Mindfulness

January 28, 2015: Mindfulness

In its annual trends report JWT covered a lot of divergent ground predicting what will be hot in 2015 for businesses large and small. One trend I found particularly interesting in Future 100: Trends and Change to Watch in 2015 was a short report on “mindfulness.”

JWT says, “Meditation and mindfulness are getting mass appreciation for benefits not just in well-being but also in work success—and being embraced by young urban audiences from Silicon Valley to Manhattan.”

What is mindfulness? In their new book, Mindfulness at Work For Dummies (affiliate link), authors Shamash Alidina and Juliet Adams write that being mindful “can help you become more aware of your thoughts, feelings and sensations in a way that suspends judgment and self-criticism.” They maintain that mindfulness enables you to clearly see what is happening moment-by-moment, allowing you to respond.

As business owners, you can take advantage of this trend by adopting some mindful behaviors at your company, which should help ease stress and increase productivity for you and your employees.

But there are also a lot of entrepreneurs opening businesses that cater to the mindful, including unplug meditation, a company we first told you about last May.

JWT believes mindfulness has legs because of “Silicon Valley buy-in,” which is spreading the word and its benefits to both businesses and individuals.