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And so they did -- in the form of incentives for employees to lose weight, control their blood pressure and cholesterol levels. It was a huge success. "You allow and encourage your employees to become healthier, they become more productive, your company becomes more competitive," Burd says. "I can't think of a single negative in doing this." He concludes: "Making money and doing good in the world are not mutually exclusive."
One of the best -- and cheapest -- ways to become healthier and happier is through mindfulness exercises like meditation. Mark Williams is a professor of clinical psychology at Oxford, an expert in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, and the co-author ofMindfulness: A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World. According to Williams, after nine weeks of training, participants in a mindfulness program had "an increased sense of purpose and had fewer feelings of isolation and alienation, along with decreased symptoms of illness as diverse as headaches, chest pain, congestion and weakness."
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In fact, the health effects of meditation can be even more dramatic -- a matter of life and death. Williams points to a National Institutes of Health study that showed a 23 percent decrease in mortality, a 30 percent decrease in death due to cardiovascular problems and a big decrease in cancer mortality as well. "This effect is equivalent to discovering an entirely new class of drugs (but without the inevitable side effects)," they write.
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That last one is another way of saying that mindfulness is an antidote to burnout, which often leads to companies losing their most talented employees. Marie Asberg, professor at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm describes burnout as an "exhaustion funnel," which we slip down as we give up things not conventionally deemed "important." As Mark Williams and Danny Penman note in Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World:
Notice that very often, the very first things we give up are those that nourish us the most but seem 'optional.' The result is that we are increasingly left with only work or other stressors that often deplete our resources, and nothing to replenish or nourish us -- and exhaustion is the result.
One occupation known for burnout is physicians. Studies show that anywhere from a third to half of them suffer from it. But a 2009 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that doctors taking part in mindfulness exercises were less burned out. Even more dramatic was the fact that many of the improvements continued even after theyear-long study concluded.
This can make an equally profound difference in our work lives. As Tony Schwartz, author and CEO of the Energy Project writes, it's not about the quantity of time we put into a task, but the quality:
It's not just the number of hours we sit at a desk in that determines the value we generate. It's the energy we bring to the hours we work. Human beings are designed to pulse rhythmically between spending and renewing energy. That's how we operate at our best. Maintaining a steady reservoir of energy -- physically, mentally, emotionally and even spiritually -- requires refueling it intermittently.
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In short, happiness and productivity are not only related, they're practically indistinguishable. According to the iOpener Institute, in a company with 1,000 employees, increasing happiness in the workplace:
Reduces the cost of employee turnover by 46 percent.
Reduces the cost of sick leave by 19 percent.
Increases performance and productivity by 12 percent.
Posted by:Arianna Huffington
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