Olivia Evans
Louisville Courier Journal
March 30, 2023
Tucked away at the edge of the Deer Park neighborhood on a sprawling 27-acre campus is the Earth and Spirit Center, a nonprofit center devoted to applying mindfulness for personal growth and social healing.
The center, which opened in 2005 at 1924 Newburg Road, is the largest in the central U.S., serving more than 4,000 clients, from school groups to business professionals, annually with a variety of classes, social justice initiatives, and more.
"We've got individuals that are in these kinds of high-pressure situations, absolutely businesses and organizations, that there is a real need there," said Dan Galvin, a marketing representative for the Earth and Spirit Center.
This year, the center has rolled out the Institute for Applied Mindfulness, a new program specifically designed to increase mindfulness and help the business community, from entrepreneurs to large multinational corporations. While this is the center’s first year of having official business programming, it has been working in the business sector for at least eight years, serving some of Louisville's largest companies like Humana, the Louisville Urban League, and Catholic Charities of Louisville.
From 2012 to 2017, mindfulness gained traction and popularity, growing from 4% of U.S. adults practicing mindfulness to 14%, making it the fastest-growing wellness trend, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Today, the Calm app, a popular mindfulness training app, has over 120 million downloads and in 2020 had four million paid subscribers, continuing to show the demand for intentional mindfulness.
With this increasing demand for mindfulness on a personal level many are asking if now is the time for businesses to invest in mindfulness.
"I don't think now is the time to do it. I think it was 10 years ago," Rada Halaseh, vice-chair of the Earth and Spirit Center Board and senior financial advisor and first vice president with Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, told the Courier Journal.
Kyle Kramer, CEO of the Earth and Spirit Center, agrees and said that's one of the reasons his organization started its Institute for Applied Mindfulness.
"We're forming the Institute as a way to be much more intentional about that work and to develop a suite of core services that are geared to the needs, we've discerned that exist in the business community," Kramer said.
What is mindfulness and how can I practice it in my daily life?
Mindfulness is an intentional practice of bringing attention to the present moment experience without judgment. This skill takes time and effort to develop but has been found to decrease stress and anxiety over the course of continued practice, something that can be applied to a person's personal and professional life.
"Mindfulness is not wearing a saffron robe, shaving your head, sitting in a contorted position on a cushion, and burning incense," Kramer said. "It can be all those things, but mindfulness can be, and I think needs to be, a lot more everyday than that."
Early research from the American Association for the Advancement of Science into mindfulness practice shows that a wandering mind leads to unhappiness and that roughly 50% of people experience mind wandering in one-third of their daily activities, including tasks such as emailing, making presentations and other work-oriented tasks.
"One of the core fruits of mindfulness practice … is the ability to respond rather than react," Kramer said. "You can actually choose your behavior wisely and respond thoughtfully as opposed to just reacting instinctively."
While mindfulness can often be disbarred by skeptics, Kramer who has 30 years of meditation experience, believes in both the personal benefits and professional benefits.
"There's just a large and increasing body of research that indicates the effectiveness of mindfulness. It's not woo-woo," Kramer said.
How can mindfulness practice help businesses?
Today, the U.S. has 10.8 million job openings available, yet in January, 3.9 million people quit their jobs, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
"The companies that have been practicing (mindfulness) the past 10 years are not facing as big of an issue with the labor shortage that we're seeing. I mean, 11 million job openings in the United States … we're not going to fill that anytime soon," said Halaseh.
Dave Neuman, who is on the Earth and Spirit Center Board and was the former Director of Organizational Development and Chief Human Resources Officer for YUM! Brands, said "people don't leave organizations. People leave people."
Neuman believes that by rewriting organizational and work culture to adopt mindfulness practices will help increase job satisfaction and employee retention. And he isn’t alone.
In 2007, Google started a mindfulness training program for employees called “Search Inside Yourself” and by 2012, after increasing demand for the training from other corporations, the program has become an independent institute.
Neuman, who now works in organizational coaching and leadership, said the demand for mindfulness is something he encounters frequently.
"What I see in my practice is, particularly when I work with executives … is they don't know the language of mindfulness but they know that they're torn up inside, they know that they're stressed and they don't know what to do about it," Neuman said.
Mindfulness isn't something that only has success on a personal level. New York Times business reporter and author David Gelles discussed in his 2015 book "Mindful Work," that businesses like Aetna saw major financial gains from implementing a corporate mindfulness program. The company determined that a highly stressed employee was costing an additional $2,000 annually in healthcare costs, but after incorporating mindfulness in the business, productivity gains increased to $3,000 per employee, and healthcare costs decreased 7%.
Kramer notes that businesses see a wide range of benefits from mindfulness such as stress management, fostering better physical and psychological well-being among employees, improving focus and concentration, better productivity, fewer mistakes, increased job satisfaction, less turnover, better communication and emotional intelligence, increased creativity, and more.
"Bottom line is organizations and businesses, whether it's the Fortune 20, or a small nonprofit here in Louisville, Kentucky, we're all built on people, and all built on relationships," Neuman said.
What services does the Institute for Applied Mindfulness offer?
The center has seven businesses in the Louisville area currently enrolled in programming, and through pro bono, work they have an additional three dozen business organizations it serves. Programming typically takes a minimum of a six-month commitment, but Kramer said the center continues to follow up with businesses after the initial six months.
Depending on the size of the business and the specific set of programming they need, the Institute for Applied Mindfulness services can range from $1,000 to $10,000.
Once a business decides to commission the Earth and Spirit Center to engage in mindfulness training, a conversation is had to address the company’s area of need and what they hope to achieve from mindfulness training.
After the scope of work is determined, the Earth and Spirit Center team will provide an introductory offering that sets the tone with a basic understanding of mindfulness and how it can help employees have better work experiences.
Next, they begin business-specific programming with smaller subsets of workers that commit to a longer term of instruction. Some of this work includes workshops and team-building retreats with staff members that have expertise in the area of need. The center has seven full-time staff and 20 contracted staff members.
"Mindfulness changes you; it changes your brain, it changes the way you react to changes your degree of emotional intelligence and, and that kind of change takes time," Kramer said. "There's sufficient data to demonstrate that it works and we're in an economic climate, that demands something that works, and this right is a phenomenal set of tools."
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