Harvest from an Open Space Discussion on Spirituality in the Workplace

[Mary Jane Yates]

Question:   Are people interesting in talking about Spirituality in the Workplace?

Host:  Mary Jane Yates

 

YES! we are definitely interested—feel grateful to you for raising it; spirituality is primary for me; don’t know how people are making it, there is so much confusion out there, chaos, not sure how people are making decisions, we need some kind of anchor; this practice was so meaningful to me and it hurts me that we haven’t done it again

 

HOWEVER:  Need to think of language for defining it that will suit different contexts.  Some suggestions we have:

            “a juicy conversation” –talking about things that matter

            Mindfulness

            Learning the heart-mind-body connection

            Workplace wellness

Being more human –how to bring our humanity into the workplace (versus this mechanized place where we are not allowed to express emotions or talk about “the bigger questions”)

            Seeing work as ‘sacred’

            Not clear on whether it should include discussion of religion or not

 

PRACTICES we think this could include:

            Introducing Breath (focus on breathing)

            Meditation practice, yoga

            Use of sweats (wish there were more of them)

            Mindfulness walking

            Simply having meaningful conversations

            Silence

            Eating together

            Has to involve community:  some way for people to discover together

            Introducing different smells

            Poetry

 

And speaking of poetry, here is the HARVEST HAIKU from our discussion:

 

In sacred spaces

A spirituality

Of caring is born