What is Mindfulness - The Short Ultimate Guide for IT Leaders

Why is mindfulness important? 

For one, mindfulness is proven to help leaders manage to increase their focus, manage their emotions and improve their engagement, which reduces employee stress, creates a better workplace, and improves the bottom line.

In this section we will learn more about the why before we move on to the what and how.

And maybe before you even get started you would like to take a mindful minute and STOPP. Click here to practice it.  

The big why is that mindfulness provides a way to understand and support the human central processing unit (CPU).

Studies to date suggest that mindfulness based programs give us the right map to navigate our inner workings and research is beginning to largely prove that mindfulness practices affects many aspects of our well-being—improving our mood, increasing positive emotions, and decreasing our anxiety, emotional reactivity, and job burnout.   

Why is Mindfulness good for IT business?

Many organizations worldwide have implemented mindfulness programs so far, and this number is still rising. It suffices to mention Adobe, Aetna, Bosch, General Mills, Google, IBM, Intel, Nike, SAP, Target.

You can get free access to the Benefits of Mindfulness in the Workplace Report here.

Benefits include an increase the management of stress, an increase in engagement and increases in focus at work. We put together a special blog post just for you if you are interested in learned about how to increase the focus on your team(s). Would you believe that U.S. workers waste about 25 percent of their time dealing with “distractions," that nearly 3 out of 4 workers (70%) admit they feel distracted at work.

To learn more about distraction and focus you can click here to get a Free Copy of The Mindful Leader Distraction Report or you can read about the Top 3 Distractions during the workday and how to deal with them.

Why is Mindfulness good for our minds?  

People tend to lose some of their cognitive flexibility and short-term memory as they age. But mindfulness may be able to slow cognitive decline, even in people with Alzheimer’s disease according to some studies. 

Mindfulness studies show that mindfulness helps in calming our minds, thoughts and emotions. Some studies suggest that you may experience a sounder sleep, less anxiety and a more positive outlook on life. 

Furthermore, studies show that mindfulness practices have greater benefit in the workplace, from the absorption of new information, to an increase in problem-solving and facilitating creativity, as well as an increased empathy for other employees.

Why is Mindfulness good for our hearts?

The American Heart Association concluded that, while research remains preliminary, there is enough evidence to suggest mindfulness as an adjunct treatment for coronary disease and its prevention. 

Mindfulness may also be good for hearts that are already relatively healthy. Research suggests that meditating can increase respiratory sinus arrhythmia, the natural variations in heart rate that happen when we breathe that indicate better heart health and an increased chance of surviving a heart attack.

Why is Mindfulness good for our bodies?

By practicing regularly, we can soothe our nerves and help our systems run as they should, rather than operate in a reflexive, stress-induced shutdown mode. If you are interested in 3 quick and basic techniques to perform better under pressure check out this blog.

Some physical health benefits of certain mindfulness practices  include:

• Decreased inflammation
• Increased immunity
• Reduced symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
• Ease symptoms of arthritis
• Increased fertility

Moreover, mindfulness helps us shift from automatic reactivity to responsiveness, and from avoidance patterns to a genuine willingness to meet present-moment experience as it is. And according to the research it helps increase our ability to focus. Learn more about focus, distraction and mindfulness here. Our ability to manage our emotions. And our ability to manage our thrive in the workplace. 

Why is mindfulness important?

Mindfulness is very important, yet so are the things you are doing, so if you are short on time you can always check out our Mindfulness Basics for Busy Leaders.

And if you have time, then, well, to start it's important to start at the root. Mindfulness stems from two sources. One old and one new. When it comes to the old, mindfulness concepts and practices emerge in many contemplative practices around the globe. Ranging from Rational Philosophies in ancient Greece, to Daoism in China, Monotheism in the Middle East, Tribal Practices in the Americas and Africa to Hinduism on the Indian Sub-Continent. The period between 900-200 B.C.E was an era of great inter-culturally developed with scholars ranging from Socrates, to Confucius to Buddha. Two, when it comes to the new. Mindfulness grows out of insights of modern-day Psychology and Neuroscience

In the old, it was mostly used to understand the human mind, heart and body. And now modern psychology is taking it mainstage in the fields of understanding human suffering, well-being and prosperity. So what is it?

Perhaps the most often quoted definition of mindfulness is Jon Kabat-Zinn’s definition, “A way of being in a wise and purposeful relationship with one’s experience, both inwardly and outwardly. It is cultivated by systematically exercising one’s capacity for paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally.”

Or as the cognitive scientist John Teasdale has described the essence of mindfulness as full awareness of our experience in each moment, equally open to whatever it has to offer and free of the domination of habitual, automatic, cognitive routines that are often goal oriented and, in one form or another, related to wanting things to be other than they are (Teasdale & Chaskalson, 2011a, 2011b).

I also like Daniel Rechtschaffen, definition which adds more fun and open mindfulness, “Playing attention, on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally.” You can find more great definitions on our "What it takes to be "Great Leader" blog. 

Check out our Mindful Leader Podcast on Spotify

What are some metaphors for mindfulness?

Disk defragment 

Disk defragmentation takes all the pieces of each file, and stores them in one place. It also makes sure programs are each in one place, and that unused space on the hard disk is all together. Being mindful allows us to observe the files (thoughts, emotions, sensations) and store them accordingly. Just like it is important to fragment your disk it is important to fragment the mind.

The tower

Simple being or awareness is compared to standing ontop of a tower, surveying the surrounding landscape. You are just watching, just seeing, no agenda. And in doing so we bring our attention and awareness intentionally, receptively, and in a relaxed manner. We thus, begin to understand a perspective that does not overly identify with the particulars of the terrain, this is the first step in dis-identifying or decentering - becoming more aware that you are not necessarily your thoughts, emotions and sensations.  

As the watcher of this tower, your attention can be intentionally moved around, therefore, allowing your focus, size, and quality of the attention to be altered.

The mindfulness train station

Think about it this way. If your thoughts are trains, then your mind is a train station through which all of these trains pass. With such a metaphor, your mind is a wide-open place with the potential to take you anywhere you want to go. And if you have been at a train station, especially, pre-covid, it’s also a chaotic place with lots going on, loud noises, crowds, movement, and plenty of information that isn't relevant for your travel. It’s easy to get lost, overwhelmed or both.

Image you are standing on a platform, and a thought arises (a train), it's very tempting and easy to take the first train of thought that arrives

Especially if habits have been formed. We simply take whichever train seems to pull into our mental train station first. We just hop on board the train that is front and center, without asking where is this train going to take me? Is this train even the train I want to be on? 

The mindful sky

Imagine that in a few minutes you leave the office, or go outside or you just simply look out the window. (Seriously though, go do this after you read this: )

You are looking up at the sky and the sun is shining (whether the clouds are blocking it is another story).  

• Get into this moment and make yourself comfortable.
• Bring attention to your breathing. 
• Notice the sky, notice the weather.  

Watch the clouds or lack of clouds for a few minutes as they float through the sky. Pretend now (beginners mind here), you have a special power.  Whatever arises within you, a thought, an emotion, a feeling, a story, a sensation, you can now take that thought or feeling and float it outside of yourself and place it in the sky on clouds, the wind, the sun, whatever you want.