9 Mindfulness Tips for The Workplace
- During your commute to and from work, notice the cars, architecture, natural beauty, and other elements that surround you, as well as the emotions you’re experiencing in your body.
- When you feel stressed or anxious during a meeting or in anticipation of a meeting, presentation, or conversation, focus on your breathing for a few seconds and you’ll calm down and get focused.
- Wear a “half-smile” as you encounter people in the office, hallways, elevators, and break-rooms. This helps you to feel more relaxed and open and creates a positive aura around you.
- Listen with full attention to whomever is speaking to you or your group, which will help you to pose helpful follow-up questions and will increase the confidence of the speaker.
- Focus on one task at a time, which optimizes the brain and amplifies the quality and timeliness of your work.
- Notice emotional triggers as they occur, pausing to breathe and reflect before you respond (or before you don’t respond). This will help you to not only feel less stress but be more empathetic and solution-oriented with the people in your workplace.
- Perform small acts of kindness without being asked, such as bringing a colleague a cup of coffee or reaching out to someone who is struggling and offering to help.
- Get up from your desk numerous times across the day, stretching and walking and paying attention to how this affects your energy and physical comfort.
- Silently recite a mantra throughout the day, something positive such as “I am living my strengths” or “I’m an encouraging colleague.” This will keep negative thoughts at bay and help you focus on producing excellent work.
Pick one or two of these practices to begin with and develop them until they become muscle memory for you. And please let me know of other mindfulness practices that you incorporate into your work day.
Growing Your Strengths
I’m a Nashville-based writer, talent strategist, and certified executive coach. On this website, I primarily write stories featuring a diverse group of professionals whose examples of applying mindfulness, learning agility, and storytelling will help you love your career and enhance your quality of life.
These characters face familiar pain points: nonstop change, accelerating economic and technological disruption, and the collective “noise” that grows louder each day. The impact, for these professionals and for many of us, has been confusion, distraction, and stress.
Until, however, each of these individuals chooses to do something new: practicing mindfulness, learning agility, and storytelling habits, and growing them into strengths…strengths that respond to change rather than just react.
Strengths that you can develop as well.
Don’t settle for the confusion, distraction, and stress. You’re stronger than that, and capable of much more.
Choose to do something new. Today. Start with this post, check out my books, and join our learning community to receive free, exclusive content via email each month with timely guidance on applying mindfulness, learning agility, and storytelling.
