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I recently attended a talk given by a businessman from Chicago, Vincent Kueffner. He talked about how he trained a group of new sales employees in a practice that really touched me. He asked them to greet each new customer internally with a “Namaste” or “I love you” before greeting them verbally. He told them this would change the quality of their interactions, and he wanted them to notice how different it would be to engage someone with this stance instead of experiencing them as just another means to an end – a sale. I was taken by his comments, and asked him if I could use his idea in one of my experiments. He said, “Of course!” So, here it is. I invite you to spend the next week greeting people you encounter with an initial internal response of “Namaste”, which means, “The soul in me greets the soul in you,” or to say to yourself about the person, “I love you,” or “You are my brother/sister.” Or, you may have another statement that has particular meaning to you that allows you to engage the interaction in an open-hearted way. As you explore this experiment, notice the quality of your interactions with people you choose to encounter this way, and notice, especially, changes in your usual stance toward people. There’s no question that we set the tone of many interactions by our initial internal attitude toward the other person, and this experiment invites a greater awareness of the stance we take even before we begin. Remember to allow curiosity to be your companion on the journey, and please do engage this one – as with all the experiments – with an attitude of “no judgment”. This is an exploration and an invitation to discovery. Once we have the direct experience of how much our internal attitude affects how we engage others, and the quality of our interactions, we feel more motivated to meet others with a more open-hearted stance. It feeds us as well as tends to create more constructive encounters.
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