Diamond hands start with low cortisol
Cortisol is commonly known as the stress hormone. It turns out it is also a hormone that influences how we are remembered by others. A leader with high cortisol is not just more likely to lose their composure and treat others badly - high cortisol also degrades the exact faculties that a highly effective leader needs on a daily basis: working memory, impulse control, sleep. Outside of work, stress is also estimated to play a role in 60-80% of primary-care visits.
In a randomised field study of executives, a three-day SKY breathing course (a type of breathwork which I've been teaching for about 20 years) significantly lowered blood cortisol and stress while lifting life satisfaction and emotional stability. A year on, the gains had held for the people who kept the practice going, without having to repeat the course. The same pattern showed up in working employees with calendars: a three-day programme cut anxiety and lifted thriving.
The cortisol-lowering observation is not unique to breathwork. Plenty of things have been shown in studies to effectively lower cortisol: walking, a holiday, or even a simple relaxation routine measurably drops it too. What is unique to breathwork are the other factors that accompany the stress reduction.
The same practice that brings your cortisol down is the one sharpening the attention, improving your heart-rate variability, defending the deep sleep, all at once. Lowering cortisol is common. Lowering it alongside eight other measurable gains, all of which matter for how you lead, and all from one practice, is rare.
When I ask leaders in workshops to recall the most important quality in the leader that they most admired, two answers that I consistently hear are "They were always so present. When I was in the room, they were completely undistracted and it felt like I was the only thing that mattered" and "They were the one everyone looked to for calm and direction when there was a storm going on" (they literally used those words, "storm" and "present").
A lower cortisol baseline means calm in the stormy moments that decide how a leader is remembered. It means undistracted presence in the moments when you are in the room with them.
Cortisol is what tightens your chest as you talk. It is what makes you do something impulsively without thinking of downstream consequences, like panic-selling into a drawdown you would have held through with a clear head. It is what tips your tone a notch sharper than you meant to when giving feedback.
A lower cortisol baseline can make the difference between people recalling you as the inspirational leadership example in workshops run by people like me, and you being the example when I ask "Can you recall a counterexample of great leadership?"
I suggest breathing techniques to the founders and leaders I coach because it changes not just the way they communicate and decide, but the ripple of impact they have on people's lives years into the future.
Cortisol is commonly known as the stress hormone. It turns out it is also a hormone that influences how we are remembered by others. A leader with high cortisol is not just more likely to lose their composure and treat others badly - high cortisol also degrades the exact faculties that a highly effective leader needs on a daily basis: working memory, impulse control, sleep. Outside of work, stress is also estimated to play a role in 60-80% of primary-care visits.
In a randomised field study of executives, a three-day SKY breathing course (a type of breathwork which I've been teaching for about 20 years) significantly lowered blood cortisol and stress while lifting life satisfaction and emotional stability. A year on, the gains had held for the people who kept the practice going, without having to repeat the course. The same pattern showed up in working employees with calendars: a three-day programme cut anxiety and lifted thriving.
The cortisol-lowering observation is not unique to breathwork. Plenty of things have been shown in studies to effectively lower cortisol: walking, a holiday, or even a simple relaxation routine measurably drops it too. What is unique to breathwork are the other factors that accompany the stress reduction.
The same practice that brings your cortisol down is the one sharpening the attention, improving your heart-rate variability, defending the deep sleep, all at once. Lowering cortisol is common. Lowering it alongside eight other measurable gains, all of which matter for how you lead, and all from one practice, is rare.
When I ask leaders in workshops to recall the most important quality in the leader that they most admired, two answers that I consistently hear are "They were always so present. When I was in the room, they were completely undistracted and it felt like I was the only thing that mattered" and "They were the one everyone looked to for calm and direction when there was a storm going on" (they literally used those words, "storm" and "present").
A lower cortisol baseline means calm in the stormy moments that decide how a leader is remembered. It means undistracted presence in the moments when you are in the room with them.
Cortisol is what tightens your chest as you talk. It is what makes you do something impulsively without thinking of downstream consequences, like panic-selling into a drawdown you would have held through with a clear head. It is what tips your tone a notch sharper than you meant to when giving feedback.
A lower cortisol baseline can make the difference between people recalling you as the inspirational leadership example in workshops run by people like me, and you being the example when I ask "Can you recall a counterexample of great leadership?"I suggest breathing techniques to the founders and leaders I coach because it changes not just the way they communicate and decide, but the ripple of impact they have on people's lives years into the future.
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