Meditation

Better Employment of Body Mind & Spirit Makes a Better workforce!

The pressures at work can be endless. From meeting deadlines, dealing with clients and difficult colleagues, to overtime issues, pressure to perform as well as making the most of one’s skills, talents, experience. How can you stand out from the crowd and beat competition when it comes to that promotion? How do you know when to take risks that will pay off, how to enhance your creative skills and have a more meaningful work day?

Bloomerberg Businessweek Magazine says that, “Meditation enhances the qualities companies need most from their knowledge workers: increased brain-wave activity, enhanced intuition, better concentration, and the alleviation of the kinds of aches and pains that plague employees most."

Meditation has been around for thousands of years because it works.  Let us see how it benefits the life of working individuals:

1

Alleviates Work Related Stress

 

For most employees, managers, supervisors and even CEO’s, there’s one thing that they all have in common – stress. This sort of stress when unchecked, can fill an office with burnt-out people consumed with managing anger, dread and anxiety instead of the company's business.

According to the American Institute of Stress, this problem currently costs the United States “over $300 billion annually due to increased absenteeism, employee turnover, diminished productivity, medical, legal, and insurance expenses, and Workers' Compensation payments.” Evidently workplace stress can have costly side effects and is a threat to the balance sheet. It also diminishes performance over time.

While there is no way to totally avoid stress from the workplace, we can always work towards reducing it and there is no better antidote to stress than the practice of meditiation. It bolsters ones resilience and “what’s good for the spirit is good for the bottomline”, believes McKinsey partner – Michael Rennie. Numerous studies have demonstrated the relaxation effects of meditation and its ability to face work challenges. P&G’s CEO A.G. Lafley says, “You can not out-work a problem, you have to out-meditation it.”

2

Improves Health & Decreases Absenteeism

Workplace pressures can cause a range of physical and emotional illness. In today’s fast-paced business world, people are often exhausted, which harms their health. According to the World Health Organization, mental ill health accounts for 20% of the burden of disease in Europe.

Meditation, however, allows one to effectively deal with stress by soothing the nervous system. It improves the overall health by reducing the risk of heart disease, stroke, clinical depression, and a myriad of other conditions that also cause employee absenteeism. A regular practice of meditation has also been linked to reduction in the number of sick leaves taken by employees and in the rise of their general well being.

3

Recharges Your Battery & Reduces Mental Fatigue

 
Have you ever let your car run all day after pumping only 30% air in the tyres? What is the result? The vehicle is bound to wear out and come to a halt. The same goes for you. Did you know that most people breathe using only 30% of their lung capacity? This ‘shallow breathing’ restricts the flow of oxygen and energy and thus tires the body and mind more easily. Hence when you spend day in and day out (plus overtime) fulfilling the needs of your job, you’ll wear yourself down, run out of charge, and eventually, stop functioning properly.
 
However, if you invest 20 minutes of your time in pranayama and meditation daily, you will find an expansion in your lung capacity and thereby an increase in your energy levels. This sort of a natural recharge is known to be even more restful than sleep and has the power to balance the mental and physical demands of a work day, without leaving you with this feeling of burn-out.
 
4

Enhances Decision Making Ability

The secret to great business leaders’ success is using intuition when making business decisions. What do we mean by intuition? In simple words, it is the ability to KNOW – beyond data, reason and logic. It is something that is available to everyone but not many can access and cultivate this ability. Our belief in the logical mind is so strong that we ignore the power of the bigger mind. However, a meditator will recognize the voice of the big mind - the gut, which saves us often.

The ancient technique of meditation is an effortless tool that enhances ones intuitive skills along with observation and perception.  Enhanced intuitive ability leads to making superior and holistic decisions at any management level.

5

Boosts Team Spirit

When people are stressed at work, tempers flare and relationships can sour, leading to less co-operative and less cohesive teams. The practice of meditation relaxes you and calms the mind. It develops harmony at the level of the mind and emotions, which contributes to higher staff morale and happier and healthier work relations. And a healthy and harmonious workforce is always a productive workforce.

6

Increases Productivity

 
Just like you go to the gym to build your muscles, meditation builds the muscles of your attention. It increases concentration and efficiency. It also improves creativity and soft skills, which are more valued than hard-core education. One can focus more clearly on the job at hand, at your own goal and the goals of the company. You will be able to achieve your targets, multi-task more effectively and deliver better results. Subsequently, you can move up the corporate ladder more easily and emerge a leader. When productivity improves at the individual level, overall productivity of the company (irrespective of the size or industry) improves too, which in turn leads to increased profits.  In one case, a meditation program developed by McKinsey for an Australian client saved the business more than $20 million.
 
Meditation should no longer be considered a “nice to have” for employees. It is a “must have”! That’s why leading companies have embraced meditation as a part of their corporate mission. Some of these companies include Apple, Google, Nike, Proctor & Gamble, HBO, McKinsey & Co, Deutsche Bank and Yahoo! to name a few.
 
If you want to become a greater asset to your team, and to your company, incorporate meditation as a part of your daily routine. And the days when you think that you are too busy to meditate, remember Mahatma Gandhi’s words - "I have so much to accomplish today that I must meditate for two hours instead of one."

 

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