5 tips for mindfulness - when you don't have the time...

As first seen in National Geographic Traveller

How does a wellness expert and award-winning author maintain focus? Dr Rachel Thomas reveals how to gain some headspace everyday:

A work email, an overrunning meeting, or an upcoming deadline can all trigger our body’s stress response.

This can cause floods of hormones including cortisol, adrenaline and noradrenaline. They increase our heart rate and blood pressure, helping us escape threats, theoretically by fighting or fleeing. Historically, this worked well. Yet these days, this system isn’t just activated by seeing a lion, and then resolved when we have escaped it. It’s repeatedly triggered by many things, especially during our work days, leaving us in a state of chronic stress.

Luckily there are effective techniques to help manage this, including mindfulness. This type of mindfulness doesn’t incorporate religious overtones or dogma. It’s basically having an awareness of what is happening in your mind, and body, in the present - observing this, without judgement. We know we should exercise our body for health benefits, and mindfulness is like jogging for the mind. With the added bonus of being able to do it in our lunch break without getting sweaty!