Vicente Simón Pérez, Professor of Psychobiology at the Universitat de València, psychiatrist and Doctor of Medicine, was a pioneer in introducing Mindfulness as a research discipline at the university. After reading oriental philosophy texts, he decided to learn the practice, and he is currently one of the leading experts in neurobiology and Mindfulness.

In his article "Mindfulness and Neurobiology", published in the Journal of Psychotherapy, Vicente Simón defines Mindfulness as "a therapeutic technique used in Western psychology". Nevertheless, he also says that "mindfulness, whose origin is Buddhist meditation", has been documented for some 2.500 years, reaching its peak in the figure of Siddharta Gautama; hence its association with Buddhism. In any case, Gautama would probably perfect a procedure that he had received from other masters and that had existed for a long time.

Each year, Mindfulness is becoming more relevant in the Western world thanks to the success of its documented benefits and is now applied in the fields of education, health, sport and the world of work.

In the area we are concerned about (labour) we can mention some companies that Mindfulness programmes for their employees due to the benefits it brings: 

• helps manage stress
• improves concentration
• refines attention
• allows the management of emotions

We can mention some companies that have Mindfulness programs for their employees, such as Google, Target or General Mills and Heineken in Spain. Let's now analyse the case of the company INTEL, which introduced the Mindfulness in 2012 and has since then developed the Awake@Intel.

Thanks to this program, 1.500 employees completed a course of 19 sessions. At the end of this course the employees noticed a decrease in stress indexes of 2 points while their happiness level had increased by 3 points. But it was also observed that these workers had improved their mental clarity, creativity, focus, quality of relationships at work, level of commitment to the company by 2 points and they had a better ability to work in a team.

However, it is very important to emphasize that Mindfulness is not a panacea and does not eliminate stress in a bad work environment. As Jeffrey Pfeffer, Thomas D. Dee II Chair of Organizational Behavior at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business says, "Mindfulness does not change the underlying cause of stress: bad management”. Pfeffer states that one must be cautious with these practices, since in some cases of malpractice in human resources policies, "responsibility for the welfare of employees can be shifted from companies that cause stress to employees trying to overcome it. And worse, it allows well-washing to happen: companies that say they look after the welfare of their workers and at the same time mistreat them with bad management practices.

In short, we must not lose sight of the fact that in a bad working environment with Mindfulness there may be a momentary benefit, but in the long term it does not combat malpractice in human resources policies.