I Tried Mindfulness At Work With Surprising Results
“Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it.” — Buddha
In the pursuit of living a more fulfilled, meaningful and content life, I have been trying techniques to enjoy living in the present moment. I used to dwell on the past, replaying good and bad experiences, or I would dream about the future, attaining that car, house or something bigger that will make me “happy” on a material level. But every time I came back to my senses and realised where I was right at that moment, time had passed by and I had stood still.
This is the result of living within my thoughts and not taking in the world around me.
I separated my work-life from my personal-life and made mindfulness a priority at home, with my friends and family. Enjoying moments with them and feeling content, but failing to recognise that I live one life be it at work or with my loved ones, so to really see the benefits of this new way of thinking — I would have to practice mindfulness in the workplace, the place where I spend the majority of my time.
At work I busy myself from day to day, rushing around following routines with overloaded schedules of tasks and meetings. I never stop to think about what it is I am trying to achieve, slowing my mind down and becoming more connected with what I am doing.
As a Product Manager, my aim is to build products that make peoples lives easier or improves them somehow. That’s a large umbrella statement that covers a variety of tasks, from mocking up wireframes and designs, working with developers on a technical level and reviewing product marketing campaigns. I often feel like I am in autopilot, churning out masses of work at a fast pace and telling myself this is an effective strategy to get through deadlines by quickly crossing items off my task list.
“We are the generation capable of doing many things at once, without enjoying any of them..” — Dinesh Kumar Biran
When I stop to think about it, this sense of urgency I feel at work is all in my head — I am not actually mastering the false-art of multi-tasking. I am rushing through a task, then onto the next, crossing items off my task list with a false sense of productivity.
Mindfulness in the workplace took some effort at first (unless you are fortunate enough to work in an environment that promotes the values of a mindful individual). It takes less effort to get sucked into the corporate culture at a workplace than it does to start being mindful.
However being my authentic-self is important to me, as this produces richer and more purposeful experiences, so I was determined to give this a go. Having reflected on my time practicing mindfulness at work, it has now become second nature and instinctive.
The Results of Mindfulness At Work:
#1 Authentic and Effective Decision Making
In the past, making decisions took a very erratic path involving lots of information, co-worker pressure and sometimes over commitment by others or myself (most of these add no value to my decisions but made my emotionally-driven thoughts take over). The process I take in my mind now follows this pattern:
- Listen to my thoughts, what are my objectives and ethical values? Separating the social pressure and emotional bias at work from my inner voice.
- What are my goals? Will I be heading towards my goal by making this decision.
- Filter irrelevant information, narrowing my scope to focus on information relevant to the decision at hand.
- After making the decision, I keep an awareness of the outcomes associated with that decision. Accepting the results whether they are good or bad, listening to feedback from co-workers from an unbiased perspective.
Taking this approach has led to real authenticity in my actions at work and experiencing a richer emotional-high when decisions have great results. By having a greater awareness of my thoughts, I am also able to embrace my failures, connect with them and learn from them more effectively.
#2 Greater Empathy Towards Customers and Co-workers
Increasing my self-awareness has helped me to understand my thoughts better. In doing so I am able to be more empathetic towards others by displaying appreciation, gratitude and acts of kindness more often. This has reduced the narcissistic qualities in me by sharing in the emotional state of others.
Having greater empathy also made me feel a sense of fulfilment; when a customer gave me good feedback or when my acts of kindness positively impacted others at work.
#3 Renewed Drive and Confidence
Mindfulness has allowed me to “reset” my mind quickly, recovering from setbacks which would lead to my mind wondering, causing anxiety or knocking my confidence. I am able to recognise when this is happening, stop my trail of thought, ground myself in the moment and pick myself back up and remember this is just a moment, this is not forever.
#4 Embracing Change with Agility
Mindfulness allows me to see the positives in each scenario, focussing only on the moment and not what the future may hold, relieving the stress and anxiety that can manifest with change.
One beautiful thing about mindfulness practices is to acknowledge the fluidity of the mind. I am not rigid in my thoughts — accepting and recognising the way my mind drifts and then coming back to where I need to be is refreshing.
Throughout my practices of mindfulness in the workplace, I have gone through organisational and team reshuffles, changes in the way I work from Scrum and Waterfall management methods to Squads and Tribes. A lot of this has caused upset and erratic outbursts from co-workers struggling to adapt and worrying about the future. Learning to be mindful has helped me keep calm, identify what I can gain from the change scenario and become fluid in my approach and thinking.
How Did I Practice Mindfulness In The Workplace?
“Insight cannot be taught or learned, but the consciousness that gives rise to insight can be developed. Trying to teach insight without transforming consciousness is like trying to create apples without growing apple trees” — Robert Kegan
Training the mind is one of the most rewarding undertakings, it has given me a renewed sense of freedom and accomplishment. Like most mind-related exercises, consistency is the main success factor in making mindfulness feel like second nature, rather than an activity that requires mental effort.
I started with small timeouts for several minutes throughout the day, whenever it felt natural to do so. I found the following techniques to work well in the office:
#1. Appreciation and Gratitude
I start my day by thinking of three things I am grateful for. These can be related to any aspect of my life. Through practicing this, I found the key to making this work, is to think of things I can really connect with on that particular day. Sometimes I write these down or sometimes I visualise these instead, depending on how rich the statement is.
I place importance in taking the time to appreciate each of these three things by playing these memories out in my mind and sitting in the feelings of gratitude and thankfulness.
I do not think of three unique things every day, depending on how I am feeling, it could be a combination of new and old. As an example, in my case:
- I am grateful to have my loving wife and two kids supporting me through life. (I visualise moments where they have made me feel true happiness)
- I appreciate having a short commute to the office and the flexibility to still play a big part in my kids lives as they grow up.
- I am grateful for experiencing some truly testing times in my life which have made me a stronger individual today.
#2. Grounding yourself in the present
There are times at work when I can feel overwhelmed with stress or anxiety, perhaps my manager has given me an impossible last minute deadline, or a client keeps changing their mind on what they want me to deliver for them. Grounding helps me to deal with those feelings and relieve the pressure. There are a number of methods that worked for me in the office:
2.1 Going for a quick walk: I would take a slow 5 minute walk around my building and really notice what is going on around me, paying attention to my feet planting the ground and how the air feels outside, breathing in and taking notice of this.
2.2 Visualisation: Sometimes I felt like I needed a reset, recognising that my morale was low or I was not working at my best. I would find a quiet space in my office and try to visualise the goal or task I was aiming for at work. I would visualise what needs to be done in order to complete the task and then play out the successful results in my mind. This gave me a renewed focus to go back to my desk and carry on with the work I needed to do.
#3. Be Open to New Things
At work I would try new things, when it felt natural to do so. I would go to lunch with different people, try out a fitness class in my lunch break, or hold lunchtime sessions presenting theory and trends to my colleagues.
By trying new things I am growing as a person, reducing the feelings of fear and anxiety that come with change and most importantly I am feeling joy and freedom in having the courage to step out of my routine and experience something new.
#4. Acts of Kindness
With the increase in self-empathy and noticing how I feel in my own shoes, this has opened me up to connecting with the emotional states of others and seeing life in their shoes. With this connection I can positively impact my day by performing small acts of kindness.
Whether this is helping a coworker who is struggling with a task or an act of kindness on my commute to work — I notice how this positively impacts me and carry those feelings through my day to make me perform at my best.
Give It A Try!
“Mindfulness isn’t difficult. We just need to remember to do it.” — Sharon Salzberg
- Make mindful activities part of your everyday and you will notice changes in the way you perceive the twists and turns that take place in your life.
- Commit to being mindful in the workplace and be proud of the authenticity it provides — not only to yourself, but to the work you produce for others.
I really hope that by reading my post you are inspired to try to be the best version of yourself in the workplace. Enjoy each step you take to achieve your goals and live in the moment to experience a more fulfilling and richer life.
