Mindful Decision Making

During a long bike ride last weekend, I found myself questioning my choices. Ultimately, the ride was enjoyable because I connected with fellow cyclists, found my flow, and benefited from the energy production, utilization and recovery that physical activity provides. However, the few unpleasant aspects of the ride had me reflecting on and reviewing my decision making and choices that morning. I was running late and felt my own increased stress reactivity of potentially holding others up and hurrying upon arrival. Adding to the challenges, the weather was unexpectedly damp, with periodic rain and heavy humidity. As I found a towel to dry my bike and myself for the return home, I noted the rehashing and tendency to highlight negative aspects and decided to use this awareness as an opportunity to improve intentional decision making in the future. Using this low intensity experience of reflecting on my decisions makes it easier to mindfully stop and evaluate when higher intensity decision making arises in my everyday life.

Decision making is often biased in favor of benefiting ourselves. Frequently we self-prioritize our own wants and needs when making choices. Engaging in self-prioritizing without pausing to reflect leads to more rapid decision-making. Sometimes that’s helpful and sometimes rapid decision making doesn’t serve us well. An awareness practice allows us to slow down and identify any attitudes of wanting, striving, and/or judging that might be negatively impacting attitudes and options of self-priority. Saturday morning, my desire to engage in bike riding without stopping to really assess the weather forecast and my wanting of things to be the way I desired, interfered with an accurate assessment and acceptance of what the weather was actually like.

On the way home from cycling, I was grateful for the bike ride and the benefits. I was also aware of the risks of riding on wet roads and the uncomfortableness of wet clothes, mud, etc. As I engaged in patterns of reviewing/rehashing and highlighting negative aspects I noted how this detracted from the positive aspects. With this awareness, I shifted into self-compassion practice. I reminded myself that awareness of unpleasant/challenge/difficulty allows us to consider past experiences, input from others and a willingness to adjust perspective. I took a moment to breathe, attend to thoughts, emotions and physical states and talk to myself in a comforting way. This self-regulating, self-compassion practice helps us gain clarity for future decision making.  

Considerations for practicing Mindful Decision Making:

1. Practice the Power of Pausing on Purpose to attend with awareness to one’s thoughts, emotions, and physical states in the present moment.

2. Cultivate awareness with breathing practices, observation, mindful listening and acceptance of what is actually happening within you and around you.

3. Engage in collecting information. Consider the options and possibilities available nonjudgmentally to produce previously undiscovered ideas.

4. Consider risks, benefits, outcomes: analyzing the facts and considering potential consequences of your choices before deciding and implementing a plan.

5. Clarify your goals to understand how the decision aligns with your values in that moment and/or in the future.

Practicing mindful decision making involves trusting our own intuition and seeking feedback from others. It’s important to attend to how gathering information is impacting you and tending to your zones of experience. Too much information/option can produce overload and/or overwhelm. Trust yourself to gather what is “just enough” for you to make an informed decision.

Barry Schwartz has spent many years studying and writing about decision making. His work emphasizes that having too many choices can lead to decision paralysis and increased stress. Mindful decision-making, with its emphasis on clarity and intention, helps you pare down your options to those that truly align with your goals and values. Mindful decision making can reduce the uncertainty or dissatisfaction that sometimes follows quick decision making. Mindful decision making can shift us out of automatic, sometimes passive reactions into being an active decision maker of what will serve us and others best as we engage in purposeful plans and actions.

I am available to consult with if you are looking for some mentoring on using mindfulness and meditation around decision making, revisiting intentions and clarifying actions that support your values. Consider inviting me to your workplace. Additional opportunities to engage in mindfulness-based practices include:

• Mindfulness at Emmanuel: August 3^rd and August 17^th.

• Peaceful Paws: Mindfulness for Children (ages 6-10): Daily, Aug 4^th-7^th, 4pm-5pm ET.

For registration, contact laura@vibebehavioralwellness.com.

• Individual or Group mentorship to explore practices for increased awareness around resiliency and navigating uncertainty while accessing stability and clarity.

• Mindfulness Meditation Retreat with Karen, online through Mindful Leader: https://www.mindfulleader.org/retreats, August 2nd and August 24^th .

May you practice awareness, gratitude and self-compassion as you navigate choices,

Karen