Watch this heart warming, inspiring, TED talk – When There’s More to Life than Being Happy by writer Emily Esfahani Smith. She shares how happiness comes and goes and that serving something beyond yourself and developing the best within you — gives you something to hold onto. Learn more about the difference between being happy and having meaning as Smith offers four pillars of a meaningful life: belonging; purpose; trancendence; and story telling.
Blog
The Untold Story of America’s Mindfulness Movement: Then, Now & the Future
Key points
- Why 8 minutes matters
- We have an innate preference for goodness
- Compassion and kindness can be nurtured
- Mindfulness is a way of being
- Meditation is about opening our hearts, calming our minds, in benefit to ourselves and others
- Mindfulness -> attention training -> cognitive control -> paying attention to attention
- The real meditation practice is every moment of your life
What Does it Take to Be a Great Leader in the 21st Century?
Roselinde Torres spent 25 years observing truly great leaders at work. In this TED talk – What Does it Take to Be a Great Leader, Torres shares how great leaders see around corners, value diversity, let go of past practices, and ask three simple but crucial questions so that their organizations can thrive in the future.
How to Gain Control of Your Time
Watch this inspiring, funny, ten-minute TED talk How to Gain Control of Your Free Time by time management expert Laura Vanderkam where she shares strategies for finding time for what really matters in life – whether it’s our career, relationships, or self-care. That even when we’re busy…there is time.
A Great Book (and Video) for “Meditators with Day Jobs”
Richard Gere, actor and activist, discusses with Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson, two New York Times-bestselling authors, about their new book Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body.
They claim you have everything you need, that in fact, your mind is primed and ready to go and that it’s really about cultivating a practice of accessing what you already have.
That you can be a “meditator with a day job”, that is you don’t have to be a monk or yogi to start seeing the benefits – and that with as little eight-minutes of meditation, you can start to experience benefits.
Value of Meditation:
- Changes your brain and reshapes its circuitry in positive and lasting ways.
- Keeps you younger by slowing down the process of aging on the cellular and brain level.
- Cultivates qualities of love, empathy, joy, compassion, and kindness.
- Even helps with multitasking by keeping your attention sustained as you alternate back and forth between tasks.
- Tames your mind and enhances your ability to concentrate.
- And so much more….
Unfortunately leaders this is one thing you can’t delegate – you have to establish your own meditation ritual and do the practice yourself to see the benefits. Advice: practice, practice, and practice!
What the World Needs …
“The world needs leaders with unbridled emotional intelligence, shameless compassion, and abundant communication skills.”
– Elizabeth Lesser, Omega Institute Cofounder