           |
 |
"The more that we have around us in terms of prosperity and health and good jobs, the more we realize that none of that, at the end of the day, is truly what it's all about." Karen Glatzer, founding partner, Portable Wisdom |
 "Hire by the Stars" To find the perfect pick for the job, these employers look beyond interviews and résumés.    |
ONLINE EXCLUSIVE Meditation significantly controls high blood pressure at levels comparable to widely used prescription drugs, and without the side effects of drugs. –AMA Medical Journal Meditators are able to reduce chronic pain by more than 50 percent while increasing daily function and markedly improving their moods, even four years after the completion of an eight-week training course. –Jon Kabat-Zinn, M.D., Stress Reduction Clinic Seventy-five percent of long-term insomniacs who have been trained in relaxation and meditation can fall asleep within 20 minutes of going to bed. –Gregg Jacobs, Ph.D., Harvard Medical School Meditation decreases oxygen consumption, heart rate, respiratory rate and blood pressure. It increases the intensity of alpha, theta and delta brain waves – the opposite of the physiological changes that occur during the stress response. –Herbert Benson, M.D., Harvard Medical School Relaxation therapies are effective in treating chronic pain and can markedly ease the pain of low back problems, arthritis and headaches. –National Institutes of Health, 1996 Reducing stress can dramatically reduce heart disease. In a five-year study of heart disease patients, those who learned to manage stress reduced their risk of having another heart attack by 74 percent, compared with patients receiving medication only. Reducing mental stress also proved more beneficial than getting exercise. –James Blumenthal, Ph.D., Duke University According to one study of more than 2,000 people practicing a transcendental meditation program over a five-year period, meditators consistently had 50 percent fewer doctor visits than did other groups of comparable age and gender. –Psychosomatic Medicine, 1987 Two groups were compared: meditators and nonmeditators. The meditators were less anxious and neurotic, more spontaneous, more independent, more self-confident, more empathetic and less fearful of death. –Atlantic Monthly, 1991 Twenty out of 22 anxiety-prone people showed a 60 percent improvement in anxiety levels following an eight-week course in meditation. –University of Massachusetts A study of women with severe PMS showed a 58 percent improvement in their symptoms after five months of daily meditation. –Health, 1995 $200 billion a year is lost to industry from stress-related ailments. –George Pfeiffer, WorkCare Group Seventy-five to 90 percent of employee visits to hospitals are for ailments linked to stress. –American Institute of Stress Stress is linked to the following illnesses: hypertension, heart attacks, diabetes, asthma, chronic pain, allergies, headache, backache, various skin disorders, cancer, immune system weakness, decreases in the number of white blood cells and changes in their function. –Nation's Business, 1994 Chronic pain, hypertension and headaches – all stress-related ailments – account for 54 percent of all job absences. –Alternative Therapies Journal, 1996 Thirty percent of adults report high job stress nearly every day. One study reported that more than a third of respondents were considering changing work because of job stress. –Northwestern National Life Insurance, 1991
Read Christine Van Dusen's "Managing + Meditating" in the Feb.March issue of PINK, on newsstands now. |
|
