How Heavy Is Your Backpack?

Why Trauma Weighs Down Leadership — And How to Lighten the Load 

The ruck march is a standard part of military training around the world. It involves marching or lightly jogging long distances with a heavily-weighted pack and rifle strapped to your back. It is a test of both mental and physical endurance, but it is absolutely not the best way to travel. It’s slow, arduous, and a direct hindrance to getting where you need to go.

Trauma is the metaphorical ruck march of day-to-day living. If it doesn’t make something absolutely impossible, it at least makes it much, much more difficult. Trapped emotions create a heavy backpack, and those in leadership positions are especially vulnerable to the consequences. High stress. Persistent anxiety. Chronic pain. Cognitive paralysis. All of these make your march more challenging. If you’re leading others, that challenge is now their burden as well.

May is National Trauma Month, which means there is no better time to take a closer look at how trapped emotions and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can impact our leadership.

Around one-third of employees and executives are constantly struggling with fatigue and poor mental health, and the C-suite suffers disproportionately from feeling “overwhelmed, lonely, or depressed.” What’s more, a shocking 70% of executives are considering leaving their jobs for one that better supports their personal well-being, and more than half of managers feel burned out on a daily basis.

Leaders need to understand the why behind these statistics. In doing so, they will not only be able to identify and soothe their own trauma responses, but they will also gain an understanding of how valuable mental health services can be for any organization. The result is better leaders and more welcoming and productive working cultures.

What is the mind-body connection? 

Trauma can originate from almost anywhere, with some of the most impactful origins being adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) like emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. As if these events themselves aren’t horrible enough, the impacts of such experiences aren’t just emotional — and they aren’t just confined to the trauma victim.

Stress and anxiety often stem from unresolved emotional energy, and stress and emotion are undeniably connected to serious physical symptoms. Not surprisingly, more than half of adults with chronic pain also experience persistent anxiety and depression, and a number of physical diseases have been linked to stress and inflammation. Does this sound like an environment that produces reasonable and inspiring leaders?

These hidden consequences are the result of what’s called the “mind-body connection.” Digging deeper into this connection is where you begin your journey toward understanding the effects of your own trauma and how it influences your abilities as a leader.

The effect on real-world leadership: 

• Leaders burdened by trapped emotions struggle with clarity and confidence. Traumatic events have significant impacts on the sense of self.

How does trauma create trapped emotions? 

Many traumatic emotions are so intense or so unpleasant that we never process them fully. These unprocessed emotions linger as energetic imprints, shaping our thoughts and actions without our knowledge. In fact, studies have shown that most emotions associated with the trauma, aside from immediate fear, remain persistent months or even years later. Such “emotional echoes” fuel stress responses long after the traumatic event has passed, and these evolving psychosomatic realities are a testament to the power of the mind-body connection.

The effect on real-world leadership: 

• Unresolved trauma results in decision-making fooled by emotion and cloaked in misunderstood motivations. It’s why so many leaders are speaking out about the effects of trauma on leadership.

What problems can be caused by trapped emotions? 

When emotions get stuck, high stress, unexplained fatigue, and a litany of chronic health conditions are sure to follow. Trapped emotions have been linked to everything from daily nausea and muscle tension to irritable bowel syndrome and fibromyalgia.

Even relationships suffer from trauma. Unprocessed emotions can limit empathy and prevent our ability to make authentic connections with others. More specifically, recent research has shown that psychological trauma has a direct impact on the areas of the brain responsible for emotional intelligence.

The effect on real-world leadership: 

• Leaders with emotional baggage often fail to build trust, communicate effectively, and inspire others. Fortunately, some leaders use their successful struggle with trauma to elevate them to even greater leadership.

How does energy healing address this? 

Energy healing is how you remove the burden of unprocessed emotion — it’s how you lighten your backpack. Every practitioner has their own modalities, but all of them involve identifying and correcting specific emotional imbalances through things like muscle testing, emotion charts, magnet therapy, nutritional modifications, and focused meditation. These techniques remove emotional weight, allowing leaders to operate with greater clarity, stronger self-resilience, and more advanced emotional intelligence.

Rather than suppressing emotion or ignoring past trauma, energy healing is a step toward the future, creating a healthier environment — one in which a leader can thrive.

The effect on real-world leadership: 

• Leaders who aren’t weighed down by their own trauma not only produce more impressive results, but they also make work better for everyone. Sixty-nine percent of workers reported that their manager has the biggest impact on their mental health.

Leading Without the Weight 

The weight of past trauma is unseen, but never unfelt. For leaders, addressing emotional well-being is not just an act of personal self-care. It’s a strategic move that benefits the entire organization. The only question is, “Are you ready to lighten your load?”

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Written by Dr. Bradley Nelson.
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