Mindfulness, a core career and life strength, is the practice of becoming more fully aware of and attentive to, without judgement, what’s taking place within and around you. It’s focus and concentration on steroids, with a big dosage of stress reduction. Mindfulness is not only the seventh path of Buddhism’s Noble Eight-fold Path, but it’s the […]
I turned 52 today. It’s kind of a strange, surreal number. Like many of you I feel “younger” inside. I’m not sure how much younger in particular, but I recognize familiar perspectives and instincts that have been with me for as long as I can remember. My ongoing personal growth and healing work is showing […]
By Alexandra DeMarco, Guest Writer As a busy college student, I often find that it can be difficult to live and act mindfully. With ever-decreasing acceptance rates, the academic environment in collegiate America has gradually grown more and more competitive. This academically exclusive society often fosters a culture of increased stress over grades, internships, future […]
I’m at a Starbucks, thinking about loving-kindness. My Saturday began early, journaling about loving-kindness while my youngest daughter, Olivia, got ready for us to drive to her high school. There, Olivia and the other freshmen are cheering on people of all ages with disabilities as they participate in the Achilles Nashville 6th Annual Hope and […]
Many professionals find slowing down and focusing on one thing to be counter-intuitive. They’ve been eating a diet of “mindless frenzies” and “getting more stuff done.” The alternative approach is mindfulness habits. Mindfulness is the practice of becoming more fully aware of, and focused on, what’s taking place within and around you. It’s concentration on steroids.
No one will give you “permission” to live in the manner that’s optimal for you. It’s up to you to get clear about what optimal looks like, start “practicing” its associated habits, and begin to develop new muscle memory until it has truly become your life.
As you grow mindfulness, learning agility, and storytelling habits into strengths, all three will increasingly interrelate and optimize one another. Here’s how. Mindfulness is the practice of becoming more fully aware of and attentive to, without judgement, what’s taking place within and around you. It’s focus and concentration on steroids. Mindfulness habits cultivate a curious, […]
Sometimes my life feels like it’s divided into various halves. There’s life before my father died, and life after my father died. Another perspective is my life before I became a dad myself, and my life ever since. And yet another angle is life before I dove deeply into the Enneagram, and life ever since. […]
One of my top strengths is also one of my core weaknesses. I’ll elaborate in a moment, but consider whether this statement is generally true for you as well, whatever your strengths happen to be. The personal strength I’m referring to is labeled as “Input” by the popular CliftonStrengths assessment, but I was cultivating this […]
Last night, while enjoying a neighborhood walk in cooler temperatures with my wife, I focused my attention on the numerous fireflies (aka, “lightning bugs”) that were accompanying us. And I realized how little I’ve reflected on these fascinating creatures despite seeing them summer after summer for decades. After getting home I did a Google search […]