What is the return on investment for mindfulness?

Mindfulness, meditation and yoga form a large part of my self-care and wellbeing practice and since becoming a yoga teacher 10 years ago I have seen some really good results, not just with myself but with those that I teach and coach.

Mindfulness and meditation has become a mainstream, not only for many individuals but organisations are adopting meditation and mindful practices to support the mental health of their teams. Companies like Google have really embraced the mindfulness movement and I think other organisations will follow quite quickly as it is becoming more mainstream and there are clear benefits linked to return on investment. 

This has made me really think about what is the return on investment for mindfulness and meditation? I can only really talk about it from my own personal experience and the actions that I have taken to improve my mindfulness and the benefits that I have seen first-hand. To me, people generally don’t start on their mindfulness journey to become better leaders or employees, they do it for themselves and to improve their own personal awareness and create their own version of inner peace and presence. 

I have found that mindful practices (such as meditation) has improved my mental fitness, in the sense that I am proactively training my mind to be still, present and calm. This helps to proactively manage anxiety and uncertainty, which surrounds our modern lives. Below are some of the practice actions I have taken to be more mindful: 

1.         Firstly, I became more aware of my own thoughts and started to be more mindful about what goes on in my own mind by observing and choosing my thoughts carefully. I want to fill my head with more positivity and reduce the negative noise or mental chatter. I took a step forward in taking ownership of what goes into my head and this is a pretty powerful first step.   So how do you do this? Sit quietly each day and start to become aware of thoughts in your mind and observe rather than be absorbed by your thoughts, imagine each thought is a cloud that moves through your mind. Also, start to become aware of triggers which change your mood and ask yourself why are you responding in such a way? Look at your mind with curiosity and self-kindness and increase your awareness of what is going into your mind and how you are responding.  
2.           Secondly, I started to treat myself better; I put myself first and really started to focus my own mind, reactions and opinions. My number one rule is to ‘Be kind to myself’ and I constantly use that to keep myself in line. In addition I have learnt how to say ‘no’, ''set boundaries' and ‘not feel guilty’ (which is easy to write but much harder to action).   
3.         Lastly, a regular meditation and yoga practice has been the backbone to my mindfulness journey. I started with guided meditations in 2011 and I recommend that to anyone who is starting on their mindfulness journey. Also I tell people to learn how to breathe properly, most of us just breathe into our upper chests and don’t breathe right down into our diaphragm. Learning how to breathe will have a huge impact on your state of mind and will help keep you grounded. Yoga has been an amazing way to improve the balance between my body and mind and really supports me to feel centred. Also, it has been so beneficial to stretching and aligning my physical body.        

So, what is my own personal return on investment? 

•  Increased time because I stopped filling my life with noise (mental chatter takes up a lot of time and energy and is very stressful)
•  Increased productivity as I do more things fully present
•  Increased focus, clarity and decision making
•  Feeling centred and balanced through most situations. I view stress differently and I feel more like an observer rather than a participant of stress   
•  Increased presence; when I am home I am present, when I am working I am present.  I Focus on what is in front of me.
•  I have learnt to let go of things quickly, if I do get angry or stressed I get over it faster and move on   
•  Increased self-esteem and self-empowerment. I feel good about myself and to me this is priceless and where I have had the most benefit.   Feeling good about yourself will open doors and opportunities beyond your wildest imagination. We are all awesome in our own way and we just need to open ourselves up beyond the noise and see it for ourselves.

These are only some of the benefits I have experienced and I have now been practicing yoga, mindfulness and meditation for 10 years and I think the key to my success is that while I am consistent as practicing mindfulness, the practice itself changes according to my life situation e.g., having children where just taking 3 conscious breaths a day was my practice. Finally, remember that you are your biggest investment, so look after mind, body and energy.