Self-Help with a Scientific Foundation; Suitable for Corporate Environments
Helping to Create a Better World…
Until now, self-help and corporate environments have not been good friends. Happiness 1st Institute bridges the gap with scientifically supported stress reduction, optimism increasing skills that are both practical and effective.
The programs we offer are groundbreaking in numerous ways.
The tremendous benefits of decreasing stress and increasing optimism are great for employees, employers, and even customers. Employers benefit from increased engagement, reduced conflict, increased cognitive abilities, and increased emotional intelligence. Employees gain practical skills that make life feel more enjoyable without requiring circumstances to change. The skills improve their relationships at work and in their private lives. They also gain health benefits because stress decreases immune function which helps their bodies natural defenses keep them healthier. Customers prefer to deal with happy and positive employees so their level of satisfaction increases.
If you have salespeople, you may already know that optimistic sales people outsell even better qualified pessimists.
Our program checks all the boxes because the root cause of so many undesired things is the same — chronic stress.
Empowering employees with practical skills that enable them to reduce stress in every area of life, they become happier, more satisfied, healthier and smarter. Yes, smarter. Research is very clear that stress reduces cognitive function and optimism increases it.
Reducing stress has benefits that make many other things easier. Stressed bodies do not process food as well as bodies that are not stressed. Weight management is no longer defined as calories in–calories out. The new definition considers stress and mood, both of which impact how the body processes food and the food choices a person will make, with improved mood associated with healthier food choices.
Chronic stress is often the factor that leads to unhealthy behaviors such as alcohol and drug abuse, risky lifestyle behaviors, and even makes quitting smoking more difficult.
Ignoring chronic stress, or wearing it as a badge of honor–a common unhealthy habit–can lead to depression and other negative health outcomes. It increases the risk of heart disease, obesity, and diabetes among other things. TRUE Prevention–Optimum Health: Remember Galileo. Wellness from the Root Cause for the 21st Century provides citations that support the statements in this post.
Our society is operating with inaccurate information about the effect of stress and about how much stress is healthy (or not terribly unhealthy, to be more accurate). The decrease in immune function happens quickly enough that researchers have been able to measure changes in very quickly after a stressor is introduced to research subjects. We now know that the negative impact to the immune function, cognitive function, and endocrine systems happen quickly. Stress is not something to “let go” for a while and deal with later. Good stress management requires us to be aware of the increase in stress level when it happens and make smart decisions to proactively apply the stress management skills.
The skills we teach are not the dose dependent techniques commonly recommended. While those do help stress levels, their dose dependent nature has a few pitfalls. The first is that they do not provide long-term benefits. The second is that those who need them the most are least likely to do them. The third is that they treat the symptom, not the root cause of stress. Exercise, helping other people, going outside, petting your cat or dog, and the other most frequently recommended methods are best for short-term relief. For long-term benefits, a skill based approach is best. Even meditation, which varies between dose dependent for those who do not have a consistent practice to providing some long term benefits to those who use it consistently, does not address the root cause of stress.
That is actually good news because that means the best we knew to do in the past has been improved upon, making the potential for good outcomes better than it’s ever been. We refer to our program as self-help with a scientific foundation because each individual is responsible for applying the skills to their own life. But the greatest thing about our program is that applying the skills provides positive emotional feedback each step of the way–creating intrinsic motivation that results in priceless benefits for everyone.
Ask us how we can address your businesses pressing concerns. We’re glad to help.