Wellbeing in the Workplace

“Workplace stress affects hundreds of thousands of UK employees, every year 776,000 workers reported stress, depression, or anxiety in 2023/24, leading to 16.4 million lost working days (HSE 2024). Mindful practices give your team the tools to stay present, improve focus, and manage stress before it takes hold. By learning simple, practical techniques, employees can boost wellbeing, build resilience, and create a calmer, more productive work environment.

Neuroplasticity refers to the brain’s ability to reorganise and form new neural pathways throughout life. This flexibility allows us to learn new skills, change habits, and reshape unhelpful patterns of thinking and behaviour. By understanding how the brain adapts, we can intentionally engage practices that support growth, wellbeing, and lasting positive change.

We explore how to gently gain more control over our busy “monkey minds,” which often pull us into distraction, procrastination, anxiety, and unhelpful self-criticism. By learning to be present, mindfulness becomes a practical tool that supports focus and attention while learning or working. It also offers an effective way to shift uncomfortable or unhelpful states of mind, helping us feel more grounded and emotionally balanced.

These activities are designed to be used in everyday life, helping staff stay focused, present, and engaged both at work and beyond. Through a range of sensory and somatic mindfulness exercises, participants will explore the “wheel of mindfulness,” including sight, sound, touch, taste, smell, movement, thoughts, and emotions. The session will provide a practical toolkit of exercises that staff can take away and use daily. In school settings, once the benefits are experienced, this toolkit can also be shared with children to support their focus, attention, and overall wellbeing in the classroom, if working in a school.

Everyone enjoyed your staff meeting , it was a perfect way to end the term. It was also a very good opportunity for my new, extended staff to get to know each other through the topic of Mindfulness, which is relevant to everyone irrespective of their experience or post. I was very impressed with the way you involved everyone in the learning, which was appropriate to both TAs and teachers. You managed the very large group well, mainly because of your non-threatening presentation style and the fact the information was presented in an easily accessible way, interspersed with practical activities.

Many of my staff use the techniques you showed with their classes, and themselves  and have said the children find them enjoyable and feel they make a difference to their stress levels. It has encouraged some staff to find out more about Mindfulness in fact I have two teachers who are out on another Mindfulness course they found next week.

I have recommended you to many of the people I network with, including the Primary Strategy Group (PSG) who are looking at Mindfulness being part of what they provide through the New Opportunity Area plans.

A huge thank you to Brenda and Joe from Forming Connections for such a fantastic and insightful training session this morning on Mindfulness. I've taken so much away from today, from practical techniques to help manage stress, to a deeper understanding of how the mind works and how these insights can help me better support and understand my team.

I left the session feeling empowered, grounded and inspired to put these strategies into practice both personally and professionally.

Thanks again for such a valuable and engaging session.

Highly recommended to all.