Did you know that mindfulness can make people happier?
The practice has been credited with improving quality of life by reducing stress, boosting the immune system, increasing productivity and focus, improving sleep, and promoting creative thinking, and these are just a few of its benefits.
If you think it sounds too good to be true, so did we. At WealthChoice we are committed to helping executive women and their families live better, and one of the most critical elements to a better life is quality of life. With increasing discussion in the media on the benefits of mindfulness and strong scientific proof to back it up, we set out to learn more from Christy Cassisa, Director of the WorkLife Integration Programs at UCSD and the Founder of the Institute for Mindful Works. Christy graciously shared her story with us, and her passion for mindfulness, which we are excited to share with you.
Since her first experience with mindfulness in 2010, Christy has made it her life work to bring mindful practice to others so that they can lead happier, more productive lives. We recently heard Christy present on the subject and followed up with her to learn more about the many positive results of mindfulness:
FINDING MINDFULNESS IN A SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS
It was Christy’s personal journey that led her to mindfulness.
Christy came across mindfulness when she was suffering from post partum depression after the birth of her children. Having exhausted all other options, she looked outside of conventional solutions. Her husband was already practicing Zen meditation and suggested she try a weekend retreat for stress reduction by means of meditation. With little to lose, and a bit of desperation, she attended her first mindfulness program.
Christy shared that the program she attended was based on Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, a class developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn, while at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 1979. As an MIT-trained PhD, Kabat-Zinn was interested in mindfulness from a scientific perspective, and for its benefits to manage pain, rather than for its religious roots. This more scientific approach resonated with Christy, who also has a science background, and has proven to resonate with corporate America in the past few years. In fact, at the 2015 World Economic Forum, attended by global heads of some of the worlds largest companies, the mindfulness program could not accommodate the high level of interest.
Christy’s first taste of mindfulness led to another, and after attending an 8 week program at the UCSD Center for Mindfulness, she realized that she had discovered her passion for the practice and wanted to learn to teach it to others. She also found that it helped her manage her stress and depression, improved her ability to pay attention, and even improved her parenting.
HELPING OTHERS LIVE A BETTER LIFE
Christy’s prior professional life included positions in and around the legal field, including teaching roles. Through this experience she discovered a love for teaching others. She was also intimately familiar with the challenges shared by attorneys and the heavy personal toll the legal profession took on many attorneys. Her new passion for mindfulness and its potential benefits for attorneys led her to develop mindfulness programs for attorneys at California Western School of Law and BarBri.
The mindfulness programs were met with skepticism, though. As much as mindful practice has been proven to help manage stress, increase productivity and even help with addiction, its unconventional approach, and reputation for being rooted in Eastern religion has made it difficult for the legal world to embrace.
Passionate about the life altering benefits mindfulness affords, Christy turned her focus to teaching mindful-based programs to workplaces of all kinds, where it’s being embraced. She is currently the Director of the UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness WorkLife Integration Programs, and the founder of the Institute for Mindful Works. Locally she has delivered programs to corporations and universities who see the benefits of the practice for their employees. More and more forward thinking companies including Google, Intel, even General Mills, are adopting mindfulness programs for their employees. They have seen benefits to both the company and the employees in the forms of better health, productivity and even job satisfaction.
SO WHAT EXACTLY IS MINDFULNESS?
Mindfulness is a type of meditation. Jon Kabat-Zinn defines mindfulness as “paying attention in a particular way; on purpose, in the present moment and nonjudgmentally.” One of the primary ways we cultivate the skill of mindfulness is through the formal practice of meditation. Neuroscience is showing us that the consistent practice of mindfulness, primarily via meditation, results in measurable impacts on the brain, including changes in activity and even neural structure of key regions of the brain in many positive ways. These studies have shown that mindfulness practice results in increased focus, strengthened memory, resilience under stress and emotional balance, among other benefits.
Christy emphasized the importance of mindfulness as a consistent practice to reap its many benefits. Over time, the practice changes our brains for the better, raising the quality of our lives. But mindfulness can be practiced in small bites and still produce benefits. Adding another task to our busy lives can make anything sound unpalatable, no matter what the promised benefits are. Christy emphasized that there are mindful practices that can be easily incorporated in our daily lives, called informal practices. By practicing these consistently, we can see definite improvements in our ability to manage stress and notice the positives in our lives.
In our Western culture, it seems we are trained to require hard facts to prove that something is truly effective. Since 2010 there has been an explosion of scientific articles on mindfulness, as scientific data proving its benefits has become widely known. Now, doctors, lawyers, engineers, entrepreneurs, CEOs, professional athletes, police officers and even the military are beginning to acknowledge that this practice has merits, and are integrating it into their training protocols. Leaders, as well, are experiencing the benefits that being more calm, centered, clear and present can bring. And when leaders are happier, healthier and more productive, their people are too.
Christy summed up what she believes is the ultimate reason for incorporating mindful practice into our lives:
“We have a choice with how we spend our time, where we place our attention. Mindfulness helps us get clear with our purposes and the choices we make in life, and this in turn helps us live happier, healthier lives.”
At WealthChoice we truly believe better choices lead to a better life. To that end, we are thrilled to have Christy share her expertise in mindfulness with us at the WealthChoice Community event in March. Please visit our Events page for details.
To learn more about Christy Cassisa and her work, please visit her website www.instituteformindfulworks.com and her LinkedIn profile.
