Long Beach Meditation is offering businesses a way to help their employees release stress

[aesop_image imgwidth=”500px” img=”http://www.signaltribunenewspaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Screen-Shot-2016-08-04-at-3.35.42-PM.png” credit=”Photo courtesy Long Beach Meditation” align=”left” lightbox=”on” caption=”Dr. Victor Byrd, with the nonprofit Long Beach Meditation, is pictured leading a meditation class known as a “sit.” The organization has created an Employee Mindfulness Program in an attempt to reach out to local businesses.” captionposition=”left”] [aesop_character name=”Sebastian Echeverry” caption=”Staff Writer” align=”center”] In today’s society, the demand for multitasking on a day-to-day basis is growing at a rapid pace. With emails to answer, phone calls to make and deadlines to meet, it’s no wonder why a cubicle might start to feel like a cage for a stressed-out animal.
According to the Long Beach Meditation organization (LBM), it may just have the solution for business employees to release work-related stress.
The LBM, a nonprofit at 741 Atlantic Ave. in Long Beach, has announced its Employee Mindfulness Program, which is designed to teach a practice the organization refers to as “mindfulness” — a therapeutic technique used to calm the mind and body.
Dr. Victor Byrd, a 75-year-old psychotherapist with LBM who studied yoga in India, has been teaching the technique of mindfulness for 25 years.
According to Byrd, LBM has also been teaching mindfulness since 1993, and it is the one of the oldest meditation centers in Los Angeles County.
“In the beginning, when I was getting my master’s and doctorate’s degree, I was always very interested in meditation,” he said. “I started integrating meditation while working with people with anxiety.”
Mindfulness is the ability to train the mind to focus on what the body is doing at the moment, according to Byrd. If the subject is sitting, for example, mindfulness trains the brain to focus on the action of sitting and block off other thoughts.
“Anxiety is a vicious cycle,” he said. “The more a person is anxious, the more the person cannot stop thinking about it. Meditation is the only thing I know of that can help you gain some control.”
Byrd and LBM wish to reach out to businesses to help employees meditate and use the technique of mindfulness to train their psyche.
“We’ve talked about possible ways to expand what we offer here to other places,” Byrd said. “The obvious choice was to work with businesses where people are stressed out.”
Interim director for LBM, Kerry Gallagher, is working with Byrd to reach out to those businesses.
According to Gallagher, there is a starting fee of $1,000. The fee pays for an initial meeting, during which clients customize the program and its execution of the practices to fit their needs.
The cost also depends on the number of employees LBM would have to train. Gallagher said that a group of 100 employees would cost up to $1,500. The price can be lowered by adding more class sessions to the program.
Some options for customizing the program include conflict resolution in the workplace or simple meditation techniques for stressed-out employees.
“We want people to be happy and healthy,” she said.
Aside from the Employee Mindfulness Program, people can attend meditation sessions, called “sits,” for free, according to Gallagher.
Sits are hosted Tuesdays at 9am, Wednesdays at 7pm and Sundays at 3pm.