Is it difficult for you to step away from your desk during the day and do you worry that it could impact productivity? Think again. Mara Hoffman is an advocate for taking the time to de-stress and allowing oneself to relax and breath. She does it through meditation, a practice she extends to her office. Here, Hoffman explains how practicing mediation contributes to her healthy lifestyle.

When did you start incorporating meditation into your daily routine and why is it so important to you?

I started practicing on and off 15 years ago, but have been practicing Vedic meditation for about six years now. It is so important to me, because it helps ground myself, ground my work, and generate space for creativity.

What are the health benefits of practicing meditation?

Meditation can set the tone for your day, how you eat, how you work, how you treat yourself and how you treat others. So it’s beneficial in a lot of ways, mentally and physically. It varies for everyone. When everything feels out of my hands and out of my control, meditating gives me enough room to take a step back and process.

Tell me how you encouraged your staff to meditate? Has it had a positive impact on their work performance?

We had a close friend of mine, Charlie Knoles, come in and do a meditation-intro class with the team. Since then, we’ve been meditating every day at 4:00 pm for 20 minutes, and I really do feel that it’s had a positive impact. It’s nice for my team to have that choice, to come meditate when they need it, Sometimes it’s a packed room and sometimes it’s only a couple of people. It all depends on the day.

Why do you believe it’s important to take time away from your desk during the work day to meditate?

If you’ve been hustling all day, or are feeling overwhelmed, you can meditate, then come back to your work with a fresh slate, able to look at it and work at it from a different angle.

How do you think practicing meditation has helped you with your work as a designer?

This industry can be an intense place for creatives. It can push you to produce in times when you just want to draw inward and retreat. You’re constantly riding against that natural creative flow and trying to work it into a pretty demanding schedule. Meditating helps me get out of my head and the stress of industry timelines, so that I can create in a genuine and healthy way.