“To connect to others, we first need to connect to ourselves,” says Tuula Rytila, Board Member of multiple corporations, including Bang & Olufsen and previously Corporate Vice President at Microsoft. Tuula started a daily meditation practice when the pandemic started. “Meditation is creating space for me to recognize the weak signals in my brain more easily.” This helps her to be more creative in working with challenge. To innovate and change, we need fresh thinking. We need to take care of our brain and give it space to create new neural connections that are weak at first. We extend this space to our colleagues and teams. In conflict, we ‘fight and unite’ for higher purpose and need to be generous in giving up some of our positions to get to a better place together. Throughout, we keep coming back to ourselves, practicing 50% attention to ourselves and 50% to the people and challenges around us. Feeling stuck? Consider extending some more kindness to yourself right now. Everyone has kindness and love inside, it is our job to connect with it. We need to step over our fear of others and connect with authenticity and kindness.
