As a kid and young adult, I had no interest in exploring the meaning of terms like mindfulness and meditation. On our Wyoming cattle ranch, we had more important things to do than gaze at our navels and lose ourselves in thought. We fed and watered hundreds of head of cattle year-round in rough winters and sultry summers. In the winter, I helped my parents chop ice and feed hay; in the summer months, I helped grease bailers, haul hay and fix fences.
When animals depend upon you for food and water to keep them alive, it keeps you alert and focused. I learned to pay close attention and not let my mind wander while on horseback as I cut cattle from the herd. My focus needed to be singular as my horse, and I moved as one with the animal we needed to cull from the pack.
Fast forward to the FBI Academy, where my firearms instructor told me that when I pulled the trigger to hit a target, I would experience a Zen moment. Nothing could distract me as I found the front sight and focused on the target in front of me.
So, it was a surprise to learn that I had mindfully lived a good portion of my rough and unenlightened life! Mindfulness is the ability to focus on the present moment. As I cut cattle from the herd, I experienced non-judgmental awareness of my horse and the animal. As I qualified at firearms, I pushed all other thoughts to the side and focused all of my attention on the front sight of my gun.
What is mindfulness?
The ability to control unruly thoughts and behaviors captures the essence of mindfulness. Psychologist Ellen Langer describes mindfulness as the process of actively noticing new things. Therefore, it’s more than just “being in the moment.” It’s about recognizing what is unique at that moment and becoming more alert to context and perspective.
Otherwise, our mind wanders, and since our brain has an innate negativity bias, we fixate on the crap around us and then worry about how to solve it all. This creates stress, and that ugly monster will only grow as our attention continues to be fascinated by the next round of worries.
Mindfulness gained popularity in the US when University of Massachusetts professor Jon Kabat-Zinn introduced mindful meditation for those with chronic illnesses. This practice helped individuals manage their stress and change their approach to it. As a result, mindfulness allowed them to let go of worry and anxiety.
Before we look at how mindfulness can boost your life and career, it’s important to distinguish between meditation and mindfulness because they are often used interchangeably. Mindfulness describes a specific way of living that you can cultivate over time. On the other hand, meditation is a practice that uses various techniques, including mindfulness.
Our mind is the battlefield where the war for our emotions, purpose and fulfillment in life is either won or lost. If the mind is truly a battleground, how do we come out the winner?
The renewal of our minds can transform us. Being transformed by renewing our minds involves a combination of spiritual and psychological practices.
Here are three ways mindfulness will boost your life and career:
1. Reduce psychological stress
Stress, worry, chaos and anxiety are part of the human condition. It didn’t start with American politics, Supreme Court rulings or a pandemic. The world has seen worse over the centuries, so we’re reminded that reducing psychological stress is a worthy goal no matter where we live or what we do.
Stress is a killer. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, roughly two-thirds of hospital visits are for stress-related problems. Stress can cause high blood pressure, autoimmune diseases, cancer, heart disease, insomnia, depression, anxiety and more.
Mindfulness is an effective stress reliever because it influences both psychological and physiological processes. It moves you out of the fight-or-flight response and brings you into a relaxed state of mental clarity and calm.
Mindfulness hones our ability to be fully present, aware of where and what we’re doing and not get overwhelmed. It’s easier said than done, but the key is to pay attention to what is happening without judging it. We may be unable to change our situation, but mindfulness helps us change our response to it.
Mindfulness trains the mind to stay present, improving focus and concentration, reducing distractions and increasing productivity. This can indirectly relieve stress linked to work or tasks. By creating space between ourselves and our experiences, we can lessen anxiety.
How to make it work for you:
- Allow yourself to feel and acknowledge worries, anxiety and irritations.
- Explore the underlying reasons for your stress, worry and frustrations.
- Acknowledge the causes for what they are. Understanding them helps create a sense of space and distance around your concerns.
- Engage with a community that supports spiritual growth and encourages the renewal of the mind.
2. Sharpen your thinking
When you focus on the present moment, you train your brain to remove all the garbage that clogs up your thinking and frees up space to retain what is valuable and essential. So much junk is thrown at us these days that it can be difficult to sort solid gold from gold-plated.
Mindfulness allows us to improve our focus; when we’re more aware, we don’t miss a beat.
With mounting pressures in life and business, we often default to a gadfly approach that flits from one task to another. Studies have shown that multi-tasking is not efficient if the work is essential because the quality of our work can suffer. Mindfulness requires us to return repeatedly to the present moment to become more focused.
It can help you become an expert.
In other words, mindfulness is attention training. Neuroscience shows that this daily practice can boost the areas of the brain involved in the regulation of attention. Multitasking is a vicious myth that prevents us from getting our work done effectively.
The goal of mindfulness isn’t to empty the mind. Instead, it is to pay close attention to one’s emotions, thoughts and behavior and understand them more clearly.
“Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is lovely and commendable; if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” – Philippians 4:8
How to make it work for you:
- Notice your thoughts. Which ones rob you of living in the present moment? Write them down and record how they seep into your daily thoughts.
- Don’t judge those thoughts. They are signposts that point to the areas of your life that need attention.
- Question your thoughts. When negative emotions like worry or anxiety start to rear their ugly head, use them as a reminder to examine what is causing them.
3. Increase Emotional Intelligence
Emotional Intelligence (EI) affects how we manage our thoughts, emotions and behavior to make both personal and professional decisions. EI is our ability to recognize and understand emotions in ourselves and others and use this awareness to manage our behavior and relationships.
Mindfulness will help you become more aware of your feelings, especially around the idiot you disagree with or dislike. You may become more aware of a faster heart rate as your negative emotions float to the surface. This puts you in a better position to choose your response rather than spit out a gut reaction. Who knows? Maybe the one you perceive as an idiot is insecure about their future or has nagging in-laws, and you are the one left in the wake of their hostility.
Mindfulness allows us to experience the life that comes from victory in our minds. It enables us to approach our work as leaders, envisioning a bigger and better future.
Mindful people have more emotional awareness, are more understanding and cope better in frustrating situations. Studies show that mindfulness helps people view situations from multiple perspectives and respond in fresh and novel ways.
How to make it work for you:
- Create body awareness: Notice the subtle sensations of your gut, often your body’s early warning system.
- Focus attention: This helps you remain in the moment and not flash forward to the future or ruminate about the past.
- Pay attention to yourself: Our lives are not permanent and static; ongoing events change how we think and behave.
There’s no secret behind any mindfulness practice. Any activity can become mindful if we focus on what is before us. Jon Kabat-Zinn often uses the example of sitting down to a meal and practicing mindful eating: look at your food, smell it, notice different tastes and textures and savor the moment!
You can live mindlessly or mindfully. The choice is yours.
Opinions expressed by SmartBrief contributors are their own.
____________________________________
Take advantage of SmartBrief’s FREE email newsletters on leadership and business transformation, among the company’s more than 250 industry-focused newsletters.