“I took refuge in numbers and tasks. I ran away from people. With numbers, I felt safer… I focused on enhancing my analytical skills… and look what happened: I found out that I can and enjoy working in a team”.
Article by Constança Casquinho | Reading time 3 minutes
Teo (name and character details changed), 40 years old, European, successful manager, shares:
“You know professor, Mindfulness has given me a new perspective: I stopped being afraid of my emotions and I think it allowed me to embrace with curiosity every moment I am with people. Now I feel able to truly succeed in a team leadership position.”
Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese monk considered by many the "father" of Mindfulness in the West, refers in his work "The Miracle of Mindfulness":
“Work is only part of life. However, work is life only when done in Mindfulness. Otherwise, a person becomes an undead.”
We face management courses as a personal transformation processes, self-discovery adventures, on the path to successful leadership. Mindfulness emerges as an essential tool for self-awareness, for the process that begins with self-leadership and moves towards a solid team leadership. Perhaps… in Thich Nhat Hanh's words… Mindfulness arises to “raise the walking dead” to create truly Living Leaders.
For managers and professors whose "business is numbers," Mindfulness is welcomed as "esoteric stunt". I remember the initial reception of my proposal to teach students Mindfulness classes: “But after all Constança, what is this Mindfulness stunt? You know our students need strong analytical tools.” When I answered that Mindfulness is an analytical tool, laughter relaxed in a Mindful moment, an environment until then “tense”.
After all, what is (this non-stunt) Mindfulness?
Is the “miracle” of the perception’s change that is offered every moment we are truly present. A change of perception from fear (from people, as in the case of Teo, or challenges, or the market, KPIs, or the “boss”) and from the past (from “failures”, mistakes) to trust ( me and others) and the present (the basis for to build a successful future for me, the team and the company). A change of perception that allows to “resurrect” in each moment and move from “a zombie manager” to a Living Leader.
Mindfulness allows us to gain greater awareness of how our mind works so that we can become the present "observer" of the dynamics of thought rather than work in autopilot.
Mindfulness practice is based on objective observation (full attention) of the present moment, the situation in which we find ourselves. We objectively observe the situation as it presents itself; not as we would like it to be, but as it presents itself. And though it is for a brief moment we abstract ourselves from judging the situation.
So, Mindfulness can be "defined" (initially in the West by Jon Kabat-Zinn, Professor Emeritus of Medicine at the University of Massachusetts) as the act of giving objective attention to the present moment without judgment. The focus techniques on breathing or body sensations are simple to try and allow you to immediately change the perception of the present moment, giving rise to new creative problem-solving possibilities.
And which are the effects of practicing Mindfulness?
The scientifically recognized benefits of recurring Mindfulness practice are manifold: from the noticeable health-enhancing effects (in such a way that illustratively the UK NHS embraced the provision of Mindfulness services as a way to reduce sickness costs) to the subtler effects of the perception of increased sense of well-being and the building of more rewarding interpersonal relationships. And as “the icing on the top of the cake” we increase our sense of abundance of time: as Mark Williams, author of the book “The Mindful Way Workbook : An 8-Week Program to Free Yourself from Depression and Emotional Distress,” states, “soon you will find that although you feel poor in time, you are actually rich in moments.
Sounds like a miracle?
Maybe, try it and decide for yourself! Want to know how? Breathe… and learn to live in Mindfulness.
Article originally published in Hipersuper magazine
