Mindfulness Meditation May Change the Brain

The New York Times Health section, The Well, has an article today about the scientific findings of an 8 week course in Mindfulness Meditation.  It helps grow the area of the brain, the pre-frontal cortex, which is associated with feelings of well-being.  

Mindfulness practice teaches you to focus, to observe internal feelings and the external situation all the while breathing (which relaxes reactivity).  

Another way of saying this is that it helps to de-emphasize the activity of the earliest part of the brain which is connected to feelings of fight or flight. 

When you calm feelings of turbulence within, you cope better with the turbulence in the outer world.  Read it! 

 http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/28/how-meditation-may-change-the-brain/

exhaling

From time to time a few essential quotes are worth a pause.  Mind and heart can resonate with the wisdom gathered.

Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there.  Miles Davis

I have just three things to teach:  Simplicity, patience, compassion. 
The three are your greatest treasures.  Tao Te Ching

To fill the hour—that is happiness; to fill the hour and leave no crevice for a repentance or an approval.  Ralph Waldo Emerson

We must learn to awaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.  Henry David Thoreau

There is no easy way from the earth to the stars.  Seneca

The world is not to be put in order, the world is order incarnate.  It is for us to put ourselves in unison with this order.  Henry Miller

The trouble is that you think you have time.  Zen Master

history lessons

Last time I wrote that finding a job takes heart, connecting to your passion as a means of aligning interests with skills and staying motivated. There is another aspect to finding a job that many of you have more than likely discovered. 

For all the networking and connecting that it takes, finding a job is a solitary exercise.  It takes pulling yourself away from family and friends, finding a way to stay on task through the winding road toward employment. It takes finding YOU within the chaos and tedium of it.  Befriending you, observing you, pushing and motivating you to be able to discuss your accomplishments and answer all those behavioral questions that start with “Tell me a time when….”.

I read a quote today that speaks to the process that happens to each of us as we release the ties that bind to the old company after being severed. The Scottish historian Charles Mackay observed: “Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one.” He wasn’t talking about the unemployment malaise that engulfs so much of the U.S., but rather the Dutch Tulip Mania nearly 400 years ago. 

How does this quote referring to speculation on the value of tulips until it all went dry have to do with job finding in the U.S. today?  A lot really.  Those Dutchmen who bet the bank on tulip prices were operating under the illusion that their product would continue for as long as they could see.  They saw no reason to change their method of marketing to enhance the product longevity. 

What about the unemployed corporate workers who see their product, their skills, only useful to another  big corporation?  Is that really true, or an illusion?  Here in Columbus there are a set number of really large corporations, maybe 6 or 7; medium to small sized companies make up the majority of business locally. If your plan to gain employment at a local corporation is not working, why not adjust your thinking and aim toward medium to small-sized companies? 

You already thought of that, but haven’t had a response from smaller companies either?

Conventional wisdom is not so applicable in changing times.  Creative ideas, new ways of thinking are better alignment with the changing world of employment.  

This may be the reason why the smaller companies have not responded to your résumé.  Your scope and breadth of responsibility, while true, appears daunting to the medium-sized employer.  I read a résumé the other day that said the person had HR responsibility for 83 recruiters.  In 17 states. 

The first lesson of advertising is to speak to your audience. If you are trying to interest a medium-sized company (say 500- 200 employees) in your skills and your résumé proclaims that kind of breadth of experience, can you see why you are overlooked for their Recruiting Director job that is responsible for 2 recruiters? 

It’s sad to say, but my bet is, you aren’t even in the running, as you are perceived to be too much for the job.  If you want to stay in the area you live and the big companies aren’t biting, my suggestion is to focus your résumé on function rather than the numbers.  

Medium to small companies have alot to offer: please don’t overlook them. If the job description speaks to you, listen deepelyto the job requirements and duties. Respond in kind by relating your expience to their job duties.  Convincing the hiring manager that you would be happy after such wide responsibility will still come in an interview, but at least you may get the interview. 

You could say on your résumé that you were responsible for the recruiting function.  Leave the 83 recruiters out of the mix.  Yes, I know resume writing today stresses the importance of numbers, but if the medium-sized company will be overwhelmed by the scope and breadth of your experience, think outside the box and send a résumé that will address the job and the company size. And see what happens!

alignment

So much change careens through our lives these days.  The changes enforced by life’s twists and turns, the choices of others that create ripples, tipping us ever so slightly off course; there is no end to it, so it seems. We gravitate toward the change we choose, and yet push against or shrink back from the change we cannot control.  I want this.  I don’t want that.

Reflecting on the last several weeks, I have had a number of ups and downs, nothing unusual there.  But what I’m sitting with tonight are the memories of the most remarkable women who have touched my life during this same period. I’m having one of those, how did I miss this? moments.  Weaving these stories together I discover a fabric of connection and alignment.  Powerful are the gifts of heartfelt conversation where shared passions of possibilities manifesting into reality and the sheer will of each to begin again, to move forward, bolsters the other.  These were not dreamy what if conversations, but the words and ideas of women collaborating, effecting positive change.  

From each, I count 6 now as I recall, came a sharing of humor, loving-kindness and support. We can find comfort in the moments that bring aha’s to thinking and elevate moods, a lightness of being.   

Alignment. Finding rhythm and connection, as you open to the heart of anther, listening deeply. Present, without pushing or pulling.  No wanting, no not wanting.

Try it, it softens, soothes and uplifts.

heart energy

Any good plan deserves a goal.  Begin with the end in mind, is another way of stating this.  The book, The Secret says it another way, that it is in the intention that we create what we want.

But these ideas miss the core issue. There is a deeper angle to the dilemma of finding employment and moving your career ahead.  It’s not a mental game of thinking your way into the next job.  The problem solving, figuring it out, strategizing comes later. 

Finding a job takes heart. 

I want to back up and state for the record that heart and brain are not living in separate towns inside your body.  They are interrelated, sharing blood, nutrients and dna. But we fixate on thinking that thinking is the way out of a problem.

Finding a job takes opening your heart.  This is where your passions reside.  And it is your passion that gets you up off your chair and motivates you to seek in the world. 

When I interview people for jobs (my one career), or in my second career, resume coaching, I see people who are not connected to their heart energy.  They are confused, and resistant to do the work.  The mind is in charge.  They have so many reasons why they can’t.  Why they don’t, why not. 

That’s the mind churning and the fear talking.

When you are in touch with the heart of you, you are connected to the passions that enliven you.  Heart energy motivates, it overrides the mental negativity.  Heart energy gives you that passion to want to meet with others, discuss what interests you. Heart energy gives you that oomph that allows you to be friendly, curious, willing to keep going, connecting to others. 

Can you imagine the entrepreneur who has a new idea?  She is passionate, engaged, wanting others to know about her new thing.  Hearing “no” doesn’t deter the person who is wild about her new invention.  She knows that others will benefit from it, that it will serve a purpose and be profitable. 

That’s passion, heart energy, and it resides within, waiting, wanting to awaken, to be of service to the overactive brain we all overuse.

Take time to network with your heart first, then you’ll be ready to network with the world out there.

How to do that?  Be kind to yourself.  Do some (cheap) things you haven’t done in years, but keep meaning to. Take a walk in nature to rediscover the awesome unfolding that spring is doing right now.  Get out of your head, and soften to the wonderfulness of heart energy.

what is

I wrote about current reality yesterday.  You might be wondering what that means.  Here is the definition of current reality as I use it in coaching.  Current reality = What Is.   Take a look at the present moment, that’s being mindful, Mindfulness. 

If you are a job seeker, What Is, relates to what is in place relative to your job search.  Right Now, not in the past, not future to do.  We’ll write that down in a minute.  Let’s first put it in relationship to something like, your End Goal.  Now is good time to gather paper and pen and write End Goal at the top of your page. 

This model works for anybody, but let’s take a job seeker for example.  Your End Goal is…a job offer. This is very clear, not a job, but an offer that you can then decide whether it is the right job for you, for your reasons at that moment in time. 

Staying present focused is very important.  You see, the job offer that is right for now may be very different from the job offer you might want to accept two weeks from now or four months from now.  I’m asking you to  trust me on this one.  The offer is the goal.  Think job Offer.

At the top of the page you have written End Goal.  Now, about 2/3 of the way down the page, write Current Reality.  That’s what you know is true, right now.  That is your grounding.  It’s what you’ve got to stand on.  It is very important to get the Current Reality in place before going off on the to-do list.  Let’s discover what you have in place, what you know to be true.

End Gal = Job Offer         Current Reality = What Is

Under Current Reality (your header) write down your What Is, (true)  right now.  Here is a sample list you can pick from or create your own:

• You have no job. 
• You have begun to let go of the emotions around the termination. (If this is true). 
• You have prepared office space, computer, phone, paper, business cards ready to go. 
• You have spent time with yourself or a coach to assess what direction you want to pursue. 
• You know what your skills are. 
• You have prepared an introduction (elevator speech you can expand for 90 seconds). 
• You have written and rehearsed a public reason for leaving your last job ready to go. 
• You have an updated savvy resume that uses accomplishment statements to identify your significance. 
• Your resumé is designed to relate to the job you are applying for.
• You have daily stress reduction methods in place to keep you focused and sane.

This goes on and on.  Before you do anything about your to do list, please figure out What Is.  Stay in present time.  Present Time is the only time that matters right now.  It is real.   

When you have organized your Current Reality section, consider Preliminary Goals or action steps that need to be done. 

Preliminary Goals is a header you can put between Current Reality and End Goal. You can break this down into a page for each thing that needs to be done, so that you have clearly defined action steps toward your End Goal, the job Offer.

 This is a method for grounding yourself, of creating a tension between your present situation, What Is,  and your End Goal way at the top of your page.  

The structural tension keeps you focused and advancing toward the goal.  Start with Current Reality.   And as you complete Preliminary Goals, move them under the heading Current Reality.  Your grounding will start out not so strong, and will progress to very supportive as you complete Preliminary Goals. 

Current Reality leads you toward the future, your End Goal.

current reality

Have you ever opened a Chinese fortune cookie and done a double take, because the message got you, just when you needed it?  Every time?  Some of the time?  Never?

Here’s mine from a lunch with a girlfriend the other day.  It was a half serious, half funny strategy session on networking and solving romance problems.  Those are prime girlfriend lunch topics.  

The fortune cookie said, “You’ll never know what you can do until you try.”

Its a message for everyone to motivate  you, in the depths of winter, when hearing a message like this just might help you move from keeping all the balls in the air, toward  something new. 

We need to think outside of that box these days.  Creativity, resourcefulness, new ideas. 

Here is another quote, from Albert Einstein.  He said something like, you can’t solve the problem with the same thinking that caused it in the first place. 

Albert Einstein and fortune cookies, now there is a thought spurring combination for a snowy Thursday.

wisdom and understanding

I’m writing about growth amidst change this week.  And so I’m thinking about this a lot. Maybe people write to ingrain the ideas that come bubbling up from somewhere inside.    

This idea comes from a teacher who isn’t a native English speaker, and like so many people who learn new languages there was more than likely an interest in the exact meaning of words.  People learning new languages often walk around with dictionaries, it makes sense to keep expanding vocabulary.  I know this, as my son and his wife moved to Italy recently.  They are passionate about dictionaries.    

As native English speakers we don’t spend much time thinking about the distinctions. We use words interchangeably and easily.  I’m pretty sure that is a worldwide thing, that people speak their native languages that way too.    

Oh I should say the teacher is a poet as well as a Mindfulness teacher.  Poets have a keen interest in words too.    

Wisdom, he said that day, is attainable knowledge of  facts and figures.  Wisdom is information that we strive to learn and retain.  We want to master the topic, to plumb its depths.    

Understanding is not so solid.  It is an ongoing moment to moment awareness of what is happening, what I am thinking, what the other is thinking and feeling.  Understanding flows, shifts and changes.  It is not a goal to set, to achieve.  It is not a mass of knowledge.     

So, the teacher said, wisdom is like the boulder in the river, solid, a mass of knowledge, not changing.  Understanding is the river itself, flowing, shifting,    

fishing in the flow

 

 taking on new information as it winds its way over the course of rocks and boulders and sticks and stones.  Understanding is the fluidity, openness, not attached to outcome, but aware of the changes coming our way.  That river just keeps moving, flowing over and through what lays ahead.    

The teacher is Thich Nhat Hanh a Viet Namese monk, nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King, Jr.  His books on Mindfulness are simple, thoughtful and especially helpful.

growth amidst change

Change happens, as the Zürich Insurance commercial states.  Yes, it is ongoing, with each moment that passes.  But growth, the ability to flex, reflect, learn, stretch out of your comfort zone, that is the potential that change offers.

The other night I attended a networking meeting here in Columbus.  Scioto Ridge Networking group http://www.srjng.com/  has been hosting these for several years.  It’s a great group.  The people who attended the other night were mostly people who are seeking employment.  The meeting offered skillful ideas of how to introduce yourself (the elevator speech) when networking.  There was enthusiasm in the air, and during the practice sessions, my awareness grew.

What I saw was this: each person was engaged and relating.  They were listening, speaking, present to the other person.  No one had an agenda other than to learn something new or develop what they were working on.  I saw a roomful of people with clear intention; connecting, growing in the understanding of networking, and their understanding of the person they were listening to.  This is good stuff.

With all the media hype that focuses on polarized political thinking, entrenched attitudes, cable networks miss the boat.  This room of 50 people included advertising execs,  lawyers, accountants, and many others.  There was nothing dividing their attention. 

It was a roomful of engaged people, helping each other to become more aware.  What a real life example of  Interconnection and mindful attention.  Enthusiasm and focus; growing amidst change.

Never confuse motion with action. Benjamin Franklin

This quote appears in the book I’m finishing called Breathing through Career Transition, a how to job search book combined with stress reduction strategies using Mindfulness to build resilience.   

 How often do you hear yourself and others say, “Oh I’m so busy!”  (In Franklin’s day, the word motion described similar busy-ness).  I often hear a pause and then a supportive duplication, “Busy, busy”.  This is not quite hyperbole, as I listen to the to-do list of others and hear that there is indeed no time left in the day.  The word is a descriptor we all use to emphasize our modern sense of being overwhelmed. It is seemingly universal.  We are busy with the onslaught of our fast moving days.

 How do you move from busy-ness  to  action?  Through intention and organization.

When I coach others who are seeking employment, the emphasis is on organization.  Job seekers need to organize mentally first.  That is the intention part of the formula. 

Preparation starts with spending time with yourself to imagine and strategize what is the next job or career move.  Next, organize your materials, your ideas, your way of presenting yourself . 

 Nothing speaks louder in a negative sense than disorganized material or a fumbled introduction that stems from the distractions of busy-ness. 

 In a real life scenario, working with someone developing a marketing plan recently, I asked what the strategy was, and the response:  “Whoever will bite is the strategy.”   This line of thinking  proved disastrous, and the product was later shelved.

Action is fuelled by intention.  It is a closed loop, organizing and intention build on each other.

What do you want to accomplish?  That’s the easy part, for the job seeker, it is an offer for employment, (the End Goal). 

Here is an exercise to get you started.  Write End Goal at the top of your page.  At the bottom of the page write Current Reality. 

Ask yourself, what do I know to be currently true, what do I have in place right now?   Here are some ideas:  you have motivation to find new employment (laid off), you have a  notion of the type of job offer you want, you have support of friends and family.  Perhaps you have a resume started, and an office set up. 

Other pieces that build your foundation:  Do you have a computer or space at the library you’ve staked out for research and sending in resumes?  Have you developed a “reason for leaving” your last company that you can easily discuss without emotion when networking?  Do you have your elevator speech that describes you and your work experience?   Do you have a dedicated phone and office supplies?  Have you organized a  binder to keep your research, network contacts and meetings, ads you are applying to, all together?  Have you determined who to call, where to meet them?

For all the pieces you have in place, list them at the bottom of the page, under Current Reality.  Consider this your solid support, your grounding. 

If you find that some of these questions are on a to-do list, place them in the middle of the page under a heading, Preliminary Goals.  To get to the top of the page, the End Goal, (a job offer), you need to do the organizing first.

With this exercise and new perspective, you will see the action rather than the motion (busy-ness) as you moved toward the End Goal of a new job offer.

relevance

When I was a recruiting manager years ago, resumes were essentially similar to a job description.  Responsible for they would say.  There would be lists of job duties that only implied the work involved.  In the interview, the recruiter would have to ask questions to ferret out what the interviewee actually did with those job duties, as that was not evident. 

Today resumes speak to not only what you did,  but how you made the job your own, given the job duties the company assigned you.  Two people doing the same job bring uniquely different skills and abilities to that same job.  What excited Sally about what she did is based on her skills and interests.  Sam’s abilities doing that same job might create such different accomplishments that you wouldn’t know they shared the same job. 

Years ago, when resumes just listed job duties, Sally and Sam could have shared the same resume, as well as the job.  

So again, a resume is all about you.  It’s about your strengths and accomplishments.  A resumé is your personal branding; it’s your marketing tool.  And with all the conveniences of Word, you can adjust or change the bullets to tailor what you convey to suit the job you are applying for. 

Any accomplishment that is quantifiable with $dollars is a great idea, provided you frame it within some context.  Saying you saved the company a large amount of money is only mildly interesting.  What is far more relevant is to tell the story in an accomplishment statement.  If you saved the company money in a bad economy where the company has lost $xx or 30% of the employees, and you did it by thinking outside the box, that’s the story.  And it is significant. 

Tailor what you write about your work experience to what you want to do.   This isn’t to say that  you make things up.  I’m saying  everything you have done in your job history doesn’t need to be  in your resumé.  If you didn’t like certain aspects of jobs in the past, my suggestion is that you not highlight work you’d rather not repeat.  Can you reframe what you did or emphasize the parts of your job that you did enjoy?

And it is reasonable to have a number of bullet accomplishment statements to draw from, so that you can focus your resumé to what you know about the job you are applying for.  Three to five bullets that convey your strengths in each job you’ve held are sufficient.  But you can develop more statements as back up or for different types of jobs you are considering. 

A very useful by-product of re-working your resumé to show accomplishments is that the process helps you to re-frame your ability to talk about yourself. 

Writing accomplishment statements builds confidence and helps you figure out what is essential about you.  You are developing relevant information that can be conveyed within the context of the company and job you seek.  

So take a look at your resumé with a keen eye, to determine if you are presenting yourself in a way that your significance stands out.

beginner’s mind

I’ve just completed writing  a book.  The theme is partnering with you for success.  Success, that is, in navigating the job market to receive the offers that you seek. 

 Writing a book has been in the back of my mind for years, prompted by people saying to me, “Where’s the book?  You should write a book!“  But yet, it was not the first thing I thought of when I wanted to be creative, or spend a lot of time on a project.  It just  baffled me when people would ask that question.  My thought was, there are a stupendous number of books being written, what on earth could I say that would be different?

 That went on for about 20 years. 

Then one day I changed my tune.  I changed my way of thinking and arrived at a point of view that was open to the possibility.  I basically said, ‘what the heck?!” 

There is a term for this new direction of thought. Beginner’s Mind. 

 Think about the first time you dived into something you had an inkling to try.  You might have thought, ok, I’m just going to do it.  I’m going to figure it out, give it a go, and just do it. The beginner has no idea of the pitfalls,  the time it takes, the difficulties, the pull that says, “Stop, there are too many obstacles.  Don’t even try.” 

When we are beginners, we just have a little fear.  That’s because we don’t see the big picture, we have no experience with  all the things that can go wrong.  The tunnel is dark, we don’t know what lays ahead.  

 But once that big toe gets dipped into the pond, there is the capacity to enjoy the feel, the juiciness of the water.  It’s the point where the fear isn’t such a big thing. 

That is all it takes to get started, when you have Beginner’s Mind.  Getting over a little fear. There is a freshness, -a golly gee whiz, look what I’m doing- feeling that emerges.  Call it naïve, call it simplicity, but when I started writing that book, I didn’t have a clue what the pitfalls might be. 

 Staying present to the moment, the writing, the doing of it, helped to keep  tension low and restlessness at bay.

 Think about Beginner’s Mind the next time your own mental attitude balks and tries to find a reason not to embark on something creative or necessary. 

 Beginner’s Mind:  with fresh eyes and an open attitude you can begin anything.