6 Ways Meditation Helps You Achieve Optimal Performance at Work
Have you noticed how good it feels at the end of a working day where you know you performed at your best throughout the day? Yet all too often most of us have days where it feels as though we have spent all day sitting at the computer achieving nothing at all, or attending meetings where we made no useful contribution whatever. On days like this, distractions and negative thoughts prevent us from getting on with anything useful and time seems to move so much slower on these “half-power” days than it does when we are operating at optimal performance.
If you want every working day to be a “full power” day, then maybe it’s time you started meditating. Here are 6 reasons why it just might be the right time for you to learn how to do meditation right now.
1. Meditation Trains the Mind to Avoid Distracting Thoughts
Some people spend as much as half their thinking time ruminating over the past and worrying about the future. That’s an appalling waste of a huge amount of time. This is time which could be spent being productive. Meditation teaches us to focus better on our actions and experiences in the present moment and to have better control over negative thinking.
2. Meditation Improves Your Decision-making
It’s surprising how many people in senior positions suffer from a real inability to make incisive decisions. Their dithering and procrastination causes misunderstandings and puts unnecessary stress on those around them. Meditation can assist you in gaining confidence in your own decision making and, perhaps even more importantly, help you make decisions which withstand the test of time.
3. Meditation Helps You to Deal With Stress
Don’t you envy those colleagues who appear to be permanently chilled and who treat potentially stressful situations as a positive challenge? Research has shown that people who meditate daily can significantly improve the way they approach stressful situations. This appears to be because regular meditation causes physical changes to the brain and diminishes the “fight or flight” response which makes us react negatively to stress.
4. Meditation May Reduce Conflict With Others
If you’re feeling more chilled and are better able to control your own negative thinking, it stands to reason that you are more likely to find that your relationships with those around you improve. You will develop an ability to find common ground with others and show increased empathy and acceptance of things which you cannot change.
5. Meditation can Increase Your Social Confidence
Brain imaging scans have shown that people who meditate regularly experience changes in the parts of the brain which regulate emotions. If you meditate you may soon start to feel decreased anxiety when interacting with people you do not know well. Your anxiety in meetings and when giving presentations will diminish.
6. Meditation Helps Your Brain to Process Information
Research from UCLA has found that people who meditate regularly can develop better connections across the brain. This can improve the ability of the mind to process information.
Where to Start?
If you are new to meditation or have meditated a bit but are looking for ways to build a consistent practice here are some great resources that can assist you. Here are two great mainstream resources: 10% Happier and Insight Timer. And if you are interested in a more spiritual approach to meditation here are some great meditation techniques to help take your meditation to the next level.