Enhancing productivity and joy at work through mindfulness

‘Universal Mindfulness Village’ Foundation (UMVF) launched its inaugural workshop for Corporate Managing Directors and CEOs at the Shangri-La hotel, Colombo. The program was aimed at making awareness of the benefits of the application of mindfulness-based life skill paradigm in order to develop and improve overall performance of organisations.

Most Ven. Uda Eriyagama Dhammajiva Maha Thero with over 40 years of mastering dhamma practice as a forest monk and with subsequent proven successful experience introducing mindfulness through “Sati Pasala,” used 21st century interactive teaching methods as a holistic solution provider towards contentment in many sectors Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand, England, United States, Canada and Dubai. This subsequently led to the formation of UMVF. 

Ven. Dhammajiva Thero spoke on the power of mindfulness which can improve a person’s mental and physical health, generate calmness and improve focus and concentration. The Thero carried out a simple mindfulness exercise for the business leaders present where they participated closing their eyes and concentrating for 05 minutes. This was followed by a presentation by Dr. Kaushalya Perera MD Hons. (Rus), MSc in Diabetes (USW, UK), Certified Coach (CMA, Singapore) where she spoke of ‘Neuroplasticity: Rewiring your brain through mindfulness’. She demonstrated how mindfulness can decrease the size of the Amygdala which, in turn reduces the anxiety and the negative emotions of the human. The practice of mindfulness enhances the neuronal activity as well as the neurogenis of the pre-frontal lobe and anterior cingulate cortex. This in turn, develops the human positive thinking capability.  The key note presentation on ‘Productivity enhancement and joy at work through practice of mindful behaviour’, was delivered by McQuire Rens Global Consulting Ltd. Chairman and Eswaran Brothers Exports Ltd. Non-Executive Chairman Dr. Nalin Jayasuriya. In his delivery, he spoke on the practice of mindful behaviour in the corporate, what habits are and how they are formed, shareholder expectations and how mindful employees meet these expectations, productivity enhancement and joy at work. He cited pitiful scenarios where some CEOs are mentally tormented by the careless, selfish approaches of certain employees in organisations and how these attitudes can be changed resulting in leveraging more time for CEOs to focus of sustainable business growth.

A video talk by Advisor to UMVF and a practitioner of mindfulness Sidath Wettimuny, was screened for the benefit of the audience as he had to be out of Colombo on the day of the event. His talk was on the ‘Positive impact on work-life balance through mindfulness’. He shared how it helped him in sports, work and in his personal life. 

Finally, Co-Founder and advisor to UMVF Ranjan Walpola, presented the success of pilot studies on ‘Mindfulness’ programs carried out for the total staff of Dartary Valley Tea Factory and Harrangalla Tea Factory from Senhora Group of companies where these programs earned for the two factories the first place and runner-up for the awards of the Most Outstanding Tea Manufacturing Factories by T.E.A. organised by the Tea Exporters Association in 2024. This was the second time that these awards were won by these two factories. Further, five tea factories in this group of companies recorded year-on-year highest growth in the shortest period of time, from zero to become the largest tea producer in 2019. 

A section of the audience