Mindfulness Daily At Work

To start off the course, Jack introduces the key skills you’ll need as a foundation for mindfulness training for work. The first step is exploring the concept of pausing to become more present. The stresses brought about by work makes it easy to lose connection to ourselves and what truly matters - the present, where life actually takes place.

On the first day, we explored the process of arriving in presence by pausing to become more aware of our states of mind. But the many demands of work tends to hinder this from becoming our habitual way of being. In Day 2, we touch on how to pivot from the cacophony of stress to consciously choosing, not just to pause, but to actually relax.

In our workdays, we are often lost in worry about future tasks that we’re no longer able to focus on what’s in front of us. The habit of being lost in thought can also mean missing out on parts of your work that make a difference. Today, Jack explains how to be mindful of our senses in order to better engage with and experience life.

Today, Tara speaks about the key predictor for whether mindfulness will be a rewarding experience or a struggle - the attitude of friendliness. To get an idea of how mindfulness will work for you, reflect on how you generally treat yourself, especially during times when you’re anxious and stressed. This opens the door to how you can nurture your attitude of friendliness.

This session focuses on the most universal of mindfulness practices. Jack discusses how connecting with this primal function does wonders for calming and steadying our attention and improving our ability on whatever we’re doing - even amidst the chaos that often pervades work. This awareness allows us to be more mindful wherever we may be.

By now, you might have a sense that with mindfulness training, living, learning and working with greater vibrancy are increasingly available as you arrive in a relaxed and clear presence. In this session, we work to develop a skill that’s central to remaining present in any endeavor - the ability to steady and calm your mind.

As you practice mindfulness of breathing, you may notice that the breath changes depending on your thoughts and feelings. In this session, Jack provides pointers on how to be better acquainted with your breath in every situation you may face.

In the past lessons, we discussed the integral role mindful breathing plays in the ability to be more mindful at work, and life in general. Today, we work on furthering that relationship with the breath - noticing the gaps in the breath and learning to be comfortable in dwelling in those moments of stillness.

For the next four sessions, we now widen the experience of mindfulness of our body by exploring the realm of physical sensations in a direct, non-judgmental way. Mindfulness of the body at work allows you to gain deeper insight into sensations and emotions in the body. These provide invaluable data that can feed your everyday performance.

As we mindfully experience the actual sensations in our body, we’re planting ourselves fully in our own lives - at work, at home, and in all domains. Today, we’ll do a mindful survey of our body. This allows us to find sensations that we’re generally unaware of, which in turn enables us to develop a deeper relationship with our bodies.

There’s a simple reason why mindfulness of the body translates into being more mindful in our lives - your body is always present in the living moment. In this session, Jack delves into how performing a body scan allows you to find a deep sense of peace where both the body and mind are in the same space.

In this session, Tara opens with the questions: “What is happening in my body right now?” “Can I let this be?” Noticing what you’re experiencing in your body redirects your attention inward, allowing you to connect more fully with the life within you. This allows us to respond to ourselves and others with more clarity, compassion, and empathy.

In the previous sessions, we worked to develop noticing and feeling the different sensations in the body. But what happens when we come across intense sensations such as pain? Today, Jack discusses how mindfulness can give you more control over how you respond to these kinds of sensations with greater ease.

In this part of the course, we extend our mindfulness of the breath and body to the whole river of human emotions and feelings that continually flows through our lives. Today, we lay the foundations for being able to better navigate these feelings and emotions, allowing us to better maneuver life.

Naming of emotions is a powerful tool in developing mindfulness. This allows us to have a better grasp of what it is we’re actually feeling with a non-judging mindfulness. Today, Jack touches on how naming emotions and feelings allows you to acknowledge them without being overwhelmed by them.

After acknowledging and naming emotions, this session tackles how to actually work with these strong feelings and emotions. Whether it’s reacting to a difficult coworker or an overly controlling boss, it starts with recognizing the challenges brought about by these feelings and emotions, then eventually understanding how to work with and not around them.

In the past few sessions, we’ve developed our awareness and dealings with emotions, particularly difficult ones. Today, we focus on positive emotions like gratitude, confidence, and inner strength. The practice of deliberately cultivating kindness has shown to be especially effective in enhancing these emotions. Fostering positive emotions allows us to transform our approach toward work and all other aspects of life.

In these next few sessions, we’ll be exploring bringing mindful attention to thinking. Our thoughts are like a waterfall - unceasing in its flow. When we don’t recognize our thoughts, we can be driven by our tedious thoughts, like worry. But when we’re able to acknowledge our thoughts, like we do with emotions, we’re better equipped to navigate them.

As your mindfulness practice opens to include awareness of thoughts, you might find yourself considering your thinking as an adversary - the unwanted distraction to a good meditation. But thinking is natural - it is essential. In this lesson, Jack helps us understand how to nurture a wise relationship with our thoughts.

Some thoughts are easier to become more aware of than others. As you develop the skill to become more present in the moment, you worry less about things like a troubling conversation you had at work. In this session, Tara guides us in how to manage these types of sticky thoughts.

When we start a mindfulness practice, we’re often caught in the internal dialogue it entails. But it’s the gaps within those thoughts that are filled with the brightness and openness of awareness. In this session, Jacks touches on how to live beyond the limiting beliefs instilled by our thoughts, enabling us to thrive in the vibrant, alive presence beyond thoughts.

In this session, we’ll bring together the mindfulness training you’ve worked with so far into one unifying practice - your core practice. This uses the power of mindfulness and kind attention to notice experience just as it is with a spacious, non-judging attention.

Today, we’ll explore how mindfulness can help unhook you from one cluster of thoughts of feelings that can be particularly difficult - self-judgment. Even on the path toward mindfulness, you come across instances when you judge yourself. Here, Tara helps

The times when we’re most caught in reactivity are the times we are least inclined to call on mindfulness. It’s hard to be present when we’re angry, scared or hurt. Today, Tara shares a mindfulness tool that helps us deal with these emotions: RAIN - Recognize what’s happening, Allow life to be, Investigate your experience with gentle attention, Nurture with kindness.

At one point or another, everyone deals with a storm of difficult emotions such as fear, trauma or despair where mindfulness may not even be possible. When our coping strategies are overwhelmed, we feel powerless. In this session, Tara discusses how to use our inner resources to deal with utterly intense emotions.

In this session, we’ll explore the beginner’s mind - the mind that sees with fresh eyes, with interest and openness, the many possibilities. This is an excellent way to approach different facets of work while opening us to a natural joy for almost everything we do.

One of the great benefits of a mindfulness practice is that you have more and more access to a more spacious quality of mind. When your mind is spacious, it doesn’t get disturbed by passing thoughts and feelings. This allows you to be clear and non-reactive even when you’re in the midst of potential stressors at work. Today, Tara helps us gain access to this spacious awareness.

All across life, there are ups and downs that we enjoy and need to deal with. In this session, Jack discusses developing equanimity, or the composure to deal with the good and the bad - responding to it all with a peaceful heart, clarity, and wisdom.

We tend to define ourselves by our successes and failures. In this session, Tara discusses how to go beyond this by focusing on the ocean of awareness, which allows us to shift our perspective by investigating awareness itself. When we learn to be aware of those beyond the obvious, we’re able to perceive the essence of who and what we truly are.

Our ability to empathize and respond with compassion to each other is one of our precious capacities. But when we’re faced with too many competing demands, this compassion circuit can be blocked. Today, Tara guides us in maintaining that capacity in the face of challenging situations.

As you continue your practice of mindfulness, you may find that the pains you carry from the past occasionally appear, including those situations you’ve not been able to forgive. Today, Jack discusses a necessary dimension of wellbeing - forgiveness. This allows us to move from the past and live in the present with more compassion.

Focusing on the good doesn’t usually come naturally to us. We’re wired to scan the world for danger, not for what we might appreciate. While this may have saved our ancestors from the dangers in the wild, this doesn’t quite apply in the modern world. Today, Tara touches on the benefits of being able to focus on the goodness that pervades life.

In this session, Jack introduces the powerful tool to move mindfully through your workday - mindfulness of intention. When you become aware of intention before you engage with others at work, you’re able to make wise choices on how to speak and act. Your intentions have a powerful impact on others and shape their responses.

What happens when you find yourself locked in conflict in the workplace and mindfulness goes out the window? Today, Tara discusses mindfulness practices that can help us when faced with conflict - allowing us to process emotions under stress.

Mindfulness is a way of listening to our lives. When we purposefully bring mindfulness to listening to each other, we nourish our relationships in a wonderful way. In this session, Tara delves into the value of truly listening in presence and how to cultivate that skill within us.

Today’s session is about mindful speech - something that has a significant impact on the quality of our relationships. Mindful speech begins by bringing a kind presence to what we’re saying - allowing us to speak not just what is true, but what is helpful.

Even as our mindfulness practice deepens, it’s natural for old habits such as obsessive thinking, defensiveness and worry will still sometimes take over. In this session, Tara touches on how to forgive ourselves when we stumble and go back to trusting the growth we’ve nourished.

The mindfulness and compassion that helps be present with yourself also helps you connect more fully with others. When you feel connected to someone, your concern and generosity grows stemming from a natural relatedness. This session discusses how we can translate this generosity to the workplace - making it a happier, more productive space.

In these final sessions, we explore how mindfulness helps us align each day with a positive purpose. In addition to the ways we serve, our purpose includes savoring our moments, feeling that sweetness of gratitude that allows us to arrive most fully in our lives.

In this final lesson, Jack delves into how to appreciate all you’ve learned during this course and how to continually find ways to enjoy it, to always find moments of ease, release, and stillness that you can enjoy. The difficulties in work and in the real world may be all too consuming, but you can always live with a creative and joyful spirit.