Recent research, articles and media attention on Meditation (that have crossed my desk):
'STRESS: Its About Money and Work'
We know that too much stress can have a significant negative affect on our sense of wellbeing .. and impact not only on our view of the world, but also our relationships at home, in the office and a continuing ripple effect on friends and community. New statistics from a global study by the workspace provider Regus found that respondents felt the top reasons for their stress were: 49% personal finances; 48% their job; 25% colleagues; 17% partner or spouse. "Workplace stress is reportedly costing the Australian economy $730 million a year" said Jacqueline Lehmann, chief of Australian operations at Regus. "The heavy toll of stress falls not only on workers and their families, but also on businesses as they find that their staff under perform, need more sick leave and are less efficient". "Businesses that actually want to help their staff lead more rewarding lives cannot fail to analyse and tackle levels of stress within their oganisation" she said."(October 2012)
Recent article from the Financial Times Magazine that introduces us to some international organisations that have introduced meditation to their team. General Mills have their 'Mindful Leadership' program, Google the 'Search Inside Yourself' program and Target have a group called 'Meditating Merchants'. William George, Goldeman Sachs board member says, “The main business case for meditation is that if you’re fully present on the job, you will be more effective as a leader, you will make better decisions and you will work better with other people"(August 2012)
A recent study from the University of Washington Information School professors David Levy and Jacob Wobbrock suggests that meditation training can help people working with information stay on tasks longer with fewer distractions and also improves memory and reduces stress. (June 2012)
A recent study by cognitive psychologist Lorenza Colzato and fellow researchers at Leiden Universtiy found certain meditation techniques can promote heightened creative thinking. (April 2012)
Dr Mehmet Oz (Channel 7 televises his program in Australia) offers TM to his entire NY-based production team. “Any business is what it is because of the people who work there. Why not take people who are working at 80 percent, 60 percent, 30 percent of their potential and take them all to 99 percent of their potential .. It’s a powerful tool to turbo-charge the people in your organization and, I believe quite strongly, you would be very wise to give it a try.“ (May 2012)
Forbes magazine online features Chade-Meng Tan’s program at Google, called ‘Search Inside Yourself’ designed to teach emotional intelligence through meditation. ‘business-friendly mindfulness’. View an online video of Meng giving a lecture on Mindfulness. (May 2012)
Article from The Harbus (Harvard Business School) notes a new study looking into ‘whether meditation can help business leaders increase self-awareness, mental clairty, focus and emotional intelligence’ (April 2012)
Which 10 global companies are promoting employee meditation? Article from OnlineMBA .. some of the star businesses are Apple, Google, McKinsey & Co ... is your company offering meditation? (March 2012)
CNN review an article ‘Emotional Intelligence: The benefits of singing the blues’ looking at how introducing meditation and visualisiation practices have been shown to improve our ability to communicate well with others. (Nov 2011)
Australian study conducted by Dr Ramesh Manocha, Deborah Black, and Leigh Wilson publicshed in Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Volume 2012. The first study to report a cross-sectional survey aimed at assessing health and quality of life in a population of people who meditate reguarly and have done so for a long period of time. (Jan 2012)
Quiet Mind Meditation has been introducing the wonders of meditation to the team at Minter Ellison (Melbourne). A 2009 study by Dr Ramesh Manocha at Sydney University found occupational stress decreased by 26% after eight weeks of meditation. What are some of the benefits of introducing meditation to your business? (Nov 2011)
Australian businesses starting to wake up to the growing levels of workplace stress, rising disengagement of staff and increased absenteeism due to stress related illness. Article “The Business of Meditation” from The Daily Telegraph. (Mar 2010)
Researchers at Harvard, Yale, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have found the first evidence that meditation can alter the physical structure of our brains. Brain scans they conducted reveal that experienced meditators boasted increased thickness in parts of the brain that deal with attention and processing sensory input. (Feb 2006)
The Science of Meditation
TIME magazine (cover story) August 4: 48-56 by Stein, J (2003) "Not only do studies show that meditation is boosting their immune system, but brain scans suggest that it may be rewiring their brains to reduce stress .. Ten million American adults now practice some form of meditation regularly".
