ART Television hosts ‘Inward Bound’ author
In an era when all the attention is about exploring outside, ART Television invites its viewers to a journey inwards with the author of the book ‘Inward Bound’ Deepal Sooriyaarachchi being interviewed by Shaveen Bandaranayake every Monday, at 10:00 p.m.
The programme gets repeated on Tuesday 9:30 a.m. and Sundays 11:00 a.m.
Sooriyaarachchi is a seasoned corporate executive, with over three decades of experience and in leadership positions. Even currently he serves on a number of boards of leading blue chips while providing management development consultancy.
He first published the book ‘Inward Bound’ in the UK introducing the practice of mindfulness, sharing a series of simple ways and a host of insights. Mindfulness has gained immense popularity in the west over the last decade owing to the undisputed scientific evidence started to come up illustrating the numerous benefits such as its ability to help manage stress and pain.
Sooriyaarachchi claims that he had been practicing and integrating mindfulness in his corporate career from early days over the last three decades.
“I would attribute my practice as the single most influential reason for my career success where I started my career as a sales clerk at Moosajee Sons and ending up as the MD of AVIVA NDB Insurance. I was fortunate enough to get introduced to the practice of mindfulness very early almost around the time I got my first job.
I continued my practice of mindfulness ever since. Looking back I can say that it helped me to be more aware about myself, my strengths and weaknesses. I found it easy to build relationships and that all my stakeholders trusted me. In most challenging moments and in moments of ambiguity I could approach those situations with a space so my views were more objective than otherwise. I increasingly became a good observer. This practice helped me to be in command over myself most of the time.
Even in my personal life I benefited from this practice. I became more sensitive and responded to life rather than reacting mechanically through habit. It certainly helped me in balancing the demands from work as well as from my family.
‘Inward Bound’ discussion explores practical aspects of mindfulness how it can be integrated by busy executives or for that matter any one, he says further.
Rather than a typical Q&atype interview, this programme is very much a real-life discussion where Bandaranayake and Sooriyaarachchi investigate the topic together.
One of the most interesting features of the programme is the absolutely practical nature and sharp insights that can have powerful effects on the listeners.
Some of the topics in the episodes to come include: being attached and letting go, how to enjoy the journey, empathy and being mindful, see your potential, when should I practice mindfulness, multi tasking vs. mono tasking and mindfulness in meeting management.