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Five Reasons Companies Should Offer Meditation Classes to Employees


By Jessica Lollino - August 7, 2019

More and more companies are offering Meditation benefits to their employees. Why are companies making this investment? Everyone from LeBron James to Jerry Seinfeld to your neighbor down the street has used meditation to reach new heights, improve focus, spark creativity, and reduce stress all by simply training their mind. Let’s talk about what meditation is, some of the most beneficial byproducts, and how to help your team start a regular practice.

What is Meditation?
Meditation is a practice wherein a person uses one of many techniques to train his or her brain to achieve a mentally clear, emotionally stable state. There are many styles of meditation such as Transcendental Meditation and mindfulness meditation, all which are effective, but some specialize in reaching particular goals. The beauty of meditation is anyone can do it and even a little bit done regularly can make a big difference in your life both while meditating and overtime.

Five Big Benefits of Meditation
There are many, clinically proven benefits of meditation that make the practice. Here are five big reasons why bringing meditation to your staff could improve and elevate your company culture and performance.  
  1. Meditation reduces stress. According to an abstract published in the Journal of the American Medical Association: Internal Medicine, meditation can result in a small to moderate reduction in several different dimensions of psychological stress. These benefits are not only felt while practicing but also add up over time, helping practitioners live in a less stressed, more peaceful state which promotes positive interpersonal interaction and well-reasoned decision making. 
  2. Meditation lowers blood pressure. It not only affects blood pressure while you meditate, but for individuals who make it a daily practice, it can lower it overtime, reducing pressure on the heart and arteries, and preventing heart disease. This is great news for health benefits and can potential reduce contribution costs.
  3. Meditation greatly helps concentration, focus, and attention span. An 8-week study of human resource personnel who regularly practiced mindful meditation were not only shown to stay on task longer and switch tasks less often but also remembered details of their tasks better than their colleagues who did not meditate.  
  4. Meditation not only increases the good vibes you feel for yourself; it also extends to others as well. Loving-kindness meditation is especially known to be a form of meditation that increases compassion toward the self and others. This breeds a positive, supportive company culture that sparks creativity through collaboration and improves peer-to-peer interactions and teamwork. 
  5. Zzzzzzzz…Meditation also helps you get quality sleep. People who meditate regularly fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer than their wide-awake, non-meditating friends and family. This means employees show up to work ready to greet the day and stay energized throughout the day, increasing output and quality.

How to Make Meditation a Daily Practice
Many people start their practice slowly, carving out five minutes and eventually moving to twenty or more minutes daily, sometimes meditating many times each day. Many long-time practitioners like Kristen Bell meditate first thing in the morning to welcome the day and to prepare and accept its unfolding. Some people prefer to meditate before bed to file away the day and prepare for sleep, while others meditate during the day, while at work or commuting on the subway. No matter when, where, and how you do it, just do it and make it a daily practice.

Now, meditation can be quite daunting at first and it’s natural to judge yourself for your “monkey mind,” get frustrated, and want to quit. Hold on!  Many newbies (and even old pros) prefer guided meditation by a trained practitioner. They will tell you to sit quietly in a comfortable position and start breathing. Focus on the sound of your breath. When thoughts arise, acknowledge them and then send them on their way, coming back to the sound of your breath. Many students of meditation find that guided meditation from a professional helps them achieve that peaceful state more efficiently than struggling to learn on their own. In a guided practice, the teacher leads students through the practice, giving them reminders to follow the breath and reassurance they will eventually get to that peaceful place with time and practice.

Contact us today to learn more about how we can guide your employees to a blissful state at work and home with our meditation services.
 
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