Do you suffer from work-related stress? Do you find it difficult to achieve all the goals you set during your workday? One way to improve your health, well-being, and productivity is to practice mindfulness at work. Thanks to mindfulness, we focus on what is important, we gain confidence and we can even reduce the mental and emotional exhaustion that puts so many barriers to our performance.
We have all heard of mindfulness. It is so common to read this term in almost any space or magazine that for a moment we may think it is just another fad, like spinning, CrossFit, or even detox smoothies. However, we must not be mistaken, this meditation and mindfulness technique is already used in the clinical field as another therapeutic technique for various purposes.
“Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.”
-Thich Nhat Hanh-
Since Jon Kabat-Zinn, a doctor in molecular biology from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), popularized this Buddhist meditation strategy in the West, its impact has only grown. To justify its benefits, Dr. Kabat-Zinn provided rigorous scientific evidence on how mindfulness had generated major changes in population groups subjected to high stress (prison inmates, high-pressure work environments, people with chronic pain, etc.).
Mindfulness is not a fad, it is a health and wellbeing technique that is gaining more and more space and recognition. It is especially useful for preventing relapses in patients who have overcome depression. Therefore, it never hurts to give it a try. Testing its usefulness in a work setting can undoubtedly be a turning point. Let’s look at it in more detail.
Mindfulness at work: how can it help us?
David Lynch, the well-known film director, screenwriter, and artist, often escapes from his own filming several times a day to find a quiet room or an outdoor space that brings him calm. He “escapes” to meditate for a few minutes, because only in this way can he get the most out of his mind to fine-tune his creation, to resist pressure, and to find himself again.
It is clear that none of us are David Lynch, and that our jobs are certainly somewhat more mundane: an office, a factory, a workshop, a school, a taxi, hotel or hospital rooms to clean, patients to care for, products to market or promote… Now, whatever our occupation, whatever our routine, we are all subject to pressure, anxiety, and having to manage multiple stimuli at the same time.
If we take the step, if we allow ourselves to practice Mindfulness at work, it can help us achieve the following:
Benefits of Mindfulness
- It will allow us to be more focused on what we do, leaving aside the hyperstimulation of the environment.
- It will help us to have greater mental clarity to be more agile when reacting, having ideas, and getting more out of situations.
- We will handle stress and pressure much better.
- We will gain self-confidence, and we will focus on ourselves to define ourselves, set limits, and anticipate opportunities.
- We will feel more autonomous to act and to have control of situations.
- We can enhance positive feelings/emotions to improve relationships with our colleagues or, even more so, put into perspective what bothers us or what we cannot change.
How can we apply Mindfulness at work?
Before putting into practice the strategies that we are going to specify below on how to apply Mindfulness at work, it is important to be clear about one simple aspect. No one learns to meditate or practice mindfulness in a week or two. This practice, this discipline, requires time and above all will. Let us first consider that thoughts have control over the mind and the body and that one way to reorient our mental focus towards a scenario of peace and balance is to train it in Mindfulness.
These strategies can help us.
Your goal
Before going to work, decide what you want to achieve that day, and define, and clarify your objective (it can be something as simple as doing everything well and returning home without stress and without worrying about anything).
The here and now
Once you are in your work environment, always be aware of the present moment, of what is happening here and now. Focus on what you are doing, and not on what your colleagues are saying, on the noise in the street, on that message you are waiting for on your mobile, on what you are going to do tomorrow or when you get home…
Reset your mind every so often
Take 1-minute mental breaks. If there is one thing we all know, it is that we cannot leave our workplace to go out and meditate for 20 minutes when we need to. However, we can train our minds to do the following: every 40 minutes or half an hour, we will rest our minds for 1 minute. To do this, place your gaze on a relaxing point and breathe deeply, take a breath, and inhale… During those 60 seconds, do not think about anything. Empty yourself of pressures, empty yourself of worries.
“If you want to master the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.”
-Amit Ray-
No to multitasking
If there is one thing that is common in any work environment, it is multitasking: a call, an email, going here, doing this, thinking about that, solving, deciding, communicating… If we do this, most people get carried away by this type of habit, it is because we think that by doing many things at once we are more productive, when in reality this is not the case.
Therefore, an essential key to Mindfulness at work is to do one thing at a time and focus on it. In this way, we will avoid mistakes and oversights and the final result will be more optimal.
Put stress to your advantage
Many of us think that there is no worse enemy for work than stress. However, this internal activation, well controlled and well managed, can be our ally in many aspects: it offers motivation and activation, and it allows us to be alert and prepared.
However, the stress level must be somewhere in between, where it acts as a stimulus and not as an enemy. Therefore, we must always be aware of where our limit is.
Accept what cannot be changed
A very interesting point that Mindfulness at Work reminds us of is that we must accept everything that we cannot change. For example, it is useless to get angry every day with that colleague who is always late, with that boss who is always in a bad mood, with that colleague who only brings rumors and not good ideas…
Far from beating our heads against the wall when faced with certain dynamics and attitudes, it is best to accept them. However, accepting is not giving up, it is becoming aware of a reality to act accordingly with confidence and tranquility. After all, another idea that Mindfulness at work brings us is that we should always try to be optimistic. A positive view of things takes a lot of weight off our shoulders and makes us freer.
Let us therefore apply these tips as much as possible: the results may surprise us.