Talking to Ourselves

**This blog was originally published on iB-LIEVE's blog (www.GOiBELIEVE.com/blog)**

For the next two weeks, each of the iB-LIEVE blogs will be sharing the importance of mindfulness. My task is to share how this essential skill can be developed in order to enhance our leadership capabilities. Below is an example and practice suggestion from my own life experience.

Four years ago I volunteered at an education center, Alianza Americana ,in Leon, Nicaragua. It was a tremendous experience for a plethora of reasons. One of the major reasons was because I allowed myself time and space to simply be with me. I didn’t know it then, but I was building my capacity to be more mindful. I understand mindfulness as being present with who you are, where you are, and what you are doing.

In addition to teaching English and coordinating /facilitating leadership development programs, I spent countless hours reading, quietly walking through the streets, and sitting – just being still. With a pad of paper I reflected on my daily experience, the new knowledge I had acquired, and how I wanted to serve the global community. In short, I was purposefully pausing.

I believe that we develop mindfulness when we create space to understand, ask, reflect upon, and respond to questions such as “Who am I called to be? Where am I called to serve? and What am I called to do?” However, mindfulness is also practiced when we are present to all of our actions – even the mundane tasks. We will discuss this aspect of mindfulness more next week.

Let me leave you with an exemplary quote from Parker Palmer that shares ways in which to grow our capacity for mindfulness. He describes it as listening to the voice within, “How does one attend to the voice within? I have no particular methods to suggest, other than the familiar ones: solitude and silence, meditative reading and walking in the woods, keeping a journal…I simply propose that we need to learn as many ways as we can of ‘talking to ourselves.’” I look forward to talking with you, and I hope you find the time to talk more to yourselves.