Mindfulness is an idea that was adopted from the Buddhist 8-fold noble path. Right mindfulness is one of the aspects on this path that was noted as being important to ending suffering in our lives. Mindfulness has been isolated in the field of psychology and executive coaching because it is immediately accessible and has empirically demonstrated beneficial results. In truth, if we maintain right mindful awareness the other aspects of the 8-fold path (right speech, right concentration, right action, right effort, right view) take care of themselves. There is another important pillar on this path that I believe stands out prominently for our purposes today, right livelihood.
Most any job can be “right” regardless of how we may feel about the work in the moment we are doing it. It may not be our dream job, but it is the thing we are doing now. We may have plans to change careers, but it is the thing we are doing now. Conversely it may in fact be our dream job but we feel disconnected from it for some reason. By bringing mindfulness into the workplace we can create Right Livelihood for ourselves.
Uchiyama Roshi, a 20th century Zen master, in his book Opening the Hand of Thought, spoke extensively about the idea that to be fully present and fully ourselves we must live the life that is the life. This idea may seem obvious, but it is not an easy practice. Many of us spend our days at work thinking of what we will do when we get home in the evening, what to make for dinner, when our next vacation is coming, etc. Then on the other side of that, in the morning, when our alarm clock rings we procrastinate, hit the snooze button, and immediately start thinking about coming home at the end of the day. These are thoughts we all have had. They are often secret thoughts because we want our employees, employers and/or coworkers to feel we are fully engaged and committed. Indeed, even carrying these thoughts with us we may think that we are fully engaged and committed. But we lose something with these thoughts. We lose our grounding in the here and now, we lose our mindfulness. We are living in a fantasy or a dream, rather than living the life that is the life, as it is happening in this very moment. Ultimately this affects the bottom line.
By cultivating mindfulness and right livelihood into our daily work we begin to see that work is not life, but work is a part of life. If we do not attend to these hours of our life we lose them. We are not living life as it is presenting itself to us in this moment. Not only this but we are not as happy, efficient, or creative. It is easier to be mindful when we are on vacation or on a meditation retreat in the mountains, but how do we bring this mindful awareness into our daily work routines?
I have constructed a few tips, based on these ideas, to help you bring this mindfulness into your work and workplace.
Be Mindful
Mindfulness is simply paying attention to what is happening right now, intentionally. The deepest way to practice this is through meditation. Many people do not feel they have the time to practice formal meditation to cultivate mindfulness. Shukhraj Dhillon is famously quoted as saying, “You should sit in meditation for twenty minutes every day - unless you're too busy; then you should sit for an hour.” While I put this quote here as a half joke, I think we should also take it half seriously. For busy people there are many, many times during the day that we could meditate. Meditation does not have to consists of a 20 or 30-minute block of time, it can consist of four 5-minute sessions, or even 20 one-minute sessions throughout the day. This can be the one minute at the copy machine or waiting for your computer to boot up in the morning. This could even be walking meditation as you make your way to your coworker’s office, or from your car to the front door. During these times straighten your spine, let your eyes rest at about a 45-degree gaze, rest your hands in your lap or clasp them in front of you. Then, watch your breath (or your footsteps if walking). Just be with your breath. Just breathe in and breathe out. When your thoughts wonder, just bring them back to your breath. That’s it, it is that simple.
See what you’re doing clearly
With right view we can learn to begin seeing the work we are doing for what it is. We can see the deeper connections that our work has for the world. By focusing on how our work can benefit not just ourselves but our fellow human beings we can begin to see what we value about our work. Through this right view our perception of work changes, it can become more meaningful. Even tasks like refilling a sticky note container or putting paper in the copy machine take on new importance. Even these seemingly menial tasks allow the larger aspects of our work to manifest. Every action is connected to the larger goal of our jobs and ultimately our organizations.
Watch your mind
When we are mindful our thoughts are with what we are doing. If you are writing a report, just write a report. If you are in a meeting, be in the meeting. When your thoughts wonder off to dinner or your next promotion you are not fully engaged with your activity. Bring your thoughts back to what you are doing now. Then later when you are at dinner, be at dinner. Also, when we have negative thoughts like, “this job is boring”, “my boss hates me”, “I will never be promoted” we water the seeds of discontent. If thoughts like these arise, bring your attention back to exactly what you are doing in this moment. The more fully engaged you are in your current activity the less room there will be in your mind for negative thoughts and the less negative thinking you do the more content you will be with what you are doing.
Boiling all this down; when you are at work, just be at work.
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