Let's Ask lifelab: How Do You Practice Mindfulness At Work?
By Yanna Solace Adofina
“Mindfulness is like that—it is the miracle which can call back in a flash our dispersed mind and restore it to wholeness so that we can live each minute of life.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh
In the sea of endless emails, phone calls, and meetings, it's easy to get lost in a stressful workday. Once overwhelmed with everything on our plate, we lose motivation and the ability to put in our full attention on each task. We procrastinate for a few days, then multitask in order to meet deadlines. The end result? We risk producing a less than inspired output and develop a highly reactive temperament towards other people.
For us to thrive and do more inspiring work, practicing mindfulness in the workplace is a significant way of helping us be more aware of our personal energy and of those in our surroundings. Mindfulness allows us to be more intentional and in the moment; to put in our focus one task at a time and make more conscious decisions. Leading mindfulness and meditation expert Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D wrote the book Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness, where he explores seven attitudes of mindfulness. He has also discussed them on a short video, and added two more attitudes — bringing the total to nine.
Here we simplify describing each attitude as Kabat-Zinn discussed them in his book.
1. Non-Judging
To see things more clearly, it is more helpful to see our life and experience as it is, through unfiltered lenses and without an underlying agenda.
2. Patience
We have to be constantly reminded that all things take time, and that we need to give ourselves room for all kinds of experiences. We do not have to fill up each moment with activity and thinking in order to live a richly-lived life.
3. Beginner's Mind
We should possess a mind that is willing to see everything for the first time, so that we are free from expectations. Having a beginner's mind helps us to be open to new possibilities and not be stuck in our own expertise or old experiences.
4. Trust
It is integral that you develop a basic trust in yourself and your feelings; your basic wisdom and goodness. Honoring and listening to your feelings help you to protect yourself.
5. Non-Striving
Non-striving involves simply paying attention to what is happening; to embrace it and hold it in awareness. Being mindful is a non-doing; it has no goal except for you to be yourself.
6. Acceptance
Acceptance means seeing things as they actually are in the present. This does not mean that you are satisfied with things as they are or that you are resigned to tolerating things as they "have to be." Rather, it is a willingness to see things as they are.
7. Letting Go
In the meditation practice, we intentionally put aside the tendency to elevate some aspects of our experience and reject others. Instead we just let our experience be what it is, and practice observing it from moment to moment. Letting go is a way of letting things be, of accepting things as they are.
8. Gratitude
What you think affects how you feel, internally and externally. Being grateful helps us cultivate optimism, enthusiasm, and more positive energy.
9. Generosity
Generosity towards yourself and others enables you to spread love, joy, and kindness towards everyone you meet.
At lifelab we strive to practice mindfulness in everything we do. Being mindful allows us to firmly hold on to our values and pursue our dream of living in a world where everyone can experiment and design their own life's journey. But you would probably ask, how does the lifelab team pursue mindfulness at work?
Hannes
Mindfulness for me is the opposite of "mind-full“ or a full mind— a mind that is full of thoughts, feelings, expectations and inner quarrels. Normally my mind is too full. The more full it is, then the less mindful and emphatic I am.
What brings me down to earth to mindfulness is having a short walk in nature. In front of the office there is this small but beautiful park with a lake. There are amazing trees and also birds around. When I go there, my mind goes with the flow. Something in nature takes my attention and I'm in the moment. By being in the moment, I have the chance of taking my brain on a vacation from all the detailed tasks. Whenever I am at this level, I feel myself going inside the birds' perspective and feelings.
Another helpful thing for me is to play binaural beats and being on my own. It gives me the similar feeling of going for a nature walk.
Lisa
I want to actually rebel and throw in a little food for thought that has accompanied me especially in the last two years. A metaphor that has helped me a lot to carry myself differently is moving from mindfulness to heartfulness. If you think about the actual word, I want to act from a full heart rather than from a full mind.
A way to make this a reality for me is having a practice which I try to do daily; making it so small that there is no excuse not to do it. So even when you might not be able to do the full practice, you always can do a broken down mini-version of it. For me, it is a two-minute minimum meditation or breathing practice. This is something that can spill over into both your professional as well as your private life, where it is ideally integrated with each other anyways ;-)
Nora
For me, practicing mindfulness at work starts with the right to-do list. This for sure doesn’t work every time, but I try to make a plan at the beginning of the day and stick to it so I don’t get overwhelmed by little tasks flying around the workday. The other thing is, there’s always tasks to accomplish, so a to-do list helps me feel accomplished after a full day of work and lets me create something like a strict closing time at the end of the work day.
This is something I am still painfully learning along with my work and my studies. Balancing all these parts of my life with different requirements still kicks me in the butt sometimes. Being able to tell myself, “Hey look, your to-do list is done, it’s time to shut off your computer and chill the F out” is a smart move against my inner disapproving voice lol.
Mimi
As someone who does remote work, I feel grateful to be able to work wherever I am most comfortable. When I work from home and feel overwhelmed, I go out of the house and spend time with my dachshund Bruno. He helps me feel grounded and recharged after a couple of minutes of playing and running around our small yard.
Yanna
I used to think that multitasking at work was an efficient way of getting things done on time — turns out it wasn't. To kick this terrible habit, I make my use of digital sticky notes more intentionally. I focus on one task at a time and work according to my energy level.
As a homeschooling mom, I use daily rhythms instead of rigid schedules in planning my child's lessons. Together we pursue a gentle way of learning; if there are lessons that we are not able to finish in the intended time, we let them go and continue the next day.