Mindfulness - the practice of cultivating deliberate, focused attention on the present moment – can bring focus, authenticity, and intention to the practice of leadership. Simply put, our brains are not equipped to handle the 11-plus million bits of information arriving at any given moment. For the sake of efficiency, we tend to make new decisions based upon old frames, memories, or associations.
Through mindfulness practice, a person is able to notice how the mind reacts to thoughts, sensations, and information, seeing past the old storylines and habitual patterns that unconsciously guide behavior. This creates space to deliberately choose how to speak and act.
Discover methods to improve business intuition, build present moment awareness, and strengthen decision making.
2. OVERVIEW
• Understand the Neuroscience of Stress
• Recognize our Habitual Responses to
Stress
• Right vs Left Brain Dominated Thinking
• Integrating a Mind-Body Approach in
Business
• Mindfulness Tools and Live Experience
4. WHY IS THIS
IMPORTANT?
• 40% of Canadians
suffer from workplace
stress
• 20% of Canadians will
suffer from mental
health difficulties at
some point in their
lives
• 27% of Canadian
workers described
their lives on most
days as ‘extremely’
stressful
• 500,000 Canadians
5. Cognitive Emotional
•Negative impact on memory
•Clouds and/or impairs judgment
•Negative thoughts and self-
perception
•Difficulty concentrating and
organizing
•Increased irritability
•Anger and agitation
•Overwhelmed and inability to relax
•Short temper
•Enhanced Anxiety
•Relationship challenges at home
and work
•Ineffective communication
Physical Behavioural
•Digestive and gastrointestinal
symptoms
•Increase in frequency and effects of
colds
•Rise in heartbeat, cardiac risks
•Poor eating habits
•Decreased motivation for exercise
•Sleep disturbance
•Isolation
•Self-destructive coping behaviours
(smoking, drinking, drugs)
•Nervous habits (e.g. nail biting,
pacing)
WHAT HAPPENS TO UNMANAGED
STRESS?
14. LEFT BRAIN – REFLECTIONS OF THE PAST
• We are not born with mindsets – these are
created. As we grow we learn things in
three main ways:
1. Verbal tutoring
2. Interpretation of a confusing situation
or parental behavior
3. Create a fantasy and believe it to be
true
These now become our foundational beliefs,
our mental roadmaps
15. THE UNSPOKEN LANGUAGE
• More then 70% of
communication is silent; it
is body language.
• If we lack understanding
of our own bodies and
experiences, then we also
lack appropriate
discernment when trying
to understand the silent
communications of others.
16. RIGHT BRAIN – SOMATIC, MINDFUL
• Mindfulness = the interplay
between the internal and external
world interacting in the present
moment.
• Links us back to our bodies and
emotions and increases self
regulation
• Decline in negative states such as
stress, anxiety and depression
• Improvement in coping skills
20. REASONS WHY WE AVOID VULNERABILITY
• It is terrifying
• It opens us up to pain
• It opens us up to past
pain
• It opens us up to
connection
• It allows us to be seen
• Opens us up to being
criticized
21. VULNERABILITY AND INIMITABILITY
• All authentic creation stems
from vulnerability
• Originality comes from authentic
experience
• People buy why you do what you
do, not how you do it
• Inspire others through
vulnerable connection
• Vulnerability means we can’t be
imitated because we just are
• Let go of justifications and
rationalizations, embrace true
power
23. PRESENT MOMENT
AWARENESS
Tool 1
• Connect and explore 5 visual things
in the room, 4 physical sensations
(feet on floor,) 3 Sounds around you,
2 smells, 1 taste.
• You can also explore your internal
state, thoughts, emotions physical
sensations.
24. FEEL INTO
Tool 2
• Sit with eyes closed or open, bring up
first option and feel into it.
• How does your body respond, how do
you feel and what thoughts come up?
• How will this choice ripple forward,
how will it affect you, others around
you, employees, customers, etc.?
• How will this add value, how will it
detract value?
• Do this for all options.
25. ZEN FOREST
Tool 3
• A useful tool for when the
rational mind can not get out
of the way and we find
ourselves being overly
analytical.
26. CRACKING THE CONTAINER,
ACCOUNTABILITY
CONCEPTS THAT WILL NEED
TO BE CHALLENGED
• No room for failure
• Must be more then human
• High stress = high
productivity
• Client is always right
• Management is more
important
• Rational, logical is strong
HOW YOU CAN CREATE
MINDFULNESS IN BUSINESS
• Room for growth and
mistakes
• Embrace the human-ness
• A mindful business is
productive
• Value, and human centered
• Each individual adds to the
whole
• Empathy creates connections
people believe in.
According to the 2010 General Social Survey (GSS), 27% of Canadian workers described their lives on most days as 'quite a bit' or 'extremely' stressful. This means that almost 3.7 million working adults went through a regular day feeling a high level of stress (Chart 1).
According to Statistics Canada, 20% of Canadians will suffer from a mental health related problem at some point in their lives. Almost 40% of Canadians suffer from workplace stress. Inflexibility of schedule, long hours, constant connectivity, tight deadlines, and lack of vacation time are cited as the main instigators of workplace stress. Statistics Canada research shows:
Employers lose approximately $20 billion as a consequence of untreated mental health problems
¾ of short term disability claims are mental health related
Untreated workplace stress leads to drops in productivity, poor workplace morale, decreases in output
"When workplace stress is untreated, physical health problems of employees worsen," said Dr. Gary Chaimowitz, Head of Forensic Psychiatry at McMaster University and Co-Chair of the Coalition of Ontario Psychiatrists. "Workplace stress can place strain on the physical health of employees and can lead to heart and weight related problems. Identifying workplace stress is the job of the employer and the employee."
Reality of Trauma is much more complex
CLICK
Emotional trauma, attachment trauma, developmental trauma, etc., etc.
To freeze
To go numb
To suppress
To add more
To avoid
To drink more alcohol
To drink more coffee
To reach out for support
To spin with anxiety
To ruminate
Stress = narrow window of tolerance
If we maintain a sense of calm, grounded mindfulness, our window of tolerance is much larger and so we will have the ability to deal with situations without becoming frazzled or activating fight, flight or avoid.
If we are stressed then we start with a smaller capacity. Once out of our window of tolerance we begin to operate from bounded rationality and reactivity.
Our decisions are impacted not only through the uprising of our “stuff” and or our “parts” when we are out of the window of tolerance, but because we no longer have access to the whole picture.