5 Trends and 5 Actions for you!

The new year is right around the corner. And “2020” just sounds awesome, doesn’t it?

2020 means new challenges — and huge new opportunities! This isn’t anything new, of course, and you will probably hear the same being said each new year. Yet, I still wanted to share my thoughts about five key trends to be mindful of to supercharge your mindful planning this year. Each one is a powerful opportunity to build mindful products, services, campaigns, brands and more that people will love in 2020 and beyond.

So, what are these mindful trends? What’s going to happen in 2020?

Alright, deep breathe… here goes…

1. More Mindful Integration

This year, I predict that more school curriculum’s, business programs, sports workout plans, music classes and wellness treatments will incorporate mindfulness into them. Whether this means 3 mins of mindfulness practice before the start of your math class, mindfulness as part of resiliency frameworks, breath work and relaxation during training, awareness exercises for singing or more meditations during wellness retreats.

Action for you: Look for opportunities where you can integrate mindfulness practices!

2. Experimental Mindfulness

In 2020 there will be more focus on creating ultimate theory-meets-practice-meets-stroytelling-meets-mental-meets-emotional experiences. Think educational, hands-on workshops, sensory immersion practices, and other activities that tie in multiple dimensions of experimental learning. You won’t just talk about mindfulness and the benefits, you practice and not just with your eyes closed, but with movement and emotions and inter-personal elements as well. You engage and experiment like never before.

Action for you: Take your favorite practice (i.e. body scan, breathing, visualizations, etc.) and see how you can enhance it, experiment with it and become more aware of it!

3. Mindful Tech

One of the most interesting increases in popularity in 2020 will be for breathing and meditation apps. Apps give you access to practices for a fraction of the price and come with features like reminders, different lengths, types, voices, etc. to make it more likely for you to stick to them. Moreover, there will be more devices to assist you in becoming a more mindful cyborg. Whether this means more mindful IoT sensors, greater A.I around mindfulness or simply building tech more mindfully.

Action for you: Find 3 apps you can always recommend and work with one technology this year to make you or it more mindful!

4. More Mindful Retreats

There is a 182% increase in wellness retreats searches. Mindfulness retreats can vary in length, from a day or two to several weeks. Retreats expose you to new experiences, practices, environments and stimuli. They can help decrease your stress and to teach you techniques to improve your resilience. You can go at it alone or with a group. There is a lot one can derive from a retreat that one cannot from an app or regular home, class, business practice.

Action for you: Go on a retreat!

5. More Mindful Research

As use cases, technologies and applications develop so too will research around mindfulness. I see more scientific advances in mindfulness-based applications, more brain imagining research associated with mindfulness practices and more research around the benefits mindfulness has with diversity and equality.

Action for you: Capture more data around your mindful practice and teachings. Whether this is survey, testimonials or via other data points — do so. Your future self will be grateful to you now!

Happiest of Mindful New Years and all the Best!

Remember I am here to serve and support. If you have any questions, concerns or comments regarding this topic, I will always make some time for you. Moreover, feel free to download the new app “U live only once” (Uloo), where you can join a mindful squad, find a mindful mentor and reach mindful goals together.

A father took his boy into a toyshop. The boy got away from his dad and found a statue of a man made of balloons. The boy looked at it for a minute, and then he drew back his fist and hit the balloon man just as hard as he could.

The man fell over, and then popped right up.

The confused boy backed off and looked at him again and then hit him again as hard as he could. Again the man fell over, and again he popped right back up.

The boy’s father walked around the corner and saw his son hit the balloon man. The father asked the son, “Why do you think he comes back up when you hit him and knock him down?”

The boy thought for a minute and said, “It’s because he’s standing up on the inside.”

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

If you’re standing up inside, it doesn’t matter what happens on the outside, you will always get back up. You see, continuously, life throws punches your way, I know, not only because I have been training in the martial arts for the past 16 years but I have been through many ups and downs, lows and highs, deaths and births, pain and pleasure. It is a crazy world.

And while, you may be physically knocked down, we can always choose our thoughts, wait, let me put it this way. We have conditioned thoughts and knee jerk reactions because of years or decades of enforcement, so while right now it might be difficult to think differently, with mindfulness, with attention training and awareness techniques you can change the how and what you think and be able to stand up inside.

My question to you: Are you standing up on the inside? and regardless of how you answer this, you have the potential to stand up faster, stand up more often and stand up with more grace and kindness.

It’s your choice!

Bonus

Short (1min) mindfulness practice you can take home with you.

What common characteristics did they share that made them successful?

It wasn’t their race, language, their community, their wealth, IQ or how well they passed test.

It was their ability to pay attention, focus and regulate their thoughts and emotions. It was mindfulness (awareness).

And mindfulness may very well support you in your personal and professional success as it has countless individuals in academia, business (IBM also ;), sports, medicine, in the arts and much much more.

What is mindfulness?

“Mindfulness is a success skill and state of being, where one is purposefully aware of one’s experience as it develops right now and here, with a quality of discernment and willingness to openingly meet the needs of self, others and the environment.”

Some describe mindfulness as the state of optimum well-being and fulfilment. Athletes call it being in ‘the zone’. The grandfather of positive psychology, Dr. Mihaly Chentmihalyi calls it ‘flow’ (the state of optimum human experience). Lao Tzu called it ‘the tao’. In the sacred yogic texts it is referred to as ‘sat-chit-ananda’ (being-consciousness-bliss). Others call it, ‘being in the now,’ ‘being-ness’ or ‘presence’. St. Francis of Assisi called it ‘the peace that surpasses all understanding’. The Buddha also called it ‘mental development’. In business you can often hear, “at the top of the game.” Some wise sages have talked of it as simply ‘self realization’, ‘being a witness’, ‘being with,’ ‘pure consciousness’ or simply ‘the truth’ or ’awareness’. In Japanese they call it, “return to ku”, or return to the normal condition.

What it is not.

1. Mindfulness is not a religion — Even though much of mindfulness owes it’s origins from eastern contemplative practices, it’s purpose has out grown and succeeds its past.
2. Mindfulness is not meditation — Just like you can do hundreds of different sports to become fit, you can do hundreds of different practices, techniques and meditations to become more mindful.
3. Mindfulness is not what you think — It’s a combination of what you, the mind, emotions and sensations are experiencing right here, right now.
4. Mindfulness is not about stress reduction, although it can significantly reduce stress — Mindfulness was brought to the West in clincial environments. However, it is so much more these days.
5. Mindfulness is not a waste of time. — It’s about forming a new and improved relationship with time. Plus there are lots of benefits.
6. Mindfulness is not about spacing out or escaping. — Rather than escaping the stresses of life, the wrong doings and the corruption, it’s about apporaching it differently, kindly and with a clear vision on how to take action.
7. Mindfulness is not simply about attention. — Attention is improved, true, but there is a whole lot more than just attention.
8. Mindfulness is not about having a particular kind of experience. — It’s about all of experience(s), your own experience of reality, your experience heightened via more of your senses.
9. Mindfulness is not about becoming someone else. — It’s about finally becoming you.
10. Mindful awareness practices are not difficult. — There is something for everyone, adjusting practices to your preferences is the way to go.

Why Mindfulness for Project Management?

Everyone faces overwhelm, self-doubt and a hundred other unhelpful habits of mind. Everyone, not just PMs could use a little more focus and a lot less negative emotions. And everyone can be a bit more compassionate and mindful of others and the environment.

And last but not least, as a leader it can sometimes be hard to stop and consider where to invest your time and energy. However, a key to lasting success lies in how we manage our energy. A mindful leader cultivates focus, creativity and compassion in the service of others. Leadership presence requires full attention to the present moment. Those around a mindful leader can feel that presence.

“Our world needs mindful leaders, people who embody leadership presence. We need leaders who not only understand themselves but who are not afraid to be open-hearted and who have the strength of character to make ethical choices. The problems we see all around us are not insurmountable, but they do require a new kind of leadership. As you continue to practice, and find more and more ways to actually be here for your life, you are also likely to encounter more and different ways to influence the lives of others, in your team, in your organization, in your families and in your community. One small step changes the dance, and one small change has the potential to create a better world. The choice is yours. Enjoy the journey.” from “Finding the Space to Lead,” by Janice Marturano, founder of the Institute for Mindful Leadership.

Some numbers

• At Linkedin, 73% of participants of mindfulness programs reported significant improvements in work-life balance.
• At Google, 64% of participants reported an increase in employee focus.
• At SAP, they claim to have had a 200% return on their mindfulness investment.
• At Aetna, they increased employee productivity by 44 mins per week.
• At IBM, 88% of participants felt more engaged at work.

What’s Next?

Do your own research on mindfulness, but be critical yet open-minded, be a skeptic yet try it out. If you need any additional support or have comments or questions… just reach out to me.

Bonus

Why aren’t we teaching you mindfulness (TEDx)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yJPcdiLEkI&t=59s

Search, “What Makes Us Happy,” and you will find a vast ocean of results, ask anyone this question and you may get a different answer each time, ask us, here at Wall of Quotes, and you will get the following☺.

Please remember that this list is not exhaustive, arguments could be made for all and we did not mention genetic factors or social upbringings, but nonetheless, through our experiences and research we believe this sums everything up very well:

What we have come to believe makes us happy but does not really :(

• Education
• Money
• Positive events experienced in life
• Marriage
• Parenthood

What actually makes us happy :)

• Exercise
• Giving to others
• Interpretations of events experienced in life
• Meaningful good relationships
• Sleep quality

In a nutshell, this means to create and maintain good relationships with yourself and others. This will keep us happier and healthier. Period. We need to understand that a good relationship with the self is the first step. For how can you love your neighbor if you don’t know how to love yourself?

Furthermore, social interactions are extremely good for us, because you can love yourself all you want but the fact remains that loneliness kills. These social interactions can then be formed into quality relationships and this does not only protect our bodies, it protects our brains as well.

If you maintain a positive outlook on life, eat well, exercise and get good sleep and surround yourself with like-minded people… well, how can you not be happy?

Exactly!

Life is not about Quotes… life is about living, loving and being.

However, too often we are dying, hating and unmotivated. This is where quotes fit the best because, “Quotes are about Life.” We love life and we love quotes. The quotes we are referring to stimulate emotions, bring hope, motivate us and make us happy.

They give us hope

Quotes have the power to capture a state of mind, reality or being, in just a few words. They give us a sense of hope and so often make someone’s moment so much more beautiful and instill a sense… a moment, a strong belief that life is worth living. Quotes help us to see that the grass is green, and give us that extra supply of hope and courage to persevere. They tell stories and enhance the credibility of a press release, news story or speech. Quotes have power and chosen at the right moment can leave a lasting impact on the world. They bring about a strong belief that life is worth living and that we are not alone to think in the ways we do.

They motivate us

Quotes motivate us! Often times more than a speech or a lecture. Quotes tell a story… they capture so much in such a short amount of space. Quotes transport our mind to a new world, they make us dream. Many a time we consider the author as a mentor, even as a hero, someone we follow, someone we learn from and look up to.

They make us happy

Quotes bring about that smile we so often tend to neglect. They have the power to brighten the most gloomy of days. For they can take us out of the sadness by transporting our mind to a new world, they allow us to dream and this is good. Moreover, there is no such feeling when one shares a quote with another and brings about that smile on their face.

Conclusion

Moreover, we continue to witness and experience how quotes impact others. How they create emotions, contemplation and conversations. We love quotes and therefore, it is our intention to make life worth living, loving and being through the world of quotes. We want to bring the right quotes to you, with beautiful design, ease of access and emotional intelligence.

Come to www.wall-of-quotes.com and be part of our journey in motivation and in bringing happiness to all!