Whether you’re working somewhere you love or maybe somewhere you don’t love so much, daily stressors can quickly become a recurrence.
No matter how big or small the stimuli might be, everyone deals with stress differently and so each of us will have a different response. One of the top stressors in the population today is Job pressure, causing symptoms such as fatigue, muscle tension, headache, teeth grinding, feeling dizzy and more. Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) is similar to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) in that it incorporates mindfulness and meditative practices. The Dialectic part is all about finding the truth, we work to understand ourselves and in turn, establish what we need to change about ourselves to grow positively.
A core teaching of DBT is mindfulness, the state of being aware of ourselves and our present state. Research has shown that mindfulness increases creativity and productivity, with big companies such as Google and Apple introducing mindfulness training opportunities to their staff.
Here are some ways you can incorporate mindfulness into your day to day work life, reducing stress and in turn experiencing the benefits.
Stop Multitasking
It may be tempting to do two or more things at once, continuously switching back and forth between them, however it just isn’t effective. A study by Zheng Wang showed that students who multitasked felt more productive, but in reality, they were being unproductive. Some simple ways to avoid this is firstly, group tasks into categories. Emails, meetings, phone calls - group them together instead of switching from one category to another and you’ll quickly feel refreshed at how much you get completed.
Take Breaks
If you don’t take breaks, your stress can build up and in turn, affect the quality and quantity of your work. Take a break and have a stretch, go for a walk or simply sit and breath, it can help you refocus and come back to your work feeling ready to work with a clear mind. If you’re sat at your desk all day, stretching can also help you feel more comfortable and relaxed during the day.
Set RemindersResearch has shown that 47% of our day is spent in auto pilot or lost thoughts, meaning we can often find ourselves not getting a lot done. Setting a subtle reminder to shake you out of your day to day can help you get more done with less stress. Whether you put an alarm on your phone, a meeting in the diary or a little note to self, these can remind you to reflect and take a step back from the world, allowing you to act accordingly to tasks and demands at work.
Embrace Stress
Research suggests that those who accept that stress is bad for your health had the highest chance of dying, whilst those who accepted it could be good for them had lower mortality rates. This demonstrates that the way we think and behave towards stress can clearly impact our lives. Mindfulness can help us adjust our perceptions of stress and handle it more productively, responding to it in a productive and creative way rather than a negative and inefficient way. To do this, you need to make sure that you are aware of your responses and understand that your body’s fight and flight response is sharpening your senses by sending more oxygen around the body. Instead of viewing this as a scary thing, embrace it and see an upcoming challenge as something to tackle and overcome with your new heightened awareness.
Change Your Mindset
According to research at Stanford University, people adhere to one of two core mindsets, growth or fixed. People who have a fixed mindset think that their qualities such as intelligence are traits that are fixed and don’t seek to develop them. They hope that their traits will lead to success and don’t try to develop or grow their traits. People with a growth mindset are similar, however, they believe that their traits can be improved and developed. They see their traits as a starting point with the aim to build them with practice, determination and hard work. Research shows that people with a growth mindset show greater resilience and a higher love of learning. Mindfulness is very much about having a growth mindset and being open to new goals, opportunities and possibilities. You begin to see negative feedback as something you can work on, stressful situations as a challenge and take on new opportunities to see what it leads too. Just like a stressed dog needs some dog training, so too does your mind need mind training.
Acceptance
Accepting that you can’t change everything is great for mindfulness. You need to accept the present as it is, and yourself as you are. For example, if you make a mistake at work, it’s already happened and that’s a fact. You can’t change it, but you can accept it and begin to move on and figure out how to turn it into a positive. Having a lack of acceptance can eventually lead to negative consequences such as avoidance, denial of the fact, aggression and more. It’s important to learn from your mistakes and move on, if anything, to allow you to maintain peace of mind.
Be Grateful
Gratitude can improve your time at work, as it can increase creativity, health, work quality and relationships. We tend to have a negative bias which means we focus and dwell on what’s gone wrong instead of what’s gone right. Raise your well being by focusing you what’s gone well in your day to avoid concentrating on the negative and eventually sending yourself into a negative spiral. You could start by writing down one thing a day that went well, allowing you to eventually see that not all is bad!
Mindfulness can quickly become a habit if practiced continuously, allowing you to be more successful and happier in the workplace. Not only can it apply to a working environment, you can adapt and incorporate it in your home life, the benefits are endless and will begin to help those around you too!
Take Breaks
If you don’t take breaks, your stress can build up and in turn, affect the quality and quantity of your work. Take a break and have a stretch, go for a walk or simply sit and breath, it can help you refocus and come back to your work feeling ready to work with a clear mind. If you’re sat at your desk all day, stretching can also help you feel more comfortable and relaxed during the day.
Set RemindersResearch has shown that 47% of our day is spent in auto pilot or lost thoughts, meaning we can often find ourselves not getting a lot done. Setting a subtle reminder to shake you out of your day to day can help you get more done with less stress. Whether you put an alarm on your phone, a meeting in the diary or a little note to self, these can remind you to reflect and take a step back from the world, allowing you to act accordingly to tasks and demands at work.
Embrace Stress
Research suggests that those who accept that stress is bad for your health had the highest chance of dying, whilst those who accepted it could be good for them had lower mortality rates. This demonstrates that the way we think and behave towards stress can clearly impact our lives. Mindfulness can help us adjust our perceptions of stress and handle it more productively, responding to it in a productive and creative way rather than a negative and inefficient way. To do this, you need to make sure that you are aware of your responses and understand that your body’s fight and flight response is sharpening your senses by sending more oxygen around the body. Instead of viewing this as a scary thing, embrace it and see an upcoming challenge as something to tackle and overcome with your new heightened awareness.
Change Your Mindset
According to research at Stanford University, people adhere to one of two core mindsets, growth or fixed. People who have a fixed mindset think that their qualities such as intelligence are traits that are fixed and don’t seek to develop them. They hope that their traits will lead to success and don’t try to develop or grow their traits. People with a growth mindset are similar, however, they believe that their traits can be improved and developed. They see their traits as a starting point with the aim to build them with practice, determination and hard work. Research shows that people with a growth mindset show greater resilience and a higher love of learning. Mindfulness is very much about having a growth mindset and being open to new goals, opportunities and possibilities. You begin to see negative feedback as something you can work on, stressful situations as a challenge and take on new opportunities to see what it leads too. Just like a stressed dog needs some dog training, so too does your mind need mind training.
Acceptance
Accepting that you can’t change everything is great for mindfulness. You need to accept the present as it is, and yourself as you are. For example, if you make a mistake at work, it’s already happened and that’s a fact. You can’t change it, but you can accept it and begin to move on and figure out how to turn it into a positive. Having a lack of acceptance can eventually lead to negative consequences such as avoidance, denial of the fact, aggression and more. It’s important to learn from your mistakes and move on, if anything, to allow you to maintain peace of mind.
Be Grateful
Gratitude can improve your time at work, as it can increase creativity, health, work quality and relationships. We tend to have a negative bias which means we focus and dwell on what’s gone wrong instead of what’s gone right. Raise your well being by focusing you what’s gone well in your day to avoid concentrating on the negative and eventually sending yourself into a negative spiral. You could start by writing down one thing a day that went well, allowing you to eventually see that not all is bad!
Mindfulness can quickly become a habit if practiced continuously, allowing you to be more successful and happier in the workplace. Not only can it apply to a working environment, you can adapt and incorporate it in your home life, the benefits are endless and will begin to help those around you too!
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