Mindful decision-making

The film Everest, released in 2015, told the story of a group of experienced climbers who scaled the mountain in 1996. At the time so many groups were climbing to the summit that different attempts had to be scheduled. One safety rule on Everest is that if you don’t reach the summit by 2.00 pm, then you have to descend and head back to camp before nightfall. As the different groups ascended, they experienced delays. Although some abandoned their ascent after the allotted time, many experienced climbers, frustrated by being so close to their goal, continued to the summit. When they descended, bad weather, increasing darkness and altitude sickness led to eight of them dying on the mountain.

This tragic story is an example of what economists call the “sunk-cost bias” which is where we continue to invest time, money, and effort into something after we know that the benefits may not be realised. This is the same as the phrase “throwing good money after bad”. For instance, a business invests in a new strategic direction, but then the market environment changes. Instead of adapting its approach, the business avoids the evidence and continues the same path. A personal example could be when you continue to watch a terrible film until the end because you’ve already sat through the first hour.

We’re always making decisions. One way of describing your situation in this very moment is that it’s the sum of all the different decisions you’ve made in your life up to now: the big ones, like education, career, and relationships, and the less conscious and habitual ones like checking your email or deciding what you’ll have for lunch. When we make decisions, thoughts, emotions, and intuition are involved, but not always consciously. We’re also influenced by external factors that can remain hidden, like cultural norms and advertising. To make good-quality decisions we need to be in the right state. If we’re stressed, anxious, or experiencing strong emotions, then the quality of our decision-making will suffer. So, when we make decisions, how aware are we of our thinking, emotions, intuition, and external factors?

Intuition is our ability to know something directly from the bottom-up, outside of conscious thought, which works from the top-down. Through mindful awareness, we become more attuned to our feelings and felt sense and more open to the subtle messages that the rich network of neural connections in our body provides.

Mindfulness research shows how practising mindfulness can improve decision-making in several ways:

Mindfulness can help identify when a decision needs to be made, as well as clarify goals and frame the decision.
Present-moment awareness reduces the influence of sunk-cost bias.
Improved focus helps us identify options and resolve trade-offs.
The awareness and skilful use of inner resources like thinking, emotions, and intuition improves the quality and speed of decision-making.
People who practise mindfulness are less prone to the intention-behaviour gap, between knowing what to do and taking action.
People who practise mindfulness are more open to feedback and learning from their experience.

Practicing mindfulness can help you access your full range of inner resources with improved attentional focus, cognitive clarity, emotional intelligence and resilience, and intuition. Although you can try this out in the sandwich shop, the research shows that practising mindfulness can make a significant difference when it comes to important decisions.

Suggested weekly practice

See if you can notice the decisions you make during the day, from mundane ones like what you have for breakfast to the important decisions at work or in your personal life.
Find a decision and explore using the whole of your inner resources including thoughts, emotions, and intuition. Also include your inner state, whether this is stressed and agitated or calm and relaxed.
Reflect on some of the decisions you have made recently and explore how you made the decision and what inner resources were involved.

Guided practice

Find somewhere undisturbed and sit in a comfortable, dignified, and upright posture, where you can remain alert and aware.
There are two guided practices for this session. You can close your eyes, or lower your gaze while the meditations play.

Play the settling practice, then read through the session content, which you can print off if that helps
Then play the second audio to gently explore and experience being in the right state for mindful decision-making, including cognitive clarity, awareness of emotions, and intuition.

Change

In the past few years, we’ve been going through many changes: from the pandemic, geopolitical conflicts, and rising inflation, to coping with extreme weather events. On a more mundane level, have you ever gone to your supermarket and discovered that the marmalade’s no longer in the same familiar place and you can’t find the eggs? Supermarkets change their store layout to break our habit of taking the usual route every week, to entice us with other products. Although this may be good for the retailer, it can be confusing and frustrating for the shopper.

Change exists all around us, in the cycles of the seasons, the day and night as the earth orbits the sun, and the tides and lunar cycles of the moon. There’s change within our bodies: from the phases of life as we develop and grow older, each unique breath and heartbeat, and at a lower level, the 60 billion or so cells that are replaced in our bodies every day.

When we encounter a change in our lives it’s natural to feel a bit threatened by uncertainty; after all, evolution wired our brains to look out for threats in our environment. If the change is positive, then we may feel a sense of freedom and happiness. However, if the change triggers our threat response we can easily react automatically, feeling the impulse to avoid or resist the change. Without awareness, we tend to fall back on our automatic ways of coping from the past. We can also find ourselves identifying with negative beliefs and worrying thoughts as well as experiencing anxiety, fear, and anger about the change.

When we meet change, it can be useful to explore positive outcomes. When we reflect on the path our life has taken, the chances are that we’ll be able to find positive changes in direction that followed times of unwanted or difficult change.

Practising mindfulness is also about change. For instance, it can help us to break free of old habits and beliefs that limit or no longer serve us. We can become more aware of the subtle interplay between our thoughts, emotions, and sensations in our bodies. Mindfulness also allows us to shift from reacting automatically to responding skilfully with flexibility and openness. It’s also interesting that mindfulness research shows that the practice changes the way our brains are wired, which helps improve our emotional regulation and resilience.

Ways of using mindfulness to proactively help us work through change include:

Fully accepting and embracing the reality of the change
Working with emotions like fear, anxiety, and anger – allowing what we feel without automatically acting out the emotion, and bringing kindness and self-compassion to feelings of vulnerability about the change
Seeing that all things, including emotions, arise play out and pass away, and what feels painful now will not last forever
Not getting caught up in identifying with thoughts and feelings, knowing that we’re not our thoughts, or emotions as they come and go
Anchoring ourselves in the peace, stability, and balance in our bodies, when everything else seems to be shifting and changing

The organisations we work in are often changing in response to a new strategy, or to reduce costs and improve efficiency. We may change jobs, roles, teams, organisations, or even careers. We may also have parallel changes going on in our personal lives. So how we work with change as it occurs in our lives can make a real difference to our resilience, health, happiness, and well-being.

Suggested weekly practice

Notice things that are changing in your life, as well as the things that stay relatively constant.
Embrace and accept the change as you anchor yourself in the body and senses while acknowledging both the pleasant and unpleasant aspects of the change with the same welcoming attitude.
However negative the change may appear, see if you can explore some positive outcomes on the other side of the change.

Guided practice

Find somewhere undisturbed and sit in a comfortable, dignified, and upright posture, where you can remain alert and aware.
Play the first settling practice, then read through the session content, which you can print off if that helps.
Then close your eyes while this meditation plays, to explore and experience a mindful approach to accepting and responding to change with flexibility and openness.

Mindful holiday

The season we call Summer is when the earth’s 23.5° tilt is closest to the sun. The days become longer and hotter and many of us choose to take a break and go on holiday to take time off, travel, relax, and re-charge. Until relatively recently, travelling abroad was a luxury that only the wealthy could afford. Now many of us travel overseas, or to other parts of the country, to take a break. The word “holiday” originated from holy days that were taken as part of religious practice. The US term “vacation” was first used in UK law courts to refer to the long summer break and can be traced back to William the Conqueror.

With virtual working and access to mobile devices, it’s becoming normal for people to keep on top of things while they are away. So rather than properly relaxing and unwinding, there’s no escape from the busyness and potential stress. Luckily, most organisations now recognise that people are not machines and perform much better when given proper breaks. Research shows that even six days away from work can reduce stress and boost the immune system. The same research found that longer breaks that include well-being practices like meditation increase the health benefits.

When we reflect on some of the best holiday moments, some may be about the pleasure and fun we had, sharing the experience with loved ones, the surprising flavours of different cuisines, or feeling joyful and alive as we watched the sun slowly set over the sea. It’s interesting that most of these memories either involve the senses or are about the quality of the experience; being more open, aware, and appreciative of the present moment, which is what practising mindfulness is all about.

One useful thing about mindfulness is that it’s always with you. Although sometimes we simply forget to turn up; we’re lost in thought, pre-living and re-living our experience in our heads, which disconnects us from the present moment.

When you’re on holiday there is a range of things you can do to amplify the benefits, as well as find a little bit of peace and connection. Here are some suggestions:

Morning sitting practice

See if you can discipline yourself to schedule a sitting meditation each morning, maybe finding somewhere outside where you can sit for 10-30 minutes where you will not be disturbed. Maybe set a meditation timer on your smartphone (e.g., Insight Timer) or download some guided practices, if that’s useful.

Bring yourself into a dignified and upright yet comfortable posture. Then close your eyes.
Bring your attention into this moment and do a quick scan of your body, then your emotions and thoughts, acknowledging what’s already here and releasing any tensions you find, if you can.
Then bring the focus of your attention to your breath. Where the breath enters the nostrils is a good place, around the tip of the nose. See if you can stay with your breath, like listening to the sound of the ocean waves lapping against the shore. If you find that you wander off in thought, notice where your attention went, then gently bring it back to the breath.
Once you have started to feel settled, extend your awareness to take in your body on the chair, the surroundings you are in, the sounds that are near then sounds in the distance.
See if you can rest in the stillness and silence underneath the sounds and movement; appreciating this special moment; full of gratitude; feeling fully alive, energised, and connected.

Mindful eating

See if you can eat one piece of fruit mindfully each day. This is a lot easier than attempting a whole mindful meal. Pick something exotic like a fresh apricot or fig if you can.

Start with looking at the fruit, with a beginner’s mind as if you have never seen one before. Have a good look at the detail on its skin, texture, colours, the way light is reflected, its shape, weight, softness, or hardness.
Appreciate how it has grown on a tree, noticing where it was connected to a branch.
Then cut it open and appreciate the subtle aroma. Cut a small piece and place it on your tongue and close your mouth.
Without chewing, what are the sensations?
Then slowly chew on the fruit and see what you notice – not just the taste and texture but how your body is responding.
Then continue eating mindfully until it’s finished.

Mindful walking

This one’s best outside in the natural world, but you can do this anywhere, even on a busy city street. All you need to do is to bring yourself into the moment and connect with your body and senses.

When you notice that you have gone off in thought, acknowledge what happened and bring your attention back to the physical sensations of walking.
As you walk, expand your listening to take in and enjoy the stereo soundscape. Notice how your body does all of the work for you.
Notice the details of what’s around you. For instance, have a look at the detail on a leaf, or appreciate the subtle fragrance of a flower.
One tip is to use your eyes – bringing a sense of alert energy and attention, so you are really seeing.
If you’re walking on a street, notice the people who are walking toward you, seeing them with kindness and compassion, as human beings with a complex inner life just like your own.
Another tip is to play a game to see how many steps you can take without being distracted by thoughts. In this game it’s okay to notice a thought; it’s going off into extended mind-wandering that you want to avoid.
As you walk along, see if you can really appreciate the sense of physical aliveness and vitality as well as the rich intensity of your experience.

These practices will help any holiday become a richer and more fulfilling experience and brings greater awareness, peace, and calm into your day. So hopefully when you return to work you feel revitalised and ready for the challenges ahead.

Suggested weekly practice

Start each day with some light exercise, followed by a morning meditation outside if you can. During the meditation, bring your awareness to the body and breath, simply noting where your attention goes. For instance: tingling on soles of feet, birdsong, in-breath, thinking, warmth on face, etc.
Take the time to relax and release any stress and agitation, intentionally letting go of any held tension in your body, as well as connecting into and releasing any held feelings, that built up before the holiday.
Make the most of your time away from busy work activities to find peace and stillness and reflect on the meaningful things in your life with appreciation and gratitude

Guidance
Find somewhere undisturbed and sit in a comfortable, dignified and upright posture, where you can remain alert and aware.
There are two guided practices for this session. You can close your eyes, or lower your gaze while the meditations play.

Play the settling practice, then read through the session content, which you can print off if that helps.
Then play the second one where you’re invited to visualise and re-experience a peaceful and tranquil time on holiday, feeling open, connected and relaxed

Tasks

Our early ancestors led relatively simple lives that revolved around hunting and gathering food, relaxing and socialising. With easy access to a wide variety of food, a small group of hunter-gatherers could easily meet the basic needs of its members. So much so, that the early hunter-gatherers have been called the first affluent society. Ironically, it was when people began cultivating crops and farming animals around ten thousand years ago that life became really hard work. In the last three hundred years, we discovered science and mastered the material world, which led to the industrial and technological eras that we now inhabit. Although some commentators say that we’re an affluent society today, many of us lead complex and stressful lives that are often out of balance.

Apart from leisure and socialising, for most of us, our daily routine revolves around carrying out tasks of one form or another, either at work or at home. Even though we may now be working virtually, in a typical office environment, we plug into technology, attend calls and meetings, and one task blurs into another.

One challenge is that all the mental, and emotional noise and activity is not always released at the end of each task, so it accumulates in the background over the day. So, in the unnoticed background, we may have a head full of busy, swirling thoughts, unacknowledged emotions, and accumulated stress and tension in our bodies.

If there are too many tasks, maybe multitasking is the answer? Although multitasking may be the only option for some people some of the time, for instance, work-at-home mothers, the research shows that, rather than carrying out tasks in parallel, what we’re really doing is switching our attention between tasks. This can reduce our productivity by up to 40%. Multitasking distracts our focus so we’re more likely to make mistakes and increases our stress levels.

So, how can we work more effectively and avoid taking on agitation and stress? Here are four suggestions for maintaining focus and being more productive when working:

Cultivating a peaceful, calm, and relaxed state: Things go so much better when we begin the day from a state of being peaceful, calm, and relaxed; physically, mentally, and emotionally. We can then use this calm state of being as an inner resource to return to again and again, before, during, and after activities.
One thing at a time: Rather than multitasking, a more productive option is to focus on one thing at a time. In our multitasking world, this almost sounds counter-intuitive, but it’s how sports professionals, musicians, and artists achieve peak performance.
Focus where the work gets done: A useful way to maintain our attention on the task is to focus on where the work gets done. This varies depending on what you’re doing. For example, if you’re washing up, try holding your attention on where the washing up brush touches the saucepan, or if decorating, where the brush and paint touch the wall. When you notice your attention wandering off, gently bring it back to the task at hand in the present moment. This is a good informal practice that can be used just about anywhere, and also helps improve your general attention and focus.
Mark task boundaries: Another tip is to top and tail each task, by establishing a clear beginning and endpoint for each task. When you complete a task there are many things you can do to create a task boundary. This could be to take a short break, maybe away from your screen somewhere that allows your eyes to rest by looking outside. If possible, rest your eyes on something natural and open, like the trees and sky. The 20-20-20 rule of thumb is a useful guide, which is about looking at something 20 feet away, for twenty seconds, every 20 minutes. Take a few mindful breaths and really bring yourself into the here-and-now as you let go of the previous mental and emotional activity while relaxing and letting go of any tension that may have built up in your body. If you can’t find the time to take a break, a simple mindful breath will do. Then begin your new task in a peaceful, calm, and relaxed state. If it helps, you can experiment by saying internally to yourself, “begin” and, “end, and let go” to help establish this practice.

It’s no surprise that when you look at what you do in your life with curiosity and openness, you’ll see that it’s full of tasks, often for other people. Sometimes tasks can seem like a burden, especially when we build resentment toward other people and situations. Remember that every moment offers the opportunity to respond skilfully and with ease, rather than limit ourselves in automatic patterns of reaction. By working skilfully with open awareness and kindness, by maintaining focus on whatever tasks you engage in, you’ll get more done, experience a real sense of ease and feel the satisfaction of performing at your best.

Suggested weekly practice

Notice the beginning and end of each task and when a task is complete, take a moment to let go of thoughts and emotions that arose during the task.
Watch out for unnecessary multitasking and bring your attention to one thing at a time. For instance, you may be distracted by an email and start replying while writing a report that you need to complete.
Focus on where the work gets done – resting your attention on where the action is taking place. A good way to try this out is on tasks at home like peeling vegetables or washing up.

Guidance

Find somewhere undisturbed and sit in a comfortable, dignified and upright posture, where you can remain alert and aware.
There are two guided practices for this session. You can close your eyes, or lower your gaze while the meditations play.

Play the first settling practice, then read through the session content, which you can print off if that helps.
Then play the second practice to explore an extended approach to working skilfully on a task by focusing on one thing at a time and resting your attention on where the work gets done.

Vulnerability

Although politicians, strategists, and special advisors do their best to control things like the economy, health, geopolitical relations, and the environment, the world appears to be more chaotic, complex, and uncertain for them to ever get things right, for very long. The same is true on a personal level; although we do our best to control our lives, there are many things in life that we cannot control. For instance, we get older, may experience illness, and all of us will eventually die. We may experience moments of self-doubt, helplessness, worry, restlessness, confusion, defensive reaction, and limitation. All of these are moments of vulnerability.

Vulnerability is about the possibility of being exposed to attack or harm. In the case of our wellbeing, vulnerability relates to our body, emotions, mind, our sense of self, and relationships. Vulnerabilities can come from external conditions, as well as from within ourselves and how we relate to the world. The negativity bias in the primitive part of our brain evolved to keep our early ancestors safe from danger. Although still useful, it’s this bias that makes us give greater cognitive and emotional prominence to unpleasant and negative perceptions and experiences than ones that are pleasant. Rather than living with ease, we sometimes find ourselves caught up in difficulties and challenges that we react to with the same habit patterns that no longer serve us. We may feel anxiety and get caught up in worrying thoughts about what could happen, as well as reacting defensively with anger driving thoughts about who is to blame. All of this leads to a state of agitation and stress that reduces our capacity to think clearly and respond skilfully. Alternatively, we may deny that we are feeling vulnerable at all and avoid the thoughts and emotions about a difficulty.

There is a range of mindfulness skills and attitudes that can help us work more skilfully with vulnerability:

We can be open and aware of what is going on for us within the present moment
We can use courage and curiosity to investigate what is going on for us with kindness and self-compassion
We can focus on our breath to slow things down, reduce agitation, cultivate some space, and collect our thoughts
With a less busy mind, we can step out of the internal narrative and identification, and find the internal space to explore choices and options for how we can respond more skilfully
We can make sure we include a bit of joy, gratitude, and appreciation in our lives, even when things are difficult
We can notice the negativity bias as well as being aware of old habit patterns that no longer serve us

One way of being more alert to vulnerabilities is to watch out for moments when there is the impulse to make this moment different in some way. For example, this could be by distracting ourselves with the TV or with our phone, rather than exploring and moving towards what is making us feel vulnerable in that moment. This is not to say that watching TV or looking at our phone is not a wholesome activity, it’s when we find ourselves doing this on impulse to make ourselves feel better that indicates that it may be more useful to acknowledge and explore a feeling of vulnerability that’s in the background of our experience.

Anyone who watches the news cannot help feeling a bit troubled about what is happening in the world, which makes us feel vulnerable collectively, as well as personally. Many of us also experience difficulties and challenges closer to home that we do our best to resolve. Having the courage to be more aware of our vulnerabilities, noticing unhelpful habit patterns, calming agitation, and restlessness, finding joy, practising acceptance and patience, and bringing openness, kindness, and compassion to ourselves leads to a more easeful life, improves our emotional resilience and gives us the capacity to help others.

Suggested weekly practices

Check-in with yourself during the day to be more aware of any vulnerable feelings and thoughts
Notice old habit patterns, especially the impulse to avoid or react defensively to feelings of vulnerability
See if you can bring a bit of joy, appreciation, and gratitude into each day, even when you may be feeling overwhelmed, low, or frustrated. For instance, this could be spending a bit of peaceful and appreciative time in nature, looking up at the sunset for a few moments, or taking a dog for a walk in the woods.

Guidance

Play the first settling practice, then read through the session content, which you can print off if that helps.
Then play the second practice to explore where we experience vulnerability and to begin to cultivate the conditions where we are less likely to react with defensive habit patterns that no longer serve us.