We’ve all been there. Working like crazy, late nights, but you get to the point where you realize you’re just staring at the screen getting absolutely nothing done. You’re drained, exhausted, and burnt out. This is where corporate meditation can help.
This experience is a common situation in the office or working from home. We like to think we’re unstoppable. That if we just dedicate more hours, we’ll get more done. But the truth is, we are not machines. Our bodies, and our minds, need rest to perform at their best. Corporate meditation is key.
In France, studies show that they get more done in a 35-hour work week than Americans do in a 40-hour work week. In fact, they get more done with 10 weeks off than Americans do with two weeks off.
It’s no wonder. When we are rested, we work better. And nothing gives the mind a rest quite like corporate meditation. If you think it’s a coincidence that Jack Dorsey, Ray Dalio, Jerry Seinfeld, George Lucas, Michael Jordan, Phil Jackson, and Facebook/Google/Nike/Amazon employees all meditate, then I’ve got a timeshare in Nigeria to sell you. They all do it because they know it’s essential for performing at our best.
Luckily, corporate meditation is something every company can implement. It’ll to help their workers get a daily boost of energy, clarity, productivity and creativity. Here I’ll explain everything you need to know to get started.
What is Corporate Meditation?
Corporate meditation is any program that helps workers learn and develop a meditation practice. It can be a keynote, a full or half-day workshop, or a weekend retreat. It can also be a daily or weekly meditation class.
Corporate meditation programs will often include practical instruction on becoming more mindful at work. This helps people make fewer mistakes and think outside the box. As a result, they’ll experience more joy and satisfaction at work and in their lives.
Corporate meditation may be in-person at the office or done remotely via Zoom. There are even many apps and videos that teach meditation. But, just like in school, personalized instruction is the best way to learn any new skill.
How to Get Started?
For companies wanting to attract and retain the best talent, corporate meditation is the solution. There is no benefit that will improve their lives quite like it.
To get started, first find a knowledgeable, experienced instructor. One who understands the unique challenges of the corporate world. Make sure they have a wide range of experience and knowledge as well.
Every office is different and has different needs, so choose a program that’s right for your company. Some businesses like to have a yearly meditation and mindfulness retreat, followed by a semiannual keynote. Other companies prefer a semiannual workshop with a weekly meditation class. While still other companies prefer to establish a dedicated meditation room inside their office where daily biweekly meditation classes take place.
Why Corporate Meditation?
Most of our stress comes from the office. All too often, we bring that stress home. Therefore, this leads to high turnover rates, poor work quality, lower productivity, and lower job and life satisfaction.
It turns out, roughly half of all employees are considering leaving their jobs right now largely due to stress. Because of this, the current rate of employee retention currently costs employers trillions each year.
Stress is currently the number one cause for doctor visits and sick days. Stress isn’t just psychological. It leads to chronic pain, depression, anxiety and a weaker immune system. It even leads to heart disease, stroke, addiction and early death.
Study after study shows meditation lowers stress and increases job and life satisfaction. It lowers turnover rates, prevents burnout, improves our physical health, and reduces sick days. Most importantly, corporate meditation helps companies increase profits!
Don’t just take it from me. Take it from John Hopkins, the Mayo Clinic. Or Harvard Medical School and the Yale School of Medicine. As well as the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Each has released countless definitive studies showing the powerful effect of meditation. It improves both our mental health and physical wellbeing.
Corporate meditation gives workers a greater quality of life, more fulfillment, a more positive attitude and better relationships.
Improved Productivity
Learning the skills to focus with great intensity for long periods of time vastly improves productivity.
Because meditation increases the amount of grey matter in the prefrontal cortex — the area of the brain responsible for executive functions — self-discipline, decision-making, concentration, judgement, conscientiousness, and organization become effortless.
More Creative and Innovative
According to Harvard Business Review, just 10 to 12 minutes of meditation led to much more innovative and creative ideas and solutions from executives and employees.
In one study, workers who practiced a short 10-minute meditation produced ideas that were 55% wider in range than those who did not meditate. Meaning, when our minds are chaotic we cannot think outside the box and come up with truly original solutions.
Focus and Concentration
Columbia University Medical Center found that our minds are lost in thought 47% of the time. Daily meditation practice changes the function and structure of our brain to focus and concentrate better, improve memory and learning, and to increase our attention span.
Fewer Sick Leaves & Turnover Rates
Turns out, happy workers are healthier workers. Depression leads to $51 billion in costs due to absenteeism alone.
Most remarkably, a study by the University of Wisconsin found that meditators took 76.2% fewer sick days for acute respiratory infections such as the common cold or the flu. The meditators even took half as many sick days as the group of exercisers in the study!
As for turnover rates, they’re up 88% since 2010 and cost U.S. companies $600 billion. According to one study by the iOpener Institute, mindfulness reduces turnover by 46%, employees stay twice as long and are 40% more engaged.
Improved Decision Making
When we’re stressed, tired, and feeling scattered, we make costly mistakes. Because mindfulness and meditation improve sleep, reduce stress, and create a calm mind, we make better, more thoughtful decisions.
According to a study by INSEAD’s Organizational Behavior Department, just 15 minutes of the kind of meditation we teach leads to more rational thinking, less bias, and more profitable decisions.
Why do New York City Businesses Need Corporate Meditation Programs?
Few things relieve us of stress quite like being completely surrounded by untouched nature, something New Yorkers are starving for whether they realize it or not. Luckily, Corporate Meditation Programs can similarly help workers recharge their batteries, recenter, refocus, and rejuvenate themselves mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually.
Are Corporate Meditation Programs the Same as Corporate Mindfulness Programs?
A good Corporate Meditation Program will include both meditation and mindfulness. It’s so important to have both, as meditation without mindfulness is like keeping only one eye opened. At EastWesticism, every Corporate Meditation Program includes mindfulness as part of the program because every single person needs both the experience of meditation along with the knowledge and wisdom of mindfulness.
Take doctors for example. Someone who wants to be a doctor doesn’t just start cutting up patients without having any knowledge about what they’re doing and then suddenly they’re a doctor. Nor do they just read in books about how to cut up their patients and then they receive their medical licence. They need both the knowledge and the experience to become a doctor. The same is true for becoming an expert at living a peaceful, stress-free and joyous life. It takes wisdom and practice.
How Corporate Meditation Can Lead to More Motivation in Your Employees?
When an employee is full of energy, focus and creativity, they don’t need external motivation. When an employee is free from stress, worry and doubt, they are able to perform at their best. Rather than bringing in a motivational speaker to temporarily lift up your workers, a Corporate Meditation Program can give workers themselves the tools and power to lift themselves up. This is much more powerful and will last them the rest of their lives.
Everything we do stems from our state of mind. For lasting motivation, we have to get down to the root cause of demotivation: stress, lack of clarity, lack of presence and mindfulness. Only a Corporate Meditation Program can do this.
Why Do Executives in Your Company Need Meditation Before any Meeting?
Few people have more stress and more of a need to think clearly and sharply than executives. They carry the weight of their company on their shoulders. This can lead to fear-based decisions and the discouragement of innovation and creativity.
Thanks to meditation and mindfulness, top CEOs and executives and countless Fortune 500 companies have been able to relieve their stress, find more peace in the chaos, and lead more fulfilling lives.
Why Do Mindful Leaders Achieve More than Others?
Mindfulness isn’t just about clarity, awareness, productivity, creativity and focus. It’s also about empathy – the key ingredient to being a successful leader.
As executives become more able to get out of their own head, they’re better able to put themselves in other people’s shoes, to think about problems from other people’s perspectives, and to have a greater understanding of complex office and industry dynamics.
At its essence, mindfulness simply means to be more aware. In meditation, as we put away distractions and clear our mind, we begin to become more aware of subtleties and details we never noticed before. This heightened awareness is like having a superpower that spills over into the rest of our lives. It helps make leaders better connected to their audience, employees, colleagues, clients, friends and family.
Why is It Important to Practice Mindfulness at Your Workplace?
Few places have more stress than the office. Some statistics say that as much as 72% of all stress is work-related. 50% of all workers are right now considering quitting their job because of work-place stress.
That tells us that there is no place more important for mindfulness than the office. Mindfulness and meditation more than any other activity have been shown to reduce workplace stress and increase our workplace satisfaction.
Why Should Corporate Meditation Programs be a Part of Your Corporate Wellness Programs?
Study after study shows that any company wishing to attract the best talent, to increase their profits, and to retain their employees longer must include Corporate Meditation Programs at the office.
Google, Facebook, Goldman-Sachs, General Mills, Amazon and Nike have all discovered the benefits of Corporate Meditation Programs in their employees’ lives, in their ability to bring in the best and the brightest, and to their bottom lines. From better retention to fewer sick days, from cost-saving ideas to fewer mistakes, there may be no other investment you can make in your company that will have an ROI like a Corporate Meditation and Mindfulness Program.
