With mindfulness through stormy times
Mindfulness seems to be the new buzzword. But what is behind this term? And how can mindfulness help us to master challenging situations in our everyday professional and private lives?
Our working world is changing rapidly, and one thing has been certain since the start of the pandemic at the latest: many aspects of the new way of working, such as the flex office, leading at a distance and collaboration in virtual teams, are here to stay. They support the change in the working world and digitization. Nevertheless, these changes pose challenges for people in the company. Humans like routines because their brains primarily prefer to use the familiar pathways in the neural network. Rapid changes challenge the human brain, because new thinking and action costs a lot of energy.
Mindfulness is a way to support the brain in meeting change and cultivating space for new thinking and action. In this way, mindfulness can also support people who need to adapt to new ways of working at high speed.
Mindfulness - completely in the here and now
What do we actually mean by mindfulness? Mindfulness is being present in the present moment, non-judgmentally and with compassion. It is a state of alertness, of being there.
That sounds quite simple. But let's look at modern everyday life: How much time are we all there? After all, we spend most of our time analyzing the past in order to draw conclusions for the future. Or we make plans for the next day and align our actions with strategies.
Our brain thinks up to 70,000 thoughts a day. 70% of these are repetitive thoughts, 27% are anxious and negative thoughts, and approximately 3% are new thoughts. The repetitive mental analysis of the past combined with worries about certain scenarios repeating themselves is therefore quite natural. The danger, however, is that we get lost in the swirling thoughts and forget how it feels to be in the present moment.
Mindfulness methods such as meditation, yoga or qigong help us to create presence. Especially in challenging times like the current crisis, in which the brain constantly receives impulses to worry from the media and the personal environment, mindfulness methods can promote mental well-being.
Countering the whirlwind of thoughts in the home office
Many employees have been in a home office for almost a year. Some have to keep other balls in the air there besides their professional tasks, such as homeschooling or caring for elderly family members. Add to that the significant increase in digital time spent in front of screens and in video conferences. While the balance of exercise is decreasing, stress and pressure are increasing. But many people are often not even aware of this.
Being clear about the prevailing feelings and physical sensations can also help in the home office to counter tensions and not let them accumulate too much. The following exercises help here:
- Look at the horizon: Use pauses to let your gaze rest on the horizon or in the distance. Do not focus your eyes, but let your gaze become gentle. This exercise calms the autonomic nervous system, creating presence and calm. At the same time, the digitally stressed eyes relax.
- Breath Anchor: Take three deep breaths in and out. Count to 4 on the inhale and 6 or 8 on the exhale. The breath is a wonderful way to come into the present moment and create focus.
Mindful leadership also works at a distance
Leadership has long been viewed as a hierarchical mandate that had to be enforced from the top down. Even though those days are long gone, many managers still experience a kind of powerlessness when they suddenly no longer see their employees in the office. They seem to lose control. New ways of working also mean empowering employees and expressing trust. In a highly complex working world in which new knowledge is constantly being generated, a single manager can neither oversee all the interrelationships nor expect himself to always make the best decision alone.
Mindfulness can help leadership relinquish control and move more into trust:
- The power of gratitude: Start the team meeting with a round of everyone sharing what they are grateful for. As the leader, get it started. This lifts the team's spirits and expresses appreciation.
- Retrospective: At the end of a meeting (digital and real), reflect together with the group on who has had what share of the conversation. In this way, create space for everyone to actively participate in the conversation. That is enablement!
- Blue sky: As a leader, allow yourself short meditation breaks. Imagine for 5 minutes that your thoughts are passing by like clouds in the sky. This makes you aware that not every stimulus has to be followed by a reaction.
Mindfulness in the team creates cohesion
More and more often today, we hear about psychological safety. Among other things, the concept highlights the importance of feeling safe in a team to talk about mistakes, address emotions, and thus develop individually and collectively. Teams that have developed these skills are more efficient, collaborative and motivated.
Mindfulness creates a foundation for cultivating this kind of safety in a team. The good news is: it can be practiced together in both real and virtual space:
- Morning meditations with reflection: Starting the day together - once a week, for example - with a joint meditation increases mental well-being, focus and the ability to concentrate. This also works digitally!
- The virtual scavenger hunt: Take time once a month for teambuilding. The virtual scavenger hunt is fun and invites conversation. Here, everyone collects e.g. "something red", "something inspiring", "something funny" in two minutes and then shares what the things are all about.
Developing future capabilities means working and acting mindfully
The article shows: Mindfulness is more than esotericism and incense. When we talk about a new world of work today, it also means that we need new skills to actively shape the digital transformation. These skills include resilience and mental well-being, empathy, the ability to change, and digital skills. Mindfulness can be a way to develop these skills as an employee, as a leader, as a team, and as an organization. This creates new opportunities for everyone in the company to actively participate - in a future-oriented and sustainable way. In the course of this, leadership is also allowed to change naturally and become a shared process that ultimately serves the entire company in its growth process.
Mindfulness
The method of mindfulness goes back to a Far Eastern meditation practice. It aims to concentrate on the moment with all senses and to remain in the here and now. In the meantime, various service providers such as. myndway Mindfulness trainings for companies, also digitally.
Author
Dr. Martina Weifenbach is a pioneer in linking digital innovation, new work and mindfulness. She is author of "Mindfulness and Innovation in Integrated Organizations", executive coach and founder of myndway. The goal of myndway.com is to bring mindfulness and agility into companies.
More information: https://myndway.com
