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What’s the ROI on Mindfulness?

Mindfulness – What’s it worth? With busy schedules, taking time out of our day to practice mindfulness may seem counterproductive. The key is that practicing mindfulness improves everything we do. Mindfulness helps us to be at peace. Among many benefits, it helps us focus, increases productivity, reduces stress, improves the immune system, and reduces risk (physical and emotional) by virtue of being more aware.

Until recent years the benefits of mindfulness were not well tracked. As stress and distractions become more prominent in an overstimulated world, we are realizing that there is a real dollar impact of mindfulness (or lack thereof). We are now starting to see how mindfulness is connected to everything we do. The simple explanation is that by letting go of stress, we can process more of our experiences through the rational thinking part of our brain and less through the instinctive/reactive regions. We literally become more mindful and experience more moments of our life.

90-95% of participants in our mindfulness sessions reported a reduction in stress and an improvement in mood.

Insurance companies are realizing the importance of mindfulness. Aetna discovered that they earn $3000 more per employee (by gaining about an hour in productivity each week) and reduced expenses by $2000 per employee (yearly). SAP, a German technology has started rolling out mindfulness programs for its employees and noticed an ROI of 200% per employee.

The numbers are there for those who need to see them. My own work at JAH Advisory has found even more enlightening results. While practicing mindfulness with children and adults, we have made some interesting observations. Everyone (about 95% of participants in mindful sessions) reports reduced stress and an improvement in mood. Students are more engaged throughout the day. Relationships improve – between peers, teachers/students, and leaders/team members, and families. I can’t list all the amazing changes that a mindfulness practice can bring about.

Classroom Mindfulness Image

That’s the truly amazing thing. I already knew it, but seeing it in practices shows that the real value of mindfulness is priceless. You can’t measure the final impact on another person’s life and the positive impact they may have on others and so on. It is priceless. We can transform lives and create ripples by simply being aware. So remember to stay present.

It’s Never Too Late

Have you ever heard anyone talk about their health as if they are stuck and can’t improve? I teach yoga and too often do I hear “I’m not flexible enough for that.” or “I’m too old for that.”

I’m not just talking about yoga here. I’m talking about life, health, relationships, goals, and anything else where self-limiting beliefs might show up.

Well, there’s good news! It doesn’t matter how old or flexible you are – you can still practice yoga. In fact, we are capable of much more than we think. All it takes is the right intention and the openness to the possibility of “success” whatever that looks like to you. We have to believe – and I mean truly believe on a deep subconscious level – that we can accomplish whatever it is that we set out to do. Otherwise, you fail before you start.

So I’m not just talking about yoga here. I’m talking about life, health, relationships, goals, and anything else where self-limiting beliefs might show up. It’s never too late to work towards our goals. In fact, if you haven’t started already, NOW is the best time to start! Whether its running marathons, saving money, mending broken relationships, or simply living well – it is never too late to start!

Remember, everything works with patterns and repetition. The more you stretch and exercise, the easier it will become. In fact, the more you do anything, the easier it becomes for your body and brain! At first a new activity may feel difficult or awkward – and we may even want to sink into old habits. With practice, the pattern leaves more of an imprint on our brain and body, and it becomes easier.

Examples:

  • The more you eat healthy, the easier it becomes.
  • The more you practice eating out of stress, the easier it becomes.
  • When you relax more frequently it becomes easier.
  • When you practice self-doubt, it becomes easier.
  • When you practice positive affirmations, they become easier.

Some Hard Facts – Don’t Let Them Scare You!

  • Children are like sponges. It’s much easier for them to adopt new habits and behavior patterns than adults, but we can still do it! Our brains work similarly with the main difference being as adults, its filled with so much that we have to ‘overwrite’ old patterns to save new ones.
  • We can practice training the body and mind to its youthful capacities.
  • Believe in yourself! You can do anything you put your mind to!
  • Never say “It’s too late!” You are always capable of improving!

Are You ‘Too Busy’ To Relax? Busting 3 Myths About Relaxation

Remember to relax! It’s easy to get lost in the sauce. Too often do we get caught up with the motions of daily life that we forget to slow down and take time to check in with ourselves. We go through the day picking up tension as we go and when we get home from work or school, we keep going. It’s easy to go on to the next thing without taking a pause – taking a second (or 60) to enjoy your breath. Instead, we hold on to much of the stresses, static, and noise that we experience daily (think about a time when someone close to you had a bad day and took it out on you). We forget to relax and simply be. Thankfully, it’s also easy to take that pause and find stillness within – even for a few moments amidst chaotic life.

“When you take it easy, the next minute will find that you are happy. We all have problems. Life happens, and we move through it.”

Sadhguru

Relaxation Myths

  • I’m too busy to relax – This is simply not true. It just takes a minute. The thing about practicing relaxation is that it becomes easier the more we do it – just like any other muscle or habit. This means that we can relax faster (as odd as it may seem to relax quickly). No matter how little practice you have, 60 seconds of intentional relaxation is infinitely better than none. So if you have a busy schedule try a short routine that you can practice frequently.
  • I relax when I watch TV (or other activities – e.g. play video games) – This is probably the most common relaxation myth. We think we are relaxing when we engage in non-physical activities (like watching TV) but the nervous system is still engaged. We have to remember that just by thinking about something, we create the same responses in the body. That’s why we hold our breath or our heart beats faster when we watch an intense action scene in a movie.
  • It’s hard to relax – This might be the most believable of the myths. The thing is, it doesn’t take much active effort to relax. By definition, relaxing means to let go of tension – we are actively dis-engaging from physical and mental activity. That’s where it’s easy to get caught up. When we think about relaxing, we think about it too much which puts us in an engaged state. We put too much effort and work too hard for something that is actually effortless. All it takes is to be present and aware. The trick is to let go of control. This is what it looks like in practice: Bring your arms to your sides. Take a deep breath in, and make a tight fist. As you exhale, open your hand, relax your muscles, and let your fingers fall into a natural position. Allow your fingers, hands, and arms, and shoulders to fall towards the ground. If you have surrendered completely and are no longer fighting gravity – Congratulations! You are relaxed. Now do this with your entire body!

When we think about relaxing, we think about it too much… We put too much effort and work too hard for something that is actually effortless.

Jahmaal Hays

How to Make Relaxation A Part of Your Daily Life

We can use simple routines to bring presence and peace into our daily lives.

Morning rituals

  1. Allow yourself at LEAST 30 minutes without screen time (no smartphone or tv). This minimizes the stimulation to the brain and nervous system. When our nervous system gets stimulated in the day time, it is harder to settle back down.
  2. Take 1-5 minutes to do the relaxation check-in below.
  3. Notice how you are feeling (and if you want to continue the day with that feeling), and set an intention for the day. With this practice, we can let go of tension/baggage from the previous day and move forward with mindfulness.
  4. I recommend adding a physical activity and mental activity to the morning ritual. I practice yoga and sudoku as a part of my routine. That way I can engage my body and mind in a healthy way, without creating a distracting environment (e.g. Facebook or YouTube).

60-Second Relaxation Check-In

  1. Close your eyes.
  2. Take a deep breath in, and out, then breathe normally. Watch the natural rhythm of your breath.
  3. When your breath slows down, bring your awareness to each of the senses 1 by 1.
    • Start listening to the sounds around you
    • Then notice the smells and tastes
    • Notice the weight of the body and let it sink in with gravity.
    • Notice the thoughts, images, and words that pass by in the mind.
  4. Bring your attention back to your breath, and set an intention for the rest of the day or your task at hand.

Get Help!

If you’re finding it difficult to slow down and cultivate peace, then reach out to someone! Ask a friend or family member to hold you accountable to your relaxation routine or practice with you. And if you want even more guidance, contact the expert!

Gut Health

Why is gut health important? There are many reasons – and the most obvious might be the least important. Most often when people think of gut health, they think of diets or weight loss, but a healthy gut means much, much more. Your gut is your second brain!

Let’s take a deeper look… The human body contains roughly 13-30 trillion cells. The actual number is unknown and changes with age and other factors, as well as who did the calculation. We are always discovering more about the body, but the important thing to remember is that these cells are communicating in various ways in order to coordinate the many functions of the body. A trillion is a big number – hard to fathom for most people. Imagine if you had a million dollars, a million times – that would be 1 trillion.

With tens of trillions of cells in the body (containing our DNA, or made from it), it is truly miraculous how things stay organized in there for us to survive and live as a coherent human being. But here is what’s more amazing – we have more bacteria in our gut than the rest of our body combined. It was once believed that we have over 10 times as many bacteria (that gets into the 100 trillion range!) but that number is being revised as science progresses and we continue to discover more about the body. All of these are sending signals, communicating with the cells in our body, and interacting closely with the nervous system as well. Regardless of the actual number count, we can start to have an appreciation for why gut health is so important.

Feel with your gut AND your brain

You may have heard the saying “Trust your gut feeling” before, and for good reason. Your gut processes signals without the biased inputs from the pre-frontal cortex (the thinking part of the brain) or the lower/mid brain – sometimes referred to as the reptilian brain which is in charge of our survival instincts and fight/flight responses.

Communication between the gut and nervous system is a two way street – anxiety and stress can cause indigestion as much as indigestion can give us feelings of anxiety and stress. Eventually it becomes hard to distinguish between what is cause and what is effect. That’s why it’s so important to be aware and consciously interrupt these self-propelling cycles that don’t serve us and keep the patterns that are healthy.

This means that gut health is a part of mental health. Keeping a healthy gut means more than just having a healthy diet. It means to eat under the right conditions so your body can absorb nutrients and create balance for the nervous system. It means that we are aware of our food choices and making choices beyond the initial impulses (this is where we get to use the brain’s intelligence over what the gut craves.) For example, if you eat while angry, your body will not activate the proper relaxation responses, enzymes, and everything that goes with properly digesting foods.

And lastly, your gut actually produces many of the brain’s neurotransmitters. It is responsible for many of the signals that our brain is capable of transmitting in the first place. So you can begin to see why it is regarded as the second brain. Many cases of anxiety, depression, and other challenges for mental health can be corrected when the gut environment is in balance either by diet or by avoiding things that can destroy our gut biome like antibiotics which kill both good and bad bacteria in the gut. The issues are not in the brain, but in the gut. If you ever experience anything like brain fog or stronger feelings like anxiety or depression, try taking a look at how you are eating.

You Always Have A Choice

In life we have many decisions to make. Everything we do is the result of a choice – conscious or subconscious. One of the most important choices we can make doesn’t have to do with our actions, but has to do with our attitude – our state of being. Regardless of what our actions are, we also choose an attitude – a mental state to go with it. The difference between a positive attitude and a negative attitude is the difference between success and failure, motivation and depression. Choosing a positive outlook is a simple decision (so is a negative outlook) that can happen for some people without thinking about it. For others, it might take practice. It is completely normal to have mixed feelings, confusion, self-doubt, anxiety, and, fear. This is the natural disposition of human physiology and the fight/flight responses of the nervous system.

Once we understand that, we can accept it. We can understand the source of our feelings and from there choose a positive outlook. For most people, things can always be better, and they can also be worse. It is important to realize that we are not subject to our emotions or impulses. A good place to start being positive is practicing gratitude. Try naming 3 things that you are grateful for. Another great practice is to list 3 things that you like about yourself.

Here’s mine for today:
I am grateful for: life, my health, and the ability to share my knowledge.
I am wise. I am strong. I am capable.

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Be Yourself

Here I’ll share a little bit of a personal story.

Halloween is around the corner and because irony is one of my more favored humors, I wanted to leave everyone a positive reminder; wearing masks is fun, but being yourself is best.

But as I am writing this, I came across an interesting tidbit. October 29th is international internet day. I find this fitting because the internet is a symbol of communication and expression. The internet up many new channels of communication and expression. It gives us the ability to wear infinite masks. It also shows us how interconnected everything really is. We can open up portals to speak with and see friends and family from across the planet. Or we can communicate anonymously with millions of people. We can access information stored from incredible distances and carry it in our pockets. So I guess the other message for this post is let’s remember not to take the internet for granted and most of what we see online is a mask.

Some people worry about being judged by others, some people judge themselves too much. I fall into the latter category. As a child it bothered me that I would not be accepted into schools because of my hair – and when I did, I would be teased and get into fights with other children. It took a while for it to even occur to me to change myself for acceptance (which I tried and felt miserable).

You have to accept yourself before others can.

I’m more of the person to always ask “why?”. I accepted being different and stopped caring what other people think. Instead, I cared more about what I think, and set high standards upon myself. There’s nothing wrong with this but it’s important to remember not to judge yourself too harshly. Above all else, you have to accept yourself before others can.

We may want to be accepted into a certain circle, or simply appear a certain way to others. There are many reasons for wanting to wear a mask. Some believe that we are always wearing a mask. Regardless, we know what comes naturally and comfortably for us. This would be our “default mask” and nothing is better than this one. If it is a mask, it is one that does not create stress for us when we wear it, rather we find joy in being and expressing ourselves. Be yourself. Love yourself.

So yes, of course that means you can still be yourself AND dress up for Halloween.

Blessings,
Jahmaal