Kathleen Hall

Kathleen Hall (born 12 August 1951) is an expert in stress, mindful living and mindfulness. She is founder and C.E.O. of the Stress Institute and the Mindful Living Network. She started her career in finance working at the World Trade Center in New York. After working on Wall Street, she made a decision to leave power, wealth and corporate stress behind her. Martha Stewart dubbed her the Stress Queen—who specializes in stress management, mindful living, and work life balance. John J. Ratey called her the midwife to a movement—Mindful Living.

She established Oak Haven, a 300-acres farm in Clarkesville, Ga. in 1988, and built a health, education, and training center called The Hermitage. It also serves as a horse farm and a retreat for wildlife and abandoned/shelter dogs and cats. In A Life in Balance: Nourishing the Four Roots of True Happiness, she wrote about her journey from working on Wall Street to creating an institute for mind-body, complementary medicine. This book won the 2007 Nautilus Book Award.

Education & Training

Hall received her Masters of Divinity from Emory University and a Doctorate in Spirituality from Columbia Theological Seminary. She also has a Bachelor of Science in Finance from Jacksonville State University. Hall studied the effects of stress under medical pioneers such as Herbert Benson at the Harvard Mind/Body Institute, Dean Ornish of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute and Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Stress Reduction Center. She received tutelage in spirituality from Nobel Peace Prize recipients including His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Bishop Desmond Tutu and President Jimmy Carter. Throughout this journey, she worked with high-risk inner city children and at the Atlanta Day Shelter for battered women and children; facilitated cardiac rehabilitation programs; counseled and comforted the sick and dying; was involved in hospice care; and continued to explore the concept of science meeting soul. John St. Augustine included a chapter about her in his book on 21 extraordinary people.

In 1997, she founded Wellness Solutions, now called The Stress Institute. Many corporations, including Microsoft and Electronic Arts, Inc., recognized her as an authority in her field and asked her to be a corporate spokesperson on stress management. Hall's ability to entertain, educate, and enlighten people (from Los Angeles to London) placed her in the spotlight as a stress expert. Her media appearances include being on CNN, Fox News, Dr. Oz, Martha Stewart's Body and Soul, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Times, WebMD, Huffington Post, TEDMED and many more. She penned her second book, Alter Your life, a candid view on mindful living that requires no doctrines or trekking off to distant lands. She was featured in a book by Larry Dossey.

Hall had a traumatic brain injury and near death experience in 2009, when a car operated by a distracted driver struck her as she was crossing a street in Beverly Hills.

After being away from the limelight, Hall emerged with her third book entitled Uncommon H.O.P.E., which is a prescription on how to enjoy a rich life of mindful living. The book was largely finished before her accident but was published a year later—awaiting for her final edits. Her new book is entitled Mindful Living Everyday, which is a revised and updated edition based on her 1995 book, Alter Your Life.

Projects

In 2007, in addition to The Stress Institute, she started the Mindful Living Network. After working as a stress expert at The Stress Institute, Hall founded Mindful Living Network to promote mindfulness, health, stress resilience, and work life balance. The seed of this vision was embodied in Mindful Living TV, a TV network focused on original programming.

Hall created a show called Alter Your Life about everyday people learning how to de-stress and live with mindfulness. These people were invited for a weekend at the Hermitage, her center for Mindful Living, to learn about stress resilience. Her other original shows included The Meditation Room, Mindful Living Everyday, and The Way I see it.

The website for Mindful Living Network was launched on August 8, 2008. However, after Hall's accident, the TV network project was put on hold. It later evolved into an online outlet and digital platform. The website, Mindful Living Network, became the main brand platform where its mission is share information, experiences in all aspects of sustainability and Mindful Living.