Mindful Work: Post #7--Impact on Learning

Learning: We’re hard-wired to have a wandering mind—it’s evolutionary and protective;
however, “A human mind is a wandering mind, and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind” (Killingsworth and Gilbert). Experiments with high school and college kids showed improved memory and test results. SAT scores went from 460 to 520. Also lowered anxiety, depression, anger, and fatigue, and produced better immune-reactivity.

Mindful Work: Post #6--Impact on Sports

Sports: Phil Jackson used meditation to help both the Chicago Bulls and the LA Lakers win 11 NBA Championships between them! He taught mindfulness to Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Kobe Bryant, and Shaquille O’Neal. Letting go of bad shots or botched plays helped athletes bounce back. Pete Carroll of the Seattle Seahawks is also using mindfulness with his team.

Mindful Work: Post #5--Corporate Impact

Corporate Impact: Adding to the quadruple bottom line—profits, society, environment, and now employees’ emotional and spiritual well-being. Companies like Google, General Mills, Aetna, Linkedin, Twitter, Goldman Sachs, Genentech, Ford, Cisco and many others have adopted meditation-based programs to calm executive minds, contributing to better leadership. 

Mindful Work: Post #4--Impact--Personal

Personal: Meditation calms the anxious and depressed brain, makes us less stressed, and makes us more compassionate with others. Mindfulness even overcomes the “bystander effect” by threefold! Stress isn't caused by what is happening in our lives but by how we respond to it.

Mindful Work: Post #4--Impact on Health

Health: "Stress finds you. You have to go looking for relaxation." Stress helped us evolutionarily, but not quite as much anymore. An overactive amygdala results in heart disease, cancer, diabetes, depression and anxiety, fatigue and muscle pain. Highly stressed people are more excitable, less productive, and eat up health care costs. Mindfulness reduces cortisol levels, aids the immune system, increases happiness, and calms you down. In short: Mindfulness makes us resilient! And, stress is contagious—especially if you’re a leader.

Mindful Work: Post #3--Mindfulness Impact

Mindfulness Impact. Mindfulness meditation thickens the prefrontal cortex (executive center) of the brain, responsible for positive behavior and appropriate responses; stimulates the hypothalamus, which increases learning and memory in the brain; and shrinks and dulls the effects of the amygdala (the brain’s fire alarm), making us less likely to overreact to stress. Kids in school who practice mindfulness paid better attention and were in control of their emotions. Pro-social behavior is a direct result of meditation in kids—and others. Check out the impact mindfulness has on us.

Mindful Work: Post #2--The Basics of How to Meditate

The Basics. Gelles starts with a basic definition: “Mindfulness is about increasing our
a.    Sit in a chair, or on a cushion, or lie down.
b.    Take slow, deep breaths, concentrating on each breath.
c.    When your mind wanders, notice it and bring it back to the breath.
d.    Break from your busy, hectic life twice a day for time to meditate (2-20 minutes)—and quiet down the mind.
awareness of what’s happening in our minds, throughout our bodies and in the world around us.” The best way to keep our thoughts focused on the present—neither ruminating about the past nor getting anxious about the future—is meditation. Here’s how you do it.

Mindful Work--Post #1--Overview

Overview. Mindfulness meditation is like taking your brain to the gym for a workout. In fact, I believe it will become as popular as running has become for fitness. Sit quietly and focus on your breathing—that’s meditation in a nutshell. When thoughts come—about an argument you had yesterday, about a deadline that’s looming, or about the lawn to be mowed—simply acknowledge the thought and go back to concentrating on your breathing. The more you practice this, the stronger your mind gets. It’s like doing mental pushups—you get more resilient and stronger over time. The clinical findings have proven its effectiveness: mindful meditation helps reduce heart disease, cancer, diabetes, depression and anxiety, fatigue and muscle pain. In experiments, it has reduced cortisol levels, aided immune systems, increased happiness, and even calmed kids down. Many companies, from Google to General Mills to Goldman Sachs, have significantly invested in mindful meditation for their employees.

Mindful Work: How Meditation is Changing Business from the Inside Out (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015) by David Gelles, reviewed by Steve Gladis, May 2015.