AWARENESS Being Aware. Being Mindful Self-Discovery. Self-Awareness. Being Present in the Moment.

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Amber Lee
5 years ago
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1 FIRST CORE LEADERSHIP CAPACITY AWARENESS Being Aware. Being Mindful Self-Discovery. Self-Awareness. Being Present in the Moment. 1

2 Being Aware The way leaders show up in life appears to be different than how others show up. First, leaders show up. If as Woody Allen said, showing up is 80 percent of life, then, if nothing else, leaders can be counted on to show up. But a leader does more than that. Leaders make a difference. Whether they are speaking, listening, or taking some action, leaders contribute. Ever notice the person who asks the question that inspires a new idea; or the person whose careful listening creates a new insight; or the person whose request forwards action? Ever experience that person whose idea motivates much-needed momentum from a stagnate team? How do leaders do this? Before doing anything, leaders are being something very important. They are being aware. 2

3 Being Aware Before speaking or taking any action, leaders pay attention. They pay close attention to details, to people, to events, to situations and circumstances in ways that elude others. When leaders show up, they are clear to be present in the moment with their full attention on this moment. Being aware in this way involves several considerations. First, leaders are aware of, and present to, their surroundings. Second, leaders are self-aware, noticing what drives them, and what throws them off. Third, leaders are master learners; they are willing to discover new ways to perceive issues and situations. Usually, they are the first ones to think out of the box. As master learners, leaders bring self-discovery to all aspects of their lives, and to each issue or situation they are dealing with. Finally, the very best leaders are those who are mindful in their everyday lives, which provides them access to information that seems to elude others. 3

4 Being Mindful Being mindful is a way of living life, present in the moment, aware of who we are, our impact on others, and how others impact us. In this course we will explore several factors that will sharpen your own level of awareness to fulfill our promise to have you being a leader and exercising leadership as your natural self-expression. To that end, we will also explore specific constraints that take us out of the game. These constraints are important as they tend to be hidden from our view. Through a set of practices you will discover these constraints for yourself perhaps for the first time. This course will increase your level of self-awareness, providing greater access to being a leader and exercising leadership as your natural self-expression. 4

5 Being Mindful Being mindful means paying attention in a particular way; On purpose, in the present moment, without judgment, according to John Kabat-Zinn the founder of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. We will begin tonight with an exploration of being present in the moment. Left to itself the mind wanders through all kinds of thoughts including thoughts expressing anger, longing, upset, depression, revenge, self-pity, etc. As we indulge in these kinds of thoughts, we reinforce those emotions and cause ourselves to suffer. Indeed, consider this very moment, right now, as we are reading this slide together. Where is your mind right now? What are you saying to yourself right now at this very moment? 5

6 Being Mindful Mostly these thoughts are about the past or future. Yet the one moment we actually can experience the present moment is the one we seem most to avoid. Consider the many times you may have eaten food without tasting it; listened to a song without hearing it, or viewed something without seeing it. Unfortunately, this has become an all-too-familiar part of our everyday lives and experiences. Engage link to Breathing Exercise: 6

7 Being Mindful Attention Spans First, let s explore the state of our attention, today. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, at the U.S. National Library of Medicine, the average attention span of a human being has dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds in This is one second less than the attention span of a goldfish. That s right, goldfish have an attention span of 9 seconds 1 second more than you and I. According to the source, this is due to external stimulation like all of the content marketing we re producing and distributing across all the social media channels. The research states: Attention span is the amount of concentrated time on a task without becoming distracted. Most educators and psychologists agree that the ability to focus attention on a task is crucial for the achievement of one s goals. It s no surprise attention spans have been decreasing over the past decade with the increase in external stimulation. 7

8 Mindfulness - Paying attention On Purpose So, mindfulness involves paying attention on purpose. Mindfulness involves a conscious direction of our awareness. We sometimes talk about mindfulness and awareness as if they were interchangeable terms, but that s not a good habit to get into. I may be aware I m irritable, but that wouldn t mean I was being mindful of my irritability. In order to be mindful I have to be purposefully aware of myself, not just vaguely and habitually aware. Knowing that you are eating is not the same as eating mindfully. Let s take that example of eating and look at it a bit further. When we are purposefully aware of eating, we are consciously being aware of the process of eating. We re deliberately noticing the sensations and our responses to those sensations. We re noticing the mind wandering, and when it does wander we purposefully bring our attention back. 8

9 Mindfulness - Paying attention On Purpose When we re eating unmindfully we may in theory be aware of what we re doing, but we re probably thinking about a hundred and one other things at the same time, and we may also be watching TV, talking, or reading or even all three! So a very small part of our awareness is absorbed with eating, and we may be only barely aware of the physical sensations and even less aware of our thoughts and emotions. Because we re only dimly aware of our thoughts, they wander in an unrestricted way. There s no conscious attempt to bring our attention back to our eating. There s no purposefulness or intention. This intention (what we intend) is a very important part of mindfulness. Having the purpose and managing the intention of staying with our direct experience, whether that s the breath, or a particular emotion, or something as simple as eating, will find us actively shaping and cultivating our mind. 9

10 Mindfulness - Paying attention On Purpose Acting with purpose also reveals and points to who we are being, and reveals our intentions. Consider that in many situations the person we show up as may be someone who we do not know ourselves to be, or finding ourselves not doing what we intended. We may be unaware of this phenomenon finding, us managing two or more selves, or finding our intentions at cross purposes. How can we express our self if the self we express is not the self we know our self to be? What would it be like to express myself in language, and hear myself as the person I know myself to be? This speaking is beyond the words we use, or how we speak. This speaking is the result of being clear with an intention or speaking with purpose when I am in conversation, answering s or collaborating. This kind of speaking requires we pay attention both to content and to context (intent, purpose, and situation). 10

11 Being Mindful So in being mindful we re concerned with being present in the moment, noticing what s going on right now. That doesn t mean we can no longer think about the past or future, but when we do so, we do so mindfully, present and aware that right now we re thinking about the past or future. So then what gets in the way of us being in the present moment? What is the first thing to be aware of? 11

12 Automatic Mindset Viewpoints POV 12

13 Nature of our Inquiry Ours is an inquiry into the nature (structure) function (purpose) and meaningfulness (quality) of being. For human beings this inquiry intersects with the nature of change or how we relate to change. Humans tend to resist change. Leaders, however, are called to deal with change, which reveals an important distinction between the mindset of an ordinary person from that of a leader. Indeed, over the last decade the nature and dynamic of change itself, has evolved, causing an urgent and pressing need for leadership. Some of this urgency is due to the impact of change. Leaders are called, specifically, to create change and deal with its impact on those they lead. The source of suffering for human beings stems from our relationship to change. Humans tend to become attached to the way things are, or how they ve always been. This is a learned mindset. 13

14 Nature of our Inquiry Consider how young children observe reality, and then quickly let go of those observations when they come upon new situations. We tend to lose this open-minded quality as we grow older. In adulthood we tend to hold onto our observations, and begin to settle. For growing humans this dynamic of holding on presents itself in many ways: we develop ideas, form opinions, accept assumptions, and embrace beliefs about ourselves, reality, and life. These opinions and assumptions lead to belief systems and worldviews that we cling to, which often form a fixed Point of View (POV). During our life, our listening, thinking and actions are shaped and constrained by these fixed beliefs about ourselves, reality, and the world. These fixed views create a dynamic in which observations automatically trigger thoughts and actions in knee-jerk fashion. 14

15 Nature of our Inquiry Becoming aware and mindful of this dynamic, begins to loosen the grip these fixed beliefs, assumptions and views have on us. This awareness, creates space between our observations and our opinions with the freedom to choose action, rather than react to circumstances. Our first-person learning is designed to unconceal our assumptions, to question our beliefs, and then to become aware of how we react to change. Being present to our reactions and our resistance to change points to important insights and discoveries that define the limit of our comfort zone or our edge of meaning. Our learning and practices are designed to reveal and slow down the automatic nature of our fixed beliefs, providing space for us to choose, intentionally. 15

16 Ladder of Inference 16

17 Ladder of Inference How perceptions impact our beliefs 17

18 The material presented in this file can be used with Wri$en Permission by an agent of Zampella Group, Inc. Please Zampella Group, Inc. at 18

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NSWM MINDFULNESS WEBINAR ABOUT THE NETWORK The Network for Social Work Management is a professional, international organization focused on strengthening and advancing social work management within health