Serve to Be Great: Leadership Lessons from a Prison, a Monastery, and a Boardroom

Appendix: A Quick Start Guide to Mindfulness Training

To summarize mindfulness training very briefly, there are essentially two aspects:

1. We train our awareness so that we become less distracted by our own thinking, which allows us to enjoy our lives more, to be more present with people, and to see our world, both inner and outer, with greater clarity.
2. We apply that clearer awareness to investigate reality and develop the wisdom that frees us from attachment to the ego, which increases both our happiness and our ability to serve others more effectively.

Awareness Training in Activity

The easiest way to begin is to transform activities that we already do each day into opportunities to be happier while simultaneously training ourselves to become more effective at serving others. Let's use drinking water or coffee at work as an example. Before beginning the act of drinking, we simply note mentally the word drinking, and then give our full attention to the act of drinking, exploring what the experience is like.

We make the effort to let go of trying to think about things, and simply explore the experience of drinking—the sensation of the cup in our hands; the sight of what's in view; the sensations of the liquid first touching the lips, entering the mouth, and going down the throat; and the sound of swallowing. It's perfectly okay if thoughts come up. We just recognize them, allow them to come and go, and keep our awareness alive to what's coming in through our senses.

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