The Benefits Of Mindfulness

It is difficult for one to avoid information promoting the benefits of mindfulness, so much so that one's own self defense mechanisms filter much of it out and deposit the information in the overload scrap heap. This is a shame because mindfulness really works!

The important aspect of mindfulness is that for a practice to be effective, one needs to tailor it to your personal needs, lifestyle, and how you learn.

There is tons of credible research available to define the benefits of a mindfulness practice. With this research as the basis, here are some of the widely accepted benefits of a mindfulness practice:

1. Reduced rumination. Rumination is the continual replaying of similar thoughts and often associated with worry or even obsession. Typically, the thoughts are focused on the past or the future and the more a person ruminates, the less they are focused on and aware of what is happening in the present.

2. Stress reduction. Stress is often associated with worry and worry typically is related to something in the future. By focusing on the present, you become more aware of what you can influence and manage and what is beyond your control.

3. Boost working memory. The mind can only hold 5 or 6 separate things in working memory. When you add an additional element to be considered, something usually falls by the wayside. Focusing on the present allows you to keep the elements that are critical to the present in front of you and you are less likely to ‘forget’ something. For example, if you are ‘thinking’ about what you are going to do on the weekend, you may overlook something you meant to do on your present shopping trip.

An effective way to stay focused in the moment is to keep a note pad handy to record things that need to be done ‘in the future’.

4. Improved focus. Mindfulness helps notice when an intrusive thought arises – a thinking habit ‘fork in the road moment’ – and makes it possible to let the thought go or record it for attention later.

5. Less emotional reactivity. Emotions arise regularly. This is the mind’s normal response to experiencing life. How you respond to the emotion – how much energy you devote to reacting – can be managed. Mindfulness allows you to recognize the emotion and respond skillfully rather than getting indefinitely lost in the grip of an emotion.

Emotions are cyclical – they have a beginning and an end. The length of the cycle can be heavily influenced by the messages we send ourselves about the emotion. For example, when anger arises, you could think “I am angry” or you could think “There is anger”. Two completely different perspectives about the same circumstance.

6. More cognitive flexibility. We judge so much of what we experience in life and when we judge something, we have already formed an opinion about it. When an opinion is formed, we stop learning. When we stop learning, life begins to close down.

The more mindful we are, the more aware we are of our judgments and can use that awareness to take a more curious approach to the array of people and circumstances we encounter.

7. Greater relationship satisfaction. The quality of our relationships with others directly impacts the quality of our lives and the amount of happiness we experience. One of the simplest ways to improve the quality of our relationships is to be appropriately mindful when we are with someone. Listening mindfully sends an incredibly powerful message to another person.

As a place to start, check out this short piece on mindful breathing. Breathing is something available to everyone and a simple, personal yet exceptionally powerful foundation upon which to build a mindfulness practice.

If the potential for mindfulness appeals to you but you are stuck in getting a practice off the ground, your coach may be able to help you launch.

Security Breaches can be Costly for Businesses

Sensitive information leaked can equal a scandal for companies. Besides the obvious loss of customer trust, reputation, sales and lowered stock price, the non-compliance fines can spell real trouble for an unwitting business. Audit committees are voracious about protecting customer-related information and corporate sensitive data.

Companies are required to comply with data-privacy regulations, best practice requirements and industry guidelines regarding the usage and access to customer data. Privacy requirements for protecting non-public personal information include: selective encryption of stored data, separation of duties, proper access control and centralized independent audit functions.

Data security is not an option - it is mandatory according to government legislation and industry regulations. For example, the U.S. Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) requires financial institutions and their partners to protect non-public personal data while in storage, while implementing a variety of access and security controls. Failure to comply with GLBA results in big regulatory fines for the financial institution. Equally damaging, the CEOs and directors can be held personally responsible and legally liable for any misuse of personally identifiable non-public information.

There are $4 million in losses quoted as the annual estimated loss from security breaches according to the Computer Security Institute (CSI) Computer Crime and Security Survey. Further it was revealed that over half of the databases have some kind of breach on a yearly basis. Being that these are only the security problems that companies are reporting, this percentage is staggeringly high. Organizations don't want to advertise the fact that their internal people have access to customer data and can cover up their tracks, take that data, give it to anybody, and stay undetected and employed while a crime is committed.

Download our document on How to Avoid Getting Ransomware. 

App Maker - Build Your Mobile App with Google

App Maker - a new service that people inside organizations can use to easily develop custom applications based on their business needs. Google is now taking applications for early access to the tool from organizations that pay for the G Suite (formerly known as Google Apps) Business service tier.

The service lets users drag and drop widgets around on a user interface that complies with Google’s Material design principles. But they can be customized further with scripts, as well as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and JQuery content. And once apps are live, it’s possible to monitor usage through Google Analytics.

In being easy to use by default, App Maker will be useful for people who are less technically savvy — people other than full-time developers, in other words. Having this sort of thing available means that IT teams can spend less time dealing with requests from these types of people, who might not otherwise see their ideas ever fleshed out.

“We’re really targeting enterprise developers who need to build line-of-business solutions for an entire company but need there to be less (sophistication) than developers who might build Snapchat or external-facing applications,” App Maker product manager Ajay Surie told VentureBeat in an interview.

That means App Maker will compete with existing “low-code” application development services. That includes Salesforce’s App Cloud, as well as tools from Appian, Mendix, and OutSystems, among others.

There’s no need to worry about maintaining the necessary infrastructure for running the apps. Apps built with App Maker run on the same data center infrastructure as Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Drive. This is different from the cloud computing and storage infrastructure that people can pay for through the Google Cloud Platform.

New data that’s generated inside Apps built with App Maker can be stored in a new service called Google Drive Tables, which is essentially a managed structured database that stores data in Google Drive. It’s simpler to set up and maintain than something like Google Cloud SQL from the Google Cloud Platform.

App Maker lets users integrate their apps with many services, including Google Calendar, Google Contacts, Google Docs, Google Drive, Google Forms, Gmail, Google Groups, Google Translate, Google Maps, Google Sites, Google Sheets, Google BigQuery, and Google Calendar.

Is Managed Print Right for Your Company?

Managed Print Services (MPS) is an extremely valuable solution that enables a third-party provider like Modern Office Methods (MOM) to effectively manage and maintain your organization’s print environment. This can offer benefits such as enhanced efficiency, increased productivity, and reduced costs. The right MPS solution from the right managed services provider can add significant value to a company. But is MPS right for your business?

Here are some questions you should ask yourself when considering an MPS solution:

Will an MPS solution provide your business with a return on your investment? 

MPS can reduce print-related costs by up to 30 percent and reduces capital expenditures by optimizing your fleet — maximizing your ROI and your immediate savings. 

Is your current print environment adequately handling your office’s needs? 

Many offices are cluttered with wasteful and inefficient devices that aren't ideal for handling your workload and document needs. An MPS program maximizes the efficiency and productivity of each imaging device.

Is your current print strategy flexible enough to adapt to inevitable changes in technology? 

MPS provides the flexibility for your business to keep up with your competitors and evolve as technology advances.

Is the security of your data and documents critical to your business’ survival, and are you confident that this information is adequately protected? 

Nothing is more important than data security. That's why MPS includes security safeguards to protect your printed and digital documents.

Is your team wasting valuable time managing imaging devices, or are they constantly hamstrung by toner outages and out-of-service machines? 

MPS uses proactive monitoring and automatic ordering of consumables to keep your printer fleet operating at peak performance as often as possible, so your staff has more time to work on critical projects.

Contact MOM today at info@momnet.com and take the first step toward implementing an MPS solution that's right for your business needs.