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How Mindfulness at Work Helps Your Health … and Maybe Even Your Bank Account

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mindful working

Mindful working encompasses a variety of different practices. It includes ways to practice mindfulness throughout your work day. This allows you to stay present, centered, and calm regardless of what’s going on around you. Mindful working also means that you approach your career path with intention even as you stay grounded in the moment.

Mindfulness at work has a variety of health benefits. We see those benefits when practicing mindful working. Moreover, you might think that slowing down at work would negatively impact your career. However, mindful working can actually lead to a better work life and possibly even more money in your bank account.

What Is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is a really trendy term. In fact, it’s become quite controversial. Mindfulness is one form of meditation practice. There is certainly a whole art to meditation. Therefore, if you want to dig deep into mindfulness, then you may wish to take courses and learn more.

That said, the concept of mindfulness is really a very simple one. It’s the practice of staying aware of all things happening inside of you and outside of you in the present moment. It’s awareness without judgment.

In other words, you may never stop having random thoughts, but with mindfulness, you become aware of those thoughts. Over time, the thoughts hold less power. You can watch them occur without reacting.

What Is Mindfulness at Work?

Mindful working simply means taking the concept of mindfulness and apply it to your work life. There are two key aspects to this:

  1. Practicing mindfulness in your day-to-day work life
  2. Taking a mindful, intentional approach to career planning

Daily Practices in Mindful Working

If this is something that interests you, then the majority of your effort will be in the first aspect: practicing mindful awareness every day at work. Additionally, you’ll practice mindfulness when you’re outside of work but find thoughts of work intruding on your mind.

When You’re At The Office

Examples of this at work mean that you:

  • Set a daily intention upon arrival to remain as present as possible throughout the day.
  • Single task instead of trying (and failing) to multitask.
  • Take breaks to breathe, focus on what’s around you, and clear your mind.
  • Practice gratitude throughout the work day.
  • Tune in to your body to check for stress and reactivity, pausing to ground yourself accordingly.

You also implement a variety of different techniques to limit distractions. You turn off all of the notifications on your devices so that they aren’t constantly pinging at you. Perhaps you have a “closed door” time each day at the office when coworkers aren’t to interrupt you. As much as possible, you create a schedule and setting that enhances your ability to do one thing at a time with complete focus.

When You’re At Home

These days, work doesn’t take place from 9-5. Maybe you work from home. Or perhaps you work from an office, but your job calls upon you to answer emails at all hours. Mindful working means that you find a way to delineate “work time” and “rest time” even though that’s a challenge.

If you never turn off, then you’re stressing your body and mind. This isn’t healthy, and it isn’t productive. People need downtime to replenish their internal resources. Without that time, you end up running on empty. You’re not giving your best self to the job or the other things in your life.

Therefore, you find ways to be completely present at home or with friends when that’s where you are. You limit contact with work during out-of-office hours. If you work for yourself, you still create “out of office” hours when you can wind down. You practice meditative and centering exercises to train your brain that it doesn’t constantly have to think about what’s going on at work.

Planning Your Career Intentionally

Mindfulness is about staying in the present moment. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t apply it to planning out your career. In fact, approaching your career trajectory with mindfulness can greatly improve your job satisfaction as well as your overall quality of life.

This simply means that you actively schedule times to think about your work plans. For example, you might do a monthly review of your goals for the year and an annual review of your long-term goals. During those times, you focus intensively and intentionally on planning out your next steps.

Outside of those times, you practice just being in the moment, knowing that you’ve got a plan in place, so you don’t have to worry. People worry about their jobs constantly. They worry about what’s next, how the economy will affect their job security, whether or not they’re moving up in their work, how to get more business … This distracted mind isn’t healthy, and it isn’t productive.

Benefits of Mindful Working

Mindful working offers a vast array of benefits. More than anything else, you should see a better state of mind, which in turn leads to some terrific physical health benefits. But you may also find that working more mindfully improves your career, too, which allows you to earn more money over time.

Mental and Physical Health Benefits

Research has shown that mindfulness offers benefits that include:

  • Better concentration and working memory
  • Better sleep
  • Faster, more effective task completion
  • Fewer headaches, GI problems, and physical aches
  • Increased self-awareness
  • Less preoccupation with regrets or worries
  • Less reactivity
  • Lower blood pressure
  • More capacity for joy in daily life
  • Reduced conflict with others
  • Reduced stress
  • Symptom relief for depression and anxiety

Career and Financial Benefits

Benefits of mindful working may include:

  • Better work-life balance
  • Decreased likelihood of burnout
  • Doing your job better because you’re more focused
  • Improve co-worker relations
  • More job satisfaction
  • New, fresh ideas for problem-solving
  • Renewed sense of appreciation for your work
  • You run your job; your job doesn’t run you

Mindful working means that you’ll make choices that are right for you. This improves your relationship with your career. In turn, this can mean better career advancement, which could mean earning more money.

Moreover, it also means that you are happier with what you have. Therefore, even if you don’t technically earn more, you may be happier with your earnings. If you’re happy at work, then you’re less likely to engage in spending to “make up for” not enjoying your job.

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The FDA Has Linked 16 Dog Food Brands to Heart Disease

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The United States Food and Drug Administration has released a warning citing a possible link between 16 dog food brands and canine heart disease. Should you be taking a closer look at your dog’s food?

The Food Drug and Administration (FDA) said that investigations have shown links between popular brands such as Acana and Nature’s Variety with cases of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) in pets. DCM affects the heart muscle of a dog and can cause congestive heart failure. The disease is most commonly found in larger dogs.

What Dog Food Brands Are Suspect?

Dog food brands listed among those which may be linked to heart disease are mostly selling dry dog food. Most of the time, these types of dog food are the most convenient for the owner and less expensive. However, they may also harm your pet’s health. Below are the 16 brands named by the FDA and the number of cases of heart disease were reported for each.

  • 4health, 32
  • Acana, 67
  • Blue Buffalo, 31
  • California Natural, 15
  • Earthborn Holistic, 32
  • Fromm, 24
  • Merrick, 16
  • Natural Balance, 15
  • Nature’s Domain, 29
  • Nature’s Variety, 11
  • Nutrisource, 10
  • Nutro, 10
  • Orijen, 12
  • Rachael Ray Nutrish, 10
  • Taste of the Wild, 53
  • Zignature, 64

These cases were over a five-year period. Of these cases, 119 dogs died. FDA officials are still studying the link between dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), or heart disease, and the dog food brands.

Next Steps For Pet Owners

For now, no recall is being made on any of these foods or brands. The agency simply feels it has a responsibility to inform the public about the frequency of DCM in dogs consuming these foods.

“We know it can be devastating to suddenly learn that your previously healthy pet has a potentially life-threatening disease such as DCM. That’s why the FDA is committed to continuing our collaborative scientific investigation in the possible link between DCM and certain pet foods,” said FDA Director of Veterinary Medicine Steven M. Solomon.

This is the third study done about the link between DCM and food brand. The FDA has not come out and blamed any brands outright. Instead, officials believe the ingredients may be the problem. Foods claiming to be “grain-free,” contain legumes (peas, chickpeas, lentils) or potatoes all have the potential to be the root of the problem.

Of the reported DCM cases, more than 90 percent of the dog food brands were “grain free.” Ninety-three percent were made with peas or lentils.

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Study: Coffee Could Help Burn Fat

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coffee could help burn fat

As if coffee lovers needed another reason, a new study found coffee could help you lose weight, More importantly, it can help you burn fat, fight diabetes and obesity.

Coffee’s Rise in Popularity

People have been drinking coffee for centuries, however, its popularity continues to rise in the United States. Approximately 64 percent of Americans reported regularly drinking coffee in 2018 (up 2 percent from 2017).

On top of that, specialty coffee sales are increasing by about 20 percent every year. Specialty coffee sales account for about 8 percent of the $18 billion coffee industry in the U.S. On average, the American coffee drinker has 3.1 cups of coffee every single day.

Health Benefits of Drinking Coffee


Because of its rise in popularity, there’s no wonder more researchers are looking at what effects coffee may have on the human body. In the past, coffee has been shown to help lower your risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia, as well as reduce your risk of heart disease, among other benefits.

In this latest study, researchers found coffee may actually help burn fat. “This is the first study in humans to show that something like a cup of coffee can have a direct effect on our brown fat functions,” said the study’s co-director Professor Michael Symonds.

What is Brown Fat?

Brown fat (brown adipose tissue) helps generate body heat by burning calories. This tissue is typically found in babies and hibernating mammals, such as bears. More recently, brown fat has also been identified in adult humans. Brown fat is associated with a low body mass index (BMI) and general good health. White fat, which most of us are familiar with, stores excess calories and typically leads to weight gain.

Stimulating brown fat assists the body in burning off the white fat. As it turns out, coffee does just that. Prior to researchers discovering this, there was no way to stimulate brown fat in adults. To their surprise, thermal imaging revealed that after a drink of coffee, brown fat warmed up and began burning calories.

How Coffee Could Help Burn Fat

It isn’t certain whether it is the caffeine within a coffee or the coffee itself that is causing this reaction. Symonds said the team of researchers will begin checking to see if caffeine supplements have a similar reaction.

Whatever it may be helping to increase brown fat will likely be isolated and used in concentrated doses. Symonds stated, “Once we have confirmed which component is responsible for this, it could potentially be used as part of a weight management regime or as part of glucose regulation program to help prevent diabetes.”

How Much is Too Much?

Symonds points out there is still much left to be researched. This study only took a look at the impact of a cup of coffee on brown fat. There is no information on how much will have a beneficial impact. The next step, according to the co-director, is to see if caffeine by itself can warm up brown fat the way coffee does.

“But potentially, with longer term study looking at the effect of taking caffeine pills once or twice of day for a two week period increase in brown fat itself and an increase in activity,” Symonds theorized.

Although it isn’t recommended, researchers say it probably won’t kill you to have up to 25 cups of coffee in a day. You will likely feel jittery, possibly even anxious, and may have trouble falling asleep though. So, it’s probably not a great idea.

Readers, how much coffee do you drink in a day? 

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Working Long Hours Increases Your Risk of Stroke by 45 Percent

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The average American works between 47 and 50 hours per week (that’s seven to 10 hours of overtime regularly). Of course, the extra cash may be nice and your salary may seem worth it. But what is working long hours doing to your health?

What Working Long Hours is Doing to Your Health


The video above talks about 42-year-old Jeff Hiserodt. Hiserodt was working upwards of 60 to 65 hours per week until he had a stroke. The entire left side of his body went numb. A new study from the American Heart Association took a look at how working long hours and your risk of stroke.

Findings showed people who spend 10 or more years working long hours have a 45 percent higher risk of stroke. For those under the age of 50, the association between the two seemed even stronger.

For the study, researchers defined “long hours” as working 10 or more hours a day more than 50 days per year. Considering the average American is working a 50-hour week, that is alarming. However, Dr. Arbi Ohanian doesn’t believe it is cause for concern.

Ohanian believes that you can’t simply tell someone to stop working because their work is stressful. Almost every job is stressful. It is more about defining what is “too much.”

“The type of work that you do, I’m sure factors into this. The type of lifestyle that you have also factors into this,” said Ohanian.

Best Ways to Prevent Stroke

Working long days is common among many Americans just to make ends meet. That isn’t likely to change any time soon. Instead, doctors point out some of the easier, more obtainable preventative measures.

For instance, if you smoke, quitting would help prevent stroke. Other preventative measures include healthy eating, regular exercise, and visiting your doctor on a regular basis for checkups. It is also important that any current health conditions you may have don’t go unchecked (i.e. high blood pressure, cholesterol, cardiac issues, etc).

Another thing you need to make a priority to decrease your risk of stroke is stress management. Finding better ways to manage stress in your life can make all the difference. Take time out of your day to do yoga, read, and unwind.

Hiserodt quoted stress management as his key to success in recovering from his stroke. “I take the time out to go to a nice painting class with my friends at my stroke group,” he said, “I work out. I ride my bike. I changed my whole life. I don’t want to take for granted the second chance that I’ve been given.”

Strokes kill more than 140,000 Americans every year, costing the United States $34 billion per year. Finding ways to prevent strokes early on could be key in decreasing these numbers.

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Healthcare Costs in Retirement Can Add Up

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It’s no secret that the cost of health care in retirement is probably the biggest unknown hovering above most retirement plans. Pre-retirement, the biggest unknown expense for many families is often higher education for kids. Will they get scholarships? Will they attend a state school (and get relatively affordable in-state tuition)? Or will they get into a great, out-of-state college with no financial help at all, and need help from Mom and Dad or go into extraordinary debt? That’s a tough figure to budget for.

Similarly, most of us can’t know with any reasonable degree of certainty what kind of health issues we’ll run into as we age. We generally need to hope for the best and prepare for the worst, as they say.

To that end, Fidelity Investments has produced a new study about healthcare costs in retirement.

The “too long, didn’t read” summary: Fidelity estimates that a 65-year-old couple retiring today should be prepared to spend $285,000 in medical expenses during retirement. For a single person, it’s in the $135,000-$150,000 range.

Fidelity makes the assumption that you will be covered by Medicare parts A and B, which covers hospital and medical insurance. So that $285,000 figure is in addition to basic Medicare coverage.

Hopefully the fact that you’ll have to pay anything out of pocket even if you’re covered by Medicare is not a surprise. If you want coverage for prescription drugs and dental care and lots else besides the very basics, you’ll likely be paying into a Medicare Advantage Plan (Medicare Part C) on an ongoing basis.

In the study, Fidelity has a hypothetical 35-year-old couple putting away about $2,800 annually in a Health Savings Account (HSA) until they are 65. Fidelity says these contributions, assuming 7% returns annually, would shoulder the anticipated burden. I used WealthTrace’s financial planning application to run Fidelity’s assumptions through a retirement plan, and Fidelity has it right.

To Be Taken With a Grain of Salt—and an HSA

To quote Fidelity’s study, “We recognize that when today’s 35-year-olds retire in 2049 their medical costs could be more than this year’s estimate, and the U.S. health care system could potentially look dramatically different.”

Yes, that’s for sure. A similar sentiment might apply to pretty much anything predicted to happen that many years out. The costs could be more; they could be less. The point is to start to do something to prepare. If you don’t end up needing the money for health care, great–you’ve saved it and it has compounded in value and you can use it for something else.

Fidelity would love it if you opened up an HSA with the company–that’s why they did this study, after all. They want your investment assets. But just because this is something of a sales pitch on their part doesn’t make it a bad idea.

If you’re not familiar with HSA’s, you can get some details about them here. They are similar to IRAs or 401(k)s in that you save the money on a pre-tax basis. But with an HSA, your withdrawals will not be subject to any tax if you use the money to pay health care costs. (If you use the funds to pay for something else, it will be taxed as income and you’ll be hit with a 20% penalty up to age 65; the penalty goes away if you’re over 65.)

If you’re allowed to have an HSA and have the resources to fund one, it’s definitely worth considering. You may not be eligible–you have to have a high-deductible insurance plan, with a $2,700 deductible for a family currently ($1,350 for an individual). It also probably makes sense to first contribute as much as you can to other qualified tax-deferred accounts such as IRAs (currently $6,000 before 50, $7,000 if you’re 50 or older) and 401(k)s ($19,000 before 50, $25,000 if you’re 50 or older). If you have those accounts topped up, and you’re eligible, an HSA should be next on your list.

The future is as unknowable as ever. That applies to health care costs as well as potential health issues down the road. What we do know is that having a plan in place to deal with the unknowable is always preferable to being entirely unprepared.

Abortion Bans: The Economics of Ending a Pregnancy

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Abortion

It seems the news is nothing but controversial these days. Most recently, a number of states have imposed strict abortion laws and even bans in some cases. This has caused an absolute uproar across the nation. While the ending of a life is undoubtedly sad and morally questionable, the economics behind ending a pregnancy is something everyone should consider.

Abortion Statistics to Consider

Believe it or not, abortions in the United States have dropped by almost half in the last 20 years. This is largely due to contraception being more widely available. However, those birth control methods are still not enough to completely avoid abortion.

Around 2 percent of abortions occur because of incest or rape (about 15,000 per year). Most of the women (85 percent) are not married and half are under the age of 24.

Planned Parenthood, which is often singled out for its abortion services, tends to focus on preventing pregnancy rather than eliminating it. In fact, only 3.4 percent of its business is abortion services.

Twenty-five percent of women will have an abortion before they turn 40 years old. Abortion bans could have a larger impact than you’d imagine – far beyond the civil unrest we are experiencing now.

How Abortion Bans May Impact the Economy

Moral stances aside, abortion bans could mean a hefty impact on your wallet and the economy as a whole. Thousands of women have already taken to social media to discuss why they may have had an abortion in the past and explained how much worse off they’d be economically had they had the child.

“I didn’t know what I would do with a baby,” said Jeanne Myers. “I was horrified. I had no job. I would have been in no financial position to care for a kid.” While she admitted there was grief over the lost child, she also stated she wouldn’t have been able to get where she was today had she not made that decision.

Other women who have shared their stories online were in their teens and totally unprepared for motherhood, as most women are at 15 and 16 years old. In some cases, the women seeking abortions already have another child and don’t have the means to have another. Others would like to have a child once they are better off financially.

Three out of four women who seek out abortion services are already low-income. Adding a child into the mix would only increase their financial woes. Most of the time, they wind up on government assistance, living in low-income housing, and unable to work because they can’t pay for childcare to enable them to work.

Myers, who is quoted above, eventually had two children. Her first daughter was born three years after her abortion when she was married and she and her husband both had jobs. This enabled them to have the time to prepare and take care of their child without government assistance.

Final Thoughts

Of course, there are moral stances where abortion is concerned. No one wants to think about killing a child. Most women deal with grief afterward but when it boils down to it, it gives them the ability to better provide for their families financially in the future.

At the same time, they are relieving the economy and society of the burden of having to support them through assistance or through foster care (where the government still pays the family to care for the children). Not every mother can put their child up for adoption after carrying them nine months, nor is every child adopted. Abortion bans will force individuals who are not financially prepared to have children to do so, furthering the cycle of poverty and potentially hurting the economy even more.

More importantly, banning abortions will drive many women to unsafe and unhealthy ways to deal with an unwanted pregnancy. In many cases, these bans do not even protect those who have been raped or are victims of incest.

No matter your stance on the matter, abortion bans will have a hefty impact on the economy and, eventually, your taxes and wallet as well.

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