SURA'S MEDITATION BLOG

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How To Meditate At Work

With years of coaching meditation and training leaders, I have found several secrets to meditate at work — and at home — successfully, especially during COVID.

The truth is, you can meditate while you do anything! It is essential and necessary to take meditation from a cushion in your private space at home into every part of your life. You can meditate anywhere, and it will bring balance to your life.
Many say that life has gotten more complicated during COVID. People have to work from home and take care of family duties and family members — all from the same space.

Statistics show that people are working longer hours since the start of COVID because they are working from home. This new work situation causes extra stress and tension while people try to remain productive. However, they do so while also managing a household, living with family members, and finding ways to keep it all in balance. People think of the workplace as one full of stress. During COVID, there seems to be even more stress than ever with the move to working at home.

So, what are the benefits of meditating at work? Or during COVID — meditating while you work at home? Consider these five benefits of meditating at work.

5 Tips for Meditating at work:

1) Reduces Stress

Meditating at work (or while you work) reduces stress as you learn how to let it go, and helps you experience more calm during the day. People use meditation for work stress all the time because it is proven to work. Meditating will help you think more clearly and reduce conflict caused by thinking irrationally due to stress.

2) Improves Health

Studies show that your health will improve through meditation, and this includes your mental health. This improvement means reduced absenteeism, a better work-life balance, and better overall well-being. It tends to give people a lighter mood, better communication, better teamwork, more bonding, and more synergy rather than falling victim to the same old ego-political battles that usually plague work.

For more information on how meditation improves health, please read the following article on how meditation can help reverse aging: https://suraflow.org/does-meditation-reverse-aging/.

3) Unlocks Creativity

With increased meditation, ideas start to flow. There is increased creativity, innovation, and thinking outside the box. Focus increases as well, which allows more productivity. This combination of elements makes you more successful in your work as the energy begins to flow.

4) Releases Resistances

Meditation releases many types of resistance that hold people back from accomplishing their work, including anger and fear. Meditation helps free you from these harmful roadblocks in a work setting. Meditation helps you deal with anger and fear, identifying why you are feeling those things and ridding yourself of blocks to your work.

5) Creates a Space of Higher Energy

The goal of meditation is to unlock the flow of energy moving through you. Even at work, this higher energy flow is possible.

So, how do you go about meditating at work? There are three ways to make your work a place of meditation — whether you are at your workplace or working from home during COVID. Your work can indeed be a practice of meditation!

So, how do you go about meditating at work? There are three ways to make your work a place of meditation — whether you are at your workplace or working from home during COVID. Your work can indeed be a practice of meditation!

3 Ways to Make Your Work a Place of Meditation

1) Establish Your Own Daily Practice of Meditation

The best way to start applying your meditation to any area of your life is to begin with intention and focus. Find the time best for you. Start with 5 to 10 minutes a day when it best fits in your schedule.

Apply the skill of meditation throughout your day. Feel the stillness, steadiness, calm, and balance. You will feel synergy and synchronicity once you feel your flow. Start with a positive, simple habit that serves as an anchor and structure for the rest of the day. This habit helps you have a mindful design for your day.

2) Structure and Prioritize Your Life Throughout the Day

There are several ways I advise people to prioritize their day. First, create a structure that promotes your energy flow. I advise you to start with the hardest thing first. Identify the thing that you have the most resistance around. When you get the hard thing — that is, the most important thing — done first, you will find it easier to move forward. For example, commit to your workout or most challenging task first.

Second, pay attention to your body, breath, and energy levels:

Body:

Notice all aspects of your body at work,including how you are standing in front of your desk or sitting in your chair. Ask yourself: What is your body like as you are working? Is it tense? Comfortable? Are your shoulders tense? Can you relax as you work? Is anything hurting?

Set up your desk so you can sit well ergonomically, because it impacts your energy flow. Your spine needs to be straight and in line, so it receives energy properly.

Breath:

Pay attention to your breathing as you work. That is a meditation in itself. It is one way you can meditate at your work desk or wherever you are. Notice when your breathing becomes constricted. Become aware of your breath with compassion to help you breathe easier. The purpose of meditation is to raise self-awareness, become self-realized, and become more of your true self.
Self-regulate through your body and breath awareness. This feeds into your energy levels.

Energy:

Your energy will channel peace and positive energy. Work with a mindset that affirms positivity. These blessings in the background of your mind will infuse your work. Stress hurts our flow connection and gateway, while energy opens us up.

Become aware of your energy. If you feel your vitality dropping and you feel tired, that is a cue you need to take a break. You will be more productive if you take a break rather than pushing through. So, get a glass of water, take a walk in nature, or talk to someone who grounds you. Of course, proper hydration and food are necessary to ensure your body is in its best working condition and keeps energy levels steady. Your energy is signaling that it is time for a shift. Promote those little breaks of energy.

Thoughts:

As you pay attention to your body, breath, and energy, your thoughts will follow as well. You will become more at peace with your thinking and under control after you get connected to your body, breath, and energy flows. I apply the intention of relaxation and picture it moving through my body, breath, and mind, so that work becomes pleasurable and easy, releasing stress as I go. This approach is a mindfulness meditation in and of itself. You might also like to listen to a guided meditation for work that you find on YouTube or other sources.

For more on this aspect of getting rid of negative thoughts, read the following blog for a further idea of guided meditation for work: https://suraflow.org/how-to-get-rid-of-negative-thoughts/.

As you do all of this, you will find it easier to connect with co-workers and deal with conflicts that arise throughout the day. In the same manner of compassionate reflection you have for yourself, you will also give to others.

3) Close Your Workday

Whether you work until a specific time every day, or a different time each day based on your obligations at home and with family, make a point to close your workday. Shut your laptop, turn it off, turn off your office lights, close your desk — whatever is an appropriate end-of-day routine for you. Then spend time with your family, friends, and doing other things you love.

Not doing so is similar to the distraction your phone has on your attention. It is always pulling your awareness away from where it needs to be. Mentally, it will be an interruption, always pulling you away from the present moment.

You promote a healthier workflow by having a defined boundary at the end of your day so you can go and focus on something else. Learn to let your work go for the day. Learn that everything will be okay if you remove your focus and attention from your work and return to it tomorrow. Go exercise, eat, or do something else.