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Mindfulness in the Workplace

Research · June 2015

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.4759.3126

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Running  head:  Mindfulness  in  the  Workplace   1  
 
 
 
 

Mindfulness  in  the  Workplace  

Joshua  R.  Vanderhoof,  B.A.  

New  Mexico  State  University  

 
Running  head:  Mindfulness  in  the  Workplace   2  
 
 
 
Mindfulness in the Workplace
Increasing productivity in the workplace and boosting employee morale might be
simpler and less expensive than hiring a motivational speaker to come in once a year for a
staff retreat. Through the incorporation of mindfulness-based interventions into the
workplace, employers can start to change the atmosphere of the work environment for the
employees as well as those they serve. The principles of mindfulness and other MBSR-
based practices cross over into the business world, and make for great interventions that
can lead to more creative and sustainable solutions to problems. Before going into how
mindfulness can be utilized in the work environment it would be necessary to get a
working definition of mindfulness, discuss some of the overall benefits of mindfulness,
and how those relate to the workplace.
A working definition of mindfulness, for the sake of this document, is “the
intentional, accepting and non-judgmental focus of one's attention on the emotions,
thoughts, and sensations occurring in the present moment” (Zgierska, et al., 2009).
Finding its roots in Buddhism, this age old practice transcends religions and even cultural
practices and has been shown to be beneficial across the spectrum of life (Stahl &
Goldstein, 2010). Practitioners of mindfulness soon realize that a good portion of their
time spent thinking is going over past events or anticipating future ones with a sort of
anxiety that robs them from the pleasure of fully being present.
This robbing of the present moment is what makes mindfulness practice a
necessary component that has been missing from the work place. With employees going
about their everyday workplace activities thinking about everything but what is going on
the present, they begin to create opportunities for unworkability. As with any business, or
relationship for that matter, there comes a necessary component for communication.
Communication in the workplace already comes with barriers that are visible to the
common eye, ie, technology, language, etc. Knowing that people are beings that have a
mind that has been left uncheck, employers must become responsible for clearing out
some of the barriers to the mind hearing above the natural thinking patterns. Quieting the
mind so that direct communication is happening could solve problems coming up in the
workplace, even before they become problems.
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Mindfulness is cultivated by incorporating different attitudes into the way one
experiences reality. Through the use of formal practices, practitioners instill in
themselves eight attitudes that begin to be tools they can use in their interpersonal
communication. These attitudes include having a beginner’s mind, non-judgment,
acknowledgment, non-striving, equanimity, letting be, self-reliance, and self-compassion.
These eight attitudes can be used as filters that could be used as a practice into the first
inquiry into whether or not to incorporate mindfulness practices into the workplace. By
instilling in all workers the concept of the beginner’s mind each endeavor, and common
task, becomes a new opportunity to learn from, and increase curiosity and even enhance
pleasure.
Attitudes such as non-judgment, acknowledgment, and letting be, create a level of
awareness where people can see reality from an objective standpoint separate from some
of the meaning systems that can be informed by past constructions of the mind. By
looking at these frameworks that are always-already coexisting and even informing
current interpretations of reality, this leaves people in a state of relating to the world from
a limited viewpoint dependent upon past experiences.
Human beings don’t get the liberty to live mindless like the rabbits in the field.
Even with a threat of danger the rabbits still go back to being unmoved after only a few
moments of the disappearance of the real threat. But human beings developed another
response to threats, real and imagined. Our minds developed to remember information
and to use it to fill in the gaps when in similar situations. If a human was out in the field
the presence of a fox would illicit many thoughts of past experiences of foxes, and if any
of those were fearful, fight or flight responses would kick in, and limit other sustainable
responses, or solutions to his run in with the fox (Siegel, 2010). Or his day in the field
where he was intending to work, could be thwarted by other ideas of foxes that could
range from Suess inspired lore to catchy pop songs (Harris, 2009).
Each of these cases is just normal the condition of the average human mind.
Nothing wrong with it, but it is what happens when the mind is left a lone. Through
mindfulness, one sits back and observes these thoughts as they arise and as they
transmorph into the next thought, rising and falling just like the breath. While the
Running  head:  Mindfulness  in  the  Workplace   4  
 
 
 
daydreamer may find enjoyment in this, where it is critical to grain this awareness is in
the workplace where important decisions could be made by thoughts that are left
unchecked with no real critical look.
A new field in research the articles come back with positive reports that
"mindfulness training is more than just an effective stress management solution but an
efficacious intervention for the development of positive organizational behavior, which
can be used throughout the employee base” (Aikens, et al, 2014). Stepping away from
treatment facilities and into the workplace, interventions have to be redesigned to not
only be accessible to workers across the levels, but also done in frameworks of time that
don’t take away from work production (Malarkey et al, 2012).
By using different types of tailor made mindfulness interventions Mindfulness at
Work reported that participants in corporate training programs experienced increased
focus, the ability to handle overload, new levels of effectiveness, enhanced employee
engagement, One participant reported that in the workplace mindfulness training,
"provided a gateway into an alternative way of experiencing the world and people around
us in an approachable, accessible, and nonthreatening manner. In addition to providing
balance to one’s own life and work, it lays the foundation for effective leadership that
promotes conscious choices over reactive impulses and a purposeful work environment
for effect teams.” How that happens is through what other participants reported as having
raised awareness of emotions, habits, and reactions that limit possibilities.
By incorporating mindfulness into workplace environments the employer gives
his workers a new set of tools to looking at ways of working with and relating to th
workplace. Gelles reported that, "Green Mountain Coffee, factory workers who practice
mindfulness saw their injury rates decline” (Peck, 2015). With mindfulness practices
focusing on training that helps connect people with the physical sensation of being, this
newfound body awareness and attitudes such as ‘letting be’ can help factory workers to
make decisions that are not made in moments of fear, or in an attempt to cover up a
mistake leading to poor decision making (Brafman & Brafman, 2008). Mindfulness is
about being still, and present in the moment a person can see the guiding emotions,
Running  head:  Mindfulness  in  the  Workplace   5  
 
 
 
sensations or thoughts that are guiding their behavior. This type of awareness needs to be
cultivated.
To be effective mindfulness must be incorporated into a regular practice
preferably daily. Incorporating mindfulness into the workplace will not take efforts like
building an ashram in the center of the building, or sending all employees on a retreat to
gain mindfulness. It starts with a commitment to practice mindfulness daily.
After staying in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Dallu, Nepal it was easy to see
that life amongst the monks is no different than life in the office. Each has its human
beings, with their scared pasts, and their own inner workings and desiring. In the first few
days of staying in this serene estate tucked away into the Kathmandu Valley the elation
was short-lived as a fight between the house cook and head monk erupted. Pots when
flying, and voices went higher, and by the end of the night the house was left without a
cook.
What they did have in the monastery was a daily practice, a series of practices that
helped to center the mind and let thoughts, emotions, and all that runs through mind fall
away so that true reality could be seen beyond the internal story. What the monks do in
mantra in its sacred forms, can be brought over, translated, and even watered down to fit
into even the busiest of work schedules.
Creating short interventions coupled with regular, quarterly or annually, trainings
on mindfulness, can help to give workers easy access to boosting everyday workplace
activity. Rossy lays out a strategy that focuses on being in the moment. Her methods
include something that comes unnatural to those in the Western world, but the act of non-
doing. In situations where a person is blocked, frustrated, stopped, upset, or anything
stands in the way of a certain project or problem, rather than going to work on the project
in that moment, it is best to just stop, breath, and just be with what’s so. From this
vantage point new views can be seen, Rossy goes on to say that there needs to be regular
time outs, and moments when a person walks away from projects (2013).
Harris (2009) in his work with relational frame theory, shows how using
mindfulness based trainings can help to illuminate limiting frameworks, or constructed
meaning systems. In Harris’ Pavlovian storytelling he asks the readers to think of a
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lemon, and all the images, body sensations and thoughts that arise with the lemon. As
with all objects, all situations in life, come with a wave of thoughts, emotions, and other
sensations that arise as the mind unleashes them to help a peroson combat their way
through this scary world of real/imagined threats. Without noticing it, a person could be
having anxiety attacks or an unchallenged fear in a certain area of performance all
because of a relational frame that is guiding the persons behavior. The person doesn’t
know that this is happening, nor does he know to know that it is happening.
It is through mindfulness that the volume is turned up on the mind so that these
hidden frameworks come to light, and people can then be left with a state of choice
previously hidden from the individual. In the workplace this can be done through clearing
or grounding techniques.
A clearing technique can be used before a meeting, or event where there is a lot of
emotional investment, ie speech, performance, test, interview, or other important
encounter. In a clearing session a person would start by going through a simple body scan
and share with themselves, or with a person leading the clearing all the sensations,
images, feelings, and thoughts that come up around the future situation. Each of these can
be fully explored, and looked at without judgment, but brought into the light. A person
who is going through a clearing exercise would be asked to not ignore or resist fear, but
to push into it and explore it from a non-judgment and self-compassionate perspective.
By normalizing the fear, through acceptance and letting be, a person can explore what is
informing the fear, and work towards the disappearance or clearing of the constructs and
frameworks that keep the fear in place, creating a barrier to the intended action. This
process can take time, and is only complete as to the level that the person going through
the process has the experience of being clear. The process would be repeated until all
sensations around the event were explored.
This exploration of the sensations, images, feelings and thoughts, also known as
S.I.F.T. can also be used in meetings when discussing new topics where a new ventures,
investments, or risks must be taken. Before people can shut off possibility out of fear,
fears can be explored, and new levels of cooperation can be created. Fears can be looking
glasses into the hidden values of the company, values that need to be heard, and brought
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to the light as important decisions are made. In International & Border Programs at New
Mexico State University, this method is used to look over information and programming
for students from diverse backgrounds. Through practicing mindfulness, and looking at
discourses of inclusion, the office is revamping the way they communicate with their
current and prospective students. When new information is released a team will gather
together and first be asked to imagine they are an international student with limited
exposure to the English language or American university culture. This is where the
beginners mind comes in. By exploring it from this perspective, employees start to notice
what its like to navigate through a system with no previous context for the language
being used. From taking on this approach the staff is beginning to implement changes in
the website, adding in more icons, and less jargon, and even purchasing software to make
it more accessible to student in countries where the majority are accessing information
via their smart phones.
These low cost interventions are readily available and provide breakthrough
sustainable results; by incorporating just a few into the workplace minor shifts can cause
ripples of productivity throughout the employee base.
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References
Aikens, K. A., Astin, J., Pelletier, K. R., Levanovich, K., Baase, C. M., Yeo Yung, P., &
Bodnar, C. M. (2014). Mindfulness Goes to Work.
Journal Of Occupational & Environmental Medicine, 56(7), 721-731.
Brafman, O., & Brafman, R. (2008). Sway: The irresistible pull of irrational
behavior. New York: Doubleday.
Harris, R. (2009). The house of act: A complete version of chapter 3 in act made simple.
Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications. Retrieved from
http://thehappinesstrap.com/upimages
Malarkey, W., Jarjoura, D., & Klatt, M. (2012). Workplace based mindfulness practice
and inflammation: A randomized trial. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 145-154.
Mindfulness at Work (2015). http://mindfulnessatwork.com/casestudies/
Peck, E. (2015, March 24). How Corporate America Learned To Stop Worrying And
Love Meditation. The Huffington Post. Retrieved March 30, 2015, from
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/24/david-gelles-mindful-
work_n_6933042.html
Rossy, L. (2013). Mindfulness Cuts Stress, Boosts Productivity. T+D, 67(8), 70-72.
Siegel, R. (2010). The mindfulness solution: Everyday practices for everyday problems.
New York: Guilford Press.
Stahl, B., & Goldstein, E. (2010). A mindfulness-based stress reduction workbook.
Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications.
Zgierska, A., Rabago, D., Chawla, N., Kushner, K., Koehler, R., & Marlatt, A. (2009).
Mindfulness Meditation for Substance Use Disorders: A Systematic Review.
Substance Abuse, 266-294.

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