Mindfulness practices focus on relaxing the mind and bodies of employees in a workplace. Employees can get very tense with so many tasks and responsibilities. Corporate wellness workshops are intended to improve the mental and physical state of employees. These workshops can be incorporated with mindfulness practices to enhance employees’ ability to perform better.
There is a range of ways to incorporate mindfulness practices into corporate wellness workshops. Each wellness workshop could have 30 – 40 minutes of meditation sessions that allow employees to breathe and relax. These meditation sessions can calm employees’ minds and clear any clutter they might be experiencing.
The corporate wellness workshop could consider adding mindfulness practices, yoga classes and deep breathing exercises. Either of these activities can allow one to explore one’s body and understand how to better control it. This also provides an opportunity to put work aside for a while and reset the mind and body. This is the recharge stage of employees.
Employees don’t necessarily have to perform mindfulness practices specifically during the corporate wellness workshop. They could also incorporate it into the day-to-day work operations. For example, management can give permission to employees to have a stroll or a small trip to a nearby park, during working hours. This could be allowed when an employee is under extreme work stress. This can help the worker clear their head and make better and sound decisions.
More importantly, a designated room can be provided for workers to practise their mindfulness. This room can have calm and relaxing music and some natural elements, such as plants or natural sunlight. Each employee can benefit by practising mindfulness in this room.
Specific Mindfulness Practices
The corporate wellness workshop would want to encourage the employee to participate in a visualisation mindfulness practice. This exercise requires the employees to imagine and visualise their favourite place, such as a beach or mountain view. While doing so, employees would focus on controlling their breath. Along with this, soothing and calming music can be played in the background to increase the impact of the exercise.
For some people, writing can be more effective than traditional meditation. Employees can keep a journal to track down their emotions and feelings. This gives an opportunity to track and monitor one’s own thoughts and feelings and then make better judgments and decisions based on what works best.
Mindfulness practices could either be in the form of guided meditation or self-practice. Guide meditation includes playing a video or audio of a person in the background which the employee can follow through live. On the other hand, self-practice is the approach of doing all actions and steps by oneself. Each approach will depend on person to person.
Safe and Supportive Environment
One of the best actions the management could take is to provide workshops for employees continuously. These corporate wellness workshops can be done as frequently as by quarter. This will create a supportive environment for employees where they can continuously improve themselves over time, rather than only participating on one or two occasions.
As a way to ensure a safe and supportive environment in the workplace, the company would have to make these workshops a priority. In order to truly benefit from mindfulness practices, the company would need to offer flexibility to employees in terms of time management. Employees will then be able to manage the workload and set aside time for mindfulness practices each day or every other day.
Regular self-care checkups are also encouraged to achieve a safe and supportive environment. Employees need to reflect on their mental and physical state and then make appropriate actions to fix any issues. It could also be conducted through group collaborations where coworkers can give each other feedback. Sometimes an employee may not be able to self-reflect but may need assistance or an outside view to understand any areas of improvement that might be missed out.
Common Challenges
A challenge many employees may face is not knowing how to perform mindfulness practice in the wellness workshop. In order to address this issue, technology can be used in terms of smartphone apps. These apps provide step-by-step procedures on how to successfully perform a mindfulness meditation with built-in timers and calm music features.
Another challenge a company may face is the negative response from employees towards these mindfulness wellness workshops. It is understandable that not every employee will want to willingly participate in this workshop. It is important to conduct surveys and questions to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the corporate wellness workshops. By doing so, the management will be able to add or remove any elements that would be working well or poorly.