WITH the end of the year’s first quarter, you’re torn between the feelings of failure and wanting to prove yourself more at work.
When you look back at your targets and see that you’re not even halfway through your goals, it can be terribly frustrating. Even while you’re scrambling to get your numbers up during the last few days, that sensation of being overwhelmed by all the things you need still need to do start creeping in.
You say you got things under control but you’re having sleepless nights or you start waking up in the middle of the night with your paperwork as the nightmare jolting your mind.
You become irritable over the little things. Your mind and body are in hyper drive rushing through the days in manic depressive episodes. There are so many things to do, so little time to do them all.
What if you can’t cope? What if the report does not get approved? Which option is the best? Where will you get all those funds needed? What if nobody comes to your event? The screaming inside your head starts here.
With the fast-paced demanding world you are in, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. With the way that the world defines success, it’s easy to immediately believe you’re a failure. The ability to be on top of things and to be the master of your own thoughts is crucial to survival nowadays.
Mindfulness, according to www.merriam-webster.com, is “the practice of maintaining a nonjudgmental state of heightened or complete awareness of one's thoughts, emotions, or experiences on a moment-to-moment basis.”
Mindfulness in the midst of chaos is an essential tool that can make or break a person. According to mindfulness teacher Ed Halliwell, “It trains us to become more aware of what’s going on in and around us, giving us the capacity to see things clearly and act from a wider perspective.” It means that being in the present greatly influences our ability to decide better.
Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S., in her article for psychcentral.com, gave three basic tips for being mindful at work. They are:
A daily meditation practice
A regular meditation practice gives you the foundation for being mindful at work, Halliwell said. He suggested reading meditation books or listening to guided CDs for developing your practice.
I would like to stress here the importance of practicing conscious prayer time as well. You can devote at least 30 minutes to connecting with God through readings and music preferably in the first hour of your day. This refocuses you into what truly matters in life.
Mindful breathing
Mindful breathing is different from deep breathing. In fact, you’re not trying to control your breath at all, Halliwell said. You’re simply “letting it be as it naturally is and gently attending to that.”
Depending on your schedule, he suggested practicing mindful breathing anywhere from two minutes to 30 minutes: Sit comfortably upright, and focus on the natural flow of your breath. There also are many clever ways to sneak in mindful breathing, especially when you’re super busy. Halliwell knows people who use bathroom breaks to engage in several minutes of mindful breathing.
Checking in with yourself
Notice what’s happening in your body and mind. To remind yourself to take a break and check in, you can download mindfulness bells, and have them chime every hour, he said.
As one bell chimes, for instance, you might notice yourself rushing for no reason.
For many of us this has become our autopilot. Just noticing that you’re sprinting through your day can help you break out of the harried habit.
The more we practice mindfulness, the more likely it is to become our default way of being at work, Halliwell said, “and the more attuned we will become, to ourselves, others and our environment. And the more attuned we become, the more skillful we are likely to be at whatever job we’re doing.”
(Special thanks to Zhihan Lee for sharing me these exercises on mindfulness)