From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, there’s a movement that’s making a deep impact.
We live in an ever-changing world with global competitiveness and constant demands on our time. Work can be especially demanding with long working hours, higher workloads, shorter deadlines, and increased expectations contributing to the rise in workplace anxiety and pressure. These can be detrimental to both our physical and mental health and the global burden of burnout cost is now in excess of $300 billion annually.
How do people describe you? Creative? Calming to be around? Fun?
Do you think of yourself as a person who is capable and in command of their life, or as someone who is struggling to keep up and is flustered, short-tempered, and unsure? When you look at your co-workers or people you associate with, are they energized and efficient or tired and irritable?
Over the past two decades numerous studies have been conducted on why some employees manage to remain resilient and seemingly unfazed by their workload and are effective at managing risk, are innovative, while enabling their organization to improve its performance and practices.
One study, The Effects Of Meditation On Executives Performance In Business Organizations looked at meditation as an influential factor on stress reduction, assimilation of changes increase, conflict management capabilities development and leadership performance.
The study took place over 20 weeks with two 60 minutes sessions per week, with a meditation group consisting of 57 executives and 40 in the control group. The meditation group meditated on two distinct measures; focused attention and compassion. In summary, the results showed significant gains in the following areas:
- Stress reduction
- Compassion
- Job satisfaction
- Performance
- Improved interpersonal relations
- Increased conflict management
- Improved leadership performance
What is fascinating is that all the benefits were noticed after only four weeks!
Another study has shown positive results with nurses who practiced meditation for only one-minute prior to starting work.
We were so impressed with the results that we developed a one-minute meditation that fits easily into busy schedules and can be integrated at work or at home.
The practice of meditation can help you to hone your ability to focus, redefine your leadership and management skills, and sustain the promise of positive change.
No matter whether you are an employee, operating your own flourishing small business, or running a large department in an international company, the results of the research have consistently shown that meditation enhances the following three skills:
- Balance
- Presence
- Creativity
These three areas bring “eureka” moments, improved relationships, and the ability to improve your performance by being able to focus on what matters rather than being pulled away by distractions.
Enhanced Balance
Leaders who understand and value not only the needs of their company, but their employees, and also themselves and are more able to strike a balance between work, rest, and play by balancing the demands of work, family, and social obligations. Without balance in your life, stress builds up and if prolonged can lead to illness; sometimes serious.
Make it a priority to allow time for yourself by actively scheduling Self-Time. Place this time in your daily calendar, whether it’s one-minute or twenty minutes. Meditation is flexible because it does not require special equipment that you have to carry around with you.
Enhanced Presence
Where are you at any given moment?
Your body may be one place but your mind may have drifted off to another place. Being in the Flow or maintaining a single-pointed focus is desirable when it comes to the creative process, especially when you need to bring your attention to a project, a presentation, or even the person you are in conversation with.
Leaders who practice meditation have been shown to develop the ability to integrate their unique skills and knowledge into their assessment of a current situation without being distracted. With practice, you will discover that you are able to give equal attention to each moment. This is because meditation enables you to shed obstacles (varies from person to person) freeing up mental space that you replace with positive thoughts and ideas.
Enhanced Creativity
Leaders who practice meditation find that their productivity increases. As you continue to develop your own practice, you will find the quality of your thought process improving. Ideas improve and flow with ease and you may find it easier to solve problems. Meditation is a personal tool and a process as unique and powerful as you are.
Personal and work relationships are also enhanced and more vibrant through your ability to make people feel good and your positive constructive attitude.
With over 25 years in healthcare and wellness education, Margaret Stockley has developed a results-oriented approach to help organizations implement wellbeing strategies related to employee health, engagement, and productivity. For further information contact [email protected]