Blue Mind Wellness Program Austin - Corporate - Individual - Organization

We know that when you go to the water, you really just go back to yourself. The part of you that is present, calm, mindful and open to new creativity and ideas. You don’t need to wait and plan a big vacation to experience the benefits of water. You can do that in your immediate surroundings right here where you are. We will take you to experience Blue Mind and teach you how to take it back with you to benefit yourself, your family and your work every day. And you’ll get a sense of this long before the end of the days outing. A boat is the single most powerful tool to engage your Blue Mind. Blue Mind = Vitamin Sea When you leave land, you leave stress and red mind behind!

Fathom’s Blue Mind Wellness experience may be a great fit to consider for both yourself and your team. The experience can be used as a team building activity and to support a corporate organization’s wellness efforts. The program can be customized to fit your team’s needs. We’d love to show you’re the water and to help facilitate your own Blue Mind experience.

We will help you to recognize how water impacts mental, emotional, spiritual and physical well-being. We will help you to understand the three states of mind we live in; red, grey and blue and how to determine which one you are living in the moment. Participants will discover how the seven ages or seasons we live are tied to water. Participants will create a simple personal plan to incorporate new Blue Mind awareness into their own every day lives, work and career. We will share, laugh, play and recharge!

The experience includes a narrated tour of the lake to better familiarize you with its storied history. We will show you some of the beautiful biodiversity, limestone structures and even life below the surface using our underwater drone. On the journey to our mooring area you will have a chance to engage in some opening discussion of Blue Mind Wellness and take in the beautiful sights along with some freshly prepared apps. Later after anchoring we will deploy our inflatable aqua marina platforms and you will be lead through gentle, mindful and strengthening yoga. If you need time alone and some space you can retreat to the air-conditioned salon to relax and have a refreshing beverage. A full description of the experience and a timeline is included below.

Fathom Blue Mind Wellness is the seamless extension of Fathom Corporate Training, one of Austin’s most recognized professional development firms serving individuals, corporations and and organizations. Fathom’s trademark, Deep Insight, Direct Results has been taken to a whole new wellness experience and venue – the water. So whether you are on the lake or on the ocean with us, you’ll gain a new sense of Deep Insight and bring that new awareness back into your life for Direct Results afterwards. A full description of the experience and a timeline is included below.

• Recharge their mind and bodies

• Recognize how water impacts mental, emotional, spiritual and physical well-being

• Understand easy ways to incorporate water and well-being into every day life

• Gain a new level of awareness of how mindfulness can effect every area of life

• Create a simple personal plan to incorporate wellness and water into their own lives

• Rediscover their personal relationship with water to help them navigate life

• Learn the three states of mind we live in all the time; red, grey and blue mind

• Understand seven ages of water we go through in life

• Learn the relevant history of the body of water they are on

• Discover ways to take the water and blue mind back to their lives and to work

• Enjoy thoughtfully prepared healthy food and beverages

• Play, laugh, converse, swim, energize and exercise

• Enjoy gentle and mindful yoga on the water

(Can Be Modified to Suit Needs – Alcohol is Prohibited)

• Departure: Safety briefing, yacht and facilities, introductions
• Sea Fare: Healthy apps and refreshments
• Guided Tour: The history of Lake Travis and the Colorado River
• Blue Mind Introduction: The science of being near, in, on, or under water can make you happier, healthier, more connected and better at what you do
• What’s Your Water?: Personal relationships we have developed with water in our lives
• Water in Human History: From the beginning civilizations have connected to water
• Types of Water: Wild, domestic and virtual water can all benefit us
• Our Blue Senses: The effects of water on our mental, emotional, spiritual and physical well-being
• The Price We Will Pay: Value humans place on being near water
• Red Mind, Grey Mind, Blue Mind: Water and your brains state of well-being
• Blue Mind Yoga: Session on water platforms for stability, gentle flow, stretching and mindfulness
• Taking The Water With Us: Incorporating mindfulness and water into our lives everyday
• Blue Mind at Play and Work: Ways water has been valuable to us at leisure and in our career and how we can keep in in our future
• The Seven Ages of Water: Birth, play, lover, fighter, justice, ebb and flow, death
• Protecting our Blue Havens: A personal commitment to stewardship for the places we love
• Play Session: Dueling water stomp rockets!
• Return: Relish in the day and goodbyes

A recent Aflac Workplace Report shows that 54% of employees have a company sponsored wellness program. This is up from 32% in 2012. And of those offering a new or emerging wellness program like Blue Mind Wellness, over half said that the service has reduced overall employee health costs. Additionally, among team members offered a wellness program, 61% agree that they’ve made healthier lifestyle choices because of their organizations wellness program. And perhaps most important, participants who participated in wellness programs offered by their workplaces had higher levels of job satisfaction and engagement. So the question is not whether a wellness option or program can help team members, it is which experience is right for your own team and organizational culture. Human Wellness is the New Corporate Wellness

A 2016 study conducted by LinkedIn reported that younger staff members tend to change jobs four times in the first ten years of their career. This means that the average tenure of an employee is only about two years. This is a wake up call for organizations needing to boost retention and loyalty. More than eighty companies in Austin, TX now offer wellness programs and are making progress through a culture of wellness. Wellness directors now need to look at a variety of holistic programs that fit their own workplace values and culture which can help to increase employee engagement and to reduce turnover. Companies such as Indeed offer many new options on-site and off-site to boost employee wellness. Patrick Mercer, Assistant VP and Wellness Director for Frost Bank says, “Our employees are our biggest asset, we’d rather provide benefits that individuals care about so we ask, what do you want?” Mercer says, “ultimately you want to bring the best version of yourself to work so if you prioritize healthy habits, mindfulness, resilience and community then you’ll take these values outside of the office and extend them to friends and family.”

Why are humans so attracted to lakes, rivers, oceans and other types of water? Blue Mind is wellness science, which has proven that being close to, on, in or even under the water can help us to be happier, healthier, better connected and performing humans at home and at work. What’s your water? What’s the water that you dream about and long for? Who took you there in the past?

The landmark bestseller, Blue Mind by Wallace J. Nichols helps us understand the remarkable effects of water in all of its shapes and forms on our health and well-being.

Since we are primarily made of water and the planet we call home is more than 70% covered in water this makes sense. Our physiology is hardwired to respond positively to water and water in its many forms can help us enhance mindfulness. Water is one of our oldest forms of medicine for physical, emotional and mental health.

We reside on a blue planet mostly covered with oceans, lakes and rivers. And since our own bodies and the bodies of many species in the animal kingdom are made of water and depend upon it for survival, what we do on this planet matters, especially our actions related to water.

Humans have understood the therapeutic benefits of water since ancient times. Early civilizations like Rome knew that baths were not only culturally important but also offered healing and relaxation. Ayurveda, Indian medicine, and traditional Chinese medicine, prescribe water for balancing the physical and mental body. Rivers have been known as sacred places and water has been a symbol of rebirth and cleansing. Our desire to be near aquatic environments may be explained by waters role in our evolutionary history. Clean water has always been critical to human survival. And remember, you were once floating in the saline water of your mother’s womb long before reading this.

It is no wonder that today humans still go to the water for these same purposes. One just has to think of how many vacations we spend near the beach, lake or river. Many of us enjoy sitting near an ocean or river, which may induce a mild meditative state of calm awareness. We derive enjoyment and benefits from water sports like swimming, sailing, fishing, surfing, scuba diving or visiting an aquarium. We even enjoy water at home whether it’s a fountain, pool, or by taking a refreshing bath or shower. And many of us escape to the shower or bath knowing that this can get our creative ideas flowing. We build homes near or on the water and will pay significant sums of money for this. Our affinity for water is also seen in our attraction to the color blue. We’re naturally drawn to aquatic colors. Blue is the favorite color of people the world over.

Our human body is 60-78% water and the brain alone is made up of nearly 80% water. It then should come as no surprise that drinking plenty of water can support optimal brain function. Dehydration can affect our attention span, concentration level, memory, motor skills and our anxiety level.

Many of us have regular access to water in the form of lakes, rivers or oceans but we under utilize their potential. Whether it’s a relaxing vacation or a weekend retreat, water is a great way to reset. Many places can bring on Blue Mind and it’s not necessary to be near the ocean to experience it.

Our lives today are hyper-connected. And we have begun to understand the ramifications on our personal and professional lives. Higher levels of anxiety and depression are occurring. And many people self‐medicate. What’s the cost? We multi-task and then have a difficult time remembering what we were working on minutes before. We get addicted to the screen and have it with us all the time only to not be present for someone or something that may really benefit from our attention. And in our tech saturated lives we don’t give our minds much chance to relax. Personal and team engagement suffers and so does our productivity.

Blue Mind Wellness is not experienced or achieved on Facebook, Instagram or any other social media platform – never. It’s not going to happen. We need to log out and put down our devices. Setting an intention of doing this begins to free our minds for new awareness and opening to Blue Mind. A picture or a video of the water is a great virtual water stimulus to enjoy when we are at our desk and under stress, but we need to fully experience the water while we are near it.

The Blue Mind effect, Wallace J. Nichols the author of Blue Mind says, “May result at least in part from the action of catecholamine neurotransmitters. The neurochemicals, which relay stress signals in the brain, recalibrate in water to low levels similar to those delivered by meditation—reducing stress and anxiety.”

Blue Mind, is far from an abstract concept or a theory. It is supported by science. The University of Exeter Medical School in the UK looked into the idea that living near the coast improves both health and well being. They used census data and found this was true. Stress reduction near the ocean and beachside was profound. Japanese researchers, conducted studies with 500 residents and found those who lived near the sea had greater emotions like peace and calm when compared to others living inland. In 2017, Spanish researchers reviewed more than 35 different studies and the results revealed an overwhelmingly positive association between exposure to outdoor blue spaces and mental health, stress reduction and well being.

Water can have effects even in virtual forms. For instance, when cancer patients suffering chronic pain viewed nature videos that included sounds of the ocean, waterfalls and rivers, they experienced up to a 30 percent reduction in the stress hormone cortisol.

Water’s healthful effects are so great that aquatic therapists are now using water to treat addictions, PTSD, anxiety, autism and other conditions.

Surfer’s often describes a Zen-like state they get by being on the water and catching and riding waves. But the goal of surfing therapy is not to teach people to surf. It is to get them to use the activity of surfing to help change their brain chemistry to Blue Mind.

Blue Mind, Live Blue, Slow Coast & Groove ©™ (2009-2021) WALLACE & Co. LLC

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