Can mindfulness improve mental wellbeing in the workplace?

While such a statement could well provoke a certain degree of abstruseness, mindfulness is essentially quite an intuitive concept. By allowing to see yourself in the present moment clearly, acknowledging and accepting your thoughts and feelings, whatever they may be, you can increase your ability to deal with situations and make prudent choices. 

Mindfulness practices aren’t anything new – their origins can be traced all the way back to ancient Buddhism. However, their introduction to workplace health & wellbeing schemes is relatively new. That being said, the number of employers offering mindfulness programmes is on the rise with the likes of Google, GlaxoSmithKline and the Home Office all implementing programmes in recent years. An increasing amount workplace and scientific studies are being conducted on the subject and the Mindfulness in the Workplace group on LinkedIn now has over 12,000 members.

Growing in popularity

So why the growing popularity? According to the chief medical officer, it is estimated that around 70 million working days are lost to stress and anxiety each year in the UK. Statisticians estimate that this could cost the UK economy up to £100bn. Mindfulness programmes are one way in which such figures could potentially be reduced.

Yet the problem does not end with absenteeism. A large body of evidence shows that employees who are stressed at work are far less likely to be engaged than those who are happy and healthy. From an employer’s perspective, a happy and healthy workforce can only lead to a more successful, prosperous and healthy business.

There have been several solutions offered to improve mental wellbeing in the workplace: cognitive behavioural therapy, employee assistance programmes and one to one counselling are just some of the offerings that are marketed as being able to improve the mental wellbeing of employees.

So why consider a mindfulness programme?

Mindfulness allows an employee to deal with stress before the stress can affect them. Essentially, mindfulness can act as a preventative measure rather than a reactive one. Preventing a problem will be cheaper, quicker and more productive than solving one that has already has arisen.

The ability to remain calm, focused on the present and make good decisions, despite incoming stimuli that could potentially cause stress or anxiety, is analysed by the studies of modern neuroscience. Stressful situations can essentially send the body into ‘fight or flight’ mode, at which time creativity, innovation and productivity could all decrease. Mindfulness could prevent this from happening and calm an employee, resulting in a more productive state of mind.

Is a mindfulness programme for everyone?

Perhaps not. Being relatively new to the workplace health & wellbeing arena, further study and research is likely to be needed in order to provide any conclusive proof of its effectiveness for different employers. What is for sure is that, while mental health in the workplace continues to be a growing issue, employers may increasingly start to consider a mindfulness programme as a possible option to combat stress and anxiety.

This article was provided by Mazars.