Try this mindfulness exercise to help you focus and control your stress. The more you practice it, the better you’ll be at it and the more natural it will feel.
1. Bring your attention to your body. Allow yourself to acknowledge and quickly scan your physical posture. You may be sitting up straight, slumping, in discomfort or anything else. Just notice this; you need not act on it.
2. Be aware of any urges to adapt your posture, or whether you already have. You do not need to act on the urges, or berate yourself if you have. Just be aware of them, as thoughts, or sensations.
3. If you have not moved, but have a strong urge to, notice this. You may like to move with awareness, or perhaps the urge has simply changed or disappeared.
4. Now let your attention move to your feet. Observe which sensations in the feet come to your attention – maybe temperature, a sense of comfort or discomfort, pressure, contact with the floor, movement or something else.
5. Now bring your attention into your hands, notice their position, the sense of space they occupy and any presence or absence of other sensations.
6. Whatever your experience is, whether positive, negative or neutral, just see if you can remain consciously with it, just as it is. If your mind jumps to an idea, judgement or fantasy, just guide it back to the body, to your hands.
7. Lastly bring your awareness to noticing your face. Are you holding some expression, tension or tightness in the face. You do not need to change this, the exercise here is simply to notice this moment, to be aware of it, alive to it and present with whatever is going on.
8. Finally return your awareness to your posture and repeat step 1.
Know that you are really ever only able to hold one experience in your attention at any one time. Be aware that as you are focussing on posture your sense of your hands and feet has receded. As you train your attention like this, you are increasing your efficacy and concentration which will lower stress and naturally increase your performance levels at work.
Try it again tomorrow.
This book can be purchased here;
Mindfulness for Busy People
Turning from frantic and frazzled into calm and composed
Authors: Michael Sinclair & Josie Seydel
Publication Date: Sep 2013
ISBN: 9780273789901
Price: £12.99