Reducing Stress and Increasing Well-Being with Mindfulness

How stressed are we?

According to a poll by Ipsos-Reid, 72% of Canadians experience uncomfortable stress levels. 26% of that stress is related to work life. The Canadian Mental Health Commission of Canada estimates that 30% of disability claims are related to Mental Health issues. The American Academy of Family Physicians claims that two-thirds of doctor’s office visits are for stress-related symptoms.  In the workplace, workplace wellness is a growing concern for many organizations.

Companies are beginning to recognize that they need to do something about workplace stress that goes beyond a casual recommendation to “see your doctor”.  Increasing workplace wellness and mental wellness initiatives help reduce stress.  Mindfulness has been shown to positively affect our general well-being and happiness.

The Science

Tania Singer at the University of Leipzig in Germany has extensively studied the positive effects of various meditative practices.  Insight meditation which cultivates the skills needed in perspective taking, i.e., seeing things as passing, and allowing closer examination of a particular experience, has been shown to reduce harmful stress hormones such as cortisol.

Jon Kabat-Zinn has been researching since the late 70’s, the benefits of stress reduction gained by various Mindfulness practices.  His program called MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) is the granddaddy of intervention programs aimed at helping people better deal with anxiety and depression.  Many studies have shown that MBSR is as effective in dealing with anxiety and depression as many of the top anti-depression and anti-anxiety drugs.

Reduce Stress and Increase Well-being @Work

Forward-thinking wellness programs now recognize that they must go past the “break-fix” model for mental wellness.  Just like fitness encourages general physical wellness, Mindfulness practices increase general mental wellness.  Teaching your employees Mindfulness practices and encouraging and allowing them to practice their meditative practices at work has huge financial benefits.

Becoming more mindful allows employees to increase their ability to remain focused, become more resilient, adapt to change, listen and communicate more effectively and reduce their overall stress levels.  This, in turn, results in fewer sick days and reduced healthcare costs.