In this article ‘Mindfulness – How to Focus on Success’ we are going to explore exactly why meditation might just be the one key ingredient your day to day business is missing to levitate to the next level.
First of all – Why do we need meditation in the first place?
Knowing that we are more switched on than ever before with smart phones, laptops, emails, conference calls, contending with rush hour traffic, it is no wonder why many of us are wired up but actually melting down.
 |
| Take some time and clear your head to function on a higher level |
According to research, over a quarter of office workers in the UK have reported feeling stressed every day. The reasons why are varied, from management pressure, working too many hours to workload. Thousands of employees every year need to take time off work with stress related illnesses and ailments which costs the UK economy an estimated £6.5 billion.
Meditation might not be the answer to all of these issues, but it can be a proactive step in the right direction.
Focus on just one thing
With the philosophy of ‘multitasking’ being common place in the modern day workplace it means that we may focus on a lot of things, but not actually just one thing with a lot intention.
Focusing on three or four things might be a good idea when you are doing simple tasks yet the chances are, you are a person who has to deliver a high quality of work and this requires a clear mind.
Regular meditation can help to ‘clear out the clutter’ so the next time you want to work on producing your best work, you can do so by single tasking, not multitasking.
You will never get your best answers from the lower brain
The lower brain, otherwise known as the more primal brain is where your learned behaviours exist. It’s useful for many daily tasks including opening doors, making a cup of coffee, getting off the train at the right station. The lower brain allows us to function with day to day activities.
What the lower brain is not so good at is anything that requires creativity, problem solving or deeper thinking. The challenge here is that with today’s hectic schedules and as before mentioned, multitasking, we end up using the lower brain and our learned behaviour for complex tasks and you may not achieve the quality of work you originally wanted.
Meditation helps to get to a deeper level of thinking and even a short time of quiet space can allow you to start accessing the higher brain and your own genius.
You can ask ‘serving’ questions
Continuing with the theme of the lower and higher brain, the lower brain does not have the ability to ask thought provoking questions, it instead wants you to run on autopilot and purely react with your learned behaviours.
When taking sometime out to meditate, try asking some of the following questions and take your time for the answer to come.
“What do I need to do to produce the best possible work for _______ project?”
“How can I get the best out of the day ahead?”
“What do I want to learn by the end of today?”
Be careful, the lower brain will give you an immediate answer but this more than likely is not the best possible answer you are capable of. Be patient and wait for the higher brain to give you more articulate answers to your serving questions.
30 minutes per day
There is no right or wrong when it comes to meditation and over the years many forms of meditation have been developed. The main thing you can do is create an environment that is tranquil for you, play gentle music or simply enjoy the silence whilst focusing on your breathing.
Overall, even 30 minutes per day of consciously accessing the higher brain can help you with the other 23 hours and 30 minutes.
No comments:
Post a Comment