Nitin Govila

Our lives are noisy. We live in a world of distraction. These factors make it difficult to get work done in the office. It’s no wonder people are turning to  practices like meditation to calm their minds in this busy world. But, can you actually design environments that enable mindfulness and focus? To help understand this challenge and how this will play out in the ever evolving landscape of work and mental health, I’m glad to be joined by my guest on the XL Podcast - Nitin Govila. Not only does he head up APAC for materials manufacturer SergeFerrari but he has 20+ years of experience as a meditation practitioner. Take the average office, for example. Many are designed on industrial model principles with industrial era materials that encourage barriers. Cubicles and corner offices disconnected workers from each other and from their natural environment. But if you look at the trend in office and home design, people are increasingly demanding a seamless flow within spaces and between the building and the natural environment itself. In this podcast we discuss the parallels between meditation and deep work - that state of “flow” you can achieve when your mind is open, awake and without distraction. To what extent can we design spaces in our lives that encourage this mind state? And, given the choice people can exercise in where to work these days, will we ever achieve a stage where the average worker wants to go to the office to be less distracted than they would at home?