For many people, work is a pressure cooker. Even if your job is less demanding, there’s still an element of stress. Work is still work, after all. And it comes with high expectations and tough tasks, and requires good results.

As mindfulness teacher Ed Halliwell said, “We’re expected to meet deadlines, make quick and often complex decisions, and manage relationships with others effectively, all the while achieving results in the face of constraints, which aren’t always of our own making.”

Practicing mindfulness on the job offers a bounty of benefits, according to Halliwell. It soothes and calms our bodies and minds. It improves our ability to work and produce great work. Even when stress strikes, instead of getting overwhelmed, it helps us confront challenges head-on, he said.

How? Mindfulness trains us to stay in the present. “It trains us to become more aware of what’s going on in and around us, giving us the capacity to see things clearly and act from a wider perspective.”

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