How to practice mindfulness at work
HEIDI’S JOURNAL ENTRY | 004
HOW TO practice MINDFULNESS at WORK
You couldn’t be blamed for thinking that a mindfulness practice is something that only really happens in the yoga studio, at wellbeing retreats or as part of a 5am morning routine before the daily chaos takes over.
You couldn’t be blamed for thinking that a mindfulness practice is something that only really happens in the yoga studio, at wellbeing retreats or as part of a 5am morning routine before the daily chaos takes over.
In our work-heavy lives, just getting through our to-do lists can feel overwhelming. We may know that certain wellbeing commitments ‘should’ be on the agenda, but struggle to see how anybody with ‘real life’ obligations could even have the time for them.
But while mindfulness is a practice, it’s less about what you do and more about how you do it.
Meaning? It’s not a task you have to tick off! Mindfulness doesn’t exist on the list, it’s actually what helps you move through your tasks in a nourishing, relaxed, sometimes joyful way.
The beauty of mindfulness is that it can be integrated into all areas of life. And the best bit? It delivers immediate rewards.
In essence, mindfulness is about two core things:
1. Channelling your attention into the present, and
2. Releasing judgement so you can receive the information that is there.
AN EASY WAY TO BECOME present AND aware IS TO THINK OF THE ‘ME, US, IT’ approach.
01. Me
What am I experiencing?
Take a moment to tune into your internal experience.
QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF:
What thoughts, feelings or physical sensations am I experiencing in this moment?
What do I need right now to feel energised / calm / safe / centred?
How can I guide, support or parent myself today?
02. Us
What are we experiencing as a team?
This is where you get a little bit of context to your own internal experience by observing what is happening between you and those you work with.
QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF:
What is the team or organisation experiencing today / right now
Which dynamics are being displayed within the group, e.g. in this team meeting?
How am I perceiving other people?
03. It
What is my response?
Finally, get present with how you are responding to, or feeling about your work. This is where you start to understand your relationship to your work and workplace.
QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF:
What am I currently spending most of my time on?
Is this aligned with what I want or need to be doing?
How am I showing up for work?
What is my emotional, mental or physical state when I start the day?
What do I think or feel about the tasks I am currently responsible for?
These are just a few questions that will bring you into a state of awareness regarding what is happening around you right now.
When it comes to our work, we can get so caught up on planning, goal setting and trying to multitask so much that we begin to lose sight of what we do and why.
Yes, vision and flexibility are keys to success. However, if you forget to check in with the present moment as you storm ahead down a predefined path, you miss out on extremely important information that shows us what works, what doesn't, and what feels good!
Presence is a powerful game-changer.
All you have to ask yourself is whether or not you’re ready and willing to know the truth that each moment holds.
RELATED Posts
While I champion a balanced lifestyle, I am equally passionate about translating wellbeing aspirations into practical, achievable choices that seamlessly fit into a demanding schedule.
While the term ‘narcissist’ has quickly woven itself into the language of popular culture, knowing how to deal with this antagonist personality can still hold a lot of confusion and misinformation.
What does the concept of time bring up for you? Do you lean towards feelings of joy connected to how you currently spend it, or feelings of anxiety regarding all the ways you believe you’re not using it ‘well’?
Laziness is generally a pretty negatively charged word, and one that often creates quite a reaction within us. Consider how you responded to the title of this post. Curious? Dubious? A little (or a lot) annoyed?
What’s your relationship to getting older? This can be an uncomfortable reflection for many of us, and one that unravels so many other topics such as our relationship with time, our purpose and potential, beauty, death, productivity, physical health and so much more.
If you’ve been moving down the personal development path, you have probably come across teachings that promote forgiveness as a powerful tool for healing and stepping into our full potential.
While freedom of choice is something so many of us desire and rightly fight for, decision making, or more specifically, feeling confident that we’re making the right choice, can be a real struggle.
"I’m in it to win it."
"You snooze, you lose."
"No pain, no gain."
These are common sentiments that get thrown around all the time, whether we are consciously aware of them or not.
Recently, I reconnected with a fascinating woman who I hadn’t spoken to in years. With great interest, I listened to stories about her family life with three kids, a husband, a career that she loves alongside the several passion projects she has ‘on the side’.
Often, the idea of just being or relaxing is something that will only be considered once we’ve achieved a challenging goal or maybe completed our life’s work.
If the last few years has show us anything, it's that we can't control the external world. But it's also reminded us that we each have the power within us to deeply impact in a positive way how we and those around us are able to move through life's challenges and transitions.
Since COVID, working from home has become a regular occurrence for many of us. Even with offices back open, flexible and home-working seems to be something that is sticking around – potentially for good! This is preferable for many people, but I also know that sticking to routines and wellbeing practices when working from home can bring up a new kind of struggle. Here are 7 tips to help you...
In my role as a coach, I work with career-focused high achievers who want and need to find a less stressful, healthier and more fulfilling way to reach success in and outside of work.
As soon as we enter school, our lives are marked out by beginnings and endings, exams and grades, and the expectation of performance gets in the way of living in the moment.
What makes a great goal? This might seem a little bit obvious, but if coaching has taught me anything it’s this: not all goals are created equal. When it comes to setting and successfully achieving goals, there’s much more to it than simply picking something we want to do and feeling motivated. We have to go a little deeper.
In this blog post, I want to move from the topic of what you desire to how to get what you desire. John Lennon famously wrote the lyric, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." This poignantly speaks to the reality that the majority of our lives consists of the 99% of experiences that happen between the big achievements we work toward.
What does it mean to be successful? With mainstream ways of working increasingly under scrutiny, ‘define your own success’ is fast becoming the mantra of career liberation.
The Oxford dictionary defines perfectionism as “the refusal to accept any standard short of perfection.” I have to say, I feel kind of stressed just reading this description! As a recovering perfectionist, I remember this mindset more than I’d like to admit.
At the end of the year, I often get asked what I think about New Year's Resolutions. People want to know what the best way is to set goals and whether I know a secret to actually sticking to them.
Whenever “getting healthy” is mentioned, our mind conjures up images of salads, plates full of vegetables, gym gear, and all your other motifs for “health.” We see achieving optimal health as a distinct endeavour that we choose to pursue or neglect. Rarely do we fully consider our health and well-being as factors that are inherently woven into everything we do.
Enjoying the privilege of sharing a dinner table with talented, successful and beautiful women quickly helped me witness a fascinating desire many of us have: wanting it all… at the same time... and right here and now.
We all have things in our life that we want to change. And guess what? We all struggle to do it! Facing challenges, resistance and setbacks when forming new habits is a normal, albeit frustrating, part of the experience.
Workaholism isn’t only connected to the actions that we take, but also the way that we think about, and attach meaning to, our work and careers.
You couldn’t be blamed for thinking that a mindfulness practice is something that only really happens in the yoga studio, at wellbeing retreats or as part of a 5am morning routine before the daily chaos takes over.
‘Soul’ isn’t really a word or concept that gets spoken about a lot in the corporate world. And I understand why! Whether we like it or not, business is about, well… the business.