In previous note post, it was highlighted that how large or small businesses are turning to mindfulness meditation to increase productivity from their stress employee.

Bill George

Bill George, Professor at Harvard Business School, and CEO of Medtronic (1991 to 2001) writes in an article that he himself is a practicing meditator for more than 40 years. In the article he states that his entire family practice meditation regularly.

.. Executives share a wide range of practices they use to calm their minds and gain clarity in their thinking. They report that the biggest derailer of their leadership is not lack of IQ or intensity, but the challenges they face in staying focused and healthy. To be equipped for the rapid-fire intensity of executive life, they cultivate daily practices that allow them to regularly renew their minds, bodies, and spirits.

Bill George from HBR article

A CNBC article reported that Aetna CEO introduced Yoga & meditation at its workplace after he was introduced the practices while recovering from a 2004 ski accident.

Yoga & Meditation at Aetna

In the Times Well guide, author David Gelles writes that Aetna’s more than 10,000 employee have participated in mindfulness & yoga classes. The author states in the article that “those who took part, there was a 28 percent reduction in their self-reported stress levels, a 20 percent improvement in their sleep quality and a 19 percent reduction in pain recorded in surveys of the participants. They also became more effective, gaining an average of 62 minutes per week of added productivity.” An impressive result indeed!

There are many more similar success stories of mindfulness meditation in workplaces, which will be covered in subsequent note posts.

Additional Reading

• Developing Mindful Leaders for the C-Suite | Harvard Business Review
• How to Be More Mindful at Work | The New York Times Well

The content of this note post was sourced from the David Gelles’s How to Be More Mindful at Work guide in the New York Times Well.