5 Benefits of Meditation that prepares us for a fulfilling work life

No matter what religion we practice or otherwise and whatever we want to name the form, prayer helps us heal in all facets of our lives. With the competitive market situation and stress levels, we all are under pressure. Some of us can take that kind of pressure while others can’t just handle it. The outbreak of the COVID-19 has significantly contributed more to the distress.

The Cambridge dictionary defines Meditation as “the act of giving your attention to only one thing, either as a religions activity or as a way of becoming calm and relaxed,” or “serious thought or study, or the product of this activity.” Meditation forms can involve focusing, relaxing, pondering, or similar expression and forms.

Benefits

1. Lesser or No Stress

Stress has been linked to a wide range of medical problems, including hypertension, heart diseases, substance abuse, anxiety, and depression. A study done at Stanford University School of Medicine shows that those who practice meditation display a reduction in stress-related symptoms, and report increases in their sense of control in their lives. For instance, meditation can produce a 30% reduction in symptoms of stress among those with a serious illness.

Early morning meditation helps live a more energized life than the rest. Here, I strongly recommend a book: The 5 AM Club by Robin Sharma.

2. Improved Focus

Practicing meditation has been a key element to improve our ability to sustain attention and decrease external and internal distractions. Researchers from Harvard Medical School found that a meditation program led to changes in brain regions involving learning and working memory capacity.

This is important as working memory is crucial for reasoning and guiding our decisions and behavior, especially at the workplace. In fact, those who worked in high-stress work environments and practiced meditation could stay on a task longer, managed their time better, and received positive feedback after a task performance.

3. Improved Creativity

In more and more occupations, creativity is prerequiste of the job description. Whether one is trying to reconcile conflicting stakeholder priorities, finding a solution to a customer’s issue, or launching a new productline, our solution probably won’t come out of a textbook. But it’s hard to keep having great ideas day after day. What do we do when we run out of good ideas? How do we “get our mojo back”?

Meditation practice can lead to improving our problem-solving creative skillset as well as promote divergent thinking. Research done at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands has found a link between mindfulness and creativity including increased insight problem-solving and reduced cognitive rigidity. The more a person continues to practice meditation, the more open he/she is to bold and creative ideas.

4. Lesser Mood Swings

Do we ever think why do people experience frequent mood swings? It’s stress. They can’t cope up with their work-life balance. Start meditating. Meditation can help to bring awareness, balance and control to turbulent emotions. By calming our mind we can begin to become more centred and able to smooth out our emotional peaks and valleys by becoming more in tune with the workings of our own mind.

The practice of meditation can also have a notable beneficial impact on our overall mood, including reducing severe depression and anxiety. A study from Boston University has shown that meditation-based programs lead to significant reductions in clinical levels of anxiety and depression across a range of conditions and an increase in patience and positivity. A daily practice can help to carry this optimism into the workplace and boost satisfaction.

5. Stronger Relationships

Meditation does literally help from focus to sleep. But it also has another tremendously value-added benefit: it improves our relationships — personal, social and professional. One may wonder how a seated and isolated activity — after all, even if we’re meditating in a group, we’re not talking to anyone — can help improve our social skills and relationship prowess, but it does.

Learning to be more mindful has a positive impact. Mediation leads to significant improvements in work relationships and friendships, due to communication and expression of emotions. After becoming more emotionally intelligent through meditation, relationships become easier and natural. In fact, people who meditate tend to show more acceptance towards each other and can create more welcoming and holistic work environments.

Wrap Up

One of the biggest misconceptions about meditation is that we have to really work at it over a long period of time before we can expect to reap fruits. This is mostly false. While consistency is important, if we are considering incorporating meditation into our own corporate culture, first begin meditating for 5 minutes a day. Align the first meditation with an aspirational quality such as stress management or collaboration. The benefits that as little as five minutes a day of meditation are stepping stones that contribute to positive employee mental health.

Meditation, in every single sphere of our life does help focus on the present and provide relief from the anxiety and stress of everyday life. This wellness movement has made its way into the corporate organisations across the world. They don’t only encourage employees at their workplaces to find time for silent self-search but also motivate them to go beyond and convince their families and friends to try out the same in their free time.

Learn how sometimes smaller things in our lives make huge impact and you can take some learnings on a personal and professional level by following me on LinkedIn and Evolve HR’s website.

Muhammad Sajwani is the Founder and Managing Director of Evolve HR which aims at transforming, enriching and evolving Human Capital of Pakistan, Evolve HR thrives in challenging assumptions that hinder organisational aspirations, by creating innovative solutions that yield maximum impact, scalability & benefit to a wider base of stakeholders. As a Business Coach and Organisational Consultant, Sajwani knows how to combine business insights with people insights to transform organisations and put them on the path to growth.