Mindfulness Without the Bells and Beads: Unlocking Exceptional Performance, Leadership, and Well-Being for Working Professionals

ISBN-13: 9781119750765 / Angielski / Twarda / 2021 / 224 str.

Clif Smith

Spis treści

Foreword by Tal Goldhamer ixIntroduction: A Staggered Start xiPart I My Journey With Mindfulness And An Introduction To The Fundamentals 1Chapter 1 The Power of the Trained Mind 3Three Skills That Changed My Life 5The Three Skills Applied 9Chapter 2 Why Mindfulness Now? 19Chapter 3 (Some of) The Science of Mindfulness 31Mindfulness Changes the Brain 32Mindfulness Reduces the Size and Activity in the Amygdala 33Mindfulness Increases Activity in the Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) 33Mindfulness Increases the Size of Your Hippocampus 34Mindfulness Increases the Size of Your Insula 35Chapter 4 How Do Our Brains Work outside a Brain Scanner? 38Chapter 5 Finding the Signal in the Mindfulness Noise 46Chapter 6 The Fundamentals of Cultivating Mindfulness 54Focused Attention Meditation 56Open Awareness Meditation 65Chapter 7 Your Journey 67Part II Diving Deeper: An 8-Week Journey To Exceptional Performance, Leadership, and Well-Being 71Chapter 8 Introducing the Course 73Motivation 75What Do You Need to Give Up? 75Establishing the Practice 76Dealing with the Excuse-Making, Judging, and Controlling Mind 78Chapter 9 Week 1: No Trivial Moments: Moving from Autopilot to Aware 80Waking Up to Your Life 84Mindfulness and the Body 87Chapter 10 Week 2: The Mindset You Bring to Your Experience Matters 95Nonjudging 97Patience 98Beginner's Mind 99Trust 99Non-striving 100Acceptance 101Letting Go and Letting Be 101Gratitude and Generosity 102Shifting from Doing to Non-Doing, aka Being 103Common Themes, Challenges, and Questions 104Chapter 11 Week 3: Do You Have the Story or Does the Story Have You? 108Mindfulness of Sounds, Thoughts, and Emotions 113Common Themes, Challenges, and Questions 117Chapter 12 Week 4: The Saber-Toothed Tiger of the Modern World: Everything 121Stress and Our Stress Response 123Common Themes, Challenges, and Questions 127Chapter 13 Week 5: Delving into the Difficult 130Responding versus Reacting 132Common Themes, Challenges, and Questions 138Chapter 14 Week 6: In the Same Boat 143S.P.A.R.R.ing during Difficult Interactions 148Common Themes, Challenges, and Questions 154Chapter 15 Week 7: Who Watches (Out for) You? 158Empathy 160Compassion 162Kindness 162Cultivating Empathy, Compassion, and Kindness 163Common Themes, Challenges, and Questions 167Chapter 16 Week 8: Maintaining Momentum 170A Mindful Day 173Common Themes, Challenges, and Questions 177Chapter 17 A Final Word 181Acknowledgments 183About the Author 187Appendix 189Notes 195Index 201

O autorze

CLIF SMITH, EY's (Ernst & Young LLP)Americas Mindfulness Leader and Global Mindfulness Network Leader, built EY's Mindful Leadership program, delivering practical training to tens of thousands of EY and client personnel with measurable impact on leadership, performance, and well-being. Raised by a single mother of three, Clif grew up on welfare and lived in government subsidized housing for much of his childhood. He went from having no prospects, being flat broke, and barely graduating high school to learning Chinese, becoming a diplomat, and putting himself through Harvard using the techniques he teaches in this book. Clif's personal journey from poverty to prosperity inspires his work as an author, executive coach, mindfulness teacher, and keynote speaker. Readers can follow his work at clifsmith.com.