BUSINESS LEADERSHIP EXCELLENCE | THE PRACTICE OF MINDFULNESS

Bonus video!

Hey folks, Doctor Kevin here. I wanted to put together a bonus video for you so that you understood the actual discipline, the practice of mindfulness as an executive and as a leader. 

As you’ve heard me say, leading yourself is the foundation. So I wanted to share with you a practice that has been around for thousands of years and that is now research to show it is essential in leading effectively. In fact, I’ve done my dissertation – studying leaders who practice this kind of mindfulness – and I know first hand from my own experience and from my research this stuff works. 

So check it out, enjoy the video, and let me know what you think. Let me know about your practice of mindfulness. 

All right, so let’s dig into it. 

You know right now I’m sitting in the place where I meditate every day, that’s all mindfulness is. Mindfulness awareness is based on a meditation discipline. Meditation has been around for eons, not centuries but millennia. And it’s simply practiced. 

It’s the ultimate practice of being able to understand your mind. It’s the ultimate psychology. It’s the original psychology. Originally, psychologists weren’t a bunch of theoreticians, they didn’t have a bunch of theories around how they thought the world worked. It was a discipline. That’s what mindfulness is. If you want to do it right, you must institute discipline. 

What is a discipline? Well, for me it comes back to having a particular ritual. Every day when you get up in the morning, you never run out of time to brush your teeth. It’s a non-negotiable. How does that happen? Yet I talked to so many leaders and executives who run out of time to do things that they say are important, but it’s really about having that ritual. 

What’s the ritual? There’s a two-minute breathing exercise I want to introduce to you right now that you can practice and that will absolutely help you push the reset button in your mind to gain clarity in the moment of chaos and to be able to access your inner wisdom. 

It’s a simple technique yet it’s difficult. There are really only two instructions in this technique. Now first, when you practice, I’m going to ask you to actually practice this, not just watch it, not just try to learn it in your head, but actually practice the technique and watch what happens when you do it. 

There are simply 2 instructions. The first instruction is to simply observe the actual sensation of your breath as it enters and leaves your nose. This for me is a closed-eye process. I do it with my eyes closed and I’m going to ask you to do it for simply 2 short minutes. 

So you’ll close your eyes and focus on the sensation of the breath entering and leaving your nose. Now you’ve got to recognize that that’s very subtle and your mind hasn’t been conditioned to pay attention to such subtleties. In fact, your mind has been conditioned to pay attention to all these gross things in the outside world. When I say gross, I mean big but not the subtle sensations that happened in your body. For this technique, I’m going to ask you to turn your entire attention into a single-pointed focus and become aware of the sensation of the air as it enters and leaves your nose. 

It’s that simple.

The second instruction is that when your mind wanders away from that singular point of awareness of your breath when your mind wanders just simply notice. Notice when your mind wanders and bring it back without dialogue, without having a discussion in your head, without any sort of engagement. When your mind wanders away from that point of awareness and attention that is your breath, simply notice. 

Whether it’s a thought in your head or a sensation in your body, maybe your leg itches and you want to scratch it, I’ll ask you to retain your posture – to not move for two minutes, it’s that simple. Focus on your breath. When your mind wanders, bring it back for two minutes. Don’t move, stay present. 

Now, I’m gonna ask you to find a comfortable spot where you won’t be interrupted and then just sit down with your posture upright. Don’t cross your arms and your legs, don’t slouch. Sit upright. Bring your entire awareness and your entire attention to the singular sensation – the focus on your breath. 

So as we begin, I’m going to ring a bell. We’re going to practice this for two minutes and then after two minutes, we’ll talk about what just happened. 

So get yourself in your chair. Sit comfortably. Take a deep breath and allow your eyes to close and bring your attention completely to the actual sensation of your breath as it enters and leaves your nose. 

Focusing completely and singularly on the sensation of your breath. When your attention ships away from your breath, when your mind wanders, simply notice and gently bring it back, staying with your attention for just two minutes. Beginning and ending with the bell. 

That was two minutes. 

Now, if you’re like most, those two minutes either went really quickly or it seemed like forever. Notice what your mind does when you remove distraction. 

Here’s the interesting to me, and fascinating things that our minds are conditioned to be filled with content. So as soon as you make an attempt to focus your mind on a single focus, your mind will rebel, it’ll resist and suddenly you’ll think of all these things you have to do. The thoughts will be cascading upon you, All the urgencies of the moment. And your job is simply to just stay focused. So hopefully you are able to notice – notice your breath, stay with your breath, and then notice when your mind wanders and simply bring it back. 

If you’re like me, your mind wandered many times. I’ve been practicing this for a long time and my mind still wanders, but the longer you sit, the more your mind becomes calm, your body becomes calm, you become relaxed and you open the doorway to the wisdom within yourself. 

If you want to be the highest level leader possible, the best executive, a truly enlightened executive mindful leadership is the key. This simple two-minute breathing practice will help you develop the discipline and the ritual to continually cultivate that deeper level of awareness and presence so you can lead with intention. 

Go forth and practice as a leader. Practice developing that presence that will help you bring out the best in your employees, develop those high-performance teams, lead the organization the enterprise, and its entirety, and be purposeful. 

This is Dr. Kevin wishing you the best of success in leading on purpose. Bye for now.