Why Mindfulness matters and how to implement it into your work life.

Have you seen the film Under Siege?? If not, I recommend it. If only for the line by Stephen Segal “I also cook.”? He says this as he is fighting off 17 baddies on a naval ship that he’s been working on as a chef whilst secretly being a, well, secret operative.

If you don’t get the reference you haven’t lived.? Please watch the film.

The point is Steven Segal was hiding his superpower behind the cover of being a chef.? And in many ways that’s how my journey started 4 years ago.? I know.? Modest aren’t I? The point is, I’d discovered mindfulness.? I don’t mean I invented it.? Someone else did that way before me. Perhaps Andy from Headspace.? But I’d discovered it for myself and it had changed my life.? And I wanted to share this amazing thing with the whole world.? So I left the RAF and started Well Be It; a mindfulness coaching business.? And I waited excitedly for my customers. And I waited a bit more.? It didn’t take long for the penny to drop. Nobody gave a damn about my love for mindfulness.? They wanted to know about the flying, the war stories, the military derring do.? And because I’m an unashamed capitalist, I sold my soul and started telling stories of derring do. I used my superpower of being a combat pilot. I know. Still so modest. But here’s the twist.? I NEVER STOPPED TEACHING MINDFULNESS. I might be a combat helicopter pilot. But I also teach mindfulness.? (Imagine me fighting off 17 baddies on a ship and you’ll understand why this is such a clever thing to say.) It’s infused into everything I say and do. Which means it’s part the the DNA of my speeches.? “Fly the aircraft” is just pilot speak for “be in the moment”. My anecdote of “Dunker training” is a visual representation of sitting with difficulty. The black mamba story represents how sitting in awareness helps us to connect to others.? These are ALL things I’ve learned through mindfulness.

I’ve told you my stories.? I’ve invited you into the cockpit.? Onto the battlefield.? Now I’d like to invite you into the world of mindfulness. Because, honestly, I think it could change your life.? It changed mine.

So let’s start with a bang.

Literally.

You may know I’ve been involved in a few helicopter crashes.? If you don’t let me quickly bring you up to speed.

Imagine flying down a valley in a battlefield helicopter at 140mph.? At treetop height.? The valleys walls are rising steeply either side of you.? You’re manoeuvring the aircraft deftly round the twist and turns of the valley (let’s face it, you’d be a brilliant pilot right?). And then BANG. The canopy shatters. The cockpit gets very noisy.

You’ve just hit high tension electricity cables that are strung across the valley. These cables are invisible to the naked eye when you are flying at these speeds.? But they can do a lot of damage. And I now imagine these cables are wrapping themselves around my tail rotor. And that I’m going to spin into the ground and die.? And I clearly remember thinking in this moment, “this is how I’m going to die”.? And I remember feeling oddly pleased that it would be a quick, but satisfying dramatic death.

What happened next is the really important bit.

The captain who was sitting next to me, shouted the words. Fly the aircraft Sarah!”

And just like that my attention was back in the cockpit.

Why do I tell this story? Well because it’s interesting, hopefully.? But also to demonstrate a point.?

If I’m focussing on dying? I’m not focussing on flying.?

And I think we can all agree that’s not a great idea.

The thing is we can only focus on ONE thing at a time. Yes I know we can do lots of things simultaneously. But you can only focus your attention on one thing at a time.? Try it out.? Try listening into to 2 conversations. Notice how you have to switch between the two? ? Or have you ever noticed you miss what someone is saying because your lost in your own thoughts.? That’s because our attention can only be in ONE place at time.? Which means WHERE you focus your attention is pretty damn important.? Attention is the most precious commodity of the 21st century.? Everybody wants a piece of it. And yet our attention is something we unwittingly give away all of the time. Every time we mindlessly reach for our phone.? Every time we get distracted by an email popping up.? Every time we get sabotaged by our own thoughts.

It took my a while to figure this out but here’s something I want you to know RIGHT NOW.

YOU get to decide where you focus your attention.? I know that people and devices might try and pull for your attention.? But nobody can get in your head and tell you what to focus on.

So make your choice.? Decide where you want to focus your attention.? Focus on something that actually serves you in the moment.? So if you’re distracted by an unimportant email, leave it alone and resume whatever you were doing before.? If you’re distracted by someone doing something irritating, let it go and focus on something that amuses you.? If you’re distracted by your own inner critic, decide to focus on something that nourishes you.

Hopefully you get the idea. It’s time to take control over where you focus your attention.

What’s this got to do with mindfulness you might ask?

Everything.

Mindfulness is the practice of focussing your attention where you want it to be.

For example you might start with 5 mindful breaths.

It would go something like this:

Take a breath in.? Focus on the in breath. Breathe out.  Focus on the out breath.        

If you get distracted by thoughts, sensations, sounds,? the outside world, notice it and then refocus your attention on your breath.        

And repeat for 5.        

The point is you WILL get distracted.? Mindfulness helps us recognise it and refocus our attention where it serves us.? And every time you refocus your attention where you want it to be youre flexing your mindfulness muscles. Youre increasing your ability to focus your attention where YOU want it to be.

And given that your attention is the most valuable commodity in the 21st century, doesn’t that sounds like a great idea?

I realise now that’s what we were practicing in flying training.? When my instructor shouted “fly the aircraft” what it meant was, “focus your attention where it needs to be.”? We were practicing mindfulness. Fancy that.

So not only is mindfulness useful, it’s more translatable than we often think.? Because if you can practice mindfulness whilst crashing a helicopter you bet you can practice it in your workplace too.

Try this:

Every morning when you wake up, before you reach for your phone, practice 5 mindful breaths.? Don’t worry if you get distracted, that’s all part of it. The important bit is noticing when your attention has wandered and refocusing on your breathing.

Then you can apply this skill at work too.? And you’ll notice you complete your tasks better and quicker when you focus on ONE task at a time and you give that task your full attention.

You’re welcome.

In my next blog I’ll share another mindfulness superpower - sitting with discomfort.

But in the meantime, don’t forget to breath.

?? Mindfulness is the practice of focusing your attention where you want it to be

?? Given the abundance of distractions in our busy lives, honing this skill of focussing our attention is critical to productivity and resilience.

?? You might be surprised where mindfulness pops up. After all, every waking moment is a chance to practice focussing your attention. Why not start applying it in the workplace. Next time you get distracted just say to yourself “fly the aircraft” and then focus on whatever serves you best in that moment.