Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 20, 1994 TAG: 9402210337
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BY MICHELLE NICOLOSI ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
You're uncertain, angry, afraid; you can't concentrate, you can't sleep. Face it - you're stressed. The question is, what are you going to do about it?
You could just hope it goes away. Or you could try Pacific Bell media manager John Britton's method: "I take a deep breath, focus on the center of my forehead and concentrate" on being calm.
"It allows you to focus," said Britton. "It gives me a sense of peace."
Britton is one of a growing number of corporate executives and employees turning to meditation to deal with stress - some companies are calling in meditation instructors and even hypnotists to help employees deal with the added stress of mass layoffs.
"People really do need to be given coping methods" to deal with the stress of working in a downsizing environment, said Dr. James Harder, a clinical hypnotherapist on retainer with McDonnell Douglas Aerospace.
Harder uses hypnotic suggestion on groups of 20 to 80 employees, encouraging them to react to stressful situations in more positive ways.
Pacific Bell and Hughes Aircraft also offer classes emphasizing the benefits of meditation.
And Business Week reported in May that recent research on the benefits of meditation has convinced many corporations nationwide - including Adolph Coors Co., Marriott and Polaroid - to try mind-over-matter methods to deal with stress.
At Hughes, the classes help employees cope with the omnipresent stress that's part of "working in an environment where everybody is being let off," said nurse Susan Lofquist, wellness program coordinator.
Britton, at downsizing Pacific Bell, agreed that the classes help workers with job-security anxieties.
Such care for the feelings of the employee _ and willingness to spend money on addressing them - "used to be thought of as a thrill," said Harder at McDonnell Douglas.
But in these days of increasing workplace violence, "There's concern about safety," he said.
What do workers think about the semifringe coping method? Reviews are mixed: At one Pacific Bell class pushing meditation, "It was kind of controversial," said employee Sly Hannsz. "Some people walked out. They didn't take well to being told to sit on the floor and cross their legs."
Others are open to the idea - as long as it's sold as a technique and not an esoteric Eastern experience, said Steven Sadleir, founder of The Self Awareness Institute in Laguna Beach, Calif.
"Meditation is no longer considered voodoo," he said. "A lot of executives are open to it, as long as it's presented professionally. What they're worried about is, `Are you guys some kind of Hindu weirdos?'"
Sadleir is one of a handful of meditation instructors nationwide who have learned that the key to selling companies on meditation is to call it something else, such as executive stress management or mindfulness training.
"The word `meditation' makes people very uncomfortable," said David Morrow, a former businessman who teaches mindfulness training at the Sports Club Irvine in Irvine, Calif.
"If you say that you're going to teach meditation, no one's going to show up. I don't talk about meditation. I don't talk about Zen. I talk about control, about being in control of your thoughts and not letting your thoughts control you."
A similar sell worked on DataFax Vice President Bart Kreiss, who took Sadleir's class two years ago and now meditates daily.
Sadleir said meditating helps him cut down on the time he used to spend worrying, so now he has more time to work and do other things he wants to do.
"It's increased the amount of productive work that I do," said Kreiss. "That's definitely not esoteric at all. It makes a great deal of sense."
\ MILESTONES OF MEDITATION\ WHY ARE EXECUTIVES RELUCTANT TO 'FESS UP TO THEIR MEDITATING HABIT? PERHAPS\ IT'S THE METHOD'S OFTEN FLAKY HISTORY.\ \ Circa 500 A.D.: Bodhidharma, who is thought to have started one of many meditation movements in China, spends nine years in meditation facing a wall.\ \ 1875: Russian clairvoyant Helena Petrovna founds the Theosophical Society in New York; the group believes a secret brotherhood in Tibet supervises one's spiritual development.\ \ 1950s: The writings of D.T. Suzuki inspires a vogue for Zen Buddhism - and meditation - among beatniks.\ \ 1955: The Ananda Marga movement founded in India by Shrii Shrii Anandamurti spread to the West in the 1970s. Followers meditate several times daily; sexual intercourse is permitted only for procreation. The staunchest followers are celibate.\ \ 1970s: Suddenly, strange people wearing only orange are everywhere. They are followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, who sets up meditation centers around the world.
Transcendental Meditation, developed by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, sweeps the world. TM centers still are around, including one in Tustin, Calif.
\ 1971: Guru Maharaj Ji, 13, sets up shop in London, teaching thousands of followers "The Knowledge" - four meditation techniques. Learning The Knowledge supposedly gives people the ability to perceive divine light, divine nectar, divine harmony and "primordial vibration."\ \ 1971: Yogi Bhajan sets up the Sikh Dharma of the Western Hemisphere, otherwise known as the Healthy Happy Holy Organization. Members dress in white, wear turbans and follow a rigorous schedule of yoga and meditation. There are now about 5,000 followers in the West.\ \ Source Facts on File Dictionary of Religions
by CNB