March 29, 2015

Letting Go of the Illusion of Control

“That nothing is static or fixed, that all is fleeting and impermanent, is the first mark of existence. It is the ordinary state of affairs. Everything is in process. Everything—every tree, every blade of grass, all the animals, insects, human beings, buildings, the animate and the inanimate—is always changing, moment to moment.”   Pema Chodron I had the privilege of […]
March 26, 2015

Mindful Work – AM to PM

This article was inspired by the work of Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hahn’s book, Work: How to Find Joy and Meaning Each Hour of the Day.  For those of you unfamiliar with the work of Thich Nhat Hanh, the Zen master, poet, peace and human rights activist was exiled from his homeland of Vietnam in 1966. In the early 60’s […]
February 26, 2015

Building Resiliency through Emotional Awareness

  Resiliency. The ability to spring back from and successfully adapt to adversity. A return to balance. Emotional Buoyancy. Flexibility. Are we what we feel? While that may be a rhetorical question, there is truth behind it.  Because advancing emotional understanding is a central theme in my work, these pages have often explored many facets of expanding emotional awareness.  First […]
February 25, 2015

The Neurobiology of Mindfulness – Reshaping Your Brain

“Although the practice of meditation is associated with a sense of peacefulness and physical relaxation, practitioners have long claimed it also provides cognitive and psychological benefits that persist throughout the day.”   Sara Lazar, PhD, MGH Psychiatric Neuroimaging Research Program There’s now significant research showing that in just eight weeks of daily meditation you can change the part of your brain […]
February 3, 2015

Leadership and Emotional Contagion

“Employees are not emotional islands. Rather, they continuously spread their own moods and receive and are influenced by others’ moods. When they work in groups, they literally can catch each others’ emotions like viruses, a phenomenon known as emotional contagion.” Wharton @ Work, University of Pennsylvania In the past decade, there has been an important finding in neuroscience that should […]
January 8, 2015

Start with 5 Minutes of Meditation a Day to Change the Way You Work

How about 5 minutes a day of deep rest? 10 minutes of peace? 15 minutes of renewal? 20 minutes of rejuvenation? Yes, you can. Meditation can change the way you work – and change the way you feel about life in the process. Knowledge about the benefits of meditation isn’t new. Pioneers like Jon Kabat-Zinn began to mainstream meditation into […]
January 3, 2015

Living in the 4 Rooms of Wellness

This post was inspired by the simple, enduring work by the late author, Rumer Godden whose work has touched many lives with its wisdom. More than ever we understand that life is more than the endless to-do lists and bucket lists we create and then relentlessly pursue to achieve “success.”  As the poet Yeats said, “Life is not a problem to be […]
November 1, 2014

Why Worry? ~ the Emotion Series

Worry is a trap. Lately, I’ve been falling into the worry trap too often. I’ve found myself worrying about many things. I worry about ________________. I worry about the ______________. I worry when _________________. I worry about – OK, that’s enough because mental rehearsal is the engine that powers worry. Despite many years of dedicated effort to raise my level of […]
October 13, 2014

Why Do So Many People in the Workplace Still Believe that Self-Development is Therapy?

Beliefs are powerful things. They persist even in the face of evidence – even in the light of experience. The world of business – that is, the world of commerce,  is still largely under the impression that feelings have no place in the workplace. In light of what we now know from a wealth of neuroscience – that’s just dead […]