Allowing, Acceptance, Understanding, and Mutual Trust are all necessary components of a working relationship with your team that goes beyond the ordinary. These are also components of love… not the romantic kind, but the general kind that you can apply to yourself as well as your fellow man and the collective. It may seem a little strange at first, but bear with me here. If your team members all care about each other and each other’s ideas and skills, your team is able to work together much more effectively as they get to know each other better.
One aspect of developing this kind of closeness and mutual respect is Allowing. This is more for you as an individual than anything else, so whatever your position might be, Allowing can help you develop a positive attitude and feelings toward everything and everyone you encounter.
What is Allowing?
Allowing has two components:
1. Letting things unfold as they unfold without being anxious or nervous about it.
2. Trusting that, no matter how “bad” things may seem, everything will be okay.
This is essentially a relinquishing of the illusion of control. We are, after all, the creators of our lives, but we are not in control of anything except for our own thoughts and emotions, so we cannot seek to control the things and people outside of ourselves.
Begin a Practice of Letting Go
This is probably the easiest and most effective way to make letting go easier. Once you have this mastered, you can expect workplace nonsense like gossip and drama to go down drastically. Here we go:
· Talk or write about it. This will help you to work out whatever is bothering you about the thing you’re dealing with.
· Confront what’s bugging you. This will obviously vary depending on what your circumstances dictate, but confronting a problem can be the first step toward a solution.
· Feel your feelings. However you need to do this, do so… if you have the urge to hike to the top of a mountain to scream at the top of your lungs about it, then do that. If you need to cry for a few hours until your head is pounding and you can’t breathe, then do that. You’ll be okay.
· Do something with or about what’s bothering you. If this is the route you choose to take, try to maintain a positive stance and put a positive spin on whatever it is you end up doing.
· Sit back and watch. If there isn’t much you can realistically or feasibly do about anything, then let it go and let the universe do its thing. “Let go and let God,” is one popular version of this idea.
Getting to the point of letting go takes practice, but you will find that problems often solve themselves or simply go away on their own, or the solutions begin popping up all over the place. You will see them and take notice if you’re paying attention.
As always, continue leading mindfully!
For more information on the International Mindfulness Federation or the Mindfulness Movement, please visit:
http://executivecoachinguniversity.com/mindfulness-movement
