A Sustainable Approach for the Future

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Article by Cat Ashley (Q19)

With technological advancements and breakthroughs in research occurring every day, our society is racing towards a future filled with innovation and opportunity. Our ideas fuel the cycle of consumption and creation to build a better future for ourselves and generations to come. While creation of new technologies has an immeasurable impact on our future, consumption plays a major role as well, harnessing time, energy, and resources for the foundation of an end product. To preserve our future and enable progress, we must assume collective ownership of our future in our approach to sustainability and energy.

In our continual efforts to move forward, the energy industry has had its fair share of breakthroughs and setbacks. Remarkable progress has been made in the field of alternative energy, from advancements in solar and hydrogen fuel cell technology to increasing conversion of biomass into fuel. However, there are still a plethora of technological and social issues that remain in terms of utilizing these sources of energy. With nuclear power, the social responsibilities overshadow the technological capabilities, rendering it infeasible for years to come. With current technology, nuclear power has the potential to provide safe, renewable, and sustainable energy for the foreseeable future; but with this solution comes significant political and economical accountability. On the other hand, research and our current technologies can also limit growth. Biofuel and photovoltaic technologies are viable options for the future of renewable energy, but are not efficient or prevalent enough to meet the energy needs of today’s society.

While these renewable sources of energy are not nearly as efficient yet as they have the potential to be, we continue to depend on fossil fuels. In the long run, our demand will overrun the supply of these non-renewable fuels, putting the pressure on us to proactively seek out a sustainable alternative.

Energy is in essence what fuels our future, making the need to take ownership of sustainable initiatives ever present.  With a renewable and environmentally sound source of energy, we can progress further, travel farther, and explore fields previously not believed possible. Yet as engrained as energy is in our future and wellbeing, the need to utilize sustainable energy or decrease energy consumption loses its sense of urgency when approached from a day-to-day basis. As a society and collective unit, our actions and our approach to sustainability can greatly shape the future; with the right approach and dedication to resource preservation, the future can be a sustainable one.

While technology and research continue to open doors into the realm of sustainable energy, our choices and actions can contribute to the well-being of our environment, society, and future. From a sustainability perspective, if we all drive more environmentally friendly vehicles, carpool to work, make conscious decisions about products we purchase and consume, or conserve water and electricity, our collective energy consumption will decrease drastically, for the better.

The future is in our hands, along with the responsibility to make the right decisions and take the right steps towards sustainability in terms of energy and the environment. Individual successes in alternative energy research or technological advancement or social initiatives do not necessarily add up to collective success; these interdependent sectors rely on the cooperation and willingness to influence our future of all its parts. With power in numbers, and power from technological advancements in sustainable energy, we can proactively create a better future.

Then do the Harlem Shake

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Article by Jacob Wilkowsky (Q19)

February has been a good month for pop culture. There were the Grammys, the Oscars, the Super Bowl—each event soliciting hordes of celebrities and awesome commercials. Even the usual list of high-profile diplomats has expanded from the likes of Angelina Jolie, Bono, and George Clooney, to include the outlandish Dennis Rodman. (Hopefully we will see an NBA team in Pyongyang, North Korea soon.) However, there has been one cultural phenomenon that has outshined them all. I’m obviously talking about the tour-de-force that is, The Harlem Shake.

The first Harlem Shake video came out on February 2nd, and has since gone viral with over 175 million views. The trend involves recording a group of unassuming peers as they dance to the smash hit, Harlem Shake by Baauer. Initially the group performs mundane tasks, with the exception of one helmeted party dancing to the Harlem Shake. Then as the song drops at its catchphrase, “Then do the Harlem Shake,” the group suddenly goes WILD! It’s an elaborate art, so why don’t I just show you, because QUEST obviously did its own version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Js7930WGAXU&feature=youtu.be

So as I mentioned before, and as you just saw, it is an art. Notice the collaboration between Danny Laurence and Mark Barbagallo. Where did Danny find a mop? How does Mark so deeply capture the human condition as he gyrates in place? Obviously there are the stars like Michael Goglia (Banana Suit), but the whole production was truly a team effort. The ensemble includes talents such as Mercedes Valero, Cat Ashley, Stephen Barbagallo, Kenny Lopez, Meenu Singh, Aditya Sridhar, David Kravitz, and Erika Colostrom. And while we all loved making this piece of cinematic art, we suggest you don’t try it at home. Even though February has been a great month for pop culture, only so many can occupy the spotlight.

QUEST Alumni Updates: Erika Elko Wellness

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Article by Erika Elko (Q15)

It is not everyday that a CPA quits her job to start a health and wellness company, but that is exactly what I did in the summer of 2012 in creating Erika Elko Wellness. My friends, family, and colleagues were all very supportive, but there were still many others who wondered how or why I made this transition or how exactly I got from point A to point B. Seemingly, there are very different paths with very different intentions. To me, the path I took is really quite simple. I graduated from one of the top business schools in the country. A university that always inspired me to channel my inner entrepreneur, set goals, and pursue them. Moreover, I was a part of a program that taught me how to identify a consumer need and create a solution – the QUEST Honors Program.

QUEST impacts students in many different ways. It brings students together from diverse educational backgrounds, different levels of expertise, and different ways of thinking. Some graduates from QUEST will utilize the hard skills that are taught in the program including process improvement and systems thinking. Others will learn how to work better in teams to come up with a solution. For me and for the inception of Erika Elko Wellness, the QUEST program has impacted me in almost every capacity. QUEST taught me how to leverage my strengths and ask others for support in areas I am weak. QUEST gave me the confidence to use my business knowledge to identify a need and come up with a solution. QUEST fine-tuned my public speaking skills and my ability to write business proposals and effectively network with the individual and corporate clients that I do business with. I’d also be remiss not to mention the countless times I have reached out to connect with QUEST alumni, faculty, and staff for support in growing my business and other networking opportunities. A difficult question for me to answer would be, “How has the QUEST program NOT impacted the inception of my business?”

The Start of Erika Elko Wellness

As a long time fitness enthusiast and having been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease (a digestive disorder causing chronic inflammation of the intestines) at the age of 11, I have always been intrigued by health and nutrition. I also, however, have had a passion for business and entrepreneurship – thus, graduating from Robert H. Smith with a double degree in Accounting and Operations Management in May 2010. Soon after graduation, I put my affinity for wellness to the side and instead focused on trying to “make it” in the big world of public accounting. I successfully obtained my CPA and began my life working as an audit associate for KPMG in Washington, DC. I followed the path that many accounting majors take after graduating and heading into the Big Four – I gained exposure to the world of public accounting, made amazing connections, and worked with some brilliant people. However, after two years as an auditor, I still wasn’t getting the fulfillment out of my job that I always sought out as a student at Smith – more specifically, as a QUEST student. My desire to work with others to come up with a solution, network and branch out into the community, and become my own idyllic “businesswoman” wasn’t being fulfilled.

While working for KPMG, I got a chance to learn a lot of business acumen and developed myself as a strong business professional. I also became an expert on how to prioritize my time and find a work-life balance that met my needs of living with Crohn’s disease, staying active, and eating healthy. I saw how difficult this idea of work-life balance was for many of my colleagues who struggled to manage working long hours and find time to eat right and exercise. Many of my coworkers spent their workweeks eating late-night unhealthy dinners, forgoing gym time, and pushing their minds and bodies to the point of exhaustion. I couldn’t help but want to share what I knew about the importance of properly nourishing and moving your body every day. After all, I have been medication and symptom free from Crohn’s disease for seven years, which I can attribute to a healthy lifestyle and a balanced life.

It didn’t take long for me to realize that I could capture both my knowledge of business and my passion for health into my own company as a health coach. My mission became clear – to help people understand how easy and accessible a healthy life can be. I decided I would take what I know about business and marketing and marry that with what I had learned through my experiences of living with Crohn’s disease in the founding of Erika Elko Wellness. While still working full time for KPMG, I decided to enroll at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, where I was trained in more than one hundred dietary theories and studied a variety of practical lifestyle coaching methods. I also studied to become an ACE Certified Personal Trainer and Registered Yoga teacher to deepen my knowledge of the body and the mind and to be able to capture a holistic approach to health and wellness that I planned to deliver to my clients.

Fast forward just a few months into the beginning of 2013 and I have launched my website, completed several wellness workshops at businesses throughout the DC area, and am providing one-on-one coaching to private clients who want to better themselves through a holistic approach to health. I see clients with specific digestive disorders and clients who, like many working professionals, are struggling to find balance in their lives and want to learn how to make their health more of a priority. I also give wellness talks and “Lunch and Learn” workshops to companies who wish to implement health initiatives for their employees.

It is empowering and energizing to be the owner of my own business. I am still unsure where the next year will lead, but I do know that it has been such an amazing year of getting the opportunity to put the skills I learned as a QUEST student into action and doing what I love as a health coach.

Are you interested in a consultation or a wellness workshop for your company? Learn more about my health coaching and Erika Elko Wellness at www.erikaelko.com.

10,001 Reasons to Keep on Trying

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“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”

–          Bruce Lee

Can you think of anything you’ve actually done ten thousand times? Maybe it would be easier to identify something you feel like you’ve done ten thousand times (or more). Most likely, it’s easy for any one of us to think of an activity or skill we “practice” on a regular, consistent basis. Here’s the caveat though: how many of those things are we doing deliberately?  There’s a vast difference between merely jamming to “Rolling in the Deep” over one hundred times and painstakingly analyzing every second of the same piece even five times: one provides enjoyment, the other yields a greater understanding of what makes the song enjoyable. The same can be said for almost any activity; there is a fine distinction between consumption and engagement.

For example, have you ever been introduced to a person, only to forget their name less than a minute later? Often, the reason that we “forget” such things is not because we’re bad at remembering names, it’s that we weren’t truly paying attention in the first place! This is a concept that can be linked directly to mindfulness. The more awareness we cultivate, the greater mental resources we’ll have available to dedicate to passionate, pointed focus at any given time. Maybe that’s why we tend to describe some endeavors as “labors of love”; yes, they are intense and time consuming, but ultimately they are rewarding. When it comes to steadily improving in activities that we are invested in – be it as an individual, team, or business – our needs and priorities will shift endlessly, and sometimes this happens without us even realizing it. What typically determines whether or not there is a “Disney ending” to our quests is how much we are actively focused on the activity, monitoring the process, and measuring our results yearly, monthly, and maybe even weekly if necessary.

Maybe you’ve heard of Malcolm Gladwell, the celebrated author of “Outliers?” In Outliers, Gladwell discusses the common threads between expert groups and individuals. He traces the success of experts to something he terms the “10,000 Hour-Rule,” i.e. a belief that amassing the skills required to perform at an extraordinary level generally requires a similar amount of time for most people, roughly 10,000 hours or about 10 years (at 2.8 hours a day). This finding hinges on a multiple authored and exhaustive study of over 900 pages of peer reviewed research on the development of expertise. The information was synthesized into a handbook (The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance).

If there’s anything to be taken from this finding, it’s the idea that it is entirely possible to reach a superlative level of performance in the arts, academics, sport, and/ or workplace if practice is approached in a deliberate and consistent manner. 10,000 hours of practice won’t guarantee that you’ll be among the most skilled in the world but 10,000 hours of deliberate practice just might. And that may be another reason to just keep on trying.

 

To see a few interesting examples of deliberate practice in action, get an idea of what practice is “deliberate enough”, and read a funny story about wine check out: http://www.uvm.edu/~pdodds/files/papers/others/everything/ericsson2007a.pdf

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note from QAB Chair, Steve Kutchi

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I would like to introduce myself as the newly elected QUEST Alumni Board Chair.  My name is Steve Kutchi, and I completed QUEST with Cohort 1 in 1996.  At that time the program was in its infancy and named the IBM-TQ Program.  I graduated the Clark School of Engineering in 1997 with a BS in Mechanical Engineering.  For the last 15 plus years I have been designing wireless and satellite communications equipment for a variety of markets and needs including consumer, commercial, public safety, and tactical/military.

I reconnected with QUEST in late 2011 when I joined the QUEST Alumni Board, and was immediately impressed by the growth of the program and strength of the student and alumni fellowship.  Throughout the years I always valued my QUEST experience and relied on the lessons and skills earned from QUEST, however I hadn’t stayed close with the program.  I realized after my reconnection there was so much more QUEST could offer me and my fellow alumni by being a part of the QUEST Alumni Network.  More importantly the QUEST program and students greatly benefit from the input and participation from the alumni and their companies.  This realization really hit home at the gathering of alumni and students for the 20th Anniversary Gala.

I have high hopes for QUEST in the next 20 years, and we can all benefit from gains made in the next year.  I have lots of exciting plans for this next year, and I’d like to share two that I think are key to the QUEST program’s long term course.  First, I would like to strengthen and grow the alumni network and community.  The 20th Anniversary Gala was incredible, but there are so many more alumni out there that are not tied back into the program.  The alumni network benefits every alumnus across the country professionally and personally, and brings critical insight and support back into the program.  Second, the alumni represent an untapped wealth of ideas, talents, and financial support for the program.  I would like to see the percentage of alumni contributing to the program grow to 10% in the next year.  Your contribution of time, talent, or treasure shows support for the program and helps to grow the program which are key to the student experience and education as well as maintaining and growing corporate partnerships and resources from the university.

I am looking forward to your support in this next year in any way that you can contribute.  Please help me and the rest of the QUEST Alumni Board to support the QUEST program, administration, and staff to take a big step forward into the next 20 years of QUEST so we can gather for a 40th Anniversary looking back at how much the program as grown since today.

Sincerely,

Steve Kutchi

Cohort 1

How We Survived 5 Weeks Without QUEST

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Article by Nicole Blahut (Q20)

For most, QUEST is more than just an academic program, but a family. To be split apart from your family can be very difficult for some. So, we talked to students and staff about how they were able to make their way through the entire winter break without QUEST.

Some students were not able to get past leaving QUEST behind.

“I did not survive 5 weeks without QUEST. I was so tired I had to use DMAIC to convince myself to get out of bed.” – Cole Parker

Some found exciting things to do to keep their mind off QUEST.

“This Winter, I decided to go back to the motherland (India), mainly to see my relatives. However, since this was the first time I’ve gone alone, I was able to do operate on my own agenda – which was a relief – and to do a lot of things I have never done, including seeing the nightlife in Mumbai! The highlights of the trip were easily getting my wisdom tooth removed for less than $20, visiting the hospital where I was born, and buying not one, but two suits.” –Manas Kulkarni

Others just simply could not go 5 weeks without QUEST. They instead met up with each other over break.

Some went snowboarding together.

“There was no better way to spend the winter than in the snow with Genevieve, Lauren, and Kenny!” –Michael Shindledecker

Some went to Israel together.

“I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to share my Birthright experiences with some of my fellow QUESTees” –Ethan Schindel

Others went on an organized trip with the QUEST program to China.

“I really enjoyed the China trip. It was great spending my break with Q20 as well as getting to know other QUESTees. I really learned a lot from the class and my classmates that I couldn’t have learned from a classroom.” –Caitlin Myers

“Fortunately, I was on the trip to China and had several meetings with the QAB Executive Committee and my fellow teammates in the Quality Guild so I didn’t miss QUEST.  However, I did miss having the students on campus.  I look forward to their return!” –Dr. Joseph Bailey

So, it seems for a lot of QUEST students, not even a winter break can keep them apart!

QUEST2China 2013

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Article by Nicole Blahut (Q20)

Before diving into all the amazing things we did, I would like to give a special thanks to those that really made this trip what it was: Dr Bailey, Professor Ashley, Professor Goodell, and our teaching fellow Alex Bansleben.

I can safely say that I speak for more than just myself when I say that the trip to China was an unbelievable and unforgettable experience. But then again, how could I possibly forget any detail after taking literally thousands of photos documenting the entire trip.

Starting from the beginning:

When I first arrived with Matt Henricks, Allan Nicholas, and Hannah Buehler, we got in a taxi and made our way into the city. Already, we were blown away by the LED-lit buildings that decorated Hong Kong’s skyline. Just to give you an idea of what Hong Kong was like, I think Meenu Singh (Q19) said it best when she said it was the Disneyworld of cities. Everything was spotless. The buildings were gorgeous. There was a light show every night. The subway system was clean and efficient. There was a shopping mall on every corner. Hong Kong was indeed surreal.

Once the trip officially began, we made our way to the peak which offers views over Central, Victoria Harbor, Lamma Island and the surrounding islands. It truly was breathtaking.

Afterwards, we got to practice our negotiation skills at the Stanley Market, an array of little shops selling souvenirs, clothing, jewelry, paintings, and knock-offs. Our tour guide assured us that no one could do better than 15% off the given price. Well, I think most of us showed him wrong getting 50-75% off.

 

Hong Kong was jam-packed with business visits. One day, we went to Modern Terminals, which is the second largest shipping container terminal operator in Hong Kong. Almost all of our products are stamped with ‘Made in China’ so it was really cool seeing those products taken from trucks and put on ships set to go all over the world.

We eventually had to say our goodbyes to Hong Kong and make our way into China. Shenzhen was certainly a change. Almost no one spoke English, the streets were not spotless, and there were not an overwhelming amount of luxury cars. But Shenzhen was still fun. One of our cultural activities was at Splendid China, a popular theme park with a miniature of all the interesting sites of China. A small few of us stayed for the show our tour guide suggested. And let me just say, it was incredible! It included traditional costumes, over-the-top special effects, acrobatics, and dance. In Shenzhen, as a group, we got to try out the very popular Karaoke and let’s just say we have some great singers in QUEST.

In Guangzhou, we went to what, I think, was most people’s favorite site visit. We went to GAC Group and got to see actual cars being assembled! Unfortunately, we did not stay long in that city. On the first day we did a little bit of touring and it was just gorgeous. It was a great mix of cultural and modern aspects.

When the trip ended, it was hard to believe it was already over. I didn’t want to leave. With a week before classes some of us – including myself – went to Beijing while others went to Shanghai, Xi’an, and other areas to visit family.

QUEST2China was by far one of the best experiences of my life and I couldn’t imagine having a better time with any group other than QUEST.

If you have not yet traveled abroad and still have time, I highly recommend going to QUEST’s next study abroad trip. It was truly remarkable!

Full Circle: Quest Camp to the 490 Conference

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Article by Jeff Lue (Q16)

Maybe this is what Dr. Bailey feels every year, a sense of satisfaction and pride when the QUEST cycle comes full circle. I know that’s how I felt this year. From first saying hello to new sophomores on a crowded bus on our way to Camp Horizons 2 years ago, to seeing them present on the QUEST Big Stage: the 490 Conference.

This year’s conference highlighted Cohort 18, the group of students I had the privilege of TA-ing two years ago in 190. Twelve teams working with nine different clients, this year’s conference provided a variety of problems spanned across several different industries. Starting with a storyboard presentation giving a brief synopsis of the projects, the night moved onto each team presenting to friends, family, and the QUEST community the projects they have been working on all semester.

The night concluded with thanks from and for the Quality Guild, and the Project of the Year. This year’s project was Tulkoff’s Speedy Spices.  Team Speedy Spices was tasked with the challenge of increasing the efficiency one of Tulkoff’s production lines. After a long semester, the team was able to develop an algorithm increasing efficiency by 12%. (This writer may be a bit biased, being on the first Tulkoff team 2 years ago).

But make no mistake, while only one project is named Project of the Year, every team should be extremely proud of their project.  And it has been a pleasure seeing how far each one of you has come over the past 2 years.

As a recent alum of the program, it’s always great to come back. We get to enjoy the conference without any stress of presenting, eat food, chat with friends and other alums, and of course, say hi to the Quality Guild. It’s also refreshing to step away from the workplace and back to our alma mater, watching our favorite honors program continue to produce Quality students and soon to be professionals. I look forward to coming back and seeing future cohorts strut their stuff.

Team Speedy Spices with project champions Phil Tulkoff and Brent Guyton & faculty advisor Dr. Jeffrey Herrmann.

What was the Fiscal Cliff?

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Article by Jacob Wilkowsky (Q19)

fiscal cliff

I don’t know about you, but I’m not such a huge fan of cliffs. In fact, the cliff is probably my least favorite geographical formation after the hill. The sheer image reeks of danger and conjures up memories of Wile E. Coyote plummeting in a cloud of smoke. That’s why when I first heard about this “fiscal cliff” I started to worry. I knew no cliff could be good news, and decided to do some research.

It turns out the term “fiscal cliff” is just a popularized metaphor for automatic spending cuts and tax increases that were supposed to occur on January 1st, 2013. The result of past legislation- the Collective Budget Agreement of 2011 and Bush-era Tax Cuts-most experts believe the fiscal cliff held the capacity to bring the U.S economy back into a recession. By one account, economists from Barclays Capital estimated the fiscal cliff could have shaved off 2.8 percentage points from GDP in 2013. So first and foremost the fiscal cliff was a threat to economic prosperity. Furthermore, the fiscal cliff also played a minor role in a much larger drama relating to the U.S’s deficit.

Today the U.S deficit is hovering around $16.4 trillion dollars, equivalent to a debt load of $52,000 per American. Increasing at a rate of $3.84 billion dollars per day since September 28th, 2007, the deficit has long been an issue of serious concern for Congress. The accelerating deficit, as is, risks the U.S government defaulting on its obligations, which would be disastrous for the world economy. And since the fiscal cliff encompassed tax and spending policy issues that greatly influenced the deficit, it served as a stark event in a greater story of the U.S deficit. As such, it became a battleground for political parties debating the country’s deficit issue in Congress. So while at its core the fiscal cliff was an economic dilemma, it was also a political drama, subject to competing parties fighting for power.

Gridlock characterized the political conversation on the fiscal cliff. Only in the 11th hour of the fiscal cliff drama were Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell able to get a deal done to prevent an economic disaster. The deal made on January 1st 2013 by Republicans and Democrats was passed as the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. It addressed the expiring Bush-tax cuts immediately, while delaying $110 billion dollars in spending cuts from the Collective Budget Agreement of 2011 for 2 months.

New tax policy propelled by the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 strongly mirrors that which President Obama campaigned on during the presidential race. Most notably from the legislation, 98% of Americans will enjoy the continuation of Bush-era tax cuts. 2% of the wealthiest Americans making $450,000 or more as couples or $400,000 as individuals saw their taxes raised. Congress also helped out the American middle class by adjusting the alternative minimum tax to inflation, greatly reducing their potential tax liability. Also notably, the estate tax was raised 5% for amounts over $5 million dollars (indexed to inflation). Overall, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 addressed half of the fiscal cliff, leaving the issue of spending cuts still on the table. These cuts are now schedules to kick in on March 2nd.

So the question remains, “What was the fiscal cliff?” Earlier we defined the fiscal cliff as a metaphor for automatic spending cuts and tax increases, but that definition seems a bit haphazard now. Through the efforts of political pundits, the term seems to have taken a life of its own. The fiscal cliff narrative now reflects much of the tumultuous environment in which it materialized. It serves as a stark reminder of our economic fragility, deficit crisis, and political acrimony. However, while history probably won’t deem the fiscal cliff a shining moment in American politics, at least we were able to get through it and we still have a shot at resolving our nation’s problems again tomorrow.

The Birds and the Trees: Cultivating Awareness

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Article by Daniel-Jason Minzie (Q20)

Many of us are effectively sprinting our own personal mental marathons at a suicide pace – and we don’t even recognize it. Frequently we are assaulted by incessant thoughts, worries, and demands and it’s these frustrations that we dash away from. Unfortunately these maladies of the mind can remain quite…determined to catch us. Such sustained effort against their assaults becomes exhausting. To avoid their stresses we become hyperopic:  that is, we focus exclusively on what must be done in the future as method of mental escape from our sorrow. We ask ourselves, “What needs be achieved tomorrow, in a week, an hour from now? How much time can I save today so that I may do x, y, and z tomorrow?” With each leap forward in time for our frame of reference, it becomes nearly impossible to pause and embrace our gift, the present, which is unfortunate, because this is where optimal experience and its rewards lie. It’s no wonder that many of us report that our happiest experiences occur during quality time with our friends and family or even a well- functioning team; usually when we’re surrounded by our significant others, the focus is on the here and now – not the report we need to have on the boss’ or our professors’ desk by the end of next week.

A future focus is indeed often a necessary element of success. However, too much emphasis on the future at the expense of engaging in and enjoying the present ultimately leads to train wrecks: i.e.  neglected relationships, excessive stress, and disrupted emotional regulation – all of which are killer for performance in professional world and our personal life alike. The key to reclaiming our vitality and restoring the natural zest we lose under such undue stress is a reconnection with the now, the present.

Mindfulness meditation is that key. Think of your mind as an elaborate computer. Sometimes our circuits are overloaded by a sea of information or overuse, so the solution is the reset the system. This, metaphorically speaking, is the effect of mindfulness meditation. It’s a sort of system re-boot. I’m sure you heard that every journey starts with a single step – consider this yours. A vast amount of information is increasingly suggesting that the benefits of this simple exercise extend beyond just the mental realm; they also reach into the physical and actively change the structure of our brains.

For text on Mindfulness Meditation, I would highly recommend “Re-wiring Your Brain for Love” by neuropsychologist Dr. Marsha Lucas. She explains the nitty-gritty of the science in an easy to understand and quite straight forward way and provides relevant exercises to help you develop a fully functional and well-integrated brain. Don’t be shy about the title; the usefulness of the material transcends romantic relations alone. Also, I’m sure that most of us know our cross-functional teams could use a little more love during those storming sessions!

For a reliable source(s) on Mindfulness Meditation Check Out:

http://marc.ucla.edu/

http://www.investigatinghealthyminds.org/