Have you ever walked into a room and instantly felt a sense of relief just from the energy of the people in it? In a world where back-to-back meetings, overflowing schedules, and endless to-do lists are the norm, learning to navigate our day-to-day 3D reality with true warmth and internal coherence is more critical than ever.
In a recent discussion between Lee Norris and Dawna Atamanchuk, we unpacked what it really means to bring this grounded energy into our lives and workplaces especially during busy, transitional seasons.
Here is a deeper look into why consciously managing our energy matters, and how we can foster environments where both human connection and high performance thrive.
Opening Our Shoulders: The True Meaning of Warmth
Warmth is often misunderstood as simply being “nice” or maintaining a superficial, conflict-free harmony. But true warmth is an open invitation. It’s the act of “opening our shoulders” to let others into our circles, even temporarily, so they feel seen and welcomed.
When we step into new spaces; a new job, a new project, or just a returning season of youth sports and school runs it’s easy to huddle in our comfortable, familiar groups. Real warmth requires getting past our own egos and extending compassion. It is about creating a space where candor is safe. Being candid and honest with someone, driven by a genuine intention to help them grow, is profoundly kinder than avoiding difficult conversations just to keep things superficially pleasant.
Rushed Energy vs. Coherent Energy
Because Dawna and Lee are both Certified HeartMath® Coherence Advantage® Facilitators, they understand the distinct difference between operating with rushed energy and coherent energy.
Rushed energy is that feeling of being on a runaway train, going, going, going all day without a moment to pause or breathe. You might be checking things off a list, but the frequency it emits leaves you and everyone around you feeling frazzled.
Coherence, on the other hand, is an alignment of your thoughts, your emotions, your physical body, and your deeper sense of self. You can still be engaged and busy for eight hours a day, but coherent energy feels grounded and deliberate. As the conscious navigator of your own life, tuning your energy is an ongoing practice. It means recognizing that you aren’t just a brain processing tasks; you are living a physical, physiological experience. When we are disconnected, we feel it in our bodies. When we are coherent, our energy naturally radiates and positively anchors those around us.
The KPI Trap: Humanity as the Ultimate Metric
In business, our brains crave the certainty of tangible targets and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). We love the satisfaction of checking boxes off a list. But what happens when we set concrete goals and completely ignore the human elements? Do we actually like each other? Do we trust each other? Do we care about each other?
The basic reality is this: when we feel good, we do good things.
If leaders create environments where people feel a genuine sense of warmth and coherence, those KPIs will be met faster, more creatively, and more efficiently. An organization that only leads with rigid targets, failing to understand the underlying humanity and well-being of its team, is on a fast track to burnout. This isn’t a cynical reflection on happiness as a way to make people more productive, it is a genuine set of positive actions that are designed to bring health and balance into our workplaces, which allow poeple to live a more natural, human centred life inside and outside of work.
Managing Your Own Energy
No one else is responsible for your energy but you. Here are a few practical ways to maintain your coherence:
- The 48-Hour Check-In: Instead of judging your readiness the night before a big event (when natural butterflies are inevitable), check your tempo two days prior. How is your energy 48 hours out? Use that as your true barometer.
- Move the Body: We have no option but to be in our bodies. Physical exertion is a powerful way to process mental accumulation. Whether it’s going to the gym or hitting a punching bag in the basement like the generations before us, finding a way to release and reset physically is essential to maintaining coherence.
- Find the Gratitude: When you feel yourself falling out of coherence, simply look around your immediate space and find one thing you are grateful for. That single anchor can begin to shift the shapes, colors, and hues of your environment, intentionally changing the energy you bring into your next interaction.
We are all human, perfectly imperfect, and trying to make our way through complex days. When you notice someone dropping out of coherence, instead of judging them, ask yourself: How can I show up in a coherent way right now?
Your warmth might be exactly the frequency they need to find their own balance again.
To watch the full LiveStream episode (S2E5), you can check out the video here.