Mindfulness at work

Published by Alison Wem on

Finding your Inner You

Many of us have two halves to our lives – work and home.  In your home life you can easily choose to experience more mindfulness and being present in your life.  We can also practice meditation, yoga, reiki which are all good for your body and soul.  The question is;

“How can you bring mindfulness into your hectic business day where your schedule is often not your own?”

This series of articles aims to give you some ideas, hints and tips to be used in your work life.  The first is;

You need to find a personal calmness when your environment is dynamic, fast moving and perhaps a little chaotic.  Sometimes it is easier to get swept up in this environment and add your energy to the swirl of activity.  However to be truly productive, effective and creative in your approach to your tasks and challenges, you need to undertake them from a personal point of calmness.

At work everyone expects you to look after your body, to ensure it has sufficient food and water along with a trip to the bathroom.  Why would anyone be surprised that you also need to look after your ‘inner you’ by allowing yourself to feel some calmness where you can reflect on your challenges.  It takes you to prioritise this need and to create five minutes to be in the now at work.

I had a great manager who regularly gave stand-up chats to his teams to ensure they were up-to-date with what we were doing,  making himself known to his teams and give them the chance to ask questions.  By nature he was an introvert so this style of leadership was a personal challenge to him.  Just before these stand-ups he used to turn his back on the open plan office, and gaze at a picture on the wall near his desk.  In that picture he found his calmness and received reassurance from his ‘inner you’.  Being in contact with his ‘inner you’ made him a better leader.  His teams loved him and were very loyal to him.

Each of us need to prioritise this need and to find our technique for finding calmness and connecting with our ‘inner you’ during the business day.  My manager found his approach, other approaches might include a short walk for reflection, a meditation or a period of pray.  All work well and most people in the office will not even notice you took five minutes out, but you will notice the difference in your own personal well being.

Alison Pooley-Wem – life coach, author and leadership consultant, MBCS CITP, former Business Transformation Director, IT Director, Programme Director who led major transformation programmes for corporate and multi-national organisations such as Amey PLC, Christies. News UK.

Alison is married with five grown-up children. Many of the techniques in her ‘leading yourself’ coaching and courses are based on her life experiences in her professional and family life. She retains a calmness and clarity enabling her to assess the right things to do.

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Life Lessons

How do I lead a soulful life?

There are always those things you feel you should get done but know in your heart you never will. Perhaps you agreed to arrange to meet someone you are not very keen on or its to clean out those dreaded items at the back of the wardrobe.

But what about those things that you know are important but can’t seem to get done?

How many times have you made a definite decision to do something?

There is no doubt – you are determined. Yet nothing happens. Why not?

Is your heart in agreement with your head?

You receive the promptings from your soul in your heart. Your soul encourages you to steer your life in the direction of your soul’s purpose. Time and energy spent on more mundane things in your life are of less interest to your soul.

Of course, you have the free will to listen to the promptings from your heart or to do the logical things which you want and need to do. We are all human, so there are basic things you need to do to live, such as provide a home and put food on the table. The Universe understands this, but is perhaps less excited by them.

Like many things, it is a case of balance.

You need time to be human, but you also need time to be with your soul and follow your soul’s purpose.

When you and your soul are aligned, you are at your most productive. Things just happen. What seemed impossible becomes possible. Doors seem to open and you are in the flow of life.

My experience is to be discerning on how you distribute your time and energy to tasks. Try giving a balanced amount to the human things you need to do and those that bring you joy, excitement and fun or help you along your spiritual path. If you become totally immersed in the former, there is no time left for the latter. It really is about you choosing your own priorities and consciously living your life as you want to. So many people are allowing themselves to be pulled in different directions by other people. The goal is to learn to;

Integrate soulful activities into your everyday life.

This is not as arduous as it sounds. Promptings from the heart are often about human behaviour. It may be as simple as saying thankful or helping someone who needs it.

When you feel in your heart something is right – this is the thing to do.

Life and Living

Back to work: how do you keep the relaxed feel from the break?

Many of us have now gone back to work.  After the long Festive break, you will be adjusting back to the relentless pace of business.

Stress resides not in the mind but in the nervous system. Our ‘fight or flight’ response raises our cortisol level causing the sympathetic nervous system to activate. Our bodies are designed for a raised cortisol level but only in short bursts to aid our survival. However in our modern ‘always on the go’ life style, many people live with chronic raised cortisol levels leading to slow digestion, sleep disruption and other side effects.

Rest and relaxation reduces our cortisol level.  Some will have achieved this in the long festive break, but the question is;

How do you maintain an appropriate cortisol level once you are back at work?

Taking a break of not less than 15 minutes has a big impact on your cortisol level.  These breaks can and should be simple such as a walk, a coffee and a magazine, sitting in a park, taking a bath, listening to some music.  All of these breaks should be discrete and separate.  There is little value in a break where you spend the entire time worrying about a problem.

 The aim of the break is to slow the mind, for calmness to arrive which then allows the body to relax. 15 minutes is all it takes. Try to decide where and how in your day you would get the most value from it.

Your concentration will improve which will increase your effectiveness and efficiency at work, well worth the 15 minutes.

Be kind to yourself – learn to relax

If you relate to this article and need some more help and guidance in your life – get in touch with Alison. Here are her contact details.

Click to contact me Here

Tel: +44 7966 137568  Email: alison.wem@yoursoulfamily.com

Available face-to-face or via WhatsApp/Zoom depending on your location.

Conscious Mind

Living with balance in your life

Finding balance in all you think, feel and do brings you calmness. In my experience, when you feel calmness there is much more clarity on who you are and what is happening in your life.

In the northern hemisphere the Spring Equinox is coming on the 21st March. It brings us out of winter and officially is the start of the spring season. But what exactly is the spring equinox? 

First, let’s get into the equinox, which actually occurs twice a year. We have already mentioned the Spring Equinox. Another equinox occurs on the 23rd September and takes us into autumn. The word equinox comes from Latin and means “equality of night and day.” So, the equinox occurs at two specific moments in time when the sun is exactly above the equator. 

The earth and the sun are poised briefly in balance with one another as if in a dance. Now is a good time to bring your life into balance. Find what your balance means. For example, is it between home and work, in a relationship, or perhaps even balance with yourself in how you treat yourself.

To achieve balance you need equal weight on either side with you being the pivotal point in the middle, much as a tight rope walker does. It is about finding the middle way so both halves of you feel heard and satisfied. This is more easily achieved from a point of calmness,

At Your Soul Family we use Soul Maps to gain insight into yourself and colouring of the Soul Map to bring in the calmness. You can find guidance on this approach here. It is one approach but there are others.

So the question is;

How do you find calmness and balance in our hectic 21st century lifestyle?

Needing some ideas? I recommend you read Karen Newell’s article on Finding Balance in an Erratic World

One approach is to listen to acoustic music which Sacred Acoustics offers. You can listen to their free training videos to appreciate what is involved, sample some sounds and answer questions you may have. View videos here

Karen Newell is co-founder of Sacred Acoustics and works with Eben Alexander, author of best selling books Living in a Mindful Universe, Proof of Heaven and The Map of Heaven.