Darwin's versions of "grief" are kind of limited. We can be more creative than that. There is good evidence (for example, here and here) that describing your emotions with greater precision (sometimes called emotional granularity) improves both resilience and performance. So try using more [...]
I was recently chatting with a program manager friend of mine about emotional intelligence. He astutely pointed out that pride can be one of the biggest emotional pitfalls for development teams. For smart people, who are being paid to be smart and have achieved success by being smart, it is so easy[...]
When I use the phrase "emotional intelligence" I want to emphasize that: Emotional intelligence is a partnership between emotions and reason, not domination of emotions by reason Emotional intelligence is a set of skills that can be learned, not a fixed and inherent personality trait [...]
I taught Gregorian chant classes and retreats for over a decade. Very regularly, enthusiastic new students would show up, exclaiming, "I just love Gregorian chant! It makes me so peaceful and happy, and I'm thrilled to have the chance to learn to sing it." After a few hours of workshopping, I [...]
Image © 2012 Shelly ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ . Licensed under CC-BY Here's a story about how my brain got stuck, and how I eventually managed to unstick it. Yesterday I belatedly got around to putting a credit freeze on my credit reports in response to the Equifax data breach (you should too if [...]
Talk about effective collaboration! I had the great privilege yesterday of hearing the guitar duo Antoine Boyer and Samuelito at the marvelous DjangoFest Northwest on Whidbey Island. In front of a packed house these two young and wiry Frenchmen sat side by side on the stage in utter relaxation and [...]
Both experience and common sense tells me that being able to hold awareness beyond the incessant chatter of my own thoughts is going to make me more effective at work. But what objective evidence is there for this? Walking as we are through a forest of dense and shifting fads, fashions, and [...]
Sitting meditation is the classic mindfulness technique. Other practices like mindful walking or mindful eating may seem more accessible, and sitting in silence may seem a little intimidating. But sitting has a lot of merits as a way to get introduced to the experience of mindfulness. This post is [...]
Let's say you've become convinced by whatever means that mindfulness brings concrete benefit to technology delivery. You're now wondering: "what can I do about that?" Here is an outline of a 7-step plan. This plan starts and ends with what you do, not what your team does. (That very interesting [...]
On page 1 of Mindfulness for Beginners (which does seem like a very good place to start!) Jon Kabat-Zinn defines "mindfulness" as follows. To make its components clear I've laid it out poetry-style: Mindfulness is awareness, cultivated by paying attention in a sustained and particular [...]