Importance Of Mindfulness For State Of Being

In 2023 It is reported that 94% of professionals work more than 50 hours a week with most spending an additional?20 to 25 hours a week monitoring their smartphones. Even when they are not ringing or vibrating,?67% of users check their phones out of habit, and six in?10 surveyed report by Harvard Business review mentioned they can’t cope with being separated from their phone for more than a day. It's no wonder that people can started to feel 'always-on' that coupled with everyday challenges and personal matters building stress. But how can mindfulness help with some of these feelings and create more balance within and outside of the workplace?

Most day's before work I try to start my day with a run and / or a meditation, Why? As I know in this 30mins-1hr I can just 'be', I can sit..I can presently process and I can feel grounded from the offset, it aids me with the right equilibrium to start my day. Of course no day is the same and feelings / emotions fluctuate, that is to be embraced also. I like many people out there have personally dealt with lots of changes over the past year be it living set-up, location, job and lots of the transition at once. Like anyone setting up for something new or into an 'unknown' phase of life it is all about being able to keep an inner sense of balance. I am by no means an expert on mindfulness but have experimented with certain levers that I feel have helped to drive better state of wellbeing during times of challenge and concentrated change. Knowledge and mechanisms that have helped me to self-sooth, to sit in more complex emotion, to embrace the intensity of a challenge / fear to -just again 'be'. Plus in correlation understanding myself more deeply and comprehensively from limits to development points, reactions and potential... especially in situations that sit outside of the norm or comfort zone. I wanted to share some of this - my thoughts and methods below on a journey to mindfulness!

Mindfulness is moment-to-moment awareness and something very much needed during these times..not only at work but in everyday life. Originally a Buddhist concept, the very basic philosophy of mindfulness is self-awareness. Mindfulness establishes a heightened sense of awareness of yourself, a situation and your environment. You are very aware of your thoughts and feelings, but you do not react or judge them in the moment. You become free from your tendency to have a quick emotional response and have more control over processing: Situation input -> reaction output. It also helps with perspective talking and understanding someone else view, feelings or standpoint ahead of any knee-jerk reaction.

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness highly enhances emotional intelligence and equips us with the ability to manage our emotions internally and externally. It helps us to asses situations, interactions and challenges more clearly. Mindfulness holistically also aids our mental health and its impact on stress is also linked to a number of physiological benefits including?lower blood pressure, improved memory,?and reduced depression and anxiety - better overall wellbeing.

Practicing mindfulness not only has physiological benefits for individuals but also has a positive impact on their workplace and their dynamics within the workplace. Mindfulness helps drives many aspects of a healthy workplace including?wellbeing, relationships, and creativity.?Organisations are becoming more invested in the wellbeing of employees due to an increased awareness of the costs associated with an unhealthy workforce and putting dynamics before mechanics, without a healthy mind and connections productivity and motivation can drop. Absenteeism, presenteeism, turnover, and a lack of productivity are all very costly issues and closely tied to employee stress and mental health. The number of sick days lost to serious mental health issues has doubled in the past decade especially rising since 2020 pandemic and mental health is the leading cause of sickness-related absences (see further context below)

Resilience and the ability to deal with difficult situations is critical to wellbeing. During stressful periods, employees with high levels of resilience will be able to persevere and remain engaged and productive. Mindfulness is strong mechanism to help support resilience by equipping employees with the ability to understand their emotions, their level of stress, and their ability to influence them. Mindfulness training enables employees to respond to difficult situations effectively and has been shown to have a positive effect on burnout, wellbeing, and stress. Other research has shown that employees who practice mindfulness have higher levels of well-being through improved emotional resilience, better work-life balance, and higher job performance ratings.

Furthermore healthy working relationships are a cornerstone of employee happiness at work. Positive working relationships yield more productive teams, altruistic behaviour, and ultimately increased productivity. Many studies have shown a clear link between mindfulness and improved workplace relationships. Leaders need to develop the capacity to acknowledge their thoughts and environment so that they can present an informed response as opposed to an emotional reaction. This is particularly important during times of change or stress. Also when employees are in better control?of their emotions, they experience less stress and can be more creative. Mindfulness can assist in creative thinking by providing increased focus, greater idea generation, and improved receptiveness to new ideas. This help's with clarity on work challenges such as (to name a few):

1) Feeling stuck in a job / job role, next steps

2) Dealing with toxic employee's or managers

3) Dealing with complex topics and tight deadlines

Take a look at this mindfulness practice framework (I jump into more depth below)

The feeling of mindfulness can be described as:

• Paying attention in a particular way. We become aware and non-judgmental, on purpose, in the present moment
• Bringing one’s complete attention to the present experience on a moment-to-moment basis

The side effects of this practice tends to include a sense of calm and inner peace, as we distance ourselves from positive and (especially) negative thoughts. For this reason, mindfulness techniques are regularly recommended to people dealing with highly stressful situations, chronic stress and depression.

The?coloured glasses analogy?helps us understand how we might distort reality in our own perception. Mindfulness is the cure that helps us see reality more clearly.

What are the three components of mindfulness?

Mindfulness, especially in the Buddhist doctrine, comes down to three main components:

1. The?intention?to cultivate awareness and develop it over time through repetition
2. Attention?to the?present moment?by observing our thoughts, feelings and sensations in the mind and body as they appear
3. An attitude that is?non-judgmental, curious, and kind.

By checking each of these three boxes, we can begin our mindfulness journey and deeper understanding of self to aid through work/ life situation and communication.

What are the 9 attitudes of mindfulness?

Jon Kabat-Zinn, the founder of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), proposes 9 key attitudes to develop mindfulness:

1. Non-judging
2. Acceptance
3. Patience
4. Beginner’s mind
5. Trust
6. Non Striving
7. Letting Go
8. Gratitude
9. Generosity

Keeping these 9 attitudes at the forefront in our learning and practice allows us to develop a well-rounded mindfulness habit and build it into daily practice -> which then becomes habit. It is important to note that people have their mind wandering almost 50% of the time they are awake. That means their mind is not where their body is; instead, they’re thinking about things that happened in the past, could happen in the future or might never happen at all – all while being involved in many other daily tasks, hence creating confusion, dilution and added to 'the grey area's of thought'.

The brain can be trained to sustain focus and attention in the present moment to help people reach optimal performance in traits such as: logical tasks, stakeholder management, problem solving and dealing with the unknown. Introducing mindfulness training in daily routines has the potential?to create breakthrough, self-acceptance, awareness and clarity in all that we do inside and outside of the workplace! When times are hard it goes a long way, sometimes our experience is painful and difficult, there may be little or nothing we can do about the arising of the pain or difficulty. In these cases, we may be able to work with what’s happening skillfully by exploring our relationship to it and understand the best possible reaction with impulsivity. Human nature is habitual pattern of running away of 'burying our head in the sand; from problems or trying to get rid of unpleasant events. Unfortunately this often seems to increase our sense of stress, because if pain is already present, you can’t get rid of it by shying away from it. Via mindfulness practice we gently experiment with reversing this habit by turning gently towards difficult experiences and understanding our sense of self more and being interested in what happens rather than seeking a particular initial outcome...allowing space for feelings associated with challenge and fear to be experienced along with the sensations themselves—without having to buy into them or reject them.