At Seven Stones Leadership, we often say that transformation begins in the body. The body is our first home, our original instrument of knowing and our most honest storyteller. Before we had words, we reached, grasped, yielded, pushed and pulled our way into relationship with the world. These early, instinctual movements – what Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen calls The Five Developmental Movements – carry the story of who we are and how we lead.
In the modern world of leadership, we often forget this. We lead from the neck up: analyzing, strategizing and solving problems through intellect alone. Yet in times of great complexity, uncertainty and systemic challenge, connecting to the body can be a pathway to a deeper intelligence, one that restores flow, coherence and trust in our capacity to move wisely through change.
Leadership as an Embodied Practice
Embodied leadership begins by remembering that we are not disembodied minds leading from afar, but sensing, feeling, moving beings who exist in relationship with all of life. As Liz Koch reminds us, “The human being is a dynamic interplay of relationships both within and without.”
When we lead from embodiment, we are not performing leadership, we are being it. We are grounded, responsive and attuned to the field we are leading within. Our nervous system becomes a tuning fork for what is needed: calm amidst urgency, strength amidst fragility and compassion amidst conflict.
Jennifer Krier and I recently taught a track at NPI called Somatic Coaching and Embodied Leadership, inviting leaders, coaches and practitioners to rediscover the intelligence of their earliest developmental movements and use themselves as the primary access point for learning and change. This is the heart of Seven Stones’ philosophy: leadership as a lived, embodied practice where love, courage, truth and respect are not abstract ideals but somatic realities felt and enacted through the body.
Restoring the Original Movements
To understand why embodiment matters, we can consider Thomas Hübl’s statement that “healing is the restoration of the original movement.” Every human being is born with impulses that connect us to life: to reach, to grasp, to pull close, to push away, to yield and to let go. These movements are not random. They are how life moves through us.
But life also sometimes thwarts, slows or exaggerates our early impulses to explore, to connect and to rest. Early experiences of disconnection, trauma, or unmet need can interrupt these movements, leaving behind patterns of contraction, defense, or overcompensation. We begin to move through life not from free flowing, context specific impulses, rather from old habits or outdated strategies. Over time, these patterns solidify into personality, leadership styles and even organizational cultures.
Healing, then, is the act of restoring the flow. It is about reinhabiting the movements that got cut off, feeling again the reach that was once too risky, the push that was forbidden, or the yield that felt unsafe. When we reclaim these natural rhythms, energy that was once bound up in self-protection becomes available for creation, connection and courage.
The Leader’s Nervous System
Somatic work reminds us that the nervous system is not just personal. It is relational and collective. We are constantly co-regulating with those around us, whether we are aware of it or not. In an anxious or brittle system, leaders who can stay embodied offer a profound gift. They become steadying forces in the midst of uncertainty.
The ventral vagal system, sometimes called the “compassion nerve,” enables us to stay socially engaged and grounded even under stress. From this state, leaders can listen deeply, speak truth with care and hold complexity without collapsing or attacking. This is not just emotional intelligence. It is embodied intelligence, a somatic capacity built through practice.
Practicing the New Story
Embodied leadership is not a one-time insight but a lifelong practice. It asks us to become curious movers again, to notice where we hold tension, where we habitually lean forward or pull back, where we overextend or collapse. Through this awareness, we can begin to re-pattern how we show up in life and leadership.
This is not about perfection. It is about presence. It is about cultivating what Bruce Lee once said, “Under duress, we do not rise to our expectations, but fall to our level of training.” Under stress, we will embody what we have practiced. So, the invitation is to practice presence, to practice flow, to practice restoration and to practice compassion.
A Simple Practice: Reach and Yield
Here is one way to begin.
Find a quiet space where you can stand or sit with both feet grounded. Slowly extend one arm forward, palm open. Notice what happens as you reach. Do you strain, hesitate, or hold your breath? Then gently release, and allow yourself to yield. Feel the pull of gravity through your feet or the support of the chair beneath you. Let yourself rest.
Repeat this simple movement a few times, noticing the sensations and emotions that arise. The practice of reaching and yielding restores the natural rhythm between effort and ease, between doing and being. It reminds us that leading, too, requires both: the willingness to extend and the capacity to rest.
A Final Word
In a world that feels increasingly brittle, anxious, nonlinear and incomprehensible, embodied leadership offers a path back to coherence. It reminds us that we are not separate from life. We are life, moving.
As Joanna Macy writes, “You are not a separate being. You belong to the living body of Earth. You are the Earth, becoming conscious of itself.”
To lead from that knowing is to restore the original movement of leadership, to breathe, to reach, to belong and to bring forth a world rooted in love and Sustainable Abundance.
