According to New York Therapist, Lee McKay Doe, Internalised Capitalism looks like ……

Internalised Capitalism

• Feeling guilty for resting
• Your self-worth is largely based on doing well in your career
• Placing productivity before health
• Believing hard work = happiness
• Feeling lazy, even when you’re experiencing pain, trauma or adversity
• Using busyness as a way of avoiding your needs .

Many of us will recognise many of these thoughts in ourselves. And this is why we might find meditation so difficult.

Finding meditation so difficult

When we meditate, we lower our stress levels, we get to know our pain, we connect better, we improve our focus, and we’re kinder to ourselves. All of these things can improve our health, and as a consequence help us become better at our internalised capitalism.
Being super focussed on the here and now, rather than planning what to do next, or reviewing the past, is the basis of mindfulness and also can be a good focus when meditating. But that also requires letting go of the here and now too. Learning to be who you are, and liking it is sufficient.
If I am chugging along nicely I don’t find the tine to meditate. If I am super stressed I find it really beneficial, If I am not too busy then it’s a useful way of connecting with myself and with others.

So how to avoid the guilt trip?

• See meditation as part of work. – and so it’s not ‘resting’
• Recognise meditation can help you focus – so you can be better at your career and self worth
• Meditation can improve your heath – and with better health more productivity
• Meditating is not being lazy – it’s not easy to do
• It’s a way of being busy, but also it can be a way of recognising and meeting your needs.

Meditating Mindfully

Meditating Mindfully is difficult on your own – better to join a group and meditate on Zoom or whatever. Your colleagues can give you insights and encouragements as well as the discipline. You can also watch how the others meditate – though it is often more interesting to watch paint dry (especially these paintings).

Written by David Rigby, © 2020 Smart Coaching & Training Ltd

Code-switching is when someone changes their language based on who they are with, typically to fit in better with that group. There are many reasons why people code-switch. People switch their pronunciations of words and their dialects around to better fit in with a certain group.

They also change their behaviour.

In linguistics, code-switching or language alternation occurs when a speaker alternates between two or more languages, or language varieties, in the context of a single conversation. But its much more than that.

Multilinguals, speakers of more than one language, sometimes use elements of multiple languages when conversing with each other.

In dress and food – choosing to dress in the mode of the people you are with, learning to eat the same food in the same way the others do is another type of code switching .

Why do people do this ?

Often to do with work. In the UK people switch to the codes of the straight white southern public-school-educated male in order to get the best jobs.. And all places have their equivalents.

But what do they switch from?

• Being Northern – whilst having a Northern Accent is not the slur it was, it can still be prejudicial in building the connections.  Dropping the northern sense of humour in order to be understood, removing terms of endearment and being over-friendly.
• Being Female – it is possible to get on as female, but many have to adopt ‘boy’s behaviours’ to climb the ladder.
• Being of Foreign Origin while raised in Britain. – In many ways having to have two different cultures – the ones you use at home and the ones you use at work.  Those that don’t follow the subtleties and indirectness of the polite British society can ‘scare the natives’ with their directness or loudness.
• Being Foreign – being aware that the accepted behaviours at home may not be acceptable in your new location. Observing and copying the new ‘norms’.
• Being LGBTQ – being ‘straight acting’ or so you think.

There are dangers

So, at least historically, wearing the traditional uniform of white man’s business – Grey or Blue suit, white shirt and tie, no beard is a way of ‘belonging’. But it can be cultural appropriation – white people wearing dreadlocks or Arabic dress is asking for trouble.
The more you code switch the more you become the person you are switching into. And then you go ‘back home’ and everyone thinks you are now too posh to talk to. So you switch back. Which is the real you? It is so stressful and exhausting.

Intercultural Globality is a method by which you can learn to be all things to all people. And still be true to yourself. Understanding your communication preferences is a good start. Just ask .

Written by David Rigby, © 2020 Smart Coaching & Training Ltd