Team-Building Activities + Mindfulness = Good Business
Much has been written about mindfulness and team-building activities as tools for enhancing employee performance and well-being, and for good reason. Studies have shown that rumination and worry contribute to mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety. In high-pressure environments such as the workplace, stress and anxiety can impair concentration, stoke conflict and lead to physical sickness.
Mindfulness is the practice of turning one’s attention to the present moment and leaving worries about the past and future behind. It fosters an enhanced state of concentration, clarity and focus. Mindfulness can be achieved through a variety of practices: meditation, yoga, breath work, sound vibration therapy and aromatherapy. These are modalities to heighten awareness of the senses while tuning out the extraneous chatter that is our everyday life.
A daily practice of meditation has helped people deal with stress with equanimity and calm. It helps resolve interpersonal conflict and heightens gratitude as an everyday practice.
At La Vida Laguna, we teach mindfulness with an experiential bent. We believe the best place to get in touch with your senses and unplug from the chatter of work is in nature. Our team-building activities are mostly taught outdoors and in the natural abundance of the Southern California coastal wilderness. Our teachers have a broad range of experience in the mindful and healing arts, and have a unique focus on working with groups to enhance collective and individual performance.
For local companies, we offer an ongoing curriculum of mindfulness teachings and team-building activities. You might start with a refreshing session of group yoga, taking in the fresh sea air and the beauty of the California coastline. Stand-up paddleboarding excursions, kayaking treks, nature hikes and outrigger canoeing are other options that take employees out of the daily grind and immerse them in the bounty of nature. We can even bring our unique Mindfulness 2.0 program to your workplace.
For groups visiting Orange County for retreats, we offer one-time team-building activities that offer the best of Southern California wilderness, including mindful hiking and kayaking. With these activities we offer a five-sense immersion where we pay acute attention to what we smell, hear, taste, touch and see, enhanced with Tibetan gongs, smudging ceremonies and raw cacao tastings – all in the incomparable setting of mother nature.
Your group will acquire tools they can integrate into an easy, quick daily practice, from meditation on the fly, to yoga stretches at work, to breathing exercises, to mindful eating. Mindfulness is a powerful tool for companies to offer their teams as a prescription, not only for better work, but also a better life.
Our team-building activities are ideal for groups of 8 or more, and many activities are suitable for larger groups, with as many as 40 or 50 people or more. Our activities get your team offsite, unplugged and outdoors, building camaraderie, leadership and teamwork. Contact the team at La Vida Laguna today to discuss your options, and we’ll begin planning a unique mindfulness program for your group.
