By Melissa Browne
Mindfulness is an accepted term nowadays when it comes to our health and wellbeing. We understand in an age of 24/7 digital distraction that more than ever, it’s important to be present.
There are mindfulness apps, mindfulness exercises and meditations. It’s a movement that is no longer relegated to hippies but is found everywhere from Surry Hills to St Marys.
Corporations are even embracing mindfulness and encouraging their employees to consider meditation, yoga and other health and wellbeing activities. Recognising that when their employees are mindful, they’re generally less stressed and happier and more productive at work.
There are mindfulness apps, mindfulness exercises and meditations. It’s a movement that is no longer relegated to hippies but is found everywhere from Surry Hills to St Marys.
Corporations are even embracing mindfulness and encouraging their employees to consider meditation, yoga and other health and wellbeing activities. Recognising that when their employees are mindful, they’re generally less stressed and happier and more productive at work.
I believe if we truly want the benefits of mindfulness, we need to bring that attention to our finances. When we feel financially empowered, resilient and well, we feel less stressed and preoccupied and more aware we have choices.
We could choose to only apply mindfulness to our mind and bodies but given our finances permeate all areas of our lives, it would be like trying to meditate while there was a rave happening in the next room. Sure, one in one hundred of us might be able to switch off, but the rest of us would be more than a little distracted.
More pressing than mere distraction is the research suggesting that when we’re in financial stress, we’re less smart and less creative. Financial stress doesn’t necessarily mean we’re in dire straits financially. Instead, it can mean we’re overwhelmed by our financial choices.
In 2011 Princeton University conducted a series of experiments and discovered that pressing financial concerns had an immediate impact on the ability of low-income individuals to perform on common cognitive and logic tests. On average, a person pre-occupied with money problems exhibited a drop in cognitive function, similar to a 13-point dip in IQ, or the loss of an entire night’s sleep.
Meanwhile, a 2017 Bank of America Merrill Lynch study suggested more than two out of three Millennials said financial stress overtook their ability to focus and be productive at work. This younger generation is spending an average of four hours a week at work focusing on their finances – twice that of Generation Xers and four times the amount of time as Baby Boomers.
I believe money mindfulness is not just an individual issue, but one that corporations should concern themselves with too.
Sure, we might argue that dealing with our finances should be something we individually tackle. We should also be motivated, inspired and put our corporations’ best interests first. That doesn’t mean it’s happening.
What can corporations do to help their people become money mindful?
Reduce your employees’ cognitive load by helping them to become financially well or at least feel that they have the language and tools to make better financial decisions. To become financially mindful. Certainly, there is a ‘default thinking’ around money where, particularly for Millennials, if they don’t believe they can afford a house, they opt out financially.
When given the tools to understand how they can be empowered financially and to disrupt unconscious thinking, your people can better serve both themselves and their communities.
The problem is, money is something we naturally shy away from. We pop it in the too-hard basket because it’s awkward, uncomfortable and sometimes even shameful. Companies pop it under wellness and think it’s a ‘nice thing to do’ but don’t realise it just might help their bottom line.
It’s about realising that financial stress is a bigger conversation than asking if your employees are eating too much avo on toast or buying too many coffees. Instead, it’s time corporations realised that providing both financial education and financial wellness discussions within their workplaces will release their people to make better decisions, remove their stress and ultimately become happier and more productive employees.
Namaste.
Melissa Browne is CEO of accounting firm A&TA and financial planning firm The Money Barre.
Published in https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/money/planning-and-budgeting/why-mindfulness-matters-for-money-management-20180731-p4zuli.html
See more at: http://morisberacha.com/
We could choose to only apply mindfulness to our mind and bodies but given our finances permeate all areas of our lives, it would be like trying to meditate while there was a rave happening in the next room. Sure, one in one hundred of us might be able to switch off, but the rest of us would be more than a little distracted.
More pressing than mere distraction is the research suggesting that when we’re in financial stress, we’re less smart and less creative. Financial stress doesn’t necessarily mean we’re in dire straits financially. Instead, it can mean we’re overwhelmed by our financial choices.
In 2011 Princeton University conducted a series of experiments and discovered that pressing financial concerns had an immediate impact on the ability of low-income individuals to perform on common cognitive and logic tests. On average, a person pre-occupied with money problems exhibited a drop in cognitive function, similar to a 13-point dip in IQ, or the loss of an entire night’s sleep.
Meanwhile, a 2017 Bank of America Merrill Lynch study suggested more than two out of three Millennials said financial stress overtook their ability to focus and be productive at work. This younger generation is spending an average of four hours a week at work focusing on their finances – twice that of Generation Xers and four times the amount of time as Baby Boomers.
I believe money mindfulness is not just an individual issue, but one that corporations should concern themselves with too.
Sure, we might argue that dealing with our finances should be something we individually tackle. We should also be motivated, inspired and put our corporations’ best interests first. That doesn’t mean it’s happening.
What can corporations do to help their people become money mindful?
Reduce your employees’ cognitive load by helping them to become financially well or at least feel that they have the language and tools to make better financial decisions. To become financially mindful. Certainly, there is a ‘default thinking’ around money where, particularly for Millennials, if they don’t believe they can afford a house, they opt out financially.
When given the tools to understand how they can be empowered financially and to disrupt unconscious thinking, your people can better serve both themselves and their communities.
The problem is, money is something we naturally shy away from. We pop it in the too-hard basket because it’s awkward, uncomfortable and sometimes even shameful. Companies pop it under wellness and think it’s a ‘nice thing to do’ but don’t realise it just might help their bottom line.
It’s about realising that financial stress is a bigger conversation than asking if your employees are eating too much avo on toast or buying too many coffees. Instead, it’s time corporations realised that providing both financial education and financial wellness discussions within their workplaces will release their people to make better decisions, remove their stress and ultimately become happier and more productive employees.
Namaste.
Melissa Browne is CEO of accounting firm A&TA and financial planning firm The Money Barre.
Published in https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/money/planning-and-budgeting/why-mindfulness-matters-for-money-management-20180731-p4zuli.html
See more at: http://morisberacha.com/
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