Nature and Mindfulness to Cope with Work-Related Stress: A Narrative Review

Summary & key facts

This paper reviews studies about stress at work and how two approaches can help. One approach teaches people skills to cope, like mindfulness, and the other changes the workplace, for example by adding natural elements. The authors report that both mindfulness and working in or near nature seem to lower stress and tiredness, help mood, and may improve work performance, and they propose a model that combines mindfulness practice with nature-based settings. The review notes that the evidence comes from different kinds of studies and more research is still needed.

Key facts:

• Work-related stress has grown a lot in recent years and can cause problems for workers, like anxiety and depression, and for companies, like more absences and lower productivity.
• Researchers describe two main ways to prevent work stress. One focuses on the individual and teaches coping skills and resilience. The other changes the work environment to lower risks.
• Mindfulness practices, which are attention and awareness exercises, were reported as useful tools to manage stress and to handle stressful events at work.
• Workplaces that include natural elements and feel restorative were reported to reduce stress and fatigue and to improve workers' performance.
• Practicing mindfulness while in natural settings was reported to improve wellbeing and to relieve stress more than either approach alone in some studies.
• This paper is a narrative review, which means it summarizes existing studies and proposes a combined model, but it does not prove cause and effect and calls for more research.

Abstract

In recent years, work-related stress has grown exponentially and the negative impact that this condition has on people's health is considerable. The effects of work-related stress can be distinguished in those that affect workers (e.g., depression and anxiety) and those that affect the company (e.g., absenteeism and productivity). It is possible to distinguish two types of prevention interventions. Individual interventions aim at promoting coping and individual resilience strategies with the aim of modifying cognitive assessments of the potential stressor, thus reducing its negative impact on health. Mindfulness techniques have been found to be effective stress management tools that are also useful in dealing with stressful events in the workplace. Organizational interventions modify the risk factors connected to the context and content of the work. It was found that a restorative workplace (i.e., with natural elements) reduces stress and fatigue, improving work performance. Furthermore, practicing mindfulness in nature helps to improve the feeling of wellbeing and to relieve stress. In this paper, we review the role of mindfulness-based practices and of contact with nature in coping with stressful situations at work, and we propose a model of coping with work-related stress by using mindfulness in nature-based practices.

Topics

Animal and Plant Science Education Educational Environments and Student Outcomes Urban Green Space and Health

Categories

Environmental Science Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis Physical Sciences

Tags

Absenteeism Affect (linguistics) Anxiety Applied psychology Burnout Clinical psychology Cognition Communication Coping (psychology) Feeling Mental health Mindfulness Psychiatry Psychological intervention Psychological resilience Psychology Psychotherapist Rumination Social psychology Stress management Stressor

Conditions & symptoms

Anxiety Burnout Depression Anxiety or worry Lack of energy or motivation Poor sleep Sadness or low mood