Tuesday Thoughts..."What I Think I May Know For Sure"

"Breathe. Let Go.  And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you will have for sure" -The Big "O"

Mindfulness...the big corporate buzz word last year, dripping into corporate vocabulary this year as well.

Often laughed at the "mindfulness" workplace seminars (true confession, I was triple tasking while in these seminars)...impossible to be in a true state of "mindfulness" when there are pressing deadlines to be met, combined with back to back circle chasing meetings (where folks love to hear themselves talk purely for the sake of hearing themselves talk), "e mails", "text messages" and "messenger" requests coming at you full throddle (while in these meetings), another PowerPoint (PPT) presentation that must be made by noon tomorrow, and because that is not enough, talk through points so the boss's boss can impress the boss (never understood why PPTs had to rule meetings, honestly it was like kindergarten on steroids treating adults as if they could not pay attention and follow your speaking points, sad thing is, in most cases they can't follow without the childlike diagrams/charts and words). And this is all in addition to daily hands on team management, on top of "above" management! If you have challenges triple tasking it, absolutely impossible not to let the "real" work invade your week end, let alone your week day nights.

Phrases like: "can we take this offline"; from my perspective"; "let's park that for now"; "will ping you on that"; "opening the kimono" and my all time fav "irregardless, let's proceed" (come on educated people, there is no such word in the English language as "irregardless" ) made me scream and still haunt me in my dreams. Refreshing no longer hearing these phrases in my day to day life...

How can you even begin to wrap the idea of  "mindfulness" around all of this madness?

Mindfulness, not just the buzzword, but the true state of mindfulness is indeed possible when you are able to jump out of the Circle Game.  Or make changes to the Circle Game itself, big changes; kill the pyramid structure, and as a result change the respect (hmmmm "butt kissing") from people with "titles" to respect of one another, (imagine that,  respecting one another) knock down the silos, working as a full pie, not as individual unit slices. From there, simple everyday changes will follow (I could and did write a novel on this, contact me if you want the deets).

What I have learned jumping out of the Circle Game for awhile and tackling this thing called "mindfulness", it starts with your environment (and if you do not like your environment then get out of it),  the onus is on you...being mindful, truly being mindful, is holding fast to the present and being aware. Imagine that, only focusing on what is happening RIGHT NOW!

For the first time in my life I have listened, truly listened, to strangers I have run into along my path, (and as a result they have become fast new friends), to the sounds of the cities we have toured, to the smells of the forests we have hiked, all of which have become my creative inspirations. I have walked in the falling leaves of autumn hundreds of times in my life, I have never been aware (either lost in the music of my iPod or busy walking/running to the next meeting while trying to solve a "crisis" on my phone) of the beauty the sound of leaves make when falling from their trees onto my head and jacket before they hit the ground ...never even knew they made a sound,  I now know they do as they drop off the trees and brush along one another in flight (and they also make a little "ouch" sound upon landing).

With true mindfullneess comes self discovery and wonderment of the world around us! A shame it took me half a lifetime to get here.  Better late than never.  And to all those strangers along my path I never took the time to stop and listen to, it was me that lost out on some amazing friendships.  To all my corporate colleagues I had given thousands upon thousands of PPT presentations to, rather than "stand up " I "stood down" in failure to speak from the heart, playing into the circle game, I apologize! And to my family and friends, business over took as the main priority of my life, the next PPT presentation becoming more important than the people in my life (ouch, painful to admit the adrenaline rush of work becoming my drug of choice).  However  it is not too late to make changes, welcome to the beginning of the new and approved me!  The only constant in life is change.

Three cheers to the beauty of mindfulness and transformations.

Peace Out

xoxo