Mindfulness

For business

Mindfulness for Business

Businesses with mindful teams are better equipped to compete in today’s ever-changing environment and in our new reality.

Mindfulness, one of the most accessible mental health tools available, helps us to pay attention to our thoughts, emotions and physical sensations, more clearly. It is one aspect of employee well being. Regular practice helps both leaders and employees be more present and in better alignment with and control of their feelings.

Mindfulness bolsters leadership skills by providing greater clarity and control over thoughts and emotions. Leaders engaged in the practice are more self-aware, think before they speak, build greater trust in management, foster interpersonal relationships, improve overall employee wellness, reduce sick days, and deepen team engagement.

In organizations undergoing digital and or agile transformations, practicing mindfulness will better prepare individuals and teams to be fully present, leading to heightened mental agility, creative problem solving, and resilience — all vital skills in today’s fast-changing world. Importantly, such things can foster innovation and strengthen an organization’s competitive advantage.

When employees can access mindfulness, there’s an obvious difference in overall energy, stamina, and productivity; people are more open to new ways of thinking and learning.

Mindfulness can also increase interpersonal bonds, create an openness to new ways of thinking, and stimulate learning, compassion, and empathy — attributes that are associated with successful teams.

Mindfulness At Work

Stress and anxiety can take a significant toll on the mind and body. A study by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that nearly 40% of people feel that the stress of the pandemic has negatively affected their mental health.

Mindfulness practices have been shown to markedly reduce the physiological and psychological responses to stress. As a result, it has become very important for business to incorporate meditation into the workday to help improve employee well-being, health, productivity, and thereby reduce stress and burnout.

Research at companies like Google, Aetna and Intel (case studies below) have shown that increasing mindfulness in the workplace can decrease stress levels while improving focus, thoughtfulness, decision-making abilities and overall well-being.

Mindfulness gives employees permission and space to think — to be present — leading to mental agility, resilience, empathy and self-awareness.

Being able to stay calm and rapidly adapt to shifting circumstances in today’s new reality with an open mind is and will continue to be a competitive advantage.

How can mindfulness
help your team?

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Improve engagement

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Greater resilience

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Increase mental and physical energy

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Reduce burnout, anxiety and stress-related conditions

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Work skilfully with unhelpful habits of mind

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Effective communication

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Positive wellbeing

Case study

In the Research News article “A mindfulness training program based on brief practices (M-PBI) to reduce stress in the workplace: a randomised controlled pilot study.” (See summary below or view the full text of the study at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6060839/), Arredondo and colleagues recruited stressed employees and randomly assigned them to either be in a wait-list control group or to receive an 8-week mindfulness training program. The training occurred once a week for 1.5 hours and included daily practices. The participants were measured before and after training and 20 weeks later for mindfulness, perceived stress, self-compassion, decentering, burnout, and heart rate variability.

They found that in comparison to baseline and the wait-list control group the mindfulness trained group had significant decreases in perceived stress and the components of burnout of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment, and significant increases in mindfulness, self-compassion, and decentering. These differences were enduring as they were still significant at the 20-week follow-up. They also found an increase in heart rate variability indicative of reduced stress.

These results are very encouraging and suggest that mindfulness training can be very beneficial in reducing workplace stress levels and burnout. It also appears to improve the overall psychological well-being of the employees improving mindfulness, self-compassion, and decentering. The ability of mindfulness training to reduce stress and burnout, and to increase self-compassion and decentering have been previously observed with different participant population. The study would have been stronger had an active control group been included. But, nevertheless the findings are suggestive that mindfulness training can be quite beneficial for stressed employees.

So, reduce stress and improve well-being in a workplace with mindfulness.

Are you interested in having a more mindful team?
I would love to discuss your requirements and talk through how I am able to support you.

Contact Me