Yesterday I tasked myself with three items, 20 minutes of mindful meditation, mindful listening and body scan.

I completed an extended meditation for 20 minutes while on my commute home through the smiling mind app. The time I found went faster than expected, however I found it to be quite difficult to maintain focus. Whenever I found my mind wandering, I was sure to bring my attention back to the take and not dwell on this.

While working we had to view a series of 13 presentations of students work where I implemented mindful listening. I was unable to fully practice this as the situation didn’t enable an opportunity to repeat back to them, I focused on being present in the moment and really listening to what they were saying and the ideas they were presenting. I paid close attention to the sound of their voice, the visuals they were presenting and if any emotion was sparked by these.

Finally I completed a body scan meditation using the smiling mind app. I did this exercise earlier than the previous day which I found to lessen the effects. I found myself to be more on edge rhan the previous day one the meditation had completed.

Overall, today was more difficult than the first, this may partially be due to actively implementing mindfulness into my daily activities. I’m curious to see how this self development project progresses.

I began my journey yesterday by first completing the mindfulness test available on the UC Berkeley Greater Good website. The results were an average 56/100 and based on these results, some suggestions for how I could improve my mindfulness. These suggestions included body scan, sitting meditation, hatha yoga practice and radon meditation (which I’m certainly not doing as I can’t stand eating raisins). I will complete this test again on the final day of this three week program and compare these results.

The second time I tasked myself with was mindful walking. On my way back to central station from UNI, I walked slower, took notice of my surrounding, the sounds, the smells, the feelings, how these things made me feel. I noticed things I hadn’t before, the trees on the goods line almost fully bare of leaves, just beginning to flower, the fairy lights wrapped around the trees in Henry Dean plaza, the feeling of the cool air on my face, the sounds of someone’s squeaky shoes somewhere in the distance. Overall this was a very calming and relaxing experience.

Finally, I completed a body scan right before going to sleep. To do so I used the body scan guided meditation available on the Smiling Mind app. As someone with rather high anxiety, particularly at night, I’ve planned to complete each day with this practice. I didn’t notice any immediate effect from doing this aside feeling more relaxed. I’m hoping over time I can see more improvements, stay posted for this.

Hey, my name is Alexandra, or Alex for short, and I’m here to take you on my self development journey to becoming more mindful at work and in my every day life.

I’m 26, I work full-time as a graphic designer and I’m currently completing my Bachelor of Business, majoring in marketing and management at the University of Technology Sydney.

I’m choosing to studying mindfulness as my topic for this self development project, primarily because I naturally work well under intense pressure, however when that pressure has relaxed or completed dissapeared, I can struggle to maintain focus and find myself distracted eaily. I also suffer from anxiety, a realist and can be hyper critical of myself or others, which others find to be too direct. After researching the options, I felt mindfulness could be the most beneficial to me in every day life.

Over the next three weeks, I’ll be implementing a timeline of activities ranging from three to five tasks, which are designed to aid the development of mindfulness and increase productivity. My timeline is progressive in format and designed to be implemented slowly. I’ve chosen to blog this experience as a way to monitor progress and boost motivation.

“Mindfulness makes you less judgemental about others. Mindfulness helps you appreciate why people behave the way they do.”

Ellen Langer

I hope over the next three weeks to gain a better understanding of the way I work, and the way my work could be improved as well as helping to nurture existing relaionships with coworkers, friends and family. I hope to see a positive change in my mindfulness scores and find ways of permanently implementing midnfulness into my life.