A Mind|Body Approach to Business Growth

is being both Trauma-Informed & Body-Wise while Being in Service.

What is meant by ‘Trauma Informed’ in a business context? And how do we work with the language of ‘Trauma’ when ‘trauma’ doesn’t appear to have a direct correlation to business but is fundamentally tied to every aspect of it?

The ‘Trauma’ Basics:

1. Ongoing exposure to stress can mark the body the way a stroke leaves a lesion on the brain.

2. The timing of when that exposure to stress occurred, will leave a unique imprint. For example, exposure to stress in the womb through age 7 can leave the person with up to 30% less brain volume.

3. All of these changes and markings on the body happen outside of your awareness, while the symptoms, left unattended to, only amplify with time.

Neglecting the impact of ongoing exposure to stress, impairs:

• your cognitive function distorting perception and perspective
• your health as it presents with chronic disorders
• your physiology as it grinds on itself, upsetting mood, emotional wellbeing and your desire to have meaningful connection inside a community.

In the business context, this matters a lot:

33% of the workforce is Highly Functioning, Secretly-in-Despair

50% of overachievers are outrunning a past, leading their sprint.

72% of Entrepreneurs (and Intrapreneurs) admit to having at least one mental health disorder

Toxic Leaders, Toxic Cultures, Toxic Teams will have, at its roots, a person with ongoing exposure to stress that has marked their body to such a degree that they operate inside a never-ending state of ‘dysregulation’ that doesn’t (can’t — won’t) change without deliberate intervention. And for more than 80% of this crowd, they are completely oblivious that this is anything other than Business As Usual (BAU).

Trauma Informed is a door way into… ‘the cave we fear to enter, that holds the treasure we seek.’ Joseph Campbell.

Resolving the effects of ongoing exposure to stress (aka trauma) within the body, returns the body to homeostasis, aka self-regulation. Consider this step 1.

It is inside this state of self-regulation, that we now have access to the body’s innate wisdom. Step 2 in this context.

Co-creating Life With a Mind|Body Toolkit, complete with:

1. The Mind’s Intelligence — your cognitive self

2. The Body’s Innate Wisdom — through a self regulated body

3. Your experience — over the course of your life

4. Those around you — coaches, mentors, clients, friend and foe

Not only are we seeking the repair and recovery of the body from ongoing exposure to stress, (this is the first step) but we are deliberately pursuing access to the innate wisdom (step 2 in this example) more readily available to you (the mind part of you) when the body becomes self-regulated.

To be Trauma-Informed is to…

…recognise that your stress altered physiology (now showing up as your dysregulated body) is the dominant influence on your words, thoughts, and perception, while knowing how to support the body to return to a state of regulation, as you keep the mind still.

A Mind|Body Approach to Business Growth is being both Trauma-Informed and Body-Wise while Being in Service.

This simply means, we know how to resolve the dysregulation so we can operate inside ever increasing states of regulation, which comes with an all access pass into the innate wisdom the body holds, that combined, informs and directs our Service. (your business is you in service, to your market).

It is a night-and-day difference to grow a business from a place of Human-Doing vs a place of Human-Being.

Alignment, Authenticity, Flow and Fun are available inside a regulated body. Clarity, Focus, and Momentum are byproducts of Alignment.

A Mind|Body Approach to Business Growth is being both Trauma-Informed-and-Body-Wise. Common Sense (now… but it took me 100 years to get here. Heh!)

For Example, Being Seen Has The Person In Hiding

The person knows how to show up online, present a keynote or deliver a workshop. This is cognitive based knowledge that is widely available. The Mind’s Intelligence, if you will.

However, for the person inside the dysregulated body, moving closer to the moment of truth of Being Seen, is the very reason why their body activates DefCon1 level.

Here’s why — the body is locked into dysregulation already. Only, overtime, it has became the norm while dysregulation ticks away at a certain threshold. When that dysregulated threshold is pierced and the dysregulation escalates, Eg. The Mind insists Being Seen is required and that moment to Be Seen is here, a state of overwhelm rocks up and says

No! This is not happening. We are not safe, and this is exercise is going to make us even less safe. So No! This Is Not Happening.

The Mind might attempt to override the body’s resistance with alcohol or a similar drug to “just effing do this, already”, or the mind may opt to ghost the client, the audience, or the business altogether, returning to a career they really hate, or accepting that they are staying small.

When the Mind says “We Need To Be Seen” as part of growing our business, the mind is quite literally squaring off with the (dysregulated) body’s DefCon1 operating system that asserts “Hiding is Safer’. In all instances like this, the (dysregulated) body wins and this person lies awake wondering how it is possible that they are STILL the industry’s best kept secret.

Thanks for making it this far. I research, write, teach, share, consult, advise, coach and train in the area of Mind|Body Approach to Growth, Trauma-Informed Business Growth and Polyvagal for Organisations.

You can find out more about me here: www.shannoneastman.com — and over at my podcast www.traumainformedgrowth.com