Does your mind feel like a square in the middle of a square day, with so many work-related thoughts that you barely have time to breathe? Perhaps you feel overwhelmed by a long agenda and think about the next task, without considering what it is doing to you both mentally and physically? This kind of disconnection from the present creates a lot of unnecessary stress and makes you lose focus on what you were actually doing. Before you know it, you're stuck in a sea of thoughts that are completely irrelevant to what you're doing, and your performance is impaired as a result. Luckily, you can practice this with meditation and mindfulness.

Everyone loses focus sometimes and starts thinking about something other than what we're doing right now. It's perfectly normal because we're bombarded with impressions all the time. However, it's not good if this happens too often as it increases stress and reduces both your well-being and your performance. This in turn leads to more mistakes at work, affecting employee satisfaction, productivity and company profits.

Focus on the task

A study conducted at Harward showed that our minds wander 47% of our waking hours. What's more, the study showed that if you let your mind wander, you'll pay for it. In fact, it turned out that when thoughts wandered, people became more stressed and uncomfortable than when they focused on the present. This was regardless of what task they were focusing on. Everything from vacuuming to working overtime turned out to be less stressful when people kept their focus on the task at hand.

A later study showed the link between mindfulness meditation and an increased ability to focus on the task at hand. The study showed that with mindfulness meditation we can learn to pay attention more quickly when our minds start to wander. As a result, those who practiced this were able to more easily notice when a thought appeared and then put it aside and refocus on the task at hand.

Take time to practice

Mindfulness meditation produces noticeable effects already after the first time. However, it requires regular practice to truly master what mindfulness has to offer. In order to be able to almost automatically discover that your thoughts are wandering, you need to practice.

Try to sit back now and focus on the present. Try to see the flow of thoughts in your mind, without judging. You don't have to do anything to influence them, just observe them. Imagine you are looking at them through a magnifying glass, seeing them from a distance and seeing them for what they are. Are they calm or stressed thoughts?

You will probably find that many of the thoughts are trying to prepare you to react to upcoming situations with more stress than necessary. Or they replay a negative event over and over again. This type of mindfulness is called "mindful awareness". By continually practicing seeing your thoughts in this non-judgmental way, you can also learn over time to focus less on the thoughts that are weighing you down. Instead of worrying about tomorrow's meeting and replaying all the bad scenarios (which will never happen anyway), you will be able to trust in your own abilities.

Final words

Like anything else, mindfulness and meditation require practice. The benefits show over time in terms of results and well-being. Your mental health will skyrocket when you give yourself space to focus. We at Mindworkout are happy to help you on your journey! Book your mental training session now.

Tools

SOAS

SOAS is short for a Mindfulness method that you can use in both stressful situations and in situations that you want to enjoy. Going through these four steps calms the amygdala, the stress centre, and brings more oxygen to our clever frontal lobe. We simply become a little more clear-headed and able to make good decisions even in difficult situations. That's why it's said that mindfulness is the foundation of good self-leadership.

Try it yourself and see what happens? 

S tanna up.

You stop what you're doing.

O bservera,

what's going on around you or in you right now, e.g. your second thoughts, your thoughts. Feel free to put your feelings into words. Explore without judging or evaluating, instead just noting what is. 

A cceptera.

Find out that this and this is going on, or that this is what it's like for me. Whatever I think about it. "Face the truth."

S be or Release.

To respond is to do something - for example, to say something, to change in some way. To let go is to do nothing in particular, but just continue to be observant.