What is 'Mindfulness at Work'?

When we use the expression 'Mindfulness at Work' we refer to our intiative that takes place in the workplace. We also mean the fact of being mindful, when our being mindful IS at work, in action.

Because, for the time being, our activities take place in the workplace, we will essentially refer to the practice in this context while leaving the door open to expand well beyond if and when time will have come.

At work, when a person is stressed or overwhelmed by the quantity if difficulty of the work or the activity to be performed, the natural reaction is to think and speak a lot about this situation with oneself and others. It feeds the mental chatter and makes it hard to quiet the mind. At times, people end up spending more time thinking and explaining to themselves and others how much work they have to do than it would take to actually do it. This situation is symptomatic of the fact that the person has lost not only the necessary distance to appreciate the reality but also has no more access to the ability to size reasonably the importance and urgency of a given piece of work. This creates distress and prevent from moving on to a resourceful state. Taking some time out on a regular basis helps incredibly much to regain distance and enable to access again one’s own resources. There are various ways to take distance, some less healthy and with time limited effects, some healthy and sustainable on the long run to which mindfulness practices belong.   

Our experience, in the context of the Mindfulness at Work project, has brought us in contact with four main categories of needs that motivate people to take part in the classes and events we offer:

• sustain balance and prevent disorder;
• strengthen concentration;
• release stress at physical, emotional and mental levels as well as address burn out symptoms; and
• reintegrate the workplace after a prolonged absence.

The feedback we receive from participants shows that it is possible to learn new way of being at any stage in life. The participants underline the value of practicing in a group and that they could grow new and healthier habits.

Participants report a number of improvements:

• release of body tensions;
• improve capacity to concentrate;
• develop the ability to gain awareness of their thoughts, emotions, bodily sensations;
• realise that thoughts are not facts and that they are not their thoughts;
• awareness of body reactions to problems;
• develop healthier coping mechanisms;
• learn self-help tools;
• increase emotional skills;10
• take distance.

Participants make the experience that life balance is not something one strives for but that one allows to happen by cultivating awareness. The experiences that participants make allow them to become aware of thoughts, physical sensations and feelings as they are without rejecting them or holding back on them. It is also about being able to live in the present moment without being trapped in the past or caught up planning the future. One becomes aware of the ongoing mental chatter, one’s own mental models that make us perceive the world around in a certain way and the ‘me centeredness’ that we are living in and causing to each one of us so much pain.