Meditatie Amsterdam doesn’t team up with all organisations

For every organisation there is always enough work to do and for us, even as a company focused on calmness and relaxation, that is no different. Therefor it is important to figure out as soon as possible if we are a good match for you and the other way around. To save you time and energy, first this important information.

Although meditation undoubtedly will have a positive contribution here, we do not team up with, among others, companies that produce alcohol, soft drinks and tobacco products, fast food concerns and organisations in the meat and dairy industry.

Meditatie Amsterdam wants to contribute to a healthier and more sustainable world. Not only by our product, because meditation is a great tool to gain more clarity and consciousness on what your true goals and real priorities are, but also by consciously choosing the partners we work with. We love to connect with organisations, big and small, that want to contribute to a better world as well. Are open minded and are willing to invest in improving the mental wellbeing and functioning of all that work for the company and for that want to look beyond just profits. Are you one of those? Please continue reading!

In Meditatie Amsterdam you will find a partner that likes to find solutions that work within your company culture and to come up with the best approach to realise your specific goal. Custom made for your team and focused on the needs and capacities of the individual that is part of that. The methods we use are concrete, accessible and contemporary, are in line with the current needs (like creativity and productivity) and challenges (like stress and overstimulation) and are backed up by science and specifically focused on modern business life and employee.

How to keep employees healthy and productive in the challenging modern circumstances?

This is probably the biggest challenge in businesses nowadays. There is a reason why every organisation with a long term view, invests every year again a lot of money and energy in the productivity and health of it’s employees.

Modern business is challenging and demanding and the demand for mental performance and the expectations and pressure that employees have to live up to, are higher than ever before. The moments of relaxation and recharging are diminishing at the same time. Not only at work, also outside of that. Stress and burn-out related problems are very common among employees nowadays and it is mainly the mental issues that are responsible for sick leave and inability to work for the modern-day worker.

This is something you probably won’t just recognise from only your own observations within the company. I also clearly shows in the avaliable data.

Stress is professional disease number 1

This is what governmental rapports already show since 2012. Research by the UWV already showed back then that mental diseases, with as main cause stress, were the biggest reason for inability to work. The Inspection of Social Affairs and Employment in our country quickly discovered a tendency of which they expected that it wouldn’t soon stop. And it turned out they were right.

Mental issues surpass physical problems in business world

For many years already mental problems cause more sick leave and inability to work than physical problems. Something that had never occurred before 2014.

2016: More than 1 in 7 employees reported burn-out problems. Data from company doctors show that the share of mental problems grew to one-and-a-half time that of physical problems. Being overstimulated and burn-out were the biggest group among that (74%). For professions with mainly mental workload, the percentage of mental professional diseases often was around 95%.

2018: In ten years time, burn-out problems increased with almost 50% and these problems come with a longer sick leave than average. The increase in health costs for sick leave was 10% higher than the year before. Workload and work stress were seen as the most important reasons by employees and company owners.

For more data and background info, request the free workshop for your HRteam.

Why meditation training is an effective solution

It is clear that there is a problem, where it is and that this is growing rapidly. Organisations are still looking for an effective solution. Mainly because in our society we often don’t have a lot of knowledge how to structurally increase the mental strength and resistance.

It is actually pretty simple if we take a look at what leads to optimal mental performance.

When does the mind function best, when it is calm and relaxed, or busy and full? Everybody will probably agree that a calm mind leads to more productivity.

How to calm the mind? For this people mostly use music, sports, yoga, a warm bath and in the evening a glass of alcohol. That might work but there are two things which make these not optimal when it comes to work performance. First of all it is not really something you can do at work, second it’s effect is only short and therefore you need a new dose every time again. What if there is something that would train you to calm the mind so you can use it immediately when you need it without needing an external activity or substance. And even makes the mind structurally more calm and relaxed?

Then, how to train the mind? Most companies invest in their staff by courses and competence training. This increases knowledge and capacities in a specific area of expertise, but does it also increase the general functioning and performance of the brain and mind? Do they actually become bigger and stronger with that?

Meditation relaxes and strengthens the brain and mind. Therefore they perform better and can you notice improvement in general and multiple areas. Just like sport does for the body; it makes it fitter, more flexible and stronger. It is more than just a dose of relaxation, by regular use it is training that makes you mentally stronger.

That meditation works not only shows in modern scientific research. There is tens of centuries empirical evidence because meditation is something that is being used in almost every culture and every part of the world as a method for self-development.

When it comes to health, al lot of organisations aim for lowering sick leave instead of prevention. And if there is focus on prevention, it often is mainly for the physical health, like in-company massages or fitness memberships. Where mental problems are the main problem nowadays… The Harvard Business Review already wrote in 2010: ‘Wellbeing isn’t about physical fitness. Mainly depression and stress have shown to be the factors that lead to the biggest decrease of productivity. The ones that create the wellness programs in organisations need to think beyond nutrition and physical exercise.’ 

That more than ten years ahead, most companies still mainly invest in the physical side of health, is more logical than it seems. We still haven’t got a lot of knowledge and experience when it comes to mental training, to train specifically the brain and mind so they become stronger and more resistant.

Top performance and optimal business results only emerge when the employees are mentally healthy and resilient. Meditation leads to both. Wherever you are on the spectrum below, meditation makes you move to the right.

Meditation training is maybe the only scientific approved method for training the brain and mind. That it makes them more stable, quicker, clearer and more creative and productive, doesn’t only present itself in the experiences of the tens of decades it is being used. Also modern scientific research shows this. Also within modern business life people report more energy, less fatigue, less sick leave and more stress resistance and productivity. The positive effects of meditation found by science are among others:

• Less stress
• More stress resistance
• Greater productivity
• More concentration capacity
• More creativity
• More memory capacity
• Faster working brain
• Greater ability to stick to a task
• Less distraction
• Less errors
• Quicker decision making
• More information intake
• More energy
• Less fatigue
• More entrepreneurship
• Greater mental and physical health
• Smaller chance of sick leave
• Smaller chance of burn-out

For links to scientific research, see the page Research.

Something that can benefit your organisation?

It is not hard to imagine what an increased mental fitness, clarity and stability would do for the company results.

There is a reason why companies like Google, Apple and the German software giant SAP have meditation trainers in their offices and offer it for free to their employees. And that people like before Steven Jobs and Kobe Bryant and right now Richard Branson, Bill Gates and Novak Djokovic use meditation to increase their mental stability and capacity to perform under pressure. Even a lot of elite units of the military worldwide have meditation as a regular part of their training regime.

These are all people and organisations that have access to almost all the knowledge and opportunities that there are nowadays. Still they use the for many centuries proven method of meditation to make time in their busy schedules to perform optimally. Methods that are also cost friendly.

The ROI of meditation training at work

The before mentioned companies don’t just offer meditation training as a little extra for their employees. The company results for profit and sick leave also show a positive return on investment (ROI). The German SAP started a training program in 2016 that was freely available to all employees and was built around meditation. They published the results and these showed that for every euro invested, they gained two euros.

Harvard found in their research of organisations that offered health programs, a ROI of 1 to 6 and Atnea, which belongs to the one hundred biggest companies in the US, saw in the first year of their health program, where meditation formed an important pillar, even a ROI of 1 to 11. There is a reason that organisations like Google (already since 2007) and SAP, nowadays have meditation trainers in their offices all over the world.

The results go beyond just the numbers of the profit and sick leave. How healthy is your organisations if you have a lot of clients and revenue, but your employees, that are the real capital, are struggling with their health and energy?

When it comes to the positive effects of meditation training on the work ambiance and felt connection to the employer, the VOI (value of investment) often is even bigger. This form of training also leads to more motivated employees. Employers that show more goodwill and effort for their workforce, have employees that show more effort for the organisation and are less likely to leave. Also these results are being seen by the before mentioned organisations and because of the good results they implemented meditation training into their company culture. That a good company program is focused on ROI as well as VOI, is part of every training of Meditatie Amsterdam.

Are the people in my organisation ready for this?

How and if meditation training will land well with the employees, is a question that multiple organisations ask themselves. The experience within SAP, Google and the Formula 1 racing team of Mercedes, are reassuring.

SAP’s Global Mindfulness Practice director Peter Borstelman, acknowledges that the company board members had their doubts whether this program would fit with the employees. The positive reactions worldwide to the program, indicates this was not necessary. There even is a waiting list for the employees, that can enter the program completely voluntarily. Within Google the ‘Search Inside Yourself’ program that is built around meditation, even is the most popular one of all the programs that the company offers its employees for free.

Probably the most convincing evidence for the accessibility of meditation training, comes from the Formula 1 team of world champion Mercedes. When they started with their mindfulness meditation program, that nowadays runs for the complete thousand person team, team leader Toto Wolff deliberately first chose a group of ‘hardcore engineers’ for a try-out. These people, of which he thought would run away immediately, even participated in the chanting ‘om’ sitting with their eyes closed and palms of their hands upwards. All twenty followed the complete course came with very positive feedback and reported an increase in their mental wellbeing and performance.

Despite it doesn’t seem to lead to big resistance, you don’t have to worry for a very exotic approach from us. Meditatie Amsterdam uses methods that are very concrete and down-to-earth and fully aligned with modern business life. They are very accessible, also for all ‘no-nonsense’ types. With our varied training offer, every organisation can pick an easy test training as a try-out. A workshop is an ideal part of a company event or team building day, where employer as well as employee can directly experience the effects of meditation practice.

If you want to learn more about our offer, click here:

Experience it yourself!

Do you want to experience what organisations like Apple, Google and SAP already know for many years? Get in touch today!

Meditation can also help your organisation towards optimal company results because of more productivity and mental resilience and health. Our training offer is easy to implement, effective and cost friendly. They have a preventive as well as recovering effect and helps you to keep your employees optimally productive and healthy. They will feel better physically and mentally and that inevitably shows itself in the profit and sick leave results.

Maybe you are already convinced, but you are nor sure yet about your HR team? I love to stop by to share my enthusiasm through a free and obligation free workshop, in which I personally can answer all your questions. One workshop per organisation and for a maximum of eight participants.