Why Mindfulness is Important for Relaunchers

A job search under the best conditions is stressful. The COVID-19 pandemic has exponentially increased the amount of stress relaunchers are dealing with, and that stress can have a significant effect on your health, your resilience, and ultimately your relaunch. Adopting a mindfulness practice can fundamentally change how you deal with the difficulties associated with a job search and can change your overall reaction to the daily challenges you face – not just now, but after you’ve returned to work as well.

Fluff? Not so much!

Stress is a normal part of life, and a little stress now and then is manageable. However, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention roughly two-thirds of all hospital visits are for stress-related problems, and 75% of health-care expenses are stress related. Long-term activation of the body’s stress-response system, and prolonged exposure to cortisol and other stress hormones can result in:

• digestive problems
• anxiety
• headaches
• depression
• sleep problems
• weight gain
• memory and concentration issues
• high blood pressure
• heart disease and stroke

Is it any wonder that it can affect your job search too?

Why employers support mindfulness

According to research conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management, 75% of employers indicated that their companies offered some type of wellness program, resource, or service to employees. For every dollar that is spent on the program the company saved $3.27 because of reduced healthcare costs. A new survey by Virgin HealthMiles Inc. and Workforce Management Magazine found that an overwhelming 77% of employees think that employee wellness programs positively impact the company culture. Research suggests that employers save on average $5.82 in lower absenteeism costs for every dollar spent on employee wellness programs. The Virgin HealthMiles workforce survey found that about 87% of employees said they consider health and wellness when choosing an employer. These interesting statistics support wellbeing initiatives and encourage employers to explore and implement them within workplace environments.

Mindfulness for relaunchers and the connection to an improved job search

Understanding the importance that employers place on wellbeing, the health benefits you can gain from stress reduction, and the clarity that mindfulness practices can help you achieve, it’s easier to see why this can be an enormous boost to your job search and interview success.

Adding mindfulness in your personal set of tools will help you stay focused without getting stressed out and overwhelmed. By doing so, you’ll

• Set intentions - Your job search can take on a life of its own, leaving you feeling as though you aren’t the master of your intentions. Mindfulness will help you determine your direction, your goals, and your intentions for your job search.
• Increase your productivity by improving your ability to avoid distraction and focus on one thing at a time.
• Gain perspective - When you’re caught up in the process, you don’t have to time to sit back and think about how your job search fits into your life (rather than your life fitting into your job search). Mindfulness will allow you to think about the place your career has in your life from a more expansive perspective. You are much more than your resume.
• Increase job-search creativity - Is your job search on autopilot? Are you looking for the same jobs in the same places? A mindfulness practice will cultivate your creativity and open your mind to other possibilities and directions for your career.
• Improve your emotional intelligence (EQ) - EQ is your "ability to recognize and understand emotions in yourself and others and to use this awareness to manage your behavior and relationships.” TalentSmart, a company used by over 75% of Fortune 500 companies to measure and teach EQ, tested it alongside 33 other workplace skills and found that “EQ is the strongest predictor of performance, explaining a full 58% of success in all types of jobs.”
• Focus on gratitude - It’s easy to lose sight of gratitude when your job search doesn't result in an offer. Mindfulness and gratitude will help you handle rejection in a non-judgmental manner, stilling those negative voices that threaten to sabotage your progress. You will focus less on what is missing and more on opportunities still to come.

Mindfulness resources

Are you ready to regulate your emotions, decrease your stress, anxiety, and depression, improve your health, and take back your job search and even improve your performance once you’re hired? Access to mindfulness resources are available for free through many universities, apps, blogs, and websites.