Let’s face it—working long hours while trying to balance competing priorities can be stressful. It can involve working additional days, staying late and waking up at 5 a.m. to reach your goals. With so much on your plate, like relationships, children, aging parents, work and finances, chronic stress can be damaging to health. Been there, done that, and it felt utterly exhausting. I came to realize that if I continue on this road, drowning in too much work and overwhelm, I could end up reaching the point of no return. Burnt out and exhausted to the bone, I was on the verge of bidding farewell to a wellness practice teaching clients the exact opposite: cultivating wellness in the workplace and their personal life. The three things I incorporated into my life—mindfulness, more activities outside of work and more human interaction—made self-care the priority it should be. And to help you give yourself your best, let me share some tips to keep you grounded on your lifelong health journey.
Tip One: Practice Mindfulness
Mindfulness can help you relax, slow down and stay fully present. The idea is to shift your thoughts away from your everyday concerns, worries and uncertainties toward whatever arises and what you are sensing and feeling at each moment. It is a state where you observe your emotions and surroundings without reflecting, thinking or judging.
You are focusing your attention on whatever happens within and around you and what you hear, touch, see, sense or smell without interpreting or labeling. Being in the present and fully engaged with where you are and what you are doing enables you to maintain moment-by-moment awareness instead of worrying about the future or digging into the past.
Mindfulness or mindful meditation can therefore be a tool to accept feelings of worry, fear and anxiety as they happen, simply acknowledging they are there. You’re doing the exact opposite of resisting your feelings because what you resist tends to persist in your reality. Instead, you let the feeling be, flow and go as it is.