Dealing with the Consequences of Being Yourself

Back again 

We are constantly learning.     

Here I am.  Back again.  To the same realization as that before.   But, from a new place.    

We repeat ourselves in patterns – in spirals.   We learn ourselves more deeply every day through reflected experience.   The task is to deal with the consequences of being yourself with as much ease and grace as possible.   And, that’s what this whole shin-dig called life is all about.    

Here’s what I learned this week.   Again.   But, also for the first time.   

Stay grounded in your truth.  Know it first.   Then, soften into the perfection that is you.   And, imperfection.   Because you are perfectly imperfect, as it turns out.    You are a unique ball of energy that has traveled through time and experience to be where you are right now and to know it.   You can feel you inside - if you try.   You know you are in there – that little kernel of spaciousness and quiet that sits confidently in knowing that this part of you has never been touched by experience and pain.  

There are moments when you can let your truth shine rays outward in waves of grace and guided by will.   Days when we are pushed so deeply into the fabric of ourselves that we can seamlessly slip into the suit of our soul and then reflect on its entrance afterward.   These moments are fleeting and perfect.

To self, in these moments of grace and selfish honesty, we will say, “Wow.  That was easy.   I just need to be me.   Honest.   I need to be clear on what I want.   Do it or Say it.   And have the courage to deal with the consequences of being myself.”  

 ·         Speak your truth and stand in the grounded nature of your yourself. 

·         Listen. 

·         Be kind and empathetic.  

·         Feel everything incoming and notice how it feels.    Don’t be reactive.   Just wait on the response to come.  

·         Speak your truth and stand in the grounded nature of yourself.  
·         Don’t analyze.  

·         Be present.   Listen.   Then…

·         Repeat.

Start living as yourself.   Start by being authentic with yourself.   And, then show up as nothing other than yourself in the world.   If you don’t feel like having a conversation, politely leave it.   But, notice first what it is that you want.    Start here.   And, then be brave! 

It’s your life, after all.   As my friend Sabrina says, Execute on it.   The only difference between the idea of you and the realization of you is moving from idea to action.   So, Just Do It. 

Namaste,

Ryan

PS – In order to show up in the world and receive love, we must first understand all the ways we get in the way of its natural flow.   Trust.   And, offer up humble service to the way of your truth and the passions of your heart.   Trust.   In the end, all is faith.   As Bob said, ‘Everythin Gon Be Alright’ … ya.   Everthin Gon Be Alright. 

Dr. Ryan Pride is the owner of the Moksha Institute, a firm dedicated to improving the wellbeing of individuals, teams, and organizations through culture transformation and leadership development.   A profit-for-purpose company, the Moksha Institute applies Ancient Teachings for the Modern Time in order to transform striving into thriving.  

For more information, please go to: www.mokshainstitute.com

A Little Friction is Needed

A Little Friction is Needed

As I was finishing the renovation of my home, built in 1907, one of the last projects was finishing a custom, butcher-block bar made from the wood studs in the walls that had been opened up to create a larger kitchen.   It was beautiful.   But, it was rough.   The wood was gnarled and nail ridden.   

Starting with very rough sand paper, we began sanding.   Layer by layer, we increased the grit of the sandpaper until, finally, we were using ultra-fine, steel wool.    In the end, the wood was “finer than frog’s hair” as my Tennessee family would say.  

In order to polish ourselves, a little friction is needed.   There is no growth without pain.   Troubles, worries, frustrations, and arguments are catalysts showing us where we don’t’ want to be, what we don’t want in our lives, or how we need to change ourselves.   Our relationships are our mirrors and our greatest teachers.   But, wow… they are hard, too.   So often, we experience the “rub” of relationship. 

A gem must be polished using continual and easy friction.   A stone polished with force and aggression will be left with scores and abrasions that cannot be removed.  

In conflict, the words that we say and the thoughts we think can create scratches and scuffs, and sometimes worse, gashes.   We are working on one another all the time.   We are all in process, shaping and molding, sculpting and whittling.  

It is necessary.   This shaping happens all the time – in relationship and across society.   Not long ago, we still had segregated restrooms.   Society, belief systems, and thought movements are ever changing as we share and commune and “rub” one another.  

A plant that is not pruned will grow long and straight and be quite narrow.   Eventually, its height will outpace its leaves and growth will be stunted.   For a plant to thrive, it must be pruned.   Pruning will cause the plant to grow both tall and wide.  Pruning helps the plant thrive.  However, if pruned too much or cut too deeply, the ‘wound’ to the plant would be fatal, and it would die.   The same is true for us.   We need a little pain and struggle to develop depth and wisdom.  We must know sour to fully appreciate sweet.  However, if we experience too much pain, we can wilt, retreating into the safety of our shell and forbidding love’s entrance.  

To love we must be vulnerable.   To grow, we must experience pain.   This is a tenuous dichotomy to hold – allowing oneself to be vulnerable and at the same time – also allow and take in feedback, fight through defensiveness and the natural tendency to reject new ideas, to receive polishing, shaping, and that rubbing that comes in relationship without bucking, resisting, or worse – attacking in defense.  What a delicate balance! 

But, this is the nature of the universe.   Everything is duality.   There is order in chaos.   To reach our highest potential, we must be open, not closed, but also experience hurt/shaping/feedback in order to love/grow/change.    Love cannot exist without being open and vulnerable, wearing the essential nature of our soul on our sleeve.   In this raw state, we love at the level of the soul.   But, this is also the place where we can, naturally, be hurt the easiest.   Our shell gone and force fields dismissed, we are the most raw and susceptible to pain.   And, in this space, we are able to be polished.   We have to openly receive a little rub – a little friction and pray that the surgeon of our heart and soul is gentle and kind, careful and considerate, patient and earnest.  

So… give your beloved a little rub, but use an easy grit.   Words and thoughts are things.   Don’t cause wounds and abrasions.   Be open to feedback without creating walls of defense.   And, if you are vulnerable enough, who knows where a good rub might lead …

Namaste,

Ryan

Dr. Ryan Pride is the owner of the Moksha Institute, a firm dedicated to improving the wellbeing of individuals, teams, and organizations through culture transformation and leadership development.   A profit-for-purpose company, the Moksha Institute applies Ancient Teachings for the Modern Time in order to transform striving into thriving.  

For more information, please go to: www.mokshainstitute.com

 

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, who's the Wisest of them all?

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall …  who’s the wisest man of All? 

Why you, my king, if you believe it to be, All is all in the reflection you see…

In the ancient texts, it is often said that your reflection is your projection.   I have properly been harassed for using the saying when illustrating a point.   It does sound preachy.   I know.  

But, the point is really important.  We cannot know anothers’ thoughts or experiences.   We only can know our own experience – our own thoughts – because we are the ones living and breathing and seeing.  So, we have to often ‘infer’ the perspective of others with the stories we create about their motives, the rationale for happenings and doings.   So, we are all mirrors to one another.   When we ‘assume’ someone feels a certain way or thinks a certain thing, then it is likely we feel these things ourselves.   If we think someone is gossiping about us behind our backs, it is probably because we gossip ourselves.   If we are being deceitful, we will suspect deceit from others.   We only know OUR reality – and that’s why we get to experience life with our beloved partners, our friends, and our family, so that they can reflect back to us that which we may not see in ourselves.  

I have experienced this first hand.   When I was a very young man, I met my ex relationship (ER).   ER had a Borderline Personality Disorder .   Because I was “Captain Fix-it” as a young man and determined to change the world with love, I took on ER to save her .   ER had root level feelings of being ‘damaged goods’ and unworthy of love.   Because of these feelings, she often perceived normal behaviors as overt acts of aggression.   Her “projection” into the world was her perception.   What she believed, she perceived and therefore received.  She thought bad things were going to happen.  And, to her, they did.   Put simply, thinking does.  It gets about doing and does it.   If you think it’s going to happen, it will.   Because you thought.   And likely perceived it.   

Everything is perception.   Your experience of reality is completely mutable.   These “acts of aggression” that happened to ER were very real to her.   To anybody else, not taking out the trash when asked the night before could have been a simple forgetful moment.  To ER, it was an overt act of hostility – a purposeful attempt to thwart, punish, or harm.    But for her, this was real.    

Thus is the nature of reality.    We determine it.  

The relationships you have in your life are there to teach you what you need to learn about yourself – they are mirrors to your projection habits.   What you perceive can tell you a lot about what you believe.  

This human tendency has been written about in the yoga doctrines for ages.   Recently, science confirmed in a unique way.  

When we perform an action, interpret a beautiful painting, sing in the shower, or even experience an emotion  – our neurons fire.   This makes sense to us.  Here’s where it gets a little peculiar… when we see someone else perform an action or experience an emotion, many of the same neurons fire as if we were performing the action or experiencing the emotion.  These are called mirror neurons.     

 We are also, it seems, hard wired to be mirrors for one another.     

Taking this one step further, what we can imagine also can come true – and does.   Whether you are creating hives or irritating your bowels, thought has consequence.   When we imagine an event, neurons fire as though the event were occurring.   And, we imagine a lot.   About 50% of the time, our minds are wandering according to experience sampling research.    And, a lot of that time, our wandering minds’ thoughts are about things that make us anxious.  

So.   What does this mean?

We must start by loving ourselves.  

When we love ourselves, we are able to see that within others that is also loveable.  

When we see ourselves clearly, we are able to see  that within others that has never been touched by sadness, grief, or loss.   

We are able to see those around us purely, their actions innocently, and their intentions well meaning.   

We are able to see love.   In all forms.   In all things.  

 And, love is worth seeing. 

Namaste,

Ryan

Dr. Ryan Pride is the owner of the Moksha Institute, a firm dedicated to improving the wellbeing of individuals, teams, and organizations through culture transformation and leadership development.   A profit-for-purpose company, the Moksha Institute applies Ancient Teachings for the Modern Time in order to transform striving into thriving.  

For more information, please go to: www.mokshainstitute.com

 

Perception Matters

Perception Matters

Thoughts are things.  They have energetic and biochemical consequences.  Things like “the law of attraction” are considered pseudoscience by mainstream science.   But, isn’t this the same pattern we have seen again–and–again?   The world is flat.   The Earth rotates around the sun.   Depression can be cured with electrical shock or bloodletting.  

The nature of science is the nature of man.   We are certain.   We are absolutely certain.   Until we are not.   And, then we are certain again.  

• The world is flat.   It is flat I tell you!
• Oh… it’s not?
• Really?  It’s not flat?
• Oh….. hmmm. 
• The world is round.   It is round I tell you!

We now know that much of what the ancient, Tibetan doctrines referenced as the state of reality has been proven by Quantum physics.   Time is relative.   You are energy.  There is a unified field of consciousness.   Mood is contagious.   Matter is just another expression of energy.   What you think impacts me directly – even to the level of my endocrine (hormone) response.
  
These “crazy”, “woo-woo” notions are now being proven.   And, they aren’t so “woo-woo” after all.   Turns out, the world is round.   Turns out, the Earth rotates around the Sun.   Turns out, we’re all connected in a giant web of consciousness and emotion.   Turns out, your state of happiness impacts mine.

We are so resistant to the new.   In fact, norepinephrine is released when someone presents a viewpoint that is different than the one we hold.   The same chemical compound is released when we are confronted with differences of opinion as those released when we are in a state of life-threatening danger.    The purpose of these chemicals? – to shut down higher level thinking (i.e., the primitive brain takes over) and creating – physiologically – the inability to consider other viewpoints.   In short, it is very, very hard for us to have ‘an open mind’.
  
In spite of this, we are capable.   If we can dissolve ego and step into our higher self, spirit, consciousness, or “soul” – then we can let truth in like light through a window.   And, the importance of doing so has never been so vital as right now.
 
Look around you – examine the state of wellbeing, the state of health, the state of our Earth mother …  the call for the paradigm shift is NOW.  

Let’s start with what’s in it for you:

• Our beliefs have a profound impact on our biochemistry.   There have been hundreds of studies showing the remarkable impact of placebo effects, which science treats as a type of error.   Time and time again we have seen that the power of the mind produces the same effect as the substance of the pill! 
• Thoughts are things.   They have energy that we can measure on an EEG or an MRI.   They don’t stay ‘inside’ your brain/body.   Others can sense them and pick them up in much the same way as the radio picks up the FM or AM signal.   This is now a scientific fact.  
• Your beliefs create your biological experience of reality.   Your beliefs can make you sick.   Or healthy.  

Thoughts are things.   Change your thoughts, change your life.  

“Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it…” – Ernest Holmes.  

Namaste,

Ryan
 

 Dr. Ryan Pride is the owner of the Moksha Institute, a firm dedicated to improving the wellbeing of individuals, teams, and organizations through culture transformation and leadership development.   A profit-for-purpose company, the Moksha Institute applies Ancient Teachings for the Modern Time in order to transform striving into thriving.  

For more information, please go to: www.mokshainstitute.com

Your Brain is a Process, not a Thing

Your Brain is a Process, not a Thing

In the ancient texts it is said that where attention goes, energy flows.   Your attention - what we in the consciousness field call “mind” – is a spotlight on the nutrient-rich soil of creation and where it goes, that which it shows … grows.   

Your brain has about 100 billion neurons – give or take a few million.   Every experience you have creates new neural connections; these connections also create new emotions, which shape those connections.   As experiences are repeated, these connections get stronger, while others get weaker (a process called synaptic pruning).   Quite literally, this means that what you think and do has a “Bobcat” effect on your brain, landscaping your brain based on your thinking.   This entire process is known as neuroplasticity.    In essence, what we know from neuroscience research is that your brain is not stagnant, but is changing every single day.    Your brain is a process, not a thing.    That means you are busy creating new highways and byways and potentially even interstate connections based on what you do, think, and feel regularly.  

Through the process of synaptic pruning, certain behaviors – like riding a bike or swinging your 3 iron – can become automatic.   However, so can emotional patterns or thinking habits.   If you view the glass as half empty for long enough, guess what?  Your brain will actually start “pruning” those centers for optimism, hope, positivity, etc. 

What you think, you become.  

Virtually any talent or skill can be developed through training.   Musicians who practice start linking neural pathways from the right to the left brain, allowing them rapid fluidity in the ability to create and play music.  Professional ball players can handle that bad hop with ease and grace because their muscle fibers actually fire faster than those unpracticed.  

Whatever you are doing – at any time – you are physically modifying your brain to become better at it.   So, if you are worrying, you are getting better at it.   If you are fighting, you are getting better at it.   If you are cleaning, you are getting better at it.   If you are loving, you are getting better at it.  

This is a foundational property of the brain.  It’s strange, I know.  The hard wiring of the brain is to be … well, not so hard wired.  The Operating System of the brain allows for frequent downloads of new software.  

Becoming self-aware, mindful, “awake,” … to find “moksha” then is critical.   Because by doing so, we can actively rather than passively shape our brains, our thinking, our emotions, our abilities.   And, what an empowering notion!  But, to be not awake or aware, means that we are reshaping our brain with our monkey mind.   Our ‘to-do’ list brain gets bigger muscles and sharper eyes… it gets better at worrying and planning and … feeling anxious, less centered, more depressed.  

The “trick” is not a trick at all.  

First, you must realize that in order to have clarity, the water has to be still.   Slow down.   Pause.   Breathe.   Find your presence in this now.    Develop a sense of warmth and gratitude.   Acknowledge where you are at and be thankful – simply – for the awareness of it.   Start “practicing” mindfulness in all your routines.   Taste the toothpaste again.   Chew your food a little longer.  

You know… stop and smell the roses.  

Namaste,

Ryan

Dr. Ryan Pride is the owner of the Moksha Institute, a firm dedicated to improving the wellbeing of individuals, teams, and organizations through culture transformation and leadership development.   A profit-for-purpose company, the Moksha Institute applies Ancient Teachings for the Modern Time in order to transform striving into thriving.  

For more information, please go to: www.mokshainstitute.com

The Magic Pill (open the box and look inside)

If you heard that a magic pill could help 80% of managers make better decisions; 90% better listeners and communicators; and reduce stress levels among all employees (even those not in a mindfulness program) by over 40%, your organization would be buying the pill, perhaps even the pharmacy to make sure they had an abundance of supplies, and mandating that every single employee take one – every day. 

But, this isn’t a magic pill. This miracle drug is mindfulness training – and an overall commitment to a progressive culture shift - all of which are beginning to infiltrate corporate America and produce a competitive advantage than cannot be duplicated by anything else.

The P&L impact is significant; healthcare is typically the third largest cost for an organization behind manufacturing and payroll. And the MAJORITY of health spend is due to stress-related illnesses, as almost 90% of what we see the doctor for in America is stress-related. Of these, most are preventable or easily moderated – including things like chronic fatigue, anxiety attacks, mood swings, depression, sleep problems, high blood pressure, ulcers, poor immune function, chronic pain, fibromyalgia, the common cold and flu, and even heart disease (the one thing that companies pay that huge stop-loss coverage to prevent against).

Heart Disease? Yes, heart disease! Dean Ornish (of the Preventative Medicine Research Institute) in a Journal of the American Medical Association study found that mindful meditation practices can REVERSE coronary atherosclerosis (patients in the control group had more than twice the cardiac ‘attacks’ than those in the experimental group). 

The long and short of it? Studies of mindfulness training (when done correctly) reveal that meditation may be responsible for “80% or greater” reductions in medically-related insurance claims (Journal of Behavior Modification: Walton, Schneider, Salerno, and Nidich 2005). Wow! Can you imagine reducing your organization’s third largest expense by 80%?

Bleeding edge research is now showing these practices are transforming the corporate bottom line. ​

And, in case you are worried that this Eastern explosion is too Zen for your company, don’t forget to look over your shoulder. Companies like all-American General Mills (whose workforce and campus headquarters are predominantly white and “corporate” looking) are introducing distinctly “uncorporate” elements into the average employee workday - meditation sessions for executives and team leads, yoga classes for employees, and gratitude programs for creating “community” at work.

But, this isn’t a magic pill. If it were, the government would have mandated that every American take one immediately. Learning mindfulness, the philosophy behind it, and more, applying it to the Western way of life is more than challenging – or we’d all be doing it.

At the Moksha Institute, this is what we do. We transform individuals, teams, and organizations. Our team includes Ph.D. level Psychologists, former CEOs and VPs of Fortune 500 companies, and nationally recognized yoga / meditation teachers.

We understand the realities of working in a business, coaching an Executive struggling to balance work and home, and living the Moksha principles in the midst of daily life. We practice what we preach. We apply what we call Yogic Science – fusing the timeless teachings of the East and the scientific research of the West to produce an approach that is unparalleled.  

At the Moksha Institute, we are applying ancient teachings for the modern time to help individuals and organizations thrive. We can help you transform.  

Namaste,
Ryan

Dr. Ryan Pride is the owner of the Moksha Institute, a firm dedicated to improving the wellbeing of individuals, teams, and organizations through culture transformation and leadership development.   A profit-for-purpose company, the Moksha Institute applies Ancient Teachings for the Modern Time in order to transform striving into thriving.  

For more information, please go to: www.mokshainstitute.com

A Story of Thriving... and Change.

All of my life, I remember searching for that “thriving” feeling. I felt a thirst for life. I wanted to see the world, taste the flavors of experience, and live boldly. ​

So, I worked. I put myself through College in 3 years and completed a Ph.D.  By the time I was 23 years old, I was working as an external consultant for Fortune 1000 companies. 

I eventually started working internally, leading Organizational Development and then HR teams.  

I had “made it.” I had “things” – a big house, a designer car, and all the trappings of success. Late at night, though, I was still reading and studying (with an almost feverish ferocity) the Sacred teachings of the East. In spite of my material comforts and my high-powered leadership position, I still felt a thirst for knowledge – and wholeness… I still deeply wanted to know and understand why we are here, what really made us happy, and how the Sacred teachings connected to our modern Science.

Seek and you will find.

As a VP of HR, I worked through perhaps the most difficult period in my company's history.  The economic crash combined with massive changes in manufacturing decimated our industry.  These changes were compounded by large restructuring initiatives in order to control costs and maximize efficiencies.  I was asked to plan 2-3 restructurings every year, resulting in over 7000 job losses.    Talk about karma… Going into work each day to plan restructuring initiatives and the complete cataclysm of my fellow humans’ lives and then coming home to my large house and fine furnishings, left me feeling the weight of hypocrisy.

I was a farm kid, after all, and those getting “packages” were mothers and fathers trying to support their families. Also, I knew from my scientific understanding that what happens to others deeply impacts all of us; wellbeing is not solely an individual experience, but one that has universal implications (see Harvard’s research on Interpersonal Neurobiology).

In 2011, as I was presenting a package to an employee, the employee started laughing. I thought this was a strange reaction, and checked in. The associate told me that he was laughing at the irony of life. See, he had just learned that he was terminally ill and had an estimated 4 months to live. Obviously, this conversation stopped the HR script immediately. We proceeded to have the most real human dialogue I have ever had with another human. Toward the end of the conversation, he asked me about my feelings about corporate America, life, and what I really “wanted” to actualize.

I told him that I spent most of my nights staying up late reading about Eastern philosophy, had an informal Ph.D. in religious studies, and longed to teach people the secrets of living an abundant life, which were perfectly laid out in the esoteric doctrines and in the yoga sciences. Saying this out loud was transformative. I knew, in this moment, that I needed to change my life to live my truth.

We have to be the change we want to see in the world.

And, that’s why I started the Moksha Institute. I want to help create change. For many, corporate life is making them sick.

90% of what we see the doctor for is stress related.

And, in all my experience in Corporate America, I met very few who were not stressed out. This takes a toll – on all of us. The demands of managing the day-to-day grind and balancing family life is not easy; and for many, with job cuts and the pace of innovation, work has gotten even more demanding. At the most basic level of human striving, we want to have meaning and purpose in our lives and we want to connect to the company we serve.

Progressive learning in the corporate world is often limited because of hierarchical systems and old fashioned norms suggesting how an organization or leader “should” behave or how the structure should exist. ​

There is a paradigm shift happening. If you close your eyes, you can feel it.
People want meaning in their life.
They want to contribute to their company and have their voice heard – to participate and be recognized.

The most progressive companies in the world are now discovering the new form of innovation – waking up their organization, creating mindfulness at work, leveraging the innate goodness in their associates, and empowering others to realize themselves.

This work is leading not only to dramatic decreases in healthcare costs – saving companies millions every year – but also amazing shifts in attitude, morale, engagement, and performance.

We need to stop selling our leaders on the “7 Secrets of Leadership,” and start teaching our leaders to be whole persons – real, flawed, honest – and most of all caring.

We are sold something every day – on Facebook, TV commercials, in Political campaigns, and from our leaders. But, we hunger most for authenticity – in ourselves and in others. That’s why it’s often so refreshing when a public figure is … simply honest.

This is why I started the Moksha Institute. I want to empower organizations and their people. I want to bring purpose and meaning into the lives of those organizations who hire us. I want to create bleeding edge innovation in companies so that they never have to cut their employees to cope with the changing times. And, if those companies are restructuring or merging, I want to help them create a culture that is inspiring, inventive, participative, and communicative.

And, I believe strongly that the future will be built on those companies who see the potential of people.

We are in the information age. In 1975, the S&P index reported that 17% of the market cap was “intellectual property,” and in 2005, it grew to 80%.
In 30 years, the value of intellectual property grew by 60%!
The value of corporate assets today is PEOPLE. And the measure organizational success will be the degree to which your company has captured their hearts – not their heads, and not even their wallets (if you want more information on that, look at the research on what is motivating millenials).

We are in the shift age. Yoga studios are popping up on every corner. People are starting to ask the big questions again. The paradigm shift is here… and it’s not whether or not you are ready… it’s whether you can afford not to compete with those that embracing it – those that are realizing Moksha.

​​Namaste,
Ryan

Dr. Ryan Pride is the owner of the Moksha Institute, a firm dedicated to improving the wellbeing of individuals, teams, and organizations through culture transformation and leadership development.   A profit-for-purpose company, the Moksha Institute applies Ancient Teachings for the Modern Time in order to transform striving into thriving.  

For more information, please go to: www.mokshainstitute.com

Medical Costs Increasing. Leadership Changes Could Help!

A study reported in the Epoch Times this morning cited that medical claims costs will rise by 32% in the next year.   Medical claim costs drive the cost of insurance premiums.   For those companies that are self-insured (i.e., larger companies pay for every visit to the doctor; the insurance company of record for the company is only there to issue cards and negotiate rates with doctors), every ailment, sickness, or dis-Ease is a direct cost to the business and a hit to the bottom line. 

As a former HR leader, our third largest cost - to the tune of millions of dollars every year – was healthcare.    Every dollar we saved by keeping our associates healthy was a direct increase to our earnings.

We spent over $1,000,000 a year with a company that provided biometric screenings and nutrition counseling via a web interface.    We saw no difference in our medical claims data.   Why?  Well, any doctor will tell you that 80% of what we see the doctor for today is stress related.   We can treat the symptoms, but the underlying problem is still there.

What I don’t understand, and I still don’t, is why ‘mindfulness’ at work has not been fully embraced.   At the Moksha Institute, we totally transform companies - their culture, their communication patterns, the sense of meaning people get from work, the feeling of warmth they feel at work - and also dramatically reduce healthcare costs, which is reason in and of itself to engage in this work.   We have seen the fruits of our work – in increased engagement and profitability.

The science of Mindfulness, with roots in health care, is making significant contributions to the fields of communications, conflict resolution, leadership, and cognition (among others).  When combined with what we know from Positive Psychology research, the formula for success in life, abundant health, increased energy, and strong performance is not complicated.   It isn’t a long process that requires 3 sigma’s, 6 sigma’s, or even 9.   There are no white, yellow, or black belts needed.   And, unlike TQM programs, health management initiatives, or even large, multi-focused firms like Hewitt, Aon, or McKinsey – the cost of this work is often paid for by the savings and increased performance before our contract is even up.

What it does require is a mental shift – a paradigm change.   It requires the John Wayne type that is leading your company who came up through the ranks by “taking charge,” “getting things done,” and “kicking  ass” to do a complete do a 180.   And, that’s really, really hard.  

Our signature strengths often become our leveraged limitations.   Those “Type A” attributes – the use of direct will – to get things done are catalyzing for sure, but the road to transformation requires both will and grace, fire and rain, hardness and softness, yin and yang, control and submission, pride and humility, assertiveness and acceptance, faith in self and accountability and release from expectations of perfection.   It requires the will to serve as much as to lead, the desire for profit as much as wellbeing, and the understanding that no one thing can flourish at the expense of other things suffering.   Thriving results from the whole of a person, team, or system working in oneness and synchronicity. 

We see this same pattern play out time and time again.   Industrialization wins at the cost of the environment, Investment bankers win at the cost of your brother, uncle, or cousin’s pension plan, you save time by going through the drive through, but deplete the body of nutrients and decrease your energy…   Humans are not very good at gray yet.   We will take the momentary satisfaction at the cost of later suffering.

The leadership crisis facing corporate America today is the call to answer the question – “Are you willing to let go of control?  Are you willing to release some of your Power?   Are you ready to involve your company?  Are you capable of turning inward and looking at your own self – your motivations, your actions and behaviors?  What do you stand for and where do you compromise?”   The call for leaders today is to let go.   The “story” of what it means to be a leader is and has already changed.   Your employees WANT meaning and purpose in their lives as much as they want financial gain.   Your associates want to contribute, create, and be a part of that which they are building, rather than a cog in the wheel.   They want to trust you.   They want to respect you.    And, given what has happened in the last 5 years in business, today… they don’t. 

And, when one part of your body starts to reject you, it’s called cancer.   In organizations, it’s misalignment, which is a form of malignancy.   

So much can be changed.   The time is now.   The way is not complicated.   And, doing so will impact all of us.  

Namaste, 

Ryan

 

Dr. Ryan Pride is the owner of the Moksha Institute, a firm dedicated to improving the wellbeing of individuals, teams, and organizations through culture transformation and leadership development.   A profit-for-purpose company, the Moksha Institute applies Ancient Teachings for the Modern Time in order to transform striving into thriving.  

For more information, please go to: www.mokshainstitute.com