Written by: Jenefer Hill, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Maintaining a healthy work-life balance is essential for our overall well-being and success in all areas of life. The recipe and approach for achieving this balance will be different for everyone, and usually requires continual attention and adaption as our circumstances invariably change. While much has been written about creating better physical life balance, this article explores how to establish better mental life balance through practicing mindful skills and attitudes.
There’s a lot we can to do protect our psychological boundaries and balance through learning to better manage our attention and regulate our emotions, and there is good reason to do so as our inner state is reflected in the outer world. Proven practices like non-judgement, acceptance and letting go, self-compassion, and gratitude can enhance our psychological health, well-being, and balance and help to manifest this balance in our outer world.
Outlined below are some tips and practices for reducing our mental load and achieving a healthier work-life balance, from a mindful perspective.
1. Establish a regular meditation habit
Engaging in formal and informal meditation practices, supported by a suitable teacher, can bring numerous benefits, including a greater sense of inner calm, equanimity, and compassion which can radiate and infuse into our outer world. Regular meditation practice helps us to reveal and live from our innately present, open, intelligent, and kind awareness, and develop the following capacities over time.
2. Attention management
When we learn to manage our attention, we can resist overthinking, maintain a healthy perspective and mindset, and avoid psychological isolation due to excessive work.
How and how much you think and feel about work, beyond what is necessary to effectively get your work done, can have a significant influence on your sense of work-life balance. Resisting overthinking or worrying about work can go a long way to reducing your mental workload and allow you to more effectively assess what to do and what not to do without actually changing anything about your physical workload.
Tips to remember:
Your energy and brain power (and information) flows wherever your attention goes.
You always get to choose whether to focus on positive or negative things. Your choice will determine whether you experience more positive or negative feelings.
You always get to choose your thoughts about your life or work situations. Your choice will determine whether you feel negative and afraid to push forward or positive and hopeful for the future.
You always get to choose what you value in life. You can use what matters most to you as a source of motivation during stressful times.
3. Mentally bookend your working day
Bookending your working day with self-care activities can help to maintain psychological boundaries and balance between work and personal life. A regular morning practice like guided meditation, yoga, breathwork or affirmations can help to mentally prepare for your day, set clear intentions, and strengthen your ability to focus, manage distractions and emotional reactivity at work. Developing an evening ritual like exercise, journaling or a relaxing activity can help to process, de-stress and unwind at the day's end.
4. Single-tasking
Instead of multi-tasking, focus on one task at a time. Give each task your undivided attention. Pause and re-centre before moving to the next task. Single-tasking fosters productivity, stress reduction, and improved work quality.
5. Practice mindful transitions
Take moments throughout your day to practice being present. Come to your senses, check how you are feeling, take a moment to re-centre and notice the general okayness of the present moment. Take mindful breaks where you can, get into nature, have a social chat or feel the sun on your skin. Staying present will help you manage stressful situations and make better decisions under pressure.
6. Emotional regulation
Learn to acknowledge, accept, process, and glean the wisdom from challenging emotions without hanging onto them. What you resist persists, so learn to be open and receptive to whatever you face, to embrace rather than fight with reality, including the reality of how you feel. Practice non-judgement. Learn to accept and let go of what you cannot control. This can radically transform your life. The more freedom you allow for experiences to occur, the more freedom you will experience in life.
7. Self-compassion
We are often hard on ourselves when being kinder would be more helpful. What would you say to a loved one who wasn’t looking after their life balance? Can you give this kindness and care to yourself? This might include self-acceptance and self-forgiveness for failing to meet your own perfectionist standards. If you can forgive yourself for your judged ‘mistakes’ you can learn whatever lessons are there to learn and move on. Practice friendly, open awareness, kindness, and compassion towards yourself. You are human, no human is perfect, and all humans suffer (often due to our own self-judgement and criticism).
8. Reframing problems
Look for the opportunities in challenges and reframe stress to see the positive aspects in difficult situations. Deploy perspective: things could be a lot worse, most of the time.
9. Practice gratitude
Cultivate a sense of gratitude by reflecting on the positive aspects of work and personal life. Soak up the good. This can help to shift your perspective, lower stress and anxiety levels, increase satisfaction and happiness, and re-focus on what you value most.
10. Use humour
Embrace humour as a tool to transform the way you relate to challenges, and not take yourself or life too seriously.
Every day no matter what
Creating a healthy work-life balance is an ongoing journey that requires conscious effort and commitment. Even a few minutes a day dedicated to yourself and your self-care can start to make a big difference. Here are some simple practices to help cultivate these mindful attitudes:
Emotional regulation practice: Name it to tame it
Practice feeling your emotions more fully. Turn towards them with gentleness. Recognise what is present with care, curiosity and without judgement. Identify and name the emotion you are experiencing. Notice what your mind is saying. Notice how the emotion feels in your body. Can you accept, even embrace the feeling, and let go of the mental story that goes with it? Realise the impermanence of your emotions. This too shall pass, often in as little as 90 seconds.
A four-step acceptance practice
Become aware of your feelings and the thoughts which accompany them. Name them to tame them, to yourself, or via writing them down.
Be Mindful: What are you aware of? Pay attention to the reality of the situation. Be mindful of your feelings and surroundings. What’s actually happening around and within you?
Replace negative thoughts with conscious positive thoughts. Ask yourself, what’s really wrong with this situation? What am I believing? Am I resisting the situation or my own emotions?
If there is any resistance, let it go gently. Don’t mentally push the situation or how you feel about it away. It already is, so what use is there in resisting it? Accept that it is. Welcome the situation as if you had chosen it. And if you can’t accept the situation, accept how you feel about the situation.
A three-step self-compassion practice to counter stress
Be mindful: Without judgement or analysis, notice what you’re feeling. Say, “This is human suffering” or “This is painful” or “This is what stress feels like.” I’m feeling anxious” or “Anger rising or raging within me.”
Remember that you’re not alone: Everyone experiences these intense and painful human emotions at times. Say to yourself, “Suffering is a part of life” or “We all feel this way at times” or “We can all struggle in life.”
Be kind to yourself: Give yourself some sincere and soothing words, as you would say to a loved one in this situation, “May I give myself compassion” or “What do I need right now?” “I will get through this, I always do.” “It is OK. It will all be OK.”
By recognising the importance of emotional regulation, managing attention and what thoughts we entertain, it is possible to cultivate a healthier psychological work-life balance which can lead to greater overall well-being, less stress and increased effectiveness at work. Ultimately, it is your choice how you respond to work and life, and you can always choose what you think, feel, and do next. It’s easier to make the choice of what to do next when you are present in the moment. This is the power of awareness, our natural state. It is already, always here and it is naturally uncovered with regular meditation practice.
Jenefer Hill, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Jenefer Hill is passionate about sharing the calming, clarifying, and transformative powers of meditation and mindfulness. Through her training services she supports those who seek to live and work with greater presence, ease, and focus. Jen began meditating in 2008, became a teacher, guide, and coach in 2016, and a meditation teacher trainer in 2021. She holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Guiding and Teaching Meditation and Mindfulness from the Australian Centre for Meditation and Mindfulness (ACMM), is the Founder of Right Brain Liaisons, and trains future meditation teachers at ACMM. Jen is a leader in empowering people and organisations to unlock potential and improve life, work, wellbeing, and health. Profile picture by Pippa Barnes photography.
