Tag Archive Mindfulness in the Workplace

Have you ever wondered how to practice mindfulness but never really knew where to start? Maybe you think mindfulness isn’t for you? Well rest easy! Mindfulness is for everyone. Here is a simple 5 step guide showing not only how to practice mindfulness, but how to maximize the benefits. But before looking at how to practice mindfulness, lets look at a definition, from the oxford dictionary:

“a mental state achieved by concentrating on the present moment, while calmly accepting the feelings and thoughts that come to you”

1: Be Present – Here and Now

Have a seat, and come to rest in an upright, relaxed position. Be aware of the feeling of your body on the seat. Other than being comfortable (not too comfortable!) there is no specific position for your hands, although gently resting on your lap is good. Allow any tension to slip away. Start with your facial muscles, your neck and shoulders, your back, legs and feet. We could think of this step as as someone testing a microphone before speaking. It calls for attention, and brings focus to the present moment.

A nice analogy to help us understand the purpose of this step is to think of a satellite navigation system in a car. Before we begin, we first need to determine where we are right now.

2.  Focus on Breath

Focusing on breath is a highly effective way to bring attention to the present moment. Conscious breathing leads to a deeper, more regular pattern, which in turn relaxes us further. A nice pattern would be breathing in for the count of 4, holding for 4, breathing out for the count of 4 and holding for 4. This is known as square breathing or box breathing, and instantly calms us. If holding for 4 is uncomfortable, hold for 2.We are now present and calm in body and mind. So this step is really about setting the tone for what follows.

This step is like setting the parameters in our satellite navigation system. We select destination, choose to go local or express, avoid traffic or tolls etc. 

3. Be As One With Each Breath

Steps one and two were designed to bring our body and mind to rest. Perfect! Well, not quite. It was perfect in the moment we did it; but that moment has now passed. Our mind will automatically generate thoughts, because thats what the mind does when we are not aware. The strays thoughts could be along the lines of: ‘Am I doing this right?’ ‘This is silly’. ‘It’s not working’. So, to remain in the present moment, we need to maintain focus on the breath. If a thought arises and we become aware of it, simply return to focusing on breath. Allow the thought to slip away.

To compare this step with our navigation analogy, we set off, ready to follow further prompts. If we have chosen an express route and we are offered a turn on to a local route, we simply ignore the prompt and move on. Driving will recalculate the route, just as returning to breath will hold our focus on the present moment.

4. Be An Observer

When we learn how to practice mindfulness, we learn to calm our mind, so that we can start to become aware of which irrelevant thoughts we entertain most. While it is importance to be aware of the thoughts as they arise, we should not entertain them while practicing mindfulness. This comes later, when we learn how to practice mindfulness in an advanced way. For now, just be aware of what thoughts crop up, and this way, you will start to notice patterns over time. Being the non-judgmental observer of our own interruptive thought patterns is an incredibly effective way to eventually maintain motivation and increase performance.

In our navigation analogy, imagine having to deal with an unwanted prompt every time you pass a coffee shop? This is not just annoying, but would detract from the primary task, which is driving towards the destination. So we make a note of the pattern of unwanted prompts, and then ignore them by concentrating on breathing.

5. Bring Mindfulness With You  

After a period of time, lets say 5 minutes to begin with, we slowly end our practice of mindfulness. Now the  trick is this: if we take benefit from those 5 minutes only, we haven’t really changed much in the overall scheme of things. So, to get maximum benefit, we need to gradually start to take this mindset into daily living. Obviously we cannot concentrate on breathing and pushing thoughts away if we have busy schedules. But here’s the secret: when we are busy, we should be focused only on what it is that we need to do. We all have a tendency to over-think. When completing tasks, we should only be focused on what that particular task is asking of us at any particular moment (the present moment).

We can take inspiration from how we concentrated on breathing while practicing mindfulness. Through time, we learn to shut out all other noise and cluttered thinking. We do this by returning to the observer and making necessary changes, based on what the observer noticed during mindfulness.

To look once again at the navigation analogy, by this stage we have reached our destination. It is at this point that we remember the pattern of annoying prompts. So we go through the settings of the navigation system, looking for the setting that switches off notifications for coffee shops. In doing so, we ensure that the next time we drive that road, we are free to concentrate only on driving that road. That in essence is what keeps us calm, and keeps us focused on the present moment.

Helpful Tip:

Finally, if all of that seems a little too much, then try this. Close your eyes and take just one deep conscious breath. If you can do that (you have already been doing it all of your life, but here you are consciously doing it), then you have just learned how to practice mindfulness. Slowly, with each passing day, you can build from one deep conscious breath to the five minute practice.

More Information/help:

For more detailed mindfulness coaching, or to introduce this practice to your workplace, please use the contact page. On-site or video call mindfulness workshops available by Samuel Roger Holmes. Special discounts for schools, not-for-profit organizations and veterans groups.

Tomorrow, May 16th 2019, I’m driving from New York City to Colorado, to climb my first 14er. All being well weather wise, I’m hoping to get to the summit of Mount Elbert, which at 14,439 feet, is the highest peak in Colorado. It’s the highest, but by no means the most difficult, hence it’s popularity as a first 14er. The drive alone should be interesting; a 3,800 mile round trip, retracing much of the route I used while cycling across America in 2016. As for Mount Elbert itself, that part represents something of a step into the unknown. Thats where the adventure challenge kicks in.

The drive from New York City to Leadville, CO.

The Colorado 14er’s

There are 58 mountain peaks in Colorado at over 14,000 feet elevation. Collectively, they are referred to as The 14er’s, and the adventure challenge of climbing them all has become something of an obsession to many. I don’t know how many I’ll end up climbing in the long term (some are technical and dangerous), but I’ll start with Elbert and take it from there.

Why Solo Adventure Challenges?

A solo adventure challenge into the wilderness conjures up therapeutic benefits which are difficult to explain. Maybe because we are far removed from the noise and stress of our regular lives, we are forced to look at ourselves, and the beauty of nature around us. There is a feeling of oneness with the world, especially in the mountains. I prefer to go solo, for a variety of reasons. Firstly, I love the beautiful silence when high altitude hiking. Secondly, I like to be focused. Taking on a solo adventure challenge, negates the need for nagging thoughts of keeping up with or impressing others. Instead, it’s a journey of self-discovery, of learning and of self-leadership.

The main reason I like to go solo on an adventure challenge is because I think if I want to achieve something, I should be the one to put in the hard work. My Inca Trail adventure challenge in December 2018 for example, was a lot of fun, but it bothered me that I had a guide, and had to rely on porters to carry my tent. That didn’t sit well with me, and definitely took away from the feeling of accomplishment when I finally reached Machu Picchu. I prefer the feeling that I am relying on myself, and that I have to motivate and encourage myself. That way, I know if I make progress, it’s because I worked hard for it. Conversely, if I get sluggish or feel like quitting, then I know there is something I need to work on.

Solo Adventures and Mindfulness

The principles that drive self-motivation and self-leadership on solo adventures are as applicable in our careers and lives in general. They form the basis of the mindfulness and motivation workshops I deliver. Mindfulness is essentially focused attention on the present. Being in the present moment means we can focus on the specific task at hand at any given moment. We are able to shut out the unnecessary negative thoughts. On a mountain, as with riding across America, hiking the Inca Trail or on any other adventure challenge, we don’t need to complete the entire challenge all at once. Our best performance comes when we focus on completing a task one moment at a time. One step at a time. One tiny piece at a time. Often, while discouraged, looking at the enormity of the overall challenge can trigger negative and stressful thoughts, which ironically further hinder our progress. Mindfulness in the wilderness is a beautiful thing, but also an amazing way to understand ourselves, and what drives us forward in our careers and lives.

Mindful motivation and leadership is as applicable in the office as it is on a solo adventure. Focused attention improves performance, increases confidence and reduces stress. 

Adventure Dedicated to…

Previously, I used an adventure to fundraise for a charity. Thats not something I will be doing again. Money does not solve all problems.

Despite sharing an enormous amount of personal experience and emotion about adventure challenges on this blog, I haven’t as yet touched on the important core reasons for doing what I do. That will come later. My book, which has the working title Falling Up will hopefully go to print in late 2019 or early 2020. The philosophy behind falling up is essentially a lesson in self help, self-motivation and the power of mindful positivity.

Not having direction or focus can happen to any of us, at any time. Despite how it may feel, we are not alone, and we are not a lost cause. In fact, we can not only come back from our downs, but turn our downs into ups. There is no more solid foundation on which to build from than rock bottom. The greatest adventure challenge we can embark on is awareness and improvement of self, and it starts with mindfulness and meditation.

We all experience hardship or suffering at some point. It is temporary, it is not our reality, and there is a way through it. Life can deal us tough hands. It can happen because of depression or anxiety, following an accident, while grieving, from the despair of addiction, from relationship problems or from body related self-conscious issues such as weight etc. Sometimes it can simply happen by trying to keep up with the pace and expectation of life itself.

To anyone affected by any of those issues, I hope that by going on adventure challenges, and sharing my experiences, I can be of some small help in showing that there is a greater perspective. It IS possible to regroup, recover and refocus; and when we do, we can achieve things far beyond what we ever thought possible. I’m going up this mountain as much for you as I am for me.

The need for mindfulness in business is obvious. Working environments have changed dramatically over the past few decades. Where once ‘incoming’ meant the arrival of the days’ postal mail, incoming now represents a multi-platform multi-faceted onslaught on the senses – every single second.

Outlook email, with its never-ending pop-ups and reminders, instant messaging, landlines, cell phones, smart watches, social media, live video streaming – the list is endless. Things need to be done, and they need to be done now. Greater numbers of communications channels have only served to increase distraction and procrastination, which leads to stress.

Then of course, we are human, so we think about the human stuff too. Whats for dinner tonight? Did the car-loan payment post? Did mom pick the toddler up from childcare? All of this of course is continually made all the more intensive by feelings of career self-doubt, or worse still, career self-importance.

Computers and networks were meant to make all of this easier. Remember the promise of a paperless office? Well, there is still paper. Lots of it. But that’s not all. In a more connected, real time business environment, financially sound, ethical, fair and confident decisions are demanded in the blink of an eye. Multi-tasking is a must, but it is sending stress levels through the roof. How can each individual task be completed amid so much interruption and noise? And under so much pressure? Step forward mindfulness.

Mindfulness in its purest form, is the way in which we ensure that we are in the moment – right in this moment. Whatever task is at hand is being given the full attention it demands and deserves. Think of mindfulness as the teacher who claps their hands to bring the students to full attention. Mindfulness is the ability to be that noisy clapping, disciplinarian teacher, within your own mind.

Business-tailored mindfulness is essentially an extrapolation of core elements from eastern philosophies, with the theological references stripped out. What is left is an awareness of the here and now, achievable through focus on breath. It is so simple that many people miss it. Some even say they are too busy to try. Oh the irony.

Mindfulness is not just driving a happier more productive workplace. It is hammering home an impact on the bottom line, and bottom line people are loving it. Mindfulness reduces healthcare costs, lowers absenteeism, reduces micro-management hours, increases performance and efficiency, and sends employees home minus the age old Friday evening burn out. When employees get home without the mental fatigue and tiredness of a stress-filled office still lingering on their mind into the weekend, they have energy and focus to go off and fully relax with families and friends. And this in turn means they come back refreshed on a Monday morning. It’s a win win situation. And all through something as simple as breath. It’s the simple things that make the biggest impact.

In8 Motivation offers in-house Mindfulness training and workshops to corporates and individuals in New York City and Ireland.

10 Benefits of Mindfulness at Work

There was a time when mindfulness and meditation were seen as eccentric and obscure. Not any more. Mindfulness  has moved into the mainstream – and into the workplace, and the results are impressive.

With increasingly busy lifestyles, where many couples juggle hectic work schedules, parenting, financial obligations, the need to stay fit, and deal with instant access to vast amounts of digital information, the need to identify and deal with stress is becoming critical. Thankfully, there is a simple solution. And the beautiful thing about it is, all we need to do is… NOTHING!

Here, we look at 10 benefits of Mindfulness in the workplace, and why they are driving a new work-life balance.

1. Stress Prevention/Treatment

Whisper it no more – stress is finally being openly discussed. Practicing mindfulness in the workplace has been proven to reduce and prevent stress, which improves performance and boosts the bottom line.

Dr Elizabeth Hoge, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, says mindful meditation makes perfect sense for treating anxiety and stress. “People have a problem dealing with distracting thoughts that have too much power. They can’t distinguish between a problem solving thought and a nagging worry that has no benefit.”

When we declutter our thought process we eliminate stress, because stress by definition is when we think we have more problems than we have solutions. Reducing these unnecessary thoughts allows us to focus only on the task at hand, ignoring the cluttered thinking which raises stress levels.

2. Ability to Deal with Illness

Mindfulness may not be able to directly heal the illness, but studies have proven that a mindfulness based approach to dealing with symptoms makes dealing with illness more manageable. Studies of mindfulness among cancer patients for example have been encouraging. The answer may be connected to what Deepak Chopra refers to as the mind-body relationship, or the power of positive thought.

3. Improved Management Perfomance

If managers are multi-tasking to ensure that employees are happy and productive, they are already busy. Adding  unnecessary thought processes by attempting to micro manage, creates confusion not only for the manager, but for the resources he/she manages. Clarity of management process and effective delegation is one of the main benefits of mindfulness in the workplace.

4. Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction is critically important for employers and employees. Unhappy staff generally think about moving on. This can be passive or active. If active, the company is in danger of losing key resources which they have invested in, and the resultant staff turnover burdens time and budgets. Passively looking to move on is in many ways worse, as it directly impacts performance and ultimately, the all important bottom line. If employees are constantly thinking about being elsewhere, concentration levels drop. This in turn requires a greater level of micro-management and human resource intervention. Mindfulness keeps us focused on the present moment. This has been proven to improve performance.

5. Reduced Procrastination

Procrastination happens when we worry about a particular task to such an extent that we avoid this unwanted feeling by distracting ourselves with other tasks. Worse still, we do nothing, and become entangled in anxiety about the task at hand. Mindfulness focuses our attention on the task at hand, reducing the likelihood that we will sidestep tasks by becoming distracted or stressed.

6. Neuroplasticity

When practicing mindfulness, every time we complete a task, we are sending messages to our brain, telling it “Ive got this.” When we next begin that task, we find that we already have confidence in our ability to complete it successfully. This confidence and clarity allows us to free our minds to explore better ways to complete tasks. We go from repetition to refining. Thanks to mindfulness, we have increased our capacity to learn new tasks. Which brings us to the next benefit…

7. Creativity and Innovation

We are often our own worst critics. All too often, we allow unnecessarily negative thoughts to clutter our thinking. We might never share an innovative idea, because we have talked ourselves down by introducing doubt. Will my boss think this is a waste of time? Will my co-workers think I am trying to win favor? These questions and more are the result of cluttered thinking, by recalling past instances and projecting what the creativity will mean in the future. Mindfulness brings the benefit of clearing our thinking, eliminating the ‘what if’ type of negative questions, and allows us to focus on the innovative thought with greater clarity and self-assuredness. This is where we exhibit greater creativity.

8. Better Communications

Sometimes, overthinking the reason behind a question, can completely change the true nature of the answer. And sometimes, we are so busy seeking reasons for a question, that we fail to listen effectively, and therefore misunderstand the question. When we practice mindfulness, we have the ability to focus only on the question at hand, in a factual manner. This not only improves the timelines of communications, but leads to greater clarity among co-workers and management. When we deal with facts, we can contribute in a more transparent and efficient manner.

9. Greatly Improved Work Life Balance

Have you ever noticed that time seems to go so much more quickly on the weekends? Have you ever craved Friday for several days, only to celebrate it’s arrival by falling asleep on the couch? A healthy work-life balance allows us to distribute our energy more evenly throughout the seven day week. We have more energy for our weekends, therefore we maximize our much needed time away, and return to work on Monday feeling much more refreshed, and ready and willing to perform at our best. Mindfulness, if practiced regularly, knows not if a day is a week day or a weekend day. We become more consistent when moving between our work life and our personal time, therefore our performance and enjoyment of both roles greatly improves as a result.

10. Improved General Health

Mindfulness has mostly been credited for its benefits in maintaining positive mental health. But recent research has suggested that practicing mindfulness regularly can also greatly improve general health. One study has found that Mindfulness encourages behavioral patterns conducive to better general health. It suggests that the practice nurtures a psychological change in motivation such as being aware of the importance of regular check-ups, getting regular exercise, being mindful of negative impacts on health such as nicotine or alcohol and spotting symptoms early enough to be treatable (Jacobs, Wollny, Sim, & Horsch, 2016).

Another study found physiological benefits of regularly practicing mindfulness, such as improved cardiovascular health and a healthier body mass index (Loucks, Britton, Howe, Eaton, & Buka, 2015).

Mindfulness has also been associated with lower blood pressure (Tomfohr, Pung, Mills, & Edwards, 2015).

The above health benefits are not only great news for individuals who practice mindfulness, but also for employers, who see the benefit of encouraging a culture of mindfulness in the workplace.