What do you do if your problem solving toolkit lacks mindfulness?

To add Mindfulness skills to your tool kit repertoire begin by educating yourself as to their value, and then take the first step by starting to open yourself to a growing sense of the present moment, ever more aware of where you are, what's happening, the surroundings. Notice your thoughts, any emotions, just observing. Grow your practice by working it, like learning any new language. The more you use it, the more fluent or easy it becomes to live in that new way. When you've become more aware of yourself and your general processes, start to take a moment before acting, so that the next step of not "Reacting" becomes second nature. Consider journaling, so that you can see your progress and path, finding incentive in success.

The benefits are incredible when you actually practice mindfulness. It allows us to process information and come up with a response rather than an impulsive reaction. When it happens, you can feel grounded, reflect, and problem solve in an effective calm and creative way, it's so rewarding. We all know the benefits of mindfulness - or at least, it's easy to look it up and understand why it would be beneficial. However, it's quite another thing to actually practice and reap the benefits. That's the thing about Mindfulness (and most healthy positive things in life) - we have to keep practicing and keep progressing to continue feeling and reaping the benefits. It certainly gets easier as you make it part of your daily routine!

If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed, stressed, or constantly jumping from one problem to the next without taking the time to fully understand the root cause, then it's likely that mindfulness is missing from your approach. Mindfulness involves being fully present in the moment, with a clear and focused mind. When we approach problem-solving with mindfulness, we are able to think more clearly, make better decisions, and ultimately find more effective solutions. When we are mindful, we are better able to Focus our attention on the problem at hand See the problem from different perspectives Remain calm and composed, even when faced with challenges Make decisions based on logic and reason, rather than emotions.

Awareness is definitely the first step to practicing mindfulness. If we are not aware of our thoughts, patterns, and behaviour, we never take ownership of our actions and we tend to blame the situation or other people. We have to remember that the only person we can control is ourselves, and we have a choice in how we respond to a situation. We may feel anger, stress, frustration, overwhelm, or hurt, etc. We can take a moment to pause and sit with these emotions and feelings. Once we recognize that we are feeling this way, we can take a few breaths to process and decide to do. Often, problem solving comes from having a moment to assess the situation and lay out some choices. Then, we can make a sound decision on how to move forward.

I love taking pauses to slowly breathe in and out a few times in awkward or difficult situations. It sometimes makes the other party uncomfortable, but when we model it...we encourage the other person(s) to do the same. Often, this helps dampen the reaction (soothe the heightened nervous system) and allows for us to access our frontal lobe (higher thinking). When we practice mindfulness in these circumstances, we can avoid stress literally by sending our nervous system a signal that "we are okay". If we allow the stress to enter, we start to shallow breathe, tighten muscles, and then increase the body's stress response. This is NOT helpful or healthy. A simple accessible practice is slowing down the breath by lengthening the exhale.

Just like many things in life that are good for our healthy and well-being, we need to continue to do it or else we lose the benefits. If you stop exercising, you lose strength, cardio health, etc. If you stop stretching, you lose flexibility. Mindfulness is no different. When we practice mindfulness, we get better at it, and the benefits are so much more accessible and present when we do it consistently and frequently. Just like performing a song on the piano, if we keep practicing it becomes easy and we can do it anytime. Mindfulness gives us the ability to be in tune with ourselves, stay present in the moment, allowing us to let go of worrying about the future or staying stuck in the past. It is an essential skill for problem solving!