The Office Culture Is Finally Waking Up: Why Businesses Believe In Mindfulness Training At Work
Nov 21, 2018
What do Google, General Mills and Salesforce have in common? Not only are they leading organizations in their fields, they are leading the way on bringing mindfulness training to work. Check out to see why businesses believe in mindfulness training at work!
Imagine being able to embed practices into the workplace that research demonstrates helps employees feel more aware, focused, engaged, increases their communication skills while decreasing their stress levels? Mindfulness practices can foster elements of what many would consider a dream workplace and helps make them a reality.
What exactly is mindfulness?
Put simply, it’s the quality or state of being aware (conscious) of something (e.g. an emotion). As described by a pioneer in the mindful movement Jon Kabat-Zinn, mindfulness is an awareness that involves being in paying attention in a manner that is purposeful, in the present moment and non-judgemental.
How does mindfulness help in the workplace?
The list on the benefits of mindfulness is large and the evidence to support it continues to grow with on-going research and studies. Fueled by the data, companies like Google, Target, Salesforce, General Mills (to name a few) have invested in bringing mindfulness training to their employees to improve their overall work cultures. According to Mindful Gateway Consulting, work places can be a place to thrive and develop and mindfulness can help with that.
We understand many of are too busy with work to learn all the benefits so to help narrow it down, we’re highlighting four reasons mindfulness can help you (and your organization) work better:
Increases our ability to pay attention: Our brain (like our body), needs regular exercise; mindfulness helps our brain muscles get stronger. The more we practice focused attention, the easier it becomes to do; imperative in the current state of the world where we are so heavily distracted and over-stimulated. Research shows mindfulness improves our working memory and overall cognitive functioning.
Increases productivity: We have said it before and will proudly say it again; multi-tasking is a myth! Research shows that when we think we are multi-tasking, our brain is actually shifting very rapidly from task to task. In an attempt to do multiple things at once to save time, we are actually losing time and the quality of our work can suffer. With the focused, purposeful attention mindfulness encourages, we move more to the habit of single-task completion.
Increases communication skills: A key element in success at work is success in our working relationships. Tension from time to time with a colleague can happen and mindfulness helps us become less judgmental and more empathetic. Mindful practices help us bring more attention to how we speak and listen, encouraging us to recognize any of our own biases or pre-conceived opinions. It helps us slow down to respond instead of react with a gentle reminder that everyone has their own perspective; disagreements do not have to lead to arguments.
Increases resiliency (to stress): Mindfulness can increase our awareness on our emotions while encouraging a non-judgmental approach to our emotional and physical states; practice can also lead us to be less overwhelmed and reactive to things in our external world. Mindfulness does not imply we will not encounter stress at work (or in our personal lives) but instead helps increase our ability to make conscious, healthy choices to help cope with it which can positively impact our overall well-being.
Main image Photo Credit: http://iceh.bbci.co.uk
Rachna Sethi
Author
Rachna (@thesassyspiritual) is a graduate of the Applied Mindfulness Meditation program from the University of Toronto, a certified Educator with two bachelor degrees and a diploma in Art Therapy. She's dedicated to living with a compassionate approach. Committed to helping people integrate Mindfuln...
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