There are many images people carry in their mind about meditation techniques in action. One imagines sitting alone in a dedicated room at home or in a temple, class or centre. Meditating with your work colleagues as part of your usual working routine is not, however, an image that springs to mind for most people. Yet, this is exactly what happens at Idea Village – a company in Jersey, USA. Twice a week they leave their desks, sit in a group and meditate together.
The most interesting part is that after doing this for a year they discovered that their productivity has soared. "Sales have increased by about 50 percent over last year, and we seem to get about four or five times the number of products presented to us that we did last year," says President and CEO, Andy Khubani. "I don't know if this can all be attributed to meditation, but I definitely think it has helped."
There is no doubt, as anyone who has spent time practising one of any number of meditation techniques will attest, that meditation helps focus the mind. There is a lot of chatter going on in the brain all the time, so much so, that it is easy for a lot of it to get in the way of clear and focused thinking. The value of meditation is that it provides this chatter with a space. That does not mean that it helps to silence thought – far from it – good meditation is not about fighting against thought, but about observing it. Whatever meditation techniques are used, it will enable you to create a small space between yourself and your thoughts as you gain a gradually deepening realisation that you are not your thoughts alone. The true power of meditation is that it effectively unlocks the mind from its self created cycles. What could be more productive than that?
With a new decade upon us, this is one resolution that, if kept, will ultimately be gift that keeps on giving.
Saturday, 2 January 2010
A Personal Development Program For The New Decade
As you look back on the last decade, what do you remember most? Did much of it seem to pass by in a perpetual rush? Well you’re not the only one. If you ever find yourself in a queue or a waiting room, look around and notice how many others are either typing or talking into their phones.
The stats of the decade speak for themselves: The number of people regularly online has gone from just under 250 million people at the start of the decade, to just under two billion by the end of it. On mobile phones, over a billion text messages are now sent every single day and recent surveys show that over 47% of teenagers have learnt to text with their eyes closed!
That’s why I’m sure that, of all the hopes and wishes that people carry for the next decade – one will feature prominently in many people’s minds; a yearning for a more peaceful, calm and tranquil existence.
The inner drive to keep busy has many positive consequences in terms of the productivity and achievement for us as individuals as well as nations and a species as a whole, but there are down sides too. The price we pay is an almost perpetual feeling of inner agitation. The drive comes from a desire, and the desire – in one form or another – comes from a dissatisfaction with the way things are now. As a result we’re often neglecting the part of us that just wants to be in the moment and accept things as they are, and so we long to touch it; the stillness, the void.
For this reason I recommend one resolution above all others - stillness. There is no better personal development program out there. While meditation is a worthwhile practise it can take a while to get into and often be difficult to make a start – as I know from my own experience. That is why, I am recommending something that is accessible to everyone; windows of stillness. Between meetings, appointments, journeys, when you first sit in the car or whenever you have a slot in the day – be it 30 seconds or 5 minutes, just sit still. Make sure there’s no TV or radio in front of you and no one to disturb you, and just spend a moment with yourself; take some deep breaths and start to feel the sensations inside your body.
What will happen next is that you’ll start thinking. That’s ok. Allow it, but as soon as you realise you’re doing it, note that you are thinking and bring your attention back to your body. Parts of you will feel heavy, parts light, parts of you will feel knotted, parts loose, parts happy, parts sad. It’s all in there so stay with it. You will learn more about yourself in those few seconds or minutes than any words or language can teach you. It’ll be, like I say, your ultimate personal development program.
If you pepper your life with exercises like this a couple of times a day, you will, over time, start to experience yourself at a deeper level – one beyond thought, and one that has been neglected for too long. As you engage in it more and more you’ll realise what it was you’ve been missing and yearning for all this time.
The stats of the decade speak for themselves: The number of people regularly online has gone from just under 250 million people at the start of the decade, to just under two billion by the end of it. On mobile phones, over a billion text messages are now sent every single day and recent surveys show that over 47% of teenagers have learnt to text with their eyes closed!
That’s why I’m sure that, of all the hopes and wishes that people carry for the next decade – one will feature prominently in many people’s minds; a yearning for a more peaceful, calm and tranquil existence.
The inner drive to keep busy has many positive consequences in terms of the productivity and achievement for us as individuals as well as nations and a species as a whole, but there are down sides too. The price we pay is an almost perpetual feeling of inner agitation. The drive comes from a desire, and the desire – in one form or another – comes from a dissatisfaction with the way things are now. As a result we’re often neglecting the part of us that just wants to be in the moment and accept things as they are, and so we long to touch it; the stillness, the void.
For this reason I recommend one resolution above all others - stillness. There is no better personal development program out there. While meditation is a worthwhile practise it can take a while to get into and often be difficult to make a start – as I know from my own experience. That is why, I am recommending something that is accessible to everyone; windows of stillness. Between meetings, appointments, journeys, when you first sit in the car or whenever you have a slot in the day – be it 30 seconds or 5 minutes, just sit still. Make sure there’s no TV or radio in front of you and no one to disturb you, and just spend a moment with yourself; take some deep breaths and start to feel the sensations inside your body.
What will happen next is that you’ll start thinking. That’s ok. Allow it, but as soon as you realise you’re doing it, note that you are thinking and bring your attention back to your body. Parts of you will feel heavy, parts light, parts of you will feel knotted, parts loose, parts happy, parts sad. It’s all in there so stay with it. You will learn more about yourself in those few seconds or minutes than any words or language can teach you. It’ll be, like I say, your ultimate personal development program.
If you pepper your life with exercises like this a couple of times a day, you will, over time, start to experience yourself at a deeper level – one beyond thought, and one that has been neglected for too long. As you engage in it more and more you’ll realise what it was you’ve been missing and yearning for all this time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)