The Day the Music Died: A Path to a New Way

There comes a point in both communal and individual life when what we have created no longer sustains us; we are often disoriented when we realize that this is so. Similar to immersion in a coherent piece of music, we have been going along in a certain octave and key, and the flow of that music carries us well enough.

But sometimes we reach a point when we need to change octaves or shift to a different key. The piece of music that has carried us is no longer sufficient, no longer true. Yet, nothing new has been written. We experience the loss of the old without anything to replace it. In Greek mythology, the phoenix burns down to a pile of ashes before it rises. This pause between a destructive cycle and rebirth is most difficult.

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Meditation in Business: A Potent Medicine with Potential Side Effects

A recent article in Harvard Business Review stated that meditation is “close to taking on cult status in the business world.” Indeed, in the past year the use of meditation in business seems to have hit a tipping point. A number of prominent leaders have begun to speak openly about their own personal meditation practices. General Mills, Proctor and Gamble, AOL Time Warner, Google, Target, Apple, Nike, McKinsey, and Goldman Sachs are only a few of the companies that are now offering meditation on the job. A strong case can be made for teaching meditation and mindfulness practices to leaders. We cannot be our best self in a chronic state of stress. We cannot lead at our highest level if we are chronically anxious. Many organizations are beginning to recognize that well being is integral to the foundation of good leadership. This awareness has been born out of the painful fact that the speed at which we are working and moving has outstretched our human capacity to keep up.

The typical response to this inordinate pressure is to go into emergency mode, triggering a fight/flight response. When this happens, all functions in the body that are not needed for emergency are tamped down including digestive and immune function. Clearly, this is not a good baseline state from which to work and live. And yet this is the inner state of most leaders. Over a decade ago, in an attempt to help my clients liberate themselves from this chronic state, I introduced contemplative practices into my wok.

This eventually lead me to ask the question, “What is the ideal inner state of a leader?” This is a critical question because every management and leadership skill passes through this inner filter. The ideal state of a leader is a paradoxical combination of being both relaxed and alert, calm and efficient, open and focused.

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When the Intellect Serves Intuition: A Portal to Innovation

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” Albert Einstein Artists, innovators, and the wise have found a way to tap into a creative field that has no boundaries and is directly accessible to all. This infinite field is sometimes referred to as pure consciousness or pure awareness. It cannot be fully grasped by the intellect. Often, in the midst of a creative act, people say “my work comes through me,” an attempt to describe the experience of being caught in a creative stream that is beyond the mind. When we tap into this boundless field we find ourselves in a rich flow of energy, insight, and innovation, ushering in a tremendous sense of well being.

We access this interconnected field of awareness through our intuition. Intuition comes to us through direct perception. It is holistic, integrative, and it arises from within.

Our intuition is guided by the context in which it appears. A farmer’s intuition will serve his or her relationship to the natural world, an artist’s intuition will inform color, content, and style, and a business leader’s intuition will inform vision, strategy, the organization of complex variables, and the ongoing, moment-to-moment interface with others. High social intelligence, which is the ability to accurately read other people, is largely informed by intuition.

Many of us long for those rare occasions when we are caught in the flow of creative expression. When this happens the mind is relatively quiet, time stands still or disappears, there is a high degree of focus and presence, and, paradoxically, a greater sense of spaciousness. How can we more consistently access this state?

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