Chapter

20

T’ai Chi as Corporate Wellness

In This Chapter

Understanding the benefits of starting a T’ai Chi program at work

Learning why T’ai Chi is a natural for the office

Web Video Support: exhibitions to show how T’ai Chi fits in at the office

Corporations all over America are integrating the powerful health and personal growth tools of T’ai Chi into the fabric of the workplace. Why? Because T’ai Chi can save companies big money, is very applicable to the office, and can lessen workplace injury, reduce stress, and boost performance. I have done T’ai Chi ergonomics classes for some of the world’s largest corporations, as are many other T’ai Chi teachers I’ve talked to.

This chapter details how T’ai Chi accomplishes these goals so you can speak with authority to your company’s wellness director about incorporating T’ai Chi into your workplace. Many companies will pay for a T’ai Chi program, making it well worth your time to suggest it to your wellness director.

The Bottom Line on Stress Costs to Business

You can help your company understand how sponsoring T’ai Chi classes is in its best interest as well as yours. One of corporate America’s highest unnecessary production costs is in lost productivity due to employee stress. U.S. businesses are losing $300 billion per year due to stress (that’s more than $7,500 per employee, per year), which may be why the Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration (OSHA) has declared stress a workplace hazard.

Using T’ai Chi as Stress and Pain Relief

Companies and corporations are increasingly turning to T’ai Chi as a solution to stress. Companies that have offered T’ai Chi to either their employees, clients, or executive staffs include Sprint, Hallmark, Inc., Black and Veatch Corp., Associated Wholesale Grocers, BMA (Financial), and Columbia Hospitals, to name a few.

Penthouse T’ai Chi at BMA’s headquarters became a popular wellness program. Approximately 100 employees attended the introductory stress-management-with-T’ai Chi workshop, setting a new record for employee attendance for a wellness workshop.

A community college near Kansas City provides T’ai Chi classes as a wellness program to its staff, and many participants are finding alleviation of chronic pain conditions, less stress, and fewer sick days. T’ai Chi is rapidly becoming the most popular wellness program for many companies. Isn’t it great that some companies are realizing that what is good for the employee is good for the company’s profits as well?

Investing in Creative Potential

If T’ai Chi can help employees recover from illnesses and thereby reduce absenteeism, that can also mean major savings. But what about creativity? T’ai Chi’s meditative quality enables practitioners to become more creative as they let go of being locked into old patterns.

Although now largely considered cliché, a popular corporate expression is to “think outside the box,” or look beyond the established way of doing things. It’s a useful concept, but how do you really think outside the box? You have to release the old ways of doing things. Again, T’ai Chi is about letting go of everything—mentally, emotionally, and physically. That requires releasing prejudices and preconceptions, making you clearer and more open to new possibilities and potential. If T’ai Chi can help employees think outside the box, this will open them to fresh, innovative approaches and may boost profits more than anything you could begin to measure.

SAGE SIFU SAYS
Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” When T’ai Chi and QiGong help us let go of physical, emotional, and mental tension, our “imagination muscle” literally expands. As we let go of old patterns, we open to new and exciting concepts that our old, tense bodies and minds couldn’t comprehend. We also learn more easily and are more creative in using what we learn.

Helping with Lower-Back Problems and Carpal Tunnel

A large part of costly, unscheduled absenteeism is due to employees’ lower-back problems. T’ai Chi is very effective at helping with chronic lower-back pain, as well as other chronic pain problems.

Because T’ai Chi is the very best balance training in the world, causing participants to be half as likely to suffer falling injuries as other exercises, T’ai Chi can reduce workplace injuries dramatically. Tell your company’s safety director to look into Emory University’s T’ai Chi study on balance. It will get his or her attention.

Some T’ai Chi exercises are very similar to exercises designed to prevent repetitive stress injury, such as carpal tunnel syndrome. You may be hitting several birds with your well-thrown T’ai Chi stone.

T’ai Chi Is a Natural for the Office

One thing that makes T’ai Chi uniquely ideal for the workplace is that it requires no special clothing or equipment. If you have 15 minutes and a quiet room, you are all set to experience some amazing stress reduction and energy boosting.

Because T’ai Chi is so slow and gentle, you often need not work up a sweat when taking a T’ai Chi break. By simply loosening your tie or kicking off your heels, you are ready to play. (See the Exhibition of T’ai Chi Long Form and Exhibition of Entire Mulan Basic Short Form on the Web Video Support to see how T’ai Chi can be done anywhere, in little space, and with no special wardrobe needs.) In fact, Sitting QiGong or simple Moving QiGong can be done right at your desk. As employees become more adept at these tools of breath and relaxation, they’ll use them throughout the day to reduce stress and boost performance.

A T’AI CHI PUNCH LINE
British dominance of the seas in the 1700s can, in part, be linked to the simple discovery that citrus fruits cure scurvy. Feeding British sailors limes, therefore, made it possible for British ships to stay at sea for much longer missions than enemy ships. Today’s captains of industry who realize that stress is the greatest threat to their crews and who give their people tools such as T’ai Chi to avoid illness and burnout will dominate in business.

The Least You Need to Know

T’ai Chi at work can save companies big money in avoided stress induced office politics; missed sick days; and increased creativity and flexibility.

T’ai Chi can be done in work clothes in an office. Just loosen your tie or kick off your heels, and you’re ready to go.

T’ai Chi can help employees get along better by helping them relieve stress internally, rather than externalizing it to fellow workers.

Companies can increase productivity by offering T’ai Chi classes to their employees.

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