Stressed professionals: Some tips on creating calm and focus in the workplace from an article on #mindfulness by Heather Craig, PositvePsychology.com
She shared about a research which found that “individuals who practice mindfulness "have more modest, realistic work goals, are more selfless and are less concerned with material acquisition and wealth. They also found that mindful individuals are more likely to find meaning in life from sources other than work.” This seemed to aid the small number of mangers in the study to cope and be calm with work.
Mindfulness, according to a reference cited in the article is “a receptive attention to and awareness of present moment events and experiences”. It “involves noticing what is happening without evaluating, analysing or reflecting upon it.”
How do you practice it? A few suggestions below (with a few comments from me):
1. ‘Be consciously present’ :: Be consciously present in the task you are doing.
So being mindful means that if you are preparing the monthly client engagement report, give that task your full attention. And when your thoughts drift away (which it will), acknowledge their presence before refocusing your attention to the task at hand. (I do this all the time, by the way).
Also, set aside a moment at the start of each day “to make a clear decision to be as present as possible at work that day.” (I sometimes do this too, especially when I have a lot on my mind)
2. ‘Be a single-tasker’ :: Nobody can multi-task. It is also very inefficient.
Being mindful means you just do one thing at a time. A suggestion to help with this is to keep a time journal where “you write what is achieved in a block of time, then look at when you’re ‘single tasking’ and when you’re ‘multi-tasking’. Then, reflect on how mindful you were and what you achieved.”
3. ‘Slow down to speed up’ :: “The mindful way of working is to slow down and reflect…slowing right down actually makes us more productive and efficient.” As well as happier, resilient, and healthy at work. (This is sometimes hard for me to do so I make a deliberate effort to slow down by just stopping what I’m doing and do the dishes or something else.)
4. ‘Feel gratitude’ :: Being grateful is another way of being mindful. Acknowledging the things that are going well at work can also help develop resilience according to the reference cited in the article. (In solution focused coaching, we usually start a session by asking our clients 'What's better?")
5. ‘Accept what you can’t change’ :: “To be mindful is to accept the present moment for what it is.”
Accept yourself simply the way you are. Also, “accepting mistakes at work can reduce unhelpful ways of dealing with perceived ‘failure’, such as denial or avoidance.”
So practicing ‘radical’ acceptance is another example of being mindful at work. (Do take the responsibility to help rectify the mistake though…step by step. Just don’t beat yourself up so hard for making the mistake. Mistakes do happen. Nobody is perfect.)
There are more examples of how you can practice mindfulness at the workplace in the article and a lot more information like the benefits of mindfulness in the workplace and business etc.
Here’s the link to the full article: https://buff.ly/3GhIQsN
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