change | St. Louis Corporate Yoga

Being In The Present

Being in the present – this is one of the best things you can practice to increase your well-being in life! How many times do you spend time reminiscing about the good old days? Or spending time just daydreaming about your golden future? Nothing wrong with daydreaming by the way… if you take action on reaching those goals!

Many people are so used to thinking in the past or future that they have a hard time staying focused on the here and now.

It is the present where magic lies! To motivate you to practice being in the now, we gathered a few amazing reasons why staying with the present moment can benefit your life:

Enjoy Food More

How many times do you eat while watching a show or typing on your laptop? It just seems that you save time but you have to pay a high price for saving a moment or two! You will likely barely notice what you are eating. Chances are, you won’t even remember what you ate a few minutes before. Not only that, you won’t fully process feelings of being full and satisfied and this can lead to overeating.

Stay present while eating and your experience will completely change. Think about how the food tastes in your mouth. Focus on how it smells, its texture and taste. Is it crunchy, soft, sour, sweet, or bitter? You will be eating slower and will have a vivid memory of this meal. You give your brain a chance to register when you are full. When you eat mindfully, you will enjoy your food more and eat less of it.

Control Bad Habits

You need to start a new project but you catch your brain wondering constantly instead of concentrating? Do you feel resistance creeping into your workdays? Feeling those bad procrastinating habits getting the better of you at the office? Observe your behavior mentally and make note of it. Ask yourself, what is going on and why are you having difficulty focusing. Just the act of putting your attention directly on the problem will help you work out better ways of dealing with it.

Have A Deeper Understanding

Focus in on what is happening here and now and you will gain a deeper understanding of what is really going on in any situation! You will miss less verbal and non-verbal cues in every situation. Just imagine how useful this will be in any office communications. For example, if you are meeting new co-workers for the first time, try to be as present as possible. Absorb everything they are saying, listen to their voice, notice what they say and do. You will observe and gather valuable information that lets you in on who they really are and how to best work with them towards success.

Have The Power To Change

You really only have control over what is happening in this moment. Try as you might you cannot change the past and you can’t dream the future into existence without taking action. Instead use the present moment to its fullest and you will realize your goals step-by-step. You can make changes going forward and that can only happen now, in the present. Make the most of the present and you will take control of your destiny!

Small Changes, Big Impact – Part Two

Does improving your personal and professional life have to be about making monumental changes? No. Even small steps in the right direction can often make a huge difference to your happiness. Plus taking things one step at a time will help avoid overwhelm. We are continuing with our “Small changes, big impact” series below:

1) Tame the email beast

How many times do you check your email account per day? Per hour? You might have noticed that checking email multiple times throughout the day can dramatically decrease your productivity.

Email is a major distraction to all of us. Feeling bored? Let’s see if there is anything interesting going on. Bad case of procrastination? Surely there is something else you can do before embarking on the project you are procrastinating on.

Email can get very addictive and you will find yourself in a loop of constantly checking private and office emails.

What if you decided to check your email 3 times per day only at the office? At the beginning of the workday, before lunch hour and in the afternoon. Let your co-workers know about your new system so they have a realistic expectation about you reading their emails. The good news is the world will not fall apart if you take a few hours to respond to an email! What if there’s any emergency? Your colleagues will find a better way to connect with you. Many times a personal discussion can help dealing with office emergencies.

2) Tech-free for a day

As much as we love technology, it is easy to get sick of it from time to time. We discussed the email beast above. Constant internet access, smart phones, messaging apps, social media and we become available to others all the time. And while it is nice to keep in touch… maybe we need some boundaries around our availability.

What if you switched off your phone as soon as you get home? Keeping it switched off is social situations? Simply saying “no” to constant availability.

Can you still remember the old days without mobile phones? We did survive and didn’t miss much, right?

Why don’t you consciously take time away from technology completely, for example for a day each week or month? Take Saturday or Sunday off from being online all the time. Who knows maybe you remember the activities you forgot you used to enjoy: reading a book, walking in the park or just daydreaming. Or you could use it as the perfect excuse to spend more time with your family.

3) Stop multitasking

Want to increase your productivity at the workplace? Stop multitasking immediately! It’s been proven time and time again that multitasking will not lead to better results or higher productivity. Especially women fall into believing that multitasking can be an answer to a more productive life. Well, it is not true. Some research suggested that multitasking actually can be unhealthy for your brain.

Focusing on one task and you will get more done in less time. Your quality of work increase, too! Decide to multitask less even if you feel the expectation to deal with more than one thing at one time. The myth of multitasking is still very apparent in our work culture so you might be challenged by others if you decide to stop this behavior.

Focus on one task and your productivity will increase automatically!

Find the 1st Part of this series here!

Small Changes, Big Impact – Part One

Big doors swing on little hinges – I am sure heard this old saying before. Small changes can result in big results in life. It is so easy to forget about how small steps we take influence the outcome of big things in life.

Are you looking to change your life on a personal and professional level? Are you waiting for a huge breakthrough to happen that brings about the desired change? Well, sometimes we are waiting and waiting and feel that nothing much happens, right?

Small steps and changes can build up to that big breakthrough we are dreaming about. Plus making little steps in the right direction might feel much easier and simpler.

Let’s look at small steps you can take in order to improve your work and personal life. This series will give you many suggestions for change. No, you don’t have to take all the steps we share – that would only result in major overwhelm. Take only one or two suggestions you like and find easy to integrate into your life – and leave the others.

Let’s begin!

1) Set Goals You Can Achieve

Setting goals can make the difference between just thinking about what we want to achieve and actually getting it done. Goals make your vision clearer and make you think of a pathway to achievement.

However, setting goals that are too difficult to achieve won’t be helping you. If you feel it is too much effort, you might never begin. If you feel it will take decades to reach that particular goal, you might procrastinate before you even start the 1^st step.

A big goal can put so much pressure on you that you might simply give up. Next time you make your goals, make sure they are SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound. But most importantly make sure that your goals are achievable!

2) Rise Early!

Waking up earlier consistently every day will bring many improvements to your life. Numerous studies have shown that early risers are more likely to exercise, get better sleep, be better at planning their day, and getting more done in a day.

Yes, you might feel it is impossible for you to wake up 30 minutes earlier. This usually means that you are not getting enough sleep! The secret to waking up earlier is to go to bed earlier on the previous night.

Try to cut back on meaningless activities in the evening. What if you cut back on the number of shows you watch? Or decide to NOT watch the news late at night? One thing is sure you will be able to fall asleep easier and have a calmer night. And be ready to jump out of your bed earlier the next day.

3) Practice Gratitude

Although many things in life are beyond our control, the way we choose to see things isn’t.

Do you feel like bad things just keep happening to you? Why don’t you start to practice daily gratitude to train your mind to focus on the positives?

You can be grateful for small things in life. In fact, the small good things are the easiest to take for granted. On cold winter nights having a warm bed to sleep in – what a wonderful thing to be grateful for!

Start small! Every night before you fall asleep, think of just one thing you are grateful for. Of course, feel free to add more than one thing if you feel like it.

Feeling grateful is not about writing up a compulsory list of 10 things you feel thankful about. It is about evoking the feeling of gratitude in your life every day.

Check back soon for the next part of this series of “Small changes – Big impact” articles!