Are we done yet? I still have several deadlines to meet before the end of the day... Photograph: Alamy

As a fairly regular meditator, I naturally responded with only a slight smile and a deep sense of imperturbable inner peace to the latest crop of articles asserting that mindfulness has conquered the highest levels of American corporate life.

This most recent coverage has been triggered by Mindful Work, a new book by the New York Times reporter David Gelles, which documents and largely celebrates the discovery of meditation by hedge fund managers, health insurers, Ford, Target, Goldman Sachs and the Bank of America as a way to reduce stress and boost employee productivity. Arianna Huffington is thrilled by the news; the Wall Street Journal is excited; even the Marine Corps is interested. Now, obviously, I wouldnt want to suggest that Goldman Sachs, Bank of America or the US military dont always have humanitys best interests at heart in everything they do. But we should probably pause mindfully, of course to ask if the corporate mindfulness revolution is something to be entirely happy about.

Not, I hasten to add, because meditation doesnt reduce stress or boost productivity: those benefits, along with numerous others, are among those to which a growing mountain of scientific evidence does point. (Its not noted often enough how many of these studies are explicitly preliminary, using small samples and reaching tentative results but there are certainly a lot of them by now.) And also not because meditation, as Buddhists sometimes argue, needs to be kept pure. (Its been used for questionable ends at least since medieval times, when Japanese samurai meditated to become more fearless killers.) Instead, the problem is one familiar from corporate attempts to impose organized fun at the office: just because some activity is good in itself, it doesnt follow that good things will happen when its co-opted by the engines of commerce.

As Joe Keohane points out in this savvy New Republic essay, mindfulness classes at the office are part of a broader focus on restoring meaning to work not least because, as a 2013 Gallup survey found, companies whose employees are comparatively more engaged generate 147% higher earnings per share. Theres something obviously a bit troubling about treating personal meaning (which is, by definition, the ultimate reason for doing anything) as just another means to an organizations ends. Workers who are emotionally invested in their work also tend to be less motivated by earthlier enticements, such as pay, vacations, flextime and good hours, Keohane noted. Its easy to see how meditation could serve a similarly ideological purpose as an enabler of workaholic culture, rather than a counterweight to it making a bad situation just a little more bearable, and therefore, in the long run, perpetuating it.

Either that, or meditation at work could become one more thing in which employees feel obliged to participate, so as to curry favor with bosses. In which case, as with managerially imposed fun activities, itll simply make a bad situation worse. In this excerpt from Gelless book, we learn how Mark Bertolini, chief executive of the health insurer Aetna, was driven to meditation following a skiing accident in Vermont. Thats the kind of desperate crisis that can invest a spiritual quest with intense personal significance. But Aetnas employees didnt encounter meditation in the same way: they were offered classes because Bertolini decided to use his company as a laboratory to see if it might help them. To be clear, he seems like a great boss: at the same time as introducing meditation classes, he gave his lowest-paid employees a 33% pay rise, after reading Thomas Piketty. Yet even the best boss might struggle to avoid communicating a subtle pressure to take part and meditation undertaken out of a reluctant sense of obligation seems unlikely to be much help.

In any case, its worth asking whats really meant by that word help. Because like all the best happiness techniques psychotherapy, religious spiritual practices and secular ones, such as Stoicism meditation isnt necessarily best thought of as a technique at all, if by that one means an efficient way of reaching some predetermined end. Much more momentously, it might cause you to reconsider the ends themselves. Heres the meditation teacher Kenneth Folk on the notion of meditation as productivity booster:

For some people, the enhanced focus and creativity that often comes from training the mind through meditation might translate into Getting Shit Done. For others, greater intimacy with their bodies and the inner workings of their minds might result in Getting Less Shit Done as they reconsider what is most important in their lives Using meditation as a productivity tool is like using your car for a greenhouse. Its not that your car wouldnt be a good greenhouse; it very well might [But] your car is good for a lot of things, including driving to the market on the odd chance that your own garden fails.

Besides, if youll permit me to conclude by jumping off the spiritual deep end: isnt there something a little perverse in demanding that a practice dedicated to paying attention in the present moment (the only kind that ever exists) should justify itself through being useful for some future moment (which never arrives)? As with the other wellness interventions were ceaselessly urged to adopt getting enough sleep, spending plenty of time in nature its understandable that one might be drawn to meditation in order to make other aspects of life run more smoothly. But we shouldnt lose sight of the fact that, in an ideal world, paying attention to the present, sleeping well and hiking in the mountains wouldnt need to be justified on productivity-related grounds. So what is the point of them? They are or ought to be their own point.

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Meditation sweeps corporate America, but it's for their health. Not yours

Delray Beach, FL (PRWEB) April 07, 2015

Bella Reina, a spa and cosmetic products manufacturer from Florida, is known for its line of makeup made with the use of carefully selected natural, vegan and organic ingredients. As part of its growing collection, they have recently introduced vegan lipstick to raving fans. The combination of the retro case, the trademark pink "V" and the outstanding pucker ability has the company scrambling to fill backorders.

What It Does

The vegan lipstick from Bella Reina will add a spark of lip color that will delight makeup aficionados. The pure mineral pigments used will not only make lips explode with color but will also provide moisturizing and softness. It also offers UV protection to protect the lips from the heat of the sun when outdoors.

What Makes It Different

This lipsticks are 100% vegan, which is the biggest factor that differentiates it from the other alternatives in the marketplace. In addition, they are Paraben-Free, Gluten-Free, Chemical-Free and Petroleum-Free, Bee-Free and Cruelty-free. As opposed to other lipsticks that are made with toxic chemicals, the Bella Reina lipstick uses organic grapeseed and jojoba oil, organic shea butter, botanical extracts, and Vitamin E. Vegan lipstick is rarely offered by other manufacturers of cosmetic products in the market. Surprisingly, there are explosive colors that will give lips a dazzling appearance.

Nancy Reagan, the founder of Reina Bella, says, "Our clients trust our advice and recommendations, so our priority was developing products that matched our clients' needs and enhanced their natural beauty. We wanted the vegan lipsticks to explode with color, but be safe for our clients."

This shows the commitment Bella Reina has towards offering products that provide the highest level of satisfaction while carefully paying attention to the use of the right ingredients; especially those that will be able to deliver aesthetic benefits without being harsh.

To know more about the Bella Reina Vegan Lipstick and other organic cosmetics, visit the website at http://www.mibellareina.com/.

About Bella Reina

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Bella Reina Splashes The Pink "V" with the Introduction of Vegan Lipstick

Last week, my extra-large jar of peanut butter was my best friend.

Abnormal, you say? Whats really abnormal, Ive decided after a week of trying it out, is veganism. I tried. I really did try. I wanted to better understand the people who choose this lifestyle.

Why wont they drink milk? What does it matter if you wear wool? If you dont shave them, the sheep will overheat, for goodness' sake. Are vegans really healthier? And the biggest question of all, what in the world do these people eat?

I am ashamed to say that in my quest to understand vegans, I answered none of these questions. At the end of seven long days, all I learned was that I, Faith Schweikert, could never become one.

Day 1: Day 1 of anything is always exciting. I was fired up, ready to take on the world with my new title: veganoh, so hip, so trendy. Knowing what I was getting into, I saw no problem at all as my normal diet certainly aligned closely with veganism restrictions. I rarely eat meat anyway so that would be no problem; Ive always regarded cheese as some disgusting form of old milk, so that has always been out too; and besides that, I love fruits and vegetables. In conclusion, it'd be a piece of cake (without butter, milk or eggs, of course).

I also decided Id tackle this challenge using only the food the lovely University of Tennessee could provide me in the residence dining halls and P.O.D. Markets. Simple.

Discovering that a peanut butter and jelly sandwich is vegan made me even more confident that this would be a good week.

Day 3: The fantastic photo editor, Hannah, barged into the Beacon office and exclaimed Anybody want some pie? to all four people sitting in the room. A freshly-baked, homemade, lemon chess pieveganism instantly lost its cool.

By then, I was just hungry. All the time. Im halfway through this weeks peanut butter jar as I wonder still, What do vegans eat? How do they even function in society without 'proper' food?

The dining halls were no help with their butter-infused everything. Even the salad bar is tricky because my beloved ranch dressing includes the devil himself, buttermilk, and croutons are often coated in butter to make them taste like something other than stale bread.

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Milk addict goes vegan | Arts & Culture

Kite Hill's "soft-ripened" cheese made from almonds develops a bitter rind like that on Brie cheese. Alastair Bland for NPR hide caption

Kite Hill's "soft-ripened" cheese made from almonds develops a bitter rind like that on Brie cheese.

On the fringes of the cheese world, a quest for non-dairy cheese that tastes like the real thing has been underway for years.

Products made mostly of soy protein or coagulated palm oil, often heavily processed and artificially flavored, have dominated the (very) narrow vegan cheese section of the supermarket. But these products have long underwhelmed the palate with their thin flavor and reluctance to melt on a hot pizza.

Now, as lactose intolerance and environmental and animal welfare concerns about livestock production drive more interest in alternatives to animal products, a new generation of non-dairy cheese makers is doing something novel: They're actually making cheese.

OK, so they're not using milk from mammals. But by culturing the milk or puree from tree nuts with the same bacteria used by dairy cheese makers, and letting it mature, companies like Kite Hill, Treeline Cheese and Punk Rawk Labs have turned the scramble for a decent-tasting vegan cheese replacement into something crafty. And pretty tasty.

At Kite Hill, the cheese-making starts with grinding the nuts with water and then separating out the solids to make almond milk.

"And at that point forward, it's almost exactly the same process as dairy cheese-making," says Kite Hill's CEO Matthew Sade, whose line includes a crusted Brie-like cheese and a smooth chevre-like cheese. Sade cultures the almond milk with Lactobacillus acidophilus, bacteria that has assisted cheese and yogurt makers for ages by turning the sugar in the milk into lactic acid. It's part of the key to giving good cheese its tang.

Once cultured, the milk forms curds, which settle into a molded shape. At this stage, the cheese can be aged for several days or weeks. Kite Hill's "soft-ripened" cheese actually develops a bitter rind very much like that on a piece of Brie. The soft interior is creamy, with a tart cheesy bite and a distinct essence of almond. Kite Hill's fresh cheese is tart, cool and smooth, like mild goat cheese.

Heidi Ho's Ne Chevre live culture cashew cheese. Alastair Bland for NPR hide caption

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Hold The Mammal: Daring To Make Dairy-Free Cheese From Nuts