Buckminster Fuller, an American futurist, created the “Knowledge Doubling Curve”; he noticed that until 1900 human knowledge doubles approximately every century. By the end of World War II knowledge was doubling every 25 years. Today things are not as simple as different types of knowledge have different rates of growth. For example, nanotechnology knowledge is doubling every two years and clinical knowledge every 18 months. But on average human knowledge is doubling every 13 months. According to IBM the expansion of the “internet of things” will lead to the doubling of knowledge every 12 hours.
This explosion of knowledge brings challenges and obstacles of its own for everyone on a daily basis.
With the latest technology and global trends, business never stops. We have become connected and defined by what we do in a 24-7-365-day cycle. This influences our ability to concentrate, be decisive, act assertively, perceive objectively and manage time and stress effectively. Ambiguity and uncertainty can undermine our performance and no amount of technical expertise will save the bottom line. This fast-paced, deadline driven world can be detrimental for individuals, relationships, and organisations.
The technique that is proving more and more to overcome these challenges is Mindfulness. And no-one understood better what the implication of having this knowledge could mean than Buckminster Fuller.
At the age of 32, drunk, bankrupt with a wife and a small baby to support, he came across and understood the implications of how our thoughts, feelings and intentions create our reality. We are powerful energetic broadcasters capable of radiating energetic frequencies from fear, grief, powerlessness and despair (at the bottom of the energetic frequency) right up to the top of the energetic realm where love, appreciation, knowledge, empathy lies. The higher the vibrational frequency, the more magnetically attractive it will be. Thus, when we are languishing at the bottom of the vibrational spectrum – feeling powerless, despair and anger – we will attract more of that reality. By allowing only positive emotions and thoughts to manifest in his life,
Fuller, by the time he passed away in 1983 had become an architect, an inventor, an author, a leader. He had written 28 books, received 44 honour degrees and registered 25 US patents.
With an understanding of mindfulness, we can ALL use our energy to become the most fantastic, the most joyful wondrous, beautiful humans being we can possibly be!
Let’s begin an awareness of mindfulness by reading an extract from the writer Anna Quindlen when she spoke at a university graduation in the US:
“I’m a novelist. My work is human nature. Real life is all I know. Don’t ever confuse the two, your life and your work.
You will walk out of here this afternoon with only one thing that no one else has. There will be hundreds of people out there with your same qualification: there will be thousands of people doing what you want to do for a living. But you will be the only person alive who has sole custody of your life. Your particular life. Your entire life.
Not just your life at a desk or in a car or at the computer. Not just the life of your mind, but the life of your heart and your soul. People don’t talk about the soul very much anymore.
It’s so much easier to write a resume than to craft a spirit. But a resume is cold comfort on a winter’s night, or when you’re sad, or broke, or lonely, or when you’ve received your test results and they’re not so good.
Here is my resume: I am a good mother to three children. I have tried never to let my work stand in the way of being a good parent. I no longer consider myself the centre of the universe. I show up.
I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my friends and them to me. Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today, because I would be a cardboard cut-out. But I call them on the phone and I meet them for lunch.
I would be rotten, at best mediocre, at my job if those other things were not true. You cannot be really first rate at your work if your work is all you are. So, here’s what I wanted to tell you today:
Get a life. A real life, not a manic pursuit of the next promotion, the bigger pay cheque, the larger house.
Do you think you’d care so very much about those things if you blew an aneurysm one afternoon? Or found a lump in your breast? Get a life in which you notice the smell of salt water pushing itself on a breeze at the seaside, a life in which you stop and watch how a red-tailed hawk circles over the water, or the way a baby scowls with concentration when she tries to pick up a sweet with her thumb and first finger.
Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure, it is work. Pick up the phone. Send an email. Write a letter. Get a life in which you are generous. And realise that life is the best thing ever, and that you have no business taking it for granted. Care so deeply about its goodness that you want to spread it around. All of you want to do well.
But if you do not do good too, then doing well will never be enough. It is so easy to waste our lives, our days, our hours, and our minutes. It is so easy to take for granted your children’s eyes, the way a melody in a the symphony rises and falls and disappears and rises again. It is so easy to exist instead of to live.
I learned to live many years ago. I learned to love the journey, not the destination. I learned that it is not a dress rehearsal, and that today, this hour, this minute, this second is all we have. I learned to look at all the good in the world and try to give some of it back because I believed in it, completely and utterly. And I tried to do that, in part, by telling others what I had learned. By telling them this: Consider the lilies of the field.
Look at the fuzz on a baby’s ear. Read in the back yard with the sun on your face. Learn to be happy. And think of life as a terminal illness, because if you do, you will live it with joy and passion as it ought to be lived”.
So how do I become more mindful?
It does start with you. You are the departure point. Because at the heart of consciousness creation lies self-value. So, if you do not value yourself, appreciate your own importance, without ego. Able to truly appreciate who you are, you will not achieve your dreams, nor will you be able to help others, because quite simply you cannot pour from an empty cup. The greatest dysfunctionality I’ve seen in the last 30 years in coaching stems from a lack of self-regard. Believing that we are not worthy to live a magnificent life.
Do a short exercise to help you connect with your conscious awareness and access your own inner wisdom – to begin appreciating who you are. (Meditation: Source Sandra Ann Taylor)
(You can record this exercise on any recording device of your choice and play it back to yourself at home)
Close your eyes and move into that inner sacred space. There’s nowhere else to be right now.
Any noises you hear observe them and allow them to move into the background deepening your level of relaxation.
Take in a deep breath of peace and breathe out anxiety, just relax, letting go of all thoughts, all constrictions, just feel yourself melting into your chair.
Now take a look at your life. Notice any negative emotions and also the secondary emotions that you may feel. You may be feeling anxious about work and the secondary emotion may be fear or sadness. Nod when you become aware of these negative emotions
Now that you’re aware, we’re going on a journey to convert these negative emotions into blessings.
I would like you to take a deep look at your ideal self – who you are deep down at your very core, at your very essence – who you know you could be. Notice how your life could be different? Now imagine having a conversation with your ideal self where your ideal self wants to give you advice or wisdom to help you move forward with your life. To tell you how you can change or how you can relate to the issues that are troubling you. Listen quietly for the answer, taking your time. Allow this wisdom to filter into your mind and when you have received the message, nod.
Now breathe in your ideal self – the ideal self that moves with confidence and hope – want you to breathe in this image – draw it into yourself as if you are joining your current self to this ideal self seamlessly – melting into one, see yourself as if it is already you. Now expand your energy to include your super conscious mind, the mind that contains your high authentic self and invite your subconscious mind to fill your whole being with this energy.
Notice how you are feeling. Notice what is coming across the landscape of your mind, notice what is transpiring in your heart. Notice how this feeling can lead to changes in how you act and the choices you make every day – in this one and precious life.
Now allow this beautiful energy to cascade through all the cells in the body, bringing with it, the confidence, the knowingness of your potential and what you are required to do.
Sit quietly with your eyes closed, taking a moment to rest.
Bring your awareness back into your body. And when you are ready, slowly and gently open your eyes.
Write down any messages that you received that will help guide you on your journey to living a more mindful life. For further assistance in becoming more introspective and excavating a deeper understanding of mindfulness.
For more information contact My Pocket Coach on http://mypocketcoachapp.com/or call us on (011) 781-1444