This week, Steve Pratt joins us to discover the benefits of mindfulness. We talk about how mindfulness is used to be able to live happier and less anxious. We also teach you how you can develop mindfulness practices and incorporate them into your life.

Resources

• Sign up for the Resilient Team Academy to join a supportive and thriving community of leaders
• Listen to a previous episode on mindfulness with Graham Lee 
• Try out the Headspace app 
• Get the book by Mark Williams Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World 

[5:46] Steve’s Experiences

• Steve has been a GP appraiser for 35 years, both as a managing partner and now a mentor for other GPs on the fellowship scheme.
• He spent 25 years teaching evidence-based medicine.

[9:34] How To Be Less Stressed And Burnt Out

• Mindfulness is not just about becoming more resilient, although it is part of resilience courses.
• Tune in to learn more about how to be less stressed or less burnt out in the full episode!

[17:02] The Skill Of Noticing

• The act of noticing the chatter is the work. All you have to do is bring your attention to something specific.
• Mindfulness is noticing that something is happening but choosing to remain direct.

[19:11] Choosing Where To Focus Your Attention

• It’s up to you to choose where to focus your attention.
• Train yourself to recognize what's going on in your body.

[25:59] How Mindfulness Practice Changes Your Behaviour

• Mindfulness gives you the skill to quickly get better information from your body.
• Eventually, you'll react differently to stressful situations.

[35:12] Stress Equals Resources Minus Demands

• Steve believes that we should do things that work and have evidence backing them up.
• Mindfulness practice has strong evidence behind it. It's not "woo-woo".

[42:54] Mindfulness Practice In Daily Living

• You can practice mindfulness at any time, such as when brushing your teeth or while driving to work.
• Instead of taking 20 minutes to scroll through social media, you can spend it in meditation.
• You can try out other mindfulness skills if you don’t develop a formal practice.
• Steve recommends doing a formal MBSR course. For now, listen to the full episode to try out a three-part breathing space!

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• Rachel’s email: rachel@wildmonday.co.uk

Mentioned in this episode:

Work Well Programme for Healthcare Teams
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