The Need for Mindfulness in Our Daily Lives
Posted on January 19, 2016 by Annette Jones, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
How to bring more mindfulness into your life.
I recently read a New York Times article about how the escalating demands placed upon people at work are hurting employees and companies. The article brought up the fact that there is a work culture where employers are making more and more unreasonable demands on their employees which in turn is not only ruining the quality of life of the workers, it’s also hurting the bottom line of the companies. Turns out over-worked, stressed-out humans really are not at their most productive. The author of this article called this “the culture of overwork” and suggested that by building slack into our workday, we can begin to counteract the effects of this kind of work environment.
I’d like to put it out there that the busier our lives get the more crucial it is that we make time to take care of our mental, emotional and physical health. Our lives can be so stressful that I believe we really can’t afford to not put ourselves on the to do list. But how do we create more “slack” in our lives in general?
In thinking about the idea of building more of a feeling of slack in our daily lives, I came across the notion that slack equals mindfulness. Just in case you’re not familiar with the idea of mindfulness: It is a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations.
The best place to begin with mindfulness is to simply stop and take a few deep breaths. This brings you into the present moment where you can then check in with your body sensations to see where you might be feeling tension in your body. In this state of awareness, you can calmly observe your emotions. Then just allow yourself to feel them without judgment. You’ll find that by observing your thoughts you can separate yourself from them and examine whether or not these stressful thoughts are even true.
Already feeling calmer? I know I am just by writing about mindfulness. Taking photographs is an instant way for me to access mindfulness. A few years ago a friend of mine introduced me to a Buddhist concept of photography called Miksang. Miksang means Good Eye in Tibetan. It is described on miksang.com as our ability to place our mind’s attention, our awareness, in our sense of sight and if we do we will see vivid, mind stopping perceptions fully and completely, without distraction. And when that happens, we can connect with what we see deeply and intimately.
Somehow I have always taken photographs this way. I highly recommend it as a very special form of mindfulness. There are many methods to enter mindfulness but I find that entering it through your creativity is especially fulfilling. Whatever way you choose to bring slack into your life will be meaningful and just may change the way you live your life. Even if it is just one moment at a time; which is what being in the moment is all about. :-)
-Annette