Mindful Work: How Meditation is Changing Business from the Inside Out, by David Gelles, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2015, 296 pages, 14.95 Can.

A friend who is an avid reader told me, not once but several times: “You should read Mindful Work. You will enjoy it.”

So for the last two weeks I’ve been diving deep into the benefits of mindfulness, an idea that seems to have found traction with the North American public.

Mindfulness is the ability keep our thoughts in the present, rather than allowing them to slip back into the past, or wander into the future.

That isn’t an easy thing to do, and the most tried and true method of achieving this is meditation.

Scientific research is making a strong case for the benefits of mindfulness — and meditation. We can better concentrate on our work and thus be more productive, less stressed and consequently, happier at work. CEOs speak of mindfulness giving them “Deep Thinking Skills”

Other benefits ascribed to mindfulness include a strengthened immune system thus making us healthier, and greater compassion toward our fellow human beings, making us better citizens of the world.

Mindfulness and greater self-awareness make us better leaders as well.

David Gelles, formerly of the Financial Post, is now a reporter for the New York Times, covering mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, and Wall Street. Mindful Work brings together his 15 years of meditation practice with his work as a business journalist.

Ever the professional, Gelles devotes the first two chapters to tracing the history of meditation and its segue from eastern religion to mainstream, secular acceptance.

I confess I found my own mind wandering a few times, around Walden Pond, but by the time he got to the 60’s I was in familiar territory: hippies, and the Beatles going off to India to meditate.

In the 80’s there was Steve Jobs, the first mainstream meditating CEO.

In Chapter 3, Gelles lets us peek into the laboratories that are testing how meditation and mindfulness can change our brain, make it more calm, less scattered, and how this knowledge can be used to help any one of us change and improve our behaviour.

This is his jumping off point to expand on the benefits of meditation, with chapters on stress, concentration, compassion, social responsibility, and developing leadership skills.

He contends, and other thought leaders agree, that a strong leader is one who can make decisions calmly and thoughtfully, who treats employees with kindness and compassion, and who stays open to differing points of view.

Gelles also acknowledges that not everyone is happy that meditation is now mainstream, and practiced in companies such as General Mills, Green Mountain Coffee, Google and Reebok.

Some practitioners fear there is a danger it will be used in unethical ways, and others who feel that an ancient and respected religious practice has been adapted for purely secular purposes.

Undeterred by the possibility that something good has the possibility to be something bad, I’ve been working at my own meditation skills.

I’ve tried before with no success, but there are some very simple and straightforward instructions in the back of the book, and so far, I’ve been able to cage my wandering mind for up to five minutes.

Not earth-shattering but about four minutes longer than I’ve been able to accomplish before.

I particularly want to get to the point where I can try a very basic metta, “May I be happy, may I be healthy and safe, and may I be free from suffering”.

Apparently, if we start with this internal ask, we will find ourselves expanding our thinking beyond the bounds of our own body and ask that others enjoy the same blessings.

There is also a list of additional resources, footnotes and, my favourite thing, an index.

Enjoy isn’t the word I’d use to describe my feelings about Mindful Work. It was a little bit outside my comfort zone in some ways. Yet I would recommend it to anyone experiencing stress, pain or sorrow, or is looking for another way to work on their wellbeing.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/1377075-mindfulness-now-the-tao-of-business

Reviewed by Kaye Parker, www.kayeparkeracademy.com, kparker@herald.ca