Mindful Leadership – To Transform Yourself And Inspire Others
“The practice of mindfulness begins in the small, remote cave of your unconscious mind and blossoms with the sunlight of your conscious life, reaching far beyond the people and places you can see.” ~Earon Davis
If our leaders today made the choice of being mindful, they would not only reach far beyond the people and places that they can see but even touch and change their lives. We would have far more mindful workspaces, far more happier people and a far more actualized society.
In today’s day and age, we are constantly bombarded with information, we are distracted. According to Rasmas Hougaard of Potential Project, we are only present 53 % of the time. We suffer from ADT(attention deficit traits), all credit to the nonstop emails, SMS's, WhatsApp messages; add to that the targets, the endless to-do lists and the busyness of life that plagues us. Most of us are walking towards death "mindlessly".
There is an alternative to just leading from the top down.
If our leaders choose to make this conscious choice, of leading from the inside out, the dynamics of our interactions would be greatly enriched.
“Mindful Leadership” is a movement. It is the ability to lead from the bottom up, to gain the respect and recognition from others, and to do so in a manner that involves compassion, a willingness and readiness to put others and the mission before themselves. This can truly ever happen if we listen deeply, practice gratitude and humility. It is a mindset more than anything else.
Leaders need to create the space in their lives to cultivate self-awareness and compassion and lead with authenticity in a way that inspires others. By employing this method of leadership, we can transform our own lives, our organizations, our communities and subsequently the world.
Marut Bhardwaj realised this many a years ago, she had no Guru and no school that she followed, but she managed to silence her mind quite successfully when she would practice.
Unfortunately, when she got to work, she found the dichotomy of her existence. Once at work, the same patterns would emerge, stress, tension, loud voices.
Three years ago, she along with her partner Bhaskar Rao chose to make the conscious choice of evangelising more mindful leadership in the hope that if she could get the leadership to be more mindful, it would have a ripple effect in organisations too.
Marut sought out to the mindful leadership summit in Washington and aligned with them and brought the Mindful Leadership Summit to India last year, and attempted to create a platform for people who are leaders from all organizational levels and backgrounds, including business, education, health & wellness.
This year’s edition lasted over two days from September 28th to 29th with keynotes and presentations from over 25 speakers, teaching how to apply mindful leadership in workshops, and connect with fellow leaders in discussion and dialogue. Followed by a one-day intensive interaction with 4 speakers to choose from to further focus your experience.
There were thought leaders, coaches, trainers, health care specialists who shared their insights on mindfulness and how and why to employ it as a way of leadership.
Sister Shivani, Dawa Philips-author of mind your business, Tim peek of Peek disruption, Gagan Adlakha of Vyaktitva, Nithya Shanti famed alchemist, Kiran Gulrajani of Go evolve, Babu Santosh and danseuse Anamika Singh were amongst the speakers.
Though we are far from mindful society, there is a great hope, with Neuroplasticity of the mind as the key buzz word today.
So go ahead and create each day mindfully, because neurons that wire together fire together!
