MEDITATION TIP OF THE WEEK

…IS A  SERIES OF SHORT, EASY TO REMEMBER, AND BASIC TIPS ON HOW TO MEDITATE. PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK, IS IT HELPFUL?

How to Meditate at Work, It’s Natural

Recently at work someone came up to me and said, “Help! I know that you’ve written a book on meditation. I need to learn how to meditate at work…I need some relief from this stress NOW!“

At that moment, I was at my workstation and I realized that I’d been meditating when my coworker had spoken to me. I was meditating at work, and wasn’t thinking anything of it. It’s just that natural!

How would you like to be able to take a “meditation break” at work…while you’re still working. How would you like to be able to maintain a state of relative comfort and ease regardless of where you are…even at work!

What had happened for me this day at work is that I’d become familiar enough with practicing meditation in any environment that doing so while sitting in front of my computer, charting notes for the day, was natural. And the same is true for you, you can just as easily practice meditation at work…or anywhere!

(By the way, how I was “meditating” at work wasn’t by sitting cross-legged with my eyes closed and my hands on my knees. Meditation isn’t about the “position” of the body, it’s about the orientation of the mind.)

Meditation Can Be Practiced in a Stressful Work Environment

Perhaps you work in a fast-paced or high-pressure environment where moment-to-moment decisions are necessary and where mistakes can be costly…maybe even life-threatening. Can you still “meditate” while at work? Yes!

For those of you who don’t know, I’m a Registered Nurse. Recently I’ve been floating to the Emergency Room, where moment-to-moment decisions are not only expected but are necessary, sometimes to save someone’s life.

When I float to the ER I’m constantly aware of how important it is for me to have my wits about me at all times. And it’s not easy! I don’t feel like I’m a “natural” when it comes to ER work, it’s not the easiest work environment for me to practice nursing it. However, I can still practice meditation in this environment.

Because I’ve been given the gift of learning how to meditate, and because I practice it formally as well as in daily life, it’s my meditation practice that makes my ER shifts go well. It’s because I’ve spent enough time practicing that I can enter naturally into a meditative state of awareness even while at work. And…you can do this too!

Meditation is About Meditating Whenever and Wherever

Think about this for a moment, you may spend up to 40 hours a week at a job! Over the course of a year, with – maybe – four weeks off for vacation, that’s 48 weeks at 40 hours a week. That adds up to almost 2000 hours a year that you spend at work. Imagine how skilled you become at meditation if you used these precious hours as the basis of your meditation.

Regardless of your work environment, taking your work as your meditation practice is a gift to yourself. If you’re like most people, you have to spend a fair amount of time at work. Whether that’s working at a desk, working a physical job, working from home or working to raise your children, the amount of time that you spend doing your work adds up. And what a waste it would be if you were to say, “I can’t practice here…” Sure you can!

You may have already read one of the posts on how you can integrate meditation into daily life, or maybe you’ve downloaded the PDF document on how to use different activities in your life as times to practice meditation. Tools like these are important because meditation is about practicing whenever and wherever you are. Is work any different?

Meditate Now

I once heard someone say that “someday” isn’t a day of the week. Waiting until you’ve got the right environment to meditate in, or the right lighting, or incense, or circumstances, or…whatever, is such a waste of time. Precious time! Think about it, you’ve only got so much time in your life, right? And for all you know, something (like death!) might be waiting around the next corner to take your time away. So…what are you waiting for?!

This site has tons of tools for learning how to meditate and be compassionate.

I encourage you to look through the HUNDREDS of articles that I’ve written and especially check out my weekly meditation tips and other useful meditation materials provided for your health and well being. Please let me know if you’d like to discuss anything with me, have any questions or need clarification regarding anything that I’ve written about.

Other Great Meditation Resources and Information:

For More Information on How to Meditate

Please view the Related Stuff below for help getting started in your meditation practice! Also don’t forget to download my free e-book, Can Meditation Change the Way that You View Your World? and download the free e-book, How to Work with the Four Distractions to Meditation and get started learning how to deal with some of the major obstacles in meditation.

As always, please feel free to share your comments on meditation and contact me if you’d like to see additional content or other discussions on this site.