The Fundamentals of Mindfulness for Business

Mindfulness is a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts and bodily sensations, and is often used as a therapeutic technique.

Many of you may have heard or read about Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation" in Psychological Review. He later extended the idea to include his observations of humans' innate curiosity. Comprising a five-tier model of human needs, often depicted as hierarchical levels within a pyramid, Maslow stated that people are motivated to achieve certain needs, with some taking precedence over others.

Having delivered over 30,000 hours of leading, managing, developing, coaching and mentoring people, I created the TJS Mindfulness Pyramid, which consists of seven human needs: the need to be rooted, the need to feel about everything we experience in the outer world, the need to control other people's experiences, the need to love and be loved, the need to communicate our true being, the need to connect with our own spirit, and the need to expand our being. Each of these needs, if unmet, will impact your productivity, performance and ability to attract and generate huge amounts of wealth that you can use to drive your purpose and fulfil most of the voids.

Before you move to the next module, the first thing you need to do is perform a reality check. What I mean by that is identifying in detail all your unmet needs, problems and roadblocks. Please use the TJS Mindfulness Worksheet, which you can download below this video, to answer some questions that will help you on our journey together to achieve the objectives you want by completing this mindfulness course.

If you are going to achieve your full potential, lead the life you came here to live and create a meaningful, purpose-driven and love-infused life, you may want to focus on increasing your personal, business and organisational productivity. It is through this that your overall efficiency, as well as that of the organisation, is ultimately increased. Bottom line – your business is only as good as you and your employees' productivity. If you or they are not performing to expectations, productivity – and the bottom line – are destined to suffer.

Take a moment to pause, close your eyes and visualise what productivity means to you and why it is important. Open your eyes and start writing in your worksheet everything that you can think, feel and visualise in your mind.

Increasingly, we are bombarded with information from all sorts of sources. We are expected to do more with less time, and from the moment we wake up, we are distracted by technology, the many apps we use daily, and the demands of a busy, hectic and stressful life.

In this exercise we talk about key elements of the TJS method:

1. Awareness
2. Awakening
3. Alertness
4. Attention
5. Action
6. Acknowledgement

Imagine you are climbing Mount Everest. You’ve walked for days, you’ve struggled, toiled and sweated. Your legs hurt, you’ve pushed yourself further than you ever have before. You ache, wonder why you started the climb and question if you should just go back down. You want to give up, swearing at yourself, and you’ve almost forgotten why you are doing this in the first place.

In order to write a clear vision, mission and purpose statement let me explain to you a few of things you need to do in the workbook.

• Number one, identify internal and external factors that cause you lack of clarity.
• Number two, identify limiting beliefs around the factors which you just identified.
• Number three, make a list of your top seven values which are most important to you.
• Number four, now we are going to do a value reality check. And one of the best processes you may want to use is Dr Dimartini value determination process which you can see in the workbook.

One of the most common reasons that stops you from being extremely productive in your day-to-day life is lack of planning. Planning your life in detail every day of the month, every hour of the day, charts routes to your destinations and creates a “master route” through your life. Proper planning gives you landmarks to confirm your progress, helps you expect and be prepared for the unexpected, and also helps you know where you are in this moment in time, where you would love to go and how to get there as you advance through the process.

In this exercise, you will learn how to use the 5 TJS mindfulness principles to create a plan that can help you be more productive while maintaining inner equilibrium.

To do so, you will need to refer to your workbook and answer the questions for each relevant section. This will help you instil the behaviours, the habits and adopt the values that are in alignment with the plan you will be creating to help you be more productive and successful.

I remember when I was working in the corporate world back in 2009, mindfulnes was a weird concept that many felt would never catch on. Most friends, work colleagues and CEOs had no time for it and felt it was not relevant to their life, business or their employees. Yes this may date me but it also reminds me of how my friends and business people are thinking about mindfulness and meditation today. I see mindfulness as the new gold rush era for business and personal growth.

There are a number of high-profile clients I coach who work for companies like EY, Santander, Samsung, Nike and the BBC who have in-house programmes for employees and increasingly we are seeing mindfulness teaching appear in leadership development programmes.

The number one cause of negative self-talk is our lack of understanding of how the brain works. Most people who experience negative self-talk do not know how to operate the brain properly. It is the same as driving a car on a busy street without ever having been taught how to drive.

When we are emotional, everything we see and perceive is distorted.

Just like a weak TV signal causes a distorted picture, interfering with the quality of the experience and making you frustrated with the image you're seeing.

When we lack emotional intelligence and mastery, we tend to be less productive and respond irrationally. The way we communicate can cause distress to others. We experience chemical imbalances in our body that lead to stress-induced physical and emotional illnesses, such as anxiety, depression, migraines, lower back pain, etc.

We are living in a world where advancements in technology are forcing many people out of their work environment and onto an entrepreneurial journey. We are also expected to do more with less time in every job we end up doing.

Judgements, fears and expectations bestowed upon us leave us feeling rejected, abandoned and lonely.

Often, as entrepreneurs, due to time, money and lack of resources, we are forced to work alone.

Time. How much do you have? Can you get more? Your family, friends and loved ones. Your career. Your health. What gives you meaning in life? How much can you spend on things that are meaningful to you? Time is precious. It’s lost with the seconds of every action you take. Have you considered how you spend your time?

You didn’t come here for fast news or trendy mass media topics. You are looking for value, and my mission is to make your time as valuable as it can be. To spend it in the most worthwhile and meaningful ways, in all aspects of your life. You want to know how to gain time spent enjoying life, and reduce time spent in suffering.

Scientists became curious about what actually happens in the brain when people practice mindfulness meditation. Using fMRI scans, they have been able to observe what happens and compare the brains of practitioners with those of non-practitioners. Much of the research shows that meditation causes the brain to undergo physical changes, many of which are beneficial.

The overall difference is that the brain stops processing information as actively as usual. There is a decrease in beta waves, which indicates that the brain is processing less information, even after just one 20-minute meditation session.

The 3 TJS Mindfulness Principles to Improving Joy, Performance and Results reinforce the impact of one of my favourite themes — how you feel about yourself REALLY matters. What you think and say to yourself really matters.

From now on, be very conscious of things that are different. Actively observe things about a person while you are listening – their voice tones, facial expressions, surroundings, and the feelings wrapped in their words. If you are in nature, notice the small things and sounds we often gloss over. Keep noticing – there is always so much to notice.

Most of us assume we know what we are thinking – and what others are thinking. And more often than not, we have no idea about either!

There are so many “loops” of language and judgement caught up in our unconscious minds – often comments from other people somewhere in our past – that keep on running in the background, constantly influencing how we feel about and judge ourselves – and others. Constantly driving our behaviours – all these limiting beliefs ruling our lives!

No matter what happens to you – choose to frame it in a positive way. This, of course, is possible when you are mindful or conscious of what is going on – both in others, in the environment and in yourself!

Think of something your partner does that annoys you, like "controlling" – a very common complaint because we never like anyone else telling us what to do or compromising. Instead of choosing to see this behaviour as "controlling" (a label/judgement), would you choose to see it as a way they are trying to make themselves feel safe?

Boost your productivity and profits with mindfulness and meditation.

Mindfulness and meditation exercises are becoming increasingly popular with businesses. What could they offer your firm?

Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates; Steve Jobs, Mark Benioff, Salesforce.com; Oprah Winfrey, Bill Clinton, Gwyneth Paltrow and Rupert Murdoch. What do all these CEOs, celebrities and influential business leaders have in common?

Have you ever noticed that we’re not always great at listening to each other? Often, when someone is talking, you’ll have another dialogue going on in your head. At work, you can’t really afford that. Your success and effectiveness depend on attending to the moment and the flow of information, whether you’re on a sales call, in a marketing meeting, or discussing something with a co-worker.

There are several causes to being controlled by fear:

• Living your life through injected values
• Fear of loss and gain
• Incomplete awareness
• Emotional charges
• Living your life half-heartedly
• Caring too much how others perceive you
• Being a people pleaser

There are several causes to symptom 2:

• You overestimate your true value.

• You underestimate your true value.

• You oversee your true value.

• You are blinded to your true value.

There are several causes to symptom 3:

• Feeling insecure about your own abilities.

• Judging yourself by some outside authority.

• Feeling inadequate about your social skills.

• Various fears that can paralyse your being.

• No clarity of thought.

Research from INSEAD Business School found that doing just 15 minutes of mindfulness-based meditation such as concentrating on breathing can lead to more rational thinking in making business decisions. It also shows a resistance to the “sunk cost bias” (attempts to recoup irrecoverable costs in past business endeavours), as mindfulness draws focus away from past and future events and focuses on the present.

Deep inside your mind, heart and soul, you have an inspired purpose, dream, vision and calling that you would love to bring into reality and share with the world. This lecture is about inspiring you to take at least one action that helps you identify what is out of balance in your life, what the major outcomes are that you want to create, and what steps you need to take to bring you closer to your ever-evolving purpose.

Whenever we lie awake at night thinking about poor sales figures or the bills that need to be paid, we need to bring our focus back to our physical body and the fact that we are lying comfortably and warm in bed. The things occupying our minds have not happened yet.

Take this moment to remember that the future hasn’t happened, the past is gone, and the present – the wonderful present – is all we have and all that is guaranteed. Make sure you are part of each moment that you live and experience, embracing the gift that is the Now.

I hope that I have sufficiently provided you with enough techniques, exercises, and activities to start bringing you and your clients the benefits of mindfulness. Mindfulness can be used in a variety of situations, including for people on any part of the spectrum of mental well-being. This can range from dialectical behavioural therapy treatments for borderline personality disorders to group-based mindfulness for beginners.

Thank you for taking this course, and I really hope you have enjoyed it as much as I’ve enjoyed teaching it.

This is the first of many courses with The Expert Academy, so to hear more, please head over to my website and sign up for my newsletter to be the first to hear about them.