Workplace Trauma, Recovery and Consciousness
James Hea, MBA
Director of Consciousness Advisor Program at Transcendental Meditation Canada
I want you to imagine a very loud “HONK”.? It completely startles you. You nearly jump out of your skin. I’m sure at some point in your life, that happened. Our first reaction is completely stressful. We jump, as part of the ‘fight or flight’ response. We want to get the heck out of there. Or in some cases, (and you can watch these on YouTube ??) someone lashes out and hits someone (the fight response). Once we realize that there is no immediate danger, we start to settle down. Our breathing slows down and we catch our breath. We may even laugh in relief. That calming down period is known as ‘recovery’. It is the physiology’s response to a stressor. If we are given enough time, we are able to reach a state of homeostasis. It’s as if it never happened. Micro-aggressions, stress, bullying, denigration in the workplace can lead to a stress response. In order to return to normal, our consciousness, the basis of our experience, needs to recover and return to normal. We need a tool to accelerate the recovery period and make ourselves more resilient to stress.
Unfortunately, when a secondary stressor happens, it prolongs the recovery period. If a series of stressful events happens before we’ve fully recovered, our recovery mode gets overburdened. Even our sleep at night, our ultimate recovery mode, may not be sufficient to allow us to recover. Now our system is in a state of agitation and more susceptible to stress. We may even be traumatized. The Transcendental Meditation? technique has been used to effectively address the effects of stress and trauma both for the individual and in the workplace. One experiences one’s consciousness in its most settled state. This is the basis of recovery and resilience. The TM? technique has been shown to provide a level of rest which is twice as deep as the deepest point of sleep, while simultaneously producing a state of restful alertness within the brain.
Trauma is when the persistence or nature of the stressor is so significant that we ‘never’ recover. Workplace stress can build up. This can lead to emotional breakdowns or worse. The list of the negative effects of emotional trauma at work are many:
The World Health Organization conducted a survey and determined that emotional trauma is widespread. Workplace violence, sexual harassment, racism, discrimination, toxicity in the workplace, downsizing, etc. can all elicit a stress response. According to the WHO survey, lifetime traumas and PTSD are prevalent in 70% of people surveyed in 24 countries. And emotional trauma can be experienced differently by an individual, even as psychosomatic illnesses. Some psychosomatic illnesses include:
During COVID, health-care workers and front-line responders were especially vulnerable to workplace trauma. Aside from dealing with the trauma of others, they spent many sleepless nights, were away from their families for extended periods, ate poorly and did not have adequate recovery time. According to ResearchGate(2021-2023), recent studies on nurses and physicians who started the TM program compared to the controls, show that they recovered more quickly and effectively from stress. This is an extreme case but is instructive for us for general workplace trauma and toxicity.
Emotional trauma in the workplace is experienced a number of ways:
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Organizations are at a crossroads. They need to think more creatively on how to engage their staff. This requires great emotional, creative and problem-solving skills within the minds of management. Actually within the brain behaviour of management. Fortunately, the Transcendental Meditation? program develops the full potential of the brain including: creativity, intelligence, problem-solving and most importantly flexible thinking to adapt to ever-evolving circumstances. For this reason alone it is a great tool and adjunct approach to any organization struggling with workplace trauma.
Workplace trauma is real. It does require both cognitive and emotional approaches to be addressed and resolved. For it to permanently take hold, consciousness must evolve. New brain behaviours need to be inculcated into the leadership and management of the organization on a daily basis. The Transcendental Meditation? program provides that most fundamental level of experience, the pure field of consciousness at the basis of all our thinking, speech and behaviour. This experience heals trauma and restores balance to the system. It allows the leadership, management and staff to settle into an open and receptive state so that change can be integrated. As a result, personal and professional relations improve. Past hurts and traumas are healed. The response to triggers is less severe. The recovery mode is more effective. We are more resilient. Life can return to normal. The individual and the organization can reach their full potential. We respond to those ‘honks’ more effectively and find ourself laughing a little easier.
References:
Staglin, G. (2021) “Trauma At The Workplace, What To Do About It”, Forbes, [Online] Available from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/onemind/2021/11/10/trauma-at-the-workplace--and-what-to-do-about-it/?sh=e5f422a39e1c
Kessler, R.C. et al. (2017) “Trauma and PTSD in the WHO World Mental Health Surveys”, National Library of Medicine, [Online] Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5632781/
Thompson, J. (2023) “Transcendental Meditation: The Solution to Stress in the Workplace”, business.com, [Online] Available from:? “https://www.business.com/articles/transcendental-meditation-the-solution-to-stress-in-the-workplace/#
Khokhlachev, P. (2017) “How to Neutralize Stress in the Workplace”, TM? Blog, [Online] Available from: https://www.tm.org/blog/meditation/how-to-neutralize-stress-in-the-workplace/
Cohut, M. (2019) “Transcendental meditation can help treat PTSD”, MedicalNewsToday, [Online] Available from: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/324501#:~:text=Working with a cohort of,or even reverse these symptoms.
Elder,C., Nidich, S., Moriarty, F., Nidich, R. (2014) “Effect of Transcendental Meditation on Employee Stress, Depression, and Burnout: A Randomized Controlled Study”, The Permanente Journal, [Online] Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3951026/
ResearchGate (2021-2023) Numerous studies on improving mental health and reducing burnout in medical staff. [Online] Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/A-H-Effects-of-TM-at-baseline-and-the-1-month-and-3-month-follow-ups-on-clinician_fig3_357421304