The benefits of mindfulness & meditation in the workplace

Personally, I have now been practicing mindfulness & daily meditation for over 10 years.  I am often asked “what are the top 4 things for your health & energy?” and these always include mindfulness & meditation, along with great sleep, great nutrition and morning exercise.

In 2014, energiseYou celebrates its 10^th year in helping companies to improve the health, energy & performance of their employees.  For almost a decade we have brought mindfulness & meditation into the workplace via our workshops, webinars, podcasts & health events.

That aside, I have observed a very interesting polarity with this subject. On one hand, there are so many amazing benefits associated with mindfulness & meditation, such as:

-       Improves happiness

-       Increases your energy levels

-       Improves sleep

-       Makes you more successful in business

-       Helps you manage pressure at work

-       Improves problem solving & creativity

-       Lowers blood pressure & boosts the immune system

-       Reduces negative emotions, stress, anxiety, fear and anger

Yet, on the other hand, there are so few people that actually practice mindfulness & meditation on a daily basis.

So given all of these benefits why is it not practiced more? Here are some of the reasons:

-       People and companies are not fully aware of its transforming benefits

-       Some of these benefits cannot be fully appreciated until they are personally experienced

-       People often expect to be able to quieten the mind and meditate like a Buddhist monk on day one, which just doesn’t happen

-       People often try meditation without being shown how, find it very hard and then immediately give up

-       People often over look mindfulness as a practice because it seems too basic and simple, yet it is in its simplicity that the magic lies.

-       As with many things, people need to be inspired by someone to start.  My personal inspiration to start TM meditation was the film director David Lynch who has been meditating everyday for the past 35 years and he’s still loving it!

So the reasons that mindfulness & meditation should be a key part of your wellbeing programme are because of their profound benefits that can transform overall health & energy. To achieve this we need to address the challenges in the list above to ensure we can actively and regularly embrace the gift of mindfulness & meditation into our lives.

Energy management in the workplace

A recent YouGov survey of over 2,000 employees, commissioned by Lucozade Revive, finds nine out of ten of us suffer with a dip in energy in the afternoon. This afternoon energy slump equates to a shocking 24 days in lost productivity per year per employee. 

These two findings really show the benefits that can be gained from improved energy management, for both employers and individuals themselves.

A couple of months ago I was asked by Lucozade Revive to chair their Energy Management Summit. The panel discussed energy management in the workplace and the role employers should play in helping their staff achieve high energy.

The conclusion following the summit is that there are three huge benefits linked to improved energy management within our organisations:

        Employees achieve a better quality life 

      They are not only much happier but their performance at work improves as a result.

      Improved organisational performance 

      Sickness absence reduces, reactive healthcare costs drop and employee performance improves.

Less pressure on the NHS 

      Energy management is directly linked to health, when energy improves our health also improves.  Healthy people put less strain on the NHS, which currently costs the UK £109 billion per year.

To find out how you can help your staff beat the 3pm working slump click here. 

We must help our employees work more smartly

Reports suggest the pressure is on and an increasing workload has left 72 per cent of UK employees having to put in around ten hours extra a week without being compensated, according to recent research from Travelodge.

Whilst working hard is always good, long working hours is not always a good thing and does not necessarily mean an increase in productivity. In fact, long working hours can be counterproductive and have a negative impact on businesses, such as reduced productivity and poor performance.

The key to success is to work smartly. As employers and leaders we need to ensure that we put the right support in place in terms of training, tools and systems to help our employees work smartly.

This does not simply mean providing access to the right IT systems/technology and support functions but there other factors that impact on our effectiveness, such as time management.

Timothy Ferris, author of The 4 Hour Workweek, really put the concept of working smartly to the test when he went from working 80 hours per week to just 4 hours. He says, "By working only when you are most effective, life is both more productive and more enjoyable. It's the perfect example of having your cake and eating it, too."

Whilst Ferris has some critics what he really does emphasise is the need to work when you are at your optimum and to focus on the tasks that are going to add most value.

By helping our employees to prioritise tasks effectively, focusing on what will add most value to the business and giving them the skills to manage excess pressure/challenges when they arise we really have the opportunity to improve the effectiveness of our people.

This is not only good for our business, in terms of productivity etc, but it will also improve the wellbeing of our employees and this means improved employee engagement, a nicer working environment and so much more.

To find out how you can help you employees develop mind management practices to improve effectiveness in the workplace click here and sign up to my free 30 minute webinar.