Business Leaders Practice Mindfulness

What do Target, Aetna, General Mills, Google and Green Mountain Coffee all have in common? Mindfulness practices have recently become a part of their corporate culture and they are seeing very measurable results! While practices such as meditation, yoga or prayer, used to be viewed as the activity of spirituality gurus or the extremely religious, today they have become mainstream for many individuals, corporations and health care organizations.

Mindfulness, as defined by Janice Marturano who founded the Mindful Leadership program at General Mills, is "about training our minds to be more focused, to see with clarity, to have spaciousness for creativity and to feel connected." At General Mills in particular, this program, which began in 2006, has become so ingrained in the culture that some are referring to it as a "spiritual revolution" within the company. According to an article in FT Magazine posted August 24, 2012 called "The Mind Business",  among senior executives that followed the General Mills mindfulness program, 80% reported a positive change in their ability to make decisions, while 89% said they became better listeners. "Calmer workers will be less stressed, more productive and even better leaders thereby benefiiting the entire organization." And the facts seem to prove that this is true.  Recently Leadership Excellence Magazine named General Mills as the number one corporation in America for developing leaders.

While mindfulness, yoga and meditation do seem to be the stress-relieving fads of the day, this is by no means a new practice and it is not news to many that it is effective at reducing stress and increasing well-being.  For thousands of years, this has been a key practice of the eastern religions like Buddhism and Hinduism to focus thought, find wellness and help man achieve a state of contentment. The master Christian, Jesus Christ, also had a frequent practice of going out "into the wilderness" to pray and commune with God in order to re-connect with a sense of his stillness and ready himself for the challenges of his mission and work. In fact, when asked how to pray, he offered up this advice to his disciples that sounds very similar to what many do to meditate today, "Find a quiet, secluded place so you won't be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace." (The Message, Matthew 6:6)

Today, this type of prayer or meditation is no longer considered to be a mysterious tool of the religiously devout, but rather a practical, commonplace way to lead anyone to a less stressful, more content and focused life.  Businesses and places of worship may be using different terminology to describe it, but in each case, the practicing individual is striving to get away from the constant noise and distraction of daily life and re-connect with a sense of stillness.

There are many mindfulness practitioners, including myself, who work with individuals or organizations to guide them as they learn to effectively meditate or pray. But there are no right answers. In my practice, mindfulness comes as I get quiet (wherever I happen to be at the moment), lift my thought above the daily routine or tasks at hand, and listen for divine inspiration. Often I just think on God and the infinite and ever present Love, Spirit, Soul, Truth and Mind He represents. In that stillness, I always find peace, but I often find much more. Turning my thought to the Infinite Mind,  I find answers to challenges I may have been grappling with; I feel strength; I am inspired. Whatever way we come by this connection to peace and good, this new-old trend is encouraging and it will surely continue to gain in practice and influence as the evidence of its efficacy continues to be seen.