Ninety-four percent of employees believe that their stress level affects their job performance, according to recent research from Meritain Health and the Partnership for Workplace Mental Health.

Employees also reported that stress affects their general attitude (55.8 percent), relationships with co-workers (39.4 percent), productivity (36.2 percent), quality of work (35.5 percent), and relationships with supervisors (33.2 percent). Interestingly, 52 percent of the employees stated that their employer did not effectively address stress or work-life balance in their workplace.

Fortunately, UC Davis is an exception to this last finding. The university is committed to addressing employee stress and the mental health needs of the campus through programs like Academic and Staff Assistance and Counseling and Psychological Services. At ASAP, we are committed to designing programs to meet the needs of the campus — such as coping with stress in the workplace. One helpful program that ASAP offers is the eight-week Introduction to Meditation course. After advertising the course, ASAP was overwhelmed with interest — we had to find a room that could comfortably accommodate 75 participants. ASAP is already taking names for the next Introduction to Meditation course due to begin in March 2008.

The interest in meditation was not only exciting, but speaks to a similar conclusion that Meritain Health and the Partnership for Workplace Mental Health found in their research. An overwhelming 95.6 percent of employees surveyed reported that mental and behavioral health is very (75.3 percent) or somewhat (20.3 percent) important in determining overall health. It appears that UC Davis employees would have responded similarly.

So, what is meditation? Meditation is an ancient practice that teaches stress reduction strategies. Through the use of breathing and a variety of other techniques, the body learns to return to a natural state of calmness. For decades, longtime meditators and physicians have touted the health benefits of meditation, a practice that allows participants to quiet their mind. Researchers have discovered that meditating 10 to 20 minutes a day can reverse the ill effects of stress. A daily practice has been found to lower blood pressure, heart rate and respiration. It has also been found to alleviate insomnia, depression, anxiety, anger, headaches, hot flashes and physical pain, and to help increase immunity as well as other health related benefits.

Until recently, scientists did not understand the physiological mechanisms that created the significant healing effects of daily meditation. Brain scans and MRIs have provided the first windows into understanding the brain behavior of longtime meditators.

John Kabat-Zinn, researcher at the University of Massachusetts, and Richard Davidson, neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin, have found concrete evidence for that which yogis and Buddhist monks have known for centuries — regular meditation practices can change the workings of the brain and allow people to achieve different levels of awareness, clarity and concentration as well as reduce stress reactions.

A 2006 Time magazine article, "How to Get Smarter, One Breath at a Time," notes that meditation not only reduces stress, but it also reshapes the brain. In its reshaping, the brain changes in ways that appears to increase attention span, sharpen focus and improve memory. Sara Lazar, a research scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital, found that daily meditation practice thickens parts of the cerebral cortex, which is responsible for decision-making, attention and memory. Her conclusion is that meditation makes employees sharper and more productive.

Based on these findings, large corporations such as Google, Hughes Aircraft and Deutsch Bank are now routinely providing meditation instruction to their employees. Employers, however, also applaud the practice because it not only increases employee productivity but also significantly decreases absenteeism, workers compensation and disability claims from stress related illnesses.

If you are interested in learning more about meditation or wish to address any problem affecting your work and satisfaction, call ASAP at (530) 752-2727.

Beth Cohen is the interim director of the Academic and Staff Assistance Program.