As the modern workplace blurs boundaries, prioritizing mental health becomes crucial. Join us in a conversation with entrepreneur Anne-Marie Emanuelli, Founder of Mindful Frontiers, where mindfulness isn’t just a philosophy but a lived commitment.
In this exclusive interview, Anne-Marie shares insights into the impact of mindfulness on leadership and team dynamics. From her roots as a dedicated teacher to shaping Mindful Frontiers, her journey offers a brief yet powerful exploration of mindfulness in the ever-changing landscape of work and well-being.
Name: Anne-Marie Emanuelli
Company: Mindful Frontiers
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Thank you so much for joining us. Please introduce yourself to our readers.
Anne-Marie Emanuelli: I bring almost three decades of meditation experience as the Founder and Creative Director of Mindful Frontiers, an education-based meditation center in northern New Mexico. My life path and passion revolve around offering guidance, instruction, and coaching on the benefits of mindfulness and meditation to families, schools, organizations, and communities.
I started teaching meditation in 2016 and have earned credentials from Mindful Schools, Sage Institute for Creativity and Consciousness, Veriditas labyrinth training, and completed an 8-week MBSR course. I actively participate in silent and guided meditation retreats to support my practice.
The mission of Mindful Frontiers is to welcome a mindful future, impacting one child, family, individual, and community at a time, all within the embrace of each present moment.
As an entrepreneur, how do you incorporate mindfulness or spiritual practices into your leadership style? Can you share an instance where this approach significantly impacted your business decisions or team dynamics?
Anne-Marie Emanuelli: My professional background includes art and education. Before establishing Mindful Frontiers, I was a classroom teacher for 25 years. My path to becoming a mindfulness meditation teacher began decades ago when I sought out alternative health modalities to heal from a physical ailment that limited my quality of life.
Later, as a full-time classroom teacher, I again turned to meditation to help deal with the grief of three student suicides and decided to share this social-emotional skill with my students and colleagues. Mindful meditation became my life’s focus and students and teachers at my school benefitted from the guidance and expertise I willingly shared.
These are some instances (anecdotes) that are worth sharing:
- After learning about mindfulness in class, a student told me she and her mother had downloaded a meditation app and were practicing together at home.
- An autistic student told me he enjoyed mindfulness practice because it helped him feel calm inside.
- Colleagues sought out further mindfulness training after I had been sharing these practices at the school where I worked.
- Organizations hired me to share meditation and mindfulness with their staff and a staff member experienced a profound clearing of stress in her body during the training workshop.
Please note that Mindful Frontiers is not a conventional corporation with staff. We reach out to families, individuals, schools, organizations and communities to bring meditation and mindfulness into their organizations or groups and to their stakeholders. In this way, I am able to reach a greater number of people.
Balancing a busy professional life with healthy eating can be challenging. What strategies or habits have you adopted to ensure your diet supports both your body and spirit, especially under the pressures of entrepreneurship?
Anne-Marie Emanuelli: Mindful eating is a great way to bring meditation and wellness into everyday life. I teach mindful eating in classroom programs as well as staff trainings.
Eating mindfully which slows down the activity, allows us to connect to our food in an intimate way. Learning the “story of our food” is also something that I teach in which we learn about the journey of food from seed to store.
Slowing down when eating is a way to ensure that diet supports the body and spirit. Connecting to food with all the senses is a healthy practice that we encourage everyone to experience.
How does the food taste, smell, feel, look like, sound, and then imbibing it with gratitude is a habit with great potential for healthy living.
How have you transformed your workspace to enhance focus, creativity, and inner peace? Do you have any specific routines or environmental changes that have made a significant difference in your workday wellness?
Anne-Marie Emanuelli: I begin and end each day with a moment of meditation. This is a formal practice of sitting or lying down and bringing attention to sensations in the body and sounds in the environment and then expressing gratitude for the day.
During the workday, I remind myself often to take a breathing break: 3 deep breaths to center and ground the body. A mindful moment of 3 breaths allows the mind to release its control for a short moment and allows awareness of what is going on in the body.
In my workspace, I have mindfulness reminders such as images, statues, crystals, and a comfortable place to sit away from my desk.
When I meditate, I use a singing bowl to mark the beginning and end of my practice. The sound is a reminder to the mind to let go of control and to allow for relaxation.
Walking and swimming meditation are also some activities I engage in not only for exercise but also to connect my body to nature and the environment.
Quality rest is crucial for peak performance. What sleep hygiene rituals do you follow to maintain high energy and clear thinking? How have these practices contributed to your success and well-being as a business owner?
Anne-Marie Emanuelli: Sleep rituals that help me end the day with gratitude and relaxation include:
- Engaging in meditative creativity (I enjoy knitting and needlework projects)
- Making time for a gratitude meditation in bed before settling to sleep.
- Reading in bed to calm the mind and body.
- Daily physical exercise is done with mindfulness.
All of these work together to bring clear thinking, and well-being into my life. They also allow me to teach others through personal experience.
Jerome Knyszewski, VIP Contributor to WellnessVoice and the host of this interview would like to thank Anne-Marie Emanuelli for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Anne-Marie Emanuelli or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page
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