Is your mind full or are you mindful?

Stress and negative emotions are inevitable products of our busy lives: we get stuck in traffic, spend long hours at work, attend important meetings, and—perhaps worst of all—spend copious amounts of time being lost in negative thought without realizing it. And in the midst of this chaos, we sometimes live our lives in a way that almost leaves our mental health, the quality of our conscious experience, in the background. That is, we have a negative experience, it springs a thought or emotion to mind, but instead of assimilating it with our present experience, we leave it unexamined and inadvertently allow one negative thought or emotion to set off the others like a string of firecrackers. But a failure to free ourselves from getting entangled in this web of negativity comes at a cost. As such, when the time comes to resurface from the slough of this negative space, it requires ample reserves of emotional energy, consequently draining our mood, resilience, and overall well-being. Worst yet, if we continue to fall through these cracks long enough without making time for selfcare, our minds slowly begin to ebb away from the shores of sanity and tranquility towards clinical depression and anxiety. 

Admittedly, we need not live our lives in this way; certain “mind exercises” exist, that when practised can help us snap back into gear with the quiescence of the present moment. This practise is most commonly known as mindfulness meditation, which involves using bodily sensations such as the breath as a focus point of non-judgemental, moment-to-moment observation. In other words, when practising mindfulness meditation, you become aware and curious about everything that happens to arise in this moment without clinging onto it or trying to make it go away. After all, if we are always lost in thought, endlessly ruminate about past misfortunes, or anxiously anticipate the future, we are forsaking this present moment. And by practicing mindfulness meditation, we become more attuned to our current experience. Ample research has now found that prolonged mindfulness practice can improve our mood, boost our resilience, sharpen our attention, and deepen our equanimity, even in the face of stress that would normally render our minds into an ostensibly endless turmoil of negativity. 

The good news is that to reap the benefits of meditation, one need not go on a long, isolated retreat with a meditation teacher—in fact, one does not even have to leave their workplace. Recently, a group of researchers from Dr. John Paul Minda’s laboratory at Western University published a study that was investigating the effects of an online, workplace-based mindfulness program on emotional well-being and various work-related competencies of workers employed at a high-stress workplace. Consisting of 8 weeks and on average 10 minute long daily meditation sessions, the program primarily integrated breath-based mindfulness techniques. The study found that workers presented with significant improvements in their mood and resilience, as well as lower stress levels and a decrease in negative emotions when compared to colleagues that did not meditate/take part in this trial. After the meditative intervention participants had to rate themselves and their colleagues on job performance standards such as Productivity: “accomplishing an above average quality and quantity of work”, and 26 other workplace competencies. Importantly, these ratings were done privately, and the results were never shared with workers, to minimize biased responses. Remarkably, this short meditation practice amplified all competencies, with the largest effects being in Creativity, Interpersonal Relationships, Making Tough Calls, and Assuming Responsibility. 

This study is important because it found that short bursts of mindful moments throughout the week can precipitate palpable improvements in one’s quality of experience, presence, and work-related performances. And it also underscores the importance of implementing mindfulness-based programs at a workplace that is prone to burnout and feelings of being overworked. Previous studies examining mindfulness-based work programs mostly focused on healthcare and academic populations, without testing for any positive effects in office/service-oriented jobs. In addition, most of these studies did not use adequate control groups, and instead resorted to a pre-test/post-test design, meaning that there was no actual untreated (no meditation) control group to compare the results to. The current study ensured that there was an untreated control group and that every participant could benefit from the program in the end (all wait-list participants are allowed to participate in the program after the active treatment group). By using a rigorous control group, the study was able to make firmer conclusions about their data and fill a conspicuous gap in the literature (less than 30% of such studies used a proper control group).  Also, by focusing on a more organizational setting population to test their mindfulness program, the study was able to elucidate on positive mindfulness effects in an office-related workplace. 

Importantly, the benefits of such online/virtual practices are obviously not exclusive to working populations—most can benefit from meditation without having to train with an in-person instructor. Similarly, universities and colleges can integrate comparable programs for students to train throughout their term to help build resilience and avoid burnout during exam periods. Additionally, a large variety of applications exist like Calm, Headspace, Waking Up, and Healthy Minds Program can be used to learn how to meditate and practice it at will. Taken together, meditation can be a useful tool to bolster our productivity and other work-related performances. Moreover, it can also bring us back to the present moment and allow us to let go of infectious thoughts and feelings; it grants us an opportunity to realize that there is no need to mindlessly burn through our day like wildfire and heedlessly act on every thought or feeling. We can instead choose to rest in the space of this present moment, one breath at a time. 

Original article: Nadler, R., Carswell, J. J., & Minda, J. P. (2020). Online mindfulness training increases well-being, trait emotional intelligence, and workplace competency ratings: a randomized waitlist-controlled trial. Frontiers in psychology, 255.