The power of mindfulness at work
All around us are tools, people, and experiences that help us grow as working professionals. The challenge: regardless of what tools are out there, they can serve no person or purpose without a willingness to learn and accept their teachings.
“Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths.” — Etty Hittlesum
What if we thought of our outside8 as a space for us to pause, an opportunity to self-reflect, or a chance to catch our breath? We often think of our outside8 as a space or opportunity to add more “work” in our lives but in truth, our passions, when executed with purpose, shouldn’t feel like work at all.
So, how do we then define purpose? It is said that “purpose can guide life decisions, influence behavior, shape goals, offer a sense of direction, and create meaning”. For some of us, our purpose is embedded in our nine to five, for others it’s embedded in our outside8, and for most, it’s embedded in the full 24 hours that make up our daily lives — each experience playing an important role in shaping who we are.
For Anna Wong, this couldn’t be truer; her outside8 has taught her to embrace her whole being through the practice and teaching of yoga.
In 2015, Anna completed her first yoga certification and has since continued to study and practice yoga. Her passion is not only found in her personal practice, but in her ability to share it with others.
“I’ve taught and currently teach at local gyms and organizations and most recently, have joined Warrior Yoga, a non-profit dedicated to providing everyone access to the healing benefits of yoga and meditation. Every week I lead a mindful movement and meditation class to women who live in a supportive housing setting — women who would normally never enter a gym or studio, but who would benefit from having access to this amazing tool to face life’s challenges.”
All around us are tools, people, and experiences that help us grow as working professionals. The challenge: regardless of what tools are out there, they can serve no person or purpose without a willingness to learn and accept their teachings.
If we think of yoga as a tool, we realize that in order to grow as working professionals we need to equip ourselves with more than the traditional tools we are given in the work place. We also need to continue to seek these tools out in order to constantly challenge and find ourselves in an ever-changing world.
Anna’s work, both in and outside her nine to five, reminds us of this ever-changing world and how we need to keep pace both professionally and personally with the tools that will help us navigate our careers and selves.
Professionally, over the past year, Anna has been working with the Canada School of Public Service’s Digital Academy. Anna’s work has focused on modernizing the public service by building digital capacity through new ways of learning. As part of the Digital Academy, students are not only taught new approaches, mindsets and tools to enable them to strive in a digital era, but also a platform for practical, hands-on experiences that shows them how to apply and adopt what they’ve learned to real situations and problems.
Personally, and through her outside8, Anna once again is able to offer students a tool that, like the ones offered during her nine to five, allow her students to continue their journey of growth — this time through the power of mindfulness and yoga. This journey, though different from the professional development we may be used to as working professionals, is just as important in defining who we are and who we want to become.
“The practice of yoga has taught me to embrace my whole being. Ever since I was a child I’ve been very cerebral and always stuck in my own head so, the practice of combining mindful movement and breath has helped me to connect my mind with my body and soul. As my journey with yoga deepened over the years and developed into a daily ritual, my outlook to life also grew to be more open and bold. Today, not an area in my life, whether it be relationships, my professional life, or my involvement in the community — is not affected by this approach.”
Challenging ourselves to be mindful is just as challenging as some of the steps we take in our career. We don’t always realize how important the rest we take between two deep breaths can be but it allows us to pause, to reflect, to find clarity and to increase our resilience and emotional intelligence.
Teaching others to be mindful can be just as challenging.
“Learning to teach a diverse audience, particularly those who would not normally come to a typical yoga class at a gym or studio, is hard. Women in my community class have a myriad of physical, emotional and mental health challenges and being sensitive, aware and responsive to this is crucial. In many ways, teaching here is much more difficult than teaching a conventional class where the majority of participants are physically capable and have the means to access yoga.”
So, how can we accept this teaching in our own lives in order to make us stronger working professionals?
“If we apply this lesson to the rest of our lives — to be humble and that at the root of it all, we are all the same — we approach our work lives very differently. This core understanding from yoga brings balance into my professional life — it’s the yin to my yang. As a very goal oriented person, I can be at times too focused on the tasks and “doing the things” as to not bring everyone else along.
As I strive to become a better leader everyday, it’s this principle of humility and believing that we are better together, that I believe creates better work outcomes and team morale. It’s also what I go back to whenever I am frustrated or when there are diverging points of view. In terms of my long-term career goals, it’s this focus on people that drive me towards jobs that help enable others to do to their best and provide meaningful ways to participate in the policies and programs that affect their lives.
Yoga is a hugely enabling tool and approach to life, and it’s this same way that I see my career as setting down the paths to enable others, and so that others can be empowered and make meaningful choices in their work and lives.”
The tools we need to grow as working professionals are not always defined in the learning plans or performance agreements we are given. However, that doesn’t mean we have to accept this truth.
Our journey of self-awareness is just as important to our careers, as is the professional development we typically subscribe to. Being mindful of this allows us to be mindful of that which we sometimes lose sight of.
So, don’t limit your growth.
Seek out opportunities to learn, to evolve, and to challenge yourself and in the end, you will grow not only as a working professional but a well-rounded individual.
