Mindfulness benefits both the physical and spiritual bodies, but it’s usually associated with meditation and quiet rather than the workplace. Mindfulness can:
- Reduce your stress level and restore balance
- Slow the aging process and age-related cognitive decline
- Reduce pain and depression
- Improve sleep and the ability to concentrate
Mindfulness can be practiced at any place and any time, particularly when you’re at work. It involves:
- Focusing only on the immediate moment without goals or objectives
- Acknowledging and accepting your feelings about the moment
- Refusing to acknowledge any judgmental feelings or attitudes
When you’re at work and you have deadlines, co-workers, and bosses that add to your already-demanding schedule, it’s easy to start feeling overwhelmed. If you already practice mindfulness during yoga or your workout, for instance, then it’s easier to incorporate those techniques at work. Otherwise, the following may help you incorporate mindfulness into your daily routine.
- Breathe, not the shallow breathing of stress but the deeper breathing of meditation.
- Move. Don’t move your hands to your keyboard, but move away from your desk and walk mindfully to the water cooler, the next floor or any convenient place so that you get your circulation moving.
- Eat or snack, and practice mindfulness while you eat.
- Be present with your interactions with others rather than thinking of all the other things you need to be doing.
- Slow down. Rushing about is non-productive and increases your stress level and your anxiety. Mindfulness necessitates a slower pace.
- Pray or meditate, if only for a few minutes. It will help you achieve a state where mindfulness is possible.
Although your spare time at work may be limited, you can find time to get into the state of mindfulness during a break or lunch or a briefly-extended trip to another department. It will improve your interactions with your co-workers and your boss, it will increase your productivity, and it will improve both your physical and mental health. Stress is approaching epidemic proportions and is the sixth leading cause of death, so, for your benefit and that of your family, your boss, and your co-workers, start practicing mindfulness at work and you’ll soon notice an improvement in all areas of your life.
About The Author
John Kaweske is an Entrepreneur and Biodiesel Expert in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He is the President of Bio Clean Energy, S.A., a biodiesel holding company with diversified assets in the clean energy sector in Sao Paulo, Brazil. While building Bio Clean Energy in 2004, John found himself with a lot of extra time, which ultimately led to him discovering meditation. Today, John Kaweske practices daily meditation, and manages a monthly blog outlining the latest in meditation and mindfulness.