Spencer Honeyman: Elite Performance, Innovation, and Healing

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Today’s guest is Spencer Honeyman, an executive coach, group facilitator, and consultant, as well as your host, Ryan Honeyman’s brother. Spencer is a Certified Integral Facilitator and a graduate of Pomona College’s interdisciplinary Environmental Analysis program, and he has taught workshops on communication and group dynamics from MIT to Marrakesh.

He trained with master facilitators, Thomas Hübl and Diane Musho Hamilton, in the subjects of human development, group dynamics, and improvisation before launching Enliven, which offers cutting-edge leadership training and development services for organizations and executives seeking to navigate complexity, improve performance, and facilitate connection. Spencer also has over a decade of practice in shadow yoga and Tibetan meditation practices and is trained in the Art of Circlesinging in the lineage of Bobby McFerrin through Dave Worm. He blends his diverse training in somatics, subtle energetics, and the development of the higher levels of the mind with grounded, project-based leadership skills to address collective trauma and facilitate healing.

In this episode, we discuss the collective healing journey and Spencer’s role as a facilitator at an organizational or executive level. Spencer brings to our attention the subtle, somatic ways in which we interact with each other and our environment and highlights the importance of slowing down and finding ways to connect with those around you. He also shares some techniques for transforming conflict with creativity and compassion and communicating despite strong emotions, which he believes is necessary in order to tackle serious issues like climate change and political polarization. Tune in today to learn more!

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Key Points From This Episode:

  • How his fascination with human collaboration led Spencer to the work he does today.

  • The subtle, somatic ways that we are attuned to plants, animals, and one another.

  • Symptoms and effects of collective trauma and methods for healing and integration.

  • Find out how the Enliven Academy provides collective education for purpose-driven entrepreneurs and change-makers.

  • Music integration and how Spencer incorporates Circlesinging as a leadership tool.

  • What Diane Musho Hamilton taught Spencer about skillful communication and mediation.

  • How to transform conflict with creativity and compassion by drawing attention to its polarity.

  • The containers and skills necessary for communicating through strong emotions to address issues like climate change.

  • The importance of finding moments to slow down and connect with those around you.

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Tweetables:

“We have this deep, hardwired system that we’re operating on, of being attuned to the lifeworld of plants and animals and each other in a subtle, somatic way. We often write that information off.” — @s_honeyman

“[Collective healing] requires a level of willingness to enter into some of the ways that we feel disconnected from one another, and those can have historical roots.” — @s_honeyman

“You can do mediation from a neutral, third-party perspective, or you can hold mediation from a place of emptiness of self, such that you can be a part of that mediation without so much attachment.” — @s_honeyman

“[We] need to be able to handle our own emotions when they rise up, [to] communicate even in strong emotions without rupturing or throwing relationships out the window. How can we love each other and still be strong? What are the containers and skills for doing that?” — @s_honeyman

“Find moments where you can slow down, put your phone down, put the marketing plan down, put the laptop down, and just connect with the people around you.” — @s_honeyman

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Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

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