Practising Mindfulness When Working From Home

For many of us, working from home has taken its toll during 2020, and 8 months down the line the lack of social interaction has had a negative impact no our mental health. Even for those that usually work from home, the inability to join clients or colleagues for in-person meetings and lack of social support has been difficult. The constant need to ‘stay safe’ and social distancing has us all on edge, and this has a negative impact on our mental wellbeing.

So, it’s time to learn to look after and really focus on our mental health. That’s where mindfulness comes in. Mindfulness is about learning to pay attention to our experience right here, right now, rather than dwelling on the past or catastrophising about the future.

Mindfulness is an experiential activity and so unfortunately you can’t just read about it to get the many benefits… you have to practice.

So, to kick off, here’s a simple practice counting your breath. Focusing the attention on your breath will help bring you to the present moment and slow down the frantic mind, reducing adrenaline levels.

First, stop what you are doing and focus on the breath coming in and going out of the body;

• Slowly count 1 on the inhale and 2 on the exhale up to a count of 10 and returning to 1.
• When you notice your mind has wandered (as it will), just notice this and come back to 1.

You can do this practice anywhere and no-one need know – just press pause and find a moment of calm. If you can do this for 5 minutes once a day, you’ll start to notice a difference after a couple of weeks.