When you practice mindfulness in your leadership and realise
your ability to observe your thoughts and emotions from a place of stillness,
the results can be amazing.
You wake up in the morning and begin your day with
gratitude. Thank you. Before the usual thoughts about the day ahead come
rushing through or the thoughts of mistakes made yesterday and bad meetings or
missed meetings. You pause and say thank you. Next you say to yourself “I am
happy” The ego in us all wants to discredit this practice. “I’m allowed to have
a bad day” “That’s my reality – what new age nonsense are you going on about? “
Of course, all thought is allowed. And if you believe that
you must also believe that other thoughts are allowed. Opposing thoughts? How
does that make me feel? What if I can find a feeling that makes me happy and
just be happy. It’s not pretending that
you’re happy. Its practicing that you’re happy. Today Quantum physics is being
taken seriously and the discoveries are amazing. Thought are now being seen as
energy which is what many ancient Eastern Texts spoke about thousands of years
ago. Meditation is now at our schools, workplaces, homes and readily available
for anyone on Social or off Social media.
When we are mindful, we observe. We see the flower without
labelling it a flower. We hear the trees dancing in the wind and birds chirping
and we observe with our sensations.
We can do the same with our thoughts. We can observe them.
When you have a thought who is aware of the thought?
An emotional reaction to a thought is also observed. It’s
still just a thought. If it does not feel right for you or if it gives you a
“bad” feeling…why experience that thought? Why not experience a happy thought –
Just say “I am happy.”
Practice that during your workday and see what happens.
Nothing is threatening you if you choose not to be threatened. A negative person and an opinion of you is
seen as a thought. It comes and goes. I am happy. You answer with kindness. You
can respectively and lovingly disagree. You can choose to be non-judgmental.
You are open, kind, loving yourself and happy. No one “Owns” you. See the
angels in disguise those that test you. And yes, like most humans, you’ll
forget your mantra and react, or argue, or storm out of that meeting and that’s
fine too! It’s just because of thoughts and how we are conditioned to react!
Being mindful isn’t about walking around the office all day
with a big grin and bowing to every beautiful human you encounter because you
know that all humans deserve love and forgiveness and you do that!
It’s about practice. Mistakes along the way are there to
tell you that you have something to learn. If I hadn’t made mistakes in my life
I would not be where I am today.
It’s about starting to find mindful moments throughout our
day. Practice. Before responding to any thought, feeling, emotion, from
yourself or anyone. Pause. Observe the thought. Breathe. Observe the emotions.
Now choose an emotion that makes you feel happy and when you are happy, you are
non-judgmental. That emotion is just energy. Like the thought before it. It
comes. Observed and it goes. You’ve heard the term “Let it go” You’ve heard the
song “Let it be”. I heard a wise man once say – “when you meet with someone,
make sure you never leave them not feeling good”.
A new thought. This positive one feels better. Then why
would you not choose more positive thoughts?
Walk into every situation with love in your heart. True
bravery is practicing mindful kindness in the face of adversity.
