Start Work

Need some motivation to hit play? Let mindfulness save the day. This practice is designed to help prime you to start work. It is part of The Deloitte Meditation Series, a range of quick and easy mindfulness practices created by Emily Toner in collaboration with Deloitte Australia. This practice helps you to live your life with more presence, wellbeing, and ease and is designed to be weaved effortlessly into a busy working day. Try it out with your teams, try it out for yourself, and please get in touch with any feedback or stories you have in using the series. We would love to hear them.

Transcript

Sitting in a comfortable position,

Legs uncrossed and hands resting in your lap.

Close down your eyes.

Notice your posture and how you're sitting.

Move to become more comfortable if you need.

Notice the muscles around your eyes and brow,

Jaw,

Shoulders,

Hands and feet.

Take a deep breath and let go.

Tune into your breath.

How fast or slow are you breathing?

Is the breath up high in the chest or is it down low in the tummy?

Without needing to change things in any way,

Just notice how you're feeling in this moment.

Is there a sense of agitation or irritation,

Pressure,

Apathy,

Dullness or a sense of calm?

And can you just be with whatever your experience is in this moment without needing to change it in any way?

Now that we've checked in,

Let's take a minute to cultivate the best possible conditions for effective,

Productive,

Innovative work.

We want to be alert but not stressed.

Calm but not dulled.

Bring your awareness to the breath filling your whole body.

Can you bring a kind of relaxed focus to the way your whole body rises and the whole body falls with each breath?

And then try narrowing your focus to just the breath in your tummy and chest.

Notice how one fills than the other and the breath turns.

One empties than the other.

Once more,

Try narrowing your focus to just a pinpoint,

A place at the base of the nostrils where the air moves in and out.

Narrow,

Relaxed focus on just this place.

How effortlessly can you allow your awareness to rest here?

Notice if you're trying or straining too hard to focus and just let go.

Sometimes in trying less we can achieve more.

Notice how simple it has been to create a feeling of relaxed presence.

You're now ready to start work.

Reviews

I love the whole meditation, especially the last line “you are now ready to start work”. It really helps cultivate an environment of alert and calm focus. Thank you! 🙏

Thank you for this window into calm productivity. Namaste

Bliss, peace, tranquility, safe- I’m ready. Thank you 🙏🏽 💫🙏🏽💫

Great short meditation to set you in the right mindset

This helped me transition my focus before starting work.

Really enjoyed this and found it really worked well thank you 🙏

Sound quality and voice are great. Generous silent pauses.

Perfect amount of time to recenter. I thought it was great advice to think about towards the ending of the meditation.

2/23/23 - Quite Nice!!

I now feel ready to take on the day, thank you Emily 🙏🏾☀️

Wow, this is the perfect focus - I appreciate your sharing and wisdom. Thank you

Great motivator to get yourself in an ideal mindset before any kind of work

My mind is clear and I am ready to start an intense study session.

Very beautiful present moment meditation. Thank you.

Surprisingly helpful for only 6 mins! I can often "lose myself" in my work and this really helped tune into myself and feel grounded before starting work.

Your voice and timing were wonderful. Starting my 2nd day of a new job. This has helped prepare me through and through. Thank you 🙏

Probably one of the top time spent meditating to relaxation ratios out there. Very efficient at getting you calm and focused

thank you.. wonderful tool

Great way to start the work day! I'm going to pass along to my colleagues who may also benefit from it. Thank you 🙏

Perfect to become aware of the moment and start work!