with people who had meditated over 10 years and for one hour a day. Despite the impressive sci­entific results such as; disease prevention, increased mental per­formance and wellbeing and even anti-ageing, I somehow felt that the research was not relevant for busy business people who are not prepared to spend one hour on meditation every day, let alone waiting 10 years, for the return on investment with the time set aside, in a meditation practice.

Hence, I became curious about how little time would be necessary for busy people to achieve the positive results of meditation. This led me to investigate and conduct my own research, I came across an American neurologist named Andrew Newberg, who had done a study on the benefits of 12 minutes of meditation. These findings were profound, so I decided to try to replicate these results in Denmark, together with the co-author of the hook, neurologist Troels W. Kjær, from the Neurophysiology Clinic at Copenhagen University Hospital

• HOW DO YOU SEE MEDIATION AND MINDFULNESS IMPACTING COMPANIES AND ALL LEVELS OF EM­PLOYEES IN THE FUTURE?

We carried out an impartial report / study on the effect of medi­tation in the workplace. This was an independent test conducted over a nine-month period. The participants were employees in a Danish hospital, and in spite of the faet, that all of the employ­ees had good test results before they started the 12 minutes to success programme, the test revealed that after the nine-month programme the employees experienced:
■ Increased energy, motivation and ability to handle their role in the workplace.
■ Increased ability to focus and be present, both at home and at work.
■ Increased ability to let go of work whilst at home and vice versa.
■ Increased ability to handle stressful situations both at work and at home.

• IF THERE IS ONE PIECE OF ADVICE YOU COULD OF­FER ANYONE WANTING TO MAKE A CHANGE AND START A NEW HABIT WITH PRACTICING MEDIATION, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

There are two pieces of advice: the first is that one needs to real­ly give it a shot and stick to it for six to eight weeks before decid­ing if this is something that you want to make part of your daily routine.

The second is, ‘what you put in, is what you get out’. If you really engage yourself with this and perhaps even if you have the chance to visit a talk or class on meditation, you will be bet­ter equipped, i.e. have a better tool kit and greater understand­ing in doing it at home. THE-INTL