We’ve been debating mindfulness in our household (yes, and sometimes our crazy lifestyle gets even more exciting than that).

Between us, we have some experience of yoga, meditation, breathing techniques, coaching, leadership, counselling and psychotherapy.

So we’re no strangers to opening our minds to spiritual or affective domains, or to speaking about our feelings to enhance our own self-development and awareness, and now to exploring the role mindfulness might play in both one-to-one helping situations, and for leadership (and can’t you just imagine the look on our twenty-something children’s faces when we start to talk about this?).

Well, undeterred, our conversation is far from over, and we’re still happily debating – though I have to tell you that our scales are tipped currently more in favour of mindfulness than against it.

But if your jury is currently out about it – perhaps you think it’s a New Age fad or an organizational buzzword? – consider this definition from Professor Jon Kabat Zinn of the University of Massachusetts medical School, who describes mindfulness as awareness that arises through:

Hmm, does that sound like leadership?

Yes, I thought so.  I think our scales have just tipped a little more.