Past participants, along with clinical research, demonstrate that once your mind and body are no longer limited by stress, you are capable of achieving higher levels of performance. The peak "zone" elite performers experience can be created at will, for anyone, in all facets of their lives. While in this "zone", your mind and body perform with such a high level of efficiency and ease that results are substantially above the norm.

The Problem

The average stress claim exceeds $15,000, twice the cost of the average physical claim. The $200 billion a year employers lose from stress is growing. These potent facts are becoming a wake up call to all corporations. The corporate environment is under pressure from such events as; downsizing, expansion, philosophical business changes, and the need to acquire new skills. These events produce measurable performance inhibitors such as; exhaustion, depression, cynicism, irritability, and bum out. As the resources become limited and these symptoms increase, managers are scrambling to discover how to maintain a competitive advantage.

The American Medical Association's statistic that 60 to 70 percent of all patients seen by a general-practice physician come with symptoms that are attributed to unrelieved stress, illustrates that this problem goes beyond the work place. Just as the condition extends into the home, so does the stress of the home effect the performance in the work place.

Our society, which places a high value on achievement does not teach how to survive the resulting consequences. The constant strain on individuals wears them down.

The Solution

Teach a previously untaught skill, how to redirect the effects of stress. It is possible to leverage the energy of stress in such a way that forward movement is accomplished. This is performance enhancement through stress reduction. The Scottsdale Institute for Health and Medicine offers such a program. This scientifically based and tested program is designed to produce performance enhancement with the use of skill transference and exercises, permitting stress to become an enhancer rather than an inhibitor. Possible benefits include:

• Greater preparedness for rapid change (flexibility)
• Increased energy and productivity
• Improved communications and relationships
• Better concentration and prolonged performance
• Minimized conflictual or irritable behavior
• Improved stress and related health issues
• Reduced addictive behavior related to stress
• Decreased absenteeism and tardiness
• Lowered insurance usage

The Program

Scottsdale Institute for Health and Medicine's program is based on the 29 years of proven results at the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. The Stress Reduction Clinic approach is rooted in an academic and medical focus on stress. The more than 17,000 patients Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., and his staff have seen report 70% long term lasting results.

The eight week program begins with an evaluation where an individual shares his or her specific needs and the instructor outlines the course. The course meets for two and half hours each week with one full day between the fifth and sixth week. Many of the sustainable results occur due to the daily practice over the eight weeks. This monitored homework reinforces the development of new skills that are effective in reducing stress and increasing performance.

Only through dealing with the source of the problem, the lack of a necessary skill, can the stress in the work place be reduced and performance increased. It is this emphasis on fundamentals that created continuing payoffs physically and psychologically for the participants at the University of Massachusetts Stress Clinic. Published studies demonstrate the Clinic's ability to achieve an increased capacity to relax, greater energy and enthusiasm for life, and job, improved self-esteem and an increased ability to cope more effectively with both short and long-term stressful situations.