Stephanie Harrison
Consulting, educating and innovating to change the way we work, live and connect
How To Practice Mindfulness At Work: A Four Week Guide
Dec 11, 2014
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My favorite time of the day is at 2:30 pm. At this time every afternoon, a small group of LinkedIn employees gather in a conference room upstairs, turn off the lights, and sit in silence together. We settle in, embrace the quiet and create space for ourselves in our busy work days. It’s our daily meditation time – a space that we protect for the joy, happiness and peace it brings us.
I’m very passionate about making mindfulness a practice in organizations around the world. I truly believe that it will make you more successful at your job, happier in your life and guide you toward a more balanced, fulfilling life. Tomorrow is our LinkedIn InDay focused on Gratitude. Of the many things that I’m grateful for at LinkedIn, the space to practice mindfulness is one of them!
When sharing my experiences, I am regularly approached by people with questions. I always hear the same list of roadblocks:
“I don’t have time to meditate.”
“I don’t know how to be mindful.”
“I will start it when this project/job/event ends.”
“I don’t know how or where to begin.”
If you have felt that you’d like to practice mindfulness but have experienced one of those roadblocks, I have created a program that can help you to start. It’s a four week program that can be done wherever you work, whenever works for you, for a tiny time investment. There is strength in numbers, so I’d recommend you consider getting your own team at work on board to work together. I hope that this practice encourages you to pursue your journey towards fulfillment and happiness at work.
** ****Why does mindfulness matter in today’s world? **
Our world’s current ‘culture of distraction’ makes it easier to alleviate our deepest fears and sadness, to escape from what is bothering us, and to remove ourselves from the present moment. It’s a biological impulse to want to avoid moments of pain or fear, but it will not serve us well in the long run. To practice mindfulness means to be aware of the moment that we’re in – nothing more. That moment might include unpleasant thoughts, feelings or sensations, but mindfulness brings us the awareness that it’s just a moment that will soon pass us by. Jon Kabat-Zinn defines it as “Paying attention in a particular way, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally.” It’s just* ** being*, wherever you are.
There are a lot of things that get in the way of just* ** being* – namely, our internal environment and our external environment. The external environment is the world outside of you, including your relationships, your work, your commute, and other components of your life. The internal environment is the one inside of your mind, including your thoughts, and how you translate those into action and being.
The external environment is likely the first set of distractions that you might encounter. Below are some of the distractions that might be present in the average worker’s day:
And the list of distractions gets longer as we turn to the internal environment:
Frankly, it’s exhausting to look at these lists. It is a bit frightening to realize that all of these distractions might be running in the background of your workday.
Mindfulness allows you to become aware of the internal environment and how it impacts the external environment, and vice versa. As you begin to become aware of and familiar with your internal environment, you will be amazed at the benefits that start to show up in your external environment.
** ****How can you try mindfulness practices out for yourself? **
Make yourself a test subject in a personal study to see if mindfulness works for you. You don’t have to believe me or science or what you read – try it out for yourself and see how you feel!
There are many different ways to practice mindfulness at work. You certainly don’t need to bring in a cushion and sit in the lotus position in the corner (but if you work in the San Francisco LinkedIn office, you’re welcome to join us in our afternoon sessions!).
The following curriculum outlines four different weeks, giving you the opportunities to try different mindfulness practices to see what works for you. Focus on one week at a time and monitor how you feel, what comes up and what you learn. If you’d like to print it out, I’m happy to send you a PDF version. I hope that it can be a part of your toolkit for a happier work life!
* *A lengthier version of this post was originally published on my blog, www.cultivace.org, last year. If you want to go deeper, I suggest you check out the resources on my website or check out the wonderful Search Inside Yourself book or course.