The insurance giant, Aetna, has announced in a recent press release its commitment to bringing mindfulness to its membership. Aetna, in conjunction with eMindful, Duke Integrative Medicine, and the Viniyoga Institute have been conducting a randomized controlled trial of two methods of stress reduction, one of them being mindfulness-based stress reduction. 

Helping people take control of their health is a critical
step in achieving better health and reducing the cost of health care,”
said Aetna CEO and President Mark Bertolini. “Stress takes a significant
toll on physical and mental health. We want to understand, and also
demonstrate, whether integrative medicine can offer our members options that
both better suit their lifestyles and can be proven to improve their health. We
will continue to build an evidence base for the mind-body approach to health.

The 12-week mindfulness meditation-based online program was
developed and offered by eMindful. Participants interacted using video, audio
and instant messaging chat or in-person instruction. Expert instructors from
eMindful helped participants learn self-care, with the objective of improving
overall health and energy levels. Participants also learned stress reduction
techniques, more effective management of work load and better ways to
prioritize tasks to increase efficiency and effectiveness. 

eMindful is the same organization that brings you free
meditation sessions each morning in its virtual classroom. You can get a taste
of mindfulness from 8:00 to 8:45 EST. Click here to
login.  

I’m proud to be part of the eMindful faculty and on the
forefront of the mindfulness revolution that is taking hold in the U.S. and
around the world. We see it all around us as the medical and health-related
professions embrace mindfulness as a healing approach. We see it in the
explosion of publications on mindfulness. We see it in the growing body of
research. And we see it with Aetna’s partnership described above. In 1999 Jon
Kabat-Zinn said:

I am keenly aware, and reminded daily, of the huge
subterranean yearning in people everywhere for authenticity and personal
agency, for silence and stillness and peace of mind, for embodied experience,
and for vehicles and methods that are equal to the task of helping us perceive
and face the full extant of the human condition with integrity, freedom,
wisdom, and compassion, including, importantly, self-compassion. The world
seems hungry, if not starving, for the implementation of such explorations at
work, in the family, in virtually every aspect of personal, professional, and
institutional life.