A comprehensive training program to navigate skillfully in this disruptive, uncertain time This comprehensive workbook provides a mind training based on new findings in neuroscience that will enhance your decision-making skills. Skillful, strategically aware decisions in professional and private life are key for sustainable well-being and flourishing in life. Part 1 provides a conceptual introduction into understanding the brain as a predicting organ, actively inferring, and constantly trying to optimize energy. Part 2 leads you through a systematic training program of 8 sessions to enhance strategic awareness and improve decision-making skills by increasing the precision of our perception and mental processing. The practices are designed to fit in a busy schedule with a focus on the challenges we all grapple with in daily life. While thorough and well-grounded in scientific research this workbook is also pleasant and inspiring to read. It is filled with practical examples and the author’s own life experience. Numerous hand-drawn illustrations inspire also visually. The MBSAT methodology has been tested by practitioners for over 10 years and is widely acclaimed. The government of Singapore, known for its outstanding commitment to education and investment in the human resources of its population, has included MBSAT in its official skill-building program and heavily subsidizes participation in MBSAT training. It is one of the testimonials to the efficacy of MBSAT.

Mindfulness-based STRATEGIC AWARENESS TRAINING This comprehensive workbook provides training based on new findings in computational neuroscience. It will enhance your decision-making skills by increasing the precision of your perception and mental processing. This training will enable you to navigate these disruptive, uncertain times skillfully, and in good emotional and mental health. Part 1 provides a conceptual introduction into understanding the brain as a predicting organ. Part 2 leads you through 8 systematic training sessions to enhance your decision-making skills by enhancing your strategic awareness and belief updating capabilities. The practices are designed to fit in the busy schedules of active people. Mindfulness-based Strategic Awareness Training (MBSAT) has been tested by practitioners for over 10 years and is widely acclaimed. The government of Singapore, known for its outstanding commitment to the education of its population, has included MBSAT in its official skill-building program and subsidizes participation in MBSAT training. This is a remarkable book. On one reading, it is a scholarly and pragmatic guide to self-understanding and realisation—through making the right kind of decisions as embodied creatures in a social world. On another reading, it naturalises—or perhaps socialises—the free energy principle: an account of self-organisation and sentience grounded in statistical physics and applied widely in theoretical biology and computational neuroscience. This book liberates the fundaments of the free energy principle by applying them to the delicate practice of living in the 21st-century. This is achieved by starting from the academic foundations and artfully scaffolding the readers journey with intuitive, lived examples; sometimes, touchingly personal examples. If you commit to the epistemic program offered by this book, not only will you become a fluent practitioner of embodied Bayesian inference and decision-making, you will be able to answer Einstein’s existential question: “Is the universe friendly?” Karl J. Friston, MBBS, MA, MRCPsych, MAE, FMedSci, FRBS, FRS — Scientific Director: Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging — Professor: Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London Honorary Consultant: The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery

Mindfulness-Based Strategic Awareness Training: A Complete Program for Leaders and Individuals is the first book to link mindfulness training and positive psychology to the leadership, strategy and management issues faced by individuals and organizations. Sets out a complete program in Mindfulness-based Strategic Awareness Training (MBSAT), a new form of strengths-based business mindfulness training which enhances participants’ ability to perceive opportunities, adapt and grow Draws on research from neuroscience, positive psychology, behavioural finance and management to show how leaders, managers and individuals can build and maintain more resonant relationships and adapt to constant change Includes real-life vignettes, specific instructions and a wealth of resources designed to guide experiential learning including background information, exercises, guidelines, hand-outs, graphics, and guided audio meditations Mindfulness training is increasingly used in organizational contexts – the author is a pioneer in designing and delivering training that applies mindfulness and positive psychology to the strategic challenges of management and business Reviews by Experts This book is important for all who seek to lead organizations, showing how mindfulness can be combined with the findings from positive psychology for the benefit of all. The book is not just good theory. It also provides a step-by-step practical program to cultivate a balance between motivation for outcomes on the one hand, and compassion toward self and others on the other. Here are skills that can be learned; skills that can truly inspire and sustain wise leadership. —Mark Williams, Emeritus Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of Oxford, was also the Founding Director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre. Now Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Psychiatry of Oxford University. Author of "Mindfulness: An Eight week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World", Co-author with Zindel V. Segal and John Teasdale of "Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression". In today's disruptive times, it is happy and loyal customers that count. This rich and practical book provides an exceptionally smart learning tool to help consumers make mindful decisions that lead to happiness. And for any leader and manager it is a key reading for making wise business and marketing decisions that create value.—Bernd Schmitt, Ph.D., Professor, Columbia Business School, New York. Author of "Experiential Marketing: How to Get Consumers to Sense, Fell, Think and Act, Relate to your Company and Brands" and "Happy Customers Everywhere: How Your Business Can Profit from the Insights of Positive Psychology." Juan Humberto Young is the first to integrate positive psychology and mindfulness with a results-oriented focus on business strategy. In today's ever-changing organizations, leaders need clarity and flexibility to adapt and succeed. Built on leading-edge science, this book offers a step-by-step program that will light your path not only to greater strategic awareness but also to greater well-being.—Barbara L. Fredrickson, Ph.D., Kenan, Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Author of the two bestsellers "Positivity: Top-Notch Research Reveals the Upward Spiral That Will Change Your Life" and "Love 2.0: Finding Happiness and Health in Moments of Connection". Juan Humberto Young integrates mindfulness practices, positive psychology, and extensive business experience to design a practical training program that improves personal and professional decision-making. This book offers tools to make decisions that increase subjective well-being because the sources of much unhappiness are poor decisions. For business leaders, lawyers, negotiators, and everyone who wants to improve their quality of life, this book presents a path to achieve the capacity of strategic awareness, consisting of mental lucidity, emotional clarity, and bodily awareness, which results in skillful decision-making. This book provides readers an ideal way to find happiness, personal balance, and professional success.—Peter H. Huang, J.D. Ph.D., Professor and DeMuth Chair of Business Law, University of Colorado Law School. Author of numerous articles integrating Positive Psychology, Mindfulness and Law.

Mindfulness-Based Strategic Awareness Training: A Complete Program for Leaders and Individuals is the first book to link mindfulness training and positive psychology to the leadership, strategy and management issues faced by individuals and organizations. Sets out a complete program in Mindfulness-based Strategic Awareness Training (MBSAT), a new form of strengths-based business mindfulness training which enhances participants’ ability to perceive opportunities, adapt and grow Draws on research from neuroscience, positive psychology, behavioural finance and management to show how leaders, managers and individuals can build and maintain more resonant relationships and adapt to constant change Includes real-life vignettes, specific instructions and a wealth of resources designed to guide experiential learning including background information, exercises, guidelines, hand-outs, graphics, and guided audio meditations Mindfulness training is increasingly used in organizational contexts – the author is a pioneer in designing and delivering training that applies mindfulness and positive psychology to the strategic challenges of management and business Reviews by Experts This book is important for all who seek to lead organizations, showing how mindfulness can be combined with the findings from positive psychology for the benefit of all. The book is not just good theory. It also provides a step-by-step practical program to cultivate a balance between motivation for outcomes on the one hand, and compassion toward self and others on the other. Here are skills that can be learned; skills that can truly inspire and sustain wise leadership. —Mark Williams, Emeritus Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of Oxford, was also the Founding Director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre. Now Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Psychiatry of Oxford University. Author of "Mindfulness: An Eight week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World", Co-author with Zindel V. Segal and John Teasdale of "Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression". In today's disruptive times, it is happy and loyal customers that count. This rich and practical book provides an exceptionally smart learning tool to help consumers make mindful decisions that lead to happiness. And for any leader and manager it is a key reading for making wise business and marketing decisions that create value.—Bernd Schmitt, Ph.D., Professor, Columbia Business School, New York. Author of "Experiential Marketing: How to Get Consumers to Sense, Fell, Think and Act, Relate to your Company and Brands" and "Happy Customers Everywhere: How Your Business Can Profit from the Insights of Positive Psychology." Juan Humberto Young is the first to integrate positive psychology and mindfulness with a results-oriented focus on business strategy. In today's ever-changing organizations, leaders need clarity and flexibility to adapt and succeed. Built on leading-edge science, this book offers a step-by-step program that will light your path not only to greater strategic awareness but also to greater well-being.—Barbara L. Fredrickson, Ph.D., Kenan, Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Author of the two bestsellers "Positivity: Top-Notch Research Reveals the Upward Spiral That Will Change Your Life" and "Love 2.0: Finding Happiness and Health in Moments of Connection". Juan Humberto Young integrates mindfulness practices, positive psychology, and extensive business experience to design a practical training program that improves personal and professional decision-making. This book offers tools to make decisions that increase subjective well-being because the sources of much unhappiness are poor decisions. For business leaders, lawyers, negotiators, and everyone who wants to improve their quality of life, this book presents a path to achieve the capacity of strategic awareness, consisting of mental lucidity, emotional clarity, and bodily awareness, which results in skillful decision-making. This book provides readers an ideal way to find happiness, personal balance, and professional success.—Peter H. Huang, J.D. Ph.D., Professor and DeMuth Chair of Business Law, University of Colorado Law School. Author of numerous articles integrating Positive Psychology, Mindfulness and Law.

Become a true leader through Mindfulness If you thought leading a team or organization meant simply creating and implementing a financial plan, delegating responsibility, and watching the bottom line, well, you're only partly right. True leadership comes from within, a place of deep calm and focus, that allows you to respond to any situation as it arises. In Mindful Leadership, you'll learn how to draw on those inner reserves through Mindfulness Meditation, a tool you can use to achieve focus and clarity, reduce stress, and develop the presence of mind to meet any number of challenges. The book opens up a world of meditation exercises that can be done anywhere, anytime (no chanting or patchouli required!) and that are the gateway to improved judgment and decision making, improved time management, enhanced team effectiveness, greater productivity, and more on-the-job inspiration and innovation. Details the nine ways in which leaders can incorporate Mindfulness into every aspect of their lives Illustrates how meditation and business actually do mix Essential for anyone interested in anticipating and serving client needs The author coaches executives throughout North America and is quoted widely in the media Offering essential skills for both life and work, Mindful Leadership shows how it's possible to successfully lead a team, an entire organization—or just yourself.

Positive Psychology at Work brings the fields of positive psychology and appreciative inquiry together for the first time to provide leaders and change agents with a powerful new approach to achieving organizational excellence. Draws together positive psychology and appreciative inquiry in the context of leadership organizational challenges for the first time Presents academically rigorous and referenced material in a jargon-free, accessible manner Arranged with chapters focused on specific organizational challenges to allow readers to quickly find ideas relevant to their unique situation Features short contributions from experienced practitioners of positive psychology and Appreciative Inquiry, and includes case studies from the UK, Europe, Australia and the USA

The complexity and relentless pace of our world places exceptional demands on leaders today. They work incredibly hard and yet feel that they are not meeting their own expectations of excellence. They feel disconnected from their own values and overburdened. By the thousands, they seek out books on leadership skills, time management, and “getting things done,” but the techniques these volumes offer, useful as they are, don't often don't speak to the leader's fundamental sense that something is missing. Janice Marturano, a senior executive with decades of experience in Fortune 500 corporations, explains how Mindful Leadership training integrates the practice of mindfulness-meditation and self-awareness-with the practical tools of management, enabling leaders to bring a wider range of their capacities to the challenges at hand. We already know from scientific research that mindfulness practices enhance mental health and improve clarity and focus. FINDING THE SPACE shows how this training has specific value for leaders. This is not a new “leadership system” to add to the burden of already overworked people. It brings the concepts of mindfulness into the everyday life of anyone in a leadership role, through specific exercises that address practical issues-the calendar, schedule, phone usage, meetings, to-do list, and strategic planning, as well as interpersonal challenges such as listening and working with difficult colleagues. Leaders who have experienced mindfulness training report that it provides a “transformative experience” with significant improvements in innovation, self-awareness, listening, and making better decisions. In FINDING THE SPACE TO LEAD, Marturano masterfully lays out her proven techniques for promoting mindfulness in the busy executive's working life.

This book provides researchers and professionals with an overview of the latest theory and empirical research on mindfulness in an organizational context.

Mindfulness-based interventions have exploded in popularity due to their success in treating everything from everyday stress to more serious mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).This breakthrough book provides professionals with a comprehensive, session-by-session guide to teaching mindfulness, complete with the scripts and training materials needed to teach introductory mindfulness in a wide variety of settings, despite theoretical background. Mindfulness—once an ancient practice honed in Buddhist monasteries—is now a mainstream, evidence-based, secular intervention employed by trained health and mental health professionals worldwide. The rapid spread of mindfulness increasingly involves psychologists, physicians, social workers, therapists, counselors, spiritual advisers, life coaches, and education professionals trained in their respective disciplines. Additionally, research continues to show that mindfulness is an effective treatment for anxiety, depression, stress, pain relief, and many other illnesses. If you are a professional interested in teaching mindfulness, this book will provide you with everything you need to get started right away. The introductory, six-week protocol outlined in this book is easy-to-use, and can be implemented in a variety of settings, ranging from an outpatient mental health clinic to an inpatient oncology clinic, from a substance abuse recovery program to educational settings. In addition, this book will tell you what to bring to each class; provides outlines for each session; offers scripts to help you differentiate the weekly meditative practices; and provides invaluable resources for further study and professional development. If you’re looking to integrate mindfulness into your professional work, this is your go-to guide.

"[A] rare combination of solid scholarship, clinically useful methods, and passionate advocacy for those who have suffered trauma." —Rick Hanson, PhD, author of Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom From elementary schools to psychotherapy offices, mindfulness meditation is an increasingly mainstream practice. At the same time, trauma remains a fact of life: the majority of us will experience a traumatic event in our lifetime, and up to 20% of us will develop posttraumatic stress. This means that anywhere mindfulness is being practiced, someone in the room is likely to be struggling with trauma. At first glance, this appears to be a good thing: trauma creates stress, and mindfulness is a proven tool for reducing it. But the reality is not so simple. Drawing on a decade of research and clinical experience, psychotherapist and educator David Treleaven shows that mindfulness meditation—practiced without an awareness of trauma—can exacerbate symptoms of traumatic stress. Instructed to pay close, sustained attention to their inner world, survivors can experience flashbacks, dissociation, and even retraumatization. This raises a crucial question for mindfulness teachers, trauma professionals, and survivors everywhere: How can we minimize the potential dangers of mindfulness for survivors while leveraging its powerful benefits? Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness offers answers to this question. Part I provides an insightful and concise review of the histories of mindfulness and trauma, including the way modern neuroscience is shaping our understanding of both. Through grounded scholarship and wide-ranging case examples, Treleaven illustrates the ways mindfulness can help—or hinder—trauma recovery. Part II distills these insights into five key principles for trauma-sensitive mindfulness. Covering the role of attention, arousal, relationship, dissociation, and social context within trauma-informed practice, Treleaven offers 36 specific modifications designed to support survivors’ safety and stability. The result is a groundbreaking and practical approach that empowers those looking to practice mindfulness in a safe, transformative way.