What makes meditation a high-quality work break?

Meditation is a great tool to help us re-centre and re-focus. Even brief periods of meditation can improve our mood, reduce fatigue and anxiety, and increase mindfulness and our ability to stay focused.

Meditation can help with how we feel about work, not just how we feel at work. One cross-sectional study found that 'meditation practice may positively influence job performance, including job satisfaction, subjective job performance, and work engagement'; another found that meditation helped with stress and vitality at work.

The office may not feel like the ideal setting for meditation, but one study's findings suggest that there are still great benefits. Participants who used guided meditations on an app showed 'a significant improvement' in wellbeing, distress, job strain, and perceptions of workplace social support – benefits that were still seen at the 16-week follow-up assessment, suggesting lasting benefits.