Daily Mindfulness by Cindy Stradling CSP, CPC
Mindfulness: the quality or state of being conscious or aware of something. 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.
Mindfulness about the stress in your work life can help you better prepare for the future stress that is coming. For example, if you know that the end of the month is always stressful at your job, you may begin to take steps to prepare for that, such as ensuring that your home life has no additional stressors or plans during this time of the month.
Managing stress is important for everyone. Too much stress can lead to health issues, as well as making life far less enjoyable. One of the first steps to managing your stress is recognizing it, so that you can deal with it before it deals with you. This is where being mindful and in flow can help.
Mindfulness is best described as ensuring that each task you perform and every use of your time is goal or oriented. The practice of mindfulness is all about intention and being sure you aren’t wasting time, resources or energy on meaningless things. It can even apply to how you spend your thoughts, ensuring you don’t labor over negative emotions or things you cannot change. Mindfulness is an excellent goal, but it is one that requires a great deal of self-discipline.
True mindfulness requires daily persistence. It requires taking stock of everything that gets in the way of reaching your daily goals and objectives. It can be simple time wasters, people who distract you, or people who lessen your self-confidence.
Once you’ve taken stock of these distractions and negative thoughts, make a plan for how you will deal with each and every one. You can’t simply decide to remove people from your life because they are negative, because, in many cases, these will be people you are required to interact with for work. You can, however, decide how you will respond to them, and how much of your time and energy you will let them consume.
It can be helpful to have some daily rituals that help you to keep your goals and objectives in focus. These rituals can range from morning meditation to calm your mind to a simple “to do” list that helps you ensure your daily tasks are completed, and that you are not distracted from your most important priorities.
The good news is two-fold. The first piece of good news is that, with time and practice, mindfulness becomes easier. You will get into the habit of taking stock of your priorities, from the standpoint of productivity and of peace. After a while, these habits will become second nature.
The second piece of good news is that daily mindfulness becomes much easier to commit to once you see the results. When you are more productive at work and home, and when you have more peace and happiness in your life, you’ll see how much benefit just a little time and effort can provide.