How Being in a Meditative State is Different from Meditating
For the past year, I’ve been focusing a lot on learning how to meditate. And more importantly, how to be in a meditative state.
But first, what is meditation?
Meditation is the practice of focusing your attention on one single point of reference. You can focus on your breath, a word, phrase, or even mantra. In other words, meditating means not worrying about the hundreds of things you have on your schedule, but instead to focus on the present.
Some people think that meditation is something’s only useful at the moment you’re meditating. But I’m here to tell you that’s not true.
With practice, your meditation sessions will help you get into a meditative state. And that state of mind is what you can take with you anywhere.
As a business executive, my daily schedule tends to be busy. As a leader, I can’t allow my stress to negatively impact my team.
According to a survey from consulting firm Life Meets Work, the stress from leadership has a ripple effect through the organization. It affects everything from employee engagement to the bottom line.
In their survey of 1,000 respondents, only about 7% believe that stressed leaders can effectively lead their teams. Further, “only about 11% of employees with stressed leaders are highly engaged at work.”
Which is why it’s important for me to control my mind. Instead of the other way around.
One of the best examples I can share with you about the benefits of being in a meditative state is when I was in a business meeting a couple of weeks ago.
During that meeting, we were trying to resolve some issues that had been on-going. With 10 people in the room with 10 different strong opinions, things got stressful pretty quickly. Breathes were shallow, and heart rates were increasing fast. It was clear we had tension in the air, yet all I could return to was my breath.
When stressed, the body can produce stress hormones that produce physiological changes such as changes in breathing.
As a matter of fact, 48% of people say that stress has a negative impact on their personal and professional life.
That was the state of the other people in the room. But it wasn’t me.
Once I noticed that things were starting to heat up, I made an intentional decision to just stop a second. I’ve learned to pause, and take a step back to bring myself into a meditative state.
In my practice, I’ve learned how to control my breathing, and really focus on my thoughts. So, the moment I became aware that my body started to tense, I quickly shifted my focus onto my breathing to calm down.
I was able to complete the meeting without stressing myself out.
Now, imagine what things would be like if YOU felt stressed every time you had meeting at work. Without being able to change your response. That doesn’t sound like a very healthy environment.
According to the American Institute of Stress, 80% of workers feel stress on the job. Nearly half say they need help with stress management and 42% say their coworkers need help. 14% said they felt like striking a coworker in the past year (but didn’t).
The best part of meditation is that you can do so little each day, to get so much out of it.
It’s been scientifically proven that meditation helps reduce long-term stress after just 8 weeks of regular practice for just 10 minutes a day.
By no means have I figure this meditating thing out yet. But I am becoming more aware of my thoughts and that is opening up my eyes to a whole new world.
