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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
Reduce your stress level and become happier and more productive in work and personal life Written by a monk-turned-leadership-guru, Mindfulness For the Wandering Mind offers unique insight on how you can focus your mind, become more resilient, respond better to conflict, and build stronger professional (and personal) relationships. It's all possible when you begin to understand how your mind works and take control of this complicated mechanism. This book will show you how to identify and close the "apps" that are constantly running in your own mind, so you can eliminate distractions and find greater peace and productivity in your daily life. In this book, you'll find specific meditation processes and actions you can take to help you succeed as you begin or continue your journey. Through presentations and talks across the country, author Pandit Dasa has offered his wisdom on applying mindfulness in the workplace. In this book, he shares his wisdom with you, revealing that, no matter what your external circumstances or environment, you can find the time and space to reflect and unlock the benefits of mindfulness. * Reduce stress and anxiety by eliminating unnecessary distractions and closing unused "apps" in your mind * Harness the principles of forgiveness, patience, compassion, and selflessness to improve work-life balance and mental health for yourself and your employees * Break through the stigma surrounding mental health concerns and identify the obstacles that are keeping you from happiness and fulfilment * Complete reflection questions and exercises to develop a deeper awareness of how your mind works--and what you can do to improve it Mindfulness For the Wandering Mind is for anyone who is looking for a solution to the constant feelings overwhelm, distraction, and anxiety that plague us in today's fast-paced, media-saturated world. Teach your brain how to block out the noise and find focus, and observe the radical transformation that mindfulness can make in your life.
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Seitenzahl: 246
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023
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Table of Contents
Cover
Praise for
Mindfulness For the Wandering Mind
Title Page
Copyright
Foreword
Preface
CHAPTER ONE: Covid, Work from Home, and Employee Well‐Being
Overview
Employee Mental Health
Creating Boundaries While Working from Home
Summary
Reflection Questions and Exercises
Notes
CHAPTER TWO: The Pursuit of Work–Life Balance
Overview
The Best Way to Start the Day
Consuming a Healthy and Balanced Diet
Getting a Good Night's Sleep
The Importance of Positive Relationships
Building Strong and Sustainable Relationships
Summary
Reflection Questions and Exercises
Further Reading
Notes
CHAPTER THREE: Breaking the Mental Health Stigma
Overview
Michael Phelps
Naomi Osaka
Ben Simmons
Simone Biles
Kevin Love
How to Recognize Symptoms of Depression
Summary
Reflection Questions and Exercises
Notes
CHAPTER FOUR: Closing the Apps of the Mind
Overview
The Hard Drive
Apps in the Mind
The Meandering Mind
Mind Over Matter
Illusions of the Mind
Clearing the Traffic
Summary
Reflection Questions and Exercises
Note
CHAPTER FIVE: Mindfulness: What It Is and Isn't
Overview
It's Not How You Sit
It's Not Just for Women
It's Not Just for Passive Participants
It's Not Just for the Athletes
It's Not Just for Sports
It's Not Just About Breathing
It's Not Just for Monks
It's for Everyone
Summary
Reflection Questions and Exercises
Notes
CHAPTER SIX: The How, When, and Where of Mindfulness
Overview
The Ideal Time
A Sustained Practice
Finding Your Environment
Posture
Enhancing Productivity
Confronting Restlessness
Using Apps
Music and Meditation
Living in the Present
Summary
Reflection Questions and Exercises
Notes
CHAPTER SEVEN: Mindful Awareness in Leadership
Overview
Motivation for Leading
Leading by Example
Walking the Talk
Humility in Leadership
Summary
Reflection Questions and Exercises
Notes
CHAPTER EIGHT: Creating a Positive and Sustainable Workplace Culture
Overview
The Value of Appreciation and Recognition
The Importance of Mindful Communication
The Usefulness of Constructive Criticism
Maintaining an Emotional Balance
Summary
Reflection Questions and Exercises
Notes
CHAPTER NINE: Best Practices
Overview
Coming into the Present Moment
Learning to Breathe
Discovering Gratitude
Self‐Development and Personal Growth
Bringing It All Together
Summary
Reflection Questions and Exercises
Note
Afterword
On the Move
The Fire
Post‐Communist Bulgaria
Return to the United States
Living with Monks in India
Taking the Vow
Why I Left the Monastery
Urban Dweller
Becoming a Motivational Speaker
Graduation Day
Gallery
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Index
End User License Agreement
Guide
Cover Page
Praise for Mindfulness For the Wandering Mind
Title Page
Copyright
Foreword
Preface
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
Afterword
Gallery
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Index
Wiley End User License Agreement
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Praise for Mindfulness For the Wandering Mind
Pandit has a modern take on understanding our mind and the need for mindfulness in the connected and constantly evolving world we live in. Pandit clears up the many misconceptions surrounding mindfulness, including basics like posture. Pandit explains difficult concepts with very easy‐to‐understand examples, while pointing out the benefits in your everyday life that can be realized from day 1 of reading the book. I highly recommend this book to leaders of the future who are looking to lead with humility, become active listeners, and create a culture of mindfulness at the workplace.
D. SharmaFounder and CEO, meditation.live
The leadership concepts in this book challenge the way we think about our approach to leading people and the development of the leader we want to be. Anyone who is in a leadership role or is responsible for leadership development should make this book a must‐read. Every page has invaluable insights to meaningful leadership. Mindfulness For the Wandering Mind is a useful tool that every leader can benefit from and apply. It's honest, authentic, and engaging leadership.
Roger JansManager of Workforce Planning Organizational Development and Classification, Ramapo College, New Jersey
For me personally, working in banking and finance and leading international teams in a fast‐paced, high‐stress environment, I need all the tools I can get to remain present, empathetic, and productive. Pandit's book provides the very tools that are required to stay centered and maintain the work–life balance required for healthy living. I could not have read it at a better time.
John ThurlowChief Operating Officer, Capital Markets Division, Royal Bank of Canada
Pandit Dasa has provided a wonderful formula for those aspiring to high levels of professional success while maintaining their personal character. As a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, I train students to be industry's leading engineers, to work efficiently with industry leaders, and to be ideal team players. I also train premed students, who are the future healthcare professionals. This book will provide the crucial tools students and professionals need to become caring and mindful professionals in the engineering and medical fields. In fact, there isn't an industry that won't benefit from this well‐thought‐out and highly relevant content.
Dr. Zhi‐Hong MaoProfessor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Swanson School of Engineering, University of Pittsburgh
I am managing teams of graduate students who are working on various research projects. Self‐awareness, managing one's emotions, and peace of mind are critical for obtaining results in research. For the corporate world that will employ these students, these notions are even more important. Pandit Dasa brings his extensive corporate experience speaking about these concepts into a book. This book is a must‐read for individuals looking to balance career success and personal growth. The message the book transmits – do not get lost in nonessential things – is extremely important in corporate America, an extremely competitive and hardworking environment.
Ionut FlorescuResearch Professor in Financial Engineering, Director of Hanlon Laboratories, Director of the Financial Analytics program, School of Business, Stevens Institute of Technology
As someone who has been in high‐level sales for over 15 years, managing teams in a fast‐paced, results‐oriented environment, I know that it's crucial to stay focused on the goals, yet calm and present while engaging with clients. Mindfulness For the Wandering Mind by Pandit Dasa provides very relevant insights on how to do exactly that. His practical tips have helped me manage my time and teams with efficiency, a clear mind, and emotional intelligence. This is a must‐read for anyone aspiring to remain mindful while overseeing teams and remaining productive.
Tushar BajajSales Leader of Hybrid Cloud Integration, IBM North America
MINDFULNESS FOR THE WANDERING MIND
LIFE-CHANGING TOOLS for MANAGING STRESS and IMPROVING MENTAL HEALTH AT WORK AND IN LIFE
PANDIT DASA
Copyright © 2023 by Pandit Dasa. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.Published simultaneously in Canada.
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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data is Available:
ISBN 9781394197620 (Cloth)ISBN 9781394197637 (ePub)ISBN 9781394197644 (ePDF)
Cover Design: Chris WallaceCover Images: © sensationaldesign/Getty Images, © Art‐Digital‐Illustration/Getty ImagesAuthor Photo: Courtesy of the Author
Foreword
Mindfulness for the Wandering Mind offers wisdom with immediate practical applications and a process of focused, integrating questions to help you guide yourself, your colleagues, direct reports, and teams forward in a mindful way. Pandit works from the idea of servant leadership and the practice of focusing the mind to help develop the ability to be resilient, tune up responsiveness to conflict, and achieve stronger professional relationships.
Before moving into his career as an educator in leadership, Pandit Dasa spent 15 years as a monk, living in a small urban monastery located in the East Village in New York City. He slept on a two‐inch‐thick and two‐foot‐wide sleeping mat, upgrading in his final three years to a bed with a sleeping bag. As Dasa describes in his first book, Urban Monk: “Our monastery is a six‐story brownstone on the same block as several nightclubs and bars, a tattoo shop, a funeral home, and a drag queen cabaret.”
In this big‐city environment, Pandit practiced and learned. He shares his transformational leadership insights in Mindfulness For the Wandering Mind. The purpose of this book is to help readers “manage the vehicle of the mind.” It might seem surprising that his former training facility, the monastery, wasn't located on an isolated mountaintop, far removed from the marketplaces of civilization. Instead, the monastery where Pandit gained the knowledge he shares in this book was established right in the kind of environment where we all must perform: a noisy, hectic landscape of competing, complex interests. Your office might be in any city in the world and it likely won't be in a location more intense and distracting than New York City. As I write this Foreword, it is the month of April. The year is 2020 and all the cities of the world are in some stage of sudden quiet, quarantined against the pandemic of COVID‐19. But noisy or quiet, we work in competitive environments; noisy or quiet, the stress in our lives doesn't evaporate. Because of the pressure we confront, it is too easy for us to blame our distraction, lack of focus, and various anxieties on our external environment. Pandit reminds us: We need to get rid of the excuse “I can't meditate because my mind is too restless.” That restlessness is exactly why we need to meditate. Pandit offers an encouraging approach based on his own experience. If you have tried meditation, you know the challenge of your mind wandering. Pandit walks us through his own meditation process, offering specific actions to help you succeed and make meditation a part of your toolkit. Pandit understands that for the reader to succeed, they will require patience. “There's no need to get frustrated or upset if the mind wanders off, because that's just what the mind does.”
In his years at the monastery, Pandit and his fellow monks would wake to meditate at 4:00 a.m., after sweeping their floors clean. They would often hear the explosive voices of inebriated people on the streets, as well as the occasional fistfight. I lived in that neighborhood in the mid‐1990s and I remember waiting, in 1995, for a car service that would deliver me to an executive education job. As I waited, I watched one angry, cursing man, waving a wood 2×4, chase another bleeding, cursing man out of a sidewalk stairwell and down the block. Emotional volatility and sudden bursts of violence weren't unusual in the neighborhood. Even now, after an economic transformation that has made the neighborhood alluring for those with money for luxurious apartments, high‐end restaurants, and pricey retail, it is still an environment in which anxiety, obsession, and the self‐centered pursuit of pleasure, wealth, and power seem more prevalent than the four guiding principles Pandit Dasa encourages us to remember: (1) forgiveness, (2) patience, (3) compassion, and (4) selflessness.
Pandit's early interest in mindfulness was catalyzed by a rough period as a young man in Bulgaria. He followed his father and mother to eastern Europe, with the goal of rebuilding the hard‐earned family fortune after a catastrophic series of bad luck in Los Angeles. It was in Bulgaria that Pandit took the first steps that would contribute to his eventual years as a monk.
After returning with his parents to the United States, and working around New York City in unfulfilling jobs, Pandit decided he would travel to India at the recommendation of monks he met in NYC. He went on a spiritual journey that involved 100% commitment to earn the right to wear the saffron robes of a monk. What he brings us in this book are practical ways for us to benefit from the hard‐earned wisdom of his journey as a monk.
Pandit experienced most of his youth, and his high school years, in the same area of Los Angeles where I had also been raised (many years earlier). Both of us spent our high school days in a very comfortable dream of the SoCal fantasy, our homes facing the distant Pacific Ocean to the west and the snowy peaks of the San Gabriel Mountains behind us to the northeast. Both of us grew up with fathers who fought to move from poverty to affluence. I only share this similarity in our backgrounds to emphasize the unique courage behind his choice. There are many career opportunities a young person might choose. Many of them offer great benefits to society, while rewarding the person, both personally and professionally, for their commitment to their chosen career. Pandit chose to spend 15 years of his adult life in the development of his mind and the service of helping other people improve their minds. He chose to ignore many available rewards and focus on the value of achieving a more centered, satisfied existence for himself and for others.
In November of 2019, Pandit shared his journey as a monk with the Columbia Business School Advanced Management Program (AMP), a four‐week leadership development program for senior‐level business leaders. I have been co‐running the AMP for over 13 years. Pandit and I took very different paths in our lives, and probably because of the similar starting points and the different life choices, I could see that his knowledge was an important resource to the ongoing growth of the global business leaders we work to develop at Columbia Business School.
I am sure you will enjoy this book. Use the lessons, respond to the questions, apply his hard‐earned insights. Pandit took a unique journey and he shares specific wisdom to help you confront adversity and help replace ego with empathy.
Bruce CravenFaculty, CBS Executive EducationAdjunct Associate Professor, Columbia Business SchoolAuthor, Win or Die: Leadership Secrets from Game of Thrones (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press, 2019)www.cravenleadership.com
Preface
It wasn't long after I finished my first book, Urban Monk, in 2013 that people began asking me about the plan and content of my second book. Getting through the whole process of writing and editing had turned out to be much more work than I had anticipated, and I wasn't even close to thinking about a second book. I felt that I had given what felt like everything to my first book and didn't have much more to say at the time. I definitely didn't want to force myself to write. I needed to be inspired from within to go down that road for a second time. It was also the time, in 2014, that I was beginning to ponder my exodus from the 15 years I had spent living as a monk in New York City. This was a big transitional phase in my life and a lot needed figuring out about how I was going to survive and function in the normal world.
It was during the 15th year of my monastic experience, after having given over 1,000 speeches and workshops centering around mindfulness and work–life balance on college campuses in New York and around the country, that I started getting invitations to speak at corporations and conferences. Not wanting to think about writing a second book, I dove into developing my corporate speaking and decided that I would wait for the right inspiration and content to develop before putting my thoughts down on paper. I began traveling around the country giving speeches at companies of all sizes, from startups to Fortune 500s, at company retreats and HR conferences.
In June of 2017, almost four years after my first book, I began to note down some ideas and casually began writing with the idea of eventually publishing another book. I got one‐third to halfway through and then lost inspiration and continued to develop my speaking business. After most of my talks, people kept asking me when I would write a book on mindfulness as it applies to the workplace and I would just smile and respond, “hopefully soon.” Pressure was building for me to continue writing, but somehow I just wasn't feeling the motivation to set aside time to sit myself down and seriously begin the writing process. However, I knew that as a speaker, it was absolutely crucial to come out with a second book that would expand on the topics that I was speaking on.
By some good fortune, in July of 2019, a mentor and friend, who had been a monk for almost 30 years, was visiting from India, so I thought to reach out and spend some time with him. I didn't plan to talk about my next book with him but decided to casually tell him that I had been working on a manuscript, that it had been sitting on my computer for almost two years, and that I could finish it in a few months if I really was determined to. He wasted no time and strongly encouraged me to finish it up and to not procrastinate any further. He actually told me to go home and write down my writing goals for the book and to note down a date by which I would finish writing. I followed his suggestions and right from the next day, started to write, and I met and exceeded my writing goals for each week. Within three months, I had completed the basic manuscript. He gave me the exact push that I needed to get this done. It's truly amazing how people go in and out of our life to inspire us and teach us. Some teach in a positive way and others in not such a positive way. However, they all come to teach. Fortunately, my mentor's encouragement was incredibly positive and gave me the inspiration to write. Our endeavor in all things is absolutely crucial; however, I do believe that things will happen as and when they're meant to and not a second earlier and not a second later.
In July 2020, during the early stages of the pandemic, I self‐published my second book and called it Closing the Apps: How to Be Mindful at Work and at Home. “Closing the Apps” is a phrase that I was using during my corporate talks; it refers to the apps we have open in our mind and that if we learn to close these “apps,” then we can reduce our stress levels and be more productive and happy in our work and personal life.
Between March 2020 and December 2022, I had delivered over 200 virtual talks for a variety of organizations and their employees located around the globe. Corporations were struggling to understand what the future of work would look like and how to help their employees with work–life balance and their mental health. The pandemic had caused a major disruption and was increasing stress and anxiety for employers and employees. Requests for virtual speeches to address these crucial topics started pouring in and I found myself quickly developing new topics and adjusting old ones for the current environment.
By the end of 2022, I realized I had developed much more content that needed to be added to Closing the Apps. Hence, during the months of December and January, I expanded the content of Closing the Apps and wrote a new edition.
In this new edition, I include topics on work–life balance, creating boundaries between work and personal life, and the very important subject of mental health and breaking the stigma surrounding it. Hence the new title, Mindfulness For the Wandering Mind.
CHAPTER ONECovid, Work from Home, and Employee Well‐Being
Overview
Ever since Covid shut the world down in 2020, conversations surrounding mental health have come to the forefront like never before. For too long, people were afraid to talk about and address their mental and emotional health needs. There has been and continues to be a stigma around mental health that people feared would isolate them in the workplace and possibly make them look weak, inefficient, and unproductive. After all, the workplace isn't a space one wants to be vulnerable in and so workers would simply brush their mental health needs under the rug and just ignore them.
Social isolation forced everyone to talk about this topic because the matter could no longer be ignored. It was almost as if Covid revealed to society that many of us are actually struggling with our mental health even though we didn't think we were. We were forced to face this harsh reality. Covid either brought out our mental health struggles, helped to create them due to the uncertainty it put the world in, or possibly both.
Society worldwide got completely blindsided by the pandemic. This was the first time in human history that the entire human population shared a similar struggle. Perhaps for the first time, we could truly relate to each other. Generally, whenever we watch the news and learn about some part of the world experiencing a natural disaster, we quickly become indifferent to it and the suffering of the people there because our life isn't impacted. However, Covid was different, and it forced us to relate to each other like never before.
Not feeling comfortable going to a grocery story, walking the dog, simply going for a walk; being paranoid about touching any surface that might have been touched by another person and being mandated to wear a face mask were very unnatural additions to our lifestyle that were suddenly thrust upon us. In school, we had experienced fire and earthquake drills as a preparation for such events. Some parts of the world have drills preparing for bombs or war; however, most of the world has never undergone a pandemic drill and so we were thoroughly unprepared. One of my friends, who lived in the suburbs of New Jersey, barely came out of his house for an entire year. He and his family were afraid to even go into their backyard. When they received mail or Amazon deliveries, they would leave them in one part of their house for 24–48 hours before touching them. We went from thinking that Covid would pass in a few weeks to becoming completely paranoid about engaging in activities that once seemed completely normal.
For the first several months, I washed all our vegetables with hot water and even soap out of anxiety of getting Covid. Everything that came into the house was cleaned, wiped, or sprayed.
Pre‐Covid, many dreamed of and romanticized the idea of working from home in their pajamas and how nice it would be to have the whole house to themselves, free to do as they please. Life gives us part of what we wish for, but it doesn't always give it to us in exactly the way we want. So, we got to work from home in the attire of our choice, for at least the lower part of our body, but we had our entire family at home with us, with everyone competing for work and study space.
Many liked the idea of being able to work from home, but for a majority, trying to get work done while having to tend to the needs of family, pets, and managing household chores, all at the same time, turned out to be a much more daunting task than anyone could have anticipated. We love our families but being around them 24/7 was much more than we were prepared for. In addition to a crowded home environment, people ended up working longer hours. Many felt pressured to put in extra hours because they didn't need to go into the office and felt a need to prove to their bosses that they weren't slacking off while they were at home. People's commute times became nonexistent, which translated into extra hours of work. Gone were the lunch hours, the casual conversations with colleagues, and the general camaraderie that exists in an office environment.
