Lawyers, Business Leaders and Meditation

It was back in 2011 that I began a series of ongoing meditation classes with the Melbourne office of Minter Ellison (read more here) .. so it would seem that the Australian legal fraternity are ahead of the pack going by today's article in The Wall Street Journal, "With Few Objections, Lawyers Given Meditation a Trial"

Scott Rogers, founder and director of University of Miami’s “Mindfulness in Law Program” says that students who take his mindfulness courses earn up to three credits toward their law degree .. and the article highlights that his law school is just one of about two dozen across the country that are starting to incorporate mindfulness exercises into the legal curriculum.

Taking Meditation Back to Corporate

When I first received a call to talk meditation with the lawyers at the top end of town .. I recall initially feeling slightly nervous about returning to the boardroom to pitch meditation; rather than pitching business (as I would have done a few years earlier in my corporate role).  But I loved every minute.

I had originally been invited along to a share my meditation course with the HR team; with a focus on the 'art and science' of meditation for improved relaxation and focus.  There was so much enthusiasm and engagement across the initial four weeks .. that I was invited back, to expand the reach across the business for two subsequent six week sessions.  

Joining me in the boardroom each week were team members from Partner level to back office staff, from Research to IT .. and each week we took a deep breath and practiced a range of meditation techniques.  Smart people also ask smart questions, and I really enjoyed the lively discussions around current meditation research and the diversity of meditation practices found across the globe (and within the room).

Recently having completed the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute program, I have a much better understanding (and appreciation) of how meditation can assist us in cultivating our emotional intelligence .. so that we become much more aware of our actions and feelings - and how they impact those around us.  

It was Daniel Goleman's 1995 book “Emotional Intelligence” that first brought the term to the world, and it's application to business world happened with an article in a 1998 Harvard Business Review (link here to original article) which listed five components of emotional intelligence:

self-awareness: As in “know thyself”. Self-awareness means having a deep understanding of one’s emotions, strengths, weaknesses, needs, and drives.
self-regulation: like an ongoing inner conversation, is the component of emotional intelligence that frees us from being prisoners of our feelings. 
motivation: The key trait that nearly all effective leaders have is motivation, and those with leadership potential are motivated by a deeply embedded desire to achieve for the sake of achievement. 
empathy: thoughtfully considering employees’ feelings—along with other factors—in the process of making intelligent decisions. Vital in today's world with the increasing use of teams; the rapid pace of globalization; and the growing need to retain talent.
and, social skill: friendliness with a purpose: moving people in the direction you desire, whether that’s agreement on a new marketing strategy or enthusiasm about a new product.

In the article Primal Leadership: The Hidden Driver of Great Performance by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee in Harvard Business Review (February 2014) emotional intelligence is identified as a key influence on a company's bottom-line performance.  How?

Executive’s emotional intelligence - their self-awareness, empathy, rapport with others - has clear links to their own performance.  But new research shows that a leaders’ emotional style also drives everyone else’s mood and behaviours - through a neurological process called mood contagio.  It’s akin to “Smile and the whole world smiles with you”.

This week Harvard Business Review posted a Quiz 'Do You Lead with Emotional Intelligence' that you might like to test out .. 

Onsite Meditation

Since returning from my super relaxing and revitalising holiday in Bali .. I have had a steady flow of enquiries and calls about bringing meditation into boardroom and workrooms across Melbourne.

After a lengthy corporate career .. days of commuting on train, tram and ferry (ah yes the 'Sydney years') and 60+ work weeks .. I must say that I love that my meetings now are about sharing the art and science of meditation.

Heeding the call that Australian's (all mankind really) are experiencing increasing levels of stress, frustration, overwhelm and disconnection from life .. meditation and mindfulness are becoming increasingly common in corporate conversations.

The busyness and multi-tasking that we have prided ourselves on .. are actually spinning a little out of control and along with financial struggles, constantly changing world dynamics and uncertainty about our place in the mix .. many are experiencing Red Alert living.   

The art and science of meditation

This week I finished a five part meditation course with a wonderful group of secondary school teachers.  Those amazingly committed individuals who nourish, engage and expand the minds of our children.

Each fortnight we have met in a lovely quiet part of the school's administration building, and everyone would dutifully remove their shoes on arrival and then strategically find their favourite 'school' chair, armchair or place on the floor. While the last school bell had rung, most of the teachers would have to head back to their desks after our one hour class as there were exams and school holidays coming up. 

I believe it is vital that there are immediate 'take-away's' for people to start implementing in their daily life, so we always began with a Meditative Exercise which are relaxation based tools that can be used in the heat of the moment to release stress and building anxiety (ideal daily practices that take only a few minutes but deliver immediate results); then we would explore a longer more traditional Meditation Techniques including mindfulness, mantra and breath counting practices.  In the hour we had together, most of the time was spent in meditation as we built up our ability to sit and be still from 15 to 40 minutes. 

It is magical to share the journey of meditation .. to witness the growing confidence, belief and engagement with this ancient life skill.

Early on one participant told me he was 'a true convert' having realised the power of his own breath to assist him with stress .. and over the weeks other participants would share how they found themselves watching their breath, feeling/reconnecting with their body during the day, automatically starting the mantra while visiting the dentist and generally feeling calmer and more focused in life.

Coming up: two local council groups and a large international retail business will be sharing meditation with their team.  And with Victorian Mental Health Awareness Week coming up (5-12th October) this might be a great opportunity to share meditation and relaxation tools with your team.

For more information: info@quietmind.com.au

Harvard Business School recently declared that "meditation and intuition are the two most valuable executive tools for the 21st century"

The Split-Screen

 

Truly excellent article by Arianna Huffington from The Huffington Post Media Group this week on LinkedIn (you can follow Arianna via groups).

 

The article provides an insight into the American ‘split-screen’ world where stressful work life and focus on the bottom line is meeting a growing awareness of the costs of stress, not just in the health and wellbeing of business leaders and their team, but ultimately the company bottom line as well.

Australian's Stress About Work & Finances

We know that too much stress can have a significant negative affect on our sense of wellbeing .. and impact not only on our view of the world, but also our relationships at home, in the office and a continuing ripple effect on friends and community.

New statistics from a global study by the workspace provider Regus found that  respondents felt the top reasons for their stress were:

49% personal finances

48% their job

25% colleagues

17% partner or spouse

"Workplace stress is reportedly costing the Australian economy $730 million a year" said Jacqueline Lehmann, chief of Australian operations at Regus.

"The heavy toll of stress falls not only on workers and their families, but also on businesses as they find that their staff under performn, need more sick leave and are less efficient".

"Businesses that actually want to help their staff lead more rewarding lives cannot fail to analyse and tackle levels of stress within their oganisation" she said.

Quiet Mind At Work provides onsite meditation programs, classes and workshops .. as part of your Employee Wellness Program .. providing your team with practical tools to manage work stress and build greater concentration and focus. 

Learning how to relax and self manage stress is vital to personal and corporate health and wellbeing. 

Meditation is an ancient practice with well researched benefits :

• Lowering blood pressure
• Restoring balance to the digestive system
• Relieves muscle tension
• Reduces anxiety and rumination (that is mostly negative)
• Assists with insomnnia
• Enhances decision-making ability and creative thought
• Improves work and life satisfaction
• ... we feel a greater sense of positivity and happiness

*Regus statistics and quotes taken from the article "Stress: Money and Work are Top Causes" in the November 2012 edition of NETT Magazine (www.nett.com.au)

'The Mind Business'

A great article that I read today from The Financial Times Magazine (posted August 24, 2012) “The Mind Business” by David Gelles on the growing interest, and implementation, of mindfulness practices into corporate America. 

Read about how General Mills, Target and Google have brought meditation into the corporate space ...

Meditation at Work

Over the last few years I have been invited into a number of Melbourne organisations to share meditation with their team. 

I have run lunch and learn workshops (Meditative Exercises for Immediate Stress Relief), participated in corporate Mental Health Week activities, worked one-on-one with executives as a 'meditation coach', and tailored six and eight week programs to assist professional teams to self manage their stress.

After a long career in the corporate world (the hours, the challenges, the demands and .. the stress!) I was surprised at how much I have enjoyed returning to the corporate world this time entering Boardrooms with meditation as my 'product'.

From a team of suited lawyers to a group of manufacturing and transport workers .. I love to see stressed faces turn into softer, more relaxed faces, and hear how often simple breath practices can bring almost immediate and heartfelt relief.

Nobody wants to be at work and feel that rising sense of anxiety and overwhelm.  Nobody performs at their best when their creativity and life energy is literally draining fom their body and mind.

Medibank Private say's that stress-related presenteeism and absenteeism are directly costing Australian employers $10.11 billion a year

Stress of course is a fact of life .. but too much stress is unhealthy and unproductive.

More and more organisations are realising that Wellness Initiatives are an important tool to better support their employees, which in turn supports the organisation.  Meditation is one practical tool that has been proven to reduce stress and improve our physical, mental and emotional health.

Lifeline Australia found that 91% of adult Australians feel stress in at least one important area of their lives, and more alarmingly 41% of Australians indicated they were experiencing unhealthy levels of stress

Recent worldwide research by Right Management Consultants into organisational performance, employee engagement and retention .. found that companies who had taken the initiative of managing corporate wellness effectively found organisational performance was 2.5 times better, employee engagement 8 times higher, creativity and innovation 3.5 times higher, and retention of talent 4 times higher over a 12 month period.

Wow!

I believe that meditation is a life skill!

and so .. I am very pleased to share with you our new website dedicated to all those who are stressing at work .. and would like to learn more about meditation. 

Please go have a look...

QuietMind@Work

Meditation .. and multitasking

A recent study from the University of Washington Information School professors David Levy and Jacob Wobbrock suggests that meditation training can help people working with information stay on tasks longer with fewer distractions and also improves memory and reduces stress.

“To our knowledge, this is the first study to explore how meditation might affect multitasking in a realistic work setting,” Levy says.

Three groups each of 12-15 human resources personnel were tested: (1) those who underwent an 8-week training course on mindfulness-based meditation, (2) those who endured a wait period, were tested, and then underwent the same 8-week training, and (3) those who had 8-weeks of training in body relaxation

Before and after each eight-week period, the participants were given a stressful test of their multitasking abilities using email, calendars, instant messaging, telephone and word-processing to perform common office tasks.

Researchers measured participants speed, accuracy, and the extent to which they switched tasks; along with participants self-reporting on levels of stress and memory.

The results were significant: The meditation group reported lower levels of stress during the multitasking test while those in the control group or who received only relaxation training did not; and the control group also reported lower stress once given the same meditation training.

The meditation training helped participants concentrate longer and make fewer task switches, as well as reporting less negative emotion after task performance. In addition, both the meditation and the relaxation groups showed improved memory for the tasks they performed.

Levy says, “We are encouraged by these first results. While there is increasing scientific evidence that certain forms of meditation increase concentration and reduce emotional volatility and stress, until now there has been little direct evidence that meditation may impart such benefits for those in stressful, information-intensive environments.”

The study notes “Meditation is already being introduced into the modern office in the hope that it can effect positive changes in worker performance and well-being." [(2003) Alterations in brain and immune function produced by mindfulness meditation. Psychosomatic Medicine 65 (4), 564-570.9].

The present study offers some support for such interventions, suggesting that they may lead to improved memory and reduced stress.

Read the full research paper here

'Turbo-charge the people in your organization'

Elevated Existence magazine reports today that Dr Mehmet Oz (Channel 7 televises this program in Australia) is now offering Transcendental Meditation (TM) to his entire NY-based production team. 

Over recent months there has been a steady stream of high profile celebrities 'talking the talk' on TM, most notably Oprah whose support of the technique flooded the online blog world last month.  The re-surgence of interest in TM is largely due to the current leader of all things TM .. David Lynch (The David Lynch Foundation) .. Lynch is the award-winning director, writer, and producer. His work includes Eraserhead, Elephant Man, Wild at Heart and my favourite Twin Peaks.

Dr Oz:

“You know as well as I do: Any business is what it is because of the people who work there. Why not take people who are working at 80 percent, 60 percent, 30 percent of their potential and take them all to 99 percent of their potential. I think that’s what true success feels like,” said Dr. Oz, explaining that is what TM can do for a company.

“It’s a powerful tool to turbo-charge the people in your organization and, I believe quite strongly, you would be very wise to give it a try.”

*On a personal note : TM is just one meditation technique. Not the only, not the oldest, not the youngest, just one amongst many.  I have not had the opportunity to study TM in any depth (only my own research and discussions with TM practitioners) due in the most part to the exorbitant cost of the training and until recently the lack of teachers in Australia.  TM is a mantra based practiced and mantra certainly predates TM .. by thousands of years (Mantra is not owned by TM).  There are mantra practices found in Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism .. Yoga .. indeed Primordial Sound Meditation uses the breath and silent mantra (Deepak Chopra).  Like any meditation technique, you need to (a) do the practice and (b) find the right practice for you, (c) and the benefits from meditation are not in correlation with the $$ you pay for instruction.

Google's Meditation Initiative

Chade-Meng Tan is “Head of Personal Growth” at Google and I mentioned him in an earlier entry highlighting some of the big corporate organisations promoting employee meditation.

A really interesting article appears today in Forbes online that provides further information about Chade-Meng Tan's program appropriately called “Search Inside Yourself” .. a free course at Google designed to teach emotional intelligence through meditation.

Based on the book Search Inside Yourself: The Unexpected Path to Achieving Success, Happiness (and World Peace) by Chade-Meng Tan, the course introduces ‘business-friendly mindfulness’ to train attention, develop self-knowledge and self-mastery, and create useful mental habits.

More and more organisations are seeking to implement programs and tools to encourage and support employee wellness .. after all, productive, positive and engaged employees really are your key asset. Encouraging good health (mental and physical) along with a greater awareness of others (different thoughts and different perspectives)– is vital for success in today’s competitive and rapidly changing corporate landscape.

Organisations are also well aware of the need to retain their top talent by ensuring maximum worker satisfaction and engagement, opportunities for personal creativity, team focus and office harmony.

“Instruction in mindfulness, in being able to reflect rather than react, is a genius perk to provide .. Any practice or activity that supports reflection over reactivity, encourages feeling feelings rather than acting on them, and opens awareness to what is really going on is of benefit. Slow down, notice, and savor is a great way to build mental wealth no matter where or how. It just is. All mindfulness really is good mindfulness.” (from the article Google Teaches Employees To 'Search Inside Yourself', by Todd Essig, Contributor, Forbes)

You can view the video of Meng giving a lecture on Mindfulness here.

Meditation & Business Leadership

An article from The Independent Newspaper of the Harvard Business School Community (The Harbus) notes a new study that will look into ‘whether meditation can help business leaders increase self-awareness, mental clarity, focus and emotional intelligence. It is often also claimed that meditation helps a leader develop more authenticity, tolerance and empathy, which leads to a greater sense of belongingness and responsibility for the communities they live and work in” (full article here).

Harvard Business School has been a leader in a number of studies in this area, reflecting a growing awareness at Harvard for contemplative studies, including the study led by psychologist Sara Lazar at Harvard Medical School that first documented how meditation produced changes over time in the brain’s gray matter (in areas associated with attention and emotional integration); the inclusion of mindfulness practices at the Harvard Law School ‘essential to the art of conflict resolution’; and the cross-university study at HBS that is looking at contemplative dimensions of leadership and leadership education.

One inspiring, creative and focused business leader that comes to my mind (who was also a meditator) ~ is Steve Jobs who visited India in the 70's, developed an interest in Buddhism and had a Zen practice ..

"If you just sit and observe, you will see how restless your mind is. If you try to calm it, it only makes it worse, but over time it does calm, and when it does, there's room to hear more subtle things - that's when your intuition starts to blossom and you start to see things more clearly and be in the present more. Your mind just slows down, and you see a tremendous expanse in the moment. You see so much more than you could see before. It's a discipline; you have to practice it."

Steve Jobs (from the Walter Isaacson biography, Steve Jobs)

So they are doing it .. are you?

A recent national poll commissioned by Lifeline Australia found that 91% of adult Australians feel stress in at least one important area of their lives, and more alarmingly, 41% of Australians indicated they were experiencing unhealthy levels of stress. 

Research into meditation continues to show a wide range of mental and physical benefits that can result from a regular meditation practice. Regular meditators tend to be calmer and happier than their counterparts, with greater access to creativity and concentration.

Many Australian organisations have also started to include meditation instruction into their Employee Wellness Initiatives or Health Programs.

To find our how Quiet Mind Meditation could support your corporate wellness program, call Sarah on 0417 403 714 or sarah@quietmind.com.au or find out a little more here.

Recently I read a very interesting article “10 Big Companies That Promote Employee Meditation” from OnlineMBA .. here are just some of the global organisations leading the way in promoting on-the-job meditation:

Apple

Steve Jobs was interested in Zen meditation and shared his love of meditation by allowing employees of the tech giant to take 30 minutes each day to meditate at work, providing classes on meditation and yoga on-site, and offering the use of a meditation room.

Google

One of Google’s original software engineers and now head of personal growth, Chade-Meng Tan, has been working hard to bring meditation into the workplace. Tan spearheaded a program at Google in 2007 called “Search Inside Yourself” which helped more than 500 employees learn how to breathe mindfully, listen to their co-workers, and improve their emotional intelligence. The company believes that meditation can help improve not only employee mental health and well-being but the company’s bottom line.

McKinsey & Co.

McKinsey partner and meditation aficionado Michael Rennie says, “What’s good for the spirit is good for the bottom line,” and the company is taking that to heart, developing meditation and self-analysis programs not only for their own employees but for other multi-million dollar corporations as well. In one case, a meditation program developed by McKinsey for an Australian client saved the business more than $20 million.

Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank is yet another multinational business getting behind the meditation-in-the-workplace trend .. offering meditation classes and quiet spaces on site for several years, hoping that it will help to reduce worker stress and lead to more level-headed thinking.

Procter & Gamble

P&G’s CEO A.G. Lafley is dedicated to his own meditation practice and thinks it has a lot to offer employees as well. He has said, “You can not out-work a problem, you have to out-meditation it.”

Are you doing it?  Has your organisation explored meditation to improve employee wellbeing and manage stress?

Emotional Intelligence & Meditation

Following on from my last entry about introducing meditation to staff at Australian legal firm Minter Ellison .. across my desk today is an article from CNN about organisations introducing meditation as part of emotional intelligence (EI) training.

One of the pioneers of EI research was John Mayer, professor of psychology at the University of New Hampshire, who defines EI as “the capacity to reason about emotional information and the capacity of emotional information to enhance thinking”.

Meditation provides us with an opportunity to truly connect with our deepest thoughts, feelings and emotions .. and through this 'listening' we develop a greater understanding of the thoughts that occupy our mind stream (surprisingly not a lot of positive speak!) .  People are often surprised by the language and thoughts that they constantly tell themselves .. and often realise that those thoughts are no longer valid or true.

One organisation introduced EI training to assist their employees in becoming "more open and confident, understand their own limitations and fears, and to boost their self-worth and comfort in dealing with other people".

"Attendees get a full EI profile of themselves, which helps break down how they relate to others, their level of empathy, authenticity, and leadership abilities. This information is used to improve their communication with others. The classes also, typically, include meditation or visualization practices." 

Article 'Emotional intelligence: The benefits of singing the blues' by Susanne Gargiulo, for CNN : November 9, 2011.  Full article here : http://edition.cnn.com/2011/11/09/business/emotional-intelligence-workplace/

Meditation : The New Corporate Wellness Tool

I recently completed the Introduction to Meditation program with the Melbourne office of leading Australian legal firm, Minter Ellison.

The Minter Ellison ResilientME program is "a co-ordinated and integrated initiative to foster employee wellbeing and reduce the risk of stress and depression in the workplace. The ResilientME program aims to create staff and partner awareness and eliminate the stigma associated with depression/stress. The program looks at prevention strategies to ensure staff and partners lead healthy lives and provide the skills to recognise depression/stress so that staff are able to assist colleagues, family and friends suffering from this condition".

The Minter Ellison team enthusiastically embraced the opportunity to swap their desks for an hour of stillness each week; reflecting the growing number of professionals seeking practical tools to self manage stress and develop greater mental and physical health.

Harvard Business School recently declared that "meditation and intuition are the two most valuable executive tools for the 21st century".

You don’t need to be a lawyer or corporate professional to feel the negative effects of high levels of work stress, and the overwhelming cost it takes on our life. A recent national poll commissioned by Lifeline Australia found that 91% of adult Australians feel stress in at least one important area of their lives, and more alarmingly, 41% of Australians indicated they were experiencing unhealthy levels of stress. The usual list of culprits appeared: Work was cited by 72% of respondents as a primary cause of stress, Finances 67%, Thoughts about the Future 67%, Health 55% and Personal Relationships 41%.

So .. how wonderful to share my passion for meditation back in the corporate sector where I spent most of my career.  And many Australian organisations (large and small) are now stepping up and implementing employee wellness programs; from gym memberships and lunchtime exercise sessions, to onsite health checks and massage services. Corporate leaders and HR specialists are realising that there is a duty of care owed to employees that extends beyond just a physically safe work environment.

A 2009 study by Dr Ramesh Manocha at Sydney University found occupational stress decreased by 26 per cent after eight weeks of meditation.

Benefits of Meditation for Business

• Reduction in Stress - Stress costs companies millions every year in lost productivity, sick leave and inefficiency. Studies show that meditating professionals achieve more with less effort and experience significant improvements in physical and mental health.

• Improved immune system, overall physical and mental health – which leads to decreased sick days, absenteeism and dis-engagement.

• Increased productivity, energy and concentration levels – developing a stronger and more focused mind builds the potential for greater clarity, decision making and problem resolution.

• Enhanced creative thought and intuition – the potential competitive edge for any organisation in today’s global marketplace.

• Retention of high performing employees and generally higher worker satisfaction and engagement and greater office and team harmony.

On-site meditation programs provide an opportunity for employees to learn some practical, simple and time honoured meditation practices that are vital for coping with our modern day, high velocity lives. It is a constant delight to witness the sigh of relief when employees are able to ‘put down their load’, take a breath and recharge. Meditation is a life skill, and everyone can learn to meditate .. even in the office!

“Reminds me of the need to take time for myself / benefits of taking time out for other areas of life including work”

“It helps to learn techniques which can help you switch off, re-energise, and to just breathe. This assists in managing stress, and coping with a heavy workload.”

“Gave me time out and enabled me to learn different styles of meditation. An educational and enjoyable experience - learning strategies to maintain calmness and wellbeing".

The New Corporate Culture

(picture from The Daily Telegraph article)

I have really enjoyed presenting a couple of corporate meditation sessions in recent months. It is wonderful to be in a position to share my passion for meditation, in an environment I know so well. And it is always inspiring to bring people to a place where they find within themselves a sense of calmness and ease. Whether it was a special employee wellness event, or as part of a more high-brow corporate presentation day, participants have always happily discarded their shoes, closed their eyes and enjoyed the moments of mindful stillness! A welcome break from the cerebral world of business!

Meditation is a life skill! Meditation not only allows us to tap into a well of deep inner calmness .. but also improves our level of concentration and clarity .. which has has a positive impact on our personal life, our working life, our relationships, our health and our community.

Having worked for most of my career in an industry know for its ‘work hard, play hard’ culture .. I know from a personal perspective that I would never have survived the long hours, the ongoing performance and competitive demands, and insidious stress levels had I not had a secret weapon .. my meditation practice.

If I received a dollar for every time I was asked how I maintained my calmness amidst the chaos and noise … well, I would be a wealthy woman!

So wake up Australian business .. wake up to the growing levels of workplace stress, the rising disengagement of staff and increasing absenteeism figures due to stress related illness.

This week a very pertinent and interesting article in the Herald Sun!

The business of meditation : by Georgina Jerums, The Daily Telegraph, 14 Mar 2010

Victorian Mental Health Week

This week I have been invited to give a Meditation Workshop to a local business, as part of Victorian Mental Health Week which runs from October 4th-10th. Mental Health Week is an annual Victorian event (that has been running since 1982) and aims to :

· raise awareness of the importance of mental health and well being in the wider community

· increase community awareness and education about mental health issues

· encourage participation in life enhancing lifestyles.

According to the National Institute of Health 90% of illness is caused or aggravated by stress; and the World Health Organisation says job stress is a worldwide epidemic and predicts stress will be the number one killer by 2020.

Modern day stress is often insidious and hidden; we may no longer be the lunch plans for a field of hungry lions, but our modern day stressors are equally disturbing .. constant noise, endless engagements, ongoing distractions, emotional turbulence, threats to our self-image, demands on our professionalism, job losses and financial threats. Today we are still experiencing 'fight-flight' stress responses to modern day threats .. leading us to feel a loss of control, disconnection and sense of being overwhelmed. Suddenly unable to cope with the uncertainty and pressure, our body begins to experience health issues (dis-ease). We have lost our balance.

More than just a 'pain', job stress is partly to blame for significantly rising health care costs, falling productivity and increasing work absences due to illness. Tests have shown that chronic stress kills brain cells, affects the nerve cell connections in the brain, and hormones released by stress can impair the brain's memory centers. Constant stress through the body-mind impairs judgement and performance. "We have so many activities that help strengthen the body, we really wanted something to strengthen the mind" : Reebok, Company Health Promotion Manager Ron Bartkiewicz

When we rest the mind, we renew and reconnect with the quiet spaces and places inside. When our mind is calm, our life finds balance and ease. Meditation is the simple act of slowing down and is also an enjoyable and life affirming wellness practice.

In the corporate world, teaching people to reduce and manage stress through effective breathing and relaxation techniques is a first line strategy to reduce stress. It continues to surprise me how many people simply don't realize how their bodies react to stress, have forgotten what stress feels like and (unfortunately) what relaxation feels like. We may pound the tarmac or pump at the gym to honour our 'temple body' .. but when do you honour your 'temple mind'?

Energy moves on the breath and the fastest and most effective way to ease anxiety and restore equilibrium is to slow and deepen the breath. Just taking a moment to close your eyes and breath slow and deeply into the belly, pausing for a brief moment before exhaling fully you will instantly engage the natural relaxation response .. and slowly but surely your mind will follow.

Does your company have an employee wellness program? Have you considered providing staff with some simple relaxation tools, such as Meditation, to focus and improve their performance and sense of well being? Tell me what your business is doing to manage stress this week as part of Mental Health Week.

Business Happiness Conference, Sydney

From The Australian, BUSINESS LIFE: Ruth Ostrow February 29, 2008

Chief executives and managers from some of Australia’s leading organisations come together to hear how to be more effective in business through learned optimism and during the two-day gathering will meditate with Sogyal Rinpoche, Buddhist author of the international bestseller The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23293258-30538,00.html