Mindfulness Based Leadership Development

It was nearly 10 years ago that I started a deep self reflection journey. I had become disillusioned and felt that I was in a rut, not even a comfort zone. It felt like the days and weeks flowed into years.

I therefore started to try and observe myself from a distance. I did this for a few months but it was quite difficult as I was not able to maintain this observation for more than a few minutes. But I knew that it was a worthwhile process as I was already learning things about myself that I did not know.

I little while into this process I came across yoga and subsequently meditation. There was definitely synchronicity in this discovery, as these practices were the vehicle that I needed to deepen this self observation journey.

I used the formula; thoughts trigger emotion and emotion trigger behaviour, to reflect on what parts of me were operating on autopilot and what parts of me were truly me. My observation confirmed the theory that many of our automatic thoughts (which may trigger destructive and unwanted behaviour), are irrational. These irrational thoughts have developed over our entire lifetimes and cannot be easily changed. However the observation of them is a critical start to any transformation required. We will possibly identify personal biases, limiting beliefs, traits and characteristics that we did not know about, triggers such as certain scenarios or people that cause unwanted emotion.

On the flipside this deep self-awareness came with many positives such as a stronger sense of intuition and clarity, feeling lighter and less stressed. It was as though I knew that with each step of the journey I was improving and healing.

It is this process that I bring to leadership. The unlearning and relearning, the identification and working on things like triggers and biases, creating space for the natural wisdom of our intuition to emerge. This transformation process is without a doubt going to enhance leadership skills and clarity of decision making. For me this journey is ongoing and I continue to learn.

Do you want to embark on this journey?

Michael O'Rourke

Prana Love Mindfulness ([email protected])