In this episode Host Helen Lee interviews Bruce Cryer, who was the former CEO and founding member of the HeartMath Institute in the US and current Executive Director of the of The College of Integrative Health at Salem University. After reaching a crisis point in his life and passing through it, Bruce began to offer his insights into his revived spirit to others who referred to him as a "Renaissance Man" because of his ability to massively reinvent himself. In sync with Helen, Bruce believes in a global movement of spiritual improvement powered by creativity instantly shared worldwide via our modern communication network. With this in mind Bruce founded Renaissance Human, a consultancy designed to reintroduce the power of creativity in the business community and on into the wider world. With their shared drive to circumvent our global difficulties with all the positivity humans have to offer, Bruce and Helen discuss our way forward and what it will really take for us to all transform and thrive together.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
In 1991 Bruce co-created HeartMath, a foundation dedicated in delving deeper into the spiritual power and significance of the heart. Previously, for centuries, the heart was seen by many cultures as the centre of creativity, warmth, love, spirit, power and empathy. With scientific advancement and knowledge of its physical purpose its image was reduced to little more than an efficient pump. HeartMath was interested in this past image of the heart and creating a new model of physical and spiritual health combined by placing the heart back at the centre using simple tools and models to reduce stress in peoples lives.
Bruces transition came when he faced two years of life threatening health problems and in the aftermath felt a feeling of rebirth. Returning to artistic endeavours he came up with the term “Renaissance Human” to describe his experience. He believes we all have the power to constantly invent new aspects and parts of ourselves, to learn and reinvigorate our existences with creativity.
The pandemic, due to forcing a change on peoples lives, has encouraged people to examine themselves and their place and reconsider their path in life. Many people, much more than ever before, are beginning to consider their spiritual selves and leaving their previous jobs and lifestyles in search of something more fulfilling and creative.
With current modern pressures and integration of family and personal, perhaps also health problems, the concept of slowing your life down to cope seems alien to our way of living. As much as we want to go faster and complete everything as quickly as possible, as a system, it is definitely not working. If we want to perform at high level we need to learn to vary our speed.
Unfortunately for many people the power to create is suppressed. We are pigeon holed in our jobs into ‘staying in our lane’ and ignoring our inner urge to create. All of us are actually made of creative energy and to ignore this is not only a waste but can be damaging to ourselves. We are missing out on the best humanity has to offer.
BEST MOMENTS
‘When you say the word ‘renaissance’ it brings to mind the words ‘revival’ and ‘rebirth’. That is very much what I am also advocating.’
‘It’s a powerful set of techniques based on 30 years of rigorous scientific work as well, so its been a joy.’
‘One of the things that makes humans unique is, sure we have the power to create life, all species have that, but we also have the power to keep recreating our own life.’
‘Do I want to keep putting up with that boss that I can’t stand and that corporate culture that I can’t stand? Do I really want that? And a lot of people are saying “no”.’
‘By taking that extra few minutes and saying “no, no, there are so many levels of efficiency in my system that are possible and right now I’m not in an efficient state.”.’
‘So many people feel like they are in a box in their job and they have ideas, but they are never encouraged and so there is all this untapped energy. Organisations have to learn how to support the creative energy of their staff and encourage them outside of work. We should be helping people find what makes their hearts sing.’
ABOUT THE GUEST BRUCE CRYER
Bruce Cryer has had a lifelong fascination with human performance and well-being. He began as a singer/dancer/actor in New York, including two years in The Fantasticks, the world’s longest running musical. Bruce has been adjunct faculty at Stanford University since 1997 and part of the founding team of HeartMath in 1991 and later, CEO of the Institute. HeartMath’s breakthrough research and techniques were instrumental in the explosion of biohacking and performance optimization over the past 30 years. He has worked with organizations such as Mayo Clinic, Kaiser Permanente, NASA, executives, and high performance athletes.
Bruce is co-author of the Harvard Business Review article “Pull the Plug on Stress”, on executive health, stress, and performance.
A two year health crisis convinced him to embrace his innate creativity and Bruce now enjoys robust health.
He recently released Renaissance Human, an album of original songs co-created with the Brothers Koren and he performs regularly in New York. He is Executive Director of The College of Integrative Health at Salem University.
ABOUT THE HOST HELEN LEE
Founder & Principal Coach of Lee Heiss Coaching, Helen Lee coached thousands of clients worldwide and multinationals in Asia-Pacific in the last three decades. She created a powerful ontological coaching methodology that ignites the true greatness or invincibility in people. Thoroughly tested and honed over 20 years, this methodology consistently and rapidly produces desired results.
Helen was also a journalist who later ran her own communications consultancies in Australia and Asia.The Business Times listed her in its “Who’s Who of Women Shaping Singapore” while The Straits Times named her “The Leader Prodder” in a feature on Singapore’s top coaches.
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