Wellness Evolved

In a matter of weeks, our personal and business lives transformed due to global pandemic COVID-19 novel coronavirus.  Evolution Hospitality's Chief Wellness Officer, Dr. Romie, discusses how to rise above the panic.  In a pandemic, the fear is often as or more dangerous than the disease itself.  In this episode you will hear: 1) What is COVID-19 novel coronavirus and how is it different than the flu? 2) How can we boost our immune system naturally, including the importance of sleep and nutrition. 3) How we can start to rise above the panic so we can function in our personal lives and in the workplace? Links: Research on boosting your immune system CDC Website How to wash your hands Loving Kindness Meditation

Take a moment to pause and ask yourself, how do you feel after hearing our leaders speak at the Town Hall meeting or reading emails?  Change in any organization can create fear, even in times of success and growth.  Evolution Hospitality's Chief Wellness Officer, Dr. Romie, discusses how to take ten minutes to destress your mind and destress your team.   After a period of intense focus, or when you’re feeling stuck, taking just a few minutes away from your desk and looking up from your screen can be just the thing you need. In fact, researchers have found that taking regular mini-breaks during the day can help shift your perspective when you feel stressed, and help you return to your work feeling recharged and refocused.  Try these strategies to pause and recharge during your workday.  You'll hear ideas ranging from power naps, meditation, and being outdoors.  Evolution Hospitality is a third-party hospitality management company with corporate headquarters in San Clemente, CA.  For more information visit www

What happens if you are not mindful of your energy as a leader?  Whether your energy is positive or stuck in discomfort, your team will pick up on your mood and mirror your attitude. Evolution Hospitality's Chief Wellness Officer, Dr. Romie, hosts this episode of "Wellness Evolved" as we discuss managing through change at our properties. Campus & General Manager Michael Murray oversees operations at three hotels and over 200 team members on the Redondo Beach Campus. Michael shares how mindfulness, servant-leadership, and Evo's guiding principles are helping his team navigate growth and change of his campus and the current organizational change in the company. Murray's advice on managing organizational change is to make sure that team members know that they have a seat on the bus.  He discusses the importance of trusting the process, transparency in communication, and the role of mindfulness to build trust.  Hear how their team implemented Evo's corporate mindfulness program, The Power of Pause,  with th

In the workplace, change is inevitable and also considered a four-letter word. The human mind seeks comfort in daily routines and rituals.  When our environment changes, our brain shifts into a high-stress mode and then feeds into fear.    In this episode, Chief Wellness Officer and host, Dr. Romie, breaks down the neuropsychology of why the brain's initial response to change is fear.  When fear sets in, the instinctual response is to question, "Am I safe?" and "Am I cared for?" As our company faces change, Dr. Romie discusses how Evo's mindfulness program and guiding principles can leaders manage emotions and operations.  Evolution Hospitality is a third-party hospitality management company with corporate headquarters in San Clemente, California.  For more information visit www.evolutionhospitality.com Show Notes: [01:51] I'm going to break down specific skill sets for leaders.  [02:20] Change can feel like a four letter word the "f word" fear.  [02:39] When our routines are disrupted our brains get hijacke

As season two of Evolution Hospitality's podcast is launched, organizational restructuring, rapid growth, and personnel change have created the perfect storm.  Evo's Chief Wellness Officer & host, Dr. Romie Mushtaq interviews Chief Operating Officer, Will Loughran to discuss how to lead and manage stress during times of change. In this episode, we cover: Evo is a company built on a culture of practicing servant leadership, and the priority is making sure everyone reaches their full potential.  What steps leaders can take to combat the stress, anxiety, and fear that are natural during times of organizational change? Will's advice is to come back to our guiding principles including "giving each other the benefit of the doubt" and "listen."   In addition, we discuss managing emotions along with managing expectations.  Bringing that "Evo swagger" can help the company to continue to grow and create multiple verticles of inspired leadership. Evolution Hospitality is a third-party hospitality management compan

One of the most guiding principles of Evolution Hospitality is to work with gratitude and humility. Listen to John Murphy's perspective on gratitude. "I think there's a relationship between joy and gratitude." He speaks of being humble and grateful as being the keys to the kingdom. As we come back to the holiday season, we have busy days and busy minds. Remember, gratitude rewires our brain for true happiness and joy. We will dive into how the brain processes and transforms with gratitude. I'll also teach you the psychological principles of processing gratitude. Yes! There is psychology science, which shows how gratitude can cause this type of transformation. What happens in your brain? First, think about what happens when you have pain, especially emotional pain and day-to-day stress. Did you know the emotional centers which process pain in our brain can only work if our pleasure system is deactivated? Temporary activities to create pleasure are eating chocolate or buying yourself something new and exciting.

As a vice president of operations, Mark Van Cooney, talks about how stress can interrupt sleep, and how mindfulness helped him welcome peaceful sleep.  Mark also introduced The Power of Pause to his children to help them not only sleep calmly but also shine in surfing competitions. Mark breaks down how introducing our Evo culture and mindfulness program to our new leadership teams in hotels helps us learn that "none of us is as good as all of us."  His leadership advice to new Evolutionaries is to start each day at a team asking, "what are we grateful for today, and what guiding principle are we going to focus on today."  

As Campus Manager for Evolution Hospitality, Adam has worked from the ground up on our guiding principles and has been an essential figure in growing our corporate mindfulness programs, The Power of Pause. Adam started working for Evolution Hospitality 19 years ago. He was recruited in March of 2000 by John Murphy, who joined Tarsadia Hotels at Regency Plaza. With rebranding and renovation, they changed to DoubleTree Hotels. In 2011, the business became a part of Evolution Hospitality. Since these beginnings started with one property, we have scaled to more than 70 properties. Adam speaks about managing the team's performance with what the owner of the company is expecting. Dr. Romie talks about these challenges which business owners commonly deal with on a daily basis. We discuss our people-driven culture, and as we grow, these are ideals we put into practice every day. Our principles aren't just written on a wall, they are practiced with every employee at Evolution Hospitality. We also dive into how to carr

Award-winning General Manager, Justin Hart, overcomes his fear of public speaking to champion the Power of Pause at Evo corporate headquarters and join Dr. Romie on the Wellness Evolved Podcast.   Justin explains what happened when his team steered away from the habit of practicing mindfulness in the workplace.  The hotel's leadership team started to feel disconnected and chaotic, and Justin talked about how to "make it better than it was before."  You'll hear how the entire team at Domain Sunnyvale Hotel created a meditation room for them to take a pause to decompress, celebrate, share gratitude.    When Justin says he has a life-changing bottle of wine to try, he delivers a whole new level of excellence.  Hear his secrets to picking a great bottle of wine, bring laughter to his team, and how he practices digital detox while traveling. Wellness Evolved is a corporate mindfulness and wellness podcast sponsored by Evolution Hospitality.

Wellness is not just important in the workplace, but also now a required element in decision making for planning meetings.   In this week's episode, Dr. Romie interviews two dynamic global female leaders in the hospitality and meetings industry. Ashly Balding is the Chief Strategy Officer for Associated Luxury Hotels International.  Catherine Chaulet is the president and CEO of Global DMC Partners. Ashly and Catherine break down their personal wellness routines as mothers and executives. You will also hear top trends for bringing wellness into meetings- including nutrition, movement, and the importance of pause.   Show Notes: [05:56] Ashly's secret to wellness is that she is passionate about wellness because it promotes compassion.  [07:24] Catherine believes that wellness is critical, because life is short and we need to enjoy every day.  [08:06] We can help bring work life balance by integrating wellness on teams. It's appreciating life on a much deeper level.  [08:56] Dance has been a passion for Catherin

Imagine your health failing you during a busy deadline at work. How do you pause to reestablish a nutrition plan and your health without missing a beat at work? In this week's episode, award-winning General Manager, Jeff Lawrence shares how job stress negatively impacted his physical health.  After a wake-up call in the emergency room,  he realized he needed to change his soda and sugar-fueled diet.  Learn the simple changes in mindset and nutrition that helped him to heal stress ulcers, lose weight, and thrive under the stress of opening and managing a hotel.  You'll also hear how implementing Evolution Hospitality's mindfulness program has helped him lead his teams through change.

In creating wellness, a core element to maintain wellness is our levels of Vitamin D.  In this episode, Dr. Romie discusses the one lab value you should request from your doctor today.  By optimizing vitamin D levels, you can optimize your hormones, immune system, gut health, and brain function.   You will learn foods that contain Vitamin D3, why people living in sunshine states still have low Vitamin D, and how to choose the right supplements.

There is no one diet plan that will work for everyone, so how do we create a nutrition plan for an entire company? Dr. Romie, Evolution Hospitality's Chief Wellness Officer, introduces the science behind food sensitivity testing. Learn the difference between a food allergy and food sensitivity, the symptoms you may be experiencing due to food sensitivities, and how to test for this problem. Evo's custom wellness program, "Nourish", is also introduced. Nourish is a day program created to restore and nourish your gut health and overall well-being.

As a busy senior hospitality executive, father to young children, and newly engaged- the last thing Scott Roby expected was that vague abdominal pain would turn out to be Stage 4 cancer.   On this week's episode of Evolution Hospitality's Wellness Evolved podcast, Senior Vice President of Operations, Scott Roby, shares his powerful journey on crushing cancer.  Today by focusing on nutrition, mindset, and love of his family he has reached his important 5-year survival mark with a poignant call to action. You will hear what you can do today to start your own wellness journey.   We also invite you to support Scott Roby's Cancer Crusher team raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma by donating or signing up to join our team to "Light The Night" at Angel Stadium in Anaheim on Sept 21, 2019. https://pages.lls.org/ltn/ocie/OrangeCo19/EvolutionHospitalityOC Show Notes: [02:20] This is the beginning of season 2 where we talk about the path of wellness as we Nourish ourselves. [03:18] Scott Roby just celebrated 14

Evolution Hospitality has built their people-driven culture on a foundation of wellness to help Evolutionaries be the best versions of themselves. In the start of Season 2 of the Wellness Evolved Podcast, Chief Wellness Officer, Dr. Romie introduces the focus of wellness initiatives at Evolution Hospitality.  "Nourish" is one of Evo's components in the Wellness Triangle, but what does it mean to nourish your mind, body, and spirit? Beyond fad diets or giving up the foods you enjoy, we discuss how to create a sustainable nutrition plan that can be executed in a busy work environment by eating an anti-inflammatory diet for just five days every month.   Show Notes: [02:24] This is the official start to Season 2. The Power of Pause was Season 1. You can still listen to all 16 episodes with included guided meditations. [04:11] What does it mean to nourish? You are adding something to your body that is contributing to good health. At Evo we believe in cultivating the whole person.   [04:44] When you nourish your

Vice President of Sales at Evolution Hospitality, Gary Spencer, answers one of the most commonly asked questions from Evolutionaries, "help, I'm going to corporate, what do I wear?"  As one of Evo's founders, Gary breaks down how fashion is a mode of self-expression, and the style at Evo is really to show up as your authentic self. Learn about how "The Power of Pause," Evo's corporate mindfulness program has been adopted within the sales division.  Gary also discusses how Evo's guiding principles based on servant leadership are implemented with new team members. Show Notes: [01:36] Founder and Vice President of Sales Gary Spencer is here. [02:25] The biggest event EVO is the Annual Leadership Conference. [02:49] A lot of people were wondering what to wear leading up to the leadership conference. [03:21] As a Southern California company, we try not to take ourselves too seriously. We want people to be comfortable, but we also want them to feel good and look good. [04:45] Looking hip and cool starts with a gr

Use this guided meditation recorded by Dr. Romie before a team meeting, stand-up or huddle. Take three minutes to pause with this controlled breathing exercise to help quiet the busy brain, connect to calm, and feel focused. The Power of Pause is Evolution Hospitality's corporate mindful movement, and the program based in neuroscience, organizational psychology, and mindfulness.  

In order to improve sleep, reduce stress, and feel energized, we promote digital detox before bedtime at Evolution Hospitality. Thirty to sixty minutes before bedtime shut down your digital devices, get yourself organized for bedtime, and use this 10-minute meditation to help clear your mind and welcome sleep. This recorded guided meditation by Dr. Romie is based in mindfulness techniques and can be used anytime during the day when you need to find your center and connect to calm. The Power of Pause is Evolution Hospitality's corporate mindful movement, and the program based in neuroscience, organizational psychology, and mindfulness.

Are you feeling a bit overwhelmed or having difficulty focusing during your workday? Use this guided meditation recorded by Dr. Romie before you send an email, enter a meeting, or make a telephone call. Take three minutes to pause with this controlled breathing exercise to help quiet the busy brain, connect to calm, and feel focused. The Power of Pause is Evolution Hospitality's corporate mindful movement, and the program based in neuroscience, organizational psychology, and mindfulness.  

When you feel like your schedule is controlling your day, your mind has lost focus.  Join Dr. Romie in this brief guided meditation for a brief pause for to refocus your mind.  By using this mindfulness-based exercise, we learn how to anchor our minds in present-centered awareness.  Once we anchor in focus, we then feel back in control of our minds and our day. This recording is a bonus meditation created for Evolution Hospitality as a part of our Power of Pause corporate mindfulness program.