Barry Winbolt MSc.(Tr) – Mindfulness in Life and at Work

Within minutes of starting this course, you’ll begin to understand the essential simplicity of mindfulness and how to be more in touch with what’s going on inside you and around you.

Through the simple and accessible exercises, you’ll acquire techniques to gain mastery over your thoughts and feelings. You’ll see why mindfulness is now recommended as a route to improved mental health, quality of life, and personal productivity.

Mindfulness is a simple set of techniques which enable you to adopt a new mindset and a new way to think about your life.

Paying attention to your experience in the present moment brings control of thoughts and feelings and improves mental health and physical wellbeing

Seeing clearly

There’s a big buzz about how mindfulness can improve your life, and it’s hit the workplace bigtime. It’s easy to see why. We are pulled in all directions by demands, stress, and distractions. It can seem impossible to fully engage in what we are doing, whether it is working, parenting, studying, or simply, living.

Mindfulness is the antidote to our highly-charged lifestyles. In order to keep on keeping up, we also need to take time for ourselves, to rest, recover and renew our energies.

Though many people are curious, there is also a lot of confusion about how to be mindful. This course will clarify a few things and show you how to quickly test mindfulness for yourself.

Subtle and profound

Bringing mindfulness into your day is a subtle yet profound shift. It all starts with a few short moments of awareness. You can do this whatever you’re doing, and notice what happens when you practice really being of present and fully aware.

You may wonder how mindfulness could help you…

• Do constant interruptions interfere with your productivity?
• Do you often feel overwhelmed by your workload?
• Are you currently struggling to keep up with your ‘to-do’ list?
• Are you ever depressed, anxious or irritable at work?
• Are you easily distracted from what you ‘should’ be doing?
• Is it hard to concentrate for more than a few minutes?
• Are you unable to remember what was said during discussions?
• Do you regularly ‘zone out’ and operate on autopilot?

Natural responses

These are natural responses in a social climate where we’re often expected to do more with less. For example, many people are asked to work longer hours, and at the same time, be creative, motivated and more productive, despite the obvious pressures.

That’s where mindfulness comes in

Learn a little about mindfulness and back it up with a couple of simple exercises and you can expect to:

• Feel more focused and able to concentrate better
• Boost your motivation and creativity
• Reduce stress, anxiety, and irritability
• Increase your resilience and emotional intelligence
• Manage your energy levels as you go through the day
• Find your work – even the mundane bits – more fulfilling
• Manage yourself and others more concisely
• Have more productive conversations with colleague
• Get more done and feel more confident.

Mindfulness is a proven and effective tool for life. What you get out depends on how much you put in. But the points listed here are all researched and proven benefits of using mindfulness at work.

That’s why firms like Google, Yahoo, Nike, Deutsch Bank, Apple, Inteland Goldman Sachshave all promote the use of mindfulness in the workplace.

How to get some yourself

Mindfulness is a form of mediation (before you get distracted with visions of saffron robes and wind-chimes, read on).

In its simplest form, mindfulness means awareness. ‘Training’ yourself means learning how to relax at will, and then to focus your attention, quieten your mind, and clarify your thinking.

Typically, you’d start with just a few minutes at a time, a couple of times a day. With practice, you’ll learn how to ‘switch on’ a mindful state of mind pretty much any time you need to.

Once this becomes a habit you’ve opened the door to a technique that will relax you, reduce stress, and calibrate and reset your levels of energy, creativity, and concentration.

Mindfulness gives you control of areas of your life you’ve probably thought you couldn’t influence. You’ll begin to enjoy the benefits almost as soon as you start to practice.

Health and wellbeing

Regular practice enhances the brain’s repair mechanisms. Mindfulness is linked to the ‘relaxation response’ which triggers healing in mind and body, clears up stress homones and boosts the immune response. This is medically proven, so it’s about white coats, not saffron robes.

Better relationships

The psychological benefits of mindfulness have been linked to an increase in emotional intelligence, particularly the ability to empathise and self-regulate feelings and attitudes. In turn, this means more self-awareness, better communication, less conflict and, you guessed it, better relationships.

Greater control

Mindfulness gives you control of areas of your life you’ve probably thought you couldn’t influence. You’ll begin to enjoy the benefits almost as soon as you start to practice. Try it, and judge for yourself.