Unlocking Potential And Improving Work, Life, And Wellbeing – Executive Interview With Jenefer Hill
- Apr 30, 2023
- 6 min read
Jenefer Hill is passionate about sharing the calming, clarifying, and transformative powers of meditation and mindfulness. Through her training services she supports those who seek to live and work with greater presence, ease, and focus. Jen began meditating in 2008, became a teacher, guide, and coach in 2016, and a meditation teacher trainer in 2021. She holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Guiding and Teaching Meditation and Mindfulness from the Australian Centre for Meditation and Mindfulness (ACMM), is the Founder of Right Brain Liaisons, and trains future meditation teachers at ACMM. Jen is a leader in empowering people and organisations to unlock potential and improve life, work, wellbeing, and health
Jenefer Hill, Meditation Teacher
Jen, you deliver meditation and mindfulness-based training in the corporate sector and via 1:1 coaching. Why do you believe meditation and mindfulness are important for corporations?
In today’s fast-paced and constantly changing world, many organisations and their employees face high levels of stress and pressure, which over time can impede performance and engagement and lead to ill health and burnout. Meditation and mindfulness practices are proven tools to help individuals manage stress and pressure, increase focus and concentration, enhance productivity and performance, and improve mental, physical, and emotional wellbeing and resilience. It is for these reasons that meditation and mindfulness are incredibly valuable for corporations.
Stress can be beneficial (eustress) or detrimental (distress) depending on our reaction to it. Beneficial stress helps us meet standards and deadlines, while detrimental stress inhibits our attention, motivation, happiness, and ability to get things done. When we are distressed or overwhelmed, we don’t think as clearly, we can tend to make poor decisions and can be emotionally reactive. Detrimental stress is exhausting, creates tension, anxiety, and anger, and can lead to autopilot and difficulties in relationships.
Given the potential negative impacts of stress on performance, and the individualistic way in which people respond to it, corporations are increasingly considering avenues for training employees in stress management and self-regulation skills. While organisations who invest in the mental health and wellbeing of their staff see positive returns on investment (ROI) of up to $4.0 for every dollar spent through reduced absenteeism and presenteeism.
Mindfulness-meditation training is at the forefront of the trend to reduce employee stress, improve resilience and focus under pressure, and equip employees to more effectively respond to stress and change without distress, overload, or burnout. By incorporating mindfulness practices into daily routines, employees can foster improved performance and overall job (and life) satisfaction. Additionally, mindfulness can promote a more positive and mindful work culture, which can have a significant impact on employee engagement, communication, creativity and collaboration, retention, and recruitment.
That's interesting, how exactly can mindfulness practices promote a more positive work culture?
When we practice mindfulness (or other forms of meditation) we learn to be more present in the moment and focus on what is happening right now. We also learn to accept things as they are and cultivate compassion for ourselves and others. This can help us better manage difficult situations and communicate more effectively with our colleagues and clients. When individuals become more calm, present, and empathetic, they create a more positive work environment where people are valued and respected.
Leaders and managers within organisations can also lead by example by practicing mindfulness themselves and promoting a culture of wellbeing and balance. By prioritising mindfulness practices within corporate culture, companies can make a significant difference in the lives of their employees and ultimately, their bottom line.
Is there any evidence to support this view?
A growing body of scientific research on meditation and mindfulness suggests that regular practice can have numerous benefits for mental, emotional, and physical health. Studies show that eight weeks of practice creates structural and functional changes in the brain that correlate with:
Reduced stress and anxiety through enhancing regulation of the body's stress response, reducing amygdalae activity and cortisol levels and calming the sympathetic nervous system.
Improved focus and attention, cognitive function, learning, working memory, emotional regulation, self-awareness, perspective taking, executive thinking, and decision-making abilities, due to changes in the prefrontal cortex.
Increased feelings of wellbeing through increased subjective happiness, optimism, positive emotion, and satisfaction with life due to changes in the limbic system and prefrontal cortex.
Reduced physical pain via changes in numerous brain regions involved in mediating pain perception and response.
Improved immune function, including through increased production of natural killer cells that help fight off infections and cancers.
In the workplace, mindful employees feel more relaxed, are more resilient and make better decisions during high-stress situations. They can think more clearly and creatively to solve problems and find it easier to manage competing demands and multiple responsibilities. Mindful employees make better leaders, through greater self-awareness, empathy, compassion, emotional intelligence, and communication skills. Mindful employees can better focus on and efficiently complete tasks, leading to improved team morale.
And these benefits aren’t just limited to the working day. Regular mindfulness practitioners report improved ability to manage emotions and behaviours outside of work, and consistently report improvements in relationships, sleep, sense of work/life balance and general quality of life as a result of practice. This means that workers return to the office with a clearer mind, feeling more refreshed than when they haven’t practiced mindful techniques.
Having a science background, I love to bring the latest scientific understanding into my training to help participants comprehend the body’s natural stress response and how to self-manage it for optimal effectiveness, health, and happiness.
It sounds like mindfulness practices can have a significant impact on the overall success of a corporation. So, how can a company go about incorporating these practices into their corporate culture?
The best way for companies to incorporate meditation and mindfulness practices is to provide employees with opportunities to learn and practice techniques through training programs, workshops, and classes. It can also be helpful to create designated quiet spaces where employees can practice mindfulness or other forms of meditation throughout the workday. Mindful practices can also be incorporated into workplace practices to enhance business efficiency and effectiveness, for example, employing a 3 min mindful check-in and recentring exercise before commencing meetings.
You also provide 1:1 coaching services. What results do you see with your coaching clients?
In the same way that meditation and mindfulness techniques empower employees at work, they are equally useful tools for individuals, especially busy professionals trying to balance work and life pressures, responsibilities and demands. Growing self-awareness and self-regulation skills are the key results I see with my meditation coaching clients. Regular training and practice enable clients to develop emotional intelligence and cultivate more positive relationships, while also using meditation and mindfulness as powerful tools for transformation. The primary difference with 1:1 coaching is the opportunity to tailor training and techniques practiced to specifically suit client needs and goals.
As Plato said, “Reality is created by the mind; we can change our reality by changing our mind.”
As more and more people recognise the benefits regular meditation and mindfulness practice can bring, meditation coaching is emerging as a powerful tool for individuals to improve mental health, reduce stress and anxiety, improve sleep and overall wellbeing, and change unhelpful patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving. Other outcomes of 1:1 coaching include increasing intuitive capacity, enhancing creativity, cultivating insight, and manifesting goals.
With the guidance of an experienced meditation coach, individuals can develop a personalised meditation practice that can help them achieve their goals, improve their quality of life, and enjoy a greater sense of balance and harmony.
Why do you teach meditation? What is your goal?
I love the concept of entelechy, which is the realisation of potential. My business motto is “unlock your potential” because, just like an acorn has the entelechy of an oak tree, we all have a vital principle or entelechy within us that can be inhibited by our own thoughts, beliefs, feelings, and actions as much as any external limitation. For those that want to realise their potential, meditation can be a transformational and empowering tool to assist. I have found this to be true in my own experience and meditation practice.
Is there a single take away point from your work?
Yes, ‘you can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf’ (a quote often attributed to Jon Kabat-Zinn), meaning we can’t control much of what happens to us in life, but we can control how we respond to what happens. We always have the choice of what we think, feel or do next. With self-awareness and the ability to self-regulate our thoughts, emotions, and behaviours, we can learn to surf the waves of challenge, change and pressure to our advantage. Realising that we have choices and making the right decisions for our wellbeing all starts with self-awareness, in other words presence, which is exactly what meditation and mindfulness help us to nurture and grow. You can read more about presence in my next article, along with other themes touched on here in my future Brainz articles.
Thank you for your time. How can our readers connect with you and your services?
Thank you. People can contact me through my Right Brain Liaisons website, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, where they can also read my blog and more about my coaching and corporate training, listen to my podcast and discover valuable tools and understanding. People can also listen to my meditations for free on SoundCloud. Profile picture by Pippa Barnes Photography.
