Wake Up And Smell The Coffee! How Mindful Are You?

Posted: 5 January 2016 at 2:49 pm | Author: Laura Morris

Did you know that increasing your mindfulness ability can make you more effective within the workplace? Sometimes the day-to-day demands of your job can you leave you feeling drained. Understandable, as juggling different requirements from colleagues, customers and various stakeholders requires a lot of multi-tasking and patience!

Mindfulness is a mental state that is able to be achieved through focusing on the present moment¹, being at one with yourself; accepting what you are feeling and the sensations around you. This can actually lead to you having less anxiety and being able to respond to situations more objectively².

Mindfulness is a technique used far and wide. The Vice President at Google, Karen May, takes a “mindful breath’ prior to joining any meeting. Novak Djokovic uses similar mental techniques to reset and calm his body within his tennis matches³.

The first thing to do is simply to remind yourself to take notice of yourself and the world around you. This can help avoid the autopilot mode we so often find ourselves in. Professor Williams suggests that you need to take the time to observe your own thoughts, but not judge them and use your senses such as touch and smell.

Even minor changes can make you observe the surrounding environment differently, such as sitting a different seat for lunch or re-arranging your desk layout.

There are more formal approaches you can take such as medication or tai-chi and a number of workshops are dedicated to this topic as it can take years to master.

Consider beginning with just trying something simple – literally waking up and smelling your coffee and this might just improve your day!

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