The Mind for Better Mental Health organization assists people who experience mental health difficulties. They have put together a handy beginner’s guide to mindfulness. This document is useful for anyone interested in mindfulness and not limited to individuals diagnosed with psychological conditions.

These three mindfulness exercises compiled by Dr. Alberts include an introductory note, detailed exercises, and three guided meditation recordings.

 

 

The workplace presents unique challenges.

For example, certain types of behaviors and emotional responses toward a client are inappropriate and can cause employees emotional distress. We may have to sit stoically through an uncomfortable/unfair reprimand or restrain our disapproval of company decisions.

We often have to ‘keep calm.’ Being able to implement mindfulness in the workplace can be the solution when facing these challenges.

Here are some tips and interventions for mindfulness at work.

 

In situations that would typically provoke you, try the following three steps.

Specifically, try to look in on your thoughts and feelings without reworking the narrative of the situation (e.g., “But he placed the wrong order” or “I’m trying my best without support”). By adopting a meta-stance (Hülsheger et al., 2012), you can observe the situation without reacting to it.

 

The above technique is also useful during periods of stress or panic, especially when a deadline is looming. Try to step away from yourself mentally and observe your feelings and thoughts.

The intention is not to react to the anxiety but to recognize it, acknowledge it, and disengage from it. Try to avoid forming a cognitive narrative where you judge your feelings and behavior.

 

Up to this point, both tips have been focused inward by examining your thoughts and feelings. However, these techniques can also be focused outward.

For example, when talking to a client or a colleague, try to listen to what they are saying in its entirety before beginning to formulate a response. Try to adopt the same meta-stance that you would have taken toward yourself and adjust it toward them. This might help you to respond to their messages in a nonreactive manner.

 

Continue to practice mindfulness exercises at your desk at various points during the day.

 

Ultimately, tips 1 and 2 relate to awareness of your thoughts and feelings without judgment.

Awareness is not the same as stoicism; the intention is not to repress your feelings. You will experience feelings. You are human and you must feel, but try to avoid the feedback loop that normally further encourages negative thinking.

 

Up to this point, most of the tips have focused on the role and experiences of the employee; however, there is no reason why everyone in a team should not practice a mindfulness exercise.

There is some preliminary evidence that introducing a three-minute breathing exercise before a stand-up meeting results in better decision making, more productive meetings, better listening, good interactions, and more appropriate emotional responses (den Heijer, Koole, & Stettina, 2017).

This exercise could be completed as a group or individually before the meeting.

 

Earlier in this post, we touched on the relationship between anxiety, depression, and rumination.

Mindfulness is a very useful tool for combatting anxiety and stress, which in turn can reduce symptoms of depression (Brady & Kendall, 1992). The positive effect of mindfulness as a therapeutic intervention for anxiety and depression has been confirmed through a meta-analysis (Khoury et al., 2013).

 

There are numerous ways that mindfulness can be used to target anxiety. One such way is the mindfulness-based stress reduction program, which was first created by Kabat-Zinn (1990).

This program is a collection of exercises and tools that can be applied in everyday life. Some of these exercises and tools include:

These exercises and tools are a very important contribution to therapeutic interventions in psychology. Since Kabat-Zinn (1990) first developed the program, some of the tools and exercises that make up the program are also suggested as standalone exercises that can be performed at any time of the day and in any context.

For example, if you are feeling very anxious or stressed, try implementing any of these short exercises:

These two techniques can help you during periods of acute stress, but a more powerful device would be to foster a mindfulness habit now (when you are not stressed) so that you are less vulnerable in the future.

 

 

Mindfulness can be a useful technique for children and is easily integrated into the classroom.

To help you, we have summarized various methods that you can use as inspiration for introducing mindfulness in the classroom.

 

This exercise is more appropriate for younger children under the age of 10. In the classroom, introduce the concept of a Quiet Place. A Quiet Place is a place that children can access with their eyes open or closed, and in any environment.

This exercise is meant to help children find a place of solitude where they can collect their thoughts and practice deep breathing. I’ve adapted the instructions from Saltzman (n.d.):

 

Mindfulness is often taught with breathing techniques that use the breath as the anchor.

Asking children to ‘ground’ themselves with breathing might be too abstract a concept; instead, you could guide them through a calm, relaxed breathing exercise where they inhale for three seconds and then slowly exhale for three seconds.

Using imagery might help children to better understand a deep belly breath. To help illustrate, you could use a balloon as an example. Once the children know how to perform these deep breathing exercises, you can introduce this technique before stressful events (like a test) or if two children fight.

 

This exercise might work better for slightly older children over the age of 10.

The idea is that children are introduced to the PEACE concept (adapted from Saltzman, n.d.). Each letter in the acronym represents a different action. Children are taught that when they want to respond to a particular situation, they must perform each action that corresponds to each letter.

 

 

Introducing a yoga session could be a very useful way to introduce mindfulness. By linking yoga poses with animal names, children might find it easier to play along.

Many of the yoga poses already correspond with animals (e.g., cat pose, cow pose, downward-facing dog), and with some creative thinking, other poses could be renamed as animals (e.g., balasana, or child’s pose, could be a turtle).

Consider putting aside time before or at  the end of the school day to do 10 minutes of yoga with the children. During this period, also encourage children to breathe deeply or go to their Quiet Place during the pose.

 

Mindfulness and gratitude are two tools that work well together. Mindfulness encourages us to focus on the present in a nonjudgmental way, and gratitude encourages us to appreciate things that bring us joy. To foster a habit of experiencing gratitude, we first need to perceive what we are grateful for. To do this, we need to make the time.

One way to combine mindfulness and gratitude is through gratitude journaling. Every day, spend a short period writing down a list of things you are grateful for. This list can include material things, people, thoughts, experiences, or anything else that you can think of.

When writing down the list, spend extra time explaining why you are grateful for that experience and how it made you feel. Do not go overboard – a short sentence will do – but aim to deepen your experience of how you perceived this event.

Another option is to incorporate active gratitude into your mindfulness exercises. For example, mindfulness can help us to perceive negative experiences in a nonjudgmental way.

We can take this experience one step further by incorporating a gratitude element. In a way, we are finding a silver lining in that experience. The intention is not to downplay your feelings of a negative experience; instead where possible, find opportunities for gratitude.

 

 

Some Mindfulness Videos

To help you start your mindfulness journey, we have put together a list of videos.

 https://youtu.be/ZToicYcHIOU

Mindfulness Meditation for Kids | Breathing Exercise | Guided Meditation for Children