“When each moment of our lives is an opportunity to practice [mindfulness], work is not some tedious burden that saps our energy and dictates our lives. Instead, work is yet another opportunity to be mindful.” -David Gelles, Mindful Work

Mindfulness at work. I love the playfulness of this phrase. I have seen mindfulness at work in myself. I have seen mindfulness manifesting itself in my work. I have seen my workplace slowly become a more mindful place. Sometimes it’s necessary to say, “Yep, that was mindfulness doing its thing – that was mindfulness at work.” I am a deeply imperfect practitioner of mindfulness, and integrating it into the emotionally-charged work setting is a work in progress. But the more I do it, the happier I am at work.

For decades before I started meditating, I brought a lot of mindfulness to my work, before I ever would have known to call it that. I loved the flow state induced by taking perfect care of a dozen tables during a busy brunch rush. I loved the single-minded focus of whipping through a coffee line that snaked out the door. I loved pouring all of my attention into perfectly manicured rows of video box displays, or artfully displayed kitchen goods. No matter how menial the job, I put all of my attention into it (most of the time), and found that no work was “beneath me” – every job I ever had had something to appreciate that was worthy of my whole attention (except being a bank teller. I really hated that job).

I started meditating 100% with the intent of reducing work-related stress. There was no other goal in my mind (certainly not finding a spiritual connection to every living thing, or discovering that the contents of my mind held the seeds of equanimity, compassion, and a way of relating to the world that would turn all emotions, even pain, into an opportunity for joyful exploration. But I digress). And it worked. Occasionally I will meditate with the explicit goal of reducing stress, but there’s a lot more to it now. 

My current job, by most measures, should be a lot more stressful than my previous jobs, because it’s driven by unyielding deadlines that we are usually scrambling to meet. But it’s the right kind of stress for me. Moreover, while I definitely feel stressed sometimes, I handle it better on this job a thousand times better than any job I’ve had before. I handle it better now than I did three years and a few thousand meditation sessions ago (admittedly, I am also better at my job now and more confident than I was 3 years ago). This year, my supervisors have marveled at the change in my equanimity, although they never would have called it that. They are noticing.

I meditate at the start of every day, and I try to meditate at mid-day (sometimes this doesn’t happen). Where I seriously fail is bringing moments of mindfulness into my day. This is a source of endless frustration to me. When an email upsets me, when I’m racing for a deadline, when a meeting goes off the rails, I still get very, very wrapped up in my emotions. Either I’m sitting and meditating and the picture of equanimity, or I’m a racecar in the red, tearing furiously around the fiery tracks of the virtual office, tires aflame and engine revving. On a good day, I’ll take some mindful breaths while I’m waiting for my tea water to boil, but I often don’t even do that. I know it will help me enormously, but I just don’t manage to integrate it.

Mindfulness hasn’t yet seeped into my working mind. When my mind is banging against a problem, there’s a certain buzzing like angry wasps around a hive. In my more mindful world, this furious buzzing would be a cue – stop. Breathe. Maybe even step away and sit for a meditation. See if you can unclench and get to the bottom of this. But instead, it’s usually a good long ratcheting up, ruminating heatedly until I’ve sent off an unskillful email. I’m either in peaceful contemplation, or I’m in full fight-or-flight mode. I haven’t integrated the two much at all. 

The good news is that meditation has definitely lowered my baseline for how much stress I consider overwhelming. But I can see so clearly how integrating mindfulness into my working life would be so beneficial. It’s a source of frustration for me that I can’t seem to respond mindfully in the moment. I suppose people meditate their whole lives and struggle imperfectly to be mindful in their interactions, and maybe I need to have patience with that. Maybe 3 years of meditation isn’t enough to revolutionize 40 years of conditioned response.

What I can say is that nearly every day offers hours of opportunity to be single-mindedly dedicated to doing my work in the best possible ways. Whether I’m writing or project planning or running a meeting, I am as mindful as I was when I was making a hundred lattes in a row. I do think meditation has increased my ability to shut out all distractions to bring my very best to my work. It is work that I find worthy of the best attention I have to give it, all day, every day. 

I genuinely enjoy my work, and it energizes rather than depletes me. During the busy season, I’ll work from 5am to 7pm, and bounce out of bed the next day charged up to take on the day. It’s a mix of creative and routine tasks that combine to create hours of problems to solve at the exact right level of challenge – hard enough to absorb all of my attention, but achievable enough that I’m not continually frustrated.  

Meditation has brought some great things to my work: Focus, increased tolerance for stress, and probably some improvement in my reactivity (although it doesn’t always feel that way). I see huge potential for what it can still bring: Genuine insight into interpersonal friction, compassion for colleagues (even when they frustrate me), the ability to accept challenges with courage instead of resistance. How have you brought mindfulness from the cushion into the office chair? How have you brought the insights of your meditation practice into real life? I’d love to hear your ideas and suggestions!