If you contract, question your assumptions.

It was a leadership seminar in Hamburg, which Groupmind had organized. It was about using our whole being to improve leadership skills. The speaker, Diane Hamilton, shared this one-liner with us as one of her internal markers.

I could immediately relate to that, even though I had never consciously connected my physical sensations (my brain, my heart, my stomach contracting) with my assumptions.

“How clever,” I thought, “my own body as a warning system for colliding assumptions.” Instead of looking for the culprit of my discomfort on the outside, my attention was directed inward, to my immediate sphere of influence. What were my assumptions here? Where did I disagree and why? The answers to these questions, help me into relaxation and from there into a good exchange with the one who obviously starts from different assumptions than I do.