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“If what I say resonates with you, it is merely because we are both branches on the same tree.” W. B. Yeats Are you a time traveler? Living your life in the past or the future? Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans. John Lennon I had the pleasure of running a team away day alongside some amazing colleagues last week. The development day for the team of 36 including their managers was based around mindfulness in the workplace. Now it's not so long ago, if you were to mention the word mindfulness in the business World you'd be considered ever so slightly odd and probably written off as a hippy, tree-hugger. Back then mindfulness was something practiced by monks in monasteries and certainly not something to be considered in the arena of serious business, right? Well.........Times they are a changing..... Now for me I found "The Shift" came over 10 years ago... as the wonderful Dr Wayne Dyer would describe it.. the shift from the morning of my life when it's all about ambition, to the afternoon of my life , where it's all about meaning. I'd done the high flying, high pressure, burn-yourself-out corporate career thing and found that I was increasingly less fulfilled, increasingly more stressed and had lost the point... the meaning of what I was doing. I loved making a difference, I loved connecting with people,I wanted to do a good job....... but more and more I found myself pressured into being a corporate clone, doing just as "They" ( whoever they are) said, in the way that "They " said it should be done. It was soul destroying. And in truth that's just what it felt like... inside part of me was dying. I was reminded of this feeling last week, whilst running the away day. As the day went on I heard more and more of the group saying " I'm a different person at work to outside of work". Hmm, really? Are you a different skeleton, organs, brain, blood.......Do you take off your work body when you walk out of the door at the end of your day? The roles you play maybe be different... but are you really a different person? Do you step into a different body at the end of your work day? Do you zip up your Homebody as you enter the front door? When we are being incongruent to who we are,I mean to true spirit of who we are.... our body reacts.... it actually tells us "That's not me, that's not like me" and if we keep on keeping on with the presence, the mask... guess what the body says "Enough". It's not just our physical body, it's our mind and our emotions too. The whole of us is effected. And if you still believe it to be separate... our Homebody gets effected ( or should I say Infected) too... we taint the whole of our wellbeing by pretending to be something that is not us. I urge you right now to stop. Notice your body being breathed. Be with your breath, notice how your body feels. Notice how it feels to be in the space where you are right now. Notice if there is an inner dialogue. Just notice it, no need to follow it. No need to judge or react. Just notice your body being breathed. Be present. Ask yourself "Who am I?" and wait. What comes? You may find that you have many "Roles", but when you get to the basis of it ....you're YOU, not a work YOU and a home YOU, a whole YOU that just happens to encompass many roles. When you are mindful…You become keenly aware of yourself and your surroundings, but you simply observe these things as they are. You are aware of your own thoughts and feelings, but you do not react to them in the way that you would if you were on “autopilot”…By not labeling or judging the events and circumstances taking place around you, you are freed from your normal tendency to react to them. I wonder..... why might it be that large organistations such as Apple, Google, Proctor and Gamble and Astra Zeneca; to name but a few, are investing in mindfulness training for their people? I'd say that when you can be YOU, be present as YOU ( well lets face it you can't be anyone else as everyone else is already taken) then the WORLD gets the very best of YOU and your experience the very best of the WORLD. Often when I attend networking events, as is usual on these occasions people ask me what I do, or I am asked to do my "Elevator pitch" My answer is always the same... I help people to live and work with purpose and passion. It matters not if I'm in my treatment room, working with a client one to one in a therapy session, or if I'm running a training day in my role withing Get the Edge, or a leadership retreat out in the woods at Hill Holt Wood... or even if I'm writing a blog or speaking at a Mind , Body and Spirit event. No matter if I'm in a corporate environment or supporting a pregnant mum..... I'm being me. I'm helping that person, that soul, those people be the fullest version of themselves, without exception. I'm facilitating personal discovery. In my World there is no distinction between business and tree hugging. It's interesting to observe however that lots of suited and booted business people simply don't get the link.I'm simply not "Corporate" enough for them or I'm a bit "Out there" maybe for them to understand how I can marry "Business and Tree hugging" together (and certainly not in the same sentence). And that's OK.... I have more work to do in communicating that link.... Now I can talk about the science of it, I can use a different set of words, but it all comes down to YOU... the whole YOU, nothing but YOU. When YOU can be completely present, no matter what role you're playing at any given moment, you will be happier, healthier and more fulfilled. Its very simple really we're all HUMAN BEINGS not HUMAN DOINGS. When we can truly grasp that and be more us ( as appose to be more dog... sorry couldn't resist, clearly O2's marketing isn't lost on me) Then not only will business reap the rewards, but as will families, and communities. So which are you?
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