Before we venture into how mindfulness helps, we should define what mindfulness really is. Despite being a breathing app, we at Thriive define mindfulness as simply staying present within a moment. Examples of mindfulness range from walking, dancing or doing puzzles. Breathing exercises are the most common because they are simple, accessible and can be easily taught.
How Mindfulness Helps Mental Health
A study conducted by the University of Technology Sydney took adults through a mindfulness (mainly breathing) program. They found that regular mindfulness practice decreased anxiety by 30%, stress by 21% and depression by 18% (here). While these are subjective pieces of data, the fact that participants felt improvements in these areas is significant. Staying present is also inherently calming and helps keep you grounded. If you are experiencing a tough day or you’re mentally drained, taking time out of your day to breathe or another activity, acts as a powerful tool. Taking 10 minutes a day to boost your mental health seems like a no-brainer.
How Mindfulness Helps at Work
The benefits do not just stop at mental health but also improves your performance at work. As already established, mindfulness creates calming and mental health benefits which naturally translates to improvements at work.
Furthermore, mindfulness improves ability to focus, creativity and productivity. As you might expect practicing staying present will of course increase your capacity to focus because staying in the present is a synonym for focusing. One study on productivity in the workplace found those that practice mindfulness every day saw a 12% increase in productivity. Imagine how much you could accomplish by doing 12% more every day. Finally, staying present has been associated with spikes in creativity. Ever struggled with a problem but then found the solution when on a walk not even thinking about it. Well this is a common phenomenon. Arizona State conducted a meta analysis that showed a correlation between all forms of mindfulness and improved creativity (here). So by practicing daily mindfulness you can improve productivity, ability to focus and your creativity- incredible. If this sounds appealing to you, we offer daily mindfulness for you or your employees.
How To Practice?
Lots of advice seems to overcomplicate how to practice mindfulness. It is simple, do an activity where your sole focus is on the task at hand. If it is breathing, just focus on your breathing. If it is dancing, follow the music, and if it is a puzzle, put your phone away and complete as fast as possible. Do not fall for the trap that breathing is the sole way to practice mindfulness, it is simply the easiest to teach and partake in. While we currently only offer mobility and breathing exercises for our app, we firmly believe that mindfulness should not be conflated with breathing. More info on alternative mindfulness practices here.
