Mindfulness

Listen to your heart and live mindful.

You want to be thriving, happy and resilient in today’s environment. You want to reduce stress and improve attention and focus. You want to respond resourcefully and purposefully, but are reacting automatically and distractedly.

Being present in the moment, being mindful is the easy, but not simple solution.

Why Mindfulness?

In our high-pace world full of distractions, where we resort to repetitive, automated and mindless behaviour and multi-tasking to ‘get and stay on top of things’, the average attention span decreased from 12 to 8 seconds between 2000 and 2013. It is no surprise that we feel frazzled, distracted, unfocused and stressed.

Stress occurs naturally and is triggered in a situation that is perceived as a challenge to your wellbeing and safety. It activates the instinctive flight, fight or freeze response. While that response makes sense when you face real danger, in today’s world, the same response is activated through our often frantic and busy life-style, inner dialogues and thoughts. Often these thoughts, problems and worries are about things in the future that haven’t happened yet (and may not even happen) and that we often do not have actual control over. It is typically not fear about a real threat to our survival. This constant activation of the physiological flight/fight responses can lead to chronic stress, which in turn can lead to anxiety, general un-wellbeing and ultimately disengagement and burnout. The cost and impact to our health, wellbeing, relationships and work environments are significant.

By introducing and supporting deliberate and thoughtful actions and responses instead of unresourceful reactions and practice, mindfulness offers an opportunity to counter-act this cycle and focus on the present again, to observe what is actually around us. Introducing mindfulness practices to your workplace and personal environment can lead to decreased stress, enhanced sleep, memory and performance, increase self-awareness, and improved conflict resolution skills. It is not complicated, and it can be practised anywhere and anytime.

Organisations like SAP, Google, PwC, Aetna, etc. have introduced mindfulness into their workplace and observe increased innovation, less burnout, fewer sick days, less turnover and positive returns on the investment in wellbeing in the workplace.

Incorporating mindfulness-based tools and practices support us in working more skillfully with difficult emotions, uncertainty and change, leading to increased personal and team performance and wellbeing.

I incorporate mindfulness practices into my workshops and coaching. Applying MBSR techniques, my approach is customised to suit the requirements of organisations and individuals.

Topics covered include:

• What is mindfulness and how can it benefit the workplace and life

• Reducing stress, improving focus, enhancing communication and conflict resolution

• The interaction of mindfulness with resilience and leadership skills

• How to incorporate mindfulness into the workplace and daily life

Mindfulness Courses and Workshops

Introduction to Mindfulness
(60 minute session, online or in person):

- What is mindfulness?
- How can mindfulness benefit us?
- What is the Neuroscience behind mindfulness?
- Case Studies - Which organisations have successfully implemented mindfulness?
- How can mindfulness be integrated into your day?

Designed to provide an overview of mindfulness concepts and how they can be applied in a work environment. Includes two practices.

Mindfulness Training
(4 or 7 week duration, 60-90 minutes sessions, online or in person):

- Pre- and post training assessment
- Reduce stress and burnout
- Increase attention and focus
- Enhance performance and productivity
- Decrease absenteeism, sick leave and presenteeism
- Increase job satisfaction and morale
- Boost the organisation’s reputation
- Improve communication

These workshop-style sessions allow you to learn new skills that enhance overall wellbeing, improve focus and attention, reduce stress and build resilience.

Leading Mindfully during challenging times
(30-45 minutes sessions, online)

- Pre- and post training assessment (optional)
- Enhance how you lead yourself so you can better lead and support those around you
- Increase your own resilience and self-awareness
- Recognise and manage your own stress levels
- Improve your listening skills
- Increase your compassion for self and others

These short sessions are designed to explore how simple, short and easy mindfulness exercises and principles can improve your leadership capacity during challenging times. Now more than ever, leaders and managers need to step up to support their teams in negotiating and navigating ever evolving circumstances, like working from home, the transition back to the office and generally higher levels of uncertainty.

Mindful Communication
(4 sessions delivered weekly or fortnightly, 90 minutes or half day workshop, online or in person)

- Improve your active listening skills
- Recognise what you are actually communicating
- Enhance your giving and receiving feedback skills
- Learn to let go of judgement and catch your biases
- Actively seek to understand the person you are talking to by supporting and asking meaningful questions

Communicating is more than talking - we can talk and not communicate. This program will assist you to develop skills that support and enhance your communication, leading to more clarity, less misunderstandings and better outcomes. Over this course, you will recognise how you make meaning of what is communicated and how your beliefs and knowledge shape your understanding.

Sleep Better
(90-120 minute session, online or in person):

- Quality of Sleep Self-Assessment
- The importance of good quality sleep
- How sleep can impact your wellbeing
- Sleep and Technology
- Techniques and practices to assist a good night’s sleep

Research by the Sleep Health Foundation has found between 33 and 45 per cent of Aussies have poor sleep patterns that lead to fatigue and irritability that's putting them at risk of low productivity, damage to their mental health and unsafe behaviours, a number that has been increasing since the last sleep survey. Lack of sleep is costing developed nations, including Australia, billions of dollars in lost productivity, accidents on roads and in the workplace, poor health and premature death, the research found. This program focuses on recognising the importance of sleep and providing tools for getting a good night’s sleep.