I hope you found last week’s practices useful and helpful. While these are suggestions for managing our work-lives, they’re really applicable anywhere. Here are two more practices you might try.
Mindfulness in Conversations:
Coming back to our common desires, we want clear and kind communication so we know we've been heard and recognized.
The language and the tone of voice we use, choosing good timing, telling the truth in a useful way, being clear about our intentions, and listening with curiosity and patience are vital components of effective communication. And it takes a lot of mindfulness and a lot of practice to get it right. A few ways of working with this are:
- Keep your intentions and motivations in mind. What is the purpose of the conversation?
- Listen completely. Notice if you’re rehearsing your response before the other person has finished speaking. If so, you've stopped listening.
- Tune into the needs of the other person. Ask yourself what this person needs. When you do this, your responses will be more accurate and effective. It’s a great way to develop empathy.
- Think kind thoughts and use kind words. This really works. It changes the tone of the conversation, even when it’s difficult.
- With conflict, notice if you’re making assumptions. Ask yourself “Am I sure? Is it true?”
Cultivating Well-Being at Work:
At the beginning of the day, set an intention for how you’d like your day to go and what you can do to enjoy yourself. At the end of the day, think about the best moment of the day. Let it be something that made you feel happy, something that gave you real satisfaction. Think about it for a few minutes, visualize it. Maybe even tell someone about it.
Try doing this and writing it down every day for a month. At the end, you’ll have thirty days of satisfying moments at work and tangible reminders of your well-being.