3 Mindfulness Approaches for Busy People

Guest post by David Shindler of www.employabilitycoaching.co.uk

Is your mind too full of stuff at the moment?  Are you on auto-pilot engaging in mindless activity causing you stress with the potential for burnout?  Many of us have become increasingly dependent on technology and are living with greater uncertainty in our lives.  Busy, yes, but what kind of busyness and does it contribute to your happiness?

Holiday periods are often when we try to slow down and re-examine our relationship with the world.  I suspect that is why mindfulness seems to be a hot topic at the moment.  A recent New York Times article adroitly identified busyness serving as “a kind of existential reassurance, a hedge against emptiness” and often “institutional self-delusion”. We like to think we are important.

In the wider employability context, it’s about self-management and your ability to be resilient in the face of change.  Mindfulness is usually associated with the here and now, but I’d like to suggest you can also practise being mindful from past and future perspectives.  Some might argue that’s contradictory as you have to let memories and ideas into your mind.  Alternatively, you can treat each of them as states of ‘letting go’ to achieve clarity, stillness and a sense of wellbeing.

This blog post was triggered by a recent network event where I was introduced to mindful eating.  Eating a single currant mindfully was an enlightening and enjoyable experience – certainly the longest it has ever taken me to eat one!  I’ve started eating my dinner more slowly which has encouraged more conversation as we’re spending longer at the table.  Having done a bit of meditation on and off over the years, I’ve always found it a challenge to maintain the discipline to embed it into my daily routines.  Maybe I have found a solution in the humble currant.

Being Mindful in the Present

Eleanor Roosevelt once said “Yesterday is history.   Tomorrow is a mystery.  Today is a gift.  That’s why we call it ‘The Present’.” Being mindful is about noticing ‘what is’ with all of your sensory organs – the feel of the currant as you hold it in between thumb and forefinger, its ridges and contours, its sweet fragrance, its texture as you chew it slowly and deliberately until nothing remains before a final swallow.  You can’t give proper attention to something unless your mind is still and free from distractions.  Hence, the reason why people meditate to achieve a mental stillness so they can give attention to…nothing.  Yoga, breathing, exercise, and prayer are some of the many ways to meditate.

Recently, I went on holiday for a week in Portugal and it took me at least two days to ‘let go’. Eventually, I found myself being mindful without realising it as I lay on a beach feeling the grains of sand falling through my hands, listening to nothing but the pounding of the Atlantic waves and feeling the strength of the sun on different parts of my skin.  And, yes, my iPhone was switched off.

Being Mindful in the Past

Recalling a joyful experience or a fantastic achievement can evoke positive feelings and thoughts.  It could be a particular person, place or object.  In our mind’s eye, we can catch a taste, whiff, sound or sensation of that moment, like a déjà vu that you can actually grasp.  I can still recall the bolt of electricity that shot through me when my first child screamed her first breath.  Losing yourself in a feel good memory is being mindful in a past sense.

Being Mindful in the Future

Similarly, a goal or vision of the future can sometimes be more compelling if you time travel forwards and describe success in the present tense.  In effect, you are behaving as if success has already been achieved using all your senses.  What can I see, hear or touch?  How does it feel emotionally?  What is the sweet smell of success?  Try writing a future letter to yourself or even recording a future video!

So what?

Having been diagnosed twice with terminal cancer, the author Vaishali practises mindfulness to deal with the pain.  For her, its value is in allowing the mind “to reorganize and empty itself, much in the same way that fasting can support the body in cleansing and releasing toxins.”

Recent research has shown that mindfulness improves brain wiring in just a month.  As neuroscience expert Dr Elena Antonova, from the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, said: ‘The findings of this study are potentially good news for all of us. If as little as 11 hours of mindfulness training makes the brain wiring more prolific and better insulated, then simply by being mindful, which is accessible to anyone at any time, we might enjoy a lifetime of mental clarity and emotional stability.’

Currant bun anyone?

About the Author: David Shindler is the author of “Learning to Leap, a Guide to Being More Employable”. An experienced coach and people development expert, David specialises in developing and accelerating employability. He also runs the Employability Hub (a social learning community and resource centre), the Learning to Leap group on LinkedIn and Facebook fan page. Tweet him @David_Shindler