The team at Rowlands Recruitment recently held a session on mindfulness meditation at their office, led by founder of Capturing Presence Dan Ireland. The session introduced the team to the ancient practice and showed them how it can be practically used to manage the stresses and challenges of everyday life.
Following Senior Recruitment Consultant Sophie Hickey’s successful mindfulness sessions at Capturing Presence, she requested that Dan Ireland come to the Rowlands office to explore the practice with the rest of the team. The session empowered the team to manage stress better by introducing formal and informal meditation techniques which can be easily incorporated into everyday life, both at work and at home.
With roots in Buddhist thought, mindfulness is the practice of focussing thoughts on internal and external experiences in the present moment. While ancient in origins, a substantial number of businesses are adopting the practice and introducing it into their leadership programmes. Advocates of the practice stress the potential neurological benefits of mindfulness, including an increase in emotional intelligence, particularly empathy and self-regulation, which enables people to both manage conflict and communicate more effectively.
Jeralie Pallot, Managing Director of Rowlands, commented:
“I’m delighted that the team have had the opportunity to learn about mindfulness, and I hope they will benefit from the session in both their working and private lives. We have already seen some of the benefits within the office – greater clarity, focus and decision-making. With big developments on the horizon for the Rowlands team, there’s never been a better time for us to really make use of the calm and focus that mindfulness provides!”
Sophie Hickey, Senior Recruitment Consultant commented:
“Mindfulness is a really valuable practice to help manage the fast pace of modern life, encouraging us to consciously reflect before reacting to situations. This quote from a Guardian article really summed it up for me: ‘This type of reflection makes sure that our responses to events are thoughtful, and that we’re using the most intelligent part of our brains to make decisions, not the impulsive/reactive part’.Being mindful can be as simple as taking a moment to feel your fingers typing on a keyboard, feeling your feet on the floor or acknowledging a feeling you might get when you hear a noise. Using these techniques in the workplace isn’t as difficult as we first thought – as Dan pointed out, if you can breathe, you can meditate!I’m really pleased that the whole team have had an opportunity to try out the practice, which I’ve found really helpful in my own life.”
After such a positive experience with Dan Ireland, the team have organised for further half hour sessions to be conducted in the office every week. The practice has certainly impacted the team in a really positive way.