In 2004, the Chief Executive Officer of the giant health insurance company, Aetna, was on a family skiing vacation at which point he collided with a tree and fractured bones in his neck and back and severely damaged nerves in his arm. He gradually regained mobility but lived with chronic pain. Not wanting to remain on pain medication for the rest of his life, he turned to yoga and mindfulness mediation, which teaches people to observe their thoughts, feelings, and perceptions as they arise without judgment or resistance.
This insurance mogul was so impressed with these pain and stress-reduction therapies that he started to wonder whether 50,000 employees might benefit from them too. By 2010 he had enlisted the help of major yoga and meditation institutes in order to customize free yoga and meditation classes for Aetna employees, even providing spaces at the office to practice. Further, he teamed up with health psychologist Ruth Wolever to formally investigate the outcomes of these innovations.
In a three-month study of more than 200 Aetna employees, individuals who engaged in meditation and yoga slept better, felt less stressed overall and had more efficient heartbeat recovery rates after stress than those who abstained. In a follow up study involving more than 1,000 employees, presented this past May at the International Congress of Integrative Medicine and Health, Aetna’s mediation and yoga program was correlated not only with less stress but also with 47 to 62 minutes of increased productivity per week. Further, the practices seemed to reduce employee’s spending on health care, with a drop in care costs as a company after one year. The program has been so successful and popular that in February 2016, Aetna brought on a full-time chief mindfulness officer—presumably the first position of its kind in the country.