A simple, uncommon ritual starts each staff meeting at Myosin Marketing. When everyone is gathered on Zoom , and before they get to the meat of the agenda, CEO Sean Clayton leads his team through a deep-breathing exercise .
The practice sets the tone for the meeting, and helps his employees, most of whom work remotely , to feel safe, grounded and willing to take creative risks, he said.
"At first they thought it was really weird, like, 'What are we doing?'" Clayton said. "There were a lot of cameras off and I'm sure a lot of people were like, 'This is awkward.'" But after a couple of weeks, there was a shift. Employees of the Austin, Texas company were saying, 'This feels good,'" he said.
Deep breathing can be an effective way to reduce stress at work , studies show. But on the job , many people don't think about how they're inhaling and exhaling.
Desk workers sitting a computer tend to take shallow breaths as their shoulders creep up. Workers who spend the day on their feet in retail or health care may be too busy to focus on breathing.
