ONE ACTIVITY THAT COULD LEAD TO A MORE MEANINGFUL LIFE

In his book A Hidden Wholeness, Parker Palmer explores this dance of ‘being and doing’, describing what he calls the ‘work before the work’. He writes: ‘Before I turn to my work in the world, I have inner work to do.’

Paradoxically, carving out time for regular stillness amplifies our creativity and offers access to a deeper source for the work and impact we hope to have in the world.

During an interview for Mindful in May, Tara Brach, leading meditation teacher and writer, shared her perspectives with me on how mindfulness can actually support more meaningful and impactful ‘doing’ in our lives:

I actually think of mindfulness and meditation as the grounds of impactful activity that can make a real difference in the world. I sometimes think of Gandhi, who took a day off each week, no matter what, to pray and meditate. He’d get in touch with what he said was his wisest self. All of his actions would spring from his most clear and compassionate inner life. In the same way, if we take time to pause and reconnect, we are actually more in touch with our intelligence and with our heart. And then whatever activity it is – whether it’s creative and in the arts, or serving other people, or mathematical – whatever we are doing, we are more aligned and more effective.

Take a moment to reflect on these questions

• How often are you multitasking?

• Do you believe that multitasking is making you more efficient?

• What are your habits when it comes to working? Do you have strategies or practices that help you stay focused?

During my medical training, I remember the overwhelm I often felt during a busy hospital on-call shift. My pager beeped without a break, nurses constantly calling for urgent help. It was impossible to meet all of these emergencies at once, and so I learned the art of triage.

The key to triaging is remembering that there is always time to pause and breathe before you decide what action is required. The problem is that when you’re feeling overwhelmed, the brain goes into fight-or- fight mode, bringing an inner sense of urgency.

In this anxious state, most of us automatically multi-task as a way of trying to manage the competing demands. However, there has been a huge amount of research done around the impact of multitasking on our brains and our effectiveness. Here are just a few findings:

• Multi-tasking has been demonstrated to reduce brain density in areas that control empathy and emotions (the anterior cingulate cortex).

• A study at the University of London found that subjects who multi- tasked experienced drops in their IQ comparable to someone who missed a night of sleep.

• A famous study at Stanford led by Clifford Nass revealed that multi-taskers were not as effective at remembering and learning new information.

That’s where mindfulness really comes to the rescue. It won’t necessarily stop you from getting overwhelmed, but it will help you know that you’re overwhelmed, so that you can take a moment to pause and prioritize. The increased self-awareness that develops through a regular mindfulness practice helps you recognize changing states of mind more quickly and manage them more effectively.