Daily appreciation to elevate your business and life and thrive in uncertainty
By Laura Kyttanen
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The other day a close friend sent me a youtube video of Geshe Michael Roche, a well known Buddha, and author of the New York Times Bestseller book, “The Diamond Cutter” .
For a bit of context - Roach, spent 25 years in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery completing his Geshe qualification, becoming the first Westerner in 600 years to do so. He then was told by his teacher to get a job so he could understand the day-to-day issues people face.
After initial resistance, Roach agreed and became one of the founders of Andin International, a New York diamond company, and helped build it from a $50,000 loan and less than 5 employees into a corporation with annual sales of $250 million dollars, which was sold to super-investor Warren Buffet in 2009.
As I was listening to Roach share his wisdom and insights around some of the techniques required for creating this type of financial abundance, I was struck by the fourth step of the technique - of which he refers to as the “coffee meditation.”
This step is what he believes is one of the most important and often the one skipped by so many which is why they end up not getting the results they want or the results are short lived.
What is coffee meditation?
It is a moment before bed for you to clarify, sharpen, define, and increase the resolution of what you desire and the seed you are planting with your thoughts through the practice of appreciation.
He says “To do this you must learn to control the mind and only think about the good things you did today by reliving the experience as if you are in an instant replay of the time you spent serving people or helping people during the day. Directing the mind where you want it to go. Don’t be deceived by how simple it is, or by the fact that laying down on your bed at night and thinking about all the good things you’re doing for people is a mildly pleasant process.”
“Coffee Meditation makes all the difference between getting what you want in your life, or not.”
Why does this work?
Showing gratitude and appreciation for people and things in our life, can increase the dopamine in our brain, improving blood flow and enhance our confidence, courage, resilience, creativity and overall physical health and wellbeing.
Research has found that people who tend to be more grateful have more brain activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, the area associated with learning and decision making. This brain activity persisted a month later, suggesting that gratitude has long-lasting effects.
Yet, many of us are conditioned to focus on what we lack or what we don't appreciate about our life.
In fact, when analyzing our Mindset Energy assessment results, we have found that when it comes to the Mindset Energy competency “Courage to act with intention” and specifically as it relates to the subcategory “embrace self, others and life,” with hundreds of respondents
50% focus on what isn’t working in their life
77% tend to be critical of themselves
These stats matter as they correlate to:
Lower confidence, specifically how much we trust ourselves and others
Increased fear and anxiety which impacts our courage and the way we react vs respond to adversity in our life
A scarcity mindset led by lack and increasing a competitive nature which also reduces our ability to be creative
Increased dissatisfaction with life
Increased difficulty in relationships or leadership positions
So, if this is something you struggle with, it might help you to know that you can easily create a new impact in your life simply by shifting your focus.
“Your Mindset Energy today creates your future impact.”
To illustrate the power of focusing the mind - close your eyes and imagine your favorite color, now open your eyes, focusing your mind on this color. Scan your space - how much of this color do you immediately see? Did you see your favorite color more than you usually do? Perhaps in unexpected places? This is the wonder of how our brain works - fascinating isn’t it?
Focusing your energy is especially powerful right now. Given the uncertainty we are facing in the economy and in the world, it is natural for fear to rise. And when we are led by fear, we become very internally focused – making short-sighted, self-interested decisions to fulfill our own needs and desires. This may be our primal wiring for survival, yet it doesn’t enable the type of conscious leadership which creates an elevated business, life or world.
Which is why I can see the rationale behind Roche’s techniques - rather than focusing on how one can secure their own future, they focus on how they can support others to handle adversity better so everyone wins.
Imagine for a moment how it would feel ending your day in a positive mood, relaxed, and ready to fall asleep. Imagine that rather than mentally replaying all your life’s problems and finding it difficult to rest, you chose to take control of your mind and focus on what you can appreciate about your day, the people you helped and anything else in your life right now that brings you joy, satisfaction or even peace.
“Acknowledging the good you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”
Recently I was working with a founder/CEO and we discussed how important it is to slow down and find appreciation in the adversity he was facing. We began by identifying outdated beliefs that was keeping him in his comfort zone and stuck in fear of the worse case scenario. Bringing these beliefs to the surface enabled him to consciously choose what he was eager to let go of which was no longer serving him and instead be a conscious creator of the future of his business. As a result, he was able to better lead his team to forge new ground, manage his emotions, open new ways of thinking, innovate better systems and processes and set his team up to bring their boldest thinking and do their best work with more joy and ease.
Who could you be if you were to put daily appreciation into practice? What could you achieve if you focused more on the opportunities? What impact could you have in your life if you looked to support others more to shift their mindset and energy?
Appreciation enables courage and ignites creativity which sparks possibilities
Since our mindset and emotions are contagious, why not spread more positive and expanded thoughts and feelings?You can start focusing your Mindset Energy today with a simple practice that we use with our clients, known as the “Flow of appreciation.”
In this practice our clients are encouraged to journal every morning and night acknowledging appreciation for what they have in their life.
Here are some journal prompts to help you get started:
Write down the things you appreciate most from whatever challenges you faced during the day, week, month or year.
Who have you supported along the way and what do you appreciate about this experience?
How did you grow in the last year? What outdated beliefs have you been able to relinquish as a result?
What doors have opened for you in the last year that you might be able to open for others?
I want to share appreciation to you for taking the time to read this post and for offering yourself the invitation to begin implementing this daily practice in your life.
By focusing on what’s good in your life and how you have helped other people, you’ll shift your experience of life, unlocking hidden potential that can make a huge impact in your life as well as the lives of many others.
