Looking to Make Breathwork Part of Your Corporate Wellness?
4 Things to Consider When Choosing Who is the Best Fit for Your Workspace
Burnout, stress, and overwhelm are big concerns when it comes to addressing mental wellness. As a society we are working longer and good employers are doing their part to keep workers healthy by adopting breathwork as part of their corporate wellness benefits.
Mental, emotional, physical, and cognitive health are all key factors that enhance the overall wellness of a workplace.
Breathwork is a great tool for accessing immediate noticeable changes in your day-to-day workplace interactions and lifestyle.
Here’s why…
Breathwork focuses on consciously controlling and manipulating your natural breathing patterns. There are a wide variety of techniques all designed to help you become more self-aware while promoting better physical, mental, and emotional health.
Common practices include…
- Holotropic — rapid deep breathing through the mouth
- Pranayama — yogic breathing encompasses many practices
- Wim Hof — circular and dynamic breaths
- Diaphragmatic — mindful and strengthening
- Meditative — conscious and mindful
Each technique offers therapeutic benefits, the key is to match your needs to the right practice and technique. Finding the right method that supports the goals of the company and the individual takes a professional who has the experience and knowledge to support both.
Choosing the Right Practitioner
Breathwork is a hot topic right now; there are hundreds of certification courses. Formal training from a recognized and reputable organization or school will help narrow your options and minimize those who need more proper tools to support you. Working with an experienced practitioner will lead you and your employees to better results.
Here are 4 things to consider when choosing who is the best fit for your workplace.
1.Experience and Ethics — Be sure to ask about their background and experience. Look for someone with a proven track record who presents the work easily and effectively. Someone who can talk about the process and results rather than benefits.
- Ask them about their training, and code of conduct.
- Ask them about their client contracts.
By asking these types of questions you can better determine if they have a clear standard in place that protects both the company, the individual, and themselves.
2. Safety — A responsible breathwork practitioner will lay out all the risks and prioritize safety during a session. They should provide guidelines that offer alternatives as they understand that not all breathwork is suited for all individuals.
Safety factors regarding individuals’ health is essential.
Let the facilitator know how many people will be in the session and ask if they plan on bringing in support. Depending on the breath practice a second or third facilitator may be needed, and this should be established from the start to ensure they are equipt to handle the size and need of the group.
3. Communication — A skilled breath practitioner will demonstrate active listening. They take a client-centered approach by tailoring their sessions to the goals of the group and individual. This means they ask quality questions to support the challenges you and your employees face. It’s common for facilitators to focus on the benefits, so be direct with what outcome you are looking for so they can narrow down the best practices. Otherwise they may show up with a pre-outlined format that doesn’t fit your companies needs.
4. Integration Support — A good practitioner should offer integration support after a session. This includes guidelines that they can use in their daily life moving forward. A great practitioner will also have both; group and individual conversations after the session for up to two weeks (depending on the type of breath) to be sure all questions and concerns are handled.
It’s not uncommon for residual effects to come up after a breath session and your practitioner must know how to handle these sometimes challenging emotions and sensations.
It’s important to remember with any breath practice that it takes repetition and should be used as a practice. Doing anything once or twice won’t produce the long-term outcome that supports a workplace productively, but incorporating it into the lifestyle is where the benefit plays out.
As you begin to navigate into the world of breathwork, I encourage you to schedule more than one session. This will help you and your staff continue to grow more mindful. After all, your employees are more than just a team of rockstars, they are husbands, wives, caregivers, and volunteers, and their mental health not only affects your workplace, it affects everything they do.
Finding the right practitioner should produce the results that guide you and your staff into a healthier happier work environment.
Simple tools that everyone can incorporate not only help with stress management, it also boost our mental, physical, and emotional well-being. Take your workplace to the next level by incorporating breathwork today.
If you have more questions or are interested in getting started with breathwork as part of your corporate wellness benefits, don’t hesitate to reach out and I can provide you tips for gaining interest in the workplace.
