MIXING MEDITATION AND MONEY-MAKING
Developer Eric Holsapple shares mindfulness tips in new book
Eric Holsapple has learned in his own life and career that business and mindfulness can work together.
He’s developed workshops to help more businesspeople learn the value of meditation and what he calls mindful leadership.
And on Tuesday, a book he’s written on the subject will be published.
“Profit with Presence: The 12 Pillars of Mindful Leadership” has already reached No. 1 on Amazon’s list of new releases about organizational change.
Holsapple said he started learning yoga in 1993 while he was in college, and a couple of years later tried meditation. As he read more about Eastern philosophy he gradually found that incorporating those practices in his own life and encouraging those he worked with to do the same helped increase both his happiness and his business success and that of those around him.
Some business people may think mindfulness is not for them, and some people drawn to yoga and meditation may think you can’t be an enlightened person and make money too, he noted.
But Holsapple, whose company developed the Thompson Valley Towne Center and three local affordable housing developments, disagrees. “It has to be OK to go to work and make money,” he said. For those who think mindfulness and business don’t mix he points out the practice helps them focus, reduce stress and be more efficient.
He also encourages people to cultivate a mindset of generosity, to share what they have to help others.
He said he looks at the world and sees how distracted and divided people are, but he thinks it doesn’t have to be that way.
His book offers what he calls 12 pillars of mindful leadership, developed as part of the Living in the Gap program.
They start with three foundational goals: be present, identify your purpose in life and create clarity, vision, intention, commitment and habits.
From there, the other pillars encourage people to show up, practice nonjudgment and compassion, foster relationships, create affluence and influence, give generously and serve, and more.
Though the pillars in the middle section of the book had been formed during the time Holsapple has been working with his nonprofit, he wrote the remainder of the book during the pandemic. With a doctoral degree in economics and 20 years of teaching experience in the real estate program at Colorado State University, he had done his share of writing, but this is his first book, and Holsapple said he learned a lot while writing it.
Chapters on each of the pillars come with suggested exercises to help cultivate new practices.
Holsapple said people can start with as little as two minutes a day of meditation, and build a daily practice.
“It’s simple. Not easy, but simple,” he said. The key is consistent practice.
Holsapple added he encourages people to keep their new practice to themselves at first, since others can be skeptical. But eventually they may find it’s helpful to share it with others at work, creating a culture of other mindful people. And if it reduces stress at work, people won’t carry as much frustration home to their spouses and children, so everyone benefits, he said.
He said mindfulness helps with relationships, and when you have strong relationships in business, people you’ve helped will help you too.
“I’ve found that good things come back to you,” Holsapple
said. “You establish good karma, and in my experience it really does come back.”
How do you explain mindfulness to people who don’t know what it is?
The most simple explanation is focus and the mind is full of one thing you have chosen to focus on, and the exclusion of everything else. There are expansions such as nonjudgment that improve focus, but at its core mindfulness is focus.
Why do you feel mindful leadership has been of value to you in your life and career?
I was successful early, but not happy or satisfied. Mindful leadership is where I found satisfaction and happiness while becoming even more successful and making a difference for others.
You’ve started the Living in the Gap, a nonprofit that offers mindful leadership training. What does the phrase “living in the gap” mean?
There are a number of gaps, but primarily it’s the gap between our thoughts. Stress and anxiety reside in our thoughts, peace and joy reside
in the gaps. Mindfulness can help to slow down thoughts and increase the gaps and thus increase peace and joy.
What would you say to people who feel they don’t have time to meditate and develop mindfulness?
Start small and be consistent. We start people with two minutes of meditation. As the mind settles down you start to increase the time, and you become more efficient with your time, and more focused thus you find more time to practice mindfulness. Try calendaring your time for two weeks to see what time you waste, you will find you have a few minutes to practice mindfulness, if you
choose to make it a priority.
You’ve written about how mindfulness can help with the deep divisions in society and can help people become part of the solution to problems in the world. Do you hope your book will help encourage that?
Yes, I believe all of our global issues are solvable if we work together to solve them. Rather than focusing on what we disagree on, we could focus on what we do agree on. Mindfulness is very helpful in relationships and listening, both critical skills that could help us begin to solve the issues.