Distancing Yourself for a Breakthrough
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used to create them.”
~Albert Einstein
About a 6 minute read!
In 1952, polio became an epidemic. There were 58,000 new cases reported in the United States, and more than 3,000 died from the disease. American medical researcher, Jonas Salk was tirelessly leading the research for a vaccine.
This proved very difficult, and it wasn’t until Salk decided to take a break and distance himself in the beauty of the Italian countryside that he experienced a breakthrough that led to the discovery for the vaccine.
Another profound example of distancing involved Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis. He was a Hungarian physician/scientist, during the mid-1800s. Ignaz was struggling to understand why he had the highest mortality rate for women in his section of the maternity award: 1 in 10.
Semmelweis left for a while to spend time at another hospital. Upon returning, he discovered that the death rate had fallen drastically.
Distancing himself supported his discovery that particles (now known as germs) from cadavers and other diseased patients were being transmitted to healthy patients by his own hands.
Semmelweis immediately implemented the use of hand disinfection in obstetrical clinics, drastically reducing childbed fever.
Now centuries later, we again are thoroughly disinfecting our hands and just about everything else, in addition to practicing “social” distancing.
Under my Courageous Leadership platform where leaders learn how to expand their inner power in order to more powerfully lead themselves and others, distancing is used in the context of
mental distancing
.
Mental distancing is a process whereby we create space or distance between our thoughts in order to become more aware. With awareness, we can choose to change our thinking and in turn, our experiences.
As a leader, your influence becomes more intentional, profound and impactful.
Mental distancing begins simply by slowing down, breathing, then noticing your thoughts.
Why is this important?
According to Arbinger Institute, 80% of the time the brain focuses on what’s wrong.
When I first heard this, I couldn't fully take it in so I tested it out. One day I left my phone at home, I quickly saw how fast my mind went there.
Up until recently, this automatic reaction has been through no fault of our own; it’s how the brain has evolved. Fortunately, neuroscience has changed all that giving us the tools to effectively change our brains.
As we consciously shift our focus from what’s going wrong to what’s working, we activate what’s known as our success hormones, specifically oxytocin the bonding hormone. Oxytocin is needed to access our ‘executive brain’. The executive brain promotes strategic planning, innovation and other essential leadership traits.
When the executive brain is active, we feel better because cortisol (the stress hormone), along with some other hormones, are down regulated.
We become better equipped to have a positive influence on others and even help them down regulate their cortisol levels. That’s courageous and powerful leadership!
It’s more often the case in business that our cortisol levels are spiked, thereby closing down the executive brain functioning. This experience often spills over into our personal life.
Chronic states of cortisol spikes can last up to 26 hours whereas oxytocin only has a shelf life of about 4.
Developing the executive brain is like working any other muscle. It takes practice. Think of mental distancing as a weight that you can use to develop this muscle.
Mental distancing also works to over write the programs running in our subconscious mind because 95% of our behavior is informed by this mind.
Why is this important?
We want to overwrite much of the programming that informs our behavior for the following reasons:
- These programs were downloaded before the age of seven.
- These programs informing our behavior aren’t even ours; they come from other peoples’ beliefs and conditioning; familial and environmental influences.
- 70% of this programming is said to be negative or self sabotaging.
- A large part or 95% of the time, we are unaware that this is occurring.
You may want to read these again.
So as we cleanse our physical surroundings and practice social distancing, consider taking more time to also practice
mental distancing
.
Thank you to those who are already doing this.
Provided below is a simple exercise to strengthen your practice which is taken from the RADIATE Courageous Leadership platform and included as a tool in my coaching practice. This can help you begin to experience your breakthrough to current stressors and greater opportunities now and in the future.
There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so~William Shakespeare
