Embracing Mindfulness at Work

We live in a world of constant happenings! Some events truly need our attention, while some others could feed into our subconscious mind as cluttered information, keeping us distracted. Every day we have a paradox of choices to make, where to and where not to focus, how to make better decisions for ourselves and others. And so also, in our modern workplaces, our ability to be productive and successfully switch between tasks is not a result of speed of execution but a conscious act of slowing down enough, to stay present, aware and channel our energies in-line to solve problems. The key differentiator lies in our ability to, filter meaningful information from chaos, manage our emotions and take incremental steps in the present moment.

"Mind full v/s Mindful: Is mindfulness really helpful in the frenetic pace of our workplace and why is slowing down even important?"

When we hear the concept mindfulness, it may underline an esoteric, metaphysical meaning. This is due to the subjectivity of human experience and timespan spent in the practice of mindfulness, to realize its true benefits. However, long term practitioners can strongly vouch its benefits in their daily lives.

Through this article I aim to cover the concept of mindfulness, its impact on our human brain and mindful practices for our daily life-workplace. I am happy to share this from the perspective of being a sustained mindfulness practitioner for the past few years and having realized many of it benefits in my day-to-day life.

Firstly, if not for the science of mindfulness practices, it would not be adopted by medical professionals, military personnel, sportsmen, top executives. However, it is yet to be adopted as a mainstream practice in our lives and workplaces, in general. This often because most mindfulness techniques anchor on slowing down consciously, to be a silent observer to our thoughts, emotions and actions. In a fast-paced world this can be viewed as counterproductive or only an optional practice for stress management. The irony, however, is that the fuel to our daily activities or breakthrough innovations- all arise from a deeply restful yet awake, state of mind.

"One of the benefits long term practitioners realize is their increased ability to maintain equanimity and navigate through seemingly high stress environments"

It is interesting to note that intentional mindfulness creates a natural state of awareness and rest, which is essential to productivity. This is unlike constant activity which leads to burnout and is inefficient in the long run. Sustained practice of mindfulness is known to change neural pathways in our brain, thus increasing one’s ability to judge between real and apparent threat. This in-turn builds one’s organic ability to prevent stressors from building up and not just focus on management of stress afterwards.

“Mindfulness is not something you do; it is your natural state of existence. The more you consciously bring your attention to the present, the more mindful you become. "

Impact of Mindfulness on human brain

Our nature of modern workplaces typically does not involve physical threat (excluding those of an active war reporter, military personnel and the likes.) However, we execute a series of complex cerebral tasks through the day and often switch between tasks. Crunching financials, collaborating with a team, interacting with clients, developing new ideas, products or processes, communicating, resolving conflicts, executing-managing projects, solving problems-technical, logistical or interpersonal, to name a few. Our brain is like a supercomputer, processing every bit of information by the second and giving meaning to our external world. ?

The ability of our human brain to perceive and process meaningful information, is reliant on its neural networks. These activate as a response to any external stimuli. We engage our CEN (executive control network) for active decisions-problem solving and DMN (Default mode network) for routine tasks. Hence, a tried and tested way of building a new skill is to learn and practice the skill, continuously. Through this, we actively engage and train our CEN to adapt to new situations. This process is referred to as neuroplasticity. ?

When we attain expertise on a skill, it becomes a part of muscle/reflex memory or DMN and does not require us to relearn the skill. Hence, each time we encounter a similar problem, our response most naturally comes from our default memory.

Understanding this can create a significant impact in our regular workday. How well we engage our CEN and DMN in our day-day work tasks can truly make a difference between working consciously and creating new possibilities v/s executing routine tasks and making results predictable.

Let’s say one fine morning, you open your inbox to a rather unpleasant email from an irate client. The brain's capacity to process this information depends on its ability to categorize the situation as real or apparent threat. If seen as a real threat, this triggers a DMN response- default fight or flight reaction. Hence, the first reaction that the mind could generate is to protect oneself. This is beneficial in case of a real threat, however, may not be useful during active problem solving. Hence, our natural ability to regulate emotions after our default reaction is triggered, is critical here.

Now let us say, we view this situation as a real threat, DMN by default creates a series of stress based physical symptoms in our body that compels us for immediate stress-based response. As the DMN takes charge, the executive conscious function (CEN), by design takes a backseat. Hence, we end up subconsciously training our brain to react to an apparent threat similar to a real threat. It is unlikely that a similar situation in future, will yield a different interpretation in our brain, unless we slow down consciously to reduce our stress induced response. As the brain is consistently unable to differentiate between real and apparent threat, it leads to chronic stress symptoms in the body-mind.

Sustained practice of ‘mindfulness ‘practice comes to our rescue, in such situations, helping us break our pre-conditioned looping behavior patterns. Just like regular training, makes our muscles stronger, so does any mindfulness practice gradually increase the ability to engage the conscious executive network (CEN) of our brain. It is similar to learning to ride a bicycle for the first time. The simplest way to switch from our subconscious-default mode to a conscious mode, is to anchor ourselves on our natural breath.

Embracing a simple mindfulness technique

"How can something as simple as focus on breath help with mindfulness?"

The reason is quite simple. Breath is linked to both voluntary and involuntary functions in our body. Which means it is a unique body function that operates, both with and without our conscious engagement (i.e. we are able to breathe involuntarily, and we can also regulate our breath voluntarily for a short time, by breathing deeper or shallower). Hence, it is one of the best anchors used to practice mindfulness.

Here is a simple, yet impactful mindfulness practice. Set aside at least 5-7 mins for the practice each day. Sit in a comfortable, quiet spot and focus on the natural flow of breath. Simply observe the breath for a few minutes and then start to note the quality of breath- is it shallow, deep, where does the inflow and outflow of air touch the nostrils, are you breathing deeper through the right or left nostril. The idea is to not force interpretations about your breath, but to stay present enough to observe its natural quality.

This might not be easy when you first begin. You may be able to observe your breath for few seconds and the mind will start to replay random events or literally anything that you should be doing, other than this practice. However, you can gently draw your attention back to your breath, as many times as required.

This is simply an act of strengthening your will, to stay present. An interesting fact to note is as your mindfulness improves, the mind will learn to settle easily with less effort, and you should be able to gauge the quality of your breath better.

This is nothing but the mind forming new neural pathways to stay present and investigate real-time events, as they occur. Over, a period of sustained practice, it expands your ability to create natural spaciousness for intuitive and creative abilities to develop. You may also increase the time gradually by the week. As your practice gets better, you can easily do this even in the midst of a busy workday.

"Are you mindful and restful enough to do your best work?"

When we focus on our breath, we voluntarily create space between our perception of any situation and our response. This, almost naturally, creates our ability to zoom out and experience the event and our reactions, like an external witness. When we are observing our reactions, we are not engaged with it. What follows is a natural slowing down of the intensity of the reactions, in our mind.

The more we gently center ourselves on our natural flow of breath, we actively engage our CEN. Our neurons, in parallel, are learning to form new neural networks similar to learning a new skill (through neuroplasticity). ?With dedicated practice, engaging our conscious presence of mind and decision-making becomes easier, resulting in reduction in stress and increased ability to process complexities.

Our goal is not to become an expert meditator, but to learn a novel skill that can help us manage our day-day lives better. ?

How can we practice mindfulness at work?

Although mindfulness is a practice, for all times, here are some simple measures that each one of us can take to be more mindful at work

1.Practice when it is hard, Definitely, practice when it is easy!

Most mindfulness methods center around simple techniques that lead to extraordinary results when practiced over a period of time. However, when we have not trained during easier times, it is often difficult to stay mindful, during a state of emotional hijack. ?Some of us are naturally able to engage our CEN better than others during stressful situations. However, mindfulness is a learned skill which can be adopted to improve the quality of our reactionary response, over a period of time.?

When we practice during easier times, it helps to

-???????not view every situation as a real threat and manage our reactions

-??????? Execute our rational thinking in the present moment

2. Working with more presence

“Taking a 2 min pause before the start of each activity can bring more conscious engagement. Meetings can also be more productive with this simple technique. “

Taking a moment of awareness to reflect on the expected outcomes-experiences at the start of the day, is a simple yet effective practice. This helps to consciously activate our CEN to approach our work with presence and a problem-solving mindset.

Before we begin our next workday, it can be helpful to start the few mindful minutes in silence. It also gives the opportunity to reflect on some of our default memory-based projections/opinions about our work in general or about our colleagues- clients, which could be self-limiting. When we are mindful, we are more aware of our self-limiting subconscious patterns and can manage them better in real-time situations.

How about the next time we speak to a colleague at work we bring our active presence and bring our best intention into the moment? ?It could make a real impact between hearing and having a meaningful interaction.

2. It takes time!

It is interesting to observe that our existing behaviors are a result of neural networks formed over decades of experience, learnings and childhood upbringings et al. Mindfulness is a deeply personal, subjective experience and how each one of us can adopt, implement it in our day-day lives will be different. Hence, mindfulness practices may not work as a quick hack or replacement for chronically stressed work environments but can us definitely help us navigate such situations better.

When our work involves simple to moderate challenges and navigating regulated complexities, it can help us rewire our brains to find novel ways of solving problems thus increasing our brain’s neuroplasticity. Hence, a work environment that creates innate psychological safety yet encourages problem solving, enables individual and collective growth.?

“Thinking about being mindful in not being mindful. Actively practicing mindfulness, at work, is key”

?3. Mindfulness is not about achieving perfection!

One of the common misconceptions related to mindfulness is, it helps one to have an eternal state of calm and achieve perfection in any given situation. The idea of achieving perfection often underlines a fixed mindset about outcomes and creates a stress-based response in our body and mind. This is counter-productive to working effectively.

Mindfulness, however, can help us investigate and harness into our intuitive, creative abilities in the current moment, leading to incrementally better actions in real-time. This in turn leads to sustained results at work, over a period of time.

Perfection often stems from a self-driven need to control outcomes only in the way we desire. In reality, the outcomes could shape differently. ?Mindfulness is slowing down enough to put forth our best-known intention in any given situation yet preparing for unexpected results. This could also mean using our strength of speech and action to counter anything that is unethical and that could harm us or others.

“It is not about achieving perfection but learning to engage our conscious minds incrementally better in our daily lives and applying it in our workplace”

4. Compassionate inquiry and mindfulness

Mindfulness helps to soften our reactionary response and create the required headspace to naturally engage our faculties of acceptance, respectful understanding, empathy. It improves our natural ability to understand the many perspectives offered by different people, with natural ease.

Reflecting on how our pre-conditioned behaviors impact ourselves and others is great place to start.

1. It is well worth to introspect our own beliefs and perceptions about people, events, situations at work.
2. Are these opinions true or basis our own subjective experience alone?
3. What is our response when our own ideas or views are not considered or do not meet the set standards of success? What is our response to failure?
4. Are there value-based differences between personal and team, organizational values? What can we do to bridge the gaps and take steps, honoring individual and collective team capacities?
5. Do any of our personality traits inhibit us from being mindful in situations? How do we generally treat our own shortcomings- Is it with kindness or dismissal and a dire need to change

Honest reflection on these aspects, is a good way to bring awareness into our sub-conscious behaviors, that drive our real time actions. Awareness is the first step for creating gradual changes into our habit patterns.

"Mindfulness can be practiced anywhere, anytime!"

Our workplaces in most cases, involve dealing with people or creating products, technologies to be used by people. Mindfulness helps us to tune into our intuition better and bring our best intention to the moment while solving problems. Stress reduction is only a supplementary outcome and certainly not the endgame.

Eventually, we practice mindfulness to bring our conscious intentions to improve our experience of life and those around us. As our practice becomes better, it becomes easier for us to be aware in real-time, with the ability to respond differently from our usual conditioned ways. This is due consistent rewiring of our mental models to realize that most situations are not threatening by nature, and hence does not require a fight-flight response. This is where our true growth lies, to lead with clarity, compassion and focus to bring solutions for the betterment of humanity at large.

#mindfulness #wellbeingatwork #mindfulwork #mindset@work

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