Qigong Anyone? Trying to Quash Stress

Sept. 15, 2003 -- At one law firm in Buffalo, N.Y., Mondays are a time for peace and quiet, reflection and relaxation.

But it's not because the lawyers at Renda, Pares & Pfalzgraf don't have enough work to do. They begin their weekly meeting at noon on Mondays by meditating.

"It's our universal experience here that much more can be accomplished in the practice of law if we are doing it in a thoughtful and quiet manner rather than in a frantic manner," says David Pfalzgraf, a partner at the firm.

Pfalzgraf's firm has been meditating for five years, but more recently, many companies have started using methods such as meditation, massage, mind-body exercises like yoga or Qigong and other relaxation techniques to soothe the frazzled nerves of its workers.

And outside of the workplace, some communities and schools are trying to alleviate mounting stress and tension with new programs. This November, residents of Denver will vote on a controversial initiative that would allow the city to provide stress-relieving activities such as group meditation to alleviate society-wide stress.

Blamed for everything from physical illness to psychological problems, depression and growing health-care costs, stress has been a growing problem for decades. Now more organizations are turning to alternatives to try to get people to relax — and save money at the same time.

Rising Cost of Stress

Job stress is estimated to cost American industry alone $300 billion a year from factors like absenteeism and job turnover, according to the American Institute of Stress, a Yonkers, N.Y.-based nonprofit organization that serves as a clearinghouse for information on stress.

More than half of the 550 million working days lost annually in the United States from absenteeism are stress-related, according to the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work. Unanticipated absenteeism is estimated to cost American companies $602 a worker per year, and health-care costs are nearly 50 percent higher for workers who report high stress levels, according to surveys cited by the AIS.

These daunting statistics have made many employers take notice.

"It wasn't until the cost of health insurance premiums got high that the pressure got on them," says Dr. Bruce Rabin, medical director of the Healthy Lifestyles Program for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The program develops innovative approaches to wellness and disease management.

Jeff Peckman, the author of Denver's upcoming "Safety Through Peace" initiative, says his program could save the city millions of dollars a year by reducing the amount of crime, drug abuse and traffic in the city. Peckman's plan does not propose any specific methods for reducing the city's stress level, but he has mentioned group meditation and offering healthier food in the city's schools as possible techniques.

"It has to work and it has to save the city money," Peckman says of the potential stress-reduction methods.

Meditating for Nonviolence

While skeptics are dubious, proponents of stress reduction hail the transformative power of techniques like transcendental meditation, yoga and other relaxation techniques.

One study showed that the levels of homicides, rapes and assaults dropped 23 percent in Washington, D.C., during an almost eight-week project in which about 4,000 people gathered to do transcendental meditation in different locations around the city.

"The phenomenon is amplified when people meditate in groups," says physics professor John Hagelin, director of the Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy at the Maharishi University School of Management in Fairfield, Iowa. Hagelin, a regular transcendental meditator, co-authored the study.

Many companies do not track the cost benefits of their stress-relief programs because they are so new and the savings are difficult to quantify objectively. But those that do offer the programs say their workers appreciate the offerings.

Wilmington, Del.-based pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca began offering Qigong, a Chinese exercise that combines movement and meditation, to its workers in its fitness center in the spring. The company also offers Qigong sessions as a way to open or close meetings or in lieu of a coffee break.

"They want to incorporate it [into meetings] to help refresh people," says AstraZeneca spokeswoman Lorraine Ryan.

So that it can better retain its nurses, two of the University Hospitals of Cleveland have been offering 15-minute breaks to nurses for aromatherapy, music therapy and Reiki massage, a form of massage that is said to increase a person's energy. The hospital, which began offering the massage breaks eight months ago, is currently studying the impact the program has had on retaining nurses.

"It's been very well-received by the staff," says Ron Dziedzicki, the hospital's chief nursing officer. "They told me they'd be very upset with us if we got rid of the program."

No Panaceas

Despite the rejuvenating effects of these techniques, not everyone is a believer.

Even health-care experts who praise the benefits of transcendental meditation say the technique is difficult to learn and is not for everybody since it requires people to sit still to try to clear their minds.

"It's wonderful if it works," says Rabin, of the Healthy Lifestyles Program in Pittsburgh. "But it's not the answer because very few people are able to do it."

Many proponents say most people should choose which kind of stress reduction technique they want to participate in, since what is relaxing to one person could be excruciating to another.

"The program has to be tailor-made to the audience you're targeting," says Dr. Paul Rosch, president of the American Institute of Stress and professor of medicine and psychiatry at New York Medical College. "There is no stress reduction technique that is a panacea."

For his part, Peckman says his proposal for the city of Denver would not force anyone to participate in anything they didn't want to do, and any stress-relieving technique offered would be purely optional.

Many "are wrongly thinking that somehow the government is going to become their personal stress manager," says Peckman.

Still, not everyone is a fan. Denver City Council member Charlie Brown, who opposes the initiative, describes Peckman's proposal as "horrible public policy."

"We've got budget issues like every major city in this country," says Brown. "We've got unemployed people. If you want to reduce stress, you got to find these people work."