Bringing Mindfulness to Work

During my recent time away from blogging, I visited an eco-project in rural Tenerife www.manantialdetara.es.   The project’s creator, Guillermo, has had a rich background which included living as a monk and being part of the Findhorn Community.  In setting up the project in harmony with nature , Guillermo also aims to facilitate the personal growth of those who stay there and he advocates working mindfully.

Most would think of mindfulness as a Buddhist mediation method.  Mindfulness has been described as 'the gentle effort to be continuously present with experience’.  And by Jon Kabat-Zinn as "paying attention in a particular way;
On purpose,
in the present moment, and
nonjudgmentally.”

So we deliberately notice the sensations we are experiencing in the moment and our responses to those sensations. And when the mind wanders, we purposefully and kindly bring our attention back.

You might have practiced this with your attention on the breath or on walking.  And, at the project, the gardening, cleaning and cooking all leant themselves to mindfulness too.

Working this way feels great.  Being fully connected with the task in the now.  As it’s not about being focused on the end result, it’s not as time driven as we’re used to, yet generally things still get done in time.  It’s not the same as day dreaming or going on 'automatic pilot' so time isn’t wasted in distractions.  It means doing one thing at a time with full commitment.

There’s much evidence of how this approach helps us in life, mindfulnet.org says,

“As humans we are often "not present" in our own lives.  We often fail to notice the good things about our lives, fail to hear what our bodies are telling us, or poison ourselves with toxic self criticism.”

Mindfulness brings us back to our own experience of being human.

So if you’ve practiced mindful mediation and would like to experiment or find it difficult to sit still, why not try bringing mindfulness to everyday tasks like preparing food, eating, housework etc.?  I'd love to hear if you've applied this approach to other areas like art.  It's certainly a feature of 5 Rhythms Dance.  More from me soon on applying this to an office environment.