Mindfulness and Creativity in Workplace Contexts: A Critical Narrative Review of an Emerging Field

The relationship between mindfulness and creativity in workplace settings has attracted growing interest, yet empirical research in this area remains fragmented and at an early stage of development. Given this emerging status, the present article offers a critical narrative review aimed at mapping the current evidence and identifying conceptual and methodological gaps to guide future research. A structured literature search, preregistered in PROSPERO (CRD42024627551), was conducted in PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science up to February 2025, following PRISMA guidelines, and was updated in September 2026 using the same search strategy and eligibility criteria. Five studies met the inclusion criteria. The included studies were heterogeneous in design, intervention characteristics, and outcome assessment, supporting a narrative rather than quantitative synthesis. The findings suggested possible relationships between mindfulness-based interventions and creativity-related outcomes, including creativity and problem solving, as well as related processes such as emotion regulation, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and coping. Building on these findings, the review integrates the available evidence with the broader theoretical literature to outline a preliminary integrative conceptual framework linking cognitive, affective, and motivational processes that may explain how mindfulness relates to creativity at work, while identifying key conceptual and methodological gaps to guide future research.