Steven P. MacGregor's Blog, page 7

When is the best time of the day to exercise?

I’ve fielded several questions from executives in the past few weeks, from Caixabank to Russian Railways, on a recurring and simple topic. When is the best time of the day to exercise for a busy, senior executive? ‘Best’ may mean different things, from simply having the best chance of doing the exercise, to what is optimal for mental performance and physical development.

As well as linking to the company context and notions of culture such a reflection also connects to our circadian rhythm, a topic that we’ve covered several times in the column. I lay out the main options below and also make available for download the complete chapter on physical training from the Sustaining Executive Performance book here.

Get up early, sacrifice some sleep

Getting up early is by far the most common strategy that I’ve found over the years. Many people say that if they don’t do it as soon as they get up, it simply won’t happen. Other distractions and priorities, from either the personal or professional domain tend to take over. The principal disadvantage of course, despite any good intentions of adjusting bedtime, is getting less sleep – just as important, if not more so, for executive performance. The good news is that physically fitter people need less sleep, with sleep cycles more efficient and physical movement during the day contributing to a higher percentage of stage 4 deep sleep at night.

In some high profile cases early is indeed very early. Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly rises at 0345 to deal with emails as well as exercise, which one would assume involves a similarly early time of going to bed the previous night. When combining with the long hours that Cook spends at Apple the ‘entrepreneurs dilemma’ from Randi Zuckerberg comes to mind – work, sleep, family, fitness or friends: pick 3.

Will exercising in the morning make you more an effective executive? Perhaps. In Spark!: How exercise will improve the performance of your brain John Ratey showed that high school children in Chicago who ran a hard mile before class scored better in exam results, with better results coming with closer proximity to the physical effort. Yet intense exercise in the morning may also result in excessive tiredness, particularly for older or less fit individuals.

I do believe that doing something other than jumping on to the never-ending carousel of work upon immediately waking up is healthy practice. Meditation is another common practice for many and how you spend the first 10 minutes of your day (and last) can often have a big impact on the remaining 23 hours 50 minutes.

Yet work and exercise can also be combined. Many executives I’ve coached over the years like the practice of exercising and email (Apple’s Cook has both in close proximity) and lifelong runner and Telefónica CEO Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallete runs, he told me (and at different times of the day) as a means of improving decision making.

Commuter, not computer

A small minority of executives do have the luxury of commuting to work under their own steam, with cycling to work likely to be the most feasible option. As with the last point above, work need not be separated from the exercise. A bike ride to work may involve a reflection on the day ahead and good progress on the tough problems currently in view.

Such working may be more pleasant than the typical commuter practice. A study from the University of the West of England found the working day has essentially been extended through wider access to WiFi on trains and the spread of mobile phones, recommending that the journeys themselves counting towards the workday. Yet exercising, and particularly biking to work isn’t perfect either. With the likelihood that most executives work in urban centres, a stressful, not to mention dangerous, start and finish to the working day isn’t for everyone.

End of the day, hard to switch off

Exercise may also be the means by which we forget about work completely. Training after work may allow one to get rid of the frustrations, stress and rumination of the working day, particularly on hard sessions where heart rate increases beyond 70% of the maximum (220 beats per minute minus your age gives a theoretical approximation of that maximum). At such levels of intensity – which are completely safe, and actually the healthy thing to do– our body concentrates on essential biological functions and shuts down parts of the brain responsible for complex cognitive processing. In sum, we become a more primitive version of ourselves, useful to stop any overthinking which is causing stress as we return home after work.

Exercise as an antidote to stress is now well established in the scientific community. When we are more accustomed to the biological response to exercise – increased heart rate, blood flow and blood pressure to name a few – when the same things happen in the work environment, for example preparing to give an important presentation or receiving an unexpected email, our brain is better able to cope with the stressor. Research shows that stress in itself is not a bad thing for health, rather how we react to the stress.

The preference between before work or after work, which probably accounts for over 90% of cases, may simply come down to our chronotype preference. A lark will find it easier to exercise in the morning and an owl in the evening. Certainly being an owl will help with the biggest inconvenience of exercising later in the day – switching off our body to be able to go to sleep. Exercising closer to bedtime, especially if that exercise is intense, will mean time is required to effectively wind down. Since owls tend to go to bed later, they will have that extra time to do so.

Beat the circadian dip, take care with culture

Let me posit an alternative option – make exercise an integral part of your workday. Some people do this, though I’d say most under some form of duress – either fighting time constraints of a busy calendar, perhaps sacrificing lunch, or dealing with mocking comments from colleagues that they’re ‘skipping’ work.

Ask yourself the following question: how much quality work is accomplished in the mid-afternoon when our circadian rhythm dictates that we are at our lowest level of alertness? Jeff Bezos schedules his most important, “high IQ meetings” between 10am and noon and if anything comes up later in the afternoon, it waits until the following morning. Take your own energy audit over the course of a few weeks and schedule your exercise when you’re at your lowest point as a means of re-energising.

Will the culture of the organization allow such practice? Again, work need not be separate. A walking meeting, even running meeting, or tennis or squash game with a colleague may present opportunities to brainstorm or discuss tough problems, aided by the increased creativity that comes through exercise.

It’s not for everyone, as this would tend to lengthen the working day. Yet most executives these days are engaged in at least thinking about work during a large part of the waking day. Transitioning in and out of work, rest and play throughout our 24 hours instead of the traditional serial approach may be the future for most of us in the fourth industrial revolution.

 

So what about you? Asking my LinkedIn and Twitter networks in the days leading up to this article yielded higher than expected results in the post-work group yet before work is still the most common. Only one person of around 50 said they exercised during the workday. When do you exercise in a busy professional life? A simple question with interesting connections to the wider context of life and work.

This month’s article is the final under the guise of ‘MacGregor on Executive Health’. Since September 2016 I’ve had the privilege of this platform to cover areas that I’m passionate about, and which I think are critical for business today. The 26 articles of the past 26 months will be produced soon as a free eBook. And we’ll be back soon with a re-boot – new name and format.

CWO podcast episode 11: Talking resilience with Jenny Campbell

The Chief Wellbeing Officer podcast returns after a long summer break with episode 11 featuring Jenny Campbell, CEO of Edinburgh-based Resilience Engine, and former alumni director for Scotland of IMD Business School. We talk about a new, more positive view of resilience, why it's less about hero leadership and more about team purpose, and what role lifelong learning plays.

Steven and Rory talk about Chief Wellbeing Officer with LID radio

Episode 80 of The Innovation Ecosystem podcast

Episode 80 of The Innovation Ecosystem podcast sees Mark Bidwell interview Steven MacGregor.

From The Innovation Ecosystem website (visit for more details and links):

In this episode, we are joined by Steven MacGregor, who is the founder and CEO of The Leadership Academy of Barcelona and author of Sustaining Executive Performance, and his latest book is Chief Wellbeing Officer, in which he aims to show how to create a more human workplace. Steven is also an academic specializing in executive education, and has been a researcher at Stanford University, a teacher at IMD at Lausanne, CEIBS in Shanghai and he pioneered executive health teaching at IESE Business School.

Heartfulness

The human heart is the engine room for everything you do. Every beat of that engine, which may beat up to 100,000 times per day, comes in the form of a wave. Pumping 7,500 litres (2,000 gallons) of blood in a 24-hour period, tiny electrical currents drive the waves of movement that form the beating of your heart. A small electrical shock is first produced by pacemaker cells at the top of your heart. This electrical activity travels down through the muscle, contracting and passing on the current from cell to cell. After each has fired, it becomes momentarily unable to do so again, as if exhausted and having a rest. This delay in cell excitability is called the refractory period, lasting between one-tenth and one-fifth of a second, and ensures that the electrical wave can pass only once through the muscle tissue, until the next electrical shock from the pacemaker cells starts the whole process again.

Much of my work the past 10 years has been about reminding people that they have a heart. For something that beats up to 100,000 times a day how often do we pay attention to it, or listen to it? Many adults are indeed frightened to consider it, and work it to its upper limit. Yet the heart is a muscle that needs to be maintained in good shape as like any other. It is a very useful barometer for our present state of health.

As a young athlete I was fascinated by heart zones, maximum heart rate, threshold, and post-race recovery. The most dangerous factor as an adult isn’t that we take our heart rate to its maximum beat, a fear I identify in many – rather that we exist in a perpetual middle or “gray zone” – fuelled by dopamine anticipation and stressful meetings, neither really working or truly resting that engine. We are rhythmic beings and need these opposing states or risk the perils of atrophy.

Much has yet to be discovered on the exact link between the heart and the brain, yet we are beginning to understand much more of the neurological benefits of aerobic exercise, including improved memory, learning and self-control, reduced stress, anxiety and depression, and even ‘cognitive reserve’ – essentially providing a buffer against cognitive disease including Alzheimer and Parkinson, later in life. Modern science echoes ancient thinking. The Egyptians believed the heart to be the core of all that made us uniquely human, doing all they could to preserve it during mummification, and believing the brain, in contrast, to be superfluous.

Heart measures, including Heart Rate Variability (HRV) give us valuable information on physical stress, recovery and performance, driving major decisions in sport. With more understanding on the crossover to the cognitive sphere we’re experimenting with HRV analysis in our executive programs in Barcelona to better understand mental stress, recovery, and performance. As previously reported in this column we can move towards a healthier HRV, changing our predominant nervous system, through a simple breathing exercise.

Yet a heart-based ‘epiphany’ need not require advanced tools. I’ve taken thousands of executive students up four flights of stairs at IESE Business School, from the classroom to the roof terrace overlooking the city. Being aware of when it has become difficult to maintain a conversation with a fellow participant vividly shows basic biology in action as well as present state of health.

Though few studies have made it out of the cardiology and neuroscience literature to the annual cadre of business books, there are one or two exceptions. In Spark!, John Ratey reports on the remarkable rise in academic achievement of schoolchildren in Naperville, Chicago, due to an innovative Physical Education program, finding that exam performance in the morning was significantly boosted by running the mile immediately beforehand – an intense effort that took the schoolchildrens’ heart to its maximum level. In Blink, Malcolm Gladwell, himself a lifelong athlete who continues to race the mile, talks on the optimum state of heart rate ‘arousal’ – the range in which stress improves performance.

Yet no consideration of the human heart can rest solely on the biological and neurological levels. A deeper, more emotional or perhaps spiritual consideration of who we are as human beings is necessary. Culturally, the heart represents the essence or centre of something and the means by which we give our all, truly able to inspire others. It is the seat of the things that make us human: compassion, joy, gratitude, and of course love.

I was introduced to the concept of heartfulness in recent weeks, a meditation practice focused on the heart that practitioners of mindfulness will find familiar. Mindfulness has of course enjoyed a surge of popularity within the business context in recent years with research showing the tangible benefits for our health, wellbeing and performance. I’m still understanding what heartfulness is, but see that, like the biological view of our heart as the engine of everything we do, it regards a deeper self-awareness of who we are, the importance of practice over theory, and a path towards a better and truer version of ourselves.

Whatever way you wish to view your heart – biological, neurological, emotional, or spiritual – I think the key factor is to pay more attention to it. I’m convinced that a healthier and happier you will result. And this is surely good news for business and society at large.

This months article is in celebration of Paddy Miller, who will be greatly missed.

Connection

I have been thinking a lot lately about connection. And disconnection. It is one of the recurring themes discussed in my coaching sessions. The need to connect. The isolation that comes from disconnection. With so much of business being international, many people move far from home for their careers. This can lead to feelings of disconnection. For example, I am from the USA, but I have been living abroad now for more years than I am willing to admit to. In some ways, I feel very disconnected from my American culture and the disconnect increases over time. This makes me sad, sometimes. Drifting so far away from your roots is… uncomfortable.

And the thing about disconnection is that the more disconnected you feel, or are, the fewer points for connection you can find. So, it becomes a vicious cycle. How do I connect? With whom? Where do I even start a dialogue?

And then…  Well, thank you Green Bay Packers!

I mean for me, it is the Green Bay Packers. You should feel free to “insert the team of your choice which plays the sport of your choice” here. For me, the Packers press all the right buttons.  They are my hometown team.  In fact, the Green Bay Packers are the only community-owned major league professional sports team left in the US. They are also the third-oldest franchise in the NFL.  I was born in Texas, but I really grew up in Green Bay. My mother is originally from Green Bay. My parents actually live just down the road from Curly Lambeau’s cottage on The Bay. My best friend through grade school and high school still lives in Green Bay. My point here is that if I have roots anywhere in the States anymore, they would mostly be in Green Bay. Also, Green Bay is where I learned to watch and love sports, particularly American Football, but really sports in general.  So the Packers are clearly my team and learning to be a sports fan in Green Bay is not for the weak or timid. In fact, I would say that Packers fans (a.k.a. Cheeseheads) are a breed apart. It takes a special kind of dedication to watch football in an open stadium, in Wisconsin, in December (or January, or even sometimes in October!)

But I digress, because apart from dedication, Green Bay Packers fans taught me how to connect through sport.  When the Packers lost more than they won, which was the case the ENTIRE time I was growing up, we consoled each other and made plans to rebuild for next year. When they won more than they lost, the jubilation, adulation, joy and pride were palpable.  I mentioned pride in relation to winning, which is perhaps where Packers fans standout… because the pride during the “dark days” was also palpable.  Being a proud Packers fan really means standing by the team, win or lose. There are no fair-weather fans at Lambeau Field!

And now after all these years, the Packers remain a fantastic way of connecting with people when I am back in the US. Somehow, in a world that is increasingly polarized, it is (thankfully) still OK to agree to disagree about sport. We can disagree over which NFL team is the best (obviously, the Packers) or who is the best quarterback in the league (clearly, Aaron Rodgers), and still have a friendly conversation. In fact, we regularly see players compliment their opponents on how well they played. Perhaps we all need to take a page out of this playbook and apply it to other areas of our lives…

Sport, at its best, allows us to see beyond our differences while at the same time tapping into what we have in common – a love of the game, a shared appreciation of the beauty of sport well played.  Jose Mourinho called soccer the “beautiful game” and I love that love of a sport! As a Barça fan as well, I don’t disagree with Mourinho.  However, anyone who has watched Aaron Rodgers throw a Hail Mary down the field for a last-minute touchdown to save the game, has also seen beauty.  

So, sport, which gives me so much in my life, gives me connection as well. How can I not be a fan?  For me, it is the Green Bay Packers that remain an amazing way of starting the connection conversation when I am back in the US. But it could be any sport, any team, any book, piece of art or hobby for someone else. The important thing is finding that key way to start a connection.  Identifying some way to get your “foot in the door” is SO important. 

And for that, and the other reasons above, I am so thankful to the Packers as a team and as an institution. They give me connection to a part of myself that I can struggle to connect to.  So…

Go Pack Go!!

This year, we are Super Bowl bound!  I just feel it…

Could you answer these 3 questions?

I need your help.

I’ve been asked to reflect on 3 questions for an interview this week on the Innovation Ecosystem podcast. Founded by anthropologist turned executive Mark Bidwell in 2016 this is a prolific and thought-provoking podcast series that has provided a platform for many thought leaders in the innovation area the past few years, including Scott Anthony, Steven Kotler and Dorie Clark, as well as world class performers from the worlds of business, sports, science and the arts. Executive health, sustainable performance at work, and many of the other themes covered in this column the past 24 months have made frequent appearances and I had the pleasure of being interviewed in season 1 of the show to talk about my Sustaining Executive Performance program and book. I’m looking forward to a return based on the recent release of Chief Wellbeing Officer, but I’m a bit apprehensive.

Mark asked me to reflect on 3 questions as a primer for our interview, and I’m really not sure how I’m going to answer them. Maybe it’s due to their slightly personal nature, or the fact that I’ve been travelling most of this month firmly on ‘holiday mode’, whatever the reason I thought that writing about them for this months column would help me to work towards the answers. So here goes:

1. What is your most significant failure/”low”, what have you learned from it, and how have you applied that learning?

We don’t like failure. Much has been written on the importance of it for learning, especially in the innovation space, but who can truly move on from what sounds reasonable in theory, to welcoming it in practice? Some of my own teaching in recent years has included aspects of creating space for failure, and trying something new when the stakes are a little less high than usual.

For example, I clearly remember that multiple Olympic track cycling Champion Chris Hoy would crash in some of his races, but only in non-Olympic years. I’m sure he didn’t get to the start line and have the specific intention of falling off his bike – to do so at over 70km/h requires a day or two in hospital, but I am sure he was experimenting and trying new ways to win, which carried the increased risk of losing. Getting to the Olympic Games, and even during Olympic year was about sticking to tried and tested tactics, often discovered during those interim years.

I still believe in all of this, but the dynamic changes significantly when failure is unexpected. I’m starting to formulate some of my thoughts to answer Mark’s question based on my experiences of the past few years, where I fully expected the growth curve I was on to keep climbing. In hindsight, I was at the end of one curve and faced with the challenge of moving to another. We’ve touched on the concept of such S curves for learning in a previous post, reflective of Chapter 7 in the new Chief Wellbeing Officer book.

Some of my learnings from this transition period of the last few years have included prioritising the building of personal relationships over work performance, and accepting jobs which may have been financially less rewarding but allowed me and my organization to stretch and grow in a different direction.

2. How do you remain creative and expose yourself to fresh perspectives?

Another fascinating question, and one we’ve touched on in this column when discussing the importance of our social and physical environment for behaviour change. Whether we talk of the dangers of groupthink or being trapped in a social media bubble, I firmly believe we need to constantly look to ‘re-design our feed’ – something I experimented with via this column last year when opening up my Wednesday afternoons to anyone who wanted to have a conversation (with admittedly limited success).

I’ve been lucky enough to be aligned with fresh perspectives given my background in design, which is multi-disciplinary and collaborative and nature, and also through living in different countries. Living day to day in a different culture with a different language and customs really does open ones’ eyes to a different way of doing things. On a more concrete level I often try and have real conversations with people I meet accidentally on my travels. I try and understand their lives a little in the few minutes we spend together. Talking only to clients and executive students would tend to give me a skewed view of the world.

Cultivating curiosity is also supported by reading, something I’ve really tried to improve in the past few months. (I benefit from tracking and accountability, so you can check out my newly created Goodreads profile here!) Finally, my role as a parent also helps. When my 3 year old son asks me about something he is seeing for the first time, but which I’ve been aware of, or seen for the past 40 years of my life, it really does help stay fresh and challenge assumptions.

3. What have you changed your mind about recently?

I’ve saved the best, or hardest, to last. I have no idea how I’ll answer this. I do see the value in asking the question and have discussed it many times this year with my executive students. ‘Strong opinions, loosely held’ is the mantra espoused by many in the agile and digital transformation fields, including my friend and agile expert Jeff Gothelf. The days of the leader having all the answers are long gone, rather the leader needs to be able to flex according to new inputs. Such changes of mind can be surprising, such as the New York Times reporting recently of the Republic senator and former speaker of the house, John Boehner, changing his mind on the legalization of cannabis of medicinal use. You’ll have to listen to my interview to see how I answered this one.

So what about you? Could you answer these 3 questions? Check out the Innovation Ecosystem podcast here to see how many others answered these questions in the season 4 wrap-up episodes (numbers 75-77) as well as my own my conversation with Mark.

Riding the big heatwave of 2018

I am not sure how this one will go down in the record books, but in my mind right now I cannot remember anything like it.  The temperatures in Barcelona the past few weeks have been suffocating!  Setting records for both highs and lows – as in the low temperature for the day was still in the 30s!  This is craziness.  And I was complaining about the heat before the heatwave even hit, so you can only imagine my feelings while we were under siege…

All this came at a time when my children were (thankfully) out of the country in a much cooler place. I can’t imagine having to function as a mother or, gasp, cook (!) in these temperatures.  I couldn’t even manage to sit on the couch without sweating! But, having my children gone meant that I actually had time and the obligation to DO THINGS, a task proving to be difficult with the energy sapped out of me by 39 degree heat!

One of the things on my list of things to get done was to exercise every day.  Don’t judge me here, I know that the body needs to recover. But after 2 weeks of vacation recovery, my body needed to move.  My mind needed my body to move.  So, I had my running shoes placed lovingly by the front door and could not wait to lace up… And then, disaster struck…  the HEATWAVE.  A massive heatwave which, as I said, made even sitting on the couch uncomfortable!  I was worried and heartbroken…  What to do… What to do…  Take exercise off the list and wait for a better time?

NO!!  When it comes to certain things, I don’t do excuses.  Excuses are a red flag to me in my coaching practice as well.  We know that if something is important to us, we do not wait for the time or moment or weather to be right, we find a way to do it.  Running is important to me – I run rain or shine.  I run in sleet and snow (although, there is not much snowy running necessary in Barcelona).  Heat, however, gets me every time….  I didn’t want to make excuses, but I had learned earlier in the season that running in 33 degree heat was a bit of a dangerous option for me.  So, it was time to get creative.  And by creative, I just mean diversify, move a little bit out of my comfort zone.

So, I decided to look for alternative forms of exercise (i.e. things that did not involve going outside).  I wanted to keep my goal and I was confident that after a few days, running would be in the cards again.  I knew I needed a solid “back-up plan”, if I intended to stick to my 10 days of exercise every daygoal.  The gym was an obvious solid option.  I identified a spinning class, and went to it.  It was challenging because I had not been on my bicycle in a while.  But I really enjoyed it.  Forcing myself outside my comfort zone wasn’t all bad.  The next day I went to the gym again…  weights and abs today, I thought.  The day after that there was another spinning class.  The day after that I went for a swim.  And so on, and so on…  Eventually, on the 7thday, it was only27 degrees at 6:00am so I was finally able to go for that run. Yeah!!!

Why does it matter that I hit that 10 day target?  In truth, it really only matters to me.  So, why am I blogging about this?  Because I learned something along the way.  I mean, maybe I actually re-learned it, or just forced myself to remember…  but the fact of the matter is that stepping outside of our comfort zone is good for us.  It might even be enjoyable sometimes.  In this case, I found myself asking – Why did I stop cycling?  Why did I stop swimming?  I enjoy these things and I have done them before.  The answer is easy – running is at the core of my comfort zone (and I love it).  I will only step away when I have to – because I am training for a triathlon OR because there is a massive heatwave and I set an exercise goal.

I know this comfort zone stuff.  I spend so much of my time as a coach talking about comfort zones and stepping outside of them, that you would think I might actually practice it.  Well, no.  We are all drawn to our comfort zone and there is a place for it in our lives. The important thing is to not be ruled or limited by it.  Don’t look for and find excuses to keep yourself there.  Don’t say, “well, there is this heatwave, so I am just going to have to take exercise off the list”.  Go out and “look for a gym”.  Not only did I re-discover cycling and swimming, but I made new friends.  I made friends with people at the spinning class. We arranged to meet for a different class in a few days.  I made friends at the pool.  I chatted with one of the lifeguards for a while.  We “know” each other now.  Suddenly, the spinning class and the pool are IN my comfort zone!  Not only have I reached my 10 day goal, but I have expanded my comfort zone.  

So, mission accomplished! I made the 10 days.  I expanded my comfort zone.  I have new friends.  I feel strong.  All of this thanks to the massive heat wave – which I hated!

So, thank you heatwave of 2018.  I am a better person because of you and I guess it just goes to show that every heatwave has a silver lining.

The 7 Hacks of Highly Effective Habits

These behaviour change 'hacks' have evolved over the years, first appearing in LAB programs around 2011 as '4S' (small, specific, supported, shared) and detailed in Sustaining Executive Performance. Looking further into the importance of the environment added 'surroundings' and 'social' with 'streak' rounding off the 7. Chapter 10 in Chief Wellbeing Officer discusses each of the hacks in detail and is based on this European Business Review article from 2017. Many thanks to the EBR team for this animation, especially for the appearance of Harry the Sheepdog!

Into the Wild: 3 days in the Slovenian Alps with McKinsey's Aberkyn

“Brisk exercise imparts elasticity to the muscles, fresh and healthy blood circulates through the brain, the mind works well, the eye is clear, the step is firm, and a day’s exertion always makes the evening’s repose thoroughly enjoyable.”

David Livingstone

I’ve often reflected on this quote from the 19th century Scottish missionary and explorer. I’m no stranger to brisk exercise but my normal environment of modern-day Barcelona couldn’t be more different to the African plains of 200 years ago. I certainly do feel the greater benefit of running in the natural park of Collserola which overlooks the city rather than in the city itself, and research shows that walking in nature has positive benefits for mental health, reducing blood flow to the subgenual prefrontal cortex that is responsible for rumination.

If not quite following in the footsteps of Livinsgtone I recently had the chance to more closely replicate his daily experience on a wilderness trail by Aberkyn, the leadership development firm of McKinsey. For three days in the middle of July, I, along with seven senior business leaders, re-connected to nature in the Slovenian Alps. Led by Aberkyn co-founder Peter van der Vlis, this re-connection was facilitated greatly by disconnection - handing in all technology, including our mobile devices and watches.

There was of course a physical challenge, yet it was not extreme, and certainly possible for any reasonably fit adult. We hiked up the lower slopes of one of the mighty Alps on the morning of day one, and continued up the higher part above the tree line after lunch at our mid-mountain hut that served as base camp for the trail. Day two included walking off-track in the forest followed by a group navigation exercise back to base camp.

Yet it was more than just the brisk exercise so valued by Livingstone. Our re-connecting to nature was primed by re-connecting to our physical selves, and served as the basis for a deeper exploration of our lives. Peter, together with wilderness expert guide Gerard van den Berg, would frequently bring us together as a group to raise key practical and emotional concepts, including navigation, shelter, making fire, purpose, intention and presence.

The situation of these group conversations took place at breathtaking scenic points on our physical journey, and the experience journey was marked by several ‘wow’ moments. The beginning and end of the experience were simply unforgettable. A 7am group meditation around a log fire in front of rolling meadows and the imposing snow-capped Alps in the near distance to start, and a solo overnight sleep (I’m guessing 10-12 hours alone, no watch remember) in a hammock tied between two trees in the forest to end.

Deep solo reflection, atop a mountain, in the clearing around our base camp, or during that forest overnight, was a critical component that allowed us to quiet the mental chatter. Simply being allowed us to gain deep insight to complex issues that have long proved problematic. Peter van der Vlis explains, “One reason we discover clarity is because we literally slow down our brain waves to Alpha/Theta, which is were our brain function is primed to be both focused and creative.” This slowdown was facilitated by the absence of devices, our natural environment, and specific exercises including Dynamic Mind Practice.

Being alone in the forest as the light faded, hearing night creatures come alive before settling into our sleeping bags in the pitch darkness may sound terrifying to some, and some of the group were certainly uneasy at the prospect of doing this, yet we all found it to be one of the most natural, peaceful things we’ve ever done. We were alone, but not isolated.

These were two and a half days in the Slovenian Alps that I’ll never forget. While never losing the grasp of them being two and a half days – the wax and wane of the sun on the mountain was clear and unambiguous – they were some of the longest and fullest days I can remember. Hiking, laughing, sharing stories around a fire at night, eating together in the sun, resting in the shade, meditating, crying, learning, listening and teaching, all made us fully present and aware of the great abundance of life that surrounds us in nature.

How may we re-produce such a sense of calm, peace and insight when heading back to our daily distractions and demands? Peter and Gerard both talked of the difficult transition and ‘landing’ back in our normal lives. While such a retreat shouldn’t be a one-off experience (Bill Gates for example spends two weeks every year alone in the forest) neither should it be necessary every time when life is difficult and stressful. Stoic philosophy may offer a path. Marcus Aurelius, the Roman emperor quoted here on Thrive, said: “People look for retreats for themselves, in the country, by the coast, or in the hills. There is nowhere that a person can find a more peaceful and trouble-free retreat than in his own mind. So constantly give yourself this retreat, and renew yourself.”

We come from nature and nature allows us this renewal. Florence Williams, author of The Nature Fix created the nature pyramid as a recipe for how we may reconnect in our day-to-day lives. From adding plants to our offices, or simply getting outside, to expeditions in the wilderness, we each have a variety of options to support our physical and mental health in a demanding professional business career.

Being reunited with our mobile devices and watches prior to departure was a delicate moment. Here were the physical artifacts of our modern, civilized world, yet it occurred to me that maybe we were really leaving our true home, and heading back into the wild.

For more information on Aberkyn wilderness trails visit: www.aberkyn.com/trails