How to Have a Good Day: Harness the Power of Behavioral Science to Transform Your Working Life pdfdrive com

THE MINDFUL PAUSE
Anthony knows when he’s hitting a wall. He recognizes the tension in his
muscles and his snappish comments, as well as the feeling that he’s not thinking
straight. But he has a reliable routine for getting his brain back into discovery
mode.
When he notices the tide of stress rising, Anthony says, he pauses, takes a
deep breath, and then asks himself, “Do I want to feel like this?” He explains: “I
know the way I’m feeling is just a symptom of too many demands on my brain,
and that there are plenty of practical things I can do to help my brain cope. And
I’ve found that asking this simple question reminds me that I have some choices
in how I decide to react. It starts to reengage rational thought, without fail. It’s
like pinching myself in a dream.”
He uses a specific technique for taking that deep breath. “When you’re
panicking, you can feel short of breath, but you’re actually over-oxygenating
yourself by breathing fast. So I use a technique called ‘triangular breathing,’
where you breathe in for a count of three, then breathe out for a count of three,
then pause for a count of three. By slowing your heart rate, you’re sending a
signal to your brain that the threat has passed, so it reduces the other signals of
stress.” It’s a great example of the kind of mind-body loop I mentioned in The
Science Essentials.
With this, Anthony is basically using mindfulness as his first-line tactic to
handle workplace overload. As a result, he’s reaping some of the compelling
neurological benefits that research has found to be associated with mindfulness
practices, including sharper thinking and better resilience. Perhaps his short
routine doesn’t sound like mindfulness—but it is, in effect. The counting
involved in his breathing exercise gives his overloaded mind a clear and
uncomplicated point of focus for a little while, allowing his brain a few minutes

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to unpack and reorganize everything it’s trying to keep track of. As Anthony
says, “It slows and calms things down very, very quickly.”
If you want a quick, discreet way of taking a mindful pause when you’re
swamped at work, try this:
Find a way to sit (or stand) as comfortably as you can. Try putting your feet
squarely on the floor. Close your eyes if possible, or just look downward into
your lap.
Next, choose an easy point of focus. Try one of these approaches:
• Concentrate on your breath. You can try Anthony’s technique, or just count
1–2 on the in-breath and 3–4 on the out-breath. It can help you focus if you
put your hands on your stomach to feel its rise and fall as you breathe.
• Notice how each part of your body feels, working up from your toes to the
top of your head.
• Count down from one hundred to zero in your mind.
If your mind wanders, don’t worry—that’s normal. Don’t judge yourself. Just
notice that you’ve drifted, then bring your focus back to where you were
before.
If your moment of overload is hitting you in the middle of a meeting, you can
use miniature versions of all of these suggestions to pause and bring your
smarter self back online. Take just one or two mindful breaths; count down from
ten (rather than one hundred); take a second to notice how your feet feel on the
floor. Nobody will notice except your grateful brain.