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The Skills
to Thrive
Mindful Wellbeing and Performance is designed to help individuals and teams navigate the new normal of constant and volatile change, complexity and uncertainty. It is a comprehensive introduction to the nature, science and essential mindfulness practices that relieve chronic stress and anxiety - reduce the impact of information overload, digital distraction, unconscious bias, conflict, exhaustion and burnout - and give us the mental space and emotional strength to thrive.
Personal Performance
Outstanding individual achievement starts with physical, mental and emotional wellbeing - which is why the world’s most accomplished athletes, entrepreneurs and business leaders, including the CEOs at 7 of the 10 most valuable companies in the world - now practice mindfulness meditation. Over the past decade, mindfulness has been incorporated into the daily training regimen of the world’s most elite organizations, including the U.S. Olympics Team, the U.S. Navy Seal Teams and Special Forces, Formula One Racing, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, and dozens of professional sports teams.
Performance at Work
Mindfulness also strengthens awareness, attention control and emotional regulation. Examining these faculties, thousands of studies in neuroscience, biology and psychology have confirmed that mindfulness practice produces remarkably positive outcomes in health and wellbeing, cognitive performance and emotional intelligence. Research in leadership, organizational development, cognitive and behavioral sciences confirm that these outcomes can be mapped to personal performance and the workplace.
Course Objectives
You’ll learn the nature, science and practice of mindfulness, and how to apply its outcomes to strengthen your wellbeing and important performance capabilities.
Personal Wellbeing
Reduce chronic stress and anxiety
Reduce distraction and attention deficit
Performance Capabilities
Increase mental clarity and awareness
Increase focus, attention and concentration
Reduce compulsive or addictive behaviors
Increase reasoning and critical-thinking
Reduce rumination and depressive thinking
Increase motivation and on-task engagement
Cultivate a positive and growth mindset
Cultivate self-awareness and emotional control
Cultivate joy, happiness, care and kindness
Cultivate empathy and care for others
Cultivate positive relationships
Cultivate listening and communication skills
Cultivate mental and emotional strength
Become more organized and productive
Course Contents
IOSM Certificate courses blend live instruction with self-paced learning, daily practice, unlimited group coaching and community support
Assessments
Pre-and-post course assessments
Master Class
Live, instructor-led master class
Self-Study
8 weekly self-study lessons
Progress
8 weekly progress exam-lets
Daily Practice
8 weeks of daily email videos
Coaching
8 optional coaching sessions
Final Exam
A comprehensive final exam
Certification
Certificate and digital badge
Associate Access
IOSM resources, tools and events
Lifetime Access
IOSM Global Alumni Community
Anytime Help
Phone, chat, text and email support
CEUs
SHRM & HRCI recertification credits
Course Outline
Public courses offer the eight weeks of self-study below. Corporate programs may be customized by changing the length of the course, or swapping any modules with alternative classes from the library
Week 1: Introduction to Mindfulness
Three decades of research have confirmed that the mind can physically change the brain and body - and mindfulness proves it. This class provides an overview of the nature, science, hands-on practice, and application of modern mindfulness.
You will learn:
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The psychology and neuroscience of mindfulness
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How mindfulness strengthens our brains and bodies
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The foundational formal and informal mindfulness practices
Week 2: Reducing Chronic Stress and Anxiety
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) have named chronic stress the most dangerous global epidemic of the new century, and confirm that the workplace is far and away the primary source. This class is an exploration of strategies and practices that relieve workplace pressures, stress-related burnout, and chronic illness.
You will learn:
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The evolutionary wiring and triggers that creates negativity, chronic stress and mental exhaustion
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How mindfulness is applied to reframe worry, rumination, self-critical and depressive thinking
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Mindfulness practices that reduce chronic stress, and increases mental and emotional resilience
Week 3: Reducing Distraction and Attention Deficit
Information overload, workplace distraction and the addictive properties of our digital communications and social media are steadily eroding our attention spans and capabilities to do deep work. This class explores practices that physically strengthen brain networks associated with focus, concentration and attention control.
You will learn:
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The sources and science of information overload, digital distraction and workplace ADD
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How to apply mindfulness to suppress distraction, and increase attention control
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Mindfulness practices that strengthen our abilities to direct and sustain concentration
Week 4: Adapting to Change and Uncertainty
Our brains are wired to fear change and loathe uncertainty - yet we live in a world and workplace that is undergoing volatile and rapid disruption. How can we overcome our evolutionary resistance, and develop the mental skills to welcome and embrace change? This class explores mindfulness as a positive catalyst for change management.
You will learn:
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How change and uncertainty triggers fear that hijacks our emotional state
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How mindfulness helps us consciously navigate from the known to an uncertain future state
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Mindfulness practices that develop the mental skill to embrace change
Week 5: A Positive and Growth Mindset
Motivation, engagement and performance all flow from a positive, "growth" mindset. But our brain needs help in recognizing and overcoming its evolved circuits of pain, fear and worry. This class explores mindfulness practices that interrupt our negative bias and reactivity - and strengthen circuits for positivity, expanded learning, and growth.
You will learn:
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How our brains get started and stuck in a cycle of negativity
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How mindfulness is applied to reframe mindsets and change behaviors
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Mindfulness practices to reconcile, change course and move forward
Week 6: Developing Social and Emotional Intelligence
Science has proven that self-awareness, empathy, compassion and social grace aren't immutable traits, they are trainable skills that can be intentionally developed through neural exercise. This class examines the visceral power of social and emotional intelligence, and how to strengthen these foundational inter-personal capabilities.
You will learn:
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The framework and competencies that comprise social and emotional intelligence
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How to use mindfulness to strengthen self-and-social-awareness, empathy and communication
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Mindfulness practices for care, kindness and compassionate behaviors
Week 7: Communication and Collaboration
Mindfulness enables us to listen deeply and consciously - to pay close attention to aural tone, non-verbal cues and body language - to connect with our intuition - and to create rapport. This class introduces strategies and practices for strengthening awareness, attention control, and effective interpersonal communication skills.
You will learn:
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How to connect closely and cooperatively with others
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How to conduct an articulate and productive dialogue
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Mindfulness practices that increase intuition, attunement and rapport
Week 8: Mental Strength, Grit and Resilience
Our volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world can be frustrating, discouraging and exhausting. But mindfulness dampens the negativity that saps our energy, reduces our stress, anxiety and worry - and gives us the mental strength to cope with difficult situations, and bounce back from adversity. This class explores practices that build our emotional stability and resilience.
You will learn:
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The principles of elite performance
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How mindfulness connects us to the state of flow
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Mindfulness practices for mental toughness, grit and resilience
“Transforming our culture ultimately means transforming what we have long recognized as our most precious resource: our people. The more that each of us fulfills our individual potential, the more we can tap into the massive collective potential that we have to change the world for the better.”
Charles Morris, Director of Global Learning and Development, Microsoft