Organizations are made by people of people and for people. The organizational culture is influenced by the way the employees feel, communicate and behave. At present many companies have a high pressure cut-throat culture. Stress is a silent killer and creates havoc at the body and mind level. Stress is of two types good and bad. The good stress ie. Eustress motivates us to take actions, drives us and propels us forward to achieve more goals leading to happiness, success and fulfilment. It makes our minds alert to engage with the work at hand with optimum attention producing optimum performance. When stress goes beyond the point we can handle our anxiety to perform is highest resulting in disempowered feelings of rejection and unworthiness triggering patterns and association to past failure in the brain.
Organizational culture can be improved by changing the environment from the cut-throat to positive. Being positive is not so easy if one has not developed the habit to manage emotions and remain calm under pressure which effects performance directly.
Creating a positive and healthy culture entails creating a toxic free and stress free workplace where people care for relationships providing support for one another, showing kindness and compassion when others are struggling, treating others with respect, trust, integrity and gratitude. Instead of a culture of fear the employees must be made to feel safe so they develop a spirit of experimentation and innovation.
This calls for leaders who are inclusive, humble and encourage their staff to speak up. Mindful Leadership is the way forward … leaders who practice Mindfulness.
Mindfulness is living in the now. It is essentially about being more aware and awake in every moment of your life. It is about intentionally paying attention to each moment, being fully engaged in whatever is happening around you and within you. It involves bringing an attitude of curiosity, acceptance and friendliness to whatever is an experienced, rather than habitual pattern of judgment and criticism.
Research shows that when you are deliberately not paying attention to something, your brain goes into default mode of attention characterised by mental chatter, mind wandering, operating on ‘automatic pilot’, dwelling on the past and worrying about the future, judgment and criticism causing increased anxiety and poor communication. Mindfulness can help end this unproductive behaviour.
How does one handle stress by practicing Mindfulness?
It is much easier to experience this mindful way of being when we are watching sunsets than when we are working our way through emails on Monday morning. At these times, mindfulness becomes a practice – we need to deliberately and intentionally focus our attention on the senses, and bring it back when it wanders off into default mode.
Mindfulness can be practiced by taking mindful breaks during the day and doing mindful movements like gentle stretches and by mindful breath awareness, mindful walking, mindful eating, body-scan, mindful meditations and paying attention to your thoughts, feelings and becoming aware of the body sensations in the moment. It is the practice of witnessing your mind using your mind. There is nothing mysterious or unusual about Mindfulness. It is learning to pay attention to your mind.
As a Mindfulness Coach I devised my own way of putting the torch of awareness on my thoughts and feelings. It took me time, practice and lots of self love to become mindful and aware of what I can opt to think or feel in the moment. Now it is my choice how I want to think or feel or get triggered (which produces stress of course) .So being in the moment, mindful and stress free is my choice I choose to make every moment!!! I choose blocks of time where I cut the cord and go offline to devour a chocolate, oops to do a chocolate meditation.
Author- Jahnavi Katti, She is a highly accomplished Mindful Leadership Coach with a unique background in supporting talented individuals and businesses reach their full potential through customized solutions. Jahnavi has designed her coaching model “FOCUS” & “Being vs. Doing” based on Mindfulness Tools.
Photo Credit- https://www.manrepeller.com