You're feeling overwhelmed at work. How can mindfulness help you find balance?

Mindfulness can help restore balance by bringing awareness to the present moment, allowing recognition of overwhelming thoughts without getting lost in them. Through mindfulness practices such as deep breathing or body scans, one can ground themselves and manage stress effectively. Mindfulness fosters a non-judgmental attitude towards oneself and tasks, reducing feelings of pressure. By prioritizing tasks mindfully and taking breaks when needed, one can maintain equilibrium amidst the chaos of work.

Mindfulness practices (e.g. deep breathing and body scans), physiologically activate the body's relaxation response. This in turn counters the physiological effects of stress: it interrupts the cycles of rumination, judgement, and worry that often accompany stressful situations when we are overwhelmed.

For me mindfulness can be the reset button to take back control when feeling anxious or overwhelmed. It can also be a means of appreciation and gratitude to take in the beauty of the moment.

Mindfulness is the practice of being fully present and engaged in the moment, aware of your thoughts and feelings without distraction or judgment. It involves a conscious direction of your awareness to the here and now, fostering a state of active, open attention to the present.

When you're being mindful, you are focusing on one thing at a time without judgment. Mindfulness helps cut through the chaos of an overwhelmed brain. It will help you focus on what you're doing better, think clearer, improve memory, and think through your responses before reacting. It can help you connect with your work and your coworkers by being fully present in your tasks and conversations. It can also help you to notice when you're getting off-task and bring yourself back to task.

Mindfulness at work is a great practice to help stay calm and focused. It allows you to stay present and not let your decisions be ruled by unwanted and negative emotions which is important for critical thinking and making decisions. By practicing mindfulness and staying present in the moment at work it also allows for decrease in stress which can improve your productivity.

By cultivating mindfulness, you can reduce stress, enhance focus, and improve your reaction to challenging situations. It allows you to respond more thoughtfully to stressors, rather than reacting impulsively. Mindfulness can also boost creativity, improve communication and teamwork, and enhance overall job satisfaction by helping you stay connected to your work and colleagues.

You can practice mindfulness anywhere at any time. All you have to do is to decide to bring your awareness to the present moment, notice when your mind starts to wander (which it will...especially when you're new to the practice), and bring your attention back to what you had decided to focus on. It's about being present in the moment, which our minds rarely are. You can mindfully focus on whatever task you are doing, a conversation you're having (really listen to what the other person saying), or the feeling of your feet on the floor as you are walking. You can sit and do a body scan between calls. The important thing is being present in the here and now without judging it.

Start with dedicating a few minutes to deep breathing or meditation at the beginning of your workday to set a calm, focused tone. Throughout the day, take short breaks to practice mindful breathing or engage in brief mindfulness exercises. Be fully present during meetings and conversations, and when working on tasks, focus solely on that activity. Lastly, periodically check in with yourself, observing your thoughts and feelings without judgment to maintain a mindful awareness throughout the day.

Mindfulness makes a shift in perspective from automatically reacting to intentionally responding. By being mindful and taking a pause when we are stressed at work (or home), we are creating a space between stimulus (trigger) and response (how we are responding to the trigger). It cultivates a sense of inner calm amidst external stressors or challenges.

Being mindful at work can help you feel calm, focused, and confident. It can help you be more productive with less energy and respond in more effective ways to any problems that come up in your work or interactions with others. This can help reduce stress and the risk of burnout. Investing in mindfulness and stress management training for employees is well worth the return. When everyone is learning these skills, they're even more effective.

Mindfulness is certainly always a good thing, but when you're overwhelmed at work, the problem lies on a deeper level. Mindfulness alone may not be sufficient. The first step is to identify the cause of the overwhelm and address it directly. If the workload is excessive, outsourcing or delegating tasks could be a solution. If you're experiencing psychological overwhelm, take a closer look to uncover the real underlying issues and work towards resolving them. Again, mindfulness is never wrong, it just can't be the sole solution in such a case.

I know there are skeptics that think a mindfulness practice is some sort of wonky nonsense. But, to that I would encourage openness to try something new because of the proven benefits mindfulness brings!