Tony Schwartz talks about Mindfulness

Tony Schwartz, from the Energy Project, has a lot of ideas about productivity, creativity, and reenergizing our work.  One of his keys?  Mindfulness......

How to Be Mindful in an 'Unmanageable' World

"I believe this is a very special moment in history, a kind of perfect storm. There is a growing recognition — to borrow language from AA — that our world has become unmanageable." Those words have been reverberating in my head ever since Arianna Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post, said them over the weekend during the Wisdom 2.0 conference in San Francisco. She was introducing an iPhone app called "GPS for the Soul," which is designed to measure heart rate variability as a window into your stress level at any given moment during the day.

It seemed fitting to me that Arianna described the challenges so many of us face in our work — and in our lives more broadly — by using the language of addiction. Her words rang especially true because I happen in the midst of reading a book by Bryan Robinson titled "Chained to the Desk: A Guidebook for Workaholics."

The addiction of our times is digital connection, instant gratification, and the cheap adrenalin high of constant busyness. The heartening news is that more and more leaders in big companies are beginning to recognize the insidious costs of moving so relentlessly and at such high speeds.

Wisdom 2.0 focused on technology — a primary driver of the increasing unmanageability of our lives. The conference was launched three years ago as a meeting between people from the meditation community and the tech world in Silicon Valley to discuss how to use technology more wisely.

Paradoxically, the most important solution I heard is to use technology less frequently, and more intentionally. Or, as Sherry Turkle, a professor at MIT, put it in her talk: "There need to be places in our lives and in our organizations that are device-free zones."

Just below the surface of our shared compulsion to do ever more, ever faster, is a deep hunger to do less, more slowly. I saw proof of that a couple of weeks ago, when I wrote an article for The New York Times titled "Relax! You'll Be More Productive." It focused on the growing scientific evidence that when we build in more time for sleep, naps, breaks, and vacations, we become not just healthier and happier, but also more productive. The piece prompted an avalanche of response, much of it poignantly describing the sense of overwhelm people are feeling at work.

The search to find ways to deal with these issues was evident at Wisdom 2.0. Padmasree Warrior, the chief technology and strategy officer at Cisco, described in compelling detail the behaviors she's built into her life to take her out of rapid-fire analytical, "doing" mode. She meditates for 20 minutes every day. On the weekends, she paints and takes photographs. Even when she tweets, she often does so in haikus — as a way to put herself in a more creative mode.

Jeff Weiner, the CEO of LinkedIn, talked about how compassion has become a centerpiece of his management style. More specifically, he described how compassion requires slowing down and taking the time to truly listen to others. It means understanding where they're coming from, caring about the struggles they're facing, and the baggage they're carrying.

Bill Ford, the executive chairman of Ford Motor Company, talked about the harrowing experience he went through when Ford nearly declared bankruptcy several years ago. Taking time to meditate each day was critical. "The practice of mindfulness kept me going during the darkest days," he said. He also took time each morning to "set an intention" to deal with whatever arose that day with a sense of compassion and kindness.

In my own life, I've found that both my productivity and my sense of well-being depend more than ever on building more time into the day to renew, reflect, and connect with others. Two such experiences at Wisdom 2.0 had to do with taking time to get away from the activity of the conference itself. The first was wandering over to a chill out room sponsored by Google, lying down on a mat next to several others doing the same thing, and taking a nap. When I got up 45 minutes later, I felt refreshed and able to fully reengage in the conference.

My second revelatory experience was a lunch I shared with two new friends who were also attending the conference. We ended up spending more than two hours together, free of digital interruptions, just talking, reflecting, laughing, and hanging out. How often do most of us take the time to truly connect with work colleagues — much less friends — and how much richer are we for it when we do return to our work?

Speed, distraction, and instant gratification are the enemies of nearly everything that matters most in our lives. Creating long-term value — for ourselves and for others — requires more authentic connection, reflection, and the courage to delay immediate gratification. That's wisdom in action.

Think about it....

What are you going to do about it....today?

Can't see the video? Click here!

Be Inspired!

You can to it -- but you have to take the first step.

Something to think about....

From Weight Maven's blog:

A psychologist walked around a room while teaching stress management to an audience. As she raised a glass of water, everyone expected they’d be asked the “half empty or half full” question. Instead, with a smile on her face, she inquired: “How heavy is this glass of water?”

Answers called out ranged from 8 oz. to 20 oz.

She replied, “The absolute weight doesn’t matter. It depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute, it’s not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I’ll have an ache in my arm. If I hold it for a day, my arm will feel numb and paralyzed. In each case, the weight of the glass doesn’t change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.” She continued, “The stresses and worries in life are like that glass of water. Think about them for a while and nothing happens. Think about them a bit longer and they begin to hurt. And if you think about them all day long, you will feel paralyzed – incapable of doing anything.”

It’s important to remember to let go of your stresses. As early in the evening as you can, put all your burdens down. Don’t carry them through the evening and into the night, and day after day. Remember to put the glass down!

Are you living your Good Life?

Like this? Learn to build a better life at Good Life Project.

He did it so well!

Get ready for a rant, Ladies and Gentlemen!!  Normally, it would be me going off about our responsibility to the kids around us but Jamie Oliver did it so well, I decided to give you a break from reading and give you this TED talk to watch.

My favorite bits??

In the length of this video 4 Americans will die --- DIE because of the food they eat.

"The power of food has a primal place in our homes that binds us to the best bits of life."

"We spend our lives being paranoid about death, homicide, murder.....when heart disease, cancers, and stroke are BY FAR the biggest killers in America."  And they are DIET RELATED diseases.  YOU can do something about them.  In fact, you do something about them EVERYDAY -- 220+ times a day you make choices that will either make you healthier.....or not.

But before I just transcribe all the bits of this video I like -- watch it.  AND REMEMBER:  it's not just about you.  The choices you make today, as adults, are impacting EVERYONE around you.  And they have the biggest impact on those most vulnerable -- the kids who are learning from your choices and values.  What are you teaching them?

HT to Pete at Runblogger for point me in this direction!

Normal

I've been thinking a lot about "normal" lately.  If you were at my presentation last week at The Best Fitness Center in the World, you already know I talked about how our "normal" eating patterns are making us fat.

A couple weeks ago, I talked to a very interesting woman who is a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association.  She said this it is so "normal" to be on blood pressure medications and/or to have had a stent (or 4) that people do not make the connection that either of those things mean you have heart disease.  Heart disease -- think about that!  Heart disease in a large proportion of our population doesn't seem normal -- even though we are perfectly accepting of blood pressure meds (and yes, "just a water pill" counts, too) because it's "normal". 

And here is another quote from Weight Maven:

“If you’re inactive, you probably don’t need much in the way of carbs. But humans aren’t metabolically normal unless they’re active on a regular basis. So the healthy solution isn’t to go low-carb, it’s to increase activity level to the point where you need the carbs” (Amber at Go Kaleo)

 

The relationship between metabolic health and exercise is one primary focus of my blog here, so when someone else says so succinctly what I believe is an important and far too often completely and willfully ignored truth, I think it’s worth highlighting. …

Metabolically healthy people do not need to be on macronutrient restrictive diets. Metabolically dysfunctional people may need to follow restrictive diets, but their long-term goal should be to return the body to healthy metabolic function, and the primary way to do that is regular physical activity.

My contention is we've forgotten that moving is NORMAL.  Sitting for hours on end is ABNORMAL (yes, I mean you!  And only because I know what I do in a day....I work at an FC for goodness sake, I workout, and I keep a clean house....and I sit much more than I should!  Research shows I'm not the only one!)

So you can tell yourself that you're active enough ... and if you're a triathlete training for an Iron Man, I will believe you.  But if you're just about anyone else, maybe your kind of active but you could do with an additional boost to your activity levels (especially this time of year -- at least here in the Midwest).

Let's get back to Weight Maven's quote:

The goal of a "diet" and exercise should be to return your body to balance and health......not look better at the May wedding you have to attend.  But that's not really how we look at weight, is it?  And that, my friends, is why most of us return to our heavier-than-we-want-to-be selves once the wedding is done.

We looked great -- goal achieved -- back to our "normal" non-wedding selves.....and the weight.  The weight comes back on because that is the "normal" we've chosen to put our energy into.  We've chosen to believe we can be healthy without moving A LOT.  We've chosen to believe that we can eat more than our body burns so the excess needs to be stored as fat -- and that nothing bad will come of it.  We have created fantasies around our "normal" that many times turn into nightmares.  Is this really the way you want to live?  Which begs the question:  What do you want to be normal for you?