mindfulness

Hurry Up And Wait, A Mindfulness Conundrum

Our good intentions are often derailed by a torrent of thoughts wildly cascading and colliding within our mind. All this commotion sabotages our creativity and productivity.

If you’ve ever ridden in a classic carnival bumper car you’ll have a good idea what it’s like inside your mind as your thoughts travel from point to point along your thought streams.

Our mind creates an internal environment much like standing in line at the dept of motor vehicles. it’s almost like a flashing neon sign telling us to Hurry Up and Wait.

Once this mental environment is created it mimics the hurry up and wait atmosphere everyone in today’s rush rush world is familiar with.

The frantic expectations, grasping, anger and restlessness of our current mind (adult) is nothing like the mind we had during the first few years on the planet.

Our original mind came equipped with full-throttle curiosity and openness to the current moment. That mind, is still available though if we practice mindfulness, consistently.

Hurry up and wait is the conundrum each of us faces as we start a mindfulness practice, and each of us will continue to face until we reach the tipping point in practice where we are mindful of each moment more that not.

Each intention we create passes through our minds seemingly endless stream of ideas, judgments and barriers before moving forward into action and completion.

“Everything that irritates us about others
can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”
C.G. Jung

Change Your Perspective

The more we believe our thoughts and ideas are the way things “should be” the harder it is for us to change our perspective about anything inside or outside our world.

A mind living in s soup of “should” often will find itself trapped and cut off from the larger world all around it.

With a small bit of focused introspection it’s simple to find our biggest and more ingrained beliefs that we’ve locked in our minds with “should.” If we think something or someone “should be” a certain way, we take away any opportunity for growth or improvement in what we’ve locked up.

Adding “should” to our beliefs diminishes our ability to create a better world.

Maybe we think people “should” dress a certain way and if they don’t we devalue their existence. Maybe we think people “should” only vote the way we do and if they don’t we will have little or nothing to do with them, in effect we can’t respect views that are not in concrete like ours’.

“Look at everything as though you are seeing it either for the first or last time, then your time on earth will be filled with glory.”
Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Steps To Mindfulness

Craig Daniels ·Leave a Comment

“The crux of the biscuit
is the apostrophe”
Frank Zappa

Steps To Mindfulness

The above image will automatically cycle through tips for mindfulness practice, or you can click on it to move things along at your own pace.

A Mindfulness Roadmap For Breakfast

Each morning I create (construct) a large salad for breakfast with a base of kale, mushrooms and delicious tomatoes. Of course I pick and choose a myriad of other items to complete it, and top it off with some type of salad dressing. But this morning it occurred to me, how I construct my salad each morning is exactly how most of us construct our view of reality each morning when we awake. I immediately put the unopened bottle of dressing back into the refrigerator and instead sprinkled a mere teaspoon of vinegar over the top of the big salad.

Practicing mindfulness is a bit like putting the salad dressing back in the icebox, you end up with a clearer, crisper and healthier view of reality than you would have had without the practice.

As I ate my naked salad I was struck by the boldness of the flavors that usually are hidden under the creamy dressing. The tomatoes popped with freshness, the kale and the lettuce crunched loudly while mixing flavors with the salmon topped with slices of avocado and fresh ground black pepper. And the vinegar? Why it tied everything together, and accented the newness of the summer morning I watched awaken before me as I ate breakfast on the concrete back-steps, outside my house, this morning.

So what the heck is a Mindfulness Roadmap anyways? Simple, it’s a series of tips or guideposts worth (I think ) knowing as you journey from point A to point x,y and z. There are no miraculous finds within this list of steps, yet I think the twelve tips below are illuminating if you remember them as you practice. It’s easy to forget the basics as you spend more hours and months practicing mindfulness. Remember the basics and the rest of the work will take care of itself. Or I hope it will.
It’s easy to forget to keep your foot flat to the ground when you’re pedaling a bicycle, (bicycling into mindfulness) but if you do keep each foot flat you’ll go further and faster than if your technique is sloppy. It’s the same with practicing mindfulness, don’t get cocky or sloppy

The crux of any practice is to remember to do it. That little tip is what I kept in mind as I was assembling this mindfulness roadmap. And to get a good start to our journey I created the first step and titled it Start Small. How’s that for recognizing the difficulty in starting any new practice in our way too busy lives.
1. Start Small
And keep it simple. Mindfulness is not complicated, though it does require that we put the work (practice) into it on a regular basis. Are there any goals (not really) we need to keep in mind? Make your practice something you do each day, sit and watch your breath for a few minutes when you start out and work your way up to 20 or 30 minutes each day. At some point you may want to sit and watch your breath a couple of times each day but hey, don’t worry about that. If you do, you do and if you don’t, you don’t. Sit for a few minutes each day watching your breath and you’ll be fine.

2. Watch Your Breath
How the heck do I watch my breath, there’s nothing to see (grumbles). in your mind or watch it by being aware of the sensations of the air coming into your nose and leaving your nose. Feel the in and feel the out of your breath. In the beginning you may want to count your breaths until you have practiced a while and once you feel ready, drop the counting and start feeling the flow of your breath.
I do have a big suggestion (Rule) don’t get attached to controlling the in and out of your breath. It’s easy to fall into a rhythm where you are controlling the in and the out breath as you watch it. (complication, I know). But if you practice just feeling the breath come in and go out and not when or how strong it comes and goes you’ll be fine.
I promise your body knows how to breathe all on it’s own, without your help.

3. This is my favorite step, Sit and Repeat.
I like it because of its simplicity but, also because it reminds me of the saying Rinse and Repeat, both are clear and simple and as far as I know don’t have alternative meanings to confuse things (I could be wrong). Many people find little trouble in doing the sitting for the first time, but the hard part is in the repeating the sitting. Yep, it’s the doing it again and then doing it a 3rd and 4th time that becomes the problem.
It’s no bad enough that out minds will race and stream tons of thoughts and feeling while we sit in mindfulness practice but then we’re supposed to repeat it. Oh No!
The repeat part is the key to this whole thing, think of it as the goal (the one I said didn’t exist). Pretend I didn’t use that 4 letter word and think of sit and repeat as the same as rinse and repeat, the more you repeat the practice the more suds and dirt you get out in the rinse. Sound good?

4. Thoughts Come and Go
Thoughts appear to the tune of 60,000 thoughts racing through our minds each day. I’m sure no one walks around with a meter connected to their head that counts this stuff. But no matter if the real number is more or less, the fact is our minds our awash in a stream of thinking that has a mind of its own.
When we first start mindfulness practice we may be surprised at how much we think and how hard it is to control it our shut it off. But like watching our breath, observing our chatty mind is not about shutting it off or controlling the amount of thoughts that flow in and out.
When we are sitting in practice and thoughts flow in we can acknowledge them by mentally saying “thinking.” Saying “thinking” gives us a pause so we don’t jump down the rabbit hole of carrying on a conversation with ourselves, and then we can resume watching our breath. I sometimes will see a thought as a balloon and will gently pop it instead of saying “thinking” to myself.
The key here is to know you’re thinking and to gently bring yourself back to the breath without engaging with the thought and without judging yourself for thinking. Believe me your mind will throw thoughts at you no matter how much you grit your teeth and tell it not to. Acknowledge the thinking and come back to your breath.

5. Stay With It
Stay with what? You may ask. Stay with the emotions that you feel and experience while traveling the steps along the Mindfulness Roadmap excursion.
You may be tempted when uncomfortable emotions appear to distract yourself or crunch them into a paper ball and toss those pesky emotions as far as you can, don’t do it. And even though I know you’ll want to analyze, categorize, peg, rank, pigeonhole or classify the emotions as they appear as sensations, itches, irritations or creeping crawling pesky rawness, please don’t. Don’t grab onto any of them. treat the large or small sensations of anxiety, fear, confusion, anger and yes even joy the same way you treat your thoughts as they flow in and out of your mind. Gently and without judgement bring your attention back to the breath.

6. Tune Into Posture
If we slouch while sitting in meditation there is a good chance we’ll fall asleep or at least restrict the clear flow of our breath. Likewise if we tilt our head back there’s a good chance we’ll go into a dream or chattering state. Our back should be straight and our head very slightly tilted forward (I mean Very Slightly). If our eyes are open i suggest looking downwards just a bit in a gaze and not a focus. Even if your eyes are closed it’s good to check that you are not staring as this will cause the muscles around your eyes to tighten.
I find checking my posture often allows me to catch tightness in my neck and shoulders, around my eyes and in my fingers. Simply feel the position of your body as you finish exhaling. You can lightly scan your body after each exhale or you can do it every few exhales. No need to think about the scan just become aware of tightness in your body, loosen or straighten up and move onto your next inhale. After awhile you’ll be aware of tension without doing a scan, release it and inhale.

7. Join With Others
Finding a group to sit with on a regular basis can be difficult. I for example live in a small city of over 100,000 people and there are no daily AM sittings groups closer than 40 miles from me. When I lived in Hanover NH there was a group sitting everyday at 7:00 AM that had no requirements, you could show up sit for 45 minutes and leave or talk with others after the sitting or make arrangements to meet later. The group was perfect for those who wanted to sit with a group but had work or family obligations that prevented them from sitting at inconvenient times (my rant).
The point of all this before I got on my rant is that if you can find a group there are huge upsides to interacting with others who are sitting on a regular basis and if you can find a group that has open sits so you can easily pop in and out, get thee to the group.

8. Is That You?
Often people will get a bit concerned with he thoughts that flow in and then out of the their mind while sitting and watching their breath. First all the thoughts are transient and will leave and be replaced with other thoughts unless we grab onto them with concern or worry. That’s the key, the lifespan of thoughts is directly related to how much energy we give to them. Hold onto thoughts and they’ll hold on to you, so to speak. Acknowledge a thought as a thought and you dis-empower it.
When dark thoughts arrive don’t be surprised. Our minds throw some pretty weird stuff at us as we sit and watch our breath. When we are placing our attention on our breath we become more aware of your thoughts and dark thoughts don’t make you a bad or evil person. We all think of hitting someone in the face from time to time, they are just random thoughts and not who we are. Some of us will be sitting and have violent thoughts flow in and flow out just as quickly as them came in. Again our thoughts and emotions are mostly random and don’t define who we are.
Ask yourself, am I my thoughts. if your answer is yes than you may want to talk with a professional. Having dark thoughts is one thing, thinking you are those thoughts or you might act on them is a different thing.If sitting becomes uncomfortable for you stop sitting and talk with someone. Maybe join a group of people experienced in sitting to get support and guidance.
Normally the longer you sit watching your breath the less thoughts steaming into your awareness happen. And I don’t mean to alarm anyone who’s new to mindfulness. Start slowly and things should be fine.

9. Savor The Moment
When I think about the unfolding of each moment I am struck by the magnitude of a moment and further thrilled by the opportunity being presented to us within each moment we are aware of. WOW! If we are at least somewhat resolute about our sitting we will experience a deeper awareness of standing within the stream of moments in our life.
This standing in the stream of moments with awareness is not magic, it’s not religious and it’s not special but to quote Shunryu Suzuki “it is something.” Standing in the midst of unfolding moments and being aware of where we are erases the past and the future, it puts us squarely in the present, puts us squarely in the Here And Now.
And boom we suddenly are transported back to our everyday reality pregnant with the the tugging of the past and the promises of the future. We ask ourselves how did I lose being in the moment? The answer of course if that we tried to grab hold of the stream of unfolding moments, we tried to posses it and lost it.
Trekking through life using guides like the Mindfulness Roadmap may give you a shot at standing in the stream of moments again, or for the first time.

10. Don’t Get Caught
Mindfulness is not possession of the present moment, it’s not owning the here and now. Mindfulness is awareness of the here and now, awareness of standing in the stream of infinite unfolding moments commonly referred to as the “present.” We lose that awareness once we get caught by grabbing, clutching, snagging, hooking and nabbing onto it.
The key is not to try and possess the present moment but to dwell in awareness of it. Don’t get caught by distractions, don’t be engulfed by desire to possess it. We are always standing in the midst of the stream of unfolding moments, we just don’t realize it most of the time.

11. Do It Anywhere
One minute of watching your breath on a busy train can transport you in mindfulness and for that reason alone I recommend you practice whenever and wherever you can. Close your eyes at your desk and watch your breath, maybe duck into a local library and sit for 5 minutes before you go to work. Wherever You Are, Watch Your Breath, Uncork Your Awareness.
It’s Also easy to carry the Mindfulness Roadmap with you on your cell phone with out handy Slideshare Slideshow Here.

12. Cluttered Mind
Uncluttering your mind is much simpler than many would have you believe and simpler than you probably believe. When you are ready to take a step you’ll only need a few minutes each day as a starting point. Sit, Breathe and Repeat. You’ll be on your way, do you wonder where that could be? Do you wonder what it will be like. Well, take a step and Sit, Breathe and Repeat. – It’s That Simple

Mindfulness – 12 Illuminating Guideposts – Slideshow from Craig Daniels

Best Exercise For Mindfulness

Craig Daniels ·Leave a Comment

In his book ” Each Moment Is The Universe” Dainin Katagiri mentions that within each snap of the fingers reside 64 moments. And it doesn’t matter that even Katagiri doesn’t know where that number came from.

Connecting cycling with a moment in time is easy to do, each wheel on a road bike often has 32 spokes. As you pedal your way down the road you’re sitting between two wheels each with 32 spokes, you’re sitting at the center of the 64 moments, 64 opportunities each presenting itself within the snap snap of the fingers.

Like a bicycle wheel or the carnival wheel of chance calling to us, this moment we now recognize is spinning with possibility. This moment we find ourselves in right now, contains the past, the future and the present. Each moment is an opportunity of choice. What will you choose? Will you go back into the past, rocket into the future or plant your feet firmly in the present?

What choice will your wheel stop on this time? Which spoke in the wheel will resonate with you so you’ll inhabit it?

“The way we are living,
timorous or bold,
will have been our life.”
Seamus Heaney

Pedaling round and round while sitting atop a bicycle is not the same today as it was yesterday. And like watching your breath in mindfulness practice the experience is bound to be different. Bicycling may be the best exercise for mindfulness combining fresh air, cardio workout and sunshine with a smooth cadence surely brings a rider into sustained period of mindfulness practice.

Yesterday you may have rode your bike along a flat road next to a winding meandering river, today you might find yourself far away from flat roads while you climb steep hills or maybe you’ve found the perfect combination route with hills, curves, dips and flats randomly interspersed throughout a boundless landscape.

The central point is, a session of exercise in mindfulness atop your bicycle presents unlimited experiences similar to sitting in a traditional mindfulness practice.

I first learned about meditation and mindfulness in college and while it sounded interesting I didn’t formally engage in a practice for another 20 years. But in hindsight I now realize I very much became a practitioner of being in the present moment when I took up daily bicycle riding, this was years before I ever sat and watched my breath.

From my first 10 mile bike ride I fell in love with the freedom and exhilaration one experiences while riding long distances up and down the hills of Vermont and New Hampshire. For nearly 15 years I turned the pedals on my bike round and round from March through mid November. At times my riding included others, but often I’d ride alone. My daily ride distance stretched from 20 to 50 miles in what I now recognize as my journey of Bicycling into Mindfulness.

While pedaling, my thoughts would become nonexistent, they’d fall away or disappear as each foot locked to the pedals went round and round. The pedaling itself became my focus and in time the cadence anchored my chattering mind and delivered a panorama of visual clarity and effortless purpose, I’d discovered the best exercise for mindfulness to be Bicycling.

Many occupations such as surgeons, pilots, writers, athletes and welders often find themselves completely in the moment while the rest of the world vanishes. This falling away of thought transforms into mindfulness and present moment awareness, a state most of us can tap into using a simple meditation practice. For beginners I recommend the MUSE headband as a wonderful tool to quiet your thinking and develop everyday mindful awareness.

Our minds ride upon a torrent of thoughts from the moment we wake each morning till we finally fall asleep each evening. On average each of us produces 60,000 distinct thoughts each and every day, thankfully most of those thoughts are below the surface awareness, otherwise we’d become immobile.

I stopped riding regularly when I moved to an urban area and grew tired of fighting the traffic and potholes I’d come across as I searched for a clear stretch of road, and I’m not mentioning the all too common flat tires that frequently occurred.

Bicycling Becomes The Exercise For Mindfulness

While still actively cycling one of my favorite rides took place in a small Vermont town known at Quechee. Originally a farming community that turned into a resort and 2nd home community for those who the locals called Flatlanders, meaning they moved to Vermont from Connecticut or Massachusetts.

In Quechee I’d park my car at a friends house on Main Street and begin my ride. Main Street is a narrow two lane road bereft of shoulders, meaning if I got too close to the edge of the road I’d tumble down an embankment. The tumbling was always in the back of my mind as I pedaled forward along Main Street, and yes I did tumble down the embankments a few times. The aforementioned tumbling caused me to ride in the middle of the lane while on Main St, thus forcing cars coming up behind me to go around me and saving me from more tumbles off the edge of the road. Paying attention to each moment was vital for the first few miles of my ride.

Main Street merged with Route 4 in the small town of Taftsville Vt., but first I had to cross the one lane covered wooden bridge. Crossing meant riding in the center of the bridge on a raised series of boards no more than 18 inches wide. I’d zoom over the bridge as fast as possible, hoping a car coming the opposite direction didn’t appear and force me to stop to let the car pass before I could finish the river crossing. Cars rarely waited for me to finish my crossing before proceeding on their own crossing.

Once on Route 4, I was able to focus on my pedaling to maximize both my speed and efficiency. To get the most out of riding it’s important to master the cadence of pedaling much like mastering the cadence of breathing when sitting in a regular or device aided meditation session.

Our tendency is to point our toes toward the ground on each down-stroke, but it turns out that keeping our foot and the pedal flat on the down-stroke if more efficient. And it allows more speed with less effort over time.

Keep both feet parallel to the ground through the entire pedaling cycle.
As your foot reaches the point where it starts it’s upward motion, lift that foot using your leg and the momentum of the pedal.
Continue lifting on each rotation while keeping both feet parallel to the ground. Down-Push and Up-Pull in a fluid oval motion.

Much like watching your breath in sitting meditation this way of pedaling will feel awkward at first and you may find yourself becoming mechanical as your apply the practice. Just as in breathing during meditation it’s important to let the body find its own rhythm and not get attached to perfection. Let your breathing and your pedaling take on their own cadence.. Left alone your body will breath in and out on it’s own, and your feet will go round and round on their own as well.

If you find yourself rocking from side to side your seat needs to be lowered some. If you find yourself squirming in your chair as you do meditation remind yourself that it’s just internal resistance to sitting quietly expressing itself.

Resistance to a quiet mind or a smoothly flowing pedaling motion is natural. Our mind is busy and will always look for an outlet until we train it to slow itself and connect it to awareness of breath and awareness of pedaling.

THOUGHT: The observing mind is like a rock
in the middle of a stream….. Visualize it

In the center of Woodstock Vt. I’d turn right onto Route 12 and head north out of town. It was on Route 12 that I found my cadence, a cadence resembling settling into the natural rhythm of breathing during my daily 40 minute MUSE mindfulness sessions. it was on Route 12 that I first experienced Bicycling into Mindfulness and became convinced that cycling was the best exercise for mindfulness.

My bike route took me past the former Mt. Tom ski area and the cut off to Suicide 6, both were ski areas where I spent countless hours in my early teens skiing for hours and hours. Mt. Tom is now closed for skiing but is crisscrossed with hiking trails.

Each time I’d pass the ski areas memories would fill my mind and occasionally throw off my pedaling cadence. The push and lift, push and lift would decay as my mind wandered to skiing down the mountains on some bright sunny day full of joy, full of youth. But just as I bring my awareness back to the in and out of my breathing while in sitting in meditation I’d bring my pedaling back to the familiar push and lift, push and lift cadence.

After passing the ski areas the road took on a steady rise broken up by a few downhill dips and then upward again it went. The steady assent was one of the joys of riding and I’d easily slip into a no thinking mode of awareness as I pedaled (push and lift) upwards for miles and miles.

Once I reached my turn around point I’d spin around and speed as fast as possible back down toward town. The downhill part of the ride was glorious and while I didn’t need to pedal for much of it I nevertheless continued my cadence all the while watching the world pass by in a blur of focused awareness while maintaining a high speed push and lift cadence continuing my bicycling into mindfulness.

Push and Lift, Push and Lift, In and Out, In and Out. The pedaling and breathing anchoring my mind in serenity where the stream of thoughts, judgments and assumptions ceased to exist, for a while at least.

Push and Lift – – – – – – In and Out,

Moment flowing into Moment,

it’s all the same thing.

Mindfulness Practice Tips from Craig Daniels

Mindfulness Changes Everything

Craig Daniels ·Leave a Comment

2017 was the tipping point where the weight of evidence clearly tilted in the direction of business leaders believing Mindfulness Changes Everything in business. 2020 in all probability will expand the global acceptance of McMindfulness but also the realization that there are many deeper levels of mindfulness to be explored.

Change is difficult in our lives, but within business the embracing of change is titanic in nature, business has a tendency to coop intriguing ideas and practices to the point they have little resemblance to the original. Mindfulness has often been twisted into knots before being presented as a viable tool to a companies employees, this twisting has resulted in McMindfulness, a practice that often has lost its real strength. McMindfulness is made to be accessible to everyone and requires little commitment or work of those taking it.

I’ve collected 10 posts from 2017 that I think offer a broad view of how mindfulness is being used (or abused) within the worlds businesses. To understand the acceptance of mindfulness within the current business community it’s important to take the temperatures and views of differing authors.

10 Posts From 2017 Offering A Myriad of Takes on Mindfulness Changes Everything

1) Mindfulness in Business: How to Live in the Present While Predicting the Future

The first post I want to share with you is an example of how business in the 21st century often views mindfulness practice. Here’s a quote from the author. “It’s about fully living in the present and taking control of thoughts, feelings, and emotions, but it’s also about emptying your mind.”

I’m not sure the author of this post actually has practiced mindfulness as he never mentions if he does, but by reading the above quote I think what he is trying to do is make mindfulness fit into his current business practice and not the other way around. To be clear mindfulness is not about “taking control of thoughts, feelings or emotions. There is not taking control in mindfulness.

You might wonder why I would include this post if I think it misses the mark, I’m including it because it’s instructive ( I encourage you to read it) on how most business leaders still cling to their former mindset while talking about mindfulness. There is little to be gained from mindfulness if you actually have not practiced mindfulness with effort.

2) Why we need simplicity to cope with complexity – mindfulness in business life

This second post comes at mindfulness from a fully engaged yet traditional business focus. The company Jaguar Land Rover has invested time and energy into enabling many of it’s employees in taking part in the companies ongoing mindfulness classes.

The author writes darkly about how stress and loss of productivity is a huge problem, he goes on to cite return on investment by embracing mindfulness. Here’s an example of the tone of the post, “We lose 40% productivity due to multitasking and distraction.” Truly a sobering quote about the loss on investment.

The author does a fine job for the most part yet fails to include either quotes or stories about himself, employees or company executives and how their experience of mindfulness changes everything, or doesn’t change anything at all.

3) This Is The Mind-Set You’ll Need In Order To Thrive In The Future Of Work

I choose this 3rd post because of it’s vigor, hope and because of this quote blurb,“think wisely.”

There are many paths to take and techniques to try in your quest to do be more creative and develop more productive tools within your business environment. The technique of sitting in many chairs is but one of them and I couldn’t help but smile at how wonderfully it connects with my belief that mindfulness changes everything, even when it’s not called mindfulness.

“The good news is that your brain can be rewired, and leveling up just a little could put you considerably ahead of the pack.” Dr. Liz Alexander

mindfulness changes happen in 10 minutes

4) Spending 10 Minutes a Day on Mindfulness Subtly Changes the Way You React to Everything

For a moment think about being in 10 minutes, tick-tock, before you know it those moments have vanished. Everyday we forget, misplace or deliberately toss 10 minute chunks of time away without a thought, without regret and without a feeling of loss. When we do bother to think about 10 minutes we find ourselves easily distracted, after all, of what importance are 10 minutes?

“A diligent approach to mindfulness can help people create
a one-second mental space between an event or stimulus and their response to it.”

This is a well written and straight forward How-To about mindfulness and gaining a toe hold, or maybe I should say gaining a mind hold into the practice of mindfulness. And if you guessed it may only require 10 minutes, you’re absolutely correct.

5) Proactive Mindfulness in Business: Beyond the eye of the storm

A short, quick and yes I have to say upbeat little ditty of a post written by an author (Anne Bach Krog Iversen) that clearly has a thing for mindfulness in and out of business. I’m sure she would agree with how I titled this blog post using Mindfulness Changes Everything. Be sure to give it a read.

Rather than “I have to, I should, I can’t because…”
proactive people come from a place of, “I choose to, I am, I want to.”

6) Helen Tupper: How to make time for mindfulness at work

I’m a huge fan of lists imbued with how-to’s, and this post from Helen Tupper hits a home run on both counts. She lays out clear markers on the mindfulness path such as Make Space To Think, Focus In 3 Minutes, Ask And Listen and Make A Stress Log. Tt’s short and informative, give it a read.

“Overtime, these actions can build into a powerful practice that
will enable you to be happier and more effective at work.”

7) 3 Ways Leaders Can Instill Mindfulness At Work

Leadership is a bit like the top stone of a pyramid. If the capstone aimlessly wanders off the rain, snow and wind will invade the cohesion and collaboration holding the pyramid together. If leadership fails to recognize the importance of being part of the successful cohesion guiding the pyramid into historic long term success than the future is dim.

This post weaves its thoughts around the role of leadership and mindfulness within an organization. And clearly points out how important it is for leadership to be at the forefront of anything it’s asking the teams to integrate into their work.

“Now more than ever, we all need space and time
to recharge and oxygenate –inside and outside of the office.”

8) How To Practice Mindfulness At Work

We can never have too many how-to posts, especially posts that are short and full of easy to understand and carry out directions for accomplishing new things. Go ahead and add this to your favorites or your list of stress reducing, creativity enhancing and success at work tips.

When you have a couple of minutes to spare (you do have a couple of minutes ) bring out this posts and jump in, and remeber Mindfulness Changes Everything.

“Incorporating mindfulness into your
daily routine can be a game changer.”

9) Mindfulness at Work: 4 Ways It Can Benefit Your Organization

achieving business success with mindfulness changes

10) Mindfulness at Work: The Secret to Achieving Business Success

Hurry Up And Wait, A Mindfulness Conundrum

Change Your Perspective

Steps To Mindfulness

A Mindfulness Roadmap For Breakfast

1. Start Small

2. Watch Your Breath

3. This is my favorite step, Sit and Repeat.

4. Thoughts Come and Go

5. Stay With It

6. Tune Into Posture

7. Join With Others

8. Is That You?

9. Savor The Moment

10. Don’t Get Caught

11. Do It Anywhere

12. Cluttered Mind

Best Exercise For Mindfulness

Bicycling Becomes The Exercise For Mindfulness

Mindfulness Changes Everything

10 Posts From 2017 Offering A Myriad of Takes on Mindfulness Changes Everything