Several years ago I started doing meditation regularly, practicing a type of meditation called mantra meditation. For just 20 minutes a day, the benefits that I’ve seen from doing that in my life but mainly in my business have just been immense. And so I wanted to share some of those benefits with you and hopefully inspire you to get into a regular meditation practice if you haven’t got one already.
Meditation is something that I’ve found is a really personal thing. And what’s important is finding the right meditation for you. So if you have tried meditation in the past and it maybe hasn’t worked for you, I’d really encourage you to keep exploring it and eventually you’ll find something that works for you. I tried many different types, and they didn’t stick until I found this technique of japa or mantra meditation. This type of meditation involves chanting a prayer or mantra over and over while using a set of yoga mala beads to keep track of the number of chants.
- The first thing that I’ve found that’s a real business benefit to meditation is it just generally makes you calmer. I know that’s probably a really obvious one, but I think it’s a really important one because when we are calm, it makes everything in business go a little bit easier. We’re less reactive to situations, people, things that go wrong and it just enables us to get through our day with less conflict and more efficiency.
- Meditation absolutely reduces stress—my stress levels have gone down significantly since I began a regular meditation practice. Meditation is perfect for those moments where you’re stressing out about something, and you are going over things over and over and over in your head. I have found that does happen a lot more when I haven’t been keeping up my daily meditation practice. So if you aren’t feeling great and you’ve got a million things going on to take 20 minutes or take five minutes if that’s all you have and do a meditation. I generally find that gets me back on track and lets me continue with my day with less stress and anxiety.
- When I meditate, I sleep so much better. I generally find that I will go to bed I will fall asleep quickly and easily. Whereas previously, I get caught up with all those things rushing through your head, the stuff from the day, the stuff that you know you’ve got to do tomorrow, and it takes a while to let that go and fall asleep. I find that meditation really comes down that monkey mind and allows you to get to sleep much faster and you just generally more able to deal with the things that happen when you’ve had more sleep.
- I’m one of those people who tend to get sick a couple of times a year, maybe the flu two or three times a year and a cough. Since I’ve been meditating, I’ve found that I’ve been less likely to get sick and if I felt something coming on, it generally goes away much faster. Being less sick makes me more productive at work and less likely to make bad decisions when I’m not feeling 100%.
- I’m way more focused now that I’ve been practicing meditation. Being focused is something that I’ve had trouble with in the past. It’s particularly difficult when we’re living in this super social connected world where there’s always distractions, emails, and buzzing notifications popping up. I find it so much easier to stay focused on the task at hand when I’ve been meditating regularly. It’s made a real difference to me in my business and getting things done more efficiently.
- Meditation has really helped with creativity. It opens up that creative side to you. It makes the ideas come more easily and really gets you in that space of being able to build and create and try new things.
- When practicing daily meditation I find that I have much better perspective on things, I’m much more able to step back and take a moment and see things for what they are. And I think in business that is so important. We’re often in those moments where, we have a split second to react, and I think when you take that extra second, and you’re able to, look at things from almost an outsider’s perspective, it can help in making the right decisions, making the best choices.
- Meditation also really helps with improving business relationships. I’ve found that meditation makes us better at interacting with and dealing with other people. Being calm, focus and non-reactive will enhance all of your conversations and interactions with clients, customers, suppliers, colleagues and even your family. When I can practice daily meditation, all those relationships seem to flow more easily and with less stress and effort.
I hope this list of benefits inspires you to go and try some meditation. Any type of mediation will yield these benefits to your business and personal life. Maybe you want to try mindfulness; maybe you want to try Vedic meditation, maybe you’d like to do some visualizations. There is a bunch of information on these different meditation practices online, so why not Go and give it a shot?
