Hi ,

As someone who's always striving to strike that elusive balance between work and personal life, I’ve been reminded of a game-changer I thought you might find helpful too.

Picture this: it's mid-afternoon, and I find myself staring blankly at the computer screen, struggling to summon the energy to tackle my never-ending to-do list.

Frustration begins to mount, and just as I'm about to succumb to the overwhelm, I remember a simple trick I'd recently incorporated into my routine: a 10-minute lie-down.

Yes, you read that right – a brief afternoon nap to let my mind rest and recharge. I even do this at the office - sometimes on a meeting room sofa or on the floor of the gym at work (I know lots of my W+K colleagues are reading this so I’m feeling a little exposed right now).

To my surprise, these short moments of stillness have been transformative. Not only does it sharpen my focus, but clarity washes over certain issues, and out of the myriad meetings I’ve had that day - the priority of what to work on next becomes clear.

It’s because of these moments that I realized the profound impact that simple mindfulness practices can have on our productivity and well-being, even amidst the chaos of our daily lives.

And because an afternoon lie-down may not always be appropriate, I’ve got other simple mindfulness practices you can easily incorporate into your workday or while in the middle of a full-on production, to take some of that pressure off yourself.

Pick just one thing - try it for a week and notice what happens. Because it always just starts with changing one simple thing.

The breath connects mind to body and is a key player in soothing your nervous system response. Out of all the breathwork I love and teach - the simplest, easiest one is extending your exhales.

THE PRACTICE:

Keep your inhale:exhale ratio to 1:2. eg. Inhale for 4 counts, exhale for 8 counts (or inhale 5 - exhale 10, etc). Do this for at least 30 seconds to a couple minutes, then release all count in the breath and notice how you feel.

Do this just before a big meeting to calm your nerves.

THE SCIENCE:

When we exhale slowly and deeply, it activates the vagus nerve, soothes the nervous system and promotes overall health and resilience

Extended exhales promote a state of calmness and reduce the activation of the sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for the body's "fight or flight" response.

Fun fact: Hospital emergency rooms have their artificial respirators timed to have extended exhales too for this very calming reason.

Interested to learn more? 

I have a tutorial video going through this and 2 other breathwork exercises to help with calming down, focus and concentration.

Too often when we’re busy trying to get things done, we’re multitasking as we’re eating: eating in front of a screen or wolfing down food quickly to get to the next thing on our to-do list.

THE PRACTICE:

First point in mindful eating: slow down. Pay full attention to the experience of eating, including the taste, texture, and sensations of food.

Chew at least 20-30 times before you swallow (!)

THE SCIENCE:

Our bodies only digest properly when our whole system is relaxed. Eating quickly or while multi-tasking can lead to poor digestion, where you’re feeling bloated and not actually getting nourished from what you’re eating.

A great book on mindful eating by Thich Nhat Hanh and Lilian Cheung: "Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life” goes through the main points of:

• Present moment awareness of eating habits and patterns.
• The joy of eating: savoring each bite and fully appreciating the flavors and textures of food
• Cultivating gratitude: develop a deeper sense of connection to the food we eat and the earth that provides it.
• Mind-body connection: how our thoughts and emotions can influence our eating habits.

How many times have we heard this one? But then again - how many times have you actually practiced this? Our default mode tends to move towards all the things that are going wrong, the things that can be fixed, should be better, that aren’t working.

This keeps us in a negativity spiral, which isn’t very productive.

On the flipside, I’m totally against the cult of toxic positivity too where “everything is ‘awesome’!” (when it’s clearly not).

Instead, a happy medium is actually really thinking of and feeling your way into the things you’re truly grateful for right now.

Even when sh*t’s hitting the fan - there’s always at least ONE thing (if not three) I can be grateful for. For me, it’s usually: this breath, this body, this life - even if it’s gnarly at times, I’m still grateful for whatever lessons I need to learn from it.

THE PRACTICE:

Keep a separate journal or notes app dedicated to a daily gratitude practice - so you can refer back to it either in dark times or to see how far you’ve come.

I use the GoodNotes app on my iPad so I can write digitally… but a separate section in your phone’s Notes app works, or you can also try the DayOne journaling app that syncs across desktop and mobile.

Here's a journalling prompt to help you work through any areas of your life where you can apply some simple mindfulness practices:

I hope this helps you find more ease and rest this month.

If it helps keep you accountable, you're welcome to hit reply and share what you're working on. I reply to every email!