Written by: Kamladevi Sharma, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Deliberate attempt to manage one’s mindset is one of the most popular actions successful leaders take. Venturing into the subconscious, releasing what no longer serves one’s vision, and recreating what one desires, are major actions taken to guide one’s focus and intention into creating the life they want to live.
This is especially important in feminine leadership- considering the complexities of a female’s body and the impact of its hormonal changes. Further, as conscious as I am as a coach, undergoing this process for recurring success was no different for me but, I found a strange experience manifesting a few weeks ago- one that I’d never imagine was possible for such an active person as I am. Weight gain!
You may be thinking, what? How does that align with being a successful feminine leader?
Well, it was as a result of something deeper than my conscious thought. I’ve delivered three children within the space of 2016 to 2019, and throughout, I’ve been doing mindset work. However, in these years, my body was programmed to prepare for pregnancy in an average of eleven months, and it was preparing for the same a few weeks ago. I was not pregnant, but I experienced all signs of pregnancy. Then I begun to gain weight, which caught me by surprise. Additionally, my productivity slowed, and a frequent tiredness took over.
Following this up with a doctor’s opinion and no irregularities shown from lab tests, I concluded that it was my subconscious programming. So I decided to sit with it, and I realized that my habits were automatically those of my pregnant self. The type of food I ate and the hours in which I’d eat were the same as if I was nurturing a child within. My yoga and exercise were still light, and the voice within spoke, “take care of yourself for the baby, rest and eat enough.”
These were all subconsciously absorbed while I was pregnant, with the subsequent fear and elevated risk of back-to-back pregnancies as mine. Inevitably, what I didn’t realize in doing the mindset work over these years was that the physical changes I was undergoing needed to be included in that work. Further, I needed to speak to my body directly post-surgery and post-pregnancy to release the habits created for those special physical changes.
Why? Rightfully, my focus was always to forward plan and to take steps to move me closer towards my business goals. As a budding successful leader, my pregnancies were just a minor part of that overall focus. It was as if I accepted that my body was creating a child. I had specific actions to take to aid that process. But I needed to remain focused on my overall vision, so I remained emotionally detached to keep working on my business.
Consequently, failing to directly address the changes from pregnancy and surgery to my body and its subsequent subconscious habits later created a situation in my body that did not exist because I initially allowed the programming to remain, and I allowed my body to take care of the process of having a child.
Whilst sharing this with a client who underwent surgery to her body with special post-care instructions recently, I realized that this failure to address our bodies as it is going through such processes also reflects self-love and self-care. For example, when addressing the changes, my client reported that she felt as if she was wasting her time and energy when she could have been talking to herself about something more productive like the launch of her new make-up line.
Undoubtedly this resonated with me. It certainly is important that we know our bodies and speak to it as it is undergoing changes. After all, we rely on the body to put our ideas and heart’s desire into motion, so why not include its changes in our mindset work? Why not be that proactive healer for our bodies?
Therefore, as much as we may be planning and making things happen in the external environment as a female leader, recognizing specific processes our bodies undergo, such as a pregnancy or surgery, helps us remain in alignment and be more effective and successful when those processes have concluded. Simple steps we can take are:
1. Engaging in positive self-talk during and after surgery, specifically detailing what is happening and our expectation of how our body will respond to the process. For example, recovering quickly, returning to our normal routine, being able to continue doing all that we do, and so on.
2. Affirming appreciation for our body, good health, and well-being by looking at ourselves in the eyes in a mirror every day. I recommend doing this standing naked to get accustomed to our body’s changes and accept ourselves at every stage of those changes.
3. Challenge ourself when exercising to increase our momentum or engage in more rigorous techniques. This helps to work with the various muscles and energy centers in our body to keep on expanding energetically- creating complete cellular and muscular regeneration with every new technique adopted.
4. Releasing emotions aroused during the process in a special post-surgery session. This can be done successfully in a meditative state or automatic writing session by recalling specific incidents and advice received during the process, feeling into the emotions that surfaced, and choosing to release them in that process of addressing them.
The body deserves to be recognized and appreciated for the work that it continues to allow us to do as a female leader. Specific changes such as pregnancy or surgery undoubtedly impact its ability to be as effective as it once was. Being its friend during and after those changes can help it realign with our broader vision. Including mindset work in relation to our physical body and not just our heart’s desire is important to maintain alignment.
Kamladevi Sharma, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Kamladevi Sharma is an international speaker on work-life balance, a certified professional life coach, and a qualified business consultant. She helps entrepreneurs and people in management globally, including you, to eliminate burnout and achieve balance in their personal and professional lives. Her dedication to achieving clarity, alignment, and results for her clients ensures that they can thrive and feel more fulfilled and successful in their lives, careers, and/or business. Additionally, her expertise in mindset and personal development strategy has benefitted over 4000 professionals globally in personal growth and over 250 businesses in jumping start a momentum for success in her signature momentum trainings at Revive. She has been featured on several podcast shows on various platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts and, the Guyana Times Sunday Magazine. Kamladevi holds a MBA in Business Administration from the University of Bradford, Bachelors in Social Psychology, Social Research and Business and, certificates in Professional Life Coaching and Counselling. Prior to co-founding Revive, she was magnificent in upper management positions in Guyana and lectured at several tertiary institutions.
