Here’s some information that has put business leaders on the alert:
• The 2012 Workplace Survey released by the American Psychological Association suggests that a growing number of Americans report chronic work-related stress. 41% said they “feel tense or stressed out during the workday,” an uptick from last year’s 36% figure.
• Stress has been called, “the health epidemic of the 21st century” by the World Health Organization (WHO) and is now estimated to cost American businesses as much as $300 billion dollars a year in absenteeism, lower productivity, staff turnover, workers’ compensation, and other stress-related expenses.
• Business leaders are increasingly concerned about skyrocketing insurance rates and health care costs.
TM TO THE RESCUE
Research has consistently shown the stress-reducing effects of the Transcendental Meditation program. Studies conducted in businesses where the TM technique has been made available to employees have shown that it decreases health care utilization and anxiety, and increases efficiency, productivity and job satisfaction.
Excerpts from the video:
Jason Gunn, CEO of Oliver’s Real Food:
“In creating Oliver’s Real Food, I wanted to create a business which expressed who I am as a human being and made a positive contribution to the planet.
For us to be the best that we can be as an organization, we really need to take the time to nurture the people who make up our organization. Transcendental Meditation is something that I was introduced to just over two years ago now, and when I realized the shift, the impact that TM had on me as an individual, I very quickly came to realize that this is something that I felt I wanted to share with all the people that make such a wonderful contribution to the business of Oliver’s Real Food.”
Darren, Warehouse Logistics Manager
“I’ve certainly gained a lot more clarity from practicing TM a couple of times a day.
You definitely do come out on the other side of it feeling that the world is a lot brighter and that you have achieved some equilibrium, some calmness, out of all the hecticness of the day. And it’s good to just take that time out and come back to who you are again. I think that meditation allows you to be the person that you truly are.”
Amanda, Operations Manager
“Through Oliver’s I’ve been given an opportunity to learn Transcendental Meditation. I feel that it’s given me a personal experience in being calmer, being more appreciative of things within my life, a greater ease of dealing with situations, whether that be at work or at home. It’s something that I’ve noticed within our teammates who are also doing Transcendental Meditation that there’s a lot less conflict. It’s a lot easier to work together. Now we have 17% of our team meditating which I think is fantastic and it certainly does make the vibration, the feeling of our workplace, a lot different from what it was before.”
Paul Schwartz
“I helped set up the company with Jason and his family seven or so years ago. When I get an opportunity to meditate, I come back and I’m literally giggling sometimes, and rejuvenated and happy and rested and focused. It’s like I’ve started the day again. It’s an amazing feeling.
This company is really awe-inspiring. It’s all about you—your mind, your body, your soul. If you work on all that, and portray it in the way that you treat people at work, and the way that you talk to your clients and your customers, and say “yes” rather than being too negative about situations, and being positive and trying to make people happy, I think that’s a way of inspiring other people to be the same way.”
Gotam, executive chef
“Oliver’s is my happy place. A very happy place! I’ve just got the five ‘C’s’—clarity of thought, commitment at work, compassion for others. TM has helped me be more creative and more calm, at work, with people, with everything in life.
“We take each other for what we are and we build on each other’s strengths. You are not grooming yourself to be something else. You are what you are and I think that is one of the greatest things.”
Kate, store manager
“I feel that since there are so many of us meditating, there is a lot more of us working together and doing things as a team, and I think there is a deeper understanding of each other as well. It does make a big difference in how we work together and how we learn to accept each other, and our differences.
Laurie Thompson
“As more Oliver’s team learn to meditate, I think it is going to be a great impact on the business. I think everyone will come together as one in the sense that when you’re doing a group meditation, the energy that you get off it—it’s much better than doing it on your own, and you’re doing it as a team, so it’s going to bring everyone together!
There’s a much greater level of cooperation and coherence and support within the group because we all feel more human, we all feel more real, we all feel more happy and settled within ourselves. So there’s no sense of ego, of trying to prove your point or be better than anybody else. We feel a degree of connectedness which brings us together and we work better as a team as a result.”
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For more information about TM in business, go to:
www.tmbusiness.org
