The breeze is blowing stronger, beaches are emptying and while we don't get fall foliage in the Azores I can certainly feel the erratic intensity that comes with the seasonal shift from summer to autumn.

Everyone I speak to is feeling a bit overwhelmed. My invitation to students to slow down and tune into the rhythms of nature are falling on deaf ears. 

The boundaries between work and home are blurred with never ending calls and more ways to stay connected to everyone else but ourselves. 

This shouldn't be a time to go off the edge.

That's why I'm sharing my Top 10 Time Management Tips for Leaders video from my Mindful Business Leader course. 

I had been promoted for my stellar performance as an environmental insurance underwriter for AIG, and I had uprooted my life from New York City to Boston as the company invited me to breathe some life back into a region that had been falling behind. But in those first few weeks the promotion felt more like a curse than a well-deserved reward. I could feel the resentment in the looks of my colleagues. I found myself questioning whether I could truly be a Leader.

Now, nearly 15 years later, after an MBA at the prestigious MIT Sloan School of Management, running a management consulting practice and leaving everything I knew to start a boutique travel business in the Azores, Portugal, I have no doubt about being a leader. A leader is someone who follows his or her purpose and serves selflessly for the greater good, 

Let me say that again: A leader is someone who follows his or her purpose and serves selflessly for the greater good, inspiring others along the way. Let’s break that down a bit. 

[A leader is someone who follows his or her purpose…]

​What is purpose? Do you know yours? How do you know whether you are living and leading in alignment with your purpose. Or not?

When you live your purpose it’s like a puzzle piece clicks into place, enabling you to see and BE part of the bigger picture. When you click into your purpose the other pieces fall into place and you naturally inspire and motivate others.

​[A Leader is someone who follows his or her purpose… and serves selflessly]

​This is a biggie. Leadership is service. It’s not about winning awards and titles and gaining fame and notoriety (although these things will naturally flow when you do what you love simply because you love it).

Leadership is serving without expectation or attachment to results. Do you seek external validation on whether you’re good enough? Sure, awards and recognition are great marketing but can you be proud of yourself (and your team and company) without someone else telling you how great you are? 

Author, activist and Professor Charles Eistenstein talks about "Life as a Gift": We didn't earn fresh air, we didn't earn our breath, nor the right to live. So naturally, we have a desire to give back. When we can share our gifts selflessly with the world, we are living our purpose. 

Serving selflessly is living your purpose, using your unique talents and gifts toward something you love, simply because that is the purest expression of who you are. P.s. this is the secret to life.

Who comes to mind when you think about a Leader? ​

Hitler certainly motivated and inspired millions of people, but to commit unspeakable atrocities that are still felt today.

Was he a leader? How about Gandhi?

[A leader is someone who follows his or her purpose and serves selflessly... for the greater good]

​This is where I start to veer off from the traditional metrics and definitions of leadership.

But I’m not alone. Harvard Business Review's global CEO ranking recently wrote: "Since 2015 our ranking has been based not only on financial performance but also on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings." Jeff Bezos used to top these lists based on net worth and financial performance but since HBR implemented its revised criteria, he dropped from #1 to #87. This year he's not even on the list.

Leadership is increasingly becoming about serving the needs of our community and planet, and not just seeking profit. This is what I call being a mindful business leader. 

Maybe it was knowing that my colleagues didn’t believe I deserved that promotion, or maybe I instinctively knew that by doing my best and doing good for my team everything would soon be okay. In the end, I’m grateful that so many years later I am still in touch with my old team and I’ve even convinced a few to make a trip over to our lodge in the Azores! ​

1
Grounding
While sitting in your chair allow your feet to be flat on the ground. Relax your arms and shoulders and place your hands in your lap. Start to feel the chair underneath you. Feel the ground under your feet. Wiggle your toes a bit. Take a deep breath and feel that you’re sending your awareness down into the ground. With every exhale feel yourself softening a bit into the support of the chair and floor. Feel whatever intensity you’re experiencing flow out through your feet into the ground. Allow yourself to sit up tall but relax your feet, legs, belly, shoulders, jaw. Take a few more breaths here and allow yourself to ground down into the earth and recharge.

Why it works
If electricity isn’t grounded, there’s a chance for an electrical surge and a frying of your system. In the same way we can get “electric” with intense emotions. When we consciously feel the chair underneath us and the ground under our feet we are “grounding” this intense energy. Emotion is just “energy in motion” and the ability to send your attention down and relax the body allows your energy to ground and for you to find the center.


2
Orienting
Take a look around the room, slowly. Inhale, look to your right; notice the texture and color of what you’re seeing, notice what you smell or hear. Then slowly exhale as you move your head slowly and look to the left. Take in all that you’re seeing but stay focused on your breath. Just observe, no judging of what is good or bad, or what needs organizing or fixing. Just noticing. What do you hear? Inhale slowly turning toward the center and then looking up, noticing what’s above you. Then exhale, looking down noticing what you’re wearing, the texture and material of the floor. Continue in this way a few more breaths, looking around, orienting yourself to your space, taking in the sights, textures, smells and sounds as you anchor in your breath, and this present moment. 

Why it works
The thalamus is the part of our brain that takes in sights, smells and sensory input and decodes them to signal safety or danger to our nervous system. When we automatically slam on the brakes before we realize we’ve nearly slammed into the car that just stopped in front of us for example, it’s the rapid-fire signal of the thalamus to the amygdala (fear center of the brain) that causes this swift response. That fear signal is so strong, however, that when we are stressed, whether it be an email, anxiety about the future or replaying the past, our nervous system reacts in the same way as if we were about to crash, and we go into fight or flight mode. Orienting calms the nervous system by using the senses to send signals of safety to our nervous system, stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system response, i.e slowing down the heart-rate, releasing serotonin, relaxing the muscles and continuing digestion.

​3
Hands to Heart-Belly
Sitting comfortably with feet on the ground or legs crossed, bring your left hand to the center of your chest and the right hand to your belly just above the belly button with shoulders relaxed and neck soft. Take a deep breath in and feel your chest rise and expand and as you exhale gently press your hand into your chest to expel the air completely out. On your next inhale breathe further down and maybe your belly expands with this deeper abdominal breath (if you don’t feel your belly expand just imagine your breath moving down and have the intention of expansion). As you exhale feel your belly soften and gently press the hand into your belly to feel a complete exhale. Take a few more breaths this way, alternating between feeling the chest and back of heart expanding, and then the belly and lower back. Breathing in and out through the nose if possible and then slowly start to lengthen the exhale, i.e. spend more time exhaling than inhaling.

Why it works
The autonomic nervous system is the part of our nervous system that controls automatic functions like our heartbeat, our body temperature, digestion and breathing. These things happen automatically in response to what’s happening around us; however, when we are stressed our body reacts just like it was under a serious physical threat. Breathing, is one of the ways we can access our autonomic nervous system and consciously activate a calming response. The other way is touch. When we place our hands on our chest and belly and consciously breathe into different places while feeling our breath, we are using two of the “ways in” to our nervous system to find balance. We are also stimulating the vagus nerve, which connects the brain to our heart, lungs and stomach and is responsible for calming the nervous system. ​​