Mindful wellbeing involves cultivating wellbeing at different levels - the body-mind-emotions level, the consciousness level, the spirit level, and the social level. The document discusses accessing wellbeing at each of these levels and why focusing on each level is important. It also discusses how as our understanding of human intelligence and consciousness has evolved, the idea of self has become more integral, encompassing the body, mind, spirit, and social/environmental reality.

1. A learning journey to Mindful
Wellbeing for leaders and
organizations
MiWell project
Rafael Cobo

2. Mindful wellbeing is being at well with our human potential
[Access 2 - Wellbeing at consciousness level [Personal Upgrade]
Why: we have a much more robust Operating System that our automatisms our conscious mind
Focus: self inquiry to recognize your true Self
Access 3 - Wellbeing at spirit level [Mindful Leadership]
Why: our purpose is manifested in action from pure being.
Focus : reflective action in the now
Access 4 - Wellbeing at social level [Collective Action]
Why: Ultimately our nature is social and we flourish in interaction .
Focus: processes, contexts, connections for conscious collective innovation.
Access 1 - Wellbeing at body-mind-emotions level [Reconcile]
Why: 95% of our time we live in automatic pilots that cause us suffering.
Focus: develop a strong witness capacity and detach from the automatisms that cause you suffering
2
As our knowledge about human intelligence and consciousness has evolved, the idea of self
has becomed more integral: body, mind, spirit, and the social and environmental reality in
which we live. Welcome to an integral way of being in the world.

3. Mindful & Agile Leadership
Rafael Cobo Calleja 2019
A Learning Journey to Mindful Wellbeing
for leaders and organizations
MiWell project
Stage 3: Mindful Leadership
Session 1: Introduction

4. 4
15´´Pause
Feel your breath,
let your body system calm down
Lets be fully present into this conversation!

5. 5
Can you think about
your two main day to day
work challenges?

6. 6
We work and live in an increasingly VUCA environment
Volatile
Uncertain
Complex
Ambiguous

7. 7
What competences show effective leaders in a VUCA world?
Sense of
Purpose
Empathy
Power Style
Self Awareness
Developmental
Motivation
Connective
Awareness
Reflective
Judgement
Situational
Awareness
Context setting
Agility
Creative Agility
Stakeholder
Agility
Self Leadership
Agility
Level of
Awareness
and Intent
Source:Leadershipagility.BillJoineryStephenJosephs

8. The level of awareness and intent Agile Leaders operate from
8
Expert
45%
Agile
10%
Achiever
35%
Fuente: Leadership agility. Bill Joiner y Stephen Josephs
Level of awareness Level of intent
Modest reflective capacity To improve and acomplish
things
A roboust reflective capacity,
but after the event has
occurred
To achieve desired outcomes in
a way consistent with self-
chosen values
Ability to step back in the
moment and be in the Now
processing senses, thought
processes, intuitions and
emotional responses
To engage in life in all its
fullness. Create contexts that
are experiential and meaningful
in deep collaboration with
others. To be of benefit to
others as well to yourself
DoingmodeBeingmode

9. Agility implies integrating plentifully doing and being
Doing mode
activated when our mind
wishes to rectify a discrepancy
Being mode
directed at acknowledging what is
here now: your body, thoughts,
emotions, will, purpose, creativity,
empathy…
9

10. 10
Gently close your eyes
and feel your breath.
Experience
Welcome to the being mode!
What’s it like
when there’s no problem
to solve just now?

11. The importance of the switch from doing to being in a
complex world
You act from previous
experiences stored in the mind
as memories
VUCA: what if its not immediately
apparent what must be done?
Doing mode:
walk from A to B.
Your mind continues processing
as discrepancy is not solved
11

12. A story of integrating doing-being in sports: the most
laureated MBA coach: Phil Jackson
12
When you are “in the field”: public silences…you don´t doubt”

13. 1.Assess
situation and
results
2.Diagnose
3.Set
Intention
4.Take
action
13
For an Agile Leader, “being in the zone” is Reflective Action
in the Now
This cycle can happen in an instant.
Our goal is to bring this effortless introspection to daily activity.
Source:Leadershipagility.BillJoineryStephenJosephs

14. 14
• Reflecting with effort (from your rational brain) (*)
o Asses situation: you step back from the
automatic reaction.
o Diagnose the situation: will depend on your
current level of awareness.
o Set your SMART intention. This will depend on
your desired level of intent.
o Engage in what needs to be done.
Practicing agile leadership…
(*)Source:Leadershipagility.BillJoineryStephenJosephs
Both build your way to act from an integrated level of mind:
doing from being
• Effortless reflection in the Now (from your
integrated mind).
Usually, your conditioned primitive brains (amigdala
and reptilian) react almost immediately based on past
conditionings. This conflicts with your neocortex and
being mode. The job is to learn experientally to “get
your conditionings out of the way” and act naturally
from an integrated level of mind.
JournalingpracticeMindfulpresence

15. 15
Mindful presence practice
Lets move to:
Inhabiting life plentifully: breathing and embodyment

16. Mindful & Agile Leadership
Rafael Cobo Calleja 2019
Inhabiting life plentifully:
breathing and embodyment
A Learning Journey to Mindful Wellbeing
for leaders and organizations
MiWell project

17. Over the years, I have had long discussions with thousands of people throughout
many different organizations about management. I always ask each person to describe the
single most important responsibility of any manager. The incredibly diverse responses
always have one thing in common: they are downward-looking. Management inevitably is
viewed as an exercise of authority -with selecting employees, motivating them, training
them, appraising them, organizing them, directing them, controlling them. That perception
is mistaken.
The first and paramount responsibility of anyone who purports to manage is to manage
self: one's own integrity, character, ethics, knowledge, wisdom, temperament, words, and
acts. It is a complex, unending, incredibly difficult, oft-shunned task. We spend little time
and rarely excel at management of self precisely because it is so much more difficult than
prescribing and controlling the behavior of others. However, without management of self no
one is fit for authority no matter how much they acquire, for the more authority they acquire
the more dangerous they become. It is the management of self that should occupy 50
percent of our time and the best of our ability. And when we do that, the ethical, moral and
spiritual elements of management are inescapable.
Asked to identify the second responsibility of any manager, again people produce a
bewildering variety of opinions, again downward-looking. Another mistake. The second
responsibility is to manage those who have authority over us: bosses, supervisors,
directors, regulators, ad infinitum. Without their consent and support, how can we follow
conviction, exercise judgment, use creative ability, achieve constructive results or create
conditions by which others can do the same? Managing superiors is essential. Devoting 25
percent of our time and ability to that effort is not too much.
Asked for the third responsibility, people become uncertain. Yet, their thoughts remain on
subordinates. Mistaken again. The third responsibility is to manage one's peers -- those
over whom we have no authority and who have no authority over us -- associates,
competitors, suppliers, customers -- one's entire environment if you will. Without their
respect and confidence little or nothing can be accomplished. Our environment and peers
can make a small heaven or hell of our life. Is it not wise to devote at least 20 percent of
our time, energy, and ingenuity to managing them?
Asked for the fourth responsibility, people have difficulty coming up with an answer, for they
are now troubled by thinking downward. However, if one has attended to self, superiors,
and peers there is nothing else left. Obviously, the fourth responsibility is to manage those
over whom we have authority. The common response is that all one's time will be
consumed managing self, superiors and peers. There will be no time to manage
subordinates. Exactly!
Reading: “The Art of Chaordic Leadership” by Dee Hock
Dee Hock, founder and CEO emeritus of VISA. He is a laureate in the Business Hall of Fame.
17
(*)Source:DeeHock-Leadershipinthechaordicera
One need only select decent people, introduce them to the concept, induce them to
practice it, and enjoy the process. If those over whom we have authority properly manage
themselves, manage us, manage their peers, and replicate the process with those they
employ, what is there to do but see they are properly recognized, rewarded -- and stay out
of their way? It is not making better people of others that leadership is about. In today's
world effective leadership is chaordic. It's about making a better person of self. Income,
power and position have nothing to do with that. In fact, they often interfere with it.
The obvious question then always erupts. How do you manage superiors, bosses,
regulators, associates, customers? The answer is equally obvious. You cannot. But can
you understand them? Can you persuade them? Can you motivate them? Can you disturb
them, influence them, forgive them? Can you set them an example? Eventually the proper
word emerges. Can you lead them?
Of course you can, provided only that you have properly led yourself. There are no rules
and regulations so rigorous, no organization so hierarchical, no bosses so abusive that
they can prevent us from behaving this way. No individual and no organization, short of
killing us, can prevent such use of our energy, ability, and ingenuity. They may make it
more difficult, but they can't prevent it. The real power is ours, not theirs, provided only that
we can work our way around the killing.
It is easy to test this chaordic concept of leadership. Reflect a moment on group endeavors
of which you are an observer rather than participant. If your interest runs to ballet, you can
undoubtedly recall when the corps seemed to rise above the individual ability of each
dancer and achieve a magical, seemingly effortless performance. The same can be
observed in the symphony, the theater, in fact, every group endeavor, including business
and government. Every choreographer, conductor, and coach - or for that matter,
corporation president - has tried to distill the essence of such performance. Countless
others have tried to explain and produce a mechanistic, measurably controlled process that
will cause the phenomenon. It has never been done and it never will be. It is easily
observed, universally admired, and occasionally experienced. It happens, but cannot be
deliberately done. It is rarely long sustained but can be repeated. It arises from the
relationships and interaction of those from which it is composed. Some organizations seem
consistently able to do so, just as some leaders seem able to cause it to happen with
consistency, even within different organizations. Leaders can only recognize and modify
conditions which prevent it; perceive and articulate a sense of community, a vision of the
future, a body of principle to which people can become passionately committed, then
encourage and enable them to discover and bring forth the extraordinary capabilities that
lie trapped in everyone struggling to get out.

18. The single most important responsibility of any manager
50% of time dedicated to manage Self
18
(*)Source:DeeHock-Leadershipinthechaordicera
80% of agile
leaders have
some kind of
introspection
practice

19. 19
Why starting in the body?
Image:Trévelez-La Alpujarra Antigua,Spain
These constructions were result of an
existing paradigm and the available
technologies/ resources.
• Defensive (against weather elements)
• Rigid
• Closed, with clear limits, dark
• Operates outside-in
• No availability of: affordable solar
panels, energy batteries, triple window
isolation, light construction materials
for isolation, closed cycle air circuits,
close cycle water systems…
What connection do you want to have with (VUCA) life?

20. 20
What connection do you want to have with VUCA life?
This bioclimatic building follows
today´s paradigm and available
resources:
• Interconnectedness
• Nurtured by surrounding elements
(sun, air, water…)
• Open, bright and flexible
• Operates inside-out

21. 21
Why we operate “by default” in a defensive outside-in mode?
3-Prefrontal cortex: slow
conscious executive
functions that might conflict
with the more primitive
brains.
6-Neuro-hormonal
superhighways are built
through repetition of
conditioned responses.
Our default mode becomes
stressed and defensive.
2-Amigdala: “fires”
emotionally conditioned
responses (fear, desire,
acceptance) to the situation
0-Real or perceived new situation in the VUCA environment: arrives through the senses to the
parietal lobe of the neocortex.
5-Balancing hormones and
parasympathetic nervous system
should return us to balance, but
new perceived stressful situations
arrive included our perceived
sense of separation.
4-Pituitary gland signals
adrenals to release
cortisol. Body enters in
survival mode.
1
2
3
0
4-6
1-Reptilian brain: flee, fight,
freeze responses if
perceives a threat

22. 22
This does not apply only to perceived life threat situations
• Pleasure seeking: dopamine
Dopamine is produced by neurons in several areas of the brain as well as in the adrenal gland, and it
makes us seek out what is pleasurable. When dopamine floods the body, the limbic system registers
it as a great feeling and nudges us to seek more of it. However, dopamine doesn’t last long in the
body and breaks down quickly, taking the pleasurable feeling with it. So we seek the pleasure again
and again. We seek more and more of whatever the limbic system registers as good.
Source:TheHearofWellness.Dr.KavithaChinnaiyan
• Pushing harder: endorphines
Endorphins are other “feel good” hormones, produced in response to physical pain. They are
produced also with extreme physical exertion, such as in runners high. But there is a price to pay.
They are only produced if you push yourself beyond your capacity and to a point of discomfort. Both
dopamine and endorphine keep us on the edge by inducing what is known as good stress. The
seeking creates temporary bursts of cortisol that help us function on the focus mode, but there is a
fine line, since the dopamine that rises and falls make us seek more and more of whatever gives us
pleasure or a sense of fulfillment. Since we can never be guaranteed of getting what we seek, the
neocortex send “what if” distress signals that chronically stimulate the stress signals. Pleasure-
seeking becomes stressful.
• Comparison and judgement: serotonin vs cortisol
When in old times we achieved a dominant position in the tribe, we felt safe, and released serotonin
(peace). This impulses remain in our need to be seen worthy, respectable, admirable.Our minds
create hierarchy and gauge were we stand. We are always aware of our approval ratings.When we
get the approval, the limbic system notes it as good and the electrical pathways releases serotonin.
Our mind automatically sizes up someone as they walk into the room. If the brain registers them to
be at a lower level, we relax. If not, we feel a vague sense of unease. And this makes a conflict,
because our logical neocortex tells us us that we are not supposed to compare or judge, which the
limbic system detects as internal conflict, so it activates more stress hormones. Not only are we
constantly comparing and judging, but we are also stressed about it!!!

23. 23
The identification with these neuro pathways consequence
Literally, you become addict to
repeat same thoughts and
emotions, building in the body a
“subconscious programmed self”
that drives your life.
Identification with this idea of self
consumes plenty of energy and
diminishes your potential…
So the first step to remove these pathways is to act in the body…

24. 24
From which height do you want to observe your landscape?
Location matters: so not from the primitive brain!
Three floors higher, with panoramic views…

25. 25
What is it like to be you?
Feel what is is to be “you” since kid… Be aware if any thought
arrises: its not to be responded from thought
Mindful glimpse: close your eyes
and rest your attention in your
breathing….

26. 26
What defines you is to be a conscious being:
you have just experience it (and always and already).
.
Consciousness or conscious mind is our mind base: it can
observe thoughts and feelings, even our idea of self.
Its still, as the deep ocean.
Thoughts are appearances in consciousness.
You can compare them with the waves of the ocean…
We will not observe the
body from thought, but
from conscious base mind.

27. 27
Preprioception
Its how “we sense ourselves”: information about our inner world.
Three main sources of input :
• Kynesthesia: the feeling of movement
derived from all skeletal and muscular
structures. Also includes the feeling of
pain, orientation in space, passage of
time and rhythm.
• Visceral feedback: impressions from our
internal organs.
• Vestibular feedback: the feeling of
balance as related to our position in
space (the center is in the ear).
Inhabiting our bodies is not thinking the body:
requires only slow down and listening

28. 28
Actually this invitation is quite
“tricky”: your lungs dont have a
muscle that you can activate
voluntarily for inhaling
“deeply”…
So now, lets connect breathing and presence
Test this:
How is your breathing?
I invite you to inhale deeply…

29. 29
Observe a baby´s breath when sleeping…
The breath of a baby
is relaxed: all its
body moves as a
wave from his
diaphragms..

30. 30
Practice: relax your faceAnd now…just try to feel the air in your face…

31. 31
The paradox about relaxation
What happens when you send the order to a part of your body to relax
is that you activate the “doing” mode. Which is the opposite to relax.
Relaxation just comes naturally when
you rest your attention in the body,
feeling directly (prioperception).
In our natural state we are
as a cat, relaxed and vividly awake.

32. 32
Attend your diaphragms so they relax…letting breathing be
Thoracic Cavity
Push up your
lungs Diaphragm
and relax
Abdominal
Cavity
Pelvic Cavity
Push up your
Pelvic Floor
Diaphragm and
relax
Push inwards
Peritoneum
Exhale first consciously
Thoracic Cavity
Relaxed Diaphragm
flows dawnwards
Abdominal
Cavity
Pelvic Cavity
Relaxed Pelvic Floor
Diaphragm flows
downwards
Let your inhalation fill the space
The way to substantially deepen your breathing is by activating the diaphragms –acting as a tidal breath-. First,
exhale emptying the lungs completely. Then relax the diaphragms completely allowing the inhalation, the air, come
to you effortlessly. Also helps to activate –feelhow it moves inwards and upwards- in the exhalation the peritoneum,
the membrane that lines the back, front and sides of your abdominal area: this helps aditional space opening.

33. 33
Building body presence practice: body scan
Resting our awareness in a one part of our body is something that we
struggle. We are so much in our thinking mind that we “think” our body more
than we really feel it. So we need to “anchor” in something that our senses
can easily feel…Try the body scan this way:
Sit straight on a chair or lie on your back. If your posture is open, you are
giving your mind a message: “nothing to fear”… Close your eyes to feel
sensations without the distractions of sight...
Start bringing your attention to your right foot…don´t think about it, really bring
your attention there, to the feeling of contact with the floor. Move your
attention upwards step by step along your right leg: calf, knee, thigh…then
the left leg. Sensations might include tightness: notice that when you bring
your attention, the body relaxes. Give it the time necessary. Continue this way
all along your body. Special attention to the diaphragm: as you relax this
muscle, breathing becomes more deep and all yourself relaxes. Other usually
tense areas are hands, shoulders, face and jaw.
Be curious and open to what you are noticing,
and then intentionally releasing the focus. of
attention before shifting to the next area to
explore.
Each time your attention wanders, simply notice
that this is happening, then gently direct your
attention back to the body. At the end, expand
your attention to feel your entire body.

34. 34
Micro-practice: immediate attention to the body
Pause . . .
Notice your next out-breath and
your diaphragm movement…
The next in-breath is now
deeper.
Let your awareness move from
your head down to your heart.
What is it like to know from your
heart?
Then let your attention rest in
all your body.
Dont think about it, just do it.
One time and again.

35. 35
Living begins in the direct experience of the body.
Its the door to letting go stored past conditionings
(neurohormonal pathways that fire in “automatic pilot”), and
connect with your whole self and with the others.
The gift of being embodied is your birthright!!

36. 36
Micro-practice
Allow your awareness to move from
your thinking mind to hearing the
sounds around you.
Now shift from hearing sounds to an
interest in the open, objectless space
all around. Rest into this alert wordless
awareness.
Return to your senses, now to feel the
body or touch sense. Feel how this
sensations arise in consciousness.
Probably also some thoughts emerge,
including your idea of you as observer.
Feel how all this experience is
integrated.

37. 37
Progressively, through your breath, embodyment and
senses, you will be reconnecting more with all life
(not just what comes through your thinking brain)
Sensations, feelings, creative ideas, purpose, will
empathy… unleashing all your potential

38. 38
Questions for reflection:
• Are there daily automatized behaviors that stress you? (watching the news, eating some kind of
food, some friendships or environments…). How do you feel in the body your adiction to these
behaviors? What can you do?
• How is your breathing in different moments of the day and tasks?
• How tense/relaxed is your body in different moments of the day? When you wake up is relaxed
or tense? What activities tense your body most?
• What happens when you bring attention to different parts of your body without a pressure to
change anything, just curiosity, resting your attention there?
Session closing
Further suggested reading:
• Heart of Wellness, Dr. Kavitha Chinnaiyan
• Yoga in the Kashmir Tradition, Billy Doyle
Suggested practices:
• At any time, practice the diaphragmatic breathing.
• Every day, do a body scan: rest your attention in different parts of your body, with curiosity. Be aware
if “you are thinking” yur body: return to the direct experience. Do it everywhere: while driving,at the
office, before sleeping…
• At any time, rest your awareness in the senses, specially in routinary activities. How do they change?

39. 39
MiWell project
Rafael Cobo
www.neelabs.org
rafael@neelabs.org
(+34) 659739617