THE SAMU MEDITATION CORPORATE PROGRAM

A Stress-Free, Healthy Employee Can Improve Your Profitability

Clinical, on-the-job studies show that meditation:

• Lessens job worry, tension and the desire to change jobs


• Increases efficiency, concentration, productivity and job satisfaction


• Decreases absentee rates


• Improves interpersonal skills


• Lowers blood pressure and improves overall health


• Reduces anxiety, insomnia and fatigue

The Stressed-Out, Distracted Worker Can Drain Your Bottom Line

• Workers compensation, absenteeism and stress-related healthcare costs drain business coffers of $150 billion to $300 billion each year.


• Metropolitan Life Insurance studies estimate that the equivalent of one million workers is absent from work each day as a result of stress-related problems.


• Stress is the culprit in increased risk of workplace injuries, heart disease, stroke, insomnia, ulcers, and colds and flu’s, contributing to high levels of absenteeism.


• Health care expenditures are nearly 50% greater for workers who report high levels of stress.

“Mindfulness Meditation Training Changes Brain Structure in 8 Weeks”

The Problem:
Stress dulls analytic abilities and reduces the brain’s processing capabilities, which often results in job dissatisfaction and high turnover. When employees suffer stress, the overall corporate culture can become a more rigid, tense, and less open-minded one. Stress expresses itself in employees’ chronic criticism of projects and plans, in sarcasm, suspicion, boss-bashing, and in an ‘us v. them’ mentality. Also, when the body is under stress, it produces cortisol, a hormone that in large quantities can weaken the immune system and promote hypertension.

The Solution:
Meditation is the remedy for the tension and fatigue that naturally follow a succession of long days spent sitting in meetings, responding to telephone and e-mail demands, and dealing with difficult people. It’s an ancient approach but a completely modern practice that, when practiced regularly, has a positive impact on productivity, efficiency and creativity. Meditation also improves the quality of life and helps to strike a harmonious balance between work and home.

The Program:
Meditation is not just sitting still and breathing. And it certainly isn’t a method of ‘zoning out.’ It is a tool to focus attention and heighten productivity.

Workshops and seminars are customized to suit the needs of each workplace and will include:

1. Listening exercises that teach the value of listening effectively and how to listen without judgment and ready reaction.


2. Writing exercises that help participants achieve clarity in the communication process.


3. Oral exercises that integrate the listening and writing exercises to further improve communication.


4. Instruction on how to sit still to develop concentration, self-discipline and a greater understanding of how and why things happen the way they do.


5. Breathing exercises that cultivate focus, clarity and equanimity.


6. Movement exercises to make clear that meditation is not a static activity, but rather a strategy for mindfulness in all situations.

Meditation works for each person in a different way and, once learned, does not require a special place or equipment.

Author Nancy O’Hara, with her Corporate Meditation workshops, provides a way to reach each participant at his or her core to encourage emotional balance. The sessions give them the tools they need to self-regenerate on a regular basis, cutting down on absenteeism and turnover, and expanding creative and intellectual critical mass.