What do Google, Nike, Apple, Amazon, General Mills, Procter & Gamble, Deutsche Bank, and Bridgewater all have in common? That’s right, they’re all extremely successful.
But also, as you may have guessed, they have all discovered that there’s a better productivity boost. They give it to their employees that works better than a coffee break ever has. That is corporate meditation.
A small investment in Corporate Meditation leads to huge profits and gains for these companies for several reasons. This article gets into what it is, why it helps and how you can start benefiting from Corporate Meditation at your company.
What is Corporate Meditation?
Corporate Meditation is any type of meditation instruction that occurs during the workday that teaches employees and executives the stress-reducing and productivity-boosting practice of meditation.
Some companies choose to bring in an experienced teacher, once a year for a whole week to teach the employees how to meditate. After that, the company may set aside a room or an area at a certain time for daily meditation, either with instruction or without.
Other companies like to bring in an expert once a week or daily to lead a team or the whole office in a meditation class.
All of these methods help set up workers for success in establishing a daily practice of meditation designed specifically for the needs of busy workers.
5 Benefits of Corporate Meditation
#1: Happier Employees
Literally, thousands of peer-reviewed studies have now come out showing that meditation makes people happier.
Meditation lowers our stress, diminishes anxiety, makes us feel more grateful and content, more fulfilled and joyful.
When we’re less stressed and less fearful, we think better and we make better decisions.
What they say is absolutely true: a happy worker is a good worker. When we’re happier, we work harder, we work smarter, and we even get sick less often. This brings me to point number 2.
#2: Healthier Employees
Did you know that 75 to 90% of all doctor visits are stress-related? It’s true! People with less stress, for countless reasons, are healthier. They drink more responsibly, their diets are better, their sleep habits are better, and they live more active and healthy lifestyles.
Meditation has also been proven to lower blood pressure and cholesterol. Moreover, it also helps decrease chronic pain, boost immunity, and help people break free from addictions.
By activating the body’s parasympathetic nervous system, the body exits the stress-based fight or flight mode and enters a state of healing restfulness allowing the body to heal from whatever may ail it.
Companies that have gone for investment in Corporate Meditation programs report workers needing fewer sick days and better health overall.
#3: More Creative Employees
When workers need to crack a problem and they just can’t seem to do it, science tells us that the problem is in linear thinking—that constant stream of thought we have running through our brains. What we need is a shift in our perspective and a clean break from linear thought so that a new idea can come into our minds.
The best way to make space for creative insights to pop into our brain is… you guessed it again – Corporate Meditation.
Albert Einstein had the right idea. When he got stuck, he would go for a bike ride or play the violin. Both of these activities took his mind off the problem and allowed room in his noggin for the big idea to emerge.
Studies show that by turning our attention from a problem in our mind to either a meaningless sound (our mantra) or to our breath, we can quiet the thinking mind and allow for the perfect conditions in which insight and creativity arise.
If only Einstein knew what we know now about meditation, one can only wonder what else he may have discovered.
#4: More Productive Employees
In 1902 the first workplace coffee break took place in Buffalo, NY. The owner of the company realized something that would change business forever. He wasn’t giving his workers a coffee break, he was getting a drastic increase in productivity and output.
From then on, the coffee break exploded in every industry and office space in America and much of the globe. But, coffee comes with a crash, and in some cases heart palpitations and stress.
Smart companies today are realizing that meditation is like coffee on steroids, but without the negative side effects.
The restfulness that comes from meditation leads to renewed, lasting, natural energy. It leads to clearer thinking, fewer costly mistakes, and more focused employees.
By focusing on a mantra or your breath in meditation, you’re literally training your mind to be more focused. When you combine the benefits of focus and creativity, you have a workforce with a superpower. The superpower of creative problem-solving that drives innovation from every single worker in the company.
Investment in Corporate Meditation is not a cost any company will endure. It is an investment that pays dividends.
#5: Less Employee Turnover
Currently, high turnover rates are costing the U.S. economy billions of dollars every year. Obviously, happy employees stick around longer. However, that’s not the only reason companies that gone for investment in Corporate Meditation see lower turnover rates than ones that don’t.
Corporate Meditation gives employees a chance to bond over this healthy experience that they can share together. Oxytocins, the love chemical in our brain, are released during meditation. When this molecule is produced in our brain, we associate positive feelings with where we work and the people we work with.
Corporate Meditation leads to better office relationships. Moreover, it leads to less of a need for conflict resolution, fewer incidents reported to HR, and a more cooperative atmosphere emerges. All this leads to greater workplace satisfaction and long-lasting employees.
Get Corporate Meditation Started at Your Company
Implementing a Corporate Meditation program at your company shows your workers that you really care. You care about their overall health, well-being, and their lives as a whole. When they know this, they will be happier and you will have an amazing work environment.
