What Is Entailed In "Psychophysiology" From A Leadership And Sageship Perspective

Written by a human, for humans, always.

What is "Psychophysiology"?

It is a question that I am asked frequently when I talk about how important it is in Sageship...

And why it is the primary reason that leaders consistently fail.

Now, there is a simple answer to this question...

Psychophysiology is the study of how the mind (Psycho) interacts with the body (physio), and vice versa.

It is a bidirectional interaction (technically more; we will get to that) that occurs within all of us as humans.

Those interactions either allow us to reach our potential...

Or actively prevent us from attaining it.

That is the simple way to explain it...

Except...

When you explain it like that as an elevator pitch, it fails in two different ways.

First...

Is that it is "vastly" more complicated than that explanation.

Second...

Is that when people "hear" that explanation, they blindly believe they understand...

And then horribly fail at actually accomplishing anything toward remedying what is wrong.

We live in a world that is saturated in knowledge...

But it lacks any real depth...

And often is misleading, misunderstood, propaganda, marketing, or just plain wrong.

Worse...

Because we "hear" so much information so often...

And because all this information is at our fingertips at all hours of the day with relative ease (which should be a warning of how little value it holds)...

We actually pridefully believe that "we" understand what is entailed.

Here's the reality.

The vast majority of people do not.

Even within the world of psychophysiology, there are few people who genuinely have even a decent grasp of the many interactions that occur...

And how they play out in real life and not just in theory.

If it were so easy...

We would not have the obvious leadership problems that we constantly see in the world today.

So if you think that you actually understand what "psychophysiology" means...

You are wrong.

So...

Just to give you a beginner's overview as to what "I" mean when I say "Psychophysiology" from a Leadership and Sageship Perspective...

I have 12 general topics for you in this article.

Again...

These are "general" topics.

There is vastly more depth to every single one of these areas of psychophysiology.

Each individual area can take months and even years to not only grasp, but effectively utilize in Leadership and Sageship.

So if you think that you're going to read this article and "get it"...

You're wrong.

I've written over 1,350 articles on these topics in an equal number of days (I write daily articles)...

And I have really only scratched the surface of how to deeply live these different aspects of our psychophysiology to the fullest extent...

Because general articles do not replace individual cultivation (more on that soon).

So...

Here are the 12 topics within Psychophysiology that I frequently discuss due to their importance in Leadership and Sageship.

The first...

Are our Identities.

Now...

Most people "believe" they know who they are...

And if you ask someone, "Who are you?" or "Tell me about yourself"...

You'll get an answer...

That really is both shallow and fails to tell you much about who they are.

Now, that is not completely anyone's fault...

As humans, we are not usually taught to think deeply about this question...

We are just told to answer in ways such as telling people...

What our work is...

Whether we have a family and what constitutes them...

Maybe some hobbies to break the ice in a meeting.

But our Identities are so much more than that.

Every person holds 10 categories of identities...

And within each category we hold "multiple" identities.

What this means...

Is that if you can answer the question "who are you?" in two sentences or less...

You "might" cover one identity in up to three categories...

But they are nearly always shallow identities (even if they are important to us).

For instance...

One that most people hate to hear but is true...

If you say "I am a husband/wife/family person/etc."...

Those are important identities...

They are also incredibly shallow.

It tells me nothing about who you are within that relationship...

Just that you have a relationship.

And it tells me nothing about 9 other categories of who you are.

Most people have not taken time to actually understand who they are in depth...

And that plays a large role in why they struggle in life and leadership.

The second...

Are our values.

Now, there is an incredibly important distinction here...

I am not talking about "aspirational" values...

The ones we write in places and talk about living up to...

I am talking about what we actually demonstrate as our values.

If you say...

"I care about my team"...

But your team is in burnout...

You are demonstrating that you do not value your team...

Rather, you value the perception of being perceived as a "team player" more than actually being a leader and demonstrating anything.

This is a large part of where so many people go wrong...

They "want" to live up to some sort of aspirational values...

They intend to...

But they absolutely fail to actually live it in their lives.

This is another reason why so many people are held back from succeeding as leaders...

And what actively prevents them from obtaining Sageship.

The third...

Are our Habits.

Most people "know" that habits are important...

Intellectually...

But they fail to create and maintain habits that actually drive them toward the success they want in life...

Consistently.

There are a wide variety of reasons "why" people fail to build habits...

And it is something I go back to frequently in my work.

The fourth...

Are our Nutrients.

Most leaders never consider the impact of food in the workplace...

And it is a mistake.

The nutrients we intake become the physiological building blocks for everything in our bodies.

If your building materials are terrible...

You will never build anything sustainable or impressive.

The baseline that most leaders are working with...

Both in their lives and in their team's lives is what is frequently called "MAD" or "SAD"...

Which is just about the worst building materials you can have when it comes to nutrition.

This is compounded and made worse...

By the vast amounts of misinformation and junk marketing "research" done in nutrition science today.

Point being...

This is both an incredibly important area to consider for leaders...

And one that most people are completely clueless about.

The fifth...

Is Bio-Energy (Mg-ATP).

Our bodies need energy to accomplish anything...

And that energy is Magnesium Adenosine Triphosphate...

Or Mg-ATP for short.

(Most places you will see it referred to only as ATP, and this misses the fact that Magnesium is essential to actually "use" ATP, so I talk specifically about Mg-ATP.)

But here is the thing...

Bio-Energy is a really complicated process...

And you have to be aware of multiple factors within Bio-Energy.

It is not just production that is important...

Although for most people, their Mitochondrial production has been literally damaged and needs to be healed and retrained to function effectively.

You also need to consider...

Energy usage...

Whether you are using enough or not enough in a situation...

As well as energy waste...

Where you are losing energy unnecessarily, which frequently causes bio-energy shortages.

To be effective as a leader and team, you need to understand how this works and begin to guide energy in such a way that you can reach your goals.

The sixth...

Is Oxidative Stress.

Now, if you are aware of pop-health culture, you may have heard about Oxidative Stress...

And you may think that "Antioxidants" are the answer...

And technically that is true...

But most people actually fail to understand what this means because of junk marketing research.

For our purposes...

You need to understand how Oxidative Stress accumulates...

How to actually remove it in reality...

As well as some important things in the body such as Ceruloplasmin (the #1 most powerful antioxidant that is not in food, but produced by the body), Superoxide Dismutase, CoQ10, and Glutathione (what is often, incorrectly, labeled as the most powerful).

If you do not understand what these terms mean...

Or how to effectively create them or what directly hampers them from being produced...

That is part of the problem.

Many people are living with extremely high levels of Oxidative Stress in their bodies...

Which is not being removed effectively, if it is being removed at all...

And it creates a higher physiological baseline stress...

Which makes us less able to handle other stressors...

Meaning, for our purposes, we become less effective at handling any stress from our work.

The seventh...

Is our Neurocardiology.

Specifically, there are two measures we need to be aware of...

HRV-Total and HRV-Coherence.

HRV is short for "Heart Rate Variability"...

And it measures the changes in how our hearts beat.

Here is what is important to know...

These changes are really important to understand...

Because they directly impact every person we interact with.

HRV-Total is generally used as an indicator of health...

Which is true...

But it is also an indicator of the strength of our hearts (which will make more sense why it is important in a moment).

HRV-Coherence is how effectively our hearts transition from faster to slower beats.

Our hearts do not keep a steady rhythm like a metronome...

And in fact, a perfectly steady rhythm may be a sign to see a doctor immediately.

There are slight variations from beat to beat...

And when those variations are smooth...

We are generally healthier.

When those variations are disjointed and chaotic...

It is very problematic and a sign of dis-stress.

HRV-Coherence looks at this factor.

Now here is the other thing that is important from a business perspective...

HRV Entrainment.

Our hearts directly communicate with each other through electromagnetic waves produced by them...

Which are the strongest electromagnetic waves generated in the body...

Being measured, stretching anywhere from 3 feet to 15 feet away from us.

When our hearts are interacting...

They can "pull" each other into our HRV-Coherence.

What this means...

Is that when someone has a more positive HRV-Coherence...

They can "pull" others into that same positive HRV-Coherence with them.

But...

If someone has a more negative HRV-Coherence...

They can also "pull" others into that same negative HRV-Coherence with them.

Now, HRV-Total plays a role in terms of how much "strength" one person's HRV-Coherence has to pull others...

But there are also other factors that are incredibly important.

However...

In a Leadership context...

Most people are unaware of how to utilize or impact others through their Neurocardiology...

So...

The most common result is that one person's negative HRV-Coherence pulls everyone's HRV-Coherence down with them...

Especially when they are in the same space together (even if there are barriers, including potentially walls).

This is a large portion of how I was able to predict when the Return-to-Office "Mandates" were being made that it would decrease productivity and increase burnout...

Which ended up 100% accurate.

When you understand Psychophysiology truly...

You can begin to see how these sorts of interactions will play out with incredible accuracy.

The eighth...

Is the Nervous System.

Now, most people, wrongly, lump the nervous system in with the brain...

And nothing could be further from the truth.

Though the brain and nervous system are connected to each other...

They operate as two interdependent Cognition Systems...

Two of our four Cognition Systems in the body.

The Nervous System has its own, separate memory from the brain...

Can make its own decisions...

And importantly...

Can supersede what the brain wants to do.

When you begin to look at things like Therapy and PTSD...

This is actually a part of the reason why, in some populations, traditional therapies are completely ineffective...

They are "Brain" modalities that are working on the Brain Cognition System...

But the problem is actually occurring in the Nervous System...

Which is being triggered by what is known as "Memory Capsules," which can develop into "Trauma Capsules"...

That begin to be triggered by "Aspects" of things that happen in our lives...

Causing the Nervous System to take control and supersede the brain.

In the workplace, the Nervous System can begin to play a gigantic role in how people operate...

Despite what they cognitively know and understand.

You can apply psychological (brain) methods to try to fix the problems...

But they end up being ineffective because the brain was never the actual issue.

Leaders need to begin to understand what is a brain problem...

What is a nervous system problem...

And what else might be the real culprit...

Bringing us to the next point.

The ninth...

Our Mindset and Wayset.

Now, most people "know" what a mindset is...

And it is very important, so I do touch on it often.

But here is the thing...

A mindset focuses on only the brain...

And often the brain is not the only problem...

If the brain is a problem at all (sometimes it is not!).

So...

We do need to develop our mindset...

And...

We need to actually go further than that to get real results.

Before I mentioned that we have four Cognition Systems...

And a Wayset is created by how these four systems are (or are not) aligned.

When they are dysfunctional...

Aimed in different directions and toward different goals...

Then our Wayset will be ineffective, and we will struggle to get where we want in life.

Instead...

We need to understand how these Cognition Systems work...

What their individual goals are from a psychophysiological perspective...

Then...

Align all of them toward the same thing.

When our Wayset is aligned...

We can accomplish incredible things as humans.

The problem...

Is that most people have no understanding of how their Wayset works...

And it shows in the results they obtain in work and life.

The tenth...

Are Flow States.

This is where we feel our best...

Perform our best...

Are most innovative, capable of Exponential Innovation (instead of generic Incremental Innovation)...

Are better at problem-solving...

And more.

Here is the thing...

Most of the workforce, from a productivity perspective, is actually incapable of attaining Flow States...

Because they are trapped in their psychophysiological opposite...

Burnout.

Most people have "heard" about Burnout...

They think they "get" Burnout...

But their results prove they fail to comprehend it in the slightest.

In Burnout, based on the scientific research...

We operate at 5% or less of our Productivity Potential...

And we "can" and frequently "do" go into Negative Productivity.

On top of this...

Things like "Meditation", "Breathing Exercises", "Journaling" and "Vacation" are virtually useless in resolving Burnout.

If they worked...

We would not have over 80% of the workforce in Burnout...

With it expected to become worse based on current trends.

If you want to get into Flow States...

You first need to get yourself and your workforce out of Burnout...

Which is a process that can take anywhere from 3 weeks of deep recovery (aka, more intentional than just "taking a vacation") if you are in light Burnout...

To over a year in deeper states of Burnout (which is where more people are already sitting).

Worse...

Most leaders make decisions that actively make Burnout worse...

Creating a workforce that is trapped in Group Burnout...

Making it exponentially worse and more difficult to resolve.

If Leaders are to succeed...

They need to escape Burnout...

Get their workforce to escape it as well...

Then begin to actively and intentionally create workplaces where Flow State occur naturally and consistently.

The eleventh...

Is overall health.

It may seem silly to read...

But our health creates a limiter to our success.

If we are unhealthy...

It negatively impacts our potential.

If we are healthy...

We have better access to utilize our potential.

Now, being healthy does not automatically mean you will reach your potential...

But being unhealthy does automatically mean you will never reach your potential.

So...

I do talk about overall health topics because it is vastly more relevant to leadership success and our ability to attain Sageship than most people realize.

The twelfth...

Is Cultivation and Interdependent Bio-Systems.

Most people talk about the importance of personal growth...

And there is value in personal growth...

But what most people fail to address...

Is whether what is growing is actually useful.

A weed grows in a garden...

But does that weed benefit the garden?

No.

The weeds will take nutrients and choke off other plants in the garden...

And this is how most people's "personal growth" looks in reality.

So...

It is not just about what grows...

But what is also removed.

Cultivation.

You need to grow the plants you want in the garden...

And remove the weeds to make sure the garden grows healthily.

But...

We can take this a step further.

We often think about ourselves as the "garden" in personal development...

But we all exist within a larger ecosystem...

Interdependent with each and every other person within that ecosystem.

We all exist within larger Bio-Systems...

Effectively similar to individual plants or animals within a larger ecosystem.

We can each act as plants or animals that are a natural part of that larger ecosystem...

Or...

We can act like weeds or invasive species that destroy those larger ecosystems.

Here is what is important for leaders to understand...

We need to effectively Cultivate our Bio-Ecosystems in business...

Which I call Regenerative Legacy Design.

We need to remove the weeds and invasive species...

But also cultivate what is effective and beautiful within our Bio-Ecosystems.

What most leaders do, however...

Is that they use "playbooks" which actively decimate their Bio-Ecosystems...

Which may seem effective in the short term...

But eventually turn their Bio-Ecosystem into a Business Desert that struggles.

Revenue begins to disappear like a desert...

Fewer species of plants and animals remain in the business...

Those species usually "excel" in those harsher business conditions...

But fail to do anything to make it rain more...

Leaving the business as a desert...

Often which becomes replaced by another company when the next exponential innovation occurs (via Category Design Economics).

If you fail to understand how Cultivation and Bio-Ecosystems work in a business context...

You will most likely destroy the organization.

In some cases, it is an extremely slow destruction...

But a destruction nevertheless.

These make up the 12 main topics of things I write about when it comes to Psychophysiology.

As you can see...

It is a vastly more complicated topic than the short response to the question of "What is Psychophysiology"?

This is also why it is so incredibly important to let your pride die for a while and become humble to learn the complexity of Psychophysiology.

It is the difference between a single flourishing leader who is able to attain Sageship...

And where everyone else actually ends up in life.

The question becomes...

Are you willing to actually take steps to begin to understand what Psychophysiology actually entails?

Are You Ready to Go Beyond Leadership?

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