Meet Chuck Schad. A meditation teacher for Mindful.org and coach who switched from a long career in IT to helping people look inside in order to experience directly who they are and how they interact with the world.  Meditation has made a big change in Chuck's life. You'll hear how he came to a profound insight that he needed to connect deeper within in order to help him overcome his lifelong problems with substances and anxiety. The result has been so great that he now spends his time helping others. He has a rich and colorful past, quick wit, tons of experience, and a lot of insight and wisdom to bring to the conversation. You can find his work at theinnertheater.com and on his Facebook page. 

In this episode, you'll hear why I've missed a few weeks co-producing The Future is Mindful conference. But more importantly, there is an exceptionally important message in this about why the world needs more of who you truly are in it, and a bit about how to express that. Seriously, the message here is about how to make your life, and the life of those around you better. And I'm not messing around here as I know a lot of you have a hard time, a really hard time. I talk about how you could help your moment-to-moment experience be not as bad by letting yourself experience whatever goodness there is in your world, and I believe there are a lot of simple moments we can give ourselves if we just would. After all, what is your day but a collection of moments? By adding some great moments to your day, on purpose, you improve your day, directly, simply easily. By improving your days you improve your week, your month, your life - and by extension, the lives of those around you.  This is simple, but hard - and is, I truly believe, the most important skill we can learn. And in this episode, I talk about how it seems like we could be reaching a critical mass of people who are demanding more from the workplaces than just a ping pint table and snacks. That we are reaching a turning point where people are simply going to expect and even require the culture to be kinder, more inclusive, and less toxic. That is what we need as species and as individuals to thrive and nothing less will do. Best to you. Brett Hill. languageofmindfulness.com

There is a lot happening these days in the world of "organizational mindfulness." In this episode, you'll hear the story of how I came to be a co-founder of a virtual conference called The Future is Mindful, happening March 29th and 30th 2022. This is an incredibly important conversation on how businesses are in response to the "the great resignation",  businesses are urgently trying to shapeshift to become more human-centered organizations. I know a lot of people are skeptical, but this is happening folk. Listen in to hear about. Sign up for free registration. 

Mark Leonard is one of a kind. One of the founders of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre, he has an incredible knowledge of the history and evolution of mindfulness training and has a few things to say about it! He created a unique training called Mindfulness-Based Organisational Education incorporating "short mindfulness" which has been studied and found to be effective in reducing stress and increasing self-reports on scales of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. He's now on a mission to help people become more conscious, cause when you do, you'll be an advocate for helping the world become a better place. And that's a rather personal and urgent mission, as you can hear for yourself from Mark.

Most people have not spent much time The Language of Mindfulness Podcast 

Episode 36 - The Power of Connected Conversationthinking about what they are connected to during a conversation. Are you worried about what to say next? Thinking about how you want to be acknowledged or accepted as a friend? Afraid of disappointing them? If so, then what you are connected to will show up in your conversation and you will miss opportunities to connect authentically, which is your best chance of having things go well. In this episode, I give some examples, tips, and scenarios that can really be helpful in how to get past focusing on yourself and let yourself "create space" to be present fully with someone else. It really makes a huge difference in the quality of your relationships and the outcomes of your conversations. 

"Listening has consequences." When I read that phrase in a speech delivered by the famous psychologist Carl Rogers on Interpersonal Communications, I knew I had to talk about this. There is a lot of goodness in that speech and in this episode, you'll hear a few of the gems including "can I hear the sounds and sense the shape of this other person's inner world" and "beyond the immediate message of the person, no matter what that might be, there is the universal." This is master class stuff. I hope you enjoy it.

Billy Lahr, one of the hosts of the popular Mindful Midlife Crises podcasts, joins me in this funny and light-hearted yet serious episode where we discuss such topics as his recent midlife crises world tour involving paddleboarding, geomancy, and "pizza dough as a metaphor for living outside your comfort zone". (PS I am totally stealing that pizza dough metaphor Billy ;) He has some great insights ranging from "why would I end my vacation and go back to Minneapolis in winter? What was I thinking?" to "you need people in your life that add bumps." and "sometimes you just gotta say 'F it'". Words of wisdom indeed. Billy is funny and uniquely straightforward with his struggles to be mindful and real, even as an out-of-place tourist in a foreign country as he discovers ways to connect with "now" wherever he is, and it's a really fun ride. 

Check it out, it out and also check out the Mindful Midlfe Crises podcast for more mindful mayhem.

Modern life creates a lot of anxiety and stress. Mindfulness helps us re-connect to the beauty that's right in front of you. Your problems don't disappear, they just get smaller because you get bigger. You become aware that it's not productive or healthy to be focused 24/7 on what happened yesterday, last year, or earlier in your life - or forward-facing into what calamities may await you the next hour, day, or decade. Sure, you need to plan effectively and respond objectively, but that's no excuse for being in a self-created hurricane every day, all day, and wondering why you're so stressed out. I'll talk about getting present with you in the moment experience as a way to disempower the past or future from taking you away from the beauty of now. You may not see it right away, the dust has to settle first. 

Oh yeah, and you'll hear about "the cheesecake that cannot be named." ;)

If you like what you hear, please leave a review on iTunes and follow the show. It helps a great deal.

I'm happy to help you learn how to use mindfulness to be calmer, happier, and more whole. Reach out on my website at languageofmindfulness.com 

Stay Present

Brett Hill

Mindful Communications Coach

When I first met Keith, it was like I had found a kindred spirit. He's been practicing mindfulness for a long while and came about his wisdom through the heat of adversity, the way most real wisdom is forged. Keith has put his commitment and focus into helping business professionals be better people, and thereby, better at business. And because what he's learned is very practical and applicable to our lives, he wrote the book, The Mindfulness Experience, providing a roadmap to becoming more mindful in a way that is effective, practical, and accessible. That is no small task. In this episode, you'll hear Keith talk about his journey and some of the lessons he's learned along the way. "Change your story, change your life."

Keith W Fiveson is a sixty-five-year-old Army Veteran, early internet pioneer, turned yogi, executive life coach. He has studied life in all its challenges. For the past thirty years, his mission has been to help individuals and organizations become more conscious, awake, and alive to life and all its opportunities. His recent book, “The Mindfulness Experience 8 Strategies to Live Life Now“ distills the wisdom of the ages into a pragmatic plan to live in the present. Anyone can be a survivor, but to be a thriver you need to build a life of presence, to be aware of every sacred moment of truth, so you can overcome challenges and adversity. Keith has had cancer twice, a heart condition, a broken home, challenging relationships, and a childhood family life that was dysfunctional and abusive.

Keith has traveled extensively, working, and studying, in over forty-five countries worldwide. He is a certified life coach, Thai yoga therapist, and meditation teacher. He has practiced and studied Eastern and Western mindfulness/meditation for over twenty-five years. He started to cultivate his practice over thirty years ago, using his army training to balance a very hectic corporate career. He has extensive experience in the corporate world, working under extreme pressure and stress with incredible people and companies.

Keith is an alumnus of Price Waterhouse Coopers and the founder of IT Enabled Services Alliance, Inc., a global consulting firm. He has held executive positions at British Telecom, AT&T, and MCI Telecommunications, later to become Verizon Business. Back in the early days of the internet, he helped develop cloud-based solutions for Best Buy, CUNA, Apple, McGraw-Hill, Time Warner, Autism Speaks, General Electric, Citibank, and Merrill Lynch, among others.

He lives in Port Washington, NY, and he works actively in several communities. He coaches several high-functioning executives and individuals who wish to live their best life now, with balance, in an unbalanced world.

You can find out more about him at www.workmindfulness.com

This episode is my heartfelt effort to ring a particular bell. The one that rings when something is important and urgent and needs your attention. A call to action. This week, it has come into high-resolution focus for me that mindful communications has the capacity to recast your life into a much more satisfying, connected, engaged, resilient, and calmer moment-to-moment life. And more. To live a life connected to the beauty and presence between us and the vast common ground of human experience. It has the power to build bridges made of the fabric of presence where none other can be built. What would your life be like, what would the world be like if we could all be more mindful and somewhat skillful in connecting authentically and communicating about what matters to us? To be heard, be seen, and have the capacity to be present for others. How would that change the choices we make as individuals and as a society?  This is the promise of mindfulness plus communication skills. But even with that kind of potential, how much effort goes into learning how to use this instrument? The instrument of our brains, our neurology, our voice, our hearts. How and we tune and play that instrument to create something other than cacophony? If we can't communicate well how can hope to address the big issues of our time such as racial issues, intensity about political differences, and poverty - much less manage a pandemic.  Pretty much zero goes into these skills on a day-to-day basis in our culture. If we are going to thrive, and some might argue, survive,  personally and culturally. That has to change.