Eileen Fisher, Fashion Icon
Eileen Fisher, founder of the EILEEN FISHER clothing company, discusses her journey with meditation and how it influences her leadership, employee well-being, and commitment to sustainable business practices. She shares practical applications of mindfulness in her personal and professional life.
Deep Dive Analysis
13 Topic Outline
Eileen Fisher's Initial Meditation Journey and Struggles
Discovering a Meditation Routine and Technique
The Practice and Benefits of Loving-Kindness Meditation
Meditation's Impact on Leadership and Company Culture
Introducing Mindfulness in the Workplace: The 'Sanity Break'
The Learning Lab: Deepening Employee Self-Awareness and 'Embodiment'
Balancing Business Motivation: Profit vs. Purpose
Dan Harris's Meditation App Announcement
The Evolution of '10% Happier' and Meditation's Effect on Emotions
Eileen Fisher's Business Philosophy: Social Consciousness and Sustainability
Navigating Business Challenges with Ethical Commitments
Advice for Small Businesses on Employee Well-being
Parenting and Presence: Balancing Work and Family Life
5 Key Concepts
Loving-Kindness Meditation
A meditation practice where you systematically visualize people and send them good vibes. It is shown to have health benefits like lowering stress hormones and can change behavior, making individuals more compassionate and generous.
Happiness Set Point
A psychological concept suggesting individuals have a baseline level of happiness. Meditation can elevate this set point, making highs higher and troughs shallower by increasing resilience and reducing useless rumination.
Embodiment
The practice of showing up fully in oneself and one's body, noticing feelings and thoughts, and referencing one's physical sensations amidst external situations. It helps in becoming aware of personal patterns, like shutting down, and making different, more conscious choices.
Childhood Patterns in Workplace
The idea that 90% of what individuals bring into the workplace consists of their childhood patterns. These patterns can lead to being easily triggered or acting out, hindering productive engagement and limiting the energy people can contribute.
Sanity Break
A term used to describe a moment of pause before or during meetings, often initiated by ringing a bell, to help participants let go of previous distractions and be present. It's a secular approach to introducing mindfulness without using traditional meditation terminology.
7 Questions Answered
Eileen Fisher started meditating about 15 years ago during a yoga retreat in Mexico, where she experienced bliss. After struggling to maintain a five-minute daily practice for five years, she found success by adopting the 'rise, pee, meditate' routine taught at the Chopra Center.
Eileen Fisher primarily practices Shambhala meditation, which involves following her breath and gently bringing her mind back when it wanders. She also incorporates loving-kindness meditation most mornings, a practice she learned from Barbara Fredrickson's book 'Love 2.0'.
Eileen Fisher's company rings a bell and observes a moment of silence before meetings to create space and awareness. They also have a 'learning lab' to help employees work on purpose, embodiment, and leadership, fostering deeper engagement and self-awareness.
Meditation can move an individual's 'happiness set point' up, making positive experiences more enjoyable and increasing resilience during difficult times, thus making emotional troughs shallower. It also allows individuals to fully feel and process sadness, rather than suppressing it, and provides a choice in how to respond to challenging states.
Eileen Fisher's company prioritizes social consciousness and sustainability by ensuring fair treatment and pay for garment workers, caring for the planet through sustainable practices, and investing in employee well-being. These efforts are seen as long-term business advantages, fostering employee motivation and customer loyalty.
For small businesses, it's natural to care for employees like family. While profit sharing might not be immediately feasible, actions like ringing a bell for a moment of pause before meetings, fostering a caring environment, and actively seeking employee feedback can promote well-being and a positive culture without significant cost.
Eileen Fisher advises parents to be as present as possible with their children, especially during their early years. She regrets not being more present with her own children due to work demands, emphasizing that quality of presence, not just quantity of time, is crucial.
43 Actionable Insights
1. Elevate Happiness Set Point
Regularly practice meditation to deepen enjoyment of positive experiences, build resilience against difficulties, reduce rumination, and gradually elevate your overall happiness set point.
2. Exercise Choice in Well-being
Actively exercise your choice in managing emotional states and well-being by utilizing tools like meditation, yoga, dietary changes, or relationship adjustments to create a different experience.
3. Practice Embodiment
Practice ’embodiment’ to learn how to fully inhabit your body, notice your internal feelings and thoughts, and reference your physical state during interactions and situations.
4. Observe & Shift Coping Patterns
Identify and observe your personal coping patterns, particularly those originating from childhood, and consciously choose different responses in the moment to engage more fully, speak up, or listen effectively.
5. Meditate First Thing Daily
Make meditation the first activity every morning to help manage a chaotic mind and prevent it from getting the better of you.
6. Practice Full Presence with Loved Ones
When with loved ones, especially children, practice full presence by eliminating distractions like your phone and actively engaging with them, rather than just being physically nearby.
7. Solicit Regular Feedback
Actively solicit regular, specific feedback from colleagues, both individually and in group settings, on how you can improve your behavior and impact, ensuring to follow up on their input.
8. Reframe Difficult Interactions
When encountering difficult people, reframe your perspective by remembering that they, like everyone, seek happiness and wish to avoid suffering.
9. Practice Loving-Kindness Meditation
Regularly practice loving-kindness meditation, which involves systematically sending good wishes to others, to cultivate warmth, compassion, and potentially improve health and behavior.
10. Approach Meditation with Courage
Approach meditation with courage, particularly during challenging phases, as it demands being present with your own chaotic mind and internal experiences.
11. Utilize Present Tools & Awareness
Acknowledge past limitations but focus on utilizing your current tools and awareness to make the best possible choices and actions in present situations.
12. Meditation for Presence & Engagement
Utilize meditation as a vital tool to enhance your ability to be present and effectively engage with challenging personal situations, such as parenting.
13. Cultivate Holistic Work Ethic
Adopt a holistic approach to your work, prioritizing not only the final product but also the quality of collaboration, employee growth, ethical treatment of workers, and environmental responsibility.
14. Prioritize Ethical & Sustainable Practices
Prioritize ethical supply chain practices, fair worker treatment, and environmental sustainability, recognizing these as crucial for long-term brand integrity and employee motivation.
15. Invest in Employee Well-being
Invest in employee well-being and personal development to help them overcome internal obstacles and free up their energy, which ultimately leads to better business outcomes.
16. Implement Employee Ownership & Profit-Sharing
Consider implementing employee ownership programs (ESOPs) and generous profit-sharing to empower employees and cultivate a strong sense of collective investment and shared success.
17. Prioritize People & Culture
As a leader, make employee well-being and company culture a priority by allocating resources and focus, even if it means delegating to specialized teams.
18. Combine Morning Yoga & Meditation
Integrate a minimum of 10 minutes of yoga with 10 minutes of meditation into your morning routine, extending to 30 minutes for each when you have more time, to support both physical and mental well-being.
19. Adopt “Rise, Pee, Meditate”
Implement the ‘rise, pee, meditate’ routine to anchor a consistent morning meditation practice immediately after waking and using the restroom.
20. Use Power Poses
Adopt ‘power poses’ or other physical postures to influence your mindset and behavior, as changing your body can lead to changes in your mind.
21. Find Signal in Cliché Advice
Don’t dismiss common or cliché advice reflexively; instead, look for the ‘signal in the noise’ as it often contains valuable and important guidance.
22. Embrace Full Emotional Range
Understand that meditation can increase your capacity to feel emotions more fully, including sadness, as it fosters greater awareness rather than emotional suppression.
23. Prioritize Presence with Children
Prioritize being fully present with your children during their early years, as this time is precious and can lead to regrets if overshadowed by work demands.
24. Embrace Parenting Cliches
Instead of dismissing common parenting cliches, embrace them as they often contain valuable and true advice about the experience of raising children.
25. Use Therapy and Journaling Together
Engage in therapy and journaling as practices to foster self-knowledge, understand your motivations, and recognize what impacts you.
26. Seek Emotional Freedom
If you are easily triggered or emotionally hijacked, pursue programs or practices, such as meditation, to gain emotional freedom and reduce internal chaos.
27. Correct for Personal Bias
If you notice personal biases or fears affecting your judgment, acknowledge them and take corrective steps, such as re-evaluating a situation or re-engaging with the person, to ensure fair assessment.
28. Use Accessible Language
When discussing mindfulness or meditation, choose accessible and non-alienating language to invite more people to engage with the practices.
29. Empower Meaningful Employee Engagement
Empower employees to participate in meaningful initiatives, like sustainability efforts, as it significantly boosts their motivation and sense of purpose beyond routine tasks.
30. Build Loyalty Through Ethics
Invest in ethical and sustainable practices, even with increased costs, to build strong customer loyalty and pride, allowing them to justify purchases from a responsible brand.
31. Innovate for Philanthropic Goals
When charitable resources are limited, innovate by creating new programs, such as a recycling initiative, that can generate revenue, create employment, and fulfill philanthropic goals in a sustainable way.
32. Uphold Ethical Commitment in Crisis
Maintain unwavering commitment to ethical and socially conscious business practices, even during financial difficulties or crises, as these values are integral to your identity.
33. Offer Flexible Wellness Benefits
Offer wellness benefits to employees, such as funds for massages or yoga, and be prepared to adjust their scope during difficult financial periods while preserving the underlying commitment to well-being.
34. Pause Before Meetings
Introduce a brief moment of silence or pause before meetings to help participants transition from previous tasks, be more present, and foster collective awareness.
35. Frame Pauses as “Sanity Breaks”
To make workplace pauses more accessible, frame them as ‘sanity breaks’ or moments to gather and be present, rather than using potentially alienating terms like ‘meditation’ or ‘mindfulness’.
36. Spontaneous Meeting Pauses
Incorporate spontaneous pauses during meetings, particularly after important ideas or thoughts, to allow for deeper reflection and enhanced collective presence.
37. Integrate Stretch Breaks
Introduce stretch breaks during meetings or work periods as a simple, accessible way to refresh physical and mental focus.
38. Maintain Larger Vision
Cultivate and maintain a larger vision for your work to ensure quality and integrity, preventing tunnel vision from immediate demands while still meeting deadlines and operational requirements.
39. Recognize Motivation Spectrum
Understand that motivations for actions, whether in business or personal life, often exist on a spectrum from pragmatic to high-minded, and multiple motivations can coexist.
40. Share Extra Profits
Once your business generates extra profits, consider sharing a portion, such as 10%, with employees or for charitable purposes.
41. Foster Caring in Small Teams
In small teams or startups, naturally foster a caring environment by being present and genuinely showing care for your team members.
42. Attend Immersive Yoga Retreats
Consider attending a yoga retreat, particularly one that integrates daily meditation, as the immersive environment can make the initial experience more blissful and accessible.
43. Teach Loving-Kindness to Children
Introduce loving-kindness meditation to children to foster generosity and empathy, as studies show it can lead to more prosocial behaviors.
7 Key Quotes
I didn't know it was possible to be free of the chatter in my mind.
Eileen Fisher
I still, you know, even after years of meditating, I still wake up every morning crazy, feeling crazy. And I have to sit up and meditate or my mind will get the better of me.
Eileen Fisher
I often make the joke that initially it sounds like Valentine's Day with a machete to your throat. It's just really, like, enforced gooeyness. But the science shows it works.
Dan Harris
I think my mind got tricked into thinking – I don't know. I don't actually know. I think it's practicing that particular meditation that I do. I think it shifts something. It makes – it's sort of like you trick your mind.
Eileen Fisher
I think what's really interesting, and I think it is this kind of idea of stopping and, you know, having a little space and creating awareness of what are we doing and why are we doing it and how are we doing it and how can we do it better. I think it's the kind of reframing that needs to happen in the whole world of work.
Eileen Fisher
I think that's why it was those first five years hard to do those five minutes. Because it takes a certain courage just to be with yourself and the weirdness that we are, you know.
Eileen Fisher
I think about these issues all the time because the most precious resource is time. And if you're busy, and you were very busy, and you are very busy, and I'm very busy, you know, if you've got this kid, and you're married, and you want all that to be, you want to be there for it, but you also don't want to screw up all the things that you're trying to do.
Dan Harris
1 Protocols
Eileen Fisher's Morning Meditation Routine
Eileen Fisher- Get up.
- Pee.
- Meditate.