Dr. Brian Dower, LumenMindfulness.ca

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Dr. Brian Dower, LumenMindfulness.ca

Founder of Lumen Mindfulness, where we create strategies for a satisfying and sustainable Mindfulness practice that awakens your calm, clarity and contentment

11/11/2025

Ever notice how your focus feels pulled in a hundred directions before noon?

You’re not alone. Research shows the average employee switches tasks every 3 minutes and spends nearly 47% of their day with their mind wandering (Harvard study, Killingsworth & Gilbert, 2010).

Mindfulness at work isn’t about being zen all day. It’s about noticing where your attention goes, and learning to gently bring it back.

So here’s a question: What’s the hardest part of staying present at work?

(a) Email overload
(b) Back-to-back meetings
(c) Stress spillover from home
(d) Glorification of multi-tasking
(d) Other (share in comments)

11/07/2025

Just recorded a great conversation with Sophia Ha for her podcast The Mirror.

We dove deep into what it means to stay mindful in a world full of social media comparisons, and how that can quietly fuel suffering.

There’s a teaching I both learned and love:
Suffering = Pain × Resistance.

We can’t always change the pain. But mindfulness helps us turn down the resistance…the stories, judgments, and self-comparisons that amplify it.

Can’t wait to share this episode when it drops in the coming weeks. Sophia brings such a grounded, curious energy to every conversation, and this one got real.

11/04/2025

Mindfulness doesn’t just benefit individuals. It transforms workplace culture.

When leaders model presence, teams notice. Meetings shift. Conversations deepen. Engagement rises.

I’ve seen it firsthand: a simple change in how leaders show up can ripple outward, creating more trust, creativity, and collaboration. Culture isn’t built by posters on the wall or slogans in the handbook. Iit’s built moment-to-moment, in how people pay attention to each other.

That’s why I often frame mindfulness training not just as stress relief, but as a cultural intervention. When presence becomes a habit, the organization changes in ways that no memo could accomplish.

What one word might describe the kind of culture would you want mindfulness to help build in your workplace?

10/28/2025

Try this mini practice:
• Starting at your forehead, move your attention slowly down your body.
• At each spot — jaw, shoulders, hands, core — gently tense, then release.
• As you let go, feel the wave of ease that follows.
• Continue downward until you reach your feet.

Less than a minute. Instant nervous system reset. Done.

Why it works:
This practice teaches your body the difference between tension and release. Each conscious letting-go signals safety to your nervous system, lowering stress hormones and easing muscle tightness. Over time, you start catching tension earlier….before it snowballs into fatigue, irritability, or pain.

Do it anytime: at your desk, between calls, before sleep.

The body leads; the mind follows.

10/23/2025

The World Health Organization estimates that 12 billion working days are lost every year due to depression and anxiety, costing the global economy $1.4 trillion Cdn annually in lost productivity.

Stress at work isn’t just about feeling tense. It has massive implications for health, resilience, and organizational performance.

Resilience doesn’t mean avoiding stress. It means recovering quickly from it.

I love working with leadership teams and showing them how mindfulness is one proven way to build that bounce-back muscle. It’s a defined and learnable skill set, and is a must-have if the mental health of your team is a priority.

How does stress show up in your workplace? And how do you, or your team, find ways to recover?

10/17/2025

This past summer, I had a kidney stone attack (yes, ouch!).

In the middle of the pain, I caught myself spiralling into mental chatter: “This is unbearable… this will never end.”

What helped?

Focusing on raw sensations. The warmth of the bath water, the rhythm of rocking in a chair, even gently pulling my hair to redirect awareness from the story to the sensation.

Mindfulness isn’t about escaping pain — it’s about changing the relationship to it. When we stay with what’s real (instead of what our mind predicts or resists), we create space. And that space changes everything.

The same principle applies at work.

Deadlines, difficult conversations, and uncertainty can all trigger their own versions of “this will never end.”

But here’s the thing:
- Stress + rumination amplifies suffering.
- Stress + presence creates space.

Space to pause before reacting. Space to think clearly under pressure. Space to recover faster after tough days.

Teams and leaders who learn this don’t eliminate stress, but they can transform their relationship with it.

That’s where resilience truly begins.

How do you create space in the middle of stress at work?

10/15/2025

I’ll be honest: I used to think I handled stress well by “powering through.”

That constant motion felt like strength. I thought resilience meant endurance.

But looking back, I see how much I carried home, how much energy it drained. The tension didn’t just disappear when I walked through the door…it followed me into conversations, sleep, and even weekends.

Mindfulness taught me that resilience isn’t about gritting your teeth. It’s about noticing when your system is overloaded, and choosing recovery before burnout. It’s about learning to reset your mind and body so you can respond from clarity instead of depletion.

Now, “doing well under pressure” means something different: breathing, pausing, moving, or simply letting the moment land before I act.

How do you recharge after stressful days?

10/14/2025

Leadership presence isn’t about charisma or commanding the room. Not true leadership, anyway.

Leadership is about showing up with full attention.

Teams feel it when their leader is truly present. They also feel it when that leader is distracted, rushed, or reactive. You’re likely already thinking of true leaders as you read this…

Mindfulness is the training ground for that kind of presence. Let me know if you’re ready to truly lead your team. Happy to help.

10/12/2025

This 🇨🇦 Thanksgiving, I’m reminded that gratitude doesn’t always need to be grand.

It can live in the small, quiet moments….the warmth of a mug in your hands, the stillness after a walk, or the feeling of a familiar voice on the other end of the phone.

Mindfulness lets us know that when we slow down, we see more to be thankful for. Even the simple fact that our Canadian passports carry a little red maple leaf — a reminder of safety, belonging, and the freedom to explore — is something worth a quiet thank you.

So wherever you are this weekend, take a moment to pause. Notice one small thing that brings you comfort, beauty, or peace.

That’s gratitude in its purest form.

Happy Thanksgiving, Canada.🇨🇦

10/10/2025

Before a big or tough conversation, ask yourself:
What’s the most mindful version of me that could walk into this room?

Pause and picture it.

Maybe that version of you takes one slow breath before speaking.
Maybe they listen to understand and not just to reply.
Maybe they soften their tone when things get tense.
Or maybe they say less, choosing clarity over defence.

Think about it. Plan it out. Try a few versions. Then practice one this week.

You’ll notice the shift in how you speak, how you’re heard, and how you feel afterwards.

That’s mindfulness in motion: awareness turning into skill.

10/08/2025

Multi-tasking: yes or no?

Multitasking feels productive, but research (link in comments) shows it can reduce efficiency by up to 40%.

The hidden costs? More mistakes, slower problem-solving, and less creativity. Not the best workplace strategy, maybe?

Mindfulness flips the script: one task, full concentration, full clarity, and faster recovery when distracted.

What’s one thing you notice about your own multitasking habits?

10/06/2025

The next time your attention drifts, gently label it “hear”, as in you are “hearing” unintended mental chatter...and then come back to what you were doing.

One word. One redirect. It’s that simple.

Each time you do this, you’re strengthening your attention....not by forcing focus, but by returning with calm awareness.

A Harvard study found our minds wander almost half the time. Sound about right? :-) And that study also found that a wandering mind is usually an unhappy mind.

But every time you notice the wandering, and come back, you’re retraining the brain, one gentle moment at a time. Mindfulness!

Try it a few times today. Notice what shifts at work, in a conversation, or while waiting in line.

Awareness changes everything.

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Website

http://www.lumenmindfulness.ca/

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