As a former secondary school teacher for over 10 years, Liz knows how to teach & reach even the toughest crowds & has taught 100s of students how to sit still, focus & destress. She is evangelical about the benefits of meditation, having experienced many herself. She loves teaching this ancient practice in a modern, accessible & inclusive way. Her favourite meditations include Metta, Mantra & Zen. In 2022, Liz received a Distinction in her meditation teaching Diploma with The British School of Meditation. She now teaches classes to adults & teenagers on the South Coast as well as working with large, multinational organisations to deliver a key part of their employee wellbeing offer.
We are delighted that Liz is going to be speaking in London this September as part of our Wellbeing at Work Summit UK. We caught up with her to find out how she’s feeling in the run up to the summit.
Hi Liz, we are thrilled you will be speaking at our Wellbeing at Work Summit UK in September. Our first and most important question is, how are you doing today?
Great! I am working on content for our energiser at the summit which is really exciting. I cannot wait to bring meditation to the summit. We have both just finished a lovely but very busy summer holidays with two kids, a business, jobs and house stuff!
As a leader, what are the main challenges you are facing when it comes to employee wellbeing?
Being a Secondary School teacher as well as running my own business I know that burnout is very very real. I have experienced it myself and have seen many other teachers reduced to rubble! Having taught meditation courses to Global Corporations it is also really clear that people are feeling this across the board. My co-founder, Toby, brings lived experience of leading cross-cultural, multi-national teams in highly pressurised and complex environments, where retention, performance and wellbeing are in constant flux.
What strategies have you seen developing over the past 6 months, both internally and externally, that are moving the dial on wellbeing in the workplace?
Leaders using appropriate language to talk about the importance of wellbeing but also taking action to protect their workers through tools like meditation, the right to have a digital break and wellbeing initiatives.There is also, thankfully, increasing recognition that wellbeing is not a ‘nice to have’ but essential to employee loyalty, retention and performance, and company reputation. That’s where Pragasam Meditation comes in!
Why is employee wellbeing so important to you personally?
Because I had to come off work due to stress and exhaustion. This was down to taking on too much, saying yes to everything, trying to fulfil society’s expectations of me as a working mother and not knowing my boundaries! I then started meditating and it changed my life in every respect. Meditation is now the tool I use (alongside many others) and about which I am utterly passionate. The benefits are proven and they are myriad. Pragasam Meditation wants to bring this tool to the world of work.
What are you most looking forward to about the Summit in September?
Sharing our passion for meditation in the workplace and coaching as an important supporting practice. We are also really keen to meet other people who share our vision and are truly passionate about wellbeing at work and don’t just want to tick boxes!
Tell us, what is your vision for the future workplace, in terms of engagement, health and wellbeing?
At Pragasam Meditation, we want to see every organisation using meditation as a regular part of everyone’s day! Not a small feat…We want there to be meditation before work and meditation reset time during the day. We would also like more organisations have access to coaching at all levels as a way to embed and sustain the benefits of meditation.
What areas do you think employers should be focused on over the next 12 months?
Bringing meditation into their workplaces of course! A simple, portable and powerful tool for their workforce to be more focused, more productive, more rested and rejuvenated. It doesn’t need loads of time and investment but does need a consistent, practical and tailored approach, that gives employees the skills, confidence and motivation to embed and sustain it as a regular practice.
How has your organisation been leading the way?
We know from our own very personal experience that meditation and coaching work. They are both scientifically proven methods of improving positivity and productivity as well as being powerful tools to reset and refresh people from the inside out. The work we have done with global organisations has shown that people agree with us!
Liz will be speaking in London at the Wellbeing at Work Summit UK which takes place live and in-person in London and Manchester with an additional day of virtual sessions too. Further details on the Summit can be found here.
Meditation as a Workplace Super Tool: What is it and what are its benefits?
Meditation is now mainstream in the Western world, but there remain many misconceptions about what this ancient super-tool is. We hear a lot of: ‘my mind is just too busy’, ‘I cannot sit still’ and ‘I’ve tried that and it doesn’t work’.
My mind is often too busy and, as a teacher, parent and business-owner, I don’t have the option of sitting still for too long! And, like training for a marathon, you just have to keep practising and it will work. Meditation is learning to focus on one thing (the breath, a sound, a body part) and to use that as an anchor to the present moment. This slows down your thoughts, allowing you to observe and not react to them. It moves your body from the sympathetic to the parasympathetic nervous system – from flight/fight/freeze to a calmer and clearer state. This brings clarity, reduces stress, improves your sleep and enhances your focus and productivity. Modern scientific studies have proven what the Indian religions have known for millennia – meditation works.
Use in the workplace
Having taught hundreds of people, we know how useful meditation can be in the workplace. In today’s world, organizations are facing myriad challenges, from productivity to retention, from team engagement to absenteeism. We don’t claim that wellbeing can be addressed solely through meditation yet few tools have the same low-investment, transformational potential. When coupled with coaching, the benefits can be further amplified and sustained in addressing specific individual goals and challenges.
In fact, instead of us blathering on below we include an email we received from a global corporate client and mental health first aider who attended a course with us in January 2024:
‘I actually went for a Health Assessment recently and one of the tests they did was around physiological resilience and coherence where they monitored my heart rate pattern to see the balance between my physical and emotional resilience. Based on the heart rate pattern they calculated a coherence score which is associated with increased blood flow to the area of our brain responsible for problem solving, feeling emotions, decision making and enhanced cognitive performance. A score of 50% or above is a good indication you are naturally Coherent. I got a score of 95% which the medical practitioner said was the highest he’d ever seen. He asked me what I’d been doing during the monitoring period. Answer was simple – I was doing the positive affirmations breathing exercises you taught me! It really does work so a huge thank you again from me!’
As busy working people with multiple overlapping personal and professional responsibilities, like you, we know self-care can be really hard to fit in. Something else is often ‘more important’ and ‘more urgent’ and ‘just has to be done’. We also know that some people see meditation as a bit too ‘woo woo’ and alternative. At Pragasam Meditation our focus is on making meditation as practical and accessible as possible. We do this by drawing on teaching expertise and a pragmatic understanding of the life pressures that we all face in today’s world.
In our next blog, find out how you can support yourself and your workforce to use and sustain this workplace super tool.
If this has piqued your interest, get in touch for a free consultation. It could really make a difference to you and your workforce.
