Spirit at Work presents   Thursday, September 17th, 2009             12:00 - 1:30 p.m.     Mindfulness: Finding Peace in Paradox     with Catherine Hajnal, PhD, Founder, Eight Branches Consulting and former Assistant Professor of Business, Carleton University How much time do you spend thinking                                                about the past or the future? Have you ever stopped and truly listened to your body, mind, and spirit? When you do, what you hear might surprise you. We spend most of our time thinking about the future or revisiting the past. Our bodies respond to these thoughts, often in unhealthy ways. As we focus on thought, we can sometimes miss what is right in front of us, here and now. Yet all we truly have is this present moment. Join Catherine as she shares how to bring purposeful attention to the present moment using a mindfulness practice. In a world full of paradox, she invites us to see beyond either/or thinking when we encounter a situation of seemingly incongruent opposites. Instead, we can respond: Yes, both please. In doing so, creativity abounds and we find ourselves paying attention in new ways.                                   click here to RSVP  -or-  phone: 604-685-6560 Date:           Thursday, September 17, 2009  –  12:00 - 1:30 pm Location:    Main Floor, Conference Rooms, Terasen Building,                    1111 W. Georgia St. (at Thurlow), Vancouver Cost:           Without lunch: $10                    With lunch:  non-members - $20;  members - $15 Lunch:        Catered sandwiches, salad, tea and coffee                               __________________________ About our Speaker: Catherine Hajnal, PhD, operates her own Vancouver business, Eight Branches Consulting, facilitating and nurturing joyful living in individuals and organizations. She completed her doctorate in industrial engineering and socio-technical systems at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. During her studies, she explored the connection between occupational stress and the design of work, which spawned a passionate interest in creating healthy workplaces. Catherine is an ASQ certified manager of quality/organizational effectiveness. She draws on an array of approaches from organizational development and business process reengineering to improvisational theatre and mindfulness traditions. She aims to create space and time for individuals and organizations to reflect on their current ways of being and to facilitate conversation about different ways of creating. Catherine has held a variety of occupations, from systems analyst with Esso Petroleum Canada to an IT quality development manager at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. While Assistant Professor and MBA Program Director at Carleton University (Sprott School of Business), she taught and researched the design of work and organizations, as well as the interplay of people, process, and technology. She also worked as the vice-president’s special advisor on institutional effectiveness at Carleton.             click here to RSVP  -or-  phone: 604-685-6560 back to top