New Science, New Solutions for Stress, Anxiety, and Burnout

The pandemic sputtered to an official end in May 2023. But the number of daily challenges, the velocity of change, levels of uncertainty, and amounts of toxicity haven’t decreased. In fact, in the midst of a post-pandemic economic boom, we’re experiencing a new rolling wave of severe burnout.

And yet, neuroscience is exploding with new discoveries and insights that can help. Research is filling in the blanks and adding new knowledge in consciousness, neural operations, and all the ways the modern brain creates and habituates stress.

A Pervasive Threat

Stress has become our constant companion and a pervasive threat to our health, well-being, and personal performance. We each have our own stressors - and we’re all impacted to some degree by 21st-century suffering: information overload, decision fatigue, attention deficit, digital distraction, constant change - and the rise in conflict, toxicity, exhaustion, and burnout.

Of course, stress is incredibly uncomfortable and unpleasant - and it seriously impairs our quality of life, relations with family and friends, our engagement at work, and our personal performance and productivity. It makes us physically sick, diminishes our intellectual capabilities, and destroys emotional intelligence.

New Solutions

Surprisingly, we haven’t seen stress and burnout subside in the post-pandemic era. In fact, reports show that they’re continuing to rise to new record levels. The good news is that we’ve come through a period of massive personal and societal upheaval that has focused our resources, delivered new science, and surfaced new solutions for preventing and overcoming it.

This workshop is a comprehensive roll-up of what we’ve learned in the lab and at work - in the office, on the plant floor, and working remotely. We’ve incorporated new science, evidence-based techniques, and practices that work in the real world.

You don’t have to meditate for an hour and do another hour of yoga to turn the volume down on stress. Those are great, but there are other ways to get there.

Why This Matters Now

In a VUCA business world, the most dangerous gaps - and most promising advantages - are a function of mental and emotional skills in the workplace.

Effective stress management:

• Creates psychological safety and a positive work culture
• Enables focus, attention control, and concentration
• Unlocks adaptability, flexibility, and agility
• Enables patience, objectivity, and fairness
• Encourages trust and strengthens relationships
• Widens the aperture for strategic vision and planning
• Facilitates calm, collected decisions under pressure
• Builds mental strength and resilience
• Unlocks creativity and complex problem-solving
• Supports clear, concise, constructive communications
• And more

What Will I Learn?

You’ll learn the most current science and most effective methods for mitigating and managing acute stress, anxiety, chronic stress, and burnout. This 3-hour workshop provides comprehensive new knowledge of the brain and hands-on experience with the most useful stress-resolving practices, applied at their points of greatest impact.

We'll explore:

• New insights from neuroscience, biology, psychology, and organizational sciences

• New research on the non-conscious brain and the reactive, automatic brain
• The continuum and characteristics of acute stress, anxiety, chronic stress, and burnout
• The framework and best practices for effectively mitigating and managing each stage
• The physiology of acute stress and practices for resolving panic or fear in the moment
• Calming the autonomic, sympathetic, parasympathetic, and vagus nerve systems
• Hands-on conventional breath control, pranayama, and vagus nerve techniques
• The physiology of anxiety and best practices for noticing and shifting perspective
• Hands-on present awareness, focused attention, and open monitoring practices
• The physiology of chronic stress and best practices for unwinding and diminishing it
• Hands-on body scan, acceptance, self-compassion, and gratitude practices
• The physiology of burnout and best practices for effectively preventing and reversing it
• The efficacy of deep rest, hypnosis, yoga nidra, and other interventions
• Hands-on insight journaling and meditation for purpose and re-engagement

Who Should Attend?

For leaders and professionals, the capabilities for managing and mitigating stress are no longer optional traits - they are foundational skills that directly impact the success of their teams and organizations.

This workshop is for:

• Leaders at all levels
• Managers and Supervisors
• High-performing TEAMS
• High-achieving individuals
• HR and OD professionals
• Talent development professionals
• Executive and business coaches
• Life and wellbeing coaches

Bring Your Team

This is an important workshop for teams of any size. The strategies and tools we introduce are foundational skills, not just for personal well-being but for effective relationships, collaboration, and shared success. Attending with colleagues or your team is a level-setting experience that creates a baseline for shared awareness and opens lines of communication around relationships, group dynamics, and mental health. This workshop offers teams a path to a more empathetic, supportive, and resilient culture.

What Our Students Say

“IOSM's coursework does a wonderful job of distilling the key ideas of organizational science and mindfulness. Grounded in decades of study, the courses blend theory and practice offering students the opportunity to learn why practicing organizational mindfulness matters and numerous ways to do so. Among the great features of each course are the numerous links to videos, research studies, mindfulness practices, and opportunities to connect with others in the community as well as instructors.” - Sharon Kruse, Ph.D., Academic Director and Professor at Washington State University

“We are in the midst of a paradigm shift in the world of business and leadership, and the problems facing organizations and their leaders are multi-layered and complex. IOSM teaches the knowledge, strategies, and tools needed to calm our bodies and brain, focus our attention, and tap into the neuroplasticity of the brain to create new pathways needed to deal with this firestorm of information and distraction.” - Nancy Sayer, Ph.D., LCPC PCC, CEO at Leadership Evolvement Institute

"IOSM has given me the science behind the transformation that mindfulness can bring. It provided me with the data necessary to convince our senior leadership team that this was a valuable program and the applicable techniques necessary to see the ROI that I had promised! I could not be more grateful for this knowledge, thought leadership, and the relationships developed during my time with IOSM!" - Cydney Goodin, Training & Development at BFA Industries

Why IOSM?

Institute for Organizational Mindfulness (IOSM) is a global non-profit association of human capital and operating leaders, educators, and coaches. We share a common mission to apply neuroscience and mindfulness to create more effective leaders, a happier, healthier, and higher-performing workforce, and a safer, more inclusive, and more productive workplace.

Host or Publisher Institute for Organizational Mindfulness (IOM)