Good Vibes

Sending Good Vibes Man –

Recently a dear friend has had to navigate the kind of fear and uncertainty that I never want to experience.  His wife got a terrifying cancer initial diagnosis from a doctor.  My friend reached out, and several of us began to pray.  The text thread was started by a community group founded in a gym where many of us became friends and shared life together. 

 As a Christian, I frequently pray for and ask others for prayer.  Things like texts and social media have invited friends who aren't Christian into some of these conversations, and I have frequently seen comments like "Sending Good Vibes."  I'm sarcastic and a slowly recovering jerk, but these comments have often caused me to have less-than-loving views of hippies acting like Luke Skywalker learning to use the force.  I believe an all-loving God's Spirit dwells in believers and has miraculous power that I can't fully understand even on my best day.  Still, I've never conceptually understood an individual sending good vibes as anything other than being nice.

Last Sunday, I had the opportunity to teach a class on my church's mission, vision, and core values.  To say I loved the chance would be an understatement.  I had so much fun and was filled with so much joy and excitement.  It's one of those things that makes me feel most alive and like I'm using my gifts and talents as I was created to do.  After the class, a friend came up and heavily complimented me and asked to spend some time together soon just to talk and tell stories.  His compliments were genuinely flattering, and if I'm honest make me a little nervous because of how much I appreciate the affirmation in doing the things I feel most called and talented to do. 

Later, as I was thinking about the teaching experience and the affirmation I received, I read a quote in the book Neuroscience for Leadership by Swart, Chisholm, and Brown (2016) that stated, "The capacity of an energetic, life-enhancing, engaged and engaging person to stimulate life, energy and activity in others is also remarkable" (p.7). 

The book explains that it’s possible to classify our feelings as some combination of 8 basic emotions that either trigger biological responses for survival or attachment.  They as well as others like Daniel Goleman list the emotions as follows:

Higher levels of cortisol and adrenalin are present in the survival emotions.  In comparison, attachment emotions are characterized by increased levels of oxytocin which research has proven to increase feelings of trust and connection between people and teams.  

During that class, my friend experienced increased oxytocin and felt the emotions of joy, excitement, love, and trust increase.  He enjoyed that and wants more of it…as we all do.  Fascinating science shows we can and do impact the emotion of the people around us, so I hope I'm sending you good vibes by telling you that your joy, excitement, and love can be multiplied in the people around you. 

Leaders, how are you impacting the neuroscience of your people…are you increasing their stress, or are you increasing their oxytocin?  Science also proves their work results and performance are much higher on the attachment end of the spectrum.  

Thanks for reading …. I hope I'm sending you some good vibes, man … Peace 😊