Practicing mind over matter: Dr. Murali Krishna on Relaxation techniques to improve employee...

THE JOURNAL RECORDThursday, Jan. 3, 2013 www.journalrecord.com Vol. 118, No. 2 • Two Sections

Practicing mind over matterBY HEIDE BRANDES

THE JOURNAL RECORD

OKLAHOMA CITY – Dr. Murali Krishna wantseveryone to just relax.

As co-founder and president of the James L.Hall, Jr. Center for Mind, Body and Spirit, an affil-iate of Integris Health in Oklahoma City, and pres-ident and chief operating officer of IntegrisMental Health in Oklahoma City, Krishna said themost important thing employees and the public atlarge can do is relax and just stop stressing out.

Not only does stress negatively affect everysingle part of the body, it is also a physical force ongeneral health. It causes problems with heartfunction, brain function and every cell in thehuman body, but still, teaching patients and work-ers how to incorporate relaxation techniques toimprove productivity and overall wellness is achallenge.

“Using meditation and relaxation techniquesand using the mind, body, spirit connection is rel-atively new to Western medicine,” Krishna said.“In the 1970s, a doctor wrote a book about the mir-acle benefits of relaxation, and that’s what startedit in Western medicine. But, relaxation techniqueshave been going on for a long time in ancient tra-ditions around the world.”

Now, Krishna wants Oklahoma City and theworld to know that they can have an active role intheir health and happiness. He’s published a book,Vibrant: To Heal and Be Whole – From India toOklahoma City, and hosts podcasts about wellnessand happiness at integrisok.com/mentalhealth.

But his biggest challenge is teaching thoseskills to hordes of employees and patients who areallowing stress, frustration and anger to kill themslowly.

“The awareness of the mind, body and spirit isbetter in this community and much better thanksto increased media attention,” Krishna said. “Butin today’s society, it is even more important. We asemployees are now required to do more, tacklemore with less time and less rest. More is beingasked of us in our professions with less time toaccomplish it. The healing power of the mind,body and spirit and their connection needs to bediscovered and used in our lives.”

It’s easier now to engage patients in their ownhealing by using meditation or relaxation tech-niques than it was 20 years ago, and the health andhealing benefits of mindfulness is slowly gettingthe respect Krishna said it deserves from the med-ical community. In 1997, he was invited to speak toa group of doctors about relaxation and medita-

tion techniques.“They tell me, ‘We know you and respect you

as a doctor. How come you are getting mixed up inthis stuff?’” Krishna said. “I got up to speak tothem about how the mind, body and spirit con-nect. I tell them that if they areangry about their food beinglate or cold, whatever, if theyare angry, then in the next twohours, their chance of a heartattack goes up 230 percent.”

Now, major university stud-ies from Duke University, theUniversity of Wisconsin andmore are backing up whatKrishna has been saying.Studies show that negativeemotions like stress, anger, frus-tration and unresolved grief notonly cause blood vessels to con-tract and blood pressure to rise,they also cause platelets in theblood to clot faster. Negativeemotions create problems inevery single function of thebody.

“When emotions are verynegative, new studies say it alsocauses ourselves to age faster,”Krishna said. “It causes thetelomeres, which are the pro-tective covering on our cells andchromosomes, to break faster, causing us to age.”

Stress is bad. Relaxation and prayer-medita-tion help. However, in an age of speeding up andworking more and more, how do employers takeadvantage of this form of wellness?

“Relaxation and meditation techniques arevery powerful techniques that improve employ-ee health and productivity, and corporations willbe on the bandwagon soon,” Krishna said. “One,they know it is the right thing to do for employ-ees’ wellness. Secondly, it is economicallyimperative.

“When employees learn to control their stress,companies see enormous savings, and productivi-ty goes up,” Krishna said. “Meditation, prayer andrelaxation help people to learn to be mindful andaware. Just five minutes a day, and people see dra-matic changes within mere weeks.”

Krishna said employees who practice stressreduction techniques are shown to develop posi-tive states of mind and more engaged behavior.They also show improved emotional control, and ashift happens in the prefrontal brain from the

right side of the brain to the left, which results inbetter concentration, according to studies fromthe University of Wisconsin.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. is an Oklahoma Citycompany that is embracing the idea, Krishna said,

with its “Your Life Matters”program. The program helpsemployees understand howtheir emotional healthaffects their overall well-being. Topics include stress,relaxation techniques, howto get better sleep and howtheir patterns affect them.

Dr. Karrie Oertli, a chap-lain for Integris, says she’sseen the benefits of whatKrishna is trying to do.

“I think it is a hallmarkof good healing when apatient can access his or herown strength,” Oertli said.“That strength comes frommany forms, including medi-tation and prayer. Whenpatients use these methods,we see significant improve-ment to their health whenthey can connect with them-selves.”

Workplace stress also isaffected. Once an employee

learns calming techniques, it doesn’t take longfor that worker to be proficient at it. Althoughmeditation or prayer works to help a patient oremployee handle the stress better, it still will nottake the place of traditional treatment, Oertlisaid.

“Don’t do away with what has worked, butmeditation, relaxation and massage, they all com-plement traditional medicine and give patients achance to participate in their own healing,” shesaid. “Patients show a decrease in anxiety, bloodpressure and depression when they learn to calmthe mind.”

For more than 40 years, Krishna has collectedwhat he has learned about the mind-body connec-tion. It became the basis for his book.

“I wanted to share with people the things Ilearned from my experience – my insights, wis-dom and practical use,” Krishna said. “Whateveryou learn, you need to share, and this is very prac-tical experience that is very important. It’s to helpothers acquire the skills to help themselves andmake an impact on our world.”

Murali Krishna’s newbook. COURTESY PHOTO

Doctor: Relaxation techniques can be used to improve employee productivity