When I was four years old, I toppled into a pool and nearly drowned.
Since then I've had a deep fear of drowning.
I overcame this fear by learning how to freedive down to 70 feet on just a single breath.
This experience opened up a gateway to a new kind of leadership.
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In Nervous System Mastery, host @jonnym1ller describes freediving as "high-stakes interoceptive training."
Interoception is a critical yet neglected leadership skill: the ability to connect with our body's internal wisdom, unfiltered, in the very moment it speaks.
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We live in a volatile world that is constantly changing.
Our survival depends upon not only our ability to sense and respond to the world around us, but also the world within...
Interoception is the skill that unlocks our ability to act in alignment with nature AS nature.
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Most people are raised and educated to stifle a wide range of emotionsāprimarily negative onesāand to present themselves in a way that is deemed socially acceptable.
Our entire society is a ripple of this repression of our true nature and our true needs as a part of nature.
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When youāre a leader building organizations that seek to change the world itās imperative to bring these two worlds into alignmentāotherwise you will undoubtedly experience significant hardship and pain until the two worlds reach a state of symbiosis and balance.
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Freediving forces you to repeatedly align your inner world and outer world through sheer physics.
The increasing pressure that builds with each pull of the rope forces you to tune into the delicate sensations of your respiratory system as a pressure chamber.
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As startup founders, we are no strangers to high stakes and relentless pressure.
My life has been a series of sprints, fueled by a cocktail of adrenaline and cortisol, pushing for success under deadlines.
But freediving invites an entirely different kind of performance.
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Rather than relying on a short-term burst of energy from your sympathetic nervous system, freediving trains you to cultivate a deep sense of connectedness, safety and trust.
This is the kind of feeling you get from bathing in a forest. It is deep, embodied and clear.
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As I dove down to 70 feet without a pinch of anxiety or stress I realized the power of this kind of peak performance.
This is what it feels like to enter into a total flow state as a part of nature.
Imagine building an organization through these kinds of group flow states?
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The disruptive technologies & hyper growth startups of our time have been built on a mindset of scarcity & speed at all costs.
We are living the ramification of this mode of innovation.
Mental health disorders.
Rising temperatures.
Systemic inequality.
Ecosystem collapse.
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Imagine what kind of tech and orgs would emerge from deep, embodied states of flow as leaders navigate the depths of the unknown and rediscover their rightful place as a part of natureātogether...
This is what I'm exploring in my upcoming Keystone Leadership Program.
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Feel free to dive into the full-length version of this on Substack:
regenera.xyz/p/freediving-into-leadership-harnessing
Subscribe to stay tuned to the next edition where I lay the another building block of the emerging field of Keystone Leadership with some of the most brilliant leaders of our time.
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