When Bob Farries needs that quick pick-me-up in the middle of the day, he turns to a lunchtime yoga session offered once a week at The Pueblo Chieftain. 

      For the past 2 1/2 years, Farries has taken advantage of the half-hour session offered by instructor Marcee Gutman Ballantyne of the Fountain of Youth Yoga Studio to rejuvenate himself. 

      “That 30-minute gentle workout is awesome. It can make all the difference in the world for me," said Farries, who works in the data processing department at the Chieftain. 

      Farries is among approximately a dozen Chieftain employees who have taken advantage of the noontime yoga sessions that were started at the office in an effort to help relieve stress and promote wellness, according to Jane Rawlings, assistant to the publisher. 

      "People love it," Rawlings said. "They say it helps to reduce stress and also get the tightness out of their shoulders and hands." 

      Rawlings said the Chieftain began offering the yoga classes for employees approximately 2 1/2 years ago, shortly after the company was hit with a huge increase in health insurance premiums. 

      "We looked at this as a way to promote wellness, to decrease stress and to increase flexibility," she said. "It's a way to help reduce stiffness and some of those aches and pains."

      Ballantyne goes to the Chieftain each Wednesday for a 30-minute session held in the company's conference room. The class is free for employees. 

      Farries said he attended his first yoga session with the aim to relieve some of the everyday stresses in his life. 

      "It is not easy. Yoga is not for wimps," Farries said. "But it has been great for me. This body feels better than it did before. I think yoga is the smartest thing I can do at this stage of my life." 

      He said it not only has helped his body physically, but mentally as well. 

      "Once you get into yoga and practice it and listen to the program, yoga can work on an emotional level as well."

      Farries said in addition to the 30-minute class offered at the Chieftain, he also attends up to three sessions a week at Ballantyne's yoga studio.

      "I've gotten hooked," he said. "Whenever I miss a day, I practice at home. It's not as good, but it's better than nothing."‘It is not easy. Yoga is not for wimps. But it has been great for me. This body feels better than it did before. I think yoga is the smartest thing I can do at this stage of my life.”

      As employers cut back the perks and pile on the work, a growing number of employees are looking for stress relief.

      Workers’ calls for help dealing with stress are up more than 40 percent from a year ago, says Ceridian, a provider of employee-assistance and other human-resource services to nine million employees. This is no small matter. Studies link stress to ailments from heart disease to immune-system disorders. And new research from the University of Texas, Houston, suggests your job may even be killing you: People who lack control over their work have a 43 percent greater risk of dying prematurely than other employees.

      In search of stress-relief tools suitable to these stripped-down times, I’ve been testing a few popular therapies. My criteria were simple: The methods must be cheap. They must take no more than a few minutes. And you must be able to do them at your desk.

      Full disclosure: I’m a Neanderthal in this department. I’ve long dismissed stress-relief exercises as crutches for wimps. I’ve never even taken a yoga class. Thus my discovery that several of these techniques work remarkably well was a pleasant surprise.

      Desk-side yoga: When clashing deadlines give me heartburn, I turn to my pile of new yoga books, which offer an array of exercises with great names like ‘‘Close the Deal Warrior Pose’’ and ‘‘Chair Boogie.’’ Feeling overmatched, I select the 30-second ‘‘Monolith of Mastery’’ from ‘‘Office Yoga: At Your Desk Exercises’’ by Diana Fairechild. Standing with hands clasped over my head, I stretch side to side while tensing my stomach. Complying with instructions to ‘‘gaze soft,’’ I’m surprised by how fast the mental and facial change this requires eases my tension.

      The ‘‘Kick-Back Log-on Pose’’ from ‘‘Office Yoga: Simple Stretches for Busy People’’ by Darrin Zeer, has me lace my fingers behind my head and stretch while breathing deep and smiling. If I had co-workers, they’d be laughing. But because I work in a home office, it’s only my cat who eyes me with disdain. Within minutes, my stomachache is gone.

      Studies show relaxation techniques like yoga can ease the body’s harmful fight-or-flight responses to stress - including tense muscles, a racing heart and agitation. The methods also help improve posture and halt the clenching of the shoulders and forearms that causes repetitive strain injuries, says Carol Ley, director of occupational medicine at 3M, which is promoting office yoga as an adjunct to its ergonomic office supplies.

      I’d give office yoga an ‘‘A,’’ for both the depth and duration of its effect on my stress.

      Aromatherapy: Some studies suggest aromatherapy - inhaling or applying fragrant oils from plants - may have physiological or emotional effects that ease stress. As I plow through 300 e-mails, I’d be happy with either one. I select ylang-ylang oil, a floral product recommended in Mr. Zeer’s ‘‘Office Spa’’ book. I drop a little into a pot of steaming water, and a zesty fragrance shoots toward my brain like smelling salts. I feel like I just ran a mile. The anxious rat-a-tat of my thoughts slows. But the stress returns soon after I go back to work. Aromatherapy gets an ‘‘A’’ for its effect - but a ‘‘C’’ for duration.

      Massage: It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it.

      I book a date for a desk-side massage with Concetta Antonelli, a Lake Oswego, Ore., therapist whose very name evokes thoughts of a renaissance. After a 10-minute treatment at my desk from the gentle Ms. Antonelli, I feel as if I’ve been on vacation. Among all the techniques I tried, this is the fastest, easiest ride back to brain-body togetherness. It relaxes both muscles and mind.

      At roughly $1 a minute, you might argue that massage doesn’t meet my cheapness criterion. But I view that as a bargain compared with, say, a $30,000-plus coronary bypass or a year’s worth of doctor’s visits to treat a chronic illness. Massage gets an ‘‘A’’ in my book, for both effectiveness and duration.Other techniques I tried worked less well for me, though they might help others. ‘‘The Ultimate Guide of One-Minute Workouts,’’ by Bonnie Nygard and Bonnie Hopper, lists brief exercises that were fun, but failed to calm a tornado of ‘‘to-do’s’’ in my brain. Another method called visualization worked only when I was rested. My mental trip to a deserted beach eased a headache. But when I tried another exercise later, my brain lacked the energy to conjure up any convincing scenery.

      In general, testing these stress relievers made me a believer. More employers should train employees in their use and underwrite massage. But only 1 percent to 2 percent of big companies offer such help, says benefits consultant Hewitt Associates, Lincolnshire, Ill. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health says the methods deserve more study.

      What's needed even more, NIOSH says, is for employers to reorganize work so it isn't so stressful.  Until that happens, encouraging a little desk-side stress relief is the least that companies could do.     

SPECIAL REPORT

The Business Journal

 “I'm a Businesswoman”

By Marcee L. Gutman

     I'm a businesswoman who found myself swept up and nearly blown away by the intense whirlwind of the '90's. I reached that higher level of money, position, and control. Success is nice, but as the 19th century American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson observed, "everything has a tax."

     So many of today's business women are suffering from high blood pressure, heart disease, insomnia, fatigue, gastrointestinal problems, inability to lose weight, continual mental stress, migraines, hypertension, and premature aging. Businesswomen are fast becoming like the traditional businessman who has more money, position and control, but not enough life left over to enjoy the fruits of her labor. I'm a caricature artist and I began my career many years ago at Las Vegas's Excalibur Hotel and Casino, then the largest in the world. I worked 14-hour days, six days a week. Taking breaks, I would run to the employee dining room, grab something quick to eat, and then wash it down with coffee. Of course, even then I knew better, but I was swept up in my work. Work that I loved.

     An artist friend of mine had come with me to work at the casino, and after about 15 months we decided to go into business for ourselves. We left the casino, formed our own company, and traveled the country drawing caricatures by the thousands at state fairs. I was still working the long hours and eating on the run, but now I had the added stress of constant traveling.

     I knew I wasn't doing a good job of taking care of myself and like most business women, it took a ton of bricks falling on me before I clearly saw the damage I was doing to my body, my mind, and my very soul.

     It's funny isn't it, how we can see others' difficulties before we see our own. After about five years of successfully running our caricature business, I could see that my partner, Billy, had gained weight, was tired all the time, and his formally sparkling eyes were looking dull and listless. He seemed to be stressed all the time. One morning, before going in to open our booth, we were talking. We looked at each other closely for the first time in a long time. Sadly, I saw myself in his eyes. I had gained weight; my neck, back and shoulders were in a constant state of tension and pain. I felt stiff, and worst of all, I felt old and unattractive. I felt completely out of touch and out of control of my body. After talking about all of our feelings I just began to cry. Billy's my best friend and a very sensitive man. He leaned forward in a very soft and concerned voice he said, " I know how you must feel. We have paid dearly for our success with our health and happiness. I feel like crying myself." And cry Billy did.

     After this emotionally searing talk we made a plan. We were going to take time to prepare our own food for each day. We cut way back on fast food. We began an exercise program of power walking, jogging, and jumping rope at least four days a week. Billy did some weight lifting. We worked to create some kind of balance in our lives with our work and our health.     

     Time went on and things did get a little better. Everything we tried helped, but nothing seemed to deliver the lasting and deep results we needed. We kept looking for that new, modern, up-to-the minute miracle program that would give us 100% return of health, energy, and peace of mind. I felt a sense of emptiness deep in my gut and just knew I was missing something that was right under my nose. Winter is our off season and Billy left to spend time in southern California. I felt particularly down and uninspired. It was hard for me to get into my favorite form of artwork, oil painting. But, you know that old saying, it's darkest before the dawn. That's where my life was when my friend, Meghan, invited me to join her at a classical Hatha Yoga class. After only a few classes I realized that I was bending and moving in ways I couldn't ever remember. My neck, shoulders, and back quit aching. When I did feel tight at work I had learned techniques to relieve the tightness. I was feeling a new sense of peace and openness. By stimulating my immune system with simple but specific postures I just wasn't getting colds any more. My productivity and energy greatly increased. In addition to better flexibility, I was much stronger and had better posture. Classical Hatha Yoga gave me the energy to enjoy all the other things I like to do in my life besides work. I even noticed a wonderful improvement in my digestion and my elimination. I would have to say, with all of these incredible benefits, the most important thing I noticed by practicing Classical Hatha Yoga was that it nourished and uplifted my spirit. I felt joy and peace of mind and a feeling of being in control of my life. I felt young and pretty darn sparky! Wow! I had finally found my eternal fountain of health. It was only after I had quit looking to the new, trendy, and high tech, that I had found my personal pot of gold.

      Classical Hatha Yoga is certainly not new, trendy or high tech. Over 2500 years ago, a sage named Patanjali brought back the nearly lost science of Hatha Yoga. Dr. Carl G. Jung says of yoga, "Quite apart from the charm of the new and the fascination of the half-understood, there is good cause for Yoga to have many adherents. It offers the possibility of controllable experience and thus satisfies the scientific need for "facts"; and , besides this, by reason of its breadth and depth, its venerable age, its doctrine and method, which include every phase of life, it promises undreamed –of possibilities." From my own consistent yoga practice I can validate the truth and magic of yoga’s "undreamed-of possibilities."

      When my partner, Billy, came back from California he joined me at one of my classical hatha yoga classes. Since childhood he has been athletic and had included stretching in his workouts. But the idea of a workout of mindful, scientific movements that; stretch, extend and flex the spine, exercise muscles and joints, detoxify the system, restore vitality and the immune system, and stimulate the circulation, digestion, nervous and endocrine systems, really intrigued him.

      Years have flown by since our discovery of Classical Hatha Yoga. Meghan continues her yoga practice because of how it keeps her fit physically, mentally and spiritually for her job as a client manager/parole officer. Billy maintains his yoga practice and often tells me how happy hes is enjoying yoga’s "multi-level/ life changing" benefits. Today, when I look at my partner and friend, I see his beautiful expression of energy, peace and youth. Happily, I see myself in his eyes.