7 Steps to Becoming More Mindful
Insights from some of the Makers Coaching Team on thriving through attitudinal practices
Jon Kabat-Zinn, father of mindfulness in the western world defines mindfulness as “the awareness that arises from paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally.”
Mindfulness meditation has science-backed benefits such as improving focus; improving stress management; and enhancing emotional intelligence. These are all things that make our developers stand out from the rest.
At Makers we practice mindfulness meditation every day. Each new cohort receives training from myself on how to do this and in a short while, every Maker is able to cultivate their own self-practice and take it with them beyond the course — often starting meditation circles at their new jobs.
“I have always suffered from anxiety and emotional complexities since my childhood, started meditating at makers with Dana and it has totally transformed how I function and how I deal with myself. I feel more at peace and in control.” — Kareem (June ’19 cohort)
Some big companies offering mindfulness include Apple, Google, AOL Time Warner, Nike, Yahoo! and Deutsche Bank. Mindfulness might seem like a fashionable thing but it’s not going anywhere — it’s a proven way to help optimise you through brain training.
In his book Full Catastrophe Living, Jon Kabat-Zinn speaks about the ‘The 7 Attitudinal Foundations of Mindfulness Practice’ — Non-judging; Patience; Beginner’s Mind; Trust; Non-striving; Acceptance; Letting go.
With the help of fellow coaches from Makers, I wanted to explore how each of these attitudes integrates with the experience we’ve designed here.
1. Non-Judging
Non-judging is key when it comes to mindfulness meditation. We’re pretty much always categorising, pigeon-holing, analysing, measuring, and labelling as we move through the world.
To practice non-judging helps us take a step back and simply witness our experience, whether it’s the sound of loud footsteps from the floor above or our own self-critical thoughts. It’s about just noticing the stream of judging mind — good, bad or neutral — allowing it to flow and being an objective observer to it all.
As developers there are lots of things we can judge: our own code, the tools available to us the requirements we are working towards, to name just a few. The judging mind can become more apparent when reviewing another person’s code. It can be tempting to give feedback about how ‘good’ or ‘bad’ another person’s work is, but instead pay attention to why you are making that qualitative judgement.
Giving feedback without judgement should help you to give more meaningful and actionable feedback. Instead of saying ‘this function is bad’, you’ll be driven to explain what you expected to see in the code, and why. This will give your fellow developers the information they need to understand your perspective, and leave them better placed to decide whether to make a change.
2. Patience
This is the practice of letting things unfold in their own time. We wouldn’t try to help a butterfly emerge by breaking open its chrysalis. Similarly in mindfulness, we aim to relax our urgency to ‘get to the next thing’ and instead practise patience with ourselves.
When we do get to ‘the next thing’ we’re already feverishly looking to the next. Instead, as we stay patient and in the present (where your joyful genius resides), are fully in each moment, knowing that like the butterfly, things will emerge in their own time.
When we look at “successful” people we forget that often we are seeing the end result of hard work and determination. You’re at Makers trying to change your life, this isn’t going to happen instantly. It’ll be part of a greater process and will be the outcome of hard work, reflection and persistence. So, be patient with yourself.
As well as being patient with yourself, don’t forget to be patient with other people in your cohort. We are all on different journeys and everyone is unique. This means someone might need more support or might work differently to other people you’ve worked with before. Be patient, give each other feedback and learn through each other’s differences.
“It has helped me to be self-aware, aware of my surroundings and my interactions with others which has allowed me to be kinder and truer to myself” — Yadira (April ’19 cohort)
3. Beginner’s Mind
Too often we let our usual thinking and beliefs stop us from seeing things as they really are. When practicing ‘Beginner’s Mind’ , the benefits can be incredibly enlivening and inspiring! (E.g. Think of someone you know and ask yourself what it would be like if you saw them with fresh eyes and allow yourself to be surprised.)
It’s like being a tourist in your own life: curious and receptive to new experiences. Try it with your commute to work, problems, your local grocery store cashier. By cultivating a mind that is able to see everything as if for the first time, we get unstuck from old ruts based on what we “know” and open ourselves to new possibilities.
The secret to success as a student is to be ready and willing to improve yourself in ways you didn’t know. It’s hard enough to grow in expected areas — it’s harder still to be confronted with growth in unexpected ones.
At the beginning of the course we talk about having a growth mindset, how to learn hard things and more — some come here with this mindset and learning skills already honed and need only a few tweaks, some come here and transform themselves into incredible developers — and it’s all with the mindset of growth, seeing everyone and everything with the eyes of a beginner.
There are so many benefits for yourself and your relationships beyond Makers and beyond work that the staff and students here work hard to maintain a supportive, inclusive, respectful, and collaborative environment to encourage everyone to maintain and improve the way we approach our learning, our colleagues, and ourselves — this really is part of the magic that is Makers.
“Group meditation takes place every day, and I go as often as I can. There is a beautiful contrast of the traffic noise from the busy main road outside with the peace within the room during those sessions.” — Diptis (January ’19 cohort)
4. Trust
As you regularly nudge yourself to trust in your mindfulness meditation practice, you develop your basic trust in yourself and your feelings. Showing up consistently in your practice enhances trust for your internal guidance and authority, which builds your sense of self and confidence.
You understand that just like everyone else, you are a work in progress and you will make mistakes. As you build more and more trust in yourself, you trust your whole life and realise the benefit of those so called ‘mistakes’.
A Buddhist teacher who I turn to most often is Cheri Huber. Her book ‘There is Nothing Wrong with You’ is the first book I ever read about meditation many years ago. However, what the real power in her message is not to offer an ‘everything will be okay in the end’ kind of attitude. Her’s is the path of the Bodhisatva or ‘warrior mind’ which teaches us to cultivate fearlessness and compassion by looking straight at what scares us.
So when I think about trust, I don’t think first about all the Makers who have successfully reinvented their own careers. I don’t want to offer reassurance that you will soon get your gong moment, although I do believe this to be true. This is because what is also true is that Makers and the job-hunt that follows will bring up all those feelings of self-doubt and insecurity. There may well be moments when your own trust in yourself and perhaps others seems to fall away.
Makers offers your own warrior path to cultivate a transformational kind of trust in yourself. This mindset encourages you to rise to the internal and external challenges that offer themselves which includes listening to the guidance of your own intuition. Slowly and imperfectly you begin to listen to your own inner authority guiding you to push forward, speak up or perhaps pull back and listen to what you need moment to moment. As you develop this deep trust in yourself, this will expand to a trust in others and a quiet reassurance in your own ability to grow through the next challenge that awaits.
5. Non-Striving
People often think the goal of meditation is to ‘stop thoughts’ or ‘clear the mind’. This is not the goal. In fact the only goal is to be yourself.
Meditation is about observing yourself as you are right now and just noticing. It seems counter-intuitive based on how we’re programmed to ‘work work work’ and push hard for what we want but the best way to achieve your goals is to ease up on striving, take a step back and get present. As mentioned, that’s where you align with your genius, where the right things seem to occur to you at the perfect time and you make leaps toward what you desire.
I’m not saying, get on your meditation cushion and everything you want will magically appear on your lap. I’m saying that connection to the present and alignment with your inner-self is far more effective than the brute force way of trying to accomplish things. With patience and regular practice, this becomes your superpower.
At Makers, our devs are encouraged to pay close attention to their sense of balance and wellbeing. Activities such as meditation and yoga are woven into the schedule. There’s a reason for this. Not just to relax but to optimise productivity.
Research shows that going full throttle all the time actually hampers efficiency and is bad for our health. Yet we’re live in a ‘no pain no gain’ society that values self-sacrifice at work and it’s just not smart.
Of course there are times (especially in a bootcamp environment) that you have to grit your teeth and push. But don’t underestimate the power of taking regular breaks, ping pong, socialising and all the rest, as a way to keep you in tip top learning shape. Making non-screen time a priority is part of your success strategy.
“Mindfulness for me is an important part of working smart. Look after your mind and it positively impacts your work and your own wellbeing. It’s a win win.” — Samir (August ’18 Cohort)
6. Acceptance
Often we waste our energy in denial, wishing things were different or trying to control the uncontrollable. The present moment is all there really is — fact. In order to change in the ways you want, you have to accept what has been and where you are right now.
I’m not implying that you resign yourself and stop trying to move towards a more healthy, holistic and wholehearted living — rather that there’s a willingness to see things as they are. With this clarity, direction for positive action is clearer thus bolstering inner conviction to align with your values.
When programming, we will often find ourselves faced with errors. A command fails in the terminal. A page is not loading the way we want it to. As a new programmer, it can be frustrating when things don’t work the way we’d like them to, especially when the errors seem to not be stemming from our own code but rather configuration issues, or a problem with the OS.
However, getting frustrated with errors will only lead you to a negative place, where you will not be able to overcome them. When we start to accept that programming will involve errors, we are able to face each new one as simply another problem to solve. Whether they come from our own approach or are caused by an external source, by accepting that they are a part of the way, we can learn from them and become better programmers.
7. Letting Go
“This too shall pass”, “The only constant in the Universe is change”… these are truths we often hear. Everything moves. We create tension in ourselves by trying to hold on when things should flow on.
In our mindfulness practice, we are the observer and the “allower”. Remind yourself of the fluidity of all things and that now (where all your power lies) is all there is.
If it’s not serving you, let it go. See for yourself if it causes discomfort to hold on tightly to things. Keep in mind it is also very natural to cling to the things we love and want or believe are important, so we don’t have to force ourselves to let go.
Letting go is also letting things be — acceptance. Perhaps you can’t let go of an earlier difficult conversation, then just let it be. It might make you feel anger, so let the anger be. Be patient, accept its presence, trust that it will move when it’s ready and notice what comes up for you without judging, often it’s an impulse to a good solution.
Tips for how to ‘let go’ at Makers
- Let go of any fixed mindset habits by practicing a growth mindset
- Let go of fear and take courage, whether it’s coding challenges, giving and receiving feedback or applying for jobs
- Let go of what is not in your control and take (even tiny) steps with what you can control
- Honour your past, keep what serves you and let go of what doesn’t
- Let go of thoughts that don’t make you strong
- Every moment is an opportunity: trust your journey and stay present with yourself.
