As Google employees cope with stress and stay creative

Google brings together innovators, passionately loving his job. Hard work or failure does not frighten them, and pushed to new heights. Such people are immersed in the work of the head. To prevent burn out his employees, the company introduced the recipe to get rid of stress.

Google, like always approached this business creatively: for getting rid of stress employees are using ancient Eastern practices.

Seek inside

Author of the book "Look inside" Chad-Meng Tan (Chade-Meng Tan), Google engineer, stood at the sources of the company. One day, he noticed that he and his colleagues is difficult to "switch off the operating mode". Away from work in the evening or at the weekend, take a break and refresh just thought it was almost impossible. Google has developed at lightning speed, but Tan realized in time that stress and lack of rest will not help in the work.

Tan practiced mindfulness meditation (mindfulness meditation), during which the meditator focuses exclusively on the breath. In 2007 he wrote the book "Look inside" - a seven-week mindfulness meditation course for Google employees. At first colleagues were skeptical of his idea, but then pointed out that the steel calmer, more focused, and the end of the day head remained clear.

Even company executives noticed that their employees become healthier, happier and more productively. Praising the work of Tang, they offered him the post of head of the department of personal growth that he taught meditation all Google employees.

Subsequently, Chad-Meng Tan created an educational project Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute (SIYLI). Under this project, Tang and 14 other like-minded people are taught awareness of employees of different organizations.

Rest to develop creativity

This advice is followed by Google employees. It turns out, meditation and relaxation not only help get rid of stress, but also enhance creativity.

In 2001, Marcus Reichl (Marcus Raichle), professor of neurology at Washington University in St. Louis, had a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the brain. He watched the activity in certain areas of the brain, if the subject was distracted or head in the clouds. He called it the network of the passive mode of the brain (SPRRM).

Reichl experiment has inspired many researchers to study the brain in a state of rest. They concluded that it was SPRRM often responsible for our creativity. This means that a great idea comes to mind most while walking than in agonizing attempts to come up with something.

A good idea is not enough when you're loaded. A good idea will appear in a moment of relaxation. It comes when you take a shower. It comes when you draw or play with cars with his son. When your mind is on the other side of thinking.

Lin-Manuel Miranda, American composer, creator of the famous Broadway musical "Hamilton".

Let's make the scheme most creative discoveries. First, we are immersed in the work, delving into the essence of the matter and deliberating on the problem. Then comes a dead end when we can not get the ball rolling, no matter how hard. At this point you just need to stop. If we give the brain a rest from debilitating thoughtsHe magically will give us the right solution.

Do not confuse the rest with laziness and inactivity. It is an active process, in which a person grows both physically and psychologically.

Rational thinking, of course, help in many situations. But sometimes you need to unleash your subconscious mind. It gives us the information of those parts of the brain that are not available when we think about something consciously. Neuroscientists have found that our subconscious mind works continuously. However, as I found Marcus Reichl, it will show the true strength only at rest.