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My four-year old daughter has this really cool mantra.  I don't know where it came from, but it warms my heart every time I hear her say it.

"I share every day"

For the longest time, I only thought of how sharing related to my personal relationships.  Sharing the last cookie with my children, sharing a playlist with my sister, or sharing my time to deliver a meal to a very pregnant friend and her family.  

But one day at work, Catherine's mantra popped into my head.  "I share every day." It made me stop and think as to whether I was sharing every day...at work.  I'm not talking about sharing office space or the printer....I'm talking about really sharing.  Sharing my knowledge, my services, and my energy.  

Sometimes as entrepreneurs we get caught up in the day-to-day of running a business. 

Did I run payroll?  How's that Facebook ad doing?  Did I ever sent that email to my VA?...

CEO's have come to understand that the practice of mindfulness elicits mind-body-brain benefits that other types of relaxation such as playing golf or watching a movie do not. 

Our brains are wonderfully complex and play a role in every single thought, emotion and physical sensation we experience. This includes every breath, every movement and even every eye blink! The brain is highly sensitive to all types of information coming into it. This sensitivity is the reason why it is important to find ways to manage stressful reactions when unable to prevent them altogether. It is simply wise medicine.

Mindfulness is quickly becoming a billion-dollar industry. There is hard science proving the effectiveness of meditation to reduce stress, increase focus, to foster creativity and resilience and to increase your emotional intelligence.

These are likely the reasons that CEO’s are turning to meditation - a way to practice mindfulness - instead of other forms of relaxation....

Do some of your best ideas come to you while you are taking a shower? 

Or when you are driving? How about when standing in line at the grocery store? 

Chances are your best ideas have come to you when you were NOT actively trying to analyze the problem. 

Our tendency to come up with creative ideas when we are not consciously working on them is not mere coincidence. In fact, it makes perfect sense from a neuroscience perspective. That’s because when your brain stops the conscious, analytical thinking of the prefrontal cortex, other parts of your brain are free to make associations. Our brains have a default mode network that is constantly working when the prefrontal cortex takes a break. The default mode network is made up of “association” areas of the brain that communicate and make connections between seemingly unrelated ideas. It’s when we are not consciously thinking about a problem that our brain has...

Last week we talked about STOPPING the shoulda, coulda, woulda thoughts that feed procrastination and avoidance by using the Stop Sign. Building on the work of the Stop Sign which interrupts the flow of negative intrusive thoughts, we follow it with taking a Moment to Pause with several deep, full breaths.

The Stop Sign clears the mind while the Moment to Pause breath helps us to return to the here and now.

The Moment to Pause Breath is a mindful powerhouse in terms of the positive changes it triggers and the ripples it creates in our brain, mind and body.

• First, the Moment to Pause breath signals the part of the brain responsible for our stress response to stand down;
• Next, the Moment to Pause breath activates the part of the brain which relaxes us to turn on;
• Finally the Moment to Pause breath eases us into the current moment.  

These changes in the brain - turning the stress response off and the relaxation response on -  happen quickly with a several, mindful...

I am…at peace..

...is one of my favorite mantras for centering and refocusing the direction of my mind,  which helps me to be much more effective and focused when working on my business. 

The need to focus and concentrate in our business and in our lives, cannot be overstated.

With a constant flow of information from technology, social media and news outlets, learning to quiet the volume from these intrusions as well as the inner voice of our own minds is a vital skill to master for entrepreneurs.

Meditation is one way of achieving a centeredness amid the noise and distractions created.

More importantly, we are now able to see the positive differences in the brains of meditators versus non-meditators.

The MRI scans of participants in an eight-week Mindfulness class, show the brain's fight or flight center, the amygdala appears to shrink. This area of the brain is associated with all emotion and is directly involved with the body's stress response.

Also, as the...