The most accurate definition of mindfulness is being aware of everything you sense and feel in the present moment. Mindfulness involves breathing exercises, guided imagery, and other techniques designed to help relax the mind and body, as well as to reduce stress.
What relevance does this have to the workplace? The workplace can be a constant stream of emails, calls, conversations, and meetings. Some may find this to be extremely overwhelming, and mindfulness may help increase productivity by allowing you to be more focused on the task at hand.
Productivity and mindfulness go hand in hand. The more mindful you are about your working environment, the more productive and focused you will be. All this correlates to better output for employers, so it would seem of utmost importance that employers place a greater emphasis on workplace wellbeing through mindfulness. This could be conducted through CPD or various training seminars where experts in this field speak. In support of this statement, research company Psychological Technologies (PSYT) conducted a study of UK employees and it estimated that if every employee in the country was 1% happier, the economy would grow by £24 billion. By placing employee wellness on top of business ethos and mission statements, not only could employers gain economic benefits, but high depression levels could be minimised.
Although research into mindfulness’ impact on employee output is still in its infancy, the preliminary results are very encouraging. We now live in a world that places significant emphasis on overall results and output, sometimes at the expense of employee wellbeing. Therefore, it wouldn’t be a bad idea if employers put more emphasis on mindfulness training and practices to alleviate the former.
