Meditation: The Key to Productivity, Happiness & Longevity
Most of the people we know are strivers. Our team, our clients, our friends — we all set goals and achieve them. It’s incredible what people can achieve when they decide what they want and do what it takes to get it. But what can you achieve by doing nothing? Meditation is a particular form of doing nothing that can help you accomplish a lot. Meditation makes people more productive, happier and healthier.
A few decades ago, meditation was regarded as an exotic “Eastern” practice in “The West.” Now, Fortune 500 Companies are getting behind meditation, with over a fifth offering meditation programs for employees. Meditation is a billion dollar industry. What is behind the surge in popularity? Thought leaders like Apple’s Steve Jobs have recommended the practice and scientists have documented the benefits. So let’s dive into the thinking man or woman’s form of “doing nothing” and see what doing nothing can do for you.
What Is Meditation?
Meditation takes many forms. Buddhism puts a great emphasis on meditation, offering diverse methods of practice. Hinduism and related yoga traditions also offer a multitude of forms of meditation. Almost all forms of meditation share some basic components.
Meditation begins from the premise that the “you” that most people think they “are” is an observable subpart of you. “You” can listen to “yourself” think. Meditation suggests that the “you” that listens is closer to the real “you” than the “you” that talks.
Meditation asks us to focus our mind on one thing, with the goal of letting all the other thoughts racing around go away for a while. In the process of learning to focus, we learn to observe our thoughts dispassionately as they arise and pass away.
Meditation helps us understand the source of our emotional states, and helps us recognize their transitory nature. When we understand the source of our emotional states, we can more easily choose to let them go.
Meditation helps us recognize what we are attached to. We may discover we sometimes have an irrational and unimportant attachment to objects while we sometimes fail to connect with people. The society around us bombards us with depersonalized materialism to feed the engine of production and consumption, so it is no wonder we sometimes have irrational attachments.
By teaching us to let go of our thoughts of past and present and let our minds be open to receiving new information in the moment, meditation teaches us to be present now. The more time we spend here, now, truly with the people around us, the more time we are truly alive.
The Benefits of Meditation
Meditation Increases Productivity
Meditation reduces stress and allows you to remain calm and focused, so it is no surprise that meditation increases productivity. A study from University of California showed that by practicing meditation just 20 minutes a day, students were able to dramatically improve their performance on cognitive skills tests. Meditating students were less affected by deadline stress. Other studies show, as we might expect, improved focus in particular.
Professor Eileen Luders at the UCLA Laboratory of Neuro Imaging have shown a physiological change in the brain caused by meditation. Higher amounts of folding of the cortex, or gyrification, are seen in meditators. Gyrification is known to improve decision making, information processing, and focusing attention.
If that is not convincing enough, several boatloads of Fortune 500 CEOs including Marc Benioff of SalesForce swear, joined by Def Jam hip hop mogul Russell Simmons, by meditation’s contribution to their productivity.
Meditation Can Permanently Change Your Happiness Set-Point
In Stumbling On Happiness, Dan Gilbert presents an epic review of studies of what makes people happy and unhappy. It’s a fascinating book that uncovers a plethora of eye-opening results. Among them — many of the things we think will make us happy do, but only for a brief while, even if they persist, like a permanent promotion. According to a number of studies, once we become accustomed to having the thing or condition we desired, it no longer makes us happier.
Meditation, however, equips us with a tool that we can use at any time to instantly be happier. Simply be here now. When we live in the moment, without attachment, without judgement, fully connected and able to appreciate, like a child, what is now, then we can be truly happy.
Meditation Increases Longevity
Studies show meditation causes measurable changes in the brain that slow the aging process. Physiological examination reveals that the brains of meditators have thicker right anterior insulae and prefrontal cortexes. Elizabeth Hoge of Harvard discovered that tissue cells from the brains of elderly meditators had longer telomeres at the end of their chromosones than cells from their non-meditating peers, indicating reduced aging.
Her colleague Sarah Lazar reports that various studies show “cognition seems to be preserved in meditators.” In 12 separate studies, meditation increased attention span, memory, and mental quickness in elderly volunteers.
How To Meditate
Find a quiet place to sit where you are comfortable. If you are comfortable sitting on the floor or a small cushion cross legged that’s a good place to start. If not, you can sit in a comfortable chair, or lie on your back or stand up or even walk. Now you need something focus on. Why not start with something you always have with you? Observe your breath. If it helps you focus, count “one” on the inhale and “two” on the exhale. Just focus on your counting or on the sensation and sound of your breath as much as you can. You will have other thoughts.
Don’t worry or get upset or struggle to push the thoughts away. Do not try to control them or judge them. Just accept it and observe the thought as it comes and goes. Try not to answer the thought or ask it any questions.
For instance, you might think “Inhale” and then — “Oh I have so much work to do tomorrow!” Now, normally you might start thinking about what you have to do specifically, or thinking supportive thoughts about how you can do it, or what you have to gain or lose, but instead, just try to return to your breathing. Count: “One….two.” That’s it! It’s easy! Keep at it and you will probably discover some amazing benefits from this simple practice.
More on The Art of the Good Life from Rascal
Join us as we continue on our conceptual journey to the heart of the art of the good life. Accompany us on our quest to answer the question: What is true luxury and how can we find it? You can follow our articles here on Medium if you have an account, or simply bookmark our Medium page or follow us on Facebook.
We’ve got practical articles covering how you can use Bitcoin for luxury travel and private islands you can explore in Asia. We will tell you how you can add years to your life in our article on the benefits of yoga. We also consider some more abstract topics, like non-being and its place at the root of luxury, or the conceptual art color the blackest black, Vantablack. We elaborated on the fascinating “invisible” MCT watch made with Vantablack and the extremely rare Rolex Deep Sea Challenge watch. If you are a gourmet, you might want to check out these fine dining restaurants in Bali that could be contenders for a Michelin star. Enjoy!
