The Oxford Mindfulness Podcast

Conflict in the Workplace: Mindful Communication

In this episode we are joined by Philippe Goldin, associate professor at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, where he teaches, conducts research and mentors students in the areas of health promotion, clinical psychology and cognitive-affective neuroscience. He has worked as a consultant for Google in Mountain View, Calif., and is a founder of the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, a mindfulness-based emotional intelligence and leadership training program. In this extract, he offers some practical tips for conflict resolution at work.

Speak Up: Say What Needs to be Said and Hear What Needs to be Heard

For our April keynote session, we were joined by Professor Megan Reitz. This keynote explored the choices we all make around speaking up or staying silent. These choices are mediated through our perceptions of power. We ‘label’ ourselves and others (for example, job title, department, age, gender, ethnicity, academic background) and each of these labels conveys status (or not) depending on the context. 

1 I Finding Your Ground

Throughout this Frame by Frame taster series we hosted Mark Williams to offer a taste of his new course, developed for those who have already completed a mindfulness course and want to explore mindfulness more deeply.

Week by week, we focused on attention and reactivity, with special emphasis on ‘feeling tone’. Feeling tone is the moment-by-moment evaluation of whether any contact with mind or body feels pleasant, unpleasant, or neither. 

This episode was recorded during week 1 of the series of taster sessions. 

Unlearning Reactivity

Ancient wisdom and contemporary psychological science identify habitual reactivity as the source of much of the suffering, stress and distress in which it’s so easy to become entangled midst life’s ups and downs. Although our immediate reactions may arise from self-protective instincts, they often obscure our clear seeing of situations, amplifying and prolonging difficulty through over-thinking, re-living and pre-living.

Mindfulness offers priceless, practical ways to unlearn these habits and so to cultivate greater resilience and well-being in the midst of our lives as they are.

In this session we explore a particular way of bringing mindfulness and compassion to difficult emotions, moods and thought-patterns through the practice of ‘G.R.A.I.N’: ‘Grounding, Recognising, Allowing, Investigating, Non-selfing’. Practising in this way can significantly reduce reactivity and enable a greater sense of agency, wise responsiveness and flourishing in the midst of the ever-changing circumstances of our lives.

This session is intended to be appropriate for everyone, whether you have an established mindfulness practice or not.

Creating a Speak Up Culture

This episode of the Mindfulness in the Workplace podcast series features Megan Reitz. Megan is a facilitator, teacher, speaker, executive coach, researcher and author dedicated to exploring and finding ways to improve the way we interact with one another in the workplace. Working at the intersection of leadership, change, dialogue and mindfulness, she has presented her research to audiences throughout the world and she is listed on the Thinkers50 Radar of global management thinkers and on the 2019 HR Most Influential list of Thinkers.

Working With the Fear of Self Compassion

Dr Lee’s talk discusses compassion and trauma, and includes some mindfulness practices that explore compassion. If you are going through a challenging time or have a history of trauma, please consider carefully if this is the right time to listen to this podcast.

Mindfulness and Emotional Intelligence

This episode of the Mindfulness in the Workplace podcast series features Michelle Maldonado. Michelle is a former corporate lawyer and business leader who understands diverse industry sectors, mission, and service. She is passionate about learning, helping elevate human consciousness and alleviating suffering in the world. Her work focuses on personal and professional leadership development at the pivotal intersection of mindfulness, unconscious bias, emotional intelligence, authenticity, and compassion. 

Mindfulness for Life, For Life

Our Wednesday evening mindfulness sessions are supporting people in extending and deepening their mindfulness practice. We continue our series of podcasts based on the Mindfulness: Taking it Further course curriculum with this episode "Mindfulness for Life, For Life". These sessions will typically feature a talk and a guided practice session. This episodes practice is approximately 20 minutes long. 

Cool Head, Warm Heart

Our Wednesday evening mindfulness sessions are supporting people in extending and deepening their mindfulness practice. We continue our series of podcasts based on the Mindfulness: Taking it Further course curriculum with this episode "Cool Head, Warm Heart". These sessions will typically feature a talk and a guided practice session. This episodes practice is approximately 20 minutes long. 

Responding, Not Reacting

Our Wednesday evening mindfulness sessions are supporting people in extending and deepening their mindfulness practice. We continue our series of podcasts based on the Mindfulness: Taking it Further course curriculum with this episode "Responding, Not Reacting". These sessions will typically feature a talk and a guided practice session. This episodes practice is approximately 20 minutes long.