How mindfulness can help your business perform better

There are a lot of myths around mindfulness.

In this insightful session, Maureen O'Callaghan will tell you how mindfulness can boost focus, reduce overwhelm and support better decision-making in fast-paced business environments.

Topics covered in this session

• The science behind mindfulness

• Practical ways to use mindfulness in business settings

• Simple approaches you can use to manage stress and avoid burnout

About the speaker

Maureen has an MSc in Mindfulness-Based Approaches from Bangor University and has recently been appointed to the Professional Standards Advisory Board of the British Association of Mindfulness-based Approaches.

She has founded businesses offering a mindfulness-informed approach to individual and organisational development.

Her PhD research included exploring the role of mindfulness in helping entrepreneurs combine making a profit with being prosocial.

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Transcript

Lightly edited for clarity.

Caitriona: Hello, everyone and welcome to today's Lunch and Learn. My name is Caitriona and I'll be your host today.

For those of you attending a Lunch and Learn for the first time, Enterprise Nation is a vibrant community platform for startups and small businesses.

I'm pleased to introduce Maureen O'Callaghan, who is the founder of Beyond Money Education. In this session, Maureen will explain how mindfulness can boost focus, reduce overwhelm and support better decision-making in fast-paced business environments.

If you have any questions throughout the webinar, please post them in the chat and we'll do our best to answer them at the end of the session.

Today's webinar will be recorded and we'll send a follow-up email with the recording and further resources later today. Over to you, Maureen.

Maureen: Thanks, Caitriona. Good afternoon, everyone and thank you for joining me.

The aim of this session is to show you how mindfulness can be used to help you and your business. Hopefully, by the end, you'll have a better understanding of what mindfulness is and perhaps just as importantly, what it isn't. You'll also learn some practical ways to be more mindful in how you approach running a business.

First, a little bit about me. I have a Master's in mindfulness-based approaches from Bangor University. I've been a mindfulness practitioner for probably 25 years and I'm on the professional standards board of the British Association of Mindfulness-Based Approaches.

As Caitriona explained, I set up a community interest company that helps business owners combine making a profit with being pro-social. Mindfulness informs what we offer, but more importantly, it informs how we work. We walk the talk.

I'm aware we only have 30 minutes, so I'm happy to follow up after the session if anyone has any queries.

Let's begin with a definition of mindfulness. It's about being fully aware in the present moment.

The best analogy I can give is walking along a footpath with a very small child who becomes completely fascinated by a leaf. They are curious about the leaf, wanting to examine it more closely, not judging it in any way, but totally absorbed in that leaf on the path.

For me, that's an embodiment of mindfulness. It's the human ability to be fully present in that moment, not reacting, not being overwhelmed, not judging, but totally absorbed in the present moment.

You might be surprised by how much of our time is spent not being fully present. We often act on autopilot. You may have arrived at a destination after driving and had no real idea how you got there. Or perhaps you've eaten a meal and not really registered when you became full.

We also spend a lot of time time-travelling. Our mind goes back into the past, ruminating about what has happened, or it projects into the future, worrying about what might happen next.

I would suggest that mindfulness and that basic human ability to be fully present, is something we can develop in ourselves. It's a capacity we can develop, very much like going to the gym. You go to the gym to build muscle, build stamina and work more effectively. You can do the same with your brain. You can train your brain.

Let's look at what mindfulness isn't and then at some of the reported benefits.

There are many misunderstandings about mindfulness. People often tell me they think mindfulness is about emptying the mind, sitting cross-legged for hours, being calm all the time, becoming spiritual, or avoiding difficult feelings. It isn't.

I think this confusion comes from a number of factors. Mindfulness is used quite extensively as a marketing tool. I was in Holland and Barrett at the weekend and saw teas, toiletries and vitamins all with the word mindfulness associated with them.

When you look at how mindfulness is promoted on websites, there's often a tendency to use images of the Buddha or people sitting cross-legged and meditating. Quite often, people may not fully understand mindfulness themselves before they try to introduce it to others.

Another issue is how mindfulness was introduced to the West. It was introduced primarily as a clinical intervention and many of the nuances of mindfulness were removed in order to get buy-in. That created an overemphasis on mindfulness as something mainly for mental health and well-being.

Some people also think mindfulness isn't very scientific, that it's perhaps a little alternative. Actually, we know from scientific studies that the brain can adapt and has a degree of neuroplasticity. We know mindfulness reduces activity in parts of the brain linked to stress, such as the amygdala and enhances activity in the prefrontal cortex, which is linked to decision-making.

There have been thousands of trials conducted and some of the reported benefits include improved focus, better management of emotions, better decision-making, reduced burnout, enhanced performance and a greater feeling of connection with other people.

You can probably start to see how those benefits could help you in running your business.

I mentioned a moment ago the emphasis on mental health, but we're seeing some quite profound shifts in the world of mindfulness. There's an increase in mindfulness being seen as having societal and political applications, for example.

One area is linked to the sustainable development goals, where there's a greater focus on inner development and the need to develop the person in order to achieve those goals.

In my work, I often find that people confuse the state of mindfulness with the practices or exercises needed to train the brain to be more mindful.

It's back to that gym analogy. In the same way that you might go to the gym to build strength and stamina, you also develop physical capacity through everyday activities such as carrying your shopping, walking up and down stairs, reaching up for high shelves, or bending down.

It's the same with mindfulness. It doesn't require you to sit and meditate for hours. For me, it's about 10 minutes a day, but it's also about how I perform everyday activities.

I might be fully present when I'm in the shower, noticing the sensation of the water, the temperature, the smells and how the lather feels on my skin. I might be fully present as I drink my coffee, noticing the smell and taste. Or I might practise mindfulness as I walk from my car to my office.

All of those things become part of how I practise mindfulness. It's not just sitting and meditating. It's an approach to life.

You don't really understand or appreciate mindfulness unless you have a direct experience of it. So I'd like to invite you to try a mindfulness exercise. It is an invitation, so only join in if you feel comfortable doing so.

Find a comfortable position wherever you're sitting. Be comfortable, but alert enough to listen to what I'm saying.

For me, I'm sitting on a chair with my back against the back of the chair and my feet on the floor.

As you sit there, if it feels okay, close your eyes. That may help. If that doesn't feel comfortable, that's fine. Just find somewhere in front of you to rest your gaze.

Allow yourself to arrive, sitting on the chair. Notice the sensation of being supported by the chair, the back of the chair, the seat of the chair and the floor.

Now, if it feels right for you, shift your attention from your body to your breathing.

There's no need to change your breathing in any way. Just focus your attention on the breath moving in and out of the body.

Allow the breath to flow in and to flow out, paying attention to that process. When you're breathing in, you know you're breathing in. When you're breathing out, you know you're breathing out.

You may feel this most in the nostrils as you breathe in cool air and breathe out warm, moist air.

You may notice the breathing most in the chest, rising and falling with each breath, or in the abdomen, expanding and contracting with each breath.

Just allow yourself to breathe and notice the breath moving in and out of the body.

I would be very surprised if, by now, your mind had not started to wander, because that's what minds do.

Mindfulness is not about emptying the mind. You are always mindful of something and the invitation here is to be mindful of your breath. If the mind wanders, just bring it gently back to the breath.

Your mind may wander 10 times or 100 times, but each time, just bring it back to the breath without making any judgments.

Allow the mind to focus on the breath. Breathing in, you know you're breathing in. Breathing out, you know you're breathing out.

When you're ready, move the focus of your attention back to your body sitting on the chair. And when you're ready, bring your attention back into the room you're in and to your screen.

I wonder if anyone would like to share their experience of that short activity. Maybe just put one word in the chat box.

Lovely. We've got calmness, relaxation and peacefulness. Somebody said they didn't realise how unrelaxed they were.

I'm going to teach you another technique in a moment that you might find useful.

Let's look at when mindfulness might be most effective. Mindfulness is not about being good at sitting on a cushion and watching your breath. That's not the point.

Mindfulness is most useful when it's combined with certain states. It can help you bring accurate awareness to any situation you're in. It helps you understand what's happening in your environment, including contextual factors.

That can mean your immediate environment, but also wider political, social, economic and technological factors.

Without that awareness, we can struggle to deal with what's happening in our lives and in our work. So mindfulness is an incredibly valuable tool to combine with awareness.

It is also useful for understanding yourself: your thoughts, emotions, biases, values, what motivates you and how all of those factors affect what you're experiencing.

Mindfulness is especially useful when it reinforces your sense of identity and purpose and when you align it with what you want to achieve in life. For me, that was about helping businesses combine making a profit with being pro-social.

Mindfulness is also useful in helping you connect with other people. That includes how you interact with them, how you listen, how you speak to people, how you send an email and how you collaborate with others.

It can be a very useful way to enhance everyday activities. It can be simple, but the challenge is to avoid seeing mindfulness as an add-on or an extra task on the to-do list, because then it can easily become a burden.

The important thing is to see mindfulness as a resource and to be intentional about how you use it in your activities, whether that's planning, writing or engaging with others.

One of the ways I use it most effectively is by avoiding multitasking. We can't really multitask. The brain can't focus on more than one thing at a time. When we try to multitask, we jump our focus from one activity to the next. Each time we do that, we lose a bit of data, so it isn't an efficient way of working.

Mindfulness is the easy bit. Remembering to be mindful can be the challenge.

Establishing a habit takes time. Back to the gym analogy, you don't get fit by going to the gym once. You have to go several times. It's the same with mindfulness. You need to establish a habit.

I use calendar reminders. I find it helps to access quiet spaces. I've used apps. But the main thing for me has been integrating mindfulness into my daily activities.

I'd like to share another mindfulness activity that you may find easy to integrate into your day.

If you'd like to join me again, find a comfortable position and bring your attention to your body sitting on the chair.

This practice is designed to help you respond rather than react to situations. You can do it anytime, anywhere and it's called the stop practice.

• S is stop. Just stop what you are doing.

• T is take a breath.

• O is observe what's happening: your thoughts, your emotions and what's happening around you.

• P is proceed.

So the simple practice is to stop what you're doing, take a breath, observe what's happening both outside yourself and inside yourself and then proceed when you're ready.

It's a practical activity to help you reset and move from one activity to another with focus. I use it all the time before delivering a presentation, going into a meeting or sending emails.

We're nearly at the end now, but what I want to leave you with is this: mindfulness is not alternative. It has a strong scientific foundation.

Small habits practised regularly can have a big impact, but consistency matters.

Thank you so much for taking part, listening and joining me. If you want more information about what I do and what I offer, please connect with me. There are also plenty of free mindfulness-based resources available, so do get in touch.

We have a couple of minutes left, so I'm happy to take any comments or questions.

Caitriona: Thanks for your presentation, Maureen. If anyone has any questions, please pop them in the chat. Otherwise, you can reach out to Maureen on the platform as well.

I don't see any questions coming in and we're coming to the end of the session now.

Thank you very much, Maureen, for your presentation. Thanks, everyone, for joining us today. We'll be sharing the recording and further resources in a follow-up email.

Maureen: Thank you. Bye, folks.

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