Author: Linda Ferguson

This past weekend I attended a day-long meditation retreat using the mindfulness practice of Thich Nhat Hanh. It felt good to slow down. I enjoyed the simple pleasures of stretching, breathing, sitting and eating in silence. I appreciated the woods, the birds, and the fresh air as we moved slowly through the day aware of the world around us.

As we enter the holiday season, it’s easy to get caught up in the busy-ness that the consumer culture presents. Without being mindful, slowing down and enjoying the simple pleasures, the hurried pace and to-do lists can be overwhelming. Rather than losing yourself in the many tasks and social engagements, create space to breathe into the spirit of the season.

An essential teaching of Thich Nhat Hanh is “Peace in Oneself, Peace in the World”. I encourage you to pay attention over the next few weeks to how you are creating peace in yourself and peace in the world. ‘Peace on Earth’ begins with every step.

Meditation on mindfulness

Repeat these as necessary over the next few weeks:

As you enter your office, your car, your workspace, breathe deeply. Fill yourself with calm, peaceful breath. Allow the breath to move through your head into your chest, expanding your chest with pure peace…..

Follow the breath through your body, inviting it to carry peace into your arms, hands, fingers. Now feel your shoulders, jaw and back relax. Notice how you feel as you breathe deeply, carrying nothing but calm and peace through your body temple.

Today, when a worry, doubt or fear emerges, greet it as a visitor who has arrived at your door. Say, “Hello doubt, hello worry. You may come and go as you please. I am not attached to when you come and go. I am peace in this moment.”

Breathing in I am aware, Breathing out I am peace.

Doubts and worries are just thoughts. They move through you as reflections of what you carry inside. As you focus on peace, mindfulness, and openness, you expand awareness and offer calm to your world.

Breathing in Open Heart. Breathing Out Expanded World

When you feel stressed, tense, hurried, bring your focus back to your breath. Allow your breath and focus to rest comfortably in your chest and heart again. Easefully, mindfully, effortlessly fill your body and life with peace and calm.

Now breathe deeply again mindful of your body. As you expand your chest, breathe deeply in your heart. Open your heart and fill it with new prana, new breath, new life. Expand your heart and let it grow more open as you bring in the breath. Notice how your body feels with an expanded heart. Notice how your thoughts shift as you focus on opening your heart.

Send the expanded energy out to your workspace, your boss, your co-workers. As you open your heart, you expand your presence. As you expand your presence, you expand your world. Move through your day with this expanded presence, sending calm and peace to those around you.

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Linda’s new book, “Staying Grounded in Shifting Sand”, will be available in paperback Jan. 2012. Orders for autographed first editions are being taken now. Contact Linda for more information: info@lindajferguson.com

Go to her website www.lindajferguson.com to read more about her spiritual life coaching, view video clips of her talks, and read more blog posts.

We give thanks for Mother Earth and Father Sky

For the gifts of Nature we can neither earn nor buy;

For the grandfather stones, and grandmother moon, the trees, rivers and oceans who grace us with their presence;

For the resplendent colors of fall, brilliant colors of spring, blinding white of winter, and cool shades of summer;

For the two leggeds, four leggeds, winged ones, furry ones, no leggeds, finned ones, multi-leggeds, who share their wisdom and medicine,

For these gifts we say Wado!

We give thanks for the beauty and strength of our body temple

That we have a body and health to be of service;

That our body is fit and able to breathe, act, hear, cry, love, hug, dance, rejoice;

For the gifts of arms, legs, hands, toes, feet, muscles, bones, ligaments, tissues, capillaries that support our being in this world,

For these gifts we say Blessed Be!

We give thanks for our friends and family

For our loved ones, neighbors, colleagues, clients, acquaintances who enrich and nourish our life;

For the laughter, sharing, knowledge, kindness, ideas, lessons that make us wise and helps us grow;

For the mutual respect, encouragement, honesty, circle of love and trust;

For those who mirror back to us our best and worst self, that we may be ever more mindful of who we want to be in this world,

We say Amen!

Dhanyavād

For all the blessings we receive in the small acts of kindness, listening ear, soulful support and tender touch. We know we receive many blessings throughout our day and week. We take this time to express deep gratitude for the gift of life, this planet, this journey we are on together.

We say Praise be to God, Alhamdulillah!

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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My dissertation was on corporate whistle-blowing. Only a small percent of employees will report wrong-doing above and beyond the normal channels of informing a supervisor. Whistle blowing generally won’t occur if people are uncertain regarding the severity of the wrong-doing, or when people don’t believe that corrective action will be taken. Neither of those conditions seemed to occur in the Penn State events.

Several organizational issues emerge for me as I reflect on the Penn State tragedy revealed last week – power structures, corporate social responsibility, conformity, shadow, deniability, personal loyalties. Spiritual and moral qualities of courage, integrity, honesty, and responsibility seem to have been in short supply in this story.

Enter the Shadow

Corporate whistle-blowing often doesn’t happen because people don’t recognize or appreciate the gravity or negative impact of an incident. That University officials, Tom Curley and Gary Schulz, described the behavior to the university president as “horsing around in the shower” with a youth rather than recognize it as a possible criminal offense (let alone morally unacceptable) is amazing. What’s even more amazing is that Pres. Dr. Spanier, who has a background in sociology and family counseling, didn’t take this description of behavior more seriously and investigate it further. A more classic example of shadow in organizations could not be told as in the grand jury report. The leaders at Penn State chose not to investigate more to find out the facts.

The shadow occurs in organizations when people are willing to turn a blind eye to disturbing news. Rather than investigating further, they’d rather take the expedient route. Truth is forsaken. Product safety issues, embezzlement, sexual harassment all get perpetuated in organizations when leaders, and front line staff, fail to confront shadow behavior within their ranks. Speaking truth to power is challenging in organizations even in the best of circumstances.

Moral Courage – Stepping in and getting muddy

Most people would rather not get muddy than step into a deep puddle. Conformity and diffusion of responsibility are powerful factors affecting organizational behavior. In fact, most people don’t report wrong-doing for fear of retaliation. So what can we learn from this tragedy? Honor, courage and integrity aren’t ideals in a vacuum. They are lived values.

I learned from my research that it takes a lot of moral courage to report wrong-doing to other authorities or take direct action to stop wrong-doing in organizations. In my research with accountants and engineers, the few who did report beyond the normal chain of command often lost their jobs. Some were even black-balled from their careers for several years. Yet they persisted. Why? Because they had a strong sense of professional ethics and clear moral compass.

This tragedy is yet another wake-up call and reminder to take stock of corporate values and priorities. On a personal level, what do you want to model and display for your staff? What values run deep for you, that you want to demonstrate by your actions?

What are you willing to do and not do to save your job, save someone else’s job? Values such as integrity and honesty shed light on the shadow. It takes courage to look into one’s shadow, acknowledge what you see, and take action to address what you find.

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Linda is a keynote speaker on such topics as business ethics, leadership, and employee engagement. Contact her at info@lindajferguson.com to learn more about her work.

An important spiritual practice at work involves paying attention to when your personal agenda or ego gets in the way of making a relationship work smoothly. Way too many team conflicts and bad decisions happen due to egos and personal agendas. I like the corporate culture of Southwest Airlines that supports people taking their job seriously but not taking themselves too seriously. Pilots help handle baggage when they are in a pinch to leave on time.

It’s a fine walk to walk some times between asserting your expertise vs. butting heads. Careful discernment and awareness is often necessary to know when your ego or personal agenda gets in the way. Check in with yourself next time you find you are in a conflict with someone or you feel slighted in some way at work.

Early in my career I got an important insight regarding this issue. I have revisited it many times over the years. I kept getting frustrated at an intern I supervised because she did not listen to my advice or what I suggested she do. She was quite bright so I gave her a lot of running room. However, there were times when she wasn’t sure what to do and didn’t take my advice. I felt some obligation in my role to help mentor and guide her, but she would have none of it. I felt frustrated that I wasn’t fulfilling my role with the intern and also concerned about her work. I also took it as a personal insult that she wasn’t listening to me. That was my hook that kept getting pulled. She paid attention to my boss but ignored my input.

It wasn’t until the very end of her time with us that I realized how personally I was taking things. Rather than see it as her learning experience to get as much or little out of the internship as she could, I felt slighted and somewhat belittled by her. She triggered my button about not being taken seriously, and I reacted from that place. My insight was that you can’t teach people who aren’t open to learning. Once I got this insight, I backed off from trying to teach her anything. My boss noticed my change of behavior fairly quickly and asked about it. I told him that if the intern wasn’t open to learning from me it wasn’t worth my energy trying to make her learn. I could continue to be frustrated or just let her take from the internship what she wanted. It no longer was an ego thing for me, and therefore I didn’t continue the dance of one-ups-manship we had been doing. That was very freeing.

Now sometimes when I get really worked up over something, I remember that everyone is on their own journey. I try to re-focus on what is mine to do and do the best I can, leaving the rest to unfold as it will.

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Linda is an author, speaker, coach, and consultant. Go to her website www.lindajferguson.com to read more about her work, view video clips of her talks, and find out more about her book “Path for Greatness: Spirituality at Work” The paperback version is available on Amazon. The pdf version of Path for Greatness is available for download from her website. ALSO, Linda’s new book, “Staying Grounded in Shifting Sand” is now available on her website.

I was fortunate enough to attend a program by Thich Nhat Hanh recently. He is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who has been teaching about mindfulness and peace for over 50 years. I was first influenced by his writing in the 80’s when I read his book, Being Peace. He writes that we must create peace in our own life, in our own small ways, to create peace in the world. Mindfulness is the path for such peace.

Peace is every step throughout our day. Peace is not a place outside us, it is within us. Your thoughts, words and deeds create peace or strife. Regardless of the work you accomplish, you bring your being-ness to each situation. Peace at work is created by your presence. How you show up at work is up to you.

Mindfulness of your breath, your walking, your talking all brings you back to your own state of being. You live in the now moment rather than in your to-do lists, worries, what ifs, or regrets. Mindfulness brings greater awareness, focus, and acceptance. It allows you to immerse yourself fully in life rather than deny, push away, or struggle against what is.

When you feel stressed, uncomfortable, overwhelmed, disappointed, simply bring your attention back to your breath. Be mindful of how you are feeling physically, mentally and emotionally and welcome that state of being. No struggle or judgment, just being. Simply notice what comes up for you and breath into any disharmony you feel.

Mindfulness Practice

When you are stopped at a red light driving to work, focus on your breath. Breathe in peace and harmony. Breathe out compassion and caring. Breathing-in harmony, breathing-out compassion…… ‘I am harmony, I am compassion’….. Do this three times every time you are stopped at a red light on your way to or from work. Do this meditation before you answer your phone today. Check-in with yourself throughout your day and pay attention to whatever comes up for you.

We create our world from the inside out. What world are you creating today?

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Linda is an author, speaker, coach, and consultant. Go to her website www.lindajferguson.com to read more about her work, view video clips of her talks, and find out more about her book “Path for Greatness: Spirituality at Work” The paperback version is available on Amazon. The pdf version of Path for Greatness is available for download from her website. ALSO, Linda’s new book, “Staying Grounded in Shifting Sand” is now available on her website.

I subscribe to a wonderful little journal called Sacred Journey. In their winter 2010 edition, they published a “Charter for Compassion” that was developed in 2009 by religious leaders around the world. In reading it, I felt there were parts that could apply to our work. Many teams create team charters for how they will work with one another. Leadership groups often develop leadership principles by which they will base their decisions and actions. How would you work differently if you created a charter for aligning your spiritual principles with your work?

Here are some portions of the Charter for Compassion.

The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the center of our world and put another there, and to honor the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exceptions, with absolute justice, equity and respect.

It is also necessary in both public and private life to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism, or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others- even our enemies- is a denial of our common humanity……

We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensible to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community.

Who would you be if you committed to this charter? Sit with the ideas from this charter and see how it resonates with you. Find one thing different that you can do at work to align yourself with an idea expressed here. In doing so, you’ll bring about a shift in your work and yourself. Perhaps even your co-workers, clients and business partners will feel this shift as well.

To read the full charter or start a reading group on these ideas, visit www.charterforcompassion.org

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Linda is an author, speaker, coach, and consultant. Go to her website www.lindajferguson.com to read more about her work, view video clips of her talks, and find out more about her book “Path for Greatness: Spirituality at Work” The paperback version is available on Amazon. The pdf version of Path for Greatness is available for download from her website. ALSO, Linda’s new book, “Staying Grounded in Shifting Sand” is now available on her website as pdf. The paperback version will be released by Balboa Press sometime before the end of the year. Stay tuned!

A reader comment on my blog post last week sparked my thoughts on creative solutions. John reminded us of the Einstein quote about needing different thinking to solve a problem than the original thinking that created the problem. John suggested that we need to imagine solutions that are not yet visible, not yet embodied. Too many times we limit our thinking based on what we’ve seen work or not work in the past, rather than make larger leaps of thinking – to envision something entirely different than what exists in the moment.

I recently became certified in the Team Advantage, a team coaching approach for team transformation and higher performance. The Team Advantage challenges teams to think in more expansive ways, thus achieving extraordinary goals. This team coaching approach augments the Appreciative Inquiry methodology to reach positive possibilities.

Leaps of Faith

To use the StarTrek idea- How do we boldly go where no one has gone before? That often requires a leap of faith. Stepping out into the void requires faith- faith that the next steps will be clear, faith that the next door will open, faith that the answers will emerge from the darkness, confusion or chaos. Perhaps it’s faith in our innate intelligence, inner wisdom, the human potential. Perhaps it’s faith that with enough silence, enough openness, enough support our Inner Wisdom or Higher Consciousness will emerge and be revealed. It certainly requires enough faith in one another to allow our best selves to step forward and be known.

How often to do you allow your best self to step forward at work? In our Team Advantage training we talked about creating safe space for people to share ideas and be vulnerable with each other. Creating that safe space is everyone’s work. It takes strength to be vulnerable. It also requires personal courage- courage to share ideas, courage to look foolish. Courage in teams means trying new behaviors to see how they work. Stepping forward to be your best self, to be fully in the game, means you have to have courage and strength. Do you have the courage to open yourself up to new ideas, courage to change your mindset or behaviors?

Faith helps us have that strength and courage. Faith in ourselves, faith in our Higher Power, faith in one another. Faith helps us share our talents, try out new ideas, grow in ways we need to grow. If we have faith in a supportive, creative Universe, we can step boldly into new unfamiliar territory.

Take a leap of faith this week. Open yourself up in a new way. Step forward to express and experience the Magnificence of Who You Are. See what new idea or outcomes emerge in your life and work.

It takes a leap of faith to go from the known to the unknown. Are you willing to take that leap?

Write back and let us know what wonderous things emerge for you as you share your gifts with the world.

Today is a good day to let your light shine brighter.

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Linda is an author, speaker, coach, and consultant. Go to her website www.lindajferguson.com to read more about her work, view video clips of her talks, and find out more about her book “Path for Greatness: Spirituality at Work” available on Amazon. Her newest book, “Staying Grounded in Shifting Sand” is also now available on her website and soon to be released in paperback. Stay tuned!

I saw a post this week with the song lyric that many of you will remember, “There’s something happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear”** The recent Occupy Wall Street movement raises complex ethical and spiritual questions regarding our global economic system. It’s not clear what needs to happen next to fix our global economic system. It is clear that many people don’t trust the system we have. I’m going to ruminate a little here, offering more questions than answers. It seems timely to examine the ramifications of our current economic system and consider spiritual principles to move forward.

Usury Fees- Time for another Examination

The prophet Muhammad forbade charging interest for trading (usury fees) because he saw the moral hazards of doing so. Though he came from the trading class himself, he understood the perils of creating uneven distributions of wealth, leaving many in poverty. He saw that usury fees could indenture many people who borrowed money just to pay for food or housing.

In Exodus (22:25) the prohibition was sweeping, no usury was allowed for lending to anyone who was poor “If you lend money to My people, to the poor among you, you are not to act as a creditor to him; you shall not charge him interest.” In Deuteronomy (23:19) there were similar condemnations for charging interest to one’s family or countrymen. Martin Luther also saw the corruption of the Catholic church over its use of money and lending practices and warned against such practices. We see from the Abrahamic traditions clear prohibitions against usury fees.

Since the early Mesopotamian, Graeco-Roman, and Arab trading cultures, societies have had to deal with the quandary of establishing just and profitable trading rules. In today’s world with instantaneous global access to trading, the prohibition on charging interest seems antiquated. Most of us rely on usury fees to support our future. Pension funds and retirement savings are based on investment growth that involves credit and lending and earning interest. Who is responsible for controlling and/or establishing reasonable lending practices (and from a spiritual perspective just practices) in today’s global economy?

Money and Justice- A spiritual perspective

As anyone who has studied finance knows, money begets money when interest is compounded over time. Those who start out with wealth earn far more than those who have little. We see the moral hazard of our current financial markets resulting in gross inequality of wealth. Is it up to the corporations and political leaders to fix the economic structures? What responsibilities do we as individuals have to trade, borrow, or invest in socially responsible ways?

Many threads tie together our economic system and our spiritual principles. They intersect at living wages, executive compensation, sustainable development, payday lending, hedge fund trading, campaign finance reform, corporations’ rights as citizens, Triple Bottom Line business practices. And on and on…..

The answers will come from moral and spiritual reflection as well as economic and political analysis. If we address these issues purely from an economic perspective, we miss the mark. There is something happening here. It is an awakening that the global economic system is somehow out of balance- whether it’s out of touch with our spiritual principles or simply not meeting the needs of too many people. I’d like to encourage the discourse to include an examination of the spiritual principles needed to guide us so we can make lasting changes in how money is earned, saved, invested and borrowed.

Please share your comments and reflections here or elsewhere as you feel so moved.

** Buffalo Springfield- 1967 – nice video of their performance in 1967.

Related links to Occupy Wall Street movement:

Occupy Wall Street Facebook page

Interview of recent college grad at Occupy Wall St. -“Occupy, but First Call Your Mother”

Interesting analysis by TeaParty member re: Occupy movement and grass roots organizing

Occupy Cities movement- Guardian article

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Last week I attended an inspiring workshop with Byron Katie. The honesty and vulnerability of people who shared their life conditions were quite moving. I was particularly impressed with Katie’s incredible optimism and humor when dealing with disturbing and sad life stories. She spoke to the participants with such skill and love that I, as probably most in the room, got to a place of deep compassion and hope. I left the workshop feeling energized and changed.

Doing The Work

I read Byron Katie’s book, Loving What Is, several years ago and have shared her work with clients since then. Visit her website www.thework.com or watch her in action on YouTube. She is a very gifted facilitator and joyful presence. For those of you not familiar with her work, she developed a worksheet called “Judge Your Neighbor” (available on her website for free). It is a powerful tool for uncovering deeper truths about your (perceived) life conditions. The Four Questions provide the window to your beliefs; the limited thinking you hold is evident from the narratives of your stories.

It was clear that doing The Work, answering those four questions for any and all painful, disturbing thoughts you have, was a meditative practice. Holding your thoughts out for examination, objectively viewing it apart from your ego-hold that tries to defend its position, you can shift into non-attachment. In this meditative, ‘witnessing’ way, you peel apart the ego-truth from the deeper truth of your life.

Belief in a Friendly Universe

What I found so striking in her workshop was how deeply spiritual her work is. It comes from the fundamental belief that the Universe is loving and supportive. She held passionately to the belief that our true nature is love and kindness. When we strip away all the stories, beliefs, monkey-mind chatter, and ego-defense mechanisms, we are at our core loving beings. Katie reminded us that no one wants to hurt another when they are connected to their true nature. It’s our stories, our beliefs, our mistaken ego-truths that block our true nature from coming forth. And in paying attention to our stories rather than our inner truth and true nature, we act out of fear, pain, suffering. Her work is grounded in the belief that you are always supported in your life, no matter how the circumstances may appear. Her process reminded me of the saying, “Fear is just False Evidence Appearing Real”.

When we get to that deeper core of love and kindness, we act out of our true nature. In that journey to our core, we find compassion for ourselves, for others in our life, and for our past pain. We then find forgiveness, comfort, strength and hope to face our life conditions and do what we need to do to transform our life. Her process is so powerful because it shows that anyone can find the gift in their life condition, no matter how sad, painful, challenging or disturbing it may appear.

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Linda is an author, speaker, coach, and consultant. Go to her website www.lindajferguson.com to read more about her work, view video clips of her talks, and find out more about her book “Path for Greatness: Spirituality at Work” The paperback version is available on Amazon. The pdf version of Path for Greatness is available for download from her website. ALSO, Linda’s new book, “Staying Grounded in Shifting Sand” is now available on her website.

I like the Fall Equinox as a time to reflect on balance- in my life, my work, my relationships, my world. Frequently when we mention balance and work, we think of work-life balance. I’d like to share some thoughts this week on balance at work.

Last week I attended an interesting presentation by Drs. Alexander and Helen Astin who received a grant from the Templeton Foundation to study spirituality among college students. The researchers used five dimensions of spirituality as a focus for their study:

1. Quest for Meaning and Purpose,
2. Ethic of Caring,
3. Equanimity,
4. Ecumenical World View,
5. Charitable Involvement

I was particularly struck by the word Equanimity. The researchers measured equanimity as the ability to find meaning in times of hardship, feels at peace or is centered, sees each day as a gift, and feels good about the direction of one’s life. Using this definition, explore who much equanimity you have in your work…..

Equanimity

The phrase ‘spiritual repose’ comes to mind when I think of equanimity. Having a presence that is palpably peaceful. How can you bring that type of presence to your work? To your colleagues or clients? In a recent gathering of spiritual professional colleagues, we discussed the spiritual practices we used to help us stay balanced, find peace, be centered. The challenge is to bring that same presence and balance to our work, with clients, in meetings etc.

Meditation:

Here’s a meditation you can use if you find yourself stressed, out of balance, or need to reconnect with your Source to rejuvenate. I offer this as a tool to find greater peaceful presence at work.

Breathe slowly and deeply from your belly. Bring your breath up to your forehead and into your face. Relax your jaw, your eyebrows, your neck…. Relax your shoulders, your wrists, your fingers…. Fill your chest with another deep breath in your lungs…. Now send your breath through your hips, down your legs, knees, ankles, and out the bottom of your feet.

Center your focus on your heart space. Expand your chest, open your heart – fill it with peace, with positive intent. Expand your heart so that it is open to receive love, kindness, joy. Breathe deeply into your expanded heart….. Imagine your heart glows with a gold or brightly colored light. See the light radiating out from the center of your being…… Draw that light up into your head and raise your awareness, your thoughts, your consciousness to connect with God Consciousness/Divine Wisdom/ your Buddha Nature.

Draw in Love through your heart and allow that energy to fill your body. As your heart pumps blood, intentionally pump that Love through your body to feel peace, clarity, equanimity.

• Know you are this energy today
• Feel this expanded awareness and consciousness
• Affirm that you easefully and graciously get things done
• Create a peaceful focused, positively potent workplace

You are a clear channel of equanimity and balance today.

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Linda is an author, speaker, coach, and consultant. Go to her website www.lindajferguson.com to read more about her work, view video clips of her talks, and find out more about her book “Path for Greatness: Spirituality at Work” The paperback version is available on Amazon. The pdf version of Path for Greatness is available for download from her website. ALSO, Linda’s new book, “Staying Grounded in Shifting Sand” is now available on her website.