Why Mindfulness?

Do you want greater self-awareness and more control over how you respond to difficult situations?
​Do you want to experience a greater sense of connection and empathy for those with whom you work and lead?
Is your level of stress impacting your ability to be an effective leader?
Are you having difficulty focusing and being productive?
Do you have difficulty transitioning from home to work or work to home? 
Do you want to feel more present, joyful and compassionate?

Incorporating a mindfulness practice into one's daily routine can improve a leader's ability to bring themselves into the present moment more readily, thus allowing them to fully connect with whatever or whomever is in front of them. It can also provide a quiet, reflective space for thinking creatively about the organization's biggest challenges and future direction. Through research we now know that meditation and mindfulness-based practices are effective tools for lowering our stress response, improving immunity, developing greater self-awareness and emotion regulation, and gaining a sense of calm, focus, wisdom and compassion. All of which are fundamentally important for leaders to be effective and fully engaged. 

While sitting in a quiet space and watching your breath is simple, it's not easy. Creating the time to do this regularly or remembering to be present in a given moment throughout the day are among the first and biggest challenges to overcome when starting a practice. Below are several resources to support your learning and practice of mindfulness and meditation.

Apps:
These apps have meditation timers,  provide a library of guided meditation practices and track stats on your practice. Insight Timer has a lot of free content.
Insight Timer
Headspace

Books:
Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness by Jon Kabat-Zinn
Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation In Everyday Life by Jon Kabat-Zinn
Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness by Sharon Salzburg
Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach

Videos:
The Scientific Power of Meditation (3 min.)
Meditation 101: A Beginner's Guide Animation (2 min.)
The Power of Mindfulness: What You Practice Grows Stronger I Shauna Shapiro Ted Talk (13 min.)

Courses and resources:
Insight Meditation Society
The Penn Program for Mindfulness
UMass Medical School Center for Mindfulness