/engage-frontline-managers.aspx