Phone Meditation

My job requires I speak with people almost all day - in the office & on the phone. Sometimes I'm exhausted by the time I leave for the day & taking in another call by the middle of the day can be challenging. We often view a phone call as an interruption. Whether we like the person on the other end of the phone or not, frustration can sneak up on us when we must stop our workflow to answer the phone. When your phone rings, don’t answer it immediately. Let it ring 2 or 3 times while you stop, smile and take a deep breath. Then answer the phone with the smile still on your face…even if you don’t really want to talk to the person on the other end. Smiling releases “feel good” hormones in our bodies, even when we are “smiling on purpose” or faking a smile we don’t really feel. :) Practice smiling during the whole conversation. When you hang up the phone, notice how you feel. You might start to see a difference in the reaction you have to your phone ringing as you consistently practice this. You may start to see it as a way of checking in with yourself and spreading a little happiness in another person’s day—people can “hear” your smile over the phone, and it will make them feel more relaxed. Perhaps you will even start recognizing that you don’t find phone calls as interruptive as you did before and that you feel lighter and happier after smiling through phone calls.