Resilience: Sound Leadership for Our Times
We are living in times where our capacity to respond to complex change is becoming our greatest asset. How can we keep up? How can we continue to find creative solutions to our most pressing problems?
In our families, communities, and organizations, we are searching for a greater capacity to respond effectively to increased complexity. Sound leadership in these times doesn’t mean that we have all the answers. Quite the opposite, resilience means that we are able to stay awake, aware, calm, yet alert even while not understanding all of what is unfolding in front of our eyes. In other words, with resilience as our focus, we are able to think and act from a place of trust, confidence, humility and integrity whatever the situation may be.
Its nice to talk about these ideas, and imagine that they are possible, but how do we actually do this? How can we learn to respond intelligently, and therefore, effectively, in the midst of unprecedented chaos and complexity.
One of the key characteristics of leadership for our times is growing our capacity to tolerate the unknown - to be able to say, “let’s wait and see,” without letting our impatience send us into an unwise, knee-jerk action. As long as no one that you are responsible for is in immediate physical danger, you always have the option to wait and see...to read the landscape, to listen more deeply to what is happening in the environment around you, and to wait for the right action to emerge naturally - to present itself to you.
This takes practice - to have the discipline to stay present, still, and patient, even when every nerve, muscle, and bone in your body is ready to move and you just want the “problem” to be resolved. What kind of practice does it take? In other words, what might we practice, in order to develop this capacity to “wait, and see,” and listen for the most intelligent and effective action?
We engage in practices that open us to states of consciousness that help us to grow to new stages of our adult development. In other words, we upgrade our “internal operating system” so that we can do more with less.
Sound is a Vehicle for Consciousness, and thus, Leadership Development
The interdisciplinary field of sound healing, sound therapy, and mindfulness sound meditation brings forth approaches to the development of human consciousness that are vital in this day-in-age. Quite simply, sound is a vehicle for consciousness development. When we open ourselves to healing sounds, our minds are refreshed, our creative imagination awakens and is stimulated, we feel newfound lightness and clarity in our emotional body, and we receive relief from physical pain and body-related stress.
What’s more, healing sounds create rich fertile soil in an organizational culture.
Sound has the capacity to unify groups into functioning more effectively as teams. When we create sounds together,, we immediately feel more connected to one another. Tensions relax, and even dissolve, and new perspective emerges that allows and encourages us to see alternatives and previously unseen pathways that open up harmonious and creative solutions.
When we come together and create simple, healing sounds, such as humming and toning the vowel sounds (oo, oh, ah, eh, ee), we feel connected to ourselves, to each other, and to the purposefulness of our unique contribution to the organizational vision and mission.
This simple group process, which only takes 10 minutes a day, has the power to transform the culture of our workplace, and renew the important sense of sacredness and meaning in our individual and collective work. In short, mindfulness sound meditation, practiced in our workplaces, not only brings wellness to our whole team, it makes our work sacred again.
Sound revives our capacity to engage the underlying mission and purpose of the organization in every action. This is what brings meaning, significance and thus a sense of sacredness into the workplace culture. Through the use of sound, we are able to share the sacredness of our work with the whole team.
Why do I feel committed to bringing Mindfulness Sound Meditation into the Workplace?
I choose to work with organizations who have an eco-social mission because it is you who are changing our world into a world that is fit for our children, grandchildren, and great-grand children to live in and inhabit, joyfully and healthfully.
I heard a teaching once that “there is so much to do, so we better go slow.” To create an organizational culture that holds our great-grandchildren in its vision, we need to engage these wise words. We must learn to be mindful, clear, and full of care in navigating our way forward, in our individual lives and in our organizations. Mindfulness Sound Meditation opens this capacity within us, and renews it, on a daily basis - in only 10 minutes-a-day, sitting with your team, and “vibrating your body,” as I like to call it.
When we create sound together, we bring a sense of the sacred into our workplace, and when people create sound together, they feel happier, more connected to themselves and each other, and more engaged, energetic and enthusiastic. What does all religious practice have in common? Singing. Making sounds together.
Its so simple that its almost unbelieveable. We can make our organizations resonate at a higher level of consciousness and connection simply by making sounds together. Unlike religious practice, we don’t need to use words. We can just sounds - humming, toning vowel sounds, and deep, conscious breathing. This is mindfulness sound meditation.
Supplemented by a regularly scheduled Group "Sound Bath" Meditation experience - listening to singing bowls, didgeridoo, and tuning forks - your organization will open new doors and possibilities of connection, collaboration, and genuine aliveness, inspiration, creativity and excitement, in the workplace. With Mindfulness Sound Meditation, your team won’t want to go home at the end of the day!
To learn more, visit our workplace wellness page, and schedule your initial complementary session for your team, in your workplace.