4 Mindfulness practices at work

How many of you are operating on auto pilot mode on a daily basis either at work or at home. Your attention is either in the past, dwelling on what happened and overthinking, or in the future, anxious about what will happen. You end up less focused and productive, and more distracted and reactive. Operating in ‘default mode’ can have a tremendous impact on your stress, focus, communication, performance and a lot more.

Don't worry, you are not the only one. According to a Harvard study, our minds wander 47% of the time which also means that we spend half of our lives in our minds instead of enjoying life.

“A human mind is a wandering mind, and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind,” Killingsworth and Gilbert write. “The ability to think about what is not happening is a cognitive achievement that comes at an emotional cost.”

The answer is mindfulness. Mindfulness has become one of the first skills to develop nowadays. It can enhance your self-control and self- regulation and improve your listening skills. It can cuts pain in half and literally change the structure of your brain. It can lessen your level of stress, anxiety and even depression. But don't confuse mindfulness with meditation.

Mindfulness is about raising awareness. “Mindfulness is paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally.” as defined by John Kabat-Zinn

Mindfulness ‘practices existed since Buddhism but John Kabat pioneered a new meditative approach of mindfulness to treat stress, anxiety by focusing on the present moment and allowing the mind to make breaks from time to time considering the stressful circumstances people are faced with nowadays. 

You may be wondering how the mind can develop the muscles of focus by simply being present and mindful.

Mindfulness is not only about being aware of the present moment when drinking your coffee. It is also about not allowing your mind to wander. This process of bring back your thoughts whenever your mind starts wandering is what will enable you to build the muscles of concentration like any physical activity.

There are so many many ways to practice mindfulness even when you are busy at the work place.

1. Mindful breathing.

Take few minutes every day at least 2-3 times to breath with attention. All you have to do is to focus on your breath by inhaling and exhaling slowly. Your brain needs breaks from time to time to function properly.

2. Active listening

Communication is all about active listening but most people are busy thinking about what they are going to say instead of listening to what others have to say. The best gift you can give to your team or the people around you is to take a moment and LISTEN by giving them you full attention, keeping an eye contact and asking questions.

3. Mindful observation

There are two ways you can practice observation. You can take few minutes every day and observe the environment around you, the people, the interactions, the sounds and so on. You can learn a lot through observation. Being at the work place does not mean that you have to be a robot and not paying attention to people as they may be in pain, in need of help and support.

You can also use observation to notice what is going on in your mind. Be aware of what you are practicing most of the time as most of us are always practicing something either judging, complaining, gossiping or being calm and kind to people. Remember, what you practice grows

4. Mindful focus

Mindful focus implies giving up on multitasking as it proved to lead to stress and errors. With multitasking, you end up getting easily disrupted, stressed and less productive. The solution is to focus on one task at a time.

You don’t build muscles by going to the gym once a week or once a month. You develop them by daily practice and consistency, the same as mindfulness. Practice Mindfulness every day and you will be amazed by the results.

Thank you for the read. What was your favorite practice?