Mindfulness

Mindfulness has become a buzz word and multi million pound industry. It has become increasingly popular in the corporate sector as a means to manage and reduce stress, increase employee productivity, and reduce absenteeism caused by poor mental health. All of this keeps business running as usual.

While a healthy work force and thriving economy is something we should definitely aspire to, my approach to teaching mindfulness is to enable individuals and businesses alike to:

Pause

Mindfulness is a deliberate and intentional interruption. Rarely do permit ourselves a pause; we work through our breaks, check emails, eat standing up or watching TV. Interruption is unusual

Become aware of the immediate and unfolding present moment.

The room, the temperature of the space, the quality of the light, the sounds around us.

Become aware of the body.

There is no mind without the body, no mental activity. Thought, creativity, imagination, problem solving, intuition, innovation, learning a new skill, communication, new ideas… they all come from the body. Divorcing the body from the process of mindfulness in favour of a purely mental exercise literally robs us of the meat of the practice.

Attending to the body with positive regard, listening to it as a subject with its own voice, this is something many have never learned to do. We view the body as an object-machine, to be ‘fixed’ when it breaks, rather than a wonderous creature constantly adapting to its internal and external environment, ALWAYS moving toward health and self-regulation. By extension, we view businesses as the same object- machines, and we treat employees as parts.

 Breathe

The breath is the easiest way to enter the immediate present. It happens involuntarily. We cannot breathe in the past or the future, unlike our mental rehashing of past actions, and anxieties about what’s still to be done, the breath is now.

But the breath can be brought under our voluntary control, we can deepen it, lengthen it, and slow it down. A long slow breath can create a perception of a longer moment, time slowed down. Paradoxically, the practice that many people poo-poo as not having time for, creates more time.

Practice RAIN

RECOGNISE – What is happening right now? What dominates my mental/ emotional landscape.

ALLOW – Accept what is, as what is, without judging or critiquing how it came to be, or solutionising.

INVESTIGATE WITH KINDNESS – How does this manifest in my body? Tightness, constriction, irritability? Poor communication? Negative relationships?

NUTURE – Ask “What do I need right now?” Offer compassionate witnessing, allow honest, vulnerable responses to emerge.

We can practice all of the above as part of a private, solitary practice, or as a community or corporate entity, where the voices of ALL individuals are included, given space, acknowledged as valid and valued to the health of the whole.

We need a new corporate culture that actively promotes HEALTH. We need a culture that embraces the transformative potential of empowered, self-regulating, conscious teams, and understands that the responsibility of corporate well being goes beyond paint balling and barista coffee in the office. To this end, my Mindfulness workshops for business open doors to more honest and better communication, conflict resolution, relationship building rooted in vulnerability and trust, and bold and responsible leadership.