The Mindfulness Edge

9From 4 Hours to 4 MinutesMastering Emotions for Optimal Performance

In the last two chapters, you were encouraged to begin your mindfulness training during activities that are conducted in relative solitude and that don't require you to be actively engaged in thinking. It is during those types of activities that it is likely easiest to begin your training and to realize some of the fruits of the practice. However, the life of a leader is certainly not lived in isolation.

As you add more and more activities to your training regimen, mindfulness will begin to spill over into many areas of your life. You will gradually notice yourself making the effort to practice being mindfully self-aware during more complex activities, such as interacting with others, which we'll explore in great detail in Chapter 13.

Although it is certainly possible, and quite likely, that we experience unpleasant emotions during time in relative solitude because of negative thought patterns, unpleasant emotions tend to arise equally as easily, and oftentimes much more easily, when we interact with other people. This is likely because we tend to take our interactions with people quite personally and are more likely to assign blame based on assumed intent when we're dealing with people.

The causes of those unpleasant emotions are probably somewhat different for each of us, but the experience of emotion is something ...