Nonduality in Business

nonduality in business - (c) Shamash Alidina

I’ll never forget the irony: there I was, author of Mindfulness for Dummies and a seasoned mindfulness coach, yet I found myself stressed out as my business ambitions grew.

As a small business owner and mindfulness teacher in the UK, I had always preached about mindful business and mindful leadership – staying present, compassionate, and calm in the boardroom. And sure, practising mindfulness did help; decades of research show it improves concentration and reduces stress. Many forward-thinking companies from Google to Goldman Sachs have even introduced employee mindfulness programmes.

And together with good mindfulness programs, there’s also an emphasis on kindness and compassion to others and self-compassion too.

Yet despite all my mindfulness training, the more ambitious I became in growing my mindfulness work, the more I felt excessive stress creeping in…and not the good stress.

Trying Too Hard to Build a Mindful Business

I was meditating daily and teaching others to be present, but inside I was driving myself – setting bigger goals, launching new courses, constantly pushing for growth. The paradox was clear: the harder I pushed my spiritual business to expand, the less spiritual I felt.

My business had turned into a stressful hustle – a mindful hustle, perhaps, but a hustle nonetheless. More recently, after enjoying some insights into nondual philosophy, I began to wonder, is there a way of doing business that goes beyond just mindfully running around?

Could there be a nondual approach to business – one where the very sense of “who is doing” dissolves a bit, and business activity becomes more effortless, guided by a deeper flow rather than ego-driven effort?

In this article, I want to share my personal journey exploring these questions. I’ll reflect on how nonduality – the insight of “not-two” or how everything is one – changed my relationship with life…including my business.

I’ll contrast the familiar idea of mindful business, which often still involves an individual effortfully “being present”, with a nondual perspective where doing business becomes an expression of effortless being.

Whether you’re a small business owner, a mindful leadership coach, a therapist, or simply a spiritual seeker curious about a more spiritual approach to entrepreneurship, I invite you to join me in exploring what a nondual approach to business might look like in practice.

From Mindful Business to Mindful Busyness

In the early days of running my mindfulness training company, I prided myself on embodying mindful business principles. I led mindful leadership workshops, emphasised conscious business values, and practised meditation before tough meetings.

These practices weren’t wrong – in fact, they kept me steady through many challenges. In my own experience, staying present helped me handle tricky client calls and overflowing inboxes with more grace.

However, as my entrepreneurial ambition ramped up, I discovered a subtle trap: I had turned “being mindful” into another task on my endless to-do list. I was getting mindfully overwhelmed – if that’s even a thing – squeezing meditation sessions between marketing strategy, writing books and accounting, all in service of growing the business and serving more people.

My mind was more mind FULL than mindful. My mind was often in the future, plotting how to get more clients or create the next big offering, even as I reminded others (and myself) to “stay in the now.” I had to face an uncomfortable question: Was I truly practising mindful leadership, or just mind-full leadership?

It became clear that mindful business techniques can be double-edged. Yes, they reduce stress and improve focus, making us better at the hustle.

But if we’re not careful, they can also become a slick productivity hack to squeeze more work out of ourselves – just as some corporations have done (for example, Aetna reportedly saved about $2,000 per employee in healthcare costs – and gained about $3,000 per employee in productivity – through employee meditation programmes).

I realised I was using mindfulness to tolerate higher levels of stress and overwork, rather than to fundamentally question how I was approaching work and why. I had made mindful business into just another business with all its goals, targets and issues that go with it. My ego – the sense of “I’m the doer, I’m in control” – was still firmly in charge, just carrying meditation bells now.

This all became clear as my philosophical understanding of Nonduality (or advaita) gradually deepened.

Ambition Meets Awareness: My Turning Point

As my understanding of Nonduality deepened, clarity dawned. I recognized that my urge to push myself, to engage in activities that didn’t genuinely excite me, stemmed from a desire to impress others and to validate my own worth.

This realization was both liberating and sobering. I noticed how one part of me, an older part of me, like an over-caffeinated CEO, was relentlessly driven and ambitious, while another part simply observed this anxious striving without judgment.

As I continued to reflect on nondual teachings, my need for external approval and validation started to fade away. The pressure to constantly prove my value gradually dissolved into a clearer understanding.

The relentless push for growth and achievement that no longer resonated with my authentic self. It was seemingly gone, at least for now.

This shift marked the beginning of a more nondual approach to my life, one focused on acceptance and ease rather than focus, striving and achievement.

That second part – the quiet observer – felt different. It was as if I had tapped into a perspective that was watching “ambitious Shamash” run on his hamster wheel.

In nonduality circles, some call this the witness consciousness or pure awareness. It wasn’t caught up in the usual business drama of success and failure, win or lose. It was simply being, and in that state, everything felt okay, even the unfinished to-do list!

That morning I glimpsed what nonduality teachings point to: that the sense of being a separate, always-striving “me” is just a story. In fact, it may be the most compelling of illusions.

Instead, what ensued was a gradual but significant shift over months. I naturally letting go of my usual control in business.

Rather than constantly trying to “make things happen,” I was allowing everything to happen in my life, which included my business.

This was exciting at first, then scary – I had bills to pay and staff depending on me. Could I really afford to loosen my grip?

In a way, once the ego identity was seen for what it is, claiming everything whilst doing nothing, I couldn’t do anything else. Letting go just happened, whether the ego liked it or not!

What Is Nonduality (and What’s It Got to Do with Business)?

The idea is that our usual way of seeing the world – as a bunch of separate objects and separate people (me versus you, business vs personal, work vs spiritual life) – is incomplete. At a deeper level, there is just oneness or unity. In other words, the division between “me” (the individual entrepreneur) and “the world out there” (including my business challenges) is more porous than it seems. And ultimately it’s one big illusion!

Modern science even echoes this. Some researchers in neuroscience and psychology suggest that the sense of a separate self is largely a mental construct – useful for survival, but ultimately an illusion our brain creates.

So how does this lofty idea relate to our everyday business? Imagine viewing your work not as a personal battle you have to win or lose, but as a natural process unfolding – one in which you’re a part of a larger flow.

Nonduality in business means seeing through the illusion that you, as a separate doer, are solely carrying the weight of your business on your shoulders. Instead, you begin to sense that the business is happening through you, with you, as part of a bigger picture.

When I started to “get” this, it felt like a big exhale that I didn’t know I was holding in. The pressure dialed down tremendously.

Decisions became so much lighter and more intuitive – I naturally wasn’t overthinking every move as if the universe depended on it. In fact, I wrote recently about how, through a nondual lens, even making decisions starts to feel less fraught: you still make choices, but you’re not agonising over the “perfect” choice so much.

There’s a trust that the right choices will arise when needed, and that even if things go pear-shaped, it’s not the end of the world (or the end of “me”).

Effortful Mindfulness vs Effortless Being

Now, you might be thinking: “This sounds nice, but what’s the real difference here? Isn’t this just mindfulness by another name?” Great question. There’s definitely overlap – mindfulness and nonduality are friends who hang out at the same pub, but they’re not identical twins.

In my experience, the mindful business approach is about bringing an individual’s mindful attention into their work. It’s still effortful in the sense that I, as the business owner, am deliberately practising presence, compassion, and focus. For example, if an email upsets me, I pause, breathe, and respond thoughtfully rather than reacting. This is invaluable, and it’s why mindful leadership has become a trend. It’s essentially training the personal self to be a bit wiser and kinder in a hectic business environment.

The nondual approach, on the other hand, involves a more radical shift in perspective: questioning the very notion of that personal self who is “doing” the business. Instead of “I am being mindful at work,” it’s more like “Work is happening, and awareness is simply witnessing and participating in it.” It’s a sense of effortless being where action comes from spontaneity and intuition rather than a mental checklist of “must stay present, must be a good mindful CEO.”

This difference showed up clearly in how I felt day to day. Under the mindful-but-ambitious mode, I often felt subtle tension – a background hum of “got to keep this all together.”

Under the nondual mode, when I could really drop into it, there was a sense of relief. I could trust the currents more.

Paradoxically, I became more effective in some ways: I was genuinely present during a client session, not because I was forcing myself to concentrate, but because there was simply no distraction at that moment.

When writing an article or designing a course, I sometimes entered a flow state more easily – the work “did itself,” and hours passed without the usual mental resistance. To outside observers, I might have looked just as focused as before, but inside it felt effortless.

How Nonduality Changed My Business (The Surprising Outcome)

Here’s the part you won’t see touted in most business books: when I embraced a more nondual approach, my business actually shrank. Yes, you read that right. My revenue did not 10X from meditating on a mountaintop; in fact, it became smaller as I naturally began to be less ambitious and do less.

I didn’t start projects if they didn’t feel deeply aligned, stopped trying to cater to everyone, and focused only on what truly resonated with my heart.

I even began sharing more openly about the spiritual side of mindfulness – like nondual-themed meditations in the daily mindfulness club and discussing topics like pure awareness, which I used to tiptoe around for fear of alienating mainstream clients.

The amazing thing? Even though objectively my business became smaller and simpler, subjectively I felt freer than ever.

It’s as if by doing less, I had more fulfilment. Each course, each coaching session, each Mindfulness Club meeting felt more potent, more genuine. I was no longer trying to be the “Mindful Entrepreneur” with a capital E (and endless hustle). I was just me, or more accurate, just ‘being’ sharing what arises in the moment, and trusting that the people who need to find it will find it. And if not, that’s just what’s meant to be.

This flies in the face of typical entrepreneurial advice, I know. We’re usually told to scale, scale, scale – to always seek growth.

But growth for its own sake starts to look a lot like greed or fear in disguise. I had to confront that in myself: was I expanding out of genuine inspiration, or because of a fear of missing out and a desire to prove myself? The answer, uncomfortably, was often the latter. Nonduality taught me to totally relax the grip of those fears and ego-driven desires and go with the flow, like a river flows down from the mountain top to the valley.

Growth for its own sake starts to look a lot like greed or fear in disguise.

Benefits of a Nondual Approach to Business

You might wonder, aside from my own inner peace, what practical benefits this perspective offers to others in leadership or entrepreneurship. From my experience, a few clear benefits emerged:

• Reduced Stress and Reactivity: When you stop identifying so strongly with every success or failure, the emotional swings level out. Challenges at work don’t rattle you as much because they’re not personally threatening. For example, if a client gave negative feedback, I found I didn’t take it as “my fault” but saw it as just another event unfolding. They’re obviously having a bad day or just happen to be in a judgmental mood. Whether they’re right or wrong is just an opinion. Criticism stings less when you realise it’s often more about the other person’s state and conditioning than about some defect in “you”. This healthy big picture view actually lets you respond to issues more calmly and wisely.

• Effortless Decision-Making: Decision fatigue is real for business owners. I used to agonise over decisions, big and small. With a nondual approach, I noticed decisions making themselves with more ease. It’s not that I became careless, but often I’d get a clear intuitive nudge on what to do, and I’d just do it rather than second-guessing endlessly. Nonduality and science show that ultimately, all choices just happen by themselves anyway. It felt as if I was aligning with what the business wanted to do through me, rather than what my ego wanted. This kind of flow in decision-making is a huge relief, and it often leads to better outcomes. Decisions cause a lot more stress than we realise!

Embracing Paradox: Surrender and Success

One thing to clarify: a nondual, effortless approach to business doesn’t nessarily mean becoming lazy or passive, but if it does, that’s ok too!

I had the thought initially – “If I stop pushing, will everything fall apart? Will my business slowly become nothing?”

But I discovered that letting go of inner resistance doesn’t equate to letting go of wise action. In fact, it can unleash more effective action.

You might still find yourself working hard at times, but it doesn’t feel like a grind because there’s not an overbearing sense of “I should do this.” You do what you feel called to do and leave the rest to larger forces…which has always been the case anyway!

It is a bit of a paradox: by surrendering, you might accomplish even more, or you might simply become content with accomplishing less – and either outcome is fine.

The key shift is an inner one – from striving to allowing, from contraction to openness.

Sometimes surrender will lead to surprising opportunities falling in your lap, and other times it will give you the wisdom to step back or slow down. Either way, nonduality isn’t about a specific result, but about a different way of being while you engage in business.

This new way of being is not something you do. It’s what naturally happens once you have the insight that you are not the ultimate doer of your actions. Thoughts arises, choices get made, motivation arises and action happens. You’re the observer.

For me, embracing this approach healed my relationship with work. I fell back in love with the process, not just the outcomes.

Writing this very article, for instance, is not on some strategic content calendar to drive metrics. The idea came to mind about ‘nonduality in business’ and when I googled it, there were no articles on it! So I thought I’d give it a go!

I’m writing it because it feels joyful and true to share. If it ends up resonating with you – fantastic. If not, that’s okay too. There’s a freedom in that which I wouldn’t trade for all the “success” in the world.

Conclusion: A New Way of Doing Business (Or Rather, Being Business)

In essence, a nondual approach to business invites us to drop the heavy armour of the separate doer and discover a lighter, more playful way to create and share.

If any of this resonates, I encourage you to experiment gently in your own work life. If you don’t know anything about nonduality, explore that first.

You don’t have to overhaul everything. Maybe start your day with a few minutes of just sitting in beingness, without immediately plunging into emails – see if that colours your morning differently.

When a problem arises, ask yourself, “What if I didn’t see this as my problem, but just a problem that my being will naturally respond to?”

Notice if that changes how you approach it. These small shifts can accumulate and open up a new sense of ease.

Ultimately, the nondual entrepreneur isn’t a title to attain, but a recognition of what you already are. You are life itself, dancing as a business owner for now. You’re the Universe looking at itself as Alan Watts famously said!

Remembering that can bring a peaceful and naturally creative approach to business is what makes all the difference.

Thank you for reading and walking a bit of this curious path with me. I’d love to hear your thoughts – have you experienced moments of effortlessness or spiritual insight in your work? Do you struggle with balancing ambition and inner peace? Feel free to reach out to continue the conversation.

Want more inspiration? Check out our nonduality quotes

Other External Links

Tips on a spiritual approach to business if you’re looking for practical ideas.

3 Stories of Mindful Business owners

A book on how to be a Mindful Entrepreneur

Want to Connect with ‘Me’?

And if you’d like support in exploring mindfulness or even a taste of nonduality in daily life, you’re warmly invited to join our Daily Mindfulness Club or try the next 30-Day Mindfulness Challenge with me. These are practical, welcoming spaces to practice being present (and maybe even Being, with a capital B!).

Until next time, here’s to doing less, being more, and discovering that “not-two” can lead to a more joyful one.