Everyone has a signature walk. Our “Signature Walk” is an encyclopedia of our life. Our Signature Walk defines who we are, how we are feeling, our station in life and where we are planning on going. You might not think about your walk and what it projects to the world, but everyone else is watching you …and evaluating.
If you sit at a desk all day, I can tell.
We desk sitters walk with a stiff gait in our legs, in our hips, and sometimes more often than not our shoulders sloop forward. Our tight bodies project the “ouch” of too little stretching and too much work in every step we take.
On the weekends we kick butt, we are weekend warriors pushing our bodies physically by playing hard or raking a pike of leaves. My Signature Walk on Saturday night is even stiffer than my weekday walk. I’m tired, sore but not willing to give into my body.
What do I do to help me walk into the night?
I have a strong cup of black tea in the late afternoon and hope for my second wind that will take me into the evening. Yes, a spot of tea is the perfect midday break. …
Ah, but I digress.
Let’s get back on track – giving into fatigue does not come easy for us podcast host nor listeners. You work and play hard – I can tell…. by the way you walk.
I have a perfect tip on how to Walk when chaos is abound and everyone is expecting you to be a leader. And, Thankfully there are people like yourself who show up for others everyday and lead chaos.
How do I know about Leading Chaos. It is what I do and have been doing for a very long time.
I have the kind of job that people are interested from the distance. I specialize in conflict management.
I’ve been helping people learn how to be safe when facing a potentially threatening person or scene for the past 27 years. And how you walk is important to me, because, Folks in my line of work , know that 78% of communication is Non verbal.
I started our working at a minimum and maximum security facility for adjudicated adolescents. I worked in the Youth Challenge program which was an adventure based experiential learning program at a state facility for male and females.
Being a state worker allowed me the opportunity to take classes to better my skills as a worker and wilderness instructor, because we were taking teens – camping and rock climbing and on long sometimes 10 day trips on the Appalachian Trail.
While at that job, I became an instructor for the Humane Defense Program which was a crisis intervention program on how to physically manage a disruptive person. It was a purely physical intervention course and it didn’t take me long to realize that no one was promoting verbal intervention – like saying “Let’s both take a step back”. NO that course was purely physical and all about physically immobilizing a person and using even using pain compliance. Back then it was considered state of the art training. Yikes!
Fast forward to 2014, I now pretty much solely teach how to avoid and prevent physical hands on interventions via the Response Crisis Intervention Model. I founded Response in 1986, when I lived nearby to Yale University in New Haven Ct. I went to the Medical Library at Yale and researched everything I could at the time to find other options other than just physically managing a person.
If you want to learn more about Response go to the link on the Leading Chaos Podcast home page and click on Curriculum or look to my book Leading chaos: An Essential Guide To Conflict Management. That book which originally came out in 2002 was revised in 2010. It is in both English and Dutch (in hard print and eBook). The Response Model is user friendly for anyone looking to manage conflict safely.
I have learned quite a bit about non verbal communication. And as a woman who teaches both men and woman on how to enter a scene safely, I love sharing how to embody what I refer to as “The Astronaut Walk” when chaos is abound.
Leading chaos, is so much better than being led by chaos.
The Astronaut Walk puts me in the Can-do mood that I know is needed when I am called to provide leadership.
You know what the Astronaut Walk is – you’ve seen it while watching movies where the camera is rolling the scene in slow motion. You can see ever step that the hero or heroes are taking. Maybe it was those block buster Hollywood movies like Armageddon or Independence Day with Will Smith. I think “Astronaut” because who other than an Astronaut is thinking about ever single step that they are taking on planet earth as they walk towards the rocket ship to launch into outer space.
If you haven’t seen those slow motion heroes walking forward into the abyss doing the Astronaut Walk, well it is time to sit down and watch a good movie. Check out the Links below for movies to watch.
Anyone who has ever worked with me, knows about embodying the Astronaut Walk. It is our role as consultants and trainers who often are visiting site for the first time to project a sense of Can-do. After all who would hire you if you didn’t project Can-do.
Do the Astronaut Walk.
Step 1 – Move slowly and deliberately
Step 2 – Walk tall and keep your posture upright, but not too tight
Step 3 – Chin level and eyes forward
Step 4 – Relax
Step 5 – Think “I got it”
Links
Free APP – Google Maps
Great Movies to watch and get you in the Astronaut Mode
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