This is an interview that appeared in the Spanish-speaking New York magazine “Inspiras“.
Q: How your interest in applying mindfulness to business is born?
After reading about what what was being implemented at Google and also seeing the successful application of that technique in organizations in the United States, I realized that I should contribute to its introduction in Spain and Latin America because it was the right time to do so.
Q: What example/s can you give about the results obtained by companies or individuals who have applied these techniques?
There are many. It decreases absenteeism, sick leave, workers are more effective in their work, people learn to manage stress and anxiety without resorting to drugs …
Q: How can we apply mindfulness to reduce stress and pressures of everyday life?
Mindfulness involves being in the present in an opened and focused manner. We train our minds to focus continuously on the task you are performing without wondering every five minutes, overwhelmed by everything that has to be done and without getting lost in the emotions that often cloud our objectivity and vision.
Q: How can we control our thoughts to make them our allies and not our enemies?
Realizing that we are not our thoughts. By des-identifying from them we can have infinite power over our minds, instead of allowing thoughts to drag us down.
Q: What do you recommend for children and young people who want to follow their dreams but these do not fit with the expectations their environment has about them?
They have to realize that in life you have to leave nothing pending because afterwards one has regrets and too often we can no longer do anything about it. If you really want something and are willing to invest the necessary time, have perseverance, patience and make the sacrifices involved, there is nothing that can not be achieved, regardless of the good opinion of others, approval and without taking on the fears of others.
Q: What has been your biggest challenge in your career?
Take a 180º degree change, abandoning my professional life and former status to make my dream of being able to contribute to a better world come true. And taking that huge leap and starting from scratch without knowing whether it would work out in the end.
Q: How do you stay healthy?
I jog 2 or 3 times a week, I have been a vegetarian for twenty years and I meditate regularly.
Q: How do you balance body and mind?
Eating healthily, doing some exercise, training my mind to manage harmful emotions and thoughts when they arise, before they wreak havoc inside. And feeding my spiritual side too. It is important to take care of the body and the mind, but also essential to cultivate the spirit.
Q: What challenges do you have?
Becoming a catalyst for peace and compassion.
Q: What projects are you working on now?
I am finishing the writing of a book about the development of consciousness, so that humans can access higher levels and focus more on becoming evolved individuals.
FAVORITES:
Song: One by U2. Halo by Beyoncé. Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol, Only You by Alison Moyet
Movie: Gandhi, The English Patient, Selma, Out of Africa
Book: Initiation, Elisabeth Haich. Be here now, Ram Dass. The places that scare us, Pema Chordron.
Places: The African bush, the Atacama Desert in Chile, the Himalayas of India, Tibet, Gobi Desert in Mongolia, the Galapagos Islands, the vastness of Namibia … So many of them have left their mark on me!
