November 18, 2019 – Last week 20 of our HMSL staff attended the 5th Annual Regional Shared Governance Conference. The conference theme was leading healthcare transformation through mindfulness. I’m grateful Maria Gordon, James Nguyen, Julie Pickle and Mary Harris presented the HMSL Magnet Champion’s work on creating a benefit mindset to promote mindfulness in practice.
The opposite of mindfulness is mindlessness. Here are some interesting facts the keynote speaker, Dale Curd, presented about mindlessness and what it can cost us:
- 47% of our time is spent with our minds wandering;
- 70% of leaders report regularly being unable to be attentive in meetings; and
- Only 2% of people purposefully take the time to enhance their personal productivity.
- Mindlessness leads to stress, illness, absenteeism, incivility, harassment, errors, accidents, conflict, and turnover.
John Kabat-Zinn said, “Mindfulness is what arises when you pay attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally… and what arises is nothing more than the awareness itself. Mindfulness involves developing an intentional awareness that is open and accepting, allowing oneself to respond rather than react to situations.”
We all face stressful situations on a moment-by-moment basis. What if we purposefully moved from autopilot to awareness, isolation to empathy, and reaction to response? When you find yourself stressed, take three deep breaths to clear your mind and then choose your response. Be intentional about building your mindfulness muscles!
— Janet Leatherwood, CNO
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