Mindfulness - a brief introduction

Mindfulness is underpinned by an extensive evidence base of 10,000+ research studies, over 500 of which are specific to the workplace. It increases self awareness of behaviour and mindsets - providing the foundation for lasting behaviour change. 

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What is mindfulness?
Have you ever started eating a snack bar, taken a couple of bites, then noticed all you had left
was an empty packet in your hand? Or been driving somewhere and arrived at your destination only to realise you remember nothing about your journey? Most people have! These are common examples of "mindlessness," or "going on automatic pilot." In our modern, busy lives, we constantly multi task. Its easy to lose awareness of the present moment as when we become lost in our efforts to juggle work, home, finances, and other conflicting demands.

As humans we are often "not present" in our own lives. We often fail to notice the good things about our lives, fail to hear what our bodies are telling us, or poison ourselves with toxic self criticism.

Human minds are easily distracted, habitually examining past events and trying to anticipate the future. Becoming more aware of our thoughts, feelings and sensations may not sound like an obviously helpful thing to do, however learning to do this in a way that suspends judgement and self-criticism can have an incredibly positive impact on our lives. 

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According to Professor Mark Williams (2011), Oxford University "Mindfulness is a translation of a word that simply means awareness. It's a direct, intuitive knowing of what you are doing while you are doing it. It's knowing what's going on inside your mind and body, and what's going on in the outside world as well.
Most of the time our attention is not where we intended it to be. Our attention is hijacked by our thoughts and emotions, by our concerns, by our worries for the future, and our regrets and memories of the past. Mindful awareness is about learning to pay attention, in the present moment, and without judgement. It's like training a muscle - training attention to be where you want it to be. This reduces our tendency to work on autopilot, allowing us to us choose how we respond & react."

 

*Extracted from Mindfulnet.org which can be accessed via our Resources page

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Find out more about our Workplace Mindfulness programmes, or read our Mindfulness at work Case studies to see the outcomes we achieved.

 

Mindfulness at work return on investment

 

A recent meta-analysis of research into the impacts of mindfulness at work, published in 2016 in the Journal of Management concluded that mindfulness improves your attention leading to increased flexibility in thinking, improved emotion and behaviour regulation, reductions in stress and positive changes to the structure of your brain.   The report concludes that mindfulness training:

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•     Improves job and task performance

•     Improves communications, relationships, leadership, and teamwork

•     Improves physical and psychological well-being

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A Head for Work combines WorkplaceMT - and evidence informed approach to teaching mindfulness at work, specifically designed for busy professionals with practical neuroscience to help you find new ways of working that improve both your productivity and resilience to improve performance and personal effectiveness whilst promoting well-being and resilience.  

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