MORE ABOUT THE EVOLUTION OF TAKE A MINUTE®
Fifteen years ago, Zuleikha was appointed as a member in the Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness, New Mexico. “When I entered the government offices, people were at their computers, furiously trying to meet a deadline. Everyone had some sort of twinge in the back, neck or arms, since we aren’t built to sit slumped at a desk, staring at a screen for hours,” she says. “I started a ‘Come As You Are Stress Relief Program ’ for these employees, 15 minutes before lunch and it worked. They came in suits and ties, heels and skirts, filled with stress and after a few minutes, people were smiling. Many reported feeling more effective.”
The solutions are simple enough: taking a minute for Self-Care and doing small exercises throughout the day, sitting or standing, is an effective way to rejuvenate our energy. Stretching, bending, straightening, rotating the joints, our body feels better and so do we!
“TAM® helps open up the joints, loosen the muscles, boost the circulation and improve the breath,” she says. When practiced regularly, these simple-to do and enjoyable practices can stimulate the energy centers, breaking the body’s habitual slump and awakening vitality. This feeling of resilience leads to heightened concentration and better focus.
Years ago, through her work as an Artist-in-Residence around the USA, Zuleikha found herself sharing simple kinds of resiliency exercises with large groups of students of all ages. Often there were 500 or more young people watching a performance, sitting in gymnasiums or school cafeterias. After sitting for more than 15 minutes with no back-rests, Zuleikha began to notice that the students would begin to wilt, and then squirm. She says, “it occurred to me that they needed a moment of relief.”
With a background in Western and Eastern movement as well as Chinese therapeutic health exercise, Zuleikha had a lot at her fingertips. One day she bravely asked them, all 500 or so, to stand up. She recounts, “ As I recall, the teachers were shocked, and the principal looked at me as if to say, “what do you think you are doing?” At the same time, I was thinking something like, “what do I think I am doing?” I remember knowing that the students shouldn’t touch each other, which meant I should lead them in some kind of vertical activity. Since they were in bleachers, it would have to be done carefully”. Zuleikha was in the middle of a Storydance performance. She went on to speak,” I led the students in a kind of vertical stretch, with a slow-motion finish. When everyone quietly sat down again, the students were leaning in attentively. They had energy, they wanted to know what was going to happen next!” This was the beginning of TAKE A MINUTE®
TAKE A MINUTE© a resiliency re-set, is now the foundation of a U.S. registered trademarked program created and developed by Zuleikha. She often gives this example to groups of people,
” I like to use the example of washing dishes. If the sponge fills up with water, what do we do? Do we continue washing the dishes? No! We wring it out, so we can continue washing. This is what the one-minute Transformative Self-Care exercise TAKE A MINUTE® program is about.”
Today, these movements have been put together in Zuleikha’s “Wellness Resiliency Model,” called TAKE A MINUTE ®(TAM). “If we take a stretch, or as I like to say TAKE A MINUTE®, literally, we will feel refreshed,” she says. As an easy-to-do self-care exercise program, it can be used in the classroom, hospitals, and the workplace to address burnout, relieve stress, rejuvenate energy, and improve concentration. Zuleikha has trained corporate staff, factory workers, educators, social workers, counselors, health care workers, and others in rehabilitation programs across the world. Zuleikha uses parts of TAKE A MINUTE® during interactions with many people, modifying it on the basis of needs and situations.
Not surprisingly, the demand for TAM® in the workplace is growing in resonance with the interest of business leaders to promote healthy workplace practices. This is true for our home workplace situations as well.
As a Self-Care Trainer and Facilitator, Zuleikha offers training based on TAM™ to schools, hospitals, businesses, palliative care centers, government agencies, corporations, and non-profit organizations worldwide.
In 2017, Eileen Fisher, CEO of the fashion company, Eileen Fisher Inc., asked Zuleikha to bring TAM™ into her educational LifeWorks organization and into her corporation for employee self-care sessions and staff trainings. Zuleikha continues to bring TAM™ to Eileen Fisher’s company.
“When Zuleikha comes into a meeting” says Eileen, “and leads just a one minute [exercise] … the room starts to shift and people become more engaged and more creative, and there’s an uplifted feeling. It’s amazing.”—Eileen Fisher, CEO, Eileen Fisher Inc.