We have all been there; we’re running late for work, we spill coffee on our newly dry cleaned white shirt, the boss is unhappy yet again, and to top it all off we have a meeting to get to in less than five minutes. Although some people claim to work better under pressure, we know when we step into that meeting with all this stress weighing on our shoulders our mental sharpness, focus, and overall performance drops well below average. Just about any business, at some point, can yield an inevitable amount of stress and mental pressure that many find difficult to cope with. But learning how to curb that pressure before it builds can be much easier to accomplish than one may assume. Businesses can help diffuse the stress by incorporating health and wellness initiatives into their organizational culture and by tapping into the benefits of mindful meetings.

What are mindful meetings?

Mindful meetings are meetings centered on serenity, creativity, focus, and productivity. These meetings effectively mesh business with mental wellbeing. The main focus and goal of most company meetings is to increase productivity, organization, cohesion and creativity among coworkers, which is precisely what mindful meetings are designed to address. Adding a few warm-ups, be they physical or mental or a combination of both can help set the stage for a relaxed, focused and much more productive meeting. In fact, research has shown that introducing just a quick fifteen-minute yoga or meditation activity into your regular meeting procedure helps attendees to find inner focus and clarity before getting straight into the necessary, but sometimes stressful, meeting objectives. Approaching any meeting with an uncluttered, focused mind greatly enhances productivity.

Benefits of mindful meetings

Mindful meetings that incorporate some form of health and wellness activity offer many benefits to individuals and businesses alike. According to the American Psychological Association (APA), mindfulness brought about by activities such as yoga, meditation, or tai chi improves cognition, strengthens communication skills, sharpens focus, reduces stress levels and helps negate fear. Thus enabling people to improve their overall work performance thanks to an increased ability to make clearer decisions especially when under extreme pressure. Furthermore, research has indicated that people who meditate have more brain activity in both the hippocampus and the right anterior insula, the part of the brain which controls memory, learning ability, emotional control and awareness. In other words the part of the brain that helps us become more alert and able to intelligently contribute to a meeting!

The focus on improving the mental health and wellbeing of employees, delivers big perks not only for individuals but for businesses as well. By spending the extra time to integrate mindfulness into the everyday work procedure, businesses are getting better results from their employees and it shows outsiders that the company cares about their employees by promoting a health and care driven philosophy. This type of wellness philosophy is loved by millennials, a group which naturally gravitates towards working with companies with health and environmentally conscious undertones.

Millennials are a large and imperative part of corporate America, it’s becoming increasingly important to market to their preferences. That being said, hotels and event venues do well attracting the millennial meeting planner or groups comprised primarily of millennials by implementing health and wellness activities or organizing function space with a slant towards mental well-being. Think morning yoga or meditation poolside. Offer healthy menu options more in line with this younger, environmentally conscious generation. Think organic, free-range and gluten free not just nuts and berries. Set meeting space with relaxed colors, soothing music and plenty of alkaline or ionized water, in other words step-it-up, not just bottled water, think millennial and elevate the experience. Just a few small changes can have a huge impact on this demographic group as well as others. You are showing that your property understands the importance of being mindful of body, mind, spirit and environment.

It’s not overrated

Spirituality is often over looked and considered unimportant to the business world but meditation, yoga, and other similar disciplines yield undeniable benefits for employees and businesses. The fast paced, high stress, stereotypical business life we have become accustom to is no longer the ‘norm’. People are opting for a work-life balance and are willing to trade higher pay for more time off or shorter workdays. More and more companies are offering work from home positions thus helping to reduce their carbon footprint. As millennials have demonstrated, corporate America is moving towards new and innovative ways to better productivity, creativity, and wellness. The blend of left and right brain activities delivers big perks which is precisely why tapping into the benefits of mindful meetings is quickly becoming a priority for businesses and meeting planners alike.

Looking for a great space to hold a mindful meeting? Turn to Visit Newport Beach, the local DMO for Newport Beach, CA. As a destination partner, Visit Newport Beach has the knowledge and expertise that can streamline the meeting planning process. With several meeting planner incentives and resources that can extend the meeting budget, Visit Newport Beach makes it easy to plan your next meeting in this stylishly chic coastal haven.