The benefits of mindfulness workshops for leaders and employees

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Mindfulness has huge benefits for your employees and leaders both in their professional and personal lives.

Fortunately, there are many ways to learn mindfulness, and one of those ways is through a workshop.

But how do you know if a mindfulness workshop is right for your organization?

In this blog post, I’m going to go through the benefits of mindfulness workshops, and how they can create kinder, more creative, more communicative teams.

Firstly, what is mindfulness?

When stressful or unexpected events take place—which they often do at work—our brains can leap into worrying about the future. We might feel it in our bodies, with that sinking feeling in our stomach or that anger that rises through us.

Mindfulness helps you ground yourself in these situations. It’s about being present in the moment, and being aware of your thoughts, emotions and body.

You can then use certain mindfulness practices to calm your body, think more clearly and reduce stress.

But mindfulness is not just for stressful situations. If you make mindfulness a daily habit, you’ll train your mind and body to all of the benefits listed below, and more.

What are the key benefits of mindfulness for leaders and employees?

The benefits of mindfulness are clear. It can:

Reduce stress and anxiety
Help you think clearly
Reduce the physical symptoms of stress or panic
Build resilience
Solve problems faster
Boost creativity

Why do you need a workshop for your employees or leaders to learn and practice mindfulness?

Your employees and leaders can easily practice mindfulness themselves, either at work or in their personal time.

If they do, I’m so pleased. Yes, I am a mindfulness trainer, but I don’t just want your employees practicing mindfulness in a workshop; I want them to practice it in their everyday lives too.

But there is a big difference between understanding, practicing, and learning about mindfulness through a dedicated workshop or program and simply doing it through an app.

Some companies try to support their staff or leaders in learning mindfulness through subscriptions to apps like Calm or Headspace.

I’m not for one second saying these apps don’t help, they certainly do! But they are not a complete solution.

Apps are perfect for continuing your mindfulness learning and practice. They are great for individuals too, but if you want to transform your entire organization or team, then a mindfulness workshop can provide the perfect foundation to achieve that.

What are the benefits of mindfulness workshops?

Rather than talk about the benefits of mindfulness (which I’ve highlighted above), I want to talk to you about the benefits of mindfulness workshops and programs.

There are many ways to learn and practice mindfulness, but workshops and programs deliver some of the best results I’ve seen. And here’s why:

Employees can take the time out to do it

It’s understandable that practicing and learning about mindfulness is not at the top of your to-do list. It can feel counterintuitive to taking time out of your workday to do something that doesn’t ‘seem’ related to work.

However, practicing mindfulness and attending a workshop can pay huge dividends in the long run. It can make your employees and leaders more resilient and solve problems faster and more efficiently.

The problem is that employees and leaders often won’t take the time out of their working day to practice mindfulness. They might feel guilty about doing something non-work-related. Or they might not see it as a priority or understand the true benefits of it.

Whatever the reason, having your entire team or organization attend a mindfulness workshop removes any friction about learning mindfulness. It encourages everyone to take part and not feel any guilt about taking time out of work!

It’s time to bond and connect as a team

A workshop or program gets your entire team or organization together to do something that will benefit everyone and the company as a whole.

The problem with solo-only resources is that people practice mindfulness on an individual level.

But imagine if your team was mindful about the way they communicated with one another, responded to challenging situations, or collaborated together on a project.

When your entire team practice mindfulness together, that’s when you can see real positive results for your organization.

Workshops can be tailored to company needs

When you hire a professional to help your team with mindfulness, you should receive personalized training.

Mindfulness can help you improve in many different areas. That’s why some trainers (like me) will ask you about your team and your business, to establish what you need help with the most, and then tailor their training toward that.

For example, my mindfulness training can support you and your team with:

Managing stress at work
Cultivating emotional and mental resilience
Developing emotional intelligence
Building powerful habits
Getting quality sleep for better performance
Having difficult conversations at work
Practicing mindfulness at work

For me to establish what kind of training you need, I speak to you first to understand what your team will benefit the most from.

They are interactive

Mindfulness is still a new concept to people, and the problem with self-learning is you can’t ask questions.

The one thing I love most about what I do is answering people’s questions. After all, I’ve learned so much about mindfulness, it’s lovely to have someone ask me questions about it!

Typically, people want to understand:

More about the science behind how it works
If they’re practicing their breathing exercises correctly
How long it will take before they notice a difference
How to communicate ‘mindfully’

In every workshop I deliver, there is always a new question I haven’t been asked before. It’s not possible to get these answers from an app, or even a standard course. Only when you invite in a professional mindfulness trainer, will you get the personalized answers you need.

They break down misconceptions about mindfulness

It never bothers me when someone attends a mindfulness workshop with preconceived (and potentially negative) opinions about mindfulness. It’s okay to feel this way. Even though I truly believe everyone can benefit from mindfulness, I also understand that it’s a difficult concept to appreciate in the beginning.

For some people, mindfulness is new and strange. Others feel it’s a bit silly or doesn’t deliver results.

But I love working with people with preconceived notions and helping them to understand mindfulness as well as practice it in their professional and personal lives.

The one thing that gives me so much joy, is when I train a client who is initially wary of mindfulness, then goes on to be its biggest champion! This has happened so many times that I’ve lost count.

This kind of transformation can only be done by a qualified and experienced trainer. An app just won’t do it. If you want your organization to really buy into mindfulness, then you need a trainer to help you.

What’s the next step for you?

Mindfulness workshops can be extremely beneficial to your organization and a great foundation for your employees to start their mindfulness journey.

If you’d like to know more about my mindfulness workshops, you can find out more here. Alternatively, feel free to contact me with any questions.