Mindfulness Can Work for Work 

 

Employee: The development of mindfulness, or a direct, non-judgmental relationship to one’s lived experience, can have a tremendously beneficial impact on your creativity, stress, and well-being. Taking just a few minutes a day to check in with your thoughts and feelings can help bring clarity and balance to your workday. 

 

Employer: Mindful employees are better equipped to tackle the challenges and demands of the workplace with balance and openness. A workplace that values honesty, mutual support, and good decision-making fosters an environment where employees act more mindfully in their day-to-day work tasks. 

 

Mindfulness has emerged from the meditative traditions of Buddhism and Hinduism as a valuable tool to help employees tackle the challenges of modern work. The simple act of following one’s breath and focusing on one’s senses can calm the mind, increase clarity of thought, and limit the reactivity and speed of a busy mind. Because of these benefits, mindfulness training or promotion can be helpful for organizations that value employee health and creativity, both of which are well-researched outcomes of this form of direct experience. The simple act of taking time to connect with one’s sense perceptions directly, even if only for 5 or 10 minutes, can limit the impact of stress and job demands when an organization values learning, good decision-making, and expertise.