Focus is a matter of deciding what things you are not going to do. – John Carmack
What Is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness amounts to being focused on and aware of how you are experiencing a moment. It is about simply experiencing the moment without judgment. If your thoughts wander, you simply bring them back to the narrow experience of the moment – the breath, the music you hear, the food you smell, or the puppy you’re petting.
Mindfulness has its roots in many religious traditions and there are a variety of contemplative approaches. Mindful secular practices have also emerged in popular culture. There are hundreds of documented ways to practice personal and professional mindfulness from breathing, to journaling, to more organized events such as retreats.
There are numerous benefits to practicing mindfulness and the research is replete. Physical benefits include stress and anxiety reduction, lower blood pressure, and overall improved health. But there are also behavioral advantages such as enhancing focus, better decision-making, and emotional control.
There are many ways to practice! Here are other resources that may be helpful to you.
Meditations
Live Virtual Meditation at Garrison Institute
Mindful Eating
6 Ways to Practice Mindful Eating
Mindful Journaling
Developing Good Habits in Mindful Writing
How to Write a Gratitude Journal
Pivoting and Refocus
Books on Mindfulness
Hanh, Thich Nhat. (1992). Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life.
Kabat-Zinn, Jon. (2009). Letting Everything Become Your Teacher: 100 Lessons in Mindfulness.
Kabat-Zinn, Jon. (2013). Full Catastrophe Living (Revised Edition): Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness.
Langer, Ellen J. (1990). Mindfulness.
Tolle, Eckhart. (1999). The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment.
Books on Mindful Leadership
Bunting, M. (2016). The mindful leader: 7 practices for transforming your leadership, your organisation and your life.
Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R. E., McKee, A., & Johnston, F. (2015). Mindful Leadership: Emotional Intelligence Collection (4 Books).
Gonzalez, M. (2012). Mindful leadership: The 9 ways to self-awareness, transforming yourself, and inspiring others.
Marturano, J. (2015). Mindful leadership.
Moving Meditations
Additional Resources
Peter Senge and Mindful Leadership
How to Make a Finger Labyrinth
University of Massachusetts Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Healthcare, and Society
University of Wisconsin, Madison, Center for Investigating Healthy Minds
Center for Contemplative Mind in Society
Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education
Minnesota Contemplative Outreach
Insight Meditation: Meditation Timers and Dharma Talks
Vanderbilt’s Center for Teaching, “Contemplative Pedagogy”