Corporate Wellbeing Programs with My Mindful Life
My Mindful Life
Helping leaders develop new and practical approaches to encompass the fullness of employee potential through Mindfulness & Positive Psychology.
Having studied Coaching Psychology and qualified as a Mindfulness Teacher with UCC, Hilary has combined both resulting in the birth of My Mindful Life. Within which she invites organisations to partake in powerful wellbeing programs that combine Mindfulness and Positive Psychology to help leaders create a happier and healthier culture in the workplace.
Corporate Wellbeing Programs
There are two wellbeing programs to choose from with My Mindful Life.
Program 1. Mindful Leadership – Two Day Residential Retreat for Leaders & Managers
Program 2. Working with Wellbeing – Building Resilience in the Workplace with a Mindfulness-Based Intervention.
The bespoke Mindful Leadership Programs combine Mindfulness and positive psychology and are tailored to meet the needs of your leaders to attain organisational goals.
Key Benefits of investing in Mindful Leadership Programs for your organisation.
A growing body of evidence supports the thesis that Mindfulness has a positive psychological impact on leaders and the workplace. Based on evidential findings, here are some benefits of embracing a culture of Mindfulness within your organisation.
Increased Emotional Intelligence and Communication Skills
Among the essential leadership skills are being present, effective listening and communication. An increasing body of research shows that Mindful leaders who are more present in their environment display increased emotional intelligence. Hilary’s mindful leadership programs help you to establish effective communication of your vision with the insight and understanding to manage the emotional climate when promoting that vision.
Increased performance and motivation through visionary leadership
Hilary’s programs help you to communicate your vision to the individual and the organisation’s community in ways that promote trust, confidence, efficacy and clarity around goals and resource gain. Evidence has effectively shown that mindful leaders see lower employee burnout while increasing motivation and performance, contributing to improved wellbeing within the workplace community.
Increased employee retention and lower absenteeism
According to the evidence, the mindful leader decreases employee absenteeism rates and work-related stress. In addition, mindfulness programmes promote a happier and healthier work environment. As a result, employees experience increased job satisfaction, healthier relationships, and performance.
Increased resource and creative thinking due to present moment awareness
Leaders who practice mindfulness show development of the attitudes of acceptance and allowing, effectively promoting creative thinking about long-term strategic goals and a higher focus level than less mindful leaders. Interestingly, growing research shows that up to 90% of human actions, including thinking, feeling, judging, and acting, are driven by automatic pilot. Therefore, evidence has proven that mindfulness training provides leaders with practical methods to enhance attention and awareness, leading to less reactive and habitual behaviours and enhanced potential for adaptive action, greater self-management, and more purposeful thoughts and actions.
Present moment awareness leads to more skilful responses
Mindfulness training promotes present moment awareness. As a result, decreasing leaders’ rumination and emotional reactivity and increases self-regulation and wellbeing, significantly benefiting individuals and the organisation in the short and long term.
Healthy Mind, healthy life
Finally, Mindfulness and wellbeing are practices that extend beyond working hours. Therefore, leaders and employees continue to incorporate the practice at home with family and friends, leading to improved relationships and a happier and healthier lifestyle.
So, Mindfulness in the workplace programs has evident and significant impacts, increasing psychological wellbeing throughout the workplace community, serving the growth and efficacy of your organisation while improving resources, wellbeing and performance.
Program 1
Mindful Leadership – Two-Day Residential Retreat for Leaders and Managers
What better way to switch off autopilot and become present than a two-day residential retreat?
Tailored specifically to the needs of your leaders and managers, Hilary creates and holds space for deep reflection to create new awareness and perspectives in a fun and relaxing environment. She aims to awaken, restore, and integrate the fullness of leadership potential in a space that promotes outside-the-box thinking.
Some of the practices throughout the two days are as follows:
Mindfulness Meditation
The meditation practices included are from the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBSR/MBCT), recognised as the internationally renowned stress reduction program by medical and health care professionals.
The four practices are:
- The Body Scan
- Mindful Eating
- The Sitting Practice
- Mindful Movement
Group Coaching
Hilary brings a depth of knowledge and experience based on coaching and positive psychology. She combines evidence-based approaches and her intuitive presence to promote and encourage new thinking, existential leadership qualities and flow.
The group coaching approaches applied include:
- Cognitive Behavioural Coaching
- Narrative Coaching
- Solution-Focused Coaching
- Person-Centred Coaching.
Mindful Walking
Weather permitting, it is preferred to do mindful walking outside in nature.
Reflective Practice
Mark Twain said:
“We do not learn from experience – we learn from reflection on experience.”
Designed to create new thinking and perspectives to bring about change, the two-day retreat invites reflective practice as a powerful tool to support leaders in discovering and exploring potential.
Open discussion and inquiry
Each leader brings depth and wealth of knowledge, wisdom, and experience to each discussion. The safe and non-judgemental space throughout the retreat supports brainstorming, exploration of ideas and flow state – helping leaders to expand their awareness, increase their confidence and memorably integrate the learning.
Practising Equanimity and Self-Compassion
Evidence shows that the mechanisms through which mindfulness-based practices lead to positive outcomes and increased wellbeing are equanimity and self-compassion. Therefore, leaders are invited to take the seat of compassion and self-compassion throughout the transformational retreat. As we know, practising Mindfulness and the coaching journey does not mean we never meet problems or challenges again; however, the resource discovered and honed through mindfulness practice helps us respond more skilfully when challenges arise. Therefore, leaders are invited to experience the beneficial effects presented when seated in compassion and self-compassion throughout the retreat.
Program 2
Working with Wellbeing – Building Resilience in the Workplace with a Mindfulness-Based Intervention.
Duration – 8 weeks
Session Time – 90 minutes
Week 1 – Placing attention.
A survey completed by Microsoft in 2000 concluded that we had an attention span of 12 seconds, while a follow-up survey in 2016 found that it had decreased to just 7 seconds.
With so much competing for our attention in today’s world autopilot can be an easy space to function. However, as valuable as autopilot is, for example, driving our car or brushing our teeth, the competition for our attention takes us outside present moment awareness and the flow of skilful response and with a beginner’s mind.
One important element of Mindfulness is that it gives us greater awareness to choose where we wish to place our attention.
Week one introduces participants to Mindfulness of body and breath and shifting from modes of striving and doing to just being with the breath as an anchor to begin training the focus of our attention.
Week 2 – Being Present
Following week one, session two explores the foundations of all mindfulness training – the cultivation of sensed body awareness. We are practising grounding and anchoring in the present moment of lived experience while learning to not feed difficult thoughts and feelings with emotionally charged thoughts yet learning to be with what is and develop skilful responses.
Instead of the body being an amplifier for emotionally charged thoughts, as it will tend to do when on autopilot, body awareness and sensations become an early warning system that alerts you to anxiety, stress and fatigue almost before they arise.
Session two introduces the practice of being present with what is and developing awareness of our internal and external landscapes. Paying attention in this way helps us come to know ourselves at a deeper level and skilfully respond to our needs, even before they arise.
Week 3 – The Edge
It is particularly important that Mindfulness is presented as a practice that can be practised throughout the day. Session three introduces mindful movement, combined with and building on Mindfulness of body and breath so that participants have the opportunity to integrate Mindfulness into their working day.
Deliberately practising being present during practical tasks, like walking, eating, sport, or creative past-times can significantly enhance these experiences and support a sense of flow and ease with what we are doing.
Session three explores how we can bring mindful awareness into times of stillness and movement during our daily lives.
Week 4 – Relating differently to thoughts
“The mind’s running commentary on the world is like a rumour. It might be true, it might only be partially true – or it might be completely wrong. Unfortunately, the mind often finds it very difficult to detect the difference between fact and fiction once it has begun constructing a mental model of the world. For these reasons, rumours can be incredibly powerful and derail not just the minds of the individual but of whole societies.” Mark Williams, Finding peace in a frantic world.
Session three introduces participants to the fact that thoughts are just thoughts. No matter how loud they shout, they are not your masters or orders that need to be obeyed. This realisation gives immense freedom and the space to take more skilful decisions – that can be made when your mind is fully aware.
Week 5 – Turning Toward Difficulty
“When a difficulty comes to mind, the brain’s habitual reaction is to treat it as an enemy and so to shut down its creative ‘approach’ systems. For some difficulties this may be helpful, but when we are remembering the past or anticipating the future, the difficulty is playing out in our heads and not for real, so this is unnecessary. In fact, it ends up locking things down and blocking creativity.” Mark Williams, Finding peace in a frantic world.
Session 5 invites you to bring difficult situations to mind and then observe how your body reacts to these thoughts.
If we like an experience, thought, or emotion, we tend to hold on to it. If we don’t like it, we tend to ‘be with’ an experience in a reactive and non-accepting way……we push it away. Can we hold the experience in awareness, allow it, let it be. Allowing space for it.
Contrary to the autopilot response, session 5 explores allowing as opposed to rejecting difficulty. Allowing is different from accepting or being resigned to something. The practices explored in session 5 allow for a shift from not wanting to being open.
Week 6 – Kindness
“You need to go one step further if you want not only to bring about the bone-deep peace that comes from cultivating Mindfulness, but also to help sustain it in the light of the stresses that life throws at you. You need to relate to the world with kindness and compassion, and you can only do this if you come home to whom you are, accepting yourself with deepest respect, honour and, yes, love…Week Six helps you bring kindness back into your life – kindness for others and yourself too.
Kindness transforms things: the ‘aversion’ pathways in the mind are switched off, and the ‘approach’ ones are switched on instead. This Change in attitude enhances openness, creativity, and happiness, while simultaneously dissolving the fear, guilt, anxiety and stresses that lead to exhaustion and chronic discontent.
This session intends to bring together what has been learned to date about cultivating the ‘approach mode’ in relation to difficulties, decentring from sabotaging thought patterns, and fostering an attitude of kindness and compassion.
Week 7 – Resilience and Wellbeing
The central question in this class is:
“How do I spend my time, and do the choices I make about this really support my well-being and those around me?”
It’s a challenging question, especially when our lives are so busy, but it seems important to ask it regularly so that we don’t just let the weeks, months and years slip by in an autopilot state of busyness.
Mindful awareness can support a deeper connection between how we are in this moment and our choices about what we do and how we act. With mindful awareness, we can also tune into the way we do activities in our lives.
In this class, we are invited to consider how to make adjustments to shift the nourishing and depleting ratio of how we spend our time. This often involves becoming more aware of the mode of mind in which we do both nourishing and depleting activities: to do activities mindfully tends to mean that we’re more open to nourishment and less likely to wear ourselves down with the resistance and unconsciousness that often accompany depleting activities.
Week 8 – MINDFUL LEADERSHIP
“Weaving you parachute: what are you going to practise? ‘Mindfulness has been compared to weaving a parachute. But there’s no point in doing this when we’re falling headlong towards destruction. We must weave our parachutes every day so that it’s always there to hold us in an emergency.
The first seven weeks of the Mindfulness programme helped you begin to taste this process, but Week Eight is as important as them all. Week Eight is the rest of your life. The task now is to weave the practices into a routine that is sustainable in the long term.” Mark Williams, Finding Peace in a Frantic World.
Why choose My Mindful Life with Hilary Connor?
Hilary has worked with leaders, solopreneurs, and executives for over two decades. She understands that humans are complex beings, and change can be difficult. However, her wealth of knowledge and experience brings compassion and understanding to hold space for change and support people potential. Applying evidence-based coaching and mindfulness psychology, her depth of experience with scientific approaches and methodologies, and her honed intuition creates a powerful space where change and new perspectives are born through the experience of the individual and the collective group.
Furthermore, Hilary understands that, just like people, no two organisations are the same. Therefore, she listens to your organisational needs and creates bespoke training programmes to meet the needs of your people to promote long-term, integrated success, efficacy, and confidence.
Finally, Hilary walks the walk with a dedicated commitment to embody everything she teaches. Her commitment to helping people discover the fullness of potential through academia, coaching and Mindfulness spans over twenty years. Furthermore, her teachings are a way of being – she is present with a continued commitment to cultivating compassion, connection, and mindful living.
To discuss how the My Mindful Life Programs can help your leaders and managers contact Hilary @ info@hilaryconnor.com or call (+353) 0868494646 to discuss.
Additionally, Hilary is available for lunchtime talks and taster sessions at your organisation. Contact Hilary to discuss how Mindfulness and Positive Psychology can support your employees to greater wellbeing and performance.
About Hilary Connor – Founder of My Mindful Life
Hilary Connor is a Mindfulness-Based Wellbeing Coach. Following a thriving career in the corporate world, Hilary has worked and studied the psychology of human behaviour and how to increase happiness and wellbeing for over two decades.
Currently studying an MSc in Mindfulness Based Wellbeing with UCC, she holds a Post Grad Cert in Mindfulness Teaching, an H.Dip in Coaching Psychology, Adv Dip in Coaching with Neuroscience and is a Certified Consulting Hypnotherapist and Group Facilitator with qualifications in counselling.
Hilary believes that the presence of compassion and connection to self and others are the deepest drivers of effective leadership. Through reflective practice, Mindfulness and positive psychology, Hilary helps leaders and managers find and develop new and effective leadership approaches that cultivate compassion and connection to encompass the fullness of employee potential and promote a culture of happiness and organisational growth.
Hilary has held professional practice in Wexford since 2003, helping people discover the fullness of their potential. Awarded Mindfulness Coach of the Year 2022, by The Irish Business Awards and author of best-selling novel Saoirse in 2018, her passion lies in building resilience, promoting self-realisation, and cultivating personal growth.
“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t you’re right’. Having attended Hilary’s Empowering Choices Course, I left thinking ‘I can’! Firstly, Hilary is a natural guide, and communicator & her passion for wanting to help others shines through. Second, I found this course to be engaging & uplifting thanks to Hilary’s guidance & the other truly inspiring participants on the day. I really am looking forward to the next one.” Majella, Dublin Fire Brigade.
“I attended Hilary’s Empowering Choices workshop, and I feel energised and empowered. The content was easy to integrate due to Hilary’s clear approach yet has huge benefits that go deep into the subconscious. Hilary genuinely cares about her participants and is both humble and passionate in her nature and facilitation. I am so glad and grateful to have attended and shared the openness of the other participants. I would recommend this to everyone who needs help to move forward with their life or a project. I began mine the very next morning!”. Ashling, HSE, Wicklow.
“Signing up for Hilary’s course was one of the best decisions I ever made! Each week I couldn’t get over how perfect this course was for me and how much I was getting out of it. After completing this course, I feel more in touch with myself and my inner world, I am much more aware of my inner dialogue and the self-limiting beliefs standing in my way. The guidance and support from Hilary throughout were invaluable. I have been raving about this course to whoever will listen! It was the exact thing I needed to uncover beliefs I held but wasn’t even aware of and aided in overcoming these. Each lesson was straightforward, explained well, and gave me the tools to continue the work. This course has helped me develop my confidence and helped me on my journey to becoming the person I want to be. It has helped me let go of old traumas weighing me down and has helped me get clarity on my life’s purpose and how I want my business and life to evolve.” Rachel, Nutritionist, Dublin
“Heartfelt thanks for creating a magnificent space today at your Empowering Choices workshop. Your delivery and calmness throughout enabled trust and encouragement. The pre-course work was very simple and important in setting the scene and getting the most value from the workshop. The material and activities used were manageable, and I loved the meditations, which allowed a deeper space to bring power to actions and move forward. Highly recommend for anyone feeling stuck or needing a reset on values to change and move forward in any aspect of life.” Jennifer, Executive Coach, Wexford.
“I had a truly insightful, empowering, and enjoyable weekend with Hilary and our lovely group at Heart and Soul Retreat. The meditations and workshops were both powerful and valuable—such an insightful experience. Thank you, Hilary. You are such a caring and special lady. I will certainly return for your next Retreat.”
Philippa, Blackrock, Dublin.
“If you feel stuck in a rut, have put things on the backburner or procrastinate, this workshop will help get your motivation started! I was putting my past goals on the long finger and fed up with myself for doing it – yet I still wouldn’t do anything. After this workshop, I am asking myself all those questions I used to, to motivate myself. Weariness had taken the ‘get up and go’ I used to have. I had nearly written off my previous aspirations, but I feel fired up and determined after this workshop! I’m setting goals for the first time in years and feel capable of following through on them now. If you feel this way, this is the workshop for you – get your creative juices working again! Thank you, Hilary, for delivering an insightful and inspiring workshop”. Rachael, Therapist, Wexford.
“Wow, what an amazing workshop. It has helped immensely to overcome blocks. I feel so empowered and focused that it has taken me a few weeks to write this as I’ve been proactive in a new venture. However, having the tools to work on all that was blocking me feels good. I am so grateful to Hilary for this, yet words can’t seem to justify it. A gazillion thank you” Eileen, Therapist, Wexford.
(+353) 086 849 4646
