Mindfulness, the idea of being calm and self-aware, of paying attention to the interpersonal dynamics of all that is happening in the present moment, is vital to leadership and overall wellness at every echelon of corporate and workplace culture. Yet such clarity and focus, ideasandmind the essential elements of good decision making, are not easily garnered or maintained amidst today’s status quo of multi-tasking, technology interface, global markets and supply chains, brief product cycles, and general information overload. This is precisely why the idea of fine tuning attending and reactive skills by placing the same significance on them as more traditional business skills such as accounting, finance, or marketing, has come of age.
Turning off smart phones and laptop devices for 15 minutes of group guided imagery or personal meditation incorporating interactive breathing techniques, body sensations, and positive affirmations can be an essential discipline necessary to sooth nerves, re-align synapses and neural pathways, and foster a congruent andconnected consciousness. These rejuvenating mental, physical and emotional respites within the daily workplace environment serve to ground employees and sustain their focus, promoting more skillful responses to difficult situations and allowing them to handle work challenges and conflicts without becoming frustrated, discouraged, or feeling over-burdened.
Meditation and guided imagery reduce stress, increase energy, and improve focus and concentration, yet development of emotional intelligence also requires personal insight and communication strategies, both internal and external, which encourage recognizing and avoiding rote or uncaring reactions to challenges in favor of more productive, people oriented solutions-those that align with the principles of leadership, empowerment, and ownership of the culture as a whole. In turn, this outlook reinforces the value of emotional intelligence among individuals, within team and organizational structures, and throughout the company. ideashackers
Heart Based Consciousness
Prevalent in the hard driving business world today is ego-based intellect that operates on a survival mentality dominated by fear, greed, power, and control; the common perceptions are scarcity, separateness, limitation, and the need to fight for success. The meditation and mindfulness training model, however, is designed to develop emotional intelligence through heart based consciousness, which is the critical differentiation, the game changer,to this cutting edge approach. According to recent discoveries in neurophysics, the heart is an organ of far greater intelligence than previously thought, and evidence suggests a profound cognitive interrelationship between brain waves and the powerful electromagnetic energy signals emitted from the heart. These findings have lead scientists and physicians to conclude that consciousness is a function of both the heart and the brain, and that ethereal forms of sentience such as intuition, precognition, disposition, and most certainly emotion, formulate and resonate within this realm.
According to the Institute of HeartMath:
“Heart intelligence is the flow of awareness, understanding and intuition we experience when the mind and emotions are brought into coherent alignment with the heart. It can be activated through self-initiated practice, and the more we pay attention when we sense the heart is speaking to us or guiding us, the greater our ability to access this intelligence and guidance more frequently. Heart intelligence underlies cellular organization and guides and evolves organisms toward increased order, awareness and coherence of their bodies’ systems.”
Meditation is the first vital component to switching gears from the ego and fear-driven mental state most have been taught to believe in, and moving into heart based consciousness. Research on the brains of meditation subjects has documented neuron growth in the hippocampus — which involves learning, memory, and emotional control — and the right anterior insula, believed to involve awareness. Researchers from the University of Wisconsin working with Tibetan monks found that meditation causes intense activity in the prefrontal cortex of the brain, while studies using MRIs have recorded change in other brain areas including increases in brain-signaling connections with subjects who had meditated daily for a period of only eight weeks. And among the many other examples, there are hundreds of published studies showing the effects of meditation in rewiring the brain for tranquility, happiness, and positive feelings.