READ
Go into any book shop and you’ll probably find a whole section on Mindfulness. Where do you begin? Here are my suggestions of brilliant books that I regularly return to in my practice. You’ll also find an archive of my past newsletters here, in case you missed any.
Leadership presence, it’s an inside job.
This book is inspired by my work with thousands of leaders, across the world, and draws on my training with the Oxford University Mindfulness Centre.
It gives leaders strategies to understand their inner world and develop powerful leadership presence that enables them to lead with real authenticity, attentiveness and resilience, even in the most challenging circumstances. It also supports leaders to recognise the signs of stress and burn-out and use practical strategies to manage these.
To Learn the power of pause
I first came across Do / Pause: You are not a To Do list by Robert Poyton via the Guardian headline ‘If you want to get things done, pause’. This felt very counter intuitive to me so I purchased the book if only for the title alone!
If you want evidence of the impact of the ‘pause’ on organisational effectiveness and our own well being, energy and efficiency - then this is for you. It’s very short and easy to read and packed full of ideas. It is in fact the book I most give to leaders I am working with.
for when the world is frantic and overwhelming.
Finding Peace in a Frantic World by Mark Williams was the book that first introduced me to Mindfulness.
I was mentoring a number of colleagues as Director at the National College for School Leadership, some of whom were overwhelmed by the scale, speed and size of the work. Others struggled with anxiety, sleep deprivation and guilt at being unable to meet the demands of both work and home life.
For all of them, and myself, taking time to attend to our own wellbeing and the wellbeing of others proved to be enormously helpful. This book was the perfect starting point. The Frantic World website is also a great place to learn more (plus they have great guided meditations.)
to help understand stress and anxiety and how to handle it.
Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat Zinn is what you would describe as a ‘classic’ book on Mindfulness.
Zinn is often described as the ‘Father of Mindfulness in the West’ with responsibility for working with others to create the fusion between eastern traditions and meditation and modern psychological approaches to handling stress and cultivating wellbeing.
The book is based on his work on stress reduction and shows how we can integrate mindfulness into our days to live happy and more fulfilled lives.