Meditation — why deep breathing and sitting on the floor can make you richer
Work can be stressful. Short-sighted shareholders. Deadlines. Difficult people who don’t like to be managed. Holding those people to account. Storm-outs. Make-ups. Bosses. Launches. Success tipping and teetering in the balance. Failure too.
Mental health issues are rife in business. People keep talking about burn out, but nobody really listens. Loneliness is on the rise. And some people have become so overwhelmed that they’ve taken the awful step of jumping out of their office windows.
We work longer and longer hours, which can make for a lack of perspective. If all you ever see is your office, your desk and your bed- the perceived importance of work becomes greater than it really is. You forget about friends and family. You forget about the little things. All you see is spreadsheets.
Most of us don’t make things anymore. But rather, we come up with ideas about what we should do- what we make is decisions. What product does the world need. Who to call. How to pitch it. How to get the best out of that insolent employee. What should the copy say. What should it look like.
Clever people have noisy minds. That activity is a part of what makes them clever. But good decision-making requires the ability to cut through the noise, to get a hold of what’s real. All the other conversations we’re having in our heads need to be quietened.
When we lose our presence of mind, we lose the power to make good decisions. Think Nixon in the Whitehouse- a man consumed by stress, ego, anger and fatigue. Think about your angry boss- or your co-worker who loses it over the smallest thing. Angry. Anxious. Flustered. Reactive. Stressed. Stretched. Ineffective. Negative. Depressed.
Maybe that’s you. It’s everyone some of the time. But thankfully there’s a cure. An ancient one that modern science now proves to be wonder-drug. It silences your enemies. Enhances your creativity. Keeps you focused. Conquers your fears. And makes you smile.
As Arianna Huffington said in a series of interviews; “2014 was the year when all the CEO’s started coming out- not as gay, but as meditators; Mark Benioff- CEO of Salesforce, Mark Bertolini- CEO of Aetna, Ray Dalio- MD of Bridgewater, Rupert Murdoch- Media Mogul”.
So what is it about meditation, and why are all of these rich and powerful people such ardent practitioners?
Huffington’s answer was that meditation allowed these great decision makers the presence of mind to make the best decisions for their companies. Undoubtedly that’s true, but I think there’s more.
To paraphrase the late Felix Dennis, there are two laws to the getting of money: ownership, and excellence. Creativity, deliberate focus, confidence, equanimity and a rational mind; often beget excellence in business.
This isn’t to confuse meditating with making money. Nobody is going to come along and pay you for sitting on a cushion. Work = Money. Selling stuff = Money. But in a world where 1 good idea is worth more than a 1000 bad ones combined- think about who is most likely to have those good ideas, and under what conditions they are most likely to come.
Will they come to the man who stares at a screen for 12 hours a day. Someone who argues with everyone and tells little stories to himself to soothe his ego. Or, will they come to the woman who is calm and focussed; creative, and inspired by the world around her.
The busy, active mind is just one part of the creative puzzle. Peace and tranquility is the other. Just think about Steve Jobs- the busiest mind of them all- he was a meditator too.
‘You see so much more than you could see before. It’s a discipline; you have to practice it’
Steve Jobs