The Mindful Workplace

Today's workplace calls for a rapid exchange of information, resulting in the mind being in a constant state of vigilance. In this state, strain ensues, mistakes occur, performance lags, and often job satisfaction wanes. This slippery slope can lead to stress, anxiety and mental and physical illness.

Mindfully Led's mindfulness programs guide participants toward an integration of body and mind that familiarizes them with the sources of disquiet. Supplied with self-awareness, participants move away from automatic coping mechanisms toward a confidence and clarity that transfers from workplace to home and back again. The mind becomes an ally.

Bringing mindfulness into the company culture equips employers and employees alike with a common language and method. Pausing before answering, for example, is a form of mindful listening that leads to meaningful speech. Compassionate and effective communication occurs in cubicles and lunchrooms.

In mindfulness seminars, we consider what it means to stand in the present moment. We notice what is stable in the room and in life, and what is shifting. We practice breath awareness, meditation and reflection.

All programs include time to discuss and listen. What assumptions can be removed to see and hear and feel intelligibly? How can a few moments of stillness daily develop a habit of consistently responding to situations lucidly? Holding awareness of the collective participants, the needs of each individual will be addressed.

People sometimes wonder:

Will this work for my business?

How is mindfulness different from just learning how to concentrate?

Concentrating can feel rigid or forced. “Just concentrate!” “You have to concentrate!” The word demands a designated center point, like aiming an arrow at a target. This action can be useful for completing a specific task like filing a report or docking a boat.

Mindfulness is softer and more responsive. Mindfulness is a life skill, applicable to the work-place and beyond. When mindful, I may concentrate on one thing and am able to include what is happening around me. I am not focusing on one thing at the expense of everything else.

For example, imagine in a sales meeting that my coworker is presenting. If I concentrate solely on the presentation, I may miss how a prospective customer is responding. Or that my coffee cup is leaking. Or that rain is blowing in through the open window. If I am mindful, meaning attentive to the presentation and awake to receiving other sensory information, I respond appropriately to each element of the situation: noting the customer’s reaction, wiping the spill, closing the window, all without missing a beat.

Every moment is like the reshaped image within a shifting kaleidoscope. With mindfulness training, this awareness does not overwhelm. With training, the body remains calm and the mind clear no matter the externalities.

Premiere athletes understand mindfulness. A quarterback throwing a football concentrates for precision and processes all the other information from the field available in that unique point in time. Everyone can learn to move through life with the poise of a favorite athlete, musician, dancer, leader or speaker.

Is there a danger of becoming too mindful in a corporate setting, too sensitive, too "open"?

Nope. If you are mindful, you won't be “too open.” Boundaries, in fact, become clearer as we learn to differentiate between what is and what we think is. We learn how to experience an extensive sense of awareness without discounting thinking or dismissing feeling. Nuances become more clear. We see and hear people as individuals not types. We set unambiguous intentions. We respond rationally, not emotionally. We choose best options and act accordingly, for ourselves and our colleagues.

Will this work for my business?

Any building—a conference room or a lunch hall, a private home or a retreat center—can be transformed with planning and care into an interactive teaching space where meaningful and truthful conversations occur. A lot can happen in a one-hour workshop of shared mindfulness practice. Even more can happen within the rhythm of a short series.

Mindfully Led programs have been delivered to Deutsche Bank, Bank of America, The Energy Authority, The Veterans Administration, and Heartland Rehabilitation Services and more.