How Meditation Can Boost Your Business
By Jay Chambers
When running a business, your mind is the most valuable asset. That is why you should embrace practices that help calm and regain control of your thinking, such as mediation. Over the years, mediation has become a common practice for most successful people, which is definitely for a good reason.
Mediation is one of the things that successful business leaders like Ariana Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post, Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn, and Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates have in common. They set aside some time from their packed schedule to meditate. Below are ways that the practice can change the way you manage your business for the better.
It Enhances Clarity and Focus
Every time we face obstacles when going after our goals, we are likely to suffer stress. Research shows that many people encounter a “fight or flight” decision about 12 times every day. The “fight or flight” situation is a severe response that has the potential of affecting digestion, respiratory rate, heart rate, and reduces the efficiency of the immune system. When under stress, it is hard to accomplish your goals because your mind is continuously hazy.
It is documented that human beings operate only on five percent of their mental capacity. The worst part is that everyone seems comfortable working at this limitation. The ability to focus on goals and having mental clarity is a critical part of business success. The two qualities come from having peace and inner calm that comes from mediation.
It Keeps You Disciplined
Most of the things that can affect your life and business are outside your control. Unfortunately, it is impossible to control the world around you, such as what people do and say. Practicing meditation can help you control your mind. Nothing can beat a trained mind, and with it, you can accomplish things you never thought you would.
For starters, learning how to meditate is a hurdle, and going through that can teach you an incredible amount of discipline. When you try closing your eyes in silence, your mind is likely to race nonstop, and it might be painful. However, regular practice strengthens you, and soon you will long for meditation time. Similarly, as an entrepreneur, you must be persistent and patient if you want to succeed.
CEOs have a hard time staying focused and resilient, especially when they have a lot in their hands. Studies have proven that mindfulness meditation will not only enhance their focus and discipline, but it also leads to better long-term mental health.
It Trains You to Be Nonreactive
When practicing meditation, you should sit in silence and allow your mind to be still. You learn to observe instead of reacting. By adding this additional level of distance, you are training your brain to respond rather than react, which will help you to achieve a holistic and thoughtful understanding of life situations. Research suggests that meditation can boost compassionate responses to suffering, which means that you can relate well to your employees.
Meditation breeds tranquility. Most CEOs are always under stress, which might make them quick to anger. If you have been having anger issues, consider taming them through mediation, as it can help you become calmer and kinder than you are.
When you become more compassionate, you are in a better position to look beyond your needs and your immediate business needs, and understand the stakeholders’ interests. You do not think regarding losing and winning, and enemies or friends. Instead, you embrace the common grounds that you share with the universe, which helps you become better at business and life.
It Taps into Your Creative Side
Innovation is the driver for a successful venture. Wouldn’t it be great having someone to fire up the creative juices in your mind? Meditation is an excellent way of nurturing the idea-making part of the brain. Research has it that mindfulness meditation helps you observe your present feelings, thus increasing divergent thinking. This type of thinking allows your mind to jump from one place to another without judgment.
Meditation helps in keeping your attention flexible and unrestricted. You can readily accept whatever you are feeling. The result is enhanced memory, reduced cognitive rigidity, and increased cognitive flexibility. Every great business idea came from an innovative mind. Therefore, meditation can help you bring fresh ideas into your business, which means success and better business operations for you.
It Helps You Uphold a Positive Mindset
Staying positive when your business is doing great is quite easy, but maintaining the same attitude when times are turbulent is another thing. Meditation trains you to accept that everything you experience, whether good or bad, will eventually come to an end. You learn to enjoy the present moment irrespective of what the future seems to hold. In that moment of stillness, the future and the past do not matter, and you can concentrate on the present.
When your mind is calm, you can readily accept life’s struggles and enjoy the simple pleasures that you experience. At this moment, you are less concerned by thoughts of when the moment will end or if you will have another chance of enjoying the experience. Our life circumstances are infinite, so, positivity is something that we must harness.
It is all about believing in “enough.” When your happiness comes from inside, your source of joy is infinite, and you can tap into it anytime you wish. That way, your business will be unique. You will be willing to delegate tasks when necessary, and with ease.
About 18 million adults practice meditation habitually. While previously mediation was appreciated for its benefits of personal success, there has been a spike in the number of people practicing meditation in the business world. It can be attributed to the increase in awareness of what meditation can do to both personal and business life. You experience the advantages of meditation after a prolonged period, which teaches persistence. All these things are achievable, but you would have to practice them to experience the benefits.
