This week in wellness news, if your company doesn’t offer a quiet room (yet), then make it a priority to take 10 to 20 minutes every day to quiet your mind. Add it to your calendar. Go outside and sit on a bench to close your eyes, clear your head, and take deep breaths.
Read that and these other great yoga, health & wellness stories from around the web.
- Yoga Reduces Major Depression: Harvard Study – “In the study, adults 18 to 64 years of age with MDD participated in either three (high-dose intervention) or two (low-dose) yoga classes per week and practiced coherent breathing at five breaths per minute. Symptoms of depression were measured at the beginning and throughout the 12-week study. Volunteers who took three yoga classes a week were more likely to achieve lower depression scores after 12 weeks than subjects who took two classes.”
- Neuroscience: This Is How Meditation Changes Your Brain for the Better – “When we meditate, we weaken this neural connection. This means that we don’t react as strongly to sensations that might have once lit up our Me Centers. As we weaken this connection, we simultaneously strengthen the connection between what’s known as our Assessment Center (the part of our brains known for reasoning) and our bodily sensation and fear centers. So when we experience scary or upsetting sensations, we can more easily look at them rationally.”
- Why More Companies Are Incorporating Meditation Into the Workplace: “Major companies are trying to capitalize on these benefits, incorporating meditation into their culture on a daily basis. Etsy’s headquarters include a “breathing room” where digital devices are not allowed. The only furniture is a stack of mats. Google goes a step further by offering their staff mindfulness courses, including one called “Search Inside Yourself.” At General Mills, there’s a dedicated meditation room in every building of their vast campuses, and they offer all staff members weekly meditation sessions and yoga classes. They also teach “Mindful Leadership” to settle the mind and create a calmer, more productive workforce. And Zappo’s, in addition to encouraging their team to meditate throughout the day, offers their employees EnergyPod chairs, massage chairs, regular wellness fairs, and on-site health screenings.”
