Mindfulness — paying attention to how we experience the world moment to moment without judgement. There are many formal and informal mindfulness practices we can engage in that can support us to enrich our lives by being more aware of what’s going on around us, how different events impact us, how we choose to look at them and how we subsequently want to respond to them.
These practices seem particularly useful in our daily working lives which might be filled with stress, situations that trigger high emotions as well as successes and failures.
Today, I like to share three mindfulness approaches with you that I frequently use to be more present and that subsequently help me to do more meaningful work.
Regular check-ins
As we go through our days, it’s important for our mental health to notice how we feel to help us examine what we may need right now. Mindfulness asks us to feel what’s going on without judgement of our current state and without attaching a label to the experience. Once we know how we feel right now (e.g. angry, frustrated, joyful, excited), we can then connect to what we might need right now and see if we can give ourselves what we need (e.g. expressing how we feel in a courageous conversation). Of course, this might not always be possible, but the act of just noticing what’s going on is already a great first step.
To start with you can practice checking in with yourself every morning. How do you feel right now and how do you feel about the working day ahead? How does your body feel?
You can repeat this practice in the evening and ask yourself similar questions. How do you feel right now? How did you experience the working day? Did you work on something that mattered to you? How does your body feel after a day of work? This can also be an enriching ritual to start and end your working day.
Over time, you can also stop and check-in with yourself throughout the day, perhaps mid-morning or in the afternoon. How do you feel right now and what can you do to support yourself right now?
Slow down & breathe
Work can be stressful in a variety of ways. Deadlines, losing a client, difficult coworkers. This can be relentless, it can make us feel tired and demotivated. In moments like this, it’s important to gain some perspective which might seem difficult to do ‘when you are in it’. Perhaps a post-it note could remind you to do the thing that is instantly accessible to all of us — our breath and its ability to help us regulate what’s going on in our bodies.
Taking a few conscious breaths is often all it takes to regulate our nervous system and move us back into a calmer presence. Just take three deep breaths — in through your nose and out through your mouth. Can you feel the difference?
Take a break
If pausing to connect to your breathing no longer helps, it’s time to step away from your work and take a break.
I advocate taking regular restorative breaks, especially when times are stressful or you feel caught up in a difficult situation. Time away from your work or a situation that causes you stress is helpful to create space between the stimulus and your reaction.
Breaks can also be helpful when you feel stuck and drawn towards procrastination. They can help us to see a problem from a different angle once we get back to the work or connect to a creative solution that we couldn’t see before we took a break.
Practicing mindfulness while on a break is a useful tool to connect us back to the present moment. On your lunch break, notice the texture and temperature of your food and what it tastes like — is it hot, cold, spicy, sweet or sour? Or if you step out for a short walk, pay attention to your surroundings and what it feels like to feel the wind, rain or sun on your face.