Category Archives: Love as a starting point

Feb19

Contemplating learning styles, mindful meditation, compassion and happiness

Posted on February 19, 2012 by Jennifer K Miles

I’ve just been on one of those fascinating trails of discovery one is able to undertake through the incredible rabbit-hole that is YouTube. For those of you who enjoy watching/listening to some of the great minds of our time, you might like to have a look/listen while you play on your laptop or phone.

My curiosity was activated through an online discussion (in LinkedIn) about the validity/currency of theories of learning preferences and styles. I followed a link into YouTube to look at work being done around learning, personality and brain activity: Authors@Google: Dario Nardi – Neuroscience of Personality. Dario Nardi has discovered that people of different personality types don’t merely rely on different brain regions — they use their brains in fundamentally different ways http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGfhQTbcqmA

This led me to another on the brain and emotion The Neuroscience of Emotions by Dr. Phillippe Goldin. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tShDYA3NFVs&feature=related, from a Google series Search inside yourself (SIY), Google’s Mindfulness-based emotional intelligence course. It begins with a background on emotions, and then examines the neural bases of emotion, emotion regulation, emotional reactivity and emotional intelligence. His talk includes the increasing interest neuroscience has with emotional intelligence, cognitive behavioural therapy and practitioners of mindfulness meditation as they study the impact each has on emotional reactivity and behaviour in individuals. The questions and answers at the end of his presentation contain fabulous reflections on the value of compassion and stillness in life – work, personal and family. Living consciously as we engage with life. For more information about Dr Goldin’s work on meditation, see Cognitive Neuroscience of Mindfulness Meditation at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf6Q0G1iHBI

Transform Your Mind, Change Your Brain. Richard J. Davidson explores recent scientific research on the neuroscience of positive human qualities and how they can be cultivated through contemplative practice. The evolving field of contemplative neuroscience http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tRdDqXgsJ0&feature=relmfu

My final treasure was from a biologist turned Buddhist monk, author and photographer Matthieu Ricard (interestingly, referred to in the previous YouTube), who speaks about the inner state of happiness – Change your Mind Change your Brain: The Inner Conditions… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peA6vy0D5Bg&feature=relmfu

My hope is that one of these contains a treasure for you

Feb16

Don’t take it personally … but do make it personal.

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Jennifer K Miles

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“If you make it personal, all things are possible.” Michael Henderson

We were speaking about the challenges of living an authentic life; of living our truth as we go about the daily business of work; of making each moment of each day count. Michael, one of my wonderful colleagues, reminded me to make the personal count … that through making it personal, all things are possible. In the midst of business targets and action plans, KPIs and seemingly incompatible physical, mental and emotional demands on our time and energy, our higher selves call us to live authentically.

Don Miguel Ruiz’s The Four Agreements (http://www.miguelruiz.com) frame this rather beautifully I think, and encourage us to consider the simplicity of authentic living, both personally and professionally:

Agreement 1

Be impeccable with your word – Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

Agreement 2

Don’t take anything personally – Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.

Agreement 3

Don’t make assumptions – Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

Agreement 4

Always do your best – Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.

Don Miguel Ruiz’s The Four Agreements. Accessed on 16/2/12 at Business Balls http://www.businessballs.com/thefouragreementsdonmiguelruiz.html

You’ll notice the second Agreement speaks of ‘Don’t take anything personally’, and yet my colleague Michael and I are discussing the truth of making it personal.

But it makes perfect sense to me. The way people respond to us is more to do with them than us, and the way we choose to respond to them is everything to do with us, our humanity and our higher self.

As those we come in contact with each day deal with the complexities and challenges of their own internal and external environments, we can give them a serve of our disapproval when they ‘collide’ with us, or we can choose not to take it personally.

And then we can make another choice. We can choose to make a difference, and to make it personal between us and them. We can choose to speak and act from an open heart.

So my ‘note to self’ at the moment is

Don’t take it personally … but do make it personal

Because then all things are possible!

Feb3

“Compassion is a marvel of human nature”

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Jennifer K Miles

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Precious words to contemplate from the Dalai Lama:

“The human capacity to care for others isn’t something trivial or something to be taken for granted. Rather, it is something we should cherish. Compassion is a marvel of human nature, a precious inner resource, and the foundation of our well-being and the harmony of our societies. If we seek happiness for ourselves, we should practice compassion: and if we seek happiness for others, we should also practice compassion.”