One study looked at the benefits of meditation and mindfulness by comparing a group experienced in these practices with a group unexperienced in these practices. The outcomes of the study indicate that attentional performance and cognitive flexibility align positively with meditation and mindfulness practice, given that the practitioners performed much better than non-meditators on all measures of attention. When employees improve their capacity for attention, they are less prone to distractions that decrease their efficiency.

Meditation and mindfulness also decreases costs to the organization, as healthcare benefits to employees are a tremendous financial burden. According to ​recent data​, companies spend roughly $10,000 per employee on healthcare and will continue to spend more in the years ahead. High-priced pharmaceuticals are large drivers of these costs, and many of these pharmaceuticals treat disorders that meditation and mindfulness more effectively resolve.

According to a ​recent review​ at Harvard University, the benefits of meditation and mindfulness are both physical and mental, improving irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, psoriasis, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Anxiety, depression, and chronic pain are the key areas that meditation and mindfulness effectively treat. Randomized control trials researching the efficacy of the practices has increased exponentially in the recent years, from merely one from between 1995 and 1997, to 11 between 2004 and 2006, to an astonishing 216 between 2013 and 2015.

While the benefits of meditation and mindfulness are well-documented and proven, having recently entered the medical mainstream, especially through the ​Massachusetts Medical School Center of Mindfulness​, full integration of the practices into the average mid to large size workplace has yet to occur. The workplace is a location where the majority of people spend a significant portion of their lives. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, full time employees spend an average of roughly 8.5 hours per day at work (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2017). And that’s nearly 2,000 hours per year!