Chapter 19

Ten Ways to be Mindful in a Minute

In This Chapter

Eating and drinking mindfully

Being smart with your smart phone

Enjoying small pleasures

Being aware of and responsive to your body

Start Your Day with an Energising, Mindful Shower

A busy woman, attending one of my (Juliet’s) eight-week mindfulness courses told me that she starts each day with a shower. As soon as she steps in the shower her mind starts to race. She overthinks interactions with staff and clients that haven’t gone to plan. She tries to plan her day, anticipating what may happen and how she should respond. The more she tries to make sense of her thoughts, the less clear things become, inducing a mild state of panic. As she steps out of the shower and dries herself, she continues to mull over the day ahead and worry. She arrives at work primed to deal with possible problems and conflicts, with a knotted feeling in her stomach.

I asked her what she remembered about her shower, the shampoo she had used, the scent of the body wash and the feeling of water on her skin – she couldn’t recall any of it! She spends her time in the shower in the past and future, and completely misses out on the present-moment experience.

Try starting your day with a minute of mindful showering because mindful showering:

• Is good way to give your brain a short break from overthinking
• Helps you relax and see things more clearly
• Feels good!

The mindful element of your shower can last for as little as a minute or for the full duration. Follow these steps:

1. Get in the shower.
2. Notice how your skin feels as the water pours over it. Is it tingling? Is it hot or cold?
3. Observe any emotions you experience. Maybe you feel a sense of pleasure as you start to relax; maybe shock if the water is too cold. Possibly you feel tense if you’re in a hurry to get to work or perhaps all this extra attention you’re paying to the present-moment experience of showering makes you feel uncomfortable. Just notice what’s there – no need to fix it or change it – just experience everything that’s going on in this present moment.
4. Pause to notice the texture of the products you apply to your skin or hair. Notice their scent. Explore the experience as a scientist may, with openness and curiosity. Is the sensation of washing your hair pleasurable? Does the smell of the shampoo evoke any memories? Does the texture of the shower gel feel good on your skin?
5. Leave the shower feeling refreshed in mind and body, ready to face your day.

Begin with a Mindful Moment

Do you commute to work by car or public transport? At times the journey can be slow and frustrating. As a result, you enter work holding tension in your body. Not a great start to the day!

When discussing mindful working practices on my (Juliet’s) mindfulness at work courses, participants often struggle to think of ways that they can incorporate mindfulness into their busy working day. In large organisations, most people have networked computers. These often seem to take an age to boot up first thing in the morning, which can be another source of frustration.

Waiting for the computer to boot up can be a great excuse for a minute (or more!) of mindfulness. If you’re sitting in an office chair facing your PC, your colleagues probably won’t even notice that you’re practising mindfulness. Bonus! Starting the day with a mindful moment helps you let go of any tension or negativity you’ve brought into the building with you.

1. Switch on your computer.
2. Sit on your chair facing your computer in a comfortable, upright position. Place your feet on the floor and rest your arms comfortably.
3. Shut your eyes or hold them in soft focus.
4. Do one or all the following, depending on how much time you’ve available:
   • Observe any thoughts going around in your head as ‘just mental processes’.
   • Identify any bodily tension you may be holding. If you find any, try relaxing the area and letting the tension go.
   • Notice any emotions you’re experiencing. Remember that emotions, just like thoughts, are simply mental processes. Notice the emotions but don’t try to make them go away or change; just accept that this state is where your emotions are at the present moment.
5. Open your eyes and start your working day afresh.

Enjoy a Mindful Coffee

At present, no one has brought to market a ‘mindful coffee’ – or ‘mindful tea’ for that matter! Maybe it’s only a matter of time.

Whatever you like to drink at work, it can be a great excuse for bringing some mindfulness as well as hydration into your day. In the same way as taking a mindful pause when switching on your PC, you can take a mindful pause when drinking your favourite hot or cold drink – no one will notice and you’ll feel the benefits.

Why drink mindfully? Well, drinking mindfully:

• Trains your brain to focus a spotlight of attention on exactly where you want it to be (in this case, your cuppa!)
• Slows down or stops excessive thinking and brain chatter
• Helps you step back and see things more clearly
• Makes the coffee (or tea or fruit juice) more enjoyable
• Is quick and easy to do

A big part of mindfulness is paying present-moment attention to what you’re doing. Simply apply this principle to the first minute of drinking your drink. Observe the aroma, texture, temperature and taste. Notice what’s going on in your mouth and throat as you swallow; how your hand holds and brings the cup to your lips; and the movement of your lips and tongue as you drink. If you find this little exercise a bit tricky, try using your other hand to hold and lift the cup to your lips. Because it feels unnatural, the experience is completely different – do watch out for drips and spills, though!

Use your Phone to Become More Mindful

Smart phones are great. You can use them to surf the net, check emails, take photos, order a pizza, watch TV or even make a phone call. This kind of technology is supposed to make life easier but can actually make it harder than it needs to be. In mindfulness classes, I (Juliet) often hear people saying they’re on sites like Facebook into the early hours and then feel tired the next morning when they get up for work. Others find it hard to sleep after getting wound up and stressed over friends’ comments posted online. I was bemoaning the dangers of Facebook to a psychotherapist friend recently and her response was, ‘Facebook is great! It brings me so much work!’

So how can your mobile phone make you more mindful? Simple – find a mindfulness app that works for you.

The Mindfulness Bell is a simple app. You just set it to go off at various intervals during the day (every 30 minutes, every hour or two hours – whatever suits). When the bell rings, you simply stop what you’re doing and pause for a minute’s mindfulness. Simple as that! Breaking up your day in this way helps train your brain to become more mindful, and can have a transformative effect on your working day.

You can select the bell or gong you like or, if you work in a quiet environment, a ‘vibrate only’ option is available. Download the Mindfulness Bell from: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.googlecode.mindbell

Eat Lunch Mindfully

As you approach the middle of your working day, lunch is a wonderful opportunity for a minute or more of mindfulness. It makes no difference what your lunch is or where you eat it, you can always sneak in mindfulness.

1. Spend a few seconds observing your lunch. Identify the colours, textures and aromas.
2. Observe the impact of this observation on your body or emotions. Are you starting to salivate in anticipation of tucking in or does your lunch leave you unexcited?
3. Notice and explore the textures and flavours of the food as you chew and swallow. Spend a few moments more than you usually do on this activity.
4. Check whether you’re actually still hungry from time to time or if you’re just eating for eating’s sake. This simple mindful check can save you both money and inches.

Try to make a few moments of each meal a journey of discovery into the present-moment enjoyment of food.

Be Mindful of Sounds

Lunchtime, or any other time of the day in fact, is a great opportunity to train your brain to notice sounds and the impact that they have on you. Sounds are all around you at work – in the room, elsewhere in the building, outside and even from time to time in your body.

In A Book of Silence, Sara Maitland describes her quest to find just that. She visited Skye in the Inner Hebrides, the Sinai desert, forests and mountains. She bobbed about in a flotation tank, stayed in monasteries and sat in libraries. She discovered that, even in these quiet places, she was still surrounded by sounds.

Although some sounds can be frustrating at times, they provide great everyday opportunities for mindfulness. I (Juliet) once started a workshop with a mindful pause, at the end of which one delegate commented, ‘You know I’ve been coming to meetings in this room for the last six years and I’ve never noticed that the clock on the wall ticks!’ You’ll be amazed at what you notice when you really focus your attention on what’s around you.

1. Close your eyes or hold them in soft focus.
2. Focus on the sounds around you. Try to just observe them as sounds without attaching meaning to them or judging them as good or bad.
3. Notice new sounds as they appear and vanish. Also observe the pauses between them.
4. Observe any thoughts that pop into your head. Acknowledge them, let them go and refocus on sounds.
5. Notice your emotional responses. Do certain sounds induce tension or anxiety? Observe where you hold this tension and anxiety in your body and try to let it go.
6. Open your eyes and start work newly refreshed when your minute is up. Set a timer at the start if you feel the need.

Appreciate the Good

Humans tend to have an inbuilt negativity bias. As a result, we’re much quicker to spot potential problems than opportunities. We tend to focus on the negative rather than the positive.

On a recent eight-week mindfulness at work course for NHS staff, I (Juliet) asked participants to think of some good things that had happened to them at work in the previous week. I was met with a wall of silence. One woman told me that she felt like a brain plugged into her computer. I asked the participants if their actions or expertise had been able to help any of their patients. Some great examples then emerged. I asked them if these experiences gave any of them a sense of personal achievement or mastery, and they started to realise that many of their encounters with patients did indeed make a real difference and made them feel good about their work. Until that point they had rarely allowed themselves to stop and appreciate those precious moments.

As we discussed other aspects of their work, the participants started to recognise that, although their current work environment was tough and they were dealing with constant change, there were many things to feel good about. They just hadn’t noticed them. As home practice, I asked them to try to notice things that made them feel good at work and home. I suggested that they should pause to mindfully appreciate them and derive as much benefit from these moments as possible.

Why did I ask them to do this activity? When you feel negative, or blame yourself for something, you tend to activate your body’s fight or flight response. As a result, you may find it increasingly difficult to step back and see the bigger picture. When you do something you really enjoy and that makes you feel good, you activate your body’s rest and relaxation response, which decreases or switches off your threat response. You can then regain your equilibrium.

Next week one participant told me that for years her kids came down each morning and asked for a hug, which she found mildly irritating as she was in a rush to get them fed and ready for school. The next week she paused to appreciate that hug moment. She said ‘it felt sooo good, and it did not delay my morning in any way’.

The next time you encounter something good or pleasurable (however small or trivial), pause for a moment to fully experience it. Notice how it makes you feel. If it makes you smile, explore how smiling feels. When you actively seek them out, you’ll start to notice these little feel- good incidents throughout your day. If you take a few moments to fully appreciate each one, you’ll be amazed by how much your outlook on life changes.

Notice the Interplay between Your Thoughts, Emotions and Physiology

Thoughts, emotions and bodily sensations (physiology) are tightly linked and have a huge impact on one another. If your body is feeling tense, it is going to have an impact on your behaviour and the decisions you make. If you feel unhappy, you may find it difficult to think positive thoughts. If the hour is late and you’re feeling tired, you may not be doing your best work. In fact you may be working in the zone of delusion (see Chapter 5) – working harder and harder to get things done but achieving little.

If you’re struggling to get things done, just stop and practice a little mindfulness. It may feel counter-intuitive at first, but it really works!

Become More Body Aware

You may feel disconnected from your body at times. Many people treat their body as an enemy – getting annoyed because it won’t always do what they want it to do. This situation may be even worse if, like many people, you don’t like the way your body looks.

Work can feel so all-consuming and important that you neglect or forget your body. Quite a number of people on my (Juliet) mindfulness at work courses have told me that they often put off going to the toilet because their work seems more important. They later end up sprinting to the toilet, legs crossed and desperately hoping that a cubicle is free.

If your body feels okay, it’s one less thing for your mind to subconsciously worry about. If your body feels good, you’ll find it easier to focus and concentrate and you may also feel more positive.

At regular intervals in the day pause to see how your body feels. Mindfully stretch your legs under the table, stand up or make an excuse to take a short walk somewhere. Re-learn how to listen to your body and start to work with it rather than against it.

Move Mindfully

Plenty of opportunities for mindful movement present themselves each day. Many people find the act of focusing on their body in the present moment an effective way of remaining focused. Below are a few tips to help you spend a mindful moment focused on body movement.

• As you arrive home at night, really observe and notice your last few steps as you approach your front door. Notice all the muscles and movements involved in opening your door, stepping through it and closing it behind you.
• As you get changed, really observe and notice the movements your body is making. What parts of your body are involved? How do they move? How do your clothes feel? Can you identify the different textures?
• As you cook supper, spend a moment noticing the movements involved as you reach up and grab things, use utensils and handle food.
• If you go to the gym, really notice the muscles you use when you stretch. Observe your body’s movements when you use the running machine or cross-trainer.
• If you go swimming, really notice the experience as your body moves through the water. What are your hands, legs and feet doing? How does the water feel as you glide through it?
• If you take your dog for a walk, take ten mindful steps. Really notice how you’re walking, how your weight shifts and how your feet feel on different surfaces.

Hopefully this chapter has given you plenty of ideas about how you can practise mindfulness in a minute throughout your day. Try a few and see what works best for you. A little mindfulness can go a long way!