Mindfulness at work – is it possible?

Mindfulness, which means practicing being mindful is a psychological tool that is often used in private life, but as it turns out – it can also be used in your place of work. Can focusing your attention really reduce stress, and allow you to take control over the chaos of your workplace as well as your own automatism?

Technological growth often exposes us to stimulants, large amounts of notifications and information, which are not often of utmost importance in your life. Quick communication flow at work has become something completely normal, especially in the face of the pandemic, which replaced eye contact with a Teams meeting, and a real exchange of ideas with your coworkers – into an e-mail. We have learned to live among notifications coming from all sides at the same time, both in private and in professional life, and we sometimes lose the sense of balance in life.

Opposition to that is represented by mindfulness, which is the training of your focus that is being popularized in corporate environments. Being mindful of being “here and now” brings you peace, but is it possible to be “here and now” at work?

Table of contents:

• What mindfulness is?
• How to take control over the unforeseen??
• Mindfulness in the face of workplace relations
• Building your self-confidence as a part of mindfulness practice
• Summary

What mindfulness is?

Many of us sees training your mindfulness as some Tibetan meditation, practicing numerous relaxation techniques or achieving the state of bliss surrounded by the sounds of soothing music. Mindfulness is not limited to the stereotypical smell of incense, it is a technique that works great in your workplace. At first glance, the exercises are very simple – sit still, focus your attention on your breathing, scan your body. This practice, however, goes one step further as it is based on accepting your own stress in order to transform it into peace. We are then able to focus on our thoughts, emotions, present moment, and we are asking ourselves the important questions and are overall more focused.

How to take control over the unforeseen?

While practicing mindfulness, we are trying to control our own breathing and thoughts – this however means much more as along with our training, our tolerance to the unforeseen events at work that might throw us out of balance increases.

Work not only means spending time from 8 to 16 among your coworkers. It means often asking yourself questions regarding your future, and striving to realize a set goal. “Hot head” in realizing the goals is not always helpful. What might make a great difference is a moment of letting go, focusing on yourself, and being really “here and now”.

Undivided attention, recovering your balance will not add you any new work, to the contrary – this is how, step by step, we are reaching our goals. This doesn’t mean that you should quit your job, focus on your dreams and live separated from reality. The fact is that this is how we built our wellness, and confidence, follow our convictions and become more creative.

This is how we can also separate a lot of unnecessary views and focus on things that truly matter and are useful. We can also use this to improve our ability to finish tasks, which gives you relief, as polishing something without an end can be a source of frustration.

Mindfulness in the face of workplace relations

Practicing mindfulness gets us to strive toward the highest possible level of authenticity. That’s how we can build greater honesty, which means greater respect, even when we stand in the face of different opinions and concepts. That’s how we grow to trust in ourselves, and without trust, – we are unable to make decisions.

Mindfulness also means acknowledging that we will never be in full control. Treating the uncontrolled mess in your workplace as your mistake will never free us from stress. Everything can happen at work, and seeing surprises as an opportunity to use your own potential and creativity teaches us to adapt and remain calm. Panic at work is nothing else, but using your own resources and the constant struggle to remain in control results in losing it. When you consciously give it up and accepts the facts for what they are, you achieve relief, build back your balance, and improve your actions.

Building your self-confidence as a part of mindfulness practice

Mindfulness practice helps us leave the zone of our own silence. We often fail to speak in fear of criticism and being ignored. Building our inner peace allows us to expose ourselves to criticism through listening carefully. That is how we gain self-confidence and are able to create precise statements in the future.

As we strive towards reaching inner peace, we should remember to avoid a false sense of self-confidence. Effective realization of goals and achieving success do not have to lead toward vanity. By being mindful that the job market is able to do just fine without us, we can work out a balanced approach whereby being happy with our own achievements, we will also be able to take pride in helping others achieve theirs.

Summary

As it turns out, practicing mindfulness isn’t anything new in the international job market. Many large corporations like Google, SAP, Dropbox, or Salesforce share their thoughts on this matter through their websites and encourage their employees to introduce mindfulness to their professional lives.

The above presents a couple of examples of the beneficial influence that mindfulness has on our work life. Let’s remember that trying to reprogram our attitude towards actions in our workplace takes, above else, time and patience. We should also mention that this practice is not for everyone – after all, we work in different ways, and various people like different things. For some, it would be creating the perfect “artificially perfect” workplace, where each employee would focus too much on themselves instead of looking for real benefits and measurable goals, for others – a perfect chance to change their lives for the better.

Mindfulness is not a cure for all systematic issues of the world. In this practice, we observe ourselves in our confrontation with the problem and accept its existence. That is why it is an effective method of reducing stress and recognizing our work as a place, where we feel more fulfilled. It is certainly worth considering introducing it into our daily efforts.

References

Literature:

• Carroll M. MIndfulness w pracy. 35 buddyjskich zasad osiągania harmonii i jasności umysłu, Samsara, Białystok 2016
• Glinka G. Narzędzia rozwoju osobistego, wyd. Studio Astopsychologii, Białystok 2020
• Syper-Jędrzejak M., Bednarska-Wnuk I. Znaczenie mindfulness w miejscu pracy – możliwości pobudzania uważności pracowników, E-mentor. Dwumiesięcznik Szkoły Głównej Handlowej w Warszawie, Warszawa 2019 nr 2 (79)

Electronic publications:

• Babij J., Mindfulness w firmie – przegląd artykułów z firmowych blogów, 2018, https://mindfulnessinside.pl/mindfulness-w-firmie/
• Chrapko M. Menedżer Plus MP 188: Co Ci umyka? O uważności | Krystyna Boroń-Krupińska, 2022, https://mariuszchrapko.com/co-ci-umyka-o-uwaznosci/
• Kapela J., Na początku jest ból. Dzięki mindfulness spotykasz się ze sobą – wywiad z Zuzanną Ziomecką, 2021, https://krytykapolityczna.pl/kultura/czytaj-dalej/mindfulness-to-lustro-rozmowa-z-zuzanna-ziomecka/
• Marsh L. Mindfulness robi wam wodę z mózgu, 2018, https://krytykapolityczna.pl/gospodarka/mindfulness-korporacje-prawa-pracownicze/

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