It takes a lot of courage to open our hearts to ourselves in the workplace—a place that may not feel safe due to current norms of behavior. Yet opening is exactly the answer to the constriction that cuts off communication and collaboration in an unhealthy work environment.
When you courageously open yourself to and touch the hidden treasure of goodness within your own being, you experience it viscerally—you feel it in your chest. You might recognize it when you feel vulnerable, exposed, and tentative.
What you are touching is compassion, or love, an emotion we all know and need and yet has for too long been excluded from the realm of work. When you open yourself to feel, you also open the door for others to feel and communicate with you.
Why Love?
Love is an expansive emotion. It opens us up.
When your behavior is inspired by the emotion of love and connection rather than the fear and constriction that often dominates at work, your opened state of mind is more curious, creative, collaborative, and compassionate.
An open mind is interested, has the patience to listen and understand and consider other points of view. When our minds open to truly take in more than our own position and desires, there exists an expanded possibility of shifting the culture of our workplaces away from a narrow and egotistical orientation. We reap an outpouring and sharing of ideas and innovation when we no longer feel shut down or afraid to share our talents.
The spirit-killing activities of constant judgment, intolerance of failure, and over-control are holdovers from a different era of business. Those methods may have seemed practical in a factory environment, but they were certainly never inspiring.
Today’s workplaces can only thrive if we discover and implement strategies that reduce and manage stress and encourage flexible thinking and open communication, allowing our businesses to prosper in these times of uncertainty, global competition, resource depletion, and an ever-growing knowledge economy.
Companies such as Aetna, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, General Mills, Green Mountain Coffee, SAP, and others have implemented mindfulness programs, and as a result they’re experiencing a happier and healthier workforce that is more focused, less stressed, and more productive.
The ways in which mindfulness and love as compassionate engagement can work to improve our lives and livelihood is the next frontier in business practice. Love is the emotion that opens our hearts and connects us to each other and to the greater good, and it’s what is needed to cure the dysfunctions of the modern workplace.
Happier at Work: The Power of Love to Transform the Workplace
Happier at Work is a book about our ability to create work cultures where we can thrive. Too many of our workplaces currently reflect a social system in which fear and suspicion of others too often trumps knowledge and compassion. This cultural climate of negativity, fear, divisiveness and self-interest has created a lot of pain for a lot of people. This book addresses this pain openly and directly, sharing practices and attitudes that will positively impact your life at work daily. It is possible to shift your current situation, and discover how open hearts and minds can create workplaces full of engagement, collaboration, creativity and joy. Learn more.
