Trust is an interesting topic because it ties into everything – all layers of life – and is an ongoing internal practice for many of us, whether we are fully aware of it or not. As a mindful leader, your team being able to trust you is paramount to whether they will work with you or against you from a subconscious level (cooperation and collaboration versus rebellion and resistance), so establishing trust on a professional level can truly make a profound impact on the openness and collaborative efforts of everyone involved. Like so many other mindfulness practices, trust begins with you and how deeply you trust yourself. And what does trusting yourself look like? Read on to learn about three ways in which you can enhance your trust in yourself and build trust with your team at the same time.

When you have trust in yourself, this can only help you because you will be more easily able to commit to things, make decisions, and maybe even inspire your team to go the extra mile for the company. As within, so without, so the trust you put in yourself and your abilities will attract and help manifest the trust you wish to inspire from others. Once again, going within and taking charge of your own inner experience is the best way to change the outer reflection of what life gives you in return, and it’s no different when it comes to trust.

So, what does it take to not only build trust in yourself but also earn your team’s trust consistently? Here are a few ideas and revelations to consider.

1: Be Loving & Honest with Yourself First

Loving yourself unconditionally and showing yourself that love every day is the best way for you to begin inspiring trust not only from your team but also from yourself, from within. This will help you in several ways by ensuring that you continue to build on that trust by keeping your word to yourself and following through on what you say you will do. It begins with building rapport with yourself first and making sure that you keep your word to you and follow through on things you know you need to do for yourself in order to keep moving forward, whatever those things may be for you.

When you begin to make a habit of this practice in the moment, you hone your trust in your own instincts and judgment, as well as vastly improving on your decision-making skills because you won’t feel the need to agonize over every detail as you are able to discern everything you need to make a decision and know exactly where you are in the process along the way. This doesn’t mean you stop thinking completely; it simply means that you begin to utilize your mind as an advisor rather than giving it an imbalanced amount of power because, believe it or not, that will actually do more harm than good as the ego takes over and has your brain functioning from a place of fear.

To begin building unconditional love and trust for yourself, do the things you promise yourself you will do. Make sure that your words, actions, deeds, and thoughts are aligned. Treat others the way you would want to be treated but also make sure you extend yourself the same courtesies. Quiet your thoughts and only tap into your mind when you need to think through something. This can be achieved through a daily practice of meditation; the more you are able to quiet and direct your thoughts, the more effective all of your inner work will be.

2: Your Words & Actions Must Coincide

This is a major component of both trusting yourself and earning the trust of your team: as within, so without. When you do the things you say you will do and follow through on them, you earn the trust of not only yourself (because achievements and successes are a big part of building confidence in your own abilities), but also the trust of everyone who is positively impacted by said accomplishment or follow through. And yes, any project you complete successfully can be considered an accomplishment! Remember to celebrate the little things.

When you are reliable to yourself, you immediately influence and tap into the positive emotions of love you feel for yourself. If your “monkey mind” then tries to invalidate or belittle what you feel good about, you may have some more quieting of the mind to do. However, if you can allow yourself to bask in your warm feelings and hold onto them for just a few seconds, it can help you to speed up the process of building trust in yourself by giving yourself positive reinforcement from within. Encourage yourself the way you would encourage a loved one or your child. Most of us don’t treat ourselves that way due to conditioned behaviors, but once we understand what loving ourselves truly looks like, it becomes much easier to put it into practice.

As far as your team goes, not only does your leadership set an example for them on an external level, but they will also see how much you trust in yourself and the confidence and decisiveness it creates. This will help to inspire anyone around you who wishes to grow to work on their own trust levels and begin to evolve into the best versions of themselves. This is a big part of what mindful leadership is all about: positively influencing those around us by doing the inner work that allows us to be our best selves, and in the process, setting a bright and wonderful example of how abundant and wonderful life can be… and gradually healing the perspective and the pain of the collective at the same time.

3: Vulnerability is Strength

It takes courage and strength to be vulnerable about your life, experiences, or the lessons you have learned, yet this is one of the most genuine (albeit uncomfortable at times) ways to connect with your team on a deeper level. If there is an experience, anecdote, or truth you can share with your team, not only does this open you up to get to know them a bit better and allow them to see you as human and therefore more approachable, but it also helps you not to isolate yourself in your leadership role by trying to maintain a surface appearance of having it all together 100% of the time.

We tend to connect on a level of emotions with other people, especially because so many of us have been conditioned to believe that emotions somehow make us weak or don’t serve a purpose. However, it is being recognized more and more just how much our emotions have an effect on our lives on numerous different levels, and many chronic and stressful emotional states have been associated with heart issues and other dis-eases of the physical body. That implies that it is all the more crucial for us to be sincere in our interactions and with sharing how we feel without approaching it from a fearful, controlling, angry, or perfectionistic point of view. These emotions are all based in fear, not love, and will continue to create fear-based consequences over time.

Expressing your emotions, whatever they may be, in a constructive and healthy way can greatly improve your ability to effortlessly deal with anything and everything that might come up in your leadership adventures. Practicing non-judgment and a release of the need to control anyone can greatly benefit your efforts to build trust and handle challenges effectively and without creating more challenges in the process. While it is true that you can’t make everyone happy all the time, it’s also true that in most cases there is a win-win solution and it’s just a matter of discovering it.

Thank you so much for joining us here on the Mindful Leader Blog! We hope that you’ve found this article useful and invite you to join us again next week for another article about trust.

For more information about the Mindfulness Movement or the International Mindfulness Federation, please visit:

http://executivecoachinguniversity.com/mindfulness-movement

When we consider what it means to spread positive ripples, our interactions with others are at the top of the list of what comes to mind. Whether we are conscious of it or not, we have an influence on several different levels when we interact with others. Of course, there’s all the surface stuff: what’s actually being said, the words that are being used, facial expressions, and physiology or body language. But then there are all of the things we don’t necessarily process with our physical senses so much as we intuit with our interpretation of the other person’s energy and our perception of the circumstance based on past experiences. When we have a generally optimistic outlook—not to be confused with unrealistic optimism—we carry that positive energy with us throughout our day. So, how can you begin a practice of mindful optimism to help you create positive ripples throughout your life? Let’s delve a little deeper and find out.

So, right up front, let’s consider the difference between healthy, productive optimism and unrealistic or even unhealthy optimism. Optimism isn’t about doing things that are unsafe or self-damaging because you believe you won’t be affected; this is much too close to denial of reality and could create more problems than it solves. However, if you journey through your days knowing that no matter what happens, it is temporary and meant to teach you or show you something, you will find that your life becomes less stressful and you are better able to handle whatever challenges might come your way.

There’s no way to avoid life, but you do have the option to choose how you respond to what happens in your life. In the same way that you can consciously choose to handle things calmly and with composure, you can choose to interact with others on a level of positivity and love that will ripple outward and can potentially touch countless lives. And wow! How powerful we are as human beings, and how amazing that we can choose to take responsibility for how we interact with our world and what kind of effect we have on others, which then comes back to us.

A practice of mindful optimism can help you to be consistent on every level, from your thoughts and emotions to the words you say and how you say them. We are constantly communicating with our environment as well as with each other, so understanding how some of these levels of communication work, especially behind the scenes, can give you clarity about yourself, your life, the way your days play out more often than not, and many other insights, so here are a few ways you can begin to practice mindful optimism.

5 Ways to Practice Mindful Optimism

1. Smile! Smile at everyone and greet people with warmth, affection, appreciation, and gratitude. When you carry these emotions or energies with you, it will be communicated on numerous levels such as through your eyes, through your genuine smile, and through the way you speak to those around you. The brain responds to certain facial expressions such as smiles, so just by smiling at someone you help lift their mood by affecting mirror neurons in their brain. This creates a natural dopamine release and will instantly lift someone’s mood, although this may not be the case if you aren’t genuine in your interactions, which brings us to the next point.
2. Be authentic in your interactions. You don’t necessarily have to agree with someone in order to respect them as a person, and if you respect someone while disagreeing with them, they will feel the wisdom in your communication as long as it’s genuine. We can sense things on deeper levels than just the surface, so making sure that your words, thoughts, emotions, and actions are in alignment will help you to be more and more authentic and communicate this on every level.
3. It’s not about avoiding negative emotions, it’s about transmuting them into something that serves you. Rather than avoiding your negative emotions, sit with them for a moment and feel them. Yes, some of them are uncomfortable, but emotions are energy, so they have to go somewhere; they don’t just disappear if you avoid them. So, allow yourself to feel even if it’s uncomfortable, recognize the reason behind the emotional response if you can, and then allow yourself to express your emotion in a constructive way. The ways you can do this may vary, but some people exercise to release excess energy, while others express their thoughts in a journal or by creating art of some kind. However, when you are able to properly work through your emotions, you will be able to handle whatever may come much more effectively.
4. Whatever you send out will make its way back to you sooner or later, so make sure that you are living in integrity. This is the easiest way to avoid unforeseen “negative” consequences, and your emotional or energetic resonance will attract things back to you that match your vibration, which is how the law of attraction plays into it as well. Sometimes this can run really, really deep, and sometimes you may learn things about yourself on a level you weren’t necessarily aware of before. This is a breaking through process a lot of times, and you may even find yourself realizing the same thing on several different levels at different times. Every new revelation or epiphany is a new signal or connection forming in your brain, so you can literally use your intent and applied knowledge to completely recondition yourself.
5. It’s all about your habits, so try not to develop any thought habits that create negative or unwanted emotions or send out energy or vibes that are detrimental to everyone. One example of this is if you habitually think negative thoughts about other people, while you’re driving, for example. Any anger we end up lashing out with will attract a manifestation of something with the same energy, so why not send out love and appreciation rather than anger and hatred? Another example is if you have ever been in the habit of making fun of or criticizing people as you see them. This creates toxicity within yourself because thoughts and words have power, too, and they can have an influence on your emotional state.

The ripple effect you send out into the world has to do not only with your words and actions but also with your energy and attitude about things. Practicing mindful optimism is a wonderful way to become more aware of the influence you do have and use this knowledge to step into your power and live the thriving life you deserve to live. Remember that abundance is your birthright; all we have to do is align with it.

Thanks so much for reading! We hope you enjoy our weekly blog articles and join us again next week for a new article here on the Mindful Leader Blog.

For more information about the Mindfulness Movement or the International Mindfulness Federation, please visit:

http://executivecoachinguniversity.com/mindfulness-movement

When we begin to expand our consciousness, we begin to notice connections between the way things work on a large scale and the way things work on a small scale. This in turn makes us continue to notice how things are connected, and then allows us to begin to see how everything is actually connected on an energetic level. Then, when we get deep down to the atomic level, we understand that everything in existence is part of a whole. Everything in existence is connected. So, of course something that happens in one place or time can affect something in another place or time in ways we may not even be able to grasp at this stage in our human evolution. To expand your understanding about this idea, keep reading for some practical aspects of marco and micro parallels that may open your mind to a whole new level of understanding of how your life and the universe work, and how this may pertain to the ripple you are sending out into the universe as a mindful leader every single day.

When we make a comparison between how things work on a microscopic as well as a macroscopic scale, we will oftentimes find ourselves in awe as to the mysteries of the universe, especially at first. As with many other pieces of information, if it doesn’t resonate right away, then you may need to be exposed to it several times in order to fully allow the information to sink in.

First, I’d like to talk a little bit about fractals and how this idea can actually help you to grasp the eternally expanding nature of the universe, as well as everything within the universe. A fractal is essentially an infinite repetition of the same or similar patterns as programmed or created by the same or similar previous patterns. This doesn’t always have to be perceived by our physical eyes, so we can then begin to see patterns of existence everywhere, on small and large scales.

For an immediate example, we can take into consideration the earth as a whole. She is inhabited by various life forms, all being sustained by her in some way, shape, or form, from the air we breathe to the water we drink, to the food we grow and consume. Not much that lives on earth can survive in space, so we can probably all agree that in a sense, earth is a body. A celestial body, to be precise. All of the beings living on earth are part of her, including human beings.

Now, what about the human body? We are individual, sure, but we are all connected to the earth, for one. Then there are all of the living bacteria and cells that thrive within us… trillions of them, all on task as per our mostly unconscious order. At the core of everything that has form is something formless: energy. The core of everything we are. We are atoms powered by resonance, light turned perceivable by sound waves, and inhabited by consciousness.

There are infinite fractal universes within universes, always expanding on the smallest as well as largest scales. Also, all of these different layers and scales are connected to a source that is also constantly expanding and growing and evolving. Infinite, in all directions. As above, so below; as within, so without. These ideas can become so much more than words now.

Are you still with me? Here comes the fun and slightly less complex part.

The best aspect of all of this is that you can actually have an influence on your life and consciously help yourself out, so to speak. Knowing and beginning to understand how everything is connected via energy (atoms) is an excellent way to get to a point of manifesting your desires more quickly. This is also a great way to create positive and conscious ripples out through whomever you interact with on a daily basis.

There are a few ways in which you can help yourself to be more conscious of what you’re bringing into the world and spreading around out there every day, so to speak. We can create positive or negative energies that will flow and influence others, and your energies depend a lot on how you’re feeling. It’s important to purify your feelings and make sure they’re not being influenced by past negative experiences, which we all seem to hold on to and carry around with us like they’re badges of honor, when really they just weigh us down and make life so much more challenging and full of struggle. To purify your feelings, a few realizations must occur about things that can influence your energy.

Things That Influence Your Energy

There are a few things that I would consider thought and emotion combinations that can have a powerful influence on the type of energy you hold and radiate. Being a mindful leader, you probably already practice meditation and self-awareness. These are wonderful practices because they will lead you deeper and deeper as you learn and practice more. Here are a few realizations and ideas that may help you to refine your discernment about your own energy signature and how you can influence it.

Your Intent

Your intent in each and every moment, no matter what or whom you are interacting with, will influence the ripples you send out in your everyday life. When your intent is based in love and compassion, your ripple will have a positive influence on everything around you and your life as a whole. If your intent is to harm another or your decisions are based in fear, then your ripple will not have a positive sphere of influence in your life.

This usually happens on an unconscious level, because most of us humans are reactive, meaning something happens and we react to it. We are driven by stimuli rather than becoming the stimulator of our own realities by tuning our frequency or resonance consciously. It’s up to you to change this as an individual, from within yourself, by choosing a different way in the moment and not reacting unconsciously. “Think before you speak,” put into practice via nonjudgment.

Nonjudgment

How to become nonreactive is by practicing nonjudgment. Don’t judge anything immediately, and any conclusions your mind begins to jump to, talk them down. Allow yourself to just not know everything. Allow yourself to stop worrying about anything outside of yourself unless or until there is cause for concern. Typically speaking, it won’t have anything to do with what you are truly responsible for, anyway, and you are actually resisting what you want by radiating negative energy or emotions.

Your Resistance

If you are emotionally attached to one specific outcome and not creating that outcome would be world-shattering for you, then you cannot expect your desired outcome to actually arrive. It is not the desiring of it that keeps it away from you; it is the charge of emotion you imbue it with that determines whether it will manifest in your experience or not. If you imbue it with passionate desire and obsession and want, you will also imbue it with the opposite side of that same coin: the fear of not receiving it. The stronger your desire and emotional reliance on this outcome for your happiness, the stronger the same opposing fear will be, and these emotions will need to be purged before your desire can manifest in your experience.

This is why it’s so important to relax and surrender to the process; let it be. Don’t attach such heavy, burdensome emotions to anything. After you make known your desire, send it off with feelings of gratitude and knowing that you already have it in some other dimension. Since all possibilities exist always, the only thing you should focus on is pulling that dimension closer to your experience by being grateful for what you already have and feel that same feeling when you ask or emotionally send a desire out into the ether.

How does this affect your ripples? Well, if you are resistant to the process, you tend to be impatient, aggravated, irritable, controlling, feeling like you’re losing control (that’s the purging part), and then finally some major thing will happen to break down your life and make room for your manifestation, especially if it’s something like a new career or another life-altering shift.

The ripples you send out during this period of time can also come back to you, so if you’re interacting with others with a lot of fear or anger energy, then you may also begin to feel like others are attacking you simply because they have been feeling attacked by you, and the cycle can become vicious until it gets to a breaking point. The key is to realize when this is happening and take a step back and observe. Zero response or reaction until you have a moment to process, and then your reaction can be loving and compassionate or hateful and fearful in return. Nonjudgment allows you to essentially referee yourself so that you can make the wisest and most educated decisions as to how to respond.

Your Integrity

When you stand in your integrity, you can stand by every single action you take and decision you make without faltering. To do this, you must know what you don’t agree with and believe in so that you can begin to understand what you do stand for and believe in, and then live each moment from that place.

In order to truly stand in your integrity, you must have integrity not just in the sense of morals as we understand them on a superficial level, but also in the sense of being completely unified within yourself on each decision, action, thought, and in each moment. That’s the part that’s usually missing, as these definitions of integrity have been separated as if they are two different things; they are not.

You as a human being must not be divided in your beliefs or understanding so that you can stand in your true integrity. If you are barely scraping by, making decisions every day after having to battle with yourself in your mind, then that indicates there might be too much inner conflict in your day to day decisions. You may need to determine and refine what your values and beliefs are so that you can make the best decisions possible, for yourself as a mindful leader as well as for those whom you are leading. If you are a conflicted leader, you will not be a very effective one and can expect your inner conflicts to manifest themselves as external conflicts because of the law of attraction.

Have you ever noticed that if you expect someone or a group of people to be offended or upset at something, then they typically will be? This is partially due to your expectation in and of itself, because the energy of that expectation translates and is communicated via your interactions with those people both in person as well as online, over the phone, over email, and even if you’ve never interacted with that person but they have caught wind of something you’ve done that they disagree with.

By expecting disagreement, you are creating and attracting disagreement via the energy you send out and it making its way back to you because the universe says, “your wish is my command,” to your emotional energetic signature or vibration. By standing in your integrity and having a firm understanding of what you are basing your decisions on each day, you can make any decision you need to without inciting a riot by accident, because people will know you are in charge, period.

Thanks so much for joining us here today on the Mindful Leader Blog! We hope you’ve found this information useful and that you’ll join us next week for the final article about the ripple effect and how you can affect your life and the lives of everyone around you. We wish you a wonderful week and hope to see you back soon!

For more information about the Mindfulness Movement or the International Mindfulness Federation, please visit:

http://executivecoachinguniversity.com/mindfulness-movement

We each have the ability to create a ripple effect with each interaction we have on a daily basis. Have you ever noticed how a seemingly benign interaction can make your whole day better sometimes? Now, what if you actually purposefully initiate some kind of ripple effect to help facilitate change in a system that doesn’t work or create solutions for a problem where there are none? Oftentimes, the biggest changes are initiated by small groups, and now that we are all connected via the internet, facilitating positive change on purpose has become more and more possible, realistic, and doable. I bring this up for one reason only: creating positivity and positive change is good karma, and when you send out positive intentions coupled with inspired action toward a goal, this will return to you in ways you may not even be able to imagine at this stage in your life. To better explain this, we’ll discuss certain laws of the universe such as the law of attraction and the law of cause and effect. This will allow you to gain a better understanding of how and why the energies you send out in each moment (in thought, word, deed, or emotions) return to you.

Now, at first, this may seem overwhelming or sound impossible to master. Monitoring all of your thoughts, words, emotions, every layer of your being so you don’t end up attracting things you don’t want? How ridiculous, right?

Here’s where we run into our first misconception or the first conditioned flaw in our thinking. When you perceive the process of cultivating inner happiness through mindfulness practice as trying to forcibly control your entire self from an external perspective, you end up trying to think of it like something that you have to do actively, on the outside of yourself. While there are some things like exercise that are excellent for helping you to maintain your health and emotional balance, this isn’t the type of “work” that will allow you to master any and all ripples you send out into the world.

The simplest solution is usually the most sound, so for a moment, just sit there and breathe. Try not to think about anything and if you catch yourself thinking thoughts, bring your focus back to your natural breathing. Don’t force or strain anything; just allow your breath to move in and out and through you naturally. This is how you go within and master your thoughts so that they no longer run you. When you can quiet the mind on command, eventually you won’t have to quiet your mind anymore. You will reach a point where it’s quiet in your head unless you don’t want it to be, and then it’s more likely that you’ll be doing something creative or productive in order to use your mind the way it was always intended to be used: as a tool.

We were never meant to be slaves to our thoughts, but that is how we have been conditioned over the course of centuries and lifetimes. Our beliefs are not our own, but we are brainwashed from birth based on the input we receive from outside sources whom we have no reason not to trust. After all, these are our parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, and people whom we are told care about us. We trust their experience and judgment, but their experiences are typically different from ours and we then begin to draw our own conclusions. Some of our new conclusions may not resonate with what we once accepted as truth, which can create resistance, especially if we aren’t aware of our own internal processes, but this is all part of the learning process so that we may be more aware next time.

Let’s talk a little bit about certain laws of the universe. The concepts that are covered can be applied to our experiences, but sometimes this isn’t obvious without prior practice. However, once you can associate some of these concepts in a way you understand, they will be much easier to remember and therefore apply.

The Law of Vibration

One important foundational law to know is the law of vibration. This law can never be and has never been changed, and is not able to be transcended. This law states that, at its core, everything has a vibration, a frequency. Science has now proven that everything is energy, which is amazing because we are able to more easily “believe” this without necessarily having to see it. Many also now understand that our senses are extremely limited in allowing us to perceive the world around us. Like energy attracts like energy, and everything is energy, so it only makes sense to try to be at an energy that feels like your current desires are already yours.

The Law of Cause and Effect

“Every cause has its effect, every effect has its cause.” Because everything is energy, our thoughts, emotions, words, and deeds send out ripples on many different levels or layers of reality, seen and unseen, whether we realize it consciously or not. Everything you send out and therefore experience reflected back to you originates from within you, and once you understand this concept more fully, it becomes obvious that the easiest way to consistently send out positive ripples is to consistently practice being mindful, kind, patient, and loving with others as well as yourself. That’s not to say that you have to subject yourself to being abused or mistreated; on the contrary. You should be firm in your boundaries and if you see red flags of a personality disorder or toxicity, you have the right to stop associating with this person so that you don’t end up being drained by them. Sometimes they will still be able to energetically drain you, but only if you continue to give them your focus. So, don’t worry about it. Focus on being your best self instead, and watch everything fall into place.

The Law of Attraction

This law, while not listed as one of the seven universal laws, is a sort of connection between all of the laws, as you must master each one in order to master your life and your ability to manifest on purpose. Whatever you send out comes back to you; yes, people talk about the law of attraction as it pertains to abundance, but this law also applies when it comes to lack. If you are trapped in a lack mindset, you will attract circumstances and situations into your experience that will reinforce that lack mindset. If you are in a mindset of being victimized by life or an illness (placing control over your life in things beyond your control to avoid taking responsibility for your part), then your energy or vibration will attract more of the same. Rather than trying to pin your happiness on something external and wait begrudgingly for it to manifest, creating resistance, it is much more effective to daydream or practice visualizing and feeling as though you already have the desire you’re working toward. This will bring you to the same vibration as your desire, which attracts you to it and it to you. Practicing is the keyword again here, but don’t practice by feeling like you desire something. The most important part is to feel gratitude for it like you’ve already received it, and whatever other feelings might go with having it already. This is the practicing you want to do in your mind because this allows you to more easily manifest without consciously trying. The more you practice the techniques that work for you, the easier they become.

The Law of Polarity

This law states that every opposite is actually different degrees of the same thing. Hot and cold are both still temperatures; love and fear both emotions. By understanding and knowing that two opposites are just extremes of the same thing, you can begin to transcend your emotional responses to circumstances as well as interactions with others, as tempting as it may be to go off on someone rather than wishing them well and letting it go. That’s where you must ask yourself in the moment what types of ripples you want to send out into the world. Would you like the negative ripples to stop with you? Maybe even be reversed or counteracted? Or would you like to add to the negative pot of energetic and emotional baggage we all throw at each other on a daily basis without realizing it? It will come back to you either way.

One practice that makes it much easier to get a grasp on yourself as well as your ability to manifest intentionally is a practice of detachment. By detachment, I don’t mean that you suppress or ignore your emotions and pretend to be perfect. This defeats the entire purpose and is a way for you again to attempt to control your inner world through the outer layers of your being. This never works as all change originates from within on an energetic level, and you cannot reach that by simply appearing calm on the outside. It isn’t what’s going on out there that matters; it’s what’s going on within you that really counts for your life.

By detachment, I mean a practice of reserving your reaction or response while you either contemplate or let something sit so that you have time to process whatever emotions may arise before doing anything. A practice of detachment allows you to become the observer of your emotions rather than allowing them to take over, which in turn allows you to make better decisions and refine your discernment. As a mindful leader, this is especially important because people aren’t likely to trust in leadership that doesn’t handle things well. For example, if employees are reprimanded for asking questions or making mistakes they couldn’t have avoided with their level of skill or expertise, then this could create a fear of asking for clarification and a fear of sharing ideas. Everyone’s input should be acknowledged and validated, but not all suggestions have to be implemented. However, simply by allowing everyone to participate, it creates rapport between everyone as well as a spirit of cooperation and encouragement.

When we approach a situation with a sense of inner peace and without being attached to any one outcome, which is equivalent to letting go of control, then we have the ability to remain calm and peaceful and lead well when it matters most: during challenging or stressful times that emotionally ramp everyone up. People also feed on each other’s energies, so if one person gets up in arms about something, it is very likely that others will soon follow. The more detached you are, the more you’ll be able to make the best decisions for everyone involved, no matter what the circumstances might look like.

Practicing detachment also allows you to make sure you aren’t sending out any negative ripples because rather than acting out intensely based on your emotions, you will be allowing those emotions to simply exist without “feeding the fire,” so to speak. You won’t allow your thoughts to even begin spiraling out of control and pulling you into a negative thought cycle that keeps your emotions looping, too. This will no longer happen within your being because you will have learned how to quiet your mind, which means the intensity of your emotions will seem less because they aren’t being perpetuated by your pesky mind.

Once you’ve begun practicing detachment, you may also experience an increase in confidence and self-trust because you will be able to trust your own memory, intuition, emotions, and so on. You won’t let yourself down, so you’ll be able to trust yourself more and more as time goes on, which in turn allows you to naturally inspire everyone you lead simply by being your incredible self, and what a beautiful ripple that will send out in each moment.

Thanks so much for reading! Please join us again next week for a new article about the ripple effect.

For more information about the Mindfulness Movement or the International Mindfulness Federation, please visit:

http://executivecoachinguniversity.com/mindfulness-movement

Each interaction has the ability to influence others on a physical as well as energetic level. If you’re unsure about what this means, think of a time when someone’s words didn’t match their actions or you could sense that they weren’t being sincere. Maybe they were even flat out lying—maybe even doing it well—and you got this nagging feeling that they were being dishonest. This is how we communicate on at least two different levels each time we interact, and of course, it isn’t black and white; everyone’s energy and personality exists on a spectrum, so there is no way to categorize human beings in such simplistic black and white terms. However, we all have a balance of energies which we can maintain through mindfulness habits, and the better you become at mastering your own energy, the less trouble you will have when interacting with those you lead. Let’s take a look at some of the levels of communication and how they might be affecting your efficacy as a mindful leader. 

Now, if you’ve ever spoken or interacted with someone who has a tendency to drain others by playing mind games, using manipulation tactics, or habitually being dishonest or withholding information, then you will understand that too much time around someone like this will take its toll on your energy. This is equally true for those you lead, and as a mindful leader, it is up to you to realize if you’re sending out ripples of this type of energy yourself.

The first step is always awareness, so if you find that you’ve behaved in ways that aren’t true to who you really are, it could be time to change the habits you rely upon in your everyday life. Do you belittle those you lead (e.g.: “I can’t believe you screwed this up. You had one job!”)? Tell different people different stories about an event to inspire arguments or drama between coworkers? Do you ever lie to those you lead or withhold information that would make their work easier? Even if you have seemingly legitimate reasons, none of this type of behavior—no matter how well-intentioned— inspires any trust in leadership, so anything like this can create conflict in the workplace, even if no one is aware exactly how or where this energy is coming from. As a mindful leader, it is your job to lead by example and make absolutely certain that you have your own behaviors in check.

Keeping your intentions and actions in alignment with your words can work wonders in building trust and rapport with everyone you lead. No matter the environment, even if it isn’t a workplace environment, trust is of the utmost importance, and you cannot build trust and solidarity with fear. It must be built with a foundation of love and cooperation, a focus on the win-win for everyone if at all possible.

Psst… here’s a little secret: a win-win is always possible. However, it may not be easy to discern if you’re not in the right mindset or energy, as this alters your perception. We see what we seek, so if all you expect are problems, then all you will see are problems.

The fact is that all human beings pick up on the energies of others to a certain extent. This is due to the electromagnetic field emanating from the heart of every human being, which extends out anywhere from 4-10 feet or more. Some people have wider energy fields than others do. However, this electromagnetic field is now being studied in conjunction with neuroscience because the heart also has its own brain cells and brain-type functions, so the implications of this from a practical standpoint are phenomenal.*

This energy field can be influenced by things in the environment as well as by your own mood and ability to maintain your frequency during your everyday experiences, including those that are less than pleasant. It’s all about gaining so much clarity and balance within your own being that it radiates outward and assists in comforting others, while also not allowing outside energies to influence your balance excessively. This is a constant, continuous, flowing process, the exchange of energy and the key is to understand that each individual is responsible for maintaining one’s own energy, both to help oneself as well as to help others. 

Knowing this, we can begin to understand just how important it is to maintain a balance and stability within your own being as naturally as possible. This is an emotional and mental process first, but your physical body also plays a role and should be kept somewhat healthy in order to stay in balance.

But we already know that part, so let’s talk about some of the realizations you may have on your way to understanding how you might be affecting the world around you as well as other people, and how that could ripple outward to affect numerous other people. This is especially true with the dawn of the internet, where we can share and exchange either positive or negative information along with its corresponding energy, either to help the collective or (even if inadvertently) perpetuate fear energy within the collective.

Three Revelations for Creating Positive Ripples

1. What you focus on grows. If you’re constantly focused on a problem, you cannot create space within your life or experience for the solution to present itself. The problem must be “released,” so to speak, on an emotional level, so that a solution can come forth as the opposite side of that coin. This duality is a law of the physical world, so while both things exist within our reality and one cannot exist without the other, the energies that exist within you work slightly differently because fear and love cannot exist within the same being at the same time (this is what influences how you react to things). Problems and associated emotions come from a place of fear because they typically create a need to control your external world. Solutions, however, stem from a place of love and a calm knowing that everything will work out exactly as it is supposed to. This letting go makes room within your perception to allow solutions to present themselves at precisely the times when you are ready to receive them.

When you approach any kind of problem with this deep, inner confidence, you will inspire anyone and everyone you lead on some level. You will find it easier to be nonreactive and completely clear-headed and focused, without a hint of anxiety or jumping to extremes to control the situation externally. Not only will you be communicating peace through your words and behaviors, but you will also exude that energy from your heart center and anyone who is in your proximity will likely calm down as well. This ability to comfort and solve problems at the same time will serve you extremely well as a mindful leader.

2. You don’t know how you might affect others if you don’t pay attention. Even if you do, you may still not know how you affect others energetically all the time. However, when someone picks up on frustration and gets frustrated in return, it tends to escalate a bit before one or both individuals carry the interaction around with them throughout their day, sometimes even longer. They then take this frustration home, and it may affect the way this individual treats their family, in turn affecting the way the family interacts. Depending on how practiced they are at being emotionally and energetically balanced, this could translate into children acting out at school, which then spreads the negative interactions into more families, more workplaces, and so on. A ripple of fear-based energy.

On the other hand, if someone picks up on love, sincerity, acceptance, gratitude, peace, and other positive and unconditional energies, they will likely have an incredible day, and if they choose to, can then carry that energy around with them all day.

The unfortunate aspect of this is that people are much more likely to wallow in the negative experience than they are to bask in the positive because we are programmed and conditioned to think that if we don’t give our focus to all the bad stuff then we don’t care about it happening, and therefore it won’t ever stop. This is a conditioned belief and a manipulation tactic, because the truth of it is that if we focus our attention on the negative, it will get worse and worse, while if we acknowledge what’s happening but send it love and let it go, we don’t obsess over whatever it is and can more easily focus on something that’s better for us. Then, before we know it, the issue has faded into the background of our lives and is no longer a big concern for us. This allows us to focus on the thing we can control: ourselves, our own energy, and our own behavior. It’s important to be selective about what you give your energy to so that you don’t give it more power.

3. Everything you send out will eventually make its way back to you. From an energetic standpoint, you are always sending out signals about what you want to attract by the way you feel. These feelings are seemingly “simple” to explain, but really getting the balance right is a bit more complex than that when it comes to manifesting on purpose. However, for the purposes of this piece, it’s so much easier to make it a general rule to be kind, assertive but loving, have strong boundaries, and treat others the way you would want to be treated in every situation you encounter than it is to constantly worry whether you are, in fact, doing the right thing because you aren’t feeling sincere about yourself or confident in your decisions.

This general kindness creates a highly positive and supportive work environment, making everything else so much more easily manageable. The biggest problem with leadership is if you create an environment of conflict and competition, everyone will fend for themselves and people typically won’t be interested in collaboration or cooperation because of the competitive energetic undertones. This type of environment is a breeding ground for developing bad habits, treating others badly, and even manipulating, lying, or taking other damaging measures in order to advance. This vibe in an environment also causes people to suppress their empathy, sensitivity, and caring, which in turn has massive effects on them, their personal lives, and anyone they come into contact with. Some people may not be able to handle a stressful or energetically draining or toxic environment long-term.

A positive environment encourages collaboration, understanding, patience, and independent thought, and this positive environment can be established by focusing on a win-win attitude rather than a competitive one. As simple as this sounds, it takes practice in every moment, especially if you’ve never been really self-aware before. That’s okay; practice is the best way to get there for everyone, and you can begin from exactly where you are.

As a final thought, trying to pretend to have it all together is much more difficult and filled with resistance and effort (exhausting!) than practicing mindfulness in each moment and daily meditation. These simple but profound inner habits will get you to a point where you don’t just look like you have it all together; you become an embodiment of peace, wisdom, and guidance to be sought out rather than “advice” to be pushed away or rebelled against. It all begins with you, mindful leaders, and as always, it begins from within.

Thanks so much for being here and reading our articles! We hope you’ll join us again next week for a new article on the ripple effect. For now, keep practicing and allow yourself to take notice of any positive effects you may be having during this process to help you realize its impact. This will help you to maintain your emotional balance even in challenging situations.

For more information about the Mindfulness Movement or the International Mindfulness Federation, please visit:

http://executivecoachinguniversity.com/mindfulness-movement

*More information about the heart and its influence on communication: https://www.heartmath.org/articles-of-the-heart/science-of-the-heart/the-energetic-heart-is-unfolding/

One aspect of mindfulness is beginning to take conscious notice of different levels of connection we experience throughout our lives. One concept about those levels of connection is called the ripple effect. The ripple effect is how your emotional energy, thoughts, words, and actions may affect those whom you interact with, and in turn how that shifts their emotional energy, thoughts, words, and actions, and how that continues to spread outward with each person whom they interact with, and so on. This ripple effect has no logical end because we’re dealing with intangible emotional energy, so there is absolutely no telling just how far this ripple may extend. Knowing this, you can begin to pay attention and witness this happening, and if you don’t feel good about the types of ripples you’re setting into motion, you are the only person with the power to change them into something more productive. Read on to learn more about the ripple effect and how you may be affecting your environment and relationships, and how the energy you send out is reflected back to you in your experiences.

We’ve all heard sayings like, “You get what you give,” and, “Whatever you do comes back to you.” For most of us, the deeper meaning of these types of statements isn’t something we think about consciously because, on the surface, it doesn’t seem nearly as important as it does when you go deeper, and the connections aren’t obvious until we beg8in to pay attention.

The energy and emotional mood you hold, how you handle those things, and how you show up to interact with others are all things that have the ability to influence your world and everyone in it either in a constructive or destructive way. The majority of people are still doing this on an unconscious level, which simply means that most of us are still unaware of all of the levels of influence we have, not to mention of all of the different external stimuli that may be affecting us. This can be more easily understood on all levels by doing one simple thing in each moment: paying attention, also known as practicing mindfulness.

Now, hear me out for a moment because I know it can initially feel like an impossible undertaking to be aware in every single moment. When I first learned about this concept and began to put mindfulness into practice several years ago now, there were periods of time when this awareness seemed impossible to maintain and I would think to myself, “How in the world am I supposed to keep up with all of this so constantly and continuously? How do others make it look so easy?”

Don’t concern yourself with so much doing. Think of mindfulness practice less like a task you must complete and more like a habit you integrate into your moment to moment existence, which allows you to practice mindfulness on an almost constant basis whether you’re “meditating” in the traditional sense or not. When you make the conscious decision to begin noticing things, you may even begin surprising yourself with just how much information you are processing on a continuous basis and how much of it you have been conditioned to ignore.

So, one of the things today’s culture has been conditioning us to ignore or not pay attention to is our emotional state of being. This whole, “emotions not allowed,” attitude always baffled me because how can you simply ignore something that feels so big? Isn’t there a better way than by pretending they don’t exist and therefore suppressing them?

Fortunately for all of us, science is now proving the incredible importance of emotions as they pertain to our energetic state and how that affects the physical body, not to mention the influence we have on our own emotions by learning to direct our thoughts and properly process our feelings. Science is also proving the incredible benefits of mindfulness practice because it is a combination of soft, subtle internal shifts, but has countless benefits that seep into every aspect of your life.

Here’s the thing. Once you “wake up” and choose to be conscious and aware of your contribution to the world on more levels, you cannot undo it. There’s no going back. Your understanding and awareness will only deepen, expand, and evolve as you learn and integrate more information and knowledge, and you will experience a deep and profound sense of knowing that could be likened to faith but is much more powerful because it’s a knowing deep within your core. What you know and the topics concerned don’t matter; this is just a general illustration of the feelings of this aspect of the process.

With all of that being said, here are three ideas to help you take notice of the ripples you are setting into motion and how they might expand, as well as how these energies you send out may come back to you.

1. Sometimes the smallest positive interaction can change the course of someone’s entire day, if not their life. If nothing else, it helps restore a little faith in humanity between two individuals and reassures us that people are not, in fact, terrible or out to attack and hurt each other. Yes, there are people like that, but the majority of people are just like you and me: living life, seeking fulfillment, and trying to find their daily, effortless joy.

Whether your interactions are positive or negative, their effects will echo and ripple outward because there is an energetic exchange going on beneath the surface of our perception. If you have an interaction with someone that is frightening, makes you angry, or hurts you in some way, then chances are it will affect you for a little while, and the next person or people whom you interact with will “catch” some of your energy and it may color their interactions without anyone understanding what’s going on.

I’m sure you’ve had this kind of experience, when something happens while you’re out at a store or driving, running an errand, etc. It leaves you with questions about what you might have done to provoke someone’s anger (or another emotion), and there’s a good chance that this person may not even have been angry with you, but with something else entirely, maybe even from before because they are starting their own ripple through you, or maybe someone before started it. Then you take that troubled energy home with you and your family knows something is wrong, but you don’t feel like it’s necessarily something to share, so they begin to wonder what’s wrong and, in some cases, speculating or jumping to conclusions about possibilities based on the information within their perception.

They then carry this troubled energy and worry or concern with them the next day to work or school, spreading a negative ripple even further. From here, it could keep going exponentially, affecting things on a large and small scale until the energy has fizzled out and fades away.

Part of the problem today is that the majority of us don’t understand how to stop the ripple once it gets to us. This is similar to breaking a cycle. And because most people aren’t aware of what’s happening on an energetic level, they are ill-equipped to stop the ripple. You can’t heal what you aren’t even aware of, so this is where mindfulness comes in.

2. Take notice of the “vibes” you pick up on in the moment, and trust your intuition about them. If you get the sense that someone you’re interacting with is carrying an emotional burden of some sort that may cause them to initiate numerous negative ripples, you may choose to ask this person, “Is there something bothering you that I might be able to help with?” This person might be you, in which case you may ask yourself the same thing.

It often happens that someone is concerned about something and it manifests as angry outbursts. It can also manifest as sloppiness on the job and a lack of focus, so holding on to negative energy without processing it properly can cause all kinds of drama and chaos in your physical experience. That’s why it’s so important to learn how to let go of emotions that don’t serve you quickly. This will be different depending on what you’re working through internally, but the key mindset to develop here is one of compassion, nonjudgment, and forgiveness, toward yourself as well as others.

This allows you to more easily recognize when someone is being reactive and influenced by negative emotions they may be suppressing. This also allows you to more easily recognize when you are being reactive and influenced by negative emotions you may be suppressing. In many situations, both could be true at the same time.

3. How do you interact with your moment to moment experience? Do you carry with you a sense of awe and wonder at the world? Or do you spend your commute silently criticizing everything you see? Do you approach people with an open demeanor or a condescending one? Are you kind more often than not? Appreciative when someone does something for you such as holding a door open? Or do you find something to pick apart with each interaction and experience?

It’s important here to be very honest with yourself, but also to not beat up on yourself if you find that you’ve fallen into a habit of complaining or criticizing. If we’re honest, most of us have probably fallen into some kind of habit such as this that doesn’t serve us and affects the way we interact with life and others in ways we may not even be aware of. The “bad” news is that being honest with yourself about these types of things has a tendency to bruise the ego a little bit, to shake up your sense of pride and humble you. The “good” news is that it’s never too late to refine your habits, and the long-term benefits of doing this are countless and amazing, not only for you, but for everyone around you as well as the collective.

The effect you have in the world, the intangible, energetic impact you have on the whole, begins from within you and how you feel, what kind of emotional energy you carry out into the world and spread around, so to speak. The specific emotions don’t matter, although it very much makes a difference whether the emotions you’re allowing to influence your contribution are positive or negative, based in love or based in fear.

Your intent also matters, and how you view other beings that you interact with. If you look down on people and think you’re better than others, the response you’ll receive won’t be good because this type of attitude shows unhealthy narcissism. If you treat other beings with kindness and a sense of respect for the miraculous spark of the divine that they are (just like you), this will create ripples of love, light, peace, and cooperation.

As a mindful leader, it is especially important to understand what kind of ripple effect you are having on those whom you lead. This could mean the difference between being respected and being feared. It could mean the difference between being trusted or being left out of the loop. It could mean the difference between developing a thriving workplace culture and developing a dysfunctional one.

It all begins with you, from within. That’s where your ripples originate, and that’s the only source of ripples that you have influence or control over. You hold a vast power within you, the power to influence your experience intentionally, and all you have to do to embrace this power is decide to.

Thanks so much for being here! I hope you join us back here next week for a new article about the ripple effect.

For more information about the Mindfulness Movement or the International Mindfulness Federation, please visit:

http://executivecoachinguniversity.com/mindfulness-movement

It’s easy to be carefree and peaceful when things are going well. However, when things aren’t going well and it seems like maybe your life has become cursed, it becomes even more important to relax and surrender to the divine timing at play. When you fight against what you’re going through, worry about it, become consumed by it, and it takes all of your negative focus, then the problem or series of problems will likely persist because these are all forms of resistance to what is. In this article, we’ll explore several types of resistance and how to overcome these blockages because they will very likely have something to do with your inner world being reflected back to you in your outer circumstances. On one hand, this means you have to take responsibility for everything you contribute on any level of your soul’s existence; on the other hand, taking this responsibility reveals that you are also the only person who has the power to change anything. So, knowing that, let’s talk about resistance.

For this information to be as comprehensive as possible, let’s talk a little bit about unwanted circumstances, the role they play on your journey, and why you have nothing to be afraid of when it comes to ordinary, everyday life.

The things happening around you or “to” you are actually happening for you and through you. This means that everything in your life is there to either serve a purpose, teach you something constructive on a divine level, or to get you to the next step on your way to a bigger goal or manifestation.

What’s really interesting to think about is that yes, you attracted the unwanted circumstances, but if it were any other circumstance or experience, it wouldn’t have the same impact, message, or effect on you at your core. If it were happening to someone else, it wouldn’t have the same message, either, so this opens us up to understanding that everything we attract into our lives has a divine purpose and timing. So, without those “unwanted circumstances,” we may not have been pushed to go the extra mile or make a courageous decision we would have been too afraid to make if it had been even a moment before. Sometimes the decisions we feel forced into actually lead us to exactly where we need to be.

Another thing about unwanted circumstances is that they often happen to get you to a place of simplification, of eliminating things from your life that don’t serve you anymore and having a simpler day-to-day experience than before. You may find yourself losing possessions, relationships, or other physical comforts within your life so that you have the space to welcome better things in. If your life is already full, it’s much more challenging to say “yes” to new opportunities because you simply don’t have the time, resources, or energy to devote to the new if you’re still busy trying to work with the old.

Now, let’s talk about resistance. All resistance is energetic and emotions are energy, so despite any challenges you may be facing, it is extremely important to take care of your energy, your emotional state of being, in order to improve your life in all other areas. This internal space is where it all begins, so I hope to be able to shed some light on different types of emotional resistance, what they may be trying to tell you about yourself through your experience, and how you can begin to consciously check in with yourself when you need to make sure you’re responding rather than reacting to something.

What You Resist Persists, What You Focus On Grows

As counterintuitive as it may seem at first, the more you push and fight against something, the more powerful it becomes because of your attention. What you focus on grows, what you resist persists; it’s the same thing. With focus, however, it is more representative of the full truth: what you focus on grows, whether that’s a focus on something desirable or undesirable, as defined by you.

By holding yourself accountable for your responsibilities to yourself in your life, you open the door to manifesting your experiences more and more quickly and mindfully. One way to getting to that accountability part faster is by examining what triggers you, what you have negative or undesirable emotions about. When you begin to learn this about yourself, you become aware enough to change your response. Understanding where a certain behavior may have come from or how it may have been programmed into your subconscious will also help you to broaden your perspective and fully grasp that it doesn’t have to be this way because you have the choice to believe it or not. That is your decision, and oftentimes our beliefs exist for no other reason than subconscious programming. It is when we begin to question these beliefs and have experiences contrasting these beliefs that we can begin to see our power to change these beliefs, in turn changing our reality experience simply by empowering us to re-create our own beliefs.

“All beliefs are true to the believer.”

—Joanna Kujath

Here are a few different forms of emotional resistance, what they might mean, and what you may be able to understand about it to begin healing.

Fear. If you feel fearful about something, there’s a good chance that you’re also worrying about it, which can lead to a rabbit hole of all sorts of undesired feelings. After all, nobody actually wants to feel fearful and anxious… or do they? Fear often comes from the notion of having to experience something different, something unknown. This fear of the unknown can manifest in all sorts of ways, so check in with yourself and ask if this is simply a fear of the unknown manifesting itself, working its way through your body so that you can release it. You may also want to ask yourself very bluntly what you have to lose if things change, versus what you have to gain if things stay the same. Good news: fear is simple to reframe and continue feeling slightly similar. Rather than being fearful about the unknown, maybe it’s time to get excited about the experiences you are being blessed with. Big picture thinking helps to develop this excitement because you can see things more clearly from far away sometimes.

Worry. Unchecked fear often leads to worry, and worry is one of the most pointless emotions for daily life. This evolution into worry stems from fearful thoughts running unchecked through your mind and creating a sense of paranoia because you begin to consider all of the different things that could go wrong. Not only is this a waste of time, but it is also a waste of your emotional energy because you are feeding the very things you are trying to avoid with your attention to them. That makes them all the more likely to actually happen, which fuels your worry more, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, and eventually a belief, which you then accept and adopt as truth. It is absolutely in your best interest to begin observing and redirecting your focus and thoughts before the belief becomes too cemented in your subconscious.

Anxiety. Unchecked worry can lead to anxiety, which is like chronic, constant worry that often doesn’t make logical sense and has the potential to create a great deal of distress in an individual as well as everyone around them. This is when it begins to cross a line into mental health issues developing. However, even anxiety and chronic stress can be changed by your redirection of attention. So, rather than focusing on everything that’s wrong, focus on everything that is right. Begin a daily practice of gratitude. This doesn’t have to be anything elaborate; simply notice when something good happens (little things especially because they lead to bigger things) and bask in gratitude and appreciation over it for a few minutes. This basking will raise your vibration, your emotional energy, and begin to attract more things that will evoke the same emotion. So, by being grateful, you attract more things to be grateful for.

Anger. In certain circumstances, your justified reaction may be anger, and sometimes this is meant to rattle us in some way, make us more aware of the injustices in the world, and draw our attention back to all of the terrible things we may have experienced. Many of these emotions represent an energetic purging process, especially if you’re experiencing a major shift in consciousness. These shifts in consciousness have to happen incrementally, one chunk of a revelation at a time, guided by your experiences to fully understand what your life and the universe are trying to help you to know. Sometimes we must be fully exposed to the so-called negative to be able to see where to go next. And sometimes, that means we go, “away.” Elsewhere, to regroup and build a better life.

Vengeance. When you realize that someone has betrayed you somehow, your anger may lead you to thoughts of revenge, and it’s important for you to know that thinking about it from time to time is okay. Writing about it, splattering crimson paint violently on a large canvas, or otherwise expressing these darker emotions is one way of “exorcising your demons,” or releasing uncomfortable or damaging emotional energy. Suppressing or holding back these types of emotions can actually be detrimental, cause you to “blow up” later, or create dis-ease within your physical body over time. Working through these things as they come up can be absolutely liberating, not to mention show you how to consider things on much deeper levels before you respond. This also allows you to practice patience and forgiveness to help you release and move on.

These forms of emotional energetic resistance can show up at any point in your life when challenging things are happening. The key is to relax, redirect your thoughts toward something that feels better such as gratitude, and leave the things that are not your responsibility alone so that proper responsibility can be claimed for that person to step into their power. By taking on another person’s responsibilities you are actually disempowering them from doing this for themselves, so don’t feel like you’re helping by falling into people pleaser mode. This doesn’t help anyone, you or the other person.

These emotions typically present themselves for a reason that is unique to you and your life and understanding of it, so it is up to you to define what you’ve gained from an experience, to see it in a way that makes sense for you and strengthens your integrity and soul in the process. There is absolutely no need to be angry or hateful toward another human being, and if they are toxic, then it’s best to gain some distance anyway so that you can grow into the person you truly are. Toxic relationships don’t foster growth as these situations typically have repetitive cycles, so growth and change are perceived as threatening.

So, with that in mind, the final question comes up: how do I take responsibility for toxic people being in my life and what is the key to healing that?

Every single aspect of your life is attracted to you by your vibration, your soul’s unique frequency. Yes, this can include toxic and abusive relationships, and as a domestic violence and emotional abuse survivor, I can tell you from firsthand inner work experience that this is a very painful realization when it first comes up. Yes, some aspect of the abuse is my responsibility. Now, this does not by any means excuse any abusive behavior perpetrated by another person. However, to get to a point of higher consciousness about it and not stay stuck in emotional turmoil, we must recognize that there is something about us that attracts these predatory types, these toxic people. Since this is a clearly defined cycle and we now understand that we have the power to break this cycle by being truly honest about it, this can eventually lead to a discovery that we don’t love ourselves unconditionally, so the only types of love we will subconsciously attract are conditional, selfish, or otherwise different from what we actually desire.

Realizing this creates a paradigm shift, a revision in our perception of life, who we are, and how to live on an emotional level. If you find yourself dealing with toxic people in any way, do yourself a favor and start showing yourself unconditional love. Love the emotional parts of yourself that come up. Love your body. Take good care of yourself. Eat well. Exercise. These are all ways in which we can show ourselves love, and this developing of healthy habits will propel you into a whole new level of existence, no matter what your past looks like.

And you know what? You are worthy and deserving of the things you desire in your life.

For more information about the Mindfulness Movement or the International Mindfulness Federation, please visit:

http://executivecoachinguniversity.com/mindfulness-movement

Manifestation is still a somewhat misunderstood topic, although thankfully the nuances of how to practice it are being noticed more as people practice and consciously test their skills more. The fun part about this is that we are literally utilizing our emotional and thought frequencies to guide ourselves toward the reality we desire and simultaneously attract that reality into our experience. Because all of this happens on an energetic level and through your emotional state of being, it’s important to understand some of the core ideas behind how manifesting your reality works and how you can put these things into practice for yourself, starting with your inner world.

It begins with consciously taking notice (becoming mindful by being observant) of what’s happening when it happens, and to go backwards in your memory to make the connections only you can make because you’re the only one with all of the information from your perspective. There are a few different components of how things can manifest themselves in your physical reality, but just becoming more observant can help you to appreciate little gifts from the universe and get ready to receive bigger and bigger gifts. You can think of it as if your life is a TV show, one connected coincidence after another, only not as dramatic. However, when you begin to take notice of manifestations within your “real” life, those seemingly small things suddenly become much more important.

Some Things You Might Begin to Notice

You may begin to notice how one thing hinges on another, how one thing couldn’t have happened without the thing before it having happened, and so on. Sometimes a series of events like this will have you feeling baffled and a little thrown off because of how strange the entire thing was. Don’t disregard this feeling; take note of how you feel and remember the story so that you can go back to it with new knowledge and fresh understanding later. You may even find that something that happens that seems bad actually leads you to something incredible in your life, so be open to those possibilities as well.

You may also begin to notice that if you relax and go with the flow of life, then the solutions you need can present themselves to you in whatever ways you need them to without much resistance, if any. Somewhere along the way, you had a semi-fleeting thought or emotion of, “Hey, this would be nice to have as a solution,” without getting caught up in the details or how it would come to be. Things won’t always play out the way you imagine or expect them to, so let go and allow everything to be the way it will be without getting caught up in the emotions of it all. Trust that everything will work out the way it is meant to. This trust and easygoing attitude are a foundation for manifesting much faster, but you can’t just claim faith and mimic The Fonz on the outside; you’ve got to be at peace and know that things will work out for the best within your life on the inside.

You may begin to notice more and more “little” things going your way, such as getting great parking spaces or finding the last of an item at the store, as if it were placed there just for you. These are simply the products of an ongoing positive creative cycle, so if you’re consciously working on co-creating and manifesting your life on purpose, this is an added benefit you can experience. Enjoy all of those little things, no matter how “small” or “silly” they might seem at the time or on the surface, and especially as you first begin to take notice. Appreciate and celebrate those gifts because these are the gifts of the divine for you, based on how you choose to consciously participate and feel within your daily existence.

Manifest Starting with Your Inner World: Points of Understanding

1. Understand that everything is a process and you can’t just magically jump from one dimension of existing into another one without a journey to get there, especially if the differences are numerous. We live in a dualistic world of black and white opinions, with no gray area in between even though that is where most everything resides no matter which “side” we agree with or cling to. Everything is a process, a journey, and appreciating each step and failure along the way is key to overcoming and moving forward continuously, without allowing your setbacks to completely discourage you. Discomfort is the most fertile soil for personal growth. So, sometimes life will put you through certain periods of growth and acceleration to help you get to the next chapter of your journey and how you’d like to be living it.
2. Surrender to your life, to the universe, and to the process you are undergoing. Your “destination” in this life is death, so doesn’t it make more sense to enjoy the journey as much as humanly possible? Rather than trying to dictate how everything must be outside of yourself and stressing out if it goes any other way, sit back, relax, do what you can, and have as much fun as possible. If this is a matter that needs planning, then plan enough to feel more comfortable but be prepared to deviate from the plan at any point should the situation dictate a need for flexibility. You’re safe on your journey, which means that it’s okay to relax a little, let go, and enjoy the ride.

First, because feeling a strong, intense desire for something doesn’t make it come to you faster, although it does get the ball rolling. Second, because feeling strong, intense opposition or feelings of desperation, need, or fear will only serve to place an additional hold or block on your manifestation coming into your life because you are too high-strung, anxious, or stressed out to fully enjoy it. Surrendering means you are no longer attempting to control the things outside of yourself with actions based in emotions that don’t feel good. This neutrality will then give way to a consistent hum of loving energy, and you won’t find yourself getting frustrated, angry, or any other extreme anymore, just smiling and lovingly taking an understanding stance no matter what chaos might be surrounding you. This can be achieved with practice.

3. The world you find yourself living in is a direct reflection (okay, more like an echo reflection) of your emotional state of being. Therefore, on some level, everything around you is a reflected echo of whatever it is you have felt (or felt you deserved) in the past. If you find yourself in a situation where you feel like a victim or like you’re being constantly attacked and bullied, there’s a good chance that this situation came about because of how you had felt in the past. This may need more elaboration.

One example might be someone who was raised in a situation feeling like something was wrong but never being able to put a finger on it (conditioning and brainwashing ensure that victims of emotional abuse stay unaware of the truth and buy a delusion as reality), then escaping this intangible, hidden web of insanity to find themselves in a physically and more obviously abusive situation. Not understanding that the prior situation wasn’t safe, either, this person may go retreating back to what seems safe in order to regroup, only to realize later on that this original situation caused the emotional state of being that would perpetuate emotionally and physically abusive situations in the future.

Now, by no means am I saying that victims of abuse are to blame for being abused; on the contrary. It would be fantastic for some of these perpetrators without empathy or conscience to be held accountable, but unfortunately that doesn’t always happen (many of the systems in place do not actually help people, and all too often victims of abuse can’t even find help to escape, let alone survive after an escape). That makes it even more important to discern our part in any situation we may have found ourselves in, and do our part to prevent repeating the cycle by educating and healing ourselves.

4. Everything is connected, including you to everything, everything to you, and everything to everything else, however, you can best imagine this. On an energetic level, we are all connected and interconnected with everything else in existence. This is why emotions are so powerful; they guide us and allow us to steer our ship (our body vessel), so to speak, through this energetic “fog,” if that’s a visual that can help you. Now imagine that, as you wander along through all of these different types of energies, the ones that align with what you’re feeling and attracting will magnetically catch you and hang on to become a physical manifestation.

Please note that this translation into the physical is not bound by linear time. So, whether you think it should take 6 months or 6 minutes, it will lean toward manifesting when you believe, deep down, that it will. You’re in charge, on many, many, many levels, and your inner work will help you to learn how to be in charge of your life more effectively. It is also not bound by a process of turning from energy into a physical thing; rather, our body system is designed to translate the energy around us into what we see, taste, touch, hear, and smell. If we and our body systems are not in alignment with what we are seeking, then we will simply not perceive it, even though it is still there on an energetic level. Our bodies won’t translate because they aren’t tuned to the correct station, so to speak. So, get your vessel into alignment and you might just be amazed at all the things that begin popping up for you. This journey through life is meant to be enjoyed, after all!

5. You cause a ripple effect, so be aware of what types of energies you’re carrying around with you. If you carry an energy of being depressed, sad, down, mopey, or miserable, then you may find yourself attracting things of the same energetic frequency, including people, circumstances, experiences, stories, and so on. If you carry an energy of constant frustration, anger, belittling, control, and hatred for your fellow man, you will likely see that coming back to you in your daily life experiences. However, if you carry an energy based in love, joy, optimism, light, and effortless existence, you will attract people, experiences, and other things that align with that type of energy.

Another aspect of having a ripple effect that I want to address is that, if you’re generally sad and others try to cheer you up but then can’t, they will likely carry some of that sadness around with them and share it with everyone they come into contact with. If you’re angry and frustrated all the time, you inadvertently spread fear energy because anger tends to make people very uncomfortable, especially if you don’t have a lot of self-control in the moment. This causes subconscious anger and frustration in others, and because no one knows exactly where it came from, they will likely take out their anger on others throughout the day themselves. However, if you carry the bright energy of love and optimism around with you, not only will you be able to understand sadness and let it go no matter the result (sometimes people don’t actually want to be cheered up) and gently but firmly stand your ground against anger and frustration if necessary and help to release or transmute it, but you’ll also infect people with your happiness just by being yourself and thoroughly enjoying your own existence.

No matter where you are on your journey, gaining a better internal understanding of the energetic nature of our universe can only help you grow and evolve to your next level and manifesting your next step up. Sometimes you may need to hear or read the same thing a number of times before it “clicks” in epiphany or revelation form for you, but life will show you what you need to know, over and over again if necessary, and everything still happens in divine timing.

Thank you so much for being here with us at the Mindful Leader Blog! We hope you join us again next week for a new article on your inner versus your outer world and how to grow into handling challenging times more constructively and peacefully.

For more information about the Mindfulness Movement or the International Mindfulness Federation, please visit:

http://executivecoachinguniversity.com/mindfulness-movement

When it comes to dealing with our inner selves versus our outer circumstances, being proactive means different things for each of those aspects of ourselves. While the inner work includes practices of gratitude, mindfulness, and nonjudgment, the external or physical work includes demonstrating non-reactivity and emotional maturity so that no one is traumatized by the experience. While the inner processes that you go through will be no one’s business but your own, your external responses to what’s happening have the potential to affect everything and everyone around you, and then ripple from there and affect everyone they may come into contact with for the rest of the day (at least). Your choice is simple: react without checking yourself or respond wisely.

So how do we get better at responding rather than reacting, and what can we proactively do to help our bodies, minds, and emotions to get to a place of calm and peace no matter what our external circumstances look like? Being proactive will lead to the healthy habits, which will help lead to the dissolution of unhealthy habits, which in turn makes you healthier overall. When your physical body is healthy, your mind becomes healthier, and your emotional state becomes more balanced. Daily exercise helps to release toxic emotions that have built up, and this frees up any blocked energy you may have residing within your body. That in turn makes everything flow more effortlessly, including creative energy and emotional energy, which will then also be easier for you to process.

It is all connected, so your decision to be proactive about your overall wellbeing is like another step on your journey and has the potential to open all kinds of doors for you. And, like so many things we talk about here on the Mindful Leader Blog, much of the work begins from within. How do you get to an understanding of life that makes sense to you and allows you to treat every person and circumstance as an intentional and purposeful piece of your existence?

Here are a few ideas to help you on your journey.

Learn to give purpose to your pain. Life is painful sometimes, and others can cause us pain sometimes, too. However, wallowing in the pain doesn’t help anyone to heal or move forward. Sometimes, it feels like the garbage just keeps hitting the fan, with disasters and chaos happening in some aspect or many aspects of your life all at once. “When it rains, it pours,” right? Yes, but usually you’ll find that some of the events may be interconnected and understanding things from another level can help you to forgive who you need to forgive while also taking something from the experience itself that you’re actually grateful for. Think about it from a big picture perspective. Will this matter in a year? Five years? How would your future self like to remember it? How much of that memory do you have control over in the moment? And what can you learn from this experience, both in the short term and the long term?

“When it rains, it pours.” This is true for the so-called negative events, but it is also true with positive events and so-called “good luck.” It’s important to take ownership not only of the “bad” or painful parts of your life, but also of your positive manifestations. Those fun coincidences where you get something you didn’t know you needed right when you need it? Sometimes it seems too weird to be true, but these types of things happen all the time and we notice them more if we’re paying attention.

You are always attracting what you’re sending out emotionally, so the next time you get that perfect parking space or get to cut to the front of the line at the grocery store, remember that you helped to co-create that experience. It isn’t just luck; it’s your attitude and happiness attracting more positive experiences to your life, and you should take credit for all of it, not just take blame for the negative and attribute the rest to something else. This is equivalent to giving away your power because it puts something outside of yourself in charge of your happiness, and that is your responsibility. But it’s also your responsibility to appreciate and show gratitude for everything life gives you, and to take responsibility for your part in attracting it to you. This in turn attracts more of the things that make you feel that way into your life, so don’t be afraid of that responsibility. Taking responsibility also means taking credit when credit is due.

Plan ahead but remain flexible. If someone on your team has a suggestion or idea, it’s always best to take it into consideration honestly, so don’t be too rigid in your plan as a mindful leader. However, a plan to get to a milestone that is one step closer to a specific goal can guide you and keep you on track as you move through your journey. This isn’t just helpful when it comes to leadership, but it also comes into play within life in general.

Getting stuck on the details or being too rigid or controlling about the methods by which something is accomplished could be detrimental to the project or organization as a whole, which is where the flexibility aspect comes in. Someone may point out a part of the plan that doesn’t serve everyone the way another idea might, so going for the win-win-win is typically your best option. Sometimes this goes differently than you may have originally planned, but this is where keeping everyone’s best interests at heart and remaining open comes into play. What are the options or ideas that will benefit everyone? If these types of ideas haven’t revealed themselves yet, give it a little time and revisit the topic later.

Practice acceptance and nonjudgment (not to be confused with gullibility). One of the most painful things for any human being to experience is feeling judged by other human beings in a negative way based on limited or no information, or even lies or gossip. If this has ever happened to you, then you will understand how uncomfortable it feels to be judged this way, and it’s important to remember this so that you don’t feel inclined to do it to another person. Our differences should be celebrated, but for now they are still feared too often, so acceptance is our next logical step toward celebration.

Also, nonjudgment doesn’t mean that your discernment for subtleties just flies out the window; on the contrary, this nonjudgment practice can help you to refine your discernment and understand things on much deeper levels. This means you will be able to discern between people who are typically sincere and people whose ethics and values don’t align with yours. Kindness shouldn’t be mistaken for weakness, so if you can sense that someone isn’t being entirely truthful or is maybe taking advantage of your kindness, then this will be your indicator to pay attention and see if there’s anything to it. Depending on the situation, coming right out and asking some questions in a nonaggressive manner can work wonders, especially if you’re dealing with a case of people jumping on some kind of bandwagon and the person being judged or gossiped about is harmless and innocent.

Being proactive rather than reactive means developing positive, healthy habits for yourself and within your own daily life and routine, and then helping the people you lead to develop those same types of habits for themselves, based on what works for them. When you’ve been doing inner work for a while, you begin to recognize what might help someone else in their situation, so share what you learn and help those who need it, especially if they come to you for advice. Coach your team, help them to take charge of their own lives, both internally and externally.

As a final thought, this journey is a process no matter who you are or what your circumstance might be. Everything is a process, a journey, because there is no actual destination. We’ll never get “there” because our desires and goals are always growing and evolving as we are, so don’t be too stuck in one way of thinking or doing something. Sometimes turmoil appears to help guide us toward a better way, and this may not always be an easy process or journey because of the way people resist change. So keep an open mind, and your team will follow your lead based on the behavior they see from you, making the entire process less dramatic but more educational and memorable overall.

Thank you so much for joining us here on the Mindful Leader Blog! I hope you’ll join us again next week to learn about how to manifest your external experience by focusing on taking care of your inner landscape.

For more information about the Mindfulness Movement or the International Mindfulness Federation, please visit:

http://executivecoachinguniversity.com/mindfulness-movement

It seems that when we think about “outer circumstances,” it almost has a negative connotation to it. However, outer circumstances can be anything, and one of the main ideas behind mindfulness is getting to a point where your external circumstances don’t have an effect on your energy, mood, or ability to function. This sounds like a logical and reasonable practice—common sense, even—but when it comes to actually putting it into practice, we have to first recognize what's happening behind the scenes and understand how it’s all connected. The sooner we begin to recognize and understand that we are responsible for creating our own outer circumstances, the sooner we can learn how to change those circumstances for the better through inspired action. In today’s article, I’d like to discuss some of the connections and revelations you may experience, as well as why sometimes seemingly negative external circumstances are actually in place for your greatest benefit, all in divine timing.

Abraham-Hicks talks about being ready to be ready to be ready, which is their way of describing the linear process that we undergo during life changes. In this physical reality, we typically experience things in this linear fashion, even though all possibilities exist eternally as well as within each moment. Quantum physics is discovering scientific evidence to confirm this idea, as well as the idea of the law of attraction and each of us being co-creators of our physical experience here on earth. Just by becoming aware of our reality (observing), we can begin to influence it and direct our experiences. To see the scientific experiment that implicates this, please look up the double slit experiment, as seen in the movie What the Bleep Do We Know?

Knowing this, it becomes more understandable, believable, and acceptable to take responsibility for the co-creation of our own experience. This is not as simple as just taking care of the superficial aspects of living in today’s western society such as paying bills and buying groceries, as much as we like to fool ourselves into thinking so. There is a continuous, constant flow and exchange of energy occurring from one moment to the next, whether you believe it or not. The frequency of this energy varies depending on each individual’s inner state of being and the wellbeing of their body and emotional systems, which are all connected. Each of us is responsible for that part: what we bring into the world each moment from within the core of our being, at the energetic level.

Here comes the hard part: the acceptance and allowing of what is to be what it is, without resistance to it on an energetic level. Fear, lack, control, anger… all of these are resistant to what is, and there are some periods in life where letting go and allowing things to run their course is the best option. When there’s nothing you can do about it, stop trying to find things to do about it and focus on your own wellbeing, happiness, and emotional frequency. You do this by meeting your own needs, both internally and externally, as much as possible. Sometimes other people will show up to help you, sometimes seemingly out of nowhere. Opportunities also begin to reveal themselves, but not if you’re in a state of panic or anxiety; the opportunities will still try to show up, but you won’t be open to receiving them. These states don’t help you to focus, and when life gets chaotic, focus is key, and whatever you focus on grows. So, if you’re obsessively thinking in circles about a problem that you’re having and you don’t know how to slow those thought loops down and stop their momentum, then the problem you’re having will appear to get worse, bigger, and even more insurmountable.

WE are each individually responsible for managing our thoughts so that this particular system (the mind suffering from uncontrolled thought loops) doesn’t run your entire body system into the ground by perpetuating unchecked emotions.

Actions speak louder than words, and that includes re-actions. The best way to get to a point of being able to check yourself consistently is through practice. Just start doing it and see where it leads you, and the moment you begin to grow on purpose into a better and better version of yourself through mindful observation and changes toward being the type of person you want to be, your life experience will begin to reflect that positive, inspired effort, and you’ll begin to notice more and more details that many people miss.

It is only upon beginning a mindfulness practice in every moment, being self-aware and aware of others, being aware of how your actions, words, and thoughts are affecting the situation, and being aware of your boundaries and whether they are being violated. While some boundaries are deeper and less likely to come up in some situations than others, there are boundaries that are unspoken and considered, in my opinion, common courtesy, both to yourself and others. Typically speaking, emotionally healthy people will not purposely violate your boundaries, and if they do so accidentally, it’s your job to let them know gently and allow them the opportunity to adjust their interactions with you. While emotionally healthy people will typically admit their responsibility and learn from the experience, toxic or emotionally unhealthy people will shift the blame, refuse to apologize or take responsibility for their part, or forget it’s an issue for you and continue to behave the same way because they are so unconscious and unaware of themselves in relation to the world around them. This can be witnessed on a spectrum, so some things may not be quite as extreme as others, but I hope that this description helps you to better understand what may be happening in your experience that you’re partially responsible for as a co-creator.

Your inner world is a large contributor to your outer experience, so it’s important to take care of your inner landscape. Listen to yourself, trust your emotional input to help guide you, and consider any behaviors on your part and whether they are truly how you would like to behave or they are a program you were indoctrinated or conditioned with while you were growing up. Changing these thought and behavior patterns requires consistent work on your part, daily practice of doing as you would have others do (consciously following the Golden Rule). Becoming aware is the first step, and sometimes that brings about massive shifts in your reality as you change your life for the better.

And it is a process. Whether you’re still in the storm or on your way out of it, your journey can’t happen overnight, so it’s up to you to facilitate a faster journey of manifestation by taking excellent care of yourself, especially from within and when experiencing your emotions. This will in turn inspire you to take better care of your body, your vessel. When all of these systems work in harmony, life becomes easier and easier simply because you don’t allow anything to alter your energetic state because you guide that on purpose in the direction of your goals and aspirations. Your focus is on creating the life of your dreams in an effortless fashion, effortless meaning without energetic conflict or resistance via low-frequency emotions (fear, frustration, anxiety, etc.), not that it will be “easy” and without contrast.

This is what they mean by not allowing your outer circumstances to dictate your life. The energy you show up wearing every day affects everything within your life, so if you find yourself down on your luck or suffering in any way, ask yourself what you might be able to do to change it beginning with your mindset. When your words, actions, and energy don’t align, it sends mixed signals to those around you and can potentially create toxicity in your life. So, even in the seemingly direst circumstances, you have the choice to change how you see it. Think of how many successful people endured some form of suffering or another on their way to success. The transitional periods you create within your life are fully dependent on your outlook and your ability to move through the experiences without over-reacting due to judgment of the circumstance, other people involved, or yourself.

It may help to explain that a little further. By judging your circumstances or yourself for being in them (although it is your responsibility, guilt-tripping yourself doesn’t help anything), you create more resistance to those circumstances. Self-punishing thoughts like, “I’m a failure,” “No one cares about me,” or, “I just can’t get anything right,” won’t do anything to help you, and these are typically the types of thought loops that were created at some point during your life experience due to experiences with people who didn’t know how to be truly loving and gave you the wrong idea about what love is supposed to look like.

Now, here’s the part where it gets cool: you have the option and the power to choose your beliefs. If you have a belief that says rich people are evil, then you are actually sabotaging your ability to earn more money. It’s a fear of being corrupted by the monetary gain. Similarly, if you believe that you are broken, damaged, unlovable, or somehow lesser than other people, then you will attract people who see you the same way and treat you accordingly because those types of people tend to be toxic. The reason why this cycle is perpetuated and repeated the way it seems to be is because the damage happens on an energetic level and we are not taught to be aware in the ways that serve us, but we are taught to be aware in the ways that serve the person in power. This is part of the reason why an awakening or becoming aware of something life-altering can end up meaning that you lose many relationships that you learned were not on the wavelength you wanted to be on. What happened for me was that I realized my definition of love is completely different from certain other people’s definition of love and how someone would be loving versus how someone would be unloving, manipulative, or narcissistic. Your journey may not involve the same types of experiences, but the waking up process will still be similar.

Breaking any cycle takes a lot of self-awareness, personal accountability, and courage to keep going despite any difficulties, challenges, or contrast that may occur. However, if you’re reading this, then there’s a good chance that you are someone who is choosing to break a cycle, and I don’t mean only cycles of abuse. I also mean thought cycles and patterns of behavior that no longer serve you or your best interests. Taking charge of your life and changing yourself can be a challenge, to say the least, but is always worth it. Embracing constant growth and evolution with a relaxed, optimistic attitude allows room for the energy of inspiration to flow more freely, and you begin to organically develop an appreciation for being able to do something you absolutely love.

Inspiration is like fuel for your inner landscape and emotional frequency, and the more often you can tap into inspiration, the easier it will be to tap in on command eventually. It is a practice. This isn’t the only way to help you show yourself love and take better care of your inner world, but it is a very good method! Try it out for yourself by doing something you’re inspired to do every day for at least a week, and when you notice something beneficial arising from it, be grateful and really bask in that feeling of gratitude and love for a focused few minutes. This sends out that energy from you and allows more things that feel the same way to be attracted to you and come into your life.

And you should know that you are worthy of happiness, joy, abundance, and unconditional love. All of these things are yours if you choose them because you are a spark of divinity who has maybe forgotten your own divinity. It’s okay to start remembering and revising your life to match your new revelations. You will be supported and you are safe, even if it doesn’t always feel that way when you focus externally. The more attentive you are to meeting your own needs and maintaining a mindfulness practice, the more effortless this process becomes, although it is an ongoing, ever-present, moment-to-moment process.

Thank you so much for being here and reading the Mindful Leader Blog! We hope you’ll join us again next week for a new article on mindfulness and how to begin systematically changing your reality from the inside out.

For more information about the Mindfulness Movement or the International Mindfulness Federation, please visit:

http://executivecoachinguniversity.com/mindfulness-movement