Professional Development: Wise Use of Mind

Our mind is an incredible feature and has allowed us to be one of the most successful species on this planet. Yet, evolution favors safety over accuracy… which creates an interesting dilemma for us: should the mind alone be the one calling the shots? What if we were asking it to do a job that is beyond its capacity? Have we placed too much emphasis on thinking and fallen out of balance with the other attributes that we have? If so, how can we restore our connection to true wisdom? How can we use the mind effectively and wisely?

This 6 week series will use mindfulness to investigate the mind, observe how it works, learn about its tendencies and see how the story it generates can often be misleading. We will play with redirecting the attention to different aspects of our experience to see how this changes our perception and how this affects our sense of reality. We will also explore other forms of intelligence that are available to us to restore access to our full knowing.

POWER OF THE MIND

Most of us have become completely enmeshed with our thoughts making it impossible to see things objectively. Perceiving from biases leads to inaccurate assessments. We end up expending a lot of energy solving the wrong problems. Time and resources are wasted on ineffective action. In this session, we will experiment with techniques to establish healthy boundaries between our observing and interpreting self to get a clearer picture of what is actually going on.

LIMITATIONS OF THE MIND

This session will investigate how perceptual information can get mistranslated into compelling stories that are often misleading. These can escalate into core beliefs that shape the views and actions in an organization decreasing efficiency and productivity. While our brain might be great at executive functioning, it is unreliable when it comes to having a comprehensive understanding of a situation or when making important decisions. As an alternative, participants will experiment with the inclusion of somatic and emotional intelligence as a resource to supplement cognition.

TENDENCIES OF THE MIND

Because safety takes precedence over accuracy, the mind is constantly scanning for problems or danger. This negativity bias generates a scarcity mindset and defensiveness that erodes work relationships, reduces productivity and dampens creativity. We can use mindfulness to offset this tendency. Training the attention to zoom out of problems and to see it within the wider context allows for a more balanced and accurate understanding of what is true. Being able to move from judgment and blame to interest and curiosity creates a work environment supportive of sharing new ideas and taking risks in trying new ways. By shifting the view that challenges should not be happening to one that sees issues as valuable sources of information and opportunity for growth, brings back the fun and excitement into the workplace.

WISE USE OF THE MIND

Where we point our attention determines our sense of reality. Most of the time we are captivated by the mental constructs and are trying to solve problems at this cognitive level. In this session we will use inquiry to discover what is driving the compulsive thinking. We will practice redirecting our attention to the layers underneath: the emotions that point to the unmet needs. We will experiment with meeting our experience at the felt level, to get clarity on what is at the heart of the matter, in order to effectively attend to the root cause of the issue.

EXAMINING OUR VIEW

This session introduces the idea that we can use our mind to create new realities! It all starts with the view we choose. This is what generates our overall state of being, which influences our core beliefs, that become actions. If we choose a scarcity view, then our outlook is one of unsafety and deficiency. We become anxious, vigilant, defensive and feel the need to manage all aspects of our experience to ensure that we stay safe. It is a limited, fixed, painful and exhausting reality because it is impossible to have control over our constantly changing external circumstances. If we choose a view of abundance, one in which we already come inherently equipped with the single most important resource to keep us safe: awareness - then we can relax, get curious, explore, and focus our attention in creating what we want. 

SHIFTING PERSPECTIVE AND FOCAL POINT OF ATTENTION

How would our sense of reality change if we had the ability to wake up from being the protagonist of our victim or blame story, and view all emotions, thoughts, behaviors, mistakes as valuable information that serve us (instead of them being a problem)? What would it be like if we were to relate to what is happening objectively versus subjectively? Could the how we are perceiving influence our experience? If so, is it possible to have agency over our attention so that we can choose the outcome we want?