Many of my clients and O. W. L. Certified Coaches didn’t really understand the role emotions have on their lives, including wealth, weight, and leadership. They either feel emotions deeply, which distracts them from their goals, or they don’t feel them at all. Either way is not a powerful, responsible strategy.

Mother Teresa once said, “Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.”

This is a perfect example of being emotionally responsible. Mother Teresa knew what science is now proving: our emotions literally change our world and impact those around us either positively and/or negatively.

Leaders’ emotions drive their team and actually impact employee morale, job satisfaction and productivity. In recent studies, it has been proven that our emotions are contagious. Just like the flu, we can catch another persons stress, negativity and/or happiness.

According to studies conducted by Dr. Paul Ekman, universal emotions like surprise, fear, happiness, disgust, contempt and sadness are found in all cultures and nationalities, and are detectable even when a person is attempting to conceal them. They are transferred to others through our facial expressions, body language, postures, and voices.

Emotions not only can be transferred through personal contact, they are also finding them being transferred through social media. In a collaborative Facebook study with Cornell University, UC San Francisco and Facebook, it was found that people exposed to positive or negative posts on FB, would follow suit with a positive or a negative post, depending on what they saw. The effect of the posts would last about a week with them continuing to post positive or negative posts depending on what they had been exposed too.

You have probably experienced this in your family, at work, or being involved with people anywhere. Some people come in and are a beam of light; others come in and suck the air out of the room with their cloud of negativity. The big question is: Who are you? How do you show up? Do people love seeing you show up, or are they secretly dreading your appearance?

These are some difficult questions and often not ones you want to know the answer to. However, awareness is the key to change. Being an authentic leader requires you to know yourself and your impact on others.

We are all called to be kind, civil, and respectful. One way to develop this quality is through Loving-Kindness Meditation. This meditation focuses your attention on actually being the light or being loving and kind in the world.

One practice is to daily sit quietly, take some deep breaths, and offer thoughts of loving/kindness to you, others and to all humanity everywhere. Do this for about 5 minutes daily and see your life and the impact you have on others transform.

Sending you loving kindness,

PS. Becky Benes hosts the A. W. E. (Authentic Women Empowerment) November 4, 2015. Click here for details and registration.

PSS: The 2015 O. W. L. Coach Certification and Training Program has 2 more openings. If you know of anyone who interested in helping the obesity crisis, become a powerful wellness coach, and build a profitably coaching practice, please have them contact us at Support@JanisPullen.com.