Why mindfulness is important for your work/life balance.

Why mindfulness is important for your work/life balance

Learn to live a happier, more fulfilled life by incorporating mindfulness into your routine. Mindfulness is a way of living that means you are aware of the present moment, rather than worrying about the past or the future. In mindfulness, you notice your thoughts and feelings without fretting over them, and you pay attention the world around you. This can help you see clearly the emotions, thoughts and events that are impacting your life. So mindfulness can help you become aware of the need to balance out the time and energy you put into your working life with the need to have a full life outside work.

Be Mindful

Try these mindfulness tips for a better work/life balance

1) Mindfulness begins with personal awareness, then it can spread outwards into your work relationships. Enhance your personal awareness with meditation. This is a first simple step to tapping into mindfulness. Spend 10 minutes at the beginning or the end of your day in silence, looking at a picture of a simple natural thing, such as a tree or a flower. Even better if you can look out of the window at a real tree or flower! Think of nothing other than the shape, texture and colours of the natural image. Lose yourself in this image. This is a mindfulness meditation and is also time to yourself for focusing on your personal development outside the workplace.

2) A work/life balance is easier to achieve if you enjoy the work you are doing. Everyone has to pay the bills, but could you consume and buy fewer material 'things' in order to work in a career you might enjoy more, or re-train to be able to work elsewhere? Mindfulness is about making a choice. You can continue to mindlessly spend and consume, and have to work more and more to pay for your consumption. Or you can cut back and take control of your life.

3) Learn to switch off. If you feel overloaded at work, write down your tasks for the next day then you can leave the list at work and forget about it until the next working day, instead of fretting about it while you are away from work. Don't check work phones or email while you are at home with your family. Make the weekend strictly family and friends time. No work thoughts allowed.

4) Improve your relationships at work and at home by communicating mindfully. This means paying full attention to what the other person is saying while they are speaking rather than thinking ahead to prepare your response. Don't rush to fill the pauses in conversation with mindless babble. Instead pause, inhale, and be truly present in the conversation.

5) Find your own sense of balance. You decide your own priorities and limits without somebody else telling you what they should be. Listen to your body and your intuition to tell you whether you are stressed at work. If your wellbeing is suffering, reassess your work choices and make better ones.

6) At work, focus on one task at a time. Give it your full attention, instead of multi-tasking, and you will get the task done more quickly and effectively - leaving yourself more time to spend out of the office.

7) Bring mindfulness into the office by reflecting before you act. Stop and read over your email before you send it, pause before you phone a customer, take three quiet minutes before a big meeting. Learning to pause and reflect during your working day helps you to make better choices.

8) Say no! Don't take on more responsibilities or engagements than you can manage as this will negatively impact your wellbeing. Whether you need to say no to a colleague or not at the moment to a friend, you must leave yourself enough space and time to relax. Don't rush into decisions, being mindful is about taking your time and becoming aware of the most positive course of action. It doesn't make you a bad person if you say 'no' sometimes - instead it will make you a person with a healthier work/life balance.