The Pausecast

In Ep. 113 of The Pausecast...

- Understand the link between over-achieving and being Stressed-and-Pressed

- Know the 5 signs you need a Pause and why we need to make it intentional

- Learn about the 5 stages of Stress and how stress can serve you, or deter you.

- How to move out of chronic stress or burnout to get back into good stress or lowered levels of cortisol

- Create your pause plan to move into a new state of being and not be in the stressed and pressed zone!

In this episode 19 of The Pausecast...

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• Experience a distraction-rich, focused pause led by Chip

• Learn how to ramp up your "DQ" or digital IQ and how it's a predominant skill

• Know what makes up a modern elder at any company and how we need more age diversity and "Menterns"

• Greyglers, Modern Elders, and more wisdom at work

• Why talking "taboo" is key to being a Modern Elder

• How the magic of Burning Man lends itself to knowing oneself

• What Viktor Frankl, Pause, and the Modern Eldern Elder all have in common

• Learn what Chip does to stay on his growth edge

Chip Conley is founder of the Modern Elder Academy (MEA) and is a hospital entrepreneur and NYT best selling author. His book, Wisdom@Work, forms the core of MEA's curriculum and is inspired by his experience - as both a mentor and an intern ("mentern" - when he was will into his 50's, as Airbnb’s Head of Global Hospitality and Strategy.

I'm putting two topics that most people don't associate together - CORPORATE LEADERSHIP and SPIRITUALITY!

...and I'm here to share that you can have both...knowing stepping out of the spiritual closet at work will serve you - I share how to do this as you your next steps right here in Ep. 109.

I admit, I'm still terrified to come out of my spiritual closet myself y'all - but today I'm ripping the bandaid off, in the hopes that you too know your whole and complete self can have the courage to do the same and step on your Courageous Path to BE!

The Backstory

For months this podcast topic was luffing like clean linens left hanging out to dry. Just sitting there on my list of topics to record...hoping one day it would get recorded!

Well, the time has come, and here are 12 minutes of my story and why this is so important, especially as a corporate leader who is ready to rise to your next level of leadership thru EQ Mastery! Part of my story I share is on this spiritual topic that I don't dwell on often when I share a few minutes of my burnout story...but today you'll hear it in what I call my own "spiritual awakening."

And, it includes Burning Man and the meditation camp I stayed at (where I didn't meditate), which is a pivotal part of my awakening - which is happening this week so it's only fitting this episode debuts 12 years after my first of 4 Burning Man events.

In this Ep. 109 of The Pausecast...

- My story of how I burned out and how it led me to walk through some spiritual doors I couldn't "unwalk" through

- How to create your own version of spirituality at work and what that means

- Why it's so important to bring your whole self to work

...and so much more!

Are you in flow state at work? Or are you feeling too stressed, or bored? This episode shows you what to do differently to get into your flow, and it's based on Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's work related to flow.

In this Ep. 108 of the Pausecast...

- What flow state is and how what it consists of

- Why it matters to know when and when you aren't in flow as a corporate leader and exec

- Learn why knowing where you are in relation to flow is critical as a corporate leader and to avoid burnout and stress

- Know the two levers you have to shift into flow at anytime

- What peak brain performance is and why we aren't optimized when we multitask - in fact our IQ decreases as a result

- How to get into flow state whether you are bored, worried, anxious, or apathetic - it all relates to knowing where you are in relationship to flow!

References:

In this Ep. 107 of The Pausecast...

- We get into some great detail about the connection with your inner CEO and accessing your own personal power

- Name your judgements and beliefs about power

- How women are wired to access their inner CEO

- Create new empowering beliefs about your inner ceo and power that serve you

- The No. 1 thing you can do to activate your inner ceo

- What unconditional positive regard is and why it serves your inner ceo

- How to remove blocks to your inner CEO

In this Ep. 106 of The Pausecast...

• Join Rachael in an integrative breathwork session designed for women leaders who are feeling like despite how hard they try, we come up short for what we wanted to do or how we want to feel.
• Learn the breath pattern: tri-active breath (3 part breath) and halo-active (2 part breath) and bliss breath (shorter forced exhale breaths).
• Discover why it's so important to have an intention for something different.

In Ep. 104 of the Pausecast...

• Learn what the high octane fuel is for high performing teams (hint...it rhymes with GQ)
• The 4 Norms of High Performing teams, from Dr. Vanessa Druskat's research and the No. 1 trait in common (it's not what you think!)
• Rachael's experience of high performing teams (shout out to Google Authorized Buyers'!)
• What Wright's Team Empowerment training taught me about high performing teams.
• Next steps for how to build your high performing team.
• ...and so much more!

In this VIP episode of The Pausecast... we open the vault and bring back Michael Bungay Steiner(!), a world class coach to thousands of executives and best selling author of the book The Coaching Habit.

Brene Brown calls his book The Coaching Habit, "A Classic!"

He's also very ozzie and funny which I really enjoyed, and one of my favorite mentors I follow.

In Ep. 101 of The Pausecast...

• Experience a guided pause led by Michael
• Learn how to be more coach-like and notice your inner-advice monster
• Learn how to build in slower responses to advice, and stronger prompts to stay curiou
• The secret to working less hard but having more impact
• Why it pays to be lazy, be curious, and to be more coach like
• Michael’s story on how he found his coaching roots 
• Why saying NO is a game changer and leads to more yeses 

2 hard questions we should all be willing to answer. 

About Michael Bungay Stainer

Michael Bungay Stanier is the author of six books which between them have sold more than a million copies. He’s best known for The Coaching Habit, the best-selling coaching book of the century and already recognized as a classic. His most recent book The Advice Trap focuses on how to tame the Advice Monster.

He founded Box of Crayons, a learning and development company that helps organizations move from advice-driven to curiosity-led. They’ve trained hundreds of thousands of managers to be more coach-like and their clients range from Microsoft to Gucci.

In Ep. 100 of The Pausecast...

- Review the storyline of The Pausecast, and how it all started

- Some of Rachael's favorite moments and guests of The Pausecast

- Why it's important to celebrate wins, even if they're seemingly small or hard to think off

- What to expect going forward

Thank you for being part of the Pausecast journey!

In this Ep. 99, we get into how to make the best of a layoff as a laid off leader.

Whether it's your 1st job out of the gates, or you're a seasoned executive, this is a must-listen to episode.

Instead of feeling more stress and wondering how you're going to make it beyond this seemingly unfortunate event, what if you had the blueprint for how to structure your time, your job search, and to make the most out of your circumstances?

What you may not know if that you can actually thrive as a laidoff leader - not survive - but thrive. And I tell you how to do it in this episode.

And the door opens
Unto an empty chamber
Existent future

- Mark Wanless

***

In Ep. 98 of the Pausecast...we are doing a brief breathwork practice with the mantra, "New doors are always opening for me."

Do you notice the doors around you?

Do you walk through them?

Do you think they are the same old doors maybe, without even considering?

- Reflect on how you walk through (or don't walk through the doors in your life

- Hear what Brendan Bouchard, author of NYT Bestseller High Performance Habits, says whenever he walks through a door

- Reading: What it means to walk through doors using this mantra

- Breath pattern: Halo-active inhale/exhale, then pulse breath (inhale 2x, exhale 2x) which can be great with movement.

About this Ep. 97 of the Pausecast... - Experience a box breath pause led by Jake - Learn about Jake's story and how he almost became a sports agent and instead switched directions. - The 3 components of his Chief Encouragement Officer framework - Why competing with yourself will prevent burnout vs. competing with others. - The peak amount of time high performers do tasks vs. take a pause. - Jake's recommendations for simple and lasting consistent change - What journal prompts are excellent daily reflections and how to implement them. About Jake Thompson: Jake is an athlete, author, entrepreneur and speaker who teaches leaders how to compete every day with themselves. By winning the day, we win in business and in life. Through his CE³ Model, he helps teams, CEOs, athletes and students develop mental toughness, master consistency, and improve day after day.

About Rachael O'Meara

What are the 5 signs you need a pause as a corporate leader? If you have any of these signs, you qualify for an intentional shift in behavior to become more aligned - when this happens we are more in flow, authentic, and connected so we can lead and execute in ways that really serve ourselves and anyone else! In this Ep. 94 of The Pausecast... - How Rachael discovered the 5 signs by burning out of Google - Learn and Identify the 5 signs are to know you need a Pause, or intentional shift in behavior. 1) You used to love your job and now you loathe it 2) Your boss or a friend tells you you're not a fit (or something along those lines) 3) you need a technology intervention 4) a challenge 5) an opportunity is knocking Which ones are you experiencing right now?

How can you pause, or intentionally shift your behavior?

In this Ep. 92 of the Pausecast, we highlight one of our favorite guests on the show, Dr. Richard Davidson!

Richard Davidson is know for groundbreaking research with real-world impact, and that's why we love him!

In episode 92 of The Pausecast...

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In this Ep. 91 of the Pausecast...

- Learn how Rachael learned first hand how raising her EQ helped her avoid burning out again after this happened at Google.

- Discover the 4 pillars of EQ that you can focus on and what each one solves for.

- How to continue to master your own EQ , which pillar to focus on , and tools that can help you do that.

Referenced:

I'm so excited to share this month's Pausecast VIP - the incredible Marci Shimoff! 

Marci was a guest a few years ago, and is still one of the leading experts on happiness. 

Her #1 NYT bestselling books include the international bestsellers Happy for No Reason and Love for No Reason.  Marci is also the woman's face of the biggest self-help book phenomenon in history, as co-author of six books in the Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul series. With total book sales of more than 16 million copies worldwide in 33 languages, Marci is one of the bestselling female nonfiction authors of all time. (Way to go Marci!!)

Clearly, she knows a few things about Happiness!! 

Listen to this episode and you'll learn why...I loved what Marci shares in our conversation about heart rate variability (HRV) and her analogy of building a house and the different 'rooms' of happiness.

In episode 84 of The Pausecast...

• Experience a 2x2x2 pause led by Marci (inspired by Heartmath Institute).
• How to start the "feel good happiness" chemical flow of oxytocin
• Why Heart Rate Variability (HRV) matters
• The one question you can ask yourself daily to improve your well-being
• How Pausing changed Marci's life
• How Marci defines happiness and how to generate more of it.
• The recipe for happiness and what we can/can't control.
• How the "7 main areas of happiness" can be a great metaphor for how to live a fulfilling life.
• How to create Your Year of Miracles and get your free ebook, "4 mistakes from living a miraculous life.

Why you need to know Marci:

• Marci Shimoff is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, a world-renowned transformational teacher and an expert on happiness, success, and unconditional love.
• Marci is also a featured teacher in the international film and book sensation, The Secret and the host of the PBS TV show called Happy for No Reason.  She narrated the award-winning movie called Happy.
• President and co-founder of the Esteem Group, Marci delivers keynote addresses and seminars on happiness, success, empowerment, and unconditional love to Fortune 500 companies, professional and non-profit organizations, women's associations and audiences around the world.
• Marci is currently leading a one-year mentoring program called Your Year of Miracles.  Her opening seminar has been heard my more than 100,000 people.
• Marci earned her MBA from UCLA and holds an advanced certificate as a stress management consultant. She is a founding member and on the board of directors of the Transformational Leadership Council, a group of 100 top transformational leaders.
• Through her books and her presentations, Marci's message has touched the hearts and rekindled the spirits of millions of people throughout the world.   She is dedicated to helping people live more empowered and joy-filled lives.

LINKS

In this Ep. 83 of The Pausecast...

- The difference between BHAGs and ho-hum goals, and why they matter

- Why setting a BHAG for yourself is one of the best ways to...

🫠 Get out of a funk and feel more motivated

🫠 End that feeling depleted cycle

🫠 End the escape-hatch thinking loop - like secretly wishing if you lived in your private tropical paradise, life would be soooo good again!

With your break-the-mold BHAGs, they will help you:

🎉 Create and keep new habits that have a positive impact on productivity and performance

🎉Achieve what wasn’t thought to be achievable…or get a lot closer than you think you would

🎉Re-ignite your excitement  🔥 as you venture into new territory - busting your mental model of what you thought you could do.

What is ONE BHAG you want to go for this year - go for the BHAG! 

When you set BHAGs and learn the tools to master your Emotional Intelligence (EQ), you are on your way to achieve them - they are within grasp because you have what's needed to take you there. Even if you have no idea HOW - that's a-ok and part of the journey of emergence.

Here's to reaching your BHAG...and rising to your next level of leadership!

Watch this on YouTube: https://youtu.be/riQmtQbMEVY  

As a corporate leader looking to make more of an impact and get out of stress mode, it's time to meet the triune brain and get behind-the-scenes of what's going on for you.

And this time, on video!

In this Ep. 82 of the Pausecast...

- We get our inner nerd on and learn more about neuroscience and how to leverage it as a confident, impactful corporate leader!

- We explain what the triune brain is, and how it works: reptilian, mammalian, and neocortex and how they came to be.

- How each of these 3 parts contributes to you as a leader and its shortcomings and benefits.

- How to get out of 'reptilian mode'  so you don't feel overwhelmed or stressed by activating your other parts of your brain.

- Learn the triad of needs, or needs of each part of the triune system: audiovisual, nurturing, and creative-intellectual stimulation - great tactics for the office based on team dynamics or based on how your day is going. 

- How play can help us get out of stress and activate our mammal circuitry that helps release our pleasure and rest and digest hormones (hello, oxytocin!)

A little more about where the triune brain concept came from:

Paul MacLean (1913-2007) was an American physician and neuroscientist who spent six decades of work researching the brain and hypothesized that the skull holds not one brain but three “interconnected biological computers, each representing a distinct evolutionary stratum” that was formed upon the older layer before it. He called it the “triune brain” and identified three prominent parts, each one containing more progressively complex infrastructure of nerve cells: reptilian, mammalian, and paleo-mammalian.

We've got another Pausecast VIP in store today, one or my favorite thought leaders when it comes to neuroscience and upleveling our self-awareness and emotional intelligence, Rich Hanson, Ph.D author of several books including Buddha's Brain, Resilient, and NeuroDharma (among others).

In this Episode 80 of the Pausecast...

• Experience a ten minute guided pause with Rick
• Learn the science behind what our brains experience when we pause.
• Why we need to make friends with our reptile brain (and feed the mouse, pet the monkey).
• The three headlines of psychological needs
• Why we need to keep growing & learning
• How changing attitudes helps our bodies feel different
• Recipe for boosting resilience and positive outlooks
• How many neurons you actually have in your brain

Rick is a psychologist and has written and taught about the essential inner skills of personal well-being, psychological growth, and contemplative practice – as well as about his relationships, family life, and raising children.

Hey corporate leaders!

In this Episode 76 of the Pausecast...

Learn the 3 step process on how to firm up your boundaries when they feel a little flimsy...especially if you are working from home, work hybrid or remote.

Actually - even if you're at the office, you can still apply these 3 steps to firm up the boundaries you need...

1) Be aware to change 

2) Know you have the choice to change 

3) Change the system - what needs to shift to create new boundaries?

In this episode 75 (also ep 21) of The Pausecast...
- Partake in an Inner Pilot Light led pause
- How the Inner Pilot Light got it’s start
- Why you should find your own inner pilot light and how to tap into it
- Questions of discernment to know if it’s really your inner pilot light
- How to ask for guidance from your inner pilot light
- How to know when you feel aligned to make a decision or choice
- How to avoid autopilot and ignite your inner pilot light and why it matters

In this episode 74 of the Pausecast...

- What the science tells us about journaling and intentional writing

- How you can achieve more dreams through the practice of journaling (it's true!)

- How to use Pause the Journal 

- How to use journaling to get more clear, be more productive, tap. your intuition and gut brain, and to improve your mood.

Are you a journaler? 

As a corporate leader who may already be feeling a little stressed with the end of year, holidays or regular old life-in-session stuff, why do we want to try new things when our plate is already full?

If you're a go-getter like you likely are if you're listening to this, it's because you have a lot of interests, or excited about trying new thigns!

In order to proceed accordingly, it's important to follow a few steps so you can get the most out of it.

In this episode 72...

- Why it matters to envision the impact doing this will have on you - how will you feel and what will be different?

- Why curiosity will and can serve you

- What timing has to do with it

- What it really means when you're talking about your past

- The No. 1 question to ask yourself when weighing options

- What are the tools to get more clear on your decision

- What is going on underneath your motives for doing new things and what to do about it

- How permission, commitment, and feelings have to do with all of it.

In Episode 71, we pause with Dr. Daniel Goleman who helped put Emotional Intelligence on the map as one of the most critical business skillsets to build!

In this episode 71 of The Pausecast...

• Experience a guided pause led by Dr. Dan Goleman
• What the research shows on meditation and how it benefits emotional intelligence (and elaborated on in Dan's book Altered Traits).
• Dan's new research-based coaching model and why it is important how his (updated) EI research-based model and the 12 sub-categories to develop as EI skills that help strengthen the building blocks of EI
• How executives can develop skills to coach their direct reports using the Goleman EI Coaching program and how any leader can develop these skills
• Learn the five primary emotions and how emotions like fear and anger can be shifted into assertion and using them to be a better leader
• How tuning in to know your own emotional intelligence helps be in better relationship with others
• How Dan contributes to his own transformation and how he handles hijacks

About Dr. Daniel Goleman

Daniel Goleman, Ph.D., known for his bestselling books on emotional intelligence, has a long-standing interest in meditation dating back to his two years in India as a graduate student at Harvard. A psychologist who for many years reported on the brain and behavioral sciences for The New York Times, Dr. Goleman previously was a visiting faculty member at Harvard. Dr. Goleman has received many journalistic awards for his writing, including two nominations for the Pulitzer Prize for his articles in the Times, and a Career Achievement award for journalism from the American Psychological Association.

Links:

Did you know that you are 50% more productive when you practice gratitude at work?

Or, that if you're grateful for 3 minutes per day, after 14 days you will feel gratitude easier, deeper, and have more joy?

In this episode 69 of the Pausecast...

1. Why gratitude matters at work - even beyond the holidays.
2. Stats around benefits of gratitude
3. Daily gratitude practices you can create during this time of year.
4. How staying grateful helps us thrive.
5. Create your own gratitude pause plan you can implement immediately

In this episode No. 68 of the Pausecast...

- Learn why quiet quitting is such a hot buzzy topic and the synonyms for it.

- What quiet quitting has to do with being ambivalent, and what it really means

- Why quiet quitting is not a good idea no matter how stressed you may feel & the evidence behind it

- How mastering your emotional intelligence (EQ) can help you avoid the feelings of overwhelm altogether

- Rate yourself how much you are showing up fully and what it says about you

- What red flags exist if you're thinking about this

- What to try instead of quiet quitting

- What Snackwells(TM) has to do with quiet quitting

NPR Article referenced: https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2022/09/13/1122059402/the-economics-behind-quiet-quitting-and-what-we-should-call-it-instead 

In this episode 66 of The Pausecast...meet Dr. Amishi Jha neuroscientist, author, and U. of Miami Professor who shares what she is discovering through her neuro research lab in high performing and high stressed groups.

Note: This Pausecast episode originally aired before her book came out, but is still highly relevant in the field of mindfulness and training our brain. It's one of my favorites and I'm excited to share it again!

• Have we hit a mindfulness tipping point?
  
• What we're learning about mindfulness and the guidance behind training our minds.
  
• What brain training games are training and what they help us get good at (and what they miss).
  
• How generalized mindfulness training works.
  
• How mindfulness training & tools are helping the pre-deployed military do jobs better and the magic number we found in this research.
  
• What the heck is MBAT?
  
• Dr. Amishi's favorite ways to pause.
  
• Why a Pause Pledge is important

About Dr. Jha

Dr. Amishi Jha, PhD is Director of Contemplative Neuroscience and Professor of Psychology at the University of Miami. Prior to her current post, she was an Assistant Professor at the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania.

She received her B.S in Biological Psychology from the University of Michigan, her Ph.D in Psychology (Cognitive Neuroscience) from the University of California–Davis, and her post-doctoral training at the Brain Imaging and Analysis Center at Duke University in functional neuroimaging.

What Stress? :X

Stress is caused by overthinking and sitting on too much fear, anger, sadness or hurt. 

When we don’t allow these to be expressed, we end up feeling stressed out and turn to our devices (literally) to numb out, avoid vs. dealing in and addressing what’s underneath the stress and our relationship to those emotions. 

In Ep 65, we will learn more about

- What causes stress

- How to mitigate stress and what's really the root cause of it

- What our physical body has to do with - or help - with stress.

- Incorporating a few daily pauses or integrating your doing with your being as I like to say, here's a few to try:

1. Pause: Intentionally shift your behavior and do something else. This can be anything that serves you in the moment - e.g. leave the room, move your body, journal, connecting with someone and sharing.
2. Do some breathing exercises. Take 10 breaths, counting to 4 on the inhale though the nose, and 7 on the exhale slower and through the mouth.
3. Write it out. ...Journaling can be a power tool when it comes to processing stress

....and so much more!

Even if you try one of these "experiments" you are well on your way to shifting out of this pattern of stress, and into feeling more calm, relaxed, confident and ready for whatever comes next. 

Trust me - I burned out of Google, and I had no clue how to de-stress at that time, and yet now I teach others how to do exactly that..well before burnout!

Even if that seems impossible now, know that it is possible using these techniques and what I can support you with using my EQ Mastery method that will help you get to your next level of leading - whether it's leading yourself through stressful times, or others and coming out the other side.

If you're ready for support to de-stress, this is where I come in. 

Message me "de-stress" and I"ll share some tools for you to try - there is so much support here for you - from classes to coaching to tools - you decide what's best!

Here's to walking out of overwhelm...together!
Rachael