When you hear the word “mindfulness,” what usually comes to mind?
For me, it was usually a picture of someone effortlessly and serenely engaged in a yoga pose, one with the universe.
If that seemed too highfalutin for you, it certainly seemed so to me.
That is, until circumstances in my life forced me to look deeper into the concept.
I manage several roles in my life: as a wife, mother, daughter or sister to my family members; as a colleague, a subordinate or an immediate superior to my workmates; as a blogger or co-hobbyist to other people and many more.
I don’t compartmentalize my roles either. From time to time, tasks and responsibilities of one would impinge on those of the others. For example, I used to feel that my responsibilities as a mother precluded me from going for other career opportunities. On the other hand, the knowledge or skills of one role would inform the others, such as when my learnings from my blogging life added some important insights to my marketing job.
Still, by juggling multiple roles from day to day, I sometimes wonder if I’m doing enough or even if I’m doing well enough in any of these.
The need for mindfulness
For many of us who used to operate in the so-called rat race, we were conditioned to be single-minded. We were given a goal and we are expected to give our all in order to attain it. We always trained our eyes to the future and worked towards it.
Mindfulness, on the other hand, teaches us to be fully present, aware of where we are, how we are feeling. We purposively pay attention to the present moment, without judgement, in order to gain self-understanding and wisdom. Through this state, we can avoid being too reactive or overwhelmed by the things that happen around us. We can also avoid being a slave to our emotions or moods – to step outside of and investigate them – when our situation calls for us to get past them.
A guide to mindfulness
While we all have it in us to be mindful, we may get too inundated with stimuli in our daily life, especially in our career, to be able to practice mindfulness effectively.
A mindfulness coach is someone who will help us be mindful of our presence and effect to others, so that we can relate better to others and take appropriate leadership, whether of our subordinates, peers or even our bosses.
A mindfulness coach also acts as a thinking partner, one who helps us work out causes and effects to help us avoid making rash decisions.
A mindfulness coach will not prescribe the “right” courses of action, nor give generic advice on what you need to do. Instead, a mindfulness coach facilitates a meaningful conversation, one that can expand our awareness of ourselves and our impact to others so we can work out for ourselves how to sustainably navigate our way to what we want to achieve.
A mindfulness coach can also act as a sounding board for ideas and thoughts to help spur self-reflection or broaden our thinking to overcome limiting beliefs or blindspots.
Meet Mindfulness Coach Vince Dizon
I recently started on my own journey towards mindfulness with my friend and former coworker Vince Dizon.
In the years since he left the company, he has acquired a prestigious certification from the International Coach Federation and embarked on a new career to help executives and corporate workers sustainably optimize their performance as a Career Performance Coach.
Recognizing that the ongoing pandemic has brought numerous changes to the work environment that many people still struggle through, he has made his coaching services more accessible by conducting them over Zoom.
The start of my mindfulness journey
I’ll admit: it took me some time to decide to open up to Vince (or to anyone!) about my issues. While I do tend to share funny stories and interesting anecdotes about my life in my blog posts and on social media, my inner self where my grand ambitions, insecurities and vulnerabilities reside is usually well-hidden.
However, with my resolve this year to also nurture my mental health after all the stresses of the past year, I deemed it necessary to seek the help I need.
My first session with Vince was basically an hour spent examining my thoughts and biases about my life, relationships and work which hinder me from appreciating and claiming my achievements. It encouraged me to not look outside of myself and my immediate circle for validation such as lofty work titles, large salaries or grand recognition. Instead, his questions guided me towards greater clarity and giving value to what is already intrinsic within me: my good intentions, my knowledge and skills I bring to my work, my talents that I use to help the people I encounter and my love for my family.
It also helped me acknowledge and claim the things that deep down I know I have a right to: self-love and contentment – that I am enough and I do enough.
Start on your own mindfulness journey
My path towards mindfulness may not be the same as yours.
In fact, fellow bloggers Sarah, Ivan and Sherile also had mindfulness coaching sessions with Vince but had different takeaways.
This is because we all have different needs, wants and situations, as well as different ways forward in our life journeys.
What’s important is to find the way that works for you.
With a mindfulness coach like Vince, this becomes a lot easier.
Vince has made his services more accessible, not just by conducting them online (eliminating the need for traveling for face-to-face meetups), but also by packaging them to be more affordable and hardworking in favor of his clients.
To learn more or to book your own sessions with Vince, you may send him a message via his Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn pages.
Vince also conducts mindfulness Yin Yoga classes. Check out his videos on Youtube.
What would you want to accomplish with your own mindfulness coaching sessions?
Disclosure: My first session was conducted for free to facilitate this feature article.
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