Everyone receives notifications from their devices daily—it’s become a helpful tool in keeping you updated on the latest news, rising trends, urgent messages, and more. However, as modern technology becomes more sophisticated, and the more that businesses rely on it to manage their operations, the tinny sound of a notification starts to evolve from a simple ping on your phone into an unpleasant psychological trigger.

Workplace Stress

For some, the workplace can be a minefield of emotional triggers. The combination of deadlines, expectations, and problems may be too much to handle. This sometimes leads to low productivity, repeated mistakes, and damaged professional relationships.

Oftentimes, one’s lack of self-awareness causes them to be controlled by their emotions, leading to effects not only in their work performance but also with their colleagues. This is where mindfulness comes in.

Benefits of Encouraging Mindfulness

Mindfulness matters, especially in an environment where stress levels are high. Negative emotions affect each person differently, but it ultimately distracts them from what’s important and causes them to divert their energy away from productive activities.

Mindfulness counteracts these negative emotions and instead causes one to be in control of their feelings and learn how they can handle them in healthier, more efficient ways.

Cultivating Mindfulness in the Workplace
Cultivating mindfulness in your team members is one of the most effective leadership strategies to boost the morale of the whole team. Encouraging them to be mindful of their emotions and to channel them in a healthy way not only enhances their emotional intelligence but also transforms the office into a safe and productive space.

Mindfulness can be difficult to teach your team members, as it’s not something you can make a PowerPoint about and send out in an email. If you want to effectively encourage mindfulness in the office, have a look at some of these strategies:

• Start with Yourself
  You can’t teach something that you don’t have. In order to cultivate mindfulness in others, you must first assess yourself, what you lack and what you need. Leading by example’s a great way to attract your team members into doing the same, without it seeming forced.
  
• Take Time to Breathe
  Having every minute of each workday dedicated to just performing work tasks can be suffocating. Sometimes, having your team members do nothing is the best way to boost employee morale.
  Everybody needs a second to breathe and recollect. Instead of demanding all of their time to work, give them a moment to themselves. A mental break promotes a positive mindset.
  
• View Things from a Different Perspective
  Don’t get absorbed by your own thoughts and feelings—performing tasks when riddled with self-doubt or anxiety only makes things worse. Before doing anything else, let go of your negative emotions and try to see things from a different point of view.
  This will put things in perspective, and you may realize that you’re not doing as poorly as you think, or it turns out there are areas you need to improve on.
• Start a Conversation
  It all begins with a conversation—talk to your team members about mindfulness. This may be a challenge to some, as being in touch with one’s emotions isn’t something that everyone does.
  Discussing each other’s struggles helps determine which mindfulness tools will be the most effective for each individual, and what kind of coaching can boost the morale of the whole team.