Actively use the challenges and difficulties encountered at work as opportunities to confront and understand personal “stuff” or unexamined baggage, which can lead to professional improvement and personal growth.
Sit still and look inward to understand what is truly happening within yourself, especially when faced with challenges or strong emotions, to gain clarity and self-awareness.
Actively choose the kind of leader and adult you want to be, and when you fail to live up to that aspiration, practice self-compassion by “blowing yourself a kiss, dusting yourself off, and trying again the next day.”
Consciously stop, stand still, slow down, and check in with yourself, pausing to question the stories you tell yourself about your day and whether they are true, to avoid acting from an unhealthy place.
Regularly write down your thoughts and reactions, especially when upset or challenged, to explore “what’s really going on for me” and learn from your responses without needing to talk to anyone.
Utilize your meditation practice to facilitate radical self-inquiry by observing your internal states and reactions, helping you understand underlying emotions and motivations.
Regularly pause and ask yourself, “How am I really feeling right now?” to connect with your true emotional state, which can prevent impulsive or inhumane reactions driven by unexamined feelings.
Engage with specific journaling prompts, such as those about your relationship to money or family belief systems, to uncover childhood structures driving present decisions and gain deeper self-understanding.
If you are in a leadership position, take responsibility for confronting and working through your personal “unsorted baggage” from childhood, as failing to do so can create a toxic environment that negatively impacts employees and their families.
Strive to lead in a way that inspires the best in people and demands excellence, without using fear as a driver, to create an environment where individuals can grow and actualize their best adult selves.
Create an environment of psychological safety where team members feel safe to speak up, where all voices are heard, and where there is equity, as this is a common denominator for highly successful teams.
As a leader, model psychological safety within yourself by being vulnerable and open, constantly checking into your purpose and vision, to create a sense of connectedness and esprit de corps in your team.
Leaders should ask themselves, “If my child were to come to work for my company, how would I feel?” If you don’t feel pride and happiness, it indicates a need to improve your leadership and the work environment.
Implement the “red, yellow, green” technique in meetings or personal reflections to quickly identify and communicate emotional states (red=anxious/not present, yellow=in-between/okay, green=fully present), fostering self-awareness and mutual understanding without delving into detailed stories.
Strive to accept yourself totally, down to your bones, and extend unconditional love to others, even when they disappoint you or when relationships end, recognizing that everyone disappoints and hurts each other.
When you or others fail or disappoint, use it as an opportunity for growth and renewal, rather than self-recrimination or judgment, by building a “stairway to renewal” for yourself and others.
Deeply inquire into how your relationship with money was first formed, how it shapes your work choices and definitions of success/failure, and how it impacts your sense of worthiness, to understand its unconscious drivers.
Address “productivity shame” by examining and potentially lowering your basic expectations for the amount of work you can or should be doing, as taking on too much often leads to feelings of inadequacy.
When feeling guilty about resting or not being productive, simply sit with the awkwardness of not knowing how to be when not engaged in agenda-oriented activities, using mindfulness to observe these feelings without judgment.
When experiencing “productivity shame” or a nasty inner narrator, use mindfulness to recognize the spiral and “change the channel,” potentially by practicing loving-kindness meditation for yourself.
Use psychotherapy to explore work-related issues and how they trigger personal “stuff” from your past, leveraging the therapeutic relationship for deeper self-understanding.
Understand that insight practices (like mindfulness meditation) and emotional work (like psychotherapy) are distinct and should generally be done separately, as insight practices focus on mental processes while emotional work addresses the substance of your emotions and life stories.
Be aware of spiritual bypassing, which is using spiritual practices (like loving-kindness meditation) to avoid feeling into difficult aspects of your experience, and instead, confront your anger or distress directly.