Meditation

Taking time out during your busy day to reflect, relax, re-charge or re-balance can be a useful exercise.  It keeps you resourceful and able to cope with the challenges and stressors that you face.

Meditation doesn't need to take a long time; it's more about doing it frequently and consistently.

Here's a simple meditation, taken from a really good book, 'Teach Yourself to Meditate' by Eric Harrison.  It's packed with simple meditations for you to try, many of which only take a few minutes of your day.  Of course you can do longer, deeper forms of meditation, but don't try to do too much too soon.  It's a sure way to not making it a habitual practice.  Start with something that you can fit into your day, do it and see where it takes you.

1   Red Light:

Instructions:

If you feel frustrated, smile at yourself.

You have been given perhaps a whole minute to stop and do nothing.

Let body and mind slow down and relax.

Take a deep sigh, lingering on the out-breath.

Let your face and belly soften.

One whole minute to breathe softly.

Be aware of excess tension in your body.

Gently shake it free, as you settle back into the seat.

Look around you slowly.

Come back to full attention as light changes to green.

The Golden Rule

How optimistic are you?  Do you always see the glass half full or half empty?  Two people can view the same situation in very different ways, so is it the situation that is making us feel that way, or is it us?

Research suggests that we actually need both; we benefit from an optimistic outlook, but also by tempering it with a healthy dose of pessimism.  The two most important factors are

 1) there is an optimum ratio of optimism to pessimism.  Depending on the researcher this varies from 3;1 to 5:1, but basically it means be more optimistic than pessimistic! 

 2)  You can train yourself to apply this ratio in your own life.  You can learn to be optimistic.

Two very informative sources on this topic are:

'Rainy Brain, Sunny Brain' by Elaine Fox

'Positivity' by Barbara Fredrickson

Thought for the day:  Why not take Barbara Fredrickson's positivity ratio test?  It's in her book, but she also publishes an online version which you can take as many times as you like, for free.  It's a good way of charting your progress.  You can find it at:

www.PositivityRatio.com

Acts of kindness

You may remember the story of Luke Cameron, who set himself the task of committing at least one act of kindness every day, for a year.  He succeeded and became a media celebrity as a result.  You can read about him on our blog (9 January 2015) or visit his website,  http://thegooddeeddiary.com/.

Luke's endeavours inspired me to have a go, and so I spent 2016 aiming to complete an act of kindness every day.  I kept a log, which I won't bore you with, but I pretty much succeeded.  (Some days I forgot to fill in my log and by the time I got round to updating it, I'd forgotten what I'd done, but I'm pretty sure I did something every day).   The funniest act of kindness was trying to explain to a traveller in Munich airport, using only basic German that he was about to exit the Gents' toilets with a four foot tail of toilet paper streaming from the back of his jeans!  Some of the time it was something really small, like paying a stranger a compliment.  Sometimes it didn't really seem that big a deal, like putting my change into a charity box.  The best ones; the most fulfilling were ones that felt like genuine gifts to people.  It wasn't their financial value, it was what it did for the other person that made the difference.  (I think the highest value act I committed was probably worth about £600, but opened up a whole new world for the recipient).

And research is emerging that being kind actually has health benefits for the giver.  Think about what you have to do to be kind.  You have to put yourself in the shoes of the other person and imagine what life is like for them right now, what they might need/like and how you can help.  In short, it moves your perspective to the present and from 'self' to 'other'.  It's difficult to remember the things you are not happy about while you are focused on taking care of someone else.

Thought for the day:  Look for ways of committing acts of kindness through the day.  Go and look at Luke's blog for some great ideas.  My advice for being kind and also promoting you own well-being:

• Do it with joy in your heart, because you want to, not because you should.
• Acts of service beat financial donations every time.
• Be mindful and present when being kind.  Actively choose to do it and be aware when you do it.
• Be unconditional (Don't do it to expect something in return).
• Do it proactively (Don't wait to be asked).

When you are at your best...who are you? And at your worst....?

Answer these questions. There are no right or wrong answers:

1.  From the following list, pick three words or phrases that you believe best describe you:

2.  Now, using the same list of words, what three words or phrases do you think close colleagues would use if asked to describe your reputation?  


Are they the same words you chose in your first answer, or something different?  

3.  When you are feeling under pressure or others are giving you a hard time, which of the following are you most likely to do?

• remove yourself from the situation and re-group/give yourself time to think.
• work hard to maintain the relationship.
• meet the challenge head-on with a 'never-back-down' attitude.

4.  You have to complete a challenging task.  How would you know you had completed it to your own satisfaction?

• It gives you a sense of achievement and/or raises your range of power and influence as a result.
• It enhances your reputation and social standing with others.
• It makes you more secure and puts your future in your hands.
• It's the learning and growth that you have gained from doing the task.

We said at the beginning that there are no right or wrong answers.  And that's true.  But there are implications.  How you behave at work is how others describe your reputation.  And if you are the type of person that others describe as '...you see the real him/her when the pressure's on....' then what they really mean is that under stress your behaviour is different from what they normally see, patterned and predictable (often not in a good way!)

Does any of this matter?  Only if you are thinking about your next move, your career or how to become more influential in the job you are in.  You'll be relieved to hear that there is a much better, scientific and tried and tested method for learning about your reputation, your reactions to stress and what motivates you.  It's called the Hogan Leadership series(HPI HDS and MVPI).  We've been using it extensively with executives, directors and senior teams.  The Hogan reports, generate deep insight into how to perform at your best, and how to minimise the effects of your 'dark side'.  With teams it can provide valuable information on when and how the team will perform well as well as highlighting potential blind spots.


You can find out more about Hogan at:

http://www.hoganassessments.com/content/hogan-personality-inventory-hpi

If you are already convinced that you or your team would benefit from such insights, then please contact us at:

info@enthiostraining.co.uk

Standing on the shoulders of giants.

This one might seem a bit cheesy, but it's worth a try!  It's very simple and you can use it to easily and instantly change your  mood.  Sometimes, someone else comes up with simple phrase which carries meaning for you.  (In my first job in manufacturing, there was a electrician, nearing retirement, who used to tell all us young 'uns, 'Life's not like the Grand National son; you don't go round a second time'. 30 years on I still remember it!)


Thought for the day:  Choose a quote that you find inspirational or thought provoking.  Place it somewhere where you can see it frequently throughout the day.  Without thinking too hard about it, read the quote and reflect on how your world would be different, if you acted as if it were true?

There are many sources of quotes on the internet or via apps.  You can also view a plentiful supply on Pinterest.  Why not put make one your screen saver for the day, or create a schedule to receive a new, positive quote on your mobile for your commute to work?

Here's one to get you started!

The 10 Forms of Positivity

Being positive as a way of living isn't just mumbo-jumbo; there is a lot of science to suggest that it can have multiple benefits including our physical and mental health.

In her book, 'Positivity', Barbara Fredrickson lists 10 forms of positivity.  These are:

• Joy
• Gratitude
• Serenity
• Interest
• Hope
• Pride
• Amusement
• Inspiration
• Awe 
• Love

All of these can be learned, practised and developed.  They are within your own control.  The more you practise them, the stronger and more familiar they become.  Little and often is the key to lasting change.

Thought for the day:  Pick one of these 10 forms.  If you consciously picked out one of these to practise, which would you choose?  How would you behave differently?  What would be the benefits?

Give yourself the best possible start to 2016!

Happy new year everyone!  We hope you have a prosperous and fulfilling year.  In 2013 we created a 30 day self-help plan for anyone who had set themselves some new year resolutions (and were actually interested in keeping them!).

This year we have decided to take a different approach.  Rather than concentrating on setting and attaining goals, we want to invite you to think about well-being?  What does well-being mean to you in terms of:

• Health?
• Fitness?
• Relationships?
• Happiness?
• Growth?
• Diet?
• Spirituality?
• Innovation or starting something new?
• The Arts?

Why is well-being so important?  We think it's the bedrock to many of the other things you might want in life, including the goals you set.  Taking care of your well-being gives you the best possible start of achieving what you want to achieve.

Each day, over January 2016, we will give you a handy tip or simply something to think about over the course of the day that can help to promote your sense of well-being.  It's not a prescriptive programme, and you might find that not everything is for you.  But we do hope to provide you with some simple ideas that you can easily include in your other daily activities.

We'd love to hear about your own ideas too, so please post up and share!