Meditation – It’s Not What You May Think
Often I’ve overheard people talking about Meditation in heavy and ponderous tones, words like transcendent, zazen and enlightenment pepper the dialog and boring, aching knees and spaced-out are added for emotional emphasis, but what would you say if I told you that Meditation is just a tool that neither requires aching knees or the desire for enlightenment. Meditation is just a tool that doesn’t require you to change your political or religious affiliations, it doesn’t require you to shave your head or wrap yourself in robes. Meditation is just a tool.
The phone’s ringing without stop, the baby’s crying without stop. The noise and distractions of life come in endless forms and configurations, seemingly to keep us off balance. Our owners manual (if you got one) has no chapters dealing with all this glorious abundance that comes with life.
Removing ourselves from the distractions is much easier than erasing those distractions. There is a different way of seeing what in the world is going on, and we can choose a different way of reacting to the constant sound of our nagging voice clogging our head. Yes, the phone is ringing but we don’t have to answer it. We can instead choose how and when we will respond to the never ending distractions.
A treadmill improves your running and cardiovascular fitness, you use canvas and paint to nurture your creative side and woodworking tools help to build something you’ve always dreamed of. Each of these 3 have strong connections to meditation. The first connection is the requirement that you spend a minimum amount of practice time to master them. The second connection is that you re-frame your understanding by saying out loud, Meditation Is Just A Tool. That was easy, right? 🙂 And meditation is easy if you keep your focus on the now.
“Without patience, magic would be undiscovered –
in rushing everything, we would never hear its whisper inside.”
Tamora Pierce
Like many young kids I was placed in front of a piano and told I wanted to learn how to play it. In the beginning I had mixed feelings of excitement and dread when I sat at the piano next to my ancient piano teacher. I practiced for a few years while watching the other kids play games in my yard, of course those 30 minutes a day only seemed like a long time because of the ever present distractions I allowed to invade my practice time. Can you imagine, just 30 minutes a day of practice time yet in my mind I wanted the time to be over.
The above is a great example of being trapped in time, of running from the Now, but as a kid I’d never heard of being in the now or being a prisoner trapped in time, but now, you have.
It’s easy to ask “what if.” What if what, is a better response. We each have this moment right now and if we choose we can plugin a simple meditation practice requiring as little as 10 to 15 minutes each day. Try it for a few months and you’ll see the benefits of increased focus, more access to your creative side and less stress overall in your life.
As part of the Dialogue Process we encourage companies to create spaces within their facilities where people can sit and meditate for short periods a couple of times a day. The benefits to the bottom line are huge.
“To understand the immeasurable,
the mind must be extraordinarily quiet, still.”
Krishnamurti
Here are some of the companies that have embraced offering classes or facilities (or both) for their employees to learn mindfulness practice including meditation. Apple, Google, Aetna, General Mills, Deutsche Bank, Proctor & Gamble, Astra Zeneca, McKinsey & Company and there are hundreds more across the globe. These companies have studied the research and seen the results that come from mindfulness and meditation in the workplace.Â
Isn’t it time you jump-started your companies Creative and Innovative Teams with the rocket fuel of our Dialogue Process? Contact Us Today and Let’s Get Going
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