Mindfulness Any Time, Any Day
Posted on April 24, 2017 by Susan Renzulli, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
Focusing your awareness on the present moment, calmly acknowledging and accepting your own feelings and thoughts without judgement is mindfulness.
Mindfulness is a mental state that you achieve by focusing on your awareness of the present moment while calmly acknowledging and accepting your own feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations without any judgments. You hear people mention “mindfulness” a lot more these days and I think it is because we live in such a high paced, distracted, multi-tasking, screen-focused, LOUD world. Research shows that people spend 46.9% of their waking hours NOT centered on what they are doing but instead thinking about something else! Harvard University psychologists Matthew A. Killingsworth and Daniel T. Gilbert state in the Journal of Science that “A human mind is a wandering mind, and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind.” Human beings spend too much time considering things that aren’t even happening around them at the moment! Worrying about the past and fretting about events in the future or events we cannot control disrupts the average human’s focus almost 50% of the time!
In his article “Wondering Mind Not a Happy Mind” in the Harvard Gazette Steve Brandt relays that Killingsworth and Gilbert determined through their research that people are happiest when making love, exercising or participating in engaging conversation. “They were least happy when resting, working, or using a home computer.” What does that say about us as a society and you as an individual? Are you connecting with your body and spirit and practicing mindfulness on a regular basis?
To practice mindfulness, work on your ability to stay focused and be able to recognize and move past distractions as they arise. Killingsworth and Gilbert confirm that “Many philosophical and religious traditions teach that happiness is to be found by living in the moment, and practitioners are trained to resist mind wandering and to ‘be here now’” (qtd. in Brandt). How do you practice or enhance your own mindfulness? Some mornings I’ll do a short (10 minutes or less) guided meditation. A great one is the Potential Project Guided Meditation. I’ll pop out to a hot yoga class in between clients. That is another great way for me to center myself and make sure I am in the present moment and I bring that focus back to work. In fact, today’s yoga class provided me with the inspiration to start this Midweek Mindfulness Series!
If practicing yoga or mindful meditation isn’t for you there are many other things that you can do to train your mind to wander less. Spend some quite time in the morning before work journaling or praying, or just enjoying the sound of silence. Or, find a quiet spot to sit, take some deep breaths in and exhale slowly. Do this for 5 minutes or so and this tends to quiet the mind down so that it can stay calm and focused. Revert back to this deep breathing exercise periodically throughout the day to center yourself.
You CAN strip away those distractions and stay focused in your work life- and also in your personal life. It will enhance productivity at work and increase connectedness, communication, and relaxation within your personal relationships. Multitask less! Try to keep your attention focused on what you are doing and allow yourself permission to note that you’ll think about or work on the other things, later. That is awareness. Take mindful breaks during the day. Exercise is what does it for me- pop out of your work zone and into a mode of exercise. I find that I’m focused and ready to work again after I have done that. Also, take mini mind breaks during the day. Walk away from your screens and phone. Treat yourself to something relaxing (hot tea and dark chocolate for me) and just savor being in the moment. I conscientiously practice gratitude and very often I hear Lisa Wolf of Yoga Lemon whispering along with me as I say “Thank you, thank you thank you! Finally, make sure you are taking time to have connectedness with that special someone in your life! Make sure they know just how much spending quality time with them means to you and you can enjoy this focus, awareness, and the peacefulness it brings together! What do you do to engage in mindfulness?
