Bruce Cryer is currently the president at The Graduate Institute of Holistic Studies.  He was formerly CEO of HeartMath and has since been an adjunct professor at Stanford University's Executive Program since 1997, teaching on the role of stress, performance, emotional intelligence resilience, and creativity within the Graduate School of Business, the School of Medicine and the Stanford employee wellness program.

In addition to Stanford, Bruce has led initiatives for clients such as the Mayo Clinic, University of Delaware College of Health Sciences, Arizona State University, University of California, San Francisco, Center for Health Professions, Kaiser Permanente, New York Open Center, The World Bank, NASA, Unilever, Cisco, Cathay Pacific Airways and the National Health Service in the UK.

Bruce is co-author of From Chaos to Coherence: The Power to Change Performance and the Harvard Business Review article "Pull the Plug on Stress", both of which feature the HeartMath System.

A two-year health crisis (which entailed cancer, life-challenging staff infections, and double hip replacements) convinced him to focus his energies on creativity and how organizations and individuals can tap into the full creative capacity of everyone.  Bruce also shared that it was during this season of health challenges that he was also mourning the loss of his mother and the end of his marriage.

Bruce needed to connect with his creativity. Now he enjoys robust health while singing, dancing, writing, teaching, mentoring, and doing nature photography. He recently released Renaissance Human, an album of original songs co-created with the Brothers Koren. We play a song off his album during this episode.

Bruce began his career as a singer/dancer/actor on Broadway, including two years in the Fantasticks, the world's longest-running musical.

Even with his impressive lists of accomplishments, Bruce believes he is still a work in progress and shares with vulnerability his story of rediscovering his worthiness after a career change took away much of what was familiar with his life.

Inspiring quotes from Bruce Cryer from this episode:

ON HIS TRANSITIONS/TRANSFORMATIONS:

(Upon leaving HeartMath as CEO)

~"This is not about escaping something.  This is about the next phase of your life which is not clear yet, but you're an adventurer so you will find it."

~"You do this.  You make big changes when your soul is directing it."

~"To continue to ask the heart for guidance.  You can sense you're on the right track, but all the details won't necessarily lead you out, but you got to stay with it.  Stay trusting that you have a heart that is intelligent, that is part of your soul, and there is a guidance that is happening, but you got to surrender sometimes to the expectation of what it needs to look like."

ON WORTHINESS and CREATIVITY:

~"Be worthy to yourself...Each have the ability to tune in deeply enough to our intuition/our heart intelligence to find the flow as where we're supposed to go as the next phase of growth and enfoldment, and it often does not come through structure."

~"I believe being human means we innately, every single person, has massive amounts of creative energy. We are made to be creative.  If I'm not honoring that I'm a creative being, then how worthy am I going to feel?"

Bruce shares about what "stuck" energy is and how it can be changed into creative energy.

FIVE COMPONENTS TO ALIGNING WITH OUR INNATE CREATIVITY:

• Mindfulness
• Movement
• Nature
• Artistic Expression
• Playfulness

Bruce shares about his new role as President of The Graduate Institute and the creative outlets his role is providing to him. He helps people understand that they did not get overlooked when everyone else got their creativity, that it is in them, and they will find their unique ways to unleash it.

Today, Bruce is offering to generously share a beautiful YouTube video of his song "Bless the Children" for those who email him at [email protected]

You can also order the Renaissance Human Album (or Bruce's other creative offerings) at his website at BruceCryer.com or go directly to the What Makes Your Heart Sing Store