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Contents Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 2 Energy Management Habit 4: Be Mindful! ............................................................................ 3 Energy Management Habit 5: Take Care of Your Body! ......................................................... 8 Energy Management Habit 6: Ask for H.E.L.P. ..................................................................... 11 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 14 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. 15 The Honesty Box Project ..................................................................................................... 16

Introduction The previous chapters of this book focused on habits to help us manage our personal energy in communication and collaboration with others. In this instalment, we turn our focus inwards and look at habits that help us to manage our energy levels in a way that supports us to feel at our best in body and mind at work. As well as supporting us to be more focused and productive at work, investing time and energy in our physical and mental wellbeing helps us to flourish and reach our potential. A few simple steps undertaken regularly can help reduce stress in the workplace and enhance our overall wellbeing. The habits we will focus on in this section are all about making small changes that can make a big difference - introducing mindfulness to our daily routine, eating well for body and mind, and knowing when to ask for help. Implementing these simple but effective habits can boost our personal energy levels and save us from having to undo the negative effects of chronic stress and burnout further down the line.

Energy Management Habit 4: Be Mindful! In this section, we look at mindfulness as a habit to help us stay present and focused, and avoid wasting our personal energy on unhelpful thinking. What is mindfulness? In the words of Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of the world-renowned Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction programme: “Mindfulness is awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally.” A regular mindfulness practice has been shown to lower stress and anxiety levels, and boost physical and mental wellbeing. A study by Brown University found it may even lower blood pressure. Practicing mindfulness helps us to anchor ourselves in the here and now, instead of getting carried away by thoughts about the past or worries about the future. Being mindful doesn’t mean switching off all thoughts. After all, the nature of the mind is to produce them! Mindfulness is more about bringing ourselves back to the present when we get carried away or overwhelmed by thoughts and feelings. Mindfulness has been associated with higher levels of life satisfaction, self-esteem, sense of autonomy, and competence (Brown & Ryan, 2003). Mindfulness improves our ability to concentrate without getting distracted, and has a positive effect on our relationships with others. Because we free up mental space when we focus on the present, mindfulness also has the potential to enhance our creativity.

All these changes can be physically traced in the brain: Researchers at Stanford University found that when practicing mindfulness, the hippocampus – the part of our brain responsible for learning and memory - is considerably more active. A study from the University of Bologna found that long-term meditation practice is associated with an enhancement of the areas of the brain related to attention. Why is this important? A regular mindfulness practice has significant benefits for us in the workplace. By helping us to become more aware of our reactions, mindfulness can support us to respond differently to stressful situations and get a better outcome. When we experience a stressful event, instead of reacting automatically and without thinking, we can pause and act in a way that better fits the situation and meets our needs. This contributes to improved communication with colleagues, enhanced performance and better results. Mindfulness also has a host of benefits for our physical and mental health. It can reduce chronic stress and contribute to better sleep, more energy and less fatigue. A tool for the modern workplace Whether you're working from home, in a hybrid set up, or in a traditional office, mindfulness can be a powerful tool for maximising your personal energy and productivity in the workplace. If we are working remotely, our workspace tends to invade our homes and private spaces. Setting boundaries and creating separate spaces is more challenging when our kitchen table becomes our work desk, or when we can see our workstation from our bed. Unwinding becomes more difficult, as work is almost omnipresent. The lines between work and free time can blur to the point where it is hard to completely switch off. In a world of remote and hybrid working, mindfulness can help us create mental boundaries when we cannot have physical ones. Mindfulness can also be a valuable tool in a traditional office setting, where the demands and distractions of the workplace can be overwhelming. In an office environment, the physical separation between work and personal spaces is more distinct, which can help with maintaining clear boundaries. Ideally this means we can be fully immersed in work while at the office, and then easily switch off when we leave. However, in modern office culture, it’s not always that easy. Smartphones allow round-the-clock access to emails, and with teams often spread across multiple time zones, there can be pressure to be available outside of office hours. Even in workplaces with healthy boundaries in place between work and homelife, we often carry work home with us mentally by thinking about work projects during our down time. Anyone who has ever been kept awake at night by an unfinished task will know this all too well! Practicing mindfulness can improve our performance in the workplace by helping us to maintain focus, improve our relationships with colleagues, and create a more creative and collaborative atmosphere. It also gives us the tools we need to reduce our stress levels, be

less reactive to workplace stressors, and draw clear boundaries between work and home life. How to start a mindfulness practice There’s a misconception that we need to meditate silently while sitting on a cushion with our eyes closed to practise mindfulness. In reality, there are many ways to get the benefits of mindfulness. We don’t have to practice elaborate yoga workouts every day, or go on regular retreats to get the benefits of a regular mindfulness habit. Almost any activity can be done mindfully. The important thing is to pay attention to what we are doing and how we feel. For example, if a meeting is running over time, we may notice a growing sense of impatience or frustration. While we are making tea on our break, we might pause and breathe while the kettle boils. Every moment can be mindful, if we bring awareness to what we are doing. It’s about noticing what is happening moment-to-moment, rather than allowing ourselves to be constantly on autopilot. “If you are busy, then busyness is the meditation. If you are rushing to the office, then you should be mindful of rushing.” Dipa Ma Small changes can make a big difference. Mindfulness is already effective after only one 10-minute session. When we include it in our daily routine (or at least three times a week), it can even change the physical shape of our brain (neuroplasticity) after only eight weeks (Headspace). A mindfulness practice usually involves a focus on the body and senses, and more specifically on our breathing. Our VBAK Model provides a good overview: Visual Breath Auditory Kinaesthetic The following mindfulness practices show how to put the VBAK model into practice and implement mindful moments in your work life.

Practice 1: Body scan Breathing slowly and regularly, mentally scan your body from your toes up to the top of your head. Begin by focusing on your toes, and then move your awareness up to your ankles, shins, knees etc., until you reach your scalp. Notice the sensations as you move your attention to each body part. It’s normal for the mind to wander during this practice. When you notice that the attention has drifted, gently redirect it to the body part you were on, without judgement. Practice 2: Count your breathing Breathe in such a way that your inhalation and exhalation are the same duration, e.g., Inhale for a count of 1, 2, 3, 4, and exhale for a count of 1, 2, 3, 4. Another way to do this is to count your inhales and exhales up to ten and repeat multiple times. Noticed that your mind wandered off and you forgot to count? Start again at 1! Practice 3: Lengthen your exhales When we are stressed, our breathing quickens, and our heart rate goes up, activating our body’s stress response. Lengthening our exhales can help slow down our heart rate and move us into a calmer state. While being mindful of your breathing, begin to prolong your exhalation to double the length of your inhalation. E.g., count to 4 while inhaling, and to 8 while exhaling. This helps to move us from our sympathetic nervous system, which regulates many of our “fight or flight” responses, to our parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for the body’s ‘rest and digest’ activities. This supports us to calm down, feel better and think more clearly. By prolonging your exhales, you can stay in control, instead of getting caught in a negative stress spiral. Practice 4: Focus on your environment Take a moment to pause and focus on all five senses. If your eyes are open, look around the space you are in and notice what you can see. If they are closed, take a moment to notice the darkness and any colours of shapes you can see. Notice any sounds you can hear, close by or from further away. Pay attention to your sense of touch, maybe the contact with your chair, or feel of any blankets or cushions nearby. Note what you can smell or taste – maybe your cup of coffee or whatever you’re having for lunch. When you are done, go on with your day with increased awareness of your surroundings. Practice 5: Try a mantra Find a mantra to repeat when you inhale and exhale. This could be a calming mantra (inhale: “body at rest”, exhale: “mind at rest”), or a mantra that helps us practice gratitude (this can be as simple as “I am grateful for…”). Find a quiet time to repeat this mantra inwardly on a regular basis. The Power of Mindful Moments With practice, it is easy to implement mindfulness at work and make it a regular habit. For example, take a minute to focus on your breath before or after a meeting to ground

yourself. Feeling annoyed by a colleague’s email? Don’t follow your impulses and reply immediately. Instead, focus on your breath and/or your body for a couple of moments, or take a break and come back to it. Working on multiple things at the same time? A quick mindful moment between tasks can help your focus and prevent your brain from getting lost in multitasking. Mindful moments like these can support better decision making, communication, and more positive relationships with others. Mindfulness is a proven habit that can help us manage and conserve our personal energy more effectively. It empowers us to be more present in the moment, and thus break the cycle of negative and ruminating thoughts. Being aware in this way has invaluable benefits: it reduces stress, improves sleep, and enables more positive interactions with others. Make mindfulness part of your daily routine and experience the positive changes yourself! Coaches Corner Action Steps: What actions will you take to become more mindful? —get started using these questions: ▪ What actions will you take to develop mindfulness as a habit? ▪ Why will you take these actions? ▪ How will you implement this action? ▪ Who can help you, and who can you help?

Energy Management Habit 5: Take Care of Your Body! During our busy work lives, remembering to implement exercise and healthy habits is even more difficult than under normal circumstances. In the modern work environment, we spend more time than ever at our desks due to an increase in online meetings and the rise in popularity of remote and hybrid working. The stress associated with work can make us less likely to prioritise our physical and mental wellbeing. In times of stress and when we are under pressure at work, we may fall into the habit of reaching for convenience foods, avoiding exercise, skipping breaks, or eating lunch at our desks or in the car. One way to create healthier habits is through looking at how we fuel our bodies. It’s common to reach for convenient snack foods in times of stress. This can relieve stress for a short amount of time, as it helps to release serotonin and dopamine into our blood stream, both responsible for regulating mood, motivation, and reward. However, we are doing our bodies and brains a disservice if we only search for short-term relief, and don’t take care of our physical wellbeing for the long-term. Why is taking care of our bodies so important? Unhealthy habits can have a detrimental effect on our brain function. Our main goal is to calm the sympathetic nervous system responsible for the release of stress hormones and impairing the part of our brain that regulates rational thought. By implementing healthy habits into our daily routine, we can make sure that we set up our body and mind for success. And here is how:

1. Eating Well Eating well is key when taking care of our body and brain health. Making sure that we have enough protein and omega-3 fatty acids in our diet provides our body with crucial amino acids that help to calm the sympathetic nervous system. Protein-rich foods include, dairy, lean meat, fish, beans, pulses, and nuts. We also need plenty of vegetables and fruits. Try packing healthy snacks, like berries and yogurt, or a mixture of seeds and nuts. Ensure your lunch has a mixture of protein, carbohydrates and vegetables to give you the energy you need. 2. Hydrate Our bodies and brains depend on a regular water intake, and we should be drinking about two litres of water a day. After all, we are made up of 60% water! Studies have shown that even mild dehydration (1-3 % of body weight) can have an effect on our cognitive function and overall wellbeing. We can suffer from reduced attention spans, impaired mood and energy levels, increased anxiety, and are at higher risk for headaches (Bahl). It’s easy to forget to drink enough water throughout the day. One way of keeping your intake up is to always have a glass or bottle of water on your desk, and even set reminders on your phone to drink regularly. Start your day right: After a full night’s sleep, our bodies are dehydrated. Make sure to have a glass of water or hot lemon water after waking up, and set your body up for success! 3. Exercise Gently Implementing exercise into our daily routine is daunting. Remember all those New Year’s resolutions to exercise more? Usually, we end up falling back into our old habits and abandon the gym after the first boost of motivation has worn off. But exercise doesn’t have to be a regular hour-long gym habit to be effective. A short quick walk during our lunch break to get our heart rate up helps to increase our overall wellbeing. Gentle exercises like yoga have the same effect. Stuck at your desk all day? Take regular movement breaks to do some chair yoga or stretches, and get up at least once every hour to walk around and stretch your legs. Joining a conference call? If possible, make it a walking meeting to get your steps in and for some fresh air. Regular exercise can increase the size of our hippocampus, the brain region responsible for learning and memory. It reduces inflammation, and releases chemicals in the brain that affect the health and growth of brain cells (Harvard Health). It also has a positive effect on our mental health and reduces anxiety. As neuroscience expert Dr Michelle Ploughman observes: “exercise is brain food.” Make sure to get enough of it! 4. Get Enough Sleep A good night’s sleep is crucial to combat stress and help reduce anxiety. When we sleep, our bodies and brains are in recovery and carrying out essential maintenance. Sleep deprivation impairs our decision-making abilities, cognitive function, and mood. One way to ensure a good night’s sleep is implementing a screen-free bedtime habit. Instead of scrolling through your phone at night or watching TV until late, try going screen-free, and choose to read a

book or do a short meditation instead. Avoid drinking caffeine for at least six hours prior to your bedtime to ensure that your body clock isn’t delayed. Implementing healthy eating and sleeping habits as well as gentle exercise into our everyday life charges our personal energy batteries and we are less stressed at work, and beyond. So don’t forget to take care of your body, the benefits are invaluable! Coaches Corner Action Steps: What actions will you take to take care of your body? —get started using these questions: ▪ What actions will you take to develop healthy exercise and eating habits? ▪ Why will you take this action? ▪ How will you implement healthy habits? ▪ Who can help you, and who can you help? E.g. Exercise with others to help hold yourself accountable!

Energy Management Habit 6: Ask for H.E.L.P. Over the previous chapters, we’ve explored how energy management habits that can help us to manage and preserve our personal energy. This has included changing our mindsets and thought processes, shaping workplace relationships, and prioritising our own physical and mental wellbeing. Each one of these energy management tools helps us to feel fulfilled and perform to the best of our ability at work on a long-term basis. But what if we’re putting all these energy management tools into practice, and still feeling deprived of energy? This might be the case if we are experiencing consistently high levels of stress for a prolonged period. Sometimes, energy management tools alone simply cannot balance the sheer amount of stress we are under. So, what can we do? Ask for HELP! Asking for help sounds easy at first, but when was the last time that you asked for help at work? Let’s be honest: asking for help is uncomfortable. Studies show that when we ask for help, the same regions in our brains that alert us to physical pain are activated. We fear that asking for help may lead to rejection, undermine our status or authority, or show that we are lacking in ability. Some people worry that asking for help will be seen a sign of weakness. However, at Making Shift Happen we believe that acknowledging that we need help is a strength and skill that needs nurturing, instead of dismissal and negative connotations.

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” – African proverb Asking for help has the potential to benefit us and those around us. In the modern workplace, the focus is much more on the team than the individual, and there are benefits to those asking for and providing help. Seeking help can have a positive effect on the outcomes of a project, by bringing in additional expertise and speeding up the process. When we ask colleagues for support, we are giving them an opportunity to demonstrate their skills, and to learn new ones. Collaborating on work projects can foster stronger relationships and be good for team-building and morale. Another positive factor associated with asking for help are the emotional benefits for the person proving the support. In a 2016 study, Park et al. established a neural link between generosity and happiness: when we help people, we ourselves are happier. Next time you feel anxious about asking someone for help, keep in mind that it benefits them as well as you! Asking for help enables us to reach our full potential while working with others. Our H.E.L.P. model illustrates the necessary steps to get the help you need: Have the courage to ask for help if required. Establish who is the best person to reach out to for help. Link-In with them, ask for help & listen to their advice. Plan what you will do post conversation. When asking for help, make sure that you use the right language. Do not diminish your need by saying “It’s just a small thing…” or “I feel awful for asking, but…”. Instead, use words like “together” when seeking for help, as it appeals to our sense of social belonging. You can also quote common goals, and point out particular skills of the person you are asking for help, for example by stating: “Could you please review this report before I submit it? Your feedback really helped to progress our last project!”. One thing that is just as crucial as using the right language is to show your appreciation to your helper. Research by productivity software provider Boomerang found that including a “Thanks in advance” as opposed to “Best” at the end of an email can increase the response rate from 51.2 % to 65.7 %. Ensure that anyone who helps is given credit for their work – strong leaders shine when they help others to shine. It’s also a good idea to send an email afterwards to thank your colleagues for their contribution, so they feel valued and are more likely to want to be involved in future projects. Showing gratitude and acknowledging our colleagues’ work contributes to a positive work environment and reflects well on the whole team.

The advantages of asking for H.E.L.P. are immense, especially when we have exhausted the benefits of the other energy management tools. While it requires courage and a certain level of vulnerability to ask for help, it builds trust and ultimately shows that we are all human. Keeping this sense of belonging and shared struggle in mind, incorporate the H.E.L.P. strategy into your everyday work lives, and experience the benefits. Coaches Corner Action Steps: What actions will you take to take next time you need to ask for help? —get started using these questions: ▪ What actions will you take to effectively ask for help? ▪ Why will you take this action? ▪ How will you implement this action? ▪ Who will help you implement this action?

Conclusion Changing our long-established habits and patterns of behaviour isn’t easy. However, by breaking it down into small and achievable steps, it can be done. There are numerous advantages to taking care of our bodies and minds in the workplace. In order to reap these benefits, we need a plan and practical actions that we can implement. By following the Energy Management Habits outlined in this series, you will have tools to manage your energy levels in a way that supports your own personal wellbeing and leads to improved relationships with others. As with anything new we undertake in life, it’s important to recognise when we need help. The last step in this series around asking for HELP will be invaluable in ensuring you have the support you need to reach your goals as you implement these energy management changes at work.

Acknowledgements Thanks to my Making Shift Happen colleagues, especially Dr. Anne Mahler, for all their help and guidance with content creation, such as our podcast and this micro-book. Thanks also to Emer Harrington for assisting with writing and editing this third edition, as well as my colleague Victoria Lincoln for managing the process to produce this micro-book. A heartfelt thank you to Lorraine McCullen, Chief People Officer, XOCEAN for being our proof-reader as her way of contributing to the Honesty Box project – for the greater good. A special thank you also to Catherine Wiley for holding me accountable for getting this done! If you prefer to listen to content, check out the Making Shift Happen podcast.

The Honesty Box Project This is the third electronic micro-book in the Honesty Box Project, which was launched by Jay Chopra PhD of Making Shift Happen in September 2023. The principle of the Honesty Box Project is quite straight-forward. We produce electronic micro-books (20 minute reads) on self, team, and organisational development topics on a regular basis, and make them available for free. In turn, we invite you the reader to make a small donation to a charity of your choice or conduct a random act of kindness. This could be something like paying for the coffee of the person behind you in the queue. Join our LinkedIn Honesty Box Project Group to be the first to know when new books drop! You can find out more about our work here on our website: www.makingshifthappen.ie