Mindful Work

Mindful Work is your guide to understanding how the practice of meditation got its roots in Western society, the many ways it radically improves your brain’s ability to do almost everything, and how it will improve your productivity.

For a long time, it’s been difficult for just about everybody in the Western world to accept that mindfulness is more than spirituality. Anyone that talked about the benefits could easily be shrugged off because there was no proof. Until now.

Once fMRI, or functional magnetic resonance imaging technology was invented, we could get a quantifiable understanding of how the brain responds in specific situations.

Because of this, we can prove, with scientific certainty, that meditation will change your brain for the better.

With this machine, scientists have discovered that when a person practices mindfulness their brain becomes calmer. They grow less judgmental, especially of themselves.

Researchers have also only recently discovered neuroplasticity, or the brain’s ability to change. Meditation unlocks this power and pushes your mind to modify itself in all the right ways.

Those that practice mindfulness have more activity in their prefrontal cortex, which makes them more compassionate. They also have more overall gray matter, so they have a better memory and more easily regulate emotions.

And as if all that wasn’t enough to convince you, meditation also decreases activity in the amygdala. This is the part of your brain that’s responsible for stress and activates the fight-or-flight response. In other words, if you practice mindfulness, you’ll manage stress better, too!

If there’s one thing I hated about working in an office it was how many distractions I had to deal with. And even now that I’m self-employed I still don’t like having to worry about how I’m going to focus! Like me, you probably know that you’re a lot more productive trying to concentrate on one thing instead of multitasking. But it’s really hard to do when you’ve got all sorts of external stimuli begging for your attention. That’s where mindfulness comes in handy because it lets you focus your thoughts on what’s most important. When you learn how to do it right, you gain the ability to notice your thoughts and feelings and redirect them toward what you choose instead of whatever’s convenient at the time. Imagine you’re wondering about what’s next on your work to-do list. Suddenly, you’ve got thoughts about the phone call you need to make or that birthday present you need to get for your sister. Your mind wanders, and before you realize, it’s an hour later and you still haven’t started on the next project! When things like this happen it’s best to begin observing your thoughts from an outside perspective. Don’t…