And Now for Something Completely Different...
Bending over backwards may be necessary in business, but it's bad for you, according to a CPA-turned-yoga-guru, who has ideas on better ways to bend.
Bruce Van Horn, a CPA with a Big 4 pedigree, is a management consultant with a difference: He prescribes yoga.
"Business organizations, he says, "have failed to honor the individual as a complete being with unfortunate consequences. Emotions in the workplace such as grief, depression and anger are repressed until they explode, producing disastrous results."
His company offers yoga classes to corporations to help them develop a more effective motivational model. He is the CEO of Yoga for Business, Stress Consultant, author of "Yoga for Men" and the "Healthy Living Wellness Series, at his website www.yogaforbusiness.com.
"Many healthcare problems are caused or triggered by workplace issues, especially in the context of fear-based motivational systems. Stress triggers the fight/flight hormonal response which has been linked to short and long term increases in illness," says Van Horn. "Our entire industrial complex is at risk for massive litigation as workplace stress now costs our society $400 billion annually."
Van Horn believes that excess quantities of the hormones adrenaline and cortisol are rampant in our business organizations, and are literally killing us. "Men are especially vulnerable in the workplace because they view their jobs as their life," he says. "Mankind's first organizations as human beings some 6 million years ago were based on fear and the need to form groups for survival. Our stress response, which was the key to our early survival, has now become our greatest health threat and the single most important limiting factor in our longevity."
He says he has a cadre well-known names behind him, including Patch Adams, M.D., played by Robin Williams in the movie. "I am fascinated by your work," Dr. Adams is quoted as saying. "Our society surely needs it." Other luminaries: Dr. Bernie Siegel, Dr. Andrew Weil, and Dr. Deepak Chopra.
