Mindful Communication

Live in the Conversation

by Jess Piszker Live in the moment, including the moment of a conversation. In today’s world, our minds are often thinking ahead. Our brains are visualizing our to-do list, keeping a mental note of what’s next. Even when we are doing the next item on the list, we are thinking about the item after. This is why we aren’t fully present in the conversations we are having. We are thinking about other things on our mind, texting someone else, or invested too deeply by something on the phone distracted continuously by ring tones, memos, and reminders that keep popping up […]

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The Practices That Sustain Us, Part II

We’re now in the third week since a State of Emergency was declared in Michigan due to the Coronavirus. Our lives have changed drastically within a short amount of time. It’s okay to acknowledge that this is really hard.   As a follow-up to last week’s blog post, we’d like to share more on how GRCFM team members have been meeting their difficult experiences snce the impact of the pandemic began sinking in, and what practices have been important to us in these challenging times.   We hope our stories give you comfort in knowing you’re not alone in what

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The Practices That Sustain Us

As a Center focused on teaching mindfulness, resilience, and self-compassion, we are in the business of supporting our community during the challenging times of life. Each of us has had a personal experience of the transformative power of mindfulness practice, and so we offer it outwardly as a gift with reverence and longing to help. Just like all human beings, we experience fear, anger, grief, and sadness, and it is our continued practice that sustains us. These are unsettling times, and we are all looking for some ground to stand on. We’d like to take a moment to share with

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Mindfulness: The Antidote to Unproductive Meetings

Many of us spend large parts of our workdays in meetings that seem to go nowhere. Maybe we are not paying attention when important concepts are being introduced, or our ideas don’t get the consideration they deserve because everyone is busy on their respective devices or lost in their thoughts. In either case, there is a waste of time and resources. Important decisions don’t get made, and opportunities are lost. So, how do we change this? How can our organizations take full advantage of the collective wisdom of all the participants? Here are some suggestions for bringing more mindfulness and

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Why The !%*? Did I Say That?

“The willingness to show up changes us;  it makes us a little braver each time.” —Brené Brown Why the !%*? did I say that? I don’t know how many times I’ve agonized over that question or a similar one, like “I really screwed that up; what made me yell at him like that?” Or, “I know I’m right about this—why can’t she see it?” Or,  “I wonder if he  thinks I’m an idiot for saying that?” I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time sitting with either my embarrassment or my self-righteousness. Through the lens of  mindfulness, I began to see

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