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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
A comprehensive training program to navigate skillfully in this disruptive, uncertain time This comprehensive workbook provides a mind training based on new findings in neuroscience that will enhance your decision-making skills. Skillful, strategically aware decisions in professional and private life are key for sustainable well-being and flourishing in life. Part 1 provides a conceptual introduction into understanding the brain as a predicting organ, actively inferring, and constantly trying to optimize energy. Part 2 leads you through a systematic training program of 8 sessions to enhance strategic awareness and improve decision-making skills by increasing the precision of our perception and mental processing. The practices are designed to fit in a busy schedule with a focus on the challenges we all grapple with in daily life. While thorough and well-grounded in scientific research this workbook is also pleasant and inspiring to read. It is filled with practical examples and the author's own life experience. Numerous hand-drawn illustrations inspire also visually. The MBSAT methodology has been tested by practitioners for over 10 years and is widely acclaimed. The government of Singapore, known for its outstanding commitment to education and investment in the human resources of its population, has included MBSAT in its official skill-building program and heavily subsidizes participation in MBSAT training. It is one of the testimonials to the efficacy of MBSAT.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Testimonials
Figures
Boxes
Practices, Exercises, Tools, and Experiments
About the Author
Preface: The Genesis of this Bookpreface
Overcoming Adversity
Uncertainty in Today's Environment
MBSAT as Practical Training and the Question of Luck in Life
Strategic Awareness is a Critical Factor in a Flourishing Life
Mindfulness in an Active Life and a Scientific Underpinning of Mindfulness
A Radically New Approach to the Mind
Necessary Caveats
MBSAT as a Developmental, Proactive Training for Non‐clinical Participants
A Suggestion on How to Read this Book
Part 1: Foundations and Core Principles of the MBSAT Program
Chapter 1: The Underlying Biomechanics of Our Brain
1.1 Flourishing in a World of “VUCA”: Is it Possible?
1.2 Free Energy Minimization: The Motivation Behind What the Brain Does
1.3 The Bayesian Hierarchical Hypothesis of the Brain: How the Brain Minimizes Free Energy
1.4 The Relation Between the Brain and Bayes Theorem
1.5 The Models in the Brain and Active Inference
1.6 How the Bayesian Brain Implements Active Inference
1.7 Summary: Our Brain's Essential Biomechanics
Chapter 2: Free Energy, Active Inference and the Predictive BETA Mind in MBSAT
2.1 MBSAT's History and Evolution
2.2 Contextualizing MBSAT Under the Free Energy Principle (FEP)
2.3 Active Inference (AI) in MBSAT
2.4 The Predictive BETA Mind (PBM)
Chapter 3: The MBSAT Program and its Distinctive Features
3.1 The Predictive Brain in MBSAT
3.2 Minding Our BETA: The Recognition Models in MBSAT ‐ Valence and Feeling Tone
3.3 Minding our Portfolio of Beliefs (POB): The Generative Models in MBSAT
3.4 Minding the Portfolio of Beliefs: People, Self, Adversity and Money
3.5 Minding the Strategic Adaption of Life (SAL): Skillful Decision‐Making
3.6 Belief Updating and Attention
3.7 Minding: A Key Quality of MBSAT
3.8 Mindfulness in MBSAT
3.9 The Free Energy Minimizing Self (FEMS)
Chapter 4: Introduction to The MBSAT Program: Essential Foundations to Make Your MBSAT Training Effective
4.1 The Journey You Are Embarking On
4.2 Key Concepts to Understand How Our Brains Work
4.3 BETA in MBSAT: Body sensations, Emotions, Thoughts, and Action impulses
4.4 Minding: The Core Function of MBSAT
4.5 Practices and Practicing in MBSAT
4.6 Beliefs: The Drivers Behind Our BETA, Predictions and Behaviors
4.7 Decisions: Orienting and Shaping Our Lives
4.8 The Free Energy Minimizing Self–FEMS: Your Personal Plan to Implement Free Energy Minimizing Strategies
4.9 Core Learnings to Remember
Part 2: Mindfulness‐Based Strategic Awareness Training (MBSAT) the Training Program
Chapter 5, Session 1: Minding BETA I ‐ Body Sensations
5.1 Getting Started Task of Session 1, Investment and Benefits
5.2 Introduction and Concepts
5.3 Aspects of Bodily Sensations
5.4. Exercises
5.5 Practices
5.6 Learnings from Session 1
5.7 Action Plan (AP) for the Week of Session 1
5.8 Personal Notes and Insights
Chapter 6, Session 2: Minding BETA II ‐ Emotions
6.1 Getting Started Task of Session 2, Investment and Benefits
6.2 Quiz Session 1: Minding BETA I and Chapter 4 Essential Foundations
6.3. Introduction and Concepts
6.4 Practices
6.5 Exercises
6.6 Learnings from Session 2
6.7 Action Plan (AP) for the Week of Session 2
6.8 Personal Notes and Insights
Chapter 7 Session 3: MINDING BETA III ‐ THOUGHTS
7.1 Getting Started Task of Session 3, Investment and Benefits
7.2 Quiz Session 2: Minding BETA II – Emotions
7.3 Introduction and Concepts
7.4 Practices
7.5 Exercises
7.6 Learnings from Session 3
7.7 Action Plan (AP) for the Week of Session 3
7.8 Personal Notes and Insights
Chapter 8, Session 4 8: Minding BETA IV ‐ Action Impulses
8.1 Getting Started Task of Session 4, Investment and Benefits
8.2 Quiz Session 3: Minding BETA III – Thoughts
8.3 Introduction and Concepts
8.4 Practices
8.5 Tools and Models
8.6 Learnings from Session 4
8.7 Action Plan (AP) for the Week of Session 4
8.8 Personal Notes and Insights The Writing Space for Your Experiences and Observations
Chapter 9, Session 5: Minding the Portfolio of Beliefs I
9.1 Getting Started Task of Session 5, Investment and Benefits
9.2 Quiz Session 4: Minding BETA IV – Action Impulses
9.3 Introduction and Concepts
9.4 Tools and Models
9.5 Practices
9.6 Learnings from Session 5
9.7 Action Plan (AP) for the Week of Session 5
9.8 Personal Notes and Insights The Writing Space for Your Experiences and Observations
Chapter 10, Session 6: Minding the Portfolio of Beliefs II
10.1 Getting Started Task of Session 6, Investment and Benefits
10.2. Quiz Session 5: Minding the Portfolio of Beliefs I ‐ Minding Adversity
10.3 Introduction and Concepts
10.4 Exercises
10.5. Practices
10.6 Reflections
10.7 Learnings from Session 6
10.8 Action Plan (AP) for the Week of Session 6
10.9 Personal Notes and Insights The Writing Space for Your Experiences and Observations
Chapter 11, Session 7: MINDING THE PORTFOLIO OF BELIEFS III
11.1 Getting Started Task of Session 7, Investment and Benefits
11.2 Quiz Session 6: Minding POMO – From Powerful Money to Mindful Money
11.3 Introduction and Concepts
11.4. Behavioral Social Experiments
11.5 Aspects of Minding the Social Experience with Others
11.6 Practices
11.7 Exercises
11.8 Tools and Models
11.9 Reflections
11.10 Learnings from Session 7
11.11 Action Plan (AP) for the Week of Session 7
11.12 Personal Notes and Insights The Writing Space for Your Experiences and Observations
Chapter 12, Session 8: Minding the Strategic Adaptation in Life(SAL): Decisions as the Basis of Well‐being
12.1 Getting Started Task of Session 8, Investment and Benefits
12.2 Quiz Session 7: Minding our Social Experience (SoE)
12.3 Introduction and Concepts/Consolidation
12.4 Practices
12.5 Learnings from Session 8
12.6 Action Plan (AP) for the Time after the Program
12.7 Personal Notes and Insights
Epilogue: Accompanying Thoughts for Your Continuous Practice
Mental health and Strategic Adaptation in Life (SAL)
The Living Zone of Free‐Energy Minimization
From VUCA to WECO: Paddling with MBSAT
Solution of the Puzzle in Chapter 9 Session 5 Minding the Triad of Perception, Beliefs and Predictions
References
Further Reading
Acknowledgments
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Illustrations
Chapter 1
Figure 1.1
The Nature of Free Energy in MBSAT
Figure 1.2
Bayesian Questioning Mindset in MBSAT (I)
Figure 1.3
Bayesian Questioning Mindset: The Math (II)
Figure 1.4
Active Inference for Decisions (AID) in Daily Life
Figure 1.5
The Active Inference Process
Figure 1.6
Proprio‐, Intero‐ and Exteroceptive Prediction (Adapted from Seth
...
Figure 1.7
Predictive Loop
Chapter 2
Figure 2.1
The MBSAT Free Energy Active Inference Model of Human Experience
...
Figure 2.2
The Landscape of the Free Energy Minimizing Principle
Figure 2.3
The Core of MBSAT
Figure 2.4
Home Automation
Figure 2.5
The Predictive BETA Mind
Figure 2.6
BETA Elements in Beck's Cognitive Model
Chapter 3
Figure 3.1
Free Energy Minimization and Minding BETA
Figure 3.2
The Active Inference process: Updating beliefs of the generative
...
Figure 3.3
Minding our Portfolio of Beliefs: The updating matrix
Figure 3.4
Minding the Precision of Strategic Awareness for Skillful Decisio
...
Figure 3.5
Minding – A MBSAT Core Principle
Figure 3.6
Opacity for Updating BETA
Chapter 4
Figure 4.1
The Nature of Free Energy in MBSAT (Duplication of Figure 1.1 for
...
Figure 4.2
The Continuous Minding Sequence
Figure 4.3
Meditation for Minding BETA and Beliefs
Figure 4.4
The Training Model of MBSAT: Mindfulness‐based Strategic Awarenes
...
Figure 4.5
Causal Links in Our life
Figure 4.6
The Curve of Predictive Errors and its consequences on Living
Figure 4.7
Structural Design of the MBSAT Program
Chapter 5
Figure 5.1
Minding Body Sensations:: Tonality, Location, Intensity, and Spee
...
Figure 5.2
Interoception (I) – Following Autonomous Body Sensations/Signals:
...
Figure 5.3
Interoception (II) – Following Autonomous Body Sensations/Signals
...
Figure 5.4
What determines well‐being?
Chapter 6
Figure 6.1
Reactive MBSAT buddy
Figure 6.2
Clear‐minded MBSAT buddy
Figure 6.3
Moments of Contentment with Nun Viên Thê'
Figure 6.4
Free Energy minimizing buddy
Chapter 7
Figure 7.1
Minding the Silver Screen of Your Thoughts
Figure 7.2
Walking mindfully with Nun Viên Thê’
Chapter 8
Figure 8.1
Continuous‐time Active Inference Process: Walking to the Store
...
Figure 8.2
Free Energy Minimization and Minding BETA
Figure 8.3
CEO of BETA: The Sandglass MBSAT Buddy
Figure 8.4
BETA Saturation in our digital times
Figure 8.5
The challenge of keeping BETA in balance
Figure 8.6
The Free‐Energy Minimizing Action Quadrants
Chapter 9
Figure 9.1
Minding our Recognition Models
Figure 9.2
MBSAT Stress, Anxiety and Worry (SAW) Model
Figure 9.3
Bayesian Questioning Mindset in MBSAT
Figure 9.4
Minding Real Options
Figure 9.5
Free Energy Minimization and Irimi: Minding Adversity
Chapter 10
Figure 10.1
Money Accumulation: A System Dynamics View
Figure 10.2
Work and Money: Opportunity Costs and Trade‐offs
Figure 10.3
Minding POMO – Powerful Money, The Hedonic Treadmill
Chapter 11
Figure 11.1
Parable of the long spoons (Room 1)
Figure 11.2
Parable of the long spoons (Room 2)
Figure 11.3
Free Energy Minimization and Friendliness –Minding the Social Ex
...
Figure 11.4
Decisional Outcomes: Tosca and Scarpia in Puccini's Opera
Figure 11.5
Mindful, Free‐Energy Minimazing Communication
Chapter 12
Figure 12.1
The Four States We Need to Reduce
Figure 12.2
The Four States We Need to Activate
Figure 12.3
The Four Skills We Need to Train
Figure 12.4
Summary: The Four Dimensions of MBSAT Training
Figure 12.5
Skillful Decision Acuity
Figure 12.6
SOPA for Individuals – Skillful BETAs and Beliefs, Opportunities
...
Figure 12.7
SOPA Worksheet 1: Observing and Identifying Beliefs
Figure 12.8
Section a) of SOPA Worksheet 2
Figure 12.9
SOPA Worksheet 2: Updating Beliefs
Figure 12.10
Section b) of SOPA Worksheet 2
Figure 12.11
The Free‐Energy Minimizing Action Quadrants
Figure 12.12
SOPA Worksheet 3: Opportunities and Positive Actions
Part 2
Intro Part 2 Figure 1
Growing Realization
Intro Part 2 Figure 2
What can I do?
Intro Part 2 Figure 3
I have to change myself
Intro Part 2 Figure 4
Practicing Increases Your Brain's Network
Intro Part 2 Figure 5
A Transformed World …
Intro Part 2 Figure 6
Peter Lewis Building of the Weatherhead School of Mana
...
Epilogue
Epilogue Figure 1
The Living Zone of Free‐Energy Minimization
Epilogue Figure 2
Paddling through VUCA with MBSAT
Epilogue Figure 3
From the Institutionalized World of VUCA to the Personaliz
...
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Testimonials
Figures
Boxes
Practices, Exercises, Tools, and Experiments
About the Author
Preface: The Genesis of this Book
A Suggestion on How to Read this Book
About the Companion Website
Begin Reading
References
Further Reading
Index
Wiley End User License Agreement
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Mindfulness‐based STRATEGIC AWARENESS TRAINING
COMPREHENSIVE WORKBOOK
New Approach Based on Free Energy and Active Inference For Skillful Decision‐making
Juan Humberto Young
This edition first published 2023
© 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by law. Advice on how to obtain permission to reuse material from this title is available at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
The right of Juan Humberto Young to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with law.
Registered Offices
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, USA
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Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty
While the publisher and authors have used their best efforts in preparing this work, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives, written sales materials or promotional statements for this work. The fact that an organization, website, or product is referred to in this work as a citation and/or potential source offurther information does not mean that the publisher and authors endorse the information or services the organization, website, or product may provide or recommendations it may make. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a specialist where appropriate. Further, readers should be aware that websites listed in this work may have changed or disappered between when this work was written and when it is read. Neither the publisher nor authors shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data
Names: Young, Juan Humberto, author.
Title: Mindfulness‐based strategic awareness training comprehensive
workbook : new approach based on free energy and active inference for
skillful decision‐making / Juan Humberto Young.
Description: Hoboken, NJ : Wiley‐Blackwell, 2023. | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2023000308 (print) | LCCN 2023000309 (ebook) | ISBN
9781119766971 (paperback) | ISBN 9781119766995 (adobe pdf) | ISBN
9781119767374 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Leadership–Psychological aspects. | Mindfulness
(Psychology) | Meditation.
Classification: LCC HD57.7.Y68454 2023 (print) | LCC HD57.7 (ebook) |
DDC 658.4/092–dc23/eng/20230130
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023000308
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023000309
Cover Design and Image: Courtesy of author
TESTIMONIALS
“For many years now I have been working with MBSAT ideas and practices and applying them in my personal life, my business and my public work, since the first training protocol based on Positive Psychology. I have participated in the second phase of the protocol with mindfulness‐based cognitive training and now look forward to the third phase based on Computational Neuroscience with Positive Psychology and Mindfulness as supporting pillars. I would not have thought possible the positive impact that MBSAT is having in managing my diverse tasks.”
Lukas Arnold
Entrepreneur and politician MBA, Master in Positive Leadership and Strategy
Founder and co‐owner of Mammut Shops, Cycle Store and Berg & Tal Marktladen AG Board member of several companies Mayor of Stans, Canton Nidwalden, Switzerland
“I have worked with Juan for a number of years and have experienced that the MBSAT protocol helps improve strategic awareness in practical terms. The new MBSAT book uses an approach based on computational neuroscience and statistical physics to advance learning capabilities of the mind in an accessible manner. This is a leap forward in training for skillful decision‐making, be it in professional or personal capacity.”
Name undisclosed due to confidentiality agreement CEO at one of the largest Swiss multinationals in its industry worldwide MBA, Probability Mathematician
“In this pioneering work, Juan Humberto Young has skillfully integrated the ancient practice of mindfulness with cutting‐edge research on the predicting brain. The outcome is a book that anyone who makes decisions should read: leaders, individuals, really anyone. At the core of MBSAT is minding, that is, attentively caring for. Just like a gardener minds their plants, attentively caring for them, we learn to mind ourselves and the world around us. In so doing, we can make more skillful decisions and flourish in this world of uncertainty. In my view, there is no better resource on mindfulness and decision‐making than this wonderful book.”
Jochen Reb
Professor of Organisational Behaviour & Human Resources, Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management University (SMU) Researcher in Decision‐Making and Mindfulness Sciences Founding Director of the Mindfulness Initiative @ SMU Co‐Editor of Mindfulness in Organizations (Cambridge University Press, 2015)
“I read your book Mindfulness‐based Strategic Awareness Training (2017), and I am proud to have you as a graduate of our Master of Studies in Mindfulness‐Based Cognitive Therapy.”
Willem Kuyken
PhD., Riblat Professor of Mindfulness and Psychological Science, University of Oxford, Department of Psychiatry Director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre Co‐author of the book Mindfulness: Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Psychology (Guilford Press, 2019)
“I tend to be a bit skeptical of new MBPs (Mindfulness‐Based Programs) and am especially skeptical about MBPs designed for the workplace, but MBSAT is truly solid and filled with integrity in every way... this is a program designed by someone who truly knows the business/corporate world from the inside out AND IS ALSO a mindfulness person with high standards and impeccable credentials!”
Steve Hickman
Psy.D., Founding Director, UCSD Center for Mindfulness, Clinical Psychologist UCSD Medical Center, Associate Clinical Professor UCSD School of Medicine (Retired), Author of Self‐Compassion for Dummies, (Wiley & Sons 2021)
FIGURES
Part 1
Chapter 1
Figure 1.1 The Nature of Free Energy in MBSAT
Figure 1.2 Bayesian Questioning Mindset in MBSAT (I)
Figure 1.3 Bayesian Questioning Mindset: The Math (II)
Figure 1.4 Active Inference for Decisions (AID) in Daily Life
Figure 1.5 The Active Inference Process
Figure 1.6 Proprio‐, Intero‐ and Exteroceptive Prediction (Adapted from Seth & Friston, 2016: Active interoceptive Inference and the Emotional Brain)
Figure 1.7 Predictive Loop
Chapter 2
Figure 2.1 The MBSAT Free Energy Active Inference Model of Human Experience
Figure 2.2 The Landscape of the Free Energy Minimizing Principle
Figure 2.3 The Core of MBSAT
Figure 2.4 Home Automation
Figure 2.5 The Predictive BETA Mind
Figure 2.6 BETA Elements in Beck's Cognitive Model
Chapter 3
Figure 3.1 Free Energy Minimization and Minding BETA
Figure 3.2 The Active Inference process: Updating beliefs of the generative models
Figure 3.3 Minding our Portfolio of Beliefs: The updating matrix
Figure 3.4 Minding the Precision of Strategic Awareness for Skillful Decision‐Making
Figure 3.5 Minding – A MBSAT Core Principle
Figure 3.6 Opacity for Updating BETA
Chapter 4
Figure 4.1 The Nature of Free Energy in MBSAT (Duplication of Figure 1.1 for Ease of Reference)
Figure 4.2 The Continuous Minding Sequence
Figure 4.3 Meditation for Minding BETA and Beliefs
Figure 4.4 The Training Model of MBSAT: Mindfulness‐based Strategic Awareness Training
Figure 4.5 Causal Links in Our life
Figure 4.6 The Curve of Predictive Errors and its consequences on Living
Figure 4.7 Structural Design of the MBSAT Program
Part 2
Intro Part 2 Figure 1 Growing Realization
Intro Part 2 Figure 2 What can I do?
Intro Part 2 Figure 3 I have to change myself
Intro Part 2 Figure 4 Practicing Increases Your Brain's Network
Intro Part 2 Figure 5 A Transformed World …
Intro Part 2 Figure 6 Peter Lewis Building of the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, by Architect Frank Gehry. (Steven Litt, cleveland.com)
Chapter 5
Figure 5.1 Minding Body Sensations:: Tonality, Location, Intensity, and Speed of Change
Figure 5.2 Interoception (I) – Following Autonomous Body Sensations/Signals: The Breath
Figure 5.3 Interoception (II) – Following Autonomous Body Sensations/Signals: The Pulse
Figure 5.4 What determines well‐being?
Chapter 6
Figure 6.1 Reactive MBSAT buddy
Figure 6.2 Clear‐minded MBSAT buddy
Figure 6.3 Moments of Contentment with Nun Viên Thê'
Figure 6.4 Free Energy minimizing buddy
Chapter 7
Figure 7.1 Minding the Silver Screen of Your Thoughts
Figure 7.2 Walking mindfully with Nun Viên Thê’
Chapter 8
Figure 8.1 Continuous‐time Active Inference Process: Walking to the Store
Figure 8.2 Free Energy Minimization and Minding BETA
Figure 8.3CEO of BETA: The Sandglass MBSAT Buddy
Figure 8.4 BETA Saturation in our digital times
Figure 8.5 The challenge of keeping BETA in balance
Figure 8.6 The Free‐Energy Minimizing Action Quadrants
Chapter 9
Figure 9.1 Minding our Recognition Models
Figure 9.2 MBSAT Stress, Anxiety and Worry (SAW) Model
Figure 9.3 Bayesian Questioning Mindset in MBSAT
Figure 9.4 Minding Real Options
Figure 9.5 Free Energy Minimization and Irimi: Minding Adversity
Chapter 10
Figure 10.1 Money Accumulation: A System Dynamics View
Figure 10.2 Work and Money: Opportunity Costs and Trade‐offs
Figure 10.3 Minding POMO – Powerful Money, The Hedonic Treadmill
Chapter 11
Figure 11.1 Parable of the long spoons (Room 1)
Figure 11.2 Parable of the long spoons (Room 2)
Figure 11.3 Free Energy Minimization and Friendliness –Minding the Social Experience (SoE)
Figure 11.4 Decisional Outcomes: Tosca and Scarpia in Puccini's Opera
Figure 11.5 Mindful, Free‐Energy Minimazing Communication
Chapter 12
Figure 12.1 The Four States We Need to Reduce
Figure 12.2 The Four States We Need to Activate
Figure 12.3 The Four Skills We Need to Train
Figure 12.4 Summary: The Four Dimensions of MBSAT Training
Figure 12.5 Skillful Decision Acuity
Figure 12.6 SOPA for Individuals – Skillful BETAs and Beliefs, Opportunities and Positive Actions; Facilitating the Free‐Energy Minimizing Self (FEMS)
Figure 12.7 SOPA Worksheet 1: Observing and Identifying Beliefs
Figure 12.8 Section a) of SOPA Worksheet 2
Figure 12.9 SOPA Worksheet 2: Updating Beliefs
Figure 12.10 Section b) of SOPA Worksheet 2
Figure 12.11 The Free‐Energy Minimizing Action Quadrants
Figure 12.12 SOPA Worksheet 3: Opportunities and Positive Actions
Epilogue: Accompanying Thoughts for Your Continuous Practice
Epilogue Figure 1 The Living Zone of Free‐Energy Minimization
Epilogue Figure 2 Paddling through VUCA with MBSAT
Epilogue Figure 3 From the Institutionalized World of VUCA to the Personalized World of WECO
Solution to Figure 9.1 Minding the Triad of Perception, Beliefs and Predictions
BOXES
PART 1
Chapter 3
Box 3.1 Beliefs from the Perspective of General Psychology
Box 3.2 Beliefs from the Perspective of Political and Behavioral Economics
Box 3.3 A Neuro‐computational View of Beliefs
Box 3.4 Mindfulness for Decisions and Actions
Chapter 4
Box 4.1 Active Mindfulness in MBSAT
Box 4.2 Structural Design of the MBSAT Training Program
Box 4.3 Strategic Awareness in Support of Skillful Decisions
PART 2
Introduction Part 2
Box 1 Intro Part 2
Abductive Mindset and MBSAT Signature Terms for Learning and Transformation
Chapter 8 Session 4
Box 8.1 Analysis of the Responses to Your FEMS Feedback Requests
Chapter 9 Session 5
Box 9.1 Two Essential Lifelines: Inner Equilibrium and Attunement to the Outer World
Chapter 12 Session 8
Box 12.1 Using Data Collected from Friends and Acquaintances
PRACTICES, EXERCISES, TOOLS, AND EXPERIMENTS
Part 2
Chapter 5 ‐ Session 1
5.4.2 The Full‐Senses Exercise
5.5.1 Practice 1 ‐ Following autonomous body sensations: The breath
5.5.2 Practice 2 ‐ Following autonomous body sensations: The pulse
5.5.3 Practice 3 ‐ Observing bodily sensations in stillness: Lying or sitting
5.5.4 Practice 4 ‐ Massage for bodily awareness and well‐being
5.5.5 Practice 5 ‐ Training for decision‐making: Identifying and observing body sensations while deciding
Chapter 6 ‐ Session 2
6.4.2 Practice 1 ‐ The full emotions observation meditation (FEOM)
6.4.3 Practice 2 ‐ Training for decision‐making: identifying and observing emotions while deciding
6.5.2 Exercise 1 ‐ Three Good Things
6.5.3 Exercise 2 ‐ Building the Free Energy Minimizer Self (FEMS)
Chapter 7 ‐ Session 3
7.4.1 Practice 1 ‐ Minding the Silver Screen of your Thoughts
7.4.2 Practice 2 ‐ Mindfully walking while minding your thoughts/actors on your silver screen
7.5.1 Exercise 1 ‐ The Thought Swap Exercise (TSE)
Chapter 8 ‐ Session 4
8.4.1 Practice 1 ‐ Minding Action Impulses
8.4.2 Practice 2 ‐ Mindful Salsa
8.4.3 Practice 3 ‐ Continuous‐time practice: CEO of BETA
8.5.1 Tools and Models: The Free Energy Minimizing Action Quadrants
Chapter 9 ‐ Session 5
9.4.1 Tool 1 ‐ Minding the triad of perception, beliefs and predictions
9.4.2 Tool 2 ‐ The MBSAT Stress, Anxiety and Worry (SAW) Model
9.4.3 Tool 3 ‐ Bayesian Questioning and Reframing (BQR)
9.4.4 Tool 4 ‐ Minding Real Options in MBSAT
9.5.1 Practice 1 ‐ Minding Adversity ‐ Irimi
9.5.2 Practice 2 ‐ Reframing and recalibrating for belief updating
9.5.3 Practice 3 ‐ Continuous‐time practice: CEO of BETA for Minding Adversity and Worry (MAW)
Chapter 10 ‐ Session 6
10.4.1 Exercise 1 ‐ The work vs. recreation exercise
10.4.2 Exercise 2: Having vs. experiencing
10.5.1 Practice 1 ‐ From POMO to MIMO meditation: Detecting our financial and economic beliefs and biases
10.5.2 Practice 2 ‐ Training for skillful decisions Updating the priors to create MROs
10.5.3 Practice 3 ‐ Continuous‐time practice: CEO of BETA from POMO to MIMO
Chapter 11 ‐ Session 7
11.4.1 Behavioral social experiment‐BSE 1: Noticing others
11.4.2 Behavioral social experiment‐BSE 2: Celebrating others
11.4.3 Behavioral social experiment‐BSE 3: Respecting others
11.4.4 Behavioral social experiments: Reflection
11.6.1 Practice 1 ‐ Minding SoE for updating social beliefs I: Finding the origin of our social priors (beliefs and biases)
11.6.2 Practice 2 ‐ Minding SoE for updating social beliefs II: Training for skillful decision: Building adaptive social posteriors
11.6.3 Practice 3 ‐ Continuous‐time practice: CEO of BETA on minding fellow human beings
11.7.1 Exercise 1 ‐ Minimizing Free Energy in relation to others: Decision‐making in social interactions/Cooperation and trust
11.7.2 Exercise 2 ‐ The Ultimatum Game: Cooperation and decision‐making
11.8.1 The Free‐Energy Minimazing Tool for Communication
Chapter 12 ‐ Session 8
12.4.1 Exercise/Practice 1 ‐ SOPA: Skillful BETAs, Opportunities, and Positive Actions
Step 1: Identifying Skillful Betas and Beliefs
Step 2: Updating Beliefs and Generative Models
Step 3: Opportunities and Positive Actions
12.4.2 Practice 2 ‐ Continous‐time pratice: CEO of BETA “Strategic Awareness”
About the Author
Juan Humberto Young was six years member of KPMG and a Senior Manager responsible for strategy and information technology projects. He was a Senior Management member and Vice‐president at UBS, Zurich, and head of the Asset Management and Financial Restructuring department for many years. He is active in business and was chairman and majority shareholder of R&B Engineering, a medium‐sized electrical engineering firm that designs and plans electrical systems for private clients, companies, and public organizations in Zurich.
In education, he has been teaching at various business schools. He designed a master's degree program in advanced management based on positive psychology and behavioral economics and was its academic director at a European business school for eight years. He is an affiliated faculty member of Singapore Management University (SMU), where he is also the lead teacher of the Mindfulness‐based Strategic Awareness Training (MBSAT) program for MBSAT teachers. He is the author of Mindfulness‐based Strategic Awareness Training, published by Wiley Blackwell (2017), and the MBSAT Workbook by the same publisher (2023).
Juan Humberto Young holds a master's in Public Administration (MPA) from Harvard University, an MBA from the School of Business at the University of Chicago, a master's in science in risk management from L. Stern School of Management at New York University, a doctorate in management from Case Western Reserve University, Weatherhead School of Management, a master's in applied positive psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, and a master's in Mindfulness‐based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) from the University of Oxford. Has also completed studies in applied neuroscience at King's College.
He maintains a private consulting practice for clients and a micro coffee farm in Boquete, Panama, where experts say the best specialty coffee in the world is grown. He holds a first Dan (black belt) in Aikido from the Japanese Aikikai Foundation and the Aikido Foundation of Switzerland.
Preface: The Genesis of this Book
Tutto è già stato fatto.
Tutto è già stato detto.
Tutto è già stato scritto.
Però nessuno ha guardato, nessuno ha ascoltato e nessuno ha letto.
E così tutto comincia da capo.1
Why would a businessperson write a book on improving mental well‐being and the quality of life? I am frequently asked this question. There are several reasons, but I will limit my answer to personal, concrete experiences and the conclusions I drew from them. In part, this book is also a reflection on my personal journey.
Experience has taught me that shaping one's life is about strategic awareness and skillful decision‐making, and I realized that both could be trained. Strategic awareness has also helped me uncover options under challenging situations and flourish despite adversity. Repeating more of the same, as the aphorism suggests, is neither desirable nor unavoidable. When I first noticed the verse, it seemed a pessimistic worldview and somewhat a cautionary message to me. On second thought, I interpreted it as an invitation to train and teach new skills: the ability to look, listen, and mind for a flourishing life. This is what this workbook is about.
Overcoming Adversity
Years ago, I developed a neurological condition manifested by uncontrollable twitching on the left side of my face. As it persisted, I consulted with medical doctors, but they could not provide me with a precise diagnosis. Some spoke of a tumor, some of Bell's palsy, the condition that affected Sylvester Stallone. The condition worsened when I moved to Switzerland and had to cope with the stressors of a new environment, a distinct language, and foreign culture. There were moments when my face was partially distorted as the spasms almost closed my left eye and pulled the left side of my mouth towards the ear, giving me an angry look even when I was in a good mood. This often led to awkward social interactions, misinterpretations, and misunderstandings, especially in business and teaching. Over time, an uncomfortable pressure built up in the left half of my face, extending down to the collarbone, that bothered me round the clock. Eventually, I met a Chinese physician and underwent painful, in‐depth acupuncture for many years to control the conditions, at least to some degree. Despite this socially debilitating state, I built a prosperous professional career, reaching a high level in the hierarchy of UBS, one of the top Swiss global banks in Zurich, and launching several successful business initiatives.
I continued to expand my academic education with the freedom I gained through my entrepreneurial activities concerning time management and financial flexibility. Besides my studies and ongoing business activities, I could dedicate myself to teaching, an activity I always cherished because of the inspiring relations with students and participants, the intellectually stimulating topics, and the opportunity to contribute to society. While teaching a class on Mindfulness‐based Strategic Awareness Training (MBSAT) in Zürich, a middle‐aged student noticed my condition and told me she had had the same affliction, combined with incredible pain. She encouraged me to see the neurosurgeon who had completely cured her with microsurgery.
After consulting with this physician, I finally got diagnosed after over two decades of suffering. The neurosurgeon explained there was a tiny vein in the skull behind the ear, compressing a facial nerve that caused the twitching. He said the causes were unknown, and the condition could affect anyone. The good news was that it was operable. The risks involved in the procedure were losing hearing capacity or, even worse, twitching and permanent disfigurement. Both risks, he said, were manageable thanks to advances in microsurgery.
Now, things were in my hands; considering the risks, I needed to decide whether to proceed with the surgery. I set about doing my homework for the decision. First, I gathered more information about the physician and his team and discovered that they were some of the best surgeons performing this type of intervention (vein decompression). Also, now having the diagnosis, I learned more about the condition. For example, there are two types, one with unbearable facial pain. My student had this type and told me she had thought seriously about ending her life before finding a physician. The second type ‐ which is what I had ‐ is without pain. Here, the critical problem is that people invariably feel stigmatized, leading to social isolation and, most of the time, depression. With a certain resilience, I avoided falling into depression or social isolation.
Having decided to have the surgery, I took preventive measures with strategic foresight to cope with the next phase. First, I intensified my physical and mental training to prepare for the intervention; as a long‐time kick‐boxer and Aikido practitioner, I was already in a relatively good physical condition. I further stepped up the training. Also, as a longtime meditator, I intensified my meditation practice to reinforce my mental strength. I had learned to meditate many years ago, as, in my search for ways to ease the condition, I had met an Indian teacher who taught meditation techniques to calm afflictions. Second, I took a radical decision in case the outcome of the surgery would be adverse. In this case, I was going to change the focus of my professional life. I prepared to abandon my professional activities, move out of Switzerland, and live on my farm in Central America. There, I would have less social interaction, intensify my agribusiness activities, and dedicate myself to writing in solitude. Luckily, I did not have to resort to this option, and my strategically aware preventive training and meditation paid off by shortening my recovery in the hospital from two weeks to 3 days.
When I opened my eyes coming out of the anesthesia, I felt a completely new person. The 24 hours of permanent pressure on the left side of my face that I had endured for decades was gone; I felt fresh in my face, and I could hardly believe how I had lived a significant part of my adult life with that debilitating condition.
The critical question is why I did not fall into social isolation or depression, despite such a severe neuro‐logical constraint in my life. How could I move forward and create a productive, flourishing professional and private life when so many others succumbed to depression, isolation, and loneliness? There are two main reasons that have to do with mindset and how I managed my adversity. First, I could separate the real suffering resulting from the physiological condition (the uncontrollable, permanent twitching in my face) from adding self‐inflicted torment that would have resulted from ruminating about the disease. I recognized the situation without adding unhelpful thinking, never bemoaning the situation or lamenting. I believe it was this attitude that immunized me against depressive states. This way of minding adversity is a lesson taken from ancient Asian Psychology and part of this workbook's training.
Second, I could turn the adverse condition into a source of constructive information to help me with my social interactions, a kind of smart heuristic (Gigerenzer et al., 2022). As you will learn in this book, computational neuroscience suggests that our brain builds generative models of the world, driven by beliefs. Without being aware of it, I could create a generative model of social interaction based on beliefs about how people reacted to my twitching face; people who responded negatively in their body language I avoided socially and professionally, and those who were indifferent to or even curious about the impairment were the contacts I cultivated. I believe this “theory of mind” helped me to predict relatively well the quality of relationships, and judging by the results; it has worked well for me, as I could reduce Free Energy (avoiding decision mistakes), which, as you will learn in this book, is a critical success factor for conducting a productive professional and private life.
During my studies in positive psychology and neuroscience, I took several tests as part of my training. Three characteristics, amongst others, kept emerging as steady elements of my character. A salient feature was my strategic orientation manifested in an ability to see complex patterns, create simulations based on the patterns, anticipate difficulties, and generate solutions. A second character element that stood out was curiosity and an openness to seek new experiences and take risks to reap the gains from innovative thinking and behaviors, combined with a readiness to absorb the costs, if things did not go according to plan. The third feature that ranked high amongst my character themes was zest and vitality ‐ a theme that comprises two aspects of human functioning: mental and physical. Zesty and vital individuals tend not to wear out. They are enthusiastic, reflecting a high level of playfulness. I do not doubt that these three elements did indeed help me cope with the tough neuro‐physical and cultural challenges in my life. Not that I was born with these themes engrained in my personality; we all have these traits embedded in our personality. The challenge is to mobilize them.
Once I learned the science behind the psychology of traits, I could easily map these character elements to my BETA in dealing with my condition and situation, for example, body sensations and thoughts (the “B” and “T”), anticipating difficulties, exploring new ways of dealing with them and actions and emotions (the “A” and “E”), moving forward with drive, energy, and playfulness. The entire Part 1 of the training program (Session 1‐4) is dedicated to BETA, its components, and their synchronization.
The most important about these discoveries is that all these resources can be mobilized and cultivated, and all required skills are trainable! The constraint of my situation prompted me to activate and intensify these characteristics to overcome the hurdles and become more resilient. I firmly believe that anyone can do it. Again, this is what this workbook is about.
Uncertainty in Today's Environment
Through this challenging, intense experience, my interest in brain functions and neuroscience developed not to satisfy intellectual curiosity about a fashionable, scientific subject but out of vital practical concern and the need to understand the consequences of the procedure I was planning. I spent more than a year studying and deliberating before I had the surgery. I wanted to know how my cognitive processing capacities could be affected if there could be complications. Because of my deep dive into the practicalities of brain functions, I fathomed the critical importance of the most complex organ and processing system on earth that controls our thoughts, memories, emotions, and innumerable other, mostly automatic functions, including all the processes that regulate our body, from temperature to breath to digestion and so forth. Once I grasped the intricacy of the brain, it was an obvious conclusion that the brain, and hence neuroscience, is central to our well‐being. This led me to search for and design pragmatic ways to integrate related science into the MBSAT protocol.
It also dawned on me that my personal experience of coping with uncertainty, adversity, and fundamental change in life is quite characteristic of what most people go through in these turbulent and disruptive times. I discovered that many of the tools and methods I had intuitively applied on my path to achieving a prosperous life have a scientific underpinning and are well researched. In retrospect, it also became clear that there is no need to rely purely on intuition; the skills involved are trainable. These insights reaffirmed my motivation to continue teaching MBSAT and work tirelessly to make the MBSAT protocol as robust, meaningful, and applicable as possible for its active, non‐clinical participants.
Today a growing number of individuals worldwide find themselves confused, fearful, and almost without direction, confronting a fast‐changing world driven by the dangerous effects of microbiological organisms, climate change, acceleration of digitalization, and the related rapid cultural changes ‐ conditions that are penetrating all aspects of post modern life. Confronted with this reality, young people ask themselves what their future will be; will they find jobs and build a family? Older individuals worry about the future of their professional life, asking themselves if they can keep their jobs and maintain their families. Many look with increased frustration to the politicians for solutions they don't have, or lack the courage to design and implement the creative solutions necessary to mitigate people's suffering.
This situation reminds me of when I moved to Switzerland to support my Swiss‐German wife's desire to live closer to her elderly mother. I left behind a stable, well‐organized, and promising future and moved voluntarily into an unknown environment that created states of confusion, fear, and uncertainty, similar to what many people are experiencing today. I thought about what Martin Heidegger, the philosopher, wrote about being thrown into the world to mean being thrown into our daily existence. Heidegger's concept of “thrownness”, at least for me, suggested the need to find a level of understanding and effectiveness in the world that I was thrown into, implying the need to act, to cope the best I could. It reminds me as Aikidoka2 of the Nage techniques, in which one is thrown during the training from different angles and directions, sometimes from the front, the back, etc. But as aikidokas, one also learns Ukemi techniques, meaning knowing how to fall and roll with the thrust, stand up and be ready for the next move instantaneously. With Ursula Reimer Sensei, I maintained a strict Nage/Ukemi practice routine over many years, training to always prepare for the following fall. In many respects, especially in adversity, life is like being in an Aikido dojo (gym), learning to fall, and standing up again without an aggressive attitude towards yourself and others. In MBSAT, we train and practice learning to fall and standing up by mobilizing and leveraging existing resources, abandoning non‐adaptive legacy beliefs and habits, and exploring and developing new skills to cope and flourish even under demanding circumstances and environments.
MBSAT as Practical Training and the Question of Luck in Life
As an academically trained management practitioner, integrative scholar, and businessperson working towards implementing knowledge in daily life supported by science, I work at the intersection of research and practice in what could be called “implementation science”: the science of translating research findings into practical applications for functional outcomes (Rapport et al., 2018). When I come across something that works well or, on the contrary, not so well, I try to understand the underlying science or theoretical knowledge related to the occurrence to better understand the issues. Therefore, in this workbook, you will often find examples of situations and experiences of others or my own in connection with theories that can explain what happened beyond anecdotal validity. In other cases, I find an interesting theoretical framework and seek to understand their practical applications in daily life. This is notably the case in this book with the Free Energy Principle and the Active Inference process, two compelling theoretical concepts I have tried to interpret and translate into practical knowledge that can be of value in our daily life.
MBSAT advances with the desire to better understand life experiences, especially challenging ones, and intends to extract practical knowledge from experiences that help people, myself included, cope and thrive in a challenging environment. Therefore, I have often reflected on my experience as a foreigner in Switzerland. After moving here, I was not sure whether I would make it; the odds were against me. My wife and I both underestimated the difficulty and complexity I was confronting in my quest to find a good life compared to the one I had left behind in my home country. After a series of strategic moves and skillful decisions, however, I have reached a level of financial independence (if that counts as a proxy of success) that is hard to achieve. Not being a hedonic or overindulgent person, not into extravagant signs of affluence, but more into a eudemonic way of life, a life dedicated to finding the meaning of existence and helping others, the achieved financial freedom facilitated the pursuit of my development interests. The desire to understand life and my personal experiences brought me back to academic settings to learn and investigate the related issues rigorously. In particular, I wanted to better understand the conditions of flourishing. I knew my realizations were not the results of any superior intelligence. In 1987 I heard a lecture where Maturana, the influential biologist author of the autopoiesis theory of life, asserted that every human being capable of speaking is intelligent; therefore, as a speaking person, I knew I had at least average intelligence; at the same time, Maturana's insight implies that everyone has the potential for achievements and flourishing, but intelligence seems not to be the only factor. I felt I had to dig deeper for explanations.
Amongst others is the question of luck. D. Kahneman, the Nobel prize winner in economics, gives importance to a luck factor; I agree with him to a certain extent. For example, I was born in a quiet country and into a relatively affluent family, circumstances that can count as a lucky factor. Yet maybe there is a bit more than just plain luck. For example, even as my path toward senior management at UBS began with a lucky shot, more was required for sustained success. As my boss at my previous job at UBS was trying to fill a senior position as head of a department, he offered the task to various senior officials, but all declined, perceiving the job to be a dead end. The task was to merge and manage an extensive portfolio of several billions of assets with impaired value. Finally, I was offered the position. After reflection, I took this marginalized job position but asked my future boss to give me expanded authority to trade with the assets actively. He agreed. This move essentially converted what was initially a cost center into a profit center. After the first year of operation, we (my team and I) contributed several million to the bank's profit stream. My department became one of the most lucrative, using a benchmark “profit to departmental headcount” at the bank head office. Therefore, it turned out to be a lucky shot, yet engineered by me into an agency‐based fortunate opportunity to make it attractive. I certainly was fortunate that my two Swiss bosses at UBS were outstanding individuals, able to understand the extraordinary difficulties I confronted on my path to building my career at UBS. They did their best to soften the impact of the odds against me as the only foreign department head.
Luck is random. I concluded one needs to engineer it and cultivate skills to hedge against its vagaries. In this context, skillful decision‐making and the question of what makes some people do well despite challenging situations stayed in my mind.
Strategic Awareness is a Critical Factor in a Flourishing Life
How is it possible that some individuals embedded in a challenging environment can still do well? I hypothesized these individuals are naturally endowed with a particular sensibility manifest in a set of adaptive beliefs and a keen perception that allows them to sense what is latent in their environment and anticipate and predict the direction of environmental changes. These individuals could infuse general awareness with specific conditions, such as a natural curiosity, a broad openness to everything happening, and an ability to question and put their beliefs, prejudgments, and prejudices on hold. When these elements are integrated into general awareness, I understood that a strategic awareness emerges that allows these individuals to regain agency, hence some autonomy and mastery, despite living in challenging environments. By transforming the noisy, adverse signals from problematic situations into helpful knowledge that supports their decision‐making and allows them to engage in skillful actions, they move forward and closer to doing well in their lives. Thus, strategic awareness may be the critical factor beyond average intelligence and luck that mediates and facilitates flourishing states.3
Eventually, my quest led me to enroll at Oxford University. The experience at Oxford University during my studies for the Master's in Mindfulness‐based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) was not what I expected; I thought I would enter an expansive learning space, with questioning and discussing leading to higher levels of understanding. However, it turned out to be a narrowly focused environment dedicated to training therapists to help people prevent the ravages of depressive relapses. It was a beautiful goal, and the teachers working there wrote the therapeutic reference protocol. Without question, the individuals active at Oxford Mindfulness Center are probably some of the best working on preventing depression worldwide. But that was not was I was looking for; I have never been depressed, and hardly any of the people I came in touch with through my work (clients, business partners, employees, etc.) had been depressed either. We may all have specific issues that need to be improved, but as I mentioned, there were hardly any clinical cases in my environment. I have to add that in my non‐working environment; I have some experience with therapeutic needs because I have a bipolar daughter, a very successful businesswoman. In this regard, the issues of depression were not entirely irrelevant to me. So, during my years at Oxford, I learned groundbreaking depression‐preventing techniques that helped me better understand my daughter and give her light fatherly suggestions for improving her condition. Yet the fact remained that clinical settings were not my natural environment.
Thus, my graduation project at Oxford University bore the seeds for a non‐clinical protocol focusing on skills that enhance personal growth and flourishing instead of designing remedial interventions for mental health deficits. Based on my deep conviction that the elements for strategic awareness are trainable, I created Mind‐fulness‐based Strategic Awareness Training (MBSAT) to train and develop the conditions that can lead to skillful decision‐making. The protocol design started as part of my graduation project at Oxford University; after several design iterations over several years, it has taken its present form. Thus, MBSAT is the scientific substantiation of my hunch about what makes some people do well despite challenging situations.
Mindfulness in an Active Life and a Scientific Underpinning of Mindfulness
When thinking about mindfulness, many people associate it with a life of quiet mysticism, few external sensory impulses, and a focus on one's inner life. When I listen to the classical Indian music by Ravi Shankar and the Ragas from other Indian music masters, I can't help myself dreaming and visualizing living a simple nomadic life in ancient Asia, uncovering the deep mysteries of life. Before COVID‐19, I used to go once a year or at least every two years on austere retreats to renew my spirit. Although I had many benefits from these intense, personal retreats, I also realized that a contemplative life is not my life nor my path; I enjoy being active, uncovering and creating opportunities that allow me to do well and that enable others and the environment to prosper. I am more attuned to the mindset expressed by a nun from the Nepalese 900‐year‐old Drukpa Lineage who said: “Lots of people think that as a Buddhist nun, all you do is just meditation, but we believe that helping others is our true religion. We think that merely sitting still in one place meditating is not the most effective way to be in the world these days.”
For me, that is the actual game of life: doing well for oneself and others. In this sense, life means the challenge of living a “strategic, active, mystical, secular life.” It is mystical because it is a mystery; there are no simple answers to life's fundamental/existential questions. It is strategic because in doing good to others and the environment, one also cares for oneself sustainably. It is secular; a life lived in the active, secular world instead of a monastic setting. Everyone can do it from the place we are in our lives. If you are a banker, the mystic and the mystery is to discover ways to optimize your profits and, at the same time, optimize your offerings for your customers and employees. If you are a politician, create laws and policies that benefit not only one group of citizens but all, for example, laws that help businesspeople and the workforce. If you are a journalist, present news that is truly independent of who they favor. It is difficult to put into practice what I just described; but that is the mystery of life that needs to be decoded, and it is the genuine job of a strategic, active, and aware individual to uncover and create sustainable solutions that lead to a prosperous life for themselves and others. I designed this workbook for active people in the game of life that is played in a world that is becoming increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA).
In my previous book, Mindfulness‐based Strategic Awareness Training ‐ MBSAT, I attempted to anchor the ideas of the MBSAT program in fundamental theories to create a rigorous foundation for the training protocol. I presented concepts from Positive Psychology, Contemplative Sciences, Cognitive‐Behavioral Therapy, Behavioral Finance, Motivation Psychology, Risk Management, Systems Dynamics, and other disciplines in an integrated manner. Integrating these concepts allowed me to design a comprehensive training protocol that has proven very effective for a non‐clinical population.
In writing this workbook, I continue with the motivation to present content and material anchored in accepted and validated science and combine the rigor of scientific findings and insights with a desire to find an objective function for the MBSAT protocol, intending to find an answer to the general question: What is it precisely that MBSAT trains, develops and creates? In that spirit, I expanded my research to investigate ideas from other areas that could help me find answers.
In my quest to bring scientific rigor to MBSAT, I stumbled upon an article by two neuroscientists, K. J. Friston and K.E. Stephan (2007). Reading this article changed my way of looking at life. It is a demanding piece to read for people like me who are not theoretical neuro‐scientists; I read it several times and still didn't fully understand all the mathematical details. However, it set me on a path to study the ideas and work of path‐breaking scientists and philosophers in Bayesian Cognitive Science (BCS) and computational neuro‐scientists investigating and broadening the understanding of how carbon‐based systems such as humans can live and thrive in a world where all systems are exposed to disorder and decay. All these bright minds are trying to answer Erwin Schrödinger's, the Nobel prize‐winning physicist's fundamental question: how can it be explained that natural living organisms such as human beings can resist thermodynamics? The question refers to the second law of thermodynamics, which suggests in its most straightforward interpretation that all systems tend towards change and disintegration. However, living systems such as humans can combat this tendency by maintaining a level of order, keeping themselves in certain limited states that protect them at least momentarily from the certainty of total dissipation. In his 1944 book What is Life?
