Hello fellow learner,
Happy Easter 😄 I got to celebrate by watching mass on Channel 7, eating waffles for brunch and making sugar cookies with my family. Oh, and I got an Easter basket, so I am slowly but surely making my way to having a quarantine cavity.
Here is letter #3 from a learn-it-all!
Some things I’ve learned through...
Doing
I have signed up as a co-leader for the mindfulness community in my Chicago office. During our current (virtual) meetings, I will share an idea for discussions and explain an exercise to practice. I am open to ideas as I am always exploring different ways to be mindful. I would love your input on any ideas or favorite mindful practices that you partake in.
Writing
I wrote about the blurring of life and how time feels as if it stopped. I used an Aesop fable to help compare how we can choose to become more like the Grasshopper or Ant. I share ideas about how you can define life’s new normal and continue to move the needle with the different buckets of what you value.
Watching
I watched Kare Anderson’s TED Talk Be an opportunity maker. She conducts behavioral research on how people become connected. Anderson explains the mutuality mindset when conversationalists do not talk purely about themselves. They find a way to make a connection and talk about the idea of us. Opportunity makers are not affronted by differences— they’re fascinated by them. These individuals:
- Always hone their top strengths
- Seek patterns by getting involved in different worlds apart from their own and build trust to understand alternate patterns
- Communicate openly to connect around shared interests
Reading
I read Keep Your Identity Small by Paul Graham who explains a theory of how engaging conversations are easier to create when identities of the participants are not being questioned. Politics and religion are the main categories that can combat clear thinking due do strongly held beliefs and labels of how someone identifies.
Word to define
Mindfulness: An awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgementally in the service of self-understanding and wisdom. This is according to Jon Kabat-Zinn, who is the founder of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction.
- What does mindfulness mean for you?
Quote to inspire
“You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” — Jon Kabat-Zinn
Question to ponder
Think back on a recent day that you’d describe as a bad day. Can you revisit what happened and think of positive things that happened?
I appreciate you reading this and would love if you contacted me directly via my email vermetjl@gmail.com with any ideas or feedback you’d like to share.
Stay safe and I’ll see you next weekend,
Jen
