Workplace Mindfulness Training to Help Bring About Positive Change

March 16, 2023 Penny Metcalf

When I talk about mindfulness to organisations, I also talk about how to bring about the change that you would most like to see in yourself or your life. One thing that makes change more possible is accountability. I suggest that people write down their change, or their intention, and a week or so later I check in with them to see how it is going. Here are some of the replies from last week's training:

"Hi Penny,

Thank you so much for checking in. I can happily say that I have tried using some of your techniques this week to try and ground myself when getting anxious. I can say it definitely helped!"

"Hi Penny,

I have been putting my phone into charge during dinner, therefore keeping the temptation away. It's working so far!

Thanks for checking in"

"Hi Penny,

Yes, I have definitely been using some tips you shared, thank you so much!"

Mindfulness can be a powerful tool in bringing about the change that you need, or want, in your life.

Contact me for more information about this

#mindfulness #change

How Mindfulness can help with the stress and anxiety of what we are dealing with right now

October 26, 2022 Penny Metcalf

This month I wrote a guest blog for Sophisticated Cloud:

“Day in, day out we are being bombarded by information which is inevitably increasing our anxiety levels. There is uncertainty around the economic stability of the country and also of our own personal finances. There is growing concern about fuel prices, interest rates and increased prices in general. Further away there are mutterings about Putin and nuclear weapons, closer to home there is political incohesion.

It is this lack of certainty and the fear of what might happen next which is responsible for much of the increase in anxiety and stress. This is where mindfulness can help. Mindfulness is about becoming more aware of what is going in your mind and being able to manage it better. This can help us to respond more calmly to stressful situations. The human mind is continually wandering. It has been wired to continually risk assess and check for danger. This was to ensure the survival of the species but now it is what is bringing us down.

As our mind tends to wander onto any risks so that we can prepare for them to keep us safe, we inadvertently add to our already stressful lives by focussing on what might go wrong, or what has gone wrong in the past. Mindfulness teaches us the ability to spot this mind wandering and makes us more able to bring the focus back to the present.

When we are able to control the mind’s natural urge to wander onto the negative, we are more able to get things done and to stay calm.”

Read more here:

https://www.sophisticatedcloud.com/all-blogs/how-can-mindfulness-help-with-the-stress-and-anxiety-of-what-we-are-dealing-with-right-now

How to change what you need to change, with Mindfulness. Learn how to focus on work at work and how to switch off at night

May 19, 2021 Penny Metcalf

Take a few moments out to think about what you would like to change and how you are going to do it. Many people are telling me that working from home has meant that they feel less able to switch off from work in the evenings and at night.

Mindfulness and meditation can be immediately useful for this. Both mindfulness and meditation enable us to increase our ability to focus and also to be aware of what is going on in our minds. Meditation allows us a few minutes each day to focus on this alone. Mindfulness practices give us the chance to put this into action in every life. The combination of these two things in what enables us to develop the ability to focus better both at home and at work. We become more able to manage distractions, whether those are external, like your emails pinging, or internal, like your mind whirring at 3 am.

Cats, mice, Covid and lockdown in 2020

November 23, 2020 Penny Metcalf

The cat is very cute when it is asleep but when it is awake it succumbs to its natural instincts.

Why is this relevant to mindfulness? One of the benefits of practising mindfulness is to be able to respond calmly to unexpected events, rather than react negatively. This ability to respond calmly was tested this morning as a small mouse ran, repeatedly, towards my feet while I was teaching mindfulness online. My feet moved out of its way, but my face remained calm, as my brain flicked through all the options - and where the mouse trap might be!

As the cat is keen to bring its mouse friends home to play with so it was inevitable that this would happen at some point. It made me smile because I have not always been able to handle these small furry creatures quite so calmly.

And why is all this relevant to everyone and everything in 2020? Because almost everything that has happened this year has been unexpected and out of our control. From the shock of the first lockdown in March 2020 to the ongoing uncertainty that still surrounds all of our plans for the festive season and the end of the year, it is the unknown and the lack of control that has contributed to our increased sense of anxiety and stress.