Achtsamkeit – was ist das?  

 

Inhalt Achtsamkeit  –  was  ist  das?  .....................................................................................................................................  1   Einführung  ...............................................................................................................................................................  4   Was  ist  Achtsamkeitsmeditation?  ...........................................................................................................................  4   Was  ist  Achtsamkeit  überhaupt?  ........................................................................................................................  5   Achtsamkeit  und  Konzentration  .............................................................................................................................  6   Achtsamkeit,  Stress  und  Entschleunigung  ..............................................................................................................  7   Welche  Auswirkungen  hat  Achtsamkeitsmeditation?  ....................................................................................  8   Einführung  in  die  Achtsamkeitsmeditation  .............................................................................................................  1   Was  passiert,  wenn  wir  Achtsamkeitsmeditation  praktizieren?  .........................................................................  1   Was  ist  Achtsamkeitsmeditation  nicht?  ..............................................................................................................  2   Anleitung  für  die  Achtsamkeitspraxis  .....................................................................................................................  2   Warum  wir  unsere  Achtsamkeit  auf  den  Atem  richten  ......................................................................................  4   Umgang  mit  Gedanken  .......................................................................................................................................  5   Wie  wir  Achtsamkeit  in  unseren  Alltag  integrieren  können  ...................................................................................  6   Wie  wir  die  Motivation  für  die  Praxis  aufrecht  halten  können  ...............................................................................  7   Umgang  mit  Hürden  in  der  Praxis  .......................................................................................................................  8   Häufig  gestellte  Fragen  .........................................................................................................................................  10   Raus  aus  der  Esoterik  –  rein  in  den  Alltag  .........................................................................................................  11   Achtsamkeit,  Stress  und  Entschleunigung  ............................................................................................................  11   Achtsamkeit  und  Konzentration  ...........................................................................................................................  12   Emotionale  Intelligenz  und  Empathie  ...................................................................................................................  12   Kalapa Leadership Academy [email protected] | www.kalapaacademy.de

Nachhaltigkeit  .......................................................................................................................................................  13   Ganzheitliches  Führen  ..........................................................................................................................................  13   Kein  magisches  Allheilmittel  .................................................................................................................................  14   Achtsamkeit  wirkt  .................................................................................................................................................  14   Tun  Sie  es!  -­‐  Drei  Übungen  für  den  Arbeitsalltag  ..................................................................................................  16   Ankommen  ........................................................................................................................................................  16   Mittendrin  .........................................................................................................................................................  16   Abschließen  .......................................................................................................................................................  16   Wie  Achtsamkeit  zur  ganzheitlichen  Führung  beitragen  kann  .............................................................................  17  

Kalapa Leadership Academy [email protected] | www.kalapaacademy.de

«Was  tust  du  eigentlich,  um  dich  zu  entspannen?»  fragt  der  Schüler  seinen  Meister.  «Nichts»,  so  der   Meister.  «Wenn  ich  gehe,  gehe  ich,  wenn  ich  esse,  esse  ich,  und  wenn  ich  schlafe,  schlafe  ich.»  «Aber  das   tun  doch  alle»,  sagte  der  Schüler  darauf.  «Eben  nicht!»  die  Antwort  des  Meisters.     Aus  den  Lehren  des  Zen       «Sich  einfach  achtsam  und  still  hinsetzen,  sich  niederlassen  –  mitten  im  Trubel  des  Alltags.  Die  Gedanken   schwelgen  nicht  in  der  Vergangenheit,  noch  träumen  sie  von  einer  Zukunft,  die  noch  gar  nicht  Wirklich-­‐ keit  ist.    Ganz  da  sein  –  hier  und  jetzt.   Wieder  in  Verbindung  kommen  mit  der  geistigen  Gesundheit  und  Klarheit,  die  jedem  Menschen  schon   seit  seiner  Geburt  innewohnt.  Das  ist  Meditation.  »   Karl-­‐Ludwig  Leiter       «Achtsamkeit  ist  Bewusstheit  in  der  Gegenwart.   Sie  ereignet  sich  im  Hier  und  Jetzt.   Sie  ist  die  Beobachtung  dessen,  was  gerade  jetzt,   im  gegenwärtigen  Moment  geschieht.   Sie  bleibt  für  immer  in  der  Gegenwart,   wogt  ständig  auf  dem  Kamm  der  fortlaufenden  Welle  der  vorüberziehenden  Zeit.  »   Mahathera  Henepola  Gunaratana    

 

Einführung Ihr  Berufsalltag  ist  von  vielen  Ablenkungen  und  gleichzeitigen  Anforderungen,  dem  Multitasking,    geprägt.   Selten  wird  etwas  wirklich  für  fertig  und  beendet  erklärt.  Man  hat  selten  das  Gefühl,  man  könne  völlig  unge-­‐ stört  seine  Arbeit  verrichten.    Damit  einhergehend  sind  Ihre  Gedanken  häufig  mit  dem,  was  war,  und  mit  dem,   was  kommt,  beschäftigt.    Im  Meeting  vor  einer  Stunde  haben  Sie  sich  geärgert  und  dieser  Ärger  beschäftigt  Sie   immer  noch.  Er  lässt  Sie  nicht  ganz  da  sein  und  sich  auf  das  konzentrieren,  was  jetzt  ansteht.   Solche  oder  ähnliche  Situationen  werden  Sie  kennen.  Unsere  Aufmerksamkeit  wechselt  ständig  die  Richtung,   Gedanken  kreisen  umher  und  Ihre  eigenen  Bewertungen  rufen  unangenehme  Gefühle  hervor.  Das  kann  sehr   erschöpfend  und  kräftezehrend  sein.  Wir  haben  die  Tendenz     •

Vergangenem  anzuhaften,  

•

Zukünftiges  zu  antizipieren,  

•

oder  das,  was  wir  beobachten,  sofort  zu  bewerten  

Anders  ist  es,  wenn  Sie  Ihre  Aufmerksamkeit  auf  den  Moment  ausrichten  können,  wenn  Sie  das,  was  gerade  ist,   annehmen  können,  ohne  es  zu  bewerten.     Unser  Geist  arbeitet  ständig,  jedoch  sind  wir  uns  sehr  selten  bewusst  darüber,  was  er  eigentlich  tut.  Mit  der   Achtsamkeitspraxis  lernen  Sie,  Ihren  Geist  zu  betrachten,  ohne  Bewertung.  Ihre  ausgerichtete  und  ungeteilte   Aufmerksamkeit  auf  den  Atem  ermöglicht  es  Ihnen,  in  der  Achtsamkeitspraxis  mit  dem  Geist  in  Ruhe  zu  sein.     Man  übt,  die  Gedanken  nicht  festzuhalten,  sondern  vorbei  ziehen  zu  lassen.  Dies  führt  typischerweise  zu  mehr   Klarheit  und  weniger  geistiger  Verstrickung.  Sie  lernen  differenziert  und  mit  einer  forschenden  und  achtsamen   Haltung,  sich  selbst  im  Augenblick  wahrzunehmen.  Diese  Art  von  Achtsamkeit  werden  Sie  im  Laufe  des  Projek-­‐ tes  durch  verschiedene  Zugänge  kennenlernen  und  trainieren.  Sie  werden  lernen,  immer  wieder  zum  gegen-­‐ wärtigen  Moment  zurückzukehren.     Wir  freuen  uns  auf  Sie  und  sind  neugierig,  am  Ende  des  Projektes  über  Ihre  persönlich  gemachten  Erfahrungen   und  Einsichten  zu  hören.  

Was ist Achtsamkeitsmeditation? Achtsamkeitsmeditation  ist  eine  pragmatische  und  einfache  M ethode,  um  den  Geist  zu  beruhigen.  Dadurch   wird  nicht  nur  effektiv  Stress  bewältigt.  Diese  uneingeschränkte  Wahrnehmung  des  Augenblicks  bewirkt  Echt-­‐ heit  und  Vertrauen  und  führt  zu  einem  reifen,  reflektierten  Lebensstil  und  Auftreten.  Zahlreiche  Studien  bele-­‐ gen,  dass  Meditation  messbar  positive  Auswirkungen  auf  den  Geist  und  den  Körper  hat.  Alle  Aspekte  des   menschlichen  Zusammenlebens  -­‐  Familie,  Arbeit,  Gesundheit,  Erholung,  Erziehung,  Kunst  -­‐  können  dadurch   positiv  beeinflusst  werden.     Die  Achtsamkeitspraxis  wird  in  den  meisten  großen  Weisheitslehren  als  Grundlage  praktiziert  und  basiert  auf   einer  2500  Jahre  langen  Erfahrung.  Einst  vor  allem  in  buddhistischen  Klöstern  in  der  Abgeschiedenheit  prakti-­‐ ziert,  wird  heute  der  Nutzen  dieser  Praxis  für  unser  westliches,  schnelles  Leben  erkannt  und  untersucht.  

Was ist Achtsamkeit überhaupt? Nach  der  Definition  von  John  Kabat-­‐Zinn  ist  Achtsamkeit  eine  bestimmte  Form  der  Aufmerksamkeit,  die   •

absichtsvoll  ist,  

•

sich  auf  den  gegenwärtigen  Moment  bezieht  (statt  auf  die  Vergangenheit  oder  die  Zukunft),  und  

•

nicht  wertend  ist.  

Achtsamkeitstrainings   Achtsamkeitsübungen   Achtsamkeitsmeditation  

    Achtsamkeitsmeditation  ist  eine   jahrhundertealte  Form  der   Meditation,  deren  Wirkung   zurzeit  vielfältig  und  intensiv   erforscht  wird.    

Achtsamkeit  kann  mit  anderen   Übungen  und  Aktivitäten  verbun-­‐ den  werden.    Fitness-­‐Experte  und   Triathlet  Ulrich  Strunz  beschreibt   eine  „geradezu  magische“  Kom-­‐ bination,  die  ungeahnte  Heilkraft   entfalte:  Laufen  und  Meditation  

 

  Achtsamkeitstrainings:  mehr   und  mehr  Firmen  bieten  diese  an,   um  Konzentration  und  Resilienz   zu  stärken,  Führungsqualitäten  zu   verbessern  und  Stress  vorzubeu-­‐ gen.  U.a.  McKinsey,  World  Bank   und  Google  haben  großen  Erfolg   damit.  

  Achtsamkeit  ist  eine  grundsätzliche  Fähigkeit  des  menschlichen  Geistes  oder  Gehirns.    Achtsamkeit  ist  eine   nach  innen  und/oder  außen  gerichtete  Aufmerksamkeit  im  Moment,  die  unsere  Sinne  mit  einschließt.  Wir   können  unsere  Aufmerksamkeit  lenken  und  uns  auf  Wahrnehmungen  oder  Gedanken  konzentrieren.    In  die-­‐ sem  Zustand  sind  wir  achtsam.       Diese  Achtsamkeit  ermöglicht  es,  Dinge  wahrzunehmen  und  zu  erkennen,  die  in  einem  unruhigen  oder  unauf-­‐ merksamen  Geist  mit  vielen  „blinde  Flecken“  weniger  möglich  sind.  Wenn  wir  einer  Tätigkeit  oder  einem   Gedanken  mit  Achtsamkeit  begegnen,  können  wir  den  Sinn  darin  auch  erkennen.  Konzentration  ist  ein  Aspekt   von  Achtsamkeit.  Achtsamkeit  ist  die  Basis  aller  höheren  kognitiven  Fähigkeiten.   Achtsamkeitsmeditation  ist  eine  Methode  bekannt  aus  dem  Buddhismus  zur  Entwicklung  unserer  geistigen   Potenziale.    Abgeleitet  von  den  Erkenntnissen  der  Achtsamkeitsmeditation  gibt  es  heute  eine  Fülle  von  A cht-­‐ samkeitsmethoden,  die  in  den  Alltag  integriert  werden  können.  Durch  die  Einführung  von  achtsamkeitsba-­‐ sierten  Trainings  integrieren  Firmen  Erkenntnisse  der  Achtsamkeits-­‐    sowie  auch  der  neurophysiologischen   Forschung  in  den  Arbeitsalltag.      

                             Karl-­‐Ludwig  Leiter     Managementforscher  haben  auch  erkannt,  dass  diese  Fähigkeit  der  ungeteilten  inneren  und  äußeren  Aufmerk-­‐ samkeit  auf  das,  was  gerade  da  ist,  eine  fundamentale  Führungskompetenz  darstellt.    Klares  Entscheidungsma-­‐ nagement,  effizienteres  Zeitmanagement,  Selbstkenntnis  und  der  Zugriff  auf  das  intuitive  Wissen    sind  u.a.   Ergebnisse  dieser  A chtsamkeitskompetenz.   Achtsamkeitstraining  lehrt  unseren  Geist  innezuhalten,  das  stetige  Gedankenkreisen  loszulassen  und  innerlich   zur  Ruhe  zu  kommen.  Wissenschaftliche  Studien  haben  auch  weitreichend  bewiesen,  dass  sich  dadurch  die   Architektur  des  Gehirns  verändert.  Rufen  wir  normalerweise  mitten  im  Geschehen,  unser  übliches  Reiz-­‐  Reakti-­‐ onsmuster  ab    -­‐  was  für  uns  und  andere  Stress  verursacht,  können  wir  durch  das  Achtsamkeitstraining  unsere   Reaktionen  differenziert  wahrnehmen  und  Aktionen  verzögern.    Wir  sind  mehr  als  bisher  in  der  Lage,  uns  selbst   zu  beobachten  und  unser  eigenes  Verhalten  zu  erkennen  und  entsprechend  zu  verändern.  Diese  Veränderun-­‐ gen  zeichnen  sich  auch  in  unserer  Gehirnstruktur  ab.  

Achtsamkeit und Konzentration Der  Arbeitsalltag  ist  in  vielen  Unternehmen  vor  allem  durch  eine  ständige  Reizüberflutung,  Hektik  und  hohen   Leistungsdruck  geprägt.  Wir  machen  viele  Sachen  gleichzeitig  und  können  öfter  etwas  nicht  zu  Ende  bringen.     Gebraucht  aber  werden  Konzentration,  Fokussierung  und  Ausdauer.    Aufgrund  des  permanenten  Stresses  sind   viele  Menschen  unkonzentriert  und  ausgebrannt,  können  kein  ruhiges  Gespräch  führen  oder  keinen  Gedanken   zu  Ende  verfolgen.  Viele  leiden  unter  einem  neurologischen  Phänomen  -­‐  das  „Aufmerksamkeitsdefizit-­‐ Syndrom“.  Sie  befinden  sich  in  einem  Zustand  von  anhaltender  leiser  Panik  und  innerer  Unruhe.  Sie  werden   fahriger,  angespannter,  hektischer  und  unkonzentrierter.   Bewiesenermaßen  schult  regelmäßiges  Meditieren  eine  ruhige  Aufmerksamkeit  und  stärkt  deutlich  die  Kon-­‐ zentration.  Forscher  haben  herausgefunden,  dass  schon  kurze  Meditationseinheiten  wirken  können.  So  genü-­‐ gen,  beispielsweise,    vier  Tage  mit  jeweils  20  minütigem  Training,  um  kognitive  Fähigkeiten  wie  Aufmerksam-­‐ keit  und  Konzentration  deutlich  zu  verbessern.  Probanden,  die  Achtsamkeitsmeditation  übten,  schnitten  in   Tests  zum  Arbeitsgedächtnis  sowie  zur  räumlich-­‐visuellen  Wahrnehmung  deutlich  besser  ab,  als  andere  nicht   geschulte.  Dies  bestätigte  sich  selbst  unter  Stress.  

 

Achtsamkeitsmeditation  ist  nicht  schwer  zu  lernen  und  kann  an  fast  allen  Orten  des   täglichen  Lebens  praktiziert  werden.  Jeder  Mensch  kann  meditieren.   Sie  können  auf  einem  Stuhl  oder  auf  einem  Sitzkissen  Meditation  erlernen.  Der  erste  Schritt  in  der  Praxis  der   Meditation  ist  es  zu  lernen,  in  Ruhe  zu  verweilen.  Der  zweite  Schritt,  Ihrem  Atem  zu  folgen  und  dabei  den  Geist   ruhig  zu  betrachten.  

Achtsamkeit, Stress und Entschleunigung Die  vorherrschende  Meinung  ist:  Weil  wir  keine  Zeit  haben,  sind  wir  alle  so  gestresst.    Aber  eigentlich  ist  es   genau  umgekehrt  –  weil  wir  gestresst  sind,  haben  wir  keine  Zeit!    Unser  tägliches  Arbeitspensum  ist  statistisch   gesehen  nicht  wesentlich  mehr  als  es  noch  vor  20  Jahren  der  Fall  war.    In  vielen  Bereichen  sogar  weniger.     Unbestritten  ist  aber,  dass  wir  täglich  mit  hunderten  „Nebenher-­‐to-­‐dos-­‐in  enger  Taktung“  zu  tun  haben.    Unser   Geist  muss  sich  mit  diesen  Stressoren    täglich  auseinandersetzen  –  und  wir  können  eben  nicht  einfach  abschal-­‐ ten,  wenn  wir  zuhause  sind  oder  einmal  Zeit  haben.     Was  passiert  dann?  Unser  Geist  kreist  noch,  springt  von  einem  Thema  zum  anderen,  wir  kommen  innerlich   nicht  zur  Ruhe.    Es  stellt  sich  kein  Gefühl  der  inneren  Ruhe  ein.    Wir  können  uns  nicht  achtsam  und  entspannt   einer  Sache  widmen.  Wie  die  Stressforschung  zu  recht  sagt:  Das  Problem  ist  nicht  angemessener  Stress,  son-­‐ dern  das  Fehlen  von  regelmäßiger  Entspannung  und  Erholung.     Achtsamkeitstraining  lehrt  unseren  Geist,  inne  zu  halten,  das  stetige  Gedankenkreisen  loszulassen  und  innerlich   zur  Ruhe  zu  kommen.  Wissenschaftliche  Studien  haben  weitreichend  bewiesen,  dass  sich  dadurch  die  Architek-­‐ tur  des  Gehirns  verändert.  Rufen  wir  normalerweise  mitten  im  Geschehen,  unser  übliches  Reiz-­‐  Reaktionsmus-­‐ ter  ab    -­‐  was  für  uns  und  andere  Stress  verursacht,  können  wir  durch  das  Achtsamkeitstraining  unsere  Reaktio-­‐ nen  differenziert  wahrnehmen  und  verzögern.    Wir  sind  mehr  als  bisher    in  der  Lage  uns  selbst  zu  beobachten   und  unser  eigenes  Verhalten  zu  erkennen  und  entsprechend  zu  verändern.  Diese  Veränderungen  zeichnen  sich   auch  in  unserer  Gehirnstruktur  ab.    Aus  diesem  Grund  wird  Achtsamkeitstraining  schon  vermehrt  auch  in   Kliniken  angeboten,  die  Therapien  für  Burnout  anbieten.    

Welche Auswirkungen hat Achtsamkeitsmeditation? Es  gibt  bereits  mehr  als  2000  Studien,  die  die  Wirkung  von  Meditation  erforscht  haben.  Die  Ergebnisse  sind   zunehmend  eindeutig  und  überraschend.  Die  Studien  konnten  nachweisen,  dass  Meditation  das  Immunsystem   stärkt,  überhöhten  Blutdruck,  Stress  und  Schlafstörungen  reduziert  und  die  Erholung  von  Burn-­‐out  und  Depres-­‐ sionen  beschleunigt.  Hinzu  kommt  auch,  dass  Meditation  helfen  kann,  Achtsamkeit  und  Konzentration  zu   stärken  und  darüber  hinaus  die  Arbeitszufriedenheit  zu  steigern.     •

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Gesundheit:  Körper  und  Geist  sind  tief  verbunden,  vor  allem  durch  unser  Nervensystem.    Achtsam-­‐ keitsmeditation  hilft  uns  zu  entspannen  und  bewusst  Stress  loszulassen.  Es  hat  dadurch  nachweisbar   sehr  positive  Effekte  auf  unsere  physische  Gesundheit  und  die  Stärkung  des  Immunsystems.    Hunderte   von  Studien  haben  die  Wirkung  bei  vielfältigen  Krankheiten  und  Leiden  nachgewiesen,  unter  anderem   bei  Kopfschmerzen,  Schmerzsyndrom,  erhöhtem  Blutdruck  u.v.m.   Kognitive  Fähigkeiten:  Achtsamkeit  ist  die  Basis  für  alle  höheren  kognitiven  Fähigkeiten.    Gehirnfor-­‐ scher  haben  nachgewiesen,  dass  Achtsamkeit  sich  positiv  auf  Erinnerungs-­‐,  Konzentrations-­‐,  Wahr-­‐ nehmungsfähigkeit,  Kreativität  u.v.a.  auswirkt.   Verhalten  und  psychische  G esundheit:  Achtsamkeit  stärkt  unsere  psychische  Resilienz  vor  allem  bei     Angstzuständen,  Burnout,  Depression  und  Schlafstörungen.    

 Körper   • Reduktion  von  überhöhtem  Blutdruck   • Schmerzlinderung   • Stärkung  des  Immunsystems   • Schnellere  Genesung  von  Krankheiten   • Reduktion  von  Kopfschmerzen     Psychologisch   • Stressreduktion   • Vermeidung  und  Erholung  von  Burn-­‐out   • Vermeidung  und  Erholung  von  Depressionen   • Weniger  Schlafstörungen    

Mental   • Stärkung  der  Konzentration  und  Achtsamkeit   • Entwicklung  von  aktiver  Wahrnehmung   • Besseres  Erinnerungsvermögen   • Reduzierung  der  Gedankenflut   • Steigerung  der  Fähigkeit  entspannt  zu  fokus-­‐ sieren     Emotional   • Bessere  Fähigkeit  zum  Zuhören   • Tiefe  Entspannung   • Mehr  Lebensfreude   • Größere  Offenheit   • Kreativität  wird  geweckt   • Besserer  Zugang  zu  sich  selbst  und  den  eige-­‐ nen  Gefühlen    

   

 

Im  Folgenden  finden  Sie  einen  Auszug  aus    „Wie  der  weite  Raum  –  die  Kraft  der  Meditation“  von  Sakyong   Mipham:    

Haltung   Wenn  wir  meditieren  wollen,  ist  unsere  Haltung  sehr  wichtig.    Wenn  wir  eine  aufrechte  Sitzposition   einnehmen,  ermöglichen  wir  es  dem  Körper,  sich  zu  entspannen,  und  dem  Geist,  zu  erwachen.  Sie   können  für  die  Meditation  verschiedene  Haltungen  einnehmen,  aber  unter  normalen  Umständen  ist   das  Sitzen  auf  einem  Kissen  oder  einem  Stuhl  am  besten.  Wenn  es  Ihnen  nicht  möglich  ist  zu  sitzen,   können  Sie  diese  Technik  auch  im  Gehen  oder  Stehen  oder  gar  im  Liegen  anwenden.  Doch  die  effizien-­‐ teste  Haltung  für  diese  Übung  ist  das  Sitzen.     Nehmen  Sie,  wenn  Sie  sich  hinsetzen,  eine  ausgewogene,  geerdete  Haltung  ein,  so  dass  die  Energie  im   Zentrum  Ihres  Körpers  frei  zu  fließen  vermag.  Wenn  Sie  auf  einem  Kissen  sitzen,  kreuzen  Sie  die  Beine   in  einer  lockeren  Haltung.  Sitzen  Sie  auf  einem  Stuhl,  dann  kreuzen  Sie  Ihre  Beine  nicht  und  stellen  die   Füße  flach  auf  den  Boden.  Stellen  Sie  sich  vor,  dass  ein  Faden,  der  an  Ihrem  Scheitelpunkt  befestigt  ist,   Sie  nach  oben  zieht.  Lassen  Sie  Ihre  Organe,  Muskeln  und  Knochen  um  Ihre  aufgerichtete  Wirbelsäule   herum  an  ihren  Platz  fallen,  so  wie  ein  aufgehängter  Mantel  um  einen  Bügel  herum  fällt.  Ihre  Wirbel   sollten  sich  anfühlen,  als  wären  sie  wie  Goldmünzen  in  der  natürlichen  Krümmung  der  Wirbelsäule   aufgestapelt.     Der  Grund,  warum  so  viel  Nachdruck  auf  das  aufrechte  Sitzen  gelegt  wird,  ist  ganz  einfach  der,  dass   Schlaffheit  die  Atmung  unregelmäßig  werden  lässt,  und  das  wiederum  unmittelbar  den  Geist  beein-­‐ flusst.  Wenn  Sie  zusammensacken,  werden  Sie  mit  Unwohlsein  in  Ihrem  Körper  zu  kämpfen  haben,   während  Sie  gleichzeitig  versuchen,  Ihren  Geist  zu  schulen.  Was  Sie  aber  tun  wollen,  ist  das  genaue   Gegenteil,  nämlich  Ihren  Körper  und  Geist  zu  synchronisieren.     Nachdem  Sie  sich  bemüht  haben,  die  Wirbelsäule  aufzurichten,  legen  Sie  die  Hände  auf  Ihre  Schenkel.   Sie  sollten  nicht  so  weit  vorn  liegen,  dass  die  Schultern  heruntergezogen  werden,  und  auch  nicht  so   weit  zurück,  dass  die  Schulterblätter  zusammengedrückt  werden  und  die  Wirbelsäule  eingeklemmt   wird.  Die  Finger  sind  geschlossen  und  entspannt  –  nicht  zu  einem  Griff  gespreizt,  als  könnten  Sie  sich   nicht  loslassen.   Ziehen  Sie  Ihr  Kinn  leicht  nach  innen,  und  entspannen  Sie  den  Kiefer.  Die  Zunge  ist  ebenfalls  entspannt   und  ruht  mit  der  Spitze  an  den  oberen  Schneidezähnen.  Der  Mund  ist  leicht  geöffnet.  Ihr  Blick  weist   bei  halb  geschlossenen  Augenlidern  nach  unten.  Wenn  der  Blick  zu  viel  aufnimmt,  wird  es  schwierig,  in   Ruhe  zu  verweilen.  Andererseits  kann  völliges  Schließen  der  Augen  Sie  veranlassen,  einzuschlafen  oder   den  Geist  von  der  Technik  abzuziehen.  Wenn  sich  Ihr  Geist  entrückt  und  isoliert,  intensiv  und  dunkel   anfühlt,  versuchen  Sie  den  Blick  zu  heben  und  mehr  Raum  in  Ihre  Übung  einfließen  zu  lassen.  Die  Au-­‐ gen  sehen  übrigens  nichts  an,  sie  haben  einen  „weichen“  Blick.  Das  Gleiche  geschieht  mit  Klängen  –   wir  lauschen  nicht,  aber  wir  hören.  Mit  anderen  Worten,  wir  fokussieren  unsere  Aufmerksamkeit  nicht   auf  irgendetwas.    

Ausrichtung   Der  erste  Schritt  der  Meditationstechnik  ist  die  Ausrichtung:  Wir  richten  den  Geist  auf  ein  Objekt  der   Meditation.  In  der  Meditation  werden  wir  zuerst  mit  einem  Objekt  bekannt  gemacht  und  werden  dann   mit  ihm  vertraut.  Wir  können  jedes  Objekt  benutzen,  sei  es  ein  Kieselstein,  eine  Flamme  oder  der  Kör-­‐ per.  Unser  übliches  Meditationsobjekt  –  ich  sagte  bereits,  dass  der  Geist  immer  irgendetwas  meditiert   –  ist  das  „Ich“.  

Im  Ruhigen  Verweilen  ist  der  einfache  Akt  des  Atmens  das  Objekt.  Der  Atem  repräsentiert  die  Leben-­‐ digkeit  in  der  Unmittelbarkeit  des  Augenblicks.  Den  Geist  auf  den  Atem  zu  richten  und  immer  wieder   zu  ihm  zurückzukehren,  das  ist  die  Essenz  der  Achtsamkeitsmeditation  oder  friedlichen  Verweilen.  In-­‐ dem  wir  den  Geist  auf  dem  Atem  ruhen  lassen,  bleiben  wir  präsent,  wach  und  achtsam.  Ausrichtung   bedeutet,  bei  dem  Gefühl  des  Atmens  zu  bleiben.  Der  Atemfluss  beruhigt  den  Geist  und  bewirkt  Ste-­‐ tigkeit  und  Entspannung.  Er  verringert  außerdem  das  diskursive  Denken.   Es  geht  hier  um  ganz  normales  Atmen,  nichts  wird  übertrieben.  Wir  atmen  einfach.  Wenn  es  Ihnen   schwerfällt,  beim  Atem  zu  bleiben  –  weil  Sie  abschweifen  oder  sich  zwischen  dem  Ein-­‐  und  Ausatmen   verlieren  –,  kann  das  Zählen  der  Zyklen  aus  Einatmung  und  Ausatmung  ein  hilfreiches  Mittel  sein,  um   zur  Sammlung  zurückzukehren.  Wir  atmen  ein  und  dann  aus  –  eins.  Ein  und  dann  aus  –  zwei.  Wenn  Sie   diese  Methode  benutzen,  zählen  Sie  sieben  oder  einundzwanzig  Atemzyklen  und  beginnen  dann  von   vorn.  Wenn  Sie  abgelenkt  werden  oder  sich  verzählen,  beginnen  Sie  wieder  bei  eins.  Sobald  Sie  ge-­‐ sammelt  sind,  können  Sie  das  Zählen  wieder  fallen  lassen.   Mit  dem  subtilen  Rhythmus  des  Atems  vertraut  zu  werden  ist  ein  Teil  der  natürlichen  Entwicklung  des   Ruhigen  Verweilens.  Wir  richten  den  Geist  auf  den  ganzen  Atem,  und  es  braucht  Zeit,  bis  wir  spüren,   was  das  ist.  Wir  entdecken  vielleicht,  dass  der  Atem  selbst  nicht  so  starr  ist  wie  unser  Konzept  vom   Atem.  Vielleicht  erkennen  wir,  dass  das  Wort  Atem  etwas  beschreibt,  das  nicht  so  sehr  eine  Einheit  ist,   sondern  vielmehr  eine  Folge  von  Ereignissen.  Luft  tritt  durch  die  Nasenlöcher  ein,  der  Bauch  dehnt  sich   aus,  und  der  Atem  bleibt  dort  einen  Moment.  Dann  zieht  sich  das  Zwerchfell  zusammen,  und  der  Atem   verlässt  die  Lungen,  tritt  sanft  aus  der  Nase  aus  und  löst  sich  auf  in  den  Raum.     Den  Atem  als  Objekt  unserer  Meditation  zu  benutzen  ist  sehr  gut,  weil  das  Ein-­‐  und  Ausströmen  der   Luft  uns  eine  Art  Beständigkeit  im  Gegensatz  zu  unserer  Diskursivität  verleiht.  Und  es  erlaubt  uns  auch,   uns  zu  entspannen.  Das  ist  der  Vorzug  des  Atmens.  Indem  wir  unseren  Geist  auf  diesen  Prozess  aus-­‐ richten,  entspannen  wir  unser  ganzes  Wesen.  Spannungen  beginnen  sich  aufzulösen.  Das  Atmen  be-­‐ sänftigt  den  Geist  und  schenkt  ihm  eine  Ruhepause.  In  dem  Maße,  in  dem  unsere  Gedanken  langsa-­‐ mer  werden  und  wir  in  uns  selbst  ruhen,  wird  die  Trennung  von  Geist  und  Körper  verringert.  Wir  fan-­‐ gen  an,  unser  Herzklopfen  zu  spüren.  Wir  spüren  den  Strom  unseres  Blutes.  Wir  können  beinahe  unse-­‐ re  Knochen  fühlen.  Wir  werden  zu  einem  Ganzen  Wesen,  bei  dem  Körper  und  Geist  synchronisiert   sind.   Aber  das  ist  noch  nicht  alles,  was  geschieht.  Wenn  wir  sitzen  und  den  Geist  auf  den  Atem  richten,   taucht  fortwährend  die  natürliche  Verspieltheit  des  Geistes  auf.  Die  Bewegung  der  Gedanken  und  Ge-­‐ fühle  lenkt  uns  ab.  Wir  neigen  dazu,  in  der  Flut  unterzugehen.  Wir  denken  daran,  wie  interessant  es   ist,  dass  wir  nun  endlich  meditieren,  und  fragen  uns,  was  unsere  Freunde  wohl  darüber  denken  wer-­‐ den.  Wir  denken  daran,  wo  wir  unser  Auto  geparkt  haben.  Wir  denken  daran,  wie  gut  ein  Keks  jetzt   wohl  schmecken  würde.  Wir  denken  daran,  dass  wir  müde  sind  und  gut  eine  Tasse  Kaffee  gebrauchen   könnten.  Diese  Gedanken  sind  kleine  Geschichten,  die  wir  uns  selbst  erzählen.  Die  meisten  von  ihnen   betreffen  die  Vergangenheit  und  die  Zukunft,  nicht  jedoch  die  Gegenwart.   Wir  können  eine  Weile  fortgetragen  werden  und  vergessen,  dass  der  Atem  –  und  nicht  die  Gedanken   und  Gefühle  –  das  Objekt  der  Meditation  ist.  Die  Technik  besteht  in  diesem  Fall  darin,  dass  wir  zur   Kenntnis  nehmen,  dass  wir  abgeschweift  sind,  sobald  es  uns  auffällt.  Das  können  wir,  wenn  wir  wollen,   dadurch  tun,  dass  wir  es  etikettieren:  „Denken“.  Ganz  gleich,  ob  wir  es  etikettieren  oder  nicht,  sobald   wir  es  bemerken,  lenken  wir  den  Geist  auf  den  Atem  zurück.  Indem  wir  das  Denken  zur  Kenntnis  neh-­‐ men,  erkennen  wir  die  Bewegung  des  Geistes,  die  Wildheit  des  verblendeten  Geistes.  Wir  schulen  uns   darin,  dessen  gewahr  zu  sein,  was  wir  als  menschliches  Wesen  sind.  Wir  schulen  uns  darin,    nicht  abge-­‐ lenkt  sondern  gesammelt  zu  sein.  Wir  üben  uns  darin,  vollkommen  präsent  für  unser  Leben  zu  sein.     Wir  behalten  zum  Beispiel  eine  stabile  und  entspannte  Position  bei  und  haben  den  Geist  auf  den  Atem   gerichtet.  Wir  entspannen  uns  in  den  Atem  hinein  und  sind  dabei,  den  Geist  friedlich  verweilen  zu  las-­‐

sen  –  als  plötzlich  ein  Gedanke  auftaucht:  „Hoffentlich  muss  ich  heute  Abend  nicht  schon  wieder  ko-­‐ chen.  Wieso  kocht  denn  sonst  niemand  das  Abendessen?  Ich  bin  die  Einzige  im  Haus,  die  wirklich  noch   arbeitet.  Was  glauben  die  denn,  wer  ich  bin,  Superman  etwa?“  Unser  „Ruhiges  Verweilen“  wurde  von   einem  Strom  des  Denkens  überflutet  und  steht  kurz  davor,  zu  einem  emotionalen  Wirbel  zu  werden.      

Balance   Meditieren  lernen  ist  wie  Reiten  lernen:  Wir  müssen  lernen,  die  Balance  zu  finden.  Wir  lernen,  die  Ba-­‐ lance  zu  halten,  indem  wir  mit  dem  Atem  arbeiten,  aufrecht  sitzen  und  die  Gedanken  bemerken,  sie   zur  Kenntnis  nehmen  und  dann  loslassen.  Anfangs  glauben  wir,  wir  könnten  das  sofort  umsetzen,  aber   Meditation  ist  relativ  subtil,  und  es  braucht  seine  Zeit,  bis  wir  dies  alles  zu  koordinieren  vermögen.   Während  wir  das  Ruhige  Verweilen  lernen,  werden  wir  immer  wieder  hinfallen,  uns  wieder  aufrichten,   hinfallen  und  wieder  aufrichten.  Es  ist  wichtig,  sanft  zu  sein  und  sich  eine  kleine  Gnadenfrist  zu  gestat-­‐ ten.  Wir  neigen  dazu,  unseren  Geist  zu  fest  zu  halten.  Wir  sitzen  da,  eine  Gedanke  taucht  auf,  und  wir   denken:  „Oh,  Gedanken  sind  schlecht.“  Dass  wir  es  mit  Denken  zu  tun  bekommen  irritiert  uns,  und  wir   reagieren  zu  heftig  und  versuchen  es  zu  unterdrücken.  Doch  in  diesem  Stadium  ist  ein  gewisses  Maß   an  Denken  unvermeidlich.   Schließlich  beginnen  wir  zu  begreifen,  dass  der  Atem  an  sich  beruhigend  ist.  Wir  genießen  den  Atem.   Er  ist  nicht  irgend  so  ein  Schlimmer,  der  uns  daran  erinnert,  härter  zu  arbeiten.  Wir  atmen  einfach  ein   und  aus.  Es  ist,  als  würden  wir  zum  ersten  Mal  entdecken,  dass  wir  atmende  menschliche  Wesen  sind.   Dann  könnten  wir  durch  eine  Periode  der  Meditation  gehen,  in  der  wir  realisieren:  „Du  lieber  Himmel,   mein  Herz  muss  schlagen  und  mein  Blut  muss  fließen,  damit  ich  lebendig  bleibe.“  Wir  erfahren  unse-­‐ ren  physischen  Körper.  Wir  entwickeln  die  Fähigkeit,  uns  auf  die  grundlegende  Qualität  dessen,  was   wir  sind,  einzulassen.  Wir  können  sogar  eine  Ebene  von  Angst  erfahren,  wenn  wir  erkennen,  wie  zart   das  alles  ist.     Wir  benötigen  Präzision,  wenn  wir  die  Technik  anwenden,  unseren  Geist  immer  wieder  zum  Atem  zu-­‐ rückzubringen.  Es  heißt,  dass  große  Meditierende  so  gesammelt  werden  können,  dass  sie  den  Fluss   des  Blutes  zu  fühlen  vermögen.  Sie  können  tatsächlich  die  Ebene  der  Atome  ihrer  Zellstruktur  wahr-­‐ nehmen.  Wir  benötigen  zudem  Sanftheit,  damit  der  Prozess  neutral  und  locker  ablaufen  kann.  Wir   brauchen  die  Gedanken  nicht  zu  analysieren  oder  zu  beurteilen,  wenn  sie  auftreten,  und  müssen  uns   selbst  auch  nicht  dafür  verurteilen,  dass  sie  auftauchen.  Der  Inhalt  der  Gedanken,  ob  es  nun  um  ein   Fußballspiel  oder  um  unser  tiefstes,  dunkelstes  Geheimnis  geht,  ist  weder  gut  noch  schlecht.  Ein  Ge-­‐ danke  ist  einfach  nur  ein  Gedanke.  Uns  für  das  Denken  zu  tadeln  ist  ebenfalls  nur  ein  Gedanke.  Wir   werden  deshalb  angewiesen,  den  Gedanken  als  eine  Ablenkung  anzusehen  und  wieder  zum  Atem  zu-­‐ rückzukehren.  Diese  Art  von  Sanftheit  sorgt  für  eine  gesunde  Meditationspraxis.      

  Schmerz   Eines  der  Haupthindernisse  dafür,  dass  wir  die  Meditation    wirklich  genießen  können,  ist  der  Schmerz.   Unser  Knie  pocht,  der  Rücken  tut  weh,  und  die  Schultern  sind  verspannt.  Dass  sie  eventuell  Schmerzen   erfahren  werden,  genügt  schon,  um  viele  Menschen  davon  abzuhalten,  überhaupt  mit  dem  Üben  zu   beginnen.  Oft  begegne  ich  Menschen,  die  annehmen,  dass  die  Meditationshaltung  schmerzhaft  sein   soll.  Das  ist  nicht  zutreffend,  denn  sie  ist  dazu  gedacht,  sich  gut  anzufühlen.  Körperliche  Schmerzen   sind  kein  zwangsläufiger  Aspekt  der  Meditation.  Das  Ruhige  Verweilen  ist  nicht  auf  unseren  emotiona-­‐ len  Zustand  beschränkt;  Meditation  entspannt  unser  ganzes  Sein,  das  natürlich  unseren  Körper  mit   einschließt.    

Doch  da  wir  meist  nicht  daran  gewöhnt  sind,  lange  Zeit  ohne  Unterstützung  von  Stühlen  oder  Kissen   still  zu  sitzen,  sollten  wir  sanft  mit  uns  umgehen.  Es  dauert  eine  Weile,  bis  wir  uns  an  die  Meditations-­‐ haltung  gewöhnt  haben.  Westliche  Menschen  finden  oft  die  Vorstellung,  auf  einem  Kissen  zu  sitzen,   abschreckend,  weil  sie  nicht  daran  gewöhnt  sind,  auf  dem  Boden  zu  sitzen.  Ob  wir  nun  auf  einem  Stuhl   sitzen  oder  auf  einem  Kissen,  der  wichtige  Punkt  ist  zu  begreifen,  dass  körperliche  Schmerzen  beim   Üben  beruhigt  werden  können  und  sollten.  Um  auf  die  Reise  der  Meditation  gehen  zu  können,  müssen   wir  unseren  Körper  mit  einschließen  und  ihm  erlauben,  sich  ebenso  zu  lockern,  wie  der  Geist  sich  ent-­‐ spannt.    

Anfang  und  Ende   Haben  wir  uns  erst  einmal  in  der  Position  eingerichtet,  markieren  wir  einen  klaren  und  präzisen  An-­‐ fang  für  unsere  Übung.  Es  ist  nicht  notwendig,  dies  mit  einem  Gong  oder  einer  Glocke  zu  tun,  wie  es   die  Buddhisten  traditionsgemäß  tun.  Sie  können  auch  zu  sich  selbst  etwas  in  der  Art  sagen  wie:  „Jetzt   werde  ich  anfangen,  mit  meinem  Geist  zu  arbeiten  und  Ruhiges  Verweilen  zu  kultivieren.“   Sie  können  damit  anfangen,  einmal  am  Tag  zehn  Minuten  zu  sitzen.  Wenn  Sie  die  Sitzung  länger  ma-­‐ chen  wollen,  weiten  Sie  sie  auf  zwanzig  Minuten  aus.  Wollen  Sie  öfter  als  einmal  am  Tag  sitzen,  versu-­‐ chen  Sie  Ihren  Tag  durch  eine  Sitzung  am  Morgen  und  eine  am  Abend  einzurahmen.  Wenn  Sie  nicht   täglich  üben  können,  wählen  Sie  drei  oder  vier  Tage  wöchentlich  aus.  Und  halten  Sie  Ihren  Stunden-­‐ plan  nach  Möglichkeit  ein.  Wenn  Sie  zeitweilig  stärker  eingespannt  sind  –  weil  Sie  an  einem  größeren   Projekt  arbeiten  oder  im  Examen  stehen  –,  passen  Sie  Ihren  Stundenplan  dementsprechend  an  und   halten  Sie  ihn  ein.  Stetigkeit  ist  wichtig.     Versuchen  Sie  am  Ende  Ihrer  Sitzung  nicht  einfach  aufzuspringen  und  zu  Ihren  täglichen  Aktivitäten  zu   eilen.  Genießen  Sie  den  Raum,  der  durch  Ihre  Meditation  entstanden  ist,  und  erheben  Sie  sich  lang-­‐ sam.  Vielleicht  fühlen  Sie  sich  etwas  frischer,  klarer  und  ruhiger  als  vor  der  Sitzung.  Sie  brauchen  keine   besondere  Technik  in  Ihr  tägliches  Leben  mit  hinüber  zu  nehmen.  Essen,  trinken  oder  gehen  Sie  nicht   wie  ein  Zombie.  Sie  können  sich  einfach  entspannen  und  es  vielleicht  Ihrem  Verständnis  erlauben,  sich   weiter  zu  vertiefen.     Wenn  Ihr  Geist  weniger  von  Gedanken  und  Geschwätz  beansprucht  wird,  haben  Sie  eine  hilfreiche  Ge-­‐ räumigkeit  in  sich  geschaffen,  die  Sie  in  Ihren  weiteren  Tag  mitnehmen  können.  Es  wird  Ihnen  leichter   fallen,  präsent  zu  sein,  sowohl  was  die  Wahrnehmung  dessen  angeht,  was  um  Sie  herum  vorgeht,  als   auch  indem  Sie  klarer  mit  anderen  kommunizieren.  Es  wird  Ihnen  leichter  fallen,  die  Gedanken  und   Gefühle  als  die  Ablenkungen  zu  sehen,  die  sie  tatsächlich  sind.     Die  Anweisungen  sind  wirklich  ziemlich  einfach:  Wenn  Sie  Ihre  Geistesgegenwart  verlieren,  kommen   Sie  zurück  zum  Atem.  Wenn  das  Pferd  mit  Ihnen  durchgeht,  bringen  Sie  es  auf  den  Pfad  zurück.  Gehen   Sie  spielerisch  damit  um.  Experimentieren  Sie  mit  der  Einstimmung  auf  Ihre  Sinneswahrnehmungen,   um  zum  Beispiel  das  Pferd  unter  Kontrolle  zu  bringen.  Oder  üben  Sie,  Ihre  Haltung  aufzurichten,  wenn   Sie  bemerken,  dass  Ihr  Geist  wild  geworden  ist.  Üben  Sie,  dem  Menschen,  mit  dem  Sie  zusammen   sind,  in  die  Augen  zu  schauen  und  wirklich  auf  das  zu  hören,  was  er  sagt,  statt  Ihre  Antwort  schon  im   Vorhinein  zu  formulieren,  während  er  noch  spricht.  Nutzen  Sie  die  Achtsamkeit  und  Aufmerksamkeit,   die  Sie  auf  dem  Kissen  entwickelt  haben,  um  im  Sattel  des  Lebens  zu  bleiben.  Beobachten  Sie  dann,  ob   Sie  die  Früchte  der  Praxis  ohne  Erwartung  oder  Anhaftung  annehmen  können.   Wenn  Sie  die  Meditation  zu  einem  Bestandteil  Ihres  Lebens  machen  wollen,  ist  es  möglich,  dass  Sie   Hindernissen  und  Fragen  begegnen.  Deshalb  ist  es  hilfreich,  die  Unterstützung  von  erfahreneren   Übenden  zu  haben,  die  mit  ähnlichen  Problemen  konfrontiert  waren.  Ein  Meditationslehrer  kann   Ihnen  hinsichtlich  einiger  Aspekte  der  Praxis,  die  Ihnen  schwierig  erscheinen,  Hinweise  geben.  Mit  je-­‐

mand  anderem  über  Ihre  Erfahrungen  zu  sprechen  und  ein  Teil  der  Gemeinschaft  von  Mitmeditieren-­‐ den  zu  sein,  kann  eine  enorme  Unterstützung  sein.          

Einführung in die Achtsamkeit

Einführung in die Achtsamkeitsmeditation Viele  spirituelle  Traditionen  und  Linien  arbeiten  mit  meditativen  Methoden,  dabei  insbesondere  mit  solchen,   die  sich  mit  Achtsamkeit  beschäftigen.  Die  Methoden  der  Achtsamkeit,  die  heute  am  meisten  angewendet   werden  und  auch  die  Basis  für  schätzungsweise  85%  der  Forschungsstudien  sind,  kommen  aus  der  buddhisti-­‐ schen  Tradition.   Achtsamkeit  bildet  die  Basis:  Wir  müssen  zuerst  den  Geist  bereit  machen  und  zur  Ruhe  bringen,  um  uns  dann,   wenn  gewünscht,  mit  spirituellen  Themen  auseinandersetzen  zu  können.  Achtsamkeit  ist  typischerweise  die   Grundlage  für  alle  weiteren  Formen  und  Methoden  innerhalb  vielfältiger  Meditationspraktiken.   Heutzutage  gibt  es  wegen  der  steigenden  Stressbelastung  und  Reizüberflutung  ein  sehr  starkes  Interesse  am   Thema  Achtsamkeit.   Achtsamkeitsmeditation  ist  nichts  Spirituelles,  nichts  Mystisches  –  sondern  etwas  sehr  Praktisches.  Achtsam-­‐ keitsmeditation  steigert  die  Fähigkeit,  unseren  Geist  klar  und  fokussiert  auszurichten:  Auf  ein  Thema,  eine   Wahrnehmung,  ein  Objekt.  Fast  so  pragmatisch  wie  wir  unsere  Muskeln  im  Sport  trainieren,  so  können  wir   diese  sanft  ausgerichtete  Aufmerksamkeit  unseres  Geistes  trainieren.  Dennoch  hat  es  etwas  Unergründliches,   etwas  sehr  Profundes  an  sich,  mit  dem  Geist  zu  arbeiten.  Wir  können  Achtsamkeitsmeditation  deshalb  als   einfache  Methode  betrachten,  sollten  uns  aber  bewusst  darüber  sein,  dass  der  Nutzen  auch  in  anderen   Lebensbereichen  zu  spüren  sein  wird.  

Was passiert, wenn wir Achtsamkeitsmeditation praktizieren? Es  gibt  tausende  Bücher,  sehr  viele  klassische  Abhandlungen  und  Studien  über  Meditation,  die  verschiedene   Sichtweisen,  Methoden  und  Früchte  der  Achtsamkeitsmeditation  beschreiben  –  ein  weites  Feld.  Die  Früchte   der  Achtsamkeitsmeditation  lassen  sich  in  vereinfachter  Form  folgendermaßen  zusammenfassen:   1.

2.

3.

Wenn  wir  Achtsamkeitsmeditation  erlernen,  fangen  wir  -­‐  oft  zum  ersten  Mal  in  unserem  Leben  -­‐  an,   unsere  Aufmerksamkeit  nach  innen  zu  richten  und  unseren  Geist  in  Ruhe  zu  betrachten.  Wir  stellen   fest,  dass  unser  Geist  wie  ein  wildes  Pferd  ist,  schwer  zu  reiten  –  es  schweift  immer  ab,  will  andere   Wege  gehen.  Wir  erleben,  dass  wir  in  einem  ständigen  Strudel  von  kreisenden  Gedanken  gefangen   sind:  Druck,  (Katastrophen-­‐)Phantasien,  Tagträume,  Gedanken  an  kommende  Ereignisse...  jagen   durch  unseren  Geist,  und  wir  können  nicht  innehalten.  Das  ist  der  erste  Aspekt  der  Achtsamkeit  –   wir  kultivieren  die  Fähigkeit,  die  kreisenden  Gedanken  und  damit  Stress  loszulassen.   Im  jetzigen  Moment  hier  zu  sein  –  den  Moment  genießen/wahrnehmen.  Wir  verbringen  unsere   meiste  Zeit  woanders  –  nicht  im  jetzigen  Moment.  Wir  denken  über  das  Vergangene  nach,  machen   uns  Sorgen  über  die  Zukunft,  planen  unsere  Aufgaben  und  Verpflichtungen,  überlegen  wie  wir  das   nächste  Meeting  angehen  können  –  sind  aber  nicht  im  Hier  und  Jetzt.  Dabei  ist  der  jetzige  Moment   der  einzige,  der  wirklich  existiert.  Der  einzige  Moment,  in  dem  wir  handeln,  uns  mit  anderen  Men-­‐ schen  austauschen  können.  Weil  wir  so  selten  im  Hier  und  Jetzt  sind,  haben  viele  Menschen  das  Ge-­‐ fühl,  dass  ihr  Leben  an  ihnen  vorbeirauscht,  dass  sie  Ihr  Leben  nicht  wirklich  genießen  oder  die  vielen   kleinen  schönen  Momente  bewusst  wahrnehmen  können.   Aus  der  Entspannung  und  Entschleunigung  heraus  entwickeln  wir  eine  Wertschätzung  für  die  Dinge,   so  wie  sie  sind  -­‐  pur.  Wir  fangen  an,  uns  selbst  zu  respektieren,  wohlwollend  auf  uns  selbst  zu  schau-­‐ en  anstatt  immer  neuen  Lösungen,  Gedanken,  Zielen  nachzuhetzen.  Einfach  mit  uns  selbst  sein.    

 

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Einführung in die Achtsamkeit

Was ist Achtsamkeitsmeditation nicht? Meditation  ist  keine  neue  Selbstoptimierungsmethode.  Wir  wollen  uns  selbst  nicht  unter  Druck  setzen  und   denken,  jetzt  habe  ich  wieder  ein  neues  Ziel:  “Ganz  gedankenfrei  werden!“   „Gom“  ist  ein  asiatisches  Wort  für  Meditation  –  es  bedeutet,  sich  zu  gewöhnen  –  wir  gewöhnen  uns  selbst  an   uns  selbst,  so  wie  wir  sind.  Wir  versuchen  nicht  uns  zu  verbessern  oder  zu  optimieren.  Wenn  wir  einfach   lernen  zu  sein,  können  wir  den  Moment  und  unser  Leben  besser  und  tiefer  wahrnehmen  und  genießen.   Meditation  ist  auch  keine  Methode,  um  Gedanken  loszuwerden.  Gedanken  sind  vollkommen  normal,  in   Ordnung,  ein  Zeichen  der  Aktivität  unseres  Geistes.  Wir  lernen,  sie  zu  betrachten,  ihnen  nicht  anzuhaften   oder  sie  als  Wahrheit  festzuhalten.  Wirklicher  Frieden  bedeutet  nicht,  10  Minuten  ohne  Gedanken  auf  dem   Meditationskissen  zu  sitzen,  sondern  die  Fähigkeit  zu  erkennen,  was  gerade  ist,  ohne  es  zu  bewerten.  Wir   lernen  Gedanken  kommen  und  gehen  zu  lassen.  

Anleitung für die Achtsamkeitspraxis Dr.  Jon  Kabat-­‐Zinn,  Begründer  des  Achtsamkeitstrainings  MBSR  (Mindfulness-­‐Based-­‐Stress-­‐Reduction)  hat  die   östliche  Weisheitspraxis  in  einen  für  den  Westen  angepassten  Übungsweg  entwickelt  und  an  vielen  Klinken   erfolgreich  angewandt.  Es  ist  hilfreich,  folgende  Anweisungen  zu  beachten,  vielleicht  auch  jedes  Mal  zu  lesen,   bevor  Sie  Achtsamkeitsmeditation  üben:   1.

In  einem  ruhigen  O rt  Platz  nehmen  (Stuhl  oder  Sitzkissen)  

2.

Das  Wichtigste  ist,  dass  Sie  dafür  sorgen,  an  einem  ungestörten  Ort  Ihre  Praxis  üben  zu  können.  Es   sollte  möglichst  kein  Telefon  klingeln  oder  irgendjemand  Sie  in  dieser  Zeit  stören  können.  Wenn  Sie   immer  befürchten,  es  könnte  jemand  reinkommen,  wird  ihr  Geist  mehr  damit  beschäftigt  sein  und   kann  nur  schwer  zur  Ruhe  kommen.  

3.

Setzen  Sie  sich  aufrecht  hin.  Die  Wirbelsäule  ist  aufrecht  mit  ihrer  natürlichen  Krümmung.  Der  Kopf   ruht  ganz  elastisch  auf  der  Wirbelsäule.  

4.

Wenn  Sie  einen  Stuhl  gewählt  haben,  lehnen  Sie  sich  nicht  an,  sondern  rücken  Sie  etwas  nach  vorne,   sodass  Sie  Platz  haben,  sich  aufrecht  hinzusetzen.  

5.

Die  H ände  liegen  mit  der  Handinnenfläche  auf  den  Oberschenkeln.  Die  Ellbogen  hängen  natürlich   und  entspannt  nach  unten.  

6.

Die  A rme  und  Schultern  sind  entspannt.  

7.

Das  Kinn  wird  leicht  zur  Brust  gezogen.  Der  N acken  wird  dadurch  ganz  sanft  gestreckt.  

8.

Die  A ugen  sind  halb  geschlossen.  Der  Blick  ruht  ca.  1,5  Meter  vor  sich  auf  dem  Boden.  

9.

Das  G esicht  und  der  U nterkiefer  sind  natürlich  und  entspannt.  Die  Zunge  liegt  angenehm  und  weich   in  der  Mundhöhle.  

10. Wenn  Sie  auf  einem  Kissen  sitzen,  halten  Sie  Ihre  Fußgelenke  locker  gekreuzt.  Wenn  Sie  auf  einem   Stuhl  sitzen,  stellen  Sie  beide  Fußsohlen  flach  auf  den  Boden.  Achten  Sie  darauf,  dass  Sie  angenehm   sitzen  und  verändern  Sie  achtsam  Ihre  Körperhaltung,  wenn  irgendetwas  schmerzhaft  ist.   11. Lenken  Sie  Ihre  A chtsamkeit  auf  den  A tem  und  folgen  Sie  dem  Ein-­‐  und  Ausatmen.  Spüren  Sie   wirklich  Ihren  Atem.       12. Wenn  der  G eist  abschweift,  innerlich  „Denken“  sagen,  und  ganz  sanft  zurück  zum  Atem  kommen.    

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Einführung in die Achtsamkeit

     

   

 

 

  3

Einführung in die Achtsamkeit

Warum wir unsere Achtsamkeit auf den Atem richten Wir  können  unsere  Achtsamkeit  auf  vieles  richten  –  Emotionen,  Bilder,  Töne,  Kerzen,  Gedanken,  Aufgaben.   Das  ist  alles  möglich,  und  es  gibt  weitere  Meditationsformen,  die  genau  dies  machen.  Wir  fangen  mit  dem   Atem  an,  weil  dieser  für  uns  sehr  hilfreich  ist:  Wir  nutzen  den  Atem  sozusagen  als  Objekt  der  Meditation,  als   Stütze.  Idealerweise,  wenn  wir  achtsam  sind,  wollen  wir  einfach  nur  klar,  wach,  hier  sein.  Das  ist  nicht  immer   einfach.  Unser  Geist  will  immer  etwas  haben,  will  sich  immer  mit  irgendetwas  beschäftigen.  Dies  sind  Objekte   des  Geistes  –  zum  Beispiel  Wahrnehmungen,  Gedanken,  Emotionen  usw.  Mit  dem  Atem  geben  wir  dem  Geist   ein  Objekt  –  ein  Objekt,  das  dem  Geist  hilft  sich  zu  fokussieren,  zur  Ruhe  zu  kommen  und  sich  zu  entspannen.   Drei  Gründe,  warum  wir  den  Atem  dem  Geist  als  Objekt  der  Aufmerksamkeit  zur  Verfügung  stellen:   1. 2. 3.

Der  Atem  wirkt  entspannend  auf  das  gesamte  Nervensystem  und  somit  den  Körper  und  den  Geist.   Der  Atem  findet  immer  nur  im  jetzigen  Moment  statt  –  somit  können  wir  immer  wieder  lernen  zu   dem  jetzigen  Moment  zurückzukehren.   Der  Atem  gibt  einen  guten  Einblick  in  unseren  Geisteszustand  –  wenn  wir  unseren  Atem  wirklich   spüren,  spüren  wir  auch,  wie  es  uns  geht.  

 

Der  Vergleich  mit  einer  Kerze  ist  sehr  hilfreich:   Eine  ruhige  Kerze  gibt  sehr  gutes  Licht  und  brennt  auch  sehr  lange.  Ähnlich  ist  es  mit  unserem  Geist  –  wenn   unser  Geist  ruhig  ist,  dann  hat  er  ein  gute  Strahlkraft  –  wir  können  Sachen  verstehen,  uns  erinnern,  uns  tiefer   in  die  Dinge  hineinversetzen.   Eine  flackernde  Kerze  gibt  kein  gutes  Licht  und  verbraucht  das  Wachs  viel  schneller.  Ähnlich  macht  es  unser   Geist  –  ein  unruhiger  Geist  hat  keine  Kraft,  leuchtet  nicht  und  wir  verbrauchen  schneller  unsere  Lebensener-­‐ gie.  Die  Gefahr  von  einem  Burnout  ist  viel  größer,  wenn  unser  Geist  immer  in  sorgenden  Gedanken  kreist.  

 

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Einführung in die Achtsamkeit

Wir  können  auch,  wenn  wir  das  Gefühl  haben,  dass  unser  Geist  zu  unruhig  ist  und  es  schwer  erscheint  acht-­‐ sam  zu  werden,  den  Atem  zählen.  Wenn  wir  zum  Beispiel  bewusst  mit  jedem  Ausatmen  bis  11  zählen  und   dann  wieder  von  vorne  anfangen,  kann  das  die  Aufmerksamkeitsfokussierung  erleichtern.  

Umgang mit Gedanken Gedanken  sind  eine  der  natürlichen  Funktionen  unseres  Gehirns.  Wir  können  unser  Gehirn  genauso  wenig   abschalten,  wie  wir  unser  Herz  abschalten  können.  Trotzdem  können  wir  lernen,  die  Gedanken  zur  Ruhe   kommen  zu  lassen  und  ihnen  mit  Achtsamkeit  zu  begegnen.  Wir  wollen  sie  nicht  loswerden  oder  unterdrü-­‐ cken  oder  uns  so  stark  ablenken,  dass  wir  sie  nicht  bemerken.  Viele  Menschen  denken,  wenn  Sie  zu  meditie-­‐ ren  beginnen,  dass  sie  die  Gedanken  loswerden  können,  damit  sie  endlich  innerlich  zu  Ruhe  kommen.  Damit   kreieren  sie  eine  innere  Spannung  (ein  neues  Ziel!),  die  teilweise  dazu  führt,  dass  sie  noch  mehr  Gedanken   haben!  

Einige  wertvolle  Hinweise:   •

Einige  Menschen  denken,  dass  alles  nur  noch  schlimmer  wird,  wenn  sie  meditieren  –  es  fühlt  sich  so   an,  als  ob  die  Gedanken  noch  mehr  werden.  Das  ist  aber  nur  eine  täuschende  Wahrnehmung  –   durch  die  Stille  und  die  fokussierte  Aufmerksamkeit  nehmen  wir  zum  ersten  Mal  wahr,  wie  viele  Ge-­‐ danken  wir  haben.  Die  erste  Stufe  der  Meditation  wird  mit  der  Metapher  „Wasserfall“  beschrieben  –   unsere  Gedanken  rauschen  wie  ein  Wasserfall  auf  uns  herab.  

•

Die  meisten  Menschen  denken  instinktiv  immer  wieder,  dass  es  darum  geht  die  Gedanken  loszuwer-­‐ den.  Sie  sehnen  sich  nach  Ruhe,  wollen  beim  Atem  bleiben  und  werden  immer  wieder  abgelenkt   durch  Gedanken  und  Wahrnehmungen.  Das  ist  jedoch  nicht  das  Ziel.  Es  ist  auch  nicht  möglich  –  un-­‐ ser  Gehirn  verbraucht  ca.  20%  der  Energie  des  Körpers,  es  ist  immer  aktiv.  Wir  müssen  uns  immer   wieder  daran  erinnern,  die  Gedanken  zu  bemerken  und  zum  Atem  zurückzukehren.  

•

Es  geht  darum,  unser  Denken  achtsam  wahrzunehmen  und  beim  Atem  zu  bleiben  –  aber  nicht  da-­‐ rum,  Gedanken  zu  unterdrücken.  Wir  machen  sie  nicht  zu  unserem  Feind  -­‐  man  kann  ein  wildes   Pferd  nicht  zähmen,  indem  man  es  einpfercht  oder  im  kleinen  Stall  einsperrt.  Stattdessen  geben  wir   ihnen  viel  Raum.  

Drei  Aspekte  über  den  Umgang  mit  den  Gedanken:   1. 2. 3.

Präzision  –  wir  sehen  Gedanken  oder  Emotionen  als  das,  was  sie  sind.  Alle  Einzelteile.  Jede  kleinste   und  feinste  Spannung  und  Regung  in  einer  Emotion  können  wir  sehen  –  das  ist  Achtsamkeit.   Freundlichkeit/Sanftheit  –  wir  bewerten  Gedanken  nicht,  wir  akzeptieren  Sie.  Einfach  da  sein  lassen.   Loslassen  –  immer  wieder  loslassen,  so  spannend  sie  auch  sind.  Wir  kehren  zum  Atem  zurück.  Wir   üben  uns  im  Zurückkehren.  

 

  5

Einführung in die Achtsamkeit

 

Wie wir Achtsamkeit in unseren Alltag integrieren können Die  Integration  einer  regelmäßigen  Achtsamkeitspraxis  in  den  Alltag  braucht  Zeit  und  Geduld.  Es  ist  wie  eine   Pflanze  zu  pflanzen  –  der  Boden  muss  weich  gemacht  werden,  die  Pflanze  muss  genährt  und  gewässert   werden.  Vor  allem  in  unserem  heutigen  Hochgeschwindigkeitsleben  ist  es  oft  wichtiger  etwas  loszulassen,   leeren  Raum  im  Leben  zu  kreieren,  bevor  wir  eine  neue  Disziplin  oder  Praxis  einpflanzen  wollen.   Hier  sind  einige  wichtige  Tipps  für  die  eigene  Achtsamkeitspraxis  im  Alltag:  

Entscheiden  –  der  Anfang  ist  immer  eine  Entscheidung  –  und  „jedem  Anfang  liegt  ein  Zauber  inne“.  Eine   verbindliche  Entscheidung,  dass  wir  10-­‐20  Minuten  Achtsamkeitsmeditation  in  unser  Leben  integrieren.  Das   kann  in  der  Früh,  vor  der  Arbeit  oder  am  Abend  sein.  Es  kann  eine  Kombination  von  formaler  Achtsamkeits-­‐ praxis  im  Sitzen,  während  des  Autofahrens,  beim  Joggen  oder  eine  Bodymind-­‐Praxis  sein.  Wichtig  dabei  ist   (wie  auch  bei  jedem  Sport)  die  Regelmäßigkeit  und  die  Mäßigkeit  (sich  nicht  zu  viel  auf  einmal  vornehmen).   Besser  nur  8  Minuten  meditieren,  aber  diese  wirklich  regelmäßig  einhalten,  als  sich  zu  viel  vornehmen  und  es   dann  nicht  machen.  Wir  können  auch  nicht  gleich  einen  Marathon  laufen,  wenn  wir  nicht  eine  längere  Zeit   regelmäßig  dafür  trainieren.  

Zeit und Raum  –  Es  ist  wichtig,  einen  guten  Platz  für  die  Meditation  zu  schaffen,  zeitlich  und  auch   räumlich.  Wenn  wir  in  unserem  schnellen  Alltag  versuchen  noch  etwas  zusätzlich  „reinzuquetschen“,  wird  das   schwer  sein  und  eine  Last  werden.  Aber  wenn  wir  uns  bewusst  ein  wenig  Zeit  nehmen,  vielleicht  etwas  früher   schlafen  gehen,  10  Minuten  früher  aufstehen,  können  wir  Zeit  für  unsere  Achtsamkeitspraxis  schaffen.  Einen   guten,  ruhigen  und  einladenden  Platz  für  die  Praxis  zu  haben  ist  ebenfalls  sehr  hilfreich.  

Davor und danach  –  Es  ist  gut  etwas  langsamer  „davor  und  danach“  zu  sein.  Wenn  wir  Joggen,  wär-­‐ men  wir  uns  davor  auf  und  nehmen  uns  danach  ein  wenig  Zeit,  um  wieder  im  Alltagstempo  anzukommen.   Ähnlich  bei  der  Achtsamkeitspraxis  –  man  könnte  vorher  einen  schönen  Tee  trinken,  ein  wenig  reflektieren   und  danach  noch  achtsam  aufstehen,  zum  Auto  gehen  und  in  den  Tag  starten.  

 

  6

Einführung in die Achtsamkeit

Nicht aufgeben  –  jeder  Erwachsene  weiß,  dass  jedes  Kind  Fahrrad  fahren  lernen  kann.  Wichtig  ist   dabei,  dass  ein  Kind  nicht  aufgibt.  Ähnlich  ist  es  bei  der  Achtsamkeitsmeditation.  Jeder  kann  es  –  und  trotz-­‐ dem  ist  es  schwer,  weil  es  so  gegen  den  Rhythmus  der  heutigen  Zeit  geht.  Deshalb  ist  es  wichtig  zu  akzeptie-­‐ ren,  dass  wir  immer  wieder  den  Kontakt  zu  unserer  Achtsamkeitspraxis  verlieren  können  –  vielleicht  sind  wir   7  Tage  auf  Geschäftsreise  und  wir  kommen  nicht  dazu.  Das  ist  sehr  häufig  der  Fall.  Deshalb  ist  es  wichtig,   immer  wieder  frisch  anzufangen.  Es  ist  wie  das  Zurückkehren  zum  Atem  –  wir  kehren  nach  einigen  Tagen   wieder  zur  Praxis  zurück.  Wir  haben  nicht  versagt.  Auch  ist  es  nicht  so,  dass  für  uns  Achtsamkeitsmeditation   nicht  funktioniert  –  es  ist  diese  Zeit,  die  Hektik,  das  Ungewohnte.  

Morgens oder abends  –  Achtsamkeitspraxis  als  Übergangsritual  –  Rituale  sind  sehr  wichtig,  um   Übergänge  zu  gestalten.  Wenn  wir  das  Büro  verlassen  und  vielleicht  unser  letztes  Telefonat  im  Auto  abge-­‐ schlossen  haben,  ist  es  wichtig  den  Geist  „runterzuschalten“.  Dafür  können  Rituale  hilfreich  sein.  Somit   schaffen  wir  einen  Übergang  in  einen  entschleunigteren  Ablauf.  

Ausreichend Zeit pro Tag zum Nichtstun/Entspannen  –  wenn  der  ganze  Tag  sehr  voll   ist,  werden  wir  das  vor  allem  merken,  wenn  wir  versuchen  achtsam  zu  sitzen.  Wir  haben  dann  oft  das  Gefühl,   dass  der  Raum  sich  noch  dreht,  unser  Gedankenkarussell  immer  weiter  geht.  Oder  wir  stellen  fest,  dass  wir   müde  sind  und  schlafen  ein.  Achtsamkeit  üben  heißt  achtsamer  dafür  zu  werden,  wie  es  uns  von  Moment  zu   Moment  geht.  Wahrzunehmen,  wann  wir  müde  oder  erschöpft  und  wann  wir  energiegeladen  und  wach  sind.  

Wie wir die Motivation für die Praxis aufrecht halten können Wie  bei  jedem  Lernprozess  ist  die  Motivation  das  treibende  Element.  Wenn  wir  das  Rauchen  aufhören  wol-­‐ len,  weil  wir  gehört  haben,  dass  es  uns  schaden  kann,  haben  wir  eine  bestimmte,  meist  nicht  so  tiefgreifende   Motivation.  Wenn  wir  beim  Arzt  sind  und  er  uns  Bilder  unserer  Lunge  zeigt  und  klar  sagt,  dass  wir  nur  noch   ein  paar  Jahre  zu  leben  haben,  ist  die  Motivation  eine  ganz  andere.   Bei  der  Achtsamkeitspraxis  ist  der  erste  Entschluss  oft  verursacht  durch  unser  Gefühl  gestresst  zu  sein  und   vielleicht  haben  wir  gelesen,  dass  Achtsamkeit  gegen  Stress  hilft.  Wir  setzen  uns  dann  hin  und  sehen,  wie   intensiv  unsere  Gedanken  kreisen  und  verlieren  leider  oft  den  Mut  weiter  zu  üben.  Wenn  wir  unsere  Gedan-­‐ ken  aber  wirklich  achtsam  betrachten,  bemerken  wir  zur  gleichen  Zeit  auch  eine  tiefe  Sehnsucht  nach  Ruhe   und  Entschleunigung.  Das  heißt,  dass  die  Achtsamkeitspraxis  uns  sensibilisiert  und  inspiriert  weiter  zu  ma-­‐ chen.  An  manchen  Tagen  ist  es  eher  das  Erste,  was  wir  tun,  an  anderen  Tagen  das  Letzte.  Wichtig  ist,  wie   gesagt,  nicht  aufzugeben.  Die  Motivation  wächst  von  selbst.          

 

  7

Einführung in die Achtsamkeit

 

Umgang mit Hürden in der Praxis Jeder  Mensch,  der  meditiert,  macht  seine  einzigartige  Erfahrung.  Meditation  ist  eine  sehr  persönliche  Reise,   ein  Reise  der  Entdeckung.  Hier  sind  einige  typische  Hürden  in  der  Achtsamkeitspraxis  aufgezeichnet  und  wie   Sie  damit  umgehen  können:  

Spannung  –  viele  Menschen  sind  zu  verspannt,  sie  wollen  unbedingt  erfolgreich  meditieren  und  setzen   sich  unter  Druck.  Typische  Anzeichen  sind  eine  angespannte  Haltung  oder  eine  Flut  von  Gedanken.  Hier  ist  es   hilfreich  sich  bewusst  zu  entspannen,  vielleicht  ein  paar  Mal  tief  auszuatmen.  

Langeweile/Unruhe  –  oft  empfindet  man  Langeweile,  Unruhe,  Irritation.  Wir  sind  es  nicht  gewohnt   einfach  zu  sitzen  und  suchen  innerlich  Ablenkung.  Wir  sehnen  uns  nach  Reizen.  Hier  ist  es  wichtig  das  zu   merken  und  sofern  es  geht,  mehr  zu  entspannen.  Meditation  kann  sehr  langweilig  sein.  Einfach  sein  kann   aber  genauso  gut  sehr  tiefgreifend  sein.  Das  ist  ein  Teil  der  Achtsamkeitspraxis.  

Unsicherheit –  häufig  werden  wir  unsicher  –  machen  wir  es  richtig?  Hier  ist  es  hilfreich  über  das,  was   wir  gelernt  haben,  nachzudenken  und  zu  reflektieren,  vielleicht  etwas  zu  lesen  und  unterschiedliche  Ansätze   auszuprobieren.  Es  gibt  nicht  einen  richtigen  Ansatz,  sondern  viele,  die  alle  leicht  unterschiedlich  wirken.  Wir   können  unsere  Praxis    variieren  und  Vertrauen  entwickeln,  was  für  uns  gut  ist.      

Tolle Ideen  –  häufig  haben  wir  tolle  Ideen,  wenn  wir  meditieren.  Wenn  der  Geist  sich  entspannt,  wir   nicht  mehr  so  beschäftigt  sind,  können  neue  neuronale  Verbindungen  geschaffen  werden,  und  somit  erken-­‐ nen  wir  oft  Lösungen  zu  Problemen,  die  uns  begleitet  haben.  Loslassen,  notfalls  notieren  und  zurückkehren   zur  Achtsamkeit.  Das  ist  eine  Herausforderung.    

  8

Einführung in die Achtsamkeit

Müdigkeit –  viele  Menschen  werden  sehr  müde  –  oder  merken  eigentlich  zum  ersten  Mal,  wie  müde  sie   sind.  Die  Augen  werden  schwer,  sie  nicken  ein.  Das  ist  sehr  üblich  und  manchmal  ist  es  hilfreich  nicht  dagegen   anzukämpfen,  sondern  es  einfach  zuzulassen.  Den  Körper  aufrichten,  gerade  sitzen  kann  dabei  auch  sehr   hilfreich  sein,  um  unseren  Geist  wachsamer  zu  machen.  

Wilder Geist –  Wir  merken  oft,  wie  wild  der  Geist  ist  und  verzweifeln  wie  beim  Anblick  eines  Gartens,   der  mit  Unkraut  überwuchert  ist.  Es  ist  manchmal  schwer  Gedanken  loszulassen,  und  wir  haben  das  Gefühl,   wenn  wir  10  Minuten  sitzen,  dass  wir  nur  in  Gedanken  gefangen  sind.  Hier  ist  es  hilfreich,  gezielt  zurück  zum   Atem  zu  kommen,  den  Körper  zu  spüren,  tief  auszuatmen  und  die  Spannung  loszulassen.  Die  Atemzüge  zu   zählen,  kann  auch  eine  unterstützende  Möglichkeit  sein.  

Sich unwohl fühlen  –  wenn  Sie  sich  unwohl  fühlen  (angespannt,  nervös,  unruhig,  usw.),  ist  schnell  der   Wunsch  vorhanden  aufzuhören  oder  sich  durch  Gedanken  abzulenken.  Dabei  ist  es  besser  dieses  Gefühl   wirklich  zu  spüren  –  wo  ist  es  genau,  wie  fühlt  es  sich  an  –,  neugierig  zu  sein.  Dadurch  können  wir  feststellen,   dass  wir  selbst  nicht  unser  Gefühl  sind,  sondern  dass  es  einfach  eine  Wahrnehmung  ist.  

Einsamkeit –  Einige  Menschen  fühlen  sich  sehr  einsam  und  alleine,  wenn  sie  meditieren.  Auch  hier   können  wir  neugierig  sein,  wirklich  spüren  wie  sich  die  Einsamkeit  anfühlt.  

Starke Emotionen  –  weil  wir  in  der  Achtsamkeitspraxis  innerlich  mehr  Ruhe  haben,  können  auch   starke  Emotionen  hochkommen,  für  die  wir  sonst  keine  Zeit  oder  Aufmerksamkeit  haben.  Dies  ist  normal  und   teilweise  ein  gesunder  Prozess.  Es  ist  hilfreich  auch  hier  die  Emotionen  zu  akzeptieren,  nicht  bewerten,   loslassen  und  vor  allem  den  Atem  wirklich  körperlich  zu  spüren.  

Physischer Schmerz  –  wenn  wir  merken,  dass  uns  etwas  schmerzt,  ist  der  erste  Schritt,  dies  wahrzu-­‐ nehmen.  Dann  kann  die  Betrachtung  des  Schmerzes  folgen:  Wo  genau  ist  der  Schmerz,  welche  Qualität  hat  er   und  was  passiert,  während  ich  das  untersuche.  Wenn  der  Schmerz  zu  intensiv  wird,  probieren  Sie  eine  andere   Haltung  aus.  

Lustlosigkeit –  an  manchen  Tagen  fehlt  uns  einfach  die  Lust  zu  meditieren  –  wir  fragen  uns,  warum  wir   das  machen  oder  ob  das  wirklich  notwendig  ist.  Dies  ist  oft  der  Fall,  weil  wir  zu  vieles  haben,  was  wir  sonst   machen.  Entschleunigen  Sie  ihren  Alltag,  lesen  Sie  etwas,  was  Ihr  Herz  berührt  und  erinnern  Sie  sich  an  Ihre   Motivation.    

 

 

  9

Einführung in die Achtsamkeit

 

Häufig gestellte Fragen 1.

Warum  mit  offenen  Augen  –  mit  geschlossenen  Augen  ist  es  einfacher  abzuschalten?   a.

2.

Kann  man  im  Liegen  meditieren?   a.

3.

Besser  kurz  und  regelmäßig  als  lang  und  unregelmäßig.  

Kann  ich  Musik  hören,  wenn  ich  meditiere?   a.

9.

Wichtig  ist  Regelmäßigkeit.  Suchen  Sie  eine  Zeit  aus,  die  zu  Ihrem  Leben  passt,  in  der  Sie  re-­‐ gelmäßig  10  bis  20  Minuten  üben  können.  

Ist  eine  Stunde  zu  viel?   a.

8.

Einfach  spüren,  was  da  ist.  Auch  wenn  es  Stress,  Anspannung,  Irritation  ist.  So  sind  wir  in   diesem  Moment.  So  kommen  wir  zu  uns.  Natürlich  wünschen  wir  uns,  dass  wir  entspannt   und  ruhig  sind  –  aber  das  ist  nicht  immer  so.  Wenn  wir  uns  selbst  auch  akzeptieren,  wenn   wir  irritiert  und  angespannt  sind,  wird  unsere  Achtsamkeit  viel  stärker.  

Soll  ich  jeden  Tag  sitzen?  Ist  morgens  besser  als  abends?   a.

7.

Gedanken  sind  natürlich,  unser  Geist  ist  trainiert  zu  denken.  Wenn  wir  unsere  Gedanken   achtsam  wahrnehmen,  beruhigen  sie  sich  selbst.  

Wie  komme  ich  besser  zu  mir?   a.

6.

Nichts,  einfach  sein  lassen  so  wie  er  ist,  angespannt  oder  entspannt.  Einfach  achtsam  spü-­‐ ren.  

Ich  kann  nicht  aufhören  zu  denken.  Wie  werde  ich  meine  Gedanken  los?   a.

5.

Meistens  nicht,  wir  fallen  sehr  schnell  in  Schlaf.  

Was  mache  ich  mit  meinen  Atem?   a.

4.

Wir  kennen  meistens  nur  2  Zustände  –  wach  und  angespannt  oder  entspannt  und  schlaff   (oder  eingeschlafen).  In  der  Achtsamkeitspraxis  versuchen  wir  wach  und  entspannt  zu  sein.   Wir  versuchen  nicht  die  Welt  auszublenden,  sondern  präsent  und  achtsam  zu  sein.  Wenn   wir  die  Augen  schließen,  reduzieren  wir  die  Wahrnehmungsreize,  die  auf  uns  wirken,  aber   wir  fallen  auch  leichter  in  Schlaf.  Aber  wenn  es  zu  schwer  ist,  können  wir  auch  gerne  die   Augen  schließen  und  sehen  was  passiert.  

Musik  kann  hilfreich  sein  in  der  Entspannung,  oder  wir  können  auch  lernen  achtsam  Musik   zu  hören.  Aber  wenn  wir  lernen  wollen  achtsam  unserem  Atem  zu  folgen,  ist  Musik  nicht   hilfreich.  

Ich  habe  es  versucht  und  fühle  mich  unruhiger  als  vorher.   a.

Unser  Garten  ist  jahrelang  ungepflegt  gewesen.  Wenn  wir  einmal  Zeit  mit  uns  verbringen,   merken  wir  das  und  denken,  es  ist  schlimmer  geworden.  Das  ist  nicht  der  Fall,  sondern  wir   haben  es  nur  gemerkt.  Manchmal  ist  es  auch  so,  dass  wir  zu  sehr  versuchen  unseren  Geist   zu  beruhigen  und  damit  Spannung  aufbauen.  Einfach  zurück  zum  Atem  kommen.  Wenn  es   zu  viel  ist,  können  Sie  auch  versuchen  achtsam  zu  gehen.  

10. Kann  ich  auf  einen  Stuhl  auch  sitzen?   a.

Stuhl  oder  Kissen,  beides  ist  gut,  solange  Sie  aufrecht  sitzen.  

       

  10

Einführung in die Achtsamkeit

 

Raus aus der Esoterik – rein in den Alltag Für  viele  Menschen  ist  Achtsamkeitsmeditation  etwas  Esoterisches.    Oder,  auf  dem  zweiten  Blick,  eine  Art   kognitives  Training.    Achtsamkeitsmeditation  ist  aber  viel  mehr  als  das.  Nach  langem  Schlummern  in  der   Wohlfühl-­‐  und  Esoterikecke  ist  Achtsamkeit  in  den  letzten  Jahren  mitten  in  der  Gesellschaft  angekommen.   Der  esoterische  Hauch  rundum  Meditation  ist  gründlich  fehl  am  Platz.    Es  gibt  kaum  ein  Thema,  das  die   Unternehmenswelt  betrifft,  das  derzeit  intensiver  erforscht  wird.    Jährlich  werden  ca.  550  wissenschaftliche   Studien  und  Publikationen  zum  Thema  Achtsamkeitsmeditation  veröffentlicht.    Und  die  Ergebnisse  sind   zunehmend  klar  und  deutlich:  Meditation  wirkt  –  und  das  in  vielerlei  Hinsicht!   •

Gesundheit:  Körper  und  Geist  sind  tief  verbunden,  vor  allem  durch  unser  Nervensystem.    Achtsam-­‐ keitsmeditation  hilft  uns  zu  entspannen  und  bewusst  Stress  loszulassen.  Es  hat  dadurch  nachweisbar   sehr  positive  Effekte  auf  unsere  physische  Gesundheit  und  die  Stärkung  des  Immunsystems.    Hun-­‐ derte  von  Studien  haben  die  Wirkung  bei  vielfältigen  Krankheiten  und  Leiden  nachgewiesen,  unter   anderem  bei  Kopfschmerzen,  Schmerzsyndrom,  erhöhtem  Blutdruck  u.v.m.  

•

Kognitive  Fähigkeiten:  Achtsamkeit  ist  die  Basis  für  alle  höheren  kognitiven  Fähigkeiten.    Gehirnfor-­‐ scher  haben  nachgewiesen,  dass  Achtsamkeit  sich  positiv  auf  Erinnerungs-­‐,  Konzentrations-­‐,  Wahr-­‐ nehmungsfähigkeit,  Kreativität  u.a.  auswirkt.  

•

Verhalten  und  psychische  Gesundheit:  Achtsamkeit  stärkt  unsere  psychische  Resillienz  vor  allem  bei     Angstzuständen,  Burnout,  Depression  und  Schlafstörungen.  

Auf  den  ersten  Blick  mag  dies  erstaunlich  wirken,  auf  den  zweiten  weniger:  Wir  wissen  alle,  dass  Sport  sich   positiv  auf  Körper,  Geist  und  Seele  auswirkt,  weil  die  Stärkung  eines  Elements  immer  auch  eine  Auswirkung   auf  die  anderen  hat.  Beim  Thema  Sport  scheint  uns  dies  selbstverständlich.  Wenn  wir  Sport  erst  in  den   letzten  5  Jahren  entdeckt  hätten,  wären  wir  auch  ähnlich  erstaunt  gewesen,  wie  wunderbar  Sport  wirkt.    Die   Parallele  zur  Achtsamkeitsmeditation  ist  vorhanden.  Wird  sie  als  tägliches  Training  praktiziert,  zeigt  sie  auch   sehr  stärkende  Auswirkungen  auf  Körper,  Geist  und  Seele.  Der  Unterschied  ist  aber,  dass  sie  primär  zunächst   den  Geist  trainiert,  was  vor  allem  den  Menschen  in  der  Unternehmenswelt  zu  Gute  kommt:     •

Körperliche  Leistungsfähigkeit  ist  wichtig,  aber  in  der  heutigen  Arbeitswelt  ist  es  noch  wichtiger,   geistig  fit,  flexibel,  und  kreativ  zu  sein.      

•

Achtsamkeit  wirkt  sehr  stark  auf  die  sozialen  Interaktionen  ein,  auf  die  Fähigkeit  zuzuhören,  Emotio-­‐ nen  wahrzunehmen  und  im  authentischen  Dialog  mit  anderen  zu  sein.  Dies  ist  für  Führungskräfte  kri-­‐ tisch.  

•

Achtsamkeit  wirkt  der  enormen  Geschwindigkeit  der  heutigen  Welt  entgegen  und  ist  ebenfalls  effek-­‐ tiv  gegen  eine  der  Krankheiten  der  heutigen  Zeit,  die  permanente,  rastlose,  „always  on“-­‐Hektik.    

Achtsamkeit, Stress und Entschleunigung Die  vorherrschende  Meinung  ist:  Weil  wir  keine  Zeit  haben,  sind  wir  alle  so  gestresst.    Aber  eigentlich  ist  es   genau  andersherum  –  weil  wir  gestresst  sind,  haben  wir  keine  Zeit!    Unser  tägliches  Arbeitspensum  ist  statis-­‐ tisch  gesehen  nicht  wesentlich  mehr  als  es  noch  vor  20  Jahren  der  Fall  war.    In  vielen  Bereichen  sogar  weni-­‐ ger.    Unbestritten  ist  aber,  dass  wir  täglich  mit  hunderten  „Nebenher-­‐Todos“  in  enger  Taktung  zu  tun  haben.     Unser  Geist  muss  sich  mit  diesen  Stressoren    täglich  auseinandersetzen  und  wir  können  eben  nicht  einfach   abschalten,  wenn  wir  zuhause  sind  oder  einmal  Zeit  haben.    

 

  11

Einführung in die Achtsamkeit

Was  passiert  dann?  Unser  Geist  kreist  noch,  springt  von  einem  Thema  zum  anderen,  wir  kommen  innerlich   nicht  zur  Ruhe.    Es  stellt  sich  kein  Gefühl  der  Entspannung  ein.    Wir  können  uns  nicht  achtsam  und  entspannt   einer  Sache  widmen.  Wie  die  Stressforschung  zu  recht  sagt:  Das  Problem  ist  nicht  angemessener  Stress,   sondern  das  Fehlen  von  regelmäßiger  Entspannung  und  Erholung.     Achtsamkeitstraining  lehrt  unseren  Geist  inne  zu  halten,  das  stetige  Gedankenkreisen  loszulassen  und  inner-­‐ lich  zur  Ruhe  zu  kommen.  Wissenschaftliche  Studien  haben  in  weiten  Bereichen  bewiesen,  dass  sich  dadurch   die  Architektur  des  Gehirns  verändert.  Rufen  wir  normalerweise  mitten  im  Geschehen  unser  übliches  Reiz-­‐   Reaktionsmuster  ab,  was  für  uns  und  andere  Stress  verursacht,  können  wir  durch  das  Achtsamkeitstraining   unsere  Reaktionen  differenzierter  wahrnehmen  und  verzögern.  Dadurch  entstehen  neue  Handlungsoptionen.     Wir  sind  mehr  als  bisher  in  der  Lage,  uns  selbst  zu  beobachten,  unser  eigenes  Verhalten  zu  erkennen  und   entsprechend  zu  verändern.  Diese  Veränderungen  zeichnen  sich  auch  in  unserer  Gehirnstruktur  ab.    Aus   diesem  Grund  wird  Achtsamkeitstraining  schon  in  fast  allen  Burnout-­‐Kliniken  angeboten.    

Achtsamkeit und Konzentration Der  Führungsalltag  ist  in  vielen  Unternehmen  vor  allem  durch  ständige  Reizüberflutung,  Hektik  und  hoher   Leistungsdruck  geprägt.    Wir  machen  viele  Sachen  gleichzeitig    und  können  nicht  immer  etwas  zu  Ende   bringen.     Gebraucht  aber  werden  Konzentration,  Fokussierung  und  Ausdauer.    Wegen  des  permanenten  Stresses  sind   viele  Führungskräfte  unkonzentriert  und  ausgebrannt,  können  kein  ruhiges  Gespräch  führen  oder  keinen   Gedanken  zu  Ende  verfolgen.  Viele  leiden  unter  dem  neurologischen  Phänomen  des  „Aufmerksamkeitsdefizit-­‐ Syndroms“.  Sie  befinden  sich  in  einem  Zustand  von  anhaltender  leiser  Panik  und  innerer  Unruhe.  Sie  werden   fahriger,  angespannter,  herrischer  und  unkonzentrierter.   Bewiesenermaßen  schult  regelmäßiges  Meditieren  eine  ruhige  Aufmerksamkeit  und  stärkt  die  Konzentration   deutlich.  Forscher  haben  herausgefunden,  dass  schon  kurze  Meditationseinheiten  wirken  können.    Ein  bei-­‐ spielhaftes  Ergebnis  war:  Vier  Tage  jeweils  20minütigen  Trainings  genügen,  um  kognitive  Fähigkeiten  wie   Aufmerksamkeit  und  Konzentration  deutlich  zu  verbessern.  Probanden,  die  Achtsamkeitsmeditation  übten,   schnitten,  auch  unter  Stress,  in  Tests  zum  Arbeitsgedächtnis  sowie  zur  räumlich-­‐visuellen  Wahrnehmung   deutlich  besser  ab  als  andere  nicht  geschulte.      

Emotionale Intelligenz und Empathie Kommen  Führungskräfte  zu  einem  Coaching,  passiert  es  nicht  selten,  dass  sie  emotional  sehr  berührt  werden.     Der  Raum  für  die  Eigenreflektion  und  die  damit  verbundene  Entschleunigung  stellt  häufig  das  erste  Mal  seit   langer  Zeit  eine  Möglichkeit  dar,  Zugang  zu  sich  selbst  und  den  persönlichen  Inspirationsquellen  zu  haben.   Ähnliches  passiert  auch  in  Achtsamkeitstrainings.  Die  Entschleunigung,  die  Berührung  mit  dem  inneren   Zustand  schafft  einen  ähnlichen  Kontakt  wie  in  einem  guten  Coaching.   Dieses  „in  Berührung  mit  sich  selbst  Kommen“  ist  gleichzeitig  eine  Voraussetzung  für  Selbstkenntnis  und   Empathie.  Beides  ist  hilfreich  für  eine  sozial-­‐intelligente  Führung.  Eine  Reihe  von  Managementforschern   sehen  emotionale  Intelligenz  oder  Empathie  als  wichtigere  Indikatoren  für  den  Erfolg  einer  Führungskraft  als   fachliches  Wissen.  Parallel  dazu  haben  auch  Gehirnforscher  entdeckt,  dass  wir  alle  Spiegelneuronen  in  unse-­‐ ren  Gehirnen  haben.  Wir  können  nicht  nur  die  Emotionen  von  anderen  wahrnehmen,  sondern  deren  Erlebnis   wird  wahrscheinlich  auch  natürlicherweise  in  unserem  Gehirn  nachgespiegelt.    Empathie  ist  natürlich,  wir   spüren,  was  andere  spüren.        

  12

Einführung in die Achtsamkeit

Somit  müssen  wir  nicht  Empathie  lernen,  sondern  NUR  lernen,  wahrzunehmen.  In  Trainingsseminaren,  die   sich  mit  Achtsamkeit  befassen,  werden  diese  Fähigkeiten  entwickelt.  Wir  nehmen  uns  selbst  und  unsere   Emotionen  besser  wahr  und  können  besser  damit  umgehen.  Achtsame  und  emotionelle  Führung  kann  sich   dann  natürlich  entfalten.           Diese  essentielle  Erkenntnis  ist  Bestandteil  des  „Search  Inside  Yourself“  Projektes  von  Google,  ein  Achtsam-­‐ keits-­‐Training,  entwickelt  mit  Achtsamkeitsforschern.  Es  wird  seit  2007  für  Google  Mitarbeiter  angeboten  und   ist  ein  wichtiger  Bestandteil  der  Führungskräfteentwicklung  bei  Google.      

Nachhaltigkeit Forscher  am  INSEAD,  einer  Managementuniversität  in  der  Nähe  von  Paris,  wurden  von  der  EU  beauftragt,   Maßnahmen  zu  Steigerung  von  CSR  (Corporate  Social  Responsibility)  in  der  Wirtschaft  zu  bewerten.    Dabei   sind  sie  auf  überraschende  Ergebnisse  gestoßen.  Die  meisten  Seminare  zur  Steigerung  von  CSR  wirkten  nicht.     Seminare,  die  nur  Achtsamkeitsmeditation  oder  ähnliche  Inhalte  angeboten  haben,    erhöhten  die  Wahr-­‐ scheinlichkeit  deutlich,  dass  Führungskräfte  sich  nachhaltig  verhalten  würden.    Auf  den  ersten  Blick  ist  das   sehr  überraschend.  Auf  den  zweiten  Blick  nicht.    Eigentlich  ist  jeder  Mensch,  jede  Führungskraft  daran  inte-­‐ ressiert,  dass  es  den  Mitarbeitern  und  der  Umwelt  gut  geht  –  sie  haben  nur  oft  nicht  den  Kopf  frei  genug  oder   sind  so  in  ihrer  Stressmühle  gefangen,  dass  sie  nicht  nachhaltig  handeln  können.  Nachhaltiges  Handeln  ist   jedoch  ein  natürliches  Bedürfnis  der  meisten  Menschen.    Sie  müssen  nur  den  Raum  dafür  haben,    einen   geistigen  Raum,  wie  er  sich  durch  Achtsamkeitsmeditation  entwickeln  lässt,  um  die  Konsequenzen  des  eige-­‐ nen  Handelns  zu  reflektieren.  Darum  sind  viele  Menschen,  nicht  zuletzt  die  Verantwortlichen  bei  Google   überzeugt,  dass  Achtsamkeitsmeditation  einen  wesentlichen  Beitrag  zu  einer  erfolgreichen  Zukunft  in  der   Unternehmenswelt  leisten  kann.

Ganzheitliches Führen Entschleunigung,  weniger  Stress,  bessere  Wahrnehmung,  Aufmerksamkeit  und  Empathie  und  natürliches   Interesse  an  Nachhaltigkeit.    Alles  dies  sind  Ergebnisse  von  Achtsamkeitsmeditation.    Deshalb  ist  Achtsamkeit   im  Führungsalltag  ein  sehr  pragmatischer  Zugang  zur  ganzheitlichen  Führung.    Wir  sind  sogar  der  Meinung,   dass  Achtsamkeit  einer  der  essentiellen  Antworten  zur  Frage  des  „Wie“  ist.    Viele  reden  von  ganzheitlicher,   nachhaltiger  Führung,  aber  auf  die  Frage,  wie  dies  vor  allem  im  gestressten  und  erschöpften  Zustand  zu   erreichen  ist,  gibt  es  bisher  wenige  Antworten.   Wenn  wir  über  Führungskräfteentwicklung  nachdenken,  gibt  es  eine  schier  endlose  Menge  an  Werkzeugen,   die  unterstützen  sollen.  Trotzdem  scheinen  viele  Führungskräfte  nicht  zu  wissen,  wie  man  wirksam  führt.    Es   scheint  etwas  zu  fehlen,  aber  was?   Achtsamkeit  zu  trainieren  ist  mehr,  als  sich  eine  neue  Fähigkeit  anzueignen.  Hier  geht  es  um  Selbstkenntnis,   Selbsterkenntnis,    um  allumfassende  Wahrnehmung,  um  sozial  intelligente  Interaktionen.  Man  könnte  sagen,   Achtsamkeit  ist  das  Verbindungsglied,  das  alles,  was  eine  Führungskraft  tut,  verbindet.  Eine  Studie  aus  dem   Jahre  2007  hat  über  fünfhundert  Führungskräfte  analysiert  und  in  verschiedene  Leistungsebenen  eingeteilt.     Viele  waren  funktional  gute  Führungskräfte  –  aber  nur  5  bis  10%  waren  wirklich  herausragende  „Leader“.  Und   das  Interessante    war,  dass  mehr  als  50%  der  herausragenden  Führungskräfte  eine  regelmäßige  Achtsam-­‐ keits-­‐  oder  eine  ähnliche  kontemplative  Praxis  pflegen.      

 

  13

Einführung in die Achtsamkeit

Kein magisches Allheilmittel Aber  man  muss  einschränken:      Achtsamkeitsmeditation  ist  kein  Allheilmittel.    Sie  ist  zwar  hundertfach  von   Studien  wissenschaftlich  als  hilfreich  bestätigt,  aber  es  ist  wie  beim  Sport  –  wir  müssen  regelmäßig  trainieren.       Unserer  Ansicht  nach  wird  es  an  dieser  Stelle  wirklich  interessant.    Achtsamkeit  ist  geräuschlos  und  geruchlos.     Wir  müssen  uns  nicht  umziehen  oder  nachher  duschen.    Wir  können  Achtsamkeitsübungen  in  ALLE  Aspekte   des  Alltags  integrieren.  Viele  Firmen  experimentieren  schon  mit  Achtsamkeitstrainings  in  verschiedenste   Richtungen:   •

Stress-­‐Reduktion:  basierend  auf  der  Arbeit  des  Centre  for  Mindfulness  am  MIT  wurde  ein  Achtsam-­‐ keitsprogramm  zur  Stress-­‐Reduktion  entwickelt  (MBSR).    Dieses  Programm  ist  schon  in  sehr  vielen   Firmen  angeboten  worden.  

•

Stress  und  Produktivität:  Einige  Firmen,  unter  anderem  Carlsberg,  Sony  und  GE  Healthcare  haben   Achtsamkeitstrainings  mit  Fokus  auf  Stressreduktion  und  Produktivität  eingeführt.  Mit  teilweise  ex-­‐ zellenten  Ergebnissen.  In  einer  Auswertungen  sagten  90%  der  Teilnehmer,  dass  sie  danach  eine   deutlich  verbesserte  Fähigkeit  hatten,  fokussiert  zu  sein  und  über  70%  sagten,  sie  hätten  deutlich   verbesserte  Beziehungen  im  Team  sowie  eine  deutliche  erhöhte  Produktivität.  

•

Emotionale  Intelligenz:  Google  hat  diesen  Ansatz  vorangetrieben.    Eine  breit  angelegte  Auswertung   über  das  Führungsverhalten  hat  das  Management  von  Google  überzeugt,  dass  ganz  einfache  Fähig-­‐ keiten  am  wichtigsten  für  die  erfolgreiche  Führung  sind  (zuhören,  sich  Zeit  nehmen  usw.).  Deshalb   wurde  ein  Training  mit  Achtsamkeitsforschern  und  langjährigen  Meditierenden  entwickelt,  welches   den  Namen  „Search  Inside  Yourself“  trägt.    

•

Persönliche  Entwicklung  und  Lernfähigkeit:    Genentech  (jetzt  Teil  von  Hoffmann  -­‐  La  Roche)  hat  mit   einem  Achtsamkeitsprogramm  zur  Stressminderung  begonnen  und  hat  dieses  deutlich  ausgeweitet,   um  die  Lernfähigkeit  und  persönliche  Entwicklung  seiner  Mitarbeiter  zu  fördern.    Trotz  anfänglichen   Zweifeln  ist  dieses  Programm  von  einer  externen  Trainingsbewertung  als  eines  der  Top  5%  des  Füh-­‐ rungskräftetrainings  bewertet  worden.      

Achtsamkeit wirkt Achtsamkeit  wirkt.  Aber  ob  es  im  Unternehmensalltag  einen  Platz  einnehmen  wird,  ist  noch  nicht  entschie-­‐ den.    Achtsamkeit  erfordert  und  fordert  Neugier  und  Experimentierfreudigkeit.    Jede  Firma  kann  passend  zum   firmeneigenen  Kontext  einen  entsprechenden  Ansatz  wählen.    Einige  Tipps:   •

Fangen  Sie  klein  an  –  experimentieren  heißt  lernen,  anpassen,  ausweiten.    Jede  Firma,  jede  Abtei-­‐ lung  hat  einen  unterschiedlichen  Bedarf    für  neue  Ansätze.    Zuerst  probieren,  dann  ausweiten.  

•

Fangen  Sie  da  an,  wo  die  Not  am  größten  ist.  Viele  Firmen  haben  in  der  IT-­‐Abteilung  angefangen.     Dort  ist  die  Notwendigkeit  der  Fehlervermeidung  und  Konzentration  sehr  hoch,  bei  gleichzeitiger  Be-­‐ lastung  und  Fragmentierung  des  Alltags.    Not  ist  oft  gut  für  die  Motivation,  etwas  Neues  auszupro-­‐ bieren.      

•

Finden  Sie  einen  Abteilungsleiter  oder  Bereichsleiter,  der  sich  dafür  brennend  interessiert.  Alle  neu-­‐ en  Experimente  müssen  gegen  die  Herausforderungen  des  Alltags  in  Firmen  geschützt  und  gefördert   werden.      

•

Starten  sie  mit  jungen  Führungskräften,  diese  haben  es  oft  besonders  schwer.    Die  Wirtschaft  wird   sich  in    Zukunft  nicht  von  selbst  entschleunigen.    Je  früher  junge  Führungskräfte  lernen,  mit  Stress   umzugehen  und  ihr  authentisches  Führungsverhalten  zu  stärken,  desto  besser.    

 

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Einführung in die Achtsamkeit

•

Messen  Sie  die  Ergebnisse.  Es  gibt  viele  Möglichkeiten,  Stress,  Produktivität  und  emotionale  Intelli-­‐ genz  zu  bewerten.  Achtsamkeit  soll  sich  beweisen.        

 

  15

Einführung in die Achtsamkeit

Tun Sie es! - Drei Übungen für den Arbeitsalltag Ankommen Bevor  Sie  mit  ALLEM  starten,  nehmen  Sie  sich  nur  3  Minuten  Zeit.     Setzen  Sie  sich  auf  einem  Stuhl  (oder  sogar  Ihren  Bürostuhl).  Sie  nehmen  eine  aufrechte  Körperhaltung  ein,   die  Hände  liegen  entspannt  auf  Ihren  Oberschenkeln,  beide  Füße  stehen  am  Boden.  Spüren  Sie  Ihren  Atem.       Beobachten  Sie,  ohne  etwas  zu  verändern,  wie  die  Luft  in  Sie  hineinströmt  und  wie  sie  wieder  hinausströmt.   Bleiben  Sie  nun  3  Minuten  lang  bei  dieser  Aufmerksamkeit  auf  den  Atem.     Wenn  Gedanken  kommen,  nehmen  sie  diese  nur  wahr  und  sagen  sich  innerlich  „DENKEN“  und  kehren  einfach   wieder  zum  Atmen  zurück.   Am  Ende  der  3  Minuten  räkeln  und  strecken  Sie  sich,  nehmen  Sie  den  Unterschied    wahr  und  starten  Sie  nun   den  Arbeitsalltag.  

Mittendrin Es  gibt  viele  Wege,  die  täglich  gegangen  werden,  von  einem  Meeting  zum  anderen  oder  auf  dem  Weg  zum   Flughafen  u.v.m.   Nutzen  Sie  diese  Übergänge.  Gehen  Sie  etwas  langsamer  als  üblich  und  richten  Sie  die  Aufmerksamkeit   darauf,  wie  Sie  ihre  Füße  abrollen.  Nehmen  Sie  ihr  Gehen  bewusst  wahr.  Halten  Sie  dann,  bevor  sie  in  das   Meeting  gehen,  kurz  inne  und  formulieren  Sie  für  sich  ein  Ziel  für  das  Meeting.  

Abschließen Um  den  Tag  wirklich  hinter  sich  zu  lassen,  gestalten  Sie  den  Übergang.    Stürzen  Sie  nicht  von  Ihrem  Schreib-­‐ tisch  weg,  sondern  nehmen  Sie  sich  5  Minuten  Zeit  um  innerlich  abzuschließen  –  was  ist  unerledigt,  was   drängt,  was  war  erfolgreich,  was  weniger?       Auf  dem  Heimweg,  setzen  Sie  sich  in  Ihrem  Auto  aufrecht  hin  (oder  in  der  Bahn)  Folgen  Sie  ihrem  Atem,  der   Straße,  fahren  Sie  einfach  achtsam  und  entspannt.       Spüren  Sie  folgender  Frage  nach:  Wie  ging  es  mir  an  diesem  Tag  emotional?  –  geistig  (welche  Art  von  Gedan-­‐ ken  begleiteten  mich?)  und  physisch?  Versuchen  Sie  wirklich  mit  Ihrem  Geist  an  dieser  Reflektion  dran  zu   bleiben.  Wenn  Sie  abschweifen  sagen  Sie  sich  innerlich  wieder  „DENKEN“  und  kehren  zu  Ihrer  Reflektion   zurück.   Im  Anschluss  nehmen  Sie  sich  noch  mal  1  Minute  Zeit,  sich  auf  den  Atem  zu  konzentrieren.  Versuchen  Sie  vor   allem  das  Ausatmen  wahrzunehmen,  sowie  die  Atembewegungen  zu  beobachten.      

 

  16

Einführung in die Achtsamkeit

Wie Achtsamkeit zur ganzheitlichen Führung beitragen kann 1.

Achtsamkeit  bedeutet  im  ersten  Schritt  eine  Entschleunigung.  Wir  schaffen  einen  geistigen  Raum,   etwas  zu  betrachten(ohne  Wertung),  zu  reflektieren,  zu  verarbeiten.    Unser  Geist  wird  dadurch  wa-­‐ cher  und  klarer.      

2.

Ein  klarer  und  wacher  Geist  kann  die  Komplexität  unternehmerischer  Prozesse  deutlicher  erfassen.   Daraus  entstehen  besser  reflektierte  Entscheidungen.      

3.

Wenn  wir  wach  und  klar  durch  den  Arbeitsalltag  gehen,  sind  wir  weniger  geneigt  in  Hektik  zu  verfal-­‐ len  oder  Stress  zu  verbreiten  

4.

Achtsamkeit  als  Schlüssel  zur  Selbstkenntnis  fördert  tiefe  Einsichten  über  die  Auswirkungen  des  ei-­‐ genen  Handelns  und  Denkens.  Der  innere  Beobachter    wird  zum  Resonanzpartner.  

5.

Achtsamkeit  trainieren  bedeutet  auch,  die  eigenen  Emotionen  wahrzunehmen  und  angemessener   steuern  zu  können.    Wir  kultivieren  emotionale  Intelligenz.  

6.

Ein  tieferer  Zugang  zu  sich  selbst  bedeutet  auch  immer,  Sinnsuche  und  Wertebewusstsein  anzure-­‐ gen.  

7.

Führungskräfte,  die  aus  der  Kraft  der  Sinnhaftigkeit  schöpfen,  haben  mehr  Resilienz  und  Wider-­‐ standskraft.  

8.

Eine  Führungskraft  mit  klaren  Werten  schafft  Vertrauen.      

9.

Aus  Achtsamkeit  entsteht  Weitsicht  und  die  Einsicht  in  die  Konsequenzen  unseres  Handelns.    Somit   können  wir  die  hoch  komplexen  Ketten  von  Ursachen  und  Wirkungen,  die  unseren  Alltag  durchzie-­‐ hen,  begreifen.      

10. Ganzheitliches  Führen  verlangt  eine  allumfassende  differenzierte  Aufmerksamkeit  und  Wahrneh-­‐ mung.  Diese  Kompetenz  kann  a)  trainiert  werden  und  b)  ermöglicht  den  sogenannten  wertfreien   „Meta-­‐Blick“.  Eine  Metaposition  einzunehmen  anstelle  von  inhaltlicher  Verstrickung,  kann  neue  und   angemessene  Lösungen  entfalten.        

 

 

  17

38  Scientific American, November 2014

© 2014 Scientific American

mind of NEUROSCIENCE

the

medıtator Contemplative practices that extend back thousands of years show a multitude of benefits for both body and mind By Matthieu Ricard, Antoine Lutz and Richard J. Davidson

November 2014, ScientificAmerican.com 39

Illustration by Marcos Chin

© 2014 Scientific American

Matthieu Ricard is a Buddhist monk who trained as a cellular biologist before he left France to become a student of Buddhism in the Himalayas about 40 years ago.

Antoine Lutz is a research scientist at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research and also works at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He has been a leader in studying the neurobiology of meditation.

Richard J. Davidson has pioneered the science of meditation as director of the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior and the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

W

hen the Society for Neuroscience asked Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama (the leader of Tibetan Buddhism), to address its annual meeting in Washington, D.C., in 2005, a few hundred members among the nearly 35,000 or so attending the meeting petitioned to have the invitation rescinded. A religious leader, they felt, had no place at a scientific meeting. But this particular leader turned out to have a provocative and ultimately productive question to pose to the gathering. “What relation,” he asked, “could there be between Buddhism, an ancient Indian philosophical and spiritual tradition, and modern science?” The Dalai Lama, putting action before rhetoric, had already started trying to find answers to his own question. Back in the 1980s, he had sparked a dialogue about science and Buddhism, which led to the creation of the Mind & Life Institute, dedicated to studying contemplative science. In 2000 he brought new focus to this endeavor: he launched the subdiscipline of “contemplative neuroscience” by inviting scientists to study the brain activity of expert Buddhist meditators—defined as having more than 10,000 hours of practice. For nearly 15 years more than 100 monastics and lay practitioners of Buddhism and a large number of beginning meditators have participated in scientific experiments at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and at least 19 other universities. The article you are reading, in fact, is the product of a collaboration between two neuroscientists and a Buddhist monk who originally trained as a cell biologist. A comparison of the brain scans of meditators with tens of thousands of hours of practice with those of neophytes and non-

meditators has started to explain why this set of techniques for training the mind holds great potential for supplying cognitive and emotional benefits. The goals of meditation, in fact, overlap with many of the objectives of clinical psychology, psychiatry, preventive medicine and education. As suggested by the growing compendium of research, meditation may be effective in treating depression and chronic pain and in cultivating a sense of overall well-being. The discovery of meditation’s benefits coincides with recent neuroscientific findings showing that the adult brain can still be deeply transformed through experience. These studies show that when we learn how to juggle or play a musical instrument, the brain undergoes changes through a process called neuroplasticity. A brain region that controls the movement of a violinist’s fingers becomes progressively larger with mastery of the instrument. A similar process appears to happen when we meditate. Nothing changes in the surrounding environment, but the meditator regulates mental states to achieve a form of inner en-

IN BRIEF

Meditation is an ancient pursuit that, in some form, is a part of nearly every world religion. In recent years its practice, derived from various branches of Buddhism, has made its way into the secular world as a means of promoting calmness and general well-being.

Three common forms of meditation—focused attention, mindfulness and compassion—are now practiced everywhere, from hospitals to schools, and have increasingly become an object of scrutiny in scientific laboratories worldwide. 

40  Scientific American, November 2014

© 2014 Scientific American

Physiological changes in the brain—an altered volume of tissue in some areas—occur through meditation. Practitioners also experience beneficial psychological effects: they react faster to stimuli and are less prone to various forms of stress.

BRAIN S CANNING

Varieties of Contemplative Experience Advances in neuroimaging and other technologies have enabled scientists to gain insight into what happens in the brain during three major forms of Buddhist meditation—focused attention, mindfulness, and compassion and loving kindness. The diagram below offers a glimpse into the cycle of events that occurs in the practice of focused-attention meditation—and the corresponding activation of specific brain areas.

Mindfulness

Focused Attention

This practice typically directs the meditator to concentrate on the in-and-out cycle of breathing. Even for the expert, the mind wanders, and the object of focus must be restored. A brain-scanning study at Emory University has pinpointed distinct brain areas that become involved as attention shifts.

Also called open-monitoring meditation, mindfulness entails observing sights, sounds and other sensations, including internal bodily sensations and thoughts, without being carried away by them. Expert meditators have diminished activity in anxiety-related areas, such as the insular cortex and the amygdala.

Compassion and Loving Kindness

In this practice, the meditator cultivates a feeling of benevolence di­­rected toward other people, whether friend or ene­my. Brain regions that fire up when putting oneself in the place of an­­other—the temporoparietal junction, for instance—show an increase in activity.

Anterior insula

2 Distraction Awareness

The salience network, which includes the anterior insula and the anterior cingulate cortex, underlies the meditator’s awareness of the distraction. Once cognizant that the mind has roved, the volunteer pushes a button to let researchers know what happened.

1 Mind Wandering

Imaging of a meditator in the scanner illuminates the posterior cingulate cortex, the precuneus and other areas that are part of the default-mode net­­ work, which stays active when thoughts begin to stray.

Posterior inferior parietal region Precuneus

Posterior cingulate cortex

Anterior cingulate cortex

Inferior parietal lobe Medial prefrontal cortex Lateral temporal cortex

Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex

3 Reorientation of Awareness 4 Sustaining Focus

The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex stays active when the meditator directs attention on the breath for long periods.

Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex

Two brain areas—the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the inferior parietal lobe—are among those that help to disengage attention from a distraction to refocus on the rhythm of the inhalations and exhalations.

November 2014, ScientificAmerican.com 41

Illustration by David C. Killpack

© 2014 Scientific American

richment, an experience that affects brain functioning and its physical structure. The evidence amassed from this research has begun to show that meditation can rewire brain circuits to produce salutary effects not just on the mind and the brain but on the entire body. WHAT IS MEDITATION?

Meditation has roots in the contemplative practices of nearly every major religion. The prevalence of meditation in the media has given the word various meanings. We will refer to meditation as the cultivation of basic human qualities, such as a more stable and clear mind, emotional balance, a sense of caring mindfulness, even love and compassion—qualities that remain latent as long as one does not make an effort to develop them. It is also a process of familiarization with a more serene and flexible way of being. In principle, meditation is relatively simple and can be done anywhere. No equipment or workout attire is needed. The meditator begins by assuming a comfortable physical posture, neither too tense nor too lax, and by wishing for self-transformation and a desire for others’ well-being and for the alleviation of their suffering. Later the practitioner must stabilize the mind, which is too often disorderly—and occupied by a stream of inner chatter. Mastering the mind requires freeing it from automatic mental conditioning and inner confusion. We will examine here what happens in the brain during three common types of meditation developed through Buddhism and now practiced in secular programs in hospitals and schools throughout the world. The first one, focused-attention meditation, aims to tame and center the mind in the present moment while developing the capacity to remain vigilant to distractions. The second one, mindfulness, or open-monitoring meditation, tries to cultivate a less emotionally reactive awareness to emotions, thoughts and sensations occurring in the present moment to prevent them from spiraling out of control and creating mental distress. In mindfulness, the meditator remains attentive, moment by moment, to any experience without focusing on anything specific. Finally, another type of practice is known in Buddhist tradition as compassion and loving kindness and fosters an altruistic perspective toward others. UNDER THE SCANNER

Neuroscientists have now begun to probe what happens inside the brain during the various types of meditation. Wendy Hasenkamp, then at Emory University, and her colleagues used brain imaging to identify the neural networks activated by focusedattention meditation. In the scanner, the participants trained their attention on the sensation produced by breathing. Typically during this form of meditation, the mind wanders from an object, and the meditator must recognize this and then restore attention to the gradual rhythm of the inhaling and exhaling. In this study, the meditator had to signal mind wandering by pressing a button. Researchers identified four phases of a cognitive cycle: an episode of mind wandering, a moment of becoming aware of the distraction, a phase of reorienting attention and a resumption of focused attention. Each of the four phases involves particular brain networks. The first part of the cycle, when a distraction occurs, increases activity in the wide-ranging default-mode network (DMN).

This network includes areas of the medial prefrontal cortex, the posterior cingulate cortex, the precuneus, the inferior parietal lobe and the lateral temporal cortex. The DMN is known to become activated during mind wandering and to play a general role in building and updating internal models of the world based on long-term memories about the self or others. The second phase, becoming aware of a distraction, occurs in other brain areas such as the anterior insula and the anterior cingulate cortex, regions of what is called the salience network. This network regulates subjectively perceived feelings, which might, for instance, lead to being distracted during a task. The salience network is thought to play a key role in detecting novel events and in switching activity during meditation among assemblies of neurons that make up the brain’s large-scale networks. It may shift attention away from the default-mode network, for instance. The third phase engages additional areas—among them the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the lateral inferior parietal lobe—that “take back” one’s attention by detaching it from any distracting stimulus. Finally, in the fourth and last phase, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex continues to retain a high level of activity, as the meditator’s attention remains directed toward an object such as the breath. In our laboratory at Wisconsin, we further observed different patterns of activity depending on a practitioner’s level of experience. Veteran meditators with more than 10,000 hours of practice showed more activity in these attention-related brain regions compared with novices. Paradoxically, the most experienced meditators demonstrated less activation than the ones without as much experience. Advanced meditators appear to acquire a level of skill that enables them to achieve a focused state of mind with less effort. These effects resemble the skill of expert musicians and athletes capable of immersing themselves in the “flow” of their performances with a minimal sense of effortful control. To study the impact of focused-attention meditation, we also studied its volunteers before and after a three-month retreat with intensive meditation exercises for at least eight hours a day. They received headphones that broadcast sounds at a given frequency, occasionally mixed with slightly higher-pitched sounds. They had to focus on the sounds played in one ear for 10 minutes and react to periodically interspersed high-pitched tones. After the retreat, we found that meditators, compared with a nonmeditating control group, showed less trial-to-trial variation in their reaction times on this highly repetitive task, which lent itself easily to distractions. The result suggested that the meditators had an enhanced capacity to remain vigilant. The brain’s electrical responses to high-pitched tones remained more stable at the second session only for the meditators. STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS

The second type of well-studied meditation also involves another form of attention. Mindfulness, or open-monitoring meditation, requires the meditator to take note of every sight or sound and track internal bodily sensations and inner self-talk. The person stays aware of what is happening without becoming overly preoccupied with any single perception or thought, returning to this detached focus each time the mind strays. As awareness of what is happening in one’s surroundings grows,

42  Scientific American, November 2014

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JEFF MILLER University of Wisconsin–Madison

ing the P3b brain wave, used to assess how attention is allocated, indicated that meditators were capable of optimizing attention so as to minimize the attentional blink. Staying aware of an unpleasant sensation can reduce maladaptive emotional responses and help one to move beyond the disagreeable feeling and may be particularly useful in dealing with pain. In our Wisconsin lab, we have studied experienced practitioners while they performed an advanced form of mindfulness meditation called open presence. In open presence, sometimes called pure awareness, the mind is calm and relaxed, not focused on anything in particular yet vividly clear, free from excitation or dullness. The meditator observes and is open to experience without making any attempt to interpret, change, reject or ignore painful sensation. We found that the intensity of the pain was not reduced in meditators, but it bothered them less than it did members of a control group. Compared with novices, expert meditators’ brain activity diminished in anxiety-related regions—the insular cortex and the amygdala—in the period preceding the painINNER PATHWAYS of brain activity register on an electroencephalogram ful stimulus. The meditators’ brain response as co-author Matthieu Ricard meditates. in pain-related regions became accustomed to the stimulus more quickly than that of normal daily irritants—an angry colleague at work, a worried novices after repeated exposures to it. Other tests in our lab child at home—become less disruptive, and a sense of psycho- have shown that meditation training increases one’s ability to logical well-being develops. better control and buffer basic physiological responses—inflamWith Heleen Slagter, then in our group at Wisconsin, we mation or levels of a stress hormone—to a socially stressful task sought to learn about the influence of this form of training on such as giving a public speech or doing mental arithmetic in mental functioning by measuring the participants’ capacity to front of a harsh jury. detect rapidly presented visual stimuli—a means to measure Several studies have documented the benefits of mindfulmindfulness meditation, which is also sometimes called non­ ness on symptoms of anxiety and depression and its ability to reactive awareness. To perform this experiment, we used a task improve sleep patterns. By deliberately monitoring and observin which the participants had to detect two numbers presented ing their thoughts and emotions when they feel sad or worried, on a screen rapidly, amid a succession of letters. If the second depressed patients can use meditation to manage negative number appears about 300 milliseconds after the first one, sub- thoughts and feelings as they arise spontaneously and so lessen jects often do not see the second, a phenomenon known as at- rumination. Clinical psychologists John Teasdale, then at the tentional blink. University of Cambridge, and Zindel Segal of the University of If the second number appears after a delay of 600 millisec- Toronto showed in 2000 that for patients who had previously onds, it can be detected without difficulty. The attentional blink suffered at least three episodes of depression, six months of reflects the limits of the brain’s ability to process two stimuli pre- mindfulness practice, along with cognitive therapy, reduced sented to the observer at close intervals. When too much of the the risk of relapse by nearly 40 percent in the year following brain’s attention is devoted to processing the first number, the the onset of a severe depression. More recently, Segal demonsecond number cannot always be detected, although the observ- strated that the intervention is superior to a placebo and has a er usually can see it on some of the trials. We hypothesized that protective effect against relapse comparable to standard mainmindfulness training could reduce the propensity to “get stuck,” tenance antidepressant therapy. or absorbed by seeing the first number. Mindfulness practice cultivates a nonreactive form of sensory awareness, which COMPASSION AND LOVING KINDNESS should result in a reduced attentional blink. As we predicted, af- The third form of meditation under study cultivates attitudes ter three months of an intensive retreat, the meditators per- and feelings of loving kindness and compassion toward other ceived both numbers more frequently than the controls did. This people, whether they are close relatives, strangers or enemies. improved perception was also reflected in lessened activity of a This practice entails being aware of someone else’s needs and particular brain wave in response to the first number. Monitor- then experiencing a sincere, compassionate desire to help that

November 2014, ScientificAmerican.com 43

© 2014 Scientific American

Grow More Brain Researchers from several universities explored whether medi­­­ tation might bring about structural changes in brain tissue. Using magnetic reso­nance imaging, they found that 20 experi­ enced practi­tioners of one type of Buddhist medi­tation had a greater volume of brain tissue in the prefrontal cortex (Brod­mann areas 9 and 10) and Brodmann area 9 the insula than a control group did (graphs). These re­gions play a role in proces­sing attention, sensory information and internal bodily sensations. Future long-term studies will be needed to confirm this finding. Brodmann area 10 Meditation participants

Insula

Control participants

Cortical Thickness (millimeters)

Insula

Brodmann areas 9 and 10

2.5

2.5

2.3

2.3

2.1

2.1

1.9

1.9

1.7

1.7 25

35 Age

45

55

25

35 Age

45

55

person or to alleviate the suffering of other people by shielding them from their own destructive behavior. To generate a compassionate state may sometimes entail the meditator feeling what another person is feeling. But having one’s emotions resonate empathetically with the feelings of another person does not by itself suffice to yield a compassionate mind-set. The meditation must also be driven by an unselfish desire to help someone who is suffering. This form of meditation on love and compassion has proved to be more than just a spiritual exercise. It has shown potential to benefit health care workers, teachers and others who run the risk of emotional burnout linked to the distress experienced from a deeply empathetic reaction to another person’s plight. The meditator begins by focusing on an unconditional feeling

of benevolence and love for others, accompanied by silent repetition of a phrase conveying intent, such as “May all beings find happiness and the causes of happiness and be free from suffering and the causes of suffering.” In 2008 we studied experienced volunteers who had practiced this form of training for thousands of hours and found an increase in activity in several brain regions while they listened to voices conveying distress. The secondary somatosensory and insular cortices, known to participate in empathetic and other emotional responses, were more activated for experts than controls in response to the distressed voice, suggesting an enhanced ability to share the feelings of others without reporting any sign of becoming emotionally overwhelmed. The practice of compassion meditation also produced more activity in areas such as the temporoparietal junction, the medial prefrontal cortex and the superior temporal sulcus, all typically activated when we put ourselves in the place of another. More recently, Tania Singer and Olga Klimecki, both at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany, in collaboration with one of us (Ricard), sought to distinguish differences between the effects of empathy and compassion on meditators. They noted that compassion and altruistic love were associated with positive emotions, and they suggested that emotional exhaustion or burnout was, in fact, a kind of empathy “fatigue.” According to the Buddhist contemplative tradition from which this practice is derived, compassion, far from leading to distress and discouragement, reinforces an inner balance, strength of mind, and a courageous determination to help those who suffer. If a child is hospitalized, the presence of a loving mother at his side holding his hand and comforting him with tender words will no doubt do that child more good than the anxiety of a mother overwhelmed with empathetic distress who, unable to bear the sight of her sick child, paces back and forth in the hallway. In the latter case, the mother may then end up with the common experience of burnout, which, in one U.S. study, beset about 60 percent of the 600 caregivers surveyed. To further explore the mechanisms of empathy and compassion, Klimecki and Singer divided about 60 volunteers into two groups. One meditated on love and compassion, and the other experimental regimen trained participants to cultivate feelings of empathy for others. Preliminary results showed that after a week of meditation-based loving kindness and compassion, novice subjects watched video clips showing suffering people with more positive and benevolent feelings. The other subjects, who devoted a week to an experimental regimen that just cultivated empathy, experienced emotions that resonated deeply with others’ sufferings. But these emotions also brought about negative feelings and thoughts, and this group experienced more distress, sometimes to the point of not being able to control their emotions. Aware of these destabilizing effects, Singer and Klimecki added training for the empathy group in compassion and loving kindness meditation. They then observed that this additional ex­­ercise counterbalanced the detrimental effects of training in empathy alone: negative emotions diminished, and positive emotions increased. These results were accompanied by corresponding changes in the areas of several brain networks associated with compassion, positive emotions and maternal love, including the orbitofrontal cortex, the ventral striatum and the anterior cingulate cortex. The researchers, moreover, were able

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN ONLINE Watch talks by Davidson and Ricard at ScientificAmerican.com/nov2014/meditation

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Illustration by David C. Killpack (brain)

SOURCE: “MEDITATION EXPERIENCE IS ASSOCIATED WITH INCREASED CORTICAL THICKNESS,” BY SARA W. LAZAR ET AL., IN NEUROREPORT, VOL. 16, NO. 17; NOVEMBER 28, 2005

A M E D I TAT I O N B E N E F I T

to demonstrate that a week of training in compassion increased prosocial behavior in a virtual game specially developed to measure the capacity to help others. A DOOR TO CONSCIOUSNESS

Meditation explores the nature of the mind, providing a way to study consciousness and subjective mental states from the firstperson perspective of the meditator. In a collaboration with expert Buddhist meditators at Wisconsin, we have studied the brain’s electrical activity using electroencephalography (EEG) during compassion meditation in which the meditators described the well-defined sense of self as becoming less fixed and permanent. We found that these long-term Buddhist practitioners were able, at will, to sustain a particular EEG pattern. Specifically, it is called high-amplitude gamma-band oscillations and phase synchrony at between 25 and 42 hertz. The coordination of brain oscillations may play a potentially crucial role in the brain’s building of temporary networks that can integrate cog­­ ni­­tive and affective functions during learning and conscious perception, a process that can bring about lasting changes in brain circuitry. High-amplitude oscillations persisted throughout the meditation for several dozens of seconds and gradually increased as practice progressed. These EEG traces differed from those of control subjects, in particular, in the lateral frontoparietal cortex. Changes in electrical activity may reflect an increased awareness in expert meditators of their surroundings and their internal mental processes, although additional research is needed to better understand the functioning of gamma oscillations. Meditation brings about changes not just in well-defined cognitive and emotional processes but also in the volume of certain brain areas, possibly reflecting alterations in the number of connections among brain cells. A preliminary study by Sara W. Lazar of Harvard University and her colleagues showed that among longtime meditators, as compared with a control group, the volume of the brain’s darker tissue, its gray matter, differed in the insula and prefrontal cortices—specifically, regions called Brodmann areas 9 and 10, which are frequently activated during various forms of meditation. These distinctions were most pronounced in older participants in the study, suggesting that meditation might influence the thinning of brain tissue that comes with aging. In a follow-up study, Lazar and her colleagues also showed that mindfulness training decreased the volume of the amygdala, a region involved in fear processing, for those participants who showed the most noticeable reductions in stress over the course of training. Eileen Luders of the University of California, Los Angeles, and her colleagues further observed differences in meditators in the fibers called axons that connect different brain regions, suggesting an enhanced number of brain connections. This observation may support the hypothesis that meditation actually induces structural alterations in the brain. An important limitation of this research relates to the lack of long-term longitudinal studies that follow a group over the course of many years and to the absence of comparisons between meditators and people of similar backgrounds and ages who do not meditate. Some evidence even exists that meditation—and its ability to enhance overall well-being—may diminish inflammation and

other biological stresses that occur at the molecular level. A collaborative study between our group and one led by Perla Kaliman of the Institute of Biomedical Research of Barcelona showed that one day of intensive mindfulness practice in experienced meditators turned down the activity of inflammation-related genes and altered the functioning of enzymes involved with turning genes on and off. A study by Cliff Saron of the University of California, Davis, looked at the effect of meditation on a molecule involved with regulating the longevity of a cell. The molecule in question was an enzyme called telomerase that lengthens DNA segments at the ends of chromosomes. The segments, called tel­ omeres, ensure stability of the genetic material during cell di­ vision. They shorten every time a cell divides, and when their length decreases below a critical threshold, the cell stops dividing and gradually enters a state of senescence. Compared with a control group, the meditators who showed the most pronounced reductions in psychological stress also had higher telomerase activity by the end of the retreat. This finding suggests that mindfulness training might slow processes of cellular aging among some practitioners. A PATH TO WELL-BEING

About 15 years of research have done more than show that meditation produces significant changes in both the function and structure of the brains of experienced practitioners. These studies are now starting to demonstrate that contemplative practices may have a substantive impact on biological processes critical for physical health. More studies using well-defined, randomized controlled trials are needed to isolate meditation-related effects from other psychological factors that can influence the outcome of a study. Other variables that may affect study results are the level of motivation of a practitioner and the roles played by both teachers and students in a meditation group. Further work is needed to understand the possible negative side effects of meditation, the desirable length of a given practice session and the way to tailor it to a person’s specific needs. Even with the requisite cautions, research on meditation provides new insights into methods of mental training that have the potential to enhance human health and well-being. Equally important, the ability to cultivate compassion and other positive human qualities lays the foundation for an ethical framework unattached to any philosophy or religion, which could have a profoundly beneficial effect on all aspects of human societies. 

M O R E TO E X P L O R E

Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill. Matthieu Ricard. Little, Brown, 2006. Mental Training Enhances Attentional Stability: Neural and Behavioral Evidence. Antoine Lutz et al. in Journal of Neuroscience. Vol. 29, No. 42, pages 13,418–13,427; October 21, 2009. Mind Wandering and Attention during Focused Meditation: A Fine-Grained Temporal Analysis of Fluctuating Cognitive States. Wendy Hasenkamp et al. in NeuroImage, Vol. 59, No. 1, pages 750–760; January 2, 2012. FROM OUR ARCHIVES

The Physiology of Meditation. Robert Keith Wallace and Herbert Benson; February 1972. s c i e n t i f i c a m e r i c a n . c o m /m a g a z i n e /s a

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We all seek stability. We want to hold things still, thinking that if we do, we can control them. But since everything is always changing, that doesn’t work. Actually, it causes you to lose control. Take work processes. When people say, “This is the way to do it,” that’s not true. There are always many ways, and the way you choose should depend on the current context. You can’t solve today’s problems with yesterday’s solutions. So when someone says, “Learn this so it’s second

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nature,” let a bell go off in your head, because that means mindlessness. The rules you were given were the rules that worked for the person who created them, and the more different you are from that person, the worse they’re going to work for you. When you’re mindful, rules, routines, and goals guide you; they don’t govern you. What are some of the specific benefits of being more mindful, according to your research? Better performance, for one. We did a study with symphony musicians, who, it turns out, are bored

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to death. They’re playing the same pieces over and over again, and yet it’s a high-status job that they can’t easily walk away from. So we had groups of them perform. Some were told to replicate a previous performance they’d liked—that is, to play pretty mindlessly. Others were told to make their individual performance new in subtle ways—to play mindfully. Remember: This wasn’t jazz, so the changes were very subtle indeed. But when we played recordings of the symphonies for people who knew nothing about the study, they overwhelmingly preferred the mindfully played pieces. So here we had a group performance where everybody was doing their own thing, and it was better. There’s this view that if you let everyone do their own thing, chaos will reign. When people are

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doing their own thing in a rebellious way, yes, it might. But if everyone is working in the same context and is fully present, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t get a superior coordinated performance.

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There are many other advantages to mindfulness. It’s easier to pay attention. You remember more of what you’ve done. You’re more creative. You’re able to take advantage of opportunities when

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they present themselves. You avert the danger not yet arisen. You like people better, and people like you better, because you’re less evaluative. You’re more charismatic. The idea of procrastination and regret can go away, because if you know why you’re doing something, you don’t take yourself to task for not doing something else. If you’re fully present when you decide to prioritize this task or work at this firm or create this product or pursue this strategy, why would you regret it? I’ve been studying this for nearly 40 years, and for almost any measure, we find that mindfulness generates a more positive result. That makes sense when you realize it’s a superordinate variable. No matter what you’re doing—eating a sandwich, doing an interview, working on some gizmo, writing a report—you’re doing it mindfully or mindlessly. When it’s the former, it leaves an imprint on what you do. At the very highest levels of any field—Fortune 50 CEOs, the most impressive artists and musicians, the top athletes, the best teachers and mechanics—you’ll find mindful people, because that’s the only way to get there. How have you shown a link between mindfulness and innovation? With Gabriel Hammond, a graduate student, I ran a study where we asked participants to come up with new uses for products that had failed. We primed one group for mindlessness by telling them how the product had fallen short of its original intended use—to cite a famous example from 3M, a failed glue. We primed the other for mindfulness by simply describing the product’s properties—a substance that adheres for only a short amount of time. Of course, the most creative ideas for new uses came from the second group. I’m an artist as well as a researcher, writer, and consultant—each activity informs the others for me—and I got the idea to study mindfulness and mistakes when I was painting. I looked up and saw I was using ocher when I’d meant to use magenta, so I started trying to fix it. But then I realized I’d made the decision to use magenta only seconds before. People do this all the time. You start with uncertainty, you make a decision, and if you make a mistake, it’s a calamity. But the path you were following was just a decision. You can change it at any time, and maybe an alternative will turn out better. When you’re mindful, mistakes become friends. How does being mindful make someone more charismatic? We’ve shown this in a few studies. An early one was with magazine salespeople: The mindful ones sold more and were rated as more likable by buyers. More recently, we’ve looked at the bind that women executives face: If they act in strong, stereotypically masculine ways, they’re seen as bitchy, but if they act feminine, they’re seen as weak and not leadership material. So we asked two groups of women to give persuasive speeches. One group was told to act masculine, the other to act feminine. Then half of each group was instructed to give their speech mindfully, and we found that audiences preferred the mindful speakers, regardless of what gender role they were playing out. And mindfulness also makes you less judgmental about others? Yes. We all have a tendency to mindlessly pigeonhole people: He’s rigid. She’s impulsive. But when you freeze someone in that way, you don’t get the chance to enjoy a relationship with them or use their talents. Mindfulness helps you to appreciate why people behave the way they do. It makes sense to them at the time, or else they wouldn’t do it. We did a study in which we asked people to rate their own character traits—the things they would most like to change and the things they most valued about themselves—and we found a big irony.

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The traits that people valued tended to be positive versions of the ones they wanted to change. So the reason I personally can’t stop being impulsive is that I value being spontaneous. That means if you want to change my behavior, you’ll have to persuade me not to like spontaneity. But chances are that when you see me from this proper perspective—spontaneous rather than impulsive—you won’t want to change me.

Mindful Management What else can managers do to be more mindful? One tactic is to imagine that your thoughts are totally transparent. If they were, you wouldn’t think awful things about other people. You’d find a way to understand their perspective. And when you’re upset about something—maybe someone turned in an assignment late, or didn’t do it the way you wanted—ask yourself, “Is it a tragedy or an inconvenience?” It’s probably the latter. Most of the things that get us upset are. I also tell people to think about work/life integration, not balance. “Balance” suggests that the two are opposite and have nothing in common. But that’s not true. They’re both mostly about people. There are stresses in both. There are schedules to be met. If you keep them separate, you don’t learn to transfer what you do successfully in one domain to the other. When we’re mindful, we realize that categories are person-constructed and don’t limit us. Remember, too, that stress is not a function of events; it’s a function of the view you take of events. You think a particular thing is going to happen and that when it does, it’s going to be awful. But prediction is an illusion. We can’t know what’s going to happen. So give yourself five reasons you won’t lose the job. Then think of five reasons why, if you did, it would be an advantage—new opportunities, more time with family, et cetera. Now you’ve gone from thinking it’s definitely going to happen to thinking maybe it will and even if it does, you’ll be OK. If you feel overwhelmed by your responsibilities, use the same approach. Question the belief that you’re the only one who can do it, that there’s only one way to do it, and that the company will collapse if you don’t do it. When you open your views to be mindful, the stress just dissipates. Mindfulness helps you realize that there are no positive or negative outcomes. There’s A, B, C, D, and more, each with its challenges and opportunities. Give me some scenarios, and I’ll explain how mindfulness helps. I’m the leader of a team in dissent. People are arguing vehemently for different strategies, and I have to decide on one. There’s an old story about two people coming before a judge. One guy tells his side of the story, and the judge says, “That’s right.” The other guy tells his side of the story, and the judge says, “That’s right.” They say, “We can’t both be right.” And the judge says, “That’s right.” We have this mindless notion to settle disputes with a choice between this way or that way, or a compromise. But win-win solutions can almost always be sought. Instead of letting people lock into their positions, go back and open it up. Have opponents play the debate from the other side so that they realize there are good arguments either way. Then find a way for both of them to be right. I’m an executive with lots of commitments who’s facing a personal crisis. If I couldn’t do this interview because I was having a problem at home, I would say, “Alison, I hope you’ll forgive me, but my mind is elsewhere right now because I’m having this crisis.” And you might say, “Oh, no, I had a crisis last week. It’s OK. I understand.” And then, when the crisis was over, we could come back to what we were doing, but with a whole new relationship, which would set us up for all sorts of good things in the future. I’m a boss giving a review to an underperforming employee. Make clear that the evaluation is your perspective, not a universal one, which opens up the dialogue. Let’s say a student or a worker adds one and one and gets one. The teacher or employer can just say “Wrong,” or he can try to figure out how the person got to one. Then the worker says, “If you add one wad of chewing gum to another wad, one plus one equals one.” Now the boss has learned something. As a leader, you can walk around as if you’re God and get everybody to quiver. But then you’re not going to learn anything, because they’re not going to tell you, and you’re going to be lonely and unhappy. It doesn’t have to be lonely at the top. You can be there and be open.

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How do you create a more mindful organization? When I’m doing consulting work with companies, I usually start by showing everyone how mindless they are, and what they’re missing as a result. You can be mindless only if two conditions are met: You found the very best way of doing things, and nothing changes. Of course, those conditions can’t be met. So if you’re going to work, you should be there and notice things. Then I explain that there are alternative ways of getting anywhere, and in fact, you can’t even be sure that the destination you’ve chosen is ultimately where you’ll want to be. Everything looks different from different perspectives. I tell leaders they should make not knowing OK—I don’t know, you don’t know, nobody knows— rather than acting like they know, so everyone else pretends they know, which leads to all sorts of discomfort and anxiety. Eliminate zero-accident policies. If you have a zero-accident policy, you’re going to have a maximum-lying policy. Get people to ask, “Why? What are the benefits of doing it this way versus another way?” When you do that, everyone relaxes a little, and you’re all better able to see and take advantage of opportunities. I was working with a nursing home years ago, and a nurse walked in, complaining that one of the residents didn’t want to go to the dining room. She wanted to stay in her room and eat peanut butter. So I butted in and said, “What’s wrong with that?” Her answer was “What if everybody wants to do it?” And I said, “Well, if everybody did it, you’d save a lot of money on food. But, more seriously, it would tell you something about how the food is being prepared or served. If it’s only one person occasionally, what’s the big deal? If it happens all the time, there’s an opportunity here.” I imagine you don’t like checklists? The first time you go through a checklist, it’s fine. But after that, most people tend to do it mindlessly. So in aviation you have flaps up, throttle open, anti-ice off. But if snow is coming and the anti-ice is off, the plane crashes. Checklists aren’t bad if they require qualitative information to be obtained in that moment. For example, “Please note the weather conditions. Based on these conditions, should the anti-ice be on or off?” or “How is the patient’s skin color different from yesterday?” If you ask questions that encourage mindfulness, you bring people into the present and you’re more likely to avoid an accident. Mindful, qualitative comments help in interpersonal relationships, too, by the way. If you’re giving a compliment, “You look great” is not nearly as effective as something like “Your eyes are sparkling today.” To say that, you have to be there, and people will recognize and appreciate it.

Mindfulness and Focus The business environment has changed a lot since you began studying mindfulness. It’s more complex and uncertain. We have new data and analysis coming at us all the time. So mindfulness becomes more important for navigating the chaos—but the chaos makes it a lot harder to be mindful. I think chaos is a perception. People say that there’s too much information, and I would say that there’s no more information now than there was before. The difference is that people believe they have to know it—that the more information they have, the better the product is going to be and the more money the company is going to make. I don’t think it depends as much on the amount of information someone has as on the way it’s taken in. And that needs to be mindfully. How has technology changed our ability to be mindful? Is it a help or a hindrance? Again, one can bring mindfulness to anything. We’ve studied multitasking and found that if you’re open and keep the boundaries loose, it can be an advantage. The information from one thing can help you with another. I think what we should do is learn from the way technology is fun and compelling and build that into our work. HBR recently published an article on the importance of focus in which the author, Daniel Goleman, talks about the need for both exploration and exploitation. How do you balance mindfulness—constantly looking for the new—with the ability to buckle down and get things done? Vigilance, or very focused attention, is probably mindless. If I’m racing through the woods on horseback, watching the branches so that I don’t get hit in the face, I might miss the boulder on the ground, so then my horse stumbles and I’m thrown off. But I don’t think that’s what Dan means by

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focus. What you want is a soft openness—to be attentive to the things you’re doing but not singleminded, because then you’re missing other opportunities. We hear the management community talking more about mindfulness now. When did you realize that the ideas you’ve been studying for decades had become mainstream? I was at a party, and two different people came up to me and said, “Your mindfulness is everywhere.” Of course, I just saw a new film that starts with someone going around Harvard Square asking people what mindfulness is, and nobody knows. So there’s still a lot of work to do. What are you working on next? The Langer Mindfulness Institute works in three arenas: health, aging, and the workplace. In health we want to see just how far we can push the mind-body notion. Years ago we did studies on chambermaids (who lost weight after being told their work was exercise) and vision (where people did better on eye tests that had them work up from large letters at the bottom to small ones at the top, creating the expectation that they would be able to read them). Now we’re trying a mindfulness cure on many diseases that people think are uncontrollable to see if we can at least ameliorate the symptoms. We’re also doing counterclockwise retreats around the world, starting in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, using research-proven techniques to help people live boldly. And we’re doing conferences and consulting on work/life integration, mindful leadership and strategy processes, stress reduction, and innovation, with companies such as Thorlo and Santander and NGOs such as CARE and Vermont’s Energy Action Network. I’m told that I drive my students crazy because I’m always coming up with new ideas. I’m thinking about maybe a mindfulness camp for children. One exercise might be to take a group of 20 kids and keep dividing them into subsets—male/female, younger/older, dark hair/light hair, wearing black/not wearing black—until they realize that everyone is unique. As I’ve said for 30 years, the best way to decrease prejudice is to increase discrimination. We would also play games and midway through mix up the teams. Or maybe we’d give each child a chance to rewrite the rules of the game, so it becomes clear that performance is only a reflection of one’s ability under certain circumstances. You know, if they allowed three serves in tennis, I would be a much better player. What’s the one thing about mindfulness you’d like every executive to remember? It’s going to sound corny, but I believe it fully: Life consists only of moments, nothing more than that. So if you make the moment matter, it all matters. You can be mindful, you can be mindless. You can win, you can lose. The worst case is to be mindless and lose. So when you’re doing anything, be mindful, notice new things, make it meaningful to you, and you’ll prosper. 1

WHAT TO READ NEXT Are You a High Potential? Sales Reps’ Biggest Mistakes Your Use of Pronouns Reveals Your Personality The Best-Performing CEOs in the World Managing Yourself: What Brain Science Tells Us About How to Excel The Very Model of a Modern Senior Manager Recommended by

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MAKING THE MINDFUL LEADER

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Making the Mindful Leader Cultivating Skills for Facing Adaptive Challenges

Jeremy Hunter, PhD Peter F. Drucker School of Management [email protected]

Michael Chaskalson, MA Mindfulness Works Ltd. and School of Psychology, Bangor University [email protected] DRAFT COPY

Please do not copy or cite without prior permission.

A CHAPTER ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION IN: Leonard, S., Lewis, R., Freeman, A. & Passmore. J. (In Press). The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of the Psychology of Leadership, Change & OD. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

PART OF THE FORTHCOMING: Wiley-Blackwell Industrial & Organizational Psychology Series

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If you know others and you know yourself, you will not be imperilled in hundred battles, if you do not know others but you know yourself, you will win one and lose one, if you do not know others and do not know yourself, you will be imperilled in every single battle. Sun Tzu, The Art of War

We should base our decisions on awareness rather than on mechanical habit. That is, we act on a keen appreciation for the essential factors that make each situation unique instead of from conditioned response. Warfighting: The U.S. Marine Corps Book of Strategy

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Introduction Human civilization has always faced the challenge of adapting to change. Changes in market, shifting political alliances, financial collapses, uncertain energy sources, and natural disasters have always been part of the landscape that people have had to wrestle with. However, at this point in history, it appears that the intensity and demands of change are particularly complex and severe. Globalization creates new markets and wealth but also competition and dislocation. Natural disasters in Thailand impact tightly interwoven supply chains and debilitate manufacturing in Ohio. Information technologies speed up the tempo of nearly everything making the pace of life relentless. Nearly every aspect of modern life – ecology and economics, commerce and finance, politics and government, science and education – faces tectonic, disruptive and destabilizing change (Kelly, 2005; Toffler & Toffler, 2006; Brown, 2011). Leaders across domains express a common refrain of being in “uncharted waters” where old models, routines and assumptions are called into question with no clear pathways on which to navigate. As a result, there are enormous stresses on individuals, institutions and organisations who are called upon to meet, and effectively adjust to, increasingly discordant, unpredictable and extreme events. How we make sense of change influences how successful we are in responding to it and a key purpose of leadership is to facilitate responses to problems positively, ethically and in a way that strengthens society (Heifetz, 1994). It is our contention that mindfulness training is a powerful and effective means of helping leaders meet the adaptive challenges of the current age.

Adaptive Leadership Heifetz distinguishes two classes of challenge that leaders are likely to face: technical problems and adaptive ones (Heifetz, 1994). The distinctions between these two types can help to identify potential tools for facing them. Technical problems

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may be complex and difficult but they can be addressed with existing ways of perceiving and understanding; they are known problems with known solutions based on past experience. For example, a skilled surgeon understands the process of transplanting a kidney and a practiced marksman can reliably strike a target. Adaptive challenges, on the other hand, differ from technical ones because both the problem and the solution may not be recognized and understood within current schemas. Adaptive challenges call upon leaders to grow toward more sophisticated ways of seeing and thinking, acting and relating. Take for example an adaptive challenge of a previous era: cholera outbreaks in 19th century London were thought to be caused by “miasma in the atmosphere” according to the received wisdom of the day (Summers, 1989). However, the close observation of Dr John Snow suggested revealed the onset of disease was marked by intestinal disturbances that pointed not to poisoned fog but to a tainted water supply. His observation transformed the understanding of the problem in a way that would eventually lead to a cure and give rise to the adaptive creation of public health services. In other examples, problems may be well understood but solving them may require a shift in perceiving possibilities and relationships. The leaders of a large desert metropolis, for example, may understand that their city relies on an uncertain water supply. Historically, they are predisposed to building centralized large-scale engineering works to transport water from faraway sources. A significant perceptual shift is needed to recognize the millions of gallons of existing wastewater runoff as a potential resource that could be locally collected through a decentralized community effort and recycled without the expense of moving water across vast distances. That adaptation requires that they learn to relate to the public not just as passive customers but rather as partners in creating the solution. Finally, adaptive challenges also arise where both the problem and the solution may

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not be well understood. The current debate on climate change typifies this sort of problem. Partisans fall into conflict over the cause of weather changes and what would constitute an effective response. In both cases, adaptive challenges cannot rely on previous solutions, frameworks or ways of understanding and relating to make sense of them and respond effectively. Leaders must learn and change if they are to engage with and resolve the challenge. A common mistake leaders make is to misidentify adaptive problems as technical ones, thinking that yesterday’s solutions can apply to today’s novel problem (Kegan & Lahey, 2010). This is because of the innate human tendency to mindlessly and nonconsciously react with rote action patterns and habitual ways of sense-making (Langer, 1989). The mind’s tendency toward automatic actions, while useful in stable circumstances, can become maladaptive when the pattern no longer fits a changing condition. Many of the complex challenges leaders face exceeds their ability to perceive, understand and adapt to them with their current schemas (Kegan & Lahey, 2010). Leaders are often, to paraphrase the words of developmental psychologist Robert Kegan, “in over their heads” (Kegan, 1998). When leaders apply an old map to a new problem, they find themselves stuck, stressed, and frustrated at their lack of progress. Adaptive challenges are especially difficult. They call into question existing roles, orders and hierarchies. As a result, they are often stressful. Stress reactions are instinctive, automatic survival mechanisms that mobilize energy to adapt to a potential threat (Greenberg, Carr, & Summers, 2002). However, if poorly managed or unmanaged altogether leaders can be expected to experience a range of negative affect and cognitive impairments that can leave them disoriented, disconnected, fearful, and frustrated (Boyatzis & McKee, 2005; Goleman, 1996). Yet, leaders need to demonstrate that they are calm, in control and are able to inspire, motivate, make wise decisions and take effective, thoughtful action. In other words, they need to ably manage themselves in the face of their own neurobiology. The failure to effectively self-manage impairs a leader’s health, diminishes her performance

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and potentially damages her relationships (Boyatzis & McKee, 2005). Because adaptive challenges often require complex coordination with others, quality relationships are essential. The growing importance of high quality interpersonal relationships reflects a broad trend in organizations that have shifted from hierarchical command and control models, to flatter systems where formal authority is decreased (Pearce & Conger, 2002). In such situations, authority becomes more informal and connective – relying on a leader’s skill to connect with, persuade and motivate others to act in ways that may be uncomfortable, or to give up limited resources, or to go against their own short term interests (Lipman-Blumen, 2000; Heifetz & Linsky, 2002). To skilfully navigate these conditions leadership capacities and skills based in high levels of cognitive and emotional nuance are called for. Adaptive leaders need to cultivate the skills of managing themselves if they are to skilfully work with others to meet the challenge of adaptive problems (Drucker, 2011; Hunter & Scherer, 2009). To be effective in meeting adaptive challenges a leader must be able to consciously step out of habitual reactions and engage with a shifting reality in new and more sophisticated ways (Wilson, 2004; Drucker, 2001; Kegan & Lahey, 2010). Leaders must learn to cultivate and transform themselves. This self-development results in enhanced internal capacities such as deeper intellectual understanding, perceptual capacity as well as a greater ability to innovate, self-manage, and self-direct (Csikszentimihaly, 1993). Leaders need new tools to support them as they grapple with increasingly testing realities. We propose that a critical skill for adaptive leaders is the capacity to be mindful––to be present and aware of themselves, others and the world around them, to recognize in real-time their own perceptions (and their potential biases), their emotional reactions and the actions they need to take to address current realities more effectively (Kabat-Zinn, 1990; Boyatzis & McKee, 2005).

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Mindfulness training can provide leaders with practical methods for enhancing attention and awareness. That in turn can significantly enhance their potential for adaptive action and greater self-management. Mindfulness adds a potent perspective for understanding human action and, as a set of transformative methodologies, it has the capacity to radically – and practically – reshape it. In what follows we describe more fully what mindfulness is, explore how it might be beneficial to leaders and examine how a seemingly simple practice can elicit potentially profound results.

What is Mindfulness? Mindfulness is a way of attending to yourself, others and the world around you that allows one to adopt more productive and positive ways of acting and being (Chaskalson, 2011). Mindful attention is rooted in the here-and-now and is not biased by the preconceptions inherent in everyday preferences (Kabat-Zinn, 1990). Because attention directly informs subjective experience (James, 1890), cultivated mindful attention has the potential to radically transform how a person relates to their inner and outer worlds. The power of mindfulness arises from systematically developing a person’s attention so that she can recognize in the moment how she identifies with her implicit, habitual and automated patterns of thinking, feeling and acting and the results they bring about. By recognizing these patterns, she can elect to change course. As a result mindfulness endows “an adaptability and pliancy of mind with quickness of apt response in changing situations.” (Nyanaponika 1965, p. 80). Furthermore, because attention is a necessary constituent in any human activity, mindfulness can be brought to bear in any domain of human life. Mindfulness, as we use the term, was taught by the Buddha over 2500 years ago as a way of solving the problem of human suffering. That same approach to mindfulness is also practiced today as a specific methodology for transforming the mind

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in a wide variety of secular contexts such as medicine (Kabat-Zinn, 1990), clinical psychology (Segal, Williams, & Teasdale, 2002), law (Riskin 2002), the military (Jha & Stanley, 2010), corporations (Chaskalson, 2011), management schools (Hunter & Scherer, 2009), and even professional basketball (Lazenby, 2001). Crucially, the capacity for mindfulness can be trained and one highly effective way of doing that is by way of training in mindfulness meditation techniques. A growing scientific literature attests to the effectiveness of mindfulness training in areas as diverse as stress and chronic pain management, depression relapse prevention, eating disorder treatment, recidivism and substance abuse relapse prevention (Chiesa & Serretti, 2010) and a Google Scholar search on the term “mindfulness” anywhere in the title of a paper, conducted on 14 December 2011, yielded 2,480 results. Research thus far has primarily focussed on alleviating the pathological. However, there is also a growing body of evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of mindfulness in healthy populations, where it has been shown to enhance overall well-being, producing desirable outcomes across a range of measures (Brown & Ryan, 2003; Chiesa & Serreti, 2009).

How Mindfulness Can Help Leaders To date, there is little research evidence around the application of mindfulness to leadership (Bryant & Wildi, 2008). But drawing on what is known of its effectiveness in other fields and for human life in general, we confidently surmise that applying mindfulness in leadership contexts will be considerably beneficial. Because mindfulness training focuses on how leaders use their attention, it is not just another construct to stand alongside the many other arms of leadership research and practice, but both a perspective and a systematic method that helps leaders better understand and transform their own minds. Such an internal shift changes both how a leader sees the world, how he potentially acts and the results those actions bring about. What marks mindfulness training out from other leadership training interventions is the fact that the shift in attentional capacity

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can be trained and embedded in the context of everyday action. Furthermore the effectiveness of such training is borne out by marked biological changes. To draw on just one study, neuro-imaging research by Hölzel and colleagues (2011) show that an 8-week mindfulness training course evinced changes in participant’s brain areas that are associated with attention, learning and memory processes, emotion regulation, self-referential processing, and perspective taking. Our sense of the value of mindfulness builds on Mumford’s insight that outstanding leadership is rooted in a leader’s ability to construct prescriptive mental models that help people and institutions make sense of and respond to crises (Mumford, 2006). Mindfulness is a tool that makes more evident how a leader perceives and processes experience to construct models of reality. Mindfulness also makes these models more amenable to conscious transformation. Increased conscious awareness, we assert, is far more likely to produce an accurate read of a changing situation than does the natural tendency to fall back on rote habits of sensemaking. A unique quality of mindfulness practice is that it is a tool rooted in immediate experience. Leadership training has thus far tended to focus on retrospective analyses of past action or on future-oriented creations of visions and goals (Drucker, 2001). Little of leadership development has focused on understanding oneself in the present moment. But it is the present in which all human activity occurs. The here and now is the “live feed” view into how a person experiences life. Focusing on the present affords the leader the ability to see what is actually happening beyond his own preconceptions. Focusing in the here and now affords the ability to see when a person’s stated actions and intentions mismatch the actual ones. Focusing on the present affords the ability to catch a reactive emotion before it does damage to a key relationship. Mindfulness addresses a set of general interrelated problems that interfere with a leader’s capacity to bring about adaptive change: the pervasiveness of mindlessness and automaticity and the instinctual survival reactions that undermine cooperative,

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rational action and degrade personal health as well as group and individual resilience. It can supportively speak to and build upon existing lines of leadership research and development, as well as practical application. It may that successful leaders have always drawn on some quality akin to mindfulness to deal with change and ideas similar to mindfulness have long been discussed by prominent leadership scholars (Drucker, 2006; Heifetz, 1996). They discussion they have begun can be further developed and built upon and we aim to support these ideas with greater elaboration and empirical evidence. What follows is a brief general discussion of the basic conditions which give rise to the need for mindfulness, namely mindlessness and the automated, non-conscious nature of human perceiving, thinking, feeling and acting. Beyond that is a more in-depth exploration of how mindfulness can help leaders in specific ways. There we will examine the role mindfulness can play in helping to manage stress and reactive emotions, make better decision, act in innovative ways and respond freshly to situations beyond the limits of their habituated actions. In other words, how to become more adaptive leaders. Finally, because mindfulness is a practice, it is important to understand the mechanisms of how mindfulness is thought to work.

The First Problem: Mindlessness, Automaticity and the Human Condition Mindfulness is a general tool than can animate a broad range of specific situations. Before we can closely explore how mindfulness can help leaders, it is important to understand the general human condition that mindfulness addresses. This is a necessary and important step because by understanding the broader problem, the variety of specific instances makes greater sense. A great deal of leadership research and training tacitly carries the assumption that leaders are knowingly conscious, clearly perceiving and rationally acting (Kegan,

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1994). Within this framework, emphasis is placed on goal setting, skill learning and continuous achievement, based on the implicit assumption that the leader’s perspective is the right one (Heifetz & Laurie, 2001). However, a growing body of psychological research shows that conscious action is far more limited that has been previously assumed. In fact, it appears to be the case that the vast preponderance of human actions – at least 90% by some measures – including thinking, feeling, judging and acting are driven by non-conscious automated processes (Wilson, 2004). Automaticity recalls philosopher Alfred North Whitehead’s statement that “Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them” (Whitehead, 1911). The process of automation has a neural basis and is associated with the activity of the basal ganglia that helps to transform repeated conscious actions into habitual patterns (Yin & Knowlton, 2006). Given this, automaticity can be seen as an effective adaptive quality because by automating processes limited cognitive resources are freed up to attend to more important tasks. However, there is a problem. Automated patterns operate mechanically and rigidly. This is true for both persons and organizations (Langer, 1989; Weick et al., 1999, Drucker, 1999). Once triggered, automated patterns play out the same way each time. Automaticity works well in times of stability because the underlying learned programs do not require frequent updates and so there is a productive match between the pattern and the environment. However, in times of great change what worked effortlessly well in the past may no longer fit changing circumstances. For example, the strategy for successfully bringing a product to market may work in one era, but fail miserably in another, as demonstrated by the rise and fall of General Motors (GM). The company’s post-war success lulled them into ignoring smaller, higher quality, fuelefficient foreign competitors believing their approach to car making was superior. After decades that saw a slowly eroding market share and adaptive efforts to innovate that came too late, the firm eventually collapsed (Taylor, 2011). Automatic

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processes are easier to set in place than they are to dislodge. In the case of GM, adaptation only happened when the accumulated negative results of the pattern were so obviously disastrous that circumstances forced a fundamental rethink of operations. As well as automating behavioural routines to conserve limited resources, mindlessness produces fixed categories of understanding (Langer, 1989) which limit how one perceives the world. That in turn limits how a person, or an organization, can respond or interact. Fixed schemas become the unseen fundamental assumptions about how the world is, resulting in a diminished perception of possibilities and rigid responses. The leader who categorizes a certain department in his organization as unmotivated and disaffected, for example, may create self-fulfilling prophecies by the way he behaves towards them and his biases are reinforced by the fact he disallows any other interpretation of their actions. Such interpretations are then viewed as the only correct way to do things. If something is categorized in a certain way––for example, viewing the poor as uncreditworthy––that affects what is seen to be possible and what potential responses may be mobilized (Yunus, 2008). Habitual ways of understanding produce habitual reactions. This is problematic in situations where adaptive challenges call upon leaders to go beyond what is already known and understood. Research in leadership skills tends to emphasize three basic areas: human skill, technical skill, and cognitive skills (Northouse, 2009; Mumford, Zaccaro, Harding, Jacobs, & Fleishman, 2000). Comparatively less emphasis is placed on perceptual skills, or the ability to attend to experience without the deadening and distorting influences of mindlessness and non-conscious action (Drucker, 2003). Lasswell (1948) in his landmark work Power and Personality asserted that leaders in a democracy must be aware of how non-conscious processes inform and potentially distort their judgments, actions and well-being. Because democracy rests on rationality to function effectively, he called for processes to help leaders gain

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insight into themselves in order that they might act more consciously and rationally. This is the function of mindfulness. Yet, human history is littered with examples of “the best and brightest” whom trapped by their own perceptual blinders and biases lead their people down dark and destructive paths. Halberstam (1993) documents how the Harvard-trained leaders who led America into disastrous conflict with Vietnam were unwilling to challenge their own presumptions and worldviews in the face of facts. We assert that leadership research and practice should place more focus on the need to acknowledge the pervasive reality of mindlessness and the importance of taking active measures to counteract it (Heifetz, 1996; Drucker, 1999). The varieties of mindlessness create obstacles both to perceiving reality clearly and to taking conscious, considered action in the face of changing circumstances. In addition, there is a second type of automatic reaction related to instinctive survival needs that further interfere with adaptive action and leadership effectiveness.

The Second Problem: Mindlessness and The Drive to Survive One subset of automatic behaviours are especially problematic for situations requiring creative, cooperative and adaptive responses – the instinctive, unbidden neural coup by ancient survival programs to which the human brain is vulnerable. These processes, which are cued to short-term survival in primitive circumstances, become problematic in the complex social environment of the modern organization. When triggered, these reactions – associated with the activity of the amygdala – incite a cascade of aggressive or escapist survival reactions (Le Doux, 1998). The amygdala, once activated by perceived threat, bypasses higher order neocortical processes, mobilizing a defensive reaction before rational sense can be made of what a person has experienced. Goleman (1996) coined the term “amygdala hijack” to describe this misplaced fight or flight reaction (Goleman, 1996; Sapolsky, 2004). Prolonged stresses may also result in freezing in

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the face of threat (Levine, 1997). Organizationally, cultures of stress give rise to freezes that manifest as demotivated behaviour, akin to learned helplessness, where workers stop making meaningful effort (Bate, 1992; Thompson et al., 1996). Intense survival reactions privilege patterned stereotyped thinking (Broverman et al., 1974), they narrow attention and perspective (Teichner, 1968), they undermine the ability to sustain attention (Arnsten, 2000) and engage in complex cognitive processes (Arnsten, 1997), they privilege self over other and motivate reactive, antisocial, and potentially destructive emotions (Goleman, 1996). Reactive emotions (such as anger, fear and rage) are characterized by routine default patterns of action that are narrow in scope, limiting the palette of potential responses. Furthermore, reactive emotions consume large amounts of energy and deplete personal resources, alienate others and over time rigidify potential responses (Fredrickson, 1998). Because these reactions are fast and non-conscious, they undermine even the most consciously well-intentioned leader. Unrestrained and unmanaged survival reactions do much to undermine leadership effectiveness (Goleman et al., 2002). A leader’s stress-driven, uncivil reactions undermine team effort and weaken commitment to an organization (Pearson & Porath, 2003). Furthermore, antisocial behaviour decreases helpfulness, creativity and performance of routine tasks (Porath & Erez, 2007). Chronically stressed workers who remain, fearful of their jobs and are overloaded with additional responsibilities without sufficient social and emotional support are ripe for underperformance, burnout and even suicide (Hallowell, 2008).

Mindfulness’ Potential Promise for Leaders The following section explores recent findings on mindfulness and the implications they have for more effective leadership. We will explore the impact of mindfulness training on leadership stress, emotional reactivity, attention and working memory,

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perception and cognition, empathy, decision making and innovation. We will then conclude with an investigation of the mechanisms of mindfulness and with suggestions for the direction of further research.

Managing the Stress of Leading The secular approach to mindfulness training that was pioneered in a clinical setting by Kabat-Zinn (1990) and his colleagues was initially intended to address the issues of stress and chronic pain. Systematic reviews of the empirical evidence (Baer et al., 2003; Grossmann et al., 2004; Chiesa & Serretti, 2010) suggest that it is an effective means of helping to manage the debilitating qualities of excessive stress. Leaders often enjoy the challenge of their position and find their work stimulating (Lundberg & Frankenhaeuser, 1999), but leadership can also be highly stressful. Boyatzis and McKee (2005) describe the condition of “power stress” to which those in leadership positions are particularly susceptible. This is a by product of the manifold pressures they experience, the ambiguities of authority and communication that abound in large organisations, as well as the loneliness inherent in leadership positions. Boyatzis and McKee see some degree of power stress as being inevitable in leadership positions and the key to successful leadership, they suggest, is not in avoiding stress so much as in taking steps regularly to recover from the affects of it. Mindfulness practice, they say, is a key means by which such recovery can be instituted. In an interview in the Harvard Business Review, Herbert Benson (Fryer, 2005), draws on Selye’s (1975) distinction between eustress (from the Greek, ‘eu’, meaning ‘good’) and distress. Persistent stress that is not resolved through coping or adaptation leads to ‘distress’, which may give rise to anxiety or depression. But stress can also enhance physical or mental function, for instance through strength training or challenging work. In that case it is eustress.

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Stress itself is the physiological response to any change – good or bad – that alerts the adaptive fight-or-flight response in the brain and body. When this is experienced as eustress, Benson asserts, it is accompanied by clear thinking, focus and creative insight. Distress, on the other hand, refers to the negative stressors that accompany much of a leader’s work. Benson reports frequent encounters, at the medical institute that he runs, with executives who worry incessantly about the changing world economy, the impact of uncontrollable events on their markets and sources of finance, the world oil supply, family problems, taxes, traffic jams, hurricanes, child abductions, terrorist attacks and environmental devastation. Most of these are adaptive challenges and, as we have seen, they can produce distress. For the mindful leader, however, they may equally well be a source of eustress. The relationship between eustress and distress is illustrated by the YerkesDodson curve.

First described by the psychologists Robert Yerkes and John Dodson in 1908, this is often taken as a standard description of the relationship between stress and performance. As pressure on any organism or individual increases, so the individual or organism’s ‘arousal’ – their capacity to respond to that pressure

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– increases. But beyond a certain point, if the pressure continues unabated, arousal (or performance) falls off. In the case of individuals, if that continues for too long, they become stressed and eventually begin to get ill. It is important that organizations and leaders realize the kinds of chronic stress that often comes with leadership positions have been connected to a wide range of diseases and dysfunctions such as thyroid or endocrine burnout, obesity, diabetes, the inability to experience pleasure from normally pleasurable events, immune suppression, psoriasis, lupus, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, chronic pain, cancer, heart disease, infertility and irritable bowel syndrome or other digestive disorders (Britton, 2005). Excessive, unmanaged stress can kill. From the leadership perspective, as Boyatzis and McKee (2005) observe, it can also lead to a state of ‘dissonance’. Dissonant leaders, Boyatzis and McKee (2005) suggest, drain the enthusiasm of teams and organizations. They lower morale and make those around them unhappy. The stressors such leaders experience drive them towards attitudes of excessive control, aversion, intolerance, irritability and fear: qualities that counteract the effectiveness of leading adaptive change. Chronic stress, therefore, is a significant leadership issue. As we will discuss later, mindfulness helps the practitioner consciously shift what and how she processes experience, including stressful experiences. Therefore we assert leaders who are better able to manage the stressors they experience and are able to recover from these more effectively, are less likely to fall into states of dissonance with their people and will therefore make better leaders. For the mindful leader, better equipped to manage her own stressors, adaptive challenges may, as Benson (Fryer 2005) suggests, produce not distress but instead eustress. A review and meta-analysis of the effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) for stress management in healthy people conducted by Chiesa and Serretti (2009) concluded that MBSR was able significantly to reduce stress in that population. How it might do that, we will see when we consider the mechanisms of mindfulness below.

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Managing Reactive Emotions Leadership is a social enterprise where relationships are key for getting things done. Quality of relationships matter. This is even truer when situations are stressful. Because leaders’ emotions are prone to contagion. Sy, Coté and Saavedra (2005) undertook a study that examined the effects of leaders’ mood on the mood of individual group members, the affective tone of groups, and on three group processes: coordination, effort expenditure, and task strategy. They found that when leaders were in a positive, in comparison to a negative, mood then individual group members themselves experienced more positive and less negative mood. In such cases, moreover, the groups had a more positive and a less negative affective tone. They also found that groups with leaders in a positive mood exhibited more coordination and expended less effort than did groups with leaders in a negative mood. It is often the case that considerable energy is directed towards managing a volatile leader’s emotions or contriving ways to avoid their activation resulting in redirecting attention away from other critical tasks at hand. Given the crucial importance of relationship management for adaptive leadership that we have drawn attention to above, and given the impact of the leader’s mood on that relationship, the capacity to skilfully manage her own emotions is a vital leadership competency and mindfulness training can make a significant contribution here. One of the early neuroimaging studies on mindfulness conducted by Creswell and colleagues (2007) demonstrated that study participants higher in trait mindfulness displayed greater prefrontal cortical activation as well as reduced amygdala activation when exposed to difficult emotion. The same inverse correlation between the prefrontal cortex and amygdala activation was not found for those low in trait mindfulness. Furthermore, using labelling methods, where participants named the difficult emotions they were experiencing, high-mindfulness participants decreased the level of negative affect they experienced relative to those low in mindfulness. Their training in mindfulness helped them better to manage negative affect.

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Jha, Stanley and colleagues (2010) suggest that there is ample evidence that mindfulness training’s beneficial effects on affective experience are also commensurate with the amount of time spent engaging in formal mindfulness training exercises (there is therefore a dose-response, which suggests a causal relationship) and that the training is associated with higher levels of positive affect and well-being, and lower levels of negative affect and rumination, as well as decreased emotional reactivity. These findings, they say, are consistent with the decreases in neural activity elicited by affective distractors within the amygdala and other brain regions involved in emotional processing that follow from mindfulness training. such results converge on the view that mindfulness training may improve affective experience via improved regulatory control over affective mental content. All of these studies suggest that mindfulness training has the potential to help leaders better self-regulate in the face of stressors.

Attention and Working Memory The Jha and Stanley (2010) paper referred to above emerged from their work with a cohort of US Marines who were undergoing stress inoculation training prior to combat deployment. They wanted to discover the impact of eight weeks of mindfulness training under such high-stress conditions with a particular focus on the mindfulness trained cohort’s experience of emotion regulation and cognitive control. Cognitive control, as they see it, refers to the family of attention-related regulatory processes needed to ensure that information processing is in accord with long- and short-term goals and effective cognitive control, we suggest, is a crucial skill for adaptive leadership. They found that the Marines’ working memory capacity was boosted by eight weeks of mindfulness training and that this had beneficial effects on their capacity for emotion regulation and on their levels of cognitive control. As a result they suggest that mindfulness training may have the capacity to protect against the kinds of

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functional impairments that are often associated with high-stress contexts. Further evidence for the beneficial impact of mindfulness training on attention comes from the work of Lazar and colleagues (2005) who used magnetic resonance imaging to assess cortical thickness in twenty participants with extensive mindfulness meditation experience. They found that brain regions associated with attention, interoception and sensory processing were thicker in meditation participants than matched controls.

Perceiving Reality Beyond One’s Blinders The way we make sense of the world depends on the data we draw upon. If the data is not accurate or relevant then the meanings we make will not fit the actual needs of a situation, resulting in missteps, failure and loss. A study conducted by Herndon (2008) suggests that mindfulness trained subjects may come to draw upon more objective data sources and thus make more consistently accurate inferences about the world around them. Herndon uses a distinction elucidated by Lewicki (2005) between “external” and “internal” encoders. The encoding referred to here is the way in which we make sense of the world based on available data, external encoders pay attention to facts in the environment, whereas internal encoders use rigid models based sometimes on their own past experience, sometimes on information that may bear no relation to experience whatever. Lewicki suggested that internal encoders tend more readily to sustain cognitive mismatches in the face of conflicting data because their data source tends to be self-referential and closed rather than objective and open. For example, in the case of internal encoders, the view that “people with dark eyes (A) are arrogant (B)” may generate experience that is functionally equivalent to encountering real instances of that relation between (A) and (B). Though no objective evidence supports that particular A-B relation, the schema assuming it can grow in strength over time and become a habitual way of sensemaking. External encoders, by contrast, tend to be more careful in deriving meaning by using data from the environment. They require a greater

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amount of confirming data from the world around them before instantiating a schema. Herndon’s (2008) study showed a positive correlation between mindfulness and the tendency towards external encoding. In other words, people who are more mindful tend to read the environment more accurately and are less subject to the potential distortion of internal biases. What is crucially important for adaptive leaders in this context is the fact that mindfulness can be trained. By undertaking a course in mindfulness training, Herndon’s study implies, leaders may become better able to make accurate assessments of the environment in which they are operating and less prone to misleading, subjective, perceptual blinders. That view is supported by neuroscience data. An fMRI study conducted by Farb and colleagues (2007) noted that with just eight weeks of MBSR training, individuals were more readily able to switch their focus of attention from the default network, involved in ‘narrative focus’ activities – such as planning, daydreaming and ruminating – to modes of direct ‘experiential focus’ somatosensory awareness, involving the activation of the insula and the anterior cingulate cortex. In other words, the mediators were more readily able to experience information coming into their senses in real time. What is more, compared to the control group, those who practiced mindfulness – regularly noticing the difference between narrative and direct experience modes of processing – showed a stronger differentiation between the two neural paths. They were able to know which path they were on at any time, and could switch between them more easily. Subjects with no experience of mindfulness practice, on the other hand, were more likely to automatically adopt a narrative mode of processing. On this basis it seems, all other things being equal, one might reasonably expect leaders trained in mindfulness to exhibit lower levels of automaticity, higher levels of situational awareness and consequently higher levels of objectivity than those who are not so trained.

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Cultivating Empathy Besides drawing attention to mindfulness training’s ability to help leaders develop greater situation awareness in the moment through an enhanced capacity to attend to what is present, Farb and colleagues’ (2007) study points to another important potential outcome of mindfulness training in the context of leadership development: increased empathy. They showed that mindfulness trained subjects had higher levels of insula activation after just eight weeks of training. That insula activation is central to our sense of human connectedness, helping to mediate empathy in a visceral way (Singer, 2004). Mindfulness training allows participants more readily to know that they’re thinking when they’re thinking, to know what they’re feeling when they’re feeling it and to be aware of what they are sensing at the time of sensing it. It enhances their capacity for situational awareness in the moment and it builds their capacity for empathy. Because leadership is a social activity, the quality of relationship between the leader and especially his/her proximate followers is important because helps to understand others’ points of view, build an effective team and rally a group to work collectively (Hogan & Hogan, 2002). A small but growing body of research offers evidence that mindfulness improves the quality of interpersonal relationships. Though focused primarily on romantic relationships, Carson and colleagues found that mindfulness training improved both partners well-being and their ability effectively to cope with their own and each other’s daily stresses (Carson et al., 2004). Another study exploring mindfulness and relationships found higher levels of mindfulness were associated with greater relationship satisfaction. Additionally, mindfulness was related to reduced negative emotions and increased positive assessments of one’s partner after discussing a relationship conflict. People with higher levels of mindfulness experienced less anxiety and anger-hostility and that produced more positive outcomes when facing conflict. The authors suggested that mindfulness plays an inoculating role in reducing basic levels of distress and that allows a more positive and productive engagement with one’s partner (Barnes et al., 2007).

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Although the studies referred to above come from the field of romantic relationships, there is no de facto reason to imagine that their findings would not translate into the relations between leaders and their teams. In particular, the relationship found by Barnes and colleagues (2007) that showed lower levels anxiety and anger-hostility in mindfulness trained subjects at times of conflict must imply the strong possibility of significant benefits from mindfulness training when it comes to leader-follower relations.

Making Better Decisions Meditation training also appears to impact directly on one’s quality of decisionmaking. Kirk and colleagues (2011) conducted an fMRI study to see whether experienced meditators are better equipped to regulate emotional processes compared with controls during economic decision-making in the Ultimatum Game. In the classic example of the Ultimatum Game, a “proposer” offers to split a sum of money with a “responder” in a two-person exchange. If the responder rejects the offer, both players get nothing. The rational choice, therefore, would be for responders to accept all non-zero offers. Players, however, are generally not so magnanimous and responders typically reject offers in which the proposer’s share exceeds 80% of the total. They would prefer to get nothing rather than accept an inferior share of the winnings (Guth et al., 1982; Bolton & Zwick, 1995). Kirk and colleagues’ (2011) study showed that meditators accepted the “unfair” offers on more than half of the trials, whereas the controls only accepted “unfair” offers on one quarter of the trials. By applying fMRI they showed that meditators activate a different network of brain areas compared with controls. That enabled them to uncouple their negative emotional reactions from their behaviour. This highlights the possibility that training in mindfulness meditation may impact important domains of human decision-making. As we have seen, Jha, Stanley and colleagues (2010) have shown that US Marines

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who undertook an eight week mindfulness training showed a consequential enhancement to their working memory capacity. Cokely and Kelley (2009) draw attention to the relationship between higher working memory capacity and superior decision-making under risk. Where there is greater working memory capacity, their study suggests, so there is superior decision making. In an article published in Joint Force Quarterly, Stanley and Jha (2009) suggest that maintaining or enhancing warriors’ baseline levels of working memory capacity through mindfulness training would have cascading beneficial effects for effective decision-making, complex problem-solving, and emotional regulation processes, all of which are heavily taxed over the cycle of their deployment in conflict situations and are crucial for the effectiveness of their mission. All of this suggests that leaders who are called upon to make rational decisions under pressure would benefit significantly from mindfulness training.

Innovative Action Finally, although we are not aware of any studies yet carried out that show a direct correlation between mindfulness training and creativity, the work of Friedman and Forster (2001) suggests that such a correlation is highly likely. Before we discuss the study on creativity they undertook, we need briefly to outline one carried out by Davidson and Kabat-Zinn et al. (2003). They carried out a study with volunteers at a biotech company to investigate the effects of mindfulness training on prefrontal activation. They measured brain electrical activity in the left and right prefrontal cortex (LPFC and RPFC) before, immediately after and then at four-month follow-up after an eight-week training program in mindfulness meditation. Twenty-five subjects were tested in the meditation group and a wait-list control group was tested at the same points in time as the meditators. At the end of the eight-week period, subjects in both groups were vaccinated with influenza vaccine to assess their immune response.

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Davidson (1998) has drawn attention to the relationship between RPFC activation and diminished immune response. The 2003 study showed significant increases in LPFC activation in the meditators compared with the non-meditators. They also found significant increases in antibody titers to the influenza vaccine among subjects in the meditation compared with those in the wait-list control group. The magnitude of increase in left-sided activation predicted the magnitude of antibody titer rise to the vaccine. These results persisted at four-month follow-up. What is significant here are the changes evidenced in the mindfulness trained subjects’ ratios of LPFC and RPFC activation. Gray (1970, 1994) distinguished two important behaviour modification systems. These he called the Behaviour Inhibition Systems (BIS) to an ‘avoidant’ mode of mind, indicating the presence of fear, disgust, anxiety, aversion and so on; and the Behaviour Activation Systems (BAS) which is an ‘approach’ system, indicating the presence of emotions such as enthusiasm, pride, interest and curiosity. As Davidson (1998) has shown, these two systems correlate to the asymmetric activation of the prefrontal cortex. Left prefrontal cortex (LPFC) activation corresponds to BAS, or ‘approach’ modes of mind and right prefrontal cortex (RPFC) activation corresponds to BIS or ‘avoidance’ modes of mind. Returning now to the work of Friedman and Forster (2001), they set two groups of college students the task of helping the mouse find its way out of the maze drawn on paper. There was one slight difference in the pictures the groups received. The ‘approach’ version of the picture showed a piece of cheese lying outside the maze in front of a mouse hole. The ‘avoidance’ version showed an identical maze except that, instead an owl hovered over the maze – ready to swoop and catch the mouse at any moment. The maze takes about two minutes to complete and all the students who took part solved it in about that time, irrespective of the picture they were working on. But the difference in the after-effects of working on the puzzle was striking. When the

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participants took a test of creativity soon afterwards, those who had helped the mouse avoid the owl came out with scores 50% lower than those who had helped the mouse find the cheese. The enhanced capacity for ‘approach’ modes of mind following a course of mindfulness training, evidenced by Davidson and Kabat-Zinn (2003) and shown also by Barnhofer and colleagues (2007) suggest that leaders who train in mindfulness are likely to experience an increased capacity for creativity and innovation. Our final section will explore the underlying mechanisms that describe how mindfulness functions and because mindfulness is a practice, we believe it is important to explain how to implement the practice as well.

Understanding the Practice and Mechanisms of Mindfulness Mindfulness, Attention and Cognitive Control Mindfulness is a quality of attention. Attention plays a central role in mediating the relationship between a person’s inner and outer worlds. Attention is the medium that binds a person to her environment and is a primary determinant of experience (James, 1890). Attention also plays a central role in a person’s relationship to themselves. James argued that the ability to control attention was “the very root of judgment, character and will” and was the sine qua non of self-mastery (1890). Highly focused attention is the central characteristic of optimal performance or flow experiences (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990), while scattered attention, as characterized by multitasking, is related to more error-prone and slower performance (Rubinstein, Meyer, & Evans, 2001). Attention plays a central, if not primary, role in nearly every aspect of human endeavour, especially interpersonal relationships (Hugenberg & Bodenhausen, 2004). As we have previously discussed, mindfulness training is a highly effective means of developing the capacity to pay attention (Jha et al., 2007) and people who are trained in mindfulness are better able to exercise

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crucial attentional elements – cognitive control and emotion regulation – in high stress conditions (Jha & Stanley, 2010).

Mindfulness Training Methods The methods of training employed on mindfulness training courses generally emerge from the Buddhist tradition, but in its secular, often clinical, form mindfulness training is most commonly encountered in the contexts of the MindfulnessBased Stress Reduction programme (MBSR) that was developed by Kabat-Zinn and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center (Kabat-Zinn, 1990) and the Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy programme (MBCT) that emerged from it (Segal, Williams, & Teasdale, 2002). Both of these approaches centre around an eight-week long group-based training course. Participants typically spend 2 to 3 hours per week in taught group sessions and are required to perform around 45 minutes per day of home practice for each day that the course runs. There have also been briefer interventions developed for use in organisations (Klatt et al., 2009) and variants on the course have been developed to address a wide range of other conditions (Chiesa & Serretti, 2010). Meta-analyses of the data on the effects of such programmes generally find them to be effective (Baer, 2003; Grossmann et al., 2004; Chiesa & Serretti, 2010). Typically, participants will learn several structured meditation practices. They may learn to sit in meditation for between twenty and forty minutes at a time, depending on the course structure, allowing their minds to rest with one or another focus of attention that may be suggested by their instructor – their breath, their body sensations, sounds and so on. Most of these meditation sessions will be conducted while sitting – usually in chairs and, depending on circumstances, some might be conducted lying down. Participants also learn to be mindful while moving, by practising yoga or by way of a walking meditation. They might learn brief, highly ‘portable’ one or three minute meditations that they can apply as needed in their working day, and they would learn ‘informal’ mindfulness practices as well

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– mindful eating, for example, or driving, or showering – and they will be invited to become more aware of their unfolding experience from moment to moment. There is no space here to more fully describe the rich protocols of a mindfulness training course. Chaskalson (2011) describes one that has been designed for the workplace, as does Klatt (2009). There has as yet, to our knowledge, been no research conducted on any programme that aims specifically to develop leadership competencies using mindfulness training although both authors of this chapter, separately in the United States and the United Kingdom, offer forms of mindfulness training to leaders in organisations and in business schools. The forms we employ in such contexts bear a close relationship to the methods used in MBSR and MBCT and it may be useful here to consider some of the mechanisms for change which underlie that approach.

The Mechanisms of Mindfulness How does mindfulness help to incite adaptive challenges? Teasdale and Chaskalson (2011) suggest that there are three principle mechanisms by which mindfulness training has its effects. Participants in mindfulness training discover three principle strategies that help them to deal more creatively and less automatically with their thoughts, feelings and sensations. Fundamentally, they learn to shift and undermine the internal conditions that support difficult states of mind. They do this by learning to effect changes in what their mind is processing, in how their mind is processing it, and in the view they take of what is being processed. As a result, gradual practice develops skill in bringing a greater level of conscious awareness to routinized and mindless patterns. This is the heart of adaptation. As a way of anchoring this discussion in a concrete example, imagine the case of a leader whose team has recently merged with that of another division. Used to working with people who are open and enthusiastic about their work, she now finds herself having to deal with a group who are reluctant and evasive – and

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highly skilled at using the nuances of UK employment law to their own advantage, irrespective of its impact on their new team. The team have to produce their results for an annual review by the Board in a few days time but, given the lack of co-operation from their new colleagues, it seems highly unlikely that they will meet that target. The leader calls some of the new team members together and tries to communicate her concerns but she meets patent, and passive, resistance. At home that evening she finds herself upset and irritable, dwelling constantly on thoughts about the new team members and their impact on the future of her career and how they have changed the atmosphere in her old team. She just can’t get them off her mind. Participants in mindfulness-based programs often report a reduction in distress following such events. They might describe that as a result of practicing mindfulness such a meeting, that previously could have left them mindlessly ruminating on and off for several hours, now leads to much shorter disturbance and it becomes easier to move on and to take a more constructive approach to whatever comes next (Allen et al., 2009).

Changes to What the Mind is Processing The first and simplest strategy a student of mindfulness learns for altering the internal conditions that sustain difficult states of mind is to change the content of what the mind is processing (Teasdale & Chaskalson, 2011). One can do this by redirecting attention away from emotionally charged ruminations to aspects of experience that are less likely to support the arising and continuation of patterns that maintain the difficulty. So, in the case of the meeting referred to above, the team leader who was trained in mindfulness skills might intentionally shift attention away from her thoughts and feelings of frustration and worry and re-focus and sustain her attention on the bodily sensations of her breath moving in and out. The relatively neutral content of the breath provides less ‘fuel’ for maintaining a problematic internal state like the continual rehashing of emotion-laden thoughts

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related to the meeting. Her mind begins to calm and she becomes better able to consider different possibilities for action.

Changes to How the Mind Processes Whereas the first strategy changes what is processed, the second approach suggested by Teasdale and Chaskalson would be to leave the ‘input’ to the mind the same, but to change how the material is processed. For our executive, this might mean intentionally allowing and attending with interest and curiosity to the unpleasant feelings created by the difficult meeting. Rather than be at war with the feelings, our executive relates to them differently. The difficult emotions become objects of experience, rather than a source of overwhelm. In this shift, she finds greater space to see the situation from a new point of view. This brings us back to the study conducted by Davidson, Kabat-Zinn and colleagues. (2003). They found that eight weeks of mindfulness training brought about a significant increase in the activation of participants’ left prefrontal cortex. And that, it is plausible to suggest, will have been accompanied by a significant shift in their capacity to maintain ‘approach’ modes of mind in the face of difficulty. This corresponds to Teasdale and Chaskalson’s (2011) second strategy – changing how a mental input is processed by, for example, allowing and attending to the unpleasant experiences with interest and curiosity, rather than simply reacting with automatic aversion. As we have shown above, the capacity to regulate emotional response has very considerable leadership advantages. And as we will show below, there is also a potentially significant correlation between approach modes of mind and creativity – which also has significant implications for leadership effectiveness.

Changes to the View Taken on What the Mind is Processing The third strategy that Teasdale and Chaskalson suggest is to change the view one has of the material being processed. With the difficult meeting, this might involve

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a change from the perception “this new team is really frustrating” to the perception “I’m experiencing unpleasant thoughts, feelings and sensations right now.” By doing so, she recategorizes her experience from a statement about her perceived view of the team’s characteristics to a statement about her immediate and impermanent internal state. Langer’s view, the re-categorization of phenomena results in new possibilities. By developing a mindful perspective on them, leaders who are trained in mindfulness learn to see their thoughts just as thoughts, rather than as a reflection of reality or truth. This leads to reduced reactivity and lower levels of suffering and distress (Baer, 2003; Teasdale, 1999). It also increases psychological flexibility – the ability to keep on with mental and physical behaviours that support what you want in your life and to avoid those behaviours that don’t (Hayes, 2004). By not reactively fixating on the team, she creates a possibility for herself to act differently and more positively which increases the chances of a positive outcome. The benefits to leaders from taking a mindful perspective on thoughts are considerable. Segal and colleagues (2002) suggest that mindfulness training has the capacity to bring about a state of ‘metacognitive awareness’ in which, rather than simply being your emotions, identifying personally with negative thoughts and feelings, one may learn to relate to negative experiences as mental events in a wider context or field of awareness. Leaders who do that are thereby freed, at least to some extent, from the distorted reality their emotion-laden thoughts can create and that may considerably enhance their leadership effectiveness. Metacognitive awareness can increase freedom and a sense of having a choice in all aspects of a leader’s life. Take the case, reported by Kabat-Zinn (1990) of Peter, who attended an MBSR course because he had had a heart attack and wanted to prevent another one. Peter came to a dramatic realization one night as he found himself, at 10 p.m., standing in his driveway washing his car under floodlights. He suddenly saw that he didn’t need to be doing that. He had spent that day, as

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he usually did, determinedly trying to fit in all that he thought he needed to do. It struck him, in that moment, that he’d been unable to question the truth of his conviction that everything had to get done today. He was completely caught up in believing it and so, inevitably, he acted from that conviction. Washing the car was on his to-do list. If something was on the list, it had to get done. That attitude, Peter saw in a flash, was what led to his anxious sense of being constantly driven, his perpetual tension and his unconsciously anxious approach to life. That small, simple assumption gave rise to a set of attitudes and behaviours that threatened his heart and his health. As a result of his mindfulness training, Peter became more aware of his mental patterns. He saw that the thought “I’ve got to wash the car next, it’s on my list …” was just a thought. He didn’t have to do it. He could choose whether to continue or whether to stop and relax a bit before going to bed. He decided to call it quits. Notice here the tiny assumption at the heart of Peter’s driven and anxious approach to life. “If something is on the to-do list it has to be done”. It is precisely this kind of non-conscious implicit assumption that distinguishes adaptive leaders from others. Adaptive leaders will more readily spot such assumptions and mobilize action to correct them. Returning to an earlier example, a more adaptive leadership at GM would long ago have spotted the fallacious assumption that the route to continued success was through selling large fuel-inefficient motor cars and taken action to shift the company’s priorities. Rooted in the present, making meaning from external, objective data, adaptive leaders are more able to see their thoughts and assumptions as just thoughts and assumptions. Better able to question these and to discard ineffectual thoughts (“If it’s on my to-do list it must be done at all costs” “The kind of cars we’ve sold well in the past will be the kind of cars that we’ll sell well in the future”) they are better able to adapt to the realities in which they find themselves. Participants on a mindfulness course learn metacognitive skills indirectly but very

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effectively (Teasdale et al., 2002). As we have seen, they may be instructed to meditate on their breath – simply allowing their attention to settle on the sensations of breathing. At some point during that meditation the instructor might suggest that when the mind wanders the participants should notice where it goes and then gently and kindly bring their attention back to the breath. At another point, he or she might add “And if your mind wanders off a hundred times, just bring it back a hundred times …” The mind wanders, you notice where it went and you bring it back. It wanders, you notice where it went and you bring it back. Over and over. In this way, participants learn four key metacognitive skills: 1. The skill of seeing that their minds are not where they want them to be. “I want to sit in this meditation, following my breath, but I keep thinking about what’s next on my to-do list.” 2. The skill of detaching the mind from where you don’t want it to be: “Actually, I don’t need to be thinking about my to-do list right now: I can choose …” 3. The skill of placing the mind where you want it to be: “I’ll just come back to the breath …” 4. The skill of keeping the mind where you want it to be: The participant just follows the breath for a few minutes, undistractedly. By repeatedly practising these four skills participants become more adept at them. That starts to have benefits outside of the meditation context as well: “I don’t need to be thinking about which holiday to book online when I get home – I need to give all of my attention to the team-member who has come to see me”. As Baer (2003) and Jha and Stanley (2010) have noted, the tendency of the mind to wander and the instruction to return it to the breath calls on course participants

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to increase the level of their cognitive control processes to ensure that they keep their attention on the breath. They also have to employ emotion regulation processes to step away from the sense of frustration at failing to do so. Such enhanced attentional flexibility, we suggest, will have considerable pay-offs in terms of increased effectiveness. But more than that, humans are meaning-making animals and are constantly creating and re-creating narratives to fit the limited facts of experience. However, the meanings and conclusions that are quickly arrived at can fail to fit the facts. John was on his way to school. He was worried about the maths lesson. He was not sure he could control the class today. It wasn’t part of a janitor’s duty. (Segal, Williams, & Teasdale 2002, p. 244) The above scenario leads the mind’s eye through a certain construction of reality from one line to the next. Automatic, non-conscious processes rapidly make meaning out of limited sensory input. It is further elaborated by combining with content from one’s past experience and constantly updated as new data becomes available, creating an ever-changing running commentary on the events that take place within awareness. Sometimes this processes fails. And when leaders do, given their position in relation to others, the problems that follow can proliferate. Praise from a subordinate, for example, can be read as “he appreciates me” or “he’s sucking up to me” and the reaction that follows will differ accordingly. As we have seen, Herndon (2008) found that subjects low in mindfulness tended to cling to their internal narrative of events as a source of meaning making leading to greater perceptual errors, while those who were higher in mindfulness paid closer attention to the facts that presented themselves and had fewer perceptual failures and even an identical event is liable to different interpretations.

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A manager and one of her staff are discussing certain options: “Would you prefer to attend the conference or stay and catch up your backlog?” the manager asks. “I don’t mind”, her subordinate replies. When the manager recounts this conversation to her own line manager she remembers the event as: “I asked him whether he’d like to go to the conference or not and he said he didn’t care.” Her subordinate, by contrast, recalls it as: “She asked me whether I’d like to go to the conference or to stay and catch up and I said I didn’t mind which – I just wanted to do whatever she thought would be most useful.” The distinction between actual events and the interpretation of events is not always obvious (Chaskalson, 2011 p.95).

Findings on the Overall Benefits of Mindfulness Training Chiesa, Calati and Serretti (2011) conducted a systematic review of the neuropsychological findings of mindfulness meditation to assess its impact on overall cognitive ability. They discovered that different results emerge over the time over training. In early phases of mindfulness training, which are more concerned with the development of focused attention, could be associated with significant improvements in selective and executive attention whereas the later phases, which are characterized by an open monitoring of internal and external stimuli, could be mainly associated with improved unfocused sustained attention abilities. In addition, they found that mindfulness training could enhance working memory capacity and certain executive functions. Noting the various limitations of the studies they investigated, they called for further high quality studies investigating more standardized mindfulness meditation programmes.

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Directions for Future Research The role of mindfulness and its positive potential for enabling effective leaders is ripe with possibilities for further research. The studies cited here only point to a wealth of future opportunities. Mindfulness provides a practical methodology for developing skills that are essential for effective adaptation in changing environments. Considering that mindfulness has been effectively used in a number of professional settings, the domain of leadership would benefit from systematic investigation. We assert there is significant value in determining the effect upon leaders in respect of their attentional skills, levels of empathy and emotional intelligence, non-reactivity, creativity, innovation and overall well-being from undertaking such training. Having said that, we should also say that mindfulness alone is not panacea. Awareness by itself does not always translate into effective action, but having awareness increases the possibility that it does. Finally, it would be valuable to explore the extent to which questionnaires that examine currently accepted leadership constructs may or may not overlap with questionnaires that seek to assay levels of mindfulness. Venkatasubramanian and Dorjee (2011) have made a start in this area by investigating links between dimensions of authentic leadership, as measured by the Authentic Leadership Questionnaire (Walumbwa et al., 2007) and the axioms of mindfulness assessed by the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (Baer et al., 2006). They also draw attention to a variety of neuro-cognitive measures that might test the predictions that emerge from that correlation. This correlation of measures from leadership studies and mindfulness studies, taken along with biological measures to test their predictions, may begin to yield significant evidence of the benefit or otherwise of leaders being trained in mindfulness skills.

Conclusion How to lead people to effectively adapt in the face of great change? How to stop

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the habitual tendency of falling back on old routines in the face of unprecedented crises? How do leaders manage themselves and the stressors inherent in the tasks they face and the challenges of their responsibilities? Leaders need new tools to do their jobs more effectively. We propose that mindfulness offers a powerful methodology for enhancing the well-being and the efficacy of leaders as they face stressful and challenging conditions. A steadily growing body of research has demonstrated that mindfulness evinces changes in the brain that help people to become more present, less emotionally reactive and more deliberate and purposeful in their thoughts and actions. By learning to step out of the innate human tendency to run on automatic pilot, leaders can deliberately create new options for action that can lead us through turbulent times.

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About the Authors Jeremy Hunter, PhD Jeremy Hunter is Assistant Professor of Practice at the Peter F. Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California. He teaches The Executive Mind and The Practice of Self-Management a series of demanding mindfulness-based courses for executives he developed over a decade ago. He has been voted Professor of the Year three times. www.jeremyhunter.net [email protected] Twitter: jeremyhunter123

Michael Chaskalson, MA Michael Chaskalson is the founder and Chief Executive of Mindfulness Works Ltd. and author of The Mindful Workplace (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011). He is a member of the core team at the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice at Bangor University where he is an honorary lecturer in the School of Psychology. www.mindfulness-works.com [email protected] Twitter: mindfulnessguy

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