Life at Work

Hi Kevin,

Great way to start and thanks for bringing up a good topic. This is something that I have been keen to get right because I also find it difficult to be aware and self observe at work it's a busy environment, a bustling kitchen with lots of communication , noise, non stop work, etc i find it consuming and can get caught up in it . I can definitely relate to the emotional pain and almost a nausea some times when breaking away from the identification, I thought it was just me who felt that :-) and never really thought to communicate it, just suffer in silence:-) so thanks for bringing it up Kevin.
Because it is hard to do I have found in the past it was easy to go to extremes with it and become rigid and overly serious in order to try and not be identified with the work place, I guess being unnatural when it is ok to be happy in your job and do the inner work.
I try and use awareness anchors at work to help me focus on the spiritual work like using my knife, opening doors, walking up stairs, etc this seems to help a lot and I feel less identified with the egos of others, do a better job and be more aware of my own egos and actions.

Good one Kevin!

Yeah, a great topic to bring up. I think most people will be able to relate a lot to your experiences (I sure can).

In addition to the points you guys have mentioned, I think it's also interesting to look at the resistance to starting/completing a task and leads you to seek out distractions. This can be a painful one to overcome as well.

It's good to share some strategies that people have found helpful. Thanks for posting.

Nice to hear from you Jason. I should set some specific anchors here, I think...I guess I got a bit discouraged with stuff on the computer (plus that it would be weird at work, so I might have to improvise) but I could probably set my watch or something. I realized the other day that I keep doing the same things, and so I of course get the same results.

Hopefully, though, enduring and trying to break past the resistance will help break the pattern.

Should be interesting.

Kevin 

I like this new interactive medium...the comments come fast!

I know exactly the one you're talking about Justin...definitely a tough one to beat at times...especially when it seeks out distractions that seem productive, but really aren't the priority.

I guess it's almost like the aspect puts a waterfall or something in front of you, and you don't want to get wet...but the only thing to do is just walk through it...and then you see that the water doesn't get you wet. But you would never believe that before doing it. Even though you've probably seen it before :P

Thanks for your reply. 

We had focused on anchors for a while in the teachers training course here in London and one we used was sitting down in your chair and getting up out of your chair. Obviously in the natural flow of your day rather then as an isolated practice(thought I would clarify so there wasn't any confusion;-)) Marc and Jared who are doing the teaches training course and also work in an office found this anchor to be really useful.
You may have already tried it yourself but if you haven't then it is a good one to give a go:-)

Ah, that's a good one. I'm going to give it a shot. Thanks.

I just practiced doing it, and I hope that will help me remember.

Cheers,
Kevin

Hey Kevin,

Nice topic! I've tried a few different things in the past that have worked quite well, but it seems like they work well for awhile and then they stop working properly or get a bit stale so I need to keep changing.

I also work in an office in front of a computer so I can commiserate. :)

So, the things that help:

I like drinking a lot of water at work. Then I get chances to go and fill up my water (I use a slightly smaller bottle so it empties every hour or so, I get mini 5 second breaks from the screen to drink, and I need to go to the bathroom more because of all the water! I have to watch out though that reaching for my drink bottle doesn't become automatic.

I really like using reminders as was suggested. Feeling mouse clicks and feeling yourself typing seems like a pretty good one because I often do it without feeling it. Also being aware of my breathing or hearing the air conditioning helps me. It's amazing how easy it is to stop hearing the air conditioning even though it's pretty loud, or my breathing even though I never stop (thankfully)..

I also try and use internal triggers, so if I'm having a certain thought or feeling coming up constantly then I try and use that to remember and try and use it against itself.

Reality checks seems to be a good way to see where or when my awareness has slipped a bit by seeing how regular they are throughout the day and in what periods they fall down. It seems like often I push harder in the morning than in the afternoon.

Something else I used as a trigger recently which worked quite well was counting the number of times I remembered to observe, it seemed to be a pretty effective reminder.

With using the computer itself, I find it helps to keep your peripheral vision going, so to try and see what's around and behind the computer not just getting sucked into the screen. And I find I get quite scattered if my egos talk me through what I'm doing in my head. I work with quite a lot of dates and numbers, and if I'm not careful my egos quietly say what I'm typing in my head which isn't very good for awareness, or when I'm saving a file for instance they'll follow the file path in my head as I do it on the screen. :)

Also, I find it helps me to plan what I have to do during the day at work, so I don't think about what I need to do so much, and so it's easier not to go along with the things my egos spontaneously want me to do.

It seems to help me to if I've lost it just to look away from the screen and start seeing things in 3D again. If I spend too much time on the computer it seems like everything can become two dimensional.

Thanks for the getting in and out of chair reminder Jason, I want to give that one a shot!

Justin, thanks for the reminder about distraction / procrastination!

Kevin, Is there anything you've found so far that works well? I like the waterfall analogy.

Thanks!

David

Hi Kevin,

Thanks for a great topic. It helps to take breaks, which I'm sure you've tried. I find that it is important to do something else during that break that will prevent my mind from going back to the task. Mantras are great but not necessarily practical...but even having a conversation with someone can help. Otherwise, I just take a break physically, but remain emotionally and mentally still on the task.

When I'm working on the computer, I usually focus on certain types of egos. Generally, I focus on my emotional center and also motor center (not with regard to typing, but to spot tension that comes up). After making effort to keep checking these, it has become a habit to look out for certain egos. Then, it occurs to me to relax, etc...When these things occur, it also breaks me out of fascination.

One thing that I notice is that my breathing pattern changes when I get too fascinated by what I'm doing on the computer. This seems to accompany an ego that makes me feel like I am in a rush, even when I am not.

Something else that helps me when I am writing is to try to use intuition as much as possible, even in "mundane" tasks. I've been suprised at how much more efficiently I can work. This could be applied to a lot of different types of work and tasks, such as planning.

Finally, just last night, I tried doing a task that I normally would do on the computer using paper and pen. It was real refreshing. I can't do this all of the time, but if the task permits an alternative approach, that can help break fascination some.

Hi David,

It helps me to look away from the screen for a second if I notice the fascination coming on. I noticed more how my mind just gets really active and thoughts just shoot back and forth. This accompanies the nervous feeling. They're probably feeding into each other. So anyway, I found it helps to just try to take a few seconds to come back here and there, and to remember that my whole life is not to get stuff done on the computer :)

That sounds pretty good, Gabrielle. That's the kind of stuff I'm trying to figure out more about. I think that I can relate on the breathing pattern too - usually goes hand-in-hand with tensing up.

I also notice that when things are calm at work, it's easier than when things are busy or people are all asking me things at once. It would be interesting, though, to not get sucked in at those times either (even though it's almost like the people doing the asking expect you to).

Have you noticed any changes in how you feel at the end of using the computer, Gabrielle? I would think you'd feel like you had more energy left.