Mindful Work: 6 Ways to Bring More Intention and Value into Your Work Life

It can be tough to clock in when you are mentally clocked out.

Someone (possibly Woody Allen) once said that “showing up is 80% of life.” Which makes me wonder- what is the other 20% about? Lugging our bodies into the office or to run our household day after day is necessary and the job usually gets done. But, what about beyond that? It makes sense that having our minds show up a bit more at work can increase our effectiveness as well as other aspects of our work experience.

Many of us do not fully enjoy our jobs or some of the tasks required of us as part of our position. Some of us may feel that the company for whom we work promotes ideas or products that run counter to our values.  These discrepancies between behavior (i.e, showing up to do work you don’t enjoy or don’t believe in) and values (i.e, living a healthy life, doing work that benefits those in need, contributing to the greater good) make us feel uncomfortable. The resulting dissonance can make us question ourselves or even impact our mood. However, I want to suggest an alternative way of thinking about this real difficulty.

Even when your professional position or responsibilities do not match some of your more obvious life values, think about the ways in which your work does support your values. For instance, perhaps you value commitment and loyalty which is satisfied when you do your job and assigned tasks to the best of your abilities just because you said you would- even when you’d rather not. Or perhaps you value family and your job helps for you to support that family. Others may value personal growth and even though your job responsibilities themselves do not feel as if they complement this value, perhaps the very act of continuously showing up, doing something difficult and still living a fulfilling, balanced life in spite of it all is a challenge that helps you to grow.

Connecting to what you value and committing to valued action is one way to bring intention and mindfulness to your work life. It provides the opportunity to “clock in” more fully and bring more of yourself to the activities in which you choose to engage. Ultimately, it brings you out of autopilot and into the driver’s seat of your life.

Here are a few other suggestions for bringing more mindfulness into your daily responsibilities, whether you work in the home or outside the home:

1.) Place a “mindfulness bell” in your schedule. This is a routine cue which reminds you to check in with yourself- like every time you start up your computer or walk to the bathroom or make your coffee. And checking in with yourself just means  finding the breath, seeing what is present in thinking/feeling/the body and then proceeding from a more mindful place.

2.) Take yourself out to a mindful lunch. At least once a week, eat lunch quietly and without conversation. Focus on the sensations of eating and the sensory qualities of the food. Choose foods with different textures or temperatures and whenever the mind wanders, just gently bring it back to the meal.

3.) Try “falling awake” after lunch. During that post-meal period of lowest energy, take 15- 20 minutes to settle into the body and feel the sleepiness in your body. Each time you feel yourself falling asleep, explore that feeling and use that as an opportunity to be mindful of these very vivid and surprising sensations.

4.) Walk mindfully throughout the day. If you have time to walk, you have time to walk mindfully. As you walk around the office, tune in to the sensations of walking including the various parts of the feet involved in the movements of walking. When you sit back down, take a moment to notice the feeling of warmth or looseness that may be present in the muscles after moving.

5.) When you get stuck, zoom out. If you find yourself getting stuck in a particular way of thinking or reacting, take a step back. Close your eyes and just notice what kinds of thoughts are present. Notice how big they feel or how quickly they go racing across the movie screen of your mind. Remind yourself that for the moment, you are simply observing your mind and there is nothing else that needs to be done.

6.) Practice mindful listening. When you want to bring more of yourself to a moment, use the voice of a speaker (whether in a meeting or conversation) to anchor you to the present. Just as you might with the breath, notice when your mind has wandered and gently escort your attention back to the voice.

I hope some of these ideas may help you to bring 100% of yourself into your work life and, ultimately, into any moment.

 (Image courtesy of jesadaphorn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net)