What is Mindfulness?

Good Question - Here are some answers from leaders in the field:

"Mindfulness is a state of active, open attention on the present. When you're mindful, you observe your thoughts and feelings from a distance, without judging them good or bad. Instead of letting your life pass you by, mindfulness means living in the moment and awakening to experience" - Psychology Today

"Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way; on purpose, in the present moment, and non judgmentally" - Jon Kabat-Zinn

What is MindLESSness?

Ever get home after a long day and the entire day felt like a blur?  

Ever drive to work and not even remember doing so?  

Ever reacted to someone or something and only after the fact were able to reflect and wished you'd reacted differently?

If so, know you are not alone, everyone experiences this "autopilot". However, being in autopilot too often in some real sense cheapens our experiences and our life and can create real physical, emotional and psychological problems.  

Today, particularly in the western world, even more so in corporate America - we are in a constant state of "doing", thinking, analyzing, planning, judging, creating.  All of which are very important, absolute necessities, but it is also important and healthy and in our opinion an absolute necessity - to spend some time “not doing” Simply being, experiencing, experiencing our bodies and environment - building our mindfulness. 

How do we build Mindfulness?

Through Practice!  Mindfulness is similar to fitness - you can attend a seminar and learn about lifting weights and fitness training but that doesn't make you fit.  You need to go to the gym.  The "gym" in mindfulness is the practice, doing the meditations.  You can "know" you want to be more present in the moment, not react negatively to stressful circumstances etc. but in order to make those changes you must have the presence of mind in the moment and to build that presence you have to train - train your mindfulness.

One of the most important ways to train your mindfulness is through meditation.  Many meditators meditate for 30 minutes a day or more however, you can get started and see real benefit with shorter meditations.  Try starting with 5 minutes a day.  Pick a day to start and try to do it everyday for a few weeks.  In a very well known formal mindfulness program, MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction), participants are asked to meditate for 45 minutes a day for a period of 8 weeks.  

What is this Meditation Stuff?

"Meditation is a practice in which an individual trains the mind or induces a mode of consciousness either to realize some benefit or for the mind to simply acknowledge its content with becoming identified with what that content, or as and end in itself" - Watts, Alan. 11 _10-4-1 Meditation. "Eastern Wisdom:Zen in the West & Meditations"

A few brief notes on meditation:

-The benefits of regular meditation have been throughly researched and well documented (see some research studies here), below are a few benefits we have experienced that are also regularly cited in research studies:

-Meditation literally changes the brain.  Neuroscientists at Harvard University revealed that meditation literally rebuilds the brain's gray matter in 8 weeks. 

Led Meditations

A great place to start meditating is with led meditations.  Led meditations are simply an audio recording with a narrator providing some general direction.  A common meditation for beginners (and more seasoned practicers too) is the Body Scan.  A Body Scan is simply paying attention to different parts of your body.  Can you feel yourself sitting on your chair right now?  The weight?  The pressure? The sensation?Did you notice the sensation before you put your attention there?  Probably not.  A Body Scan takes your attention through your body and consciously notices these sensations moving from head to feet or vs versa.  

BODY SCAN MEDITATION

For beginners, just find a comfortable location, without distraction and listen to the recording.  Your mind will wander, because thats what the mind does, and all you have to do is come back to paying attention to your body.  Here is a short 5 minute Body Scan:

BREATH MEDITATION

One of the most used "points of meditation" is the breath. Simply watching your breath, not controlling it, but "riding on the waves of your breath".  There are also 1000s of led breath meditations.  Here is a short  5 minute meditation using the breath.

Continuing to Train

Just as in fitness, as you practice mindfulness, you will get stronger.  You'll likely find the practice easier, be able to meditate for longer periods, and start to see changes in your life.  We have also found that, again similar to fitness, you will notice when you haven't trained (meditated) lately and be really driven to train (meditate) soon.  Everyone is different but we think a realistic goal is having a practice with 20-30 minutes of meditation daily.  

When to Practice

Having a morning practice can be particularly powerful in that it sets the energy for the rest of the day but you should find what works best for you.  The benefits of meditation in some sense are instant, you will likely feel more relaxed and calm following a meditation.  However, there are even more powerful benefits that come from the consistent practice when the benefits permeate through your life, work and relationships.  We have found that we began noticing profound changes after practicing for 6-8 weeks consistently (everyday or 6 days a week).

The benefits of meditation and mindfulness are well documented.  In fact, there are even entire organizations devoted to research around mindfulness, for example: The American Mindfulness Research Association: https://goamra.org.  

Just as we know there are benefits to a healthy diet and fitness; the research shows that meditation and mindfulness practice produce real, measurable results. Meditation literally changes your brain!  It can be helpful to understand the benefits because the practice takes time and discipline; knowing that the time it takes to practice meditation is worthwhile and beneficial can be a great motivator to get started and stick with it.  

Here is a quick slide show done by Huffington Post citing 9 quick facts from mindfulness scientific research:

Here are two great videos about the scientific benefits of mindfulness:

READINGS

-Here is a great, brief overview on the benefits of mindfulness practice by Greg Flaxman and Lisa Flook, Ph.D. at UCLA.

Want to read more research?

There are thousands of websites, books, podcasts and apps about mindfulness.  Here are just a few that we have found helpful in our own mindfulness journey.  If you have suggestions for other resources that have been helpful to you in your practice, please let us know!

BOOKS

Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body & Mind to Face Stress, Pain & Illness by Jon Kabat-Zinn - Link

Search Inside Yourself: The Unexpected Path to Achieving Success, Happiness (and World Peace) by Chade Meng-Tan - Link

WEBSITES

www.freemindfulness.org

APPS

Buddhify - Great led meditations for different environments - Download App

Headspace - Led meditations, information and meditation plans -DOWNLOAD APP

Stop, Breathe & Think - Led meditations and mood tracker - Download App

RETREATS

http://www.dharma.org/meditation-retreats

https://www.bookyogaretreats.com/all/c/yoga-meditation-retreats

We are former business leaders and wellness experts on a mission to help humans become happier and more effective teammates and leaders through a unique mindfulness based training and experiential program

Given the current COVID environment we are offering a suite of courses and training programs digitally to help leaders and organizations with their balance, resiliency, stress management, happiness and joy. The ROI (return on investment) for businesses and leaders is clear - investment in mindfulness based wellness programs produces better productivity, perceived sense of wellbeing, team cohesion and retention (and even some studies are showing improvements in safety!)

Our most popular option for new customers is our 90 minute Intro to Mindfulness live digital workshop.

We have found that live workshops are the best way for beginners to learn meditation. The sessions are fun, interactive and the techniques taught are easy to use and implement - our certified instructors understand how to connect with workshop attendees.

A few of our recent customers

Recent feedback from a customer: “I just completed a 30 day intensive wellness retreat with many modules of training and learning.  We used technology to measure our heart rate variability, monitored our heart rate while performing different breathing exercises, had one on one sessions with counselors and coaches – it was all helpful and life changing.  However, out of all the advanced training and technology the most impactful session was by far and away Neil’s into to mindfulness course.  It was easy to understand and I’m practicing daily – I will take this with me and am so thankful for the opportunity to learn from him” – Stacey C.

Complete the below form to be contacted within 24 hours with more program information. See below for more information on our team.

Meet the Trainers

Neil Markey is the founder of Maryland Mindfulness and a former McKinsey consultant and C-level private equity, portfolio company, executive for $200-$500M businesses.  Neil is also a self proclaimed reformed “unhappiness” expert.  Prior to his business career, Neil was a captain in the Army Special Operations, 2d Ranger Battalion, and was deployed once to Iraq and twice to Afghanistan. While completing a dual MBA/MIA master’s program at Columbia University, Neil sought out a mindful meditation practice to improve his own mental fitness and quickly realized the benefits of the practice in his life, work and relationships. Neil has led and participated in multiple workshops, retreats and trainings and was an assistant instructor for the Mindfulness for Business Leaders program at Columbia University. In 2015, Neil completed a mindfulness teacher’s practicum through the MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction) teachers training program at Jefferson University’s Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine. While at McKinsey, Neil co-led the internal mindfulness program for consultants and was the first consultant to offer meditation and mindfulness training to clients and top teams.  Neil has taught meditation to professional athletes, special forces soldiers, business executives, doctors and healthcare practitioners, teachers and educators and even operators at our top level federal intelligence agencies. Neil hopes to continue to unveil the mystique and confusion around mindfulness and make a mindfulness practice easy to understand and accessible to everyone.

Mindfulness for Companies and Organizations

Mindfulness is great for the individual and great for businesses and organizations too.  Large companies have begun to see the real, measurable benefits of practicing mindfulness in the workplace; Google for instance has a robust mindfulness program based on the 8 week MBSR training program created by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts.  

Here are just a few other major companies with internal mindfulness programs: 

• APPLE

• GENERAL MILLS

• DEUTSCHE BANK

Whether you are interested in a single introductory workshop or a full multi-week comprehensive program - Neil and Kan can work with you and your team to meet your training needs.  Neil and Kan have worked with a broad range of clients from Fortune 500 CEOs to senior military leaders.   Please complete the contact form below and we will be in touch shortly.  We look forward to working together.  

Mindfulness and Safety

Mindfulness can not only improve employee satisfaction, creativity and retention but there is growing research around the benefits of mindfulness in regards to workplace safety.  The University of California Irvine found that 70% of major workplace injuries are the result of an employee who was inattentive or distracted.  Maryland Mindfulness can provide resources and onsite workshops for mindfulness based safety trainings and internal corporate programs.  

Interested in learning more about mindfulness and how to start your own practice?  Contact Us for more information about mindfulness workshops for individuals, businesses, schools and organizations.