While I could begin this blog, from personal experience, by detailing all the health and spiritual benefits of meditation, I know that one of your greatest challenges as a CEO is finding the time to meditate. Yet that need for more time is actually a primary why CEOs should meditate.
- Meditation replenishes time. Against the clamor of conflicting information, demands for decisions and the perceived pressure to be everywhere at once, meditation provides a moment of release when you become aware of the relative importance of each challenge in your day. You gain the strength to say, “This is where I will focus. This is the key item that must be tackled first.” Meditation allows your intuition, innovation and experience a chance to operate together. As you become centered, time expands because you have set priorities for yourself and your company that are in tune with your deepest knowledge, values and creativity.
- Meditation replenishes energy when every movement forward seems to expend energy. It enables you to work with a higher level of confidence and satisfaction and to help define what is important in your life and how to obtain it. Meditation stops the world from spinning. It creates time by weeding out distractions and increasing your efficiency. Now every decision sets you and your company in the direction you want to go.
- Meditation is exercise for your mind. Physical exercise begins by expanding and contracting various muscles. However, physical exercise is incomplete without the rest and nutrition muscles need to grow. As a CEO, you are constantly expanding your mind to bring in information and contracting your focus to deal with the crisis of the moment. Meditation is the rest and nourishment your mind needs to ensure growth. It keeps you grounded so that the priorities you set and the decisions you make have a chance to build upon each other, to create a company and a personal career path that is stronger and more resilient. Meditation makes time count.
I recommend that my clients meditate twice a day, once early in the morning and then later, perhaps mid-afternoon. Find a quiet space where you can meditate for at least 10 minutes. Meditation can take many forms: mantra, mindfulness, Zen, Yoga and Qigong, among others. Apps are also available for meditation; a search online for “apps for meditation” will bring up several, including Buddhify, Calm, and Meditation Timer Pro.