Relax to Renew

More Relaxation Benefits – boost your IQ in the workplace

Just last week there was a link on this blog about the relationship between IQ and relaxation. Here is more evidence: (from Globe and Mail newspaper Oct 27 online edition). In the study below, massaged workers, solved math problems in half the time with half the errors after the 15 minute massage!!!

Stress is known to be affecting the productivity of the workplace - “More than 78 per cent of Canadian employers identified work-related stress as the biggest threat to their employees’ well-being in a survey by Buffett & Co. Workplace Wellness Ltd. last year. And that isn’t good for business: Work stress costs Canadian employers billions a year, from problems with absenteeism and turnover to payments for benefits and services.

One 1996 study by the Touch Research Group at the University of Miami put 26 employees in the chair for 15-minute massages twice a week and another group of 24 who were just asked to close their eyes and relax in the massage chair.

They were monitored with an electroencephalograph machine, completed depression and anxiety tests and provided saliva samples. The results: those who were massaged reduced their stress more and improved performance more than the control group.

Not only that: The massaged workers completed math problems in half the time and with half the errors they had before they were massaged. The math skills in the control group did not improve.”