Mindfulness and Work-related Well-being: From Theory to Practice

Mindfulness describes a state of consciousness in which one pays attention to present-moment experiences, on purpose and non-judgmentally. Interest in the potential benefits of mindfulness in the context of work has flourished over the last years, in practice as well as in academia: Seeking to improve workplace functioning, organizations such as Google and General Mills have started offering mindfulness programs. In academia, researchers have built on knowledge about the effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions in clinical contexts and have started investigating effects of mindfulness for human functioning in the context of work.
In this talk, I will review current theorizing and empirical evidence on the potential benefits of mindfulness for employee health and well-being, with particular attention to the role of mindfulness in the recovery process. Doing so, I will present findings from a series of experience-sampling studies and intervention studies ranging from brief low-dose self-training interventions to traditional 8-week mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) interventions. Finally, I will address current knowledge gaps, shortcomings of the literature, and will delineate future areas of research.