How a Brief Meditation Session Can Energize Your Next Morning Staff Meeting

in #health7 years ago (edited)

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Hey Steemians,

Today I wanted to write about something that I've been trying to incorporate more and more into my work day. That's meditation.

For a huge number of us here on Steemit, we struggle with things like staying focused on the task at hand. Most of us are dealing with stress in some way or another, whether it's in our personal or professional life.

Meditation helps quite a bit because it has both physical and emotional benefits. It pushes the stress away.

Scientists say even a few minutes of meditation early in the day can improve a worker’s ability to cope with stressful situations and focus on the task at hand.

Because of this, meditation is increasingly making its way into the business environment, with top executiveslike Salesforce’s Marc Benioff and Panda Express’s Andrew Cherng embracing the practice.

Business leaders aren’t the only ones who can benefit from a brief meditation session during a workday. By introducing your team members to the ancient practice, your entire business can benefit. The key to bringing it into the workforce is to introduce it gradually, in a convenient, natural way.

Set an Intention

When many people think of meditation, they imagine closing their eyes and blanking out their minds for a period of time. Actually, the practice of meditation is so much more. After clearing their minds, meditators are usually instructed to focus on releasing their intentions and desires.

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As your employees sit down for the meeting, ask everyone to take a minute to focus on what their own unique intentions are. Some examples:

What do they want out of life? How would they like to grow? What new areas would they like to explore?

Instead of turning out the lights and doing a formal meditation, simply ask employees to close their eyes and hold that intention briefly in their minds before letting it go. Repeat this procedure before every staff meeting. This will introduce the concept of meditation without doing a full meditation session.

Bring in an Expert

If you’re interested in bringing meditation into the workplace in a more intensive way, surprise your team with a meditation session to replace your next staff meeting.

Bring in an expert who can teach your staff how to use meditation in little ways throughout the day to relax, reduce distractions, and get more done.

If employees are interested, you can find ways to encourage meditation throughout the day. Prentice Hall Publishing offers a quiet room for employees to use whenever they need a mental break.

You could also encourage an employee-led daily meditation session to help the entire team focus.

Understanding the Benefits

By learning to quiet their minds each day, employees will learn to better cope with stress, which can improve overall morale. Instead of snapping at co-workers, employees will respond in a calm, relaxed manner because they’re now better able to release stress throughout the day.

Less anxiety means more patience, which will also help them handle increasing pressure with grace.

There are also proven physical benefits of meditation, including lower blood pressure, enhanced immune system function, reduced inflammation, and a reduction in the severity of Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

Not only will better overall health improve worker productivity, it will also reduce absenteeism due to medical problems.

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Proven Results

In Silicon Valley, where meditation has become a documented partof workplace culture, employers find that by offering meditation, they’re also able to improve worker retention.

The presence of a quiet room or yoga breaks can serve as a perk to job candidates, helping businesses land top-quality employees.

As the American workforce becomes increasingly more diverse, meditation can appeal to those workers whose beliefs aren’t normally honored as part of a regular workday.

Quiet time can be used as each employee needs, whether it is to pray, meditate, or think, whether it is during the morning meeting or through providing a quiet room in the workplace.

Meditation can help every entrepreneur be more productive and deal with daily stresses. Introducing your team or friends to these ancient concepts can help your business as a whole, while also giving each employee a tool that can be used both in the office and at home.

Thanks again for your support everyone! If you would like to check out any of my previous writings, check me out here: https://steemit.com/@boity

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Taking care of yourself, your body, your mind, and your soul is super important. Excellent post on meditation @boity. I need to work this into my routines.

-Ken

Hey @kenmelendez -- You only need five minutes a day. (Perhaps a bit more works too) Any time spent giving your mind a rest is time well spent. :)

Thanks for sharing @boity. About 18 months ago our business was struggling and I was in a very unhealthy place both physically and mentally. It was impacting my business, personal and family life. I made a decision to make serious work-life-balance adjustments otherwise things weren't going to end well for me.

Focusing on daily meditation was one of those changes and one of the most influential on me turning things around. I now do this 15 minutes each morning, usually outside in a park or by a beach somewhere. If I can't get outside I use the www.calm.com app at home.

I've encouraged my staff to do this also but haven't taken it to the level you suggest here in terms of offering it in our office. I will float this at our next management meeting to see what they think.

Take care, Alan

I love to hear it @nalabra !

The key thing is to stay consistent. Periodically taking a break and sitting quietly meditating makes a huge difference. Science keeps on coming out that proves it too.

Living in Thailand, I am familiar with meditation, but have never done it regularly. I used to attend a seminar and sit in that position for 30 minutes, but only pain in my body! I am not particularly stressed, so this would be an activity more to clear my mind and for the other health benefits you mention. Thank you for this articles.

With my 15 minutes daily, I get what I need to be productive each day! It also helps fight anxiety, as you said. Ideally, all workplaces should have a space for meditation, encouraging people to integrate it into their routine, just like lunch break!

I worked at this one co-working space in SF and they had a nap room. I would use it for meditation. I love work spaces that understand the value in meditation and actually encourage it.

I hope it's a trend that will stay!

"a quiet room for employees to use whenever they need a mental break."

That's bro beautiful your post.