The Embodied Mind & Leadership
What sensations can you feel in your body right now? Are you hungry? Hot? Tired? Tense?
While the connection might not seem immediately obvious, your ability to sense what is happening under your skin is key to your leadership. The evidence tells us that this body attunement impacts your mental flexibility, decision making and even your levels of empathy.
In this episode, Leadium’s Sharon Longridge interviews author, speaker and researcher Dr Kelly Mahler about the embodied mind, the science of gut feelings and the links to positive leadership.
Meet Dr Kelly Mahler
A passionate and progressive occupational therapist, Kelly earned a doctorate from Misericordia University, USA. She is an adjunct faculty member in their Department of Occupational Therapy as well as at Elizabethtown College. Kelly is actively researching topics spanning interoception, trauma, autism and social skill development. Her publications include Interoception: The Eighth Sensory System, My Interoception Workbook: A Guide for Adolescents, Teens and Adults and The Interoception Curriculum: A Step-by-Step Guide to Developing Mindful Self-Regulation. She also has a suite of online courses including Interoception: An Evidence-Based Approach.
Reference and additional reading
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K Armstrong, Interoception: How We Understand Our Body’s Inner Sensations, Psychological Science, 2019
2. J Gibson, Mindfulness, Interoception and the Body: A Contemporary Perspective, Frontiers in Psychology, 2019
"Interoception is a pivotal part in our positive mental health... people that have greater levels of interoceptive awareness are better at intuitive, lightening fast thinking, are much more empathic and resilient. "
