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Meditation involves focusing inward and honing your concentration skills. Practitioners have been touting the benefits of meditation for thousands of years. Now there is compelling scientific evidence that their claims are true. Indeed, it seems that regular meditation practice can change your brain for the better.

In 2008, some Buddhist monks agreed to have their brains scanned. The purpose of doing this was to determine whether meditation alters brain function. The results?  Increased meditation leads to “an ability of the brain to change and optimise in a way we didn’t know previously was possible” (Josipovic, 2011). For example, regular meditation shrinks the amygdala (the brain’s fight-or-flight control centre). It also thickens your pre-frontal cortex (the part of your brain that’s responsible for concentration and decision-making).

About the author of this fast fact:

Eleanor Shakiba is a specialist in positive psychology training. She has helped over 50,000 professionals to build confidence, presence and influence at work. Her passion is working with the ‘positive deviants’ in organisations – equipping them to think creatively and build a better world. Eleanor is the author of the Positive Psychology Toolkit for HR and L&D practitioners.  She also runs a range of retreats and workshops for trainers and facilitators.

What happens when you put a Buddhist monk into an MRI machine and study the impact of meditation on the brain? You get the makings of a best-selling book. The Science of Meditation is a layperson’s guide to the benefits of meditation. Based on solid research, it is a compelling read. 

Written by two experts in neuroscience, The Science of Meditation introduces you to a whole new side of meditation. It focuses on how meditation can impact both the mind and the brain. The authors provide fascinating evidence that after as little as two weeks of meditation, you can reap positive benefits. These include lowered stress levels, improved memory and enhanced focus. If you’re interested in the background on meditation research, this book is definitely for you. 

Why is this one of my favourite books? Because it is crammed with anecdotes about scientists exploring the wonderful landscape of the human mind.  

About the author of this review

Eleanor Shakiba is passionate about helping talented people flourish professionally. She coaches and trains high performers who want to excel in business. Her core expertise is in positive psychology. Eleanor is qualified in Social Anthropology, Positive Psychology, Counselling, Coaching, Adult Education and Neuro Linguistic Programming. Eleanor’s passion is working with positive deviants – the people in communities and organisations who break paradigms and build new solutions to entrenched problems.  

The mind can physically turn back time, according to a mindfulness study completed by Dr. Ellen Langer. Langer and her team wanted to find out how many negative effects related to aging could be manipulated through psychological intervention. To conduct the 1979 study, Langer needed to place a group of senior citizens in a controlled environment that closely resembled an environment from 1959. She converted a monastery using furnishings and décor from two decades earlier.

The monastery featured a vintage radio playing Perry Como. An old black-and-white TV played episodes of the Ed Sullivan Show. Eight men in their 70s were used for the study. After passing through the doors of the monastery, they were taken back to 1959. The group was told to reminisce about the past and behave as if it were 1959. A control group in a comparable environment was told to reminisce but not act as if it were two decades earlier.

A week later, both groups experienced improvements in their physical and mental health. The groups experienced better posture, memory, cognition, hearing, dexterity and vision. However, the group that lived as if it were 1959 experienced much more dramatic changes. 63% of the group had improved intelligence test scores compared to tests taken before the experiment. Only 44% of the control group improved their scores.

Langer attributes the success of the experiment to mindfulness. She describes mindfulness as actively noticing new things. When you open your mind to possibilities, you tend to thrive.

Uncovering new possibilities could have a profound impact on the success of a team or an entire organisation. It may lead to greater problem-solving skills and motivation.

To explore these concepts further, consider booking a session with Think Learn Succeed.

About the author of this article:

Eleanor Shakiba is passionate about helping talented people flourish professionally. She coaches and trains high performers who want to excel in business. Her core expertise is in positive psychology. Eleanor is the author of the Positive Psychology Toolkit for HR and L&D practitioners. She also runs master practitioner level retreats and workshops for trainers and facilitators.

The most effective kind of leadership is authentic leadership. This means that leading with your best self can strengthen teams and drive better results. Mindfulness is a powerful mental exercise that you can apply to your team whether you are a director, HR manager, team leader, or representative.

Take action as a leader and develop mindfulness with your employees and peers. Plenty of research shows that working together to solve problems, learning more about each other and being supportive of each other can drastically improve positive operations in the workplace. The more positive you are, the more lasting the effects of good teamwork will be.

Here is a good example. Emerald Insight implemented a 3-year training program on leaders to see how effective action learning principles were in the workplace. The results of the study showed that mindfulness increased significantly among participants and it changed not only the mindset but the entire structure of some organisations.

If you are looking to bring real (and positive) changes to your workplace, try working on mindfulness. This means that you should encourage peers to be supportive of each other. It also helps to increase awareness about what’s going on and what’s being done right. Mindfulness = awareness and that is the best way to help everyone be on the same page. And rather than focusing on the negative aspects of the organisations, working together to identify positive solutions is key for transforming the organisation moving forward.

Interested in following more positive psychology tips? Follow Eleanor Shakiba on LinkedIn and Facebook now!

About the author of this article:

Eleanor Shakiba is positive psychology trainer. She teaches highly skilled professionals to think creatively, communicate constructively and become positive leaders. Eleanor’s clients work in academia, education, IT, engineering, finance and health. She is the author of the Positive Psychology Toolkit for HR and L&D practitioners. She also runs a range of retreats and workshops for trainers and facilitators.

Many people think mindfulness is the same as meditation. However, this isn’t altogether accurate. Positive psychology trainers define mindfulness as a state of focused attention. This state can occur any time you focus on the here-and-now.  Meditation, on the other hand, is a formal practice in which various techniques are used to consciously direct attention. Mindful attention exercises are often used during meditation – which is why the two terms are used interchangeably by many people.

In the human resources field, there’s increasing interest in using mindfulness techniques to boost employee wellbeing. This is because the benefits of mindfulness are well researched. They include reduced stress, improved creativity, greater problem-solving ability and improved immune function. Accessing these benefits does not mean you have to take up a formal practice – such as mindfulness meditation. It can be as simple as doing one thing at a time and allowing yourself to fully focus on each task. Why not get some advice from a positive psychology trainer about practical ways to boost your mindfulness? It will benefit you and the people you work with.

About the author of this fun fact:

Eleanor is a master trainer and coach. She trains savvy professionals in a range of sectors – including higher education, health, finance and local government – in the use of positive psychology tools and techniques. Eleanor is the author of the Positive Psychology Toolkit for HR and L&D practitioners. She runs specialist training for facilitators and trainers, as well as delivering customised training for corporate teams.

Many people think mindfulness and meditation are the same thing. However, this isn’t really the case. Positive psychology trainers define mindfulness as a state of focused attention. It is a state which can occur any time you focus on the present moment.  Meditation, in contrast, is a formal practice in which various techniques are used to consciously direct attention. The aim of meditation is to induce a mindful state.  Additionally, mindful attention exercises are often used during meditation. However, the two concepts are slightly different.  

Positive psychology trainers teach mindfulness techniques to help professionals improve their focus, reduce stress and boost creativity. This usually doesn’t involve mediating – it means using simple techniques that focus attention. Mindfulness is a mental state achieved by bringing your attention to the present moment without any judgment. You remain aware of the surrounding environment, along with your body and thoughts, without any judgment.  

Positive psychologist, Ellen Langer, describes mindfulness as the process of actively discovering new things, while challenging your natural tendencies. She draws a  distinction between mindlessness and mindfulness. Mindlessness is a state of mind that relies on preconceived notions to categorise experiences. You become mindless when you perform an act out of habit or make assumptions. It includes automatic behaviour or acting from a single perspective.  

Mindfulness, on the other hand,  involves a state of openness. While meditation also often involves an open state of mind, it is not the same as the state outlined by Langer. Meditation refers to the intentional practice of focusing your attention. Most forms of meditation involve a postural position, mantras or repeated phrases and a focus on your breathing. Positive psychology trainers don’t use these techniques. Instead they use simple attention focusing techniques such as mindful photography to help you become more mindful.  

Some forms of meditation deliberately create a state of mindfulness, requiring you to remain aware and open to your surroundings. That’s why ‘mindfulness meditation’ is a commonly used term. However, the approach to mindfulness advocated by positive psychology trainers is more about being actively mindful in your daily life.   

According to Ellen Langer, the characteristics of mindfulness include: 

• Creation of new categories 
• Openness to new information 
• Awareness of more than one perspective 

Instead of relying on old categories and labels, you create new ones. This comes naturally to children.  As people start to depend on past experiences to shape their current ones, it becomes more difficult with age. Mindfulness also involves an openness to new information and points of view. New information helps you develop new categories and labels while different points of view help keep you open to other ideas or beliefs. 

If you want to become more mindful in your personal and professional life, try these tips. All of them are recommended by positive psychology trainers who work with corporate clients.  

• Actively try to notice new things in every situation and the familiar becomes more interesting 
• Avoid being mindless and relying on categories and labels that you created in the past 
• Reframe negative attributes in others as interesting quirks or potential areas for improvement 
• Always look for ways to grow and evolve instead of getting complacent with your current routine 
• Try to find ways to integrate work and life rather than trying to achieve an unrealistic work-life balance. 

Numerous studies have linked mindfulness to reduced stress, increased memory and greater cognitive flexibility. According to a study conducted at Liverpool John Moores University, mindfulness increased participant’s ability to remain focused and suppress any distracting information. So if you want to experience these benefits, start using mindful awareness techniques today.  

About the author of this article: 

Eleanor is a master trainer and coach. She trains savvy professionals in a range of sectors – including higher education, health, finance and local government – in the use of positive psychology tools and techniques. Eleanor is the author of the Positive Psychology Toolkit for HR and L&D practitioners. She runs specialist training for facilitators and trainers, as well as delivering customised training for corporate teams. 

Positive psychologists define optimism as a feeling of hopefulness and confidence about the future. It’s the belief that things will turn out okay. And here’s some great news. The thinking patterns of optimists can be learned. Even if you lean towards pessimism, you can change.

Here are four ways you can embed optimistic thinking habits in your life.

1. Keep a gratitude journal. This trains your brain to scan for the positives and feel grateful for even the smallest things.
2. Edit your self-talk. Delete negative language and replace it with constructive, solution focused inner dialogue.
3. Be curious. Refocus and look through a positive lens. Notice what’s good right now or has the potential to become better in the future.
4. Leave the past in the past. Stop dwelling on distressing or upsetting events from the past. Instead, picture the future you want to create and work out how to build it!

Apply these techniques and you will experience lower stress levels, better health outcomes and higher motivation. Take the pessimistic filter off and replace it with an optimistic one today!

About the author of this tip:

Eleanor Shakiba is a positive psychology trainer. She has been training and coaching ‘positive deviants’ since 1994. She delivers customised workshops for corporate teams, as well as practitioner level programs for HR and L&D specialists. Eleanor is the author of the Positive Psychology Toolkit for HR and L&D practitioners. (link to PP toolkit page). She also runs a range of retreats and workshops for trainers and facilitators.

Want to train your team on resilience and learned optimism techniques? Call Eleanor Shakiba. 0433 126 841

When people ask me how to overcome anxious or negative thoughts, I suggest they read Learned Optimism. It’s a pragmatic, helpful introduction to the skill of cognitive reframing. It’s easy to read, yet is based on a solid research foundation.  

In Learned Optimism, the ”father of positive psychology” explores pessimism, learned helplessness, explanatory style and optimism. He then discusses how these thinking patterns impact our lives. Drawing on more than 25 years of research, Seligman describes how optimism can become a learned attitude. He describes a range of techniques people can use to think optimistically. Because these are drawn from robust research studies, these are techniques OD and HR practitioners can teach with confidence.  

Reading Seligman’s book will help you understand, apply and teach the thinking habits of optimistic people. Leaders, trainers, counsellors, coaches and Human Resources professionals are amongst the people I most commonly recommend it to.  

About the author of this review 

Eleanor Shakiba is a training consultant and facilitator. Since 1994, she has delivered thousands of workshops on resilience, positive psychology and constructive communication. She works with people in high intellect professions – such as academia, education, project management, research and development and engineering. Her skills in interactive training make Eleanor a highly sought-after facilitator. In addition to her expertise in Positive Psychology, Eleanor also holds qualifications in Social Anthropology, Counselling, Coaching, Adult Education and Neuro Linguistic Programming. 

You probably know someone who lives by the mantra: ‘be positive’. And it seems that person has a point. Optimism is good for you on a number of levels. For example, optimism can positively impact your health. Here’s some proof supporting this claim. There was a huge study conducted by Jama Network Open over the course of 14 years. More than 230,000 people were studied across 4 different continents to find a link between life outlook and heart health. After the giant study ended, the researchers published a stunning result: optimists are 35% less likely to have a heart attack than pessimists.

This finding has huge implications for the future of your health. And it is not only useful in the health field. After working with positive psychology trainers or coaches, many professionals have learned how to apply the principles of learned optimism at work. Why not do the same yourself?

About the author of this fast fact:

Eleanor Shakiba is a trusted coach and trainer to thousands of professionals in high intellect fields. Her expertise is in using positive psychology to build high performing leaders and teams. Eleanor works with trainers and HR specialists to build exceptional organisations and teams. She is the author of the Positive Psychology Toolkit for HR and L&D practitioners. She also runs a range of retreats and workshops for trainers and facilitators.