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It can be difficult to imagine when you’d have time to practice mindfulness at work. Back-to-back meetings, notifications dinging across multiple platforms, approaching deadlines and working lunches…how could you possibly include a mindfulness practice?
A daily mindfulness practice can act as a buffer against workplace fatigue and help you get ahead of burnout.
What is mindfulness?
Mindfulness is the mental clarity achieved by focusing your awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting your feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations. Simply put, mindfulness is about being here, now.
Mindfulness at work
Each of the following 8 tips begins with a short practice, statement or affirmation, in italics, to provide an example of how mindfulness might look in the context of your workday.
I encourage you to read and pause for reflection, revisiting each one as many times as you need.
How to practice mindfulness at work
1. Take breaks
Acknowledge your mental, physical, and energetic capacity for work. Notice how your body feels in this moment. Locate your breath as you inhale and exhale deeply, relaxing your shoulders down and away from your ears. Think back to the last time you took a break. Remember, you are not a machine.
Our nervous systems are not wired to process the influx of information we consume all day. Time chunking, often using the Pomodoro Technique of 25 mins of work and 5 mins of rest, is a simple way to start adding mindfulness breaks into your day.
You can find an app or use your phone to set interval timers of 25 minutes of focused work and a 5-minute break to stand, stretch and look away from the screen.
Breaking up the day helps you become more mindful of time.
2. Be present
Bring your attention to what you are doing right now. What do you see in front of you, on your screen, on your desk, in your immediate surroundings? Each time your mind wanders to the meeting you have this afternoon, the conversation you had with your team this morning or the errands you have to run when you log off, bring your attention back to the task at hand.
Multitasking might have you thinking you’re getting a lot done, but to what end? Are you running on fumes, becoming more forgetful or on auto pilot without paying attention to detail?
You might have to bring your attention back to your task over and over and that’s ok; mindfulness is a practice that gets stronger by repetition.
Some aspects of your work environment might be outside your control; practicing mindfulness can help you regain focus among distractions.
3. Lean into stress
Take a deep breath in through your nose and exhale fully through your mouth. Repeat this breath cycle three more times at your own pace. As you return to your normal breath, take a metal scan of your body from head to toe – take note of your stress level. Welcome your stress as a healthy indication of a need for change.
This may sound counterintuitive, but stress can be helpful to show you parts of your work life that may need improvement. Stress at work can illuminate areas where you need support from your team, advocacy from your boss, freedom to take leave or to block off “no-meeting days.”
Above all, stress can be an indication that you need to slow down. If you heed the signals your body sends you when you have to make a presentation, you might notice that you’d like to take some speaking courses to ease your fears of public speaking.
Or, if you notice that your heart rate kicks up when you’re about to take leave, you may need to delegate tasks so that you can fully unplug on vacation without anxiety.
Being mindful about your stress levels can help change your perspective about stress – instead of avoiding a stressful situation, you become curious about what your response is trying to tell you.
4. Practice acceptance
Acknowledge the events of the day so far. Release the need to control the outcome of the day, at home and at work. Accept that you have done your best and that tomorrow is a new day where you can try again – know when to log off.
Some days are better than others. Some days feel productive and some are a slow crawl to 5pm. You may feel like you aced one presentation while another felt like a total blunder.
At the beginning of each day, set an intention to accept the day as it is and release the need to control or to know the outcome. At the end of the day, acknowledge that you did your best.
Be aware of your patterns and accept those that don’t serve your work life balance – any pattern is open to being changed as long as you are mindful.
5. Notice your body
Stand, stretch and notice your breath. Take a moment of gratitude for your body.
When we notice our cell phone battery dying, we immediately start searching for a charger and will stop at nothing until we’ve found a power source.
However, when our bodies need a charge, we keep pushing and pushing until we start to run on fumes. Mindfulness means treating our physical energy like we treat our cell phone – notice a dip in power and immediately start looking for a charge.
6. Practice gratitude
Think of 3 things about your work, company or team for which you are most grateful. Maybe it’s your team dynamic, your role in the organization, an upcoming interview or a recent promotion. Write them down and add to your list each day.
Humans are wired toward a negativity bias, meaning that it’s easier for us to see and dwell on the negative than to focus on the positive. Gratitude is the remedy.
A daily mindfulness practice makes it easier to notice things you’re grateful for because you’re focusing on the present, not dwelling on the past or being anxious about the future. Gratitude in the workplace can lead to deeper connections to your team, the mission and the work you do as part of a collective.
*This is not to be confused with toxic positivity or spiritual bypassing of smiling through abuse or unsafe working conditions, but rather focusing on things that you’re grateful for while you’re waiting for your situation to improve.
7. Protect your eyes
Energetically scan through your body from the soles of your feet to the top of your head. Notice each of the parts of your body and invite each part to relax. Now, pay special attention to your eyes. Blink several times, tightening your lids to seal in your eye’s natural moisture. Look up and far off into the distance. Bring your eyes back into focus.
Eye strain can feel like burning, itching, gritty sensations under your eyelids or redness and fatigue after prolonged exposure to computer screens and overhead fluorescent lights. To prevent eye strain and lessen its severity, it’s a good practice to follow the 20/20/20 vision rule: every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds.
This can be as simple as looking up over your computer screen out into the distance to the farthest point you can see. Or, even better, getting up from your desk and going outside to get out from the harsh lights while you move your eyes in all directions.
8. Pack a hearty lunch
I nourish my body with foods that I enjoy and that help me feel my best.
Lunchtime can derail an otherwise healthy day in one of two ways: skipping lunch or eating something that further tanks your energy. When you don’t plan your lunch, you’ll be at the mercy of whatever is available, which isn’t likely to be a mood-boosting choice.
70% of your serotonin is housed in your gut. Therefore, what you eat will impact your mood, energy, focus and overall health. So, plan your weekly meals to include your daily lunch and actually take a lunch break. Whenever possible, find somewhere that you can enjoy your meal distraction-free and use that time for mindful, intuitive eating.
Most days it’s challenging enough to just do your job and log off on time. However, practicing mindfulness at work has many benefits that you can feel immediately! Mindfulness is a practice and practice makes progress. Dedicate time to mindfulness each day and you’ll find that taking care of your mental wellbeing becomes second nature.
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