Today's podcast features The Practice of Effort and Effortlessness. We begin with a short meditation. Then Marc talks about how practice should be directed from achievement to non-achievement. The aim is to get rid of unnecessary effort and to practice meditation with no gaining idea. The effort to let go of doing anything extra will reap great benefits to your mindful leadership practice and presence.

Poet David Whyte joins Marc to explore how not-knowing, presence, and poetry open the heart of authentic leadership.

New Name. Same Wisdom. Fresh Season. We’re excited to announce that Zen Bones is now Mindful Leadership with Marc Lesser — and Season 2 launches Thursday, May 8th!

This season brings powerful new conversations on what it truly means to lead with mindfulness, emotional intelligence, and heart.

If you’ve been on this journey with us, thank you. If you’re just joining—welcome. Follow the show and tune in May 8th!

We begin today's episode with a short guided meditation focused on being present, fully here with nothing to accomplish. I give a short talk on embracing the mind of the poet and the mind of the business person, exploring these distinctions and lack of distinctions and how we can live and work and play with more meaning and connection.

Today's Zen Puzzler comes from a traditional koan about a buffalo jumping through a window. The aim of this puzzler is about letting go of our predicting minds and instead seeing the world as fresh and mysterious.

Kristin is founder and CEO at Nia Impact Capital. She is a pioneer in the field of impact investing. She is devoted to re-envisioning capitalism, to changing the face of finance, and to promoting inclusion and diversity in leadership.

In our conversation we talk about the importance of understanding money, finance, and investing and the life-changing force that money has. We speak about creating healthy cultures and how Kristin is on the front lines of gender lens investing, both through leading a women-owned company and supporting women-owned companies.

Today's podcast features The Power of Priming. We begin with a short meditation. Then Marc talks about how the world tends to prime us for anxiety and speed. As an antidote and practice, we can prime ourselves to be present, open, curious, and creative. Meditation practice is a form of priming. We can utilize priming in all parts of our days, from waking up to starting meetings.

Today's Zen puzzler is based on a quote about staring and impermanence.

Henry Shukman is a poet, writer and Zen teacher. He has written a best selling Zen memoir called One Blade of Grass. He is a guiding teacher of the Mountain Cloud Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In this episode we talk about grace: the grace of acknowledging and living from the perspective that everything is gift. We address the tension of practicing with money, success and failure and working skillfully with our many motivations - all in the context of grace.

What is my offering is today's episode. We begin with a short guided meditation on warmhearted curiosity. Then Marc talks about the difference between helping, fixing, and serving - with an emphasis on practices for discovering your own offering.

Today's Zen puzzler is using this phrase, What is my offering, as a Zen koan, or a support for going deeper into this realm of discovery.