*This article is a transcript of The Nontrepreneur podcast episode titled Mindfulness. Listen here.
Mindfulness is a word that is tossed around a lot these days, and for good reason.
A personal mindfulness program has been proven to improve sleep, reduce stress and anxiety. All things we need today more than ever.
But let’s focus on mindfulness as it applies to workplace culture and your roll in that culture.
When I say the word mindfulness, what comes your…well…mind?
Is it a person sitting with legs crossed, eyes closed meditating?
Is it stack of rocks someone carefully placed one on top of another in some out-of-focus moss-covered forest?
Maybe it’s a wellness retreat where you learn to breathe and do yoga twice a day only eating grass fed salmon and free-range avocados?
The truth is it’s probably all or some of those things, but in the context of the business, success and being a Nontrepreneur, it’s about helping create culture, cultivate creativity, inspire innovation and ultimately lead the disruption that will help you and your company stay relevant, competitive and successful year after year.
Mindfulness about inward or internal self-regulation, it’s about openness, acceptance, curiosity and gratitude.
But what does that have to do with work?
Companies like Google, Apple, Goldman Sachs and Nike all have mindfulness-training programs for their employees, managers and executives.
Oprah Winfrey, LeBron James, Bill Gates and JayZ are all very vocal about their personal mindfulness practices and its impact on their professional success.
We talk a lot about the importance of change and disruption on The Nontrepreneur.
Without a personal base and professional culture of mindfulness, change and disruption can be scary, chaotic and even paralyzing.
Last year, The Boston Consulting Group released a paper titled “Unleashing the Power of Mindfulness in Corporations”, and it outlined the value of a mindful corporate culture.
It framed exactly what’s going on in the workplace today; volatile markets, constantly changing consumer behavior, and unceasing technological disruption – all of which create change at an unprecedented rate.
It showed how mindfulness programs help leaders and employees reflect effectively, focus sharply, master peak levels of stress and recharge quickly. And on an organizational level mindfulness reduces sick days, increases trust in leadership and boosts employee engagement.
Wow…if that’s not enough of an argument…let’s talk science.
In their book titled “Altered Traits”, Daniel Goleman, a Harvard psychologist, and Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist, provide a scientific view of the benefits of mindfulness.
Here are three of their findings:
Staying Calm and Open-Minded.
Mindfulness practices, such as breathing meditation, are associated with decreased gray-matter density in the amygdala, the region of the brain that initiates a response to stress.
This reduces the inclination to interpret an uncertain environment as a threat and thus react defensively.
In this way, mindfulness improves mental agility, allowing us to avoid muscle memory.
Cognitive Ability.
Mindfulness improves short-term memory and the ability to perform complex cognitive tasks. It also frees people to think outside the box, which helps them cut through complexity. In the context of workplace performance, proven results include a higher quality of strategic decision-making and more effective collaboration.
Focus and Clarity of Thinking.
The regular practice of mindfulness routines can reduce mental wandering and distractibility – or at least, teach you how to bring you attention back, once it’s wandered off. And this can be used to increase productivity, creativity and disruption to achieve workplace objectives.
To recap, mindfulness is scientifically proven to:
· Help you stay calm and open-minded.
· Improve your cognitive ability.
· And increase your focus and clarity of thinking.
What board of directors wouldn’t want that in their CEO, what investor wouldn’t want that in a founder, and what company wouldn’t want that in a leader, a manager or an employee?
And more importantly, don’t you want that for yourself?
The good news is that fostering a culture of professional mindfulness starts with you.
You have to lead by example, regardless of whether or not you are the leader.
Again, mindfulness is really about being open, accepting, curious and grateful.
I absolutely believe in the personal and professional benefits of mindfulness. Navigating the stressful world of media and marketing would have been impossible for me had it not been for tools I’ve learned through personal mindfulness.
While I swear by the things I do, I’m not a certified trainer in any of them. I encourage you to begin your practice today, dive a little deeper into each of these on your own. Get an app, watch a YouTube video, attend a class, whatever.
My regular mindfulness practice has three elements, one I do every day, one I try (but fail) to do every day and the third I do as often as living in New York City allows.
I meditate every day. Eight to ten minutes. Typically, in the morning, but I’ve also been known to grab a quick three minutes before a big presentation.
I would just encourage you to consider meditation if don’t already meditate. Apps like The Mindfulness App, Headspace, Calm or Waking Up can get you started – but there are so many free apps, articles and videos on the topic of meditation, there’s no shortage of info.
The second thing I do is practice pranayama, specific breathing techniques designed to balance energy and stabilize moods. This can be as simple as paying attention to your breath or doing a series of deep cleansing breaths. Again – so many apps: Calm, Universal Breathing: Pranayama, Relax: Stress and Anxiety Relief.
Finally, the one part of my practice I wish I could do a lot more is Shinrin-yoku. Shinrin means forest and Yoku means bath, so the literal translation is forest bathing. Ultimately it just means being in nature and connecting with it through your sense of sight, hearing, smell and touch.
Again, those are just the things I do, there are so many other ways to practice personal mindfulness; Yoga, journaling, visualization, purposeful observation, self-talk and gratitude, disconnecting from technology for a fixed period of time, the list goes on.
Your mindfulness program needs to be personalized, so spend some time figuring out what works for you.
I know I’m repeating myself, but it really comes down to you being open, accepting, curious and grateful. When you are, it manifests itself in the way you carry yourself, interact with your peers and ultimately the way you lead.
One way to encourage a mindful workplace (beyond our own example) is to be willing to talk about it.
You can incorporate mindfulness into meetings by starting with a few deep breaths.
Encourage folks to get out from behind their desks and go for a walk, preferably outside.
Embolden quiet time.
You don’t need to be the boss to spread the value of mindfulness, however if you are in charge, remember that a mindful practice is a personal one, so get employee buy-in before you try to implement any wholesale programs. You can’t force someone to be mindful and trying to will have the complete opposite effect you’re going for.
What you think,
you become.
What you feel,
you attract.
What you imagine,
you create.
-Buddha
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