David Green's Blog: Huffington Post blog about The World of Spies, Wealth Creation & Yoga - Posts Tagged "mindfulness"
Huffington Post blog about Stress, Spirituality and Leadership
As we know only too well, during the credit crisis, banks that had passed the rigid stress tests set out by the regulators nearly all went to the wall.
The directors and staff cleaning up the mess are under great pressure to react to the demands of regulators for even stricter controls and to shareholders who want their lost capital back. Stress-related enforced leave is affecting many including Hector Sants, the executive charged to sort out the regulatory problems at Barclays. This hit news last week along with a new international report as featured in The Evening Standard.
We are right to criticise the former bank directors who blindly oversaw what was happening under their noses, especially as 'saying sorry' or 'falling on the sword' with honour is no longer de rigeur. However there comes a point when we need to apply the hardest spiritual teaching of all: 'Hate the sin and not the sinner.' It's too easy to dehumanise politicians and bankers alike and blame them for the actions of a few.
If we do this, we will lose the employees and leaders who are moral, ethical and who care. A strong economy needs strong banks and strong banks need great leaders who rule with love and not the fist of fear.
Stress is an all too common factor in the modern world. The amount of people on anti-depressants, now dished out by doctors like sweets, is staggering. Recent UK government figures tell the story: 50 million prescriptions for antidepressants issued last year.
Meanwhile therapy is still a dark secret with most choosing to suffer in silence so as not to show weakness. As someone who spent his life in finance working 12-14 hour days and often weekends, I have worn the T-shirt. Luckily I was rescued by a magic remedy: Meditation. It changed my life.
Change came to me
I started my career in the once noble profession of merchant banking, traded eurobonds through the 1987 crash and was CEO of a finance house in a serious recession with interest rates at 15% . House prices halved in one year. By the time I hit my thirties, I was completely stressed out. Then, out-of-the-blue, I had a spiritual experience: a healer cured a year-long back problem literally overnight. This stunned me. I was rational but this was not.
Life then changed at a pace - healthy food, meditation, less alcohol and then no alcohol. I was being driven in a new direction - I met dubious 'new age' types who told me that "we are all one", had Dan Brown type of experiences in Egypt and met a 91-year-old guru from India. This guru taught me Kriya Yoga, which in modern day speak is the ancient meditation technique of breath mindfulness, taught to Gandhi and lauded by Steve Jobs.
The master told me that "with sincere practice of Kriya Yoga I could reduce my stress levels and extreme calmness would come in two minutes time!" I was sceptical but decided to believe him and invest just 1% of my hectic day in meditation. It was the best investment I ever made. I was amazed by the result. When stress came now, I had a powerful healthy antidote that actually worked. Meditation gave me an advantage that everyone looking for success is after - more focus, more endurance and drive to achieve their goals.
Be assured I am not a touchy feely new age yogi. I stumbled across meditation and used it to support my career. If it helped a cynic like me it can help you too.
Time to change and bring a spiritual attitude to business leadership
As I meditated more I realised that real success and contentment comes when we are calm and apply the spiritual qualities of love, faith, sacrifice and sincerity in our daily lives.
Having a spiritual attitude in business makes perfect business sense. We all feel good when business is going well - when clients and staff feel loved and wanted, they respond positively. The result is long term sustainable profit and reward for all - spiritually and materially.
Real satisfaction comes if we do business honourably. The line is crossed when greed and naked ambition take over without caring about the consequences.
Of course Gandhi was the original Change consultant, telling us to change ourselves and lead others to change by example.
In India, there was the golden era of Kalinga in 265 BC, when the respected businessman was highly revered and addressed as sadhava on a par with a sadhu or a holy man of the highest esteem. The sadhava carried out business with honour and conscious love and consideration for others.
So can this golden era come again and help overcome this new stress test? Only if we change course. Perhaps meditation breaks will soon become as common as cigarette breaks? Now there's a thought.
David Green's new book, The Invisible Hand: Business, Success & Spirituality, shows how business and spirituality really do go together. www.the-invisiblehand.com
The directors and staff cleaning up the mess are under great pressure to react to the demands of regulators for even stricter controls and to shareholders who want their lost capital back. Stress-related enforced leave is affecting many including Hector Sants, the executive charged to sort out the regulatory problems at Barclays. This hit news last week along with a new international report as featured in The Evening Standard.
We are right to criticise the former bank directors who blindly oversaw what was happening under their noses, especially as 'saying sorry' or 'falling on the sword' with honour is no longer de rigeur. However there comes a point when we need to apply the hardest spiritual teaching of all: 'Hate the sin and not the sinner.' It's too easy to dehumanise politicians and bankers alike and blame them for the actions of a few.
If we do this, we will lose the employees and leaders who are moral, ethical and who care. A strong economy needs strong banks and strong banks need great leaders who rule with love and not the fist of fear.
Stress is an all too common factor in the modern world. The amount of people on anti-depressants, now dished out by doctors like sweets, is staggering. Recent UK government figures tell the story: 50 million prescriptions for antidepressants issued last year.
Meanwhile therapy is still a dark secret with most choosing to suffer in silence so as not to show weakness. As someone who spent his life in finance working 12-14 hour days and often weekends, I have worn the T-shirt. Luckily I was rescued by a magic remedy: Meditation. It changed my life.
Change came to me
I started my career in the once noble profession of merchant banking, traded eurobonds through the 1987 crash and was CEO of a finance house in a serious recession with interest rates at 15% . House prices halved in one year. By the time I hit my thirties, I was completely stressed out. Then, out-of-the-blue, I had a spiritual experience: a healer cured a year-long back problem literally overnight. This stunned me. I was rational but this was not.
Life then changed at a pace - healthy food, meditation, less alcohol and then no alcohol. I was being driven in a new direction - I met dubious 'new age' types who told me that "we are all one", had Dan Brown type of experiences in Egypt and met a 91-year-old guru from India. This guru taught me Kriya Yoga, which in modern day speak is the ancient meditation technique of breath mindfulness, taught to Gandhi and lauded by Steve Jobs.
The master told me that "with sincere practice of Kriya Yoga I could reduce my stress levels and extreme calmness would come in two minutes time!" I was sceptical but decided to believe him and invest just 1% of my hectic day in meditation. It was the best investment I ever made. I was amazed by the result. When stress came now, I had a powerful healthy antidote that actually worked. Meditation gave me an advantage that everyone looking for success is after - more focus, more endurance and drive to achieve their goals.
Be assured I am not a touchy feely new age yogi. I stumbled across meditation and used it to support my career. If it helped a cynic like me it can help you too.
Time to change and bring a spiritual attitude to business leadership
As I meditated more I realised that real success and contentment comes when we are calm and apply the spiritual qualities of love, faith, sacrifice and sincerity in our daily lives.
Having a spiritual attitude in business makes perfect business sense. We all feel good when business is going well - when clients and staff feel loved and wanted, they respond positively. The result is long term sustainable profit and reward for all - spiritually and materially.
Real satisfaction comes if we do business honourably. The line is crossed when greed and naked ambition take over without caring about the consequences.
Of course Gandhi was the original Change consultant, telling us to change ourselves and lead others to change by example.
In India, there was the golden era of Kalinga in 265 BC, when the respected businessman was highly revered and addressed as sadhava on a par with a sadhu or a holy man of the highest esteem. The sadhava carried out business with honour and conscious love and consideration for others.
So can this golden era come again and help overcome this new stress test? Only if we change course. Perhaps meditation breaks will soon become as common as cigarette breaks? Now there's a thought.
David Green's new book, The Invisible Hand: Business, Success & Spirituality, shows how business and spirituality really do go together. www.the-invisiblehand.com
Huffington Post Blog: The World of Spies, Wealth Creation and Yoga
Yoga, India's greatest and most well known export, is relevant to every aspect of life and what hits the news. In Sanskrit, yoga has 32 meanings. These include business, wealth, friendship, union, to deceive, rules, carrying out war and even spying!
The USA is brilliant at wealth creation and has created a $10.3bn industry out of yoga, according to 2012 figures released by Yoga Journal - it is certainly practising one aspect of yoga with excellence.
However the USA doesn't fair so well regarding the yoga of spying. It finds itself in the uncomfortable position of getting caught for allegedly spying on other leaders - allies or not. It's surely naive to believe for one second that they are the only ones at it. As John Lyly the 16th century poet reminded us: "All's fair in love and war." It sometimes makes me wonder if reality is based on James Bond, '24' and The Bourne Supremacy, or the other way around.
Meanwhile in the UK, the yoga of employment is in the news. Should the unemployed do something in return for being supported by the taxpayer? The flat hand is also a mudra from yoga. It means the helping hand. Helping others is our nature but surely those being helped can also contribute to society positively.
As for the yoga of wealth, the judgement of how much it is ethical to earn is constantly discussed even if those rewarded earn their money through hard work, honesty and sacrifice. Somehow celebs and footballers are exempt from criticism compared to those who earn far less and financially assist or employ others.
The next financial crisis in the UK to affect wealth will be about mortgages. Firstly, interest rates will eventually go up bringing a mass of arrears. Secondly, those who knowingly entered into 'interest only' mortgages they could never repay, with or without the collusion of their IFA, will cry foul and find a way to sue the mortgage provider. This is highlighted in the Telegraph which indicates 1 million people will not be able to repay their capital. Even suitability is a meaning of yoga.
Regarding responsibility, what kind of world do we live in when we are told to go to a doctor before going on a diet, but not told to see a doctor before overeating or consuming damaging amounts of alcohol or drugs? Dependence is another meaning of yoga. Have we forgotten how to listen to our own bodies and do what is good for us or do we cover our problems by devoting ourselves to overindulgence which can only mask our hidden misery? Even devotion is another meaning of yoga.
At what point do we as individuals take the rap for our own actions and mistakes? A true yogi will take the pragmatic approach that mistakes are made for correction, never to make the same mistake twice and to learn from the mistakes of others.
And what about the yoga of war? Regarding yoga's meaning to fight, this is the basic meaning of India's foremost scripture the Bhagavad Gita. It is meant to refer to fighting our inner enemies - our negatives and not to manifest these externally. Aggression comes from inside. We cannot be warlike if we are calm inside.
Even in spiritual circles people do battle claiming that their yoga is more authentic than other yogas and that their guru is greater than other gurus. The same battles occur between religions. Yet I am sure that if Jesus, Moses, Buddha, Mohammad were having lunch together, there would only be love, respect and admiration for each other. The word religion has a similar meaning to yoga deriving from the Latin word religare which means to join.
So what is the remedy? Remedy is another meaning of yoga. I was lucky enough to have been taught yoga and meditation, by a great Kriya Yoga master from India called Paramahamsa Hariharananda. He told me that life is not a broken dream, to concentrate on my positive qualities and to never give up. He explained that our negative qualities of anger, pride, cruelty, insincerity, jealousy and unhappiness reside in the right hand side of the brain. If these are overactive then they will manifest and override our positives on the left hand side of the brain.
Practice of real yoga promotes our positive qualities and reveals our true nature: to be calm, strong, loving, humble, peaceful and united with others. Fifteen years later I am still practising every day. When I fail I try again.
Which type of yoga are you practising?
David Green is the author of The Invisible Hand: Business, Success & Spirituality. The book shows how meditation helps us to become more successful and content - both materially and spiritually. www.the-invisiblehand.com
The USA is brilliant at wealth creation and has created a $10.3bn industry out of yoga, according to 2012 figures released by Yoga Journal - it is certainly practising one aspect of yoga with excellence.
However the USA doesn't fair so well regarding the yoga of spying. It finds itself in the uncomfortable position of getting caught for allegedly spying on other leaders - allies or not. It's surely naive to believe for one second that they are the only ones at it. As John Lyly the 16th century poet reminded us: "All's fair in love and war." It sometimes makes me wonder if reality is based on James Bond, '24' and The Bourne Supremacy, or the other way around.
Meanwhile in the UK, the yoga of employment is in the news. Should the unemployed do something in return for being supported by the taxpayer? The flat hand is also a mudra from yoga. It means the helping hand. Helping others is our nature but surely those being helped can also contribute to society positively.
As for the yoga of wealth, the judgement of how much it is ethical to earn is constantly discussed even if those rewarded earn their money through hard work, honesty and sacrifice. Somehow celebs and footballers are exempt from criticism compared to those who earn far less and financially assist or employ others.
The next financial crisis in the UK to affect wealth will be about mortgages. Firstly, interest rates will eventually go up bringing a mass of arrears. Secondly, those who knowingly entered into 'interest only' mortgages they could never repay, with or without the collusion of their IFA, will cry foul and find a way to sue the mortgage provider. This is highlighted in the Telegraph which indicates 1 million people will not be able to repay their capital. Even suitability is a meaning of yoga.
Regarding responsibility, what kind of world do we live in when we are told to go to a doctor before going on a diet, but not told to see a doctor before overeating or consuming damaging amounts of alcohol or drugs? Dependence is another meaning of yoga. Have we forgotten how to listen to our own bodies and do what is good for us or do we cover our problems by devoting ourselves to overindulgence which can only mask our hidden misery? Even devotion is another meaning of yoga.
At what point do we as individuals take the rap for our own actions and mistakes? A true yogi will take the pragmatic approach that mistakes are made for correction, never to make the same mistake twice and to learn from the mistakes of others.
And what about the yoga of war? Regarding yoga's meaning to fight, this is the basic meaning of India's foremost scripture the Bhagavad Gita. It is meant to refer to fighting our inner enemies - our negatives and not to manifest these externally. Aggression comes from inside. We cannot be warlike if we are calm inside.
Even in spiritual circles people do battle claiming that their yoga is more authentic than other yogas and that their guru is greater than other gurus. The same battles occur between religions. Yet I am sure that if Jesus, Moses, Buddha, Mohammad were having lunch together, there would only be love, respect and admiration for each other. The word religion has a similar meaning to yoga deriving from the Latin word religare which means to join.
So what is the remedy? Remedy is another meaning of yoga. I was lucky enough to have been taught yoga and meditation, by a great Kriya Yoga master from India called Paramahamsa Hariharananda. He told me that life is not a broken dream, to concentrate on my positive qualities and to never give up. He explained that our negative qualities of anger, pride, cruelty, insincerity, jealousy and unhappiness reside in the right hand side of the brain. If these are overactive then they will manifest and override our positives on the left hand side of the brain.
Practice of real yoga promotes our positive qualities and reveals our true nature: to be calm, strong, loving, humble, peaceful and united with others. Fifteen years later I am still practising every day. When I fail I try again.
Which type of yoga are you practising?
David Green is the author of The Invisible Hand: Business, Success & Spirituality. The book shows how meditation helps us to become more successful and content - both materially and spiritually. www.the-invisiblehand.com
Latest 5* review on The Invisible Hand from Best Book Review UK
Book Review extract:
"I was given this book to read and review. I enjoyed it very much. I have come across many self-help and life change books before but, this book seems different in that it feels very honest and truthful.
The pace is good and the use of language is straightforward which makes it a very comfortable read. This is not a book about giving up material wealth for spiritualism, it in fact illustrates how a more spiritual way of life can improve all aspects of living, including wealth.
Being a recent convert to daily meditation, I can wholly connect with the writer's experience of finding out more about the inner self and our strengths. The discipline of regular meditation according to David Green has given him an understanding of love and happiness and success.
This is not a religious book and you do not feel preached to but the writer believes that faith in our own abilities, rather than faith in external powers, plays a large part in the help and love arriving from the Invisible Hand. One passage stays with me: "Meditation is the superfood for the mind. This superfood calms my mind and I worry less."
I would be happy to recommend this book as an inspiring read."
Rating: 8.5/10
J A Skinner
"I was given this book to read and review. I enjoyed it very much. I have come across many self-help and life change books before but, this book seems different in that it feels very honest and truthful.
The pace is good and the use of language is straightforward which makes it a very comfortable read. This is not a book about giving up material wealth for spiritualism, it in fact illustrates how a more spiritual way of life can improve all aspects of living, including wealth.
Being a recent convert to daily meditation, I can wholly connect with the writer's experience of finding out more about the inner self and our strengths. The discipline of regular meditation according to David Green has given him an understanding of love and happiness and success.
This is not a religious book and you do not feel preached to but the writer believes that faith in our own abilities, rather than faith in external powers, plays a large part in the help and love arriving from the Invisible Hand. One passage stays with me: "Meditation is the superfood for the mind. This superfood calms my mind and I worry less."
I would be happy to recommend this book as an inspiring read."
Rating: 8.5/10
J A Skinner
Meditation: Why Bother?
Many of us start the year with a list of New Years Resolutions. You could be someone who started to meditate but gave it up because your mind was busy and nirvana didn't manifest after the first week.
Or you might be practising mindfulness. Personally, I prefer to practise "mindlessness" - my mind is full enough already! True mindfulness leads us to address one question only: "Who am I?" This takes us to the path of wisdom, known in Sanskrit as jnani.
30th April is the birthday of Sri Anandamayi Ma, one of India's most revered female saints who passed away over 20 years ago. Her inspiring teachings remain relevant even today. She reminds us to keep going with our meditation and that the crucial time to continue is when nothing appears to be happening or when the mind becomes really restless.
Here are 10 tips to make it easier to meditate every day:
1. Don't give up! Meditation, like any successful activity, requires love and dedication. Choosing a set time each day to meditate is the best approach. Don't miss a day.
2. By committing just 1% of our day to meditation, in time, calmness and peace develops for the remaining 99%. Even 5 minutes is beneficial.
3. To meditate or follow a spiritual practice there is nothing to give up, but everything to gain.
4. Meditation on the breath in the chakras leads to "mind emptiness" which allows our intuition to flow freely. The secret is to ignore the good and bad thoughts during meditation and not to be worried by them.
5. Once we find a spiritual path that suits us it helps to stick to it. Jumping from pillar to post limits any gain. Authentic meditation techniques such as Kriya Yoga reveal themselves through sincere practice. It is better to find an experienced teacher who is calm, patient and joyful to encourage us when doubts arise.
6. Meditation increases the oxygen in the brain giving the benefits of better concentration and less stress. The calmer the breath, the calmer the mind.
7. Be master of the mind and not a slave to the mind. Focus more on the positive thoughts to create more positive actions and success in your daily life. Negative thoughts cannot survive in an environment of positivity.
8. It helps to keep good company and be surrounded by positive role models. Adding good habits leaves less time for bad habits.
9. Meditation, exercise and a healthy diet all contribute to make us happy, confident and successful. What we eat and drink substantially influences the mind. Remember, we also 'eat' through our eyes and ears, which influences the mind greatly.
10. Spiritual growth happens in its own time and needs to be nurtured. Mastery develops through practise and effort is rewarded with effortlessness.
David Green was taught to meditate by a 91 year old guru from India. In The Invisible Hand, he describes how his guru taught him to apply the benefits of meditation, diet and wellbeing to his daily life and stressful career.
Or you might be practising mindfulness. Personally, I prefer to practise "mindlessness" - my mind is full enough already! True mindfulness leads us to address one question only: "Who am I?" This takes us to the path of wisdom, known in Sanskrit as jnani.
30th April is the birthday of Sri Anandamayi Ma, one of India's most revered female saints who passed away over 20 years ago. Her inspiring teachings remain relevant even today. She reminds us to keep going with our meditation and that the crucial time to continue is when nothing appears to be happening or when the mind becomes really restless.
Here are 10 tips to make it easier to meditate every day:
1. Don't give up! Meditation, like any successful activity, requires love and dedication. Choosing a set time each day to meditate is the best approach. Don't miss a day.
2. By committing just 1% of our day to meditation, in time, calmness and peace develops for the remaining 99%. Even 5 minutes is beneficial.
3. To meditate or follow a spiritual practice there is nothing to give up, but everything to gain.
4. Meditation on the breath in the chakras leads to "mind emptiness" which allows our intuition to flow freely. The secret is to ignore the good and bad thoughts during meditation and not to be worried by them.
5. Once we find a spiritual path that suits us it helps to stick to it. Jumping from pillar to post limits any gain. Authentic meditation techniques such as Kriya Yoga reveal themselves through sincere practice. It is better to find an experienced teacher who is calm, patient and joyful to encourage us when doubts arise.
6. Meditation increases the oxygen in the brain giving the benefits of better concentration and less stress. The calmer the breath, the calmer the mind.
7. Be master of the mind and not a slave to the mind. Focus more on the positive thoughts to create more positive actions and success in your daily life. Negative thoughts cannot survive in an environment of positivity.
8. It helps to keep good company and be surrounded by positive role models. Adding good habits leaves less time for bad habits.
9. Meditation, exercise and a healthy diet all contribute to make us happy, confident and successful. What we eat and drink substantially influences the mind. Remember, we also 'eat' through our eyes and ears, which influences the mind greatly.
10. Spiritual growth happens in its own time and needs to be nurtured. Mastery develops through practise and effort is rewarded with effortlessness.
David Green was taught to meditate by a 91 year old guru from India. In The Invisible Hand, he describes how his guru taught him to apply the benefits of meditation, diet and wellbeing to his daily life and stressful career.
