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To some, meditation may seem spiritual or trendy (as we see it depicted in Billions or at places like the World Economic Forum in Davos). To others, meditation is seen as something that could be beneficial, yet they tell themselves they don’t have time for it or fear they won’t be good at it. I believe mediation is THE ESSENTIAL must-have, no excuses tool that allows a person to begin to develop insight into what might be holding them back, and what might be helpful in increasing personal and business success. So many people are simply living on autopilot and spend no time training or understanding their own minds. Meditation has been around for thousands of years, it’s mentioned in the ancient practices of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and if you aren’t doing it – dare I say you should. That is if you want to start becoming a human being instead of human doing.

“Your mind is the basis of everything that you experience and of every contribution you make to the lives of others. Given this fact, it makes sense to train it.”

Sam Harris

I’ve been meditating daily since 2012 and currently practice daily for 30 mins with a peer group over video. I can tell you firsthand that giving yourself time to be with yourself can be extremely powerful. At its core, meditation is self-reflection. It allows you to create a relationship with yourself and can help you develop an awareness of your patterns. If you don’t recognize your patterns, it’s pretty hard to change anything about anything. Meditation can give you a chance to slow things down and get a glimpse of how you are constructing your reality.

If your goal is to get closer to self-mastery, and if you agree with Sam Harris’ quote above, then working to better understand your mind and its role in your happiness and success would make sense to prioritize in your life.

I recall Stephen Covey’s concept of sharpening the saw. If you get up every day to cut wood and forget to sharpen the saw you aren’t going to get very far with a dull piece of metal. Meditation is about sharpening your saw and gaining self-control so that you can effectively approach your desired goals and live the life you want to live.

What life is like for non-meditators

If you don’t meditate it is likely that you are:

  1. unaware of emotion and thought patterns that aren’t serving you
  2. running from task to task, maybe keeping busy to avoid something
  3. thinking that what you think and feel is actually “reality” and perplexed that so many others just don’t get what is so obvious to you
  4. in far less control of your happiness and effectiveness than is possible

What life is like for those that meditate

They have developed:

  1. an awareness of a sense of calmness and perspective that can be conjured up in times of stress
  2. an element of self-control and the ability to respond instead of reacting
  3. an understanding that we create our own reality by what we choose to focus on how we interpret it
  4. can sometimes slow things down enough to find insight and patterns in their thoughts, feeling and response loops
  5. a sense of compassion for the human condition and the interconnectedness of the world

Why some people avoid meditation

For many people there is an aversion to meditation, often they:

  1. think it’s a form of relaxation that they won’t be able to do well
  2. have a self-belief that they are too high strung to do such a thing
  3. think it’s for spiritual people, not them
  4. tell themselves they don’t have the time to do it
  5. can’t see how sitting quietly with oneself can do anything
  6. are literally scared to sit with themselves

Meditation Benefits for Business and Life

Building the Mental Muscles

Breath meditation, perhaps the most popular type of meditation, asks you to pay close attention to observing your breath. You don’t actually control your breath, you just watch what it’s doing. Inevitably you will get lost in thought and you are supposed to come back to focusing on the breath again. You do this over and over again. As you progress in mediation you will be able to start catching the thoughts before you are minutes down the rabbit hole. Almost like catching a glimpse of something in the corner of your eye – except it’s the eye of your mind. This is the moment of choice where you ask yourself, can I just sit with my crazy mind and all the concerns trying to get attention and let it go for the time being? When you do come back to your breath you are building the muscle of self-control and focus.

In addition to learning to exercise choice, there is also another important element of this experience – learning to focus. Have you ever been in a “why does everything always happen to me” mood? When you are stuck in that mode, your focus is actually seeking to find things to interpret negatively. Everything looks bad. Some would say you are attracting bad into your reality through your focus. The focusing muscle is like a flashlight you can choose to point. You can point it in the past, “Why couldn’t this have been different,” or to the future ” I really hope this bad thing doesn’t happen.” Both choices are fabricated by your mind. You could actually choose to see it a different way, “my past had some bad situations, but they have defined who I am, and without them, I would never have ___________”. Athletes and performers learn to see the shot or the performance and attract it. You can too.

Learning to Respond Instead of React

In psychology circles, there is the concept of STFA – Stimulus. Thought, Feeling, Action. First, there is a stimulus that has you creating a thought, that influences an emotion/feeling, and then you typically respond with an action. For many of us, we live in a state of unawareness, or mindlessness and operate under a program of responses you can relate to being on autopilot. We are unaware of the precise triggers, the thoughts we create, the feeling that results, and we often see the action we take after we just reacted, often in a way we regret.

One of the most reliable results of meditation is the awareness of these thoughts, feelings, emotions. Rather than quickly and forcefully going back to the breath when a thought arises. We can take a gentle and compassionate moment to recognize or note what we were thinking about, or feeling and then go back to focusing on the breathing process. It’s often a challenge to sit with ourselves because we have to listen to our crazy thoughts. It’s common to feel strong emotions. However, over time you will learn through experience that this is the human experience of having a mind. Michael A. Singer calls it the annoying roommate. The bottom line is, the more you sit with yourself the more you learn to detect your repeating thought patterns and feelings. The mind has a sneaky way of keeping you unaware. Self-improvement comes from conscious awareness that can be developed through meditation. When you are aware you can make choices rather than exist somewhat like an animal under a reactive habit loop.

Knowing Yourself Better

Many people haven’t really sat with themselves since they were toddlers, keeping themselves entertained in a childhood mindset. Meditation gives you structured time to experience yourself again. For many, this is a scary proposition. The results, however, are always positive as you start to deal with your reality and you can’t distract yourself with work or your electronic devices. If you don’t like what you are seeing, this awareness is a great starting point to make changes. The change of scenery, looking inward will do you good.

Learn to See Your Mind as Tool

As Michael A. Singer says in The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself: “There is nothing more important to true growth than realizing that you are not the voice of the mind – you are the one who hears it.”  The more you sit with yourself the more you get to realize that your mind is a tool that serves a purpose, it is not who you are. Your mind is never going to stop thinking and worrying. Its job is to keep putting together patterns to protect you. It’s your job to learn to use your mind skillfully.

Develop Self-Confidence and Will Power

Sitting with yourself in meditation especially with the gentle effort to concentrate has tremendous benefits to improve the quality of your mind. Your confidence and self-esteem increase as you build a daily habit. When you commit to something and stick with it, it feels good and creates an empowering mindset enabling you to tackle new things with joy and confidence. The best way to start a meditation habit is to start small, 2 mins-5 mins and build to 20 minutes or more. I also recommend using some of the apps that can increase your knowledge and provide friendly guidance. You might find more motivation and more benefit in adding a friend to a daily video meditation call.

In Conclusion

For thousands of years meditation has been an incredibly powerful tool for navigating being human. Being in touch with yourself and in tune with how you create your reality is powerful and only beneficial in the long run. It’s actually kind of crazy to think one can go through life without actually stopping to “check-in” and know oneself. When you can gain the awareness and perspective the comes from meditation your life will undoubtedly be more real, and you will be able to choose to respond more skillfully to situations and be more intentional in building your best life.

Meditation is THE Essential tool for business success and for success as a human – I imagine Bobby Axelrod agrees.

SUGGESTED RESOURCES AND ACTIVITIES

  1. Learn to meditate apps:
    • https://www.wakingup.com – features an amazing 28-day learn to meditate program from Sam Harris and more. $99/year or free if you can’t afford it – just email them.
    • https://www.tenpercent.com – lots of choices from many meditation experts including introductory programs and programs focused on specific topics such as anxiety, stress, emotions, focus, emotions, and relationships.
  2. Must-read books:
  3. Keep a 10-day emotional journal (2 mins a day)
    • 10-word description of facts of the situation, what did you think when the situation was happening, how did you feel, how you did respond, and how would you have ideally responded?