Idioteex

Posts Tagged ‘Happier’

Motivational humorous speakers can help bring humor and motivation into the proverbially stressful workplace. Recent studies reveal that humor and motivational humorous speakers can have a positive impact on the corporate bottom line, since a good sense of humor is a key communication tool that can bring about group cohesion and commitment, thus facilitating good performance and increased productivity.

A Gallup poll in 2005 found that only 31 percent of all employees felt engaged in their work and a sense of connection to their organization. These are the ones who drive innovation and move the company forward. But while an overwhelming 52 percent of the workers were not engaged and merely sleepwalked through their jobs, an alarming 17 percent were actively disengaged and unhappy in the workplace – they not only did not contribute positively to productivity, but also had a negative impact in that they undermined what the engaged workers were trying to accomplish. This Gallup study estimated that the lower productivity of actively disengaged employees could cost the U.S. economy up to $370 billion each year.

A recent survey conducted by an international consumer research firm reveals a full 90 percent of participants believe humor in the workplace helps relieve stress and a further 60 percent believe they would be more productive if their employers encouraged the use of humor. The results of the study indicate that the humorous style of a manager may be one of a number of factors that contribute to bottom-line performance and that the style of humor exhibited by a leader had a positive impact on unit performance. They suggest that leader’s use of humor may help shape a creative and efficacious work force. It also found that managers with a “transformational” leadership style – a management style known to promote the highest levels of employee and overall organizational performance – use humor most often.  Read more...

How many times have you turned to music to uplift you even further in happy times, or sought the comfort of music when melancholy strikes?

Music affects us all. But only in recent times have scientists sought to explain and quantify the way music impacts us at an emotional level. Researching the links between melody and the mind indicates that listening to and playing music actually can alter how our brains, and therefore our bodies, function.

It seems that the healing power of music, over body and spirit, is only just starting to be understood, even though music therapy is not new. For many years therapists have been advocating the use of music in both listening and study for the reduction of anxiety and stress, the relief of pain. And music has also been recommended as an aid for positive change in mood and emotional states.

Michael DeBakey, who in 1966 became the first surgeon to successfully implant an artificial heart, is on record saying: “Creating and performing music promotes self-expression and provides self-gratification while giving pleasure to others. In medicine, increasing published reports demonstrate that music has a healing effect on patients.”

Doctors now believe using music therapy in hospitals and nursing homes not only makes people feel better, but also makes them heal faster. And across the nation, medical experts are beginning to apply the new revelations about music’s impact on the brain to treating patients.

In one study, researcher Michael Thaut and his team detailed how victims of stroke, cerebral palsy and Parkinson’s disease who worked to music took bigger, more balanced strides than those whose therapy had no accompaniment.  Read more...