Meditation
in Corporate America
by
Shirley Ryan
Whenever the discussion turns to wellness systems,
whether we are talking about schools, businesses or home environments,
using tried and true tools to keep us healthy can have a dramatic effect
and positive influence in our lives. Meditation is the hottest and most
accessible old tool around today. Meditation as an alternative
healing practice is the answer to combating stress, illness and becoming
more spiritually aligned.
In fact, using meditative practices can not only
help you to heal, it can prepare you to see life in a whole new
way. Truly meditating takes us away from the problems of life
and what is wrong with living. Focusing on what is right with your world
gives you the energy to fix what isn’t working. Ultimately
freeing you to allow focused intention, peace, and eventually
bringing our higher consciousness into awareness. Among the
well-documented effects of meditation is the alteration of brain-wave
patterns. Dozens of studies have shown an increase in alpha rhythms,
which are correlated with a state of relaxed alertness.
Articles from our top national magazines and newspapers
are extolling the virtues of meditation and report conclusions arrived
at centuries ago by the more enlightened. In the course of doing research
I stopped counting after reading 32 articles written over the past few
years in a widespread arena of publications.
So, are we saying that corporate America is practicing
meditation in the board room? Well, not exactly, but it is getting closer.
From the New York Times, to Business Week, and Forbes to USA Today, many
publications report a wide range of uses for meditation with spectacular
results when it is regularly practiced; regardless of the type of meditation
chosen by the practitioner.
Why so? How could things be so different today
than the last decade, for example? Well, in today’s global economy,
leadership has taken another giant leap that shifts its proverbial business
paradigm to reflect the influx of today’s cultural and social needs. We
now refer to “spiritual leadership,” and “values management.” We
see organizations as having soul or a lack of one. In Spiritual
Leadership, Richard Bellingham and Julie Meek, explore the mechanisms
that create an environment whereby organizations evolve and change the
way in which they do business. They will either keep up with changing
times through an evolutionary process or go by way of the dinosaur.
The authors say there is a fundamental difference
between two existing styles of leadership. The distinctions are
reflected in the term’s sole leadership and soul leadership. “While
sole leadership is characterized by independence, competitiveness, authoritarianism,
and obedience; soul leadership will be noted by it s emphasis on interdependence,
creativity, collaboration, and community development…Soul leadership
means building healthy communities that are simultaneously committed
to both people and profits.” Business leaders see meditation
as a way of increasing the collaborative approach needed for personal
and corporate awareness, productivity, and problem solving within the
work world today.
Because there are so many different ways to meditate,
it might be helpful to see how they might fit our own lifestyle or
need. Some people
practice concentration meditation, in which the meditator focuses
on an object, most commonly the breath or a word, known as a mantra.
Some religious practices include centering prayer, which is
similar to concentration meditation, except that during centering prayer,
a sacred word or phrase is used as the object of focus.
Practicing being present in the here and now is another
form of meditation called mindfulness or paying
attention during your activities. Ever eat an orange and really
savor the process from peeling through tasting it? The key to any meditation
process is to focus on something either internally or externally.
Guided meditation or guided imagery is
a form of meditation where you usually listen to a person walk you
through a series of instructions or images. Finally, cultivation is
a form of meditation with a particular objective in mind, and may
aim to cultivate certain qualities such as joy or forgiveness, to
boost the immune system or to execute a perfect dive.
Visualization helps you
to put your intention on what you want to work on. A more specifically
crafted intention will produce greater results. Remember whatever you believe is
what your body and mind will do. So like any work you do with
goal setting, when you are thinking of your intention make sure it
is clear, specific, and achievable, then trust that it is being accomplished. Whatever
way you focus on being fully present there is a healing power within
the mind that we can tap to improve our state of living.
Study upon study show this to be true and that
regular practice provides dividends for practitioners, even young children.
One Georgia study funded by the National Institutes of Health found, “20
minutes of daily meditation lowered blood pressure and heart rates in
middle schoolers.” In addition, “students who used a simple
concentration-based breathing meditation technique had lower resting
and active blood pressure readings…The amount of reduction
in blood pressure, if maintained over time, "would translate into
an approximate 12.5 percent lower predicted risk of stroke or coronary
mortality in adulthood,” study author Frank A. Treiber reports.
In Portsmouth UK classrooms,
educators are offering students’ sessions in anger management
which include the practice of meditation. They say that, "Negativity
is endemic in this country. Improving your emotional intelligence
makes you more positive, healthier and more able to control negative
feelings. It's just common sense." Their classes often start and
end with meditation and there are weekly sessions where children are
encouraged to write down their thoughts in a diary. These are great
personal investments that anyone can do at home to reap incredible
long term dividends.
About 15 years ago my
surgeon looked at me with a bemused look when I asked to take a personally
designed audio tape into the surgical suite. I related my goal to work
with him during the process, to meditate to improve my chances at surviving
a critical surgery to remove a piece of my lung. He was stunned at
how I was able to improve the surgical process, decreasing blood flow
to the surgical site (I was a bleeder) and maintaining blood pressure.
Now the scientific communities
from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, National Institute of Health
and other researchers are coming together to discuss how meditation
affects health and wellness. They have been using brain-imaging technology
to examine the brains of some of the world's most experienced meditators — Tibetan
Buddhist monks, who are being studied with the blessing of the Dalai
Lama.
We are seeing an ever
increasingly enlightened world where knowledge and knowing is in the
process of integration. This integration of pure science is coming
together with the spiritual realm of prayer and meditation in an evolution
of left and right brain thinking, of the yin and the yang, of the east
and the west. Here we stand on the threshold of our future, in a unity
of spirit with an intention of peace at its core. How good is that
folks?
Shirley
Ryan was led to create the book Searching for
the Waters of Antiquity a meditation tool, and a unique
integration of her extensive career experience and her skills
of painting and meditation. She is also the founder and president
of Working Together, a business specializing in managing life’s
changes in Mind, Body & Spirit through the coaching process. She
has worked as a professional life coach since 1994.
