I recently had the pleasure of joining the Courage to Advance podcast with Kim Bohr to talk about one of my favorite subjects: how mindfulness can help busy leaders move from overwhelm to clarity.
In this episode, I share why mindfulness actually works — not just in theory, but in high-stakes, high-pressure environments. We dig into the neuroscience behind stress, how emotions hijack our decision-making, and why cultivating self-awareness can be more powerful than chasing your next credential.
“Your brain runs two programs: crisis mode and smart mode. The more you practice mindfulness, the faster you can switch back to the one that leads with clarity.”
In this podcast interview learn Why Mindfulness Actually Works:
Your Brain runs like two different programs. When you’re stressed, it switches to “crisis mode”—great for dodging cars, terrible for thinking through big decisions. Mindfulness teaches you how to get back to “smart mode” when you need it most.
Emotions only last about 30 seconds on their own. Seriously. The reason they stick around? We keep replaying the story in our heads. Learn to just watch the emotion without getting sucked into the drama, and it passes through pretty quickly.
Why Self-Awareness Beats Another MBA: Harvard Business Review found that 10 minutes of daily mindfulness bumps up your self-awareness by 35% in about two months. Why should you care? Because self-aware leaders make better calls, build stronger teams, and stop stepping on landmines they didn’t even see coming.
The Stress Ripple Effect: When you’re wound up, your team feels it. It’s like stress is contagious— which it actually is. But here’s the flip side: calm spreads just as fast. Get good at staying steady.
If you lead a team, manage complexity, or simply want to stop spinning your wheels, this conversation offers a few practical ways to reset.
🎧 Listen to the episode:
From Digital Overwhelm to Mental Clarity: Mindfulness Hacks for Busy Leaders
“Self-awareness isn’t soft — it’s strategic. It’s the skill that helps leaders stop stepping on landmines they didn’t even know were there.”
