Meditation Training in The Army

Some recent articles on meditation training in the US Army. One of my teachers Richard Strozzi Heckler pioneered this apporach in the 80's. I have yet to hear of UK Army using meditation - if you have please contact me.

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"It wasn’t all that long ago that if you told U.S. troops to meditate, you ran the risk of being called a kook — or worse, a hippie. Today, it’s becoming increasingly-common advice, for soldiers and marines looking to deal with battlefield stress, and prep for war.
At Camp Lejeune, "Warrior Mind Training," supposedly based on ancient samurai techniques, are being offered to marines with mental health issues."

Full article here. This Time article is on the same subject and Battle Mind is related.

Conscious Capitalism

Here's a report from the conscious capitalism conference earlier this year. Please enjoy capitalism responsibly.

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Extract:

The core principles of Conscious Business are:

1. Purpose: Finding and focusing on the higher purpose of the business.


2. Stakeholder Orientation: focusing on the health of the overall system, rather than singularly on the return on shareholder investment.


3. Servant Leadership: through which the management plays a role of steward to the company’s deeper purpose and stakeholders, focusing on fostering a harmony of interests.

Leadership You Can't Learm from a Book

Training Zone have just this article on Leadership You Can't Learn from a Book.

"You don’t need to read books on leadership to be a good leader – I know this as I’ve worked with some exceptional leaders in developing countries who didn’t read at all. If you look at history, the majority of great leaders have not done MBAs or studied psychology at university. I’ve studied the latter and I it was largely irrelevant to leadership.

I’d go as far as saying that the vast majority of leadership and management is not something you can pick up from a book or a PowerPoint presentation, or a blog for that matter. You also won’t learn to be a leader by reading this article. The fact that leadership is not a matter of information could mean that most leadership training is a big fat con. OK, that’s a little harsh, let me just say it’s a misdirected farce."

Language and Feelings

Study highlighting the connection between language and feelings.

"Psychologists Francesco Foroni from VU University Amsterdam and Gün R. Semin from the University of Utrecht conducted two experiments to see if emotion and feeling language has an influence on facial muscle activity. In the first experiment, a group of students read a series of emotion verbs (e.g., "to smile," "to cry") and adjectives (e.g., "funny," "frustrating") on a monitor, while the activity of their zygomatic major (the muscle responsible for smiles) and corrugator supercilii (which causes frowns) muscles were measured.

The results showed that reading action verbs activated the corresponding muscles. For example, "to laugh" resulted in activation of the zygomatic major muscle, but did not cause any response in the muscles responsible for frowning. Interestingly, when presented with the emotion adjectives like "funny" or "frustrating" the volunteers demonstrated much lower muscle activation compared to their reactions to emotion verbs. The researchers note that muscle activity is "induced in the reader when reading verbs representing facial expressions of emotion."

Spirtuality at Work?

Here's a readable and well researched paper on spirituality at work by Lynne Sedgemore (pictured).

"Organisational spirituality is a relatively new field of enquiry, and as yet there is there is little consensus about what it constitutes. The following definitions, however, were considered to be helpful in relation to a non faith-based organisation:

“Workplace spirituality is a framework of organisational values evidenced in the culture that promotes employees’ experience of transcendence through the work process, facilitating their
sense of being connected to others in a way that provides feelings of completeness and joy.”
Giacalone and Jurkievicz, 2003

“Recognition of an inner life that nourishes and is nourished by meaningful work that takes
place in the context of community.“
Ashmos and Duchon, 2000

Additionally, Pfeffer suggests that there are three elements valued by people at work:

�� Realising their potential as a person
�� Undertaking work with social value or social meaning
�� Feeling part of a large community or interconnected."

Conscious Capitalism Video

Here's a video from the recent C3 Conscious Capitalism event.

Business not only needn't be a destructive force - it can be a force for a good. "Conscious business is not an oxymoron." Business that have a deeper purpose are more robust businesses and will out compete those that do not." "You will make money by making a difference." Music to my capitalist compassionate ears!

Spiral Dynamics UK

The Centre for Human Emergence has launched a new website exploring values in the UK and how Spiral Dynamics can inform our understanding of life in the UK. Good luck guys and keep up the good work.

"The Centre for Human Emergence (UK) is a non political initiative to empower individuals and organisations of all sizes in creating a Britain which is vibrant, energetic and represents the deepest held values of its multicultural people.

We can provide cultural change tools and support for any individual, group or organisation who wishes to help a better Britain emerge from the current feeling of helplessness, anger and fear."

UK PTSD Video - Bob Paxman

Bob Paxman - A hero working with UK soldiers suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD):