Mindfulness and Authenticity DVD

Foundations for Leadership

Brief Glimpses of the 18 Chapters

Please see our Resources page for more information and to order.

1. Authentic Leadership and Basic Goodness: Authentic leadership is focused on bringing out the leadership in others. The inspiration of creating an enlightened society is based on recognizing unconditional human goodness. When we are out of touch with this unconditional goodness, we experience suffering or confusion.
2. Appreciating Uncertainty: Authentic leadership includes both gentleness and bravery. We need to come to terms with our limitations and confusion, and to embrace uncertainty as the ground of basic goodness. The practice of mindfulness includes both the solidity of earth and the unpredictability of whatever might come next.
3. Letting Go of Pretense: Sometimes, when we feel inadequate, we might attempt to fake it by trying to look authentic but not be authentic. When that happens, we need to feel the armor of pretense, how ill-fitting it is, and let it fall off. A true leader doesn’t need to try to be a “special person.” Being an ordinary human being, with openness, vulnerability and empathy is good enough. A sense of humor can really help us to keep a sane perspective when working with our own state of mind or others’.
4. Mindfulness Instructions (for sitting in on a chair):
   • Posture
   • Relating with emotions
   • Focusing on the breath
   • Setting the intention
   • Working with discursive thoughts
5. Mindfulness Instructions (for sitting on a cushion)
6. Why focus on the out-breath? The out-breath is associated with our natural capacity to let go and relax.
7. Mindfulness Leads to Awareness: Mindfulness is something we cultivate with intention, as a practice. Awareness cannot be created; it’s something that comes to us because we are present and receptive.
8. Working with Poverty Mentality: Whenever we feel inadequate we need to cultivate a genuine sense of loving-kindness towards ourselves. Relating directly to doubt and impoverishment is part of being authentic. It’s about relating to in-authenticity in an authentic way.
9. Group Discussion – Letting Go: Many of us struggle with “letting-go.” It’s hard to change our habitual patterns when we work in environments that don’t support real openness and change. That’s why a daily, personal mindfulness practice in so important.
10. Sweetheart Practice: This is a simple practice for how to care for ourselves whenever we are really “on our own backs.” We can give ourselves the nurturing and care we need whenever we feel stuck in self-condemnation.
11. Leadership Understands Suffering: Leadership is about understanding suffering through and through, and knowing what to do about it. Making a commitment to care for ourselves – to care for those parts that feel abused, wounded or ignored is important. It’s about finding a source of love and connection in our life that is indestructible.
12. Riding the Mind: There’s a traditional analogy of riding a horse (the rider is our mindfulness and the horse represents our physical, emotional and psychological experiences). The horse has it’s own life, it’s own integrity and cannot be entirely controlled. In order to ride, we have to shift our posture as the terrain changes. It’s a dance.
13. Mindfulness Instructions in Brief: Feel the integration of all the parts of your body. Dignity is not something we have to crank up; it’s there as a natural expression of our bodies. Fully being in the body and having sympathy for our own state of being is important. Mindfulness is not a trance; it’s just witnessing the present moment, right now.
14. Group Discussion: Mindfulness at Home and Work: How do people connect with mindfulness everyday? Mindfulness doesn’t change what happens, but it can change how we react to what happens. We take a moment and reflect before we respond.
15. Mindfulness in Action: Our habitual reactions include pushing things away, pulling them towards us, or ignoring them. With mindfulness, we can have a fresh perspective and can experiment, extending ourselves into each situation with a fresh mind and genuine curiosity.
16. Deep Listening: There’s body-related mindfulness practice, speech-related practice and mind-related practice. At work, the speech-focused practice is the most important, because work is so much about speech. Deep listening is the core practice for mindfulness in action.
17. Holding Things Lightly: We can hold mindfulness lightly, hold our own perceptions and awareness lightly, not taking ourselves too seriously, nor mocking ourselves. It’s about letting everything in, letting experiences move through us, and then letting them go. There is no need for struggle.
18. Synchronizing body, heart and mind (Windhorse): If we connect our body, heart and mind, we automatically feel a sense of confidence, a quality of being synchronized with reality. It’s not about being confident in something conceptual. Rather, confidence is experiential. Although mindfulness practice looks calm and peaceful, it is actually an outrageous and gutsy thing to do. It’s about being a truly courageous, humorous, and vulnerable person.