“If you just sit and observe, you will see how restless your mind is. “If you try to calm it, it only makes things worse, but over time it does calm, and when it does, there’s room to hear more subtle things — that’s when your intuition starts to blossom and you start to see things more clearly and be in the present more. Your mind just slows down, and you see a tremendous expanse in the moment. You see so much more than you could see before. It’s a discipline; you have to practice it.”
— Steve Jobs
Frequently I hear that meditation is not my cup of tea. I cannot focus.
What I like about meditation is doing nothing, having no aim, and not trying to focus! Just observe, let your thoughts pass through. Notice what is going on in your body and in your mind.
What do I mean by meditation?
I meditate every day. Practicing mindfulness and meditation helped me to stay calm in tumultuous times that came in my life professionally and personally. I had many difficult days and had to deal with many difficult people but I would not have done that without meditation.
When I talk about meditation, I am not saying to close your eyes and be still. I feel being in a meditative state while dancing, kayaking, cooking, or even when writing this blog. You can feel in sync and harmony with the activity you are performing and that is when your brain goes in the state of alpha or delta wave, that is when you experience relaxation. We all face more or less fear, anxiety, dilemma, stress and we want to train our monkey minds to calm down and believe that we are more than capable of overcoming any hurdles and think through the best possible outcome.
Doing nothing is the key!
Leadership and meditation
One of the most important qualities in a leader is courage. Courage comes when you have good intuition developed. Intuition matures with mindfulness. Mindfulness is developed by practicing meditation/reiki or such holistic techniques to train your mind.
When you meditate, lots of underlying issues come to the surface internally and through external incidences, just to help you to resolve that completely. Sometimes, you get guidance through dreams too. You can learn to trust your instincts and that helps you to be innovative and creative. Meditation helps you to have a feeling of gratitude, which gives you a better job and life satisfaction and that helps you with your own uplifting and progress.
Many times, it is about finding the middle ground. Buddha was a big believer and practitioner of finding a middle way instead of going to any extremes. That is very much required when you are in some sort of leadership position. That leads to higher emotional intelligence, self-compassion, compassion, and wisdom. I learned to not take things personally and be selfless and empathetic after practicing meditation because I started seeing things more objectively and people performing a role and not who they are.
“Leadership is not just some empty formulas but establishing deep connections at soul levels through service, integrity, passion, perseverance and equanimity.” – Amit Ray
You can even meditate for 30 seconds a day. If you are going to have a difficult conversation, just focus on your breath and stop worrying for a few moments. Breath in and breath out few times. Your mind will give you better hold on the situation.
I have practiced 3 days of silent meditation, which helped me to let go of many years of pain that I was holding within me. You can practice meditation regularly for 30 minutes to an hour. My personal favorite is to go into a meditative stage and listen to my inner self before I go to sleep and that helps me to resolve issues that I could not think through or process during the busy day.
