I paused when I first read an article in the New York Times that said some companies use financial incentives to motivate employees to attend corporate wellness programs.

I get it. Offer reduced insurance policies to those who participate, and impose penalties to those who don’t.

Money incentivizes. Always. The ‘bottom line’ matters to us.

But does it matter most over the long haul? Are savings on insurance premiums going to be the variable that keeps employees engaged in the get-healthy game? Can companies save more, and gain more over the long-haul if employees choose to participate because of the value they derive beyond just financial incentives?

The problem with incentives is they smell of company interests, not employee wellbeing and happiness. So, dangling the carrot, or exacting ‘the stick’ will no doubt excite employees initially, but over the long term, will it keep them invested? And if not, what’s the loss?

With health care costs sky rocketing, companies can no longer ignore the impact a sick workforce has on company growth, nor the benefits a wellness program could make. Experience and research offer three compelling considerations when implementing corporate wellness programs:

Connect with your employees

Employees who feel seen, heard and valued join in and get involved in wellness programs, even those who may feel intimidated and ‘not ready’ initially. Connecting with employees on a personal level is the sure-shot way to promote fully-vested, even fully-passionate buy-in to wellness programs.

Everyone loves to feel connected and connection fosters ‘we are all in this together’ team Spirit.

What difference would it make for your company if every employee brought the very best of themselves to their work everyday?

Cultivate genuine interest for employees and their health and well-being, and watch game-face turn on to program initiatives, with the added benefits of a health and wellbeing contributing to company bottom line. Because you connected with them. Because they trust you.

And the win? Company-wide growth and productivity for the business and employees alike.

Question ideas about healthy lifestyle habits.

Garnering employee buy-in is not enough. The years of indulgence are glamorized and continue to linger in day-to-day practice, especially for Baby Boomers and Gen Xers, which is in many ways the antithesis of a healthy lifestyle.

Add the nuances of the modern lifestyle, like fast-food nation, immediate gratification, the pull of family and memory and what ‘everyone else is doing,’ it’s no wonder many find the cornerstones of a healthy lifestyle difficult to develop. Restraint and self-discipline land as ridiculous.

For employees to bring the very best of themselves to their work everyday, to increase productivity and foster creativity, there’s got to be a mental shift, a questioning around how we think about healthy lifestyle habits, how we live our lives and how we care for our body.

James Allen said in his timeless classic As a Man Thinketh, “A man is literally what he thinks.” A wellness program falls short if it does not guide employees to questioning what they think about health and wellbeing.

Encourage reconnection to self and self-awareness.

Personalized and detailed diets plans. Individualized fitness programs. Reduced premiums. All are super awesome in encouraging health and wellness in the work place and life, but the grandest buy-in to corporate wellness initiatives helps employees develop self-awareness.

While we weigh in how our time is better spent in dollars earned, we’ve become disconnected from the very simple day to day things that ground us down, beyond all the achieving.

Mindfulness and meditation are the tools. Science shows that by integrating mindfulness and meditation techniques into corporate wellness programs, mental clarity and productivity increase, focus and concentration expand, creativity and innovation grow.

Mindfulness promotes self-awareness. Self awareness promotes healthier choices.

Mindfulness training is essential in helping employees reconnect with themselves, to make smarter choices about health and wellbeing for greater physical, emotional and mental health.

Successful corporate wellness programs remember,

1. It’s about the genuine wellbeing of employees, not just the bottom line.
2. To explore habituated ways of thinking about doing things, to make way for new healthy lifestyle habits.
3. Encourage reconnection to self and self awareness.

With all three points in place, you’re sure to offer a corporate wellness program that does work, a program that assures the results you most want, an office buzzing with peak potential and productivity, high-energy, increased focus and booming creativity!

“Did you take care of business, did you do the work?”

When my son Christopher was young, I would say to him when he came to me wanting something, anything, really, “Did you take care of business, did you do the work?”

When my student Lauren’s mother came to me pleading to excuse Lauren from delivering the required presentation, I asked, “How will that help her prepare for the opportunities life will offer her?”

As sweet as ‘easy street sounds,’ we get the gold star in life when we do the work.

When we do what we said we’d do, every single day.

When we challenge ourselves beyond what feels comfortable, because new things always feel uncomfortable at first.

When my client Genevieve asked me if she could drink “just one cup of coffee” every morning, rather than the typical 3 or more throughout the day, I said, “you can do anything you want, but what do you want more — that cup of coffee, or the benefits of healing your digestive system?”

When we set out to heal our body from the ravages of the modern lifestyle, from anywhere in between common allergies and persistent digestive problems, to autoimmunity, diabetes and chronic health concerns, the game is always the same.

Will you do the necessary work required to create the result you want?

As with my son, my former student Lauren, and my client Genevieve, it all comes down to doing the work.

And it doesn’t have to be hard.

You start with one.

One goal.

One objective.

One result.

And most importantly, one action.

You choose one action you need to make to get you closer to achieving that goal, objective and result you want. When you’ve mastered that one step, choose another step.

And another.

And another.

My son learned that if he wanted that new pair of pants or shirt, he needed to scour the bathroom every Tuesday and Friday.

Lauren learned that to achieve the grade she wanted she had to do the required presentation.

Genevieve learned that to heal her digestive system she needed to remove coffee from her diet for a healing interim.

What is the one thing you could do to get you closer to your goal, your objective, your one-prized result … and more importantly, then on to all the rewards that achievement offers?

Please share your thoughts below in the comments section. I'd love to hear what you think about this post and let me know - Did you take care of business?

If you'd like a tool to help you choose that first powerful action, get my 7-Day mini-course, Commit to Change. It's helped hundreds of others get started too!

What If It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way?

Someone you know—maybe someone you love—will face a chronic disease.

Maybe it’s already you.

It feels inevitable, doesn’t it? Like your genes hold all the power. If your grandmother and mother had it, so will you.

But that’s not entirely true.

Yes, your genes matter. But they’re not the whole story. Epigenetics tells us that while genes may set the stage, your choices decide the outcome.

Your Genes Aren’t Your Destiny

Epigenetics is the science of how your environment influences your DNA. It shows that what you eat, how you move, and even how you think can turn genes on or off.

The research is clear:

• Nourishing, live foods give your cells what they need to thrive and keep mutated genes quiet.
• Processed, inflammatory foods disrupt your system, setting off a cascade of biochemical imbalances that cause symptoms.
• Clearing toxins lightens the load on your body, freeing it to do what it’s built to do: repair, detox, and heal.
• How you live—how you manage stress, what you eat, and your choices—determines whether your body stays in balance or struggles to keep up.

Runs in the Family? Not So Fast.

You were not born a victim. You have a choice. You always have.

You may not control the genes you inherit, but you control what you do next. Some might debate the science, but isn’t the possibility of choice better than no choice at all?

You’re not trapped by your DNA. You’re empowered by your decisions.

Let’s Rewrite the Story Together

If you or someone you care about is struggling with chronic illness—or just doesn’t feel their best—it’s time to start fresh.

Email me at carol@carol-egan.com. Let’s explore how simple, healing choices can transform your life.

Meditate to Reconnect.

Mediation is a game changer. Meditation guides us back to our calmest, clearest, wisest selves. Meditation clears away the noise that causes us stress and toxicity in our body. Meditation empowers us in ways nothing else can.

I’ve found that when I am connected to me, through my meditation practice and through journaling, every choice I make emanates from a place of deep connectedness. When I don’t journal or mediate, the same thing happens with the likely twist, every choice I make emanates from a place of disconnectedness.

I encourage you to consider the ways you spend time connecting to you, and what matters most to you, and how you spend time connecting to that source of power that is you.

You connected to you has everything to do with everything, including your health and wellbeing, including your success and happiness.

Meditate to reconnect to you.

To begin:

Sit in a position that you feel both comfortable and alert, with your back straight and erect, yet not rigid. Close your eyes, or slightly close your eyes to block out distraction.

For your breathwork, you can inhale and exhale through your nose, or you can inhale through your nose, and exhale through your mouth. Whichever you choose, stick with it through your meditation practice.

I love the 100 breaths technique. It’ easy, and unobtrusive. You simply count from 1 to 100 with each breath you take. That’s it. Easy-Peasy.

I also love adding a word to the in-breath and a word to the out-breath when I meditate, like love and fear, or calm and let go. For example, when you breath in, breath in saying the word love silently to yourself, and when you breath out, say the word fear silently to yourself.

If you don’t have any experience mediating, I recommend using guided meditations to help you get started. Meditation teacher, Tara Brach offers a wonderful of free meditations and meditation resources at her site . Author, speaker and Mind-Body Healer, Deepak Chopra offers several wonderful free guided mediations at his site too.  And even though I have experience meditating, when I feel harried by the busyness of life, I return to guided meditations. They are so helpful.

If you already meditate and would like a support that guides you with breath, not words, I love Do As One. It offers several online breathing ‘rooms’ to suit your needs or style. My favorite is the “Calm Breathing Room.” It really slows me down when I need it.

Do As One uses technology to offer the sweet, subtle pull to inner silence that we all so desperately need at times — the times we need a little reminder — a reminder that we’re good, that we’ve got this, that we are so powerful beyond measure and that nothing else matters, but this moment.

Perhaps you are ready to reconnect to you in all the healthy ways you know matter. I can help you do that. Let's explore all the ways we can make that happen. Email me: carol@carol-egan.com

Is it alkaline, or is it good ol’ common sense?

There’s a buzz growing about the alkaline diet these days.

Victoria Beckham popularized the the alkaline diet in 2013 on Twitter.

At this year’s Golden Globes, Kate Hudson attributed her ‘abs of steel’ to the alkaline diet.

Actor Gwyneth Paltrow, model Elle McPherson and talk-show personality Kelly Ripa are all showing up in news feeds singing the benefits of the alkaline diet.

Tony Robbins promotes the alkaline diet at his Unleash the Power Within event, and Dr. Robert Young wrote about the benefits of the alkaline Diet in his book, “The pH Miracle.”

So what’s up with this Alkaline Diet?

The alkaline diet says to maintain ideal health, you must maintain a healthy body pH of 7.35 – 7.45.

You do this by hydrating, exercising and eating a diet of 80% alkaline foods, such as fresh, raw vegetables and low-glycemic fruits; while limiting acid-forming foods to 20%, such as processed foods, gluten, sugar, meat and dairy, and beverages like caffeine and alcohol.

Because your body is 80% alkaline and 20% acidic, your diet should match these same ratios to maintain optimal health.

But in the grand scheme of life, why does this really matter? Why does Tony Robbins and other celebrities subscribe to this diet?

The belief is, an acidic diet demands your body work harder to normalize it’s pH and this demand stresses your body to continually pursue homeostasis.

And look no further than the rhythm and patterns of the modern lifestyle for this stress. Cravings, excess weight, poor sleep patterns, poor quality of life, chronic symptoms and chronic disease and even hormonal imbalance all find root in the modern lifestyle.

An acidic diet and lifestyle causes your body to work overtime to buffer the increase of acid in the body and rebalance the pH. Your body then seeks out the essential minerals it needs to buffer the increase of acid and pulls calcium from your bones and magnesium from your muscles. This causes mineral depletion, inflammation and the whole host of problems caused by low mineral reserves.

To boot, excess acid wreaks havoc on your kidneys and floods your body with stress hormones causing adrenal fatigue.

I love the popularity of the alkaline diet, but for me, it’s ‘the pure and simple common sense diet.’ 

The alkaline diet recommends that you simply include fresh, live fruits and vegetables as  70-80% of your diet everyday. Why? Live vegetables and fruits are high in the nutrition our bodies need to function optimally, but especially the minerals needed to counter the acidic, modern lifestyle.

Leafy greens are very high in minerals.

I recommend the same diet to all my clients, and the results are nothing short of astounding. When my clients increase their live-food intake, and decrease acidic and inflammatory foods, I’ve seen them achieve wildly successful results, like going off anti-depression medications, reduce insulin from 40 units 2x per day to 6 units 2x per day, put autoimmune conditions in remission, go off high-blood pressure medications, heal digestive disorders, improve sleep patterns, reduce stress … plus the favored results of losing weight and glowing skin!

The alkaline diet simply suggests eating a healthy balance between alkalizing foods and acidifying foods to promote vitality and health. Sounds like good ol’ common sense to me! 

Fortunately, with rates of chronic disease skyrocketing, I am thrilled to see more people getting in the nutrient-dense-food-game, and talking about it publicly!

But surely ‘eating healthy’ has got to mean something more than simply eating healthy. Eating healthy is really more about what becomes possible from reducing chronic cravings, or after going off anti-depression medications to live a chronic-symptom-free-life that once defined who you thought you were.

To sound redundant, because it surely is worth repeating, foods from the earth are a whole lot healthier and make a whole lotta’ more sense to fuel the body than processed, nutrient-devoid foods from boxes. 

Are you curious about what the Alkaline diet could do for you, and would love support in implementing this change?

I now have one rare spot in my Inner Circle Best Health Project Program. Let's explore whether that spot might be right for you. Email me at carol@carol-egan.com.