Benefits of Meditation in Business.

By Nagina Shah

 

Aberlady Sunset 31/10/21

“You are the sky. Everything else – it’s just the weather.” ~ Pema Chödrön

We must go beyond our thoughts and fears to understand who we really are. Imagine your true nature is the sky and your thoughts are clouds, but its always cloudy and you never see the sky so you start to believe that you are the clouds. Meditation helps you discern the difference between the two.

Learning to see reality as it actually is, not through the lens of your memories, fears and biases helps you to live a happier, more productive life.

To understand meditation, lets first look at what meditation is NOT.

1) Meditation is NOT a religious/spiritual practice. You don't have to be spiritual or religious to practice meditation, although meditation is rooted in Buddhism. Meditation is scientifically proven to have many health benefits for both body and mind and is a non secular practice. Meditation is less about faith and more about altering consciousness, finding awareness and clarity, and achieving peace.

2) Meditation is NOT about emptying the mind of thoughts. The goal is not to empty your mind, nor is it about controlling your thoughts. This is not possible as thoughts will always occur, no matter how relaxed you are. Its about observing your thoughts as they occur and not allowing them to control you. To be able to observe your thoughts without strong emotion or judgement.

3) Meditation is NOT about escaping your problems. Meditation is less about escapism and more about experiencing reality as it actually is - without bias or filters. While meditation can help solve issues related to the mind and body, if practiced regularly, it is in fact the opposite to escapism. If you are living mindfully it means you are alert and fully aware, not living life in a daydream.

4) Meditation is NOT a waste of precious time. For those who have busy lives and many responsibilities, meditation my seem unproductive. In fact, meditation has been proven to enhance productivity and a general state of contentment. By creating concentration and a clarity of mind employees can be stress-free, which allows them to be more productive and efficient.

So, what is meditation and how can it help you in business?

Meditation for Business Success

Meditation is about inner work. Rather than fixing something or someone outside of ourselves we go within to cultivate our mind. Meditation helps us to make the subconscious conscious so we may be better equipped to understand and overcome fears and obstacles that hold us back.

In recent years meditation has become popular in the business world because it helps reduce stress. Stress is a feeling of overwhelm and the inability to deal with the pressures in life - mental and emotional. In the business world especially, we are exposed to high levels stress. Pressure to perform well and succeed causing high levels of anxiety and burnout, wreaking havoc on the body, physically and mentally. Meditation helps to relax and calm the mind to gain clarity and control in life. It enhances work performance, improves physical and mental health and strengthens relationship.

Meditation and Executive Functioning

Executive functioning is a mental process that allows us to focus our attention, multi-task successfully and remember what we are doing. These skills are necessary to function on a daily bases. Basically put executive functioning is to manage and be in charge of the brain.

The main areas of executive function are:

  1. Flexible thinking - Adapting to change easily.

  2. Emotional Control – Being in control of emotions/feelings rather than being controlled by them.

  3. Self-Regulation – Being self-aware moment to moment.

  4. Impulse Control – Thinking before acting.

  5. Planning & Prioritising – Setting and meeting deadline.

  6. Working memory – Retaining and executing instructions.

  7. Organisation – Keeping track of things.

Research has shown that meditation improved executive functioning. In a study carried out by NBCI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) in 201, it was found that,

"...meditation improves executive functioning. The results of our study confirm this finding, but further extend it to suggest that this effect can be accounted for by an increase in the acceptance of emotional states, as well as the neural basis for performance monitoring. In other words, meditators may excel at executive control because of their ability to attend to the emotions associated with making error. Specifically, if emotional acceptance is associated with an increase in error-related neural activity, it is not surprising that meditation practice improves control. These findings shine new light on the effect of meditation practice and mindfulness on executive functioning, suggesting that this relationship may not be purely cognitive in nature..."

Mindfulness and meditation is an incredibly beneficial way to encourage calm, clarity and focus. Meditation continues to be a compelling way to reduce stress, anxiety, anger, memory loss and burnout.

If you would like to know more please feel free to get in touch.