WORKLIFEDESIGN

I’ve written previously on the brilliance of mindfulness and thought it might be time to start sharing some of the resources that I’ve found most beneficial over the years.

Today’s resource is a 10 minute mindfulness meditation and is based on the meditations of Jon Kabat Zinn (the guy who brought mindfulness into the western secular mainstream more than 20 years ago with his Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction programme at the Uni of Massachusetts Medical Centre).

If you’ve not done any mindfulness practice before then the following short guided meditation is a gentle introduction. It gets you started by helping you focus on your breath which you can then use as an anchor for calm throughout the rest of your day.

To begin your mindfulness practice, set aside ten minutes today, find a quiet place you can sit and not be disturbed, and listen to the audio. Repeat tomorrow. And the next day. And so on for 7 days.

Download the 10 Minute Mindfulness audio (MP3, 7.7MB, 8:25min)

If you are interested in developing your mindfulness practice further, I’ll be sharing longer body scans and full mindfulness meditations with you over the coming weeks. So, be sure to subscribe to the monthly Brilliant! Ideas for Work and Life newsletter, the worklifedesign RSS feed or follow @worklifedesign on Twitter to receive notification when I upload them.

Just Breathe wall decal by innercircledesign*

Today’s brilliant! idea is to breathe. I know, you’re thinking I’ve gone all new age, woo-woo, bumper sticker (“Remember to breathe!”) but beyond the butterflies and dolphins there really is something in this one.

The particular approach to reconnecting with our breath I’m talking about is called mindfulness. It’s a pretty hot area at the moment with what seems to be every therapist and their cat is incorporating it into their practice.

I’ve recently started a book group centred around the mindfulness classic, Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn, and am gaining such a deep respect for the approach.

At its simplest, mindfulness is about moment to moment awareness. The breath is used as an anchor to focus the mind, and from their you can increase your field of awareness to include body sensations, sound, sight and thoughts.

One of the most significant changes I’ve experienced through mindfulness practice is being able to observe my thinking and not be so influenced by the emotional charge attached to certain thoughts. For example, a deadline is not the be-all and end-all of life. It is a signpost; life will go on after the passes, there will be more deadlines in the future. Anxiety, stress, worry disappears. Now I can go and be fully present in doing what I need to do (rather than a ball of frazzled energy).

The other great thing about Mindfulness is how it incorporates the body. We are such a body-obsessed culture and yet very few of us are truly connected with our bodies, able to feel where our emotions manifest or how to live fully in our bodies. As someone who lives most of my life in my head, Mindfulness is a breath of fresh air. [sorry, I am trying to keep the puns to a minimum]

There’s a scene in the classic Al Pacino film, Scarface, where the Pacino character, Tony Montana, is sharing his drug-lord words-of-wisdom to his young protege (who thinks that now he’s a big-time dealer he can spend his time chasing women):

First you get the money,

Then you get the power,

THEN you get the woman.

In a similar, and yet oh-so-different way, Mindfulness has three sequential elements:

First, you get to relax

Then you get the clarity

THEN you get the energy (channelled effectively and responsively in stressful situations)

In other words, by simply focusing on your breath you are able to handle whatever life throws at you.

And that’s Brilliant!

You can receive a roundup of Brilliant! ideas for work and life in your Inbox every month by subscribing to the Brilliant! newsletter here

This week I’m sharing one of my personal worksheets. This is what I use to stay focused and to minimise those 3.00am eyes-bolt-open, oh-my-god-what-am-I-doing moments.

Over the years I’ve found people who are very clear about what they are doing (ie their vision) have some sort of physical, visual reminder that they see daily.

Some people have Vision Boards.

Others have Treasure Maps.

I have my Ducks.

Or more specifically, my Ducks In a Row.

My Ducks came out of having a moment of terror where I thought I’d made a terrible life choice. Then the phrase, “No, it’s okay, I have my ducks in a row” came into my head and I felt much calmer, focused and okay with my situation. In fact, when I considered my “ducks” (ie all the things I had setup and were going to generate lots of love and income over the next 12 months) then things actually looked pretty good.

So I decided that I had to get my Ducks out of my head and onto paper. And the Ducks In a Row Worksheet was born.

As you can see, it brings together my priority projects – with the values, strengths, passion, vision, goals and next action steps – onto one page in an easy reference style. I have a copy at my desk. I have a copy in my Dump Book.

It’s a working document which means it changes weekly as I get new information, move to the next stage of a project, or decide to back/front burner projects.

You obviously need to do a little bit of work to complete it. It’s probably a two-coffee activity. I’ve included the Master Lists as a second page where you can brainstorm/list your values, strengths, passions, and crazy dreams. (And then you draw on these Master Lists to complete the Ducks).

So, there are no excuses for flapping about in a tizz. Get quacking!

DOWNLOAD The Ducks In a Row Worksheet

(BTW the cute little ducks come from freerangeduck.org)

If you would like to receive monthly updates of what’s new in The Studio, just subscribe to our monthly ezine, Brilliant! Ideas for Work and Life.

Or follow us at twitter @worklifedesign

Ahh, Monday morning. How I love thee…

I rarely check my email over the weekend so by the time Monday morning rolls around, my Inbox is full to the brim with fascinating things that could suck at least 28 hours of the day away. Combine this with a rapidly expanding to-do list in my head and a sense of anticipation that “this week I’ll actually get a substantial slab of work completed” and things start resembling chaos.

So taking some time-out on Monday mornings to organise my week is essential.  I’ve found that I need to move beyond a to-do list of things that need my urgent attention and check in with what’s important (goals and priorities), what I need to do to realise these priorities and scheduling it into my calendar.

For this worthy, weekly task I have my handy Weekly Actions Worksheet. It’s fairly straight forward:

1. Check-in with my overall goals (eg beautiful home, work I love, etc).

2. Determine what this week’s priorities will be (depends on where I am, what needs attention, what I feel like doing this week).

3. Write down the ‘next steps’ or actions for each of the priorities and/or goals. Plus anything that may be floating by that needs attention but is part  of a greater goal (such as ‘feeding myself’, ‘having hot water’, etc). I keep the actions easy, small, managable. I can always create new actions later in the week if I complete them.

4. Work out what I’ll do on what days, and perhaps when (AM, PM, or specific time)

5. Transfer whatever reminders I need to my iCal

6. Refer back to the worksheet every morning during the week. Add, delete or change as necessary.

Download Monday Morning Weekly Actions Worksheet (MMWAW!)