Mindfulness

"Mindfulness" is increasingly recognised as an effective way to help with major life changes. It also helps to reduce stress, increase self-awareness, enhance emotional intelligence, and undermine destructive emotive, cognitive, and behavioural processes.

The practice of mindfulness is beneficial for people experiencing anxiety, depression, chronic pain, and physical symptoms related to stress or disease. It is also a profound way to enhance psychological and emotional resilience, and increase life satisfaction.

Mindfulness is more than a relaxation technique; it is an attitude toward living. It is a way of calmly and consciously observing and accepting whatever is happening, moment to moment.

Jon Kabat-Zinn, a world authority on the use of mindfulness training in the management of clinical problems, defines it as: "Paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally."

Mental Health

Mindfulness is described by the Chief Executive of the Mental Health Foundation in their report of 2010 as a potentially life changing approach. There is also evidence that Mindfulness in the workplace can improve productivity and decrease sickness and absence.

We are pleased to announce that Optimistica's programmes are now listed on the Mental Health Foundation Website 'bemindful'.

Reach Your Goals Faster

Training coaching clients in the practice of mindfulness can help clients reach their goals faster, according to a study by Australian researchers, Dr. Gordon Spence, Dr. Anthony Grant, and Dr. Michael Cavanagh.

According to the researchers, this carries important implications. All three are psychologists at the University of Sydney; working at the Coaching Psychology Unit where they published their study in the September 2008 issue of Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice.

Their work in coaching had convinced them that mindfulness training might have a significant impact in helping clients achieve health-related goals like losing weight or working out at the gym.

"The key issue, the research team believed, was providing an effective tool to help coaching clients resist the temptations to sabotage their own progress toward goals: Many people find their psychological struggles hardest to resolve," according to the researchers' report.

Mindfulness in Leadership

Recent studies in management science, psychology and neuroscience point to the importance of developing mindfulness and experiencing meditation.

HR executive, Michael Carroll encourages business leaders to take time to sit and be still. Stressed-out executives, he maintains, need a way to reconnect with themselves to become more open and, consequently, more effective.

Mindfulness addresses a wide range of topics, including:

How to heal toxic workplace cultures where anxiety and stress impede creativity and performance
How to cultivate courage and confidence in spite of workplace difficulties and economic recession
How to pursue organizational goals without neglecting what's happening here and now
How to lead with wisdom and gentleness, not only with ambition, relentless drive and power
How a personal meditation practice develops your innate leadership talents

Recent research highlights the many benefits of mindfulness:

Repaired immune systems
Heightened emotional intelligence
Reduced anxiety and depression
Sustained levels of joy and satisfaction
Greater career resilience
Improved cardiovascular health
Fewer days lost to illness and stress

Tel: 07941 059049