Most of us spend a majority of our lives working, whether that be paid, unpaid or volunteering. Yet we also find ourselves at times wondering if what we are doing is really what we want to do in life. When we answer no, it can often leave a feeling of dissatisfaction or overwhelm with that job or other activity. Over time this dissatisfaction can result in impacting our health.
Mindfulness is a powerful tool to help you to find meaning and purpose in your life. Mindfulness can help you change how you relate to the negative experiences and cultivate skills to find meaning and purpose in what you do.
All work has the potential to be meaningful depending on how we pay attention to and relate to others and our lives through how we use mindfulness as a tool. Mindfulness allows you to cultivate awareness, connection and resilience to find purpose in everything you do and be fully present fostering greater connection and compassion in your daily interactions
Three ways to find meaning through mindfulness include:
Set expectations of what your work means to you
While it is often said that to do great work you have to love what you do, however, it is possible to find meaning in work we don’t love through mindful expectations.
Ask yourself why you are doing the work. Is it for payment, independence, career advancement, or it is your passion? Knowing your why will help you achieve greater satisfaction and create emotional freedom by being honest with yourself.
Set daily intentions
Approach your work with an authentic intention and ask yourself what you want from work and life. For example your intention may be to show up with loving kindness towards the people you interact with and use every opportunity to really listen to them.
This will help you identify that which is in accord with your values and make things less challenging while allowing you find meaning from being present in the moment and creating respect.
Be present and pay attention fully to whatever is in front of you
Multi-tasking causes you to lose focus and become distracted. You may think you are doing multiple things at once, but your attention is scattered between each task. Use mindfulness to bring your attention back to one task and be fully present and concentrate on one thing at a time. You will find you complete the task more quickly and in doing so your satisfaction will increase because you have connected fully in the moment.