The Benefits of Meditation

Hello there.

I'm beckoning you again into the Happy Career Hub corner.

Today's video, I want to talk about meditation.

It is the month of May and May has been dedicated to meditation for the last few years. And I believe it's worth considering meditation.

Now there is no one way or no right way to do meditation.

Some people often think they must, you know, going to a quiet place, like a Buddhist monk sitting in the Lotus position and begin their practice to get any kind of benefit.

But meditation means different things to different people. And the way I view it is simply this - it is a time when you pause and try to connect with your inner self.

Now it's not so easy to do because here’s the thing - the mind chatter rarely stops.

That's often the big challenge for people when they first start out meditating. People often find that they try and still the mind, but the more you try to still the mind, the more it chatters, the more thoughts of running around in your head, like a high-speed train going from France to Amsterdam - I did take that high speed train.

So I know how fast it moves.

And I also know that there've been times when my thoughts have run equally as fast in my head and no matter what I do, I can't slow it down.

I want you to understand that meditation doesn't have to be that silent sitting in the Lotus position, Buddhist monk style experience. Meditation can be walking quietly in nature and simply observing things around you.

Getting present to what is happening now is what meditation is all about.

Not focusing on the past, not being plagued by the mistakes and the challenges and the what -it-could-or-should-have-been of the past, or looking to find the future and, you know, being obsessed with achieving X, Y, and Z.

Meditation, I think in its purity, is about being present.

The reason I wanted to bring up the subject today is because there are numerous benefits to meditation to being present, to being mindful.

One of the benefits is reducing stress.

What I have noticed is that when I do get present, I mean fully present - so fully present means getting present to your breath and simply focusing on that.

That's probably in my opinion, one of the easiest ways to meditate is to get present and to focus on the in and out movements of your breath, because I've found that it's almost impossible to feel stressful while you're in that kind of meditative state.

It helps to control anxiety.

For those of us who are working every day or trying to go for jobs that we want, or for promotions that we want or careers, or even if we are simply working every day - you don't get to avoid stress. You don't get to avoid certain levels of anxiety.

It comes with the territory, that's just life, right?

It's just life.

But there are ways to reduce it, to reduce the stress. And the easiest way I found is through meditation, through taking time out, to be fully present, especially fully present to my breath.

It promotes emotional health and enhances self-awareness apparently it also lengthens attention span.

I can attest to that. I've found that if I go for days without meditating, I find that my focus isn't that great. Clarity, not that great, and I can become scattered - easily become scattered.

So I think there's truth that it helps lengthen our attention span and keeps us focused.

People have used it to fight addictions, you know, food, addictions, substance addictions, all kinds of addictions, technology addictions. And aren't we addicted to that?

I'm sticking my hand up here because I know that I am often on my gadgets or scrolling through feeds.

It can often be anxiety inducing, like seeing all the rapid repetition of bad news or crappy news or the same kind of information over and over, you know, it does get into the mind it does get into the brain and it can cause stress and anxiety.

Meditation reduces memory loss apparently. There have been studies around meditation for managing early onset dementia and things like that - and improved sleep - that I can definitely attest to because I have had challenges in the past with sleep issues.

And I find that, if I might be struggling to fall asleep at night, I get really present to my breath. Breathe in and out and get present and mindful to the moment of simply breathing, which is meditation, I tend to fall asleep and sleep really well.

These are some of the benefits and I wanted to bring it up because it is important not only in our careers, because we know our careers are often stress filled, right?

You can’t avoid it. You can reduce it, you can minimise it, but you cannot avoid it completely in life with all its competing priorities.

Raising our families, paying our bills, being good at our careers, chasing our dreams. All these competing priorities can cause stress.

At the start of this month of May, I wanted to talk very briefly about meditation, wanted to share some of its benefits with you and wish you good health and happiness and encourage you to try meditating and do it your way.

Do it in a way that works best for you. It can be a meditative walk in nature, can be sitting quietly in a room, simply reflecting on life or allowing thoughts to come calmly and gently.

It can be as simple as getting really present to the in and out movement of your breath.

That's the one that works best for me. It's easy. I can do it anywhere. It doesn't require a lot of effort and it always, always improves my mood and helps reduce stress and anxiety.

So those are my tips.

Hope you learnt something and as always have a great day.