Dr Will Duffin and Piers Carter talk self-awareness & relationships

‘You’re not in traffic, you are traffic’.

In this episode, Piers Carter – WEM Faculty*, coach, facilitator, trainer and speaker joins WEM Education Lead Dr Will Duffin to discuss leadership and awareness – and how self-awareness can make relationships better and create a happier, healthier world. Piers considers the centrality of self-awareness in giving us a choice in controlling how we ‘show up’, which Piers acknowledges as both a terrifying and liberating concept.

The pair also reflect on the impact of the pandemic on our inner ‘chimps’, removing our ability to connect, our sense of safety and the source of respect in the loss of jobs – and the variety of responses we will see over the lockdown period.

Piers explores the equation – Awareness + Range = Choice – asking people to question how aware they are of their character traits, which once you grasp, you can begin to operate more broadly.

Piers also teaches us about the practice of ‘centering’, an ‘in the moment’ self-regulation technique that allows you to organise what you are thinking, what your body is doing and what you are feeling emotionally to control your actions.

Works Referenced:

• The Chimp Paradox, Professor Steve Peters
• Your Body is Your Brain, Amanda Blake
• Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Abraham Maslow

*Piers is faculty on the MSc in Extreme Medicine at Exeter University Medical School.