EDITOR'S note:

You don't need a personal guru or a trip to India to bring you inner peace. Perhaps you simply need to learn from Mirabai Bush, co-founder of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society. In this interview with Knowledge@Wharton, Bush spoke with Katherine Klein, vice-dean of Wharton's Social Impact Initiative, to discuss how individuals can bring "mindfulness" into their everyday lives.

Q: Let's start with the challenge people face with fitting meditation into their lives.

A: Pretty much everybody thinks it's difficult to fit meditation into their lives. But we say, "You're not too busy to brush your teeth or to eat breakfast."

Once you experience "mindfulness," which is an umbrella term for meditation and some other practices, you begin to realize its benefits. Don't think of it as a big deal, but rather as a short practice each day that really makes a big difference.

And there are some ways to make it easier to incorporate into your life. First of all, keep it really simple; brief practice is fine. Just focus on your breathing for a few minutes, and each time you'll be reminded of how calming and quieting it is.



Q: In addition to meditation, are there other beneficial practices that you think people might want to consider squeezing into their days?

A: We once taught mindful walking to a group of environmental canvassers.

They were walking from house to house, and in between their appeals to people, they were paying attention to their walking and letting go of all other thoughts.

They reported back that they were much more effective because when they got to where they were going, they were fully present in that moment with whoever opened the door. So walking's a great practice for mindfulness.

Q: I'm struck by the challenge to these practices presented by our cell phones and iPhones. Whenever there's a moment of pause, we automatically pull out our cell phones.

A: Years ago, I lived in a monastery in India. I remember there were always lots of lines for everything. As young Westerners, we were always impatient. I remember one day we were complaining, and a teacher said to us, "Waiting is being."

I still think of that in those situations. We all check our e-mail or Facebook or whatever while we're waiting.

But it's possible, while waiting, to use that as a way to just calm, quiet and stabilize the mind. That calms and quiets all of our physical systems, as well. Even a few moments of that really helps us to feel better and be more present in the moment.

Q: Can you tell us about the benefits you're seeing in the workplace when people engage in mindfulness?

A: We did a short, one-day program with the electric company National Grid.

They were bringing together all of their diversity officers in the Northeastern US and they wanted to do something that would help them appreciate diversity even more among themselves.

We did a practice called "just like me." This was one of the first times that I did this practice with a business group, and these were very mainstream, corporate people.

We had them stand in two lines facing a partner across from them.

The person who was guiding the practice started by saying various phrases and then asked participants to repeat them silently to themselves while looking into the eyes of the other person.

You can see that the person across from you is a human being with thoughts and emotions, just like you.

The guide goes on to say, "This person has been sad in his life, just like me. This person has done things he regrets, just like me."

I took part as well.

The person across from me was a regional manager from Buffalo, New York. He was wearing a suit and tie. He was a white, working class, Buffalo guy.

When the practice was over, it was so touching. I just thought, "Oh my God, I'm going to have to stay with this person forever. I'm in love with him. I'm never going to be able to leave him."

It was really powerful.

Q: When I think about meditation, most of it focuses on the individual. When you encounter organizational issues, should you focus on helping the individuals or should you focus on teamwork techniques?

A: Yes - either or both. For example, when we worked with employees at Marie Claire, they were stressed.

Our program focused on individual mindfulness meditation to achieve a calmer state. While this was very individually focused, they did it as a group. They came together once a week for two hours and were led in practice by someone. Even though we didn't emphasize the group dynamic, people appreciated each other more.

Q: One final question, about "non-judgmental presence." On the one hand, the notion of non-judgmental presence is important, and it's linked to listening and compassion. But at the same time, you're working with people who need to make judgments and decisions. I was struck by that duality of non-judgment and judgment. Can you expand on this?

A: It is the hardest thing to grasp. The important thing in mindfulness is to see the present moment as it is and not to bring pre-judgment to it.

A group of judges asked us to do a special workshop on mindfulness and emphasizing non-judgmental awareness.

They wanted to do this because they said that when people arrived in front of the bench, they would find that their minds leapt to judgment based on people's appearance, and they knew they shouldn't be doing that.

This example relates to business because it's about seeing the situation as it is. It's about making decisions without ... pre-conceived notions. It doesn't mean that we don't make judgments, choices and decisions. It's about making better choices by seeing what's actually there in front of us.

Another important issue relates to distraction, which is increasing all the time with our advances in electronic information.

Mindfulness really increases our attention and takes us beyond distraction.

Distraction keeps us from being productive, and I think it leads us to not look deeply at situations, to stay at the superficial level.

Adapted from Knowledge@Wharton, http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu. To read the original, please visit: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=3218