Dr. Deitch: Hi I’m Dr. Jason Deitch and today I would like to welcome our god friend Dr. David Simon. Dr. David, welcome. I appreciate it. So I’d like to basically start off by asking you the question about, you are the cofounder and medical director of the Chopra Center. Alright and you have centers across the country, correct? Now you are training both you and doctor self-restraining is in medicine. What is it that inspired you to focus on the promotion of health and well being versus practicing traditional medicine?
Dr. Simon: I came in to a conventional medicine from a slightly unusual trajectory and that I actually majored in Anthropology as an undergraduate. I studied Shamanism. I became a yoga and meditation teacher before I even started medical school. So my vision of health and healing was much more holistic even before I started the conversation in medical school and when I realized that my view in the prevailing conventional medical view were somewhat in odds. I realized that either I was going to quit that whole process or spend my life trying to bring more awareness into how conventional medicine would take human beings’ health and wellness.
Dr. Deitch: Excellent. And as the medical director of the Chopra Center, your mission is to, how would you describe the impact that you’re looking to have on America and in the country.
Dr. Simon: I’ve been with the Deepak Chopra, Dr. Chopra now for almost 20 years and as anyone who has heard or read on of Deepak’s books knows he’s an amazing philosopher. He opens our minds to abstract ideas. My role really has been to bring those ideas down to earth, so to create programs, courses, seminars, trainings, ecumenical applications that really have a day to day relevance in people’s lives on the level of their physical health, their emotional health and their spiritual development.
Dr. Deitch: Excellent. And a great job you are doing I must say. How would you describe your perception of America’s health care system today?
Dr. Simon: It’s sick. I think it’s pretty obvious that despite having more money thrown at health care than any other nation on earth, the actual quality of health of our population is really underserved. You know, it depends on how you look at it but one way of looking at health at least from the perspective that I come from which is a perspective is health and happiness would be hand in hand and America as a whole is not the happiest group of people. So I think that we’ve been throwing so much money towards the end of life than trying to extend life for just a few days or weeks. And we haven’t put our attention in that development of those principles of health. And I think collectively and individually, we recognize this. Now we just have to start putting our efforts and our intentions where it’s going to really do the most good.
Dr. Deitch: Absolutely. Considering that most people spend a majority of their life and lifestyles I guess I should say at work, what role do you believe that wellness in the workplace might have? What impact do you think employers have on their employees?
Dr. Simon: I think it has to have culture of well being. In fact at the Chopra Center we have about 60 people working with us the Chopra Center and we regularly remind people that, yes we need for people to be productive because if the company isn’t productive we can’t continue working together, but that we really want people to be healthy and we would like very much for people to be happy. And our experience is when people are happy and healthy, they actually get more productive. And so, on multiple levels, in terms of staff turnover, in terms of reduced sick leaves, in terms of just general enthusiasm, creativity and productivity, bringing wellness, bringing healthy lifestyle into the workplace will have many benefits.
Dr. Deitch: Lots of, a strong return on investment so to speak. (I have no doubt.) Are there any specifics you could share or any trends you are seeing taking place that you would recommend that most employers look at or try to adopt. If somebody who is new to this conversation and they were trying to figure out, “What can I do? What impact can I have with my employees?” Do you have any specific recommendations or things that they should look for?
Dr. Simon: Sure, I mean in terms of trends, there’s interestingly enough. Last week, some senior executives from Blue Shield came to us and they’re bringing 500 of their own executives to the Chopra Center for a weekend wellness program because they’re recognizing that, here they are trying to promote health in the world but they’re not that healthy themselves. And they are understanding that if they can keep their staff more balanced, they would be in a much better position to think creatively about health on a global scale. I think that the first step is to really create that part of the conversation that literally as people enter into an organization telling them that “you staying healthy and being happy and staying balanced, as well as working hard is an important priority for us”. It means structuring opportunities in the organization so we have the Chopra Center. We have opportunities for people to do yoga classes. We have opportunities for people to take silence break. We encourage people to eat healthy. We mostly, I think the most important thing you can do in an organization is really teach people the skills, the conscious communication because, you know many studies recently have looked up at why people quit. Nobody quits their jobs. They quit their managers. And the stress of coming in every day in a relationship that erodes your self- esteem or puts too much pressure on a person ultimately has a negative effect on the bottom line as well as on the bottom level of well being of an organization. So we think learning skills of communication so that people identify their needs, express it in a way that it makes it more likely that they will be met, can substantially impact the well being of an organization.
Dr. Deitch: Absolutely. And if you are the CEO of a company that had 15 thousand employees across the country, what type of lifestyle recommendations or how would you shift to the work culture to be able to promote better health in addition to creating a culture? What perhaps might specific action steps might employers be able to take do you think going to a lifestyle daily habits, as you say the promotion of happy eating, happy thinking, those type of things? Are there specific action steps that you would perhaps recommend for employers?
Dr. Simon: We would teach the entire organization simple meditation techniques, because we find that when people know how to quiet down their mind, it’s like an arrow triple back and a bow that you take a little time to get still, to get focused, to get clear on what the target is and then when you release the arrow, you’re much more likely to hit it. And so we think that very simple meditation techniques can be taught in literally a group setting of 500 thousand people and then encouraging people to take five, ten, 15-minute mind-quieting breaks during the day will substantially increase happiness and productivity. We also think that there would be a strong encouragement for people to awaken fitness in their lives so having gyms that are available but also really encouraging people to take 20 minutes before the day starts or at the end of the day to engage in those behaviors. To distress, to strengthen their physiology has powerful effects. And then probably at an organization, there’s 15 thousand employees, there’s going to be a cafeteria so we really make certain that what nourishment you’re providing people there.
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