Five Justifications for decelerating and a method to moderate this quick-paced era
"Patient is precise, precise is harmonious." This guideline, attributed to Navy Seals and mountain climbers, carries wisdom for leaders of all sorts. It's most crucial in moments when we're likely to forget it, which is when we get swallowed up by a whirlwind of tasks. While it's common sense that rushing leads to mistakes, it's even more vital for leaders, as every aspect of leadership—from predicting the future to winning others over—can be compromised by hasty decisions. As we dive into a year full of unpredictable ecological, social, and political changes, it's crucial to remember what taking things slow does for us as leaders and the best way to achieve it.
Patient is precise, precise is harmonious
Just like we wouldn't desire an inconsistent leader, fast-paced times can make us inconsistent, as not every aspect of us can keep pace. Some thoughts can change quickly, while others are held back by long-held beliefs or limitations. Thoughts can evolve more swiftly than the emotions they trigger. Negative emotions, associated with stress, resentment, or fear create physical tension, disrupting the smooth functioning of our heart and disrupting the flow of energy. Various scientific gauges, such as heart rate variability and electroencephalograms (EEGs), reveal the measurable effects of inconsistency on our body-mind system. On the other hand, consistent states show up in our measurements of frequency, aligning with the subjective experience of "smoothness" or feeling whole.
The Heart Math Institute devotes their research to coherence, which they believe ensures wellness. Frequently traveling at a rate of .1 Hz (every 10 seconds), our heart and brain vibrations can synchronize instead of conflicting, according to their research. They've developed a widely utilized method for this synchronization process.
Patient is precise, precise is in tune
As social beings, our nervous system allows us to sense the emotional states of others. We can feel the high-frequency agitation of someone who's nervous or anxious. When people are all over the place, it's challenging to connect with them because their different patterns disrupt our connection. Conversely, when we sense someone is calm and centered, we resonate with them more easily and might even find ourselves calming down in their presence. By empathizing with someone's movements, we can mirror their state, helping us replicate their feelings.
Another reason for the charm of a smooth and consistent state is that our heart generates the primary electromagnetic field around our bodies. When our heart is content and coherent, the field it generates is stronger. Most of us don't sense these fields directly, but we definitely feel them, as our fields interact with one another, resonating at varying degrees. Terms like charisma, positivity, or leadership presence describe this magnetic attraction.
Joel Barker once explained a leader as someone you'd follow to a place you wouldn't go alone. This description encapsulates resonant relationships, where we truly connect with others and can journey alongside them.
Patient is precise, precise is intuitive
Slowing down is essential not just for our coherent heart and head and the resonant relationships we engage in but also for attuning to subtle signals. When our system is noisy and rushed, it is like turbulent water reflecting a shoreline. We can recognize the most noticeable features in turbulent water, but subtle or high-frequency details like a butterfly flitting between flowers are lost. Yet, when the water becomes calm and smooth, more features and frequencies of movement become discernible. In a leadership sense, some of those signals can clue us in to emerging trends—what's ready to happen next, what's calling. Slow and smooth, we listen better and hear more.
We also see how speed alters our attunement by observing the large-scale energy patterns in our nervous system that coordinate thought and movement. At the physiological extremes are the Visionary pattern, which is broadly open and expansive, and the Driver, which is focused and relentless. When we start pushing against time, we tend to enter the Driver pattern, which sacrifices peripheral vision and broader thinking for unyielding goal achievement. Switching between these two states frequently shows us the differences they produce in our information and how varied their feelings are. Leaders need Driver energy to achieve goals, but they also require slowing down into the broader attunement of Visionary to sense which targets are worth pursuing.
Patient is precise, precise is interconnected
Slow and smooth leadership tunes us in to more information and strengthens our connection to life itself, allowing us to effectively respond to what's calling with ease, as if we are dancing with life. We feel in sync with what's going on, not apart from it.
When the vibrant entity known as ego separates itself from the physical form and becomes lost in thoughts, it can easily get Misplaced, truth be told. Influenced by past experiences, including personal traumas and generational traumas, societal norms, survival necessities, fears of insufficient provisions, the fears of unmet needs, its perception of its own power and shortcomings, its desire for control and manipulation to appear more powerful and less deficient, the ego can get stuck in repetitive thought patterns. Far from being an anomaly, this sentiment of detachment is the root cause of unhappiness and the problems plaguing our world.
By decelerating, as one does during meditation, for instance, we enter a frequency range capable of penetrating the ego's ceaseless chatter. While it does not cease immediately, over time it becomes more transparent, more interconnected, and less distorting. By heightening our senses, feeling the pull of gravity from head to toe, a profound and genuine connection to the earth and the universe itself permeates the ego's thoughts, eventually preventing it from maintaining its illusion of separation. This is the essence of Zen Leadership, wherein we rely on the wisdom derived from such connections more than our self-preserving cunning.
Pace equals flow, flow leads to timelessness
In the heart of meditation, where deceleration transforms into stillness, and time freezes—or rather, the timekeeper falls silent. This boundless unity, called samadhi, offers an indescribable sense of peace and bliss, yet it is a state that comes and goes. Yet, it reveals to us a false efficiency in the haste of time-governed hurriedness and the wisdom of slowing down to catch the rhythm of life.
Soften your breath, flow now
So, how do we accomplish this? Reflecting back on a timeless instant at Chozen-ji, where I underwent most of my Zen education, I recall an unexpected visit from Tanouye Roshi, presumably to observe us. As he passed me by, he whispered softly, just above a murmur, "Relax your breathing even further, and you'll see to the end of your days." That simple counsel and gentle encouragement guided me for many years. In this branch of Zen, we soften the breath by lengthening the exhale, as it is the calming segment of the respiratory cycle that affects the entire system.
What level of slowness is sufficient? As per the Cleveland Clinic, most adults breathe around 15 times per minute. Slow this to 6 times per minute, drawing breath into the .1 Hz range that supports heart and brain synchronization. Slow it to 2-3 times per minute, maintaining harmony while serving as a smoother reflection for perceiving thoughts, feelings, and realities. Lengthen your exhale, and you will find that even time itself becomes smoother.
Slow is smooth, and smooth suggests that we become more coherent, in tune with others, tuned into the broader perspective, connected with life, and capable of discerning the blur from relative tranquility. Emitting a long, deep exhale, ask yourself: why would you choose any other path?
- The Heart Math Institute's research focuses on coherence, which they believe ensures wellness, and their findings suggest that our heart and brain vibrations can synchronize at a rate of 0.1 Hz, ensuring consistency and harmony.
- When we resonate with someone's calm and centered state, we can mirror their feelings through mirror neurons, a concept also known as "neuro-liking" in Zen leadership.
- Leaders who practice slow and smooth leadership can attune to subtle signals and emerging trends, enhancing their ability to make informed decisions and respond effectively to the dynamic world around them.
- Tanouye Roshi, a Zen master, once advised his students to relax their breathing even further to achieve a deeper level of coherence and connection, emphasizing the importance of breathing patterns in tuning into the flow of life.
- Consistent breathing patterns, such as lengthening the exhale, can help leaders achieve heart-brain coherence, allowing them to perceive thoughts, feelings, and realities more smoothly and accurately, in line with the Heart Math Institute's research on coherence and synchronization.
