Relax Within ~ Jan R. Markle

Stress in the workplace is a great detriment to employee health and business production. These losses are unnecessary since stress management can profoundly affect the attitudes, health, creative ability and production of any work force.

High Cost of Stress

$19.4 billion are lost by US. industry every year due to premature employee death.

$150 million per year are lost by the U.S. due to stress-related absenteeism.

Between 1980-1990, the number of stress disability claims made by California State workers increased by more than 800%.

$700 million are spent every year to recruit replacements for executives with heart disease.

Chronic pain, hypertension and headaches (three stress-related disorders) make up 54% of all job absenteeism.

40% of employee turnover is due to job stress.

Worker's Compensation awards for job stress are usually four times the awards for regular injury claim.

Advantages of Stress Management

Business advantages of stress management:

Less absenteeism due to stress-related disorders

Less worker's compensation loss due to stress-related illness or accidents

Improved job performance

Less stressful, more efficient workplace

Improved employee attitude

Improved employee overall health

Health advantages of stress management:

Decreased stress-related symptoms

Improved sleep

Decreased anxiety

Decreased use of medications

Reduced pain, increased ability to manage pain

Increased ability to relax physiologically

Increased sense of control and improved self-esteem

"Research studies demonstrated that stress management techniques can lower cholesterol levels and blood pressure independent of diet."
-Dean Ornish, Reversing Heart Disease

Consumer advantages of stress management:

No side-effects

Non-pharmacological

Non-surgical

Cost-effective

Seminar Content

Jan offers seminars in stress management, creativity, power-napping, workplace stress and alertness and other related topics.

Your Employees Will Learn:

How to identify stress

How the body functions differently during stress

How stress deteriorates health

Practical, powerful coping techniques

How to identify and control thoughts that cause stress

Why negative thinking causes stress

Why relaxation reverses harmful effects of stress

Your Employees Will Experience:

Guided relaxation exercises in progressive relaxation, autogenics, visualization and self-hypnosis

Introduction to meditation

Breathing as a relaxation technique

Biofeedback demonstration of the mind-body link

Quick methods to relax

Seminars Offered

1. Get Control of Stress -- Relax and Be More Productive

Most of us are unaware of the physiological changes that occur in the body during stress. When stress is perceived in the outside world, the body creates the intense “fight or flight” response, seemingly without consent or control. Prolongued stress results in damage to body tissues, gives us health problems such as headaches, high blood pressure, insomnia, ulcers, and anxiety, but also results in decreased productivity on the job.

Biofeedback, relaxation and meditation can teach your employees to become more aware of how the body functions differently during stress and help them to regain control over stress symptoms resulting in feeling more relaxed at work and being more productive.

This seminar will cover the physiology of stress and the fight-or-flight response, physical signs of stress, learning to identify stress (symptom survey), stress and health, personal stressors, introduction to cognitive stress (stress due to thoughts), distorted thoughts, negative self-talk, affirmations and simple, powerful methods to cope with stress, both on the job and at home.

A biofeedback demonstration of the mind-body link will be presented. Participants will experience guided relaxation exercises in progressive relaxation and body awareness, meditation and guided imagery with the eventual goal of learning to evoke the relaxation response at will. Seminars are a mixture of lecture, discussion, demonstration, experiential guided relaxation exercises, in-class surveys and writing exercises.

Goals of seminar:
1. Understand how stress affects the body
2. Discover body symptoms that indicate you are stressed
3. Learn what stress is and recognize situations that stress you
4. Discover which thoughts contribute to your stress
5. Experience deep physical relaxation
6. Learn stress management coping methods to minimize the physiological effects of stress and allow you to be more creative and productive at work

2. Accessing Your Creative Inner Self For Better Productivity

If you or your employees have difficulty accessing creative ideas or find yourself not producing well on the job, most probably stress, in the form of a change, an event, or a stressful thought, is the cause. Stress mobilizes you to deal with the outside world and blocks you from accessing our deeper, inner self, the source of our creativity. The act of creating itself causes anxieties. Don’t let inability to recognize or deal with these stresses and feelings cause creative blocks and lo productivity.

Learn how stress and relaxation affect the creative process and your ability to produce. Learn how to cope with the anxieties that occur in the workplace and anxieties associated with each stage of creativity. Learn relaxation, imagery, meditation, affirmations and self-hypnosis to not only assuage these feelings but to focus and develop your production. Access your creative inner self by choice not luck.

Seminar goals:
1. Learn the stages underlying the creative process, anxieties that come with specific stages and methods to cope with each
2. Learn the relationship between stress and blocking, relaxation and creating,
3. Identify anxieties associated with workplace stress and ways to cope with them
4. Learn methods of relaxation, meditation, imagery and self-hypnosis to relax during work, to focus and develop your ability to produce
5. Learn meditation as a method of developing concentration. Learn how to choose and focus amid distractions.
6. Feel inspired and encouraged to create and produce, despite possible anxiety

Other Seminars Offered

1. Power Napping
2. Workplace Stress and Alertness

Types of Seminars

1 hour seminar including 1 guided relaxation exercise

2 hour seminar including 2 guided relaxation exercises

2 hours/week for 4 weeks (8 hours) including 6-8 guided relaxation exercises

1/2 day training (4 hours)

Full day training (8 hours)

Monthly review sessions

Less than 1/2 day trainings have additional transportation fees

Reviews

What participants in past classes have said:

"This class gave me an almost immediate relief from stress. My sleep has improved, my dealing with office personnel has improved. I feel much more energetic and my facial pain has completely disappeared."

"I now have a new attitude towards stressful situations and better control of releasing stress. This class taught me that I can overcome stress."

"It was an opportunity to relate to others with stress. I realized that I was not the only one suffering."

"It is almost immediatedly effective. It's stimulating, interesting and very motivating. One can see and feel it working."

"After each class I had a deep sense of calm and awareness. This lasted far into the evening. I learned to recognize the seemingly unrelated physical responses to stress and how to take steps to alter them."

"I was a bit skeptical aat first but the class was great for me. I learned a lot. Thanks. I now feel more relaxed when under stress by using the exercises."