Mindfulness: Is It Relevant to My Work Life?
Mindfulness is a purposeful activity that involves being acutely aware of what is happening now as opposed to thinking about the past or worrying about the future. In this article, Dr. Suzanne Olbricht discusses how dermatologists can employ mindfulness practices in their work lives to combat burnout.
Is mindfulness relevant to our work lives? The Boston Globe highlighted how mindfulness has become mainstream, reporting that major companies including Google, Aetna, the Huffington Post, Eileen Fisher, and the Massachusetts General Hospital build in opportunities during the work day for an employee to utilize practices that promote mindfulness.4 In the corporate setting, the stated objective is to contribute to the well-being of the employee, but the major motivation by the company is to reduce stress, which is one of the most costly employee health issues for absenteeism, turnover, and diminished creativity and productivity.
The medical literature supports the worth of mindfulness practices. A study of Brazilian primary care professionals showed a strong negative correlation between mindfulness and perceived stress.5 Irving et al6 showed that an 8-week formal mindfulness program reduced stress in health care professionals and produced remarkable evidence of better physical and mental health. In Australia, where medical students have much higher levels of depression and anxiety compared to the general adult population, medical students with higher levels of mindfulness traits, especially the nonjudgmental subscale, had lower levels of distress.7 Shapiro et al8 found notable decreases in distress for medical students who participated in a mindfulness program.
And mindfulness matters to patient care. A multicenter observational study of 45 clinicians caring for patients with human immunodeficiency virus found that clinicians with the highest mindfulness scores displayed a more positive emotional tone with patients and their patients reported higher ratings on clinician communication. The researchers hypothesized that these better clinical interactions may have a profound effect on quality, safety, and efficacy of the patient’s care.9
,How can we incorporate mindfulness in our daily work lives? For some it is a cognitive style that regularly facilitates nonjudgmental awareness, but there are regular practices that induce mindfulness as temporary states and help build it as a persistent style. A common exercise is to take a raisin, hold it in your hand and appreciate its color and shape, roll it in between your fingers for a tactile sensation that you describe in words to yourself, then put it on your tongue to feel its sensation there, and finally chew it noticing the texture and the taste. Another practice has been highlighted by respected Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh who reminds us to concentrate on our breath, observing what happens as we breathe in and out.10 Kabat-Zinn3 challenges us to “hear what is here to be heard. . . . letting sounds arrive at our door, letting them come to us.” He points out it is relatively easy to be intently aware of the external and physical world, but the real difficulty is being aware and examining our thoughts and internal experiences without being drawn into judging them, which then leads us to be carried away on an emotional path.3
When I am preoccupied or distracted at work, I find it helpful to stop at the door I am about to enter, hold the knob, and take a deep breath, concentrating on the next single task in front of me. Then I open the door and see a patient or deal with an administrative issue. My mindfulness in action at the workplace, helping me have a good and productive day. Yes, mindfulness is relevant to our work lives.
