personal mastery

Slow Down to Speed Up

2017, for me, has seen a flurry of life’s challenges and opportunities fly across my desk and through my mind and heart. I have watched myself meet these moments, at times with grace and clarity, and, at times, with impatience and reactivity. The difference was almost always the result of my own thoughts and how I chose to react or respond to them. Continuing my conscious practice of being a witness, I realised that being able to notice the process of my thinking is a core part of bringing the practice of mindfulness to my desk. The practice of mindfulness has the ability to strengthen our own ability to notice when our thinking is making our experience more difficult or more complicated. It is with this understanding that I am committed to ensuring 2018 as my year of being

At the very outset, it is important to acknowledge that mindfulness is a practice, it cannot be infused through a single workshop, an inspiring book, a lecture, this blog, or even learnt at the feet of a Master. To make Mindfulness a fabric of our everyday life requires every daily self-effort.

As part of my work as a Mindfulness Coach and having interacted with over 50 senior leaders across industries, I have found a majority of them describe their workplaces as draining, stressful, challenging, and often even toxic environments that seem resistant to change. Having consciously trained my mind in looking at what’s working, I have offered them my own perspective on the usage of mindfulness to not only address these workplace challenges but also foster greater wellness and productivity on the job.

Resistance, in the context of mindfulness practice, is a wake-up call. In bringing awareness to those aspects of our daily life that we habitually resist, we then begin the work of transforming them.

The word “mindful” means to remember. The reason you forget to be mindful is that your brain’s default mode is to be habitually lost in your own thoughts—running a sort of internal narrative. A study at Harvard University showed that 47 per cent of a person’s day can be spent lost in thoughts. You believe you are functioning on ’auto pilot’ however your brain has slipped into a low energy state where it is responding without thinking, Being on auto-pilot means that you’re not fully present and awake to the opportunities and choices around you. You can’t be creative, plan something new or respond appropriately if you’re operating mechanically.

Mindfulness at work can seem counter-intuitive. I am suggesting that in your overfull day you make a conscious choice to slow down and be mindful. It has been my lived in experience that you need to first slow down if you wish to speed up!!

By stopping or slowing down, you can become more efficient, productive, happy, resilient and healthy at work.

Building on the growing interest in mindfulness and its relevance to the workplace, I have curated a list of 5 principles about Being Conscious and included simple mindfulness-based practices for each principle that will facilitate an interested individual to become more mindful in the context of a busy workday. These are principles that I am choosing to bring to my life consciously in 2018 and invite you to do the same.

As I was sharing with a group of individuals at a meaningful get-together a few days ago, I coach myself daily, my clients on a weekly basis and teach others to become Mindful Coaches on a monthly basis – inbox me if you would like to dedicate 2018 to a year of being conscious and giving yourself the gift of slowing down to speed up!