Exercises / Practices

By Joy Reichart, New Ventures West, guest contributor

“Do not doubt your own basic goodness. In spite of all confusion and fear, you are born with a heart that knows what is just, loving, and beautiful.”
- Jack Kornfield

Improvement projects

A few days into the new year I began seeing articles and memes along the theme of, “Well, by now you’ve likely abandoned your new year’s resolutions, so now what?” It made me giggle, of course, but it also made me glad. It seems to point to acceptance of—o…

By John J. Murphy, Guest Contributor

“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.” – Albert Einstein 

Last month I shared an article on Reflection and I introduced a model called The Cycle for Ongoing Improvement Reflection: A Key Element of Mindful Leadership - Mindful Leader. This model highlights the value of taking time to examine our past experiences and it reminds us to look forward, exercising Vision as well. Otherwise, we can easily fall into The Experien…

By Joy Reichart, New Ventures West, Guest Contributor

Life has asked a lot of us over the last couple of years. Much has happened in our individual and collective worlds that in many cases defies imagining, and in many others is long overdue. We’d like to invite you into an exploration of all that has become integrated in you along the way.

One way integration happens

For an example of how integration happens, let’s look at the pandemic, since there is hardly anyone on the planet that it hasn…

By John J. Murphy, Guest Contributor

As I write this article, I am reflecting on a two-day executive workshop I recently delivered in Denver on mindful leadership and operational excellence. I do this every time I engage in any important activity. I take time to contemplate what I planned to do, what I did, what worked well, and what didn’t work so well. The military refers to these disciplined moments of reflection as AAR’s – After Action Reviews. The idea is to step back and mindfully evaluat…

By Jim Blake, Guest Contributor

Sooner or later, despite our best efforts, every business leader will have feelings of self-doubt, inadequacy, insecurity, and fear. Too often we ignore these feelings by pressing them down or attempting to put a positivity bandage on them. But avoidance will only lead to a cycle of repetition. Instead, we must have the courage to look at our pain, our sorrow, our trauma—and the feelings that result—without letting them define us.

Depending on your life experien…

By Joy Reichart, New Ventures West, Guest Contributor

The sun rose slowly above the redwoods surrounding the park as we ‘cooled down’ from that chilly morning’s tai chi practice. As we took our full minute to stand in stillness and center ourselves, I began to notice that the phrase “thank you” was riding on each exhale. Thank you for this exceptionally beautiful neighborhood. Thank you for the recent, much-needed rain that has popped everything into technicolor. Thank you for this circle of ki…

By Michelle L. Maldonado, Guest Contributor 

What happens to one of us, happens to all of us. These words repeat themselves like a song’s refrain playing over and over again in my mind just as strongly today as when my family and I first began to speak this phrase some time ago.

For many in our families, communities, and places of work, the vision and wish for equality and equity, coupled with wise and compassionate action to transform societal conditions, have been a life-long endeavor. For o…

By Tia Philippart, Guest Contributor 

There are plenty of workers who are guilty of taking work home with them. Not only are they finishing projects up at home, but they are ruminating about their work during their drives to and from the office when they are least capable of physically completing their work. The frustration of overthinking work tasks is detrimental to these commuters’ mental health. It might not be obvious at first, but ruminating upon work thoughts leads to an unsuccessful wor…

By Joy Reichart, New Ventures West, Guest Contributor

“In order to truly change, we have to let go of who we think we are. Early in life we had to form the ego, or the ‘little self,’ in order to protect our true self. Later in life, the way we originally protected ourselves begins to endanger the presence of our Self. What protected us from harm at the beginning will cause us great harm later in life if we don’t learn how to let go of it.“ 

—Michael Meade, from “The Captive Heart” (Episode 2…

By Joy Reichart, New Ventures West, Guest Contributor

Gearing up as nature is winding down

How are you feeling this September? If you live or grew up in a place where the school year starts around now, you may have a mysterious, bone-deep response to this time of year. In the northern hemisphere, days start shortening, leaves start turning, and most beings prepare to hibernate and migrate. Meanwhile, human life picks up its pace, yanking us in the opposite direction of our animal instincts. Th…