Mindful Tools for Stress Management:

A 4-week workshop focused on workplace stress, especially in finance and investment management.

Class meets on April 18, 25 and May 2, 9. 

This 4-week workshop introduces mindfulness as a tool to work with our everyday experiences to support health and well-being as well as foster productivity and performance. We will explore the physiological origins and role of stress. Rather than eliminate stress, our goal will be to change our relationship with and response to it.

Mindfulness has been clinically shown to reduce stress & anxiety by 15% or more, lower blood pressure, improve sleep and well-being.  Mindfulness & meditation literally change the structure of your brain, creating new pathways that support positive habits. Mindfulness can improve investment performance by cultivating awareness, managing emotions, and refining focus. A recent program offered to 1/4 of Aetna's employees led to a 28% reduction in job stress, 20% better sleep and generated thousands of dollars per employee in saved healthcare costs and increased productivity.

Mindfulness can be defined as "paying curious attention to what is happening right now." Through practice, an awareness can be cultivated that supports focus and flexibility by meeting each moment with kindness and compassion. Participants will be taught how Mindfulness-Based Interventions can support a different approach to one's everyday experience. Through formal mindfulness meditation exercises as well as informal practices of awareness, students discover how to apply these techniques to their own lives.

Participants commit to attending each session and practicing independently 20-30 minutes each day. We will be studying what stress is and how it works while engaging in movement and meditation exercises together. The cost of the class includes course materials including the book Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn as well as follow-up consultation. This class meets on 4/18, 4/25, 5/2, and 5/9).