Replace stress with mindfulness. Stress related burnouts are without any doubt, the greatest threat to the productivity of today’s workforce. It’s no wonder that nowadays, many employees themselves and their HR managers are looking for ways to reduce their overall stress levels and how they can avoid burnouts. Globally speaking, millions of employees are suffering from burnout everyday, but the good news is that it can be treated and -even better- prevented.
Mindfulness training, one of the latest trends in the business world, is an excellent way to prevent burnouts and actually helps curing this modern day disease.
Mindfulness is making yourself aware of your thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations. It’s focusing on yourself and where you are in this specific moment. One of the main components of mindfulness is acceptance. Accepting where you are, what you did or didn’t do and accepting what you are feeling and thinking. Mindfulness helps people calm down and thus eases their stress. By reducing stress levels, mindfulness actively lowers the risk of heart diseases. Besides this, research has shown that it boosts empathy, memory and sense of compassion. Lastly, mindfulness improves concentration, focus and even makes you sleep better, which’ll make you more efficient during the day.
It’s a common misconception that managers and business leaders shouldn’t spend their time on mindfulness. Professor Megan Reitz conducted research on the effects and found that it improves three necessary capacities for good leadership: resilience, the capacity for collaboration and the ability to lead in complex conditions.
Professor Reitz and her team gave some recommendations on how to develop a formal mindfulness practice as well. The biggest point of concern is the fact that it’s just like sports: if you want to get better at it, you have to practice. Next to simply practicing, you have to make it fit into your routine, let it become part of your daily life. Don’t forget to set realistic goals. Acknowledge your progress and keep track of your results. Keeping an eye on your progress, will motivate you to practice harder. Lastly it’s important to connect with others who practice or are interested in mindfulness. Following a mindfulness course with your colleagues is the ideal way to get started.
At Hercules Academy, we understand that you don’t have any time to lose. Our Herculean trainers are more than willing to teach you all you need to know on mindfulness, so that you can reap the benefits of it with just spending 10 minutes a day on it. We’ll gladly help decreasing the stress levels of you and your colleagues and we’ll further improve your efficiency and productivity in the workplace.