Blog

What has been really lovely this year - in fact liberating, is that I have been able to enjoy 5 weeks off and pretty much not think about work, timescales and schedules. These have all become irrelevant and time meaningless, what bliss!

And what is even more rewarding and something money can't buy is to have the quality time with my wee girl and my husband, uninterrupted pure family time. 

As a client of mine talks about being "truly present with his daughter/wife" which I can't agree more with.

This is something however, that you can practice every day on a smaller scale and in lots of different ways.  There has been lots written in recent years about mindfulness and there is also now more and more research to support the benefits of it, other than being viewed perhaps historically as "a bit out there".

For me it is linked to that "human" approach, the whole ethos of my business. If you treat others with respect and understand others emotionally this can only be good for business. In fact a company in America states that training their employees in mindfulness techniques has resulted in a hour a week increased productivity of each employee - now that can't be bad!

There are other benefits of mindfulness from both a business and personal perspective as well as being more compassionate with your customers, simply by taking a breath and committing to being more mindful (yes it can be as easy as that!). Mindfulness can also help lower stress levels and recover from stress; prevent illness; improve memory because you are "more present"; improve decision making; and help focus, improving concentration and reducing multi-tasking, getting you to focus on that important one thing - do you see any similarities here with our athletes at the Olympics in Rio?  I have no idea whether our athletes do practice mindfulness, however I did witness an unprecedented focus and concentration.

How you feel in your mind also affects how energetic you feel. How you look on the outside and how you feel inside are reflections of your subconscious mind. The mind and body are one system; what you think affects your body.

What can you do to benefit from some of the above?

1. Focus on the positive- as humans we have an unnatural bias to focus on the negative, so try this instead: what are some of the things that make you feel positive? Perhaps a favourite holiday or place or person? As you pause and stop what you are doing, enjoy the memory, the positive endorphins will flow through your body. Breathe these into your muscles. You can also write down your positive memories/triggers and go to that place each day.
2. To regain a positive state there are two other models you can use to take control of your thinking to change your emotional response and behaviour. 3 A's (Professor Stephen Palmer, Centre for Stress Management) - decide if you can A - alter; A - avoid or A - accept the situation that causes the stress. Alternatively consider the STOP strategy to take control of your thinking. S - step back; T - think; O - organise your thoughts; P - proceed (Timothy Gallwey)
3. Unplug yourself from all laptops; mobile phones etc in order to be present -focus on your surroundings and look at the world from a more neutral view.
4. Meditate - thoughts will naturally come into your mind. Don't fight them, give them the time they are due and then let them go!

Therefore, Realise that just listening and practicing your breathing for two minutes can make a significant difference.
Aspire to lead your team(s) to do the same and ensure they take regular breaks; and
Do then notice what changes for you and let me know, I'd love to hear.