We began by reaching out across departments to City employees who we knew maintained a personal meditation practice, and identified a meeting time during lunch break hours so our sessions wouldn’t cut into employees’ work time. The Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture, in line with their mission to lift up creative expression in Boston, generously offered a lovely bright space in their office for the group to meet.

We then extended the invitation to people who had never meditated before, and asked attendees to bring along a coworker friend. Thanks to the benefits of meditation practice and the peaceful space, people left sessions having had positive experiences and word started getting out. Soon we had employees from a dozen City departments attending.

In sessions, accessible, non-denominational mindfulness meditation or lovingkindness meditation practices are offered through the guidance of a City employee facilitator or a recording the staff facilitator plays. Sessions usually run 15-20 minutes, with buffer time for attendees to ease into the sessions at the beginning and to return energized to their work after the sessions end.

We’ve found that coworker-to-coworker relationships are key in offering and expanding these support practices. Meditation can be intimidating to begin and challenging to stick with, so it helps to have a friend at your side to walk into the session with, or someone who will encourage you to attend when you’re on the fence. A grassroots coworker-to-coworker wellbeing practice also increases a sense of shared ownership and agency as compared to external third-party offerings.