I want to create a corporate culture that values its employees.  While building meditation rooms in the workplace is cutting edge, meditation is age-old.  Bringing meditation to the workplace is a new idea for America but a centuries-old tradition in other parts of the world.  I want to create space for employees to quiet their minds, encouraging employees to meditate, so they can be healthier people.  We don’t want people as widgets.  We want whole people.  Everyone benefits.  The company benefits because happier, healthier people equals more creative, more productive employees.  Health costs decrease.  Sick days decrease.  Focus improves. Desire and engagement improves.  The company gets good PR…both for their product or service and for potential and current employees as a perk for working at the company.  We’re not just creating a better working environment, we’re creating better communities, a better country.  We’re always competing with other countries to be the best, this is the answer.  It is not The Secret, or The Purple Pill, but it is as Samsung says it, The Next Big Thing.  One company, one room at a time.

I have been studying adult health and wellness since 1995.  I studied business in healthcare in graduate school while specializing in health behavior and health education.  I worked on Crisis and Suicide Hotlines in South Carolina and Indiana in the late 90s.  I was introduced to a mindfulness class in 2004 and worked individually with clients pro bono and for pay years later, coaching them and writing visualizations for them to find relief.  Creating meditation rooms for the workplace is just an extension of all of my experiences and insights.

I want this for the employees.  I want it for the companies.  I want if for my community.  I want it for our country.  I want it for everyone.

Melinda Easterling