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 A 10-Second Breather is an Employee Stress-Reducer -- By Bruce Van Horn Take a long, deep, from-the-belly breath and hold it for four seconds. Exhale for six. Now get your staff to do the same, and you could cut turnover, increase productivity and boost employee morale. A 10-second breather slows down an employee’s stress. It gives someone a quick chance to recognize the difference between a dire situation and one that’s merely annoying. It helps the body get over its natural overreaction to the perception of a threat. A few seconds and a deep breath buy anyone enough time to decide that he or she can influence, act on and even control what happens next. Is deep breathing too “soft” for corporate America? Consider the alternative: The National Institute of Occupational Health estimates that stress and stress-related injuries cost businesses $300 billion a year. That’s enough reason for 21 percent of employers in a Society for Human Resource Management poll to offer stress-reduction programs on company time, and for 56 percent to make wellness information and activities part of their benefits programs. On an individual level, think of what stress is doing to your top performers: • 43 percent of all adults suffer health problems caused by stress. • 75 percent to 90 percent of all visits to primary care physicians are for stress-related complaints. • A three-year study by a large corporation showed that more than 60 percent of employee absences were caused by psychological problems such as stress. • 40 percent of all workers turnover is the result of job stress. Corralling stress, medical experts agree, can head off life-altering and bank-breaking illnesses like diabetes, cancer and Alzheimer’s. And it can prevent on-the-job violence. There’s a link between individual health and organizational health. So employers can firm up a flabby bottom line by bringing activities to the workplace that help employees get a handle on stress. Yoga, for one, is about stretching, adapting to inevitable changes in the body and in the environment—including the work environment. And it can be a hard sell in the corporate board room. To sway decision-makers, try talking to them about health-inducing activities in language they can understand: • Scientists have determined that intelligence is located in all cells of the body, not just the brain. Yoga exercises can improve and enhance emotional intelligence and intuition of the individual, thereby improving and enhancing organizational performance. • Avoid talking about such activities in spiritual terms. It’s true that many exercises that promote mental health have a spiritual component. But describe them as “stress-reduction activities.” • Explain that stress-reducers help individuals change their reaction to stress. Suppressing stress inevitably causes headaches and back pain. Yoga helps release the very real toxins that can build up and cause the pain. • Describe the “tools” that yoga sessions and seminars introduce to stressed-out employees. A good program will enable people to put problems into perspective so they can react reasonably and more thoughtfully. • Determine the cost of stress-related health claims among your own employees, and compare such costs to preventative programs such as the Yoga for Business model. |
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 A 10-second breather slows down an employee’s stress. It gives someone a quick chance to recognize the difference between a dire situation and one that’s merely annoying. It helps the body get over its natural overreaction to the perception of a threat. 
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