meditation

A group employee of Tokyu Fudosan HD taking a seminar on mindfulness. An increasing number of companies are introducing mindfulness as part of their training (Photo: Tokyu Fudosan HD)

“Now, pay attention to this moment.” Mindfulness is now attracting attention for its protracted corona sickness

“Weekly Toyo Keizai” (issued on February 22nd) features “de-stress”. It deals with how to review and arrange the four major elements “brain,” “sleep,” “exercise,” and “diet,” which are closely related to the generation and elimination of stress. We aim to achieve a stress-free state with conditioning techniques taught by experts in various fields such as physical trainer Shuichi Nakano, psychiatrist Shion Kabasawa, and professor Seiji Nishino of Stanford University School of Medicine.

Mindfulness is an activity that recognizes one’s emotions and accepts the state as it is, and can reduce stress. An increasing number of companies are setting up training because it will lead to improved productivity. However, there are many people who think that “mindfulness is somehow difficult to get along with.” We talked to doctors who specialize in brain science, companies that are training, and their instructors to see if it really works.

Change the way you perceive stress and adjust your condition

In late January, Sony Group’s Internet advertising company SMN held an online exchange event for mid-career hires. Due to the influence of Corona, recruitment interviews are conducted online, and work from home continues immediately after joining the company. The menu planned during the exchange meeting to reduce the stress of not being able to meet such people is the practice of mindfulness.

“Let’s pay attention to breathing and spend 3 minutes.” Mr. Satoru Nakamura, the instructor, said: Participants begin meditation at the signal of the bell that Mr. Nakamura holds. I also tried it, but soon I was worried about the manuscript near the deadline and the sound of the car running outside.

Mr. Nakamura explains, “It’s not a bad thing to be distracted. If you realize that you’re distracted, you should pay attention to your breathing again.” By repeating this breathing method, you can concentrate your consciousness on the “now”.

There was also a session that focused on eating. First of all, look at the food in front of you and feel the scent. After putting it in your mouth, taste it slowly. There were many people who called nuts and chocolate, but there were also people who concentrated on tasting Twice-cooked meat (Huikoro). Participants commented, “I was able to feel the importance of preparing my mind.”

Mr. Nakamura was an employee of Yahoo until last year and has a track record of introducing mindfulness to the company. The original program, which started in 2016, is said to have been taken by a total of more than 2,500 people. Now that he has become independent, he is conducting training mainly for major companies such as Calbee.

Mr. Nakamura describes mindfulness as “a method of adjusting conditions by changing the way we perceive stress.”

So what effect does mindfulness have in the business environment?

Sansan, a business card management service, introduced mindfulness training in 2017. In addition to meditation, the company also writes down the given theme of “journaling” in its heart. They form a pair and show each other what they wrote, but do not evaluate or judge. The aim is to be aware of values ​​that I do not even recognize.

Sayoko Gazuma, deputy director of the Human Resources Department, explains, “There are reports that her boss, who was easy to get angry with her, can now talk calmly with her subordinates.” Deputy Director Gatsuma himself became able to realize that “she is upset” when something unexpected happens in her work. She says she can calm down and work by taking a beat and moving on to her next action.

Suppresses excessive brain activity and relieves fatigue

The reason why major companies and startups are adopting mindfulness one after another is that it is effective from the viewpoint of brain science. “Mindfulness suppresses overactivity in the brain and relieves fatigue. Continued changes in the structure of the brain, strengthening areas of memory and concentration.” Akira Kugaya, a psychiatrist who studies brain science at Yale University in the United States and opens a clinic in Los Angeles, explains:

What does excessive brain activity mean? The brain is active even when we are vacant. The circuit of the brain called “default mode network (DMN)” is used for unconscious activities. I want you to imagine the idling of a car.

Meditation is a scientifically correct way to rest the brain that can suppress the activity of this DMN. In addition, the balance of the brain that controls reason and emotions is improved, and negative emotions such as anxiety and anger can be suppressed. Mr. Kugaya says, “Mindfulness is an effective means now that we are worried about the corona sickness.”

In the United States, the home of mindfulness, the market has already expanded to 100 billion yen. There are many meditation studios for meditation in urban areas such as New York, and there are more than 2,500 meditation studios in the United States.

According to Mr. Kugaya, mindfulness became a boom in the United States around 2007. Introduced by Google in the United States, it spread all at once by creating a unique program called “SIY (Search Inside Yourself)”. It focuses on getting in shape and recognizing oneself. Many related books have been published.

What kind of program is Google doing now that the corona is bad? When I asked the Google headquarters, they answered, “We are conducting online training to foster resilience from stress and anxiety caused by corona sickness.” It is said that it regularly distributes videos explained by athletes and psychologists.

Some time ago, Google had two programs, according to former employees and mindfulness experts. One is the SIY mentioned above, which takes place over a period of several days and delves into the underlying themes such as what to live for.

The other is a program that allows you to properly use the four energies of body, emotion, concentration, and mind. Make time to focus solely on meditation and eating. In both programs, employees became instructors and were conducted during working hours. “It was so popular that some programs couldn’t be attended without passing the selection,” said Pyotr Felix Gujibachi, a consulting firm representative who worked for Google five years ago.

Also contributes to improved productivity

It’s not just Google. Introduced by major companies such as Facebook, Cisco, Patagonia, etc. as being able to maximize performance in a limited time, “56% of American companies have adopted it as of a few years ago” (Kugaya) Mr).

Results with specific numerical values ​​have also been reported. Etna, an American health insurance company, surveyed employees before and after embracing mindfulness. The number of people who answered that they were “stressed” after the introduction decreased to one-third compared to before the introduction. Not all have introduced mindfulness, but per capita productivity has also increased by about $ 3,000 a year.

Although the number of companies that have introduced it is increasing in Japan, the awareness of mindfulness itself is still low compared to the United States. Mr. Kugaya and Mr. Nakamura, who were interviewed this time, have emphasized in common.

It is to think of mindfulness separately from religious ones. In the United States, it is easy to be accepted as “a little cool” like yoga. On the other hand, in Japan, there is a tendency to think that meditation is connected to Buddhism. Shaking off those stereotypes may be the first step in testing mindfulness.

Mindfulness will help reduce stress as the corona-stricken and stressful situation continues.

The special feature of the February 27 issue of “Weekly Toyo Keizai” (released on February 22) is “De-stress”.