This post comes to you from Venice, the city of inspiration, a few days before New Year’s Eve and the beginning of 2018.
The closeness to the end of the year and the beginning of the next, prompted Seth Godin recently to write about the power of the possible in these words:
Next year is almost here.
And doing what you did this year probably isn’t going to be sufficient.
That’s because you have more to contribute than you did this year. You have important work worth sharing.
While Seth was writing in the context of marketing, his words are particularly apt in the context of mindfulness at this time of the year as we approach the beginning of 2018. Here we want to explore the power of mindfulness and what is possible through mindfulness practice.
As we grow in mindfulness, we enhance our potential. We break free from the shell of negative thoughts that constrain us and learn the power of the present moment. We develop greater insight into ourselves, those around us and our environment. With mindfulness, we gain clarity to see our potential and the calmness to make the possible a reality.
As Google has found over a decade with their own staff, mindfulness training releases creativity and the capacity for innovation. There is something about having clarity and calmness in tandem that opens our eyes and minds to what is possible.
What are you going to do with this new found potential?
It is interesting that at one of the largest technology conferences ever held, the organisers set aside a full day to explore “Mindfulness practices that activate your full potential“. The YouTube video of this last day, provides the contribution of some of the world’s leading mindfulness experts such as Tara Branch, Chade-Meng Tan, Jack Kornfield and Goldie Hawn.
In her presentation on the last day of the conference, Goldie Hawn spoke of how mindfulness had released her joy and potential from the constraints of panic, fear, anger and other negative attitudes and thoughts.
She studied herself and her own brain and the research on neuroscience and came to the conclusion that she had so much experience and knowledge to share.
Goldie recalled that following the trauma of 9/11, she was panicked and paralysed and unable to function. On remembering, after a week of inertia, how mindfulness had helped her previously, she resolved that she had to do something with the innate potential mindfulness had given her. She asked herself:
How old are you now?
How long have you been an actress?
How long have you been working as an actress?
How many years do you want to sit in front of a makeup chair?
Because there’s work to be done. And I want to help. I know too much now!
Goldie went on to establish The Hawn Foundation that brings mindfulness training to thousands of children in schools through a program called MindUP. What motivated Goldie was the level of depression, fear and suicide in children
So we need to ask ourselves, “How long do you want to sit in front of the makeup chair, living a life of unrealised potential?”
Goldie encourages us to realise our potential through mindfulness:
And if there is any challenge, it is to remember that the one person you need to challenge – to become better in life for you, and for your loved ones and for your children and your job – is to go to the University of You and become the best human being you can possibly become.
By Ron Passfield – Copyright (Creative Commons license, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives)
Image source: courtesy of congerdesign on Pixabay