Mindfulness in times of distraction

by Mai Yoshikawa

 If, like a stereotypical office worker in Japan, you are working brutal hours and sacrificing your wellbeing just to stay afloat, Junya Ogino wants you to pay attention.

Why? Because the mindfulness maven believes you’re in a position to try a simple brain hack that will put you on top of your game and help you to face reality head-on “Mindfulness,” the self-confessed workaholic says, “could save lives.”

As a certified instructor of the Google-born Search Inside Yourself contemplative training program, Ogino warns his countrymen not to wear work addiction as a badge of honor. He believes it could put their most critical asset, their mental health, at risk.

Ogino teaches mindful leadership courses at companies across Japan, which is notorious for its workplace culture of long hours and rigid hierarchies, and leads workshops for executives seeking to create a mindful culture within their teams. Practitioners such as Ogino know workers will never excel at anything when they are multitasking, partly doing this and partly doing that. They believe that if you’re the kind of person pouring your coffee into a to-go cup as you rush out the door, it’s a big red flag.

When you stop trying to be everything to everyone, Ogino says that you are not just giving your brain a break, you are preventing potential damage by focusing on a single task and treating yourself to a few minutes of “me-time” every day.

The 45-year-old says it’s time to drop the myths behind mindfulness. You don’t have to chant. You don’t have to be vegan. You don’t have to shave your head. You don’t have to wear tie-dye.

It requires you to go nowhere and costs you no money.

Ogino, CEO of the Mindful Leadership Institute, says he knows from experience that there is nothing to lose and everything to gain by living a more purposeful, centered life.

“You don’t need a yoga mat or a cushion to start meditation. You can be mindful while taking a shower, or working on your computer, or cooking, or folding your clothes,” Ogino says. “Meditation and mindfulness aren’t the same. You don’t have to meditate to be mindful. If you’re focusing on the present moment, that’s mindfulness already. Look around. Opportunities are everywhere.”

As one of about 200 certified teachers of the globally recognized SIY mindfulness training program, Ogino sees an urgent need for Japan’s stressed-out workers to learn to sit still for two minutes without the chorus of to-dos in their heads getting in the way.

“Mindfulness is all the more important in this digital age,” he says. “We’ve become unable to focus. That’s why we need to set a ritual of practicing it every day and transform how we think, feel and act.”

read more at: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2018/11/18/lifestyle/mindfulness-times-distraction/#.W_MNWDHBCUk