According to reports, contemporary mindfulness began when biologist Jon Kabat-Zinn had an idea spawning from a meditation retreat in the late 1970s. This idea grew into a meditation-based program targeting stress and chronic pain at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he was employed at the time. This program became the precursor to Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), an eight-week session that includes mindfulness techniques of breathing and walking meditation, drawn largely from traditional Buddhist teachings.
But regardless of when or where meditation for stress began, the idea of “mindfulness” in the corporate world has more stock in Silicon Valley than a billion dollar unicorn startup.
Mindful Work, by David …show more content…
There is a body of evidence that suggests that its techniques can provide significant psychological and physiological benefits. The Duke University School of Medicine’s research has shown that, in America, an hour of yoga a week reduces stress levels in employees by a third and cuts health-care costs by an average of $2,000 a year. The studies have proven so convincing, that healthcare insurer Aetna sells yoga and other mindfulness techniques as part of its health plans -- proof that mindfulness has gone mainstream.
For a few years now, tech giants like Google, have been providing internal courses for employees called “search inside yourself” -- a term that may have seemed over-the-top hippie less than a decade ago. EBay has meditation rooms, and Twitter co-founder Evan Williams has introduced regular meditation sessions in his new venture, the Obvious Corporation, a startup incubator and investment vehicle. And the techniques are even on trend outside Silicon Valley; the mindfulness movement can now be found in every corner of the corporate …show more content…
The constant pinging of electronic devices is driving many people to the end of their tether. Electronic devices not only overload the senses and invade leisure time. They feed on themselves: the more people tweet the more they are rewarded with followers and retweets. Mindfulness provides a good excuse to unplug and chill out—or “disconnect to connect”, as mindfulness advocates put it.
Says Gelles, “We are so stressed. We are so bombarded with constant information overload. We are so addicted to our technology that the promise of a technique that allows us to come back to the present moment and stop obsessing about whatever it we just read in our Twitter stream or what we're about to post on our Facebook page has a unique and enduring allure that is totally understandable.”
Not to mention, the practice has become big business. Arianna Huffington, for examples, runs a mindfulness conference, a “GPS for the soul” app and a mindfulness corner of her Huffington Post. Chip Wilson, the boss of lululemon, a seller of yoga gear, has set up a website, whil.com, that urges people to turn off their brains for 60 seconds by visualising a dot. (“Power down, power up, and power
But regardless of when or where meditation for stress began, the idea of “mindfulness” in the corporate world has more stock in Silicon Valley than a billion dollar unicorn startup.
Mindful Work, by David …show more content…
There is a body of evidence that suggests that its techniques can provide significant psychological and physiological benefits. The Duke University School of Medicine’s research has shown that, in America, an hour of yoga a week reduces stress levels in employees by a third and cuts health-care costs by an average of $2,000 a year. The studies have proven so convincing, that healthcare insurer Aetna sells yoga and other mindfulness techniques as part of its health plans -- proof that mindfulness has gone mainstream.
For a few years now, tech giants like Google, have been providing internal courses for employees called “search inside yourself” -- a term that may have seemed over-the-top hippie less than a decade ago. EBay has meditation rooms, and Twitter co-founder Evan Williams has introduced regular meditation sessions in his new venture, the Obvious Corporation, a startup incubator and investment vehicle. And the techniques are even on trend outside Silicon Valley; the mindfulness movement can now be found in every corner of the corporate …show more content…
The constant pinging of electronic devices is driving many people to the end of their tether. Electronic devices not only overload the senses and invade leisure time. They feed on themselves: the more people tweet the more they are rewarded with followers and retweets. Mindfulness provides a good excuse to unplug and chill out—or “disconnect to connect”, as mindfulness advocates put it.
Says Gelles, “We are so stressed. We are so bombarded with constant information overload. We are so addicted to our technology that the promise of a technique that allows us to come back to the present moment and stop obsessing about whatever it we just read in our Twitter stream or what we're about to post on our Facebook page has a unique and enduring allure that is totally understandable.”
Not to mention, the practice has become big business. Arianna Huffington, for examples, runs a mindfulness conference, a “GPS for the soul” app and a mindfulness corner of her Huffington Post. Chip Wilson, the boss of lululemon, a seller of yoga gear, has set up a website, whil.com, that urges people to turn off their brains for 60 seconds by visualising a dot. (“Power down, power up, and power