Psych Yourself Up!

1. Psych Yourself Up! Attention training to help deal with stress Material relating to the Mindhabits Inc., attention training tool, Psych Yourself Up! Slides are free to be used or modified without additional permission

2. Facts about stress in the workplace • Sixty-nine percent of employees report that work is a significant source of stress • Fifty-one percent of employees said they were less productive at work as a result of stress • In 2001, the median number of days away from work as a result of anxiety, stress, and related disorders was 25 • Healthcare expenditures for employees with high levels of stress were 46% higher than those for employees who did not have high levels of stress • Job stress is estimated to cost U.S. industry more than $300 billion a year in absenteeism, turnover, diminished productivity and medical, legal and insurance costs Source: http://www.apa.org/practice/programs/workplace/phwp-fact-sheet.pdf

3. Psychological variables play a significant role in determining an individual’s response to situational demands • A mental habit of dwelling on criticism, conflict, and rejection can exacerbate stress: It makes situational demands harder to deal with, and such social threats can themselves become a source of stress. • Unfortunately the brain’s attention system can orient very quickly and automatically toward social threat and this is not easily controlled, as shown in laboratory research

4. Recent research shows that beneficial habits of attention, in which the tendency to dwell on social threats is minimized, can be practiced using training tools • This has produced real-world results: • Lower stress in call center operators • Improved sales performance • Lower stress hormone (cortisol) levels • Lower anxiety in students about an exam • Improved self-confidence after difficult tasks National Traffic Operations Centre; Creative Commons Lic. English106 Creative Commons Lic.

5. The research has been reported in scientific articles and mainstream media

6. The attention training tool Psych Yourself Up! was designed by the researchers themselves • Using patent pending technology • Takes a minute or two: Can be used once per day, or intermittently on breaks

7. Psych Yourself Up! was developed and is distributed by Mindhabits Inc., a spinoff company of the McGill University researchers who developed the training tool. • Mindhabits is an award-winning designer of psychology-based tools and games.