| Without bothering to ask for our consent, | | | | That's why one of the most important skills for |
| globalization and technological innovation has rapidly | | | | our time is what Harvard Medical School has |
| created a new world. In today's demanding work | | | | labeled the "relaxation response". The relaxation |
| environment, there are few personal skills more | | | | response is a measurable state of profound rest |
| valuable than being able to flow with the | | | | which, when regularly called upon, permits the |
| accelerating and unremitting changes which are | | | | body-mind to effectively unwind from the chronic |
| driving our workplaces and defining our time. | | | | strain that adaptation stress imposes. Within |
| As we move through the twenty-first century, | | | | minutes, it achieves a state of rest that would |
| it's important to develop better coping skills and to | | | | normally be achieved after four or five hours of |
| build much needed resilience to the unusual scale | | | | sleep. All of the complex and interrelated systems |
| of today's changes. For example, over the next | | | | of the body respond by letting go of the excess |
| ten years we will likely undergo more change than | | | | stress and afford a tired and straining body-mind |
| has occurred in all of previous human history. | | | | a much-needed chance to properly rest, |
| Through a process called homeostasis, every | | | | recuperate, and repair. |
| body-mind has an in-built tendency to resist | | | | It's a total response of the body-mind. The heart |
| change, no matter whether the change is good or | | | | beat becomes slower, as does one's breathing |
| bad. It's an amazingly complex system that wants | | | | rate. Blood pressure and blood sugar levels drop. |
| to stay within narrow limits and return to that | | | | Brain waves slow down. Even skin resistance |
| state whenever it is forced out of it. Our | | | | changes. The entire body-mind system becomes |
| body-minds evolved over many thousands of | | | | quiet and has an opportunity to rebalance and |
| millennia knowing that in order to survive, stability | | | | replenish itself. Measurable self-healing occurs. |
| was needed. | | | | Every system in the body-mind has an |
| This need for equilibrium is a natural mechanism | | | | opportunity to regenerate and renew itself. It |
| that wants to keep things as they are. We | | | | goes beyond the advertising hype and produces |
| experience this automatic resistance to change in | | | | an actual experience worthy of the expression, |
| ourselves and we see it in our organizations. The | | | | "the pause that refreshes". |
| resistance is generally proportionate to the size | | | | Decades of medical research has proven that |
| and speed of the change, making the unusual | | | | everyone can be more in control of themselves |
| scale of today's changes especially demanding on | | | | by learning simple ways to properly unwind. By |
| every body. | | | | releasing stress on a regular basis, we have a |
| There is a pressing need for people to overcome | | | | natural safety valve that keeps it from building to |
| their natural resistance to change and become | | | | harmful levels. Almost everybody who uses the |
| more flexible and open towards it. Rosabeth Moss | | | | relaxation response discovers that they are much |
| Kanter, the former editor of The Harvard | | | | better able to withstand the on-going and |
| Business Review, described "flexible" as the most | | | | inevitable strains of modern life. They can absorb |
| important essential skill for organizational survival in | | | | so much more without negative side effects. |
| the new work world, along with becoming more | | | | They are able to flow more easily into the new |
| "focused, fast and friendly". But just telling people | | | | structures as they emerge, adapt to new ideas, |
| to become more flexible (and focused, friendly, | | | | and creatively respond to new challenges. |
| etc.) is like telling them to go fly. | | | | Those hoping to steer their organizations (or |
| To devise a strategy to enhance flexibility and | | | | themselves) through the white water that is |
| focus you must first understand that resistance | | | | clearly ahead would be wise to provide their |
| to change expresses itself in the body-mind as an | | | | workers (and families) with the "how to" of |
| arousal state commonly called stress. Over time, | | | | body-mind self-regulation, the relaxation response. |
| the wear and tear of too much stress plays a | | | | My bet is that the greatest success in the new |
| significant role in making us sick and impairing our | | | | wireless world will come to those organizations |
| performance. It keeps mentally and physically rigid | | | | and individuals who have learned best how to |
| and inflexible and especially resistant to change. | | | | effectively let go and flow better with change. |