Consciousness in the Workplace

What does consciousness mean to you?

Whenever I mention that I have spent quite a bit of time in India and working on becoming more conscious, there is normally two reactions:

a) they step back and ask “is this some spiritual thing?”; or

b) they are curious and ask a few questions

So firstly let me clarify what consciousness means for me. As we navigate our life and career we develop a strong toolkit we can use in pursuit of success e.g. educate ourselves; “to-do” lists; have fabulous holidays; manage stress through exercising etc. These are what I refer to as your ‘external toolkit”.

Then we have an “internal toolkit” which is equally important which how we feel on the inside – your thoughts, the feelings in your body and the emotions you feel every day. These emotions and thoughts drive your behaviour and as you spend 8+ hours in the office, wouldn’t it be valuable to become more conscious of your emotions and thoughts that may be impacting on your business outcomes?

This is about becoming more conscious of who you are – not just on the outside, but importantly on the inside as well.

During my corporate career I attended some amazing courses on how to be more effective as a peer or a leader, yet each time I was challenged at work, the same behaviours would present themselves – this was due to me focusing entirely on the “external toolkit” and being unaware of an “internal” toolkit.

A great example: I attended a weekly team meeting which was an opportunity to share ideas. I went into the meeting one week excited about this creative idea I had. I voiced my idea and there was no reaction – no comment, no challenge….. nothing. The conversation immediately turned to someone else. About five minutes later someone else made an almost identical suggestion and everybody was reacting with enthusiasm. I was feeling so frustrated. From that point on whenever we had a team meeting I expected to not be heard and after a while just stopped voicing my opinion in the weekly meeting.

When I reflect on this, there was a lot going on – if I paid attention to the thoughts they were – Am I invisible? Did I not say this 5 minutes ago? Why are they not listening to me? Is it because I am the only female? How rude! They are not collaborators!

I was very quick to take offence and also blame them for how I was feeling. I was also ruining my chances of success and promotion in the company by not voicing my opinion. I would eventually leave the organisation, hoping I would be ‘heard’ in the next one.

In reality these were my thoughts, no-one had said anything to me and if I had been aware of my thoughts that were driving my behaviour, I would have understood at the time that I am feeling unappreciated in that moment. However, instead I let them fester and I allowed the thoughts to become repetitive. So being conscious to me is being aware of the thoughts and emotions that may be holding us back.

By being aware of the thoughts, you are then able to recognise this pattern and not react and just join in on the conversation and feel confident that your next idea will get traction, maybe just not this time. Don’t we all want to become conscious?

How many times do we come up with external solutions at work to deal with work challenges, yet the needle hardly moves? Everybody still talks about feeling stressed and has no balance.

I recently attending two weeks of training at One World Academy (OWA) in Chennai. I have been there many times over the last four years for my own personal growth. This visit was to become a trainer for them – known as a OWA Transformer so I can deliver some of the teachings to corporate organisations in Australia.

See www.oneworldacademy.com for the full suite of courses that are available.

One World Academy is run by the founders Krishna-ji and Preetha-ji and they are known as the “state” people. State people because they focus on your “inner state of being” and they want us all to make the choice of being in a beautiful state of being.

We look at some every day topics that can impact on employee performance such as

a) Work/life balance

b) Stress Release

c) Source of Confidence; and

d) Spirit of Gratitude

We also deliver simple meditations for detoxing your brain and mind, as well as consciousness meditations and take home meditation practices to keep you in your beautiful state.

I am passionate about delivering these topics in the corporate world, so we can all become more conscious and see any workplace as a place you can easily succeed when your inner state of being is beautiful.

Whether you attend a course or not, start becoming conscious of your thoughts, it can be the game changer you are waiting for……give it some thought.

www.oneworldacademy.com