I was never a huge fan of colouring books as a child. As an adult, however, colouring books improve you emotionally & mentally, I’m a fan! Maybe because I’ve come a long way in my ability to stay inside the lines.

I found this article written by Robyn Reisch I thought it would be worth sharing. Ten Ways Adult Colouring Books Improve Your Emotional, Mental and Intellectual Health

I was never a huge fan of colouring books as a child. As an adult, however, I absolutely love them! Maybe it’s because I’ve come a long way in my ability to stay inside the lines. Whatever the reason, I am glad to have made the shift. I am the proud owner of colouring books depicting Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, and, of course, a magical garden. The stress relief that they provide is fantastic, and the sense of accomplishment after finishing a page may feel silly, but it is real! Thankfully, therapists around the world have given this practice a collective nod of approval.

HERE’S WHY:

1. People who suffer from trauma, PTSD, and excessive stress can benefit from colouring, as it is known to calm the amygdala. This is the part of the brain that, when activated, induces a fight-or-flight reaction. People with these conditions are often kept in a state of extreme worry and hyper-vigilance due to an overly active amygdala.

2. The decision to colour is a decision to spend time on something that is just for us. As adults, we often neglect to do this until we face a crisis that reminds us of the importance of self-care. Colouring is a simple daily reminder that our happiness matters.

3. Colouring forces us to practice mindfulness, which can ease symptoms of anxiety and depression. The practice of mindfulness can also promote feelings of fulfillment and joy.

4. Both the right hemisphere and the left hemisphere of the brain are used in balance when we colour. This is because we are completing a concrete task and using fine motor skills, while also thinking in an abstract way regarding the artful balance of pigments on the page.

5. Colouring uses the same areas of the brain that help us to focus and concentrate. By utilizing this part of the brain, we can increase our capacity for attentive thought.

6. Coloring also uses the area of the brain that is responsible for organizational and problem solving skills. By exercising it, we can significantly strengthen our adulting skills.

7. Does pulling out the coloured pencils soothe your soul? It’s no wonder. Colouring can induce feelings of comfort and nostalgia in those who enjoyed this activity as a child.

8. Colouring injects our lives with a much needed dose of creativity. As adults, we are often tasked with the same acts of tedium over and over again. This can dampen our creative spirit, and decrease our capacity for creative problem solving. Colouring is a way to add a creative outlet that does not involve extra stress or a serious time commitment.

9. A coloring routine can combat boredom and a lack of structure, both of which are known to contribute to a myriad of mental health issues. These include depression, anxiety, stress, substance abuse, eating disorders, anger management problems, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

10. Colouring mandalas is thought to have spiritual benefits, increasing our capacity for self-knowledge and connecting us to humanity and our world.

Colouring has been compared to meditation for its ability to calm the mind and feed the soul. With so many options when it comes to coloring books, there is sure to be one that suits your tastes. Take up the practice yourself, or give one to your stress-addled sister to help her make it through finals week. They are a whimsical way to look back on the good times, as well as a practical tool with which to cope with the problems we face in the present.


I was fortunate enough to have started Tai Chi a moving meditation at a very early age. Practising Tai Chi for over 25 years has allowed me to build a solid foundation to support the most important aspect of EQ development, which is attention training.

If you are interested in supporting yourself or helping the teams you manage, the links below can help you learn more about EQ training.

  1. What is EQ?
  2. Emotional Intelligence Training Course
  3. Learn to meditate with the Just6 App
  4. Meditation and the Science
  5. 7 reasons that emotional intelligence is quickly becoming one of the top sought job skills
  6. The secret to a high salary Emotional intelligence
  7. How to bring mindfulness into your employee wellness program
  8. Google ’Search Inside Yourself’

Walking has been practiced as a meditative technique for thousands of years. Turn your walk into a mindful moment integrate mindfulness into your life.

Walking is a simple way to fit mindfulness meditation into your daily routine.

Walking has been practiced as a meditative technique for thousands of years, and is a great way to integrate mindfulness into your everyday life. But it’s easy to slip into a semi-conscious state, where the legs are moving but the mind is thinking about something completely different. It can sometimes feel as though we’re so busy remembering, planning, and analyzing life that we forget to experience life as it actually is, rather than how we think it should be — and that’s where mindfulness comes in.

Mindfulness is being fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing. It keeps us from overreacting or becoming overwhelmed by what’s going on around us. While we all naturally possess mindfulness, it’s easier to do when practiced daily.

Whenever you are aware of what you’re directly experiencing, or your state of mind, you’re being mindful. And there’s growing research showing that when you train your brain to be mindful, you’re actually remodeling the physical structure of your brain.

Below is an exercise in walking meditation from the mindfulness experts at Headspace. It’s perfectly suited to a busy life. If you already take a daily walk, you need only direct your mind in a different way as you continue your routine.

If you live close to a park, river, or other pleasant outdoor space, try the technique in that environment too. There’ll be much less external distraction in these areas, which can change the way the exercise feels. It can also be useful to know how your mind works in contrasting environments.

Here are some tips:

  1. As you begin to walk, notice how the body feels. Does it feel heavy or light? Stiff or relaxed?
  2. Observe how it feels to walk without changing how you do it. It’s common to feel self-conscious but the feeling usually passes quickly.
  3. Be aware of what’s going on around you. Notice cars, other people, road signals, all the other things you’d expect to see. Notice the colors and shapes, the movements, and the stillness too. There’s no need to actually think about what you’re seeing — simply to see it and acknowledge it is enough.
  4. Turn your attention to sounds — what can you hear? Take a moment to be aware of them as they come and go in your field of awareness
  5. Next turn your attention to smells, some of which may be pleasant and others not. Notice how the mind wants to create a story out of each of the smells, how they remind you of somewhere, something, or someone.
  6. Notice physical sensations, whether it’s warm sunshine, a gentle rain, or a cold wind. Feel the soles of your feet touching the ground with each step, or the weight of your arms swinging at your side.
  7. Gently shift your attention to the sensation of movement in the body. Notice how the weight shifts from the right side to the left and then back again in a steady rhythm. Avoid artificially adjusting your speed. Instead, observe the way you walk and the rhythm you’ve become accustomed to.
  8. There’s no need to focus so intently that you start to exclude everything around you. In fact, be open to things happening around you and, when you know the mind has wandered off, just gently bring the attention back to the movement of the body and the sensation of the soles of the feet striking the ground each time.

Give your mind a break When you become more present and more aware, your mental habits will become more apparent. For example, how do you feel when your rhythm is broken by a red light, and you are forced to stand and wait? Do you feel impatient to get on with your walk? Do you find yourself jockeying for position with other people? Or do you feel a sense of relief at the opportunity of being able to rest for a few seconds?

Usually, we’re so caught up in the thoughts themselves, we hardly notice our reactions to all these things. Mindfulness is a way to bring us back to the here and now.

Mindfulness can help you reshape your relationship with mental and physical pain. It can also help you connect better. Ever find yourself staring blankly at a friend, lover, child, and you’ve no idea what they’re saying? Mindfulness helps you give them your full attention.

Mindfulness also focuses your mind and reduces the nattering, chattering voice in our head seems never to leave us alone. Isn’t it time we gave it a little break?

Source: Mindful, a mission-driven non-profit dedicated to inspiring, guiding, and connecting anyone who wants to explore mindfulness (mindful.org).


I was fortunate enough to have started Tai Chi a moving meditation at a very early age. Practising Tai Chi for over 25 years has allowed me to build a solid foundation to support the most important aspect of EQ development, which is attention training.

If you are interested in supporting yourself or helping the teams you manage, the links below can help you learn more about EQ training.

  1. What is EQ?
  2. Emotional Intelligence Training Course
  3. Learn to meditate with the Just6 App
  4. Meditation and the Science
  5. 7 reasons that emotional intelligence is quickly becoming one of the top sought job skills
  6. The secret to a high salary Emotional intelligence
  7. How to bring mindfulness into your employee wellness program
  8. Google ’Search Inside Yourself’

[Mindfulness is] the thing you swear you don’t have time or patience for and then realize it’s exactly what will give you more time, energy and patience. Mindfulness Practice Can Calm Your Mind and also refresh your managerial approach.

Sharing another article if found here.

If you’re like me, you’ve made the rounds at management training conferences. And after enjoying the sweaty cheese cubes and boxed chardonnay, you also may have walked away with some “tips” on how to get the most out of your people.

Set expectations for how you like to be managed. Communicate your preferences for how you like to receive information and output from your teams. Set the energy in the room and the pace you want for any discussion. Keep the dialogue moving and on track with consistent input. Do any of these ring a bell?

Basically, we’ve been trained to manage like it’s all about us, what we need and want from the people we lead. When the truth is, it’s not about us. Our job as managers is to create the environment that allows our people to thrive, which when you think about it, really means it’s all about them.

My epiphany on this topic came when my partners and I went through mindfulness training with our friends at Wisdom Labs. Let me clarify, mandatory mindfulness training (thanks, Paul Venables). For those of you who don’t know, mindfulness is the practice of paying attention in a particular way: in the present moment, without judgment and with real purpose. It is often credited with developing self-reflection, resilience and emotional intelligence (things we could all use in this business).

I was a bit skeptical about mindfulness training from the start. I don’t know how to meditate. I don’t like to sit still. I talk fast, my mind is always racing and I have a long to-do list (much to my husband’s delight). The thought of slowing down, tuning into my body, thoughts and what’s going on around me (basically, being more mellow) sounded neither interesting nor achievable.

But after putting it off a few times, I attended over six hours of mindfulness training and can now say it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done. It’s the thing you swear you don’t have time, energy or patience for and then realize it’s exactly what will give you more time, energy and patience. I suspected that mindfulness training might teach me to be a more in-touch person (a pretty tall order). I didn’t expect it to give me two of the most valuable management tips of my career.

First, before you walk into a room (whether it’s a one-on-one or a meeting with 20 people), set your intention for that interaction. Your intention is not the goal of the meeting (i.e. “let’s align on next steps”). It’s the approach and behavior you will bring to it. Positivity. Support. Vulnerability. Perspective. Your intention should be based on your values and ultimately your goals, but most importantly, your sense of what the people in that room need in order to be successful.

And second, be present in that interaction the entire time. That means not thinking about your next meeting or your to-do list or (I’ll admit it) what you’re going to have for lunch. Instead, actively participate in the conversation, which also means really listening to what someone is saying and not waiting for them to stop talking so that you can interject. And being willing to pivot if your intention is not in line with who you’re talking to and how they’re responding. (All of this is infinitely more do-able if you leave your phone at your desk.)

OK, I realize I may be getting an eye roll. This may sound like “squishy” stuff that gets in the way of the actual work that needs to get done amid shrinking budgets and timelines, crazy client demands and the never-ending hamster wheel of new business. But before you give up on me entirely, here’s a few data points.

Studies conducted by Pepperdine University and the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley found that employees with managers who practiced mindfulness had lower emotional exhaustion, less stress, a better sense of work-life balance and, most importantly, higher productivity. In addition, these employees were more effective peers and managers themselves as well as more emotionally intelligent. And let’s not forget that numerous studies have shown that the number one reason people stay at a job is due to their relationship with their manager.

And there’s actually nothing “squishy” about mindfulness. In fact, this practice has been employed by Eve Ekman (our amazing mindfulness guide) with doctors and nurses at trauma centers, with statistically significant results in reducing stress, anxiety and depression, and in turn, reducing mistakes and driving outcomes. (And if trauma centers aren’t a good comp for ad agencies, I don’t know what is.)

So, to all you managers out there: just give it a try. When you walk into your next meeting remember that it’s about everyone who’s there except you. And that if you set your intention based on what they need and are truly present in that interaction, you may just get more out of them. And you’ll maybe even feel more mellow in the process.


I was fortunate enough to have started Tai Chi a moving meditation at a very early age. Practising Tai Chi for over 25 years has allowed me to build a solid foundation to support the most important aspect of EQ development, which is attention training.

If you are interested in supporting yourself or helping the teams you manage, the links below can help you learn more about EQ training.

  1. What is EQ?
  2. Emotional Intelligence Training Course
  3. Learn to meditate with the Just6 App
  4. Meditation and the Science
  5. 7 reasons that emotional intelligence is quickly becoming one of the top sought job skills
  6. The secret to a high salary Emotional intelligence
  7. How to bring mindfulness into your employee wellness program
  8. Google ’Search Inside Yourself’

We often do not even consider that we could have a problem with meditation instructions, or that the meditation instructions may not be the “right” ones for us.

The problem with meditation instructions is that one often assumes if it works for someone else it should work for you. I came across this article and thought it would be good to share

BEFORE WE MEDITATE for the first time, we have ideas about what meditation is, what it does, and where it should lead. Then when we get our introductory instructions—either out of a book or magazine, or from a teacher leading a class or a retreat—we’re hopeful that the instructions will fulfill our purpose for meditating and that meditation will do for us what it has reportedly done for others. We look forward to becoming calmer, to our physical pain diminishing, and to our emotional stress and turmoil being eased; we anticipate meditation granting us the peace of mind we so earnestly seek.

We often do not even consider that we could have problems following the meditation instructions, or that the meditation instructions may not be the “right” ones for us. We assume that meditation practices are proven to work for most anyone, so when we experience frustration with the task of meditating, we often lay the blame on ourselves. We don’t see that the meditation practice itself has something to do with it.

Contemporary Buddhist teachers often instruct that the real obstacles, or hindrances, in meditation are negative emotional states or unskillful types of thinking. Unfortunately, this view only deflects our attention from what actually keeps us stuck in our practice: the way we do our meditation practice. In fact, it is not what we experience in meditation that creates the hindrance, it is how we apply the instructions. Having negative emotions and discursive thoughts are common meditation experiences, but they do not control our practice in the same way the meditation instructions do.

Over the last two decades in which I have been teaching meditation, I have observed that much of our frustration, struggle, feelings of failure and low self-esteem as meditators is linked to the way we have been applying meditation instructions. This is in part due to the way that we hold on to the correctness of the instructions and how we adopt rules that prohibit certain experiences, both of which can create impasses in our meditation practice. These are two of the most common causes for the experience of being stuck.

Many of us encounter an impasse when we are trying to figure out how to do the instructions correctly. The notion that there is a definitive right way of doing a particular meditation practice keeps the impasse alive. We assume that if we can figure out the right way to sit, and just do it, our sittings will be harmonious.

For example, instructions for watching the breath in the Vipassana tradition often raise questions about following the instructions correctly. Is it correct to observe the breath at the nostrils or the abdomen? If it is correct to observe it at the nostrils, how are you supposed to observe it—as a sensation of air passing over your upper lip on the way out and as a sensation in your nostrils on the way in? Is it okay to follow the breath into the lungs? And what about the abdomen? Are we noticing the breath going in or out of our bodies, or are we supposed to notice the rising and falling of the abdomen only? And why the abdomen? Don’t we naturally experience our chest heave and fall as we breathe? What about being aware of the sound of the breath? That, too, is a part of our experience of breathing. But Vipassana teachers often tell us that there is one correct way of observing the breath and that other ways are not right.

The Vipassana tradition and most other Buddhist traditions generally discourage doubting the meditation instructions we are given. We are often told that doubting our teachers and their traditions is a hindrance to practice, but this puts us in a bind: If we discover a way to do a meditation practice that seems more conducive to concentration and wisdom than the established way, we have to either disregard our discovery or disobey the instructions. If you take the approach of not doubting the instructions, you are likely to try to follow the instructions with more effort in order to make them work as well as, or better than, the way you discovered on your own.

But this direction often strengthens obstacles instead of weakening them. Pushing yourself to follow the instructions more correctly, and then finding yourself stuck in similar ways, and then trying harder to follow the directions often just puts you in cycles of meditative success and failure. As long as you are primarily focused on doing a practice correctly, you will only examine the practice through the lens of figuring what you are doing wrong so that you can stop doing that and just do the practice in the right way. But what you don’t see is what the practice is doing to you.

Although we are not often taught this, the most skillful way through an impasse in meditation is to become aware of it and of what holds it together and keeps it running. To do this, you need to keep doing the meditation instructions that have gotten you to this point, but instead of following them “harder,” try approaching them in a softer, gentler manner. Do them loosely, and don’t do them all of the time. Instead, try doing them when it is easy to do them, or, when you feel you need to. But also be willing not to do them every single time you feel the need.

By adding flexibility and choice to a meditation practice that has become rigid and restrictive, we move our attention away from a narrow focus on doing the instructions correctly to a broader awareness of how we are doing the instructions. We discover that sometimes we are using the instructions to get to some desired or anticipated meditative state and other times we are using them to avoid certain feelings, memories, or thoughts. Then there are those times when we would otherwise feel lost and confused in our meditation sittings and need the instructions as an anchor. There are many ways we have held onto the instructions we have received, so by giving more space around them and giving ourselves permission not to follow them, we can begin to see what they are actually doing for us.

AS WE LEARN TO WORK skillfully with the instructions instead of resolutely pushing ourselves to follow the instructions as correctly as possible, we will begin to see the other most common cause for impasses: adopting rules that prohibit certain experiences. On a basic level, meditation instructions are rules you should follow during meditation. If they don’t start out as rules, they eventually turn into rules. A simple instruction to bring your attention back to the breath when the mind wanders becomes a rule prohibiting thinking, reminiscing, planning, drifting, contemplating, and so on. Even if a teacher then states that you should practice greater acceptance of the wandering mind and only gently bring your attention back to the breath, the rule prohibiting mind-wandering still remains intact. The way we tend to relate to contradictory meditation instructions (which is what “Bring your attention back to the breath” and “Have greater acceptance of the wandering mind” are) is to resolve the contradiction in favor of the rule that clearly exhibits the fundamental principle of the meditation practice: to train one’s attention to stay with the breath.

The kinds of impasses we get into when we meditate according to a system of rules are those based on controlling and dominating our experiences. We have a rule about not drifting off in meditation, and so we work to stop ourselves from doing so. We have a rule about not rehashing the conversations and events of the day, so we try to get through those segments of our sittings and on to something more “meditative.” We have a rule to sit with our backs straight, and so we correct our posture each time it slumps. We have rules about not fantasizing or planning or ruminating or working on projects, and so we devalue or disregard those experiences.

I suggest you become aware of the rules in your meditation practice, and not just try to stop them, for that would just be creating a rule not to have rules. You will have rules in your meditation practice, but they need to be ones that serve you rather than oppress you. The rules need to be open to questioning, to reassessment, and to further refinement. Global rules, where you have to do the same thing in all instances, are not as helpful as rules that have specific contexts in which they are used. For example, a rule to “always stop one’s mind from wandering” is not as helpful as a rule to “disengage from planning the execution of a harmful action” (such as seeking revenge).

Are there meditation instructions that don’t foster the exclusion of experiences? Even when a meditation practice is presented as accepting of everything, as open to the full range of one’s experience, there are still experiences—such as drifting off or having mundane thoughts—that tend to be excluded. It might be quite a revolution in our thinking about meditation to consider including all types of experiences in our regular sittings. If you are going to include the various experiences of thinking, you may find yourself thinking quite a bit more than your comfort level. If you include drowsiness and dull mind states, you may find yourself falling asleep. “How would this be meditating?” you might ask.

There is a middle way here between the extremes of rigidity and passivity, one that offers a more legitimate form of meditation. The beginning instructions I have given for nearly two decades provide just enough of a grounding in the seated body for the meditator to develop a capacity to be with thoughts, feelings, and sensations as they arise. These suggestions are loose and open, but you can make them tighter if you need to. The instructions are as follows:

Sit in a comfortable position, one that you would not need to change duringthe sitting. If you do need to change your position, do so slowly and consciously. You may also lie down, but try to adopt a position that you would not normally sleep in.

Bring your attention to the touch of your hands resting in your lap or on your thighs. But do not try to hold your attention there. Allow thoughts, feelings, and sensations to arise, and let your attention go with them.

If your attention leaves the touch of the hands for a long period of time (several minutes), you can gently bring your attention back. Otherwise, just sit with what comes up. If you encounter an experience that is hard to tolerate, after a while of being with it you can bring your attention back to the touch of the hands. But only hold it there long enough to feel grounded or relaxed, and then, if your mind goes into that kind of experience again, just let it.

People have made rules out of these instructions, and you might too. That is fine. At some point, hopefully, you will become aware of those rules. But, for now, it is enough to know that there is no way to do this wrong, as it is not about following an instruction as much as about allowing your experiences to unfold. Seeing for yourself, from your own experience, what works and what doesn’t is what meditation is all about.


I was fortunate enough to have started Tai Chi a moving meditation at a very early age. Practising Tai Chi for over 25 years has allowed me to build a solid foundation to support the most important aspect of EQ development, which is attention training.

If you are interested in supporting yourself or helping the teams you manage, the links below can help you learn more about EQ training.

  1. What is EQ?
  2. Emotional Intelligence Training Course
  3. Learn to meditate with the Just6 App
  4. Meditation and the Science
  5. 7 reasons that emotional intelligence is quickly becoming one of the top sought job skills
  6. The secret to a high salary Emotional intelligence
  7. How to bring mindfulness into your employee wellness program
  8. Google ’Search Inside Yourself’

Emotional intelligence may be the most important soft skill for the workforce of tomorrow. Emotional intelligence becomes a key ingredient for successful teams. Can you train for emotional intelligence? Yes see our course to help youy and your employees.

Found this article here. Thought I would share.

As technology evolves faster than workers’ technical skills can keep up, employers are being forced to upskill employees on their own. To that end, they’re focused on workers with good “learnability,“ experts say.

But they’re not just training on technical skills; they’re trying to teach communication, leadership, time management and, increasingly, emotional intelligence. EI (or EQ) is generally considered a self-awareness that allows an individual to identify and express their own emotions and manage their response to things that trigger them. It allows us to recognize and understand emotional responses in others and influence them, if needed. But can you really train for EI?

Training for EI

Most experts agree EI is not an inherent trait: As children, we were trained to manage our emotions. If our parents were successful, we don’t throw temper tantrums as adults. In the workplace, EI is a valuable skill; after all, few work in a complete vacuum, and relationships between colleagues at all levels are influenced by emotions. The ability to recognize triggers and manage responses is a necessity. The ability to recognize what triggers others and influence them is a skill.

EI can be refined to help workers control their own emotions and build stronger relationships with peers. Managing disruptive, knee-jerk responses to emotional triggers reduces unwanted behaviors. And the ability to tap into positive, self-driving emotions — like confidence and enthusiasm — lead to more beneficial outcomes. EI can help manage conflict, lead through challenges and build relationships.

EI is learned and developed over the course of one’s life, according to Marc Brackett, founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and a founding advisor at the Oji Life Lab. “We’re not born with a rich emotional vocabulary or the knowledge of how regulate our feelings,” he told HR Dive. We’re taught to control our emotions and while we all feel emotions throughout the workday, “EI development provides the ability to articulate and manage them effectively.”

Why it’s so important

It’s easy to see where that fits into the workplace. “Emotional intelligence becomes a key ingredient for successful teams and the relationships between managers and their direct reports,“ Kristen Fyfe-Mills, associate director, communications at The Association for Talent Development told HR Dive via email. “It is an ingredient that can fuel collaboration and cooperation across teams and contributes to a positive culture.”

When someone has cultivated their emotional intelligence, they’re often able to see with a broader lens, not just their own perspective and experience of the world, according to Shelley Osborne, head of learning and development at Udemy. In the workplace, this can translate to increased empathy, self-awareness, accountability and, ultimately, improved relationship management, she said.

“Work is all about people and interactions,” according to Robin Stern, associate director of partnerships at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and an Oji Life Lab founding advisor. ”Emotions impact our focus and our ability to work, to make good decisions and judgments. Emotions are contagious,” she said. Similarly, the ability to read emotions is important: they guide us to avoid or approach people, she explained, which affects teams and collaboration.

It makes sense, then, that employers might want leaders with high EI. “Someone with high emotional intelligence assumes good intent and avoids jumping to conclusions when interacting with their colleagues,” according to Osborne. They don’t immediately point fingers when experiencing a conflict with a co-worker. “They seek to understand and uncover the core of the issue and better understand others’ perspectives,” she said.

Teamwork and collaboration stand to benefit the most, according to Kathi Enderes, VP of talent and workforce research at Bersin, Deloitte Consulting LLP. Those items are “at the heart of today’s most successful organizations, and team members who are emotionally intelligent will work together best,” she wrote to HR Dive.

Selling it to employees

​EI can help anyone work better together, according Andrea Hoban, Oji Life Lab’s head of learning. She said she works with a wide array of clients, from surgeons to ship builders and everyone in between. “It’s acknowledgement that if I don’t know how I’m feeling, I may have an unregulated response that could create a relationship that’s difficult.”

And while it may seem insulting to tell employees they need to improve their emotional control, a good pitch can make the difference. Approaching the issue from the perspective of building stronger awareness and more cohesive relationships may be the key.

Teams may be interested to know that such training can help them work more effectively together. For some groups, like nurses and physicians, Hoban said, it even enhances their ability to work with patients and their families more successfully. The training can benefit personal relationships, she noted, even giving individuals the tools to deal with teenage children.

Even employees or leaders who may already have strong emotional intelligence can stand to uncover areas with room for improvement, said Osborne; “Self-awareness is a key component of emotional intelligence and employees who seek honest feedback will reap the rewards of personal and professional development as a result.”

Added bonuses for the future of work

Leaders with high EI also may be critical to their organizations’ futures. “Emotional intelligence is a key factor to unlock inclusion and innovation,“ said Enderes. A team with emotionally intelligent members will generate more ideas, create more opportunities to voice these ideas and provide more contribution to the overall business.

It’s also perhaps the only component of intelligence that machines have not mastered (yet) and therefore is the only difference between humans and artificial intelligence, according to Enderes; ”As automation replaces tasks that machines are best at, having people that are best at what humans do – empathy, sensing, adjusting interactions – will enable businesses to create a powerful human/machine collaboration.”


I was fortunate enough to have started Tai Chi a moving meditation at a very early age. Practising Tai Chi for over 25 years has allowed me to build a solid foundation to support the most important aspect of EQ development, which is attention training.

If you are interested in supporting yourself or helping the teams you manage, the links below can help you learn more about EQ training.

  1. What is EQ?
  2. Emotional Intelligence Training Course
  3. Learn to meditate with the Just6 App
  4. Meditation and the Science
  5. 7 reasons that emotional intelligence is quickly becoming one of the top sought job skills
  6. The secret to a high salary Emotional intelligence
  7. How to bring mindfulness into your employee wellness program
  8. Google ’Search Inside Yourself’

Yoga is a phenomenal form of physical exercise, mental discipline, and spiritual healing. You know it’s awesome when you get all these benefits of yoga. See the 11 benefits of yoga.

I’ve been doing Tai Chi for over 23 years and I’ve benefited greatly from all aspects of it. But I would also highly recommend the benefits of Yoga as it is an absolutely phenomenal form of physical exercise, mental discipline, and spiritual healing. You know something is awesome when it can do all of those things at once. Anyway, there is a long list of benefits that you can and should take advantage of that all come with the simple thing that is Yoga. You may think that Yoga is only for women, but that is not so, especially seeing as more and more men are taking it up every day. No matter if you are a man or woman, Yoga has many different advantages for the mind and body, all of which you absolutely need to start taking advantage of as soon as possible!

What Is Yoga?

Yoga is originally a Hindu form of exercise, stretching, and mental training. In fact, it is also seen as a spiritual and ascetic discipline as well as a physical one. Yoga is widely practiced around the world and is revered for its mental and physical benefits. It involves a lot of mental focus, breathing control, meditation, and simple poses which are meant to strengthen both your body and mind. There are many different variations of Yoga, with a popular one being hot Yoga, a type which is practiced in a very hot room.

Benefit #1: Muscle Strengthening

One big benefit that you get from doing some regular Yoga is the strengthening of your muscles. Yoga involves a lot of positions and movements that force you to hold up your body weight in one way or another, and in some pretty odd looking positions too. The obvious result of this is that your muscles will become stronger over time. A big part of this involves your back muscles and your core, as many Yoga poses are oriented towards challenging those muscles. This is however also true for virtually every other muscle in your body too. Everything from your forearms and shoulders to your glutes and calves will become stronger thanks to some Yoga classes. Of course, we all want strong muscles, and that is not only because they look sexy. Strong muscles help to increase our physical performance, they make sports easier, they make us run faster and jump higher, and they help to make a plethora of daily tasks much easier, not to mention that it doesn’t hurt our self-esteem either.

Benefit #2: Cartilage & Joint Protection

Yet another benefit that you can reap from doing Yoga is that it is fantastic for the health of your cartilage and for your joints. This is in part due to your increased flexibility thanks to Yoga, especially when it comes to the health of your joints, but there is even more to it than that. You see, the problem is that as you age, especially if you are not physically active, your joints, or to be exact, the cartilage that helps your joints move smoothly, starts to break down and deteriorate. This can cause some seriously painful problems such as arthritis in your old age, plus having no cartilage between your joints will be painful either way, not to mention cause a limited range of motion. Yoga is a great way to mitigate the effects of disability and prevent things like arthritis because of the nourishing effect it has on the cartilage in your joints. You see, the cartilage in your joints requires nutrients just like every other part of your body. The difference is that your cartilage really only gets necessary nutrients when it is in motion, such as during Yoga. Yoga has the effect of squeezing your cartilage, which is very beneficial because your sponge-like cartilage needs to be squeezed to get nutrients.

Benefit #3: Flexibility

One of the biggest benefits that you will be able to reap thanks to some regular Yoga is increasing your flexibility. You may not be all that flexible yet and touching your toes might seem akin to flying under your own power when it comes to your first Yoga class. However, as you go back to your Yoga class day after day, you will notice your muscles, joints, and ligaments getting looser and looser. Before you know it, you will be bending over backward and wrapping yourself up like a pretzel without any issue at all. Many, if not all of the poses that you do in Yoga will stretch out your body in one way or another, thus making you more flexible as time goes on. Being more flexible is great for many different things including preventing pulled muscles and other injuries, plus it can be pretty useful when it comes to your love life as well. Being more flexible is also useful in terms of relieving certain aches and pains. For instance, having tight hips can cause knee pain, a tight upper back can cause back pain, and tight hamstrings can lead to severe lower back pain, all problems that can be solved with some simple Yoga.

20 Minute Yoga for Flexibility | Level 1

Benefit #4: Strengthening The Immune System & Regulating The Adrenal System

Yoga can also be very beneficial for your immune system because it helps to drain your lymphatic system. When you do Yoga, you stretch out your muscles and compress them at the same time, plus you move your organs around too. This has the effect of draining a viscous fluid known as lymph out of the various lymph nodes in your body. This fluid is something that your body will produce on its own, but the new fluid that is created after the old fluid is drained out, is much more effective at disposing of toxic chemicals and waste, killing cancer cells, and fighting off infection in general. Another reason why Yoga helps you improve the function of your immune system has to do with the levels of cortisol in your body. Regular Yoga can help lower cortisol levels and that is generally a good thing. Yes, increased levels of cortisol can temporarily increase immune function and it can help with memory too, but that is not the case for prolonged periods where cortisol levels are high. Prolonged periods of high cortisol levels can damage your immune system, decrease your long and short term memory, can cause depression, and even osteoporosis too. Therefore, Yoga can help prevent all of those conditions by regulating your adrenal glands and your overall cortisol levels.

Benefit #5: Heart Health & Increasing Blood Flow

Now to be clear, most of the things you do in Yoga are not technically considered to be aerobic exercises, which is the kind of exercise needed to increase the health of your heart, but that is not always true because Yoga can actually improve your heart health. You can actually perform Yoga at a fast pace or engage in certain types of Yoga which incorporate aspects of aerobic fitness. In essence, this means that you get your heart pumping at an aerobic level, which means that it is pumping much faster than normal. Your heart beating much faster than normal is akin to lifting weights for your muscles, or in other words, it makes it stronger and more efficient. Having a healthier heart has many different benefits including the lowering of your resting heart rate, the increased efficiency of your heart, a reduced risk of heart attacks and strokes, a reduction in heart and arterial disease, and increased endurance too. One of the biggest benefits that you get from Yoga and aerobic exercise in general is that it will help lower your blood pressure, plus of course, provide you with a longer and healthier life in general. Moreover, many Yoga exercises and poses also help to increase circulation, and not only because your heart works more efficiently. This is because poses such as those where you twist parts of your body help to wring blood out of your organs, send it back to your lungs and heart for oxygenation, and ultimately help to bring more fresh blood to your organs, something which benefits them in multiple ways. Certain poses such as handstands can also help blood flow more readily from the legs and pelvis back to your heart, something that can help you if you suffer from swollen ankles, swollen legs, and kidney problems too. Finally, Yoga can also help create more hemoglobin in your blood, which are the things that carry oxygen throughout your body, thus giving your body a better supply of oxygen, something which it needs for many different things including physical activity. On a side note, the aerobic effects of certain Yoga poses and types of Yoga also help to increase the efficiency at which your lungs absorb and process oxygen, which is also known as VO2, thus allowing your body to use more oxygen. The combination of better circulation, a more efficient heart, more oxygen carrying hemoglobin, and stronger lungs all lead to one main benefit, that being increased muscular endurance and a better ability to perform physical activity for a prolonged period of time.

Benefit #6: Maintaining A Healthy Digestive System

The next benefit that you get from doing Yoga is that it can prevent and control digestion issues such as irritable bowel syndrome, and can help you digest food better even if you do have a healthy digestive system. This is because Yoga involves a lot of twisting poses that cause your bowels and intestines to contract and loosen. The long term effect of this is that Yoga stimulates your body to pass food and waste through itself more quickly, thus aiding in proper digestion, good nutrient absorption, and regularity in the bathroom. Instead of pounding back glasses full of that disgusting Metamucil, you can always try doing some Yoga instead.

Benefit #7: Bettering Your Posture – Your Back

Another benefit that you can get from doing even minimal Yoga is an improvement in your overall posture. Since Yoga does a lot to make your more flexible and limber, and also helps to strengthen your core and back muscles, the result will be better posture. Having good posture, which means having a straight back with your head directly above it, requires a strong core, back, shoulders, and good neck muscles too. Yoga is something that through various poses will help strengthen all of the necessary muscles needed for good posture. Having good posture is not only good for looking more confident and taller, but also for your physical health. When you have bad posture, you will most likely be slouched over with your head leaning forward, something that can cause fatigue in your neck and back. When you have good posture with a straight back and your head perfectly above your back, it takes a lot less effort for your muscles to keep you balanced and upright, therefore decreasing muscle fatigue. Moreover, having good posture is also a great way to relieve daily pains. This is because bad posture often leads to neck, back, and leg pain, all things which some regular Yoga exercises can help get rid of. On a side note, Yoga is also good for your back, especially your spinal disks because they can get damaged and compress nerves. Some simple Yoga moves can go a long way in decompressing your spine and the nerves in it, plus it helps deliver much-needed nutrients to your spinal cord too.

Benefit #8: Increased Cognitive Abilities

Something else that Yoga is shown to help you with is with a long list of cognitive abilities. First of all, Yoga requires a whole lot of focus and concentration, both things which can be improved through training. Without concentration and focus, you can’t really do Yoga. Exercise like Yoga is also known to cause an increase in the production of neurotransmitters in your brain as well as the rate at which those transmitters function. This has the effect of increasing your long and short term memory, your focus and concentration, your problem solving skills, and your overall cognitive abilities. Yoga is also a type of exercise that concentrates on being in touch with your mind and improving mental skills, something which everybody can definitely benefit from.

Benefit #9: Better Bone Health

The next benefit you need to take advantage of through Yoga are the serious bone building benefits that it brings to the table. Many Yoga positions are known as weight bearing exercises. Weight bearing exercises are any kind of exercises which force a certain part of your body to hold up your own body weight and put a larger than normal amount of strain and pressure on your bones. This has the effect of increasing the strength, size, and density of your bones. There are many Yoga poses which have you on your legs, or just one leg, and many which have you supporting your weight with your arms. Well, when you do any of those things, the weight you put on your bones causes the cells in your bones known as osteoblasts to generate more bone mass, thus resulting in thicker, denser, and stronger bones. This is a very useful benefit, especially as you get older because old age can cause bone diseases such as osteoporosis, something which can be prevented or mitigated through bone building exercises such as Yoga. Moreover, having stronger bones also means that you have a lower chance of suffering a fracture or broken bone.

Benefit #10: It Helps Make You Happier

Yoga is also good for your mind, not just for your body. Yoga is good because it helps to provide your mind with more beneficial neurochemicals. Yoga is shown to increase the levels of serotonin, dopamine, and certain endocannabinoids, all of which are shown to make you feel happier, decrease anxiety, and help get rid of the effects of depression too. These neurochemicals are all very important for your mental wellbeing and for regulating mood. This phenomenon of exercise producing neurochemicals which make you feel happier, elated, and joyful, is also known as the runner’s high. Also, Yoga is shown to decrease the amount of monoamine oxidase in your brain. This is a substance that breaks down neurotransmitters, something which negatively affects your mood and cognitive abilities. The bottom line is that Yoga can provide for a happier you and that is a big bonus. On a side note, Yoga is also shown to relieve stress and relieve you of negative feelings such as anger and rage.

Benefit #11: Improving Your Balance

Yet another big benefit that you can reap from doing Yoga is an increased ability to balance. Yoga involves a whole lot of odd positions that force you to balance, something that is otherwise known as proprioception. Your balance is actually regulated by things called proprioceptors. Well, just like with your bones, muscles, memory, and more, the more you do balance training, the better your proprioceptors become at accommodating for positional shifts and imbalances in order to help your body stay upright. Having better balance is a great thing to have, especially if you like sports that require a lot of it, sports such as skating or hockey, or even gymnastics too.

Conclusion

The fact of the matter is that the benefits of Yoga definitely outweigh any preconceived notions that you may have about it. Your strength, balance, flexibility, digestion, mental abilities, happiness, and more will all benefit from this awesome discipline so you should definitely give it a try as soon as you can! If you have any questions or comments about Yoga, please feel free to shoot us a message and we will get back to you at the first available opportunity.


I was fortunate enough to have started Tai Chi a moving meditation at a very early age. Practising Tai Chi for over 25 years has allowed me to build a solid foundation to support the most important aspect of EQ development, which is attention training.

If you are interested in supporting yourself or helping the teams you manage, the links below can help you learn more about EQ training.

  1. What is EQ?
  2. Emotional Intelligence Training Course
  3. Learn to meditate with the Just6 App
  4. Meditation and the Science
  5. 7 reasons that emotional intelligence is quickly becoming one of the top sought job skills
  6. The secret to a high salary Emotional intelligence
  7. How to bring mindfulness into your employee wellness program
  8. Google ’Search Inside Yourself’

Worked all day & probably too tired to do some sitting meditation in the evening? Why not practice mindfulness at work? Mindfulness also helps develop EQ.

This is a primary lessons we teach on the Just Being emotional intelligence course. You’re at work all day and probably too tired to do some sitting meditation in the evening or annoyed you skipped a morning session. Why not practice mindfulness at work? I saw this post at the Huffington post and thought I would share.

On any given workday, most people appreciate a little break time. But not everyone knows how valuable truly taking a moment can be ― because how you use a break is just as important as the break itself. It’s all too common: you finally get a much-needed break, and end up spending it playing a game on your phone, browsing the web, or using other methods of distraction to take you away from the here and now. Before you know it, the break is over, and it’s back to work feeling anything but refreshed.

What if there was a way for you to really take advantage of that break, to improve your productivity and just your general sense of well-being? Together with Aetna, we want to show you how mindfulness ― the act of being present in the moment ― can help you achieve just that.

What Is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is not a new concept ― its roots can be traced back to Buddhist practices in meditation. But this practice is having a moment in the mainstream during a time when most people are rarely away from a screen or disconnected from a constant barrage of communication ― which is no coincidence. Michael Chaskalson, one of the U.K.’s leading mindfulness trainers, has worked with companies and individuals alike to educate them on incorporating mindfulness into busy lives. And he thinks that mindfulness is becoming more popular for a couple of reasons. “It’s the coming together of two things,” said Chaskalson. “One is the science ― there’s been an extraordinary upsurge in research on mindfulness ― so we know a lot more.” The field is now far more grounded in facts, he added. “The other part is that people are struggling. It’s tough out there, we’re living in an ‘always on’ world. People aren’t taking breaks ― and some of these demands are self-imposed. It’s really important to come away from devices and actually experience the rest of the world.”

“When I returned to work after giving birth to my son, I started meditating at the office for just five minutes daily. These short sessions really help me to transition from my ‘mom mind’ to my ‘boss mind.’”

Workers In The U.S. Are Taking Fewer Breaks

If you work for a living, chances are you’ve been touched by the “go, go, go” mentality that too often comes hand-in-hand with unprecedented constant availability, thanks to our now-ubiquitous digital connections. We’re getting more done than ever before, but at what cost? Counterintuitive as it may seem, a growing body of research suggests that setting aside work to take breaks actually increases our productivity. However, when we do take breaks, the majority of us are taking low-quality breaks without paying attention to what will truly help us focus when we return to work. And the longer we work without interruption, the more our productivity suffers. Small breaks from work are the perfect time to practice mindfulness ― by truly being present in the moment, paying attention to yourself and your surroundings. “It’s very important to spend some time simply with your experience rather than with your thinking mind,” said Chaskalson. “Experiencing means, when you go for a walk, do you experience your body moving, do you experience sights, do you experience smells? Are you involved in the world around you?”

“Every hour, I take a moment to stretch and consciously focus on how my body feels; this is the ultimate 30-second undercover mindfulness exercise.”

Eat With Purpose

A genuine away-from-your desk “lunch hour” seems to be, for many, a relic of the past ― a time when workers weren’t expected to perform job duties in a moment’s notice and be reachable at any time. One survey from 2012 found that only one in five office workers even eat lunch away from their desks. The trouble is, eating is not something that should be done mindlessly.Mindless eating does not just limit your enjoyment of food ― it also tends to makes one eat faster, resulting in a delayed feeling of fullness and a higher calorie intake overall. Susan Albers, a clinical psychologist and the bestselling author of Eating Mindfully, acknowledges that while a full lunch hour is ideal, it may not be realistic for many American workers. Leaving one’s office, let alone turning off devices and being unreachable, may seem like an impossibility (and, let’s be honest, zero distraction sounds like a recipe for boredom). “Some of [what constitutes] mindful eating is really just a shift in mindset,” said Albers. “You can still have distractions, but the question is ‘Are you focused enough on what it is that you’re eating?’” This focus can take many forms, but the most important part of it is presence of mind, and awareness of what you’re eating, how it tastes, and how you feel while eating it. No time to do this for your whole meal? Try just the first bite: “Take a moment to take a deep breath or pause before you start eating, or make just your first bite be a mindful bite; because you become habituated to your food after a few bites, the first bite is actually the most flavorful,” she said.

“Mindfulness has stopped many workplace snafus from happening in the first place. Once the mind is calm, a resolution can be reached.”

 Nurture Your Body And Mind

Are you a lunchtime gymgoer? While most of us wish to zone out during our workouts, you can use at least a portion of that time to practice mindfulness. Studies have found that being more mindful during exercise may actually affect our likelihood of sticking with a regular routine. The uptick in adherence researchers observe may have to do with the satisfaction we experience as a result of our awareness: awareness that reminds us why we’re taking care of our bodies, and how it makes us feel.

“If you’re exercising, don’t try to multitask,” said Chaskalson. “Don’t try to sit in the gym reading your emails or go for a run listening to an audiobook. When you’re running, run. When you’re on a treadmill, experience yourself running on a treadmill ― at least for some of the time.”

If meditation is more your speed, you can look forward to exercise of a different kind ― by improving the way your brain functions.

Judson Brewer, director of research at the Center for Mindfulness and an associate professor in the departments of medicine and psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts, is an expert in mindfulness training for addictions, and has studied how mindfulness and meditation affects the brain.

“When we look at brains of both novice and experienced meditators, their entire brain during meditation is less active than during baseline,” said Brewer. “There’s a certain part of the brain that gets activated when we get caught up in our experience ― [for example] when we’re stressed out, angry, ruminating or craving. This region is also the one that is deactivated during meditation and mindfulness. And when you’re deactivating that, it seems that the brain in general works more efficiently.”

To explain this concept, he uses an analogy: “[Imagine] we’re driving the car with one foot on the brake and one on the gas. When we pull our foot off the brake, we don’t have to apply any more gas ― the car drives faster and more efficiently. In the same way, if we get out of our own way, then our brains are freed up to function more efficiently and do their jobs better.”

Even if you don’t have the flexibility to take long breaks, you can still incorporate this important practice into your daily life ― and add some much-needed relief and replenishment to your regular routine.


I was fortunate enough to have started Tai Chi a moving meditation at a very early age. Practising Tai Chi for over 25 years has allowed me to build a solid foundation to support the most important aspect of EQ development, which is attention training.

If you are interested in supporting yourself or helping the teams you manage, the links below can help you learn more about EQ training.

  1. What is EQ?
  2. Emotional Intelligence Training Course
  3. Learn to meditate with the Just6 App
  4. Meditation and the Science
  5. 7 reasons that emotional intelligence is quickly becoming one of the top sought job skills
  6. The secret to a high salary Emotional intelligence
  7. How to bring mindfulness into your employee wellness program
  8. Google ’Search Inside Yourself’

The true contemplative goal has always been altered traits, meditation practice leads to altered traits. Learn how our course can assist.

I found this and have been meaning to share for ages how a meditation practice leads to altered traits. Secular meditation pioneers Daniel Goleman and Richard J. Davidson explain the benefits of a stable practice that go beyond relaxation and focus in this excerpt from their book Altered Traits.

By Daniel GolemanRichard J. Davidson NOV 03, 2017

Historically, meditation was not meant to improve our health, relax us, or enhance work success. Although these are the kinds of appeal that has made meditation ubiquitous today, over the centuries such benefits were incidental, unnoted side effects. The true contemplative goal has always been altered traits, the beneficial changes in qualities of being during daily life that result from sustained practice.

The strongest signs of these qualities were found in a group of yogis who were studied at the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This raises a crucial question in understanding how contemplative practice works: those yogis all practice within a spiritual tradition, in the “deep” mode of full-time practice exemplified by monks, nuns, and yogis in Asian cultures. Yet most of us in today’s world prefer our practice easy (and brief)—a pragmatic approach that tends to borrow what works in the short-term for immediate benefits, such as stress relief, and leave behind the rest, such as the de-emphasis of the self.

And quite a lot has been left behind as the world’s rich contemplative traditions morphed into user-friendly forms.

Some important components of contemplative practice are not meditation per se. Meditation represents just one part of a range of means—for instance, following a strict code of self-discipline—that helps increase self-awareness, gain insights into the subtleties of consciousness, and, ultimately, achieve a lasting transformation of being. These daunting goals require lifelong dedication.

The yogis all practiced in a Tibetan tradition that holds the ideal that eventually people everywhere can be freed from suffering of all sorts—and that the meditator sets out toward this enormous task through mind training. Part of this yogic mindset involves developing more equanimity toward our own emotional world, as well as the conviction that meditation and related practices can produce lasting transformation: altered traits.

While some of those who follow the “deep” path in the West may themselves hold such convictions, others who train in those same methods do so on a path to renewal—a kind of inner vacation—rather than to follow for a lifelong calling. (Motivations can, however, change with progress, so what brought someone to meditation may not be the same goal that keeps them going.)

The sense of a life mission centered on practice numbers among those elements so often left behind in Asia, but that may matter greatly. Among others that might, in fact, be crucial for cultivating altered traits:

  • An ethical stance, a set of moral guidelines that facilitate the inner changes on the path. Many traditions urge such an inner compass, lest any abilities developed be used for personal gain.
  • Altruistic intention, where the practitioner invokes the strong motivation to practice for the benefit all others, not just oneself.
  • Grounded faith, the mindset that a particular path has value and will lead you to the transformation you seek. Some texts warn against blind faith and urge students to do what we call today “due diligence” in finding a teacher.
  • Personalized guidance, a knowledgeable teacher who coaches you on the path, giving you the advice you need to go the next step.
  • Devotion, a deep appreciation for all the people, principles, and such that make practice possible. Devotion can also be to the qualities of a divine figure, a teacher, or the teacher’s altered traits or quality of mind.
  • Community, a supportive circle of friends on the path who are themselves dedicated to practice.
  • A supportive culture, traditional Asian cultures have long recognized the value of people who devote their life to transforming themselves to embody virtues of attention, patience, compassion, and so on. Those who work and have families willingly support those who dedicate themselves to deep practice by giving the money, feeding them, and otherwise making life easier. This is often not the case in modern societies.
  • Potential for altered traits, the very idea that these practices can lead to a liberation from our ordinary mind states—not self-improvement—has always framed these practices, fostering respect or reverence for the path and those on it.

I was fortunate enough to have started Tai Chi a moving meditation at a very early age. Practising Tai Chi for over 25 years has allowed me to build a solid foundation to support the most important aspect of EQ development, which is attention training.

If you are interested in supporting yourself or helping the teams you manage, the links below can help you learn more about EQ training.

  1. What is EQ?
  2. Emotional Intelligence Training Course
  3. Learn to meditate with the Just6 App
  4. Meditation and the Science
  5. 7 reasons that emotional intelligence is quickly becoming one of the top sought job skills
  6. The secret to a high salary Emotional intelligence
  7. How to bring mindfulness into your employee wellness program
  8. Google ’Search Inside Yourself’

surfing improves your emotional intelligence. It’s not surprising why psychologists and coaching experts find emotional intelligence to be one of the key predictors of success. See how surfing helps your EQ. See other methods.

Emotional Intelligence, describes an ability or capacity to perceive, assess, and manage the emotions of one’s self, and of others.

It’s not surprising why psychologists and career coaching experts find emotional intelligence to be one of the key predictors of success. That’s because people with high EQ can work well under pressure and because they are able to understand other people’s emotions, it is easier for them to get along with others.

Emotionally intelligent people are also effective communicators as they are able to manage their emotions while responding to others. Their ability to listen well makes them more sensitive to the needs of others. Their open-mindedness and capacity for empathy help them adapt to change in both business or social settings.

Emotionally intelligent people make great leaders because they are able to make sound decisions based on facts and careful evaluation that also take into consideration the views of others. They are able to connect with others emotionally, which helps build trust in any relationship.

Jobs such as those in sales and customer service in which emotional competencies obviously make a big difference, we already intuitively know. What surprised me was from the work done at Google with their ‘Search Inside Yourself’ course. They reported that this is true even for individual contributors in the tech sector, namely engineers whom you would expect to succeed purely on intellectual prowess. The top six competencies that distinguish star performers from average performers in the tech sector are:

  1. Strong achievement drive and high achievement standards [EQ]
  2. Ability to influence [EQ]
  3. Conceptual thinking [IQ]
  4. Analytical ability [IQ]
  5. Initiative in taking on challenges [EQ]
  6. Self-confidence [EQ]

Of the top six, only two (conceptual thinking and analytical ability) are purely intellectual competencies. The other four, including the top two, are emotional competencies.

Decades of research now points to emotional intelligence as the critical factor that sets star performers apart from the rest of the pack. It’s a powerful way to focus your energy in one direction with a tremendous results. TalentSmart tested emotional intelligence alongside 33 other important workplace skills, and found that emotional intelligence is the strongest predictor of performance, explaining a full 58 percent of success in all types of jobs.

Emotional Intelligence Can Be Developed.

Some people have naturally good EQ skills. Others need to work on them. The good news is that everyone can get better. Unlike IQ, people can actually improve their emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is trainable, even in adults. This claim is based on a new branch of science known as “neuroplasticity.”

Why surfing helps build EQ

Activity in the presence of nature improves both mental and physical health, reducing stress, improving attention capacity, mood, and general well being.

Surfing produces a powerful rush of neurochemicals associated with happiness and well-being, including oxytocin, endorphins, and dopamine. This rush of chemicals aids in the reduction of stress and the enhancement of attention capacity and mood.

There are five categories of emotional intelligence. They are;

  1. Self-awareness. Identify your emotions and analyse your reactions.
  2. Self-regulation. Practice control over your emotions and recognise impulses.
  3. Motivation. An emotionally intelligent person is capable of motivating himself.
  4. Empathy. Empathy is more than just putting yourself in the shoes of others.
  5. Social skills. Hear the words and the emotions behind what was communicated to you, then respond with honesty and sensitivity.

So how do we train emotional intelligence? It turns out the first step is attention training. The idea is to train attention to create a quality of mind that is calm and clear at the same time. That quality of mind forms the foundation for emotional intelligence. The foundation of surfing is also the foundation of EQ training, “A Strong Attention Capacity”.

The way to train your attention is with “mindfulness meditation.” Mindfulness is defined by Jon Kabat-Zinn as “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.”

Mindfulness is a quality of mind that we all experience and enjoy from time to time. And many a surfer feels this often! It’s something that can be made stronger with practice. Once it becomes strong, it leads to calmness and clarity that forms the basis of emotional intelligence.

Surfing combined with mindfulness can increase the effectiveness of both practices. Surfing itself is a form of everyday mindfulness. It demands attention to the present moment. Missing the perfect wave or getting pounded by an incoming set is strong incentive to maintain focus.

Surfers must focus all of their attention on balancing on their boards and getting ready for the next wave. Because this requires so much attention, surfers don’t have time to worry about anything else. Anyone who has a lot on their mind can benefit greatly from paddling out into the water and riding a few waves.

Once you have a solid attention foundation then you can move to self-awareness. Surfers become more self-aware by riding the waves. This activity forces them to connect with their bodies, identify their limitations, and acknowledge their strengths. Becoming more self-aware can build confidence and help individuals increase their emotional intelligence.

For many, surfing goes beyond sport and often leads to a more fulfilling, uplifting, and meaningful life. Surfing is an ideal practice for supporting long-term mental and physical health.

Surfing isn’t easy. A surfer can spend a lifetime improving their skills and seeking ever more challenging waves. It is the same journey if you’re trying to improve your EQ. As you evolve as a surfer and as a human, strong self-awareness will keep you on the right wave so you can enjoy the ride 🙂

My years of managing dev teams lead me to develop an EQ training course. It was easy for me to develop their technical abilities but what I found, what would truly boost their careers was improving EQ skills.

I was fortunate enough to have started Tai Chi a moving meditation at a very early age. Practising Tai Chi for over 25 years has allowed me to build a solid foundation to support the most important aspect of EQ development, which is attention training. My surfing and windsurfing have also been integral in my understanding of EQ.

If you are interested in supporting yourself or helping the teams you manage, the links below can help you learn more about EQ training.

Enjoy the waves 🙂



  1. What is EQ?
  2. Emotional Intelligence Training Course
  3. Learn to meditate with the Just6 App
  4. Meditation and the Science
  5. 7 reasons that emotional intelligence is quickly becoming one of the top sought job skills
  6. The secret to a high salary Emotional intelligence
  7. How to bring mindfulness into your employee wellness program
  8. Google ’Search Inside Yourself’

Featured image from unspalsh – by Tim Marshall

Rushing hinders our capacity to be intellectually and emotionally available. Move through our activity with greater mindfulness and you will get ahead.

This is so true, thought I would share this Blog post from mindful.org. Mistakes can be costly, and can trap you in a cycle of having to rush even more to make up for wasted effort, amplifying stress. Mindfulness can help you get clear on your purpose and do it right once.

Time. It’s our most coveted resource because of its scarcity. In an effort to falsely gain time during the day we rush through tasks, projects, and our lives. But we cannot be fully present to life or to our craft when we rush. We can lose our vision and clarity for success. In reactive mindsets, goals blur. We get sloppy.

Rushing hinders our capacity to be intellectually and emotionally available, and capture the opportunities that surface in the present moment. When we slow down and move through our activity with greater mindfulness we are more likely to act with the full power available to us in the present moment.

The Cost of Rushing

Chronic rushing through a never ending to-do list feeds anxiety and heightens stress levels. Due to the epinephrine, also known as adrenaline, released in the brain during stressful periods, our brains get “hooked” on the stimulation of activity. Our bodies become addicted to rushing and our minds switch into autopilot with everything of high importance and needing to get accomplished quickly. We start rushing when rushing is not necessary, or multitasking ourselves into ineffectiveness. This is particularly true for type A executives and leaders who tend to get caught in the cost of time ideal, making everything time-sensitive and urgent, when in fact, only a few matters at hand take true priority.

Research from a publication in 2015 titled “To Multitask or Not, That is the Question” notes that multitasking can reduce effectiveness of even the most refined brains. According to Dr. John Medina, author of the New York Times bestseller “Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School,” being interrupted during a task can lead to 50 percent or more errors. Juggling multiple tasks at once is ineffective compared to immersing yourself mindfully and cultivating solutions strategically and efficiently.

When you need to do work two or three times over because you did not do it right the first time, you begin to see the value of patience and the cost of rushing. Mistakes can be costly, and can trap you in a cycle of having to rush even more to make up for wasted effort, causing even greater stress. The answer? Slow down and do it right once. As a leader in your field, you are not only being paid to do things quickly, you are being paid to do things well. And if well means patiently, then you owe it to yourself and others to stay focused.

Being Gets Lost in Becoming

As a culture, we tend to value doing over being. This is especially true when we have multiple tasks to complete under pressure. Yet, while there are some things that take priority to reach our goals, there are those things we simply do to feel or be perceived as productive. Watch for these traps, triggers, and time wasters:

  • excessive multi-tasking
  • trying to look busy
  • worrying about being judged by those engaging in office gossip and negativity
  • measuring your progress simply in deadlines met
  • regularly working through your lunch break

When we rush through tasks in order to feel busy or to impress, it’s easy to lose sense of why we are doing them in the first place and their importance to the direction of our lives.

Transactional versus Transformational

Some tasks that keep you busy on a daily basis are purely transactional, keeping you active so that internally you feel you are moving closer to your goals, when in reality, you get caught in an endless cycle of task completion without any real developmental progress. When you confuse task completion with value creation—or worse personal transformation—and commit to busying yourself, it is easy to neglect the importance of transformation to achieve the results you desire.

In recent years, HR departments have tried to refocus organizations and employees to engage in more transformational activities, such as mindfulness and awareness-based practices. While still results-oriented, mindfulness can help move ideas, projects, careers, and lives forward. When individuals engage in transformational activities even around strategy and goal attainment they tend to self-direct and reach goals with greater ease and more mindful effort. In my Mindful Leadership Breakthrough System, we cover important activities such as clarifying personal purpose, mindset inquiry, mental contrasting, or building trust that can all help with the urge to rush.

Using Mindfulness to Get Clear on Your Purpose

If greater and faster effort expended no longer yields improvement in results, and you find yourself rushing constantly, it’s time to slow down, reevaluate, and re-route. Instead of rushing on, create a strategy and think things through. Try these five mindful steps to keep you focused while creating a plan for success that re-aligns your activity with your desired results.

1. What’s the ideal outcome for today and for the future. Think about your ideal outcome and get clear on your vision of the life you wish to lead. Ask yourself “What does my ideal life look like? What does it feel like? Am I acting in alignment with that?” Often we chase after job titles or companies to work for because we think that’s what we should or ought to do. We don’t reflect on whether or not the details of the position or company culture are in alignment with our personalities, ethics, or life goals. We jump in at the deep end with narrow expectations: more money, more prestige, more power. Remember, the result of your uninformed decision could be your life five months from now, or five years from now. No matter the time frame, time is precious. Get clear on the result you want to accomplish, your ideal outcome, so that you can take necessary and more aligned actions to reach it.

2. What does success mean to you? Each of us has a different definition of success. For some, success is defined monetarily: I am successful because I earn a six-figure annual salary. For others success means having freedom, or having an abundance of relationships that bring happiness: I am successful because I foster close relationships and maintain a strong community of friends and family. If you don’t define success for yourself, you are more likely to rush in the race toward someone else’s version of it.

3. Identify your lack of congruence. Pay attention to the actions you take each day that either help or hinder the path to your ideal life. Try to mindfully observe and reflect on your behaviors without judging them. And don’t beat yourself up if your actions do not align with your goals just yet. It just means it’s time to start shifting your focus and re-strategize so that your actions align with the results you want.

4. Identify the strengths needed for success. What are the skills necessary to actualize your vision of success? What strengths do you already possess that you can tap into and build on? Once you break down the factors necessary to help you achieve your vision you also become more clear on the direction to take in order to acquire the new skills and behaviors you need, or further hone the skills you already have.

5. Expand those strengths in the present. Do not abandon the skills and strengths you already have for those you don’t as they can help actualize what you wish to achieve. Focus on them, nurture them, and expand them. Your mental and emotional bandwidth is correlated to your ability for refined action. Remember that all qualities you need to succeed reside in the present with you, and whoever gets to the present moment first and fully, wins.

When you consistently rush from point A to point B you miss the subtle nuances of the present moment that bring us joy, build connections, cultivate strengths, provide opportunities, and keep you focused to achieve the vision of our ideal life. Instead of getting caught rushing to nowhere devote some mindful time to slowing down and outgrowing personal habits and limitations to achieve better results.


I was fortunate enough to have started Tai Chi a moving meditation at a very early age. Practising Tai Chi for over 25 years has allowed me to build a solid foundation to support the most important aspect of EQ development, which is attention training.

If you are interested in supporting yourself or helping the teams you manage, the links below can help you learn more about EQ training.

  1. What is EQ?
  2. Emotional Intelligence Training Course
  3. Learn to meditate with the Just6 App
  4. Meditation and the Science
  5. 7 reasons that emotional intelligence is quickly becoming one of the top sought job skills
  6. The secret to a high salary Emotional intelligence
  7. How to bring mindfulness into your employee wellness program
  8. Google ’Search Inside Yourself’