In this episode, Giovanna welcomes Emily Bennington to the show. Emily is a bestselling author and a student/teacher of contemplative practices for both secular and spiritual audiences. She has led training programs on mindfulness and composure for numerous Fortune 500 companies and has been featured by CNN, ABC, and Fox, The Wall Street Journal, Glamour, Marie Claire, and Cosmopolitan. Emily is the author of three books, including Miracles at Work: Turning Inner Guidance into Outer Influence. Emily is skilled at presenting complex mindfulness and spiritual topics with logical reasoning, professionalism, and inclusiveness. Emily's website was recently listed, by Forbes, as one of the 100 Best Websites for Women and her blog touches thousands of readers.
Today’s guest is Emily Bennington
Emily was fortunate to have a boss who became a mentor
She learned so much from her as a mentor that they wrote the book, Effective Immediately
They toured college campuses to talk about transitioning from school to career
When Emily started dealing with management, she noticed people would come to her for help
Life problems were always present in every person asking for help so Emily would bring in the spiritual aspect as part of her advice
She wrote Miracles at Work: Turning Inner Guidance into Outer Influence
Her book is about how we dismantle our thought system based on fear and on love
Looking at another person and seeing through your differences unfolds the harmonious connections that you have
Take your biases out to make your life more peaceful
An Internal Miracle is the shift in perception in love
A miracle is expression of love to you
Giovanna used to compartmentalize spirituality to the point that she felt unfulfilled
Like Giovanna, Emily was in the “God Closet”
Mindfulness alone is secular
Emily felt she was inauthentic teaching spiritual tools when she calls it secular mindfulness
Our spiritual life creates a certain reaction to people and we don’t want to offend anyone
The wrong is, we tend to conflate spirituality with religion – it’s not the same thing
We use competition in our career that yields to what Emily calls, “Snow-Globe Thinking”
A true spiritual practice is what clears out the snow
Great leaders don’t have to crawl to the top – they’re carried there
Magnitude is the idea of seeing yourself created by God and in a state of spiritual perfection
Knowing magnitude creates confidence
Emily shares an example of magnitude:
Emily had a client who was preparing for a big job interview
Her client approached the interview with a tremendous amount of nervousness, anger, and resentment
Emily encouraged her client saying that if she doesn’t get the job, that it is NOT a reflection or measurement of her worth
Her client had an internal shift in perception from fear to love and she got the job
Emily has come to a place where she is far less apologetic in her practice of spirituality
Giovanna is not fully out of her “God Closet”
It was a disservice for Giovanna when she held back
Giovanna has seen the transformations and the relationships that have healed
“We’re dealing with a practice a lot of people don’t know about”
What helped Emily in the course was creating a container
Giovanna was introduced to the course from her mentor
15 years ago Giovanna resisted learning from the course
The funny thing was, Giovanna kept attending the course and miracles study groups without opening the book
She credits her spiritual mentor for recommending her to read the book, The Disappearance of the Universe
It wasn’t until about 4 years ago when Giovanna opened the book
The Jesus of the course is different from the Biblical Jesus
The Biblical Jesus is in alignment with what the course says
As Emily was writing her book, she was aware it could kill her speaking career on mindful leadership
What’s interesting was Emily got more engagement after her book was written
Emily is NOT a scholar of all religions, but all these things are pointing to LOVE
view more