What Is mindfulness?
Mindfulness is now a common word you often hear health conscious people talk about. But what is it I hear you ask and how can this help me in business? Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, it forces you to be aware of what you’re thinking and feeling. It focuses on the breath and allows you to not become overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us. When we’re mindful, we reduce stress, we’re abler to relax, become more focused and are open to life’s challenges. Therefore, enhancing our performance at work and in business. One way I can describe being mindful is to think about what you’re thinking about. As our thoughts can often lead to stress and worry in business.
Emotional intelligence
Being mindful allows you to have a sense of openness, you become in touch and can better manage your emotions and have kindness to yourself and others. There have been many studies that show the impact of mindfulness on leadership development and business. This is because mindfulness enhances resilience, the capacity for collaboration, and the ability to lead in complex situations.
Being more in touch with our emotions and being more open, you able to be more responsive in difficult situations, rather than reactive, which is very important in business. You’re abler to focus on the issues at hand, adapting to difficult situations, and taking broader perspectives into account.
This is why I believe being mindful can impact the important business owner capacities of resilience, stress-management, drive and creativity.
How to practice mindfulness
- Starting your day mindful
One way I have become more mindful, is in my morning routines. Did you know you’re releasing so many stress hormones as soon as you wake up? Many people start thinking about what they have to do that day or check social media as soon as they open their eyes. That used to be me. But now I have a morning routine and I don’t think about the day or check social media until these are done. Below is my morning routine, which helps me start a mindful, stress free day.
- Drink a large glass of water and have a piece of fruit
- Complete my five-minute journal for the day
- Do a short yoga session
- Meditate for 15 minutes
2. Focus on your breathing
Focusing on taking deep breaths through your stomach is so important. The breath is so powerful, more than most people realise. Bad breathing restricts blood flow to the brain, which affects nerve cells, which are the first to respond. This can cause dizziness, affects the Nervous System, which puts the body on alert. Continued bad breathing causes exhaustion, tiredness and anxiety. I have a Fitbit, which includes deep breathing exercises, which I can stop what I’m doing and practice deep breathing whenever I want throughout the day.
3. Yoga & Meditation
I start my day with yoga and meditation. I simply use/follow YouTube videos. For yoga I love Yoga with Adrienne and Meditation I love Michael Sealy, The Honest Guys and Jason Stephenson.
4. Think about what you’re thinking about it
Being still is so important, it allows the body to relax and be conscious of your thoughts. Your thoughts often are the contributor of your stresses in life. So be conscious of your them, which overtime will prevent worry and stress.
Mindfulness training, does not have to be something that takes hours out of your day. At least 15 minutes of daily practice, can lead to really valuable change. Happy mindfulness!
