Organisations are becoming increasingly aware of workplace mindfulness. We operate in an environment that is characterised by constant distractions of modern life, including social media, texting, and a relentless news cycle.

Studies have indicated that practicing breathing, meditation or simple awareness of the present moment while at work not only makes us feel more relaxed, but can assist us to increase our attention span and focus, improve working memory and positively benefits our connection with colleagues.

We’re going to discuss why meditation works, its benefits and it can be easily implemented at your workplace.

Why meditation works

The workplace can sometimes be a highly stressful environment. Often employees have to undergo enormous pressures and the subsequent demands on the mind, emotions and physiology can be overwhelming.

As a result, organisations are becoming aware of the benefits of mindfulness and meditation.

Mindfulness in the workplace has become a popular means for organisations to help improve employee wellbeing and new research has revealed it’s likewise beneficial for productivity, and efficiency.

There are numerous benefits of workplace meditation including:

• Improving self-esteem
• Decreased pain
• Lower blood pressure
• Increased creativity
• Decreases stress and anxiety
• Boosts working memory
• Enhance ability to problem solve
• Heightened focus on upcoming tasks
• Ability to cope more efficiently with deadlines

The benefits to your workplace

As businesses become increasingly complex, global and ever-changing, more mental and physical demands are being placed on employee performance.

Employees experience a range of stress and demands throughout their working day; whether it is spending long hours managing a never-ending cycle of project deadlines, overstuffed email inboxes, presentations, competitive forces and other workplace stressors.

Research from Havard showed that participating in an eight-week mindfulness meditation program appears to make measurable changes in brain regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy, and stress.

According to Sara Lazar, senior author of the MGH Psychiatric Neuroimaging Research Program and a Harvard Medical School instructor in psychology,

“Although the practice of meditation is associated with a sense of peacefulness and physical relaxation, practitioners have long claimed that meditation also provides cognitive and psychological benefits that persist throughout the day.”

How to meditate at work

For those of you looking to improve your health, clarity of mind, sense of well-being and productivity, meditation is for you. Mediation at work can be an effective way to clear your mind, improve your health and sense of wellbeing and productivity.

There are multiple ways that meditation can be practiced in the workplace.

Some will focus on breathing, others won't. Some will have you repeating a mantra and others will have you focus on nothing. Each offers a range of benefits related to work performance, personal wellbeing and task productivity.

Meditation is flexible, meaning it can be adapted to different jobs, workplaces and lifestyles. This means that you and your team members can meditate outdoors, in your office or a comfortable room where nobody can bother you.

Over time, you can meditate in any situation at any time under any situation. You won't need to close yourself off, close your eyes or shut the door.

Even just five to ten minutes of practice can help to bring your attention back to a focal point and to maintain sustained attention for longer periods of time.

An effective way of getting back to ‘zero’ is through practicing deep breathing.

To help you and your team get back to ‘zero’, we’ve created a Take 10 for Zen webpage, with additional information, videos and deep breathing exercises.