Topics Covered
- The neuroscience of the heart-brain connection
- Why the heart is considered your second brain
- Real-time nervous system regulation tools
- The difference between calm and coherence
- How to build intuitive leadership through heart-based practices
- A practical 60-second reset to shift from survival to clarity
- How to get out of mental loops and access decision-making power
- The physiological connection between breathing and focus
- The role of intention in anchoring presence
- Training your team to self-regulate under pressure
Timestamps
0:00 – Introduction: What does it mean to have a second brain?
2:14 – The physiological link between your brain and your heart
4:50 – Coherence vs. calm: What leaders need to know
6:31 – The 60-second reset (Inhale 4, exhale 6, add intention)
9:25 – How to use this tool before meetings, decisions, or feedback
11:11 – How to train your nervous system to respond instead of react
13:03 – What elite performers (and everyday humans) get right about regulation
14:55 – Final insight: Don’t just regulate your team. Start with you.
16:40 – Subscribe and explore more tools
What You’ll Learn
- How your heart acts as a second brain—and why leaders ignore it at their own risk
- The neuroscience behind heart-brain coherence and how it impacts clarity, presence, and decision-making
- How to use the 60-second heart reset Claire teaches to instantly calm the nervous system under pressure
- Why logic fails during high-stakes moments—and what to anchor to instead
- How to shift from cognitive overload to embodied leadership in the middle of your day
- The truth about emotional regulation: why dismissing emotion actually weakens leadership
- How to build a simple daily ritual that rewires your leadership presence over time
Mentioned in This Episode
- Claire’s 60-second coherence ritual (inhale for 4, exhale for 6, + ask: What would the most aligned version of me do?)
- Research on heart-brain interaction
- Mental Fitness practices from Claire’s masterclass
🔬 Science Note:
- Research in Neurocardiology (Oxford University Press) shows that the heart’s intrinsic cardiac nervous system contains around 40,000 neurons—enough to sense, feel, and remember independently of the brain.
- Similarly, studies published in Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology estimate that the gut’s enteric nervous system houses about 500 million neurons, more than the spinal cord.
- Together, these findings confirm what ancient wisdom always knew: your body thinks, feels, and decides right alongside your brain.
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https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairehayek/
🎓 Want to train your brain for resilience and high performance?
Join Claire’s free Mental Fitness Masterclass here:👉 https://go.clairehayek.com/mental-fitness-masterclass
📩 For free resources, upcoming masterclasses, or to join our next live webinar—click here:👉 https://linktr.ee/clairehayek
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The NeuroLeadership Edge Podcast is produced by Claire Hayek. All opinions are those of the host and guests. For more leadership resources, visit www.mspteambuilding.com.
