by Claire Kidd | Jun 9, 2022 | All Blog Posts
This week is national carer’s week, and the theme is about making caring visible!
Caring has definitely become more visible, thanks to the pandemic. Never before have we recognised and appreciated the hard work of those who care for others, than when faced with a global crisis. From clapping on doorsteps to rainbows in our windows, to the photos of NHS staff with their faces marked by the masks, the ‘unsung heroes’ have touched all of our hearts.
But the question on our minds at MindfulnessUK, is who is looking after the carers now? Now that the limelight has died down, now that we are moving back into our old routines, who is picking up the pieces, who is supporting their mental well-being and helping them to recover from the heightened stress that they lived through for over 2 years?
The data is coming through thick and fast about the impact of the pandemic on our key workers:
- 8% of social workers agreed or strongly agreed that working during the Covid-19 crisis had negatively impacted upon their own mental health. (BASW 2021)
- 5% of nurses, believed they were burnt out, or ‘emotionally exhausted’. (Nursing in practice 2020)
We know as humans, that we don’t just bounce back, we need time, tools and support to help our bodies step out of chronic stress, to repair and to come back into balance. Two years of stress does not come undone overnight.
The reality is that our carers need to be ready for the road ahead. The long-term impact of Covid-19 is becoming more apparent with 1 in 6 children aged 6-16 identified as having a probable mental health problem (vs 1 in 9 in 2017) (NHS Digital 2021). So, who’s looking after our children? Parents, teachers, nurses, professionals and the people that have been caring for others continuously and intensely for 24 months.
In recognition of the fact that our health and social care workers are those most in need of support, the Compassionate Mindful Resilience course was created. Karen Atkinson (Senior Partner and Co-founder of MindfulnessUK) knows what it’s like to be at the coalface of caring for others, through her lived experience as an NHS nurse. She designed the course knowing exactly what carers need – self-awareness, permission to stop, tools for self-care and bucket loads of self-compassion!
The course is now reaching carers far and wide, as we work with organisations such as Unison, Somerset County Council and Kidney Care UK, helping them to support the well-being of their employees and patients, and we also continue to teach the course to as many Mindfulness teachers as possible who are then teaching the course to the NHS, to parent-carer groups and those in education.
If you would like to show how much you value and support the carers in your organisation, then please get in touch, we would be more than happy to show how we can help.
If you are a mindfulness teacher, looking to develop your skills and knowledge and share your learning far and wide then why not join one of our teacher training courses – the next one runs in June and July, or you can join us in November.
by Claire Kidd | May 19, 2022 | All Blog Posts
I was lucky enough to join the MindfulnessUK day retreat on Sunday, an opportunity for six hours of self-care. Many people I spoke to have asked, how does that work, does it feel relaxing in your own home, do you feel connected to the other participants?
And the amazing thing is it does work, and even though we were all together virtually, there was a real sense of being connected and supported, and as one participant said the moments of sitting as a group become imprinted in their memory and bring up feelings of warmth and togetherness!
And I find that this happens in the online courses that I run too. A sense of community and camaraderie quickly builds as the participants (and teacher) get to know each other, and I always feel this is one of the top benefits of joining a course, as you really share in the common humanity of you and others.
Being with others as part of a course or retreat, can be a real help to step out of loneliness, and sometimes an online option helps make it feel even more accessible.
To find out more about how you can benefit from one of our immersive retreats click here or to find about any of our courses visit our website.
by Claire Kidd | Jul 29, 2021 | All Blog Posts, Mindfulness at work
During the pandemic when we saw a lot of changes in working practices, a large majority of businesses have been exceptionally conscious of their employee’s wellbeing and mental health. The shift in acknowledging the need to not only facilitate and offer support but to live and breathe a compassionate mindful approach to team management has been accelerated, but are we in danger of that shift being temporary?
Mindfulness research and the longer-term effects.
Research proves to us that mindfulness in the workplace is effective and can have longer-term benefits to a business’s ROI. Overall employee job satisfaction in turn also shows the business and brand in a positive light, making it an attractive option for talent.
But how do we differentiate between what is a ‘tick the box’ exercise versus a true desire to support employees through their career journey. There is a place for the use of mindfulness apps, but these should be supportive tools alongside a consistent approach of providing mindfulness workshops and programmes that help to embed the practices and develop deeper knowledge and understanding at individual and team levels.
Mindfulness and compassion workshops and programmes.
Each mindfulness programme and workshop that MindfulnessUK At Work offer has been developed and thought through from the end user’s perspective. Both Stephanie Unthank and Vera Dubrovina-Thompson from MindfulnessUK At Work have worked in corporate sectors (primarily in financial services and legal sector) and therefore know from direct experience the type of pressure and stress that employees can be put under.
With this deep-rooted knowledge and guidance, they have created a number of workshops and programmes that can be either tailored to a specific business need or delivered based on what they know will work. For example:
- The 4-week or 6-week programme focuses on mindfulness and compassion but in a short and targeted way, aiming to reduce stress and anxiety and start the employee on their journey to a balanced approach to life.
- The MBSR eight-week course has been designed and tested to deliver long-term lasting changes. This evidence-based course is proven to change brain activity, improve employee happiness and resilience and lead to a sustainable cultural change. The MindfulnessUk at Work team is able to deliver bespoke programmes based on MBSR curriculum to suit specific company goals.
These structured programmes, as well as bespoke introductory days, workshops, and executive away days, can be delivered to a business of any size or within any sector.
The value of a mindfulness strategy, in any business.
It is very unlikely that the workplace will go back to how it used to function and there are a variety of tools available to support employees but getting the right fit for your business is taking the front seat to ensure employee retention and job satisfaction.
The need to embed a different way of working within a business culture might be looked at within an organisation but the ‘know-how’ and the understanding of the difference that mindfulness can make to day-to-day operations is still not widely understood.
The approach has to be based on the employee’s needs, which will differ by sector, and not just be a ‘one size fits all’ or ‘tick box’ exercise. It should also be noted that it is often down to the individual employee i.e.: how they are feeling and therefore how they react to the support being given. Mindfulness is a very inclusive tool to use to engage with employees as a team or as individuals, as highlighted in our blog ‘Team mindfulness and the importance of taking it seriously’.
As more companies move towards flexible or blended (office-based/virtual) working approaches, when it comes to team and project-based tasks, the mindful approach will act as an enabler for faster integration and a way of reducing reliance on an auto-pilot approach to work.
Employers needs to ask themselves – do they want the same business that they had before COVID, or do they want to continue to build on all that has been learnt?
To discuss the best fit for your business and to discuss your options further with the MindfulnessUK At Work team then please get in touch with Vera Dubrovina-Thompson or Stephanie Unthank.
by Claire Kidd | May 13, 2021 | All Blog Posts, Mindfulness at work
What are the benefits of mindfulness?
When we use and integrate mindfulness-based techniques into our day to day lives, we can achieve a higher state of awareness and focus that brings us into the present moment. This present moment awareness supports and nurtures a sense of calm in our thoughts, emotions and body which allows us to see, feel and understand what’s happening in our moment-to-moment experience, accepting things just as they are without judgement but with kindness and compassion.
But can we apply these tools and experiences into today’s place of work and why would learning to be mindful as a leader of teams make a difference? To answer this question, we need to understand what makes a leader more effective and what the current workplace landscape looks like.
What are the challenges that today’s leaders face?
Leadership has changed. Today it is all about building engagement and connections, as most teams have adapted and are now working remotely. Working life has simply become more complex and to a certain degree faster. In the past 14 months the majority of us have stopped working face to face turning the professional life for some into a myriad of continuous online meetings and making us at times to become more distant. We tend to go into autopilot, happily settled into established routines, yet feeling exhausted and uninspired so everything just becomes another task that needs completing. We disengage from the work and from our lives, falling into familiarity and drifting between past and future worries. This inevitably increases stress and anxiety and makes us less efficient at what we do.
This more complex workplace landscape means that leaders are facing different challenges and therefore need to adapt their style accordingly. Turning up and tuning into the present moment can help to break these routines, reduce stress, stop procrastination, start to rebuild resilience, and increase motivation.
How can mindfulness support today’s leaders?
Leading from a place of compassion and understanding improves the ability to connect to yourself and others in a way that will keep people inspired and help with leading change effectively.
According to the Mindfulness Edge by Matt Tenney and Tim Guard, leaders who practice mindful leadership are seen to have higher levels of emotional intelligence, have better decision-making skills and business acumen. They are also often more innovative and have improved strategic thinking compared to their peers.
Mindful leaders are able to build stronger teams and long-lasting relationships as they engage their audiences by being authentic in leadership style that encourages and creates greatness in others.
In short, Mindfulness is an essential skill for effective leadership as it significantly improves both the ’soft’ and ’hard’ skills of emotional intelligence and business acumen. The discussion on emotional intelligence and the skills required to develop a deep understanding of one’s level of emotional connection with others are now seen to be, by definition, leadership skills.
Different from management skills, as the Mindfulness Edge explains, the leadership skills are about inspiring high levels of performance across teams and businesses so it’s fair to say that the competencies required in inspiring, engaging and driving high performance in others is truly connected to those skills identified as being emotionally intelligent. In practical terms mindfulness is ‘awareness training,’ so it is no wonder that mindful leadership is now being seen as a great way to develop emotional intelligence. Mindfulness practices help to sharpen a few fundamental tools that will certainly make leadership effective.
How does mindful leadership translate into the day-to-day?
Stephanie Unthank, Director at MindfulnessUK At Work says “through the practice of awareness, mindful leaders are able to create space in their thinking by tuning into and noticing what is happening around them. This building of awareness sharpens the mind to focus on the present and sustain the attention when we are solving problems. You can easily spot the leaders who practice mindfulness as they stay in the focused zone listening deeply, without interruption.”
Mindful leaders show up in other ways too and this comes in the form of compassion, deep empathy and understanding, so that your actions as a leader no longer cause or continue suffering. This develops both through showing compassion for self and others. For instance, they may say no to something or decline an invitation to an extra meeting that could compromise personal selfcare. As well as the personal effect on the leader, these actions may also have a downstream impact on their team in several ways, for example: better role modelling through leading a more balanced lifestyle by avoiding late working or working through unsociable hours
Being an effective mindful leader will heighten conversational skills, allowing engagement in a conversation to come through eye contact and body language and giving moment to moment interaction a priority with minimal or no distraction. This brings much needed clarity both from what needs to be done but also clarity of understanding without judgement, conditioning, or biases as you approach each problem with a beginner’s mind. It is no longer about “what if” but more about “what is in front of me”. Being in a present moment with clarity wastes less of resources and creates space for opportunities and creativity because everything becomes possible, we are no longer held ransom to old schemes and models.
Mindfulness also heightens our awareness and compassion for others . Being the employee on the receiving end of communication, objective setting, task and project introduction, even bad news can feel quite personal, sometimes even punishing. Mindfulness nurtures a sense of awareness that supports a more empathetic approach to leadership. It moves leaders away from transactional relationships and towards a more compassionate and importantly human relationship where communication, language and engagement with kindness and a sense of understanding become the norm.
Let’s not confuse compassionate and mindful leadership with being a soft touch, often frowned upon in the corporate world. Think of it more as seeing the world through the eyes of an employee and being mindful that your actions as a leader do not cause pain and suffering on individuals. Leaders can still lead, manage underperformance, and drive delivery of outputs in a compassionate and mindful way, it is possible. Like most things it takes practice, skill, and continued development.
The core competency of emotional intelligence is self-awareness. There are many studies that support this thinking. We highlighted the benefits of mindfulness in our blog – Why Mindfulness Isn’t Just a Buzzword but it is also worth noting that mindful leadership is not a new concept but with increasing pressures and with most of the workforce now adopting a new a more remote way of working the need for good leadership has become increasingly vital.
To find out more about how we can help you integrate mindful leadership then why not get in touch for a chat.
References:
6 Steps Towards Mindful Leadership | Psychology Today
Mindful Leadership: A Simple Way to Lead Better | CCL
