Take time out of your day to reflect
04/12/12The workplace today is incredibly challenging and complex. We need to manage ourselves and colleagues, employees, while taking care of spouses and children. How do we meet the demands from the many people clambering for our attention?
Imsimbi Training director Chris Langefeld together with emotional and spiritual intelligence speaker Sister Dipty Naran spoke at an inspired, motivational breakfast seminar recently held at Imsimbi’s head office in Fairlands, Johannesburg.
Inspired, relaxed, aware of who they are, and crucially aware of their relationship with their Creator, corporate learners are taught to enter a place where they can draw upon their inner strengths…as well as a gradual awareness of their awesomeness; and that within them lies vast, untapped reservoirs of potential waiting to be unleashed.
Director Chris Langefeld – who’s from a monastic background of celibacy, poverty and obedience in an earlier chapter of his life – pointed out a growing awareness for spiritual and emotional intelligence for individuals and organisations.
“The spiritual revolution,” he said, “underscores the growing worldwide hunger for spirituality.” And that spirituality is to be distinguished from religion. There’s been an ever growing change in consciousness sweeping through our world for decades now; with some standout human beings humbly pointing out the direction, to those that will listen. There’s a mixture of hope and dis-ease in our workplaces, he highlighted. “Who are we? Where are we going? These are the questions of our day.”
After studying the thousands of learners we train each year in the corporate and public sector we?ve uncovered a dissatisfaction with mere survival and drawing of salaries, employees want to make a difference to their wider communities. They are looking beyond their own needs but want to fulfil a deeper spiritual need which includes a commitment to relieving the suffering of the wider community.
We need to invest in ourselves and our wellbeing, said Sister Dipty Naran. This spiritual motivator, and academic from the University of Johannesburg’s education faculty, held the room enthralled as she rallied people to search inwards for meaning to their frenzied lifestyles.
Ask yourself what you have done for yourself today, she said. “We’re all spending ourselves, but if we don’t invest in ourselves, we won’t have anything left to give.””We can have all the resources in the world, but the only thing that will take us to the other side is our inner resilience.”
The workplace today is not an easy place, it’s incredibly complex, she said. We’re dealing with our self, with targets, your spouse and your children; we’re not just an employee. How do we cater for the many worlds in our head, she asked. “It’s about going inside ourselves and awakening to a space of calm and quiet, a place that you go to every day.”
“People experience an entire lifetime but believe that they have not lived; that, in the end, they realise that they’ve been lived through – completely spent – by their work, also by their family. People today only exist, they’re not living. Something really needs to change: The attitude of I made it – phew! – through today has to stop; you have to begin living differently.”
Sr. Naran believes that most folk don’t heed the warning signs and thus tend to delay change, and that’s when they cause harm to themselves. She visits many executives who are burned out and whose health has failed: “When you lie in that hospital bed you’re alone: the medical aid pays the bill, the people in your life will say ‘we are sorry’, but you remain completely alone, and spent.”
So, what are you doing for you, she asked again? “Remember that who you are is what you offer, and that if your light is shining bright, it will reach many people.’
“Be peaceful and centred. Most of you are not even out of your bed and you’re in fifth gear already. Why do you do this to yourselves? If you can open the right energy fields in your life, life will look after you, but only if you know to look after yourself.”
She believes that we need to take time everyday to be in tune with ourselves. Productivity is very much in line with your centeredness, she emphasised. “How often are you really present? We are not awake. I’m there, doing what I’m supposed to be doing. But I’m not really there, I’m not really present.”
She insisted that at our core we are all very peaceful people, and it is when we are in that space that it is when we get things going, and working. “Begin by asking your heart when last were you happy.”
“When you make breakthroughs inside yourselves, you’ll make breakthroughs outside yourselves. We must live our lives inside out, not outside in. We are running this race; let’s not deny that it’s tough. There’s a smarter way; don’t fight fire with fire, it only results in ashes. When you’re in touch with yourself, people won’t abuse you.”
The first step is investment in you. “My final question to you is why sleep in the car in your garage when you have a beautiful four bedroom home to live in? Why be content with second best…? Sr Dipty, who is now in her late fifties, added that besides 2 panados taken as a child, she has not taken any medication for her entire life, all due to her daily practice of meditation.
“Unleashing the real potential of our clients through breathing soul and integrity into organizations? service delivery.”
Imsimbi Training is a leading training organisation committed to the empowerment and development of all South Africans. Through values based skills development we are able to free the personal and leadership potential of all candidates we train. We offer a range of personal effectiveness and leadership development training courses to both the public and private sectors.
Imsimbi derived from “insimbi” means strength and resolve: the power we hope to unleash in each individual so that each person can attain their higher purpose and full potential. We have over thirty highly skilled, qualified and professional Imsimbi facilitators based throughout the country.
At Imsimbi Training we continuously strive for and are committed to living the following values:
> Quest for excellence in exploring new possibilities
> Providing service with passionate energy
> Having a spirited, joyful team
> Restoring soul and integrity into service delivery