Mindfulness in the Workplace: Top 10 Best Practices to Start Now

Practicing mindfulness in the workplace can look like taking a quick walk before or after a challenging phone call, or like snoozing digital notifications for two hours every morning, but that’s not all it is. It’s a powerful tool for staying present, focused, and positive.

As the keepers of workplace policy and productivity, HR pros and other people leaders often advise others on the best ways to manage their time, emotions, and relationships at work. But the most effective way people leaders can influence others’ behavior for the better is to model the behavior they want to see.

If you want your employees to show up for work as their best selves, incorporating mindfulness practices into your own daily work regimen is a powerful step in influencing your company culture as a whole.

We asked HR professionals and people leaders in the US and UK what mindfulness in the workplace means to them, and how they put it into practice in their own personal and professional lives. We’ve included their thoughts and tips in this list of top 10 best mindfulness practices.

Treat this list like a step-by-step guide to transforming or reinvigorating your own daily work habits. Not only will you begin to find it easier to prioritize your projects, stay on task, and de-stress, but you’ll start building more resilience around workplace conflict or other high-stress, interpersonal situations.

Editor’s Note: Quotes have been lightly edited for concision and clarity.

Mindfulness at Work Is a Coping Skill, Not a Cure for Chronic Stress or Toxic Work Environments

Mindfulness is the deliberate work of directing and redirecting your attention to the present, which is easier said than done. The benefits include a better ability to do the following:

• Prioritize, focus, and create
• Regulate emotions
• Manage stress

Mastering these skills in a work setting can spell the difference between achieving sustainable success and job satisfaction in the workplace, or completely burning out.

The American Institute of Stress reports that 83% of US workers experience negative work-related stress on a daily basis. Additionally, BambooHR found in a recent report that at least 50% of workers currently live paycheck to paycheck, and 36% tie their mental health to their compensation—all while pay gaps widen and the cost of living grows.

People are stressed. But what can mindfulness practices at work really do about it?

Recognize the Limits of Mindfulness Practice for Yourself and Employees

Mindfulness is an excellent tool for most workplace obstacles, stressors, or situations. Its practices have been scientifically linked to lowered cortisol, “the stress hormone,” in college students, and‌ helped improve the psychological wellbeing of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In an office or other on-the-job setting, mindfulness practices help mitigate burnout and protect productivity in the following ways:

• Aid in task prioritization and time management
• Deepen the quality of focus time
• Prepare for and recover from interpersonal conflict and other high-stress situations
• Cultivate a healthy work-life balance mindset
• Manage and reduce nature-of-the-job stress

But some stressors require more than box-breathing or loving-kindness meditations to overcome. Financial stress, for example, is better eased by advancing pay equity initiatives and cost-of-living increases than by mindfulness training. And some chronic stress may be coming from workplace situations that have turned toxic or unsustainable.

In fact, if you’re reading this article because you often find yourself out of breath, distracted, irritable, or nervously activated at work, follow the tips explained in this article , plus do the following:

• Reach out to HR or your leader for help (or to a trusted colleague or mentor if you are the HR department at your company).
• Access your company’s EAP or seek ‌professional guidance on what (or who) may be the cause.

It may be that you’re dealing with a workplace environment that’s become hostile or discriminatory, or that you’re experiencing an advanced stage of burnout. Professional intervention and support may be necessary to help you restore balance and psychological safety to your work life.

It’s also important to recognize that not all brains are wired the same way. If you or someone you lead struggles with focus or time management, understanding neurodiversity may give you a clearer framework for how to apply or individualize mindfulness practices in a way that will work best for them.

Top 10 Best Ways to Practice Mindfulness at Work

1) Master the Art of Box Breathing

Also called square breathing, tactical breathing, or 4x4 breathing, box breathing is derived from a form of breathwork that originated in India (pranayama) and was popularized in the West by a Navy SEAL.

It’s a staple mindfulness technique that can help you develop resilience against stress and anxiety if you create a habit around practicing it as part of your morning or evening routine, and during key liminal moments.

Assume the box-breathing position:

1. Seated (in a chair or cross-legged on the ground)
2. Feet flat on the ground if you’re in a chair
3. Palms on your thighs, open to the ceiling or lightly holding your thighs
4. Eyes closed

Follow these box-breathing steps:

1. Inhale slowly through your nose, filling your lungs for the span of 4 seconds.
2. Hold your breath for 4 seconds.
3. Exhale slowly through your nose, emptying your lungs for the span of 4 seconds.
4. Hold for 4 seconds.
5. Repeat.

Imagine each step drawing one line of a square and remember to count your seconds slowly. The tendency to count fast reflects a mind that’s racing toward the future, not sitting with the present, which is the point of mindfulness.

2) Know When to Practice Loving-Kindness Meditation

Research has shown that both breath-based and loving-kindness meditations are effective in reducing the stress of emotionally charged social interactions. However, loving-kindness meditations also produce better results than the breath-based approach in situations that require individuals to take accountability.

This is because breath-based meditations, like box-breathing, largely focus on yourself—your breath, your thoughts, and your feelings.

Loving-kindness or compassion meditations, on the other hand, consciously shift one’s focus onto others in a bid to feel what they are feeling as opposed to simply understanding what they are feeling on a cognitive level. It’s a powerful tool for boosting empathy and forging connections.

How to Practice Loving-Kindness Meditation

1. Find a quiet space. Get comfy in a space where you can sit or stretch out.
2. Relax. Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths.
3. Generate kindness. Focus on creating an atmosphere of kindness and goodwill.
4. Love yourself first. Begin with self-directed wishes of kindness, such as, “May I be happy, healthy, and at peace.”
5. Project those feelings outward. Send those good vibes to three specific people: someone you adore, an acquaintance, and finally someone you might be at odds with.

This type of meditation is especially helpful as a de-stressor for those in roles with heavy doses of people time, like customer service, consulting, healthcare, teaching, and leadership.

Practice it as a regular part of your morning routine or when you are struggling to care, make amends, or take accountability for a mistake. By nurturing goodwill and understanding, you’ll be rewarded with more meaningful and effective communication with others and stronger relationships.

3) Do a Self-Check-in During Liminal Moments

What Are Liminal Moments?

This is a concept I recently learned in a mindfulness class offered through Hone. A liminal moment is that crucial transitional period between two activities or tasks, such as:

• After the first sip of your morning comfort drink
• Waiting for something to load
• After reading an email or article
• After responding to a Slack or Teams message
• After sending an email
• After a meeting
• After returning from a break
• After finishing a task or subtask

The Check-In

During one of these liminal moments, pause and complete at least three cycles of box-breathing. Then ask yourself these questions:

• How am I feeling right now? Do I need to move around? Am I hungry or thirsty?
• What do I want to get done in the next hour? The rest of the day?
• What’s the purpose of the next priority on my list or appointment on my calendar? How do I want to show up for it?

Another moment to do a check-in is when you catch yourself in a distraction cycle, a rabbit hole, or a heightened emotional state. Think of box-breathing like doing a hard reset for your brain, bringing yourself back into the present with a fresh slate.

4) Pause or Silence Notifications

A flow state a day keeps the deadlines at bay! Multitasking is a myth, and many people do their best work in a flow state—the state of being completely absorbed in a single activity—so set and protect your focus time. Deadlines will lose their ominousness as you prepare yourself well in advance of them.

To set your focus time:

• Open your calendar and pick at least one block of time every day—no shorter than a half-hour and no longer than two hours to start.
• For each block of time, set a recurring appointment with yourself
• If your calendar is visible to your coworkers, label your time-blocks something like “Focus Time—Do Not Disturb” or “Heads Down—No Meetings,” or even “Getting Things Done—Pretend I’m Not Here!”

Turn off your digital notifications during this time on your computer and your phone, and I’m not just talking about the sound. Get rid of the pop-ups, too. They’re virtual shoulder taps trying to pull you away from the task at hand.

Make it clear to the people you lead that they’re free to follow your example and protect their time as well. Be adaptable as emergencies require, of course, but also take yours and others’ focus time very seriously.

5) Declutter Your Workspace

At least once a week, take even just fifteen minutes to tidy up your workspace. Take the dirty coffee mugs to the sink, toss out old sticky notes, put the books that have accumulated on your desk back on the shelf, empty your trashcan. (Yes, I’m looking around at my own workspace right now and taking a moment to do the very things I’ve advised.)

Put this clean-up time on your calendar too if it helps, or set a timer, but do NOT spend longer on this than the allotted time.

Whatever you can accomplish in 15 minutes is more than you would have otherwise, and soon you’ll have a habit of maintaining your workspace as opposed to unburying it once every few months.

6) Create a Sub-List of Quick-Win Tasks

However you track your tasks (I use a version of the Eisenhower Matrix on a whiteboard), creating a sub-list of quick-win tasks is another time management strategy that can help with your prioritization efforts. These are tasks you anticipate being able to finish in under 30 minutes.

For example, a couple items on my quick-win list right now include:

• Reminders to respond to an important, but not urgent email
• Finish a quick edit for a colleague
• Study time

Other items could be to set an important appointment, follow-up on something you're waiting on from a colleague, or even just to refill your water bottle.

Refer to this sub-list during liminal moments and self-check-ins as you decide your next priority. Sometimes you may only have a half hour until your next meeting, so having a list of important tasks you can accomplish quickly is a great way to maximize your time and stay on task.

7) Enroll in a Mindfulness Meditation Program

Sometimes, a little formal training and upskilling is all you need to have the lightbulb moment that changes your stress-reduction habits for the better. One of our respondents, an HR director of a senior living facility based in the UK, shared her struggle with burnout, and how it led her to enroll in her first mindfulness meditation program.

Finding a mindfulness program that works for you (i.e., in-person, virtual, live, or self-guided) may start with a simple Google search, but you may also be able to find mindfulness resources through your company’s EAP. If not, we hope this article can help you begin building the case for expanding your benefits offering to include these types of resources.

8) Take Your Break Time as Seriously as Your Focus Time

Making sure you never work through your lunch break is step one, but treating break-time seriously also includes taking and encouraging others to take personal and mental health days. But don’t underestimate the importance or effectiveness of your mini-breaks either.

As you begin to create a habit around self-check-ins and box-breathing, you’ll find yourself becoming more in tune with your body, its need to stretch and move, its need for nourishment, and sometimes, its critical need for emotional regulation.

The following story doesn’t come from one of our HR interviewees, but from a BambooHR employee who just happened to share his experience with breathwork and meditation in our company’s “Wellness” channel as I was working on this piece. With his permission, I’m sharing it here too as it perfectly highlights not only the effectiveness of breathwork and meditation, but also the importance of sharing mindfulness education with your employees:

9) Reward and Celebrate Vulnerability in Yourself and Others

Another part of effective mindfulness practice is to embrace the vulnerability of needing help. As an example of self-care, your self-check-ins are you reaching out to yourself for assistance only you can give, but even asking yourself for help can be a challenge.

In your next loving-kindness meditation, reflect on vulnerability as if it were a gift to yourself, and then send the same gift outward to others. Recognize when others reach out to you in vulnerability and reward it with gratitude.

Asking for help is hard, but it will get easier as your mindfulness practice helps you feel more psychologically safe, or begins clarifying the areas of your life in need of specific intervention and assistance.

10) Meet Yourself and Others Where They’re At

One of our interviewees mentioned not having the patience for meditation, but found value in breathwork and journaling. Another avoids creating a strict schedule around when and how they meditate so that it doesn’t start to feel like a chore. Instead, they’ve created a habit around meditating at least five times a week and a rule about not going longer than two days without doing it.

The practice of mindfulness can include any activity that brings you into the present, freeing you from the regrets of the past and worries for the future even for a few minutes every day.

And that doesn’t have to look the same for everyone. Approach each of these steps with patience and adaptability—the benefits will come with consistency and as you trust in yourself and the process of mindfulness work.