The Power of Mindfulness: How to Reduce Stress and Boost Productivity with Dr. Ryan Wakim

In today's episode, we will dive into the topic of mindfulness, which I believe is critical for both personal and professional success. Mindfulness involves being present at the moment and can help you manage stress, increase productivity, and overcome difficult situations.

Throughout this episode, we'll explore the seven principles of mindfulness, including non-judging, patience, beginner's mind, trust, non-striving, acceptance, and engagement. I'll share how these principles can be applied in different contexts, whether in customer service or building a positive team culture.

As a successful entrepreneur and practicing psychiatrist, I have seen firsthand the benefits of incorporating mindfulness into daily life. So join me as I guide you through these techniques and principles, and show you how to create a mindful solution that works for you.

00:00 - Introduction
02:12 - Mindfulness Definition
03:13 - Seven Principles of Mindfulness
07:14 - Putting the 7 Principles into Practice
08:52 - Learning the proper Deep Breathing Exercise (DBR)
10:56 - Learning the Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR)
11:27 - Using Senses in Creating Mindfulness and Being Present
13:34 - Positive Impact of Mindfulness on Mood and Productivity
14:22 - Relating Mindfulness and Meditation to Success

Transcript

0:00

Life has a way of throwing you curve balls when you have a case of the Mondays and everything's kind of coming at you from 10 different directions whether that's at work or at home. Do yourself a favor. Work through these exercises. Think about these techniques, create that mindset. That's able to have a mindful solution through these principles and through these techniques. Hello everyone. Welcome to the Endgame Podcast, where I bet you didn't know, which you didn't know. I'm Dr. Ryan Wakim, successful entrepreneur and your endgame coach, and I'm here to talk to you today. About the concept of mindfulness. Mindfulness is critically important or has been critically important to my success. And if you read through any kind of personal development or leadership novel book podcast, listen to it. You'll note that mindfulness, although maybe not explicitly called out that way, Is actually a critically important piece of success, or, you know, part of the formula for long-term success. For many people in many concepts. And so again, welcome to the podcast today. This is the Power of Mindfulness: how to Reduce Stress and Boost Productivity with Dr. Ryan Wakim. As I said, mindfulness is a critically important piece of, you know, the success formula, so to speak. It's also near and dear to my heart as a practicing psychiatrist and as a technique that you know, not only I've used, but also teach. Or also used in direct patient care As we think about you know, what's really important in understanding how you move beyond difficult minutes and moments or when stress enters into your work life or frankly enters into your home life. And the idea of mindfulness can be helpful in any of these situations. So taking a step back and defining mindfulness. Mindfulness is quite truly, and literally the idea of being present in the moment, right? So being mindful of where you are, who's around you, what's around you, and what's gonna happen next. That idea of being present here and now, if you have listened to the podcast before, you know that one of my key points at the end of the podcast is that I teach you how to exist today. That's actually really driven off the idea of mindfulness. And how it actually creates that mindset or ecosystem or environment in your brain to be able to be successful long term. So mindfulness, again, just to define that, is this ability to be present in the moment. There's actually a number of pieces to mindfulness itself. There's a lot of different ways in which you can practice mindfulness and that's part of what I'm gonna explore with you today. So first and foremost there are many different principles to mindfulness. In fact, there are somewhat well-defined seven principles of mindset. Those principles are the idea of non-judging. And then, you know, again, as a practicing psychiatrist, it's something I've had to use over and over throughout my career is this idea of meeting the patient where they are. And you would extrapolate that in your business to meeting the customer where they are, right? This idea of non-judging in those minutes and moments where there's clearly opportunity to be better. The idea of patience, and obviously this follows on in the idea of customer service or the spirit of hospitality. This idea you've probably heard the customer's always right? Whether that's a client or a patient. The idea of being patient with patients. Beginner's mind, the concept of viewing the perception or the lens through which you view things, understanding that. There's a really good chance you don't know all the pieces to the story. And again, this feeds into the patients in the non-judging piece. I always have have heard and always said there are always three sides to a story no matter how thin you slice it. Right. So no matter what you think you know about a situation, is there a chance, you know, you asked yourself the question, is there a chance you might not know everything about that situation? Is there a chance you might not know everything about what someone else is dealing with or what the customer or patient, or client is dealing with? And the answer to that, U unanimously should always be, yes. Another core principle of mindfulness is the idea of trust. In order for, you know, you to engage in being present in the moment, you have to trust that those around you are gonna both allow for that, but also respect that decision. The concept of non-striving. So again, not kind of living beyond your means, not out there thinking five steps, 10 steps ahead. This idea of you're really striving to be in the moment, not to be 4, 5, 10 steps down the road. The sixth concept or principle is the idea of acceptance. So again, a critically important trait of therapy in general or of patient or client interaction is accepting. So that you have to accept that this is where we are today. This is what's going on in this minute and moment and that there's not more really to go find out about it, that you're gonna accept it right now and make it better. Make it right. And move on. And finally, again, another core concept of what we think about with mindfulness as we think about engagement with others. And again, this could be engagement with your own team. By the way, we, I've used this example or gone through these principles as it relates to. Maybe a customer service experience, but the reality is these principles are critically important for you building a culture with your team. And as we talk about, you know, the professional life, we also talk about the personal life and taking these concepts into, you know, checking, clocking out at five of bringing the concepts. Home with you as well can be super beneficial in long-term success as you think about, again, creating the best environment and mindset. And so that seventh principle is called letting go or, or the understanding of letting go which is again, this concept of, you know, you've accepted what's going on, you're gonna let go of the past, you know, don't let the past drag you down. You do have to be kind of eyes forward. But understand you know, to be in the moment. So if you even just conceptualize that, a lot of the principles here have to do with being in the moment being here now, not 10 steps back from what happened yesterday or what happened in a similar circumstance before, not 10 steps forward with the what ifs and the worries and the, and the anxieties. But really, where are you today? What's going on right now? Being present in the moment? So those are the core principles. Just to go back through those one more time, understanding these can be applied to customer service, to clients, to patients. Understanding these can be applied to team members and colleagues, and understanding this can be applied to your personal life as well. And so the, the seven principles are being non-judging being patient, having a beginner's mindset, understanding that there is trust to be had, that there is a non-striving mindset, acceptance, and then obviously letting go. Those are the seven core principles. As you take those principles and then put them in the practice cuz you know A goal is just a dream or a wish unless you put it down and actually practice it. And you've heard me say that before as it relates to goals and visions, even within your own business. And, you know, putting it on paper and understanding that you have to actually have an action plan in place to, to get to that goal or else it's just a hope or a dream. And so as you think about the seven principles of mindfulness. There's ways in which you can practice said principles or the ways in which you can practice the concept of mindfulness. And so to become a true steward to the concept and to really understand it and put it into practice some key ways in which you can do that include this idea of deep breathing exercises- DBE. So if you've ever worked in therapy before, you've ever just even heard some of the comments or some of the cliches around, you know, take a breath or take a moment or take a step back. And that would be actually one of those concepts or statements or comments that actually go back to something called deep breathing exercises, which would be to truly take a breath. And a lot of patients, people don't really understand what taking a breath means because true deep breathing exercises involves breathing in down into your stomach. You know, if you're of a science mind, you might say, we can't breathe into your stomach. You're breathing into your lungs and your right, but it actually has to do with how you're using your diaphragm. During deep breathing exercises. So again, you're actually breathing down you know, expanding the lungs by breathing down and, and pushing the diaphragm down into your abdomen. And it's those deep you know, kind of controlled breathing exercises that really start to create the. The ecosystem of your body and your mind to be able to calm down, right? So you can actually use deep breathing exercises in panic and anxiety. It's a, it's a common technique used to calm severe anxiety or panic attacks. Because in doing that, you're able to slow your heart rate. You're able to slow your, your reduce your blood pressure. And there's this biofeedback loop where, As you can calm your heart and calm your blood pressure, you're gonna feed less into the fight or flight response and thereby be able to calm yourself. So one of the key techniques of mindfulness is to get yourself into that calm, physiological state, right? So your deep breathing down into your abdomen through your diaphragm, and you're creating a slower heart rate. Heart rate, a lower blood pressure and that creates the clarity for you to be able to actually have mindfulness, to be able to actually think clearly in that moment and be present in the moment. Other things you can do to be able to practice mindfulness would be to be able to work through, there's something called progressive muscle relaxation. So again, PMR and that is using a variety of different muscle tension in release mechanisms so that you can, again, get your body less tense, get your vital signs less elevated, and create that physical State for you to have a better mindset and create mindfulness. Then you can actually also use your senses as it relates to creating mindfulness and being present. You've probably heard of using sense or aromatherapy. Things like lavender can be very helpful in calming. You can also use tactile or touch. So I've, you know, certainly seen or used impatience. This idea of grounding mechanisms and grounding could include using your touch sensation to feel where you are in that moment. If you're lying on a couch or have your feet in the sand or if you could use your touch on some sort of item that might create calm for you. So there's this concept of a grounding rock using smooth rocks that you can carry around with you as a reminder when you are feeling kind of out of control and more erratic, you can use that as a mechanism to kind of ground yourself. So you can use touch, you can use smell, you can use sight. Again, an idea around that could be journaling. We've talked about it before, but being able to visualize the moment can be another way. And that includes something else called guided imagery, which would be this ability of, this would be eyes closed, but you would be visualizing with your eyes closed, where you are where you want to be in terms of being present and mindful. Then obviously, Sound again, turning on a, a white noise machine or, you know, this water effect or waterfall effect or, or babbling brook effect. Anything you can use any of your senses you can use to bring yourself into a calm moment in time. Again, using your deep breathing exercises and progressive muscle relaxation or using journaling to then create that true mindset and ecosystem where you can take information in, give information out, and be very intentional in the minutes and moments when you need to be there most. And so some people will start every morning with some mild meditation. Couple of minutes just to, you know, again, set the mindset in the mood for the day. And then often, you know, you might need that at periods minutes and moments throughout the day itself. But if you're able to take a breath or breaths, deep breaths down into your abdomen, you're able to use some grounding techniques and senses to put yourself in a calm mindset. Then you're better able to think through the complexities of the day. You're better able to tackle a difficult situation or an opportunity that may exist, and frankly that may come to you at any moment. Throughout the day. Life has a way of throwing you curve walls when you have a case of the Mondays and everything's kind of coming at you from 10 different directions whether that's at work or at home do yourself a favor. Work through these exercises. Think about these techniques. Create that mindset that's able to have a mindful solution through these principles and through these techniques. I guarantee you that if you can create just a few minutes a day of meditation, mindfulness, peace, you'll be far more successful. Both at your job or in your entrepreneurial business life, you'll be far more successful with your customers, your clients, your patients, and you'll be far more successful in your own marriage or your own relationships, your family and friends personally. And so with that, if you like this, I would ask you to subscribe, like, share it. I would, you know, always interested in more feedback and ideas around what individuals might want to hear in the future. But I will leave you today with the idea of Using mindfulness techniques, understanding the seven principles, and applying it to yourself, to your business, and to your patients, your customers, to create that ultimate mindset and success that everyone is striving for both personally and professionally. I'm Dr. Ryan Wakim, successful entrepreneur and your endgame coach. I'm here to teach you how to exist today mindfully so that you can expand tomorrow. And create the ultimate end game of your wildest desires. Hope you have a wonderful rest of your day and talk to you soon.