INNER BEAUTY - THE MONDAY PEP TALK
Mindfulness is something many people talk about today. I personally think it´s very important in many aspects of life. Harvard Business Review interviewed an authority on the subject, researcher Ellen Langer with 40 years of experience and who's work has influenced many all over the world. Here is an excerpt from the great article, but don´t miss out to read the whole article here.
On what mindfulness really is
"Mindfulness is the process of actively noticing new things. When you do that, it puts you in the present. It makes you more sensitive to context and perspective. It’s the essence of engagement. And it’s energy-begetting, not energy-consuming. The mistake most people make is to assume it’s stressful and exhausting—all this thinking. But what’s stressful is all the mindless negative evaluations we make and the worry that we’ll find problems and not be able to solve them."
On the benefits of being more mindful in life
"Better performance, for one. It’s easier to pay attention. You remember more of what you’ve done. You’re more creative. You’re able to take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves. You avert the danger not yet arisen. You like people better, and people like you better, because you’re less evaluative. You’re more charismatic."
On the one thing to remember about mindfulness
"It’s going to sound corny, but I believe it fully: Life consists only of moments, nothing more than that. So if you make the moment matter, it all matters. You can be mindful, you can be mindless. You can win, you can lose. The worst case is to be mindless and lose. So when you’re doing anything, be mindful, notice new things, make it meaningful to you, and you’ll prosper."
"It’s going to sound corny, but I believe it fully: Life consists only of moments, nothing more than that. So if you make the moment matter, it all matters. You can be mindful, you can be mindless. You can win, you can lose. The worst case is to be mindless and lose. So when you’re doing anything, be mindful, notice new things, make it meaningful to you, and you’ll prosper."
On chaos at work and being mindful
"People say that there’s too much information, and I would say that there’s no more information now than there was before. The difference is that people believe they have to know it."
Source: Harvard Business Review
