What can our workplaces learn from ashrams to improve wellbeing and creativity?

Having recently spent ten wonderful days at Munger Raj Mandir in Vrindavan, I started thinking about the extent to which we could learn from the way of life at ashrams to improve workplace wellbeing. Ashrams have long been recognised as a place of reflection and inspiration for entrepreneurs and business leaders. Take Steve Jobs for example who famously visited Kainchi Dham Ashram in India on multiple occasions and reportedly had the idea for creating Apple there during an early stay. Or Mark Zuckerberg who recently visited the same ashram in 2008 to reflect on the future of Facebook. But what is it about ashrams that has this influence on our creativity and wellbeing and how could we integrate some of the practices and principles into our everyday working lives?

Intentionality.

The first area which struck me as relevant was that of intentionality, or the consciousness present through every action in an ashram. From prostrating in the temples, bowing in reverence, removing shoes before entering sacred spaces, eating consciously and constantly looking for ways to serve others — it’s clear that there is a common higher purpose and an intentional focus for each moment of each day in the ashram. There is a clear ethos present of working towards a goal that is greater than one’s own ego-fulfilment. This sense of serving a higher purpose is increasingly at play in our organisations with a clear trend towards growth in purpose driven brands (serving people, planet and profit) and the rise of the B Corp community. In his widely viewed TED talk, leadership guru Simon Sinek encourages us all to question why we do what we do and have real clarity on this through our work and life. But are we really able to retain this intentionality and live each moment of our working lives with a level of consciousness and clarity around what we’re doing and why? Many organisations make great use of physical spaces to remind employees of corporate values and their mission but what more could we do to bring this intentional focus to each action?

Daily rituals

The second area was that of the consistent rituals which make up each day, be that coming together for worship at set times, yoga or meditation practice, consistent meal times or the morning walks around the ashram. Everyone seems to wake up knowing the main markers of the day along with the times for relaxation. Rituals typically need to be intentional and repeated, and it seems that ashram life is packed with them. Of course, in this setting the purpose is to remain conscious but how could this work in our workplaces? Casper ter Kuile In his book ‘The Power of Ritual’ talks of the benefits we can see in organisations in terms of shared identity, alignment and action when we embed rituals. For me some of the simplest rituals like Thursday night drinks, monthly ‘Town halls’ and ‘monk mode Monday’ or no meeting mornings have had a real impact on my focus and wellbeing.

Community and Connection

The other area which really struck me was that of community or ‘sangha’. There is such a sense of togetherness in ashrams, with everyone having a clear role to fulfil, multiple opportunities to come together for practice or for mealtimes and a genuine feeling of care for each other. The simple act of eating together as a group had a profound impact on my wellbeing and enjoyment and there’s plenty of research which suggests this is actually exactly the same in our workplaces. Research from Cornell University shows that eating together has a significant impact on team bonding and collaboration, as the act of sharing food has a level of intimacy attached to it which then spills out into other areas of work. We know that community and connection is a key driver of wellbeing both in and out of the workplace so how can we find more ways to eat together or simply to find more shared moments of connection?

Contribution (Seva)

‘How can I best help’ is the modus operandi in ashram life, be that through feeding the cows each day, preparing, and serving food, sharing food with the homeless or sweeping the temples and courtyards. The dominant mentality is ‘how can I best contribute today?’. What difference could it make if we started to act in this way in our workplaces? What change would it drive? What if our first thought each day and on each project was ‘how can I best be of service to this project/moment/team?’. How can my unique talents and skills to best contribute towards the success of this project? So much progress has been made in this space in recent years through the movement towards strengths-based organisations, which encourage a focus on what we’re best at and what we can uniquely contribute, but what if we executed this moment by moment, project by project? Research by CliftonStrengths shows that employees who say they use their strengths every day are 8% more productive and 15% less likely to quit their jobs. Could accelerating this movement help address the ‘Great Resignation’ we currently face? For me identifying my key strengths using the Via Strengths finder ( https://www.viacharacter.org/) and looking for ways to put these strengths into practice each day has made a huge difference to my motivation and wellbeing. In fact the work I’ve ended up doing on workplace curiosity and creativity was partly driven by understanding of my strengths and a desire to use them more in life.

Reflection and Rest

Whilst rituals are a key part of ashram life, there is also plenty of time for rest and reflection. It’s not uncommon to see residents writing down their reflections of the day in a journal, contemplating what they’ve learnt, processing the thoughts and emotions that have been present that day, and of course finding time for purely resting. Whilst ashram life starts early for most (4.30am) there is also typically time to rest and recuperate throughout the day, making sure energy levels are high to continue to be of service. Whilst a lot has been written about the importance of rest and relaxation in the workplace, how many of us genuinely find the time to do this? Take lunchbreaks for example, research conducted by Ipsos Mori and Mastercard found that 82% never take their full lunch break despite claiming they believe it to be good for their wellbeing. And for many the pandemic and remote work has reduced our rest time further with UK workers claiming to have increased their working week by 25% according to research by NORDVPN Teams. Our brain is actually designed to have regular rest periods and we know that spending regular time in our default mode network is not only great for wellbeing, it also supercharges our creativity and ability to innovate. Whilst workplaces may have increased the provision of sleep pods or meditation rooms, how acceptable is it really to use these today? And how is rest and reflection truly being encouraged in our workplaces?

Whilst we may not all be able to regularly escape to ashrams like Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg, how could we bring more of that ashram experience into our everyday working life and what benefits might we experience? Through simple practices like eating meals together, scheduling time for rest, creating daily rituals and exercising our strengths more, it might not be as difficult as we think.