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Mindfulness at work: what are its benefits?

Mindfulness at work: what are its benefits?

March 6, 2024

Mindfulness is a philosophy of life that endows people with greater well-being and a much more adaptive and productive way of behaving; that's why it has become fashionable in these times.

And now we live in this busy world almost without stopping for a moment to live in the present moment, or to connect with ourselves. We spend the whole day ruminating and judging negatively when things do not go as we wish (whether our beliefs are realistic or not). We live on autopilot and this affects our happiness.

In this article we will focus on Mindfulness and what are its benefits in the workplace .


  • Related article: "8 Mindfulness activities to improve emotional health"

Mindfulness in the labor field

Those people who are familiar with Psychology no longer find it strange to hear about Mindfulness, and this is one of the important paradigms of recent times in the science of behavior (although its origin is ancestral). Mindfulness or full attention applies in many areas : the school, the psychological therapy consultations (mainly with the MBSR or the MBCT), in the world of sports and also the work environment.

Research makes it clear that Mindfulness brings benefits at the individual level (which you can check in the article "Mindfulness: 8 benefits of mindfulness"), but does it work for companies? Evidently, yes. For the practice of mindfulness benefits the human capital of a company and its welfare, and therefore the productivity of it and the performance of its workers.


Now, what are the benefits of mindfulness in the workplace? Below you can find the answer to this question.

1. Improving leadership capacity

The Mindfulness is positive for the average and superior positions of a company because it helps them to be more aware, more emotionally intelligent, helps them to relate better with subordinates, to inspire a shared vision and to enjoy greater self-confidence.

This is what A.D. Amar and his colleagues at the University of Westminster, who measured the self-perception of the leadership skills of a group of senior managers in the London area before and after attending a Mindfulness program for 12 weeks.

2. Improves the welfare of employees

The wellbeing of the employees is intimately related to the success of the company. That is, if workers feel happier and enjoy greater satisfaction in the organization they are in, they perform more.


There are many researches that have found that Mindfulness improves the welfare of employees because it helps them to have a more positive attitude towards problems and helps them resolve internal and external conflicts.

3. Reduce stress

And it is that the stress is very linked with the well-being and the satisfaction of the workers, and we could say that they are extreme poles. In the work environment, there are many researches that have concluded that the MBSR (Mindfulness based stress reduction program) is extremely effective for reduce anxiety and stress level of workers .

In fact, a study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine that sought to find out if this program was effective in a group of workers of the American multinational Dow Chemical Company demonstrated this, because employees became more resistant to stress and improved their satisfaction at work.

  • Related article: "The 7 types of anxiety (causes and symptoms)"

4. Improve emotional intelligence

Increased productivity, more sales, better handling of difficult situations, greater self-knowledge, better communication or better customer services are some of the benefits that the Emotional Intelligence contributes in the field of work and organizations . Well, Mindfulness has shown that it improves emotional intelligence and, therefore, brings all these benefits.

  • If you want to delve into the positive consequences of emotional intelligence at work you can read this article: "The benefits of emotional intelligence at work"

5. Improves concentration and attention span

Several researchers have found that mindfulness training can help increase attention span and concentration. This is what appears in the conclusions of a study conducted by Amishi Jha, professor of Psychology and Director of Contemplative Neuroscience at the University of Miami. These conclusions were drawn after the application of a Mindfulness program for eight weeks to a group of students.

6Improve memory

The previous study also found that Mindfulness improves memory, and another research conducted in 2013 by the University of California at Santa Barbara found that a two-week course of mindfulness improved the scores of a group of students at the university. and increased his working memory through the reduction of distraction and intrusive thoughts.

7. Improved communication

The practice of mindfulness improves communication skills such as active listening. There are many studies that have proven and as he claims Javier García Campayo , Director of the Master in Mindfulness at the University of Zaragoza, "Mindfulness improves internal communication in organizations because it helps us to be more aware and to express ourselves more efficiently".

8. Improve relationships with co-workers

Mindfulness helps us to be centered in the present moment with a non-judgmental mentality, that means that we relate better to other people and improve communication with them. Mindfulness helps reduce the frequency of conflicts and favors group cohesion , so necessary for teamwork.

9. Improve creativity

"Mindfulness is not only useful to improve well-being, because thanks to meditation we can be more relaxed, with a calm mind, which helps create a space to generate new ideas," says psychologist Aron Alma, expert in Team Building in the Human Resources consulting TeamLogics.

10. Improves productivity

All these previous benefits make companies perform better and better, because when human capital is happy with the workplace where you are and the company you are in, the company notices it. To bet on the workers is to bet on the organization.

Mindfulness for companies: Retreat of deepening (Ibercaja Business Development Center in Zaragoza)

If you wish to spend a day of Mindfulness practice to be able to experience first-hand the benefits and effects of Mindfulness, the Ibercaja Business Development Center in Zaragoza (Ibercide) offers the possibility to participate in a Mindfulness retreat . Thanks to this you will be able to deepen in the most habitual techniques of meditation based on Mindfulness, so that you can improve your capacity of attention and emotional balance.

The instructors are Javier García Campayo, a well-known psychiatrist and one of the greatest experts in Mindfulness in our country, and Virginia Gastón, executive coach expert in work stress and Mindfulness. The retreat takes place in the Monastery of Cogullada (Zaragoza), on February 2 and 3, 2018. For 13 hours you will enjoy this great experience and spaces for dialogue and questions about this ancestral practice.

In addition, Javier García Campayo is also one of the facilitators of another Mindfulness retreat that takes place in the Ntra. Sra. Del Olivar Estercuel Monastery (Teruel).

If you want more information, you can click on this link.


Mindfulness at Work - The Benefits (March 2024).


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