Most of us have been there.   It can prevent us from being clear minded and making wise choices.  And even the most capable people, can end up anxious, panicky, depressed, or aggro, and unable to focus at work, communicate well, or relax, sleep well at night, and enjoy life. 

One of the first lessons in mindfulness is about creating calm by coming into the present moment. 

1. Presence – creates calm

As we come into the present moment and focus on the sensory world, the chatter of our minds tends to quieten down. Most of us are naturally mindful in some parts of our daily lives, usually with something we love: surfing, singing, gardening, walking, cooking etc.

When we are doing those things we love, we come into the present, with our minds gently aware and focused on what we are doing in the sensory world, and our bodies only activated as much as they need to be.

In mindfulness training we develop the ability to reconnect with this mindful state at will, where ever we are, AND, especially when we need to calm down.  Calm our stress, anxiety, overthinking and overwhelm.

There are hundreds of informal and formal mindfulness meditations and exercises that help us learn to focus our attention in the sensory world.  We practice informal mindfulness meditations throughout our daily life, eg, smelling the roses, being aware of sounds around us, washing the dishes etc.  We usually practice formal mindfulness meditations sitting, or lying for a period of time.  There are hundreds of formal mindfulness meditations, the most well-known ones being focused on the body or breath, and these help us develop the neural pathways, and build a habit of clam. 

This is one layer of mindfulness  

2. Concentration – creates focus

As we bring a little discipline to bear in both formal and informal practices of coming into the present moment, we develop our capacity to concentrate.  We learn to focus our attention in the sensory world, and notice the body sensations, emotions, state of mind we are in, the thoughts that arise.  And we also learn to let those be, and bring our attention back to the object of meditation. In so doing, we ourselves drop more deeply into a calm nurturing space, we develop our capacity to focus, our creative inner landscape can open up, and we can gain new perspectives.

As we drop into a deeper calm space we feel more rejuvenated.  Research shows that our nervous system starts to calm down, with all the physiological and mental changes that happen as we de-stress. 

We develop the capacity to concentrate and focus for longer more sustained periods, which has two benefits.  Firstly, we simply learn to stay focussed, and we learn to not react unnecessarily (or over react) –  to that which arises in our environment or in our own minds.  These support us during the meditations, and also generalise to our daily lives where we develop a capacity for longer sustained focus and cultivate the habit of not over reacting to lifes’ challenges in unskilful ways.  This helps us be much more productive.

As we continue to concentrate and maintain gentle focus, we often feel a subtle shift in our state of consciousness that can lead to different mind body perceptions and inner creativity.  In the Eastern traditions, this is described as the conscious mind meeting the unconscious mind.  That state just before you go to sleep where all manner of images, ideas and concepts pop up.  In the West, there have been books written about physicists, who describe this state of mind being the source of all their creative ideas.  In referring to the shift in consciousness, Einstein said “Problems cannot be solved with the same mind-set that created them”.

This is another layer of mindfulness. 

3. Awareness – creates clarity

As we practice meditation, we notice where our attention goes and what meaning we give to our experience.  We become increasingly aware of the workings and habits of our own minds.  This includes things we believe to be true – even when they are not, and our blind spots – things that we have not seen before.  Sometimes we see things we don’t want to see or own J.

The thoughts and emotions that arise unbidden, oft unnoticed, and yet, triggering what comes next … our next thoughts, emotions, mood, addictions, reactions and other behaviour.  We see the stories we have running and the conversations we are having in our heads.  Usually with us at centre stage.  The stories that feel real, the conversations and interpretations that seem right and important – but sometimes are not real, right or helpful.

We become more aware of body sensations and the link between events, thoughts, emotions and those body sensations. Links that have oft been wired together over a long time and are triggered easily.

We start to see where our attention usually is, how often we are on auto pilot and the impact on us of simply not being in the present moment. 

We see how much we judge ourselves, others and the world, how much we compare, want things to be different from how they are.  We see all the shoulds and musts and how so much of our own emotional suffering – and reactive behaviour – arises in the difference between how we want things to be and how they actually are.  We start seeing reality in its own terms. We often learn this through formal mindfulness meditations including the body scan, breath and sound meditations. 

We really start to gain Insight into our own actions. 

This is another layer of mindfulness. 

Are the layers of mindfulness linear?

No.  It’s just like riding a bike. We tend to learn the different parts in layer or steps, yet need them all together.  

We find the right size bike, adjust for our height, learn to pedal, keep balance, steer, use the gears, maintain an appropriate speed, use hand signals, watch for traffic, and navigate increasingly challenging contexts.  Based on our past learning, and natural talents, some of these layers or steps are easier or harder to learn.  However, in order to ride well in different terrains, in different states of fitness we need all layers weaving skilfully together in increasing spirals of flow, deepening and strengthening the more we ride/practice.  We just learn and add one layer/step at a time, integrating up to the level of competence we want. 

So too with learning mindfulness.  Mindfulness is fundamentally about awareness.  While it may have useful and calming effects immediately, over the long term, it is the awareness, which leads to insight which leads to wisdom that gives mindfulness its deep value and ability to flow in our lives.

Liana Taylor 2019 Copy right

Excerpt /adapted from soon to be published book  Mindfulness: How to access your inner wisdom in 9 simple steps

Watch out for part 2 and 3 coming soon. 

And over the next few months I will share different ways for you to apply these layers or steps of mindfulness in different contexts.

Feel free to share this information, and please remember to attribute to: Liana Taylor, Clinical Psychologist and International Mindfulness teacher, 2019, www.theaiam.com.au

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In the western world yoga is mostly known as one of the practices used to develop mindful awareness in the body. In its broadest sense however, yoga is about awareness, and anything that allows us to be more aware of ourselves and to feel connected to ourselves and life is a form of yoga. Everything we do can become yoga if it is done with awareness and this is seen as the key to discovering the mysteries of who we truly are. Yoga is said to reveal the luminous intelligence and the beauty that lies within us.

Originating in ancient India, Yoga uses a range of physical, mental, spiritual practices, disciplines, and goals developed in the various yoga schools arising through Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. The word yoga means ‘union’ or ‘connection’, referring to both a state of connection and this range of techniques that allow us to connect to anything. A yogi is a person who practices yoga or is an adherent of yoga philosophy in its many forms.

The beginnings of Yoga were developed by the Indus-Sarasvati civilization in Northern India over 5,000 years ago. The word yoga was first mentioned in the oldest known text in any Indo-European language, the Rig Veda. The Vedas were a collection of sacred texts containing songs, mantras and rituals to be used by Brahmans, the Vedic priests.

As the tradition of yoga developed over the millennia, so too did the focus of the practices ranging from the purely spiritual to the very physical with Hatha yoga and Rāja yoga being two of the most well-known schools in the West.

The most archaic form of yoga was called Vedic Yoga, associated with the Vedic sacrificial culture which included a collection of texts, rituals and hymns about bringing praise to knowledge (in their view- higher powers).

The pre-classical period which followed, and overlapped the start of Buddhism 2,600 years ago, saw Yoga came into its own with the Upanishads – the gnostic texts expounding the hidden teaching about the ultimate unity of all things. One of the most remarkable Yoga scriptures written during that time was the Bhagavad-Gîtâ (“Lord’s Song”) whose central teaching is:

To be alive means to be active and, if we want to avoid difficulties for ourselves and others, our actions must be benign and also go beyond the grip of the ego.

The many yoga schools that developed during this time used all kinds of techniques for achieving deep meditation through which yogis and yoginis can transcend the body and mind to discover their true nature.

During the Classical yoga period that followed Raja Yoga developed with what was at that time, a non-typical focus on yoga sutra and philosophical dualism with yoga helping make the separation between matter and spirit, thereby restoring spirit to its absolute purity. The focus was on contemplation to the point of leaving the body consciously and merging with formless reality – spirit. In Buddhism, and when I teach, we call these the bliss states.

In reaction to this the Postclassical Yoga period, and under the influence of alchemy, the focus turned toward rejuvenating the body and prolonging its life. Regarding the body as a temple (not just a container for the spirit) they developed advanced techniques to energise the body and change its biochemistry to make it immortal.. This led to various branches of Tantra-Yoga, of which Hatha-Yoga is one.

In 1893 the Modern Yoga era began after a popular and respected yoga master became an American diplomat, and a wave of Eastern Yogi Masters went to America giving teachings on self-realization. Krishnamurti delighted or perplexed thousands of philosophically minded Westerners with his eloquent talks and wisdom of Jnana-Yoga (the Yoga of discernment). Aldous Huxley, Christopher Isherwood, Charles Chaplin, and Greta Garbo were among his close friends, and Bernard Shaw described Krishnamurti as the most beautiful human being he ever saw.

By the 1950’s movies stars to football teams were practicing yoga, and in the 1960’s Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, after his brief association with the Beatles, popularized yogic contemplation in the form of Transcendental Meditation (TM).

TM practitioners introduced meditation and Yoga into the corporate world and stimulated medical research on Yoga at various American universities. And from the 60’s a plethora of new yoga teachers, forms, schools, and disciplines developed throughout the western world each with their different focus – psychology, spirituality, consciousness, kundalini, body, wisdom, sexual freedom (Rajneesh later called Osho with his mystically tinged hedonism), sound, tantra, devotion, silence, non-violence (Dalai Lama).

During this period the number of yoga teachers (all of whom are now dead, developed yoga schools that continue today including: Integral Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Mantra Yoga, Laya ogoa, Karma yoga, Siddha Yoga (a tantric yoga), Hatha Yoga, Viniyoga, Iyengar yoga (which the famous violinist Yehudi Menuhin learned from the master Iyengar himself), Bihar yoga, Bhakti Yoga.

If you are curious about Westerners who have made a name for themselves as teachers in the modern Yoga movement (understood in the broadest terms), check out the encyclopedic work The Book of Enlightened Masters by Andrew Rawlinson. His book includes both genuine masters (like the Bulgarian teacher Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov) and a galaxy of would-be masters.

Mindfulness is about coming into the present with awareness of our senses. And awareness is the secret of yoga. Many forms of yoga open up to awareness of the body, with practices which can include specific bodily postures (asana), breathing (pranayama), control of subtle forces (mudra and bandha), cleansing the body-mind (shat karma), visualizations, chanting of mantras, and many forms of meditation.

As we connect to our body we start to feel or experience it. The experience of connection is a state of yoga, a joyful and blissful, fulfilling experience.

Studies show Yoga can help cultivate rewarding personal and professional partnerships

Relationship difficulties can be the most explosive and debilitating aspects of our lives. When our love life is good it’s wonderful, but when it’s bad it’s crippling! When our relationships at work are easy, we love work, and when those relationships are tense or difficult, work can feel like a nightmare.

The greatest area of mindful transformation and self-growth lies in the mirror of our relationships both intimate and general. In relationship we witness the best of ourselves, and all the other parts of ourselves as well. Those shadow parts of ourselves that we prefer not to see, or own, our grumpiness, impatience, intolerance, sulkiness, petulance, despair arise inopportunely and spectacularly. All those unwanted familiar guests of the mind can arise unbidden, stirred by hopes, fears, old hurts, and interactions. All our secret hopes and joys we’ve been too timid to let show- our inner poet, drama queen, playful puppy dog all arise as well, showing us in our fullness… A fullness that if we haven’t already fully accepted and embraced will feel exposed in relationship.

Any aspect of our-self that we haven’t become aware of or fully accepted is vulnerable to generating a strong emotional charge and reactive behaviour, projections, explosions, and judgment.

Relationships are challenged at this point, and can be damaged unless one or both of the people can be present to what is happening and find a way to navigate the terrain. To turn the spotlight onto their own inner responses and familiar guests of the mind and stop projecting onto the other.

Yoga and relationships
Yoga helps us be more aware and connected to ourselves, all that we normally like, and the things we have not always seen- or wanted to see, and in this process of awareness, and acceptance, we connect more deeply to ourselves. As we accept and connect more with ourselves, so too we can be more accepting of that in others which we might have judged or rejected

In a workplace, this means seeing people for who they are, what they bring, and accepting that they have their own challenges. In an intimate relationship, the awareness allows suppression of feelings and sexual intimacy, the false feeling of separation to give way to real connection.

By practicing Yoga, as with all forms mindfulness, we come to know and love ourselves, we find self-acceptance, a union of opposites within us, and awareness and sensitivity to our own needs. When we are self-aware, and self-accepting, we become more self-responsible and self-loving, and are also able to bring these qualities to our relationships with others.

Science shows that Yoga improves relationships

Studies have shown that yoga and meditation reduces stress, calms the nervous system, heals PTSD, enhances overall health and wellbeing and boosts energy. There are many studies showing that yoga improves the quality of sleep, enhances mood, improves your sex life and modulates the stress response. Yoga keeps you flexible and feeling sexy, in mind and body, and this can allow you to be more open and less judgemental.

Yoga can enhance your quality of sleep
One study in Jerusalem showed conclusively that a yoga and meditation practice improved sleep and quality of life in a group of older adults with insomnia. In 2010, a study into the effects of yoga on male sexual functioning was conducted. A group of men who were exposed to 12 weeks of Yoga showed that Yoga was an effective method of improving all domains of sexual functions in men.

In a study on Mindfulness-based relationship enhancement
The psychologists discovered that mindfulness enriched and enhanced the couples’ relationships, both improving individual psychological well-being and the wellbeing of the relationship. Mindfulness promoted the relaxation response and psychophysiological changes that are the opposite of stress induced hyper-arousal. The couples displayed greater compassion, an increased ability to problem solve, acceptance of self and others and greater resilience to stress.

Ultimately, yoga and mindfulness are about awareness and acceptance and allow us to develop trust in ourselves, in our own discernment, and this allows us to have more clarity about, and trust in others.

Liana Taylor
International Mindfulness Teacher and Speaker, Clinical Psychologist
Founder of the Australian Institute of Applied Mindfulness

Your Amazing Senses

At the Australian Institute of Applied Mindfulness we have just launched the Amazing Sense Series of events and articles which we hope will be of benefit to you.  Do join us if you can at the Mindfulness and Yoga Event and feel free to invite friends.  Strictly limited places at this one.   Happy moving, Liana Taylor

Register for Mindfulness, Yoga and Relationships Event

The post Amazing Senses Part 2: Movement appeared first on The AIAM.

How many of us have gone out to buy a big ice-cream or chocolate to cheer us up, or spent whole days preparing food for those that we love?

Interestingly, a part of eating that you would think is crucial, but is sometimes overlooked, is the actual taste of the food itself.

Taste evolved as a way to differentiate between poisonous and safe foods, but nowadays, eating forms a huge part of who we are and what we do in society, with ourselves and with others. Eating is associated with all kinds of delightful situations, and also all kinds of stressful situations.

At it’s core, there is something magical about bringing all of the noise of everything that is going on around us to something as simple as taste.   During a study on French parenting Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at University of Texas, Marie-Anne Suizzo was surprised to find that teaching children to appreciate and savour the wide variety of flavours in the world was rated as more important than responding to basic needs and teaching manners.

Savouring food was about awakening and stimulating all the senses as well as the mind and emotions.  Along with other stimulating practices like reading to children, playing music and giving them massages,  savouring food was designed to develop children’s understanding of what gives them pleasure.  Their children learn to savour and enjoy everything, unaffected by gluttony or restriction.  French mothers believe that stimulating children’s appetites for a wide variety of life’s pleasures actually deters them from becoming addicted to drugs!

Being present with taste, being mindful, invites us to bring our focus into to living our life in the here and now, not just in the stories in our minds.  And to giving ourselves over to the moment – living it fully,  losing ourself in the awareness and pleasure,  finding and enjoying the many small pleasures – and displeasures – along the way.  Taste and savour your food, living fully into the senses!

Three Mindful Taste exercises for you to try:

You can do these beautiful taste exercises on your own, or with a partner or loved ones, or with those you work with, bringing you into the deep pleasure and possibilities of the senses, and fully into the present.

1. Mindful moments through Tea drinking

We all of us have drinks through the day – for hydration, for sustenance, for comfort. Because we already do this, making and drinking a cup of tea – or coffee, is an ideal activity to practice mindful awareness and the savouring of life.

• Notice the sound of the tap as you fill the kettle
• Hear the changing sounds as the water is heating, the bubbling and gurgling.  See the wisps of steam, notice the kettle shaking.
• Notice what arises when you thoughts wander off to some story in your mind.  Let the story be there as you gently come back to the kettle and tea making and drinking.
• Notice the texture, the temperature, the weight of the cup you choose to make your tea in.
• Notice what impels you to make your choice of tea/coffee?  What thoughts/feeling arise as you choose?
• Watch the way the colour of the water changes as it meets the teabag or coffee when your pour, listen to the tinkling as the water fills the cup.
• Each and every step, just noticing all the sounds, smells, textures, tastes, and images.
• Actually feel the touch of the spoon handle against your fingers and the weight of the teabag as you lift the bag  and drop into the bin hearing the lid go up and down.
• Notice your own tendency to do all of this on auto pilot with your attention on something seemingly more important until you remember that you only ever have now, so you might as well experience it, savour it.
• Notice how you feel as you reach for sugar, or milk, or honey or lemon?
• How do your hands feel against the warm cup?
• Be interested in how your hand and arm know how to move the cup to your mouth to drink?  How curious?
• As you take the first sip of tea, really notice what happens in your mouth, on your tongue, is it pleasant?  Unpleasant?  Do you like the feel, the taste?  or not?  Allow the response to be there without rushing to gulp more if you like it, or fix if you don’t like it.
• If thoughts arise – as they will – let them be there, and gently bring your focus back to the act of drinking the tea.
• Notice without judgment any desire to rush the drinking, any impatience if the tea is not cool enough yet.
• Notice how you make the decision to swallow the tea?  Is it a conscious decision or automatic? Notice the muscles in the back of the mouth and the throat, the feel of the liquid trickling down.  What does swallowing feel like?
• Notice how the liquid seems to stop being separate from you and dissolve into you?  When does that happen?  How do you notice?
• As you continue to drink, notice with acceptance feelings or thoughts that arise.  About rushing, your day, the tea.  About feelings of impatience, or stillness.  Just noticing moment to moment as things shift and change, as your attention is pulled into the past or future or even into zoning out.
• Notice all that is around you.
• Notice the dropping of temperature of the tea, and your responses, and your decisions.
• Stay with this mindful awareness as long as you can be with the awareness – and not need to force yourself to endure it.
• Notice the impact the mindful tea drinking has had on you. If that impact is wholesome, you might want to adopt  tea drinking as a daily practice to cultivate your ability to focus your attention, come into the present, calm your mind and heart, and savour the taste of the present.

2. A mindful Meal

Next time you sit to a meal alone of with someone else, any meal, breakfast, a snack or dinner, decide that you will savour and fully experience the meal, from beginning to end.  To take some time and really delve into the experience of tasting each and every single bite of the food that is before you.

• Before you eat, start looking at the colours of the food, the placement on the plate, the shapes.
• Deeply appreciating the textures..
• You may even reflect on the many people and communities involved in growing, harvesting, preparing, transporting, selling this food for it to be on your table – the whole fabric of a community that made this possible for you.
• Notice the smells and the impact the smell has on your body
• Pick up the food with your fingers, hold it in your hand… no knives or forks .. just in your bare hand, what is the texture of it?how does the food feel in your fingers?
• Take just one bite and notice the movement of your jaw,  what happens in your mouth in order for you to take just one bite?
• Notice the flavour?  What can you taste?  Is it as you expected?  Notice the subtlety or the intensity of the flavours and savour each morsel.
• What is happening in your mouth,  the texture, the saliva, the changes in the food, the urges to chew or swallow, the act of chewing and swallowing.
• What can you hear as you are eating?  sounds in your mouth – of the food – of your lips – teeth – jaw?
• What happens after you swallow?  what do you notice?  Are you jumping to the next bite, or feeling full from the last, or?
• Do the flavours, the texture linger?   ..the taste? …
• When you are ready have another bite, pause and share your experience so far.
• Then, as you are both ready, fully savouring the next bite.
• Don’t just just let it finish with the chewing and swallowing,  reflect on the quality of experience you just had, in some ways it doesn’t matter if you enjoyed it or not, it’s the experience you just had—what was it?

If you ate all your food in this way, fully tasting and savouring the food, what difference would it make to the way you eat?

3. The tasting wheel – not a pleasure just for wine, it can be brought into every meal

Another lovely experience to share with a partner or friend can deepen your awareness of taste and smell.  Choose a time when you are going to have a meal or snack together, and bring a taste wheel to your table.  We all know how in depth people can be when they talk about wine or coffee.  Bring this depth of awareness to your meal.  Eat a little more slowly, and as you taste each bite,  take the time to notice then share, what tastes you are aware of.  The tasting wheel can be helpful in identifying the subtle differences, or the seemingly inarticulable tastes and aromas that we are not always in the habit of noticing.

As you continue to notice, each bite, each smell, reflect on the quality of experience.  Savouring the rich and subtle, pleasurable and not so pleasurable experiences alike.

Your Amazing Senses

At the Australian Institute of Applied Mindfulness we have just launched the Amazing Sense Series of events and articles which we hope will be of benefit to you.  Do join us if you can at the Mindful Dessert Tasting Event and feel free to invite friends.  Strictly limited places at this one.   Happy tasting, Liana Taylor

Register for Delicious Desserts: A Mindfulness Tasting Event

The post Amazing Senses Part 1: Taste appeared first on The AIAM.

This applies equally to the organisation’s goals and objectives, or the individual’s personal goals, values and objectives.  We simply do not always know what matters to us or our organisations, or manage with any consistency, to act in alignment with that.

So knowing what matters to us or our organisations is the first essential step. Then learning how to engage and stay focussed on that, and not be pulled away by unhelpful thoughts, emotions and behaviours is the second essential step.  In developing Corporate Responsibility Strategies organisations are increasingly seeking mindfulness training.

Certainly there is a myriad of research about the benefits of using mindfulness in the workplace.  Wellbeing programs – including the Resiliency, Positive Psychology and Mindfulness programs I teach in corporate settings – have consistently shown that mindfulness training helps people manage their own emotions, focus more, lower stress, reduce exhaustion, and improve performance and productivity.

We know from mindfulness training that everything starts with our relationship with ourselves, then extends to our relationships with others, and to the world around us.  Warren Bennis highlighted this in an article titled The challenges of leadership in the modern world, in which he said that “leadership is grounded in relationship.” (1)

One of the few empirical studies that has explored the effects of mindful leadership on other people, is showing promising results (2). It found that supervisors’ mindfulness (awareness and attention) improved relationships with employees, and was positively associated with employee job and need satisfaction, as well as facets of job performance such as in-role performance and organisational citizenship behaviours.

I refer to this as the inner game of leadership.  In Queensland recently I was teaching a Mindful Leadership program.  The group included CEO’s, business owners, HR managers, Executive coaches, school teachers, psychologists, senior clinical leads and yoga teachers.  On the last day of the course one senior manager said,

 “I came to the course to figure out how to manage and lead other people, and realised that first I needed to manage and lead myself” 

In addition to the growing recognition of learning mindfulness to improve one’s inner game (and mental health and wellbeing), there is now a growing recognition for the need to use mindfulness specifically directed to enhancing the quality of communication and relationships in the workplace.  Both between peers, up and down the line of management, and between staff and clients/stakeholders.

“In terms of mindful leadership, this means broadening the focus from stress reduction and emotional intelligence to include questions of character, ethics and wisdom” – Alex Trisoglio (3)

Over the last 30 years mindfulness has been adopted into the west with gusto.  Firstly through the health sector because of the benefits.  Then into high performance, education and eventually spreading into management.  While there has been a specific focus on developing the skills, practice, perspective and state of mindfulness, there has not always been a clear recognition that mindfulness did not originate as just a single aspect to be developed for wellbeing.

Mindfulness arose in the Eastern traditions where it was one of eight aspects to be developed for a skilful wise life.   These eight aspects are all nestled within three trainings designed to cultivate enlightened conduct. Perhaps in the West we would call this ‘Wise conduct’.  These three higher enlightenment trainings are:

Higher ethical discipline
Higher concentration
Higher discriminating awareness or wisdom

When I am speaking at conferences, or in corporate settings I am referring to these teachings when I talk about how we cultivate the ability to Discern, Decide and Deliver.  So mindfulness in leadership includes all of the practical elements of mindfulness trainings as we know, as well as a focus on developing ethical discipline, concentration and discriminating awareness.  And it is in this process that those of us in leadership roles seek to understand what drives other people, why they act the way they do, and how we work most productively together.   This is the basis of the Mindful Leadership course.

One company found that implementation of a mindfulness-based leadership program led to a 10-20% increase in employee satisfaction, yet more interestingly, a 50% increase in employee collaboration, conflict management and communication (3).

All people in a position of influence are in a position of leadership, regardless of title.  We can choose to understand the people we lead better.  This is leading wisely. 

(Keep an eye out for the next article on Three Higher Enlightenment Trainings and how we use those in Leadership, teaching and therapy)

© 2016 Liana Taylor

References

¹ Bennis, W. (2007). The challenges of leadership in the modern world: Introduction to the special issue. American Psychologist, 62, 2-5.
² Reb, J., Narayanan, J., & Chaturvedi, S. (2014). Leading mindfully: Two studies on the influence of supervisor trait mindfulness on employee well-being and performance. Mindfulness, 5(1), 36-45.
³ Trisoglio, A. (n.d.) Mindfulness & Leadership, Mobius Executive Leadership, 50-59.

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We are looking forward to connecting with you!

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We send them our heartiest congratulations.

Anna-Lisa has described learning mindfulness meditation, and especially the Mindful Conversations course, as life changing. So much so, she is now writing her Masters thesis on the impact of mindfulness in relationships.

Anna-Lisa Talbot and Tom Rodger, Santo Winery, Santorini, Greece, July 2016

Research on mindfulness and relationships

Substantial research indicates that interpersonal processes play a major role in chronic stress and depression. Mindfulness practice can create profound changes in relationships with others. Research suggests that Mindfulness in relationships leads to greater capacities to respond constructively to relationship stress, and greater: relationship happiness, autonomy, acceptance, friendliness, interest, self control, capacity to listen, cultivation of character strengths, ease in parenting, positive neuro-plastic changes, team performance, and leadership effectiveness.

Barnes & Brown (2007), Bihari & Mullan (2014), Finkel & Campbell, (2001), Holzel et al. (2011), Jazaieri et al. (2012), Niemiec, Rashid & Spinella (2012). You can read Anna-Lisa’s research in due course.

Mindful Conversations Course

– coming to Adelaide Oct 6-8th, 2016
The Mindful Conversations 3 day course is the one that professionals think they will get the least out of, and report getting the most out of personally and professionally. It gives you tools to use immediately, to make significant changes in relationships at work, with your kids, partners, parent and friends. The conceptual models bring together mindfulness and positive psychology in a enlightening way.

The post A Mindful Wedding Proposal… appeared first on The AIAM.

Research studies
In addition to our subjective knowing about the benefits of love, there is an ever increasing body of research into the benefits of Loving Kindness meditation.

Stanford University research showed that even a small dose of loving-kindness meditation increased feelings of social connection and positivity towards strangers, both conscious and unconscious. Duke University research showed significant improvements in pain, psychological distress, and anger in people with chronic pain. Across the globe researchers are discovering reductions of inflammation, pain levels, distress, and, increases to positive feelings, mind/body awareness and interpersonal relating arising from the practice of loving kindness meditation.

Within the Eastern traditions
All concentrative and mindfulness meditation practices are built upon the foundation of loving kindness, reminding us moment to moment to step beyond our reactive self and embrace each other as beloved unique parts of a whole.

Concentrative meditation practices cultivate serenity and compassion, mindfulness practices cultivate insight and wisdom, and loving-kindness practices cultivate our wish that we may all enjoy happiness.

The practice of loving kindness meditation
The practice starts by focusing our meditation on a specific person or animal for whom we have an easy affection. We then extend the scope of our concern further and further, to ourselves and to others, one person at a time initially, until we eventually encompass and embrace all sentient beings.

I hope you enjoy this 12 minute Loving Kindness meditation and practice it often to calm yourself, feel filled with love warmth and generosity, and to share that to those around you.

The post A Loving Kindness Meditation for you… appeared first on The AIAM.

I gained an understanding for the first time that mindfulness offers a powerful form of insight not available through cognitive reflection and self-analysis- MBCT Course participant

Key Benefits of Mindfulness Training

For the professional
• Evidence-based, deep level learning
• Simple yet important tools
• Perspective shift, insight into action
• Rejuvenating, preventing burnout
• Taught by registered APS Psychologist

For the client
• Soften the inner dialogue and chatter
• Concrete tools for use at any time
• Break thought and behaviour patterns
• Experience clarity of mind and body
• Increase capacity for self-soothing
• Feel more in control, confident and happy

What is the aim of Mindfulness?

Sometimes people think the aim of mindfulness is to be calm or relaxed in every moment. Mindfulness is about paying attention and remembering the patterns or habits you see. While one of the benefits of mindfulness is the cultivation of calm, the purpose is more about insight.

Insight
Insight requires time and perspective. Mindfulness meditation gives us a way to develop both. Just as the grandmother stays calm and smiles knowingly even when the parent is fretting about their child’s current phase of behaviour. The grandmother has the perspective of time and many experiences. She remembers the ebb and flow of that which has come before and knows what the possibilities are, and when and how to act, and when to just watch.

Mindfulness then is not so much about staying calm, but how you respond when you lose your calm! At critical moments you do things naturally, and it is what you do naturally in those critical moments that counts.

The paradox of happiness
The paradox of happiness is that the more happiness, clarity, calm and kindness you have, the more opportunities you have to lose it. Do you respond in a way that improves things, or do you react in a way that makes things worse?

In mindfulness meditation you learn to stay present and pay attention to what is happening whether you like it, don’t like it, or are confused about it. You increase your tolerance for seeing the unpleasant – neither identifying with it, nor running from it, and in so doing you come to notice the patterns of your mind and behaviour and can respond with choice rather than habit.

Kindness and discipline
We learn to bring kindness to bear on that which arises, even the thoughts and behaviours and feelings we don’t like such as our boredom with the practice, or anger at a loved one. We also bring discipline to bear in order skilfully move us in the direction of more awareness and wiser living. In the end we see that kindness and discipline support each other.

For the very true beginning of wisdom is the desire of discipline; and the care of discipline is love. - The Wisdom of Solomon, 6:17

How does mindfulness work?

The greatest gift we can give to another is to be fully present with them, and the greatest gift we can give ourselves is to be fully present with ourselves. Often we are interpreting ourselves through this philosophy or that, seeing our selves through one lens or another, measuring and comparing ourselves with some idea of who we do or don’t want to be, some idea of what we do or don’t want in the future, and of experiences in the past that we either want to relive, or avoid forever.

Amongst all of this we often lose sight of what it means to simply be present with ourselves, in those subtle and yet powerful sensory levels. We are aware of our thinking, we know what we think we want to do, we just may not be with our experience, and therefore we may not have all the information we need to make wise decisions. And so in mindfulness meditation we learn to simply be present.

The mind as one of six senses
From the Buddhist perspective, there are six senses, not five. The sixth sense is mind. In the west we often times emphasise the information from the mind to the exclusion of the other senses. This creates imbalance. However when you see your mind as a sense organ you can recognize the full spectrum of its functioning, from thinking and feeling and sensing to non-conceptual knowing. You can see the interplay between the mind and the other sense organs. The mind informs all the other senses bringing them to life, just as the other senses bring the mind to life. You have the opportunity to know yourself deeply as an individual, as member of a family or group, and as a species, and to live and act in the world in ways that contribute to its fullness and beauty.

Mindfulness meditation cultivates a rebalancing, a moving our awareness, the focus of our attention, to our sensory experience and away from our thinking. We all have experiences of mindfulness during daily life, and we know it when we lose it. If you were out on the cricket pitch seeing a ball come to you, your focus is on the ball, on the ball, on the ball, then all of a sudden, if your mind starts thinking about what could go wrong, or remembering the last one you dropped, or thinking about how embarrassing it will be if you drop this one, or how wonderful it will be if you catch it and become the star of the match… what happens? You drop the ball. You drop the ball because the focus of your attention went from your sensory experience of looking at the ball, to your chatting mind as if you were looking straight at the chatter box of your mind.

Mindfulness meditation teaches us to pay attention to where our focus is, how it moves, what happens when it moves, and how we choose where it is. This cultivates an experience of presence.

Presence
We hear all about the value of presence, we know the experience when we have it, and we don’t always know how to re engage with that state. Presence is not always about being happy. If I am grieving the loss of a loved one, I do not want to feel happy, yet I can be loving and joyfully present to my experience of deep sadness.

Mindfulness cultivates the experience of presence, invites us to become familiar with it, recognise it when it is there, know how to cultivate it when it is not.

Different types of meditation
Mindfulness meditation is different to calm abiding mediation. People seek meditation for a range of reasons, mostly to calm themselves, open up to creativity, increase flexibility of mind, to generate balance, open up intuition, for healing, intellectual curiosity, and for some it is more of a spiritual journey. But the most fundamental reason is to calm and steady the mind, to gain focus and peace of mind: to live in the present.

Where does mindfulness meditation go, lead to?

With mindfulness, there is no destination, but rather a direction we move toward with signposts along the way. Sometimes we need to cultivate more depth, or breadth. Sometimes we need to cultivate more awareness of subtle detail, or of a broader context. Certainly we want to develop insight into how all of this flows, how the inner and outer meet – and how we live more skilfully and happily.

My alert system has greatly improved- MBCT Course Participant

Perspective
Perspective is about looking at things from a place that you are not, most especially in critical moments (Roger Hamilton). It’s not about 90 minutes of talking to resolve things, but 2-3 minutes of insight, of seeing what is really happening, that makes the real difference.

We think so much about what we are doing, because we forget who we are, and lose sight of what our experience really is. Mindfulness brings us gently, lovingly, back to our experience, so that we may see clearly.

The Dalia Lama says that “Wisdom and Compassion as the two wings of the bird that flies over the ocean of truth. Just as we need clarity and perspective of cognitions, so too we need the warmth and hope of the heart of compassion. In a therapeutic context the combination of a mindful practitioner, sophisticated understandings of how the mind works, and mindfulness practice creates a rich and powerful process of healing.

It requires wisdom to understand wisdom: the music is nothing if the audience is deaf- Walter Lippman

Mindfulness and Psychotherapy

All mindfulness practices increase focus and performance. Mindfulness practices increase our capacity to be present, to focus, and to accept what is, neither avoiding what we don’t like, nor clutching what we do like. Paradoxically, this both cultivates happiness and our ability to deal with unhappiness and struggle.

Mindfulness training has emerged as a powerful, evidence-based tool for enhancing psychological health. Research showing the positive outcomes of mindfulness interventions in a plethora of conditions has grown exponentially in the past few years. It is empirically supported as an effective intervention in a wide range of clinical disorders, including chronic pain, anxiety disorders, depression, PTSD, OCD, substance abuse, and borderline personality disorder, CFS, ruminating, problem solving, relationships, Axis 2 disorders, eating disorders, workplace stress, leadership, wellbeing, and the list goes on.

These skills are not new, and a number of therapists and non mainstream therapeutic models have incorporated aspects of these mindfulness models throughout the 20th Century.

In 1979 Jon Kabat Zinn started incorporating mindfulness training for chronic pain management in what became known as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction – MBSR. Jon did not use the word stress in a narrow sense, but rather as a culturally acceptable way of saying ‘suffering’. Soon afterward, Steve Hayes developed Acceptance and Commitment Therapy – ACT for a range of therapeutic contexts, Marcia Linehan developed Dialectical Behaviour Therapy – DBT for treating borderline personality disorders, and in conjunction with Jon Kabat Zinn, Zindel Segal, Mark Williams, and John Teasdale developed Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy MBCT for the prevention of relapse following recovery from depression.

These Mindfulness-based therapies formed the ‘third wave’ of behavioural therapies. They all emphasise mindfulness as a core principle in understanding, and relating differently to what were destructive cognitive, emotional and behavioural patterns.

All of these traditions aim to increase awareness of and acceptance of ordinary human experience, very much including the unpleasant, so that we can live our lives joyfully, skilfully and according to our inner wisdom and values. Any exercise which will have us practice being in the present moment will increase focus and enhance performance.

You can read more about the similarities and differences in Mindfulness-Based Therapies.

MBCT was specifically developed by clinical psychologists fro preventing relapse of depression and this gives it a degree of rigour and explanation about the depressive mind.

Now I am more respectful of those most important to me, this leads to more valued living- MBCT Course Participant

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy has a specific focus on being kind to ourselves and cultivating positive experiences. We can’t learn this from a book, only from the experience, and we develop integrity in teaching this by embodying it.

In Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy we learn to relate to and process our thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations in different ways. Every human being has some version of a I’m not good enough story in their minds that comes out when under stress. Some individuals tend to ruminate over things which are worrying them, including their symptoms, problems, and life dramas. They do this with the best of intentions, assuming that it will help them understand the problem better, or solve the problem more effectively. Unfortunately, research suggests that the opposite is true and that rumination actually reduces effective problem-solving. Even if we don’t ruminate as such, old and often unhelpful habits of thinking and behaving can be effortlessly activated under stress which only add to the problem.

MBCT assumes that the combination of Non-awareness and judgment are fundamental to the cause of our mental and emotional suffering. With lack of awareness, old habits of negative thinking, ruminating and worrying can spiral into more distressing and unskillful states. With judgment, our constant wish for things to be different, or belief that they should be, gives rise to unhappiness and habitual, sometimes obsessive, and often unhelpful thinking patterns in an attempt to problem solve. This happens because we have a low tolerance for discomfort or displeasure and in MBCT we learn to see these habits of mind and relate to them differently.

Studies have shown that individuals who are able to ‘let go’ of worries or unhelpful habits of thinking are more effective at managing their problems. Being in a calm clear state of mind allows the mind/body to activate its own resources and healing systems without interruption, and that can often be enough to sort things out.

With emotional problems, letting go can sometimes be enough but if not, then the skilful considered use of Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy strategies can be added with effect. In some cases, that may be a wise and considered decision to start or resume medication. MBCT is not meant to replace standard techniques but to complement them.

We need to first to be able to meet ourselves, be with ourselves, all the seemingly likeable and un-likeable, pleasant and unpleasant aspects of our being.

Then we meet others where they are, first and foremost the inner experience, to listen and understand. We know that understanding is not the same as agreeing.

First we meet, then we come into steadiness and gather ourselves, then we gain perspective about what is happening right now, about our place in the world, and about the world. And there is freedom.

I gained an understanding for the first time that mindfulness offers a powerful form of insight not available through cognitive reflection and self-analysis- MBCT Course participant

The post What is Mindfulness? appeared first on The AIAM.

Develop the foundation that will help you Master your ability to change lives.
If you want to help people, then mastering really sharp counselling skills is a foundation to everything you do.

Counselling is the ability to inspire others to take action, to understand them in a way that allows them to not feel alone, to see the way forward and be inspired to take action in their own lives.

However, many people trained in psychology, social work, medicine and other health disciplines don’t have much opportunity to learn and integrate these skills. Worse yet, they have a degree and are expected to know how to counsel people, and can feel a real lack of confidence in knowing what to say and how to get the absolute most out of their time with clients.

By giving you the correct strategy and layering in exercise after exercise, you will be amazed at how natural you become and surprised at how effortless your ability to listen understand and help will flow.

Course Dates and Times
May 31st – June 28th 2016 – Five Tuesday evenings 6-8.30pm
And
July 2nd 2016 – all day Saturday 10-6pm

Where: Mindfulness Centre, 4/10 King William Rd Hyde Park SA
CPD: 20 hours
Cost:
Standard fee $695 (incl. GST) per person
Early bird fee $595
Super early bird fee $495

We are currently not offering this course, but feel free to express your interest at mind@theaiam.com.au and we can notify you of the next available date.

The post Confident Counselling 5 wk Course, starts May 31st 2016 appeared first on The AIAM.